Thief (29 page)

“How could you make up for me losing everything?” Jace shook his head. “Everything I believed in. Everything I fought to protect they destroyed. They killed my wife, my kids. Every person I ever knew. And not even in war.”

“Tyaa Plague.”

They sat together in profound silence for a moment.

“I never even got sick. Out of all the surrounding farms, I was the only person left standing. For the life of me I don’t know why I was spared. I would have rather died with them, because being the sole survivor damn near drove me mad. A month later the IWOG showed up in bio-suits and cleaned up. Know how I survived? Stowed away on one of their ships until I got to Byzantine. Worked as a mercenary for brutal thieves. Killed men I had nothing against. Stole what wasn’t mine. I went from being an honorable man to man who would kill anyone who stood in his way. I named my ship
Mutiny
to remind me how I got her. I committed mutiny against my own honor. How could you make up for that?”

Kraft shook her head. “I can’t. I simply can’t change the past. If I could, I would. Yours and mine. If you think selling me will give you the life you want then—”

Jace shot to his feet and turned on her. “You’re giving me permission? How dare you? You got a real knack for cutting deep wounds, packing them with salt and then splashing vinegar all over them! You’re unbelievable.”

“Impossible.” Her throat constricted, making her voice almost harsh when she asked, “What are you going to do with me?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

She was stunned. What did she really want? Did she want her freedom or did she want to stay? Where her choice had seemed clear, now that she realized she loved him and admitted it…

“You think on it and let me know.”

“Jace, wait.”

He turned.

“Do you believe in me?”

He closed his eyes. The simple question seemed to cause him tremendous pain. He left without answering.

She buried her face into the mattress of her bed. She dug her fingernails into her thigh and gritted her teeth, but her tears came anyway. She couldn’t stop them and wiped at them furiously, her chains clinking loudly in the stripped-bare room. The hate for herself that had filled her for so long grew again with a vengeance. She hated her past. Hated her weakness. Hated that Jace could see them both.

Her room was dark and she blinked, bleary with sleep, when the door came open. Jace stood, backlit, with something in his hand.

She didn’t move. Maybe this was it, the end. Since she hadn’t been able to decide, maybe he had decided for her. She took a deep breath, tossed up a cross between a prayer and a desperate plea to the Void, then waited.

Jace stepped forward and unfurled a blanket. He didn’t say a word as he tucked the edges around her.

In the morning, Jace came into her room. “I’ll make you a deal.”

Kraft sat on her bed, wrapped up in the blanket. “This deal, it have something to do with your crew being hungry?”

Jace smiled, albeit reluctantly. It was the first time she’d seen him smile in days. It amazed her how much that simple act lifted her spirits.

“It does. If you agree to cook, I’ll agree to stop calling you Julie.”

He was utterly deadpan and Kraft laughed. “Well, that is quite a deal.” She wanted to ask if he was going to kill her or sell her, but she didn’t. One step at a time. “Do I actually get to eat what I cook?”

“Of course.”

“Do I have to do it chained up?”

Jace frowned and toed the floor.

“It’s okay, Captain Lawless. I understand. You have to protect your crew. I could swear up and down that I’d never hurt a one of you, but you’d be wise to make sure of it. If I were in your boots, I’d do exactly the same thing.”

“No offense taken?”

“No.”

Jace un-cuffed one of the cuffs from her wrist, un-looped it from the pipe, and placed it on his own wrist.

She giggled.

“What?”

“There’s a song from Earth about a bicycle built for two. This is kinda the same idea.”

“Actually, it made me think of men who call their wives the old ball and chain.”

“Lucky for you I’m only your prisoner.”

Jace frowned. “If you’d rather not do this—”

She lifted her hands, palm open. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m so hungry you could strap Heller to my back and I’d still want to cook.”

“Heller hates you so much he most like won’t eat anything you’ve touched.”

“Yes, he will.” She smiled. “He may hate my guts, but he’s never had a problem eating my cooking. As soon as I get in there and start up, everyone on this ship is going to come running to the galley. You and I both know it.”

“Actually, they’re already there. I called a meeting this morning and we kicked the idea around. Heller cast the only vote against you.”

“Let me guess—Heller voted to toss me out the nearest airlock?”

Jace nodded.

“Would say I’m surprised, but it’d be a lie. He’s got all kinds of justification for hating me now.”

“Can you blame him? The IWOG killed his whole family, right before his eyes. He lived out of the garbage cans of Kali until I took him on when he was nineteen.”

“Seems everyone on this ship has a good reason to hate the IWOG. I’m not surprised at them hating me. And I don’t expect any favors. Just let me cook and what you finally do with me is still entirely up to you.”

“Even if I choose to sell you?”

“Even if you do.” Kraft shrugged. “If nothing else, I’d like to meet my maker with a full belly. It’d be cruel for a cook to go to the fiery pits of hell without a last meal.”

The whole crew sat around the table with hungry and somewhat guilty eyes as Kraft worked silently in the kitchen. Jace watched everything she did, but Kraft didn’t mind. If she were so inclined, it wouldn’t be that hard to make something right under his nose that would make everyone sick. It wouldn’t kill them, but they would wish it had. But she wouldn’t. She could never deliberately ruin a meal.

“It’s ready.”

“We’re going to run this a bit different. You’re going to eat first,” Jace said.

“Of course.” Kraft served herself a plate and almost passed out when she took a bite. Real food after days of nothing almost brought tears to her eyes. When she looked up she almost laughed at the hopeful yet fearful looks.

She knew she’d probably regret it, but she couldn’t help picking on them a bit. She clutched her throat with both her hands and uttered a strangled gasp.

Everyone shot to their feet with eyes that damn near swallowed their faces.

“I told you she’d poison it!” Heller yelled.

Kraft laughed. “I’m kidding!” She straightened up. “Sheesh, you guys, it was just a joke.” She ate another bite. “It was a little too intense in here.”

“That really didn’t help the tension level,” Jace said.

“Well, it’s up to you if you want to eat what I made or not, but I’d appreciate you not looking at me as if I’m some freak in a side show while I eat.”

“Hell,” Garrett said, stepping forward and filling his plate. “I don’t care if it does kill me, I’m not real keen on starving to death.” He sat down and took a bite. His eyes rolled back in his head with ecstasy. “At least this will be a quick death, right?”

“No. Slow and painful,” Kraft said. “Not only am I a sadist, but I’m a masochist too.” She said it utterly deadpan and everyone stopped. Heller stood there about to scratch his head trying to figure out what she meant.

Kraft raised her hands. “Kidding. Did everyone’s sense of humor starve to death already?” Everyone glared at her. “I’m sorry. No more jokes. It’s fine, it won’t kill you.” She ate a few more bites. “Well, at least not right away.”

“That’s enough.” Jace filled a plate and stood up in the kitchen and ate. “Go ahead and eat. I watched her and she didn’t put anything deadly into it.”

Everyone filled their plates and began eating. Even Heller.

“Besides, why would she kill herself?” Charissa asked.

“Good point,” Bailey said.

“Right, why would I kill myself when I’ve got so much to live for?”

Everyone dropped their forks.

“One more word—”

“I know, I know, I’ll have to go back to my room without dessert.” She ate without further comment.

Everyone ate slowly but she noticed it was more from savoring the meal rather than fear of it. She waited patently until Jace finished. He took her right back to her room.

“You really didn’t gain yourself any points with that little show,” Jace said as he chained her back up.

“Probably not. But I thought it was funny. And at the moment that’s really all that counts.”

“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”

“No. If I made it easy, the Void would have done me in by now, don’t you think? Besides, who wants to go out crying when they can go out laughing?”

“Captain, I need you on the bridge.” Bailey piped his distress call over every com of the ship but Kraft’s prison. He didn’t like that she was being treated like a slave, but Jace wasn’t making her do anything she didn’t want to. Still, piping in music to her was one thing; piping in anything else would be nothing short of mutiny.

Jace sat just down the hall in the galley. He damn near broke his own neck rocketing from the little bench at the head of the kitchen table. He ran to the bridge and scanned the console.

Everything glowed ruby red.

“Report.”

In a quavering voice Bailey said, “There is an IWOG attack ship twenty minutes aft. They’ve scanned us and know we’re here.”

“Have they hailed us?”

“No.”

“If we run they’ll wonder why.”

“Yes.”

“Does their path look to intersect ours?”

“No. From aft, they will pass us on our port side.” Bailey automatically pointed left.

“Stay on our original heading. If we don’t bother them, they probably won’t bother us.” Jace took a deep breath and crossed his fingers.

“Sounds good to me.” Garrett joined Jace and Bailey on the bridge. “Low profile is always best.”

All three men looked at the glowing red console.

“We really ought to put a more soothing color on that thing for times of crisis.” Garrett nodded to the red console. “I think a cheery lemon yellow—”

The com pan went from steady to flashing.

“They sent up a flare.” Bailey’s hand hovered over the com.

“Shit,” Jace muttered. If he didn’t open up his com it would look mighty suspicious.

Both Bailey and Garrett gulped. Jace did not swear. That he chose to do it now with a soft voice and a visible cringe shocked them both.

“Someone wants to say howdy.” Garrett fought down his fear by cracking wise.

“I think they want to do a lot more than that.” Jace nodded to Bailey. “Open the com.”

“This is I.W.G. Majestic hailing Basic2X to our fore. Identify your ship by captain, class and commission.”

Jace leaned over the console and touched the send button of the com. “This is Captain Jace Lawless of the modified Basic2X commissioned as
Mutiny
.”

“Thank you, Captain Lawless.”

A long pause spun out.

“They’re looking it up,” Garrett said.

“We’re clean,” Jace said.

“Not with that IWOG bitch aboard,” Heller snarled, joining them on the bridge. “She makes all of us dirty.”

Jace turned. “You didn’t.”

Heller flinched back. “Didn’t what?”

Jace grabbed Heller by the collar of his shirt and almost shook him out of his boots as he pounded him against the wall. “Did you call those bastards down on us?”

Grasping instantly, Heller’s eyes went wide. “No! No! I’d never call those shanks!”

Jace let him go. He turned back to the com and waited.

“They seem to be spending an awful lot of time looking at our dance card,” Garrett said.

Jace had a sudden image of dancing in his sheets with Kraft.

Another light on the console went from steady to flashing.

“The IWOG ship has altered course. In twenty minutes they will intersect ours.” Bailey looked to the console again. “Correction. Fifteen. They’ve also increased their speed.”

“Why don’t we just ask them what they want?” Heller asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Garrett said. “Like a boy with his prom date, they’ll say anything to get us to lay still for them.”

“Crude but accurate,” Jace said. “Bailey, squelch the com.”

Bailey did. No response.

“They’ve increased their speed,” Bailey said. “We’ve got ten minutes at best.” Another light flashed. Bailey typed rapidly into the Tasher that Kraft had recently installed. “They have a warrant.”

“For who?” Garrett asked even though everyone knew the answer.

Bailey gulped and turned to Jace. “Kraft.”

“Who told them—”

“Trickster.” Jace cut Heller off.

“That would explain why they didn’t just blast us to smithereens. They want to make sure she’s on board,” Garrett said.

“What can we do?” Heller asked.

“Fight,” Jace said. “We can’t run, we can’t hide, we’ve got no choice but to fight.”

“An IWOG attack ship of that size has at least fifty fully trained and heavily armed fighters.” Heller checked his body for weapons and found himself woefully lacking.

“I know. Garrett, Heller, load up. Strap everything we’ve got to yourselves and make a pile of everything else in the cargo bay.”

Garrett and Heller left to follow his orders and Jace wondered if they would be the last he would ever issue.

“Cut the com, Bailey.”

Bailey slapped it off. “I could try a hard burn.”

“Would it buy us at least five minutes?”

“Yes.”

“Do it. But save us enough to limp away if by some miracle we survive.”

Chapter Twenty-five

A deep throbbing in the ship woke Kraft. Just by the sound and feel she knew
Mutiny
went for hard burn. Her heart kicked up into high gear and she leapt to her feet. Chained, she had at least the nasty weight of it for a weapon. And her tightly bound hair. She flicked her head twice, testing the limits, then tested the chain as a weapon.

Jace entered her room and tossed her boots and her belt of blades to the bed.

“We’re being chased by an IWOG attack ship.” He unlocked her cuffs.