by Jaleta Clegg
I crouched under a rock and shivered. The sun was barely creeping over the far horizon. The wind was stronger this morning, a cold that cut right through me. Vyn lay across a rock in front of me. His rust colored outfit blended in perfectly with the surrounding stones. He whispered something into his com.
"They’re in position," he said to me.
We scrambled out of the rocks and ran for the wall still standing across a field of rubble. The others waited near a small hole at the bottom. A ventilation screen stood nearby.
"Fifty feet down," York said. "Take a right turn. They’re holding someone that direction."
York and Anders sorted out explosives. They both had packs full of them. We waited until they climbed down.
"Good luck," Shorty whispered as Vyn and I followed them into the shaft.
He climbed in after us, following at a distance.
Vyn came to a cross shaft. He consulted his wrist and kept going down. I climbed after him. The duct didn’t have a ladder, we were clinging by fingers and toes to the bracing. A breeze blew steadily down past us. At least the duct wasn’t metal, it was plascrete, drilled into the stone ruins of Xqtl.
We passed two more cross shafts. The one Vyn stopped at was larger than the rest. I was glad about that. The last one would have been tight for me to squeeze down. I had no idea how Vyn or the others could possibly have fit.
York and Anders headed down one of the shafts. I looked up and saw Shorty taking his station above us.
"This way," Vyn breathed in my ear.
I crawled behind him down the duct. We passed screens. I glanced through them. They showed me glimpses of richly furnished rooms. All of them were empty. We kept going.
A sudden whump sounded behind us. Vyn crawled faster. Another whump came a few minutes later.
We crossed over a hallway. People swarmed everywhere below us, shouting and screaming. Black smoke filled the end of the hallway.
Another muffled explosion shook our duct. Vyn braced himself against the side as bits rained down from overhead. A fourth explosion sounded, closer to us. The duct creaked. The ceiling of the room next to us crashed down. Half the duct crumpled.
"Blast," Vyn muttered. He looked back at me. "We have to go another way."
Shouting from ahead echoed in the duct. I recognized the voice. Doggo was yelling insults as loud as he could. He sounded scared. I didn’t blame him.
"They’re that way," I said. "I can hear them. I can fit through."
Vyn studied my face and nodded. "I’ll find another way around."
I squeezed past him. The bit of duct that was still open was very small. Doggo shouted something about goats. I shoved my arms through the hole and levered the rest of me into it, before I could think second thoughts. My hips stuck briefly. Vyn shoved from behind and I tumbled free. I pulled my feet out and scrambled down the duct as fast as I could.
Doggo and Tayvis were in a room that was mostly empty. It looked like part of the original ruins. The walls were fitted stone, smooth and reddish. I stopped at the vent and studied the room from behind the screen. I’d learned a little about caution.
Doggo was cuffed and sat huddled against the far wall. Tayvis was in a chair in the middle of the floor. A woman stood over Tayvis. She wore a revealing outfit of black leather and red satin. Her hair swung around her face. She bent close to him and whispered something. He didn’t react. His hands were cuffed to the arms of the chair. There was one other man in the room. He stood near the door, watching the woman with undisguised lust. I couldn’t see anyone else in the room.
The woman straightened, raising her hand. She held a neural gun. Pointed right at Tayvis. I kicked the grate off and fell into the room. She had time for one startled glance before I shot her. I didn’t stop to think. I just reacted.
The man by the door stared stupidly at me and the crumpled woman on the floor. She moaned. I hadn’t killed her, I hadn't intended to. I turned the blaster on the man. He was stupid, he tried to raise his own weapon and shout a warning to someone. I shot him. I missed, I caught him full in the chest. He went down, his gun skittering across the floor. I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. I didn’t think I could live with more nightmares.
I knelt by the chair and reached for the cuffs.
Tayvis watched me, his eyes tired. "I was wondering when you’d get here."
"Sorry I interrupted what looked like an interesting encounter."
"I’m not."
The cuffs were ones that required the right key. I couldn’t shoot them off without removing both of his hands. I could pick them, given enough time. I wasn’t going to get that time. I pulled out the lockpicks anyway.
Doggo shuffled over. "Spacer Chick." He tried to smile. It was ghastly. "You one tough chick," he said, nodding at the sprawled bodies on the floor.
"Only when I have to be." I pulled out the right pick and wiggled it into one cuff.
"They’re coming," Tayvis whispered.
"Let me," Doggo said. He put his hand on mine, his other cuffed hand following. I moved back, my gun held low. Doggo twisted the pick expertly. I turned around.
Tolun stood in the doorway, a neural gun pointed at my head. He had three other men, mean looking toughs, crowding in behind him.
"How did you get here?" Tolun’s mask of cool elegance was cracking.
I didn’t answer. He moved his gun, pointing it at Doggo.
"Move away, now," he ordered.
One of his men was trigger happy. He raised his blaster. I brought mine up and shot it out of his hand. I shifted quickly and shot the neural gun out of Tolun’s hand. He grabbed the blackened mess of his hand with his other hand. His face writhed with pain and anger. I shifted my aim to his head and advanced one deliberate step.
Another one of his men decided to be stupid. My shot caught him in the shoulder. He screamed, falling backwards behind the door. The other one broke and ran. I shifted my aim back to Tolun’s head and took another step.
I was so angry it was white hot. Everything was crystal clear in my head.
"Lesson one," I said in a voice that could have cut steel, "don’t ever make me angry."
"What?" Tolun asked, his face twisted in a snarl.
"Darien gave me lessons," I said. I took another step.
"Darien was weak." He managed to straighten himself. The stump of his hand dropped to his side. He held a needler in his good hand. "You won’t shoot me. You won’t take the chance that I might shoot your friends first. You’re just a woman."
"Lesson two," I said, taking another step. His needler wavered and settled on Doggo. "Don’t mess with my friends or my ship."
I shot him in the face. The needler flew wide, landing against the wall with a clatter that rang in the suddenly silent room.
"Lesson three, don’t ever underestimate me." I let the blaster fall to my side. Tolun lay on the floor, spread eagled. His face was charred beyond recognition. I turned away before I was sick. He deserved to die. I hated being the one who did it.
"You can have her," Doggo whispered to Tayvis, his eyes wide. "She’s out of my league."
"I’m beginning to think she’s out of mine," Tayvis said. He searched my face while Doggo undid the cuffs.
"Let’s go," I said. Before I get sick, I didn’t add. Before I start to think about what I just did.
The door creaked. I whirled around, the blaster up and ready. Vyn put his hands up. I lowered the gun. Vyn stepped over Tolun’s corpse. He put his hands on his hips and whistled.
"Remind me to stay out of your way," he said. "Tayvis," he said in surprise when he finally stopped to look at the other people in the room. The ones who weren’t dead or almost dead. "Lowell didn’t tell me you were here."
"Vyn," Tayvis greeted him. Somehow it didn’t surprise me they knew each other.
"He’s Doggo," I said when Vyn looked at him. "Can we go now?"
"You aren’t going to blow the whole place up?" Tayvis asked me.
"Don’t tempt me,"
I said.
"York and Anders already blew up most of it," Vyn said. "We have to hurry. Before they close off the vents."
He stepped back over Tolun. Tayvis stood. He was hurting, I could tell by the way he clenched his teeth. Doggo handed me the pick and held out his wrists. Vyn glanced back. His eyebrows went up when he saw me pick the locks. The cuffs landed on the floor. I tucked the pick away with the others, back in my ankle pocket. I silently dared him to say anything. Tayvis grinned.
"You all right?" I asked Tayvis.
"A little stiff," he admitted.
A louder whoomph echoed in the room. The walls shook. Smoke poured out the ventilation duct I’d come through.
"Move," Vyn ordered.
We moved. Doggo ran after Vyn. Tayvis and I brought up the rear.
The halls were complete chaos. Someone had cut the lights. Only a few emergency lights still burned. Smoke poured from every vent, thick stuff that made my eyes water. It was very hard to see anything in the murk. On purpose, I guessed.
"This way," Vyn said, dragging us around a corner.
The walls shook. Half of the one in front of us decided to join the other half. The stones slid and crunched. The passage was blocked.
We ran the other way. I grabbed onto Doggo and kept him with us as we sprinted around a corner away from a lot of nasty looking thugs with guns.
The new hallway was still quiet and deserted. Vyn pried a screen off a vent.
"Up," he said.
I helped boost Doggo up. He scrambled into the vent.
"That way," Vyn said, pointing into the vent.
"You next," I told Tayvis. He was going to argue. He flicked a glance at my blaster and climbed into the vent.
"Go," Vyn said to me.
I went. I crawled as fast as I could, following Tayvis’s boots. He stopped. The vent was filling with black smoke.
"Keep going," I said.
We were almost back to the shaft we’d climbed down. They started moving again. And stopped again.
"It’s blocked," Doggo called back.
I squirmed around until I was sitting hunched over in the vent. I kicked out the grate near me. I didn’t stop to look as I dropped down into the room.
It was quiet, a surprised silence that told me I was definitely not alone. I turned slowly, blaster out and ready.
Three men sat at a long table. One had his mouth hanging open. He was big, soft, covered with coarse black hair. He had his hands poised over a console keypad. I pointed the blaster at him.
"Keep your hands off," I said.
Tayvis and Doggo slid out behind me. It would have been much more effective if they’d had guns.
The other two men were sneaking backwards, away from me. I twitched the blaster at them.
"Stay still," I ordered.
One of them, a tall thin man that vaguely reminded me of Tolun, Darien, and Leran slid his hand up over the table. I barely saw the muzzle of his needler. I shot him as I ducked away from the bolt he fired at me. It blew a chunk out of the wall behind me.
The man looked down at the charred area on his chest. He looked back at me, in total surprise as he folded over and died.
Vyn had his gun pointed at the third man’s head. "Don’t even think about it," he said as he relieved the man of a blaster. He tossed it to Tayvis. I shifted my aim to the man with the computer. His mouth opened and shut over and over, like a fish drowning in air.
"You shot Padraic," he gasped.
I shrugged. I was not going to think about that right now. I was going to be sick later, I told my stomach as it heaved at the stench of burnt flesh.
"Get up," I said. "You’re going to get us out of here."
The two men traded looks. Passing messages. I shot the one not in front of the computer. I didn’t give myself a chance to think about it. He fell backwards out of his chair. He was still moaning, I wasn’t aiming to kill him.
"I only need one," I said. "And you don’t have to be all in one piece."
The man’s fat face went pale. Beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks. He stood slowly, keeping his hands away from his keyboard.
"Take us out," I said.
He nodded, gulping audibly.
"Answer a question first," I said when he got to the door. He stopped. The fat around his middle quivered. "What other prisoners do you have here?"
"None," he said quickly. Too quickly.
I walked up behind him and jabbed the blaster into his back.
"None, I swear," he said. "They’re still chasing the ones from the ships that crashed. Those two are the only ones. I swear." He glanced back at Tayvis and Doggo.
"I don’t believe you." I didn’t let myself think how I sounded. I had to be tough, I had to be meaner than they were. Or I was going to go to pieces and that wasn’t going to help anyone. I dug the blaster in farther. He flinched away.
"The truth," he babbled. "I know everything that goes on here. There aren’t any other prisoners."
I was going to have to take his word. "I want a flitter."
"This way." He scurried into the darkness of the halls.
I grabbed his collar and kept him right in front of me, the blaster jammed into his back.
The man took us through back passages where the crowds and smoke were thinner. He brought us out into a hangar. Three decrepit looking flitters sat on a plascrete floor.
"Those are the only ones here," he said.
A group of heavily armed thugs burst through the far door. They saw us and started shouting. And shooting. The man twisted away from me and ran for cover. I shot at him as I ducked back into the hall.
"Run!" Vyn shouted and shoved me.
I ran, following Tayvis.
We ran through a maze that grew ever more chaotic. People scrambled everywhere. Most of them had big guns and were using them on anything that moved. Walls gave way, tumbling down in clouds of dust that just added to the thick smoke still billowing from vents.
We stumbled into a narrow passage. It twisted and turned in crazy directions. The smoke was less thick, the air fresher. No one shot at us. We reached the end. It was a dead end, closed with a thick grate. Tayvis leaned against it, breathing hard. I stopped next to him and looked back.
"Where’s Doggo and Vyn?" he gasped.
"I thought they were right behind me." I started back down the hall.
Tayvis grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. He shook his head. "They’ll get out somehow."
"I hope you’re right." I leaned against the grate. The full impact of what I’d just done hit me. I started shaking. I’d shot several people. Even if they’d deserved to die, I didn’t want to be the one to execute them. I ducked my head. The blaster clattered from my hand.
Tayvis gathered me up, holding me against him. I leaned into him.
"This is why I can’t work for Lowell," I whispered.
He rubbed my back and kissed the top of my head. "I don’t want you to work for Lowell. You were scaring me back there. And nothing scares me."
"What now?" I wanted to lie down and sleep. I didn’t want to keep seeing people dying because I’d shot them.
"Now we get out and find the others." Tayvis stepped back, studying the grate. I turned to it, it was simple. It was a problem I could solve.
There was one lock, a simple one. I bent down to pull out my lockpicks. The blaster was in front of me. I could still smell the ozone from it. I sat down, hard. Tayvis crouched beside me and picked up the blaster. He put it in his pocket.
"Are you all right, Dace?"
"No. I’m not going to be all right until I have everyone safe. Even then I don’t know if I’ll ever be all right again." I wrapped my arms around myself, to keep them from shaking, to keep me from shaking. It didn’t help. "Who did I just shoot, Tayvis? Who were they?"
"You shot three of the Inner Five, the leaders of Targon-Blackthorne. I think that’s who they were. Judging from what I overheard from Tolun."
I started to laugh. I could
n’t have stopped it. It sounded shrill, an edge of hysteria crept in. I leaned against the grate and laughed, holding myself to stop the shaking.
"Revenge," I gasped between giggles. "They wanted revenge. They got it."
He grinned. I watched the dimple in his chin that only showed when he really smiled. My hysterical giggling stopped.
"You want to finish your revenge?" he offered.
"No," I said, my own grin fading.
He leaned close and kissed me.
"Then let’s just get the others and find somewhere to hide until Lowell gets here," he said.
I turned around and picked the lock in record time. The grate swung open. We climbed out, dropping to the tumble of stone below.
Chapter 48
Jasyn crouched over the transmitter. She banged it on the side. It didn’t help. The lights were red, the two that still flickered with any life. She hit it again. It fell onto one side and the last lights died.
Clark watched her with sympathy. They’d reached the transmitter after a series of earthquakes. The transmitter was under a pile of rubble. It was damaged beyond any of their skills to repair.
Vey crawled back under the stone ledge where they crouched. They heard flitters whining overhead. Something big was up. Another quake made the ground shake.
"That’s not natural," Clark muttered.
"Smoke to the south," Vey answered. "Someone’s using explosives."
"Who and why?" Jasyn said. "The transmitter is completely, utterly dead."
"We could try breaking into one of those ships," Clark said. "Any of the ones that landed recently. We tracked enough of them."
"If we do that, I’m tempted to just fly it away," Jasyn said. She sat back against the stone. Clark sat next to her.
"With things exploding, there’s a good chance Dace is still here," Clark said.
She laughed. "She tends to leave things burning."
Vey slithered back out of the shelter. She lifted her com unit. They watched her talk urgently.
"How do we find her?" Jasyn asked.
"How do we tell her we smashed up her ship?"
"It’s half mine."
Vey gestured them out. As soon as they were standing she was off, heading back the way they had come. "Paltronis is moving the base. They found the others."
