Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) (13 page)

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Authors: Mike Resnick

BOOK: Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3)
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“I can believe it,” said Cole. He gestured to the two bodies. “How long will they be out?”
“A couple of hours,” she replied. “And by the way, I’ve spent fifteen years on the Inner Frontier, and there’s no Demon Jack Devereaux.”
“I must have been mistaken,” said Cole easily. “Now I think it’s time for you four to go out and take care of the rest of Strahan’s landing party.” He knelt down and trussed his prisoner’s hands and feet with glowing manacles. “Remember, the police will lend a hand if you need them.”
“You’re not coming with us?”
“I’ve got my own work to do,” said Cole. “Report back when your mission’s been accomplished. And don’t kill anyone you don’t have to kill.”
“Our brig can only hold three or four of them, sir,” said Chadwick.
“I’ve arranged for the city to provide them with accommodations in the local jail.”
“Not if they think there will be reprisals from Genghis Khan,” said Chadwick.
“There won’t be,” said Cole. “Now get going.”
The four of them left, and Cole immediately contacted the
Teddy R
.
“Yes, sir?” said Malcolm Briggs.
“Where’s Christine?” asked Cole.
“Her shift ended, sir,” said Briggs. “I believe she’s in the mess hall.”
“Patch me through to her.”
A moment later he was facing Christine Mboya’s image.
“What can I do for you, sir?” she asked.
“I’m going to transmit some captured audio to you,” said Cole. “I want you to edit it as follows.”
He spent the next five minutes telling her what he wanted.
“I’m sure I can do that, sir.”
“It’s got to sound natural, and pass a voice ID test.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem, sir.”
“Okay,” said Cole. “After you send it back down, I want you to supply me with codes that will enable me to choose each sentence in the order I want it, based on what is said at the other end.”
“That will be the easiest part of all.”
“Good. If I was paying you anything to start with, I’d give you a raise.”
“Thank you, sir. I think.”
He had her transfer him back to the bridge and uploaded the captured audio of everything Strahan had said, then broke the connection, went to the executive restaurant on the top floor for a sandwich and a beer, and returned to the office.
He wasn’t worried about his team. He wouldn’t be surprised if Val alone could take out all thirteen of the enemy, and he had total confidence in the other three as well, plus Domak if they needed her (and he was sure they wouldn’t need her
or
the police). He found himself idly wishing that some of the modern weapons made a loud bang like the pistols of old, so he could try to follow the battle by the number of gunshots and the direction they were coming from, but though he ordered the windows to remain open not a sound came to his ears.
Then, almost an hour after they left, Luthor Chadwick returned alone.
“How did it go?” asked Cole.
“We killed four and captured nine, sir,” said Chadwick. “Val and Bull are escorting the captives to jail, and they’ve had Domak tell the hospital to transfer the ones Val put there to jail as soon as they’re healthy enough.”
“What about Jack-in-the-Box?”
“He took a pulse burst to his leg, sir,” said Chadwick. “He’s at the hospital, though I don’t know if they have any experts in Mollutei physiology.”
“How bad did it look?”
“I don’t think he’ll keep the leg, sir.”
“All right. Tell the hospital to bill the
Teddy R
for his treatment and his new leg.”
“The
Teddy R
, not the Apollo Cartel?” asked Chadwick.
“The
Teddy R
takes care of its own. And it’ll come to the same thing, once we collect from the Cartel.”
“
Will
we collect, sir? I know we took care of the landing party, but the planet’s no safer and we’re no closer to Genghis Khan than we were a week ago.”
“That’s true,” said Cole. “Temporarily.”
“Temporarily, sir?”
“Ask me again in an hour. In the meantime, contact the jail and tell them to collect these two,” he concluded, indicating the manacled Strahan and his companion, who were still lying unconscious on the floor.
Val and Pampas showed up a few minutes later, and Cole listened as they gave their accounts of the battle.
“Okay,” said Cole. “The bad guys are dead or jailed, and the hospital’s doing what it can for Jack-in-the-Box. I suppose it’s time to get to work.”
“I thought that was what we just finished doing,” said Val.
“You were doing a preliminary exercise,” replied Cole. “Christine has been preparing the next phase.”
“Christine?” said Val, surprised. “Is she down here?”
Cole shook his head. “No. She’s at her station on the
Teddy R
, doing what she does best.” He contacted the ship, and Christine’s image appeared. “All set?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I’ve just downloaded everything to your computer. The first thing you’ll see are the identifying codes you asked for.”
“Thanks,” said Cole. He broke the connection and brought up the codes on a holographic screen, each attached to a read-out of the sentences he wanted.
“What’s all this?” asked Val.
“This is everything Strahan said,” answered Cole. “Though not quite in the order he said it.”
“So
that’s
why you kept him talking!” said Pampas. “You recorded him and rearranged all his words!”
“Christine rearranged them. They’d spot it in two seconds if I’d done it. I don’t have her skills.” He stared at the codes. “Okay, let’s try it out.”
He sent a signal to the
South Star
.
“Identify yourself,” said a voice.
“This is Blackbeard,” said Strahan’s voice.
“I can’t see your image, sir.”
“Check my voiceprint.”
“The computer confirms that it’s you, sir. I assume the battle’s over?”
“There was no battle,” said Strahan’s voice. “We’ve become allies.”
“Allies?”
“I’m going to bring them to the
South Star
as a show of good faith.”
“Then you don’t want us to destroy the city?”
“Leave the city alone.”
“Yes, sir. Will we be staying here awaiting further orders or returning to home base?”
“We’re going to get the hell back to home base,” said Strahan’s voice.
“How soon shall we expect you, sir?”
“In ten minutes’ time.”
“We’ll be ready, sir,” promised the voice, and then the connection was broken.
“Do you think it worked?” asked Pampas.
“They know he’s on the planet,” said Cole. “They can match his voiceprint. They know he’s just fought a pitched battle, so they should be able to buy that he can only transmit his voice and not his image. They can assume that mercenaries would sooner join up with Khan than fight him. Yeah, I think it’ll work.” He walked to the door. “We’ll know in nine minutes. Let’s go.”
13
 
The shuttle encountered no opposition as it reached the bay of the
South Star
. As the hatch slid open, Val strode out and aimed her burner directly at the Lodinite who had come down to receive them.
“What’s going on here?” demanded the Lodinite as his T-pack took all the emotion out of his tone while translating it into Terran.
Cole emerged from the shuttle and confronted the Lodinite. “Keep quiet and there’s an excellent chance that you’ll live through this. Do you understand?”
The Lodinite made a gesture with his head that Cole took for an affirmative.
“Bull, take his weapons away from him.”
Pampas disarmed the alien.
“Now, to coin a phrase,” said Cole, “take us to your leader.”
The Lodinite led them to an airlift.
Cole stopped and stared at the airlift. “Have you got any stairs?” he asked.
“Yes, but the airlift is faster.”
“I lost all faith in these things a few months ago,” replied Cole, recalling how he had tricked a pirate named Windsail into entering one of the
Teddy R
’s airlifts and then cut off the oxygen and gravity.
“This way,” said the Lodinite.
They followed him up the narrow, winding stairs, then burst onto the bridge, weapons at the ready, surprising the eight men and aliens who were on duty there.
“Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt!” said Cole as Pampas, Val, and Chadwick spread out.
“Who the hell are you?” demanded the captain.
“We’re the people who are going to put your boss out of business,” said Cole.
“The four of you?” said the captain, arching an eyebrow in obvious amusement.
“We’re very ambitious,” said Cole.
“Being very lucky would serve you even better,” remarked the captain, showing no sign of fear. “Genghis Khan is not known as a forgiving man.”
“He’ll have to learn to live with his inadequacies,” said Cole. “Bull, you and Luthor get their weapons. Val, kill anyone who resists.”
“Why don’t we just kill them all anyway?” she asked.
“You must have had a very embittered childhood,” said Cole. “We’re not killing them because we’re civilized men and woman—and more to the point, now that we own two ships, we need some more crew members.”
“
Them?
” she said contemptuously. “They’re just common thugs.”
“And I’m a common mutineer, and you were a common pirate, and the two Men and the Pepon we picked up on Cyrano were just common murderers. We’re mercenaries, not pacifists.”
Val snorted in amusement. “That sounds like something
I’d
say.”
“What inducement can you offer us to join you?” asked the captain.
“The very best,” said Cole. “If you don’t, we’re going to load the lot of you into your shuttle and program it to take you down to Bannister II, where they will immediately put you in jail and prosecutors will be lined up around the planet to make sure you never get out. Do you doubt that?”
There was no answer.
“You have only one alternative,” continued Cole. “Swear your allegiance to me, and most of you will be transferred to the
Theodore Roosevelt
, where you will join my crew. I should tell you up front that, regardless of our differences with the Republic and its Navy, we are a military vessel and we demand military discipline. The choice is yours. I’ll give each of you five minutes to make it.”
“You say
most
of us will be transferred,” said the captain. “What about the rest of us?”
“The rest will stay right here. This beautiful lady, whose name is Val until she decides to change it again, will be your captain, and she’ll need a few crew members who are familiar with the ship.” He paused. “You’ve probably figured it out already, but your first action will be to attack the remainder of Genghis Khan’s fleet.”
“I’ve got no love for Khan,” said the captain. “But he pays me well. How much will
you
pay me?”
“Considerably less,” said Cole.
“That’s not much of an incentive.”
“I’m being as honest as I can,” said Cole. “And your choices are still the same.”
Val had been walking around the bridge, surveying the computer and weapons stations. “It’ll do,” she announced. “It’s not the
Pegasus
”—her lost ship—“but it’ll do.”
“It had damned well better do,” said Cole. “We need it. I’ll loan you Christine and Briggs long enough for them to find all the hidden codes and messages, but once we know where Khan is, the
South Star
is going to lead the attack, since you’ll be able to approach him with impunity.”
“I’ll need more than this warmed-over batch of losers,” said Val.
Cole smiled at the ship’s crew. “She’s so tactful,” he said.
“I’m serious, Wilson,” she continued. “I’ll take two or three of them, but this ship needs at least twenty crew members, probably more, and I’d rather have twenty who didn’t surrender without a shot being fired.” She paused for a moment, considering her options. “I want Forrice.”
Cole shook his head. “You can’t have him. He’s my First Officer. If we’re a fleet of two, the
Teddy R
is our flagship, and if anything happens to me, he’s got to be there to take it over.”
“I assume I can’t have Christine or Slick, either?”
“No.”
“Then give me Bull and Luthor.”

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