The Star Pirate's Folly (24 page)

***

“He still under?” Bee whispered to
Myra.

“Unconscious, yes.”

“Are you inside his suit?”

“I have full control.”

“Good. Make sure he doesn’t move.”

The wash of red auxiliary lights
tinged the infirmary a bloody red.
Deep Fog’s
damaged life support
system struggled to wheeze breathable air back into the room. From the entrance,
Bee could see Starhawk lying on an operating table in his feather-etched golden
nullsuit. His legs were mangled, sticking in all wrong directions.

Bee’s heart pounded. She glided
from the entrance to the operating table. Up close she could see how elaborate
the designs on his suit were. The helmet’s blue visor looked like it was being
swallowed by the hawk’s beak. Intricate feathers covered every inch of the
armor. She twisted off the helmet and tossed it aside.

His great heaving
fish-out-of-water gulps of air delighted Bee. His bright blue eyes matched the
visor, she saw. It was him. The face she’d been looking for all her life. His
eyes bugged out and he let out a guttural whimper when he realized he couldn’t
move.

“We’re a long way out,”
Bee
said through her suit’s speakers. “It’s just the two
of us now. What are the odds that we would both end up here?”

“Whatever Anson’s paying you, I
can double it out here.” He licked his lips. “I know people. I got money. I can
make you rich. You wouldn’t believe—”

“Yes, the great Starhawk,”
Bee
said. She removed her helmet so he could see her
face, struggling to fill her lungs in the thin air as she looked down on her
enemy.  “The blue-eyed beast. I’ve been looking for you for a long time. But
I’m not here for your bounty. I’m just here to finish what you started.”

“You’re just a girl! Who the hell
are you?”

Not a flicker of recognition—just
wild-eyed confusion. And she thought she’d grown to look so much like her
mother. But Mother was nothing to him. Just another body he’d stepped over in
his useless, destructive life. Bee slipped the helmet back on and the suit
filled her lungs with fresh, full-bodied air. “Myra, find me something sharp.”

 A drawer to her right sprouted an
outline. Inside she saw a row of surgical instruments lined up side by side.
Bee stepped over to it and pulled out a scalpel. Starhawk recoiled from her but
his suit held him frozen in place. Bee leaned over him and showed him the
scalpel. “You didn’t recognize me.”

Starhawk shook his head, choking for
breath, struggling against the confines of his suit. “No—I don’t know—”

Bee slashed the blade across his
cheek. He howled with pain and writhed against the restraints. Globules of
crimson blood coalesced from the wound and stuck oddly to his face in the microgravity.

“I thought you might not. We only
met once. I was six years old,” she said, teasing the dull end of the blade
across his eyelids. He struggled to remain still, taking hissing breaths
between clenched teeth. “You drugged and raped my mother. Does that narrow it
down for you at all?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and
down as he swallowed and said, “You’re a crazy bitch if you think I remember
every woman I—”

Bee
flipped the blade and sliced across
his right upper eyelid. “You killed her, and I promised her I’d find you and tear
you to pieces.” Another cut across the bottom. “Then you killed my friend
Hargrove.”

“You bitch!” he cried. “God damn
it, you
sick
whore!”

“If he’s really out there, God’s going
to sit back and enjoy this after all you’ve done. He’s a vindictive old codger.
Why else would he have put me in this room with you?”

“Stop! Stop it! I know about the
treasure, it’s all bullshit—about Dreadstar, I’ll take you there—”

“I’m right where I want to be.”
She lifted the scalpel again.

“Who are you? If you’re gonna kill
me tell me your name,” he begged. “I won’t die without knowing who killed me!”

“I’m my mother’s daughter.”

“I am the Starhawk!” His voice went
hoarse as he screamed and thrashed against the restraints. “Who the fuck are
you!”

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” she said.
“Just know I’ve done some things to get here. Things I’m not proud of.
Necessary things. Nasty things. All for this.”

“Yeah, join the club.” Starhawk
spat on her faceplate. “I think I do remember that blonde bitch after all. I’m
glad I—”

Bee’s armored fist lashed out at Starhawk
with a sudden backhand, and he grunted with pain. She dropped the scalpel. Animal
fury took over as she smashed his face, metal gloves pounding on meat and bone.
She roared and raged, years of pent-up anguish pouring fuel on her outburst. A
lifetime of dreaming, of waiting for her chance to make him hurt for what he
did, and she finally had him.

With a flick of her wrist and a
pull from the gravity node in her glove,
Bee
snagged
the surgical blade and set about her work without another word. She wasn’t sure
how long the life support would hold out, but it would be enough to make him
suffer until his last ragged breath. And not too long after that, her own air
reserves would run out and she’d probably die too.

Montez trailed the squad of armored HomeSec guards through
the asteroid base’s crowded hallways, furious that Lieutenant Finch had taken
the cryo pod from her. Smarmy bastard. She knew he’d take credit for the find,
and probably her and Crane’s cut of the pay too. As head of Home Security he
could manipulate the logs to back up his claims and invalidate hers, say it was
him or one of his subordinates who went out on the run and picked up the pod.

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d done it, and Montez had
seen what happened to other salvagers who took issue with Finch’s greed—bruises
and broken bones, demotions, even disappearances. His henchmen from HomeSec knew
all the little corners of the base where the cameras couldn’t see, and just
when they could get away with it.

Well this time she wasn’t going to take it.

She knew they’d have to wait before they could bring the
cryo pod to Receiving since the next shift didn’t start for a little under half
an hour. And in the meantime they’d have to bring it to Temporary Holding—a low
security storage area. Finch would probably leave the pod under guard until the
next shift. That was her only chance.

“Crane, respond,” she said into her jawline mic.

“Eat me,” he replied in her earbud.

“Finch took our haul.”

“What!” Crane shouted. “Son of a bitch!”

“Armor up and meet me in Holding or we kiss our payday
goodbye.”

“Knew I couldn’t trust your scrawny ass by yourself.”

“Just get there,” Montez said. “We don’t have much time.”

“What are you thinking?” Crane asked.

“I don’t know. But we can’t just let him steal it.”

“So what, we’re just gonna steal it back? From Finch? You
crazy?”

“I’m pissed off. He’s been pulling this for months, ever
since he made Lieutenant. You heard about Teller, about Gorski—and after what
they did to Reynolds? Somebody’s gotta do something.” Montez surprised herself
with the conviction she felt. She’d just seen too much of Finch abusing his
power on her friends and coworkers and completely getting away with it.

“So let’s get Kasim in on this, bring it up with the Commissioner.”

“You think the Commissioner doesn’t already know? I talked
to Teller and Gorski before we left, Crane. They already made an issue of it
and the Commissioner obviously hasn’t done shit.” Her voice shook with anger. “Even
after Reynolds. Even with all that evidence. Still nothing. We’ll never get
ahead around here, Crane. I say we take the pod and sell it in the Core
ourselves, cut out the middleman. We’d make enough off that to start something
out there if we’re careful.”

“These are not the kind of people we want to piss off,
Montez.”

“I’ll do it myself if you’re scared.”

“Fear is natural when dealing with known killers,” Crane
pointed out.

“You coming or not? I just got to Holding. We don’t have
long.”

Crane growled with anger. “Yeah, I’m coming. But I ain’t
happy.”

Montez pressed herself against the wall to let people slide
past her and watched as all but one of the armored HomeSec troops split off
from the cryo pod. They headed toward Receiving. The lone remaining guard
pushed the tarp-covered pod down the hall on floaters, shouting people out of
the way as he went. Montez wished she’d had time to grab her pistol from
Littlefoot,
but she would have lost sight of the pod if she had gone back.

“Crane, you almost here?” she whispered.

“Just leaving the ship. How many?”

“Only one, the others left. He went inside. I’m following
him.”

“I’ve got your gun,” Crane said. “Be careful.”

“No shit.”

“I mean it, Nita.”

Montez stopped. “You don’t call me that anymore.”

“Yeah, well.” Embarrassed, Crane fumbled for a response. “We
shouldn’t talk about this now.”

“Just… get here.”

She could either wait for Crane to show up or follow the
guard inside to see where he took the cryo pod. If she did follow she risked
getting into trouble without Crane there to back her up, but if she stayed
behind she might lose track of the pod entirely. Torn, Montez watched as the
most valuable haul she’d ever brought in disappeared around a corner.

Dismissing her reservations, Montez pursued the HomeSec
guard further. She knew the layout of Temporary Holding, but only from working
night-cycle shifts there before she trained as a pilot. Things may have changed
since then and she wasn’t sure where exactly the guard had gone. If he saw her
he could probably guess what she was after, and without armor or a weapon of
her own she couldn’t defend herself at all.

She continued down the wide hallway to Temporary Holding,
where salvagers took their cargo to be cleared before sending it to Receiving. Several
short-range gates inside airlocked storerooms connected Holding to other areas
of the asteroid base, so it served as a hub for moving things all over the
place.

Montez waited at the end of the hallway and peeked inside to
see the guard pushing the floating pod toward a private storeroom. Once inside
he’d be able to use a short-range gate to move it into Receiving when they were
ready for it.

“Almost there,” Crane said in her ear. “You still got him?”

“I see him. He’s going into a private room.”

“Wait for me.”

“It’s gone if he goes in there.”

“Don’t follow him,” Crane warned.

“He’s getting away.”

“Montez. Stop. What exactly is your plan here? A shootout
with security in the middle of Temp Holding is not going to end well for us.”

Montez clenched her fists. “That’s
our
payday.”

“It’s not worth dying over.”

“Better than living with this bullshit,” Montez snapped. Her
voice shook with anger. “Aren’t you tired of scraping by? We go out into the
belt afraid. We come back home afraid. I’m sick of it. It’s all I can feel
anymore.”

A hot flush of rage spurred Montez to action. She entered
Temporary Holding at a brisk walk and spotted the HomeSec guard at the entrance
to a private room with the cryo pod at his back. As the guard cranked the wheel
on the door to the storeroom, Montez approached, crouched behind the pod, and
glanced around to see if anyone was watching her. The few other people in
Holding seemed too absorbed in their own business to notice.

Careful not to shift the pod, Montez felt for the control
panel on the base and opened its cover, exposing the switches beneath. She
remembered the labels taped over some of them and touched what she thought was
the switch to open the pod. That would force the pod to activate and wake the
occupant before it opened. The noise from the waking process might cause a
distraction, buy Crane time to get to her. Anything to keep the guard busy. But
before she could flip the switch, the guard began to pull the cryo pod into the
storeroom.

Without missing a beat Montez darted forward into the
doorway, reached underneath the pod, activated the switch, then scrambled to
cover behind the wall outside. She stood up, leaning against the wall as she
surveyed the area again. No one saw her as far as she could tell, and the guard
still hadn’t shut the door. Montez spotted Crane searching for her as he
entered Holding, fully armored and moving fast.

She gave a little half wave, feigned a yawn. “Here.”

“What now?” Crane asked, his voice clear in her earbud.

“What’s he doing?”

“Looking at the pod. What did you do?”

“Come in after me. I’ll get him to turn his back,” Montez
said. She took a deep breath to steel her hammering heart. There would be no
turning back from this. “We’ll have to kill him, you know. We’re on the run
after this."

“I figured. Quiet and fast. Go.”

Montez rounded the corner and stepped inside the storeroom
but made no effort to sneak in. The black-armored HomeSec guard was frozen in
panic, watching the pod as it opened up.

“I’ve been wondering who was in there,” Montez said.

The guard turned to her immediately. His modulated voice
blasted from the suit’s speakers as he brought his rifle up. “The fuck are you
doing? Get out of here.”

Feigning surprise, Montez put her hands up and backed into
the nearest corner of the room. “Whoa, hey. Sorry, I wasn’t—don’t shoot!”

The guard kept his rifle trained on her, jerked its barrel
to the doorway. “Out. You’re about two seconds from—”

A blur of dark metal rushed into the room and a laser from
Crane’s pistol hit the guard’s throat, silencing him. As he did this, Crane
pulled the door shut behind him with the gravity node on his other hand. The
attack took only a moment, and Montez wasted no time rerouting the short-range
gate in the room to connect them with the hangar. As she activated the gate,
the HomeSec guard fell to the ground with a muffled gurgle.

“They’ll be after us now,” Crane said. After locking the
storeroom door, he went to close the cryo pod and did a double take when he saw
the occupant. “Holy shit, Montez.”

“Gate’s opening. Let’s go.”

“No, wait. We don’t need to go to the Core. You know who
this is?”

Montez looked inside the cryo pod to see an unconscious bald
man with tattoos all over his body. The markings seemed to cover every inch of
him, even his face. She didn’t recognize him. Confused, frustrated, and
painfully aware of each squandered second, Montez gestured for him to hurry up
and explain. “No, I don’t.”

“That’s Dreadstar.” Crane shook his head. “The pirate.
That’s him.”

“Bullshit. I’m not chasing after some fairytale treasure. Let’s
get out of here. Stick to the plan.”

Crane shut the lid and pushed the pod over to the inactive
gate. “I trusted you enough to kill a man just now.”

“We can’t—”

“This is him.”

“And even if it is, what makes you think he’d tell us?”

“We don’t need him to. Just need to sell him to someone who
thinks he would. That’s worth a damn lot more than this thing.” Crane waved
Montez over to the floating cryo pod. “Get underneath here. They could be
waiting for us in the hangar, it’ll give you some cover.”

Crouched under the pod, Montez watched as the gate’s doors
slid open to reveal the hangar on the other side. “Let’s go.”