Rogue Pursuit: A Space Opera Adventure (Shades of Starlight Book 1), page 12
“What do you plan to do with this bad boy?”
“You ask like you have an idea.”
“It would save us a long, hot walk to town.”
Tai knelt next to the vehicle, checked the engine and the power cell. “Technically, this is evidence. But I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”
“Are these illegal?” Playing dumb irritated her. She wanted people to respect her. Acknowledge she was smart, educated, and capable. But she couldn’t let Tai suspect she knew too much about matters she shouldn’t.
“The skimmer isn’t. I’d be curious to know who paid for it, though.”
Her stomach flipped. Would the trail lead to her? She didn’t think so, but Tai was a pro. “Will it run? We should go. Four cities to check.”
He opened the wind shield and pressed the ignition button. The engine coughed to life.
“Why not?”
“You know how to fly it, Ace?” She hoped the challenge in her voice would spur him to leave quickly.
“Don’t insult me.” His eyes sparked, and he jumped inside.
She climbed in behind him, and he headed toward the city, following their prints in the sand. The vehicle had two seats facing forward, so close she had to tuck her legs under Tai’s arms. She pressed her knees against his sides, and he folded his elbows around them to steer. She stared at the back of his head, wishing he wasn’t wearing robes because this was a perfect angle to admire his shoulder muscles, then glad he wore robes because she didn’t need to be admiring anything about him.
They zoomed over the dunes, staying low. Of course he’d be good at this. He flew with assurance, same as when he piloted their ship.
And now she needed to stop admiring his skill.
A few minutes later, the vehicle lurched.
“So much for your piloting skills.”
“That wasn’t me.” He slowed the skimmer.
Another jolt rattled them.
“Out!”
The vehicle jerked to a stop. Tai popped the cover, shoving it to speed its movement.
They scrambled out, but something yanked Perrin backwards.
Her robe was caught on the door.
A blaze of light flashed, and the ship rocked. She stumbled, but the fabric jerked her back toward the ship.
Tai lunged forward and helped rip the robe free.
They dived away as one more flash sped toward them, and then the vessel exploded, the blast sending them sprawling.
12
Tai landed face-first, earning a mouthful of grit. The explosion slammed his back with heat and left his ears ringing. Sand drifted down, along with hot chunks of metal from the skimmer.
Without waiting for everything to settle, he shoved his robes out of the way and drew his weapon from underneath, then hooked a hand under Perrin’s arm. “Come on.”
They dashed for a nearby rock outcropping. His robes flapped around his legs as he ran. The soft surface slowed his steps.
More shots sent bursts of sand into their path.
He crouched low, put an arm around Perrin’s shoulders, and positioned himself between her and the shooter.
Another shot barely missed. Sand showered them again.
They dove for the cover of rock. Once Perrin was safe, he whipped off the white robe that made him an easy target on black sand. He pressed his shoulder blades to the rock and drew a steadying breath. Wishing he had a better weapon—even Perrin’s would do, but he didn’t dare ask her to part with it—he spun out and fired two shots in the direction the blasts had come from. He quickly returned to the safety of the rock.
Perrin had ripped off her robe and drawn her stunner, a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
“That direction.” Tai motioned. “One attacker. On foot.”
“Who is it? Someone from town?”
He shook his head. “That type of pulse? Amber weapon. Amber agents work alone, though, so we have an advantage.”
Probably the man from the hotel.
Tai fired a few more shots to keep the man off-balance. Return fire originated from a rock formation on the path back to town. He scanned the area. “There’s another outcropping at ten o’clock on my side. Check yours. I’ll cover you.”
He fired again.
“I have one at three o’clock,” she said. “Fifty meters.”
He considered strategies for flanking a single opponent. Stopped himself when he worried about Perrin, who was hardly a trained operative. But the fierce light in her eyes said she was eager for a fight, and she’d already proven she could hold her own.
“On my mark, run for it, and I’ll cover you,” he said. “Keep your head down. Stay low. When you get there, fire one shot, count to five, and then cover me. Got it?”
She nodded. Brushed hair from her face, gripped her stunner.
A chunk of rock burst, peppering them with tiny fragments. He ducked away.
“I wish we had comms. I’ll fire a shot when I reach cover. Then you lay down more fire, and I’ll charge him. You have enough power?”
She checked her gun and nodded again.
“Ready?”
She rose on her toes and set her jaw. “Okay.”
On his mark, she darted out from behind the rock. He fired off shots in rapid succession.
The first answering shots were aimed at him but soon shifted. Shades. He didn’t hear a shout, so he hoped Perrin was safe. He shouldn’t be using her. She had no experience in armed combat. But he had no options.
When her shot came, a blast of blue light, he exhaled before crouching and preparing to run.
Once her volley started, he sprinted as fast as the sand allowed.
He made it halfway before the ground exploded in front of him and sent him rolling. Using the momentum of his fall, he scrambled to his feet. Almost there. He dove behind the new rock to another spray of debris as a shot connected near his head.
He wiped damp, sweaty sand from his face and fired once more, then dashed toward the shooter.
It was the guy from the hotel room on Naxus. The man faced Perrin, but spun at Tai’s approach. Not in time to stop Tai from tackling him, though. They hit the ground and tumbled down a dune.
Tai had training in hand-to-hand combat, but not extensive practice. He was a spy. If he was fighting, his mother always reminded him, it meant he’d failed in his job. But he enjoyed physical activity, preferred those training sessions to surveillance and deception, so he was better than lots of agents.
Too bad this guy had several years, inches, and pounds on Tai.
Tai didn’t mind fighting dirty, though. As they climbed to their feet, he flung sand toward the man. Followed it with a punch to the kidney.
He wasn’t in time to dodge the man’s blow to Tai’s ribs but ducked under his raised weapon arm and seized his opponent’s wrist. With a quick move, he slammed the man’s arm into his thigh, repeating the motion until he dropped the gun.
That earned Tai a right hook to the jaw. His lip burst open, flooded his mouth with blood.
They exchanged kicks and punches, tumbled in the sand twice more. Tai landed solid hits but took a few himself. Suspected the second blow to his side cracked a rib when fire spread through his midsection and stole his air.
Without meaning to, they’d gravitated toward the rock. Tai propelled himself up it and used the angle to land a jump kick to his opponent’s chest. As the man stumbled, Tai rolled toward his fallen gun, sprang into a crouch, and fired.
The Amber agent jerked and had barely hit the ground when a blue blast whooshed past Tai, inches from his face.
He whirled.
Perrin stood several yards away, gun still trained on Tai.
No, on something to Tai’s left. He turned. Three feet away, a stunned snake twitched. The beast measured over eight feet long. Its open mouth, ready to attack, contained three rows of teeth on the top and bottom, as long as Tai’s fingers. A line of spikes ran down its head.
“You’re welcome.” Perrin marched toward him, gun still trained on the creature.
The snake twitched a final time and stopped moving, but she shot it once more.
Tai allowed himself to bend over, gasping for air, his side screaming as the adrenaline of the fight wore off.
Perrin moved to the Amber agent and stood over him with her weapon trained on his chest. “What do we do with him? We can’t leave him out here.”
“No praise for a job well done?” His words sounded more breathless than he would’ve preferred. “And sure we can.”
“No praise for my incredible aim? If we tie him up, he’ll get free and follow us. Besides, what if there are more snakes? We could drag him to town.”
“How would we explain that? Besides, he’d escape there, too.”
“You don’t think very highly of their prison.”
“I just know it wouldn’t take me long. Nothing against them, they simply don’t have the tech.” He forced himself to straighten. “Unless you want to drag him yourself,” he ran his gaze slowly, deliberately, along her short frame, “I’m leaving him.”
“Fine. But we have nothing to tie him with. Cover him.” She waited until he raised his weapon, struggling to hide how much effort the simple motion required, and withdrew an object from her boot.
“What’s that?”
“Tranq dart.” She marched over to the unconscious man and jabbed the dart into his neck.
Tai winced. “You worry me sometimes. In a good way.”
She nudged the fallen man with her toe, nodded in satisfaction, and pocketed the empty dart.
Grunting through the pain, Tai dragged the man into the shade of the rock. That was the best he planned to offer a guy who tried to kill him.
With a stride far too cocky for a trudge through the sand, Perrin located the agent’s fallen weapon and scooped it up. “Ready.”
This walk was worse than the first. He’d definitely broken a rib. Each step required him to grit his teeth with effort. But he didn’t mind the taste of blood or his throbbing knuckles or the multitude of bruises. The pain and the blood coursing hot in his veins reminded him he was alive.
They skirted the town without entering. Better not to be seen in this condition or face questions about what they’d found in the desert.
Still, he wished for another of Amira’s fig rolls. Were she and Hank involved with the smugglers? They’d been so nice. Everyone in town had been. Could’ve been a plan to throw him off. The weapons, the obvious system of smuggling, the possibility they were engaged in the growing revolution. Factors amounted to these people being on the wrong side.
He should’ve been suspicious earlier, but when he wasn’t on assignment to investigate them, it felt wrong to question open doors and a hot meal. Reporting them after they’d welcomed him didn’t feel much better. But it was his duty. The Confed came first.
After they returned to the ship, noticing another had docked since they landed, he let Perrin lay in coordinates for the nearest city while he headed to the small med bay next to the bridge.
He wiped blood off his skin and used the dermal regenerator on his knuckles, lip, and various cuts on his arms.
It was probably a bad sign that he’d had more fun in those few minutes getting pounded on than on his last four covert missions.
He was in the process of holding in a yell while attempting to peel off his shirt and check his ribs when Perrin entered.
“Asking for help doesn’t make you weak—it makes you smart.” She pushed him onto the table and helped work his shirt over his shoulders and head. Her eyes widened.
“That bad, huh? Am I going to die?”
“Aren’t we all, one day?”
“If you wanted to stare at my abs, all you had to do was ask.”
Her cheeks went pink, and she rummaged through the drawer for a med scanner. She didn’t fluster easily, and he decided making her blush would be a rather enjoyable pastime.
A holo-image of his ribs appeared on the screen. “Looks like you cracked a couple ribs.”
“You should see the other guy.” He jerked his head. “There’s an accelerator in the drawer.”
With one hand braced on his back, she slowly ran the device over his ribs to seal the bones together. Heat seared him from within, more intense than the desert sun. To distract himself, he watched Perrin. She bit her lip in concentration, gray eyes never straying from his ribcage.
An image of her standing confidently, brandishing that gun as she took out the snake, flashed through his mind. The very small target of the snake from a long distance away. Good aim in a woman sure was attractive.
He straightened abruptly.
She startled, finally looked at him.
“That’s good, thanks.”
She nodded but didn’t move, still clutching the accelerator between them.
He reached out and brushed black sand off her face. She froze. His fingers lingered for a second on her cheek.
Her breath caught. Eyes flicked to his and darted away.
The moment hung suspended for three heartbeats.
She shoved the device at him and bolted.
The tension bled out of his shoulders.
Way to go, Tai.
He took his time showering, changing clothes, and rejoining her on the bridge, determined to keep his voice light and pretend that hadn’t happened. Whatever it was. He might’ve imagined the hitch in her breathing, the…awareness in her eyes. Maybe he was simply projecting his feelings onto her.
“Thanks for having my back out there,” he said.
A corner of her mouth lifted. “You couldn’t have done it without me.”
“I’ll admit you made it easier.”
“How much easier?”
“Maybe fifteen percent.”
“Killing that snake was good for thirty, minimum.”
“Twenty-five, Captain. Final offer.” He took his seat. “You handled it well.”
She spun her chair a few times. “Would it be bad to admit I had fun?”
“Not at all. I’ve been a full agent for a year, and I still get the boring assignments. I live for the moments I can use my training for action.”
“You don’t seem rusty.” She spun again. “Why was he shooting at us?”
“He must know we’re following Kel, too. Safe to assume we’ll have company the rest of the trip.”
She sighed. “I should’ve let the snake have him.”
As they neared the first city, which straddled a river that flowed into a broad, icy blue bay, a message came over their comm system.
“By order of the Ruby Confederation, you are ordered to halt.”
Tai jerked the ship to a stop. For a half-second, he considered simply ignoring the hail and heading straight to the next city.
If the Confed asked for ID, could they rely on Perrin’s and keep his name out of it? Did considering that make him selfish?
This was ridiculous. Criminals got nervous in the presence of authorities. He was on their side. Hadn’t broken any laws—on this planet, anyway.
That didn’t mean he had to give them his name or face, though.
A ship approached from the city, a Confed Maelstrom-class cruiser. Behind it, the city resembled the last except larger, and he spotted two mines and a shock of green trees along the river.
The lined face of an older man with a military haircut filled the screen. “What is your business in Baytown?”
Tai opened a channel without visual. “Is there a problem, sir?”
“No ships allowed in or out without prior authorization.”
“When did that start?”
“Five days ago. What is your business?”
Like Tai was answering that, no matter how many times the man asked. “We can leave. Our ship will manage with a fuel stop somewhere else, right?” He raised his eyebrows at Perrin.
“Right,” she said without hesitating. “Plenty of fuel to try another city.”
“We’ll be on our way. Thank you.” Tai closed the comm line and spun the ship around.
“Smooth,” Perrin said, but he couldn’t tell if she meant it or was being sarcastic.
“Kel wouldn’t risk trying to sneak past the troops. If he came here, saw them, and decided to move on, there’s one other city within range of the skimmer. Let’s try that one next.” He set the course and gunned the engines.
One brief encounter, and Tai’s mind refused to stop imagining everything that might’ve happened if the Confed ship had detained them. How had Kel dealt with the constant lying, the unending fear of being caught? He was either far braver or far more foolish than Tai would ever be.
When Baytown lay well behind them, Tai leaned back and studied Perrin. Time to give her more. He’d told her the truth about himself but hadn’t given her a complete picture of what they faced. After today, he owed her that. The truth might put her in more danger, but not knowing could be worse.
He ensured the ship was on course and turned to her.
“We need to talk.”
Tai’s words froze Perrin in place. If he meant to talk about that charged moment in the med-bay, she was off this bridge faster than light speed.
Friends she thought she knew were hoarding weapons. A galactic revolution was brewing. Her relationship with Tai was growing more complicated by the hour.
She wished she’d taken a ship and flown away like she’d been tempted to when her dad died.
Tai sighed. “I think it’s time to tell you what this is really about.”
After a moment, her brain caught up. “I thought it was classified.”
“It is. But you’ve jumped out a window, trekked through the desert, been shot at, and saved me from a snake. Worse is likely coming. You deserve to know.”
Guilt gnawed on her insides. He thought she was being generous and selfless when she was just using him and plotting how to betray him in the end. This would be so much easier if she saw him as an enemy spy, not a companion, or even a potential friend. She shifted in her seat, realized that made her look suspicious, and forced herself to sit still and meet his gaze. “Go on.”
“Remember I mentioned smugglers?”
Like she could forget.
