Cutthroat Read online

  “Um. Yes, Captain.” Xander let go, his fingers involuntarily trailing hers, and turned to face the two watching Lentarin. “Right, let’s go then.”

  “Yes… Colonel,” Tyra simpered, and Trey chuffed out a laugh.

  The Adamanta daggers rose up from the table and made swishing motions a few feet from them as though Matt meant to stab them. She collected the blades as the twins still fought off fits, and joined Xander as he walked towards the cockpit. He glanced behind them, then ahead to the cockpit, and leaned in.

  “Matt, I…”

  “If this is going to be some noble thing about how you don’t want to hurt me or how we should both be professionals, Xander,” she murmured quietly, her eyes still dancing with good humor, “stow it. We’re both adults here and we know the cost of what we do. We enjoy… whatever this is while we can. If… this is a thing.”

  It might have just been him, but Xander thought maybe her certainty broke for just a moment near the end. He opened his mouth to reassure her, but Drew swore up in the cockpit and both of them darted for him.

  The monitors showed a single image paused from a recording – a human corpse, cheeks and stomach bloated, skin blotched in a grotesque patchwork. Her blouse looked like sloughed skin, and her face was unrecognizable. Chewed by something in the water, Xander realized. Matt sucked in a lungful of air. He couldn’t blame her. The picture was a shock to his system.

  “What the…?” he breathed, taking the copilot’s chair next to Drew.

  “That,” Drew said very quietly, looking more than a little green, “is apparently Sally—”

  “Horn,” Matt said.

  Drew twisted in his seat. “How’d you know that?”

  “The pin on her blouse. I recognize it. It has a transmitter, a security thing, part of a three-tiered system. Thumbprint, voice scan, and the pin, and you get access to Simon’s office.” She visibly swallowed hard. “I knew Sally. She was… she was…” Matt took a breath and visibly seemed to focus herself. “Rewind it. Show us everything.”

  Trey and Tyra caught the image, and Trey echoed Drew’s earlier swearing. The tech brought the video back to its start. The feed was brief, just a few minutes long, taken from the perspective of the detective called to the scene after the body was found floating down the Toledo River in Netera, one of the planet’s biggest waterways. Marks on what remained of Sally’s ankle showed that she’d been tied to something heavy, but she’d been nibbled on by the river’s native pinch-hook fish and the foot was now just gone and she'd floated to the top. That was the only reason her body had been discovered. Otherwise she might have just been left on the bottom for weeks, maybe months or years.

  “I’m never eating fish again,” Drew muttered.

  The feed switched to General Kelton and the investigator who had previously been recording the footage. The investigator rattled off the pertinent information about who Sally was and who she worked for, confirming Matt’s fears. Cause of death was strangulation and she’d been reported missing by Simon Dantos shortly before the Exemplar left on its maiden mission. Then Kelton took back over the feed after the investigator excused himself and left the shot.

  “Colonel, this perhaps won’t come as a shock, but Ms. Horn was my mole in Simon’s organization. That cannot be a coincidence, especially given the timing of the murder. Why this has happened, we’re not sure. Retribution for the leaks, most likely, and for a moment, I thought it might be Mr. Dantos himself—”

  “It wasn’t Simon, he’s not a killer,” Matt said, shaking her head. “A weapons-grade bastard, but not that.”

  “—with the calls to the police a clever ruse to cover his tracks, but frankly, I don’t believe it. We’ve sent this same data package to the captain of the Exemplar, but they’ve been ignoring our attempts at communication. That makes me even more uneasy. Something is very wrong here, Colonel. If you can get on board, investigate with caution.”

  The video ended, and Drew closed it out. Xander wanted to believe it could be Simon, mostly so that Matt could finally get a measure of peace from the scumbag, but it felt wrong. “Do we know if the Exemplar has exited FTL?”

  “If they haven’t, they’ll be close,” the tech replied.

  “Try hailing them. If that fails, see if you can bring up Simon’s personal comm device. We need to inform him.”

  While Drew worked on that, Xander turned to his crew. “I don’t know what it is we’re walking into, but I think we have to assume Ms. Horn’s death ties in somehow with the Exemplar and this mission. Once we’ve knocked out the Beltine base, Trey and I will board the Exemplar to ask some questions.”

  “They may be targeting Simon,” Matt said, grimacing. “If that’s the case… Xander, we may need to bring him on board the Contessa for his own protection.”

  “Unfortunately agreed,” Xander said.

  “Um, speaking of the devil’s favorite CEO, we’re picking up a distress message from the Exemplar.” Drew pulled up the newest message on the screen. “And completely fitting, it’s an SOS.”

  ***

  Usually pulling out of FTL came with the extraordinarily unpleasant feeling of having one’s guts shoved through the back of a chair, but Simon’s people had tinkered with staged slowdowns so incremental that it wound up now feeling more like a gentle shove. He mentally made a note for himself to give the ship’s engineers a big, fat bonus that fiscal year.

  At a distance, the asteroid belt was wholly unremarkable. Gray and massive, it looked like a thousand others, but it was what the asteroids were comprised of that must have drawn both the Agathen and the Beltine. Rich veins of metals glinted out of featureless stone. Great gobs of frozen liquids held any number of gases, but the jackpot for the Agathen were the swaths of ice nearly made of the same molecule composition as the liquids consumed by humans or the Lentarin. Either race could break down the ice and process it for their ever-thirsty citizens. Even with the vast reach of the allied worlds, good water sources were relatively scarce and large hauls could form the groundwork for a highly successful mining operation. This belt, thick and virtually untapped, was an Agathen nomad ship’s dream, if they were willing to explore its depths.

  The Exemplar came out of orbit at a point their nav officer predicted would be invisible to the Beltine. Most times, asteroids in belts similar to this one were incredibly far and wide, and only looked dense at a vast distance, but this belt was quite the opposite. The nav officer had to work in tandem with the pilot and captain to find a suitable asteroid to hide among for the initial stage of their operation until they could find a more permanent solution for their temporary home over the next few days.

  That was the plan, at least, and the mission as laid out between Simon’s brainy engineers and the crew of the Exemplar. Within a half hour of exiting FTL, it all went wrong.

  Captain Ramos and Lieutenant Barnard found a suitable approach quickly. The asteroid they chose looked like an enormous bean, with a bend in the middle the Exemplar could tuck into. The Beltine mining operation was not yet visible, but that was the crew’s second objective. As several crew members examined their screens and cross-checked them against the charts, Dr. Cardew unbuckled and joined Captain Ramos and Lieutenant Barnard, head down, speaking to them quietly. Good thinking. A stretch was just what Simon wanted too. He undid his harness and stood up, the excitement jolting him like a massive infusion of caffeine.

  “Sir,” Lieutenant Lawrence, the comms officer, said. “Receiving another hail from the Contessa.”

  “Bring it up, please,” Simon said.

  Ramos stood upright and said sternly, “Belay that.”

  “Sir?” the comms officer asked.

  Simon arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me? Is there some chance the Beltine might pick up the signal?”

  Captain Ramos ignored him, and turned back to the charts. Dr. Cardew jabbed at something there, and he nodded.

  “Hey!” Simon snapped. He stormed towards the captain, aware that behind him, Kings
ton was rising to his feet too. “I asked you a question.” Still, silence greeted him. Now beyond annoyed, he said to Lieutenant Lawrence. “Bring up the hail.”

  “Aye, Mr. Dantos.”

  Captain Ramos whirled on his feet. “Do that, and I’ll consider it an act of mutiny, Lieutenant. You have your orders. We are radio silent until I say otherwise.”

  Simon was close enough now that he could reach out and grab Ramos’s shoulder. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Captain?”

  A hand fell on his, the fingers like steel as they jerked his hand away from Ramos. Kingston. The sleepy-eyed giant looked down at Simon and said, “Don’t.”

  Several of the other crew members were standing, a low buzz of confusion and anger rising. The rest sat at their stations, ignoring all of this. The bulkhead doors to the bridge thunked open, and in marched the security team as well as the extra crew members Simon had seen around the ship. They were decked out not with the stun batons they’d been equipped with for shipwide purposes, but laser pistols, rifles, and full protective gear. Someone shouted, and one of the guards leaped the rail to smack him in the jaw. It wasn’t much more than a slap, but the surprised man fell away as if he’d been punched.

  Simon rounded on Kingston, but his bodyguard still had his fingers and whirled with him, bringing Simon’s hand behind his back and pulling upwards just far enough to put pressure on the bones in his shoulder.

  “Any higher than that, and I break it,” Kingston said. “Don’t test me.”

  Simon’s jaw clenched and he stared straight at Dr. Cardew. “This is you, isn’t it? What are you doing, Evelyn?”

  She glanced up, her eyebrows arched almost as if she was surprised to see him there. “Oh. Simon, I apologize, but I hope you’ll see the necessity of this soon. We already had enough observational data from the mining operation to know there wasn’t anything we could really learn there. We’re about to get a bit more, ah, hands-on with our research.”

  “You want to… you want to go down there? To the Beltine outpost?” Simon barked out a laugh. “You are beyond insane. Ramos, turn us around and I double your salary.”

  Dr. Cardew slinked over to him, taking him in. “Every one of the people here with me have seen family and friends die at the hands of the Beltine. On Phoenix, Caprin, Ellinor.” She leaned in and murmured, “Earth. They’re not here for money, Simon. They’re here for a cause, and you will be too when you’ve seen what we can accomplish today. Something no one else has done. What no one else has even dreamed about.”

  “What?” Simon choked out.

  Cardew’s smile turned peaceful, dreamy. Her arms spread wide, she twirled slowly to face the big screen and the newly plotted course right to the heart of the Beltine mining operation. “We’re going to take an Anassos. Alive.”

  ***

  The crew members and scientists who wouldn’t fall in line were guided down the hallway and into the mess hall, the biggest room apart from the bridge on the Exemplar. They’d been patted down, stripped of any potential weapons and comms equipment, and told to get on their knees. Simon closed his eyes, imagining he’d hear the split-second buzz of a laser pistol at any moment, but nothing came of it. The guards stepped back out into the hallway, sealed the mess doors, and that was that.

  Chaos broke out immediately. The scientists and non-crew members fell against one another shouting questions and curses alike. Simon, now a little more certain he wasn’t about to die, at least in that moment, rose shakily to his feet. Beside him, Lieutenant Lawrence did the same. She was a stocky woman, with one eye that didn’t quite sit flush with the other. They’d had some time to play cards and work out together along the journey and he found her usually quiet and affable. Now she took charge, clambering on top of one of the tables and raising her hands to her lips.

  “Settle. Down!” she bellowed. A few people obeyed and stared up at her, including some of her fellow crew members. They elbowed the ones still jabbering away and gestured up at her. “We don’t get out of this by losing our heads. Crew, sound off, last name and rank.”

  Loyal Exemplar men and women did just that, and pushed forward through the ranks to face the civilian scientists. After that came the rest, giving their names and jobs aboard ship. It was a calming measure, and as Lawrence took control, Simon thought quickly. There were more prisoners than hostiles, but only a few had a military background. They had only twenty minutes until the Exemplar began its run to find a docking point on the Beltine mining station. It wasn’t nearly enough time to formulate a plan, escape, and take back the ship, if they even could.

  Unless.

  The solution, as much as it would have made Simon sick under other circumstances, was obvious. Eat crow and ask – beg, if necessary – the Contessa for aid. Simon climbed up on to the table too, helped by the lieutenant. He nodded at her gratefully, and turned to address the crowd.

  “There’s help out there. You all know we’re being pursued by Matilda Adair and Xander Finlay. If anyone was ever capable of saving us…” Simon’s gorge rose as the necessity of what he was saying hit him. Oh, how he hated this. “…it’s them. But we need to tell them what’s going on. Does anyone still have a personal device? Maybe someone didn’t get patted down properly, or…”

  “I do,” a quiet man said near the back. The rest parted for him, mumbling, and he stepped forward, dipping an arm down the neck of his jumpsuit and dragging out a small personal device. Red-faced, he mumbled, “I was, um, playing a game, sir, and I thought when the guards first came in, they were looking for someone transmitting when there was a ship-wide order not to, so I slipped the phone down my shirt and, erm, well…”

  Simon snatched up the device and grinned down at the man. “It’s a damn good thing you did. Royce Payton, right? Water and air recirculation expert?”

  The man perked up immeasurably. “You were paying attention, Mr. Dantos?”

  “Didn't need to. I know everyone who's supposed to be on this ship. Wish I’d listened to myself when I thought I didn’t. Too late now.” Payton gave him his passcode, and Simon tapped away.

  Dr. Cardew’s people had brought down the comms outside the ship, but kept interior communications open, leaving him a digital door to wedge through. Cardew thought the emergency systems would be tied to the exterior communications hub, but she was only half-right. Even with the shortcuts his engineers took on his ships, there was always a double-tiered emergency system available in case one set of comms or the other was knocked out. Maybe he couldn’t access the bridge or anything that would turn the Exemplar around, but Simon could get a message out, and he did, sweating profusely as he began to speak.

  “Contessa. Cardew has command of the Exemplar. She’s bringing us down to the Beltine mining facility with plans to try and take an Anassos alive. There are prisoners on board the ship here with me, lots of them.” Simon panned the camera slowly around the room, and brought it back to his face. “Everyone else is in her pocket. I know we’ve had our problems, but these people aren’t part of this. Save them. Save us. Please.”

  One of the room’s doors opened, and Dr. Cardew bustled in, trailed by Kingston and two of the guards. She saw the personal device in Simon’s hand, and pointed to it. Kingston didn’t need to be told what to do. He stormed forward.

  “Wait wait wait,” Simon begged him, hopping down off the other side of the table. Kingston sped up, put one hand on the table, and vaulted over it. His massive hand rose and Simon flinched, thinking his former bodyguard meant to punch him. Instead, he plucked the device from Simon and dropped it on the ground before stomping down and crushing it.

  “Simon,” Dr. Cardew said. “I am not your enemy. Or anyone else’s in this room. I’m really not. I want your cooperation. I’ll need help on the station. Frankly, we don’t have enough people to keep the halls of that structure clear until we have the Anassos in our grasp. I’m even willing to arm anyone who agrees to assist me. Those who decide not to can remain here, locked up.
” She turned and took in everyone in the room. “But if we don’t have the manpower we need and you choose to stay, you will be killed. Not by me, but by the Beltine. We are taking that station. Whether we can hold it or everyone dies on board here like caged rats is entirely up to you.”

  Chapter 4

  “Gee, Simon, who could have predicted Psycho Lady would go psycho?’” Drew asked no one in particular as he grimaced at the Contessa’s sudden spin. “The answer is absolutely everyone, you twit.”

  “Keep the chatter down,” Xander snapped, focused on the split screen in front of him. Half of it showed footage from the camera under the turret, the other from an Adamanta eye on their wing focused on the Beltine base. Shaped like a horizontal honeycomb, the mining operation was free of fighters, but a dozen alien equivalents of freighters inched away from the base. If the crew of the Contessa let just one slip away, there was no telling how quickly a hive ship would return with reinforcements. Somewhere out there, too, were the Hayward and the Everett, taking down the buzzing Dairos fighters on the fringe of the asteroid belt. The Exemplar had hidden among the asteroids until the Contessa dropped out of orbit, then immediately charged the base. Cardew was well versed in military tactics and knew the Contessa would take care of any fighters and extraneous ships first before attempting a run on the base. The Contessa was their shield and their cover. Annoyingly clever, Matt thought.

  Trey’s laser fire bore down on a freighter, tearing it nearly in half with a string of bursts across its stern. He whooped savagely, though Matt felt more and more unease with every confirmed kill. Something played at the edges of her mind. It wasn’t quite like the call of the Adamanta, not really, but close.

  “Can you feel these freighters like the hive ships?” Xander asked her.

  She shook her head. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I feel something, but I don’t think it’s coming from them.”