Drifters' Alliance, Book 2 (8 page)

“Now, now, no need to get all riled up. It was just a simple question.”

All I keep thinking is that I have a ship to clean, crewmember mysteries to figure out, a hull to outfit with equipment, and a whole entire plan to come up with if the Alliance doesn’t accept us into their ranks, not to mention the issue of whether our universe is about to change in some fundamental way with the OSG hovering around all the water supplies. I don’t have time for this game he’s playing, whatever it is. And I’m pretty sure there
is
a game being played here, I just don’t know why I’m at the table or what the stakes are.
Time to call his bluff.

“Bugger off, Captain Bob. We’re not interested.”

Jeffers turns to me with his eyebrows up in his hairline.

I shrug at his shocked reaction. Maybe I should have been more professional about it, but I’ve learned that getting right to the heart of the matter tends to speed along the things that were going to happen anyway.

“Now, that’s just downright rude, young lady. You don’t own this piece of the Dark, do you? No, you don’t. So, with that in mind, I think I’ll just hunker right down here in this spot and stay a spell. How d’ya like that?” His ship straightens out and suddenly starts acting like a well-manned Dark vehicle.

I smile.
Now we’ll see where this is really going
. “The Dark is big enough that you don’t need to be parked at my front door. We have first comer’s rights to these coordinates. Stay near my ship, and I’ll consider that an act of aggression. You have one minute to bug off. Remain a minimum of two hundred klicks away if you want that hull of yours to remain whole.” There’s no weapon or listening device he could possibly have on that ship that’ll affect me from more than a hundred klicks away, but I like having a little safety buffer.

“Or else what?” he asks, full of self-satisfaction, chuckling under his breath. He’s laughing at me, trying to let me know he’s not afraid. But if he’s not afraid of me, that’s a bad move on his part. I don’t like being aggressive toward someone smaller than I am, but he’s pushing me, and I refuse to be pushed.

Time to take a shot in the dark.
“Or else I’m going to put your friend Rollo into the float chamber and press the red button.”

Both Baebong and Jeffers turn in their seats to stare at me. I wink at them and keep on smiling, even though inside my guts are twisting into knots.
Are my instincts right this time?
Usually I can count on them to never lead me astray, but this is a big reach, even for me.
Could Rollo really be the link?
His name and the threat I just tied to it for Captain Bob’s benefit just kind of popped out of my mouth.

My mind is racing, trying to make sense of what’s going on. So far, we know that this Captain Bob guy showed up out of nowhere acting shifty. And then there’s Rollo who also showed up out of nowhere as a shifty stowaway.
Link, link, link? What’s the link?
I can’t come with anything putting those two together, but the fact that they both showed up in my life the way they did … that’s one too many coincidences involving shiftiness, as far as I’m concerned. This guy in the PC is either darkshit crazy or he has an agenda, but either way I’m willing to bet he’s not in it alone.

If he’s bonkers, my options are to either blow him off course and send him on his way —which would mean watching my six around the clock for his return with vengeance on his mind— or I could abandon these coordinates myself and come back later. Unfortunately, that could interfere in my plans with the Alliance and ruin our chances of joining them or at least learning more about them. Neither option makes me happy or comfortable.

But if he’s sane, and he
does
have an agenda, then it’s either one he planned a while ago —before or just after I got possession of the DS Anarchy— or one that he came up with on the fly when he saw us out here. Either way, an agenda with me at the center of it is not something I’m going to let slide. I can’t have loose ends trailing along behind me in the Dark.

Crazy or sane? Crazy or sane? Which is he? And is my other mystery man Rollo involved with him in some way?

“What’s this guy’s damage?” Baebong asks, interrupting my train of thought. “Is he for real? Is he really with Rollo?”

“I don’t know,” I say, staring at the guy’s ship, trying to decide which way to go with it.

“Maybe he just happened to find us out here,” Jeffers offers.

I shake my head slowly. “The Triangulum Galaxy is pretty damn big. Two ships happening along next to each other on a route that doesn’t lead to any resources … it’s not something that happens very often, right?”

Both Jeffers and Baebong shake their heads.

“He did look kind of lost, though,” Jeffers says.

Dalaga’s moons, my ass. “
Sure, he was drifting along like a lame duck, but it just seems too neat, right? Too convenient?” Everything inside me is telling me not to trust his facade.

“I agree,” Baebong says. He leans in closer to his controls, his fingers hovering over the buttons that I know will send a blast out in this guy’s direction if necessary.

“Why did you mention Rollo?” Jeffers asks.

“Too many coincidences,” I mumble as I stare at my adversary. “Too many game players for it not to be a game.” I’m too busy calculating the risks to hold a decent conversation right now. Knowing that a single mistake here could cost me everything, I decide my best bet is to go with the worst case scenario: Captain Bob is perfectly sane and running a gambit with me as his mark, and he has an inside man helping him out. I’m going to go ahead and assume that his agenda is purposeful too, and was formed long before he got here.
So what or who is the connection among him, Rollo, and me? Because I have no idea who this character Captain Bob is, and I’ve never met Rollo before in my life.

Chapter Eleven

I HIT THE COMM BUTTON and bring up both the engine room and the biogrid. Captain Bob hasn’t responded to my last transmission yet, so I’m going to take advantage of his reticence to gather some info.

“Attention, Gus, Tam, and Lucinda. If you know anyone named Captain Bob of the PC Mahalo, speak now or forever hold your peace. I’m about to blow him out of the Dark unless he’s a friend of yours.” My plan is not actually to blow him anywhere, but I need an immediate answer from my crewmembers, and I figure this is the best way to get it.

The twins are the first to respond. “Tam and Gus here. We don’t know him. Are you really going to vaporize him? Can we watch?”

I cut them off without responding.

Lucinda is next. I can tell from her tone that she hasn’t forgiven me. “He’s no one I know.”

She wouldn’t let a family member fry, so I’m not going to worry that I’ll upset the Romanii nation on this one.

“I don’t know him either,” volunteers Jeffers, “but he could be anyone. He’s not necessarily a threat.”

Captain Bob finally comes back on the line. “Rollo? Who’s Rollo? I don’t know any Rollo.”

His clueless denial and its delayed arrival scream culpability to me. “Okay, then, I guess you won’t mind watching him float.” I let the comm stay hot while I issue my next order. “Jeffers, please go get our stowaway and escort him to the float chamber.”

Jeffers stands slowly and then points to himself and the door, mouthing something silently. While I can’t figure out exactly what he’s trying to say, I assume he’s asking if I really mean what I said, so I nod and gesture again, urging him to hurry up. The sound of the flightdeck door opening and Jeffers’ retreating footsteps transmit over to the PC Mahalo.

“In about five minutes, Captain Bob, you’re going to see your friend Rollo’s face in the float chamber’s airlock, and by then it’ll be too late. Once I press that button, it’s all over but the exploding lungs.”

I look over at Baebong while muting the comm. “Put that chamber on live comm. Let Captain Bob hear what Rollo has to say.”

“You’re not really going to float him out there, are you?”

I shrug, trying to act casual about something I’m now in too deep to completely control. I have no plan other than to try and get this guy to fold before I have to. Of course I’m not going to float that idiot Rollo, but I’m not against using him to further my purposes. At least he’ll have some value to me before I dump him off at the next station. Hopefully this Captain Bob won’t call my bluff.
 

“Not if I don’t have to,” I say, when Baebong doesn’t seem satisfied with my body language. It’s better if my crew believes I’ll do it. Tone of voice can tell too much about a person’s state of mind, and I don’t want Baebong or Jeffers letting this Bob guy know I’m bluffing.

“Crazy bitch,” Baebong mutters, but he turns around and links in the comm from the float chamber. Soon, the sounds of a struggle and Rollo’s frustrated voice come over the line. I love how he’s playing the roll of freaked out prisoner on death’s doorstep so well. If this Captain Bob knows him at all and likes him even the littlest bit, we’ll find out.

“What’s going on?!” Rollo screeches in fear. “Why is Rollo here in the float chamber?! Rollo hates float chambers! Rollo’s claustrophobic! Rollo’s allergic to the Dark!”

Apparently he didn’t hear my last transmission asking whether anyone knows Captain Bob.
Even better.
I flick on the visual link so we can see what’s happening.

Jeffers has Rollo’s arm twisted behind his back and his body pressed into the side wall of the chamber very near the clearpanel. I find myself smiling, looking forward to the day that Jeffers finally breaks down and tells me his real story, because,
damn
, he sure knows his way around subduing prisoners.
Healer, my ass.

“Give him a nice view of his final resting place,” I say over the comm to Jeffers, making sure Captain Bob will hear my order too.

Jeffers manhandles our prisoner over to the clearpanel, and Rollo stares out into the abyss. “Oh, Jesus, no,” he whimpers. “Rollo’s afraid of the Dark.”

I can’t keep the glee from my voice. Rollo’s playing his role perfectly, and he doesn’t even realize it. “Jesus isn’t going to save you, Rollo. Only Captain Bob can do that.” I sit back and wait for a response, almost certain I won’t have to wait long.

Less than five seconds later, Rollo’s head twists his face up toward the comm box above him, his voice full of hope. “Captain Bob? Did you say Captain Bob?”

I cut Bob off the comm so I can speak directly with Rollo. “Yes, I did, Rollo. He claims not to know you, but I think he’s lying. Tell me who he is and what he’s up to, and you’ll come out of the chamber.”

“Out, as in… out into the Dark?” His voice holds a thread of fear wrapped tightly around one of hope. I’m almost tempted to make him wait on my answer, but I’m not that cruel.

“No,
out
as in back onto the ship.” I link Captain Bob into the conversation. “So what’s it going to be, Rollo? Do you know Captain Bob or not?”

He sighs heavily and slumps in Jeffers’ hold, no longer resisting. “Yes, Rollo knows Captain Bob.”

“He’s lying’,” Captain Bob says in a hurry. “I don’t know this Rollo person. Never met ‘im. Never even heard of ‘im.”

“Give it up, Bob,” Rollo says. “Rollo isn’t going to float for your games. Rollo doesn’t float for anyone.”

Games! I knew it!

Baebong turns around, elbows on the arms of his chair as he waits for my next move. I wish I knew what it should be, because I think I’m really close to figuring this thing out.

“Talk to me, Rollo,” I say, all seriousness. I don’t like playing games without knowing the rules. “Tell me what I need to know.”

He looks up at the visual link, imploring me with a very sad expression. “Can I do it up there with you? Float chambers make me nervous.”

For the first time since he stowed away on my ship, he’s not referring to himself as some other person, Rollo-this and Rollo-that. It’s almost enough to make me cave, but not quite. The visual link is so clear, I can see that little tic at the corner of his eye going again.
Bastard.

“That’s a negative, Rollo. Request declined. Jeffers, remove yourself from the float chamber but not before giving our friend Rollo here a nice pat-down. I have a feeling it’s something we should have done when he first showed up.”

I switch off the audio comm but keep the visual link going. Baebong and I watch in silence as Jeffers does a pretty efficient frisk of a struggling Rollo, and I smile when he doesn’t come up empty handed. Jeffers holds up a transmit device at the camera so we can see what he found.

“Son of a bitch,” I say to mostly myself.
Well, that’ll teach me not to do a full search on stowaways. Dammit! How could I be so naive?
At least this explains how Good Old Captain Bob found us out here in the middle of nowhere. Now I get to worry about how many other scumbags are on their way toward us and whether I’ve totally screwed my chances at getting into the Alliance. I’m pretty sure they have a no dumbass policy.

I switch the audio back on. “Nice try, by the way, Rollo.” I’m pissed, knowing that this dipshit got one over on me. But even so, I have nothing to lose now. He has no choice but the one I want him to make. He just needs to fully appreciate how serious I am. “Happy floating.”

Jeffers backs out of the room and shoves Rollo away when he tries to follow. Even though I know I’m in complete control of the situation, the sound of the float chamber door sealing shut makes shivers go up my spine.

Rollo turns to the camera and starts screaming. “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Just don’t send me out there! Please!”

Chapter Twelve

I WAIT FOR JEFFERS TO get up to the flightdeck before continuing the conversation with Rollo. This delay is doing wonders for the situation; my prisoner is trembling all over and standing as far from the release door as he possibly can. I’d feel sorry for the guy, but it’s his own fault that he’s in there. Coming on my ship with a transponder, leading Captain Bob here for no good purpose … ?
Bastard
. He deserves a good floating. But I’m not ready to do that yet. We’ll see what his confession sounds like first.

Jeffers strides into the room, taking his chair without a word. His expression is dark, and I can tell he’s not happy with me.
Oh well. Can’t please the world, now, can I?
I turn my attention back to Rollo.