Appealing.
Alejandro frowned at Alisa as she drew even with him.
“Why don’t you do some research of your own, Doctor?” she asked, heading him off before he could cast accusations at her or inform her that she wasn’t doing enough to get the staff back. “Find out who those Starseers were and where they’re headquartered.”
“I’ve been attempting to do just that. The one who died here didn’t have any identification on him, and neither his face, nor the face of the man your cameras caught, is in the imperial database. I can’t get access to the Alliance database from here, but I suspect they just filched the imperial records.”
“Probably,” Alisa said, not wanting to get in an argument about whether electronic records were legitimate spoils for the victors in a war. “Maybe Abelardus will figure out who they are. He said he sent a request to Lady Naidoo.”
“I’ll be holding my breath while I wait for them to share the details,” Alejandro grumbled.
“I thought you two were working together now.”
“No.”
Alisa headed through the mess hall and toward the cabins. She started toward Mica’s but heard laughter coming from Yumi’s. The hatch was open, so she turned that way instead.
A chicken squawked as she approached, hopping over the raised hatchway, then hustling down the corridor, as if it had a date waiting. Alisa certainly hoped that no roosters had been added to the flock.
“Yumi, is there a reason your chickens are roaming amok?” Alisa asked, leaning through the hatchway.
She found Mica and Yumi sitting on the bed, munching on something and watching a vid. Alisa momentarily forgot what she had intended to ask, feeling a sad twinge because this was the date night she had wanted to have with Leonidas.
“The girls like to stretch their legs,” Yumi said. “Plus I didn’t want to put the new ones in the coop until the older ones got used to them.”
“New ones?”
“Someone was giving some away. Apparently, they make too much noise for the dome ordinances, and neighbors complained. Can you imagine not being able to maintain small livestock in a community? I didn’t even see any gardens when we were passing apartments. How do the people survive? They must have to import everything. It’s a crime not to be able to grow your own food.”
Alisa looked around at the tangle of things Yumi was growing, her cabin looking more like a greenhouse than sleeping quarters. Make that a greenhouse/laboratory. As Mica had mentioned, a counter made from some piece of salvaged metal was now attached to the bulkhead, with all manner of chemistry equipment set up on it.
“Do you have any of that mushroom drug yet?” Alisa asked, imagining herself finding a way to give a dose to whatever guards or workers controlled those forcefields. “Or anything else that might knock people out? An enticing little aerosol perhaps?”
Mica’s eyes narrowed, and she answered first. “What are you planning now, Captain?”
“We need to rescue Beck. The mafia got him.”
“Which one?” Yumi asked.
“The White Dragon, I believe, but it’s possible Solstice is colluding with them. Leonidas should find out soon, since he’s meeting with her.”
Mica grunted. “So, he’ll find out by being thrown into a brig.”
“Or chained to a bed,” Alisa grumbled.
“What?”
“Never mind. Whether Solstice is colluding with the White Dragon or not, I want to make sure the Nomad can escape this city when the time comes. Mica, how do you feel about infiltrating the control tower here and knocking out the forcefield?”
“So the poisonous atmosphere can ooze into the city and make everyone sick?” Yumi frowned.
“So we can get out. Everyone who lives here probably has a breathing mask for emergencies. Besides, if there’s some chaos from the bad air getting in, that could help us by serving as a distraction.”
“I suppose I can come up with something.” Mica sighed and climbed off the bed. “Will this be a stealthy incursion or one of your usual incursions?”
“Does it matter to you?” Alisa tried to decide if she should be offended by the implication that her “incursions” were usually noisy.
“I’ll make different explosives depending on whether we want everyone to know we’re destroying things or not.”
“Let’s try for not.” Alisa did not need another mafia clan after her.
As Mica headed for the hatchway, she almost bonked her head on a hanging planter with cascades of baby tomatoes flowing over the side.
“Are the vegetables for narcotic purposes?” Alisa wondered. “Or did Beck ask you to grow a garden?”
“Nightshades do have some interesting uses,” Yumi said, “but you’re right in that I’m assisting him with growing fresh ingredients for his sauce experiments. Tomatoes and peppers seem to be quite important to him.”
“You’re going to need another cabin soon.”
“Quite possibly.”
Alisa’s comm beeped.
“Are you in?” she asked as soon as she saw that it was Leonidas.
“I’ve had a short meeting with Solstice,” he said, not objecting to the lack of preamble. “She says she doesn’t have Beck and that she didn’t know anything about the trap.”
“I’ll bet,” Alisa muttered.
“She could be telling the truth. She seems vexed that some other clan set up an ambush in her city without asking for her permission.”
“Would she have let them do it if they had asked for permission?”
“I didn’t ask,” Leonidas said. “The implication did seem to be yes. Since she’s annoyed, however, she offered to let me use an unmarked ship to head over to Terra Dhwan to see if Beck is there.”
“You already have an unmarked ship.”
“The Nomad is known, if only by description, to the White Dragon clan. Solstice is offering something with weapons and maneuverability that could be used for slipping a team into their city this very night.”
“She offered you this ship for free?” Alisa asked. “That doesn’t sound like her.” Or like anyone. Who let someone else fly expensive spaceships into what could become a war zone?
“She did offer it for free, yes.”
“Then it’s a trap.”
“That possibility crossed my mind, but she does seem interested in ingratiating herself to me.”
“Why? You weren’t charming, were you? Leonidas, if you were charming to another woman, I’m going to be most distraught.”
“I was terse and aloof.”
“I can practically hear the zing zing of her heartstrings.”
“She offered a pilot as well,” Leonidas said.
“Definitely a trap. It’s clear you need me there to protect you from yourself.”
“If you want to be my pilot, all you have to do is say so. But if you join me, we could end up in this trap together.”
“Sounds romantic and adventurous.”
Leonidas did not answer right away, and Alisa checked to make sure he hadn’t closed the channel.
Finally, he said, “I’m still not quite sure what to make of your humor. Or to know when it is humor.”
“That’s because you’re not accustomed to interacting with the opposite sex. You need me as your guide to female matters. Where are you picking up the ship? I’ve got Mica making explosives. We can be there soon.”
Yumi turned off the vid and padded to the counter in her sock feet. She poked around with something in a mortar.
“Leonidas?” Alisa prompted, imagining him objecting to the idea of her flying him into a dangerous area. But surely, he would prefer her to some unknown pilot that Solstice provided.
“There’s a hangar on the south side of her headquarters,” Leonidas said. “I’ll meet you there in two hours.”
Alisa resisted the urge to ask him what he would be doing over there for two hours. She didn’t truly believe he had any interest in Solstice, but the woman’s supposed generos
ity made Alisa uneasy. Leonidas could take care of himself, and the two hours were probably for Mica’s sake, to make sure she had time to make her explosives.
“Thank you,” Alisa said, lowering her voice and turning her back to Yumi. “I know you don’t truly need me, but I worry about you, and if there’s flying to be done, you know I like to be in charge of it.”
“If there’s flying to be done, I also like you to be in charge of it,” he said, then closed the channel.
She smiled, warmed by the simple statement.
“Captain?” Yumi asked, turning toward her with a clear bag of powder in her hand. “I have been working on a compound. The smashed specimens needed to be washed and dehydrated promptly since they were in poor condition after being mangled in those battles.”
“I hear that premature mangling can damage the efficacy of a drug.”
“Mica was kind enough to jury-rig a dehydration machine for me.” Yumi smiled and pointed to something on her counter that looked more like a hair dryer than a mushroom dehydrator.
“You sure she didn’t just steal that from the lav?”
Yumi’s smile broadened. “It’s far more effective than anything in the Nomad’s lav.”
“I’ll be mature and not take that as a slight against my ship.”
“Excellent.” Yumi held out the pouch. “This is for you.”
“Uh, to sell?”
“If you wish. Or you can attempt to convince a guard to imbibe it if necessary.”
Alisa grimaced, remembering the debacle from the last time she had tried to sneak drugs into people’s systems. “Might be hard unless he happens to be eating some fish with a nice moist sauce.”
“I shall trust in your creativity. I’m afraid an aerosol version would be beyond the capabilities of my meager facilities.”
Alisa eyed the hair dryer. “I suppose that would have been a lot to ask.”
“The powder is ground quite finely. Ideal for snorting.”
“Is that the preferred method for dosing people with this particular drug?” Alisa was fairly certain that convincing a guard to snort powder would be even more unlikely to happen than dumping some in a coffee cup.
“Yes, but only because the effects kick in much more swiftly then. Consuming it will be fine, so long as you’re prepared to wait for digestion.”
“Maybe I’ll just sell it and buy a stun gun.”
“That’s your prerogative. Don’t forget the name is meykonghi arelexius, and the street name is Bliss. However, you might wish to try some for yourself before parting with all of it.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need a drug for sexual satisfaction.” Just a fully functioning cyborg, one who wasn’t afraid of hurting her if they fell asleep cuddling.
“It has other merits. Such as relaxation. You always seem tense, Captain.”
“Because my life is tense right now. Thanks for the sample.” Alisa waved the bag and headed for the hatchway.
“Please let me know if I can help in any other way. I would be distressed to lose Tommy.”
“If I can think of anything that needs drugging or dehydrating, I’ll let you know.”
Yumi settled cross-legged on the bed, rested the backs of her hands on her knees, closed her eyes, and started breathing deeply, making a raspy noise in the back of her throat. At least someone wasn’t tense.
Chapter 15
“Abelardus, are you there?” Alisa asked, comming his unit as she and Mica headed toward the hangar Leonidas had mentioned. It was well after midnight, and the streets were not busy, but they occasionally passed pubs with huge holodisplays showing monster-hunting footage. Alisa pointedly did not look through the windows, not wanting to see what the drunks around the bar were cheering at.
She and Mica had put aside their plans for finding a way to lower the city’s forcefield since it sounded like Leonidas was on good terms with Solstice—for now. Instead, Alisa had helped Mica assemble smoke bombs and grenades during the two hours Leonidas had given them.
“I’m on my way back to the ship,” he responded, his voice subdued. If he had found the person who handed out bounties on dinosaur heads, he must not have gotten a good deal.
“I heard from Leonidas. We’re still not positive that Beck is in Terra Dhwan, but we’re going to go check. Oh, and we’re going in an armed and armored ship that’s being loaned to him by Solstice. I suspect it’s part of a trap. Would you like to join us in what’s sure to be a grand adventure?”
Mica frowned over at her. “Grand adventure? Are you being annoyingly optimistic again?”
“I’d like for him to join us so I’m putting a positive spin on it. I do have faith that with Leonidas’s strength, your cunning, and my flying, we can outmaneuver any trap that Solstice might have set.”
Mica’s expression turned dubious. Alisa refused to be daunted by the potential trap or the fact that they had to find Beck in an unfamiliar city and retrieve him from what was likely a heavily guarded compound. Having Abelardus along would be helpful.
“I know I said I’d help with Beck, but can it wait?” Abelardus asked. “I was planning to go out to the racetrack in the morning to talk to Ostberg again. And morning is only a few hours away now.”
“I’m certain we can finish this rescue and have you back by then.” Alisa looked at the time display on her comm unit. “We’ve got what? Four hours? We’ll have Beck back in time to make pancakes.”
“Pancakes on the grill?” Mica asked.
“You’re questioning that instead of my optimistic timeline? And don’t put those pancakes past him. Have you seen his muffins?”
“Since you are clearly in need of my help and pancakes are at stake,” Abelardus said, “I shall join you.”
“You are very magnanimous.”
“It’s true. I am.”
Mica rolled her eyes. Alisa was just happy Abelardus was talking on the comm instead of into her head. Maybe she was outside of his telepathy range. She gave him the location of the hangar and was about to close the channel when he spoke again.
“Aren’t you going to ask me about the dino heads?”
“Since you didn’t enthusiastically tell me about a huge pouch of money you’re lugging around, I assumed it didn’t go well.”
“Ah.”
“Am I wrong?” Alisa asked. “Were they worth anywhere near what we heard?”
“Not exactly. The five- and ten-thousand tindark bounties are for people who slay the dinosaurs with the cameras watching, thus to ensure solid entertainment for viewers and sponsors of the hunter channels.”
Alisa thought of the way Leonidas had smashed the cameras.
“I did convince the man to pay something for them,” Abelardus said, “but you may have to downgrade your shopping list slightly.”
“From combat armor to…?”
“Perhaps a toy soldier wearing toy combat armor.”
Alisa groaned. “You couldn’t use your Starseer charms to get more out of him?”
Even though Beck and Jelena were her prime concerns right now, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. It sounded like she had hacked off a dinosaur head and that they had carried the collection of them all the way back for nothing.
“His charms?” Mica asked as they turned a corner, the flat roof of Solstice’s headquarters coming into view. “You mean his mental manipulation skills?”
“More or less.”
“I did attempt to persuade him to open his coffers further,” Abelardus said, “but he was already grumpy since I’d woken him in the middle of the night—and also because I’d dumped a pile of bloody heads on the floor of the betting shop that he runs out of his basement. He informed me, with vitriol, that he doesn’t keep much physical currency on hand and that when full-price dinosaur bounties are dished out, the money comes from the city vaults. Which are controlled by the boss.”
“Solstice,” Alisa grumbled, and turned off the comm.
“So Leonidas is the one who will have to be cha
rming if we’re to be paid decently,” Mica said.
“Yes, but I don’t want him being charming to Solstice.”
“Because it would make you jealous?”
“Because her walls are filled with displays of dinosaurs eating people. She’s probably the one who came up with that whole scheme. Bloodthirsty bitch.”
“Because it would make you jealous,” Mica repeated, this time with a firm nod.
Alisa sighed at her, but the hangar had come into view, so she curbed further responses. They turned a corner and paused, waiting for an opportunity to cross an intersection that hover bikes and automated delivery trucks zoomed through, despite the late—early—hour.
“She’s not coming with us, is she?” Mica pointed her chin toward the front of the hangar.
The giant sliding door was open, as was a smaller one for personnel. Leonidas stood in front of that one, wearing all of his armor except his helmet, which was casually tucked under his arm. Solstice stood next to him, a hand resting on his forearm. She wore a tight dress with a slit in the lower half revealing most of one shapely leg. Her eight-inch hover heels brought her head nearly level with his.
“Not in that outfit,” Alisa grumbled. “You can’t infiltrate the enemy compound in a dress like that. I doubt she could even run.”
“Will running be required?” Mica asked, as they found their opportunity to stride across the intersection. “I was hoping that stealth approach you mentioned would come into play.”
“That was for when we were infiltrating an air-traffic control tower. Now we’re infiltrating an enemy compound in a city full of White Dragon loyalists who want Beck dead and, after the help we’ve given him, very likely want us dead too.”
“That seems like more of a reason to employ stealth rather than less.”
“We’ll see what we can manage.” Alisa forced herself to smile as she walked across the landing strip in front of the hangar. “Good evening, Leonidas. Good evening, Solstice.”
“Boss Solstice,” the woman said, oozing closer to Leonidas, pressing her body against his armored side.
“Is that what passes for an honorific here?” Mica muttered.
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