“What else do you think I can do to him before you lay down your weapons?” Roma demanded. “Or to this pretty young thing?” He indicated Michelle who was being held by the broken-nosed Martinez. “The warrant specified alive. It did not specify her condition.”
“Shite,” Fix swore as he took the barrel out of Sciavella’s throat and pushed him forward. He dropped the pistol on the ground.
“Lucky for you Santelli wants the pleasure of killing you himself,” Sciavella growled. “Take their weapons, bind their hands, and let’s get the hell out of here,” he ordered to his men. “Sorry for the inconvenience, ladies and gentleman. The constables will be here in a few hours to clear up this mess. It would best if everyone developed a case of amnesia.”
With that, he turned around and followed his men and the four prisoners out the door and into the lobby. The door to the alley was blown open and the two men who had been guarding it lay dead, their bodies splayed haphazardly about the lush confines of the lobby.
“Told you we should’ve killed the captain,” Fix said as they emerged out into the alley underneath the sky that continued to roil with incredible power.
“So noted,” Jennings replied, the stress evident in his voice as he was partially dragged and partially limped through the alley.
“No talking,” one of their captors said harshly.
“Sorry the rescue isn’t going to plan,” Jennings said to Michelle.
Before she could reply, the captor who had ordered their silence punched Jennings in the kidney. “Stop it!” she shrieked. “Leave him alone.”
“Thanks,” Jennings whispered as he staggered back to his feet.
They emerged from the alley and Sciavella held a communications device up to his mouth. “We’ve got them,” he said. “Rendezvous at extraction point alpha.”
Their captors steered them all to the right, heading into the poorer sections of the city. It wasn’t a bad idea, Jennings thought. Police response times were slower and people were more likely to just hide instead of calling the police if they saw a bunch of men armed to the teeth marching down the street with several prisoners. They walked several blocks without encountering anyone until they came to a small park that looked like it would generally be a haven for gang activity. Most of the wall going around it was falling down, and that little bit that was standing was tagged with dozens of graffiti markers.
Sciavella signaled everyone to stop once they were within the park, and said, “This is where we wait for our ride.”
“They’re not going to be too long are they? I’ve got places to be,” Jennings said.
Sciavella laughed. “You don’t stop, do you, Mr. Jennings?” he asked.
“Captain Jennings.”
“Tell me, is it a true lack of fear that you experience, or do you use this banter to mask the terror inside you?” he asked.
“What do you think?” Jennings asked, a half-smile crossing his face.
The unmistakable sounds of an approaching shuttle cut through the night above the rumble of the storm clouds above. “I think we’ll find out when Mr. Santelli begins to work on you,” he said.
“Unfortunately for you, that will never happen,” Jennings said.
“Oh, and why is that?” Sciavella asked.
“I have powers beyond that which you can understand,” the captain explained.
Fix and Lafayette exchanged a glance. What the hell was he talking about? Lafayette then glanced down at Fix’s hands- he had managed to free himself somehow.
Sciavella was laughing even harder. “Why don’t you give us an example of this power then?” he asked.
“As you wish,” Jennings said.
The captain scrunched up his face as if he were trying to focus all aspects of his life force on a single act. The shuttle appeared from over top of one of the tenement buildings and started to descend toward them. Sciavella looked away from Jennings for a moment to watch the shuttle’s approach. He was about to spit another mocking retort at Jennings when the shuttle incinerated before him. The wreckage slammed into the far side of the park and sent a six story high fireball skyward. They could feel the force and the heat of the explosion from where they were.
“That’s but a small sample of my power,” Jennings said mysteriously.
“How the fuck did you do that?” Sciavella demanded angrily.
Turning to face him slowly, Jennings said, “I didn’t. I just happened to notice the guy with the rocket launcher who did.”
“What guy? What the hell are you talking about?” Sciavella screamed.
“I imagine he’s with her,” Jennings said, nodding back to the park entrance.
Everyone turned back around to see a woman wearing a green business suit armed with a plasma rifle that somehow coordinated nicely with her outfit. She had a dozen men behind her at least, one of whom was toting a rocket launcher. Sciavella and his men immediately drew a bead on this new group.
Anastasia Petrova spoke clearly, “I vill be taking the prisoners, da? Or you vill be killed.”
“These people belong to Mr. Santelli. If you’re wise, you’ll know that name and you’ll get the hell out of here,” Sciavella threatened.
“I know Mr. Santelli vell,” Petrova replied. “And he has betrayed me for the last time. He must be taught the price of his betrayal.”
“The prisoners are ours,” Sciavella reiterated.
“Perhaps we should get out of the way while you resolve this dispute,” Jennings suggested.
“Shut up,” Sciavella demanded. He turned back to Petrova. “How about a deal?”
Petrova smiled her shark-like grin. “Vhat type of deal?” she demanded.
“You get the girl and we keep Jennings,” he suggested.
“That vas the deal I originally proposed to Santelli and he rejected it in favor of betrayal,” Petrova said. “Vhy should I make the same deal vith you?”
“You’ve killed two of Mr. Santelli’s employees and destroyed his property,” he replied, turning to face the shuttle for a moment. “I would think your revenge has been satisfied.”
“Russian revenge is eternal,” she spat. “Lucky for you, I am from Firefall, da?”
“I wouldn’t trust him, Anastasia,” Jennings said. “They’ve already betrayed you once. Don’t you think they’ll just follow your ship, shoot it out of the stars, and then take back the girl?”
“Enough!” Sciavella thundered, smacking Jennings in the face and sending him to the ground.
That was the opening Fix had been waiting for. While everyone was distracted with Sciavella and Jennings, he grabbed the rifle out of the hands of the nearest man and elbowed him in the face. Rather than turning the weapon on his captors though, he whirled and fired a barrage of plasma at Petrova’s men. The bounty hunter’s team quickly scrambled for cover behind the park wall, taking pot shots as cover fire. The rest of Sciavella’s men quickly opened up as well in the confusion, thinking that one of their men had seen Petrova’s men making a move. Sciavella was the only other one who realized what was happening, but his orders and protestations were inaudible over the cacophony of shots fired and his men diving for cover behind park benches and the few statues in the park.
Fix hustled Lafayette behind a small statue of the Strikeplain colonial founder and pulled out a small blade they had not found on him. He sliced through Lafayette’s bonds and handed him the rifle. Where they were in the park, the flaming wreckage of the shuttle was behind them, but all of Sciavella’s men were in front of them firing at Petrova’s men. The girl had been dragged behind an overturned park bench by the rearmost of their captors and Jennings lay on the ground next to Sciavella himself.
“Cover me,” Fix whispered to Lafayette as he made his way forward and darted out toward Michelle Williams.
Sneaking easily in the chaos of darkness and battle, Fix crawled right up to Michelle’s captor, Martinez, and slit his throat. Quickly, as a grenade exploded near Petrova’s men, Fix sliced through Michel
le’s bonds and pointed to where Lafayette hid. Grabbing the fallen Martinez’s weapon, he fired vaguely in the direction of Petrova and then slithered forward to where Jennings lay and started working on his bonds.
Sensing something amiss, Sciavella cast his eyes down to where Jennings lay. “Son of a bitch,” he started to yell before Lafayette filled his body with bright green plasma pulses.
As fast as he could without exposing himself to Petrova’s snipers, Fix dragged Jennings back to safety. The battle was now still raging out of control and their movements had not been noticed. If they were going to use the battle as a distraction to get away, now was the best time.
“Can you walk, mon capitaine?” Lafayette asked.
“Barely, Marquis, barely,” he whispered weakly.
“I’ll help,” Michelle said as she pulled Jennings to his feet and put his arm across her shoulders.
“I’ll lay down cover fire,” Lafayette said. “On three, make a break for the eastern wall. One. Two. Three.”
The Cajun spun out of cover and open up full with the plasma rifle, raking the distant wall with fire, forcing Petrova’s men to seek cover. At full auto, the rifle’s charge was gone quickly, but it was enough. He dropped the gun and took off at a run after everyone else. He overtook Jennings quickly and immediately grabbed his captain under the other shoulder and helped Michelle half-drag, half-carry the captain to the wall. With Fix’s help, they got him over and hustled through the side streets of the city, trying to get as far from the firefight as possible. They stopped to catch their breath several blocks away.
“Were we followed?” Fix demanded.
Lafayette shook his head as he was too winded to speak.
“The docks are this way,” Fix said, pointing south.
“Then we better get their fast,” Jennings muttered. “I can’t wait to put this planet behind me.”
Chapter 16
1
As quickly as they could move with the injured Captain Jennings, the four of them made their way through Storm Haven. Despite the ruckus the fight had almost certainly caused, there were no police hover cars or shuttles responding. That meant that the police must have been bought off by Santelli or Petrova or both. That was fine with Jennings as he was just as glad they wouldn’t need to fight their way past anyone else. He wasn’t in much of a condition to do any fighting anyway, but he did have a small pistol he had taken off Sciavella’s corpse just in case. There wasn’t even in any extra security at the docks when they arrived. There was only the same surly guard at the customs booth.
“I need to process you out,” he called as they walked past him purposefully.
Jennings turned and stared at him. The guard took in his blood covered face and the heavily armed nature of his companions and just waved him through without another thought. As they walked up to the Melody Tryst, they realized that either Sciavella or Petrova had been there as the ramp was open and Squawk stood at the end of it, a small stream of blood matting his fur. Two men stood on either side of him.
“Son of a bitch,” Jennings growled angrily.
One of them spied the quartet coming at the ship, pointed his weapon down at Squawk and shouted, “That’s far enough, Jennings.”
Without hesitation, Jennings raised his pistol and fired twice, one shot into the face of each man. They fell backwards onto the ramp. Squawk immediately ran forward, got their guns and headed up into the ship.
“Get her ready for take-off!” Jennings yelled after the Pasquatil. “Lafayette, get that shit off my ramp,” he added, indicating the two bodies. “Fix, go find Squawk, make sure he’s all right, and see to the lady.”
“I want to stay with you,” Michelle protested.
“You’re in worse shape than Squawk, Cap’n,” Fix pointed out.
“Ms. Williams, this is for your own safety, and I’ll be fine once we get the hell out of here,” Jennings said to each in turn. “Marquis, meet me in the conn once you’ve disposed of these. We need to get Magellan up and spinning.”
“Pas de probleme,” Lafayette replied.
Jennings limped his way up the ramp and then up the gangplank to the cockpit. Fix and the girl followed for a moment, before Fix showed her up to the second level to one of their guest quarters. After advising her to stay in the cabin for now, no matter what, Fix went to check on Squawk with his med kit. The engineer was jumping about quickly, prepping the engines for launch, but he slowed down long enough for Fix to diagnose the injury as superficial and slap a bandage on it.
“Thankfully thankful,” Squawk squeaked as he immediately bustled back to work.
Fix felt the ship lift off as he headed back to the conn. For a moment, he lost his balance before the inertial dampeners kicked in. He would need to tell Squawk to fix it, he noted to himself before continuing on to the cockpit. Lafayette had beaten him there and was coaxing jump data out of the Magellan computer as Jennings steered them higher up through the storm.
The captain threw a look over his shoulder and saw Fix coming in. “Get a communication out to that Gael bastard,” he said to Fix. “Might as well let him know we have his package.”
“Right,” Fix said, taking a seat at one of the computers and pulling up the communication system. After receiving a dozen different errors, he said, “It’s no good. The storm’s causing too much interference. We’ll need to be clear of the planet before we can send a signal.”
Jennings grunted in reply.
“I also need to take a look at your injuries,” he pointed out.
“Once we jump,” the captain said.
“Cap’n…” Fix protested.
“After the jump, dammit,” Jennings shouted.
Quietly, Lafayette said, “We should be coming out of the storm now.”
Jennings looked back at Fix, who nodded and started trying to get a signal. “Message away,” he said after a moment as black atmosphere turned into space and starlight through the cockpit window.
“Do we have a jump solution?” Jennings demanded of Lafayette.
“Magellan’s still computing,” he replied. “Twenty seconds.”
“We got a reply from the Gael,” Fix said. “Ordering us to rendezvous with him at Barnard’s VI.”
“Update Magellan,” Jennings said. His face was turning pale and beads of sweat were pooling on his face. It didn’t seem as if all his wounds had clotted either.
“Cap’n, you need my help. Now,” Fix said. “You can come down to sick bay, or I can brain you and drag you down there.”
Jennings laughed slightly, which triggered a horrible cough. “All right, Fix. Doctor’s orders, right? Lafayette, take over and get us to Barnard’s VI as fast as humanly possible.”
Jennings had just stood up when an explosion rocked the Melody Tryst and sent her careening wildly off course. The captain crashed into the side of the cockpit and Fix fell over on top of him.
“Marquis, get the shields up and grab the stick,” Jennings shouted as he and Fix tried to get themselves disentangled from each other.
Lafayette jumped a seat over and grabbed the controls as another salvo hit the Melody Tryst. “I’ve got something off the starboard stern,” he reported, “But I can’t get a solid lock on it. Weapons won’t target, but shields are up and holding.”
“Now, what the fuck?” Jennings demanded as he scrambled to his feet. “Switch aft cannons to manual and create a cone of fire in the direction of that sensor ghost. Scan for impacts and follow up with aft torpedoes,” he barked at Fix as he hurriedly punched data into Magellan.
Lafayette threw the ship hard over to avoid another burst of fire. “All this movement is going to play hell with the navigation system,” he said.
“Tell me about it,” Jennings replied as Magellan reset its jump calculations once again.
“Weapons ready,” Fix reported.
“Fire!” the captain shouted immediately.
The aft cannons opened up in a blaze of energy, carefully targeted across a wid
e swath of space. The ship’s sensors, unable to detect anything about the ship that was attacking them, were able to register the impact of the weapons energy on the shields of the enemy ship. Fix fired torpedoes into the presumed ship’s course, but his entire barrage missed.
“Missed her,” he reported. “She’s too agile for manual targeting.”
“Dammit,” Jennings snapped.
Lafayette pulled them through another complicated series of maneuvers. “We only need ten seconds of constant course in order to get Magellan to finish,” he said. “But this bitch isn’t going to let me get it.”
“How about a full stop?” Jennings asked, already knowing the answer.
“That would work,” Lafayette agreed. “Might even cut it down to seven seconds.” There was a pause. “Wait a minute. You don’t mean… A Dime Gambit?” Lafayette demanded.
“They won’t be expecting it,” Jennings said.
“That’s because they’re not crazy,” he replied.
“Good thing we are,” the captain said.
“It’s the oldest trick in the book,” Lafayette protested.
“Maybe they do nae read,” Fix pointed out.
“Merde,” the Cajun swore.
2
Selena Beauregard had been in orbit above Strikeplain forever. She was not one to be bothered by tight spaces generally, but she had been in the tiny ship for far too long and she was starting to get a little stir crazy. That might have accounted for her opening fire on the Melody Tryst before she was in proper range for a kill shot. The nervous energy and excitement that came with the hunt was even more hyper with the prolonged wait for her quarry.
When she intercepted and decoded the message sent from the Melody Tryst that they had the girl, she had immediately fired. Based on the recent higher level of traffic she had observed entering in the otherwise backwater berth in the past few hours, she had assumed there were other parties attempting to capture Ms. Williams as well, and she had worried that the crew of the Melody Tryst would not be able to acquire her. Her ship was not matched to take on the ship she had decoded as the Grey Vistula, belonging to one Anastasia Petrova, or the Marathon owned by Vesper Santelli.
111 Souls (Infinite Universe) Page 14
