Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (15 page)

Chapter Nine

Vannie and Moe came through the door
before Emma could pursue Vin’s blunt statement. “I think you should
be in bed, lad,” Moe said.

“
Probably.” Vin pulled
another wired connector from the drone and plugged it into his
computer. A long list of coded commands lit the screen. “This is
the frequency of modar waves used to keep the drones in touch with
their operators.”

“
Can you change them?”
Vannie asked.

Vin looked around the shop. “Not with
what I have here but I can interfere with them.”

For the next hour, Vin directed Vannie
and Moe to bring him gadgets and tools from around the large room.
Twice he sent Emma upstairs to bring him devices totally foreign to
her experience. Each time she brought him a drink of water. He
drank it and nodded his thanks. But with each passing minute, his
battered body sagged, his military posture faltering. She wanted to
demand he stop but understood the necessity of his work. They used
him to protect themselves as the Recon Marines had always been
used.

Vin tore apart some things and put them
together in others. A little wired board here snapped into a panel
there. Lines were spliced, solar cells rigged together and
water-proofed housing sealed tight. Finally two finished boxes sat
harmlessly on the table, emitting no sound, light or other
indication that they functioned. “Place one in the middle of the
street inside the north and the south gates. They’ll confuse the
drones and prevent them from carrying out their functions. But
everyone should stay alert. The drones could crash when they
encounter interference.”

“
You’re sure they’ll
work?” Moe asked as he and Vannie each picked up one of the
devices.

Vin frowned. “Of course. Why would I
make them if they wouldn’t work?”

Emma interrupted before Moe could
answer. “You two put those down and help me get Vin into his bed.
Right now.” She glared at all three men, daring any of them to
protest.

For once Vin seemed to understand her
expression. He pushed himself up from the bench but would have
fallen if not for Moe’s quick catch of his arm.

The two big men each took one of Vin’s
arms and helped him to the stairs with Emma following close behind.
Vin lifted his foot to the first step and then wilted as if his
knees had melted.

“
We got you, lad.” Vannie
said, taking Vin’s shoulders while Moe picked up his feet. Despite
the narrow stairway, they managed to carry Vin to his
cot.

After laying Vin on the bed, Moe looked
around the loft and shook his head. “This boy has some real control
issues. Not a damned thing out of place. Don’t know if I like you
being here alone with him, Emma, since finding out what he is. Who
knows what a man like him is capable of doing?”

“
What he was.” Emma had
shared Vin’s secret with her two friends only hours ago. It was
only fair they knew what Vin’s story was so they’d stop thinking
him brain-damaged. “What he’s capable of is saving the children of
this town and doing his best to protect the rest of us. Now go set
up those devices he thought so important to make he worked on them
until he passed out.”

Moe and Vannie clopped down the steps,
muttering about stubborn women but obeying her anyway.

Emma checked Vin’s bandages, careful
not to wake him. Perhaps Recon Marines had extraordinary
constitutions enabling them to function beyond the limits of human
endurance but Vin had pushed even those boundaries. If she hadn’t
been sure of Vin’s identity before, the last few hours would have
convinced her.

In sleep Vin still looked dangerous and
alert. She didn’t doubt if enemies rushed up the stairs, Vin would
find a way to rise from his bed and put his body between her and
them. Such self-sacrifice, while noble, went beyond normal. Was she
a good enough doctor, a good enough person and friend, to teach Vin
that his life had equal value to those he would give it
for?

* * * *

Vin woke every time Emma moved. Though
the AI screen made no noise as she tapped it, she shifted on the
wooden chair now and then. For some reason, her continuing presence
comforted him and eased him back into healing sleep.

After a few hours, his body demanded he
take care of some basic needs. Emma hovered at his side as he
levered himself out of the bed and wrapped the blanket around his
hips. She then walked beside him to the tiny bathing room. He kept
her outside the door with a shake of his head, but she waited there
until he came out.

“
Are you hungry?” she
asked as he took a seat on the edge of the bed.

“
Yes, but we should talk
first.” Vin reached into the shelf nearest the bed and pulled out a
clean pair of underwear. Emma looked away while he pulled them on.
“How did you guess who I am?”

Emma smiled, too much kindness in her
face for him to believe she laughed at him. “I knew there was
something different about you from the first time I saw you in the
café. You were too watchful.”

“
Watchful?”

“
As if everyone around you
might be an enemy. And the odd answers you give to
questions.”

“
I do?”

Emma’s smile grew to a grin. “Moe and
Vannie thought you were a retired soldier suffering from some kind
of brain injury.”

“
My intelligence quotient
is quite high.”

“
And there’s the way you
don’t react to dangerous situations like other people
do.”

Vin sighed. “I don’t
understand.”

“
You run toward danger
without caution or thought to your own safety.” She gestured toward
the stairs and his workshops below. “And you know so much about
weapons and seem able to build or fix anything.”

“
Many soldiers have skills
as mechanics or weapon specialists.”

“
But you are skilled in
everything.”

“
Not everything
apparently. I did everything in the manner of a civilian. You
should not have thought me any one special.”

“
I’m sorry I used your
tablet without asking, but I was rather sure of who you were before
I looked at it. The only new thing I learned from it is that you’re
supposed to be dead.”

“
Most people think
so.”

“
So how did you plan to
use me to find my stepfather?”

* * * *

Emma watched as emotions crawled across
Vin’s fine features. For all his high intelligence quotient, he
needed time to process words beyond their literal meaning. His
careful answers exposed what he sought to hide. “I don’t intend any
harm to you.”

“
You came for my
stepfather and vengeance for all that was done to the Recon
Marines. Is he the last one on your list?”

Again Vin took his time with his
answer. “Not for the Recon Marines. For Yalo.”

“
The Giroux guard who was
killed protecting the queen?” Emma couldn’t remember reading any
details on the woman.

Vin looked away but not before pain
flashed in his eyes. He stared at the floor. “She was killed by
Geoff Hadrason. He wanted the queen so he could become richer and
more powerful. Yalo threw herself in front of the queen after
Hadrason decided if he couldn’t have Callie no one
should.”

“
But he killed Yalo
instead.”

Vin lifted his gaze back to her,
something hot in his. “Yalo was my wife, pregnant with my
child.”

Emma tried to imagine Vin married and
with a family on the way. How did one domesticate a Recon Marine?
“Isn’t Hadrason in prison? I know my stepfather is one of the
military men under investigation for his part in your court
martial, but how is he connected to Yalo’s death?”

Vin took a deep breath and his eyes
cooled off to their usual clear gray. “I wanted to kill Hadrason,
but it would have ruined … things. So I’m taking something from him
that he values more than his life.”

Things clicked into place. “You’re
tearing down his empire.”

“
Your stepfather is the
last military man who helped Hadrason build his mining business and
benefited financially from it.”

Emma tried to remember what she’d read
on the tablet. How many men connected to Hadrason had disappeared?
“Are you going to kill him?”

Vin’s expression didn’t change. “I
don’t know yet.”

“
Did you kill those other
men?”

“
One died running from me.
Four ended up in law enforcement custody. The rest are residents of
the Nye Moon.”

“
The Nye Moon as in the
prison planet?” Relief warmed Emma.

“
The people who run those
facilities are flexible with their entrance requirements. They
always need more help in their mines.” Vin fixed her with an
intense stare. “Now you know everything about me. Why are you
hiding here, Doctor Emma?”

Emma stood up. “I’ll get you something
to eat. And you don’t know me nearly well enough to know my
secrets.”

* * * *

The next days passed slowly for Vin as
he rested and recovered. He built two more wave blockers and had
Vannie install them on the east and west fences. He also created a
rig to hang the first two above the gates so they didn’t have to
sit in the middle of the street. The devices protected the town
from more drone attacks but who knew what might come at them
next.

After the first two days spent mostly
sleeping in his bed, Vin pulled a chair out onto the wooden walkway
in front of his shop. With his gun at his side. He used the hours
on sentry to work on the AI tablet and search for a reason behind
the attacks. Why would anyone care about this unimportant little
settlement?

It took him nearly an hour to find his
way into the shipping manifests of the Hadrason Mine. Moe came out
as the afternoon warmed, bringing a chair from the café and sitting
beside Vin’s gun. “What are you working on today?”

Vin tilted the computer toward Moe.
“Trying to deduce why they’re trying to chase you out of Hovel
Port.”

Moe raised an eyebrow. “You’re in their
databanks?”

“
Look at what they’ve been
shipping.” Vin pulled up a spreadsheet filled with numbers and
descriptions of product. “I noticed when Dillon and I dumped our
unwanted visitors that wood filled the cargo bays of the outgoing
ships.”

“
I heard there’s a market
for some of the lumber that grows here. It resembles Old Earth oak.
Synthetic wood furniture isn’t good enough for the rich. They want
real wood. If they’d move out of the big cities and live a while on
the outer worlds, they could find all the old fashioned natural
products they want.”

Vin didn’t understand what Moe’s last
statement meant though he sensed sarcasm, a difficult language
quirk to interpret. “Look at this manifest of the silver going out
over the last sixty days. And here is the sixty before and the
sixty before that.”

Moe frowned and scooted his chair
closer. “Less each time. Their mine is running dry.”

“
It would seem so. They’re
supplementing with lumber.” Vin closed the shipping files and
pulled up a map of the area.

“
This doesn’t explain
chasing us out. They’re taking a huge risk by killing people here.
They wouldn’t want an investigation.”

Vin shook his head. “The people who run
Hadrason Mining can make anyone disappear, including this entire
settlement. But I don’t know why they would want to.”

Moe looked toward Emma’s surgery. “Some
of the owners of that mine wouldn’t approve of their methods if he
knew what people lived here.”

“
But the admiral doesn’t
know Emma is here.”

Moe jumped to his feet, towering over
Vin. “How do you know who she is? What the hell are you doing
here?”

Vin rechecked the map on the screen.
“This map has been altered.”

“
Vannie and I look out for
Emma. We’ll protect her from anyone who comes after
her.”

“
Look at this.” Vin angled
the tablet so Moe could see it.

The big man glared at him. “Are you
hearing me? Any threat to her has to get through me and Vannie
first.”

Vin deduced Moe spoke so as if to
intimidate him though he wasn’t sure why. He stood up and faced the
big man. “You and Vannie weren’t there to protect her from the
drones. It doesn’t seem that difficult to get past you.”

Moe’s eyes widened and his mouth
flapped like his brain didn’t know what to say. Vin wondered if he
wore a similar expression sometimes. Emma burst out of her door and
saved Moe from searching for an answer.

“
Vin, I need your help.”
She ran back inside, leaving the door open.

A woman had carried a small child into
the surgery a short time ago, but Vin had thought little about it.
The children suffered small injuries all the time. They played
fearlessly with no concept of how fragile they were.

Vin followed Emma and found her leaning
over the little girl with the mother hovering on the other side of
the table. He heard Moe’s heavy tread tagging along behind him.
Sweat filmed the child’s red face and soaked her thin shirt. Her
chest rose and fell in quick, uneven bursts. He could feel the heat
pouring from her without touching her.