CHAPTER 42
Smiling, l curl my fingers through
his.
Vel’s hand feels
slightly sticky and indefinably wrong. While sight may deceive you,
touch rarely does. He’s starting to smell moldy, too. After we
jump, I don’t imagine we’ll see him out of quarters until we
arrive. I hope that’s long enough for him to generate more skin,
unless he intends to go as himself. I’m not sure that’s a good
idea.
Then again, if
Syndicate intelligence is worth anything, they already know about
him. So perhaps it’s a moot point. I remember how Jewel said Bugs
couldn’t be permitted to mingle freely with humanity. Does he pose
a danger to Vel?
Maybe they’re using
me as a blind when they intended to capture the infamous bounty
hunter all along. Though I shake my head at the notion, I can’t
dismiss it entirely. Good to know my paranoia continues to thrive.
It would help if I knew who wanted me dead.
Lightning streams
over my skin. I know when we enter
grimspace. Not because the lights flicker, although they do. No, I
can feel it in my blood, in my bones. Like I’m part of the
primordial matter boiling all around the ship.
When I shut my eyes
like Hit told me to, I can just about see the colors. Oh, they’re
far away, like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, but I
can see them. This can’t be a delusion.
I’ve never heard of
anyone who could sense grimspace when they weren’t jacked into the
ship, but I’m not imagining this. From the pure, vast silence comes
the pulse of the beacons. I hear it as an echo of my own heartbeat.
Since I don’t know where we’re going, I can’t attempt to find the
right ones, but I sense the navigator in the cockpit doing
so.
He seems sluggish to
me, unsure of our course. This jumper lacks my elation, my passion,
my certainty. I never doubt I’ve targeted the right beacon, never
have trouble translating the star charts from straight space.
There’s something wrong here. I’ve never watched anyone work
before, though instructors sometimes do. If I had a control button,
I’d hit the override.
I feel the way we
alter course, making for a beacon. But he’s overshot the jump. I
don’t understand how I know, but this isn’t the place to phase out.
Their jumper’s a hack, not an artist; he can barely perceive the
beacons at all, and his best guess is our worst nightmare.
The phase drive
rumbles, preparing to take us back. I shake my head, struggle
against my harness, shouting, “No, no, no!”
It’s pandemonium.
Everyone speaks at once, either telling me to shut the fuck up or
trying to reassure me.
Vel squeezes my hand.
“It is nearly over, Sirantha.”
“No shit it’s almost
over, we—”
“Sit tight,” the
Syndicate pilot barks over the comm. “Do not remove safety gear.
This is going to get rough.”
Keller depresses a
button on the arm of his chair. “What’s the problem, Mat?”
“We’ve emerged in an
asteroid field, sir, two days off target. And these little bastards
are surrounded by pockets of highly combustible gas.”
Oh Mary. I knew it. Well, not about the asteroid field, not
exactly, but I knew he’d gotten the jump wrong. I knew it was
dangerous.
But how? How did I know?
“Why are you chatting
with me then?” Keller demands. “Get us out of this mess and then
update me.”
“Roger that.”
“I never realized how
good you are.” Because of Dina’s quiet tone, it takes me a moment
to register that as a compliment. “Hell of a backseat driver, but
good. You get us there, time after time. Never anything like
this.”
I shift in my chair.
“That’s not true. When Vel was chasing us, I jumped us eight days
out.”
“Not into the middle
of an asteroid field,” she mutters.
With a nod, I concede
the point. Until now, I never wondered how I avoid jumping back
under dangerous conditions. I can’t explain that knowledge; it
works like a sixth sense, and I guess I assumed every other jumper
has it, too.
Apparently
not.
The ship tilts this
way and that, testing the strength of my harness. We sling hard
left and then roll. My stomach lurches as we make a full
loop.
“Mary,” Jael groans.
“I hope I don’t puke before we die.”
“Relax.” Keller
sounds irritated. “Mat’s good. He’ll get us out.”
A distant boom and a
grinding sound belie his words.
“We’re hit,” the
pilot announces. “And we have breach. Droids are sealing off the
second deck.”
Damn. Good-bye, spa.
Maybe I’d better kiss my ass good-bye while I’m at it.
“Not good enough.”
Hit starts unbuckling her safety gear. “Tell him to give me the
chair. I’m not dying today.” Another explosion rocks the ship. “Go
on, keep waffling, there won’t be enough of this thing left to tell
what it was.”
Keller hesitates only
a second before getting on the comm. “Mat, I’m sending someone up.
Don’t argue, just let her fly.”
The pilot sounds
oddly, inappropriately chipper. “Your funeral.”
We stare at each
other, taut-faced, as Hit sprints down the corridor toward the
cockpit. I hope she flies as well as she fights.
“She’s that good?”
Dina asks.
“Better.” Coming from
someone who hates her as much as Keller seems to, that’s high
praise. He sighs. “Jewel will have my ass for messing up the new
ship.”
“Space the guy in the
nav chair.” I blurt the words before I think better of them. “He
screwed up so bad—” I trail off, realizing there’s no way I can
know that.
Everyone swivels to
look at me, the same question burning in their eyes.
“How can you be
sure?” Keller asks.
“I’m not. Forget I
said anything.” Why give people another reason to think I’m a crazy
egomaniac?
They don’t look
particularly convinced, but a shift in the way the ship handles
distracts them. We’ve got Hit in the pilot seat now. The swoops
feel faster, more graceful. Smaller explosions trail in our wake,
but they don’t touch the ship.
Maybe we’ll get out
of this after all.
Ten minutes later,
she comes strolling down the hall from the cockpit, looking pleased
with herself. “And that’s how it’s done. Your boys should be able
to take it from here.” She smiles at Keller. “And if they can’t,
I’d have them killed.”
The Syndicate boss
watches as she helps Dina from her chair, and the two of them head
off to quarters. Our girl’s moving better already, less drag in her
leg, more free movement. Her EMP band must be doing some
good.
I think Grubb speaks
for all of us when he says, “Damn.”
“Madame Kang’s best,”
Boyle agrees with a sigh. “We should recruit her.”
Keller shakes his
head. “Jewel won’t pay what she’s worth. If you’ll excuse me, I
need to talk to those idiots in the cockpit. Deck two is off-limits
for obvious reasons, but you’re free to freshen up and
rest.”
Rest. Finally.
I realize I’m still
holding Vel’s hand, though I’ve damaged his skin some. “Thanks. I’m
all right now.”
“My pleasure.” His
vocalizer somehow grants the words a courtly inflection. “I believe
I have some research to do now, if you will pardon me.”
Warmth floods through
me. I need to spend some time with him, find out all about his
people, their customs, and how they show affection. If they do. So
far, I’ve been lax, and I only know that Ithtorians don’t
hug.
“Of course.”
Then it’s just Jael
and me left in the hub. He helps me untangle myself from my
harness, and I haul myself to my feet. My bones pop as I arch my
back.
Uneasy with the
intensity of his regard, I try to smile. “What a day,
right?”
“You did know, didn’t you?”
“Know what?” I begin
a slow progress toward my room, which I hope will be as nice as I
imagine.
“That the jumper
messed things up. Somehow, you went out there with him. You saw . .
. something.”
“I don’t want to talk
about this,” I tell him tiredly. “I need a shower and then a good
eight hours of sleep. Don’t you have anything else to do?”
“No. You’re not
getting out of this so easily, Jax. You may have distracted the
others, but I was right beside you. I saw your eyes.”
“So what?”
The door to my room
recognizes me. As it swishes open, I’m tempted to summon a bot to
eject him, but that will only delay the inevitable. He’ll never
stop once he’s got his teeth into something. I don’t understand why
he wants to know so badly, but he’s the stubborn type.
I pause in the
doorway, awestruck. This is mine? All of it? Forget the utilitarian
quarters I’ve been used to; this is a suite. As I step onto the
thick carpeting, I sink at least a centimeter.
In my inglorious
past, I’ve stayed in hotels that weren’t this nice. I try to take
in everything in a single visual sweep, blotting out Jael’s droning
voice. Full-sized bed with shimmering blue blanket, a bar, a
personal assistance unit with gourmet kitchen-mate. The bathroom
steals my breath.
“So we’re going to
talk about it. As your bodyguard, I have to know every last thing
about you and try to figure out a way to compensate for every
eventuality.”
Maybe it’s that
simple. Maybe he just wants to be sure that whatever happened isn’t
a threat to my well-being. After all, Tarn is paying him to take
care of me, and if grimspace poses a danger, even when I’m not
jumping—actually I don’t even know the answer. This is all new
ground since I’m usually in the nav chair.
I sigh. “Good luck
with that. I’ll be in the shower.”
With that, I start
getting naked.
