Entropy

by Jess Anastasi

  No telling how her father was going to react. She could feel how tense Qae was standing next to her. Probably almost as nervous as she was.

  After what felt like forever, her father finally answered.

  “Camille,” he greeted when he saw her. He was sitting in his office, no doubt in the middle of some business or other. “I hope you’re contacting me to let me know you’ve had a profitable journey.”

  He didn’t acknowledge Qae, which sparked her temper, but she kept a rein on it.

  “We have, actually. We’ve acquired the eighty thousand untraceable hard creds you requested.” More like demanded, she thought to herself. “As well as a new ship, Exarch Class.”

  Her father actually looked pleased, if not a little impressed. “Well done. I knew I could count on you. When do you expect to be back in-system?”

  “Actually, I don’t know.”

  As she’d expected, her father’s expression swiftly turned irritated.

  “If you need the creds, they’re at a private deposit on Conroy in the Persis system, along with the ship.”

  Her father crossed his arms. “And you’ve got something better to do, I’m assuming?”

  “Rian found his ship and he wants to go and get it as soon as possible.”

  At this, an edge of amusement entered her father’s features. “Oh yes? And who was dumb enough to take possession of the Imojenna?”

  “Alvar Galton.” She didn’t try to soften the impact of the name, and all humor fled her father’s face to be replaced by an icy anger.

  “You are not going anywhere near—”

  “I’m going. We’re already on the way.” A small white lie, but as this point, she’d do anything to make sure her father wouldn’t stop her. “By the time you send anyone after me, we’ll already be there.”

  “Camille—” Her father glanced away from the screen, an uncharacteristic spasm of emotion contorting his features before he regained his composure. “If anything happens to you—”

  “No offense, Blackstone,” Qae put in. “But this is Rian we’re talking about. You really think Galton is going to be concerned with Cami when he’s facing down a pissed off Rian Sherron?”

  Blackstone nodded slowly. “It’s possible Galton took the Imojenna because of Rian’s association with me.”

  “We already figured that one out. Even if it is some kind of trap or lure, Galton has no idea what he’s signed up for.”

  Her father stared at the pair of them, clearly thinking things through. “If you’re insistent on doing this, I have a favor to ask. If you do this for me, consider all debts repaid. In fact, I’ll owe you a life debt I won’t ever seek to repay, the same as I have with Rian.”

  “What is it?” Qae asked, sounding more than a little intrigued.

  “Many years ago, Galton took something very important to me. I’ve sent countless men to try and get it back, but they’ve all failed.”

  She should have guessed this might come up. She’d never heard the details and had no idea what it could be. She had to admit, she was more than a little curious about it. It was almost worth going to Lander just to find out what it was her father was so obsessed with recovering.

  “You want us to retrieve something Galton took from you?” Qae repeated, as if he thought it sounded too easy. “Tell us what it is and consider it done.”

  Her father leaned over and typed at his desk. “I’m sending you an encoded file. Its geo-locked. When you get close enough to Lander, it’ll open and tell you what you need to get for me.”

  “Why all the secrecy?” Qae demanded, clearly not worried about the annoyance that flitted across her father’s face.

  “Because it’s too important for just anyone to know about. If for some reason you don’t make it to Lander, I don’t want anyone to have this information.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” she assured her father. Her curiosity was going off the charts, but she kept herself in check.

  Her father looked at her with a hint of concern. “Take care of yourself, Camille.”

  “I will. Oh, and about the creds—”

  “I’ll send Kelvin to fetch them and the ship. If you return successfully, we can all sit down and work out a fair cut when you get home.”

  Qae couldn’t have looked more shocked if someone had poked him in the butt with a live wire.

  “Sounds like a plan.” She sent him an affectionate smile. Maybe they didn’t always get along, and he did things that infuriated her, but he’d always done his best to look after her. “See you soon.”

  He gave his farewells and then cut the connection. Qae’s screen flashed with information about an incoming file.

  “What do you think it is?” Qae walked over and touched the icon on the screen. It didn’t open, just displayed the words geo-lock unable to sync.

  “No idea.” She looked at him, a slow, sly smile creeping over her. “I can’t wait to find out, though.”

  Qae rolled his eyes. “Never mind that we have to be within spitting distance of a psychopath who once abducted you to open it.”

  “Nothing worth finding out ever came easy.” She shrugged to cover the spike of unease that flared within her.

  “I’m definitely starting to see you’re an insane adrenaline junkie like everyone else onboard this ship.” He turned and put his arms around her.

  “It’s why I fit in so well.” She leaned up and kissed his jaw until he groaned. “How long do you think it’ll take to get to Lander?”

  “Depends.” He tightened his hold on her, bringing her more firmly against him. “If Rian decides to take the risk on a Transit Gate jump. I wouldn’t put it past him, he’s an impatient bastard.”

  “So a few hours at least though, right?” She slipped her fingers under the hem of his shirt, searching for the warm flesh of his abdomen.

  “At least a few hours,” he confirmed, voice lowering.

  “Think anyone will notice if we don’t come back?”

  He started walking her toward the bed, and his hands slipped down to cup her butt. “I think I don’t care.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  They were minutes away from entering the Maristian system. All things considered, Qae was feeling about as relaxed as possible—on a scale of fancy-poolside-drinks to about-to-be-strung-up-by-his-balls, he was probably sitting right in the middle.

  The few hours he’d spent in his cabin with Cami—first in bed and then in the shower—had definitely improved his overall disposition. But the fact they were about to steal an unnamed object, which could be frecking anything, from a confirmed sociopathic dickbag—who just happened to be the same dickbag who’d kidnapped Cami as a child and nearly sold her as a pleasure slave—had tension winding tighter inside him with each passing hour.

  Cami seemed way calmer about things than he did, even though Alvar was her monster to slay. She’d joined him when he’d come up to the bridge as they were about to go through a Transit Gate, which put them just outside of the Maristian system.

  The trip through the Gate had been thankfully simple. The forged ident files had held up without so much as a hiccup. As for the exorbitant cost, it had been charged to a shell company of a shell company of a shell company. The gate operators could spend the next decade chasing payment and never find an actual company or person to pay them out.

  Qae glanced over at Rian, sitting in the co-pilot’s chair next to Lianna, who was at the pilot’s console. His cousin had slept for several hours after downing half a bottle of Violaine. But somehow when he’d woken up, he’d been fine. Not the least bit hungover and definitely more put together than he’d been when they’d gone their separate ways the day before to carry out the plan.

  In fact, he seemed more put together than he had in the entire last year and a half since Qae had reconnected with him.

  There’d always been a wild lethalness to Rian, like he was forever on the brink of losing his shite and going full-metal-psycho on everyone. That lethalness was st
ill there, but the wildness was gone. Now, he seemed to possess a kind of calm deadliness, was more self-contained. But there was nothing reassuring about it. In some ways, it was way freakier. Like if he lost his shite now, it would be with precise purpose and logic.

  “So do we have a plan for how we’re going to approach Lander once we know what Blackstone expects us to retrieve?” he asked Rian, putting aside all the thoughts about the apparent new sides to Rian’s changeable personality.

  “No point in skulking around. We might as well ring the doorbell.”

  Of course. Why was he not surprised Rian wanted to simply go swaggering in like that reputation of his made him blast proof?

  “I had to get the Ebony Winter the galaxy’s worst makeover to save your ass. I’m not in the mood to watch some dead-shite like Alvar Galton blow holes in her.”

  “If Galton has even half a brain cell, he won’t attack us.” Rian turned to look over his shoulder at him. “And if he does, I’ll personally burn all his shite to the ground.”

  Yeah, Qae had no doubt Rian would follow through on that plan without a moment’s hesitation.

  “Balls out it is then,” he muttered, crossing his arms.

  Cami touched his shoulder, silently offering her support or sympathy. He didn’t mind which it was. Just having her next to him was more than enough.

  The nav system on the viewport at the front of the bridge showed them closing in on the edge of the Maristian system.

  “I’m picking up readings,” Lianna reported. “Some kind of small stations or satellites positioned at regular intervals all along the edge of the system.”

  The schematics came up on-screen, leaving him swearing under his breath.

  “They’re not stations,” Rian said, beating him to it. “Each one is a gunnery. Sometimes they’re manned, sometimes they’re automated. They’re like a patrol tower fitted with enough ammo to start a small war.”

  “We won’t get past them in one piece,” Qae put in. “We’ll have to hail.”

  Rian motioned to Lianna. “Open a channel. Audio and visual.”

  “You’re a go,” she murmured as the image of a man with scraggly dreadlocks and a whole butt-load of piercings, plus what looked like some illegal cybernetic modifications, appeared on the viewport.

  “You’re about to enter space kept by Alvar Galton. State your intention or we’ll shoot that shitty tin can you call a ship out of the black.”

  “This is Captain Rian Sherron, currently at the helm of the Ebony Winter, which is coincidently owned by my cousin, Captain Qaelan Forster.”

  The thug’s eyebrows shot up and he glanced to the side, as if looking at someone else in the room he was standing in—filled with rusted parts and exposed wires. Seemed top class all the way.

  “You know why I’ve commandeered my cousin’s vessel?” Rian asked conversationally, without waiting for the thug to reply. “Because some mouth-breather took my ship, the Imojenna. I assume you’ve heard of it.”

  Now, the thug was looking on the oh shite side of agitated.

  “Captain Sherron, you need to state your intention,” the thug insisted, though he didn’t particularly sound like he wanted to know.

  “You tell me something first.” Rian sat forward, gaze intent on the viewport. “I heard Alvar Galton has the Imojenna.”

  The dude must have been a terrible poker player, because judging from the absolute panic that crossed his face, Rian already had the answer to that question.

  “So is it true? Because your reply is going to determine my intention. Right now, it’s a toss-up between blast the shite out of your cute little gunneries and go home. Or blast the shite out of your cute little gunneries and then go light a gas grenade up Galton’s ass. Which is it going to be?”

  The thug cleared his throat several times, looking to whoever else was with him, several murmurs passing back and forth in the background.

  “That won’t be necessary, Captain Sherron,” the thug finally answered. “The gunneries are offline. You’re cleared to travel wherever you like in the Maristian system.”

  “Much obliged.” Rian sat back in the chair as the connection cut out. “Take us in, Lianna. Keep an eye on the closest gunnery in case that numb-nuts decides to double cross us.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Lianna mumbled, a definite hint of amusement in her voice. Obviously, some people at least were entertained by Rian’s antics. Maybe he would have been, too, if it hadn’t been the Ebony Winter at risk of acquiring a few extra airlocks minus the atmospheric doors.

  “The gunnery is staying cold, but we’ve got multiple ships closing in,” Lianna reported once they’d crossed the invisible line into the Maristian system.

  “Looks like Galton sent us a welcoming party.” Rian glanced over his shoulder. “Has that file activated yet, Qae?”

  The file was still saying unable to sync. “Nope. Maybe we need to be closer to Lander.”

  “Let me know if it activates, but as of now, the priority is to get the Imojenna back.” Rian cast a measured look over the crew where they were gathered—some in the back of the bridge, some in the galley/communal area. They had similar expressions of determination set in their features.

  “This might be a small system, but that still leaves a lot of space to cover,” Zahli said. “How are we going to search it all without spending the next decade here?”

  “We’re not going to search.” Rian kicked back in his chair, not looking the least bit agitated, despite the four ships closing in on them. “We’re going to go ask Galton.”

  “You think that’ll work?” Jase asked. “Just rock up and ask nicely for your ship back?”

  A wicked gleam entered Rian’s gaze. “Who said anything about asking nicely? I was thinking along the lines of punching him in the mouth until answers come out.”

  “Because I’m sure all the crazy-pants sycophants who consider themselves loyal to Galton will just stand by and let that happen,” Qae muttered, even though he really liked the idea.

  One punch for every bad dream Cami had ever had. A kick in the head for every line of slave tattoo on her arms. A blast from his nucleon gun for every second she’d felt bad about herself because of what that son of a bitch’s dick had done to her.

  “We’re being ordered to proceed straight to Lander and dock at a designated berth,” Lianna told Rian as the ships caught up to them and fell into formation around the Ebony Winter.

  “Good,” Rian replied. “The sooner we speak with Galton, the better.”

  Qae got the feeling that speak with was Rian code for beat the shite out of.

  While everyone else was distracted with their approach to Lander and the ships accompanying them, Qae took Cami’s hand and tugged her into motion. They went down a level so no one would overhear them.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked when he stopped on the landing to face her.

  “The better question would be what’s not wrong. This whole thing is seriously messed up. I have a stone in my guts telling me there’s no way this is going to end well.”

  She stepped into him, sliding her hands up his biceps to his shoulders.

  “After everything that’s happened since we left Tripoli, that’s not surprising. Of course you’re going to be on edge. You almost lost me and Rian is— I don’t even begin to understand what’s going on with him. But we came out of everything else okay. One way or another, this will work out, too.”

  “How can you be so calm about things?” He studied her, looking for any hint she wasn’t okay.

  “I’ve got a mean poker face. Believe me, on the inside I’m totally freaking out.”

  He pulled her closer, the urge to protect her from every bad thing in the universe lighting up inside him. Except when it came to the throw down, he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t beat his own ass, so that sentiment was completely redundant. She was more than capable of taking care of herself.

  “You don’t have to do this, you know. You can stay on the ship. G
alton doesn’t have to know you were here.” He said the words, even though they both knew the decision was made and she’d go, no matter what.

  She shook her head, lips pressing together the only hint she might have been struggling with this. “I need to see he’s not the big bad monster I remember. I need to see he’s human.”

  Yeah, he could understand the hell out of that. He drew her in for a hug, resting his chin gently on top of her head.

  “I’ll be right next to you the entire time. You want out, just say the word.”

  “Should we instigate our safe words?” She leaned back and looked up at him.

  “Does mine have to be candy-floss?” he demanded in exasperation. “You might as well make it banana cream pie. Or manky-ass toenails.”

  She laughed at the last one. “Tell me how you’re going to work manky-ass toenails into a conversation without anyone thinking it’s weird.”

  He held both arms out to the sides. “You’ve met me, right?”

  She shook her head in awe. “It’s like any hint of humility is completely missing from your genetic makeup.”

  He cupped her face, leaning in to kiss those lips he’d been thinking about every other minute for the last few hours since they’d left his cabin.

  “You love it,” he murmured against her mouth.

  “Yeah, I kind of do.” She stared up at him, a seriousness to her gaze that sent his heart skipping. Did she mean—?

  His breath caught, questions colliding into a surge of emotion. But before he could pick his brain up from the deck and work out what to say, the comm in his pocket started buzzing.

  Blackstone’s file.

  He dropped his arms from Cami and yanked it out, tapping the icon that appeared on the screen. A message from Blackstone and a picture of a man.

  “Holy crap balls in a shite storm,” he muttered.

  “What is it?” Cami shifted around so she could see. “What does my father want you to retrieve?”

  “It’s not a what. It’s a who.”

  He looked at her, no idea how he was meant to take this. How she was going to take this.

  “Cami, your father wants us to abduct your brother.”