Rogue Pursuit: A Space Opera Adventure (Shades of Starlight Book 1), page 28
They were forced to duck aside as the rest of the mercs exited the facility and marched past. Tai stayed between them and Perrin.
The soldiers surrounded the scientists, two of whom pushed an anti-grav cart containing the device.
Tai lifted his weapon, tried to line up a shot, but the mercs had blocked the device with their bodies and with the scientists. He had no clean shot, and by the time they stunned all the scientists, the mercs would be returning fire.
The suspicious female mercenary glared at Tai as they passed. “What should we do with them?”
“Leave ’em,” said the leader without stopping. “Where are they going to go?”
One injected his fallen friends with something that jolted them awake, and they stumbled to their feet after their comrades. The merc party swept toward the trail and down the hill.
Tai and Kel raced inside and made a quick sweep of the facility, but everyone was gone. Tai studied the hologram he’d seen. Now that he knew what the device did, he had no doubt they were plotting to destroy the most strategic wormholes.
Unease rippled through him. A device with that power threatened the things he held most dear, order and the Confed and a stable society. This invention would bring chaos.
Was Kel right? Was it better off destroyed? Would the Confed use it to control the Cobalt Republic and bring the Amber Alliance to its knees? Would they be any better than the mercs? And once the governments learned this tech was possible, it would never stop.
First things first. Catch the mercs.
They made their way outside again.
“We better go after them,” he said.
Kel nodded. “Not going to contact your mom?”
Tai’s gaze drifted to McCombs. “Might be better to wait on that.” Feeling dirty and distinctly like a criminal, he took McCombs’s comm.
Then he scooped up Perrin, arranging her until her head fell against his shoulder. He carried her down the hill. The mercs’ ship was lifting off as they rounded the corner to the landing pad.
Kel led the way to the smaller ship on the end. Tai settled Perrin on a bunk and rummaged around until he found a wake-up injection, then hailed his mom while he waited for the drug to take effect.
“Hi, Mom. Me again. Before you say anything, I promise I’ll explain everything later. But there’s more going on here than you know. I didn’t work with Kel, just followed him to try to help.”
She was silent a moment, one of the longest of Tai’s life. “Where is Agent Drake now?”
“With me. I needed his ship.”
“I expect a much better explanation when this is over. And Agent Drake. Along with a very convincing reason not to court-martial you.”
“Understood. Right now, we have to stop that ship.”
“Why? What’s going on here?”
Tai hesitated. Why was he hesitating? This was his mother. His boss. He sensed Kel watching him.
“It’s a faction of mercenaries,” he said. “They kidnapped scientists who built a device that destroys wormholes. They’re planning an attack on the primaries.” No need to mention the Network yet. “The scientists are onboard, but they’re innocent.”
“Understood. What happened to McCombs?”
“Alive, but knocked out in the firefight. I didn’t have time to carry him.” He only experienced a slight twinge of guilt about the lie, which she would know was a lie as soon as she talked to McCombs.
“All right,” his mom said. “We have two ships now, so we can flank them. Standard pattern.”
“Copy that.”
Tai cut the comm and fired up the engines. Nothing happened.
“What’s wrong with your ship?” he asked Kel.
His mom was expecting his help, and the mercs were getting away.
“They must’ve done something to it. I had it bio-locked, though.”
“Must be something outside.”
Movement in the doorway made Tai spin.
Perrin clutched the doorframe, swaying, blinking rapidly. “Where am I? And why is Kel’s nose bleeding?”
30
Tai strode to her side, but stopped a few feet away.
Perrin’s insides jumped, then settled, after her initial hope he might touch her. Which was stupid, because Kel was watching. A little too closely.
She leaned against the doorway. “I’m out for ten minutes, and you’re hitting each other? Someone fill me in.”
Tai bent to check her pupils and nodded like he was satisfied. “McCombs tried to shoot Kel.”
“I remember that much.” Her head throbbed. She wiggled her jaw until it cracked. “Oh, man. I did something stupidly heroic, didn’t I?”
“You jumped in front of me,” Kel said. His impassive face made it hard to tell if he was grateful or disapproved of her stupid heroics. Probably both.
She gave him a slight smile. “That was dumb of me.”
“It was, but thank you.” His full lips curved up, and his eyes sparkled. “And then Tai shot McCombs.”
She spun on him. “You what?”
Tai refused to meet her gaze, stepped away, and plopped into a chair. “I do dumb things too, apparently.”
Huh. That would need examining later. “Well, thank you.”
“And the Obsidian Force took the device and the scientists, and lifted off,” Kel added. “To return to the most pressing matter. Now that you’re awake. We’re going after them as soon as I figure out how they disabled my ship.”
“I’ll check it out,” she said. “I hear broken deflector dishes are all the rage.”
Tai’s eyes glinted with a challenge. “You can break them, but can you fix them?”
“Let’s hope so.”
The humor faded from his face. “Sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. The concern in his gaze skittered through her core, and she forced herself to compose her features. With Kel watching, she didn’t want to reveal affection for Tai. “Let’s save some wormholes.”
She found the engine room, ran a quick diagnostic, and poked around until she found the problem, a missing transistor.
She exited the ship and pried open a panel on the hull. Similar to her sabotage, someone had ripped it out. Fortunately, this was something Dodge had shown her how to fix.
Kel joined her as she was rerouting wires.
She sneaked a glance at him. “I’m surprised Tai let you out of his sight.”
“He figures I can’t do anything treasonous given our current situation.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and leaned against the hull near her.
His mercenary outfit still took getting used to. She thought of that green dress she’d hoped to meet him in and realized that felt like another life. Now she was covered in dirt, hungry, and exhausted, and she didn’t care. A good sign she was truly over him.
Kel ducked his head in the way he did when he wanted to ask a question and suspected she wouldn’t answer. Funny how easily the memories surfaced, as if they hadn’t been apart the last six months.
He cleared his throat. “What’s going on between you two?”
She squeezed the wire between her fingers until she thought she could keep her voice even. “I told you already. He wanted help, and I needed to find you. Don’t worry, I’ll do whatever I can to prevent him from arresting you.”
“What happens to me doesn’t matter. Stopping this is the most important thing. And I don’t want you in trouble because of me.” A pause. “You like him.”
Her heart picked up, and she kept her gaze focused on the ship. “Doesn’t matter if I do or don’t. He’s a SARC. A real one.”
“Maybe,” Kel said. “Maybe not.”
“What does that mean?”
Kel raised his eyebrows and lifted a shoulder.
No point thinking about Tai. Not that Kel was much better. This was the first time she’d been alone with her ex since he broke up with her, and she didn’t know what to say. This was hardly running into him at work or at a restaurant like a normal person would. She crossed two more wires and considered the boldness it took to leave everything behind. She admired his conviction.
“Was it worth it?” she asked. “Giving up your whole life?”
He waited until she looked at him to reply. “When you find the cause you know is right? Yes.”
What did it feel like, being so certain? She’d thought she’d had the right cause, using her unique situation to help people. But were the people she’d been helping worthy of her efforts? Weapons and destruction, kidnapping and uprising. Still, though, this was a small faction. Thousands of colonists relied on her efforts. Was there a way to keep providing medicine and food and quality of life to the people who needed it without risking accelerating galactic war?
Too much time had passed for her to feel comfortable asking Kel for advice. And she had no one else to turn to right now. She stuffed the doubts inside and focused on the final rewiring.
“How many of the Network people are behind this?” What she truly wanted to know was, how many people she’d trusted had been plotting without her.
“Not so many at first, but more every day.”
She snapped the panel into place. “That should do it.”
He extended a hand and helped her up. Held on a moment, his eyes soft. “I really am glad to see you. You didn’t have to do all this for me.”
“I did it for me. Other than getting shot for you. You’re welcome.” She pulled her hand free. “I needed to get away. And I needed to protect myself and my company. And now, like you said, good cause, right?” The wormholes were just as important as her crews.
She activated the comm. “Give it a shot, Ace.”
The ship hummed to life.
“Nice work, Cap.” Tai’s voice.
She headed for the door, aware of Kel’s gaze following her.
“I hope it’s good,” she told Tai when she returned to the bridge. “Take us up.”
Kel, a few steps behind her, stared at her with a wrinkled forehead and raised eyebrows.
She scowled. “Your face is going to get stuck like that if you keep looking at me that way.”
“I’ve never seen you let someone else be in charge.”
“He’s a good pilot. Better than either of us, unless you’ve been practicing.”
“I know. It’s just not you.”
A year and a half together, and he’d always studied her as if she were just slightly… different. A creature he’d never understand. That was something she hadn’t missed.
She crossed her arms. “People change.”
“I guess they do. If the motivation is right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kel shook his head.
She narrowed her eyes at him but took her seat as Tai lifted them off. Kel was big on the cryptic statements today.
They raced after the mercs. Easy to follow the trail of flashing weapons and exploding mountains, as Tai’s mom and the merc ship did an aerial dance.
Tai wove in and out of hills, skimmed the water, angled through narrow valleys. This ship was fast, but so were the others.
“Reminds me of Illyrio,” Tai said. “Thankfully, without the lightning.”
“I don’t know, I kind of enjoyed that.”
One side of Tai’s mouth lifted. “That’s because there’s something very wrong with you.”
Kel watched the exchange and caught her eye.
She turned her attention to the console. If Kel acted like he’d never understand her, Tai behaved as if he understood her too well, and enjoyed what he saw. And she was pretty sure Kel picked up on that, too.
The ships grew larger on the screen. Tai cut toward them at an angle, trying to steer the mercs into landing.
Perrin hurried to secure her shoulder straps.
When the mercs veered away, Tai shot above them to block their path toward space. But he had to dodge a blast from the mercs, who alternately fired at them and at Tai’s mom.
He and his mom split and converged to try to funnel them into a valley. His mom peeled away at the last second to avoid more shots.
On the screen, a red beam aimed for them. Tai rolled and dove, sending Perrin’s stomach into her throat.
The ships continued to spin and plummet, skirting mountains and blasts and each other.
The mercs gained altitude.
His mom’s slightly larger ship darted in and out, firing pulse weapons to keep the mercs from entering the clouds.
Perrin leaned forward. “What is she doing? Is she trying to crash that ship? She knows there are innocent scientists on board, right?”
Tai scowled.
“I suspect she’s less concerned about them than about the potential destruction of the galaxy,” Kel said.
“How does that make her any better?” Perrin asked.
Tai didn’t answer, but the frown didn’t leave his face. He tried to position their ship between his mom and the mercs, but maintaining that formation didn’t last. Impossible to force them down and protect them at the same time.
The mercs returned fire at both ships, plasma cannons blazing. Tai dodged the blasts, peeled away before veering back. Yanked up to avoid a mountain.
He flew beside the mercs, tried to corner them against a cliff and herd them into a landing, close enough to bump them.
“Too bad you can’t jump like you did on those hoverbikes.”
“That didn’t end well,” Tai said. “I was arrested.”
She smirked. “I got away, though.”
He huffed without taking his eyes off the controls.
It was like they both felt this need to relive their good times, neither ready to let them go. But the reminder of their partnership wasn’t going to help if—when—they secured the device.
Another ship swooped in.
It sent a broadcast message to everyone in the area. “Hand over the one called Kelvin Drake.”
Sam the Lying Cobalt Agent.
“You’re so behind the times, buddy,” Perrin muttered.
The mercs were the only ones to reply—with their cannons.
A delicious idea popped into her head. “Open the lower hatch.”
Tai took a break from the controls to gawk at her. “Are you insane?”
“Well, don’t go into atmo with it open, but down here it’s fine.”
“What are you—No, you know what? I don’t want to know.”
She grinned.
Kel shook his head. “That smile is never a good sign.”
Tai glanced at her. “Don’t fall out.”
“I don’t plan to.”
She stopped by a cabin near the engine room where she’d spotted Kel’s supplies and grabbed a grappling gun and a pulse grenade. Then went below, found a rope, and wrapped it around her waist to secure herself to the ship. She attached the grenade to the end of the grappler, readied the gun, and edged toward the hatch. The opening faced straight down. The ship blocked most of the wind, though the air screamed and she heard the whine of the ships firing on each other.
Determination calmed her breathing, steadied her hands. She opened a line to the bridge. “Can you get in position behind the Cobalt guy and slightly above him?”
“Sure,” Tai said. “Let me just ask him to pull over and slow down.”
She waited, knowing he’d do it despite his sarcasm, watching out the hatch and clutching the bulkhead for support. He trusted her enough to help even if he didn’t know exactly what he was helping with. Tai accelerated and dove, veered and plummeted. She clutched the rope as she swung, tried to keep her balance.
Finally she saw what she’d been waiting for, the rear of the Cobalt agent’s ship below her.
She drew in a breath, raised the grappling gun, activated the grenade, aimed carefully. Not quite, not quite… There.
She let the hook fly. It latched onto the ship’s tail, exactly where she’d hoped. A second later, the grenade exploded, taking half the tail with it. As soon as the Cobalt ship started to veer, she released her end. The rope slithered out through the open hatch, flailing behind the ship as it veered toward a mountain.
At the last second, Sam ejected out the top, his parachute carrying him up and away from the fight. The ship grazed a mountain and plummeted into the water below.
He faced her direction, although he probably couldn’t see her, but she saluted him.
“That was for kidnapping me,” she yelled, and thought—hoped—he scowled in reply.
Tai steered the ship the way Perrin had asked in awkward silence, alone with Kel on the bridge.
Kel watched for a minute. “You’re as good as I remember.”
“I’ve had lots of practice the last few days,” Tai replied without taking his eyes off the controls.
“You always did enjoy the action more than the spying.”
The fondness in Kel’s voice stiffened Tai’s spine. “You don’t get to say things like that. Like we’re friends. Like you didn’t lie to me for years while pretending to care.”
“I didn’t lie to you about everything. I am your friend.”
Tai snorted. “Great way to show it. I thought you were one of the few people who was a real friend. Were you using me, same as everyone else?”
“I didn’t fake three years of friendship, Tai.” Kel’s voice remained calm and gentle, which irritated Tai more. “And when did I ever use your connections?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. How much did your Network friends learn about Confed security? How many top-secret things did you reveal?” Tai thought he’d restrained himself pretty well, other than that right hook, but anger was building again.
Kel angled his head, eyes sad. “I didn’t enjoy lying to you.”
“Didn’t stop you from doing it.” Tai reached the position Perrin wanted and tried to maintain it.
“If you’d grown up in the colonies, with the life I had,” Kel said, “you might not be so quick to judge. But I don’t expect you to understand.”
Tai didn’t want to admit it, but after the last few days, he did understand. A little. If he’d grown up like Kel, or that police officer, lacking basic items, expected to follow rules that didn’t make sense, and then had arrived on Ruby Prime and seen the difference, could he honestly say he wouldn’t have tried to help the people he cared about? Wasn’t that what he wanted to do? Like Kel, Tai had tried doing it the best way he knew how.
