Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (22 page)

After seeing the craft up close, Vin
understood their limitations better. Probably they’d brought them
because of their reliability in rough conditions. But the light
vehicles weren’t designed for heavy loads. The extra men on each
transport created a dangerous overload, and they would need to gain
more altitude to pass over the wreck on the road.

Again Vin waited for a lightning flash
though he expected even these slow-witted attackers would figure
out they were being attacked. He waited until the second ship
struggled in the moisture-laden air and moved exactly on top of the
downed craft. The ship’s altitude improved the angle of the shot to
the battery. The transport dropped like a rock in heavy
gravity.

It didn’t land squarely on top of the
other one. Metal screeched against metal. This time Vin heard the
cursing and a few screams. Some would be disabled by
injuries.

The invaders had been traveling with
only running lights but now beams of brilliance stabbed out from
the one working vehicle.

Vin glided back into jungle, knowing
the light couldn’t penetrate the green curtain in front of him. His
camouflaged suit meant he didn’t have to stand still. He dodged
through the thick growth until he passed beyond the reach of their
lights.

The men working the search lights
didn’t know how to do a grid search and never bothered to check the
open road behind them. Vin took his time and aimed his cutting
laser at the last ship’s power source. Working with the lightning
again, he sent the final transport crashing into the sloppy
mud.

More shouts and screams until someone
finally took the initiative and fired into the trees. Others
followed the shooter’s useless example until the strobes of gunfire
lit the dark night. They didn’t fire one round toward the road
behind them.

Vin watched them strafe the jungle,
patient in the role of the hunter. A little more than a mile
separated the wrecks from Hovel Port. He doubted the residents of
the settlement heard the gunfire over the rain but they might see
the flashes as the road ran straight from here to the north
gate.

After nearly ten minutes of continuous
fire, the shooting slowed and then stopped all together at a sharp
command. The scent of hot gases hung for a short period of time but
the rain soon washed it away.

Vin worked his way closer, quiet and
invisible, not that they would hear him over the downpour. As he
neared he heard moans from the injured, but the rest of the men
watched the jungle. He ghosted over toward the edge of the greenery
so the next flash of lightning didn’t expose him. Not even his high
tech camouflage could hide him in the open. He had to close within
a few steps to hear their conversation. They grumbled about the
weather, about the equipment and the planning of the raid. Vin
ignored their rough voices and concentrated on the two men speaking
only to each other. They weren’t grumbling.

“
Surely we got them,” the
first man said.

“
Not like we can go into
that viper’s nest and look for their bodies,” said the second man.
“Do we walk from here or turn back?”

“
I don’t like going in
there without our ships but we’ll sweep those river rats aside with
no problem. They have at least one old transport ship that they
used to pick up supplies at the space port. We can take it to get
back.”

“
Don’t forget they have
that one guard.”

“
I wonder how they had the
coin to hire him. Hope he caught one in the trees just
now.”

“
He’s just one man even
though he shot down those drones. Underboss was sure furious about
that. Cost him nearly half a year’s salary to get them. And now he
has to report the sabotage at the mine.”

“
Hardly matters if they
fix it or not with the dribbles of ore we’ve been pulling up
lately.”

Vin drifted back toward his hover. The
enemy climbed down onto the muddy road and worked their way around
the wreckage. They sloshed through the puddles at a pace to reach
the settlement in a half of an hour or longer. Lots of time to
rethink their intention to go forward.

The cruiser’s sensors picked up the
individual heat signatures as the enemy spread out. The bastards
had left their injured behind proving their dishonorable natures.
The uneven, sloppy formation as they moved forward further
confirmed their lack of competent leadership.

Vin allowed them peace for a while as
their line stretched. He shadowed them from above the trees, the
hover craft too quiet to be heard over the rain. He could rake them
with lethal fire, killing or disabling them without return fire.
But it seemed like … murder. They were so damned
incompetent.

He didn’t care for the indecision. The
AI interrupted his internal debate with an alert. Vin touched the
screen and expanded his view from the area tight to the settlement
to a wider circuit of the entire area. Two dots appeared east of
Hovel Port, moving rapidly. They weren’t sluggish transport ships
and made no attempt to hide their approach. The sensors identified
the dots as small jumper ships, capable of breaking
atmosphere.

Vin’s heart leaped. The Underboss
wouldn’t have such ships but Emma’s stepfather might. He slapped
the accelerator panel and guided the hover into a steep climb over
the enemy. The shocked men ducked and swung their weapons up as he
flew over their heads. The darkness hid him before any of them
fired. He keyed up the radio he’d fashioned from things in the
shop. Moe and Vannie had the matching devices.

The wind and rain whipped at Vin’s
words as he shouted into the radio. “Guard Emma! They’re coming for
her!”

* * * *

Emma drew the drapes closed to hide the
lights from outside as Vin had instructed them. She wished he’d had
enough radios to give her one though she probably would have
distracted him by constantly checking to make sure he was all
right.

She brewed a pot of tea for the three
women waiting with her, volunteering to be her nurses for the
night. Though none of the women with her had small children, they
all had husbands or grown sons standing watch out in the night.
They appreciated the tea and all sat together on one of the
cots.

No sounds leaked in over the pounding
of rain on the roof. Moe looked in on them once and told them Vin
had the invading party in sight on the north road. Emma’s tension
twisted up a notch, an hour dragging by while she imagined him
alone out in the dark.

Angry voices rose outside the surgery
door. Emma braced herself to treat injuries but her hands shook
with fear of seeing Vin’s body bloody again. Something slammed into
the door and then it was pushed open. A vision from a nightmare
stepped inside, another crowding in behind it. The first soldier
was the biggest man she’d ever seen, covered in armor similar to
what Vin wore. Long guns sprouted from their gloved hands and masks
covered their faces.

The big one lifted his hand and pointed
at Emma. “Come with us.”

The other women closed in around Emma
as if to protect her. But she understood after one moment of
confusion. These weren’t raiders sent by the Underboss. She touched
the shoulder of the woman closest to her and then stepped in front
of her protectors.

“
Don’t hurt anyone.” But
where was Moe? How had these men entered the village
unchallenged?

The soldier gestured. “We’re leaving
now. We can walk or I can carry you over my shoulder.” He lifted
his gun and swung it in an arc. “We only want you and will kill
anyone who interferes.”

Emma stepped up to them. “No killing.
I’ll go with you.” She was glad Vin hadn’t been here when they
came. He would have died trying to stop this monstrous soldier, and
it would have been her fault.

The soldier grabbed her arm and jerked
her outside onto the sidewalk and down into the muddy street. She
stumbled across a body. Moe! She bent down to check him but the
soldier tugged her along. More soldiers joined her two captors, too
many of them for her to count in the rain.

She dug in her heels. “Let me see to
Moe. I’m a doctor.” She tried to look back at Moe but already the
rain and dark hid him. Where were the rest of the men guarding
Hovel Port?

A soldier latched onto her other arm
and they started to run. Her feet skimmed across the mud as they
forced her to keep pace. The south gate lay open before them with
another body sprawled in the mud. How many others had been wounded
or killed when these men came for her? Hot tears coursed down her
cheeks. The simple folks of Hovel Port had stood no chance against
trained fighters.

Two ships sat outside the gate in the
open ground between the town and the river. The soldiers bundled
her into one of them and pushed her into a room. The door slid shut
with a locking click. A soft white light came on automatically. She
searched around the door, finding no mechanism to open it. A
sinking sensation in her stomach meant they’d taken flight, quickly
and probably nearly straight up.

She looked around her prison, the
silence profound after the cacophony of rain outside. Containers
and sealed military meals sat on a table near the narrow cot. A
narrow door on one way opened into a lavatory facility. She was
well and truly caught.

Too wet to sit on the bed, Emma sat
down against the wall and wrapped her arms around her knees. She
curled into a small ball and tried to warm herself. But nothing
could stop the harsh images of Moe and the other body in the mud.
Dead because of her. Or if they were injured, the town would have
no doctor to treat them.

For a while bitter regret occupied her
thoughts but eventually her own predicament joined her worries.
Only her stepfather had reason to kidnap her and only he could
command experienced military men like her captors.

Not even Vin could have protected her
from so many men. And now there was no one to help her. Hovel Port
didn’t even have a ship capable of space travel. No one could come
after her. She wished she had had a chance to say good bye to
Vin.

* * * *

Vin flew over the north gate, ignoring
the shouts of the men as he zipped down the street. Light spilled
from the door of the surgery and highlighted Vannie leaning over a
body. He leaped from the hover before it stopped moving.

Not again! Vin couldn’t breathe as he
ran up to Vannie’s side. His breath whooshed out when he saw the
large body couldn’t be Emma. Moe lay in a pool of pink as the rain
diluted his spilled blood. Vin looked past the body into the
surgery where three women huddled there. He knew Emma was gone. She
would be tending Moe if she was still here.

A strange sound drew Vin’s attention
back to Vannie. He knelt beside the big man, not needing to touch
Moe to know he was dead. Another sob escaped Vannie, his big
shoulders hunching down as if to deflect a blow.

Vin understood what it was like to lose
someone as close as a brother. No matter how many of his fellow
Recon Marines he had seen die, each one hurt the same. That pain
had been one of the first reasons the Recon Marines started to
believe themselves as human as civilians. He knew there was no
comfort he could give Vannie, but Vin but his hand on his shoulder
anyway.

“
They didn’t have to shoot
him so many times,” Vannie sobbed out.

Vin saw four separated wounds. “Yes
they did. He wouldn’t have stepped aside as long as he
lived.”

Vannie nodded. “He fought them with all
he had. I ran as fast as I could, saw them drag Emma out, but I
couldn’t get here fast enough.”

Vin wanted to run down the street after
her himself, but it was too late. The ship had left as quickly as
it arrived. He had to leave soon or lose his chance to track it.
“How many took her?”

Vannie took a deep breath and pulled
his gaze from his dead friend. “I saw at least a dozen here on the
street, but there was gunfire down near the south gate so I reckon
more waited down there. They wore outfits nearly like yours and
blended into the dark. I couldn’t fire on them while they had
Emma.”

“
I have to go.”

Vannie rose when Vin did and grabbed
his arm. “What about the men coming at us from the
north?”

Vin shrugged off Vannie’s hand. “Less
than thirty of them on foot about a mile out.”

“
On foot? In the
rain?”

Vin didn’t have time to explain.
“They’ll be here in twenty minutes or so.”

“
You can’t go and leave us
alone against them.”

Dillon ran up to join them. “Four men
wounded by the south gate.”

“
They’re coming from the
north.”

Dillon nodded but stayed put as if
waiting for orders.

Vannie turned his empty stare back to
Moe. “Vin, you can’t leave Hovel Port to those men. We’re weakened
already without you leaving. Emma would want you to make sure this
town is safe before going after her.”

“
She wouldn’t know what
the best strategy is for her safe return.” But Vin looked at the
terrified women cowering at the surgery door. And down the street
men struggled to carry the wounded. Emma would want him to protect
this town she loved and was such an important part of. “I’ll take
care of the men on the north road, and then I’m going after
Emma.”