“They didn’t an hour ago.” He checked the Carver, adjusted the straps of his shoulder holster quickly. “She may not have reached him yet. Or she may not know our schedule.”
“What does she know?” Ren was calm, the voice of reason.
“Whatever Verno’s told her,” Sully shot back. He was angry, sparing no one.
“Verno didn’t know we knew the location of the lab,” I said, pulling on my jacket. “Slow down. Five minutes isn’t going to make a difference now.”
Sully hesitated, his mouth a thin line. But he listened.
“Verno didn’t know we had the labs located on Level 28. Berri only knows we took the shuttle to M-2.”
“No,” Ren said. “She left first, for M-3. And none of us mentioned M-2 around her.”
“But Verno knew we were headed for M-2,” Sully argued. “She knows we’re here to take out the labs.”
“Then it’s a fifty–fifty split,” I said. “She knows we’re in Marker-2, looking for the lab. She doesn’t know we know where it is.”
“She said she wanted the labs destroyed as well,” Ren said. “Or was she lying? I never sensed a falseness.”
“I never heard her say she wanted the lab destroyed.” Sully’s voice was flat. “All she ever said was she wanted in on our mission. She called it her ‘holy mission.’ We all just assumed …” He clenched his fist, took a deep breath. “We assumed too goddamned much. I should have seen, I should have known her coming to us was too easy. Too much coincidence. But, God! I wanted the easy way in, after all we’d been through. After losing Milo.”
“Is it possible,” Ren asked, “her concern, and Hayden’s, is not the lab but control of the Sullivan fortune?”
I remembered Sully’s comment about him—not Hayden—being the real heir. It was an enormous amount of money to have at one’s control. I could understand why a man like Hayden Burke would kill for it.
“Hayden knows you’re alive,” I told Sully. “That’s not an assumption. That’s a fact.”
Sully nodded. “All the more reason we move and move now. Should have moved,” he said, shoving the charges into the inside pockets of his jacket, “when we confirmed the lab.”
“They’ll watch for us at the terminal.” Ren had a handful of charges. “She knows the Boru Karn.”
The holy sword of purity.
Sully nodded. “We may need another way out of the shipyards. I only hope Gregor’s smart enough not to let himself get taken.”
I only hoped we’d live long enough to find out if he was.
I put the rest of the charges in my pocket, packed up the datapad, scooped up the cards. Sully handed me the robes. I shoved them in the duffel.
“We bring the bag into the core, leave it near an access panel. If we can get back to it, fine. If not”—he held up a charge—“this will be inside. It’ll blow when the labs do. I don’t give a damn who it takes with it either.”
He picked up the duffel and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
We moved though dim, red-tinged darkness, through the clank and clang, through the hiss, through the high whine of some unknown mechanism far below. Ren, between us, followed our thermals.
We downleveled and hit 28-Green. Ten minutes to walk halfway around the core. We couldn’t hurry. The walkway was narrow. Hurrying could kill you.
Exiting at Blue, we left the duffel behind, just inside the access hatch. Ren’s silvery-blue braid swung as he walked. No hiding he was Stolorth at this point. Fortunately, there were others in the shipyards.
Past Bay 17. Sully shuddered slightly, sensing the jukors, sensing the dying Taka, the winged beast in her belly clawing, tearing its way out.
There may not be time to put her down peacefully. Quickly might be all we could give her. One shot, center mass.
And a prayer.
There were people in the corridor. Instinctively I noticed them, categorized them, but only as threat or nonthreat. No stripers and none that had uniforms like private security guards. There were a few techs in lab coats, maybe one in overalls. I couldn’t tell if they were male. Or female. I didn’t care.
A single doorway loomed. Enviro 24. That held an accessway to the air handlers and recyc filters, as well as whatever else maintenance and station designers wanted to stuff in the overheads.
I noticed someone coming, a woman, a pallet trailing behind her. We slowed, as if stopping for conversation, but no words came. None of us could think of anything to say. But we couldn’t just stand awkwardly in front of the doorway, mute. And we didn’t have time to waste by moving on, backtracking.
I looked at Ren, trying to force words out of my brain, when Sully grabbed me and kissed me hard.
I could hear Ren laugh, softly, hear the woman’s footsteps, the low hum of the antigrav pallet getting louder. And I could feel Sully. Heat cascaded through me, swirling, cresting.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, thrust my fingers into his short thick hair just as my tongue thrust into his mouth. It met his own as we tasted—no, devoured each other.
An hour from now we could be dead. I might never kiss him again.
No! The word shot into my mind, sweet, pleading and aching. I will not lose you.
I heard a woman’s light chuckle.
“I think this means she said yes,” Ren told her.
I leaned my face against Sully’s chest, breathless.
“Tell ’em the honeymoon comes after the wedding.” Her footsteps faded quickly, more quickly than she came.
I forgot. She was talking to a Stolorth. Don’t be impolite. But don’t tarry.
I looked up at Sully. “Good thinking.”
He answered with a sad smile, but no words. The poet had run out of words, again.
“Any more?” he asked Ren.
“No.”
Sully pulled out a thin tool, touched the lock on the door, and watched the lights dance. Click. It slid open.
“Go.”
We surged into a small room cramped with ductways and squat filters. Cables snaked overhead, disappearing through a large hole in the ceiling. Metal bars hung down from one side.
Sully reached up and pulled down a telescoping ladder.
I went up first.
It was hands and knees crawling on a narrow rampway that creaked under our weight. I found that placing my hands, and knees, on the outer edges kept sound to a minimum. When the creaking stopped behind me, I knew Sully and Ren had done the same.
It wasn’t as dark as the core. Light filtered in from the overheads in the corridor on our left, blocked only by the thick bulkheads that spanned to the outer hull of the station. Narrow passageways had been cut into each one, with recessed hatches that sealed in case of a hull breach. We had to pass through seven to reach the gen-lab.
I counted down in my mind. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two.
I stopped, waiting until Sully and Ren were closer behind me. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I caught Sully’s nod, answered it.
His voice sounded, clearly, unexpectedly in my mind. It wasn’t preceded by a touch. Chasidah. We link. You. Me. Ren.
I borrowed his favorite phrase. Got it.
Got it too. Ren was now in my mind, through the link with Sully.
I went forward, slowly, barely breathing. I could smell the fetid odor of the jukors. Huge enviro boosters were off to my left, blocking much of the light from the corridor. But it didn’t matter. Because the light from the lab filtered up through the breaks in the ceiling panels.
I moved another few inches, listening.
Then I heard it. A wheezing. Something crackling. Like the sound tissue paper would make if it were made of glass.
I crept forward on my knees in my odd, wide gait, looking for a break in the ceiling, looking for a way we could get down into the labs, as quickly as possible.
Some ductwork had tilted, leaving a hole as big around as my fist. It wasn’t far from the rampway. I leaned to my left, held my breath. The stench was
stronger. I looked down.
The long, grotesque face of a jukor stared back. Mucus dripped from its snout. And its red eyes gleamed back at me like the fires of the damned in the depths of Hell.
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I jerked back. Sully’s arm on my shoulder was the only thing that kept my head from slamming into the hard metal ceiling. He pulled me sideways, against him. I was breathing hard, bile rising in my throat.
Easy, Chasidah. Calm. Ren’s presence floated through me.
I tried to focus on Sully, my eyes blinking rapidly. God. God. But what I saw looked nothing like anything any God had ever made. Ever could’ve made. I’d never seen one that close, that clearly before. The ones in the transport ship I’d escorted had been crated. The one on Moabar had attacked at night. The forest had been shadowed. Its hideousness less distinct.
I heard the crackling noise again. Wings moved below me. That was followed by a wheezing, snuffling sound. The jukor was scenting for me.
It knows we’re here, Sully. A sick feeling rolled through me again. Then immediately something cool, like clear water. Ren.
It senses something, Sully answered. It doesn’t know what. That’s okay. It senses people passing in the corridor all the time.
A parade out there might be a nice distraction. Know any way we could rig one?
Another gentle nudge from Ren.
My breathing slowed.
Our greatest threat, Sully said, is from the lab tech. Still just one. Male. In the office. He’s most likely armed. One of us needs to crawl out there, take him out from above.
Sully pointed toward the far corner. Out there meant no rampway. Out there meant using the ductways themselves, and the narrow crossbeams they rested on.
Out there meant the lightest of us all. Me. One more kill to add to Captain Chasidah Bergren’s list of the dead.
This was the first one I knew I wouldn’t mind.
I sat back on my heels, checked my functional, reliable Stinger, reholstered it. Sully’s and Ren’s voices flitted through my mind. There was an airlock on the exterior wall. Evidently the lab used it and the access ring beyond it. That was why no one else in Marker had reported any knowledge of the lab. All they had to do was clear the beacons—which for someone of Hayden Burke’s wealth and power wasn’t difficult to do—and then gain entry to Marker-2 from their own private loading bay.
That bay also had two ladders flanking the wall. They led to the manual overrides here, in the overhead. I considered suggesting opening the airlock, disabling the force field, letting the lab, jukors, and solitary tech get sucked out into the blackness of space.
Nice thought, but we might not get behind the airtights in time. Plus, we need the files in that office, Sully said, being practical. You’re okay with this?
Yes. It wasn’t as if I’d never killed another sentient being before.
I kneeled on the rampway, then pushed myself onto the ductwork. It creaked, buckled slightly. Shit. I adjusted my weight, using my palms to test each section as I moved, slid, crawled.
Below me, jukors crackled, hissed, wheezed. I could also hear a low, keening cry. The Taka, in intense pain and dying. It tore at me.
I crossed over the main section of the lab, a wide area. Through infrequent breaks in the ceiling I could see monitors, a bed with restraints, and other medical equipment. I was aware of Sully and Ren, felt their presence, heard their voices. Both distinctly different.
I was almost to the lab’s office. I placed my hands on the next section of ductwork and felt it give, rapidly. I pulled back, hunching over. The ductwork rested on a narrow platform. I could fit one boot, but not two. But I had no choice. I stepped down, my back cramping, my knees hurting, my heels hanging over the edge. If I fell backward, I’d crash through the lab ceiling. If the tech was armed, I’d be dead before I hit the floor.
I held my breath, worked on calming my heart thumping against my ribs. Then I moved. Slowly.
A crossbeam. Finally. The edge of the office. Then another large air booster and filter, for the office alone. The lab tech would spend most of his time in there because, even with the boosters filtering the main lab, the stench was nauseating. I sidled over to the booster. The duct was snug, no gaps. It took me five minutes to peel back the tape, to open a hole to where I could see into the office below.
Sounds drifted up. The trill of an intercom. I heard the tech answer, his name garbled. The caller, on speaker, was clearer.
“HQ just notified us of a possible intruder. Code Red status immediately. Secure all doors.”
Berri had finally reached Hayden.
I felt Sully’s agreement with my assessment. There was no time left now.
I lay the short barrel of the Stinger against the small opening, targeted the top of the lab tech’s head. Fired.
He slumped backward in his chair, his head lolling to one side.
Go! I told Sully. Go!
I ripped the rest of the duct away, put my boot through the ceiling tile, once, then again. It buckled, resisted, then finally collapsed, falling onto the desk below.
I grabbed the support beam under the unit, swung myself down. My boots dangled a good ten feet from the desk—more than that from the floor.
I let go and tried to remember to bend my knees as I hit the desk. For all my training, I skidded sideways, flailing, and ended up tumbling against the tech’s lifeless body.
Sully pulled me upright. “Good work. I activated the airtight seals. I need to break into these files, grab what I can. Go help Ren.”
I charged through the office door.
The stench hit me immediately. That and the frenzied flapping of the jukors—four of them—in their cages. Ren had one hand on a long table near the center, placing charges underneath. He was feeling his way. Tables had no thermals.
I reached into my jacket and grabbed two explosives, then placed them on either side of the door. Two more I put near the Taka’s cage. Her eyes were wide with fear. She tried to prop herself up on her cot, her large belly protruding grotesquely through the thin shift covering her. It was filthy, stained. It occurred to me then that I had no idea how large jukors were when they were born. But I doubted even a Taka child would make her look so.
I reached through the bars and offered my hand. She stood awkwardly, took three unsteady steps toward me then sank down to her knees. She clasped my hand, tears rolling down her face. I could see her body spasm.
“It will all be over soon.” I couldn’t think what else to tell her.
She drew her hand back, lay her long, furred fingers on her belly. “Kill this. Kill me. Please.” Dark gold blood trickled from her mouth as she spoke.
I nodded, choking back my tears.
Something trilled behind me. The lab tech’s intercom and someone demanding he respond.
I felt Sully’s frustration, anguish. No more time. We have to get out of here.
The Taka—
Chasidah, there’s no time. I’m sorry.
Sully!
A moment’s hesitation was laced with despair. Fuck.
He strode quickly from the office, Carver aimed at the lock on her cage. It disintegrated as he moved. She tried to stand. He waved her down. “No, sister. It’s better if you … just stay there.”
He knelt beside her, taking her large hand in his. The Taka’s face twisted in fear for a moment, but then Sully’s voice seemed to make that fade.
“Guardian of light, guardian of wisdom, of love … sister, you don’t know me, but you do. Sleep will come now, peace will come. But you must trust me. You must listen to me.”
She nodded.
“You will feel me in your mind—”
She jerked her hand, but Sully hung on.
“Sister, it will not hurt. The pain will be gone in a moment.”
She laid her hand against her belly. “Kill this.”
He nodded. “I will.”
She closed her eyes. “Do it. Blessing be with you.”
“And with
you, sister. Listen to me, listen to my voice …”
Ren’s hand on my shoulder startled me. “We need to wait by the door. They’ve probably sent a security team.”
I turned for the wide doors and didn’t look at the jukors, flapping wildly, slamming themselves against the cage. I didn’t look at Sully behind me, silent now. I drew out my laser pistol, checked the charge, held it up. Ren did the same by touch. We flanked the doors.
“Anyone out there?”
Ren tilted his head, sensing, listening. Suddenly the jukors screamed, a high, shrill, piercing noise. Instinctively I turned, but Ren grabbed my shoulder. “Chasidah! Wait. Don’t turn.”
I remembered Sully’s voice. No, don’t turn … don’t turn. “Ren?”
“The jukor infant.” He said the words hurriedly. “The Taka’s passing expelled it. Let Sully do what he has to.”
I closed my eyes, felt my stomach clench. The whine of Sully’s Carver was followed by another piercing scream, a frantic beating of wings. The air seemed alive, stinking. Then Ren’s grip eased.
“It’s over.”
I saw pain etched on his face and heard heavy footsteps behind me. Sully.
“Get the doors.” His voice rasped. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
I hit the palm pad. The doors irised open. Sully was at my back, Carver out. I wanted to turn, to look at his face, to touch him, but to do that would mean to see the bodies of the Taka and the jukor infant. I didn’t want to remember that. I knew if I saw it, I’d never forget it.
I stepped into the doorway, braced my back against the jamb, and checked the corridor for movement. Ren did the same, seeing without seeing.
“Clear,” I said.
“Clear,” he said.
We moved out, our pistols tucked just out of sight under our arms. The corridor was empty, for now. HQ had sent a Code Red to the lab. I could only guess what else was on its way.
“I’ll release the gas when we hit the core.” Sully had the transmitter in his pocket. We walked quickly back toward the accessway, toward the duffel and the robes that would grant us innocuous identities again.
Suddenly, I heard noises. Footsteps, running, thudding.
How many? Ren asked.
We slowed, our pistols coming out.
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