Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) (11 page)

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Authors: Mike Resnick

BOOK: Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3)
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“Spare me your predictions,” said Cole. “He lives until I say otherwise. That’s an order.”
She shrugged and sighed deeply. “You’re the Captain.”
“I’m glad you remembered,” said Cole. “They’ve got to have a hospital around here somewhere. It’s too big a city not to. Get an ambulance to take him there, then have Bull come down on a shuttle and stand guard. Once they patch him up, no one but the doctor goes into his room, and he doesn’t send or receive any messages. Then, once he’s taken care of, hide his ship. I’ll have Apollo’s president use his influence to erase any record of it landing at the spaceport. By nightfall I want every trace of this thug’s presence eradicated.” He paused for a moment. “Change that. I want Domak watching him, not Bull.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because we’re not going to shoot the place up. I just want someone there to discourage anyone from trying to talk to him—and Domak is a warrior-caste Polonoi. Her appearance, with all that natural spiky armor, will scare off more cops and hospital attendants that Bull’s muscles.”
“Anything else?”
He considered for a moment. “No, that should do it. The next move is up to them.”
And it came the next afternoon, when a subspace message came through to the president’s office.
“We haven’t heard from our representative” was the demand. “Where is he?”
“I’ve no idea,” answered Cole. “We were expecting him yesterday, and he never showed up, never even sent a message saying he would be delayed.”
“If we find you’ve lied to us . . .”
“Why would I lie?” asked Cole. “The money is right here, waiting for you. Of course, I could have it delivered if you’ll tell me where.”
“We’ll pick it up at your office.”
“You’re sure it won’t be inconvenient?”
“Just have it ready. And you’d better be telling the truth.”
“Why would I lie to you?” asked Cole. “I’m paying you to protect me from everyone else. I’m not paying anyone to protect me from you.”
“Keep a civil tongue in your head. We’re on our way. We should be there in six hours.”
“Fine,” said Cole. “I look forward to it.”
11
 
Cole sat at the desk, idly watching a murderball game that was piped in on the office’s holo from the Quinellus Cluster and wondering why anyone would willingly play in a game that averaged seventy percent casualties, no matter how much it paid. He decided not to consider the casualty rate of mutineers, pirates, and mercenaries, because he was so far ahead of the game it was time the odds caught up with him and his crew.
He knew that Khan’s representatives would be suspicious, and half expected them to prevent anyone from signaling him that they were on their way up to his office, but as they boarded the airlift the receptionist on the main floor alerted him to the fact that he was about to have visitors.
He deactivated the holo, made sure—for the third time—that his burner and screecher were fully charged, and waited.
Within a minute two men, a woman, and a Lodinite entered the office and confronted him.
“Who are you?” demanded the taller of the men.
“What do you care, as long as you get your extortion money?” responded Cole.
“
Protection
money,” the man corrected him.
Cole shrugged. “Whatever.”
“I don’t like your attitude,” said the man.
“I’ve heard that before,” said Cole.
“What became of our representative?”
“How would I know?” said Cole. “I haven’t left the building except to eat and sleep for the past two days. He never showed up, never sent a message, never sent a surrogate.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Look around,” said Cole. “Do you see him anywhere?”
“Don’t be clever with me!” snapped the man.
Cole was about to reply when he noticed the woman staring intently at him.
“I know you from somewhere,” she said.
“I doubt it,” said Cole. “We hardly travel in the same social circles. Besides, I’m sure if we’d met I’d remember you.”
“I’ll have it in a minute,” she muttered, still scrutinizing him.
“Where’s the money?” demanded the man, who seemed to be their leader, or at least their spokesman.
“In a safe place,” said Cole. “Surely you didn’t expect me to have it right here on my desk, where any thief could walk in and take it.”
“Get it!” snapped the man.
“I don’t believe you’ve heard a word I said,” replied Cole.
“What are you talking about?”
“I just told you: I’m not leaving it right here for any thief to take—including you.” He paused. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to get yourself an honest job, and we’re not hiring at present.”
“I know who he is!” shouted the woman suddenly. “He’s Wilson Cole!”
“This is our lucky day,” said the man. “The Republic has put a ten-million-credit reward on your head.”
“You might want to take a look behind you before you try to collect it,” said Cole calmly.
The man and the Lodinite turned their heads and found themselves facing Val, who had a burner in each hand.
The second man, who had remained silent throughout, went for his pulse gun. A fraction of a second later he lay dead on the floor, a black bubbling hole between his eyes. As Val shot him, the Lodinite launched itself at her. She sidestepped and clubbed it across the back of the neck with her sonic pistol. There was a cracking noise, and the Lodinite fell to the floor, motionless.
“Does anyone else want to act stupidly?” asked Cole, getting to his feet.
“What the hell are you doing here?” demanded the man. “You’re supposed to be on the lam from the Navy.”
“I am.”
“So now you’re holding up businesses?”
“Just one,” said Cole. “Yours. Where can I find Genghis Khan?”
“What do you want with him?”
“Everything he’s got,” said Cole.
“You’re a fool,” said the man. “He’s Genghis Khan. He’ll squash you like a bug.”
“If that’s the case, then you can’t have any objection to telling me where he is.”
“What’s it worth to you?”
“Wrong question,” said Cole.
The man frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t follow you.”
“The question is: What’s it worth to
you
?”
“We’re not telling you anything.”
“That’s your choice—but I promise you it’s going to prove to be a very painful choice.”
Suddenly the woman went for her screecher. Val melted it with her burner, and the woman screamed in agony as she found herself with a handful of molten metal. She dropped it to the floor, then knelt down in pain, holding her hand.
“This one’s a pirate called Jezebel or Cleopatra,” said the man, jerking a thumb at Val. “What the hell is she doing working for the Navy?”
“Her name’s Val—this month, anyway—and as your friend noted, we’re
not
the Navy anymore. Now why don’t you make things easy on yourself and tell me what I want to know?”
“Not a chance,” said the man. “You won’t kill us. You do, and you’ll never find out where Khan is.”
“I won’t begin to enumerate the logical fallacies in that statement,” said Cole. “I’ll simply repeat, for very nearly the last time, that I want you to tell me where I can find Genghis Khan.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Okay,” said Cole, drawing his burner, “I’ll ask you an easier question. Which one is your favorite testicle?”
“What?” said the man uneasily.
“I’m going to let you keep it,” said Cole, aiming at his crotch. “At least I’m going to try. Now, which one can you spare?”
“You don’t mean that!” said the man nervously.
“Do I look like I’m joking?” asked Cole.
“That’s inhuman!”
“You come here to threaten and kill us, and
I’m
being inhuman?” said Cole with an amused laugh. “Now either tell me which one you can do without, or I’ll have to guess.”
“No!” screamed the man. He suddenly charged at Cole, oblivious of the burner that was trained on him, but before he could reach him Val stepped over and tripped him, sending him plunging headfirst into the desk. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.
“Thanks,” said Cole.
“Would you really have shot him?” she asked.
“Of course not. I just wanted to scare him into talking. I don’t shoot unarmed men.”
“
I
would have.”
“I know,” said Cole. “That’s why I’m the one who made the threat.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Same as before,” replied Cole. “Have the hospital send an ambulance and a pair of airsleds.” He stared at the woman who was still kneeling, holding her hand. “She’s in shock. Let them know that she needs immediate attention.”
“And the two dead ones?”
“I don’t want anyone to see the bodies leaving the building, so we can’t bury them. Have Bull Pampas and Luthor Chadwick come down from the
Teddy R
and move them into the basement or some storage area. They’re not going to turn into any nosegays, so have Bull bring a couple of body bags as well.”
“I could do that myself.”
“I know, but I want Bull and Luthor stationed down here anyway, so we might as well give them something to do. And have them bring Jack-in-the-Box with them.”
“Jack-in-the-Box?” she repeated.
“Jaxtaboxl,” answered Cole. “The Mollutei from the Gunnery section. His name’s a pain in the ass to pronounce, so I exercised my captain’s privilege and gave him a new one.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll get right on it.”
The ambulance arrived in a few minutes, and the crew members Cole had requested made it within an hour. When everything he’d ordered had been done, he opened a visual communication with the ship.
“Hello, sir,” said Christine, who was in charge of the bridge at the time. “I’m glad to see you’re all right. Will you be coming back up soon?”
“Not for a while yet,” said Cole. “Patch me through to Four Eyes. If he’s asleep, wake him up.”
A moment later Forrice’s life-size holographic image appeared in front of Cole.
“I heard about your little adventure this afternoon,” said the Molarian. “Congratulations, though without knowing the details I suspect the credit should really go to Val. I assume you’re staying down there.”
Cole nodded. “The next group isn’t going to have any doubt that something’s happened to their first two parties. One missing bag man is one thing; five are a little hard to ignore. After all, Khan’s the biggest criminal kingpin in the sector; how dumb can he be?”
“So they’ll be coming in force?”
“After a fashion,” said Cole. “I don’t imagine Khan himself will show up, not until he knows what happened to his men. For all he knows, a rival warlord with twenty ships is making the Bannister system his headquarters. But he’ll send a much bigger force than this afternoon’s.”
“I want to come down to the planet before he gets there,” said Forrice.
Cole shook his head. “I need you right where you are.”
“Damn it, Wilson . . .”
“We can’t have the Captain
and
the First Officer both putting themselves at risk away from the ship,” said Cole. “If anything goes wrong down here, you’re in charge of the
Teddy R
, and it’ll be your job to attack whatever shows up before they can return to Genghis Khan’s base and you have to face an even bigger force.”
“But—”
“It’s got to be you, Four Eyes. Christine’s the best computer expert we’ve got, but she’s got almost no battle experience, and you’re the only two senior officers on board.”
“So send Val up and let me come down,” protested the Molarian. “After all those years as a pirate, she’s got more battle experience than you and me put together.”
“She’s worth three of you and ten of me in a pitched battle,” answered Cole. “I need her down here.”
Suddenly Sharon’s image appeared a few feet away from Forrice’s.
“May I make a suggestion?”
“Who told you to eavesdrop?” demanded Cole irritably.
“I’m the Chief of Security,” she replied. “It’s my job to monitor transmissions.”
“I can already guess what your suggestion is,” said Cole.
“Then why not come back to the ship?” she said. “Khan’s going to send a force to Bannister whether you stay on the planet or not, and like you said, Forrice and Val are both better equipped to fight them than you are.”
“This is my operation,” said Cole. “I’m staying.”

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