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I stayed where I was, taking a minute to patch myself into the security camera feeds so I could see what might be sneaking up on me. On the upside, the feed also let me see exactly what Mack was doing. On the downside, I knew I wouldn’t be the only one to see him, so I had to lock each camera out of the circuit until he had passed.
Given I didn’t have time to loop the footage, because Mack was moving too fast between the sectors they covered, I took to switching off each camera for the few seconds it took him to pass through its range. It was pretty much the only way I had of trying to keep him safe. I could always go back and doctor the feeds so the few-seconds flicker I made was concealed by the briefest loop of footage. Maybe...
At the same time, I kept a brief eye on the file download, and the security systems. Bastien had hired, or forcibly acquired, some darn fine programmers, and I wouldn’t be surprised, if at least one of them was on security duty all the time. The programs built into the system, I could deal with, either by avoiding the trigger, turning them off for the time it took me to get what I needed, or by countering the program with another one to keep it busy.
And, no, that wasn’t as easy, or as straight forward as I make it sound, but it was a darn sight easier than dealing with living security personnel wet-wired straight into the system. I wondered if it would be too much to hope Odyssey had taken out the computer protections on the way in, but then decided the team had been hitting too hard and too fast for niceties. In which case, I could only hope that anything living that had been connected to the system had been taken out, and I was dealing with automation.
It was a dangerous assumption, and I realized Tens had gone off-line for a reason. Automation didn’t strike me as something that would bother him a lot, and that got me to wondering exactly where Bastien might keep his most secret files. I mean, what I had looked like a pretty nice find, and when I took a peek, I’d found some good stuff, but I felt uneasy.
These things weren’t the sort of thing Bastien would want to fall into the hands of folk like Odyssey or GalPol, but they were nothing on what I’d seen in my short stay on the lower levels. I shuddered, and pulled myself away from the memories, focusing back on the task at hand.
I found the door Mack was making for, and unlocked the hatch. I also took a peek at the security feeds of the tunnel beyond, and realized Bastien was taking no chances. Half a dozen heavily armored guards were on the other side. Two just inside the door, and the other four lined along the stairwell... and they weren’t the only thing.
I flipped a circuit meant to activate only for intruders, and watched as the four men lined up on the stairwell went down in smoking heaps, and then I wondered if the weapons the others carried were smart. And that led me to considering the likelihood of Bastien’s men having implants for coordination, and suddenly things got a lot more fun.
I might have felt guilty about triggering their own security protocols to short-circuit their brains, but Mack was about to go through that door, and I really didn’t have the time to play nice. If Tens was out, and Mack went down, then I’d be left with Bastien, and that just wasn’t going to happen.
But, damn, I sure hoped these guys were something more than mercs just doing their jobs. Of course, mercs just doing their jobs would still have been turning a blind eye as Bastien went about his business. And, just as quick as that, I didn’t feel bad any more.
The look on Mack’s face, as he came through the door was priceless, but I resisted the urge to contact him. Instead, I gave him a look at the security feeds of the ground ahead of him, and let him sort out how he was going to deal with the mess up he was running into, because Bastien was definitely leaving a mess, even if I hadn’t located him, yet.
“Get these feeds out live,” Mack snarled, surprising me with the anger in his tone.
“But Tens—”
“Tens will understand.”
From which I read that Tens had better understand, or Mack would have his balls. Made me feel a whole lot better about pissing Tens off. This time, I was pissing him off with Mack’s permission!
“Done,” I said, but I rerouted the feeds through a private shuttle standing idle in the hangar next to the one Mack and me had entered, and then I routed the link up and out to the ship. I was hoping it might make the signal just that little bit harder to trace. Tens was not impressed.
“I’m going to kick your ass three ways to Sunday!” he started, but I interrupted.
“Mack said.”
“Fine, I’ll kick his ass three ways to Sunday.” He paused. “Why aren’t you in there with him?”
“Because of the files.”
“Let me handle the files,” Tens said, flashing a picture of Mack moving quietly from one cell to another and handing out weapons as he went. “You need to be down there.”
I did? I looked at the footage I was feeding to Tens, and had to agree. Mack was moving fast, but he wasn’t going to be fast enough to save them all, and that was when I found Bastien—and Drammon, and Delight. Someone had to get down that second corridor. And they had to do it fast.
“I’ll guide you,” Tens said, and I squeezed my way up and onto the crate Mack had pulled across to block me in.
Idiot, I thought at myself. First, because Mack’s going to be pissed you disobeyed his orders, and second because this is dumbass stupid, and you’re likely to get yourself killed, or worse.
Yeah? I told myself. And what would Odyssey say if I let their top agent die when I had a chance to save her?
You know that’s not your job, right?
The hell it isn’t, and I dropped down into the space between the stacks of crates, and began running for the door that would give me access to Bastien’s little house of horrors.
As I ran, I reviewed the security feeds, including the feed from the security control center itself, and that’s when I saw the difference between me trying to do things on my own, and Tens working with a fully-staffed team.
Each of the monitors, I could see were showing nothing, and that included the sectors I was running through. Tens already had the footage looping—and on all the feeds. That made me feel a whole lot better, even as I hoped he and his team could see what was really happening ahead, because looped footage being broadcast out? That wouldn’t be as funny as it sounded.
I made the bolt-hole door in record time, and shot straight through, trusting it was Tens and his team, and not someone else who had opened the way before me. This time, it was a good call, and I prayed my luck would hold.
“Take a right,” said Tens’ voice in my ears.
“Now a left, another left.”
“Leave that door locked!”
I raised my hand from the door, just as something large and heavy slammed into it from the other side.
“You don’t want to know,” Tens said. “Just be glad I’ve jammed it.”
He had?
“Great,” I said. “Where to, now?”
“Second on the left. Put two shots straight ahead of yourself. Medium power,” and I heard the mid-range Blakers 54 change settings.
“Hey!”
“Relax. You don’t have time to argue.”
I hit the door, weapon in hand.
“Two shots straight ahead,” I said, repeating Tens’ instruction.
“Shoot the chains off that guy to your right, and toss him a gun. He’s your best bet for getting out of here alive.”
“Done.”
The guy in question hit the floor, grabbed the gun, and started shooting. Every shot hit something meaningful, and soon we had guys shouting encouragement from the walls. Gals, too.
“Shoot anything not strapped down,” Tens said, and the guy I’d just shot free answered as I did.
“Gotcha.”
I figured Tens didn’t mean the guy I’d just shot free, and did exactly as he said. The guy, for his part came up alongside me, and we moved together to clear the room. Bastien wasn’t alone in his work, but we soon changed that. It was a blood bath.
Which was about what Bastien had been busy creating.
“Tens?” I asked. “Can you get them out?”
And I didn’t mean by flying them up in a shuttle.
“Nope. Maybe. Let me try,” and the big guy I’d shot off the wall vanished with an oath inside a pulse of light.
I couldn’t help it; I looked for ash, felt relieved when I didn’t see any, felt less relieved when Tens spoke again.
“Well, that was a one-off. If they’re all in the shape that guy was in, we can’t save ’em.”
I felt my heart sink.
“He was in good shape by comparison.”
“I’ll send Odyssey their coordinates. They’ve got the capacity.”
By that, I hoped he meant Odyssey had enough med teams.
“Get your ass out of there, Cutter. I don’t want you on an Odyssey ship.
And I’d thought he didn’t like me.”
“Mack would have my hide.”
Well, that put things in perspective.
Regardless, I got, bolting down the corridor in a direction I hoped would lead to Mack. I bolted straight into another beam of light, and ended up running smack into the wall in the teleport section. It gave me little comfort to see Mack appear, and do exactly the same thing.
Wait. Mack had been running?
He didn’t bother wasting time in swearing.
“Get us out of here, Tens. Odyssey need time to calm down.”
They did?
I pushed myself up onto my butt, and then rolled to my feet. Mack reached out and pulled me upright, and then he didn’t let go. I stared up into six-and-a-half feet or so, of seething fury, and tried to jerk my arm free.
“Get a grip on yourself,” I said, and he plucked the Blakers from my hand, before picking me up and slinging me over his shoulder.
“You disobeyed a direct order,” he said, as I pushed myself sideways, and off his shoulder.
It was a long way to fall, but he stopped, and turned. I’m not sure the glare he fixed me with was much better, but at least he let me get to my feet under my own steam. I made a show of straightening my clothes, and then glared right back.
“What the hell?” I snapped, and he turned away.
“This way,” he said, and, against my better judgement, I followed.
Something told me I wasn’t going to like what came next, but it was the same something that told me what was coming next was as inevitable as rain. I figured that, as long as Mack didn’t walk me out an airlock, I’d be fine. I was nearly right.
We followed the corridor, and then descended to a new deck.
“This way,” Mack said, leading the way through a plas-glass door, and into what looked exactly like a gym.
I took a good look around us, noting running machines, a free weights area, and assorted gym equipment. There were also three or four other folk in here, all working out, or running, or doing whatever. I couldn’t help but notice that they stopped whatever their activity was to watch us pass.
Mack took me down the length of the room, and over to where there was an open area of sparring mats. Along one side was a small set of bleachers, all empty. When he got to the edge of the mats, Mack looked over at me.
“Discipline on this ship is a simple affair,” he said, and I felt my heart sink. “You obey my orders, or we take it to the mats, and I beat ten kinds of shit out of you, and send you to medical.”
That got my attention. I looked up at his face, and saw he meant every word. Great, I thought, and I meant that in all the ways irony could possibly be expressed. What I said, was completely different, as I stepped out onto the mats.
“You and whose army?”
Him and no army, as it turned out. In fact, it could probably have been him with one arm tied behind his back, for all the difference that would have made. Mack had size, reach, strength, experience, and technique on me. I guessed this at the start, but I was tired of being pushed around, and figured I could do with another fight to round out the day... Yeah, that’s sarcasm, too.
I’d done a good job, saved his ass, got Delight out before Bastien could do more with her innards than he was doing when I’d arrived, hopefully saved Drammon, got the big dude off the wall so Tens could teleport him out ahead of the Odyssey rescue—and don’t tell me that wasn’t something Mack found important, but... fine. I had disobeyed a direct order, several, in fact, if I cared to think about it, and discipline was discipline.
I just couldn’t help thinking that this little session was less about me, and more for someone else’s benefit. I guessed, if it hadn’t been me on the mats, Mack would probably have had to deal with Tens—and Tens was something else. And then there was the new guy on board, and I was just willing to bet he’d be privy to this, as part of his orientation. Well, Hell’s Bells!
Mack brought my attention back to the present, with a sharp clip upside the head. It set my ears ringing, but nowhere near as bad as it could have done.
“Pay attention,” he said, “or you’ll be dealing with petty complaints for the next week.”
I would?
“All crew differences are settled here,” Mack said, which I guessed was great, if all the crew knew how to fight.
“All crew have to be able to defend themselves in case of boarding,” Mack added, as though reading my mind, and he gave me another clip under the ear for not paying attention. “I make sure they can.”
Well, that showed me.
Part of me just wanted him to get it over with, but the other part of me? The one that had kept cussing until they’d been forced to abandon their little attempt at reconditioning? The one that kept pulling Delight’s chain because it could? Yeah, that part of me wanted a brawl. It wanted to go down swinging, and all without an acquiescent ‘yessir’, ‘nosir’, in sight.
It was a short-lived brawl. I stepped in to deliver a kick to the side of the knee, figuring Mack would have trouble beating ten kinds of crap out of me if he only had one leg to stand on. Unfortunately, Mack knew that trick. He sidestepped, tried a sweep which I avoided, and then hit me with a strike that caught me in the ribs.
And that was when I worked out there were no holds barred, because something cracked.
“Doc’s going to have your hide,” I managed, stumbling back out of range, and Mack’s grin was neither happy, nor amused.
“Doc doesn’t want to try going three rounds on the mats,” he said, and came for me in a flurry of blows.
I probably should have dodged, rather than trying to block. Man hit like a freight train, and I hit the mats in twenty seconds flat, which is when I learned that this really was a brawl, rather than any kind of match. Mack came down after me, so I rolled, trying to get out of range, as I scrambled to my feet.
He brought me down again, using the simple expedient of wrapping one great paw around my ankle, and pulling, and then he pinned me, and took me out with a simple hold over the arteries in my throat.
“You fight like a girl,” came Tens voice in my head, but I was already falling into darkness, and didn’t have time to respond.
