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Mack pushed back his chair, but he didn’t loosen his grip. When he stood, I managed to unfold and get my feet on the floor, and then I registered that Mack still held me, that he had one arm across my front, and that my own arms were pinned.
“Mack?” I said, and his arm tightened, but more in consolation than restraint.
“This is Bendigo Johanssen,” Mack told me. “You saved him at Bastien’s, remember?”
I nodded. I remembered; it was some of the finest shooting I’d ever done. That still didn’t explain why the guy was standing there like he thought Mack was going to pass me over. I took a breath, intending to ask Mack exactly what was going on, but he was already explaining.
“He needs you to do a job for him,” he started, but I cut him off.
“You’re selling me?” I asked, a sense of betrayal edging the question.
“Lending you,” Mack snapped. “Lending you, and there are very strict conditions.”
Bendigo was eyeing me with more than a little bit of doubt.
“Are you sure she’s the right person for this?”
“She’s the only person for this,” Mack snapped. “The only one who knows the ground, and the only one crazy enough to piss Odyssey off by doing it.”
I stopped struggling.
Piss Odyssey off?
As in, thoroughly irritate the bosses I didn’t want to have?
As in, maybe make them mad enough to throw me away, instead of hunting me down, and trying to keep me on staff?
“How much?” I asked, and Bendigo named a figure in credits that would have been exciting, if it had been the answer I was looking for. I rolled my eyes, and he looked puzzled. Again, it was Mack who gave me the answer.
“Well, they might send Delight to try and retrieve you.”
“Uh huh,” I said, and pushed against his arm.
To my surprise, Mack let me go. I took a step away from him, and leant my butt against the table, so I could see them both.
“How long a loan?” I wanted to know, and Mack looked uncomfortable.
“It’s not permanent.” Bendigo hurried to fill in the silence, and Mack nodded vigorously.
“Not permanent,” he said. “In fact, if you don’t come back, I’ll have to do some retrieving myself.”
Great. Just what I needed. Mack AND Odyssey looking for me. Well, at least I knew what was waiting for me, if I managed to do what I was planning on doing next.
“So, how long?” I asked, and caught the look that passed between Bendigo and Mack.
“At least three months,” Bendigo said, and I stared at him, and then looked to Mack.
“And Odyssey sanctioned this?” I asked, and Mack’s face took on that closed look that said there was something really, really big he wasn’t telling me.
“What aren’t you telling me, Mack?”
And Bendigo grinned.
“I like her,” he said, and Mack glared at him.
“Like her all you like, but she’s one of mine,” he retorted, and Bendigo raised both his hands in surrender.
“Oh, I would never dream...” he said, but his expression told me the exact opposite.
Bendigo would dream all right, but he’d never admit it, which didn’t mean he wouldn’t try it on a little ways down the track. It crossed my mind that it might be three retrievals I’d be avoiding, if I could find a way to kick free. However, to do that, I had to know all the facts, and, so far, both of them were doing their damnedest to avoid giving them to me.
“Why three months?” I persisted, and remembered something else. “Delight’s only going to be out for one.”
And Mack hesitated.
“Damnit! Don’t lie to me, Mack!” I said. “Why a three-month minimum?”
He colored, and exchanged another look with Bendigo. The big guy nodded.
“You’d better tell her,” he said. “She can’t compromise the mission by mistake, if she knows exactly what she’s getting into.”
“I was going to let you explain what you needed,” Mack said.
“I think it would be better coming from you.”
“Fine, then,” and Mack turned to me. “Odyssey weren’t just after Bastien and getting their agents back.”
He indicated Bendigo.
“They were after him, too.”
I took another look at Bendigo, and arched an eyebrow.
“Care to tell me why?” I asked.
Bendigo shrugged.
“What can I say?” he said. “I am a very good smuggler.”
“People?” I asked, edging slightly closer to Mack, but Bendigo was shaking his head.
“Never, never, never,” he said, “until the day Bastien told me I was carrying one thing, and I ended up carrying another, and then Odyssey found out, and Bastien decided he didn’t like me roaming free.”
And Mack took up the story.
“Only problem is that Odyssey could only follow the trail to Bendigo’s ship. They never found the link to Bastien, never found the documents proving the cover-up. They thought Bendigo was in it up to his neck, and willingly so.”
I nodded.
“Go on.”
“I need you to go back to Bastien’s,” Bendigo said, and I tried to back up, only to be reminded I was already backed up against the table.
I looked to Mack.
“I can’t,” I said, and Mack shook his head.
“Bastien isn’t there, remember? And you already have the blueprints.”
“And Odyssey have finished their on-site investigations,” Bendigo added. “The place will be an empty shell by the time we reach it.”
Mack’s nod backed him up.
“But why aren’t you coming?” I asked, and Mack stared at me.
“We’re not exactly flavor of the month with Odyssey, remember?” he asked, and I did.
There was something about hardware, my implant, his ship.
“Oh,” I managed, when I put it all together.
“And we don’t want you anywhere in Odyssey’s reach, when we make contact with them. Not until we’ve re-confirmed the contract. They’ve boarded us before, remember?”
And I did.
“Gotcha, Mack,” and he caught my eye as I continued, something in his expression alerting me that there was more to what was going on than he was saying. I sure hoped he filled me in, before he left me all alone with this guy, but Mack was speaking, and I needed to listen.
“This is why Bendigo is taking this ship, and its crew, and you. And he’s taking the long way round.”
“Which is why we need three months, minimum,” Bendigo confirmed.
“What about the files?” I asked, remembering the files I’d downloaded at Bastien’s the last time.
“We missed some,” Mack said, and I noticed he very carefully didn’t say that I had missed some, or that Tens had missed some. It was kinda like he didn’t want Bendigo to know how many of us had been involved with the download. “Bendigo thinks there’s another computer somewhere, one that’s not linked to the main system. You need to find it, and send the relative files to Odyssey to clear his name.”
I pushed off from the table, looked from Mack to Bendigo, and moved over to the big guy. And I do mean big. He had almost a foot in height on Mack, and another half-foot across the shoulders. I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked that, though. I’d seen him fight.
It just wasn’t fair for someone to be that big, and still be able to move with all the grace of a hunting cat. Not fair at all. And he could shoot. By the stars, he could shoot. I was fast and accurate, but he made me look like a plodder. I wondered what he’d be like on the computers, or analytics, and that’s when Tens interrupted me.
“You’re it,” he said, “and you be careful of him. He paid well enough for us to get him out, but...” He trailed off, then continued, “I’ve set you up some new security protocols for your implant. Make sure you get to know them.”
And there was the Tens I knew so well, as bossy as hell.
“Don’t make me zap some manners into your ass.”
Yup, definitely Tens.
I nodded to Mack.
“Is my gear on board?”
He took a step back, and gave me space to move around him. Somewhen, during the time I’d been out, the bodies had been taken away, and the blood cleaned up. It had still left a stain, but I could look past it, as I moved toward the door.
“All on board,” Mack told me. “You’ll find the lock boxes in your cabin.”
I raised my eyebrows in question, and Bendigo hurried to answer.
“We put you on the lower decks, down near the engine room. Mack said you found it easier to sleep with the sound.”
His face said he wasn’t sure if he should believe Mack, but that he wanted me to be happy, so he’d move me if I asked. I decided Mack had a reason for wanting me near the engine rooms, and I wasn’t about to gainsay him. Besides, I did find the low-level engine noise comforting, even if I didn’t know why.
The implant blinked, drawing my attention, and I saw that Tens had given me a map of that section, including the smuggling panels that ran beneath the floors outside my room, and the small hangar, with its micro-ship nestled inside. I wondered if Bendigo knew about it.
“We’ve wiped that data from the ship’s computer,” Tens replied, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“I like the vibrations,” I said, turning to Bendigo. “They help me sleep.”
“Your cabin is keyed to your voice and DNA,” Mack said, and I figured Tens had worked his magic with recordings and medical records, but Mack wasn’t looking at me.
He was watching Bendigo, more than he was watching me, and I wondered if I was, once again, being set up to catch something Odyssey didn’t want to get away—or maybe just something Mack wanted to see the end of. In which case, he was thinking maybe he’d made a mistake taking Bendigo’s money, and that maybe the man might just have known exactly what Bastien was hiring him to carry.
I couldn’t imagine Mack enjoying the discovery that Bendigo was something he’d said he wasn’t. And I didn’t need him to tell me what I needed to investigate at the same time I was looking for the records Bendigo was sure still had to exist. Mack had already delivered his message via Tens.
And, now I knew just how likely Bendigo was to betray me, when I had Bastien’s records in my hands. That was a problem I was going to have to figure out ahead of time. I wondered if Odyssey had left the ship Mack and me had made the drop in intact... and then I wondered what I’d need in order to be able to fly it.
I made a show of looking around the room, and then looked to Bendigo.
“With your permission,” I said, “I’ll go find my room. Mack, is there anything else, you need me to know?”
“We’ll forward Bendigo what we have on Bastien’s,” Mack told me, “and we’ll get back in touch once we’ve smoothed the water with Odyssey.”
He paused.
“Three months, Cutter. Don’t let me down.”
“No, sir, Mack. I’ll go find you what you need.”
If Mack found that as cheesy as I did, he didn’t show it.
“Glad to hear it,” he said, and turned to Bendigo, laying a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s going to take me some time to sort this Odyssey mess out,” he said. “At least a month, before Delight comes out of regen, and then probably another month of negotiations—and that’s if they don’t decide to impound the ship. Until then, we’ll be moving pretty fast and light, and we’ll have to keep comms to a minimum.”
I reached the door, and headed out into the corridor, hearing Bendigo turn to Mack.
“Will she be able to find her way?”
“She’s not what you need, if she can’t,” he said, and I pulled a face, hurrying away down the corridor, before Bendigo could offer to guide me.
For some reason, Mack wanted me to take this journey on my own, and I needed to find out why. I used the implant to hook into the ship’s systems, pulling a simple map of each deck, into my head. I lined the map up with the one Tens had sent me, and compared the two. Tens’ map had substantially more, but I couldn’t be sure how much access the crew had to his version of the map, or how closely the secret passages and entrances had been held.
I made a note of hidden entrances and exits as I passed, briefly tapping the entry locks, but making sure to leave them as I found them. This way, if they were changed, later, I’d know.
“I take it Bendigo has never been on this ship, before?” I asked Tens, and got a negative in reply. “So all these passages and their locks should be totally new for him?”
“Yes, but don’t call me, again. We’ve told him your implant has short range transmission only. Ship’s internal.”
“Gotcha,” and I went silent. I really was on my own, then.
