The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) (26 page)

“Doubtful,” Lucius muttered, as the roar of offbeat music and the crowd assaulted his ears.  She didn't appear to have heard him, though.  Lucius led the way towards the bar the remaining Marine followed close.  Lucius paused, as he worked along the edge of the dance floor, his eyes searched for Reese.  “What's your name, Marine?” Lucius asked.

“Sergeant Timorsky,” he answered.  “Sorry about Lance Namori, he's a little protective.  Don't worry about the cash, Colonel Proscia gave us some for the mission,”  The Marine didn't look down at Lucius, his eyes roved the crowd for threats.

“You've done protective detail before?” Lucius asked.  The calm manner in which the Marine NCO went about his business and the professional way he'd handled the bouncers suggested he was comfortable with the unofficial assignment.

“Yes, sir, both of us,” Sergeant Timorsky said.  “We were with the Centauri Confederation Fleet Infantry.”  Some things clicked together suddenly for Lucius.  The Fleet Infantry was the Centauri Military's equivalent of Marines.  Sergeant Timorsky was the squad leader for the group of them that had signed on when the
War Shrike
recruited from the refugees of Faraday upon Lucius's first arrival.

The Centauri Confederation Fleet Infantry were rather elitist, an all volunteer organization within the Centauri Confederation's conscript-heavy military.  They also tended to be heavily recruited for the Centauri Commandos, an elite paramilitary force that conducted all manner of operations for their government.

“Right,” Lucius said.  “I need to talk to a man here at the bar.  Just keep an eye out and if anything goes wrong, go ahead and take charge, I'm not going to be any good in a bar brawl.”

“That was the plan, sir,” the Sergeant said with a slight smile.

“Right,” Lucius said.  He spotted a familiar shock of blonde hair.  “Let's do this.”  He wanted to get this over with.  Part of him knew that he should be occupied with the preparations for the attack on Melcer.  They were scheduled to depart in mere hours.  Yet, he had to at least try, if not for Reese's sake, then for his sister's.

He edged around the crowd and then moved up to Reese's elbow.  “Reese.”

“Lucius,” Reese said.  Lucius could barely hear him over the roar of the crowd and the blaring music.  “What brings you to this fine establishment?”

“Alanis is worried about you,” Lucius shouted, “So am I.”

“Well, that's nice,” Reese snarled.  He turned and leaned in close to shout in Lucius's face and his breath stank of cheap alcohol.  “Took you long enough to think of me.  Alanis is hellbent on getting herself killed in typical Giovanni fashion.  How long until you send her off to die gloriously?  I bet you can't wait, probably makes you look ever the heroic figure, sacrificing your only kin to show your dedication to the cause.”  Spittle spattered Lucius and the hot breath in his face made him recoil almost as much as  the venom in Reese's voice.

Lucius bit back a scathing reply.  “I need you, Reese.  I need you as a friend and I need your service.  We still have the Chxor to defeat.”  He could see Reese's face turn a darker shade of red.  Lucius took a deep breath, “Dammit, your
wife
needs you, Reese.  You're so worried about losing her to combat, but you've almost lost her from how you're behaving.  Are you trying to drive her away?”

“I've already lost her!” Reese shouted, loud enough that those nearby withdrew.  He swung his arm in a sharp arc, “I've lost her to your damned bullshit idealism and the stupid, stubborn Giovanni desire to find the biggest windmill to take a tilt at!”  He leaned over Lucius and grabbed him by the collar, “And I wish–”

Sergeant Timorsky stepped forward and put his hand on Reese's wrist, “Sir, you should probably take a step back.”

“Now you're having your goons tell me what to do?” Reese snarled at Lucius, even has he released his collar.  He took a couple steps back.  “To hell with you, Lucius.  And to hell with Alanis.  Tell her that I hope she finds what she's looking for in dying gloriously for the cause, because she's thrown away our marriage to do it.”  Reese staggered backwards a bit and swayed.  He wiped at his red eyes, “To hell with all of you.”

Lucius wavered, half of him wanted to grab Reese and shake some sense into him, the other half just wanted to be away from this place.  He knew that he couldn't stop the other man from destroying his own life, yet he thought that if he just could say the right thing that he might get through to him.

The moment passed and Reese shoved his way through the crowd.

“Should I have Lance Namori try to retrieve him?” Sergeant Timorsky asked, his voice barely audible over the noise of the bar.

“No,” Lucius shouted. “Let him go.”  Hopefully Reese would sober up and come to his senses.  Yet, Lucius wondered if he could forgive the man his words.  The angry, caustic tone and the hatred he saw in the blue eyes of his former friend hurt, hurt more than it should.  Had Reese ever truly been his friend... or had he fooled Lucius all along?

***

Port Klast System

Port Klast

August 26, 2403

Mason sat back, feet up on the pilot's console for the shuttle.  It had been a busy night and with how the alcohol had hit him, the series of shocks from Thomas Kaid, and general exhaustion, he didn't feel safe to fly back to the ship just yet.

Lauren hadn't said much when she went to the back of the shuttle and laid down.  He wasn't certain if she were angry at him over his continued act, irritated that she'd had to be dressed up, or embarrassed at being caught with a weapon.  Knowing her, probably a mix of all three, Mason thought.

Tomorrow he would have to go out and recruit crew.  He dreaded that, though.  He had to strike a balance between cheap and trustworthy, which basically meant he'd be taking untrained kids and down-on-their luck merchantmen into combat.  Neither appealed to him, especially since this little excursion was bound to get at least a few of them killed.

Mason felt the temptation, yet again, to dial into some of his old contacts.  Yet he doubted he could trust all of them and it would only take one to out him.  For that matter, some of them were dead, others had gone legitimate or retired, and the handful that left were some of the last people he wanted to associate with.  They were the ones who knew how to bring out the worst in him.

Mason took another sip of water from the pitcher by his seat and closed those thoughts carefully away.  There was a part of him that longed for the life he was about to return to, even in disguise.  To do as he wished, to take what he wanted, and to savagely destroy anyone who opposed him.  The lure of that life and the rage that had guided him for so long had taken years to bury... yet he could feel how easily and naturally they came back to the surface of his thoughts.

“I shouldn't drink,” Mason muttered to himself, “Always makes me morose.”

“Seems to make you talk to yourself too,” a woman's voice said from behind him.

Mason started and almost levitated out of his seat.  He spun and his hands dropped to his holstered pistols, “What the hell?!”  He froze though, when he saw the tall and lean blonde woman who leaned against the hatch frame.  Like usual, she wore rugged prospector's clothing, a loose bush jacket and baggy cargo pants, and her blonde hair was drawn back in a ponytail.

Mason shook his head, “Kandergain.”  He took a deep breath and tried to calm his heart rate and to assure his adrenal gland that the fight or flight reflex really wasn't necessary.  “Why are
you
here?”

Kandergain gave Mason an insouciant grin, “I hear you need a navigator, 'Stavros'.”  She straightened up from her lean and offered her hand, “I have great credentials.”

“Yeah,” Mason grunted, “I'll bet you do.”

“When I heard that Captain Stavros Heraklion was here...”  She looked Mason up and down, “with his appalling personal taste in clothing, I just had to come and see for myself.”

“Greek,” Mason muttered, even as he flushed.  It was one thing to have Thomas Kaid, close-mouthed as he was, to know it was him in this get-up.  It was another thing entirely for it to be a psychic who already had far too much dirt on him and a grudge to boot.

“I know, famously ostentatious,” Kandergain waved a hand.  “Still, I must say I'm impressed.  So, how about we continue this discussion on your ship, eh, Stavros?”

“I'm not flying like this,” Mason grunted.  “And I'm not hiring crew yet.”

“Trust me, you'll want to hear my interview,” she replied, “And I'm flying.  You're a little rusty at fine maneuvers for my taste, I'd rather not be blasted by the defenses because someone mistook your drunken weaving for an attack run.”

He didn't respond, but he did move to the side as she hopped into the pilot seat.  She pushed the water pitcher to him with one foot as she went through the preflight checks.  “Nice shuttle.”  As they lifted off, she looked up, “We're clear of any bugs, for now, by the way.  I zapped the couple aboard the shuttle.”

He sighed, then.  “I take it, by the fact that you're here, that there's more going on than I really care to dive into?”

“Actually, I just happened to be in the system,” Kandergain said.  “Some unpleasant business with Shadow Lord Imperious that Kaid asked for help with.  More of a distraction than a real threat, I think, but it still needed to be dealt with.”  She cocked her head, “How, exactly, did you get roped into this and what are you doing here?”

“Admiral Collae went looking for Tommy King and found me instead,” Mason said.  “He gave me some vague warnings about Lucretta Mannetti and then tried to sick me on her while claiming she was a threat to us all.”  Mason shrugged, “I told him to get lost, then I collected my effects and came here as Stavros.”

“To infiltrate her organization?” Kandergain asked.  She shook her head, “Dangerous.  I assume you knew that they are working together?”  At Mason's nod, she pursed her lips.  “Those two are dangerously competent, I would caution you that they might have planned for this.”

“Or Admiral Collae could be getting another pawn in play to use against her when the time comes,” Mason said.  “The nice thing about ambitious and deceitful people is how rarely they truly work together in peace and harmony.”

Kandergain snorted at that.  “You should know.”

Mason bit his tongue at that.  He'd never been deceitful.  Ambition, he'd had, to an extent, but not towards power for power's sake.  He was conniving and clever, but he'd treated most of his foes with respect... even if he did gun them down in the street. 
Okay,
Mason thought,
maybe I'm a little defensive over some of what I did.

“Right,” Kandergain said.  “I'd like to know what you know about the two of them and their organization.  Mannetti always seems to know a little too much for a rogue military commander turned pirate and Collae is just too competent to ignore anymore.”

“I thought you just dealt with the Shadow Lords?  That's your little private war, right?” Mason asked.  It seemed to him that if it was one against five, that maybe she shouldn't take her eyes off the table to deal with this.  For that matter, it insulted his sense of self-worth that she didn't seem to think he could manage on his own.

“Imperious and Invictus have both backed a play that I can't fight, at the moment,” Kandergain said.  “Not without pulling the other three into it.”  From her tone, she was more worried than she let on.  “Lachesis is laying low, probably licking her wounds from something some of my people did to her down at Tannis.”  She had a vicious smile about whatever had happened, but Mason didn't ask.  He didn't like to be involved in her war in the shadows.  “Sanctus and Gargant are both consolidating their forces.”  She shrugged, “In reality, there are dozens of actions going on by all of them across human space and even beyond... but I can only be in so many places at once.  I've people I work with to take care of the minor things, I'm the heavy hitter.”

“Right,” Mason grunted.  He would grant her that she was, by far, the most dangerous person he had ever encountered.  That included three hundred kilogram Ghornath mercenaries, tweaked out cybernetic bounty hunters, Wrethe pirates, and even a face-swapping assassin. 
Although, Crowe was dangerous because of how devious he was,
Mason thought,
rather than physical or psychic abilities.

“Unless one of them starts something that I can directly oppose, I've got the time to look into this,” Kandergain said.  “So, tell me everything... and please, don't leave out the part where you thought donning
those
pants was a good idea.”

***

Faraday System

United Colonies

August 30, 2403

Alanis was surprised as she opened the door to her apartment to find the lights on.  She was even more surprised when she heard the soft sound of music and smelled food.  She walked forward, almost afraid it was some kind of dream or delusion, until she stepped into the dining room.

Like Lucius, she and Reese had chosen an apartment in the building which had come to cater to military officers and families.  It was small, cozy even, but she and Reese hadn't needed much space.  Just them and the handful of items she'd managed to take during her flight from Nova Roma.