Empress Game: The Empress Game Trilogy Book 1 (38 page)

Her stomach rolled with a space-sick flip, then the floor rushed up to meet her.

M
alkor lay on his belly on the rooftop of a building in Shimville. Across the distance of an alley sat the building Janeen was holed-up in. Even for Shimville, this wasn’t a good part of town. The buildings were more like two-story shanties than real warehouses, and bars on the windows was about as high-tech as it got.

Except for Janeen’s place, of course.

Rutcker hadn’t lied—she had some sweet gadgets installed. The data array on the roof could send and receive transmissions not only planet-wide, but galaxy-wide. The scanner tucked under the overhang on the front of the building was a PLuA-4100, capable of reading the credentials embedded in any lithodisc bracelet within fifty meters. Not only was it recording appearance and biomass data on everyone who walked by, it was IDing them as well. Definitely not standard IDC-issue.

Of more concern to him, though, was the automated perimeter defense system. It bore the mark of Hundin tech, which meant it had micrometer precision targeting capabilities. It could be programmed to trigger on any number of mechanics, such as movement, proximity, body heat and so on. The trick was finding the trip. Janeen wouldn’t want to shoot everyone who walked down the alley for a black-market deal. The bodies would stack up. Maybe a tight-range proximity? One or two smugglers get too close to the building and soon word gets around to avoid this section of Shimville. In any case, that beast would have to be disarmed before rescue could be attempted.

Initial thermal scans showed the presence of two adults on the first floor and one child-sized on the second. Had to be Corinth. He couldn’t guess who the second adult heat-signature belonged to. Who would a rogue IDC agent have over for dinner at her safehouse? A hired merc for security? Another rogue agent? Or someone higher up on the food chain?

The cynicism that had stalked Malkor for years over IDC’s misuse of power solidified. What kind of element within IDC would have recruited and trained Janeen for her position as a double agent—and how large was that element?

Malkor pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the mission.

He’d take out the data relay first, then the automated defenses. The scanner on the front of the building could stay. He readied a spider dart with an electromag tip and fitted it into the barrel of his backup weapon, a versatile hand-launcher that fired any number of projectiles. He had a few gems loaded into it already and a couple of special-occasion goodies in a pocket of his tac-suit. Nothing beat the spider dart for surveillance, though.

He fired the dart square into the center of the relay’s casing. Electric shocks shot from it and wrapped around the casing in all directions.

One data relay—fried.

Perimeter defenses next.

The weapon nodes for the defenses were affixed halfway up the exterior of the building, and the main control unit would be inside. He’d have to shut it down the hard way, node by node.

The nodes covered the building evenly front-to-back, making neither the front nor rear exit a more attractive option.

Rear exit it was, then.

He made his way across the roof until he was parallel with the back of Janeen’s building. He spotted a node on each corner and one directly above the door. The others wouldn’t wrap around the building so he had three nodes to disable.

Gee, was that all?

He pulled a datapad from his pack and set it to scan, angling it for the closest node on the corner. A close-up look with zoom lenses showed two points of weakness: the ratchet clip locking the node in place and the trinium sensor. Ideally disabling the sensor would prevent the node from going off, no matter what the trigger was. Assuming, of course, that disabling the sensor wouldn’t trigger it anyway.

What a pain in the ass.

Damn you, Janeen
.

His scan showed what he already suspected: the node was hardwired to the mainframe, meaning a spider dart wouldn’t be able to short-circuit it. That would have been too easy.

He could target the ratchet clip. The acid in a widow dart could, if placed correctly, liquefy the component, dropping the node to the ground. Of course, that might also set the node off.

Trinium circuitry was notoriously delicate, and shooting out the sensor with a pellet projectile would be a lot quieter than sending a fist-sized node crashing to the ground from one and a half stories up.

Disabling the sensor it was.

Malkor spun the chamber on his hand-launcher to align with the pellet and aimed at the closest node. Praying that the node would go down without a fight, Malkor took a deep breath, let it out, and fired.

The node didn’t fire back.

Thank the void.

Another glance through the zoom lenses confirmed the hit. One trinium sensor—annihilated. He disabled the other two quickly.

At least, they had better be disabled. Either that or he was about to get shot.

His tac-suit would absorb two to three blasts from an ion pistol and had enough body armor to provide protection in a hand-to-hand combat situation, but who knows what punch those nodes packed. He was looking at a serious maiming if he’d been wrong about the sensors.

Malkor selected two web darts from his pocket and loaded them into the launcher. The dart, once fired, would blow its tip and shoot a plasma web at the target, big enough to wrap an adult from shoulder to hips. Once the center of it touched something, the web would spread and wrap around the object before adhering to itself at the edges into a nearly indestructible plasma cage. Handy for trapping prisoners you’d rather interrogate than kill. Or interrogate,
then
kill.

Downside? It launched at a low velocity, and a target with enough presence of mind to make a dive could dodge the web. Hence the backup.

He messaged Hekkar that he was breaching the perimeter, then climbed down to land boots-first in the alley behind Janeen’s place.

He grinned at the silent nodes.
Take that, Janeen
.
Still not as slick as your octet leader, no matter who’s backing you
.

He crossed the alley to the back door. No visible alarms from outside but there wasn’t a chance she’d left it unwired. She was too cautious to rely solely on the defense nodes, and, sadly, too clever to give him something to disable from this side. Ah well, he was tired of the stealth technique anyway.

He drew his ion pistol and hand-launcher and took the direct route—boot-heel to door. The thing burst inward and set off a pulsing alarm. He caught the backswing on his arm as he sprinted into the building. The short hallway had doors on either side, but scrambling came from straight ahead on the main warehouse floor. The speed of his steps brought him into the open area before Janeen and an IDC agent he recognized as Thack could respond.

They were about three meters apart and froze when Malkor came into view, a weapon trained on each of them. The warehouse had an open space in the center where Janeen had set up a command post. Stacks of crates took up the rest of the two-story space, and to his left a set of stairs led up to a loft.

Thack cut his gaze to Janeen, clearly looking to her for a sign of what to do. Malkor shot an ion blast at the floor beside his left foot. “Don’t move.”

“You can’t be serious,” Janeen said. She held her hand away from the weapon at her hip, but looked ready to draw. “You came alone to take the two of us on?”

“The rest of the octet’s here.”

“You wouldn’t be kicking in back doors if they were.” Still, she glanced over his shoulder to the hallway behind him, then at the window to her left.

He gestured with his gun. “Looks like I’m doing just fine.”

“What, with one pistol and a hand-launcher?”

“That’s more than you have in hand.”

“Where’s the princess?” Thack asked.

Janeen answered for him. “He didn’t come to trade. He thinks he’s here for a rescue.”

“Oh, I know I am,” Malkor said.

“Give us the girl. This doesn’t have to get messy.”

The slow boil of anger in his chest kicked up a notch. “Tell that to Vid. And Trinan.”

She frowned. “You know I didn’t want that. He should have just handed over the boy.”

“Where’s Corinth?”

She didn’t answer.

“You—”

She bolted toward the nearest stack of crates, drawing her weapon on the way.

“Frutt!” He got off a shot with the launcher but she dove to the floor and the plasma web sailed over her head. She scrambled for the crates while Thack darted in the opposite direction. Malkor nailed him in the back just as Thack made it to the cover of a cargo pile.

Malkor ran for cover himself when he heard Janeen’s ion pistol drawing charge.

The stairs. He had to get between her and the stairs. If she made it to Corinth first and used him as a hostage they were done. He was Corinth’s
ro’haar
now, he’d die before he let anything happen to him… and that might be exactly how it went down.

A blast splintered the crate near his head.

At least it was only one blast. Hopefully Thack had been too injured to do more than lie there and try not to die.

Malkor crept toward the stairs, keeping the containers at one shoulder while he rotated the cylinder on the launcher to dial up the next web dart. Another shot, from closer to the stairs this time. Damnit. He came to a break in the cargo and peeked through to see her desk area. Malkor took a second to shoot out the mainframe for the perimeter defenses. Who knew what exit he and Corinth would be leaving by in a hurry and he’d rather not get killed on the way out.

He hustled across the opening, taking fire as he crossed to the next stack of crates. He narrowed in on the stairs, but based on the direction of her shots she was getting there quicker. He couldn’t afford to fire back. No way he’d risk killing her when she had a billion pieces of information he needed. He needed to get her out in the open so he could use the plasma web on her.

Only one chance for that.

Malkor glanced at the rickety metal stairs leading to the loft. If he let her reach them first and she thought she could get to Corinth before him, she’d be channeled in a straight line while she climbed them. Nothing would impede a shot with the launcher from the base of the steps, assuming he could get there quickly enough. And assuming he hit her before she could shoot him from her higher ground.

Of course, if he missed, she’d have Corinth and he’d be dead.

She took the decision out of his hands when she hit the first stair and started to back her way up them, pistol trained on the spot she thought he’d emerge from. She’d underestimated him, though, and he was one stack of cargo boxes ahead. Not that it would help him much once she spotted him, which she would if she reached any higher.

Now or never.

He stepped from behind his cover and aimed the hand-launcher. He took a shot to the shoulder that his suit absorbed, then one to the chest that started to burn through the material. The dart launched with painful slowness and when the web sprang open Janeen grabbed the stair rail as if she meant to vault over it. The web hit her side on and she crashed to the metal steps as the plasma wound around her. The
thunk
of her head striking the edge of a stair was as satisfying as her grunt of pain.

Something punched into his shoulder blade and fire erupted across his back. The impact doubled him over and the next shot grazed his ear.

Thack. Apparently the frutter hadn’t died.

Malkor looked back and saw Thack standing across the open space, one hand wrapped to his ribs, the other aiming a pistol at Malkor’s head.

So much for Corinth’s rescue.

Malkor couldn’t even stand against the burning pain so he turned, still at a crouch, and faced the man down. At least he’d have to look in his eyes as he shot him.

Thack gasped, clutching at his ribs and taking several shallow breaths. Malkor smiled.
That’s what you get, you double-agent bastard.

The spasm passed and Thack straightened, aiming his weapon again.

SSzzzt
.

An ion blast seared the air and Thack’s head whipped forward. Blank eyes stared at Malkor as his dead body toppled face-first to the ground. Smoke rose in a crooked waft from the back of his head. Malkor raised his eyes to the man standing behind him, weapon still pointed in Malkor’s direction. Beyond that the front door of the building stood open to the night.

“Sir.”

Commander Parrel held the pistol trained on him.

“Are you going to shoot me as well?” Malkor asked.

Parrel chuckled. “Don’t be an idiot.” He holstered the pistol and came forward to help Malkor to his feet. “Who am I going to blame for Thack’s death, otherwise?”

Malkor gritted his teeth against the pain and straightened as best he could manage, uncertain if he should thank the man or shoot him.

“You can put the guns away, Agent Rua. I’m here to help.” Parrel held his gaze, waiting patiently for Malkor to decide which side he was on.

Malkor didn’t sheathe his weapons. “I’m here for the boy.”

Parrel nodded. “I know you are. You did excellent work tracking down Agent Nuagyn, we’ve been looking for her too. You’ve got your reasons for being here and I think we’re on the same side.”

Malkor fought against the pain in his shoulder. “Right now, I don’t give a damn why you’re here, as long as you don’t plan to shoot me in the back.”

Parrel shook his head.

“Good.” Malkor dropped the pistol from his near useless left hand and sheathed his launcher before making his grueling way up the stairs. “Corinth?” he called up into the loft. “Corinth?”

Janeen moaned as he passed.

The loft was sparsely furnished with a bed, dresser, table and a food synthesizer. Corinth lay on the bed, bound hand and foot by magcuffs. He looked pale as death in the weak light coming through the windows and didn’t twitch when Malkor touched his neck, but he had a pulse.

Malkor sighed out the tension that had been strangling him, and sank to the bed. He rested his hand on Corinth’s forehead. So small. Too small to have been through so much. Malkor felt a need rise up inside him, a need to keep Corinth not only safe, but sheltered. To provide him not only protection, but happiness.