Haywire (29 page)

Around them were asteroids beyond number. Most were too small to worry about, but there were plenty large enough to smash the
Lady
to pieces, so Gimble stayed on his toes. On their starboard side were three ships, all of them with hulls black as midnight and their engines burning hot. The largest was the
Dieu Le Veut
, Captain Laroux’s ship. It was long and lean, ten times as large as the
Lady
and armed to the teeth. The other two pirate vessels,
New Moon
and
Revenge
, were about the same size as Gimble’s, space corvettes meant for quick assaults.

Their target was the Hygeia mining asteroid, which was dead ahead. The plan was for a boarding party to launch from the
Dieu Le Veut
, with the three corvettes escorting it to the main docking area. Once the raiders were in place, the corvettes would secure themselves against the asteroid with boarding cables, and the crew of each ship would burn through and join the raid. It was a tactic they’d used successfully many times before, but in spite of that Gimble’s stomach was crammed with butterflies.

“
Gimlet and Coward, you two don’t have a’ ounce of courage between you, do ya?” The words were flung through the bridge radio like cannon shot. At the sound of Finlay’s voice, Gimble winced, sorry he’d forgotten the channel was open. He was thankful, though, that he didn’t have to look at the captain of the Revenge’s pockmarked face while he said it.

“
Easy for you to say, Finny,” Gimble said, knowing he had to defend himself or risk looking like the weakling he’d just been accused of being. “You didn’t see the way she gutted our brothers after we brought her in.”

“
Aye,” Crowe said, sticking his thin chin out. It would have been a strong gesture if he hadn’t been shaking. “Like a whirlin’ dervish of death, she was. You weren’t there, Finny, so you should be a silent fool rather than a loud one.”

Before Finlay could retort, another voice filled the radio. It was Roland Bellamy, Laroux’s right hand, and he sounded extremely agitated. “All of you, shut up! You’re busy pissing and moaning, and meanwhile our prize is on the move! The captain aims to take her, even if it means shooting her down to do it, so stow the crap and get moving!”

The sudden change in orders made Gimble’s head swim, but he didn’t hesitate as he looked at his radar screen and saw a new target appear, the distant shuttle highlighted in red as it fled Hygeia directly toward them. The thought that he’d no longer have to run through an asteroid shooting at people brought a breezy feeling of relief wafting over him, but the draft turned hot when another red dot appeared from the far side of the asteroid. The new blip was much larger than the shuttle, and like the pirate ships it didn’t broadcast a friend or foe transmission. Gimble had seen its silhouette before, though, even if in a slightly different configuration. It was an Alliance naval vessel, and his gut told him the lack of IFF meant it was a covert ops ship. A fresh layer of sweat broke out across his forehead.

“
I feel like a nibble of meat that’s been tossed from the frying pan into the fire,” Crowe said with a gulp.

Gimble couldn’t have agreed more.

All Shawn saw was blood. His mother was laid out on a cot, blood on her clothes and smeared across her hands, and a SWAT agent was hunched over her as he put an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. Shawn was next to her, his metal-covered hands pressing a bloody towel against her side. Her pulse flashed across his eyes, as did her blood pressure and rate of respiration, but the red swaths of blood were all he really saw.

“
I need everyone to back up and give me room!” the medic said, ROE stenciled on her uniform jacket. Shawn started to move away, but the agent grabbed his arm, stopping him. “Not you. You keep the pressure going. Where is that damn med kit?”

Alex appeared at Agent Roe’s side like magic, an open case in his hands. “Right here.”

Roe glanced into the case and withdrew a hypospray. “You stay put too, Delgado.”

“
Is my mother going to be okay?” Shawn asked. He was afraid to voice the question, but he had to.

The medic spared him a quick look before pressing the hypospray to his mother’s neck and administering a dose. “Kid, I’ve seen a lot worse, but I’ve seen a lot better too. Your mother’s lost a lot of blood, and that’s bad. But, the shot was through and through, and I don’t see evidence of any vital organs being hit, so we’ve got that working for us. It’s something at least.”

A loud series of beeps pounded out of the cockpit, and the co-pilot looked at them from over his shoulder with weary eyes. “Oh this is just great,” he said.

Agent Hutchins shuffled away from the mob of onlookers and ducked his head into the cockpit. “What is it now?”

“
After we detached from the asteroid and pulled away we noted several oncoming vessels at the edge of our radar range,” the pilot said. “What with all the escape pods and shit I figured it for an emergency response vessel, but our computer analyzed the ships’ profiles. They’re pirates. The Crimson Kings, to be exact.”

At the mention of the word “pirates” Shawn’s stomach dropped out, but when it was followed by “Crimson Kings” he fell to his knees and hit the deck plate so hard he gouged the metal. The shuttle vibrated.

“
What is it, Shawn?” Alex asked.

Artemis, who was leaning against a bulkhead, raised her head and said, “The Crimson Kings are the ones who fo-found me and took us to the hidden lab on Callisto. A few of them managed to-o-o escape us at the museum. It looks like they found us again.”

“
That isn’t possible,” Hutchins said. “Not unless they were tracking you somehow.”

As pity and fury and confusion rolled through Shawn’s mind, each emotion fighting for dominance, he looked down at his mother and hoped beyond hope that somehow they would make it out of this alive. She didn’t deserve what was happening to her. All the frustration he’d felt toward her, all the angst and anger that he’d carried for years disappeared as he felt her blood drip down his armored fingers. With his free hand he reached out to stroke her face, to give her what little comfort he could. As his hand brushed behind her ear, the nanites at his fingertips registered a change in texture. A faint memory called to him as he leaned in. Behind her ear was a flesh-colored disk adhered to her skin. It was small and discreet, barely there, but the sight of it sent a jolt through his mind. He peeled it off her skin and brought it into the light.

“
Damn it,” he said with a hiss. “Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

Alex leaned over to take a look of his own. “What is it?”

“
It’s a recording device.” Shawn explained. “That damn pirate captain made mom wear it when she went to take delivery of those museum acquisitions. He wanted to make sure she didn’t try to call for help or tip them off. In all the excitement I completely forgot about it. I guess she did too.”

Reaching forward, Alex took the small bit of plastic and held it like it was poisoned. “They knew where you going the entire time. Great.”

Shawn’s mother reached up with weak hands and pulled her oxygen mask aside. “I… can’t believe I forgot. It was so small and… and then there was shooting, and you . . .” She looked up at Shawn, the amount of sorrow in her eyes enough to frighten him. Roe tried to put the mask back in place, but she waved her off. “This is all my fault. They’ve… found us, and I’m to blame for it.”

Shawn’s heart hammered in his chest as he gently pushed her hands down and slipped the mask back over her face. “No you’re not. Now stop talking and let her help you.”

“
I think we can outrun them,” the shuttle pilot said over his shoulder. “Even though they’re between us and the conduit to Mars, this is a rapid response shuttle. We can sure as hell out-maneuver them. All we have to do is… Oh shit, tell me this isn’t happening.”

Shawn could hear the pilot rocking back and forth in his seat in frustration.

“
What now?” Hutchins asked.

“
We’ve got pirates on one side of us,” the co-pilot said, “and now we’ve got a vessel approaching from the other side. This one isn’t broadcasting an IFF transmission either, and I don’t see any hull markings. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say this is the one that brought your shooters.”

“
It fits,” Alex said.

Hutchins nodded. “Perfectly, but if there was ever a time we didn’t need another log added to the fire, this would be it.”

“
Not necessarily,” Artemis said, slowly pushing up from the floor. “This could work to our advantage. They bo-oth want to get us, but if we can draw them together they’ll have to take each other out first.”

Desperation floated in the shuttle like a pungent perfume, but as she finished speaking the air seemed to clear the tiniest little bit.

Townsend stooped over his radar operator’s shoulder and watched as his quarry, a shuttle filled with federal agents and two Titans, flew closer and closer to pirate ships that had appeared without warning from the other side of Hygeia. A sick feeling spread from his chest and tingled down his arms.

“
That’s it,” he whispered before standing up and looking around his small bridge. “General Harper was right – the Titans are working with the pirates. How else would they know where to meet them? Something went wrong with their operation on Callisto, so the Titans had to scramble off-moon and make their way out here to await pickup. That crap about Mars… must have been a ruse to throw off anyone that might have been sniffing after them. Helm, get me an optimal firing angle on those pirates, engines at maximum. Gunny, load hunter-seekers and target the pirates. Shoot them down so that shuttle has nowhere to run to.”

His bridge crew repeated back his orders with honed military precision as he resumed his seat at the center of the room. In a strange way he was glad to see the pirates come into view. They were a threat he understood, a threat he could deal with. Titans were figures in history books, but pirate ships… those he could see, could shoot at. And he planned on doing a lot of shooting.

“
Sir, hunter-seekers are loaded and ready to fire on your mark,” his gunnery officer said.

“
As soon as we get within maximum firing range,” Townsend replied, “empty every tube.”

The captain pressed a button on his chair, and a small radar display flipped up near his right arm. It didn’t have all the data available on screen that the main radar operator had, but it showed what he needed. On it he saw his ship and the shuttle both on direct headings for the
Dieu Le Veut
’s tiny fleet.

“
We’re almost within range, Sir,” the gunny said.

A thin smile slid across Townsend’s face. “Fire at will.”

“
I think you’re right,” the SWAT shuttle pilot said. “We’re within weapons range of that intel ship, but they’re angling for a firing solution on the pirates.”

Artemis nodded and then hung her head and closed her eyes. Shawn was glad she was holding it together.

“
They probably think the pirates and us are in it together,” she said, “and they want to take out the bigger threat first. Typical A to B thinking. Hopefully those pirates will be just as stupid. You’ve throttled the engines to hide our true speed, right?”

“
Yes, Ma’am,” the pilot replied.

Nodding again, Artemis tilted her head back and breathed deeply. “Good. As soon as the first shot is fired, open her up and get us out o-of here. By the time we hit the Mars conduit this fight should be over.”

Shawn shifted his gaze from Artemis to his mother. Her vital signs were better, but she was still too deep in the woods for him to feel the slightest bit better about her chances. But, if the Titan was right, at least there was still a chance to be had.

“
It seems our prey has gone and found itself some help,” Laroux said, his visage sent out from the bridge of the
Dieu Le Veut
to all the ships under his command. “Let us remove that help, and then pick their shuttle apart piece by piece. Prepare to fire!”

Gimble stared at his targeting screen, and then he looked over at Crowe. His friend’s eyes were as large as eggs as they waited for the weapon’s range alert to beep.

“
Think the captain might have bitten off more than we can chew?” Gimble asked, careful to mute the bridge microphones this time.

Crowe glanced over for a half second and then flicked his eyes back onto his radar displays. “I think his appetite has indeed proven troublesome of late. Between you and me, I already have an exit vector plotted should things turn south.”

If there was one thing Gimble could depend on, it was Crowe’s practicality. It was like the compass in a goose’s head. But, before he could voice his agreement, his targeting display lit up and a bright ding filled the air.

“
Fire!” Laroux shouted, his angry red face small in the comm window. “Give those bastards hell!”

Gimble locked his reticule over the computerized version of the distant ship and pressed the firing buttons on his control sticks. The
Lady
shuddered as her gauss cannons fired large metal rounds down barrels lined with electromagnets. The high-speed shot thundered through space, and seconds later struck home. But then their target fired back, and the pirate vessel shuddered even harder.