Safe Passage, page 23
part #1 of Black Flag Series
“It’s yourself I’d be worried about, if I were you, Katie.”
I shivered at the voice – Henderson’s voice – and turned my eyes from the bodies around me to him. “What the hell?”
It was the Conglomerate client account manager, alright, standing free on the bridge with a handful of roughs on either side. And he was smirking ear-to-ear. “Good to see you too.”
I swallowed the fearful knot that materialized in my throat. “What the hell’s going on? How’d you get out of the brig?”
He shrugged. “With the help of a few friends. You’ve made enemies, little Katherine. Not just with the Conglomerate.”
I felt a chill run up my back. I remembered the man who’d stunned me in the hall earlier. I remembered his words. Slater sends his regards. “Slater?”
He nodded. Satisfaction oozed out of his expression. “That’s right. You make a habit of not playing nice, I guess.”
“How the hell did they get onboard?” There was always someone on watch. Even if they’d fallen asleep at the controls, no one could board the Black Flag without either breeching her or being admitted. And, asleep or not, we’d have heard if we were under attack. We all would have.
“Well, that’d be me,” a voice sounded behind me.
I started, drawing out of the pile of bodies to get to my feet. Then I turned. “Drake?”
The engineer shrugged, almost apologetically. “In the flesh.”
I could see him there, and hear him. He’d admitted to his role already. Still, I was stunned. “You? You sold us out?”
“I made a smart business decision,” he said. “I struck a deal with the Conglomerate.”
The call, then, had been fake. The engine trouble, the mysterious readings he and Ginny couldn’t decipher, had just been a ruse to lure us out. I glanced down at the pile. Ginny was there with everyone else, her chest rising and falling in her imposed sleep. She’d been another pawn in his treachery. “But Drake…why?”
His eyes flashed. “Because I’m no fool, Kay. I know what’s going on here. And I don’t want to spend the rest of my life on the run from the Conglomerate. This way, I get what’s owed me. And I don’t have to live my life looking over my shoulder.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
One by one, the crew woke. Maggie was livid. I could see the flash of anger in her eyes, the set of her jaw. But she was mostly quiet.
Frank, on the other hand, was vocal in his threats of retribution. He’d been the one on watch, and before Slater’s ship had shown up Drake hit him with enough energy to put him out of commission for the duration of the takeover. He was visibly singed, and seemed to be in pain. “I’m going to eat your damned heart,” he warned Sage. The engineer just rolled his eyes.
Meanwhile, the business of unloading our stolen goods was underway. Slater’s men went back and forth, hauling gold and credits from the Black Flag to the Sea Witch. We’d robbed thieves, and were in turn being robbed by thieves.
Maggie waited until Drake was talking to Henderson before whispering in a low tone, “Hey. Where’s Sydney?”
The two turned back to look at us, and Henderson laughed. “You can forget the battle bot, Captain.”
I felt my heart sink. Had they somehow reprogrammed Syd? Had Drake figured out a way to get around my lockdowns, into his interface? Had they turned Syd? “What did you do?” I demanded, turning my eyes to the engineer.
He laughed now too. “Not much, actually. You might have shut us out of the bot, but his artificial intelligence isn’t that intelligent.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, all it took was telling him you wanted him to guard a room full of empty bank boxes. And he rolled on, happy to oblige.” Drake was grinning at his own cleverness.
“That’s why you called Maggie and me down to engineering.” I felt, somehow, more betrayed by the realization. The page, the urgent call to engineering, had been about getting us away from Sydney. He’d sent us in one direction, and the robot in another.
He nodded smugly. “Of course. No sense taking on a battle bot if I don’t have to.”
“You son-of-a-bitch,” Frank fumed.
“Oh shut up, Kudarian,” Henderson sighed. “It’s only because of Drake that you’re still drawing breath. If it was my call, you’d be dead. The lot of you. But you in particular.”
The minutes ticked by. Captain Slater stepped onto the bridge a few times to converse in hushed tones with Henderson. He was rather as I imagined he might be. His features were pleasant enough, I suppose, but there was a hardness, a coldness, to them all that sent a shiver up my spine.
I didn’t notice it at first, but the second time it happened, I did. Maggie moved in front of me when Slater or his men were on deck. It was a subtle shift, just a pivot here, a half step there. But it was unmistakable.
Frank, too, seemed to pick up on it. He started to inch himself to the foreground.
I felt at once relieved and mortified. Other than the comment about making enemies, no further allusions had passed about what transpired on Yukon Station. But it was foremost in my mind. The choice of Slater, the captain whose crewmen had tried to abduct me and had answered for it with their lives, was deliberate. Was this, a double cross and robbery, the extent of the revenge they had planned? Somehow, I couldn’t see Henderson or Slater walking away at that.
The fact that Maggie and Frank were reacting as they were meant they couldn’t either. And that terrified me.
I sat there, for those long minutes, wondering what lay in store. I remembered Henderson’s words to Frank, that we’d all be dead if not for Drake. Was it possible that he’d negotiated our safety into his bargain? We’d flown with this man, Maggie and the crew for longer than me. We’d faced danger together. It would be one thing to rob us. Surely, my mind argued, he wouldn’t do more?
Then again, I wouldn’t have thought he’d betray us at all. He’d known the terms of the deal from the beginning. They’d never changed. And yet the lure of more had been enough to turn him. I didn’t know what Henderson had promised, but I did know that Sage had a price, and the Conglomerate man had found it.
What Drake would do for his thirty pieces of silver remained to be seen.
We didn’t have long to wait. Slater’s crew was efficient at transferring their stolen goods. Before an hour passed, the Black Flag had been stripped of all her bounty. Now a handful of Slater’s men stepped onto the bridge, all brandishing weapons.
“Get them to the storage room,” Henderson said. To Maggie, he smiled, “Can’t have you pursuing us, Captain.”
The men with guns obliged, marching us single file from the bridge toward the storage room where we’d stashed the gold. It was just across from the gangplank, and as we crammed inside, some of Slater’s men retreated to their own ship, taunting us about our losses as we went.
My anxiety had been in overdrive as we marched, but it started to wane as the bodies crowded around me. They intended to lock us in, as they’d locked Syd up. It’d take a while to get out. We’d have to figure out a way to override the locking mechanisms. I was completely unfamiliar with that aspect of the systems, so it would be a challenge.
But they hadn’t killed anyone, and they seemed intent on leaving us alive.
I was just starting to breathe easy when Henderson and Slater stepped into view. “Oh, not you, Katie,” the former said.
My heart skipped a beat, and I froze in place. Maggie pressed closer to me.
Henderson, though, was training a gun on us. “Come on. Get out of there.”
“What are you doing?” Frank demanded.
He smiled. “I’ve got a score to settle with Miss Katherine.” He glanced, now, at Slater. “And so does my friend here.”
“Like hell,” Maggie said. “You got your gold. Get the fuck out of here, Henderson.”
His eyes flashed. “I’m not negotiating, Captain. You’re lucky I’m not taking you all back. You’ve got Sage to thank for that. But this bitch played with fire. Now she’s about to get burned.”
“Over my dead body,” Frank growled.
Henderson shrugged, loosing a beam of electricity at Frank. The Kudarian shivered and collapsed to the ground. I screamed.
“We can work our way through all your friends, if you want,” he said. “Or you can come with me.”
I shuddered, fear fixing me in place. “Please,” I mumbled, “don’t. Drake, don’t let them do this.”
The engineer glanced away, and Slater laughed. “Honey, I’ve got a whole crew itching to get even with you for Biff and Wade.”
“And my people are going to want to have a chat, when they’re done,” Henderson smiled.
Still, I didn’t budge. The Conglomerate man sighed, pointing his gun at Fredricks. “Shall we take out the doctor next?”
“Go,” Maggie said.
“What?” I was thunderstruck.
“Go with him, Kay.”
I glanced at her. Her eyes were cold and fixed straight ahead. She wouldn’t look at me. “Maggie, you…you can’t be serious.”
“They’re going to take you no matter what. Don’t get my crew killed for nothing.”
I blinked. “But Maggie…”
“Come on, Captain,” David urged. “You can’t send her out there.”
She, though, put a hand on my back, and shoved me forward. I stumbled, catching my footing a moment before I faceplanted. “Go.”
Henderson grinned. “That a girl.”
I felt panic swell in my chest, panic and pain. “Maggie,” I begged. “Please.” On some level, I knew there was nothing she could do. We were all unarmed and surrounded by men with guns. But the thought of what awaited onboard the Sea Witch, and – if I survived long enough – back in Conglomerate hands terrified me to the point of unreason.
Slater laughed again and stepped forward. He wrapped his fingers around my arm, squeezing tight as he yanked me forward. Pain stung me as his fingertips bit into my flesh. “Drake,” I said again. “Please.”
“Drake’s got his payoff, Katie. He’s got what you were going to get.” Henderson shook his head. “He’s not going to throw that away for you. Are you, Drake?”
The engineer glanced up now, from him to me, and then back to him. He shook his head. “No.”
“See?”
“Come on.” Slater jerked me forward again.
“Wait,” Maggie said, stepping after me. Henderson trained his gun on her, and she put her hands up. “Just…just let me say goodbye.”
The Conglomerate man exchanged glances with the pirate, and then smirked. “Alright.”
Maggie reached me, wrapping me in a hug and kissing me fervently. I was too numb to respond. “I’m sorry, Kay. I’m so sorry. But I have to think of my crew.”
Henderson laughed. “That’s what you get, Katie, for trusting a pirate.”
“Don’t worry, Captain,” Slater added. “My men’ll make sure she’s not lonely.”
“And maybe you’ll think twice in future about crossing the Conglomerate, Magdalene. Remembering all Katie’s about to suffer for her sins.”
Maggie’s eyes were watering as she released me and turned back to her cell.
“Get her onboard,” Henderson instructed.
I felt Slater dragging me toward the Sea Witch. But I was still watching Maggie. I’d half expected her to do – something. I wasn’t sure what, but she was Magdalene Landon. Fearless. Brave. Resourceful.
Only now, she’d turned her back on me. “Maggie,” I said again. My voice was low and raw, shaking with terror like a child’s. She kept walking, back toward the storage room. Tears welled in my eyes. “Maggie.”
Then, all at once, she darted for something. I saw Henderson move his gun after her. I didn’t know what she was doing, but I knew, instinctually, that she was in danger. I leaped for him. Slater’s fingers bit deep into my arm, but he hadn’t expected this. I broke from his grasp, colliding with Henderson a second later.
Maggie, meanwhile, had reached her destination. It was the control panel for the storage room adjacent to our cell. She pressed the button, and as the doors slid open, I understood. There, in standby mode, was Sydney, guarding over the empty totes where Drake had left him.
Chapter Fifty
“Sydney, help Kay,” Maggie screamed.
The robot whirred to life, spinning on his track. Slater and his remaining goons wasted no time. They opened fire on Syd.
Henderson socked me, with his free hand, in the face, and trained his own gun on the bot. I fell backwards, stunned, onto the ground.
Maggie, meanwhile, darted through the crossfire, throwing her body over mine. Beams of light flashed overhead. The sizzle of energy weapons impacting with the ship, the screams of the injured, sounded all around. She remained unmoving throughout, her form pressed over mine until the shots stopped.
Only when the crew rushed to us, and Sydney trundled over inquiring, “Katherine, are you harmed?” did she release me.
I sat up, stunned. The deck was covered in blood and fragments of human bodies. Slater and Henderson and all their men were reduced to bloody pulps. Drake, too, lay in a pool of his own blood.
“Syd,” I said, “you killed them all.”
“Affirmative. May I scan you for injuries, Katherine?”
“Sure,” I said. I was too numb to object. I turned to Maggie now.
There were tears in her eyes, and she pressed a hand against my cheek. “Kay. Oh Kay.”
“Hey,” Fredricks said, “I don’t mean to interrupt reunions or anything like that, but there’s still a ship full of Slater’s men attached to us.”
Maggie dried her eyes and pushed to her feet. In a moment, she’d closed the gangplank. “Kereli,” she said, “get us away from the Sea Witch. Corano, go weapons hot. Kill those fuckers.”
“What about the money?” David protested.
“Fuck the money. There’s too many of them to take his ship. And I’ll be damned if they’re getting away.”
She reached out a hand to pull me to my feet, and I accepted it. “Come on, Katherine. Let’s make these bastards pay.” Then, she glanced back at Fredricks. “Doc, take a look at Frank. See if – well, if there’s anything we can do. I’ll be down as soon as I can.”
“Syd, are there any more of those guys on the ship?” I asked.
“No.”
“Okay.” I followed Maggie now, running to the bridge.
Sydney rolled along behind us informing me that I was unharmed. “I do detect elevated heart and respiration levels, and an influx in stress hormones. But these fall within expected parameters of human physiological responses to near death.”
I was shaking and barely heard him as he droned on. Still, after the last few minutes, having an eight-hundred-pound robotic bodyguard on my heels was something of a relief.
Kereli slid into Frank’s station when we reached the bridge. “All systems go, Captain. Give the word.”
“Get us away from the Sea Witch. Corano, you ready?”
“Copy.”
“Fire at will.”
The Sea Witch was a midsized, gun heavy cargo ship, fairly evenly matched with the Black Flag. Her crew, though, seemed not to realize the full extent of everything that had just occurred.
Kereli pulled away from the pirate ship before it had even raised its shields, and Corano declared, “Weapons locked. Waiting until we’re at a safe range. And, missiles away.”
I watched the ship grow smaller as we put distance between it and ourselves. I watched our missiles race toward her. And I watched them hit, tearing her into pieces. I watched the Sea Witch reduced to a cloud of fragments and debris.
“Target neutralized.”
“Good job, Mister Corano. Are we clear? Any other ships in the area?”
“Negative, Captain. We are alone.”
“Thank God.”
I, though, was too numb to celebrate. I stood staring at the wreckage and blinked, trying to wrap my mind around everything that had just happened. Drake had betrayed us. Drake was dead. Slater and Henderson were dead.
Frank was dead.
I started as I felt an arm wrap around me. It was Maggie. “Kay, are you alright?”
“Mags.” I turned to her. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, babe.” She wrapped me in a hug. “I’m sorry I had to scare you like that. I needed to get to the door, though.”
“How’d you know Syd was there?”
“He told us. Drake did. Remember? He said he had him guarding the empty bank totes. We’d put them beside the gold. When I saw the locked door – I figured that’s where he had to be.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, babe. I know – how terrifying that was.”
I leaned into her arms. “They’re all dead.”
“Yeah, Kay. They’re all dead. You’re safe.”
“Oh Maggie.” I was shaking again. I felt like crying.
“Hey,” she said, “let’s get you to Fredricks.”
“I’m fine.”
“Let’s go anyway. Kereli, can you take over?”
“Copy.”
“Good. Corano, full alert. Get Ginny down to engineering, to make sure that son-of-a-bitch didn’t do anything to this ship. David, I want you to get a team together for cleanup.”
“How’d I pull the short straw?”
“Just do it, Dave.” She ran through a checklist of commands, holding me all the while. Then, we stepped off the bridge, heading for medbay. We took the long way around, avoiding the hall replete with blood and bodies.
“Frank’s dead,” I said.
“I’m sorry, Kay.”
“He died trying to protect me.”
“He was a good man.”
“You could have died too.”
She nodded. “I would have, babe, before I let them take you.”
I stopped, glancing back at her. Her eyes were moist again, and she didn’t try to hide her tears from me. The sight, somehow, undid me. “Oh Mags.” I buried myself in her embrace, and she pulled me tight. I could feel the tension in her shoulders, in her arms. We stood there for a moment, her sobbing quietly and me sobbing loudly. “I was so afraid.”
