Stalker's Luck (Solitude Saga Book 1) (28 page)

The lawman licked his lips, handed her back her tab, and rubbed his ruddy cheeks. “I need to make a call.”

He reached for his tab. Dom’s fingers snaked around his wrist and held him tight. He stared up at her, shocked.

“Call Feleti Leone and I will shoot you down for obstructing a stalker’s justice, sir.”

The man removed his hand from his pocket and showed his empty palms. Dom released him and jerked her head at Eddie and Knox. She prodded Williams in the back to get him moving again.

The
Solitude
’s umbilicus was still unguarded. She hurried the three men as much as she could. She could sense the syndicate men snapping at her heels. She unlocked the airlock and shoved Williams forward through the umbilicus. He walked like a dead man, a shell.

“You, sit tight and stay out of the way,” she said to Knox. “Eddie, get Williams secured. We’re getting out of here.”

Eddie nodded silently and took Williams by his shirt and pushed him towards a narrow staircase that led to the cargo area and the converted brig.

Dom hurried to the bridge, sat down, and brought the electronics online. The helm’s newer computers clicked and hummed as their monochrome screens flickered to life. “I’m sealing the airlock,” she announced over the ship’s intercom. “Requesting maglock release now. Stand by.”

She started the engine sequence. Deep in the bowels of the ship, the solid fuel engines hummed to life. She relaxed at their familiar sound.

Then they cut out. Error messages flickered across her screens. The intercom crackled to life again.

“Attention all passengers and crew of the
Solitude
. Clearance to leave has been denied. Put down all weapons, relinquish door control, and prepare to be boarded.”

“Shit,” she said. She hammered the buttons of the helm, but nothing responded. She slammed her fist down. “Shit!”

She grabbed her shotgun and hurried back through the ship’s central corridor. Knox scurried out of the common room towards her.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

“Leone,” she said. “He’s shut us down. Can you break his control so I can get us out of here?”

“It’ll take time.”

“Then hurry the fuck up.”

Knox squeezed past her and ran to the bridge. She met Eddie at the airlock. She could hear voices calling from the umbilicus outside.

“How many of them?” he said.

She touched a control next to the airlock and brought up a fuzzy, black-and-white image from the sensor above the airlock door. A dozen syndicate men and women crowded the umbilicus, more approaching.

“Too many,” she said.

As she watched the vid screen, a figure pushed through the crowd, shoving his way to the front. Feleti Leone. His thin face showed no emotion as he stopped outside the airlock door.

“Can I kill him now?” Eddie said.

“No,” she said. “But I’ve got an idea. Stall him.”

“Stall him? We’re not trying to hide a surprise party from him, Freckles.”

But she was already moving back to the bridge. “Just do it!”

Eddie watched Dom hurry away, then turned his attention back to the view of the exterior airlock door. Leone held up one hideous, long-fingered hand and tapped on the door with his knuckle.

“Stalkers,” he said, his voice crackling through the microphone. “Open up. You’re only delaying the inevitable.”

Eddie pressed the transmit button below the vid screen. “Isn’t that all any of us ever do? Tell you what, Jack. You walk away from here and I won’t put a hole in your head.”

“Still as cocky as ever. I would’ve thought you might’ve mellowed out a little. Or do you enjoy killing women, Eddie?”

His hands tightened into fists.

Leone smiled up at the camera. “My men found the whore’s body. Single shot, probably from a pistol. I assume it was you who did it. She always was Williams’ girl, no matter what I did to her, no matter how hard I tried to break her. Oh, sure, she pretended to forget him. Maybe she even fooled me for a while. I never could think straight around pretty women. Then again, it seems like no one could think straight around her. Shame she’s dead. But now I’ve got something even better. Roy Williams.”

“Who?”

“Don’t play dumb, Eddie. It doesn’t suit you. I’m not a vindictive man. You stalkers killed some of my people, and we shed some of your blood. If it becomes necessary, I’ll happily kill you both, and I’ll take my time with it. But I’ve cooled off in the last few hours. You should’ve told me you were looking for Roy Williams. We could’ve helped each other.”

“My mother always told me never to trust a stranger.”

“Wise woman. But I hope you realise you have an opportunity now. I want Williams. I want him bad, Eddie. Bad enough that I’m even willing to let you stalkers live if you hand him over. I don’t want to have to destroy your ship and everyone on it. That would be a complete waste. I’m leaving this station soon, and I don’t want one of my last acts here to be something so violent. But if you give me no choice….” He shrugged.

“Well, hell, I didn’t mean to be inconvenient,” Eddie said. He paused. “What guarantees do I have that you won’t harm me or my partner if I give you Williams?”

“Come, now. You’ve been doing this longer than that, haven’t you? There are few guarantees in this game. But I can guarantee that if you don’t hand Williams over to me, you will die. You will die as surely as Williams’ whore died. Understand, stalker?”

Eddie felt his face split into a grim smile. “All right. You got us beat. I’m opening the airlock.”

He punched the button on the panel. The mechanism hissed and groaned. The door slid slowly open. Leone’s pallid, smiling face came into view, and behind him, a dozen syndicate men and women watched.

“You made the right choice, Eddie,” Leone said.

“I sure did.”

Eddie slipped the pistol from his holster and touched the barrel to Leone’s forehead. The man went still. Behind him, all his people raised their weapons.

“They shoot, you die,” Eddie said.

“Don’t,” Leone snapped at his men. His eyes narrowed as he glared at Eddie. “You can’t kill me. I’m protected.”

“You don’t look very protected right now.”

“You know you’re not getting out of this, don’t you, stalker?”

“Call her a whore again. Go on. You know you want to.”

“It’s not an insult. It’s a fact. You couldn’t imagine the things she did for me to ensure her own survival. Such a convincing actress. You know, I started to believe that she’d actually come to want me. Impressive. I’ve never seen someone more afraid of death. And I live on a dying station.” Leone leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the gun barrel. “Not that it saved her in the end. Death comes to us all. You shouldn’t still care. You made your choice. I may call her a whore. But you killed her.”

“I’m leaving this station with Roy Williams. If you try to stop me, if you try to harm me or my partner, you will die. You’re right, I made my choice. I killed a woman I once loved to protect my friend. So what the hell do you think I’ll do to a son of a bitch like you?”

The intercom crackled overhead. “All right, all right, that’s enough, all of you.”

It took Eddie a moment to recognise Lieutenant Pine’s voice. Dom must’ve been piping his connection in over the intercom.

“Feleti Leone,” Pine said. “Stand down. Send your men away. Your transport is arranged to depart in forty-eight hours’ time. You and the other nominated members of your organisation will be relocated in exchange for the information you have provided. And of course, for your generous donation to the Federation Navy. But that can only happen if we all avoid any inquiries coming from Babel. If two stalkers carrying a high priority fugitive are killed, well, I will no longer be able to guarantee you passage off Temperance.”

Leone’s face turned dark. He glared at Eddie.

“Mr Gould,” Pine said. “Lower your weapon and allow Mr Leone to leave. As I told your partner, if any harm comes to Mr Leone, your contract fee will be revoked. Am I clear, gentlemen?”

Eddie showed Leone his teeth and slipped his pistol back into his holster.

“I’m disappointed,” Leone said in a low voice. “I wouldn’t expect two proud stalkers to go running to Mummy.”

Eddie shrugged.

Leone turned back, glanced at his men, and scowled. “Go on, get out of here. Call Port Authority and let them go.”

The syndicate people filed back out of the umbilicus, casting wary eyes at Eddie as they went. Leone followed them for a few steps, then turned back to Eddie.

“This isn’t over, stalker. It’s a small system. I’m sure we’ll meet again.”

Eddie made a gun with his fingers. “Bang bang.”

Leone smiled back. And with that, he walked away. Eddie watched his back, smiling until he was out of sight. Only then did he lower his hand and let the smile slip from his face.

“All right,” Dom called. “Are we all set to get off this damn station?”

Eddie punched the button and the airlock door slid closed. “I’ll be in my room. Wake me when we get there.”

32

As tired as he was, Eddie wasn’t able to fall asleep on the short journey from Temperance to the Fed outpost. He lay on his cot, staring at the ceiling. He’d made the right choice. He knew that. Cassandra was his past, but Dom and the
Solitude
, this was his present. He’d never been one to wallow in the past. He wrote the story, got it on the page, and let it go. It kept him steady, kept him alive.

But how could he write this? How could he reduce Cassandra to a few words on a page? How could he describe the feeling he’d felt in the pit of his stomach as she fell, his bullet drilling through her chest?

The ship shuddered around him as the maglock clunked into place. He could hear Dom moving about in the corridor, but he didn’t move until she banged on his door.

“We’re here,” she said.

He sighed, swung his legs over the edge of his bed, and stood. Every bit of him ached. He hoped their next stop was somewhere with a doctor and booze. Somewhere quiet.

He made his way through the
Solitude
and unlocked the door to the brig. Roy Williams sat on the floor, his head against the wall, his arms still bound behind him. A fresh bandage had been applied to the wound on his thigh—it must’ve been Dom’s doing. He didn’t look up as Eddie leaned against the doorway.

“End of the line,” Eddie said. “Up you get, Jack.”

Williams’ eyes tracked slowly towards him. He was quiet a few seconds. Then he spoke.

“Was it worth it? Was it worth her life to catch me?”

“She’s dead, we caught you. It doesn’t matter if it was worth it or not. It’s what happened. Get up.”

Williams put his back against the wall and pushed himself to his feet, grimacing as he put weight on his wounded leg. He took small steps towards Eddie. As Eddie moved out of the way of the door to let him past, Williams paused.

“I think I understand why you do this. You do it for the pain. You want to see the pain. Don’t you?”

Eddie nodded slowly. “Yeah. I do it for the pain.” He jerked his head. “Move.”

Dom stood at the closed airlock as Eddie came up, pushing Williams ahead of him. Eddie met her eyes.

“Where’s the midget?” he asked.

“I told him to lay low. The Feds must’ve scanned his pass on the way here, but I’d rather not wave him under their noses.”

The airlock door hissed open. In the umbilicus, Lieutenant Pine stood with his hands behind his back, two marines flanking him with submachine guns at the ready. Pine looked them over, a sneer forming on his boyish face.

“You two look like you’ve seen some action. I would offer to let my medic examine you, but you know the regulations.”

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “And I can see how much of a stickler for regulations you are. Remind me, which regulation says that Naval officers are allowed to take bribes from known gangsters to give them passage off a dead station?”

“Feleti Leone is a necessary evil.” His eyes roamed over the two of them. “Much like many other less-than-savoury individuals I’m obliged to work with.”

He stepped forward to examine Roy Williams.

“He’s wounded,” Pine said.

“Not by us,” Dom said. “Not the gunshot wound, anyway.”