Mercenary Instinct (a science fiction romance) (29 page)

“Oh? What part of me will
they
try to
vacuum up?” Viktor waved to the cleaning bot, which was in danger
of running over his boot again.

“Your wallet most likely,” Borage said.

Viktor’s comm chimed. “Sir? This is Striker.
Corporal Tungsten’s not at his post, and that lab is empty.”

Viktor forced himself to take a deep breath
and control the urge to run over and treat those security bots like
punching bags. “How long?”

“Not long, sir. I’ve been keeping an eye on
the lab, just like you said.” Striker sounded worried. He
better.

“The tube’s guarded, right? All the shuttles
still in the bay?” Viktor looked up at the ship, floating in space
beyond the window, attached only by an airlock tube on the side
opposite from him. He couldn’t see it, but he had more guards
stationed there than usual and trusted they were at their posts. He
couldn’t see the shuttle bay from here, either.

“The women haven’t gone out the tube. Rubber
and Jiang are there. I already checked with them. The shuttles...
Sergeant Sethron is leaving the bay right now. Commander Garland
cleared him a few minutes ago. He’s picking up medical supplies for
Dr. Zimonjic.”

Or he was kidnapping three women to sell to
the highest bidder. Viktor growled deep in his throat. The merchant
backed a few steps away.

“Check the cameras and see if anyone except
him walked onto that shuttle,” Viktor said.

“I, ah, just did, sir. The data is
unavailable. It says the camera was taken offline for repairs.”

Viktor clenched a fist. “I’ll bet. Striker, I
want a security team waiting for the sergeant when he lands.”
Wherever that would be. This station had at least ten shuttle bays.
“If those women are on the shuttle, I want them recovered and back
in their lab within the hour. I left you in charge of security.
This is your responsibility.”

“Yes, sir. I got it. Uhm, if Sethron puts up
a fight... how much force do you want used?”

Commander Borage, who had been standing
silently and listening to the exchange, raised his eyebrows at this
and looked Viktor in the eyes.

Viktor couldn’t be lenient, not with this. A
slap on the wrist would only encourage others to try the same
thing. This had to be a lesson to his crew. He didn’t want to lose
a man, but if Sethron was stealing the women, he would have been
lost anyway, kicked out of the company at the least. “
If
the
women are there, use whatever force is necessary. Deadly force is
authorized. Sethron won’t want to live to deal with me, anyway, if
he’s stolen my prisoners.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Borage, I’m authorizing you to sign for the
repairs. I’m going to find that shuttle.”

“Viktor,” Borage said softly. “That vein in
your forehead is throbbing, and you’re holding your gun.”

“What’s your point?”

“That you may regret actions taken in anger
for something so trivial.”

“It’s not trivial,” Viktor growled and
stalked away.

* * *

Ankari had no idea how much time passed
before she regained consciousness, but she awoke on a bed, or maybe
it was a medical float stretcher. When her gritty eyes opened, she
was staring up at a gray ceiling. Were they still on the ship? She
hoped so. The stretcher didn’t feel like it was moving. When she
tried to lift a hand, she found her wrist strapped down. Her legs
were too. Not good.

“Awake already?” a familiar voice asked. “You
must have been farther away from the gas than the others.”

Dr. Zimonjic’s face came into view. She
peeled back Ankari’s eyelids and shined a light into them. Or maybe
that was some kind of brainwashing wand. A bulging pocket brushed
Ankari’s thigh. Picking a pocket would be difficult with her wrists
bound, but she could try if Zimonjic stayed this close.

“Afraid I’ll die?” she asked. Her mouth was
dry, like she’d had a pair of socks stuffed in it for the last
hour.

“Your young friend went into cardiac arrest a
short while ago. I resuscitated her, but anesthetics of any kind
aren’t without risk, especially such a potent fast-acting one.”

Ankari gulped. “Jamie?” She lifted her head.
The doctor blocked much of her view, but she glimpsed two other
float stretchers, a row of seats, and a control panel. They were in
a shuttle. If they hadn’t left the ship’s bay yet, maybe there was
a chance to escape.

“She’s fine now.” Zimonjic tugged down
Ankari’s collar and dropped a monitor onto her skin, the cold
device sending a shiver through her as it took its readings.

“It’d be a shame if you couldn’t deliver us
alive, I suppose.” Ankari flexed her hand to the limit of the
restraint, dipping her fingers into the top of the big pocket. She
brushed the tops of several tools and tried to identify them while
being careful not to nudge them. Since Zimonjic had already been
pickpocketed once, it wouldn’t take much for her to realize it was
happening again. Ankari couldn’t reach her own pocket, either, so
she couldn’t hide anything she snatched. Maybe she could grab one
item and cover it with her hand. It had to be the one item that
could get her out of these straps. Ah, were those scissor
handles?

Zimonjic grunted and removed the monitor.

“Why are you doing this?” Ankari rushed to
ask, sure the doctor was about to move away. She couldn’t quite
reach those scissors, damn it.

“To save him from his own stupidity.”

“Viktor?”

Zimonjic’s eyes closed to slits, and she
leaned closer to whisper, “Yes,
Viktor
. Captain Mandrake. He
never invited
me
to call him by his first name.”

Good job, Ankari. Piss off the person with
access to all the deadly drugs... At least Zimonjic was close
enough now that Ankari could squeeze the handle of those scissors
between her index and middle finger. Just barely. She had to be
careful pulling them out.

She licked her lips. “Is this really about
saving someone, Doctor? You just want to make money, don’t you? Not
that I blame you. Two hundred thousand, that’d be enough to retire
nicely on if one invested wisely.”

“Please, Felgard would have me shot if I
showed up at his door, whether I’m an upright GalCon citizen or
not. Those finance lords are so high above the law that they’re
probably not even aware it exists. I certainly don’t have the clout
to ensure he pays, not without the rest of the company at my side,
and Mandrake will probably kill me for this, but... it’s for his
own good. I don’t know what he sees in you, but I’m not going to
let his infatuation destroy all he’s built. Destroy
him
.”

“What are you going to do then?” Ankari
slipped the scissors out of the doctor’s pocket a heartbeat before
the woman straightened up. She palmed them, using her body to hide
them from above.

“Knock you out again, tie you up, and dump
you in a trash bin somewhere. Or, if Sethron can find an outgoing
ship that’s not guarded well, we’ll throw you in their cargo hold.
I don’t care where, just so long as you can’t get back aboard the
Albatross
. I don’t know what you did to talk the captain
into helping you, but I can guess.” Zimonjic’s lips curled into a
frigid sneer. “It’s time for you and your friends to deal with your
own problems, not drag us into your mess with you.”

“I didn’t talk him into anything. I told him
we’d go our own way if he’d just let us go. He’s the one who wanted
to help.”

Zimonjic didn’t deny the statement. From the
wry twist of her lips, maybe she believed it was true. “Well, he’s
not going to help. The company doesn’t need to start a war against
someone with unlimited money and resources.”

“Doctor?” A second face came into view,
nobody Ankari recognized. She wondered what had happened to the
guard who had been stationed outside of their lab. Bribed to look
the other way? Drugged and locked in a cabin? “We’re cleared. We
can unload.”

Unload? Then they weren’t back on the ship
after all, but already on the station. Ankari held back a
groan.

“Thank you, Sethron,” Zimonjic said. “Let’s
get them out of here before anyone on the
Albatross
realizes
they’re missing.”

“It’s another hour until shift change. We
should be fine.” The man—Sethron—walked to the control console, hit
a button, and the rear door unlocked with a hiss and lowered.

“Does
he
know you’re not planning to
collect the bounty?” Ankari asked, speaking normally, so the
doctor’s helper would be sure to hear. If he hadn’t been clued in
yet, this might cause some dissent between them. “That there’s
nothing in this for him except the captain’s irritation?”

But Zimonjic calmly said, “He knows.”

“Uh, then why would he agree to do this?”

She lowered her voice. “He has feelings for
me. Men will do foolish things for love.”

After she recovered from her surprise, Ankari
said, “So will women.”

Zimonjic gave her a hard look but said
nothing further.

As soon as the door lowered, Sethron pushed
the first stretcher out of the shuttle. Ankari glimpsed another
shuttle and various loading and unloading machines on the deck
outside. An indifferent robot rolled by, pushing float pallets full
of boxes. This looked like a cargo bay rather than a concourse with
regular human activity. When Viktor realized Ankari and the others
were gone, he would go looking for them—she didn’t believe he
would, as Zimonjic seemed to think, simply forget about her and
continue on to the next mercenary mission. But if they were in some
back alley of the space station, he would have trouble finding
them. Unless Ankari could get a message to him somehow.

As soon as Zimonjic turned her back to grab
Lauren’s float stretcher, Ankari flipped the scissors, attempting
to get the blades around the restraining cuff. A laser knife would
have been much easier. Maybe that had been in the doctor’s other
pocket.

Zimonjic and her helper disappeared down the
ramp. Ankari stopped being subtle and flexed her fingers backward,
hacking with the blades as well as she good. She had always had
flexible joints, otherwise she doubted she could have cut anything
except a chunk out of her leg. Even so, it took dozens of snips
before enough of the fabric broke that the cuff loosened. She
yanked her wrist out, freed her other arm, and sat up, grabbing at
the ankle restraints.

Her captors and the other stretchers were out
of view. As Ankari swung her legs to the floor, a man shouted
something in the distance. Something about no guns? She couldn’t be
sure.

She took a step and nearly tumbled to the
floor, her legs still heavy and quivering from whatever anesthetic
Zimonjic had slammed them with. After catching herself on a seat,
she took a moment to look around, rather than charging out. She had
better arm herself in case Zimonjic and the guard had weapons.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any laser rifles mounted on the wall.
The doctor’s bag was sitting in one of the back chairs. Ankari
rifled through it, grabbing the laser knife she had been hoping to
find earlier. Not much of a weapon, but she didn’t know what most
of the other things were.

More shouts came from the cargo bay. Ankari
stumbled to the door, beating at her thighs with her fist to try
and get the blood flowing. Her feet could have been encased in
cement blocks for all that she felt.

Just as she reached the door, the whine of a
laser rifle blasted through the bay. Ugh, what was Zimonjic doing?
Getting in a fight with station security?

Jamie and Lauren were still strapped to their
float stretchers, but they’d been abandoned near a stack of blue
crates. Neither the doctor nor Sethron was in sight. No, wait.
There was Zimonjic’s sweater. She was hiding behind a crate,
leaning around the corner.

Ankari sneaked out of the shuttle, beelining
for the first stretcher. Lauren lifted her head, her eyes wide.
Jamie was starting to wake too. Ankari held a finger to her lips,
then grabbed Lauren’s restraints, opening them as quietly as she
could.

Lasers fired somewhere on the other side of
those crates. Zimonjic turned and ran back toward the shuttle. She
stumbled when she spotted Ankari. With nothing better for a weapon,
Ankari brandished the laser knife.

“Don’t!” a man in the distance yelled at the
same time as a crimson laser beam streaked between two stacks of
crates and blasted Zimonjic in the back. She sprawled forward,
hands outstretched, landing spread-eagle on the deck. Smoke wafted
from the back of her sweater. She didn’t move.

Lauren yanked her legs free of the
restraints, and Ankari was lunging to tear off Jamie’s before it
registered in her brain that the voice that had shouted that
Don’t
had been familiar. Viktor. Indeed, the next words were
his, as well. “Just... secure the shuttle.” He sounded weary,
defeated.

A squad of armed and armored young men jogged
around the crates, wearing the patches of Mandrake Company. Two ran
toward her while the others ran into the shuttle. One planted a
hand on Ankari’s shoulder, as if she had been planning to flee.

“We’ve got them, Captain,” the man
called.

Viktor strode into view. He looked over at
Ankari and the stretchers, his face a mask, but his eyes haunted.
He went first to Zimonjic and knelt, his fingers touching her
throat to check her pulse. This wasn’t what he had wanted. She
could read it in his expression. He must have expected some other
kidnapper, not the doctor. If Zimonjic had been speaking the truth,
she had just died trying to
help
the company, however
misguidedly it might have been. Ankari hung her head.
Had
it
been misguided? She wasn’t even sure. From the doctor’s eyes, it
surely hadn’t been. Ankari could all too easily see what had
prompted the woman to take this action. She stared at the floor,
reminding herself that she hadn’t asked for any of this. She hadn’t
wanted
to be picked up by Mandrake Company; she’d had no
choice in the matter. All she had been trying to do all along was
save herself and her partners, her friends.