Pav is coming, and I gather the strength to put my plan into action. There will be a narrow window of time, and I must act fast or risk not only my freedom but my life.
“Eben, be ready.”
She nods, but I wonder if she’ll be able to follow through with her part. She’s smaller than me and looks fragile in the dim light. And we don’t have a lot to work with since the cell is a wire cage that’s electrified, and all we have is one fixed bed platform and a pot for waste.
We haven’t seen any other crew members, but I have to assume someone is helping Pav on this rusted bucket of spare parts. I also don’t see any cameras. That’s one of the only good things about this pit of disgustingness.
“He’s coming,” Eben flexes her hands into fists. Good.
“Remember.” I lower my voice. “Forget anything you see in the next five minutes.”
She gives me the same haunted look as before but nods once.
It’s a risk, using my ability here, but survival is my priority. Managing a witness to it will come later. The thought makes me miss Roper even more, but I shove it and my other homesick feelings away. By now, everyone will be searching far and wide for me, and I can only hope that Elixa tells them what she told me. Our path is set.
I smell Pav before I see him.
“Are you finally going to take these e-cuffs off?” I keep my voice weak sounding.
“Don’t like being tied up, eh?” He offers a dry laugh. “That’ll change.”
I push down my revulsion. “Please?” Be demure. Look as frail as possible. Let him underestimate you.
It works.
He unlocks the door, turns off the electricity feeding the cage, and shoves the keys into his back pocket. He turns to Eben, “Over to the corner.”
She obeys, but I step back too. “Her first, she’s been crying so much—I think they hurt her.”
He leers at me, mouth twisted at the corner. Does he suspect something is wrong?
He shrugs. “Fine.”
He waves the key-wand over her e-cuffs, and the soft blue light it emits when it’s on blinks out.
“Stay put, you.” He shoves her, and she shuffles back.
He comes toward me but maneuvers himself so Eben is still in sight. It’s not ideal, but we’ll make it work. He turns me around, waves the e-cuffs off, and my hands are released.
I sense the weight of him even before I think to. It’s becoming second nature, and with Pav, it’s easy. He’s light and bony, the mass so easy to manipulate.
I exhale. “Pav.” My voice goes low, sultry.
He turns, his back to Eben, and the setup is perfect. As silent as space, Eben grabs the waste bucket and smashes it over Pav’s head. He goes down, but I knew it wouldn’t stop him. It’s cheap plastice and cracks in half without doing much damage. But it gets him off balance.
I jut my chin at him, and he flies into the back wall. Eben gasps, but I keep my focus on the oily man. He stands, but I jerk him to the ceiling. It’s mostly wire, but I’ve chosen a spot where there’s a metal support beam, and his head smacks into it perfectly. He drops to the floor, unconscious.
“Is he dead?” Eben’s voice is as shaky as her legs.
“No.” I don’t know, but I hope not. I don’t want to kill anyone, just be free of this place.
“Here’s the wand.” She kneels next to me, and we cuff him.
Stashing her pair of cuffs in a pocket in my onesuit, we leave the cage and lock it behind us, though he’s not going anywhere soon.
“Did you…did you do that?” she asks when we’re free from the cage.
“Does it matter? We’re free.”
She licks her lips nervously but shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t.” She’s pale and looks like she could topple over at any minute.
“Let’s clear the ship.” I take a shaky breath which belies my confident demeanor, but I sense I need to be strong for Eben. “Come on.”
We move through the narrow central hallway of the ship. The light is low and flickers on and off as if the ship might stop dead in space. The floor is a scuffed and marked up duraplast that was once white but now looks more like the scuffed gray gutters of a low-class planet.
We come to a trav-tube that has no door.
“If there’s anyone else on board, they’re probably in the lower decks somewhere.” It’s a guess, but I assume Pav is too cheap to hire a full crew.
If he’s navigating the ship, someone must take care of the engines below decks.
“How will we get down there without them knowing?” Eben asks.
It’s a good question and one I don’t have an answer to. Then I think back to when I first met Renner and how I tricked him to climb six decks to my floor.
“There has to be an access panel here somewhere. Something that will take us down.”
She nods, and we check the dirty walls. Some panels are intact, but most are missing or cracked and sprouting loose wires.
“Here!”
I turn to see Eben standing in front of a gaping hole and a half-demolished panel she’s pried away from it. “Good job.”
“I think it goes all the way to the bottom level.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” I stick my head in then pull back. “I’ll go first.”
She nods, obviously grateful, and I pull myself up and into the hole. With only sparse emergency lights, most of our climbing is done in the dark, but I come to a junction that leads off to the right or continues down. I stop, and Eben meets my gaze.
“What is it?” she whispers.
I’m not sure, but I think I feel something. Or more like someone. A mass that’s not machine based.
“I think this is it.”
The hard part now is knowing if we’re opening the panel in the middle of a work area or an empty hall, or worse—someone’s quarters.
“I’m going to open it a little.”
She nods, but I see her anxiety.
I wish for Renner again and his mood-lifting humor and military training. I miss his ability to make plan after plan, adjusting as we go. And, okay, I miss his muscles too, because this panel is heavy.
I unlatch one side and gently push the panel out a fraction—
CLANG!
Eben jumps, and I bite back a curse. The other side of the panel wasn’t connected, and it fell to the floor with a sound that would wake the dead.
We hear footsteps, and I motion for Eben to go up the ladder while I go down a few rungs. My pulse hammers through my veins. Is this the opportunity we need?
“What’s that?” A man’s voice growls. More thumps, and then a shadow cuts off the light. “Pav? That you?”
I reach into my onesuit and pull out the e-cuff and wand. I sense the mass of the person just beyond the hatch. He’s big. And heavy.
“I said—” the footsteps stop, and they sound close. “What’s this doing down here?”
I hold my breath, hands extended, as my legs and back press against the sides of the crawl shaft.
“Pav, what’s—hey, who are you?” A hand reaches down the hole—stars this is exactly what I hoped would happen—and I slip the e-cuff on with a wave of the wand. I snap the other side closed around the ladder and drop a few feet out of the man’s reach.
“Yeow!” He cries out in pain. “Hey, you’re that one girl.”
My mind races. Is it possible they knew who I was the whole time?
“Pav said you’d fetch a good price. The Soaring Starress.”
Pav knows my circus title? That’s who he thinks I am? Relief floods through me, but I send a quick look up at Eben. She’s shrouded in darkness, but there’s enough light to see her gaze is assessing.
“I’m not for sale.” My voice lacks the bite it should. I’m tired, and I can’t remember the last time I ate.
“Oh.” He sounds disappointed. “Pav won’t like that. Will you tell him when I’m not around? I don’t like ‘im when he’s angry.”
I frown, taking in the way he hunches his shoulders. Almost as if he’s afraid. This man hasn’t said one word about me letting him go.
“Pav won’t be bothering anyone for a long time. I locked him in a cage.” I try the truth and wait for his reaction.
“You—you did?” A smile twists his face into humor. “That’s funny.”
I meet Eben’s gaze. She’s just as confused by his reaction as I am.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“Name’s Goff. I work the ship.”
“Is there anyone else on board?” I have to know what we’re facing.
“Nope.”
The man is being overly helpful. Is it a trick? “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Pav does that. He drives her. I just make sure she drives.” More congenial laughter.
“If I let you go, would you take me to the cockpit?”
“Sure.” Goff seems to be completely happy to do that, and I wonder if he’s this honest or a very good liar.
“I need to keep the cuffs on, but I’ll make it so they don’t hurt.”
“Okay.”
A glance at Eben says she doesn’t know what to make of him either, but he waits as I connect the cuffs, and then he steps back so we can climb out.
When we’re in the hall, he turns, and I see what I missed before. Goff is a bionic, but with way more implants than I’ve ever seen. He’s augmented in a way that must help him with ship repairs but hinder him in higher cognitive functions. He’s been made into someone Pav can easily manipulate.
It makes me sick to think Goff likely wasn’t a willing participant when he was made bionic, but his easy willingness to help will work in our favor.
For the first time since I hit my lowest in that cabin cell, I’m starting to have hope. Maybe I’ll get out of this after all.