In Enemy Hands (26 page)

“I hadn’t bargained on how popular you’d be, Moon. The Republic must be convinced your model works.”

Moon met Kad’s eyes squarely in the comms screen. After her nap, she had cleaned herself up and was dressed in the clothes Leen had left for them. The trous, tunic and jacket were an anonymous brown, but practical, with lots of sealed inner and outer pockets that Moon could make ample use of. To one side and behind her, Leen was watching the interaction, but Moon tried to ignore her. If she let herself be intimidated by anyone, both she and Srin would lose their chance at freedom.

“Leen told me the Republic have stepped up the number of ships heading for this region,” Moon agreed. “Does this mean you can’t help us?”

“Did I say that?” Kad had the grace to look affronted. “I told you I’d help, and I will. It’s just that the timetable has accelerated.” He paused. “When you were on Slater’s End, you told me you had the notes from StellMil to bargain with.” He spun out the syllables of the military name the Republic gave her work and she remembered again how much he hated it. “Is that still true?”

“I set off scramble-bombs on my work aboard the
Differential
,” she answered. “But I saved a copy of my notes. My current model is far more advanced than the one we worked on, Kad,” she added casually. “Turk and I are the only one who can decipher the notes.”

“When you say ‘Turk’, you mean of course, Srin Flerovs.”

Moon wasn’t surprised. If Kad was able to decipher encrypted Republic communications, he was able to find out Srin’s true identity in short time. She conceded the point with a small incline of her head.

“Is he as good as I read, Moon?”

“Better.”

“Better than what? A Mark Five Quantaflex?”

“Better than a Mark Seven.”

“The Mark Seven hasn’t been released yet.”

She smiled. “I know.”

He pursed his lips. “Impressive. I look forward to meeting him.”

“And will we, Kad? Be meeting you, I mean?”

“I meant to organise a more direct route for you, but Leen tells me we’ve run out of time, so she’s arranged passage on the
Velvet Snow
. It’s part of the Fodox Rebel cartel. We had to pay a premium, but I think it’s worth it.”

His voice sounded a bit unsure, and Moon felt Leen’s eyes boring into her back. Had the doctor objected to the high price of their passage to safety?

“If you have your notes with you, now may be a good time to pass them to Leen. We can make a copy, just in case the Fodox Rebels get their hands on them.”

“The Rebels won’t find them,” she replied evenly. She turned and gave Leen a deliberate look, before facing Kad again. “They’re not in my satchel either, in case anybody looked.”

Kad’s face cleared. “They’re in Flerovs’s head.”

“Could be,” she conceded.

“So that’s why it was so important to get medical help for him.” He nodded slowly. “All right, Moon, our deal still stands. The
Velvet Snow
will take you as far as the Pevruk sector. That’s almost a quarter of the way across the galaxy. There’s a planet in that sector called Marentim.”

His voice was crisp, used to giving commands and having them obeyed. Yes, Moon thought, there was certainly a lot of catching up to do once they met each other again.

“I’ve given Leen a chip with detailed instructions on what you need to do when you reach there,” he continued. “Be careful. Like the comms chip I gave you, this one’s a one-off deal as well. Once you’ve finished reading it, it will self-destruct. I’ll get in touch with you after you’ve reached Marentim.”

“How secure is our passage?” Moon asked.

“The Rebels are one of the biggest, and most organised, groups in this sector of space. They hate the Republic as much as we do. You’re safe enough with them. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

She raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing.

“I can’t stay on this line too long. I’ll be in touch again when you reach your destination.” With a long glance at Leen, he broke contact.

“They’ll be here within the hour,” Leen said into the silence.

Moon nodded. “We’ll be ready.”

She turned to walk away, but the doctor’s voice stopped her. “Listen. I’m sorry we started off on the wrong foot. Kad tells me you have knowledge that could bring down the entire Republic.”

Moon looked at her then, at the contrition that barely masked the leashed cockiness she was used to from the doctor.

“It could,” she agreed cautiously.

“Then I wish you the best of luck.” The sincerity in Leen’s voice was obvious. “I’ll check if the ship’s docked yet and come and get you. They’ll be lifting off the far side of the moon, so it’ll be a very quick rendezvous. I—I hope you get safely to Kad with your notes. So you can help us destroy them.” No need to ask to whom she was referring.

Moon didn’t answer. She just gave Leen a quick, tight smile and walked back to Srin’s room next door. She didn’t want to dwell too deeply on Kad’s motivations in obtaining the specifications for her stellar missile. Would he threaten to use it on the Republic in the same way as the Republic was planning to use it on planets that resisted them? She’d like to think that he wouldn’t, but admitted to herself that she didn’t know him well enough to predict his future actions.

In any case, there was enough time to think through his possible motivations while they were on a pirate ship headed across the galaxy. First things first. They had to get to Marentim.

Srin was waiting for her when she entered. He held up two jackets, and Moon recognised them from their escape on Slater’s End. “I thought they might come in handy. Good luck charms and all that.”

Moon grinned. “Good idea.”

So, he was remembering the events of their escape. That was something else to be thankful for. She patted one of the inner pockets on the thin jacket she wore, and felt a bulge where she’d stowed the pack of anti-fever medication. She’d have to remember to give Srin half the allotment, just so he’d have some on hand in case they got separated. It was important that she started thinking smart now, instead of just clever. “Clever” had given them bargaining chips, but “smart” might very well save their lives.

Srin packed the rest of their things in the bag and slung it over his shoulder. They looked at each other.

He was still thin, and his face looked tired. What he needed now was an extended period of rest. Instead, they were fleeing for their lives across space. Moon looked into his grey eyes, and the love she saw there warmed her.

“Are you ready?” she asked. Her voice was husky.

“Yes I am.”

She smiled and held his hand and they waited for the
Velvet Storm
to dock on the far side of Lunar Fifteen.

The End

I am not a quantum physicist (or doctor) by nature and found the following extremely useful in helping me build the universe and answer the obvious questions. Any omissions/errors, flagrant disregards of physics/medicine are entirely my own and I apologise in advance for them.

The Daily Galaxy website. http://www.dailygalaxy.com. Great site for breaking astronomical news. Really gets the sci-fi neurons firing!

Hawking, Stephen.
The Universe in a Nutshell
. Bantam Press, London. 2001.

Jacek, my husband. Not a quantum physicist by profession, but an extremely interested amateur and my sounding board while I was trying out various plot devices.

Penrose, Roger.
The Road to Reality
. Jonathan Cape, London. 2004

Thorne, Kip S.
Black Holes & Time Warps
. W. W. Norton & Company, New York. 1994.

Wikipedia. http://www.wikipedia.org. Particularly useful for discussion of definitions and things like the periodic table and the molecular composition of drugs.

Zel’dovich, Ya. B. and Novikov, I. D.
Stars and Relativity.
Dover Publications, New York. 1996.

KS Augustin is a Malaysian-born writer of Portuguese Eurasian descent. Because she has a low boredom threshold, she’s been involved in many things over the years, including writing comedy, running her own IT consultancy and, at various times, owning a bookshop, gym, swimming pool business and martial arts school.

As a writer, she dabbles mostly in science fiction, romance and permutations of the two. She’s been nominated for several awards (which absolutely makes her day) and has been on the Fictionwise Bestseller list (which caused her to walk on air for almost a week). She’s a proud member of Broad Universe, the international organisation that supports women writing science fiction, fantasy and horror.

She and her husband move around a lot and consider the world, rather than any one specific country, to be their home. Tagging along on their frequent country-hopping are two long-suffering children, a brace of grumpy fur-shedding cats and a wilful mini Bull Terrier.

You can find her at http://www.ksaugustin.com, and she keeps an opinionated blog at http://blog.ksaugustin.com.

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