Thieves' Guild Series (7 eBook Box Set): Military Science Fiction - Alien Invasion - Galactic War Novels

by C. G. Hatton

  They shouldn’t have been taking it easy, they should have been heading back as fast as possible.

  “No.” He could feel it throbbing. He didn’t want anyone poking at it. He tried to sit up, fending off the medic. “Why aren’t we going back?”

  It was Hal Duncan that replied. ‘We maxed out the jump drive trying to lose them.’

  Because the Bhenykhn were chasing him.

  They had no shields, he realised as he reached out further to the crew of the MOV, life support on emergency only, fuel low, no jump capacity, and too much damage to jump anyway. They were sitting ducks, everyone knew it and everyone was watching the monitors, waiting. They weren’t even asking him to listen out. Getting an early warning wasn’t going to make any difference.

  ‘We’ve dropped a beacon,’ Duncan thought. ‘Just gotta hope the guild gets to us before they do.’

  LC nodded vaguely. He looked down at his arm, stretching it out and watching the glucose solution dripping through the tube. It wasn’t doing much. He glanced across at Duncan. The big man had a needle in his arm as well but not for glucose, instead blood was pulsing out into a pouch. That wasn’t good. He knew exactly what it meant if they were taking blood. Infected blood.

  “Who?” His voice wasn’t much more than a croak.

  The medic tapped the tube. “The kid.”

  “Why not mine?”

  His was fifty/fifty, Hal Duncan’s was only eighty/twenty at best. Twenty percent chance of survival, if that. Even now after all this time. Nothing they’d tried had increased the odds of it working.

  The emergency lighting was flickering, the inside of the drop ship eerily quiet, no machinery except absolute essentials. The lights were low and everyone was calm as though they knew there was nothing else they could do but wait. Sean was watching him from across the cabin. He could feel her stare as the medic disengaged the tube from Duncan and took the pouch.

  The guy turned and looked him in the eye. “Because you are fucked, LC. I don’t know how you’re not dead right now. The kid is dying. If we give him your blood with that toxin in it, we kill him.” He gestured towards Duncan and shrugged. “Hal’s? I dunno. Maybe that twenty percent will be enough. If the kid had been hit by any of their normal weapons, he’d be dead anyway. At least this is going to give him a chance. But yeah, we’re clutching at straws.”

  He moved away.

  LC was standing and following before he knew it, tugging out the line from his arm and walking through the cabin on auto, only half aware of the overhanging tangle of wires he had to duck to avoid.

  “Why is he not in an isopod?” he muttered.

  “Because we don’t have any,” Sienna said from beside him.

  He read from her mind how bad the damage was. The emergency medevac unit had taken a direct hit. He felt hollow inside. He shouldn’t have dragged them out here. He caught Spacey’s eye as she looked up, hope tugging deep. She was sitting on the deck next to the kid who was lying there on a stretcher looking like shit, only half awake, in pain, mottled tendrils extending up round his neck and down each arm.

  LC watched as the medic knelt and set up the transfusion kit. He hugged his arms around his chest, waiting until the guy stood and backed away.

  That round had been meant for him. The shamans had only been on Hanover because of him.

  Sienna squeezed his shoulder, nudging a flask into his hand, and leaving him there.

  Spacey was staring up at him, wide-eyed, one hand stroking the kid’s hair from his face. Someone had told her about the virus so she knew exactly what was happening, what could happen. She was clutching something in her other hand, fist clenched.

  LC eased himself down next to her, leaning his back against the bulkhead. He took a long drink from the flask, the warmth of the krakn melting into his bloodstream, the virus taking it and taking the edge off the nervous, freaky ass sensitivity the insanity had triggered. He could see in Spacey’s mind what she was holding so tightly. A Bhenykhn kill token. Hilyer must have given it to her.

  “You want to know the first time I ever saw one of those?” he asked softly.

  Spacey nodded.

  “I was sixteen.”

  She looked up, thinking that wasn’t much older than she was now. Toby was sixteen. The kid was listening, hurting, but listening in to every word, wanting to know.

  LC took another sip of the moonshine. He’d never told anyone before. Not the whole story. He wasn’t sure he was up for it now but she was looking at him, willing him to keep talking, hoping he could make everything okay again. And the boy was lying there, dying because of him.

  “The other field-ops were ribbing us that we’d never make it at the guild,” he said, a lump in his throat, keeping his voice quiet, very aware that everyone was listening. “They said we’d never catch up to them in the standings. Then the Man posted this open tab, totally impossible, hardly any intel except that security was beyond anything we’d ever bust into before. Open tab, ridiculous points on offer, more cash than I’d ever imagined. Anyone could have gone after it and no one did.”

  “You did.” It wasn’t a question.

  LC nodded, half a smile. “It was UM. How could I not…?”

  “What happened then?”

  He glanced up at her, heart thumping. He blinked, struggling to separate then and now.

  Spacey leaned forward and touched his knee, gentle, her eyes boring into his, needing him to be okay because if he was okay, then everything was okay, whatever else was happening.

  “Luka?”

  He didn’t know if he could speak. He reached and nudged her other hand, felt the warmth of the tarnished metal that was twisted into a design that matched the one burned into his chest. She let him take it. He turned it, let it lay flat in his palm. He’d earned the highest points ever for a single tab from acquiring one just like it. He curled his fingers around it. His amulet. The tab that had sent him to the top of the standings, sent his reputation sky rocketing and made him invincible. No one else saw the doubts, the fears, the agonising pain of loss that he lived with every day. They just saw the bravado. The not giving a shit arrogance. Because that’s how they lived.

  They’d known it was Bhenykhn since they’d first encountered them on Erica. But he’d never considered where his amulet had come from, the one he’d stolen from UM. How Angmar Rodan had come to have one in his private collection years before. The pain of that night on Winter flashed across his mind, remembering how he’d stuffed it into his pocket as his legs got shot out from under him and he’d fallen…

  He rubbed his thumb along its edge. His amulet had come from Kheris. Another memory surfaced, another night, sitting on a rooftop as the UM gunships descended on the crashed ship out there in the desert. He’d been that close to a Bhenykhn ship when he was thirteen. He could see the black metal of its hull as clear as if it had been yesterday, the crushed and broken struts, the crumpled bulkhead and scattering of debris, twisted black metal debris.

  An icy chill snaked into his veins as the pieces came together, memories he’d buried deep.

  The prisoner that UM had held on Poule. NG had taken a shitload of intel from the alien warrior they’d had in a cage, and had thrown it all at him. He’d never added it up before. UM had captured a live alien from the crashed ship on Kheris. That was where the freaking virus had come from.

  He looked up, reality shifting into slow motion.

  The grunts were hustling, Duncan and Sienna giving out orders, Hilyer moving, standing, talking to the others through the Senson, urgent.

  Incoming.

  LC could hear it echoing.

  He didn’t want to but he reached out to see what was going on, mind hit by an influx of emotion, overload, the nagging headache that was banging behind his eyes spiking into outright pain.

  He withdrew and nudged gently against Hal Duncan’s mind. It was the guild. Not just guild. It was the Man’s ship. Rescue. They’d made it. Or not… He turned, realisation dawning slo
wly, with a sinking despair, that the kid wasn’t breathing.

  He hadn’t felt it. Hadn’t felt that pop of a life slipping away.

  Spacey was looking at him, not the boy. She was looking at him, watching him, worrying, and she saw him turn. He reached for her hand, sharing the painful ache that hit her heart as she turned and realised.

  She breathed a soft, “Oh no…”

  LC moved to hold her, pulling her close and leaning into her as she buried her head into his chest, holding a hand against the back of her head.

  Sean was watching.

  He closed his eyes and just held Spacey tight.

  It took a while to dock with the Man’s ship. He couldn’t get used to calling it Fleet Comm. It was the Man’s ship and it always would be. He sat up in the forward cabin, alone, everyone giving him space. He’d given the kill token back to Spacey. He didn’t want it, and she did, because Toby had died getting her out of there, had been killed by them and it was only right that Hilyer had given it to her. It was a symbol that they’d survived. That she’d fight on for a kid who’d been more than just a friend.

  LC sat there and listened to the clangs as the ships hooked up, the voices and shouts as everyone cleared out. He was pressing his hand against his side, not wanting to look to see how bad it was. He didn’t know how much longer he could do this. He didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to face Evelyn. Definitely didn’t want to have to talk to Elliott about Kheris.

  He closed his eyes, sensing Sean as she approached and sat beside him.

  “We need to get you out of here,” she said, softly.

  “In a minute.”

  She let him sit, her hand finding its way to his knee.

  “We need to talk,” she said after a while.

  “I know.” It was hard to say and he didn’t want to face it. He would have been happy if she’d said, hey, come with me now, let’s just go, disappear, find a beach… He looked up and managed half a smile. “Let me get sorted and I’ll come find you.”

  He didn’t get the opportunity. Evelyn summoned him to NG’s old office and asked him to say it all again. He’d managed to shower away the dirt and blood, the water temperature seeming too hot no matter what he did, even standing under a cold torrent, and nothing he tried could shift the knot that was twisting in his side. He gave up trying to stand up straight and leaned against the back of the chair.

  “Sit down.” She headed to NG’s drinks cabinet, thinking that she hadn’t opened it since…

  LC ground his palms hard against his temples as if he could stuff the memories back in and lock them away again.

  Duncan was in there, emotionless. He took a bottle of whisky and glasses from Evelyn, mind closed, and sat next to him.

  LC sank into the chair. He didn’t know where to start.

  “UM’s prisoner came from Kheris,” Duncan said for him.

  Evelyn sat opposite and opened the bottle, hand shaking slightly. He could hear her thinking that NG should be there, he should be the one leading them, making better decisions than she was managing.

  LC took the glass she offered, took a sip and began, hesitant, and he couldn’t help dwelling on the fact that everything might have been different if he’d just made the damn connection sooner.

  “We have to tell Elliott and the rest of the Seven,” Duncan said when he’d finished. “Where are they?”

  “Gone ahead to Kheris already.”

  LC read from her mind what she was going to say next and was already shaking his head. “I’m not going back there.” He was going after NG.

  She opened her mouth to argue but clamped it shut, listening to something, glancing aside and looking at Duncan. It was obvious she was talking to the big man through a tight wire link.

  “Just say it,” LC said.

  “LC…” She looked resigned. “You don’t need to go to Kheris. But I can’t let you go chasing after NG, not yet, not carrying that injury.” She sat opposite and leaned forward. “We just got word from the Wintran Coalition. Olivia Ostraban is requesting an escort. She’s asking for you.”

  Chapter 13

  “You knew the amulet was Bhenykhn.” It was an accusation, not a question. “All the way back then, you knew what it was and you knew Angmar Rodan had one in his possession. Did you not question where it had come from?”

  “I did,” the Man said, sombre. “Of course I did. It was not the only Bhenykhn artefact in this galaxy.”

  “Not just artefacts. They had a live Bhenykhn in a cage.” It was hard not to be scathing. “But then you were probably right to be keeping your secrets. Considering your enemies and their reach.” He gave a small bitter laugh. “You still have no idea who was betraying you, do you? And no, as much as I might be the prime suspect, it wasn’t me.”

  The Man only stared, not rising to the bait.

  “This entire galaxy thrives on secrets and subterfuge,” Sebastian said. “Everyone keeps secrets. Look at the Ostrabans. Never has such a disgustingly depraved, dishonest, and self-absorbed family deserved what came to it in the end.”

  •

  LC struggled to lie quietly on the examination table as the medics checked the wound in his side, and it wasn’t just the thought of seeing Olivia again that was making him restless. The medics weren’t happy with his stats, and weren’t hiding their unease at the extent of the black lightning flashes and purple bruising that wasn’t showing any sign of fading.

  They didn’t want to clear him for active duty but they didn’t have much choice. Olivia had asked for him. And Evelyn had agreed. He was their best chance of making it through Bhenykhn controlled space. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done tabs with multiple objectives on the bounce before. They were always tough. No time to really recuperate from one before the next kicked off, but guild tabs had always been calculated, immeasurably planned out and set up, sometimes years in the planning, so if it was necessary, it was necessary and they pulled it off.

  Now? Now it was one desperate rescue after another, and the whole time, NG was out there and they were no closer to finding him.

  He bit back a curse as one of the medics took a biopsy of flesh from an infected area. The mottled tendrils reached all around his abdomen, down beyond his left knee, and up to his heart, blossoming out again from there across his chest, winding into and becoming part of the intricate Bhenykhn design already branded there, spreading up to his shoulder on that side, and then down his arm, wrapping around the bicep muscle like an insane tattoo.

  They gave him a bottle of water and told him to wait, someone coming back half an hour later to give him the go ahead to deploy. Reluctantly.

  One of the grunts brought him a bag of gear, clean fatigues and full mission kit, told him everyone was already waiting for him in the war room and said that Sienna was in a briefing and she’d left a present for him in the bag. The guy left, giving LC a grin, and adding that he was mister popular and there was another chick outside waiting for him.

  LC knew that already. He took the bag, rifling through it for the package. “She’s fifteen,” he said, “and she’s off limits. Tell Sienna I’ll see her later.”

  He dressed and got kitted up, popping a hit straight into his wrist and tucking the rest of Sienna’s vials into separate pouches and pockets, taking care to know what he was stashing where, and walking out of medical to see Spacey, waiting there for him in the corridor. She was wearing a tee shirt and combat pants that were too big for her.

  “Hey,” he said, hoisting the rifle sling over his head and adjusting its weight, feeling the warmth of the krakn spread and starting to feel something like normal for the first time in a long time.

  Spacey didn’t like seeing him like that, carrying a rifle, another gun in a holster on one thigh, a sheathed combat knife tied to the other, ammo pouches hanging from his belt, but she said, “Hey,” and looked at him intently, adding, “Are you okay?”

  Wasn’t he the one who was supposed to be saying that?

  He nodded. “I
have to go on a mission,” he said, awkward.

  She looked lost. She shrugged, chin up. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do,” she said. “And no one else knows what to do with me.”

  He hadn’t thought past getting her to safety. He almost suggested she could go back to Kheris but she wanted to help. She wanted to be one of them. He could read that need desperately, in the way she was standing, in every chaotic thought running through her mind.

  “You want to help?” he said, walking up to her and pulling her into a hug.

  He felt her nod, stubborn, determined.

  “Then I need you to know what’s going on,” he said into her ear. “I’ve asked Evelyn to keep you with her. I’ve told her you’re acing physics and law.”

  She almost drew away, mind buzzing, wondering how the hell he knew what grades she was averaging then freezing as she realised he was reading her mind. Someone had told her about the side effect of the virus.

  He was but not about that.

  “I read your school reports.” He smiled. “Stay close to Evelyn.” He moved back enough that he could see her face. “Read everything and learn everything you can. She’s smarter than any teacher you’ve ever had. She’s going to give you full access to all the files. To everything. And we’ll talk when I get back. Okay?”

  He overheard her thought processes, ticking that over, then she nodded.

  “Yes,” she said. She looked him in the eye solemnly. “Thank you. Thank you for coming for me. I knew you would. Get back safe, Luka.”

  “I will.”

  “Promise?”

  The krakn was wearing off by the time the briefing wrapped up. Evie had released Hilyer and Hal Duncan, as well as Sienna, to go with him. Babysitting and that was fine. He wasn’t going to run off anywhere, he wanted Olivia secure as much as anyone. They were to meet with her fleet in orbit around Miranda. His brief was to just sit tight on the MOV and listen out for any Bhenykhn activity to give the escort as early a warning as possible.