Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 0: Tanya, page 14
“Damn you Malcomb!” Tanya said, not seeing any way out of it and not happy about it.
“It's no longer a matter of just your participation, Tanya. There is no changing the fact that we are all now involved. For better or for worse, we made that bed when we helped you the first time.” Malcomb said. “Now we’ll just have to sleep in that bed, just like we always have. There’s nothing preventing this Jason Cormach and his Organization from coming after us once he's finished with you, or retaliating on the others who were left behind, or anywhere any of us might go. You can't deny the fact that we are now all involved and we will have to see it through to the end together.”
“You pose an irresistible argument.” Tanya said. “I never knew you to be so persuasive.” His argument was as reasonable as they came, and there was no way out Tanya could see, at least not for the present.
“You're just easier to convince now.” Malcomb said.
“Is that what it is?” Tanya asked. She could clearly remember the hours upon hours Malcomb spent entreating her to stop what she was doing and of course what her response was. She had not listened to him then but it was clear he already understood he’d won this time and Tanya was going to listen. What choice did she have? Leave them to fight the Organization alone? Malcomb had won the debate and the small smile turning the corner of his lip left no doubt in her mind that he was as aware of it as was she. She would be staying on, it seemed.
Chapter 51
Felone had been storming back and forth through the ship for hours since they received news of their latest failure. In Jason’s opinion she was beginning to become unglued, not that she was put together all that well in the first place. Felone was not one to take defeat lightly and it had been a long time, if ever, certainly not in her time with Jason, since she had tasted defeat in such measure. Tanya was thwarting them at every turn, and now she had an entire force of very competent soldiers at her disposal. They could be nothing else than highly trained soldiers the way they had so easily decimated their Simians. There could be no doubt that it was the same force which was responsible for both incidents, while of their own full time Operatives they were the only two who remained.
“The two of us against an army! How fucking wonderful!” Felone sneered from the open hatchway to Jason’s Study where he was sitting and drinking since they received the news. To add insult to injury they had to pay the Kievors to get the news.
“I think it’s quite fitting.” Jason slurred, already well into his cups and starting to get that certain feeling. Getting a case of the fuck its Jason liked to call it, where he was likely to do or say anything just to get the ball rolling towards a resolution of one kind or another; getting tired of Felone’s new aggressiveness towards him as well, not that he let any of that show now. He did not. “It began as her against an army and now it’s us against an army. That’s Karma.”
Felone just stared at him but bit back whatever she had been about to say, seeing the hard look come over his face and finally realizing there was a limit to how far Jason would let himself be pushed, and realizing she had finally pushed him to that brink, where he wasn’t going to take it anymore, at least not while he had hot Scotch whisky coursing through his veins. What she didn’t know was that she had already pushed him over that brink.
Jason certainly recognized that this entire mess was his doing but Felone’s attitude was more about taking control of him and the Organization than merely about anger at his errors. Felone had decided she no longer needed him and she was just building herself up to finalizing it. The one thing that Felone was not very good at, however, was hiding her feelings. They were written plainly on her face. He could see the play even as Felone dealt the hand. Jason wasn’t an expressive person. He let things stew inside him until they reached the boiling point and then the lid would blow, but it wouldn’t be visible until the explosion actually occurred. He was boiling already.
“I’m going into the Station for a while.” Felone said finally. “I’d appreciate it if you would man Adjudicator’s guns while I’m coming and going.”
“Of course.” Jason slurred, suddenly seeing his opportunity.
Jason’s finger almost settled on the actuator stud of the plasma cannon he had centered on Felone’s back as she walked out from under Adjudicator and headed into the Station, but Jason changed his mind at the last moment, more of those fuck its coming over him and deciding that this was far more appropriate. This was truly Felone’s Karma. When Felone rounded the corner and disappeared into the Station proper Jason and Adjudicator swiftly departed the dock, slipping through the transparent gravity field without hindrance and out into empty space beyond.
Jason did not look back as he accelerated Adjudicator and finally hit jump.
And who was to say? It was possible those bitches would kill one another.
Chapter 52
Felone stood in the entrance to the dock knowing this was where Adjudicator was supposed to be and knowing there was no mistake about it. Felone did not make such mistakes.
Yet she had made a far graver one. She was planning to dump Jason once they dealt with Tanya, but wanting his help at least until then she had certainly revealed nothing of her plans to him, yet somehow he had obviously deduced them. Was she easy to read as all that? Either that or he had come to his own conclusion to dump her and he had simply acted the swifter. Well, she was in a fucking bind now, wasn’t she!
There was no time to waste presently as Tanya and her army were probably already after her, and putting her fury aside for the while in the need to have a clear reasoning mind in this time of extreme danger, Felone coolly appraised her situation.
Money wasn’t a problem as she had a huge personal account here with the Kievors, not because she was expecting this treachery from Jason but simply because Felone was the kind of careful person who always dotted her i’s and crossed her t’s. She had enough wealth spread throughout the various major banking institutions within the Federation that she would never have to work again, no matter how long she lived, so she had the lovely twenty-twenty hindsight of wishing she had gotten the hell out a long time ago, when she had first begun having such thoughts.
The truth was Felone loved the game more than anything else in life. The Organization and the game was her life and she no longer knew any other, had not been able to imagine what she would do with the rest of her very long life if she had given up the Organization then, and now it was of course far too late for thoughts of that.
“I think your ship left without you.” A sailor from a ship which had been berthed next to Adjudicator said as he meandered up innocently and stopped next to Felone, a cunning smile on his face he couldn’t hide and obviously hoping the young looking girl was now going to be in need of a strong male shoulder to lean on, and a warm berth to sleep in, but he was mistaken.
The fingerboard exercises that Felone practiced every single day without fail meant her fingers were as strong as mobile bands of carbon. They were in fact mobile bands of hardened carbon. The not so innocent sailor did not see her strike, she moved so fast as to defy the laws of reality, and then those fingers locked on his windpipe and she ripped out a gaping chunk of his throat.
The man’s eyes widened with shock as he realized that the bloody meat Felone threw onto the deck had been his throat, and then he tried to scream. But he couldn’t. A wet gurgling was all he could produce, and seeing his life squirting through the hands he had locked to his ruined throat, a losing contest trying to hold in his lifeblood, he decided to try to take her with him.
She saw the look in his eyes change even as the plan formulated itself in his mind; a narrowing look of determination and a hardening of his resolve. His hand dove for his holstered weapon but before his hand even settled on the butt Felone’s Kievor blasters were in her hands and belching twin balls of energy.
Felone headed for the deck even as the destructive power of the twin blasters were unleashed on what used to be a human, the concussion of the explosions helping Felone in her backwards dive, and by the time she rolled out and came to her feet there was nothing remaining of the sailor. There was a scorched place on the trans-metal deck which almost immediately turned back to its original color, the mark fading quickly and completely disappearing.
“That felt good.” Felone said to no one, having killed him for no other reason than that it felt good and because she could. She’d been out of the active participation of her livelihood for a very long time, but it wasn’t forgotten. It could never be forgotten. “I’ll require accommodations.” Felone added, and the ever ready arrow appeared in the floor and began to lead her.
Chapter 53
The news that Jason abandoned Felone really came as no surprise when Tanya received it. If you lay with snakes you are liable to get bitten. She had no idea what the rift might have been between them or if it was just simply a case of Jason getting rid of excess baggage before he fled himself. Now Tanya had two choices; did she leave Felone to her own devices, assuming that she was no more than Jason’s assistant? Or had Felone’s part in what had been done to her been just as heavy as Jason’s? Splitting their forces meant it would be easier to kill them individually, should she now decide to go after Felone first, since she was already here and apparently not planning to go anywhere, but Jason was her primary target and he was now fleeing and there was no telling where, when, or if he would ever stop. Every moment Tanya delayed here meant Jason was getting farther and farther from her and delaying the moment she would have her satisfaction. Tanya did not want to spend eternity hunting him down.
“You should go after this Jason. We’ll take care of the woman.” Malcomb said.
“I’m not going anywhere and leaving anyone as someone else’s problem.” Tanya said. “If I go after Jason now you have to give me your word you’ll leave Felone until I return.”
“I’ll give no such assurance.” Malcomb said.
“Then you leave me no choice.” Tanya said. “I would like to purchase Felone’s location at this moment.” She was speaking to the Kievors, of course, and they responded immediately.
“You do not possess sufficient Credits.” The air said, and Tanya was running for the doorway of her Kievor apartment when the tremendous explosion ripped apart the front wall, completely exposing the interior to the bloody mess of several of Malcomb’s guards who had been standing sentinel in the hall. Little remained!
“So much for a being’s right to fight!” Tanya swore as she dove into the hall to her left, Malcomb moving just as swiftly to the right, but neither could find a target. Neither the attacker nor any other beings were present, those who had survived the initial explosions quickly finding other places to be. Kievor blaster concussions in the close corridors could rip you apart even meters distant.
“Clear.” Tanya said.
“Clear.” Malcomb replied. Now dozens of Malcomb’s soldiers were swarming from every direction, somehow the attacker having slipped through their surveillance net and nearly gotten them. If Tanya or Malcomb had been closer to the wall where the explosions struck it could have been over for the both of them then and there.
Even though the dead guards weren’t children anymore- they were all of an age the Federation military considered legal- it bothered Tanya more than she could say that they had been killed in her name. She had not left Malcomb all those Credits all those years ago so as to be able to train an army to defend her. Three were dead and Tanya couldn’t look at Malcomb. It did not matter that Malcomb and every one of his soldiers would gladly fight to the death in her name, it was that she could not allow it.
Finally she was able to look at Malcomb. “This has to stop.”
“The only way it will stop now is by killing this Felone.” Malcomb said, but this time there was the carbon of authority in his voice that meant he wouldn’t be swayed no matter what was said, a stern tone as if she were the one in need of moral guidance and he was tired of her childishness and giving her a dose of tough love. In very plain terms he was telling her the way it was going to be. Tanya could not win the contest of wills when their eyes locked together, and she saw that there was only one alternative, that of immediately attacking, because it was clearly obvious now that this Felone was more than she seemed. She had made a decisive attack and then had faded away to bide her time and attack again. It was a system Tanya was more than familiar with and there was only one way to deal with it. Head on.
“Then I suggest we go and get this done as quickly as possible.” Tanya said. It would have to be ended now and she would have to lead the charge, while Jason possibly slipped away forever. Something else was very wrong as well... How in the hell had Felone slipped through the surveillance net? How in the hell had she done that?
Chapter 54
Felone walked right down the corridor amongst the myriads of beings about their business, none of whom, nearly all reptiles in this sector, could guess at the violence which was about to erupt. Felone was not a large person and as she moved forward she kept the bulk of an overlarge reptile in front of her as she slowly moved forward, and as she caught her first glimpse of the sentries posted in front of Tanya's apartment, their attention was suddenly drawn to the lift tube to her left as it suddenly opened without warning, having arrived without giving notice.
They hadn’t seen her because they hadn’t been looking for a boy. Fools! Tanya should have known to expect subterfuge and Felone was as much a master of the art as was Tanya. It was what Jason had taught Tanya because it was what Felone had taught Jason. But they wouldn’t be fooled twice, and in any case her hair was gone now, shaved close to the skull, and no bringing it back. Long hair could be a deadly liability in close combat and the ruse had worked well enough for her to draw first and maybe even final blood.
The lift in this corridor was being held open in preparation for her escape, a small matter of an insignificant number of credits in the Kievor’s ever open pockets, but she had not arrived in it. That would have been much too dangerous as it would surely have been under the most intense scrutiny of the sentries in the corridor. So she had chosen to walk nonchalantly, right amongst the crowds, and trust to the unbelievable audacity of her actions to see her through.
Her blasters appeared with incomprehensible speed in her hands, instantly belching their destructive energies down upon the suddenly wide-eyed sentries. The twin balls of energy from her Kievor blasters lanced out lightning swift and struck the outer wall of Tanya’s apartment precisely where Felone had meant for them to go, the twin concussions ripping apart the three sentries in front of the entrance like hamburger thrown into a turboprop; meat, blood and gore slapped upon every nearby surface.
The blasts annihilated a long section of the front wall of Tanya’s apartment as well, as Felone had planned, leaving a gaping jagged hole where the wall had been. If Tanya had been near that front wall the fight was already finished, and without a second glance Felone raced for the lift and was gone before a retaliatory response could be made. The hatch sealed in its odd trans-metal way and the lift was on its way.
“Is she dead?” Felone asked.
“Your attack was unsuccessful.”
“Son of a bitch!” Felone swore. “I'm going to require a ship. A very large one.” The odds were simply too great. There were too many of them and the landscape of the Kievor Trade Station far too enclosed to suit Felone’s style of fighting. It wasn’t so much a style of fighting as it was a style of fighting from concealment and subterfuge and there was no concealment here and no further subterfuge possible. It was time to cut and run.
There was Jason to think about as well.
“What price range will you be shopping in?” The Kievor speaking invisibly through the air asked politely. They were always polite, Felone noted, when you were getting ready to spend credits, and especially when you were going to spend a lot of credits!
“All of it. I’ll need lots of fuel and provisions, as well.”
“A large order but we believe we may be able to accommodate you.”
“Excellent.” Felone said. “Lead me onward.” Several lift rides and a short walk later Felone was standing in a massive dock looking up at the biggest piece of shit ship she had ever seen. If it wasn’t quite ready for the scrapheap it sure looked like it, and it was entirely underpowered for its size.
“I couldn’t outrun a cosmic wind in this thing!” Felone snapped. “Are you kidding me?”
“You won’t have to,” The Kievor replied, “if you’d care to take a look at her weaponry. She’s also equipped with a military grade auto-targeting system that wasn’t part of this ship’s original equipment.”
Felone had to agree that for what the ship lacked in thrust it more than made up for in weaponry. It possessed no less than four independently targeting photon cannons and slews of plasma cannon, more than could be counted from her vantage. It would be perfect for keeping Jason at bay but she’d never catch Adjudicator either. It would have to do for the time being though.
“I’ll take it.” Felone said.
“We rather thought you might.” The Kievor replied.
Chapter 55
Jason hadn’t fled quite as far as any of the parties who were interested would have imagined, nor had he in actuality run away at all. He was very much present and accounted for and an interested observer to all that was occurring, though presently at a hidden locale, at least until he could devise a plan of attack.
Whatever his next step was to be, and for the present he had no idea what that next step would be, it would have to be planned based on the outcome of Tanya and Felone’s fight. There did remain one thing he was sure of though, and it was that if Tanya and Felone found one another on the Kievor Trade Station, and of no question was the fact that they would definitely be looking for one another, then there would be one hell of a battle! That was why he had left Felone when he did, because he could get that lucky, if whatever Gods ruled the Universe happened to be smiling down upon his black soul at the moment, and there could end up to be one less battle he had to fight when it was over.
