Gambit (6 page)

She wanted to focus on staying alive and her straining nerves encouraged it because, shit, she didn’t want the unexpectedly bitter taste of him being payment in her thoughts.

“We’re still being followed.” Daned’s whisper burned raw against her ear and she shivered. “One, maybe two.”

“Chae Beyon!” Her name echoed over the platform.

“That’d be them,” she muttered as she broke into a run.

Hot air, thick with the stink of the sky track’s engines, gusted around her legs in a rising gray cloud. With a deafening scrape of metal, the transport shot away from the platform. Weapons’ fire burst against the stones, heat surging over her boot heels. She cursed and willed more speed into her legs.

“Fucking. Earning. My. Crystals.” She bit out the words as shots hit the floor and flared up sparks from the stones. More shots impacted the arch of the protective barrier, showering her unprotected head with beads of hot rock. “You didn’t say anything about people shooting at me.”

“Don’t be naïve, Captain.”

“I would have still liked ‘Hey Chae, people will shoot at you with fucking big-ass guns.’” She swung right, dragging Daned into the bright interior of the first open lift. She slammed the doorplate and pulled out her gun. Her heart beat hard, her breath short and raw. Seconds crawled and she kicked the wall. “Come on!”

The sudden silence had her backing away from open entrance of the lift. Its shield rolled up, a haze growing over the shadows of the platform.

“Captain Chae Beyon!” The flash of a muzzle and then a dark-suited man threw himself at the lift. He hit the security screen with a low grunt, cursed and took aim.

A blaze of white burst over the shield and Chae staggered back, biting back a curse. Heat rushed at her and she fought to breathe. Her knees buckled and her backside hit the metal floor.

“Captain.” Daned pressed his hand to her shoulder. “Take it slow.”

“I don’t get shot at anymore,” she said as the lift juddered and started its slow descent. “I get sarcastic customs officers, ones on the take…or the make. But they keep their weapons holstered. Hell, I got used to not having my life threatened. It was nice.” She pushed her spine back up the wall. They weren’t out of trouble. The lift gave them only a few minutes’ breathing space. Her boots creaked and the sliver of black crystal dug into her calf. “Is your black crystal legal? Or is all this just bullshit?”

“As Govan said, there are a number of warring Families.” Daned threaded his fingers through his dark hair, smoothing it back. He paced the short space of the lift floor. “Our prince is simply one of nine.”

“And so now Families are wiping each other out?” Chae shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t care. My mother always said the Ladaians were insane. Hidebound and completely crazy. She promised that would not be my fate.” She pressed her finger to her ear, the sharp whine of the activating tech making her wince. Zayin had to be in range. “Can you hear me?”

“Welcome to Baruun Urt.”

Chae let out a hot, relieved breath. He sounded exactly like Aleph, and the similarity was strangely comforting. “I’ve brought unwanted friends.”

“Ah.”
The low sound vibrated through her ear and she grimaced. That was not right. Interference cut across the piece.
“I…will be…ready—”

Chae tapped her ear, running her fingers around her shell to try to joggle the Samekh tech implanted in her ear, but Zayin had dropped to silence. The tech was dead. She pulled it free. And sat it on her palm. She frowned at the blackened mold of the earpiece…and poked it. It turned over and no charge stung her skin. What was it with her Samekh-supplied tech? She never seemed to hold onto anything for very long. “Does that look dead to you?” She cursed. “Someone fried it. All I got was that he’ll be ready.”

Daned lifted an eyebrow but didn’t reply. She’d activated unknown tech he didn’t trust, even when it fell apart on her palm. She scrubbed her hands together, the gritty black dust coating her trousers as it drifted to the floor. She brushed it away. Fuck, now they had no way of communicating with Zayin.

She glanced up at Daned, but the vacant look on his face said he was still refusing to talk. She wanted to board a ship so she wouldn’t have to think about every bloody word that came out of her mouth. Her fingers flexed around the grip of her Sel-9 and she lifted her shoulders. “Ready, pretty?”

“Yes, lady.”

He handed her his leash and her stomach cramped. She would’ve been on her ship now, waiting in the queue to enter the rift lock. Not this. Not standing with her heart in her throat waiting for the lift to hit the city floor, the screen to roll up and for them both to run like hell.

The lift thunked and she staggered. “So not ready for this,” she muttered.

Daned’s hand closed briefly over her shoulder and she didn’t want to find strength and comfort in the patronizing gesture. But she did. The light hum of the disconnecting security screen filled the silent lift. “A meter off the floor, we duck and run.”

“Understood, lady.”

“Glad that man had you grown with half a brain.”

Daned glared at her. “Thank you, lady.”

A grin cracked across her mouth. She couldn’t help it, the fear and wild rush of adrenaline firing through her body. The outside world began to clear, the cool night air breaking through into the lift.

“Why did I leave my ship today?” Chae muttered the words, trying to calm the rapid thud of her heart. “I could be on board now. I have a bath, for fuck’s sake. With water. And a host of not-exactly-illegal oils.” She fixed her gaze on the clearing shield, counting down the seconds over the pounding in her blood. “But, no, what am I doing instead?”

Shit. Enough height to break out. All right, she could do this. She’d done this sort of insane shit before. And had the unsightly scars to prove it. She flexed her fingers around her Sel-9 and Daned’s leash.

“What am I doing? I’m jumping into a gunfight.” She burst out of the lift, Daned at her side—

“Captain Beyon. A pleasure.”

“Well, fuck.” Chae stared down the barrel of an Ar-20, a monstrous weapon that could obliterate her and a twenty-meter area with one light press of the trigger. Panic whipped through her in a hot wave. She fought it down. It couldn’t help her. She blew out a slow breath and looked beyond the glittering black barrel to the suit holding it. “That wasn’t much of a gunfight.”

The man, an Ordan from the tattoos edging his jaw, gave her a bleak smile and pointed at her own weapon. “On the floor, please.”

“A polite henchman.” Slowly she bent to place her gun on the stone floor.

Where the hell was Zayin? Her gaze flicked around the empty streets, finding only silence. The first spatter of rain dropped through the angles of sharp white light and pinged against the metal struts of the sky track that sank deep into worn stone. Nothing moved. No Samekh with a small militia hid in the shadows.

Her gut twisted. She was so screwed. Had he seen the Ar-20 and run like hell? She would. She straightened, her hands lifting, her palms facing outward. “Does civility come as an optional extra?”

His mouth quirked upward into a sarcastic smile. “I’m a professional. Hiring a runner to complete the mission? They must be desperate.”

They.
The word jumped out at her. She stopped herself from looking at Daned. He didn’t know that the man dressed as grown flesh was Ladaian. She had to buy time, make herself a distraction. Daned was a trained killer. She’d already had evidence of his skill. So…she had to make the mercenary not look at the naked guy.

She waggled her fingers and smirked. “I’m very good at what I do.”

He laughed. “And what would that be? You were hired—what?—three hours ago and I’ve caught you already.”

Her weight shifted away from Daned, a slight sway to the right. “Gloating is a sign of insecurity, you know. It’s not a pleasant personality trait either.”

His fingers flexed against the trigger and Chae’s heart tightened. Hell, subconsciously he’d registered her movement. His tongue wet his lips. All right, not a good sign.

The man’s gaze narrowed. “So they hired you for your bravado? Or for just being really fucking annoying?”

Her boot slid against the stone. “Ah, so the payment for pleasantry has worn off.”

“Stand still.”

“I am standing still.” She waggled her fingers again. “See? But I’ve been on the sky track for hours. I don’t have my ground legs yet. Bloody thing has me lurching.” She grinned at him and he frowned, a line forming on his smooth brow. The overhead light made the wide barrel of his Ar-20 glitter, and the faint, initiating hum vibrated through her flesh. Fuck. He wanted to see how far he could splatter her across the sky track’s supporting metal. It was there in the too-bright shine of his pale eyes. “So who has the honor of catching me? Which family?”

“The Valens. The Honorable Prince Isberin sends his regards and hopes you experience a happy afterlife.”

Chae laughed and his trigger finger wavered. “Really? That’s the speech he decided to give to his defeated enemies? When his backside hits the sunder-seld, really, he has to think up something more original.”

Muscles bunched in the mercenary’s shoulders, his plain suit shifting, and his tongue darted out to wet his lips again in anticipation.

“So you get the full reward then? Not the men I tricked in Darkhan Uul?”

“I suppose I should thank you for that. I won’t have to share the finding or the killing fee.”

“And what could I offer you
not
to annihilate me?”

His head tilted, the overhead light a pool of white over his blond hair. “You’re a stunted runner out of Ulan Bator. You have nothing to offer me.”

A smile curved her lips and she saw the uncertainty flare in his gaze. “I do have one thing.”

The blur of Daned’s hands gripping the Ar-20 burned against her eyes. A turn. A twist. And Daned pressed the bulky gun into his own shoulder, aiming it unerringly at the suit’s head.

Chae’s smile deepened into a smirk. “I have him.”

“Does this please you, lady?”

Oh, she liked that touch, as they still couldn’t be certain who was watching them. “Yes, it does, pretty, thank you.”

The suit rubbed his fingers over his reddened knuckles. He glared at Daned. “What is he?”

“They gave me credit.” She patted Daned’s hard-muscled shoulder. “I found myself specialized flesh.” She folded her arms. “So…I think it’s time to tell me what you know.”

“I—” There was a dull thump and the Ordan sank to his knees, toppling sideways. His skull hit the stone with a sickening crack. Blood leaked black into the shadows and a trail of gray smoke drifted over his shoulders.

Chae’s jaw fell open. “What the…”

“There you are!” Aleph strode out of the thick blackness of an empty side street, tucking a small weapon back into the loose folds of his dark tunic.

Her chest bloomed heat, surprise making her take a step toward him. What the hell was he doing there? She stopped. It wasn’t Aleph. A nugget of silver glittered in his ear, a mark of his metal trade. Zayin. It was Zayin-Nun, Aleph’s pod-brother.

He glanced over Daned and his eyes narrowed briefly before he pulled the Ar-20 from his grip. “You have strange taste, Chae. Aleph always said that.” Zayin kicked over the dead man with a heavy boot, the Ordan’s skin grazed and bleeding from the impact with the uneven pavement. “More of the suits following you?”

“Seems that way.” Chae wiped her hand over her face, bent to retrieve her Sel-9 and her heart found some sort of even rhythm. The pool of blood seeped toward her and she held down a shudder. She didn’t question Zayin’s shooting him. They’d agreed to get her off-planet, shook on it, and nothing would interfere with the Samekh following that oath. The Samekh could be ruthless. And how many of these bastards lurked in the shadows? “We have to get off the street. The sooner I’m off this bloody planet, the safer I’ll feel.”

Zayin grinned at her, his baleen plates glistening in the bright spot of light. “Yes, let’s get you to your ship.”

Chae grabbed Daned’s leash and jogged to keep up with Zayin’s long strides. Harsh spots of light splashed over high stone walls, the thin edges of access doors and shuttered windows bleached white. Unknown animals scurried over the wet alley floor, nails clicking. She jumped at every skitter. Something had her instincts crawling hot up her spine, and it irked her that she couldn’t work out what it was that unnerved her.

She pushed her unease down. The rain fell faster, thicker now and tasted foul on her tongue. She wiped the slick from her eyes, her cheek. “How far’s the yard?”

“Not far. Most of Baruun Urt huddles close to the sky track.” He glanced over to Daned who easily kept up the pace, his face blank. “Unusual flesh you have there.”

Chae snorted. “No wonder the man in Khovd was so pissed off that I took his flesh-pet from him. He must have paid a fortune for those implanted skills.” She grinned at Zayin, still wanting to distract him from thinking too hard about Daned. “Maybe it’ll teach him to improve his game.”

“Games of probability are not the Nun-Samekh way. We leave nothing to chance.”

And there, that simple reassurance crawled over her skin. Maybe it was the rain. It had already soaked through her jacket and tunic, sticking the materials to her shoulders and back. Her bag thumped wet against her thigh. A small device in Zayin’s clawed hand clicked and the whirr and clatter of an opening access cut the silence. Chae’s hand tightened around the grip of her Sel-9, but only golden light flooded out into the alley.

“Your ship is waiting, Chae.”

“We’re being a little kind in calling it a ship, aren’t we?”

“A tau-class is fast, maneuverable—”

“You don’t have to sell it to me, Zayin. It’s a done deal.” She laughed and followed him under the archway into a small covered courtyard, pulling Daned with her. She glanced at him. Rain had slicked his hair to his head, ran heavy droplets over his bare skin and, as he held her gaze for a brief second, tension tightened his eyes. Yes, whatever had her freaked had his senses on alert too. She turned back to Zayin. “And I’ve flown tau-class before when I was young and insane. I know how shitty they are.”