“This is my pilot,” Leonidas said, extending a hand toward Alisa. “You’ve met.”
“Have we?” Solstice asked, feigning surprise as she looked Alisa up and down. “I must have forgotten. She looks rather forgettable, doesn’t she?”
“No. Alisa, Boss Solstice says that her spies have verified that Beck is being held in the White Dragon compound in Terra Dhwan.” Leonidas met Alisa’s eyes, and she thought there was a warning in his gaze, a let’s-not-take-her-word-for-it warning.
Alisa nodded, having exactly the same feeling. She hoped they could trust the information about Beck’s location. She would hate to break into an enemy compound for no reason.
Leonidas extracted his arm and walked to the large open door. “Which craft may we take?”
Solstice strode after him, giving Alisa a snide look down her nose as she passed.
“She probably has to be bitchy,” Alisa told Mica, as if Mica had made an opening comment. “Nobody would take a nice mafia boss seriously.”
Mica arched her eyebrows. “Insults? Shouldn’t you kiss up to the person who’s lending us a spaceship?”
“Is that the proper protocol?” Alisa asked. “I didn’t know. Nobody ever lends me anything.”
“Hard to imagine why.”
Alisa elbowed her and whispered, “You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m just here to fix your engines when they get shot up, which I suppose will be inevitable since you’re eschewing stealth.”
“I’m not eschewing anything. Except kissing up.”
Solstice and Leonidas strode into the hangar without waving for Alisa and Mica to follow. They walked down a wide aisle with aircraft and spaceships parked on either side, their noses pointed toward the center. Alisa followed the pair, somewhat pleased when Leonidas avoided Solstice’s attempts to take his arm by wielding his helmet like a shield.
“This will seat six,” Solstice said, stopping to pat the nose of an imperial charger that had received a paint job, leaving it a bland off-white. “Unmarked, so they won’t know it’s mine. I had my men put some extra weapons in there since the rest of your team appears poorly outfitted.” She sneered at Alisa’s clothes and the Etcher in her holster, then included Mica in her sneer.
“I’m outfitted just fine,” Mica said, patting her satchel. “Besides, if I end up in a shootout with someone, we’re in all kinds of trouble.”
“Nonetheless, there are weapons,” Solstice said, “and also rappelling equipment in case you want to drop in on their heads.” She smiled and gripped Leonidas’s arm. “I will take it as a personal favor if you destroy a few of their buildings on your way in and then lop off a few heads on the way out, preferably Boss Medric’s. I’m sure he’s the one who sent that team into my city without thinking he needed my permission.” She bared her startlingly white teeth, her eyes glinting with predatory intensity.
“If you want me to announce to them that you’re behind our visit, I’ll attack any of them you wish,” Leonidas said. “But it seems wiser to sneak in and out without leaving carnage in our wake.”
Solstice tapped her jaw thoughtfully. “I do like carnage.”
“Shocking,” Alisa muttered.
“But I would prefer it if they not know I’m behind any calamities that befall them,” she added, ignoring Alisa. “Not over such a trivial matter. Though their presumption does vex me terribly. Leonidas, if you kill Medric while you’re there, sneakily or not, I’ll reward you handsomely.”
“I’m not an assassin,” he said, though he did not hold her gaze. “Not anymore,” he added softly, looking toward a distant corner of the hangar.
“Not to mention that the White Dragon clan has more heads than a Farol octopus has tentacles,” Alisa said. “We’d rather not have the rest of them hunting for us.”
Solstice sniffed. “Too late for that, girl. You should look yourself up on the mafia sys-net someday.”
“They haven’t seen fit to give me a passcode.”
“A handsome reward, Leonidas,” Solstice said. “Keep my offer in mind.”
Abelardus appeared in the large doorway and strode toward them, the hem of his black robe snapping around his ankles at his brisk pace.
“Forget rewards. What would we have to do in order to get the full bounties for the eight dinosaur heads we tried to turn in tonight?” Alisa asked, reminded of that problem by Abelardus's appearance.
“Eight?” Solstice asked. “There were eight dinosaur slayings that weren’t caught on camera?”
“Cameras malfunction. You know how it goes.”
“I see.” Solstice pursed her lips. “Wreck up Medric’s compound nicely and in a way that it won’t be pinned on me, and I’ll see that you’re paid well.”
“Eight-dinosaur well?” Alisa asked.
“Yes.”
The woman blew a kiss to Leonidas and sashayed toward the exit. She paused to give Abelardus a head-to-toe appraising look before she continued. He gave her a Starseer bow.
“Let’s go while night may still cover some of our actions,” Alisa said, waving toward the hatch on the side of the ship.
Leonidas led the way. Alisa still suspected Solstice might have laid a trap for them, but even if she hadn’t, Alisa cringed at the idea of being a pawn in some feud between mafia families. That might be worse than the trap.
• • • • •
It did not take long for the charger to fly across the dark swamplands between the two domed cities, but Alisa added some time to their trip by swooping up a few miles into the atmosphere before angling toward Terra Dhwan. She did not care much about keeping Solstice out of trouble, but since the Nomad was still parked in her city, she would try to make it look as if this craft had flown in from space.
While she flew, she tapped into the local sys-net and found the comm code for Chef Leblanc’s warehouse. She did not know if that guard would still be there, but it would not hurt to check.
“Looks like they have a similar forcefield regulating access into their dome,” Mica said, monitoring a sensor display from the passenger seat.
Abelardus sat behind her. Leonidas should have been in the seat behind Alisa, but he was poking through the pile of gear in the back, the weapons and equipment Solstice had included with their borrowed charger. Alisa had not taken a thorough look, other than to note that there was enough there to outfit an army. The woman either wanted them to do a lot of damage to her rival’s city, or the clans weren’t rivals at all, and she wanted Leonidas and Alisa to be in a lot of trouble when the White Dragon people caught them. Not that Alisa intended for her team to be caught.
“Do we have a plan for getting in?” Mica asked, when Alisa did not respond.
“Of course.” But Alisa had someone else to comm first. She punched in the code for the warehouse.
“Leblanc’s Fine Ingredients is closed for business right now. Please call back between the hours of—”
“What is it?” a frazzled voice asked, interrupting the automatic recording.
Alisa paused. She’d had a message rehearsed to leave, and she had to readjust her lines. “Is this the person who was on guard there a few hours ago?”
“Yes,” the man said warily. “Who is this?”
“Alisa. The woman you talked to. We’ve discovered the location of your boss.” Technically, Alisa only knew where Beck had been taken, and even that depended on Solstice’s word, but she assumed the mafia kidnapping team had taken Leblanc, too, rather than dumping him in a swamp somewhere. If nothing else, it sounded like the chef would be a valuable prisoner who could be traded for a ransom.
“Where is he?”
“The White Dragon headquarters in Terra Dhwan.”
The man swore. “You sure he’s being kept in their main compound? We’ve been planning—never mind.”
“A rescue, by chance?” Alisa asked.
“Look, we’re only going after our boss. I’m sorry your man got taken, but he’s not our priority.”
<
br /> “I understand perfectly well. We’ll take care of our man. I just thought you’d want to know where to look for your fellow.”
“Thanks. Appreciate it.”
Mica was watching her curiously.
“Just being friendly and sharing information.” Alisa smiled.
The comm flashed on the console.
“That’ll be the person who operates the forcefield, I’ll wager,” Alisa said, and answered it. The charger was heading straight for the dome, only a minute away now.
“Access to the city is only through invitation,” a female voice announced.
“Is it?” Alisa asked. “That doesn’t seem like it would foster tourism, gambling, and economic growth.”
The voice turned dry. “It sounds like you don’t have an invitation.”
“You’re correct. Who do I speak with about getting one? I’m looking to sell a large quantity of Bliss, and I’d prefer to wholesale it to someone rather than working with individual dealers all over the moon. I understand the drug is popular down here?” She had no idea if that was true, though if it did what Yumi claimed, she didn’t see how it couldn’t be popular, unless there was an oversupply on Cleon Moon since the mushrooms grew here. Still, she couldn’t imagine it was easy to harvest those mushrooms with dinosaurs roaming all over the place.
“Show me your supply,” the woman said.
“Let me get a sample.”
Alisa muted the comm and pulled the bag of yellowish powder out of her pocket. With drugs sold in infinitesimal batches, the few ounces Yumi had given her had seemed an extravagant amount, but what would she do if this woman expected to see crates lined up behind her?
“Leonidas, can you make sure those weapons don’t show up in the vid pickup?” she asked, waving toward the comm camera. It was pointed toward the pilot’s seat, but would catch some of the background too. “I’ll have to turn it on to display my fine wares.”
Leonidas turned toward her, his crimson armor gleaming under the ceiling lighting, his arms full of weapons and bandoliers of grenades crisscrossing his chest. It had been a while since Alisa had thought of him as a walking nightmare sent by the empire to kill everyone in his path, but he definitely had that look at the moment.
“Ah, can you also make sure you don’t show up in the vid pickup?” she added, making a shooing motion. She thought about shooing Abelardus to the side, too, since that black Starseer robe was identifiable, but he was sitting in the seat behind Mica, and ought to be out of the picture already.
“Would a drug-dealing pilot not have a bodyguard?” Leonidas asked as he produced a tarp from somewhere to drop over the pile of munitions.
“A drug-dealing pilot who could afford an ex-imperial cyborg in full combat armor would be flying a nicer ship.”
“Ex.” Leonidas’s mouth twisted, showing his displeasure at thinking of himself in such a manner, but he did step to the side so the camera would not catch him.
“Sorry,” Alisa said.
She might never quite understand his reasons for feeling so loyal to the empire. Oh, she understood that Emperor Markus had spoken to him and treated him like a person instead of a machine or a monster, but was that enough to offset the horrors that had taken place during the centuries the empire had reigned?
“Captain?” the woman on the comm prompted.
“Maybe you should see if she’ll let us in before our route takes us crashing into the dome,” Mica said.
“We’re hovering right now,” Alisa said, giving her a flat look as she toggled the comm switch. “Yes, I have my sample here.”
She held the clear bag up to the camera, then wondered if she should have created a more artful display for something that was probably worth hundreds of tindarks an ounce. Perhaps she could have arranged it on a plate with garnishes.
“The boss’s team will have to test it before prices can be bandied about and deals offered,” the woman said.
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Alisa managed to keep her tone neutral. Inside, she was delighted. This sounded promising and not like an obvious trap. She looked at Leonidas. Was it possible Solstice’s interest in him—or in having him—might have caused her to deal honestly with him?
“Am I in the vid pickup?” he asked softly, as he stood with his back against the wall.
Alisa muted the comm again—she could hear the woman talking to someone in the background but could not make out the words. “No, I was debating your sex appeal,” she told him.
Abelardus frowned.
Leonidas blinked. “Now?”
“She debates it often, I’ll wager,” Mica said.
“Shush,” Alisa said, turning back and unmuting the comm.
“What’s your name, Captain?” the woman asked. “Your ship doesn’t have an ident. Have we dealt with you previously?”
If only she knew…
“Andromeda,” Alisa said, wishing she had thought to come up with a name that sounded like something a drug dealer might have. A cartoon character probably wasn’t it. “That’s Laser Edge Andromeda,” she added, afraid the silence on the other end denoted disbelief. “People all across the system know that if they want the stuff, I got the stuff.”
Alisa looked at her crewmates and wasn’t surprised to catch various expressions of skepticism—or maybe that was pity—on their faces.
“You’ve been watching too many vid dramas,” Mica whispered.
“Very well, Captain Andromeda,” the woman said dryly. “You have permission to come in to have your Bliss tested. Theo will take care of you. Fly directly to Comet Compound in the center of the city. I’ll transmit landing coordinates. Do not detour anywhere else unless you’re given permission to partake in our hospitality.”
“Comet Compound it is,” Alisa said and slapped the comm button. “That’s the boss’s base, isn’t it? Did we just get invited down? That was easy.”
“Because it’s a trap,” Mica said.
“You’re so pessimistic.”
“Come on, you think it’s a trap too. They’ve probably got fifty armed men waiting at the coordinates they gave you.”
“Well, we have something that can pulverize armed men.” Alisa smiled back at Leonidas.
“Do you have trouble thinking of his sex appeal at the same time as you imagine him pulverizing people?”
“Less trouble than you’d think.”
“I’m concerned for you, Captain,” Mica said.
“You’re not the first person who has said that to me.”
Alisa took the charger through the lowered forcefield and into the dome. She wanted to be optimistic that this would work out, but she couldn’t help but think Mica might be right, that they were flying into an asteroid field of trouble. Even if Leonidas could pulverize the immediate opposition, would they be able to fight their way into the depths of some compound to find Beck and then escape the city with him?
“I am glad you haven’t suggested abandoning Beck, turning around, and flying back out into space,” Alisa told Mica, remembering that she had done that previously when Alejandro and Leonidas had been in trouble.
“I want to see those grilled pancakes.”
Chapter 16
“Here’s the plan,” Alisa said, grabbing a double-barreled blazer pistol from the weapons pile.
She had brought the charger down in the middle of a circular building with a large landing pad in the center and a long tail of buildings stretching away and into the city—calling the compound a comet was ambitious. She expected a greeting party to come knocking on the ship’s hatch any moment.
“I will go out first and confront whoever awaits, while you stay inside,” Leonidas said, his helmet fastened, weapons in hand with more on his person and within reach.
“That’s actually not the plan I had in mind.”
“Your plan may need adjustment.”
Alisa stuck out her hand, Yumi’s bag dangling from her grasp. “If I go out first, shooting should b
e less likely. What kind of mafia employee would shoot someone holding valuable drugs?”
“You’ve used arguments similar to this in the past,” Leonidas said.
“And?”
“There always ended up being shooting.”
“Are you sure that’s right? Mica, that’s not right, is it?”
“It sounds right,” Mica said.
Abelardus came up behind Alisa. “I could hold her from behind while you storm out and shoot everyone, mech.”
Leonidas’s eyes narrowed, though Alisa wasn’t sure whether it was because Abelardus was offering to touch her or because he had called him a mech.
“Actually…” Abelardus's expression grew distant. “There isn’t anyone standing outside.”
“Are you sure?” Alisa had not seen anyone when she had been flying down—the landing pad had been well lit, despite the middle-of-the-night hour—but she had assumed guards would stream out of the building as soon as they alighted. Surely, the mafia men wouldn’t take her word for it that she was a drug dealer with wares to sell. She could have been holding up a bag of cornstarch.
“No one is in the landing area,” Abelardus reaffirmed. “The corridors of the building, however, are busy. A lot of people running around.”
“I’ll go out and check,” Leonidas said, hitting the hatch button before Alisa could argue further.
As he strode out, she hurried to rush out at his side. He glanced down at her, perhaps thinking of pushing her behind him—or punting her back into the ship and locking the hatch.
She held the Bliss bag up and waved it. “Let me try to deal before you shoot anyone.”
Perhaps it was a vain hope, but it would be so much easier to get out of the compound and the city if they could sneak down and retrieve Beck without being detected. And if some problem was already bothering the White Dragon people, might her team not take advantage of the distraction?
She crinkled her nose. “I smell smoke.”
“Yes.” Leonidas pointed at an open door on the ground floor, just visible behind the nose of one of several transport ships and yachts parked on the large landing pad. Billows of black smoke wafted out through the doorway.
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