The Star Pirate's Folly (16 page)

“Stop whining, Pluck,” Gruce said.

“But it burns,” mewled Pluck.

Pluck tried in vain to paw at the blackened meat on his left
thigh through the neat hole in the armor, but couldn’t reach. He’d been tagged
by a laser the day before so Gruce had no choice but to carry him on his back.

The little man weighed nothing in the suit, but carrying him
made Gruce even more exposed as they crept through the tunnels underneath the
city—their armor had long since lost the power to maintain the taxing cloak
system. Gruce had to assume since he hadn’t been caught yet that the
bombardment had knocked out at least some of the city’s surveillance system.

Fatigue had his old body dragging. He could barely think
straight after so many sleepless nights on the run. Pluck and himself were all
that remained of his command—the others did their part well, allowing Gruce and
his squad to slip into the city undetected. The trouble didn’t start until
after that.

Starhawk’s armors outside the city bolted before the
counterattacking Overlook City troopers could reach them, feigning retreat, and
led the troopers away from the city. Then the orbital bombardment slammed the
dome, caving in the southern edge. Most of the troopers and drones went down in
the initial barrage, so Starhawk’s armors doubled back to mop up while Gruce
and his squad cloaked their way through the jagged gap in the dome.

With so much smoke, heat, and rubble infiltration was easy.
After they’d successfully breached the city’s walls his squad split into two
teams of five with the same objective: find Jensen’s suit. They had the
physical location of it in the police station at the center of the city but
expected it to be under heavy guard and would need to strategize before using
up the advantage of stealth. Pluck had access codes to get inside.

The city swarmed guards like a busted hornet’s nest. A drone
patrol sniffed out Whistler’s squad on the way in. They lost two men and
scattered. The rest of the squad went on a frantic chase but got picked off one
by one in the streets. Ever since then patrols had been scouring the city for
the rest of the pirates.

Upon seeing their plan shot to pieces, Gruce opted for
self-preservation. The map was a lost cause, so he grabbed Pluck and took off
for the tunnels. That was where Jensen Lee spent most of his time hiding out,
so Gruce figured he stood a better chance in there than out in the open. The
rest of his squad panicked without him and bought it trying to flee. Gruce
didn’t expect to last long—even Jensen Lee ended up a corpse.

But if there was one thing Gruce knew about Lee it was his
tendency to leave himself a back door. He would never have put himself in that
bombardment shelter if he didn’t have a plan for when they came knocking. Maybe
he’d left something behind. Anything would help.

“Pluck, we’re here,” Gruce said. “Can you open it?”

He propped Pluck against the wall outside the vacant, locked
shelter where Lee died. Groaning, Pluck accessed the hardlight screen on his
suit, issued several commands, and stopped, hovering his gauntleted finger over
the screen.

“They’ll come for us, dearest,” Pluck said. “They’ll know.”

“We’re lucky to have lived this long, Pluck. If there’s
nothing in here we’re humped anyway.”

Another flurry of input to Pluck’s screen and the shelter’s
thick door swung open. Gruce grabbed his subordinate by the arm and pulled him
along behind as he went inside.

***

“We’re trying our best, Harry,” Robert626 said. “This is
where you asked us to take you. What more can we do?”

Bushy eyebrows descended in a sharp glare as Hargrove
glowered at the earnest-eyed recruiter. He’d been cooped up with the chipper
man for days inside the Midtown Hotel. The two men sat across from each other,
each on the edge of his own bed.

“Stop calling me that. It’s Hargrove. And I want to go up
there myself. I’ve been telling you from the start I never wanted anyone to
hold my hand for this.”

“You can’t just go up to the station with all this going on,
the military won’t let you. And besides, there are still pirates on the loose
and you killed one of their best. You need protection.”

Hargrove stood and paced the room.

“I should have just stayed here from the beginning,” he
said. “I could have done all of this on my own.”

“Hargrove, the only reason you’re in one of your nice hotel
rooms instead of that musty holding cell underground is because of what we’ve
done for you. The very first day you joined up our team discovered exactly
where Bee went! If you don’t call that progress, I don’t know what is.”

Hargrove snorted. “Yes, using information I could have
gotten myself! The footage from our cameras here got us on her trail, and her
bank records showed her tickets at the station. All you did was get me out.”

Robert626 raised a pointed forefinger. “But would you have
known to look for either of those things? You had plenty of time after her
disappearance to check in both places, but you didn’t.”

Hargrove crossed his arms. The tight fabric on the white
one-piece jumpsuit he wore hindered his movement and he looked down at the
overly fashionable outfit with distaste.

“Maybe you’re right. But you’re asking me to work for you
before you’ve delivered on your end of the deal. We find her first. Until then
I won’t be your mouthpiece. No more video shoots, no more statements. I’ve
given you enough already by agreeing to wear these ridiculous suits the whole
time.”

The vertical black and red stripes matched the one Robert626
wore. So far the recruiter was still the only Volunteer Hargrove had met face
to face. Every other VCM he’d seen wore armor with a dark tinted visor on the
helmet. Their armor matched the white-black-red color scheme as well, with dull
white as the base and black and red stripes slashed across the joints. They
never spoke or acknowledged him since all communication between them happened
inside the suits. He wondered if Robert626 talked to them with his uplink.

Hargrove had plenty of time to study his silent guardians
during their stay. At all times an armored Volunteer with a laser rifle kept
watch and over the course of the week the guards rotated on twelve-hour shifts.
Hargrove never stayed in the same room for more than one day and some days even
moved two or three times to different random rooms. Robert626 explained that
his safety was the primary objective. Assassination was not out of the question
so they took his protection seriously.

“You don’t like the suits?” the recruiter said, wounded. “Our
focus groups said they look dashing. Plus, they can disperse a few laser blasts.
You should see some of the ads they’re sending out, you look great.”

“Ads?”

“Yes, that’s what we were recording for. We advertise all
over the system for more Volunteers. Always room for new recruits in the VCM!”

“You mean more privateers. Ugh. I need to take a shower,”
Hargrove said, unzipping the jumpsuit.

***

Gruce took a marble-sized scanner drone from a concealed
compartment near his waist, clicked it with his thumb, and tossed it into the
air. It hovered in front of him and bathed the area with red beams before
zooming off to another section of the shelter, leaving glowing hardlight
markers in its wake which flagged potentially useful data.

A red marker bobbed in the air over a faint stain on the
floor in front of him.
Blood
, the words said.
Lee, Jensen.
Lee
got stupid, let himself get snuck up on. Damn civvy bludgeoned his skull in
with his own helmet. Don’t get stupid, he reminded himself.

With Pluck working on keeping the shelter’s door shut, Gruce
followed the drone as it surveyed the entrance to the shelter. If Jensen had
hidden anything nearby he wasn’t sure the drone would be able to find it, so he
kept a sharp eye out for anything it might miss. It was only a matter of time
before the troopers found him and Pluck.

Gruce’s bulky shadow danced on the wall as Pluck welded the
door shut. Starhawk would be furious if he knew they weren’t going after the
map, but he probably assumed Two-Gut died with the rest of his crew in the
city. If they didn’t find anything inside the bunker that’s how he’d end up.
But there had to be something—Lee was a legend among smugglers.

The drone returned to Gruce and he snatched it out of the
air. It projected a screen in front of him with the scan’s results. Chemical
residues, bodily fluids, garbage—nothing, nothing, nothing. He clicked the
drone off and returned it to its compartment as he resumed his own search. It
would have surprised him if the little sniffer drone found anything Lee stashed
so easily.

Bee knocked on the bulkhead door to the bridge, three solid
thumps with the bottom of her fist. The Captain had called her up to see the
view of Optima as they approached. Truly opened the door for her and led her
inside. Ferro and the Captain each had their respective control seats while
Silver loitered near the door. He’d probably seen the view a hundred times
before. Bee took a spot up front just inches from the thick windows. Truly
stood to her left, arms crossed, still wearing only an undersuit.

The darkness of space thrilled her—the distance, the
emptiness. So much
room
. Optima’s sunlit side shone bright and welcoming
against the consuming black beyond it. Some of the spherical asteroid’s craters
glinted in the light and Bee realized they were capped by clear domes like
Overlook City. She wondered what they were like underneath.

“It’s beautiful,” Bee said.

“Yeah, anything looks pretty this far out,” the Captain said
from behind her. “Don’t let that fool you. Optima doesn’t really compare to
where you’re from.”

“Out here the Core maintains a presence, but it’s a pirate’s
paradise,” Truly explained. “Far enough out to make it easy to run and hard to
chase them down, trade routes coming in from all around the system, secret
lairs in the belt… they love it here.”

“I thought the Core Fleet just came through,” Bee pointed
out.

“They were only after the pirate Families,” Truly said.

“Families?”

Truly raised an eyebrow at her. “You’ve never heard of the
Families?”

Bee shook her head.

“So you’ve been chasing Starhawk since you were a little
girl and you haven’t even heard of the biggest pirate organization in the
system?”

“I didn’t know he was a pirate,” she said. “He’s never had a
bounty on him until now. I only realized it when I saw his face.”

“That’s all you’ve got?” Truly asked. “You saw his face?”

Find him
, whispered Mother.

Bee’s breathing came short and shallow as the memories crashed
into her thoughts. Every day she had to force herself not to bury them and
forget. Every day she thought of his face, held it in her mind’s eye, made it a
part of herself. She probably knew it better than Mother’s.

Peel back his eyelids until—

“Until this week that’s all I had,” Bee said, cramming her
mother’s voice to the back of her mind. “Now I know who he is, I know where he
is, and I know how to get there.”

“Too bad you don’t know how to fight,” Truly said.

Bee turned away from the view to face Truly directly. “You
taught me to shoot.”

“And you think that’s all you need? A couple of hours on the
firing range?”

“I’m going back.”

Truly stared out the window in silence.

Captain Anson spoke with audible hesitance from behind her.
“We got word from Surface this morning.”

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“Pirates are inside the city,” he said. “Everyone’s safe in
shelters underneath. They bombed the dome from orbit and some of them got in. The
Core Fleet hasn’t reached Surface yet, but once they arrive tonight it’s over.
The ships he has in orbit are all he’s got.”

“That’s not going to stop me,” Bee said.

“Even
if
you got there and he was still alive—he’s
got warships, Bee. An army of killers. Swarms of drone fighters. The entire
Planetary Guard is getting trounced and you think you can just waltz on in and…
do what, exactly?”

“Find him and kill him,” she said, and heard Mother echo her
words.

“I want you to come with us,” Captain Anson said.

Surprised, Bee didn’t know what to say. They’d been so eager
to get rid of her before and now a sudden invitation to join the crew? Why
would he—

“Myra talked to you, didn’t she?” Bee asked.

“Of course she did. At first I thought it was a ridiculous
idea, but we could all benefit from having you around—and I don’t mean as a
passenger. I want to bring you onto the crew. Paid. You’ve got a good head on
your shoulders, you’re willing to work hard, and best of all you make good
company for Myra. She’s been getting cranky recently and I don’t want any more
tantrums while we’re out there on our own.”

“I can hear you,” Myra said, wounded.

“Now try
listening
,” Captain Anson said with a stern
edge.

Bee turned back to the view of Optima, working her options
over in her head. Obviously they were right. She didn’t have a plan. She didn’t
even have a gun. What
could
she do? The Core Fleet was bound to either
capture or kill Starhawk. But this nagging feeling told her he would get away
somehow. She’d missed her shot at him once—if only she’d stayed at the hotel!
If another chance presented itself, she wouldn’t falter.

Find him
, Mother insisted.

But she knew the choices she’d made were the best available
to her at the time. She couldn’t have known then what she did now. And even if
she had, what then? What could one eighteen-year-old do that a trained military
defense force couldn’t?

Kill him,
Mother wailed. Her voice was getting
louder, more desperate. She hadn’t been this persistent since the old days.

Whatever the odds, Bee had to try.

“I’m going back,” she said, but didn’t turn to face the
others. The cratered planetoid loomed larger and larger as
Wanderlust
approached.

“Come with us,” Captain Anson said.

Bee whirled on the crew, snarling with sudden fury, “I’m
going to kill him! You just try and stop me.”

Pain flared in her right shoulder and elbow and Bee cried
out. Truly had snatched her wrist and twisted it behind her back until it felt
like her arm would snap out of place. He clamped his other hand around her
upper arm to hold her still. She hadn’t even noticed him move.

“I stopped you,” Truly said from behind her, close enough
for his breath to tickle her hair against her ear. “Now you’re dead.”

“Let me go!” Bee’s instincts kicked in and she tried to
smack her head against his face. Truly jerked away and held her at arm’s length,
agony once again blooming in her right shoulder.

“You think Starhawk’s going to go easy on you?”

“Truly,” warned the Captain, and the first officer released
her.

Bee clutched her throbbing shoulder and stormed off the
bridge, tears blurring her vision. Myra called to her as she went but no one
got in her way.

“That was a mistake,” Bill Silver said.

“She’ll die if she goes back,” the Captain said. “Or worse.
You okay with that?”

“She’s not yours to protect, Captain. You’re making her
problems into our problems. It compromises us.”

“I disagree. She’s smart, she’s got guts, and I think she’d
make a good asset someday. Besides, Myra needs this—”

“Oh, don’t start with
her
too. Myra’s got you
threaded around her finger and you don’t even know it.”

Captain Anson dropped his casual demeanor. “You’re out of
line, Quartermaster.”

Silver stood up straight, arms flat against his sides.
“Permission to leave the bridge.”

“Dismissed.”

***

Myra was already waiting for Bee when she got to her room,
speaking as she entered.

“I’m sorry,” Myra said. “I’m only trying to help you.”

“Get out,” Bee said. “I never asked you to talk to him.”

“You’re not ready. We thought it would be safe to send you
back by now, but the pirates have been more trouble than anyone could have
predicted.”

“He’ll get away. If I don’t go now he’ll escape somehow,
he’ll get away and then I’ll never get the chance again.” Bee’s voice quavered
as she put her fears into words.

“Exactly—you get one shot. Make it the best shot you can
take. Don’t waste your chance now. Come with us, let us train you. We can teach
you the things you need to know.”

“If I don’t kill him she’ll never stop,” Bee said.

“Who won’t stop?”

“Nothing. No one,” she said, immediately regretting letting
her thoughts slip.

“You talk in your sleep, you know,” Myra said.

Silence.

“Do you want to know what you say?”

“I think I know already.”

“Let us help you,” Myra said softly.

“What if
this
is my only chance? What if this is
where I choose wrong?”

“Chin up, Buttercup,” Myra said. “I’m sure your mother would
be very proud of everything you’ve done for her. Just take a look at where you
are now after all that you’ve been through.”

“She used to say that to me.”

“Come with us, honey. It’s the best thing you can do. If you
won’t say yes I’m going to walk you through every single scenario I’ve run for
you to give you an idea of just how many of them end with you sucking vacuum.”

“Which ones do I live in?”

“None. Eventually you always die. I’ll outlast all of you,
in fact.”

“Thanks for that little nugget of morbidity, but you know
what I meant. Are there any where I… you know, get him?”

“None of those outcomes are possible if you go back now.”

Bee’s stomach twisted in sickening knots as she wrestled
with the decision. Her whole life this had been her goal. She dreamed of it
often—that final cathartic moment when she had her hands wrapped around his
neck and she could finally feel him die. She’d relish it, savor it, and drink
deep every instant she could make him suffer before she killed him. If she had
to wait a little longer to get there, so be it.

The words wouldn’t come. She wanted to scream at Myra that
she was going back. She wanted to rage and shout, to destroy something, to rail
against the hand she’d been dealt, the unfair chaotic cruelty of the universe.
But she stuffed those urges down deep, stoking the vengeful fire that burned
deep inside her. Those flames would never fade.

“I’ll do it,” Bee said, forcing the words from her lips.
“I’ll go with you.”

Bee curled up on her bed and slept for an hour until Myra
came back and told her the crew was about to take the shuttle to Optima. She
left her room for the docking bay to see them off, the decision to stay with
Wanderlust
still stinging fresh in her mind.

Truly, fully armored in his gray and orange suit, stood
outside the bulkhead door to the docking bay.

“Hey, Trouble,” he said. “Sorry about your arm. I heard
you’re staying though.”

“I’m sure you’re thrilled,” Bee said.

“You’re growing on me,” Truly said as he opened the door.
“Like a tumor or a wart or something.”

“Real funny,” she said as he stepped through. “Hey, when you
get back I want to know more about the Families.”

“You want to ride with us? I can tell you on the way.
Captain said you should come with to see how we operate anyway.”

“Yeah,” Bee said. “Yeah, I’ll come.”