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“What happened to Delight?” I asked as we waited for the comms to go live.
I’d been almost to the door, before I remembered Delight had gone down to Blaedergil’s complex with us. She’d diverted from her planned alternative at the spaceport, when she’d realized Skymander wasn’t going to land there. Mack glanced at me, as though he hadn’t thought of Delight since we’d gotten off Magnus 19. It looked like a complication he hadn’t been expecting.
“I’ll have Tens look into it,” he said, as the command center door slid open.
Tens’ reply of “On it,” came through in both the implant and our ears.
Once the door had slid shut behind Mack and me, Tens indicated the view screen.
“There she is,” he said, and he did not mean Delight.
Our ship was hanging, dead, in space. Not drifting, per se, but doing the star-bound version of exactly that. I stared where Tens pointed, and saw the slowly clarifying silhouette of something big moving towards us. Whatever it was, it was partially outlined by the gleam of its drives, but still near-impossible to get a good look at.
Tens used the scans to outline it, so we could observe its slowly approaching bulk. I didn’t find it helpful when he highlighted the weapons arrays, or the swarm of smaller vehicles surrounding it.
“We are so screwed.”
Mack’s lips twitched, and he moved to the command console, and settled in behind it.
“You know anything useful here?”
I remembered my time with Keevers.
“Security?”
Mack shook his head, but indicated a console, anyway.
“Weapons. See what you can do with that, but don’t shoot them by accident.”
Tens snorted, but his attention was focused on the console and screen in front of him. I figured he was looking for Delight, so I ignored him and set about familiarizing myself with the console before me. I was sorely tempted to play with the weapons array, and see what happened, but even I knew that might be a bad idea. There was no telling how the incoming battleship would react.
I ran through the functions, and felt Tens presence in my head.
“Here,” he said, and sent me the knowledge I required.
I’d heard of teaching programs, which just wired the signals into a brain while the person slept. I hadn’t known an implant could be used to do more than pass files. When I’d allowed Tens’ program to unwrap, I found I knew what I’d wanted to know, and took my hands away from the controls.
Best not to play with that.
I had a moment of vertigo, as everything settled into place, and closed my eyes until it was done. When I opened them again, the ship on the view screen was a lot bigger—and a hell of a lot easier to see.
“Dawn,” Tens murmured. “Case had us in the planet’s shadow.”
And I realized our ship was drifting with a planet at its back, and that we might not be drifting at all; we might be sinking. I pushed the idea away, and turned my attention to Skymander’s approaching war ship. It was both easier and harder to look at with the sunlight refracting from its hull.
Also easier to see was the myriad swarm of much smaller shadows holding station around it.
“That can’t be good,” Tens said, but Mack remained silent.
When I shot a glance in his direction, he was sitting perfectly still, staring at the ship on the screens before us. Just before I looked away, he glanced down at his console, his fingers moving over its surface in response.
“Not long, now,” he murmured, and then raised his voice, just a little, “Tens, what did you find on Delight?”
“I don’t think she made it off Magnus,” and my own console lit up, as he pushed the data to where I could see it.
Oh. To use his words, that couldn’t be good.
Delight hadn’t made it off world. Not according to Odyssey, and not according to the Magnus 19 passenger manifests Tens had hacked out of their transport databases. As far as we could tell, she’d hit Blaedergil’s mansion, with Pritchard, and neither of them had ever come out again.
“Maybe Skymander had his people collect them,” I said, and didn’t like the thin thread of doubt that wound itself through my tones.
“That would be the best scenario,” Mack said. “I’ll add them to the list of things I want from Skymander.”
Tens was not happy.
“It will give him something else to bargain with.”
Mack shrugged.
“We need to get her back.”
He didn’t say why, and I had to wonder if it was because he was used to dealing with her when he dealt with Odyssey, and just didn’t want to get used to dealing with someone else, or if it was because he was secretly fond of her, kindred spirits and all that.
“I miss Pritchard,” he said, answering the questions rolling through my mind.
Yeah. Like fuck he did. Pritchard was the invisible man.
“Hence why I like him.”
“So, it’s got nothing to do with the fact he keeps Delight in check?” Tens wanted to know, but whatever Mack might have said in reply was lost as the ship signaled an incoming call.
He glanced over at Tens.
“Put it up,” he said. “Let’s take a look at this joker.”
I have to admit that Treivani’s face was the last thing I expected to see, when the call went live.
She was holding two carefully swaddled bundles, and I wondered why. She still looked as pale as she had when I last saw her at Blaedergil’s, but there was now a faint tinge of color to her skin, and the shadows under her eyes were fading. She was sitting on a long, low-backed couch, wearing a loose, blood-red gown that flowed around her. Behind her the stars formed a backdrop through a meters-wide observation port.
I saw Mack glance at Tens, and watched as the comms-tech’s hands flew over his console as he tried to find where on the battle ship Treivani was located. Personally, I didn’t trust what I was seeing. For all we knew, that backdrop was just another projection, and she was secreted deep in the hull of the cruiser heading towards us.
On the view screen, Treivani smiled when she saw us, and I could only guess that we, too, were up on a wall-length screen in whatever space she was seated. Beyond the babies in her arms, she appeared to be completely alone, but I doubted that was the case.
“Thank you for trying to rescue me,” she said, “but I don’t need it.”
She gestured for someone off-screen, beckoning them to come into the shot, and cooed down at the babies in her arms. The man who stepped over to sit beside her was who we’d expected to see from the start. Odyssey had at least come through with the files, even if the company wasn’t anywhere in sight, now that we needed them.
“Sandoval,” Mack said, as he watched the small drama being played out for our benefit.
Sandoval’s lips twitched into a small smile, and he sat on the low arm of the lounge, draping his arm across Treivani’s shoulders. She looked up at him, adoration plain upon her face.
“Mackenzie Star,” he replied. “It is good to finally meet you.”
Mack didn’t return the compliment, but sat, his silence demanding more. Sandoval waited, but didn’t take long to work out that Mack was waiting for him to explain.
“I suppose you are wondering why you’re still in one piece,” he said, his smile slowly fading.
“You could say that.”
“And I suppose you’re wondering how we caught up to you so quickly after your pilot’s most impressive piece of flying.”
“It would be handy.”
Sandoval’s smile had completely left his features, and the expression that had replaced it was more what we’d been expecting to see, in the first place: cold, hard calculation, with just a hint of threat.
“And?” he asked, challenging Mack to elaborate.
“What do you intend?”
“That is the heart of it, isn’t it?” Sandoval replied, and, if he was disappointed by Mack’s directness, he didn’t show it. “You tried to take what is mine by mutual agreement.”
And Treivani leant her head back against him, looking supremely content.
Mack shrugged.
“It is what we were hired to do.” He nodded towards me. “Her life is forfeit if we do not bring Treivani back.”
Sandoval assessed me with a careful gaze.
“She doesn’t seem important enough for you to lead with her safety.”
And now I was riveted. Sandoval had a point. Why hadn’t Mack just stuck with the excuse of a mission? Mack gave me a look that told me nothing more.
“Let’s just say that she’s part of a bigger contract, and I’d like to collect the fee.”
I frowned. Well, at least I knew, now. I figured the Odyssey training contract was a pretty good one, and not just from the credit side of things. The intelligence benefits had to be a nice add-in, too.
Mack shifted uncomfortably as he caught the thought, but I didn’t know why. It’s not like I didn’t know what the benefits of working with Odyssey were. I caught a flare of annoyance, and then nothing. It puzzled me, but I could always chase it later. Right now, we had more important things to worry about. Sandoval was speaking.
“You said you were hired. Who sent you?” he demanded.
“Andreus Corovan,” Mack told him, and Sandoval’s face twisted with distaste.
Beside him, Treivani looked horrified.
“And Melari?” she asked, before Sandoval could respond.
That was interesting. None of us had known Treivani was aware of her sister’s presence in, and disappearance from, Blaedergil’s mansion. “Is she all right?”
“We didn’t see her after they took her pod,” Mack said, but he didn’t explain how we’d been captured shortly thereafter.
He didn’t need to; she had already turned to Sandoval, her face filled with anxious appeal.
“We have to get her back,” she said. “The clan needs her.”
I watched as Sandoval jerked his head towards her, his face showing concern.
“Please,” she whispered, and I thought I saw the shimmer of an escaped tear running down her cheek.
Sandoval’s mouth tightened, but he nodded, raising a hand to stroke her cheek as he turned back to us.
“We want Melari returned,” he said.
“And the antidote,” Treivani added, catching her husband’s startled glance. “We need that. Andreus must not be allowed to keep it. There is no other cure.”
There wasn’t? Now why did I think that was more bad news than anyone needed right now?
Amusement lifted Sandoval’s expression, but only for a moment.
“You said you came to retrieve my wife,” he said, and I felt my heart sink, wondered if Mack and Tens were having the same sensation, but Sandoval continued. “Well, now I have something for you to do.”
“We cannot take a second commission until we complete the first,” Mack interrupted, and Sandoval gave him a mirthless smile to rival his own.
“You can,” he said, “because I am voiding your original contract. I have seen your company profile; you operate as above board as your business allows, which means you don’t traffic in lives; you don’t carry out assassinations; and you don’t topple governments. In fact, if I didn’t have the facts to prove otherwise, I would say you operated as an extension of Odyssey.”
Mack didn’t let him continue.
“We don’t!” which made me wonder what Odyssey had done to earn that much of his ire.
“You’d be surprised.”
I didn’t think so; Odyssey had pissed me off plenty.
Mack gave a soft grunt of acknowledgement and shifted his attention back to Sandoval. I followed his gaze, unnerved to find the Skymander lord observing us closely.
“Very well,” he said. “You don’t work for Odyssey. Even though, I think you do liaise with them, and that is why I found a pair of their agents in my castle.”
“Your castle?”
Mack shot Tens a look that carried an order, and Tens went still. Sandoval twitched an eyebrow.
“I could save you the trouble,” he said, “but it’s more fun this way. In the meantime, I am voiding your contract with Andreus Corovan.”
I heard Mack’s sharp intake of breath, but Sandoval cut across him, even as Tens spoke.
“You don’t have an option.”
“It’s gone live!”
Live? I looked down at my boards, but saw nothing. Mack looked down at his console, and paled. When he raised his head, he’d schooled his face to a careful blankness that I knew all too well.
Mack at his most inscrutable was a Mack that was about to create more than a little havoc. I wondered exactly how Sandoval was going to deal with that. The Skymander lord raised a hand.
“Before you say something you’ll regret, yes, I know her life is forfeit.”
He gestured at me, and I tensed, waiting for the axe to fall. Sandoval ignored me, and continued.
“But scans show no explosive in her skull, and that the implant is new, so I’m going to assume you fixed that little problem.”
When Mack made no reply, Sandoval revealed how he’d known what my predicament might be.
“Treivani says that’s a favorite of her ex-fiancé’s, so I’m going to assume you’ve dealt with the Corovan’s threat, and her life is safe, for now.” Again, he paused, as though waiting for Mack to speak. When Mack said nothing, he went on. “We need you to retrieve Melari, and bring her to us. She needs to be out of Corovan hands.”
Mack looked back down at his console, and then up at Sandoval.
“It’s not like you have a choice,” the lord added, but Treivani stirred restlessly, and he looked down at her, catching the expression on her face.
That look was hard to describe. It was almost as though she was telling him what to do, without ever saying a word.
“Like I do,” Mack murmured, and it made sense—if Sandoval had a battle cruiser, then having an implant wasn’t too far a stretch. I felt ten times as dumb as usual, but kept my attention on the pair on the screen. Sandoval sighed, and lifted his gaze from his wife’s face.
“My beloved has a point,” he said. “Threatening you probably isn’t the best way to gain your cooperation...”
His voice intruded in my head and, judging from Tens’s hiss of indrawn breath, and Mack’s sudden tension, in their heads, too. “Even if I’d rather just destroy you, now.”
“...so here is what I am prepared to pay,” he said, out loud, and he named a figure I found ridiculous, even by Mack’s usual standards of cost.
Mack obviously felt the same way.
“It’s too much,” he said, just as Tens interrupted.
“Powered down.”
Mack relaxed a trifle, and named a price that was a third lower than Sandoval’s initial offer, and I watched surprise flit across the Skymander’s face—surprise and suspicion. Before he could say anything, Mack explained.
“We have standard fees for each type of job, and standard additions,” he said, nodding to Tens. “No client pays more than any other, although, in your case, there are some additional costs.”
As Tens went to work, some of the suspicion left Sandoval’s expression. This was something he understood. Beside him, Treivani observed the negotiations, her eyes showing more interest than her otherwise relaxed position suggested. I remembered that she was the eldest daughter of a clan whose power came from trading, and figured she was better able to assess what she was hearing than I was. After all, she’d have been raised to have all the skills she needed in order to act successfully in her clan’s best interests.
I heard a ping from the screen, and Sandoval’s gaze shifted.
“Thank you,” he said, his eyes travelling back and forth as though he was reading something. “Those terms are acceptable. We’ll negotiate extras. I note you have no termination fee.”
“We fill all our contracts,” Mack told him, and I watched as the muscles flexed along his jawline.
“Shit,” Tens murmured, and the ship shuddered shortly thereafter. “Mack, we...”
Mack held up a hand, his expression hard.
“I’ll be adding the cost of repairs to your bill,” he said. “You had better hope none of my people have been harmed.”
What Sandoval might have said, was lost as Treivani shifted suddenly in her seat, and cast a commanding glance towards one side of the screen. Seconds later, two women crossed in front of her, and lifted her children from her arms. When they were gone, she reached down and pulled a small computer from somewhere near her feet, and set it on the coffee table before her.
Sandoval watched her as she opened the screen, and tapped at the keys. When she stopped and looked at him, he turned his attention back to Mack.
“Now, we are ready to negotiate,” he said, and I sat and watched as he and Mack traded costs, prices and demands. All the while, I sat in front of the weapons board, monitoring the only thing I had any control over: whether or not I activated the Shady Marie’s shields. There was no way in all the stars I was going to activate the ships’ weapons.
For one thing, the drives were off-line. If I brought the weapons on line, we’d lose too much power for other essential systems—and that was the other thing: I had nothing to feed the shields, which meant we were sitting ducks for Skymander’s weapons’ crews. I wasn’t feeling suicidal. Nothing caught my eye, on the first pass, but I watched, and I waited, because I was pretty sure Sandoval had yet another trick up his sleeve, and we weren’t out of the woods yet.
