Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 0: Tanya (20 page)

“I’m going into the Station for a while.” Felone said finally. “I’d appreciate it if you would man Adjudicator’s guns while I’m coming and going.”

“Of course.”
Jason slurred, suddenly seeing his opportunity.

Jason’s finger almost settled on the actuator stud of the plasma cannon he had centered on Felone’s back as she walked out from under Adjudicator and headed into the Station, but Jason changed his mind at the last moment, more of those
fuck its
coming over him and deciding that this was far more appropriate. This was truly Felone’s Karma. When Felone rounded the corner and disapp
eared into the Station p
roper Jason and Adjudicator swiftly departed the dock, slipping through the transparent gravity field without hindrance and out into empty space beyond.

Jason did not look back as he accelerated Adjudicator and finally hit
jump
.

And who was to say? It was possible those bitches would kill one another.

Chapter 52

Felone stood in the entrance to the dock knowing this
was
where Adjudicator was supposed to be and knowing there was no mistake about it. Felone did not make such mistakes.

Yet she had made a far graver one. She
was
plan
ning to dump Jason once they
dealt with Tanya, but wanting his help at least until then she had certainly revealed nothing of her plans to him, yet somehow he had ob
viously deduced them. Was she
easy to read as all that? Either that or he had come to his own conclusion to dump her and he had simply acted the swifter. Well, she was in a fucking bind now, wasn’t she!

There was no time to waste presently as Tanya and her army were probably already after her, and putting her fury aside for the while in the need to have a clear reasoning mind in this time of extreme danger, Felone coolly appraised her situation.

Money wasn’t a problem as she had a huge personal account here with the Kievors, not because she
was
expecting thi
s treachery from Jason but
simply because Felone was the kind of careful person who always dotted her i’s and crossed her
t’s
. She had enough wealth spread throughout the various major banking institutions within the Federation that she would never have to work again, no matter how
long she lived, so she had the lovely twenty-twenty hindsight of wishing she had gotten the hell out a long time ago, when she had first begun having such thoughts.

The truth was
Felone loved the game more than anything else in life. The Organization and the game
w
as
her life and she no longer knew any other, had not been able to imagine what she would do with the rest of her very long life if she had given up the Organization then, and now it was of course far too late for thoughts of that.

“I think your ship left without you.” A sailor from a ship which had been berthed next to Adjudicator said as he meandered up innocently and stopped next to Felone, a cunning smile on his face he couldn’t hide and obviously hoping the young looking girl was now going to be in need of a strong male shoulder to lean on, and a warm berth to sleep in, but he was mistaken.

The fingerboard exercises that Felone practiced every single day without fail meant her fingers were as strong as mobile bands of carbon. They were in fact mobile bands of hardened carbon. The not so innocent sailor did not see her strike, she moved so fast as to defy the laws of reality, and then those fingers locked on his windpipe and she ripped out a gaping chunk of his throat.

The man’s eyes widened with shock as he realized that the bloody meat Felone threw onto the deck had been his throat, and then he tried to scream. But he couldn’t. A wet gurgling was all he could produce, and seeing his life squirting through the hands he had locked to his r
uined throat, a losing contest
trying to hold in his lifeblood, he decided to try to take her with him.

She saw the look in his eyes change even as the plan formulated itself in his mind; a narrowing look of determination and a hardening of his resolve. His hand dove for his holstered weapon but before his hand even settled on the butt Felone’s Kievor blasters were in her hands and belching twin balls of energy.

Felone headed for the deck even as the destructive power of the twin blasters were unleashed on what used to be a human, the concussion of the explosions helping Felone in her backwards dive, and by the time she rolled out and came to her feet there was nothing remaining of the sailor. There was a scorched place on the trans-metal deck which a
lmost immediately turned back
to its original color, the mark fading quickly and completely disappearing.

“That felt good.” Felone said to no one, having killed him for no other reason tha
n that it
felt go
od and because she could. She’
d been out of the active participation of her livelihood for a very long time, but it wasn’t forgotten. It could never be forgotten. “I’ll require accommodations.” Felone added, and the ever ready arrow appeared in the floor and began to lead her.

Chapter 53

The news that Jason
abandoned Felone really came as no surprise when Tanya received it. If you lay with snakes you are liable to get bitten. She had no idea what the rift might have been between them or if it was just simply a case of Jason getting rid of excess baggage before he fled himself. Now Tanya had two choices; did she leave Felone to
her own devices, assuming that she was no more than Jason’s assistant? Or had Felone’s part in what had been done to her been just as heavy as Jason’s? Splitting their forces meant it would be easier to kill them individually, should she now decide to go after Felone first, since she was already here and apparently not planning to go anywhere, but Jason was her primary target and he was now fleeing and there was no telling where, when, or
if
he would ever stop. Every moment Tanya delayed here meant Jason was getting farther and farther from her and delaying the moment she would have her satisfaction. Tanya did not want to spend eternity hunting him down.

“You should go after this Jason. We’ll take care of the woman.” Malcomb said.

“I’m not going anywhere and leaving anyone as someone else’s problem.” Tanya said. “If I go after Jason now you have to give me your word you’ll leave Felone until I return.”

“I’ll give no such assurance.” Malcomb said.

“Then you leave me no choice.” Tanya said. “I would like to purchase Felone’s location at this moment.” She was speaking to the Kievors, of course, and they responded immediately.

“You do not possess sufficient Credits.” The air said, and Tanya was running for the doorway of her Kievor apartment when the tremendous explosion ripped apart the front wall, completely exposing the interior to the bloody mess of several of Malcomb’s guards who had been standing sentinel in the hall. Little remained!

“So much for a being’s right to fight!” Tanya swore as she dove into the hall to her left, Malcomb moving just as swiftly to the right, but neither
could find a target. Neither the attacker nor any other beings were present, those who had survived the initial explosions quickly finding other places to be. Kievor blaster concussions in the close corridors could rip you apart even meters distant.

“Clear.” Tanya said.

“Clear.” Malcomb replied. Now dozens of Malcomb’s soldiers were swarming from every direction, somehow the attacker having slipped through their surveillance net and nearly gotten them. If Tanya or Malcomb had been closer to the wall where the explosions struck it could have been over for the both of them then and there.

Even though the dead guards weren’t children anymore- they were all of an age the Federation military considered legal- it bothered Tanya more than she could say that they had been killed in
her
name. She had not left Malcomb all those Credits all those years ago so as to be able to train an army to defend
her
. Three were dead and Tanya couldn’t look at Malcomb. It did not matter that Malcomb and every one of his soldiers would gladly fight to the death in her name, it was that she could not allow it.

Finally she was able to look at Malcomb. “This has to stop.”

“The only way it will stop now is by killing this Felone.” Malcomb said, but this time there was the carbon of authority in his voice that meant he wouldn’t be swayed no matter what
was
said, a stern tone as if she were the one in need of moral guidance and he was tired of her childishness and giving her a dose of tough love. In very plain terms he was telling her the way it was going to be. Tanya could not win the contest of wills when their eyes locked together, and she saw that
there was only one alternative, that of immediately attacking, because it was clearly obvious now that this Felone was more than she seemed. She had made a decisive attack and
then
had faded away to bide her time and attack again. It was a system Tanya was more than familiar with and there was only one way to deal with it. Head on.

“Then I suggest we go and get this done as quickly as possible.” Tanya said. It would have to be ended now and she would have to lead the charge, while Jason possibly slipped away forever. Something else was very wrong as well... How in the hell had Felone slipped through the surveillance net? How in the hell had she done that?

Chapter 54

Felone walked right down the corridor amongst the myriads of beings about their business, none of whom, nearly all reptiles in this sector, could guess at the violence which was about to erupt. Felone was not a large person and as she moved forward she kept the bulk of an overlarge reptile in front of her as she slowly moved forward, and as she caught her first glimpse of the sentries posted in front of Tanya's apartment, their attention was suddenly drawn to the lift tube to her left as it suddenly opened without warning, having arrived without giving notice.

They hadn’t seen her because they hadn’t been looking for a boy. Fools! Tanya should have known to expect subterfuge and Felone was as much a master of the art as was Tanya. It was what Jason had taught Tanya because it was what Felone had taught Jason. But they wouldn’t
be fooled twice, and in any case her hair was gone now, shaved close to the skull, and no bringing it back. Long hair could be a deadly liability in close combat and the ruse had worked well enough for her to draw first and maybe even final blood.

The lift in this corridor was being held open in preparation for her escape, a small matter of an insignificant number of credits in the Kievor’s ever open pockets, but she had not arrived in it. That would have been much too dangerous as it would surely have been under the most intense scrutiny of the sentries in the corridor. So she had chosen to walk nonchalantly, right amongst the crowds, and trust to the unbelievable audacity of her actions to see her through.

Her blasters appeared with incomprehensible speed in her hands, instantly belching their destructive energies down upon the suddenly wide-eyed sentries. The twin balls of energy from her Kievor blasters lanced out lightning swift and struck the outer wall of Tanya’s apartment precisely where Felone had meant for them to go, the twin concussions ripping apart the three sentries in front of the entrance like hamburger thrown into a turboprop; meat, blood and gore slapped upon every nearby
surface.

The blasts annihilated
 
a long section of the front wall of Tanya’s apartment as well, as Felone had planned, leaving a gaping jagged hole where the wall had been. If Tanya had been near that front wall the fight was already finished, and without a second glance Felone raced for the lift and was gone before a retaliatory response could be made. The hatch sealed in its odd trans-metal way and the lift was on its way.

“Is she dead?” Felone asked.

“Your attack was unsuccessful.”

“Son of a bitch!”
Felone swore. “I'm going to require a ship.
A very large one.”
The odds were simply too great. There were too many of them and the landscape of the Kievor Trade Station far too enclosed to suit Felone’s style of fighting. It wasn’t so much a style of fighting as it was a style of fighting from concealment and subterfuge and there was no concealment here and no further subterfuge possible. It was time to cut and run.

There was Jason to think about as well.

“What price range will you be shopping in?” The Kievor speaking invisibly through the air asked politely. They were always polite, Felone noted, when you were getting ready to spend credits, and especially when you were going to spend a lot of credits!

“All of it. I’ll need lots of fuel and provisions, as well.”

“A large order but we believe we may be able to accommodate you.”

“Excellent.” Felone said. “Lead me onward.” Several lift rides and a short walk later Felone was standing in a massive dock looking up at the biggest piece of shit ship she had ever seen. If it wasn’t quite ready for the scrapheap it sure looked like it, and it was entirely underpowered for its size.