The Assassin's Salvation (Mandrake Company) (21 page)

The lighting dimmed infinitesimally for a minute, and she glanced toward her right. The overhead illumination hadn’t changed, but some of the tropical plants had individual lamps mounted over them. Someone might have walked in front of one. Someone who had yet to make a noise.

Jamie grabbed a tuft of moss from a nearby pot, used it for insulation to snatch up the chip, and dropped both into her pocket. She eased around the banana trees, wishing their trunks had a bunch of bushy foliage to hide her, and plotted a course for the door. She didn’t know who was sneaking around in here, but it was time to find Ankari and share her findings.

She stepped over a cluster of pipes that supplied water to the various growing systems and darted for another grove of dwarf trees, not wanting to be caught out in the open. She kept glancing over her shoulder. Unfortunately, she missed seeing a dried leaf lying on the deck in front of her. Her heel came down on it with a crunch that sounded like a bomb going off in the silent room. Leaves rattled on a shrub somewhere behind her. Grimacing, Jamie squeezed in between a vertical vegetable patch and a refrigerator unit that provided annual chill hours to fruit trees. She paused with the cool metal at her back, listening hard. Her own breaths were audible, as well as the hum of the refrigeration unit, but she didn’t hear anything else. Was it possible this was all her imagination? She had taken off her patch, so nobody should be able to track her. Unless…

Her hand strayed to her pocket. Someone could be tracking the chip, such as the someone who had put it in that robot to start with. Jamie hated to give it up, but if someone wanted it, maybe the person would choose it over her, and she could escape unnoticed.

She dug it out of her pocket, wincing when another buzz of electricity ran up her arm, and dropped it under the leaves of a kale plant. Then she eased away from the refrigerator, looking all around. Vines, flowers, and green leaves filled her vision, but nothing was moving.

The door came into sight, but several clumps of planters and vertical systems blocked it. She crept in a semicircle to go around them. She had covered less than half the distance when the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Her shoulders hunched, and she couldn’t help but feel that someone was pointing a weapon at her. She tried to tell herself it was her imagination. But the feeling persisted, growing even stronger.

The door wasn’t that far. She broke into a run, darting past giant pots. When she rounded a big rack system containing plant starts, her hip clipped the corner. She scarcely felt the jab of pain, but the rattle of the racks made her wince. Fortunately, she had reached the wall beside the door, so she simply sprinted for the exit.

Something slammed into her. Jamie found herself spun around, her back shoved against the wall and a body pressed against hers, before she could react. A man’s face filled her vision, a sneer on his lips, a week’s worth of stubble on his jaw. She didn’t recognize him, but his dark eyes gleamed as they took her in.

“Going somewhere?” he whispered, leaning hard against her, using his larger mass to trap her. The hilt of a weapon—a dagger?—dug into her stomach, and he pressed something else hard into the side of her ribs. It felt like the muzzle of a pistol.

“Yes, the door if you don’t mind.” Jamie tried to calm herself, to think coherently, but fear scattered her thoughts. How did she get out of this? Sergei had shown her numerous ways to escape someone trying to snatch her arm and even to throw someone who grabbed her from behind, but what happened when she was already smashed against a wall and could barely move? He was too close for her to jerk her knee up and into his groin, not to mention that weapon pressed into her side suggested there would be unpleasant repercussions if she tried.

“Oh, I mind,” he said. “I came for the chip—can’t be leaving any evidence, now can we? Thank you for supplying it.” He lifted a black-gloved hand, showing the tiny gray square before he tucked it into a pocket. “I hadn’t realized there would be another prize here waiting for me.” His eyes flickered downward before coming back up to her lips. He smiled and shifted his weight, pushing himself harder against her, rubbing himself against her.

Horror joined the fear that was racing through her mind. Jamie tried to free her arms so she could push him away—
punch
him in the face. But he had her fully pinned with his body, which was as hard and muscled as that of any of the mercenaries. She pushed against the wall, hoping to use it for leverage, to find a way to thrust him away.

Her attempts to squirm free only excited him. “A fighter, are you?” he purred. “Good.”

He mashed his lips against hers so fiercely that he knocked her head against the wall. She reacted out of instinct, forgetting the pistol jammed against her ribs. She chomped down, catching his bottom lip and grinding back and forth as hard as she could. The metallic taste of blood spread over her tongue. It had to hurt him, and she hoped he would back away, give her an opening to escape, but he only pulled his head back enough to free his lip. Blood ran down his chin, but he grinned broadly, his eyes burning with lust. And pleasure.

“We can play like that.” He stuffed his pistol into his holster, and before she could think how she might use that to her advantage, he grabbed her breast through her shirt, twisting and digging in painfully.

She gasped, again trying to buck him away. His face lunged in like a viper, and he bit her lip as hard as she had bitten his, then sucked at it and rocked into her. Pain flooded into her, along with the terrifying realization that she might not be able to escape this, might not be able to avoid her fate. He tore her shirt with a rip, yanking half of it away and baring her breast. No, she couldn’t give up, damn it. She could still feel that knife, pressing into her even as he jammed his penis against her, panting with each thrust. He was rocking harder now, not enough to put any air between them, but maybe she could time it, get her hand over there…

His own hand came down to her waistband, his fingers curling into it. There was just enough space that she could move her arm out from under his chest. Her fingers brushed the hilt of his knife. But his hand came over hers in an instant, clamping down on her.

“No, no, girl,” he groaned. “Like your spirit, but I’ll be the only one using daggers here.”

Damn it, she needed something more sensitive than his mouth to attack. When he came back in for another kiss, she threw her head forward, hoping to smash his nose. But the wall kept her from pulling back far enough to gain momentum, and her forehead barely struck him hard enough for him to notice. He laughed again and bit her on the neck. The hand that had been restraining hers shifted to her waistband again. He started to yank it down, but the door slid open.

A surge of hope filled her body. She hoped he would be too engaged in his perversion and wouldn’t hear it, that someone would charge in and shoot him, but he stopped immediately, his head jerking in the direction of the exit.

Jamie tried again for the dagger and this time managed to get her fingers around the hilt. She yanked it free, but he knocked it out of her hand before she could jab it into him. His fist came out of nowhere, smashing into the side of her face. He had stepped back, and with nothing holding her upright, the blow was powerful enough to knock her from her feet.

She tumbled down, too dazed to worry about landing the way she had been taught. Crumpling on her side against the wall, she was barely aware of him running away. That dagger she had tried so hard to get lay on the deck in front of her. She wrapped her hand around the hilt, determined to be ready if he came back.

Then a new figure appeared in her peripheral vision.

“Jamie?” Sergei whispered, his voice thick with worry.

She pointed the dagger in the direction the man had run, but couldn’t find the words to articulate anything. She didn’t need to. Sergei must have seen enough. He leaped the rack of plant starts and disappeared into the foliage.

Hands shaking, Jamie pushed herself into a sitting position. Footsteps pounded the deck, heading toward her. She tensed, her hand tightening on the dagger, but it was only Ankari.

“Are you all right?” she whispered, crouching and offering a hand.

“Yeah,” Jamie croaked, then grimaced because she could feel blood dripping from her lip. She wiped her face and noticed her shirt, torn all the way down to the hem. “Animal,” she muttered.

“No kidding. He must be another bounty hunter. But why did he come after you? Never mind. It doesn’t matter now. We’ll get you to sickbay.”

“Wait.” Jamie pointed in the direction Sergei had gone. Even if she had pulled out his knife, that man had a laser pistol.

A crash came from the far side of the room, followed by a great shaking of leaves and snapping of branches.

“This way.” Ankari took her hand and tried to lead her to the door.

“He wanted the chip from the robot,” Jamie whispered, not letting herself be pulled away. If Sergei needed help, maybe she could do something, if only throw the knife at that thug.

“We’ll get more men down here to finish him off,” Ankari said.

More leaves rustled to Jamie’s right, and she jumped. Sergei stepped out from behind a few trees, his eyes gleaming with exhilaration. Blood spattered his gray shirt, but there weren’t any rips or gaps, so it couldn’t be his.

“Not necessary,” he said, smiling.

Then his gaze latched onto Jamie, and his pleasure at winning the fight disappeared from his face.

“Oh, Jamie,” he whispered and strode toward her, almost running. “I’m sorry we weren’t faster, sooner,
something
.” He wrapped her in a fierce hug that startled her. “I wanted to protect you.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I—I love you.” As soon as the sentence escaped, he leaned back and clasped a hand across his mouth, wincing.

The words stunned Jamie. Or maybe it was the hug. Her body was still on high alert, and she stumbled back, the memories of the thug attacking her flashing to the forefront of her mind. Sergei let her go, but it was all she could do not to push him away.

She was panting, the fear still there, refusing to relinquish its hold even as she groped to parse his words. She couldn’t, not right now. “I… I need…”

“The sickbay,” Ankari said firmly and frowned at Sergei. His shoulders slumped, and he hung his head.

This time when Ankari took her hand and led her to the door, Jamie followed, too scared to look back, not wanting… not wanting anything but to be left alone.

Chapter 12

Sergei stared at the whorls in the real wood table, struggling to focus on Mandrake’s words. Sergeant Hazel, Commander Garland, and a tracker, Sergeant Tick, were also in the briefing room. They were talking about the assassins and some information Jamie had shared from sickbay—that the chip had been purchased by people working for that finance lady back on the planet. Sergei was supposed to be listening, supposed to be ready to share his plan when prompted, but he couldn’t stop dwelling on that horrible ten seconds with Jamie over and over again.

What had he been
thinking
? She had just been mauled. He had seen that as soon as he ran in, and it had filled him with so much fury and loathing that he had barely been able to think, to remember his training, when he had stalked the bastard who had done it. It had felt so good to leap down on his prey from the pipes overhead, to smash him to the ground, and to cut his throat. When he had run back to find Jamie, he had been full of the satisfaction of the kill, that feeling of triumph, and he’d had a distinct image in his mind of Jamie throwing her arms around him and proclaiming him her hero. He had wanted… what Mandrake had. Ankari had thrown her arms around
him
without hesitation. But Ankari hadn’t just been beaten up and almost raped. Sergei should have realized right away that Jamie was too scared and hurt to think about heroes. But he hadn’t been able to stand back, to give her the room she needed, not when she had been slumped there, bleeding, her clothes torn, her eyes full of fear and confusion. All he had been able to think was to hug her, to make her feel better, to assure her the threat had passed. He hadn’t meant to blurt out his love for her. Of all the horrible timing… He shouldn’t have said that, and he certainly shouldn’t have hugged her, not then. She must have felt trapped all over again. She must hate him. She probably felt tricked by him. Love, God, he’d never even warned her that he had any kind of feelings for her. He wanted to crawl under the table and disappear.

“Zharkov,” Mandrake said, his tone dry.

Sergei lifted his head. Judging by all the faces turned toward him, that hadn’t been the first time Mandrake had said his name.

“Yes, sir?” he asked, hoping he hadn’t been asked a question too.

“Ankari said you have a plan for dealing with this Laframboise woman. People wiser than I have implied that flying the
Albatross
down there and blowing up the woman’s entire floating island wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“There are a thousand innocent people living there besides her, Captain,” Sergeant Hazel said dryly.

“Yes, sir.” Sergei struggled to put Jamie out of his mind for the moment, though that was going to be hard since this had all been her plan—what if she had no interest in going down there with him now? How was
he
going to fake his way through an interview about maintaining robots? “There are job openings on Laframboise’s island, and there’s going to be a job fair this weekend. We, ah, Ms. Flipkens and I…” He paused, looking warily around the room, especially at the captain and Sergeant Hazel. He feared Ankari had already shared the details of the grow room incident with them. Sergei had taken a few minutes to wash off the blood and to change clothes before coming up here, and everyone had already been here. Neither Hazel nor the captain frowned at him or looked irritated, though, so maybe Ankari hadn’t shared
all
of the details. Yet. “I’m not sure if she’s still interested in helping, but we were both going to apply for the jobs of robot maintenance experts that are open. I was going to be tough and thuggish and scare away the other applicants.”