Private Dicks (51 page)

Which left him with waiting and hoping that Elis' plan worked, and that this wasn't the last time he'd get to hold Elis.

*~*~*

Elis woke about fifteen minutes before he requested Shi wake him. He jerked awake suddenly, tensing in Shi's hold before abruptly relaxing. He didn't move for a long moment, and Shi started to think he'd fallen asleep again when Elis spoke.

"Did I miss anything?"

"A search party," Shi said, following Elis' lead and not moving. "They did a half-assed search and then left, about half an hour ago."

Elis nodded, then shifted, sliding away from Shi. Shi let him go, anxiety churning to the surface again. The search party hadn't seemed particularly intent on finding them, but he had no doubt their faces were plastered across the ship. How in the world were they going to make it to the hangar without being caught when the ship was the busiest and most crowded it ever was?

Light poured into the cubby as Elis kicked the box blocking the end out of place. He slid out, and Shi followed, climbing awkwardly to his feet when he was free. Stretching out sore, cramped muscles, Shi glanced at Elis, frowning when he realized Elis had taken the tablet from him at some point. Shi usually noticed when Elis lifted things from him. He must really be distracted.

"Can you jam the door?" Elis asked, not looking up as his fingers flew over the tablet. "Ah-hah." Elis grinned, taking a few steps to his left. He looked down at the floor, then up at Shi. "Do you know how?"

"Yeah, sure," Shi said, leaving Elis to his inspection of the floor. He jogged across the cargo bay, his boots ringing on the metal tiles. The door was large, to accommodate the larger crates that were stored in the bay, so it wouldn't be easily blocked physically. He didn't know where the door mechanisms were in the frame, which left the most rudimentary means.

Prying off the top panel on the door control, Shi tossed it aside, studying the wires for a moment. The configuration was completely foreign to him, but he hadn't expected anything else. Drawing his stun gun, Shi wedged it in under the circuitry and fired a blast. Sparks flew from the control panel, and the doors shuddered in their tracks, shuddering open a few inches and then slamming shut.

Tucking the gun back into the waistband of his pants, Shi tried pressing the remnants of the control panel. The door didn't so much as twitch. Turning, he glanced at Ellis, but Elis was prying up floor panels. Leaving him to it, Shi started moving crates, creating a nice, thick barrier in front of the door in case someone got the bright idea to manually pull the doors open. That done, Shi returned to Elis' side, staring at the hole Elis had created in the floor.

"Our escape route, I assume?" Shi asked, watching as Elis shoved wires and thin, flexible piping out of the way. The space beneath the flooring was about two feet thick, and Elis had managed to find the perfect spot to pull up the floor tiles. There were support beams running alongside the opening, but not through it. There wasn't very much in the way of wires and piping in the way, and Shi could see light through the tiles lining the bottom of the space.

"That's the hangar, down there," Elis said, pointing. He flashed Shi a grin, looking inordinately pleased with himself. "We just have to knock the tiles out, jump in a ship, and go."

"Oh, only that?" Shi said, rolling his eyes. "How are we getting down? The hangar has to be very tall. Dropping from the ceiling to the floor will end with broken bones."

"I'm working on that," Elis said, glancing around the cargo bay thoughtfully. "What do you suppose is in those crates?"

"Drugs," Shi guessed, squinting at the nearest crate. It was completely unmarked, with not even customs seals or the planetary origins stamped on the box. Glancing back down into the hole Elis had made, Shi gestured to the piping. "What do you suppose runs through there?"

"Don't know," Elis said, leaning over to reach for the pipe. He pulled it out, the pipe coming with little resistance. It was clear, which meant either recycled water or coolant. Hopefully the former, since the latter would cause some rather nasty chemical burns. Elis studied it for a moment, then shrugged and picked up his flat metal bit. He set a curl of the pipe down on the floor, then dug a corner of the metal bit into the pipe.

It gave with some pressure, and liquid spilled out onto the floor. Shi edged closer, but the acrid smell of coolant was conspicuously missing. A water pipe, then.

"That'll work," Elis said, and they both jumped when something banged loudly on the cargo bay door. "Here, you work that apart, I'll see how much length I can get."

Shi nodded, dropping to his knees. He started twisting and turning the plastic piping, working the split in it bigger. His fingers kept slipping, the steady flow of water making the pipe slick and hard to maneuver. The steady pounding on the door continued, and Shi glared at the door when the pipe slid from his fingers once more.

Giving up on getting it apart with his fingers, Shi lifted the pipe to his mouth and bit it. The water in the pipe was definitely recycled, Shi noted, wrinkling his nose as the metallic taste of it washed through his mouth. The pipe came finally came apart, and Shi tossed the split pieces down, spitting out the nasty water.

"What?" Shi asked, crossing his arms at the amused look Elis was giving him. "It worked, didn't it?"

"I didn't say anything." Elis leaned over the hole to swiftly wrap the pipe around a support beam. He'd gotten a good length, and Shi swallowed, not sure he liked the idea of rappelling down into who knew what. "Get your gun out. Follow my lead."

Shi nodded, glancing at the cargo bay door as the noise suddenly increased. The door was open a fraction, and he could hear shouted commands now, though they made little sense through the barrier of crates. Elis was working on prying up the panels that made up the ceiling of the hangar, and Shi hoped no one looked up until it was too late.

Elis tossed the last panel behind him. It clattered loudly, and Shi barely registered the noise as Elis dropped the length of pipe down through the hole. The hangar below was brightly lit, but that was all Shi had time to notice as Elis threw himself down the pipe, his hands wrapped around it. Shi followed suit, realizing he was disregarding Elis' command to get his gun out, but in the next second he was glad for it. The pipe was slippery, and he needed both hands to slow his descent.

The pipe ended a good four feet above the ground, and Shi's hands slipped off it before he realized what was happening. He landed hard, falling to his knees. Elis was already moving though, and Shi pulled his stun gun, forcing himself to move despite the pain radiating up through his knees. He shot one man who tried to rush them, then sprinted after Elis, who was darting through the hangar like his ass was on fire.

Shouts and the sound of stun gun fire rang through the hangar, echoing through the enclosure and making everything seem much more chaotic. Shi took down another security goon, even as Elis dropped two more goons without a stun gun. Shi didn't have time to be envious of Elis' skills or to worry if Elis could keep it up, as another goon rushed towards him. A stunner blast grazed Shi's left arm, leaving it numb, and he grimaced, leveling his own stun gun at the man and firing off a blast. It hit the man square in the chest… but the man didn't drop and Shi cursed, throwing the gun at the man before he could recover.

The gun clipped the goon's shoulder, startling him and giving Shi enough time to close the distance between them. Shi gave the man a solid punch to the face, grimacing as his knuckles—already sore from hitting the security goon earlier—split under the new assault. The goon stumbled, tripped, and Shi shoved him, knocking him down. He grabbed the stun gun in the man's hand, wrestling it free after a moment and a knee to the man's stomach, and then stumbled free and shot the bastard before he could try to get up again.

"Shi!" Elis shouted, and Shi's head whipped around, towards the noise. Elis was standing on the loading ramp of a small ship, waving at him impatiently. He'd picked up his own stun gun somewhere, and he shot at a goon trying to be sneaky and shoot from behind a stack of crates. Shi added his own shot, darting across the open space and shaking his numb arm to try and force feeling into it.

"Hurry, hurry," Elis muttered, backing up the ramp and shooting off another few stunner blasts. Shi slammed the side of his hand down on the button that would raise the ramp, turning to fire another stun blast through the rapidly closing ramp.

The ramp closed, plunging them into sudden quiet, and Shi let his arm fall to his side, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. His arm was still numb, though he thought he could feel his fingertips starting to tingle.

"You all right?" Elis asked, moving swiftly to the control panel where Shi was standing. He punched a few buttons, then glanced up at Shi questioningly.

"Arm's numb," Shi said, making a face. "You?"

"Fine," Elis said, grinning as though this was the most fun he'd had in years. His cheeks were flushed and his hair was askew, and even though he was thinner than he should be, he was still Elis, and Shi wanted nothing more than to pull him close and kiss him senseless. Elis seemed to have the same thought, leaning closer—

Something chirped from the front of the ship, and Elis jerked away. Shi pushed away his disappointment—there were more important things to focus on at the moment. Elis jogged through the small cargo bay towards the stairs that led to the rest of the ship, and Shi made himself follow, keeping an eye out for anyone who might have taken refuge—or was lying in wait—on the ship itself.

It was a small ship, not a short range transport, but not much bigger. Most of the space on the ship would be dedicated to fuel reserves, and Shi hoped that, if they got out of Volkov's flagship, those reserves would take them somewhere other than the middle of space.

They encountered no one on their way to the bridge, and Elis immediately made himself at home, propping Shi's tablet up on top of the main navigation console. He leaned down, pulling free a panel below the console and fishing out some wires. Shi shook his head, wondering just how much training Elis had, that he could pull apart electronics and reprogram them and hook them into other systems without hesitating.

He was a member of Team Bakala, Shi reminded himself, taking up a position where he could see the door. His whole hand was tingling now, as though he'd slept on it wrong and it had fallen asleep, but times ten. Grimacing, Shi shook his arm, keeping his freshly acquired stun gun at the ready as Elis muttered to himself at the navigation console.

"Anything I can do?" Shi asked, at the risk of distracting Elis.

Not looking up, Elis pointed at a chair across the deck, situated in front of a small console. "Sit down. Strap in. Try to find the weapon systems."

Shi obediently headed that way, nearly tripping over himself when the engines suddenly roared to life. Elis was muttering under his breath, but he'd sat down and was taking the time to strap himself in, so Shi moved more quickly to his designated seat. He'd barely managed to sit down and struggle into the restraining harness before the ship gave a familiar lurch, shoving out of its docking clamps and into the air.

He did not want to be anyone in the hangar bay; the discharge from the ship's engines would be heating the hangar quickly. If they didn't immediately evacuate, they'd be charred to a crisp or killed whenever Elis got the hangar bay door open. Dismissing that thought, Shi focused on the console in front of him.

The console flared to life when he hit the button to unlock it. Shi rolled his eyes as the heading of the screen lit up: Weapons Offense Interface. The ship was moving, and Shi punched through the console, trying to figure out what the ship had for weapons and how to use them.

"Four missiles, a few scatter charges, and an EMP net," Shi listed off, hoping like hell that Elis had a plan for this part of their escape as well. Volkov wouldn't let them fly off without trying to stop or kill them. Probably the latter; Shi had no doubt Elis had likely become a larger problem than he was an asset, and Shi had never been an asset.

"Deploy one of the scatter charges," Elis said, not looking up from where his fingers were flying over his console. His hair glowed with the light from the screens in front of him, and he occasionally turned to the tablet to make a change there, as well.

"Now?" Shi asked, startled. "We'll get caught in the blast."

"No, we won't," Elis snapped. "Do it, Shi, now."

Shi hesitated for a second, then hit the series of keys he thought would deploy a scatter charge. They were nasty things, scatter charges. They started out as a bundle of small, stable bombs. Once deployed, the bundle broke apart using a small grav-pulse that scattered the bombs. The grav-pulse also destroyed whatever element that kept the bombs stable, causing the least disturbance to set them off.

"Done," Shi said, when the console flashed a confirmation that the scatter charge was deployed. He was going to kill Elis if they managed to get out of this alive.

Elis punched a button on the console in front of him, and Shi was forced flat back against his seat as the ship launched into motion, far faster than normal launch speeds. They didn't really care about keeping the hangar intact, Shi thought wryly, which was one of the main reasons launch speeds were typically slow. The ship jerked strangely as it moved, and Shi bet the scatter charges were discharging.

"Get the EMP ready for my mark," Elis said, slamming the only physical lever on his console up and forward. He ripped off the harness strapping him into place and slid out of his seat below the console. Shi frowned, turning back to his own console and wondering what Elis had planned now. The EMP on a ship this size wouldn't be anywhere near strong enough to really affect Volkov's flagship. They probably had deflection shields that would sneer at the EMP this ship could create.

Deciding he could ask later, Shi queued up the EMP, waiting for Elis' command. The ship was too small to have a nav screen to show Volkov's ship, and Shi glanced around the small bridge, wondering what Volkov was doing. Deploying ships to run them down? Gearing up weapons to simply obliterate them? The console in front of him told him nothing, and Shi scowled, twisting his chair to face Elis.