Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) (10 page)

T
he purple gel
that encased Larga Ways was less intense than the blue of the gel walls in the launch bays.

Fee stopped halfway down the docking arm and tilted her head up. It was more a translucent lavender than the dark purple it appeared to be looking from the outside in.

She turned her head and closed her eyes against the brightness and warmth of Balco's sun. Tears pricked the back of her eyes and she had to swallow hard to keep them from spilling.

“Please. We need to keep moving,” Talbo said, almost directly in her ear, and she reluctantly opened her eyes and faced the cluster of buildings up ahead.

She stumbled as she took her first step, as she realized the planet Balco was right in front of her. It rose up above the silver reflective roofs; green, gold and blue.

The sight of it made her heart beat faster in her chest.

Talbo tugged at her arm and Fee stiffened.

“It's dangerous for you to be out in the open. Please, let's go.” Talbo was on the edge of panic, and Fee tried to bury her resentment at being rushed and fell into step with him.

They walked to the docking gate, and Talbo simply nodded at the guards on duty and stepped through what resembled an airport security scanner. Fee followed him, and after she stepped through, she heard a hum behind her as it was reactivated.

She looked over her shoulder, and noticed the faint snap of purple light from one side to the other.

So, likely, you'd get a nasty shock if you ran through it without permission.

She wondered where the guards who were supposed to be watching her were hidden. She and Talbo had been the only people on the docking arm but now they were among the way station crowds and as Talbo led her down a narrow street she looked around to see if she could spot them.

There were Garmman and Grih, but there were other races as well; a few Fitali like Kwo, and men and women with a shorter, stockier build and flat faces with silver eyes.

Perhaps they were Balcoan.

The buildings were all covered in the most amazing mosaics, and Fee realized some of what she'd thought were greenery and flowers earlier were designs on the walls.

There were plants, though.

Tiny dark red flowers carpeted the sides of the streets and what looked like pale green arum lilies curved up and out from pots, their frilly leaves a mix of pink and green.

The trees were similar to cypresses, tall and thin, but when she got closer, she saw the trunks were a twist of four or five separate stems, entwined together, and the tiny leaves looked thick and succulent.

“This way.” Talbo turned off the street into what Fee would describe as an alleyway, but of course, they would make their streets as narrow as possible here, to maximize the space for buildings.

They walked the length of a short block, deep in shadow, and then stepped out onto another street as wide as the one they'd just come from.

It had the same beautiful buildings and plants, but there were a few places that Fee thought looked like market stalls and tiny stores, and there were more people here.

To the left, at what was surely a street cafe, she caught sight of someone familiar sitting at a small table, a cup in front on him. He was big and Grihan, although he wasn't in uniform.

She knew him, though. She would never forget his face——Rial, the medic who'd helped her on the
Fasbe.

She waved and smiled at him and just as Talbo hustled her down the alley on the opposite side of the street, she saw Rial's face go slack with surprise.

Me, too
, she wanted to call.
I can't believe they let me out either.

Excitement danced over her skin again as she took a deep breath and realized she could smell food cooking in the air. It was spicy and smelled as if it was being seared over a hot fire.

The contrast of such earthy cooking methods with the sophisticated dome overhead thrilled her, made her want to pull away from Talbo and explore.

Maybe she could wheedle an hour of exploring Larga Ways out of the UC committee members waiting for her after the meeting.

It was worth a try.

“In here.” Talbo held a door open for her in what looked like a building back entrance.

They were taking precautions, she'd give them that. The helmet, the low profile, coming in the back way.

The heavy, reinforced door thudded shut behind them, and it took Fee a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom of the small hallway.

It was all white and silver and a staircase rose up to her right.

Talbo lifted his handheld, and she realized he was looking at a floor plan.

“This way,” he said, moving forward, past the stairs to a door at the other end of the hall. “This is it.”

Again, he held the door for her, and she stepped in to a room that seemed too small and empty to be a meeting place.

Talbo stepped in behind her. She turned to ask him where they were, and saw his eyes go wide, his expression collapse into one of pain, and he went down, face first.

The door thumped shut, and she wrenched her gaze from his body, to find a person standing against the wall.

He'd been hiding behind the door, she realized, and now, only now that she saw the weapon in his hand, pointing at her, did she hear the faint whine of a shockgun.

“You shot him.” She wanted to kneel beside Talbo and check if he was all right, but as she took a step forward, the shooter raised the shockgun higher.

“I used the third lowest setting,” he said, his Garmman rough and deeply accented. “He'll come round in an hour or two.”

She forced herself to look at him, to work out what he was, and found her breathing getting short, fear squeezing her chest.

He had feathers. Feathers instead of hair, it looked like, and his mouth was more beak than lips, his eyes huge in his face.

She hugged herself. “What are you?” But she knew. She couldn't remember it, but she must have seen them when they took her, or when they had her under sedation in that strange glass room.

She'd told Captain Vakeri that she remembered feathers, and she was looking at feathers now.

The Tecran had found her. Or, given that Talbo had led her straight to them, they had somehow orchestrated this whole 'meeting'. They had fooled the crew on the
Illium
, they had fooled a UC officer.

And they'd gotten everyone to cooperate quite happily in handing her over. Herself included.

“It doesn't matter who I am.” He looked down at his shockgun, and she thought he might be adjusting the settings. “Take off your helmet.”

Fee thought about refusing, but the shockgun rose to point at her face, and she lifted it off and set it at her feet.

He sucked in a breath, gaze going to her ears. “So it is you.”

“What do you want?” If the captain was right, they'd want to get rid of her. Not just kill her, but make her disappear completely, so there was no trace of her existence. Likely, they wouldn't shoot her and leave her body here, they'd take it and jettison her into space, out of their hair forever.

“I want you to come with me.”

There was no way she was going with him so he could kill her quietly in some more private place and then dispose of her body. If she was dead either way, she'd make things as difficult as possible for him. Then at least the crew of
Illium
would know what had happened to her.

Just like when she'd stepped out to speak to the Krik on the
Fasbe
, she didn't have anything to lose.

“Where are we going?” She took a step to the side, so she could get around Talbo. The Tecran lifted the shockgun again, and Fee raised her hands.

“To my ship.”

Fee frowned. “The Tecran have a ship docked at Larga Ways?”

She knew she wasn't crew, or in any need-to-know group on the
Illium
, but she would have thought Pila or Carmain would have told her how close danger lay if a Tecran vessel was docked at the same way station. They couldn't know, or even Hisma would have asked more questions before letting her go.

“Not in any official capacity.” He gave her a look she couldn't interpret. “We wouldn't have been given permission, even if we'd asked.”

She took another step to the side and finally had a clear run to the door, except that the Tecran was standing right beside it.

Maybe it was time to unleash one of her secret weapons.

Aside from the encryptor, she had one surprise up her sleeve. She'd hidden it from Tak, waiting for her chance to use it, and that chance had never come.

It looked like it had now.

The gravity here was less than on Earth. Everything happened a fraction slower, but she could jump higher.

She could leap, flip, and somersault like an Olympic gymnast.

She'd always wondered what it would feel like to be able to do that, and since she'd discovered that she could jump high enough to touch the ceiling with ease in her cell on the
Fasbe
, she'd been able to find out.

Probably, over time, her body would adjust and she'd lose her edge, but right now, her muscles and bones were used to a slightly higher gravity, and if she wanted to, she could jump over this Tecran's head.

“I will shoot you if you try to run.” He motioned her toward the door, opening it and standing right in the doorway, so she'd have to squeeze past him.

She took a few steps toward him, her gaze never leaving his face, and then leaped, in a head first dive.

She flew just over his head, turned a half-somersault in the air and landed hard, staggering as she took her next steps. Her momentum was too much, and she fell forward, and the whine of a shockgun shot sounded over her head.

She scrabbled her feet to get traction, pushing herself up with her arms, and just as she was about to launch herself forward again, pain burst across her shoulder blades and her whole body went numb.

She fell back to the ground, her cheek pressed against her forearm, and realized she couldn't move her limbs. She could close her eyes, though, and she lowered her lids so they appeared shut, but so she could still see a little.

Boots approached her.

“Shit. I hope to the stars you're not dead, because I was told not to shoot you.” Hands grabbed her, and he strained to pick her up.

He was half a meter taller than she was, and stocky in build, but she could hear he was having real trouble. He grunted as he tried to lift her, and dropped her back to the ground with a thud.

Ow.

“Why do you weigh so much?” He rolled her onto her back, moved round to her head and grabbed her under her arms and started dragging her.

He switched to speaking Tecran, muttering under his breath, and Fee wished she hadn't avoided learning it.

As the Tecran pulled her along, her legs and arms started tingling, and Fee thought she might be able to move them soon.

She had her encryptor, and she had a feeling the Tecran thought she was more immobilized than she really was.

She'd use everything she could against him.

They did not get to do this to her twice.

“
R
ial
?” Hal frowned at the incoming comm, moving sideways in the narrow street to allow a Balcoan woman and her two children to pass. He'd told his team not to contact him if possible while they were undercover, just in case someone was monitoring the comms.

“I know I'm breaking protocol, but I think I'm blown anyway.” Rial's tone coming through the earpiece was quietly furious. “I saw Fiona Russell, and I thought the plan was to keep her hidden. If that changed, it would have been better to tell us, because she saw me and waved. If I was being watched, they know I'm a crew member.”

Hal stumbled to a stop, and pressed himself up against a wall to get out of the way. “Say that again.”

“She waved. She would have called a greeting if that UC officer with her hadn't been hurrying her along——”

“You are telling me that Fiona Russell was outside of the
Illium
? Walking the streets of Larga Ways?” He struggled to keep his voice low.

“You didn't know.” Rial spoke slowly, making it a statement, not a question. “Favri and I will try to see where she went.”

Hal heard a change in the background noise, and guessed Rial was moving.

“You say she was with a UC officer?”

“Yes. Grihan. In uniform.”

“Try to find her. I'm calling the ship.” Maybe someone was listening in, but Hal couldn't spare the time to run back to the
Illium
. If they were being monitored, so be it.

He tapped his earpiece. “Carmain.”

She came on immediately.

“Yes, sir?”

“Are you on duty?”

“No. Pila is, with one of the other guards. We split up, so one of us was always on. I'm in the canteen.”

“Rial just spotted Fiona on Larga Ways with a UC official.”

There was dead silence for a beat.

“He's sure?”

Hal could hear her breathing ramp up. She was running.

“He's sure. She waved hello to him.”

She swore under her breath. “Give me two minutes.”

She cut off comms, and Hal flicked back to Rial. “Any luck?”

“She went down a side street, but there's no sign of her. If only I'd followed my gut. I knew it wasn't right that she was out. And I have to admit, if she hadn't waved, I wouldn't even have noticed her, because she had a helmet on. She looked like a cadet.”

Something clicked in Hal's brain. He cut Rial off, tapped his ear. “Voa.”

“Captain?”

“I need to know where Fiona Russell is, using the tracker in her cadet uniform.”

“I haven't been given those tracking signatures but . . . we don't have any cadets at the moment, so whichever cadet signal is moving will be her.”

Hal heard her fingers tapping on the screen.

“This can't be right. She's outside the
Illium
.”

“Oh, it's right.” Hal knew he sounded grim.

Voa blew out a breath and he heard her fingers flying over the screen. “I've brought up every senior officer's handheld tracker. You're three streets to the right of her, five blocks down, but Rial and Favri are standing right outside the building where she is.” She gave the address.

“Tell me if she moves.” Hal cut her off, connected back to Rial. “She's inside a building right next to you.”

“There's a door here,” Favri called out, but before Rial could say anything, Voa cut back in.

“She's moving. Quickly, so I think she's in one of the supply hovers. She exited the building on the other side to Favri and Rial, and she'll already be out of sight of them. But she's heading in your general direction. Run straight up the street, and it's possible you'll see her as she crosses in front of you.”

Hal ran. He tapped his earpiece. “Rial, she's left the building, but search it, see what you can find. I'm chasing her down.”

“But how——?”

He cut Rial off as a comm came through from Carmain. He was getting strange looks from the people around him as he dodged shoppers and residents. He'd have to get the way station commander involved if this carried on much longer, but if possible, he'd rather get his hands on Fiona, stash her back on the
Illium
, and maybe they could pretend this had never happened.

“Talk,” he said to Carmain.

“There was a breach.” Her voice was almost expressionless. “All comms are dead around the area of Fiona's room. Pila received a comm from Chel, directing him to go to the communications division and wait for him, Hisma got a comm from you, telling him to expect a UC officer to come for Fiona, that she was due at a council meeting. We've found a metal disc attached to the wall just around the corner from her door, and Gerbardi says it has those comms from Chel and yourself prerecorded on it, and that it's responsible for the dead zone in that section of the ship.”

“So if either Hisma or Pila had asked a question, the prerecorded messages wouldn't have stood up to scrutiny.”

“No. But in both cases, the order was issued and then it appeared as if you and Chel had cut off comms. It would take a brave junior officer or guard to comm you back with a question, when the instruction was so clear.”

True. As a strategy, it was risky, but not that risky.

Hal pushed himself a little harder, leaping over a small fluffy kapoot that bounced on the end of a stretchy lead held by a Balcoan doing her afternoon shopping.

“Coming up on your left.” Voa's voice hummed with tension, and Hal saw the narrow supply hover moving above head height. Its white sides had no windows, and the front was so darkly tinted, he couldn't see in.

Larga Ways was vehicle free, except for hovers transporting goods to and from the docked ships. This one seemed to be moving faster than was allowed, and by the time Hal made it to the crossroad, it had already passed him.

To call in Tean Lee, Larga Way's head of security, or not?

Hal ran after the hover while he debated with himself. Any chance of keeping Fiona's presence here secret would be completely compromised if he brought Lee into this mess, and they still had a long journey back home where anything could happen to them. But on the other hand, without Lee's help, they may lose her right now, if she wasn't already lying dead in that hover.

He tapped his earpiece. “Lee.”

The station commander had given Hal his direct comms signature yesterday in the spirit of cooperation, and he came online immediately. “Vakeri?”

“I have a problem.” It was hard to think up a delicate way to admit to keeping secrets while running through the streets after a hover.

“I gathered that when I saw you running through the market. You don't look happy.”

Lens feed.

He'd forgotten Larga Ways had deemed lens feed in the main public areas to be a matter of security, as the use of some small bombs and weapons could potentially breach the gel dome.

“I'm not. We found another Earth woman a few days ago, a prisoner on the Garmman trader we towed in yesterday, and she's just been abducted from my ship.”

Lee let a long moment of silence stretch out. “We'll talk about sharing information vital to the safety of this station another time. She in that hover you're chasing?”

“Yes.”

“I need to get down to the security division, so I can direct this in real time. How sure are you she's there?”

“All our cadet uniforms are embedded with a tracker so we know where they are if they slip out and cause trouble. Fiona is wearing one of those uniforms.”

“She there willingly?”

Hal could hear the caution in Lee's voice. If Fiona wanted to leave the
Illium
, he had no right to stop her.

“Very doubtful. I think you can imagine the reasons why it would be difficult for some people to explain her presence here. Easier for her to just disappear.”

The hover cleared the buildings, and Hal saw it move toward one of the docking arms. There were at least twenty vessels docked along the arm; all small, fast runners.

“It's fine. They have to stop and get permission to proceed along the dock,” Lee said, his voice calm. “You'll catch them.”

But nothing had happened as it was supposed to since Rial had spoken to him, so Hal kept his pace as fast as he could.

The hover reached the guards at the security point.

A high-energy field encircled the way station around its central disc. The only place it could be shut down was across the entrance to each docking arm, to allow people and hovers through, controlling the flow on and off the way station.

The two guards stationed on the way station side of the field stepped forward, but the hover didn't slow, it simply sailed over them and through the check point, past the shocked guards on the docking arm side.

The field was down.

“What?” Lee's voice was incredulous in his ear. He cut off, and Hal kept running full tilt, but he was barely a leap away when he heard the high buzzing sound of the field snapping back into place.

He stumbled, trying to stop his forward momentum, and one of the guards grabbed him, hauling him back so that the faint purple light of the field hissed an inch from his face.

He gave a quick nod of thanks to the man, and tapped his earpiece. “Lee?” Nothing. “Lee?”

“Dead zone. I've been trying since it went over our head.” The other guard lowered her hand from her ear.

Another dead zone. Surprise, surprise.

Hal looked down the length of the docking arm. The hover was still moving, although it was already halfway down the line.

Going to the last vessel. He'd bet a month's pay on it.

“Let me through, I've got to catch them.”

The guards looked at each other.

“They've kidnapped one of my crew. Let me through.”

“State your name and vessel for the log, and I'll do it,” the woman said.

Hal reeled the information off, and with a snap, the field between the two ten meter poles disappeared.

Before they could change their mind, or whoever was pulling the strings right now reset it to shut him out, Hal ran through.

He wouldn't mind backup, but he knew the guards had to receive permission to leave their posts, and with a dead zone in place, Lee couldn't get through to them.

The hover stopped at the far end, not at the last vessel but the second last.

Hal realized why as soon as he was close enough to see.

The last vessel was a Larga Ways security patrol runner. They were well-equipped, had good weapons, and spent their time patrolling the nearspace around Larga Ways. They also always docked at the end of the arm, so they could easily come and go.

“Are you there?” Lee's voice suddenly came through, too loud.

Hal winced. “Yes. If they take off, can I use your runner?”

Lee didn't even hesitate. “Yes. I'd really like to ask them a few questions. Like how on Guimaymi's Star they created a dead zone in my comms, and shut off a specific part of my energy field.”

Hal gave a grunt of acknowledgment. He needed all his breath to run. His legs were burning now, his chest heaving as he pushed himself.

Up ahead, a Tecran armed with a shockgun hopped out of the hover and opened the rear doors. Fiona exploded out, trying to jump over his head.

She looked up and caught sight of Hal, and as she flew through the air, his gaze locked with hers.

And then she fell limp to the floor.

The bastard had shot her. And Hal was still too far away.

The Tecran set his shockgun on the ground and desperately hauled Fiona to what looked like a two-person runner.

He dragged her to the door and pushed her inside, and turned back to grab his weapon.

But the runner's door closed, and Hal could hear the whine of its engines revving.

The Tecran spun back to it, shock clear on his face, and hammered on the door, but the runner slid out of its berth, and shot up to exit height, and accelerated away.

Hal's own steps faltered for a moment, and he staggered, trying to keep the runner in sight.

The look she'd sent him. Hope. Relief.

When she'd seen him, she thought she was going to be saved.

She'd been taken on his watch. Off his ship. And right in front of him.

He would not let this go.

His breath was ragged now, and he was starting to slow, but he aimed for the security patrol vessel, bearing down on the Tecran.

Fiona's abductor backed away and then ran to the very end of the docking arm, and Hal was happy to ignore him. Lee's guards could deal with him.

As he reached the runner, the doors opened.

“No time to key it to you, so I've overridden the settings, and it's keyed for general use. Which means don't let it get into the wrong hands.” Lee's voice was harsh with outrage.

“Thank you.” Hal ran inside, straight to the pilot console, throwing himself into the chair and initiating engines.

He had just initiated the release from the dock when the door opened again and the Tecran fell through, his shockgun flying from his hand as he rolled across the floor.

The door shut and Hal had a second to decide whether to stop and hand the Tecran over to Lee's guards or keep going.

He chose to keep going, slapping the runner into an automatic exit program and grabbing for the Tecran's shockgun.

“Vakeri, you have a passenger.” Lee's voice was hoarse, as if he'd been shouting.

“I see him. No time to stop.”

“The yurve shit is going to fly for this.”

Hal gave a bitter smile as the runner slid through the gel dome and out into space. He pointed the shockgun straight at the Tecran.

“Yes. It is. And quite a bit of it will be thrown by me.” He checked the settings, and stilled. It was on maximum. The Tecran must have adjusted it after he shot Fiona, intending to take down the guards permanently.

If not, Fiona Russell was dead.

Because he thought it might be useful to interrogate the Tecran later, Hal dialed down the charge, and as the Tecran righted himself and staggered to his feet, Hal shot him back down.