Mercenary Instinct (a science fiction romance) (8 page)

He rubbed his eyes and yawned again, not sure
why he was expending so much mental effort on musing about her. She
knew mashatui, and she might have been born on Spero. So, what? It
didn’t change anything. She was still a criminal and still had to
be delivered to Felgard, especially since Viktor had told Felgard
he had her. If he hadn’t sent word so early, he might have...

“Might have what?” he grumbled to himself.
Let her go? Why? Because she might be from a world that had been
destroyed? Because he was from a world that had been destroyed? It
wasn’t as if they were even the same worlds. “Nothing in common;
nothing that matters.”

He waved at the holographic display above the
desk to restart it. He hadn’t been paying attention, and Zimonjic
was already walking out of the cell. This time, he watched more
carefully, but it wasn’t until the third iteration that he spotted
Markovich’s quick move, her lower hand subtly delving into the
doctor’s pocket. On the video, he couldn’t even see what she had
pulled out or where she had hidden it, but he had seen enough. She
had deft fingers.

A thief, a martial artist, and an
entrepreneur. And a criminal. “Busy girl.”

A chime sounded. His sleepy mind thought it
was the door—he was expecting Striker, as soon as a nurse cleared
him as fit for duty and he couldn’t hide out in sickbay any
longer—but he realized it was just his comm. “What?”

“It’s Thomlin, sir. I got into Markovich’s
account and have the message you asked for.”

“Good. Send it to me.” Viktor felt a little
sheepish at prying into her personal mail, but he had to know whom
she had contacted and why. For all he knew, she might be arranging
some ambush for the
Albatross
, so she and her friends could
slip away.
He
would certainly be trying something of that
ilk.

“Yes, sir.” Thomlin, his chief intel officer,
didn’t sound that excited about the message, so it probably didn’t
promise a nefarious threat to the ship.

Viktor read it right away, anyway. Whether he
wanted to admit it or not, this woman had piqued his curiosity.
When he finished, he wondered if he should have read it after all.
It could have been part of her on-going act—she must have suspected
that someone on the ship would be talented enough to hack into her
account and read her outgoing messages—but her plea for her friend
to figure out why there was a bounty on her head made him shift his
weight uncomfortably. He had already seen the research she had been
doing in the rec room, first reading over her wanted poster, and
then finding everything she could on Felgard. He was getting the
unpleasant feeling that maybe, just maybe, she had been telling the
truth, that the poster was a mistake or a fraud and that she wasn’t
a criminal.

“Just because she isn’t aware of her crime
doesn’t mean she hasn’t committed one,” he told himself sturdily.
Because to believe otherwise would mean he had captured her and
destroyed her ship for no good reason at all.

The door chimed. This time it was
Striker.

“Get in here,” Viktor said.

Striker slouched inside, halting half a step
inside the threshold, clearly not wanting to come farther. “Sir?”
he asked warily.

“You disobeyed my orders,” Viktor said
softly, in what the crew recognized as his dangerous voice.
Sometimes, at times like this, it was an affectation, but there
were other times when he barely knew he was using it. That was when
he was truly irritated. This was a mild inconvenience, an example
needing to be set.

“I know, sir. I thought... I mean, I didn’t
think—”

“No. No, you didn’t.”

Striker hung his head.

“You’ll take an extra shift for the next two
weeks, during which you’ll run a diagnostic on every piece of
battle armor for every crew member. I want each suit cleaned and
polished, as well. You’ll be up at five a.m. every day, too, to
teach the morning unarmed combat class. It seems you need a
brush-up.

Striker winced. “I was drugged, sir. I
couldn’t move as fast as usual.”

The captain wasn’t all that sure that would
have mattered, but he wouldn’t argue and humiliate the man further
than he already was. “Yes, sir, is the expected response, nothing
more,” he said, his tone cold and clipped.

“Yes, sir.”

All in all, it wasn’t much of a punishment,
so Striker shouldn’t have reason for resentment. It was more of a
warning. Viktor preferred not to dock men their pay or reduce their
rank, since things like that
were
cause for resentment, but
he couldn’t have prisoners roaming free about the ship.

“One more thing before you start your extra
duties,” Viktor said.

“Yes?” A wary glance.

“Find the women’s gear, check it for anything
that might be used to facilitate an escape or overpower someone—”
Viktor raised his brows with significance, “—and remove it. But
give them the rest of their stuff. Their fecal samples and
equipment for examining them, or whatever they have in there.”

“All right... but why, sir?”

Why, indeed? “Because I said so.”

“Yes, sir.”

The morning brought two gifts: the team’s
bags of equipment and three egg logs, the latter being the
mercenary equivalent of breakfast. Nobody had offered them dinner
the night before, so Ankari was hungry enough to rip open the
wrapper of her “log” without scrutinizing the ingredients list.
Some things were probably better left a mystery, anyway.

“I don’t understand this,” Lauren said,
standing over her open pack, “but I’m tickled to see my collapsible
BioEye 973.” She pulled out a compact field unit that was a
combination microscope and sensor unit. “My field generator is even
in here.”

Ankari opened her own pack and immediately
noticed that the rope and rappelling kit had been removed, along
with a multi-purpose knife and a laser cutting tool. All of the
samples she had gathered were there. “Guess they assumed we
couldn’t use fossilized remains to formulate an escape.”

“I’ll take those,” Lauren said brightly,
holding out her hand. She had already settled cross-legged on the
floor and didn’t seem daunted by the notion of setting up a field
lab in a tiny room with no tables, sinks, or power outlets.

“It takes so little to make you happy.”
Ankari laid the samples out beside her. “You were a good
investment.”

Lauren smiled. “Of course I was.”

“Let me know if I can help with
anything.”

Lauren didn’t respond. She had already bored
into one of the samples and scraped out fine particles to make her
first slide, and she was busy with the microscope. The humming
sensors doubtlessly told her more than eyes alone could.

Ankari settled on the floor against the
bench, sitting next to Jamie, who was inspecting the wrapper before
opening her egg log.

“Eat it,” Ankari suggested. “You’re already
on the lanky side. You shouldn’t be missing meals. Not if you want
to keep attracting the eye of sexy mercenaries.”

“Uh. Which one was the sexy one, because I
know you’re not talking about that thug from last night?”

“You liked the captain, didn’t you? Though he
is a little old for you.”

Jamie snorted. “
I’m
not the one he
watches when he comes down here.”

“No, because you’re not the one who talks a
lot and pickpockets his people.” Ankari bit into her breakfast and
eyed the corner of the desk at the end of the corridor. The day
guard didn’t throw his boots on it—maybe he considered himself more
professional than the movie-watching night-shift man—but he was up
there. He’d brought them the gear and food, then disappeared into
the alcove. What could she try next to escape? At the least, she
wanted a chance to read whatever message Fumio might have sent
back. But preferably, she’d find a way for them to get off the ship
altogether.

“No doubt, that’s why you left with the thug
last night and came back with
him
. You must have done
something he appreciated.” Jamie waved to the packs.

“I don’t know what, since I was knocking out
his men and breaking into his computer system.” Ankari supposed
logging onto the rec room computer wasn’t technically “breaking
into” anything. And she’d only knocked out the one man... But her
words earned her an admiring smile from Jamie.

“You’re so brave. I would have been terrified
of going off with that Striker. I
was
terrified.”

“An understandable reaction. He was
dangerous. I’m just too busy scheming to realize I’m in danger
sometimes.”

“Are you scheming now?” Jamie asked.

“I’m—”

The guard chose that moment to walk back to
their cell. He didn’t say anything, but he watched Lauren for a
moment. He was probably making sure they couldn’t blow anything up
with the gear they had.

“Morgen,” a voice said over his comm.

He tapped the patch. “Here.”

“Striker assigned you to his team for the
scouting mission. When you get off shift, report to the staging
room. You’ll be going down tonight.”

“Good. Thanks.”

“Going down where?” Ankari asked casually.
Just out of curiosity, of course, not because she wanted to know if
they were approaching a planet or station where three women might
find a way to disappear if they were crafty enough to escape their
captors...

“Nowhere that has anything to do with you,”
the guard said and walked back to his station.

“Wanna bet?” Ankari muttered.

“You
are
scheming,” Jamie
whispered.

“Always. Listen... do you think you could fly
one of these mercenary shuttles if we managed to get aboard
one?”

Jamie’s face crinkled dubiously. “Maybe
eventually, but probably not right away. I’d have to familiarize
myself with everything first and find the technical manuals.”

Something that she wouldn’t have time to do
if they knocked out guards and blew their way into the shuttle bay.
Not that Ankari could imagine a scenario in which that happened
anyway.

“I’m sorry.” Jamie poked at her knee. “If you
had a real pilot, she would have gone through military or civilian
flight school and would be familiar with a lot of the models out
there.”

A
real
pilot would have commanded a
hefty salary and a big share of the company too. Jamie had been so
eager to escape her home world that she probably would have worked
for free. As it was, the five percent share she had accepted had
thus far amounted to nothing, and she
was
working for free.
Though she didn’t seem to mind, Ankari vowed to see her vision
completed and her company worth something before the year was out.
She eyed the confines of the brig. They just had to get past one
small obstacle first...

“You’re doing fine,” Ankari said. “And maybe
I can get you a technical manual that you could study
beforehand.”

“Beforehand? What’s happening... after
hand?”

“We’re going wherever he’s going,” Ankari
murmured, nodding toward the guard desk. She had no idea what this
new mercenary mission might entail, but if there was going to be a
preliminary scouting mission, there should be a full-fledged
assault at some point after that. If most of the crew went along on
that, that could be the perfect time to escape.

“Tonight?”

“Tonight or more likely tomorrow. We’ll get
off the ship, disappear on the world or station or whatever we’re
approaching, and leave our mercenary friends forever. And find
somewhere safe to hide until we can get this bounty problem
solved.” Ankari scooted up to Lauren, tapping her on the shoulder.
“You know that generator you mentioned? Didn’t you once say that it
could make electromagnetic pulses?”

“That’s one of the energy forms it can
generate, yes.”

“And you said they left it in there?”

“Yes.” Lauren tapped the pack—hers had always
been the heaviest. “They took my nail file, but not an energy
generator.”

“Because it looks like scientific equipment,
not a weapon.”

“It
is
scientific equipment.”

“I know, but is there any chance it could
disrupt the force field?”

“Uhhh.” Lauren gave the invisible shield a
skeptical look. “Maybe with Jamie’s help, I could try to come up
with... something. But I couldn’t make any promises.”

“Do your best.” Even if the generator could
free them from the brig, Ankari would still have to figure out a
way to get into the shuttle bay, not to mention finding a manual
for Jamie. Still, if the ship would soon be light on crew members,
that would be the time to try an escape.

“This is another instance when a technical
manual would be useful,” Jamie said, waving toward the force field.
“One of
this
ship, this time.”

“The manuals for the ship and the shuttles
are probably on the tablets the crew all have. I’ll see if I can
get you one.” Ankari stood up, hoping the guard would respond if
she called him back here.

“How are you going to do that?” Jamie
asked.

“Chat with the captain.” Ankari wriggled her
fingers to imply she might do a little more than
chat
.

“Without the force field being involved?”

Yes, picking pockets through that would be
challenging.

“Well, I’d like to thank him for his
generosity.” Ankari waved at the packs. “Maybe he’d let me do that
over lunch or dinner.”

Jamie’s face grew skeptical. “If you can make
that happen, I’ll be impressed. I’ll be even more impressed if you
can get something better than an egg log out of him.” She lifted
her unopened breakfast package.

“I will.”

“Better stop glaring so hard at him then,”
Lauren added without looking up from her work. “I’m pretty sure he
knows you want to fry his balls off for blowing up your ship.”

“Er, was I that obvious about that?” She had
been trying hard to be civil the day before...