Chapter Twenty-Four

 

The ship’s life support shifts on to recycle the air, and the smell of fermented fish gets pushed back out of the vents. It’s fading, pero still enough to make my eyes water.

“Guys,” Chestla says from over by the nav station. “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What?” Brill asks at the same moment I ask, “Que?”

She points at something on the nav array. “I am about ninety-six percent certain that is the engine signature for Kaliel’s ship.”

Brill’s attention snaps to the nav. “He’s not alone. Who are those other ships chasing him?”

Chestla says, “One of them is registered to a Tessa Gegg, one to Vinknet Vinkshou, and the third one has had the registration stripped.”

Brill whips us around in a one-eighty, and the stabilizers fail entirely. I stumble sideways and smack into one of the bolted down chairs that had replaced the old ring bench at the dining table.

“Babe, call Tyson back. We’re going to need his help if we’re going to stop these keks from getting Kaliel before either one of us has the chance to win this bet.”

It takes a couple of tries to get Tyson to answer, and when I finally do, I hope it’s not too late for him to help us help Kaliel. Before I can even say anything, Tyson says, “One of te things Kaliel pawned was a makeup case with Kayla’s ident wallet tucked into te lining.” He holds out a placating hand. “Just because he is selling off her stuff doesn’t necessarily mean he killed her back on Zant.” Although we both know that’s exactly what it sounds like. “If tere is a chance he left Kayla somewhere alive, we have to try to get tat information before Kaliel is killed.”

Tyson’s still ready to turn Kaliel over for immediate execution. Which, if he killed Kayla, may well be what he deserves.

Pero, he doesn’t know for sure that Kaliel had anything to do with Kayla’s disappearance. I still feel like there is something going on that we don’t understand.

Why can’t Tyson see how important this is?

Heat burns at the back of my eyes. “Kaliel’s ship is still near Aspeld. We’re following him now, only there’s three bounty hunters ahead of us.”

“Babe,” Brill calls, “tell him Chestla and I are working on a plan.”

“You tell him, mi vida.” I bring the phone over to where Tyson can see Brill.

Brill addresses Tyson, “Can you catch up with us before one of those keks manages to disable Kaliel’s ship and spaces him?”

“Why wouldn’t they just blow it up?” I ask Chestla. Horrible as that is, it seems like a lot less trouble.

She looks down at her hands. “They need the remains intact enough to be identified if they want to claim the bounty. The Galactacops won’t pay up over just a smear of DNA. I’m guessing those Zantites won’t either.”

That leaves me feeling hollow. Remains. Such a feo word.

“How do you know that, chica?”

“I tried out for the Galactacops after I left home, before I settled on Larksis. I failed their exam too. Just the psych part, though.” She rolls her slit-pupil eyes, which is custurbing – cute yet disturbing. “Apparently, I am too friendly and forgiving and not suited to long solo jaunts in space.”

I manage not to laugh. “When I first met Tyson, he had a partner. Lately, he’s been running solo. How does that work?”

Chestla looks shocked. “Galactacops aren’t required to have partners, but their office doesn’t break partnerships up lightly. If he’s between partners, chances are his previous one died or did something to get kicked off the force. Unless maybe the guy was old enough to retire?”

I hadn’t given that guy a second thought.

He’s probably muerto. Tyson hadn’t seemed to let that affect him at all. I can’t decide if that’s cold or just sad.

I’ve missed some of what Brill said to Tyson, pero Tyson hisses out a sigh. “You are aware tat tat means Kaliel will get away.”

Brill nods. “That is a very high probability, wal. But it means he stays alive, so when we eventually do catch him, you can find out what he knows about Kayla, and Bo can–” He looks over at me. “Honestly, I’m not sure what Bo’s hoping to do here, su. Solve the puzzle of why this happened, I guess.”

“Brokeheart icestorm tunderstrikes.” I’m not sure, pero I think Tyson might have just cursed. “I’m on my way.”

As soon as he hangs up, my handheld rings again.

I check the caller. “It’s Mario.”

I start to answer, pero Brill snags the phone as a voice call. “Hest! Did you see the game on Saturday?” They talk soccer for a few minutes, first the actual game they’d both seen – and then I’m getting the idea that Kaliel’s the ball, and Tyson’s the defender and we’re trying to keep Kaliel out of the bounty hunters’ goal by bouncing him out of bounds.

There’s a long pause where I can half-hear Mario talking excitedly about something.

Brill says, “Ga, su. Don’t worry about it.” Then his eyes turn a startled lime shade. “I don’t think anybody’d be offended. But a lot of the archives were lost, uan I don’t know where you’d even start.” Brill gives me a questioning look as he hangs up. “Your brother wants to study Krom history for his next book.”

“I guess what you said really got to him, mi vida.”

Chestla says, “They’re closing in. I hope Tyson gets here soon, or Kaliel’s going to be breathing stardust.”

Tawny comes out of her room. She sits down on the sofa. Chestla gives her a questioning look. Tawny shrugs. “Some things you just want to see for yourself.”

I’m trying to follow what’s happening on the nav. “Mi vida, we’re moving away from the action, no?”

“Wal, Babe. We’re going to come in under them.” He looks up at us. “Everybody strap in. The sofa converts to crash seats.”

Chestla doesn’t move, so neither do I.

Tyson’s saucer is a faint shadow on the screen now, still behind pero catching up. Maybe the type of engine he uses gives off a different signature.

“Come on, come on,” Brill’s muttering to himself, or to Tyson, who can’t possibly hear. “Naramoosh. Catch up before we get too close.”

“Why don’t we want to get too close?” I ask, pero no one is answering me. They’re all staring at the nav. Don’t we want to catch up?

The Fois Gras’ com system dings. Brill allows the call through from Vinknet Vinkshou.

Vinknet’s bass voice surrounds us. “Who are you and what do you think you’re doing?”

“Just a friend asking you to stop pursuit of that vessel. We need to talk to that su.” Brill’s voice is calm.

“And if we don’t?”

“Then we’re going to put him out of your reach.”

There’s silence for a long time. “Are you serious? You’d rather blow him up, so that nobody gets the bounty?”

“That’s not my plan, ga.” Brill adjusts our course, so that now we are tracking along with the other ships, just lower than them.

“Then I’m going to take the odds that you can’t stop us. If you fire on one of us, the other two will destroy your vessel before you fire again.”

“Hold on, su. I don’t plan on firing at all.” Brill jettisons something from the Fois Gras, a smaller dot heading upwards into the empty space.

“What did you just do?” Vinknet asks. “Was that a mine?”

“Ga. Just our spare fuel cell.” Brill looks up at us. “En serio. You sus strap in.”

Chestla and I head for the sofa. Tawny punches a button, and foam seat partitions spring out from the wall. Brill changes our course, so that we’re angling away from where he sent the fuel cell.

Vinknet figures out what’s about to happen pretty much the same time I do. “Why, you little–”

Given the giant holofields, I can still see what’s going on with the nav. Tyson’s coming in fast, over the top of the other ships, and they’ve been so focused on Brill, they didn’t notice his fainter signature.

Tyson fires on the fuel cell.

We’ve got a little bit of distance, pero when the shock wave hits, it pushes us from the group, flipping us around like we’re a toy top that just got dropped. The stabilizers give up. The seatbelts bite at my chest. Someone is screaming. It’s me.

Pero, Brill gets us back under control.

Kaliel gets shot forward, the bounty hunters backwards. They’re trying to get turned around, moving towards Kaliel again, pero that takes time. Time equals distance, and Kaliel’s speed is giving him more of it.

The bounty hunters give up and turn towards us.

Brill zooms in on an actual image of our pursuers. We’ve wound upside down in relation to the other ships. Brill doesn’t bother flipping us over. After all, there’s no right-side up in space.

“We have more fuel than you do right now,” Vinknet says. “We’re going to make you wish you hadn’t done that.”

I let out a squeak. They’re going to scuttlepunch us.

“I would advise against tat,” Tyson’s voice cuts in. “As a Galactic Inspector, I understand you have first rights to any bounty you touch, but retribution against someone who keeps you from making contact is against te law, and can get your license stripped.”

Suddenly, his saucer becomes more visible on the screen.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Vinknet grumbles.

“Afraid not, su.” Brill wipes a hand across his face. His irises are black with fear, pero his voice sounds almost playful. “Check the saucer’s engine registration.”

There’s a long, tense moment.

“Fine. Let’s make this a long game.” Vinknet and his companions head back the way they came.

“Ven, Tyson, are you going to give us that tow?” Brill sounds skeptical. Tyson would be at an advantage if our fuel is too spent to get us to a tradepost or a planet. We’d be able to coast, pero that method can make a two-hour trip take days.

“Sending out a grappler now. Once I get you to te shop, tough, I’m not waiting for you.”

Brill looks surprised as the Fois Gras rocks when the grappler hits home. “Fair enough.”

Tawny goes back in her cabin, perfectspinning the feed of what just happened. Brill and Chestla start debriefing each other on the precision of the fuel cell placement and Kaliel’s current trajectory, congratulating each other that nobody got hurt.

We can’t keep doing this. Kaliel’s gone and we’re not going to catch up to him before he really does get wooshwashed.

True to his word, Tyson drops us at the nearest tradepost. It won’t take long for them to change out the fuel cell, just an hour or two for the mechanics to get to our turn in line. Chestla and Brill both want to go get a quick drink to take the edge off the adrenaline. And Brill wants to get a new phone.

I really don’t feel like going out. “Why don’t you go, muchachos?”

“Are you sure, Babe?”

I hope he doesn’t think I’d be jealous of him spending an hour drinking with Chestla. Mi vida is nothing if not loyal.

I assure them I won’t leave the ship, won’t turn off my phone, and won’t open the door for anyone. And Tawny’s in the next room – apparently too busy to remember she wanted to find a ride home.

Left alone in the bridge, I think about what Chestla said about patterns. We need to find the pattern here, get ahead of all this instead of just reacting. What do we know? Kaliel’s picked up two black somethings, some copper and glass and, according to Chestla’s forums, a spool of fiber optic cable.

I know Kaliel’s a foodie. And Earth-centric food seems to be the only common denominator between all the places we’ve wound up.

I pull up the feed archive for Mamá’s Pizza Lover’s Guide to the Galaxy tour. When I have the data overlaid, I just blink at it. Kaliel’s been at half of these spots, though not in geographical order. Pero, after a while, it makes sense.

When Brill and Chestla come back, I bring my phone over to them and make the datagraph as big as possible. “This is going to sound loco, pero I think Kaliel’s hitting every famous pizza joint between Zant and Earth. At least the ones on mi mamá’s list, in order of rating.”

I expect them to laugh, pero Brill lets out a low whistle, as his eyes turn gold. He’s proud of me.

Chestla nods, examining my work. “One of the best ways to avoid being tracked is to move erratically, but even subconsciously, it’s hard to avoid leaving a pattern. So you choose a pattern that makes sense only to you.” Chestla points at the data. “And this is a pattern only you would have been likely to spot.”

“Then we know where he’s going next. Number six. Semolina’s, the place with what I would have voted the best pizza in the galaxy.”

Chestla gives me a questioning look.

I shrug. “Mamá and I disagree about a lot of things.”