Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2

by Lalonde, Randolph

  “Eighteen,” Quino said. “And I’m eating a little of that cost.”

  “A treasury was just hit; value will be going up. You’ll make a profit at fifteen, but you’re letting us down, so that drops to fourteen.”

  “Prettiest hard-nosed negotiator I’ve ever seen,” Quino said. “I’ll do it for fourteen, and I’ll make sure they don’t cut corners. No furnishings or decorations though.”

  “Deal,” Spin said. “And if you get word of an armed ship with a good flank speed, you tell us first.”

  “No promises,” Quino said. “But you can steal whatever you want from any other Crew in the system. You won’t get my blessing, but I’ll look the other way – even if I have an alliance with whoever you hit.”

  “We’ve got some work to do if repairs are going to happen,” Sun said, standing. Spin and Nigel followed her lead.

  “You could stick around,” he said to Sun. “All of you if you want, next fight starts soon, should last a while too.”

  Nigel flashed a pleading look at Sun, who shook her head. “It was good seeing you again, Quino. We’ll be ready for your guys in a few hours.”

  Quino nodded and gestured towards his guards, who silently led them out of the Precinct to a waiting shuttle.

  08

  Dorian shuddered as Quino entered the room behind him. He’d seen the exchange, Xem sat him down and told him to watch before slinking from the concrete and steel space. “That Spin is a real spiked peach,” Quino said. “She’s going to fit right into a few special sims I’ve been looking for new flesh for. You were watching?”

  “Yes, you gave them a really good deal on repairs,” Dorian said. It was a quarter the cost of parts in the end, better than anyone deserved, unless they were trading more than they thought.

  “After the last round of rebuilds, I’m up to my ears in scrap, the parts are nothing. Besides, with what I know now I’m in profit within the week. The Cool Angel is without her most experienced lieutenant, and I have a hunter who knows that ship in and out.”

  “I’m sure they’ve changed the codes since I left.” He had no love for Captain White, but he was sure there were still people he liked in his crew. He didn’t want to be the one to wrest the prized ship from them. He didn’t like what that might take.

  “White fucked you over for thousands, left you in an unfriendly port when you stood up to him. That’s enough for a death mark, let alone his removal as Captain. I haven’t seen eye to eye with the man for years, so I don’t give a shit if you have to kill him, but I want that ship. I’ll even make you a deal,” Quino leaned in close, his mechanical eye glinting green. “You bring me the Cool Angel with all its major systems functioning and the value of everything inside gets deducted from your debt to me. There’s got to be a haul on that ship, otherwise White wouldn’t be in Naro Port, finishing a refit. That’s a day from here.”

  “In a fast ship,” Dorian said, his heart sinking.

  “Like the Fleet Feather. This is it, boy, your chance to get off world, to finish paying me off this week.”

  “There won’t be enough aboard that ship to pay you off,” Dorian said. “Even if White did just get paid for turning Spin in.”

  “Then I’ll make the deal even sweeter. You get five thousand for every crewmember you kill to get the Cool Angel in my docks. I don’t care if they’re Cool Angel crew, or Fleet Feather crew, or if you leave one crew completely alive. Just get that ship in my docks.”

  “Give me fifty thousand if I kill Captain White,” Dorian pressed.

  “He had a talent for pissing me off, so I’ll give you thirty-five. You get nothing for killing Spin and Sun though. Knowing that kind of beauty is in the universe makes me smile, even if they’ll hate me when you’re done.”

  “Done. What do I tell them? How do I get them to take me there?”

  “Tell them you know where Captain White is, and how to get onto his ship. The rest you’ll have to improvise, but I’ve seen you kill, boy. Improvising is one of your strong suits. You’ve got seven days, then that little cap in your chest goes off.”

  Dorian’s hand touched his breastbone – now a metal plate that held the cage protecting his artificial organ package – without realizing it until he was rubbing the spot. That would be the end of him, no more Dorian, no more high times, no more adventures between the stars. The risk would be worth it. Freedom from his contract, no more killing unless he decided someone should be done in. He could find the Dawn, crew her up and point her wherever he wanted. “Seven days, aye.”

  09

  The shuttle didn’t drop them off at the ship, but one of the lower levels beneath the main port levels. The open air walkways should have provided a cooler experience, but the rising sun only turned the heat up, and the humidity wasn’t clearing. Spin’s jacket and suit worked together to keep her cool, but Nigel had taken a lesser garment that protected from the extreme cold of space, but didn’t react to more subtle changes in temperature. Within minutes, he’d pulled the upper half of his loose jumpsuit down to his waist and stretched out his long arms. “It’s not much better, but at least I can feel that breeze,” he said.

  The crowd of thousands made their way along a walkway that wove in and out of the building, suspended hundreds of meters over a ramshackle slum. Everyone had somewhere to go, and security kept people moving along the walkways, and even though the trio were focused on not getting separated as they made their way, Spin could tell something was wrong when she looked at Sun. “What’s going on?”

  “I thought you were going to let me do the talking?”

  “I’m sorry, it seemed like he was more interested in talking with me instead,” Spin replied.

  “You almost set him off. That wasn’t the Quino I knew from years ago, he’s changed, he’s not just ambitious anymore, he’s dangerous.”

  “I’m sorry, did you want to go back and flirt with him for a while? That was your plan going in, right?” Spin asked, regretting the comment only a little.

  “Maybe, but as soon as I saw how he’d changed, that went out of the window, I had a new plan, but you were in negotiations with him before I had a chance to lay it out for him.”

  “What was it?” Spin asked as they made their way around a tall hover cart with a closed cargo cab.

  “You want to know now? There’s not much point.”

  “I really do, because he wasn’t interested in what we were there for. Trades were off the table.”

  “Sure, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t lead us to a loose port where we could steal something right off the ground. I didn’t even get a chance to ask him what happened at his last base, or try to sell the parts we got there.”

  “Leave some other crew without their ship? I’m not a fan of screwing some struggling band of people we don’t know. As for the parts, I don’t think we’ll have a problem hocking them. You’re right though, he was willing to deal, we got our repairs for practically nothing.”

  “That’s if the craftsmanship is any good,” Nigel said.

  “Okay, but you get why I’m pissed, right?” Sun said, ignoring Nigel’s comment.

  “I do, I made you Captain because of your experience,” Spin replied, conceding so she could restore the peace, not because she entirely agreed with her.

  “We should still be there, talking things over and gathering information. We don’t even know who the Nils are, and they seem to be the big black cloud hovering over this whole place. There’s so much we have to learn about this entire corridor of ports, we’ve only been through maybe a dozen out of the hundreds that occupy this part of the sector.”

  “You’re right, I cut that shorter than it should have been,” Spin said, feigning regret.

  “I’m glad you see that. If you’re going to make me Captain for this trip, you’re going to have to trust me. I’m going to make sure we get everything we can out of every situation without getting our skin singed.”

  “I know, I will, you do have more experience,�
� Spin said. That was completely true. There was a lot she knew about the universe that came with her intensive education, but running a starship crew and their crew wasn’t exactly in the curriculum. “Until you need me to be in the conversation, I’ll watch and learn. These crime lords and port bosses aren’t anything like the people I knew growing up.”

  “Exactly, thank you, Aspen,” Sun said. “I mean, Spin, sorry.”

  “It’s okay, I’m sorry I took you off track with Quino.”

  “Now that you two have straightened out the command structure,” Nigel said as they picked their way through a broken line of cargo carts and slowly moving pedestrians. “I was wondering, what’s up with the name change?”

  “It felt right,” Spin said. “And it goes with tradition from a couple centuries ago when slavery was first abolished in the British Alliance Territories. Millions of slaves who were named by their masters when they were born took a new name to celebrate their freedom.”

  “Spin, I like it,” a woman whispered near her ear as she passed. She had a stunning, playful smile, blue eyes and white hair. “I took Omira as my name. Take cover if you love your life,” she said with a wink before dropping a heavy helmet on her head. The entire surface of her plated armour began animating in a riot of gold and white light as she rocketed upward. Luminous wings spread from her armour – a holographic illusion, but spectacular nonetheless. She hovered overhead for a moment, pressing a control on the arm of her light power suit. “We, the citizens of this galaxy have seen your plans for the new order, the same as the old order, and say nay!” her distorted voice cried through a micro-amplifier.

  The sides of the cargo carts they had been passing fell away to reveal over twenty fighters in various types of armour. They immediately opened fire on the security guards as they took to the sky. Some of them had holoprojection built in, giving them multi-coloured angel or butterfly wings. Watching them move through the sky was stunning, a riot of colour and fire as they quickly bested the security who watched the moving throng of people from the sides of the walkways.

  “Spin! Down!” Sun said as she dragged her to the deck.

  “They’re after an inner access point,” Nigel pointed out. Following the direction his finger indicated revealed three Nays who fired high explosive rounds at the side of the building above. After four explosive impacts most of them rushed inside.

  “It’s the Nova Bank vault,” one of the ducking pedestrians said. “Guess it’s going to be a busy day at work.”

  “This is a bank hit?” Sun asked.

  Before anyone could answer her question, a pair of fighters swept down and hovered in front of the rough opening in the side of the building, blasting the crowd below with hot air. A thickly furred young man with a long snout teetered on the edge of the walkway, and Spin rushed towards him without hesitation.

  Buffeted by the air pressing down thanks to the fighters overhead, she almost made it to him in time. Her fingers touched his furry chest as he topped over the edge. Her eyes locked with his terrified visage for only an instant before she remembered that there was an emergency grappling line built into the sleeve of her jacket, and she fired at him. To her surprise, it wrapped around his chest, and Nigel’s arms wrapped tightly around her middle. The line went taught, and she thought the three of them were about to go over for a moment, then Nigel sat down abruptly, anchoring them more than enough with his large feet planted on the edge of the railing. “Gotcha!” he declared.

  Spin watched as the well furred pedestrian pendulum-swung back towards the broad walkway beneath them and climbed up over the railing so he was safely standing below. He waved up with a toothy smile that was exaggerated by his long snout. Explosions above, and the sounds of the crowd nearly panicking all around drew her attention back to the scene of the robbery.

  The starfighters opened fire on something within, and to Spin’s surprise, Omira emerged, an energy shield held across one arm protecting her from the fighter’s energy blasts, and a canister of some kind in the other. Spin watched in wonder as the woman in angel armour planted her feet firmly on the canopy of the fighter and affixed the canister onto the side of the craft with a thud. One of her companions did the same to the other fighter, and then it became evident that the canisters were actually portable thrusters. As they fired, the fighters were thrown off balance, and the pilots struggled with the controls as they spun through the shield that protected the building.

  Omira and her comrades timed their escape so they could follow the fighters through the shield, then disappear into dangerous gangster territory. “Did you see that?” Sun asked. “One of them was carrying a data node that must have had room for thousands of petabytes of data, and enough processing power to run half a dozen ships.”

  “Can’t stop ‘em,” Spin heard someone in the crowd say. “They kill our security, hack into everything.”

  “Who are they?” Spin asked the muttering business man as he got to his feet, straightening his beige jacket.

  “You don’t know?” he asked incredulously. “Not from here, right? You should keep going then. At least worlds that allow slavery can keep a human bank secure.”

  “Thank you!” an excited voice said from behind her. The caramel coloured fur of the young man she’d saved was all around her then, as he pulled her to her feet and briefly embraced her. “Thank you both!” he said as he pulled Nigel to his feet and hugged him as well. “I would have been one with the ground if it weren’t for you, and I’m not even supposed to be working today.”

  “You’re welcome,” Spin said. “I couldn’t stand to see you go overboard.”

  “My names Gauruii,” he said in a thick, growling accent that was more rolling than menacing. “But all my human friends call me Gary. I was on my way in to use my upper lift key.”

  “Good to meet you, Gary,” Spin said, beaming a smile at him. “What do you do here?”

  “I can’t say, it’s nothing criminal, just private,” he replied quietly. “Are you headed up? I can get you into the express lift, the least I could do.”

  “We are,” Spin replied. “Our shuttle ride wasn’t interested in dropping us off at our doorstep. We’re in the second docking tier.”

  “I can get you right there, we just have to get inside.” He noticed Sun then and fixed her with an admiring gaze.

  “I’m Sun, their Captain,” she said to him.

  He took her hand gently and momentarily lowered his nose to it. “You have beautiful black hair. It’s rare amongst my people.”

  “Nafalli? Somewhere past Joorinan?” Sun asked.

  “How did you know? You must be a career traveller,” Gary said as he began to slowly lead them towards the large double doors leading into the building. They were stuck open, thanks to a little damage to the hinges.

  “I’ve been port hopping for longer than I’d like to say,” Sun said. “Are you sure you won’t get into trouble for letting us use your lift pass?”

  “As long as I’m with you, and you get out first. I’m headed to the administration level, so your tier is on the way. I’m interested to know, have you ever been through Nurinan?”

  “I was thinking of visiting again sometime soon,” Sun replied. “I can’t stop thinking about a spa I spent the weekend at that was built way up in an ancient tree with a spring running through it. They said the sap and the water made a natural healing pool, and I’ll never forget it.”

  “I’ve only heard of Illerr Awo, but I’ve never been. Did the pool live up to expectations?” Gary asked with interest.

  “Do I look forty-nine?” Sun asked. Seeing that the question was about to lead to at least one more question, she added; “It works, trust me, I don’t look a day over twenty-eight.”

  “Oh, that is quite something, so many years of wrinkle-sagging, you humans age terribly,” Gary said.

  The conversation continued the whole time they made their way to the priority lifts, and as they were elevated to their docking space. Spin didn’t
pay much attention; she was still thinking of the angel that fought in the golden sunlight of dawn. There was something about Omira that was familiar, especially when she smiled.

  10

  The cargo bay was a mess. Anything that wasn’t secured in the small storage area for tools and repair supplies was tossed like a mechanical salad. She had time before any of the non-human world based banks would get back to her about where her money could be picked up, and how much was left. Idle hands gave her too much time to think, too much time to remember Larken, Trevor, and Boro, who seemed to come up much more than she expected. He was one of those crewmembers who quietly kept the peace and seemed connected to everyone.

  Finally, she found a hand cutter that might help with cleaning up the damage to the rear of the ship. Spin turned and was about to announce her small victory to Nigel when she bumped into Dorian as he stepped into the hatchway.

  “I couldn’t let them do it.”

  “You scared the crap outta me,” Spin said. “I didn’t even know you were here.”

  “I didn’t exactly knock. I thought I should talk to you first, I can see who really makes the decisions.”

  “About?”

  “I couldn’t let them watch you leave without telling you that we can lead you right to a ship, and I can help you take it. The Cool Angel is less than a day away.”

  “What?”

  “I can help you get the Cool Angel, you have to do something for me first,” Dorian said. He turned around and pointed awkwardly at a spot between his shoulders. “My tracker is right here, you’ll get into trouble with Quino, but if you remove it for me, I’ll join your crew, crack ships for you, whatever you need.”

  “Sun might take some convincing, she still thinks Quino could be a valuable friend.”

  “You wouldn’t be able to stay for repairs either. I came to you because I think you can convince Sun, otherwise I would have snuck up on Nigel.”

  “I can, I know she wants payback on Captain White. She’s not saying it, but I can see her jaw lock every time someone mentions his name.”