Girl From Above #3: Trapped (6 page)

“It’s not like that,” he blustered.

“Fine. Whatever. I mean I would. She’s hot. And probably has the kinda stamina that’d keep you up all night. It’s not like I haven’t wondered—”

“She is the pinnacle of technology infused with humanity. She’s sacrosanct and not to be compared with some kind of sex bot for the likes of you.” His outburst echoed down
Starscream’s
catwalks.

Not once had he lost his cool in the entire time he’d been on
Starscream
. I’d just found his flashpoint.

He seemed to realize his mistake and winced, then rubbed at his eyes. “I er … I apologize. I didn’t mean—”

“Sex bots are overrated. Your own hand works just as good, and it’s free.”

He didn’t smile. “Was there a reason why you came here, Captain? I have work to do if I’m going to decipher her errors.”

I crossed the cabin and popped open the hidden panel. “You ever wonder what her big secret is?”

Whatever the secret was, it concerned Chen Hung, that much was obvious. Lloyd didn’t know how Chen Hung had been the one to toss me back into Asgard. I didn’t trust the young doctor—I didn’t trust anyone—and James Lloyd would remain an unknown on my ship until he could prove himself useful.

“I er …” The pause meant he was trying to word his next sentence carefully. “I think there’s more of Haley inside her than she knows. She went home to her father, a man she says killed her. That had to be difficult.”

“He did kill her.” I kept my back to him and reached behind the panel to retrieve the bag containing the
phencyl
cylinders and injector. How much he knew about my history with Haley, I couldn’t be sure. Maybe #1001 had told him all of it. In which case, he knew I’d let her die. What he didn’t know was that a day didn’t go by when I didn’t think about Haley. Sometimes it was a minor thought; other times I let the memories have me, let them cut deep, because I deserved the pain. I couldn’t exactly forget what happened now that her ghost was a member of my crew.

“You think she’s really in there?” I knew the answer but wanted to know what an ex-Chitec technician thought.

“I know she is.”

The fresh reverence in his tone piqued my interest, but I didn’t look. I’d seen enough of his derision on his face. “You knew her?”

“Yes. I went to college with Haley. She er … we were friends.”

Holy fuck. I turned and found him intently focused on his datapad. “Do you know what I did to her?”

He swallowed, harder this time, and didn’t look up. “Yes. She told me. I mean, I saw you and her a few times. Everyone knew about the Hung and Shepperd couple. Chitec and fleet.”

Haley Hung: beautiful, smart, and the daughter of a man everyone worshipped. She could have gone on to do anything she’d wanted. I’d taught her how to fly a shuttle. She could have lived her dreams.

A grimace took hold of my lips. I tightened my grip on the bag. “Keep up the good work, Doctor. I’m sure the two of you will live happily
ever-after
.”

“Captain?” His confused voice followed me out of the cabin. Thankfully, he didn’t.

Striding for my cabin, I opened the bag and closed my hand around the cool jet injector.
Just one quick phencyl fix, that’s all.
Just something to bury all the fucked-up shit in my head. Just a few hours of forgetting.

If I didn’t do something, I’d take a goddamn pistol to my head to stop the recall. I made it to my cabin and loaded an injector capsule.

“Caleb.”

I jumped. “Fuck.”

#1001 was standing in my cabin doorway, one hand braced against the seal, head tilted while she studied the injector in my hand.

“Before you say anything …” I trailed off as she entered my cabin and plucked the injector from my grip.

Her inquiring gaze lifted to mine. Her eyes focused to laser points, and she crushed the injector in her hand like it was made of paper.

“I needed that.” The words came out in a pitiful whine.

“When are you going to stop running, Caleb?”

“Never.” Shit, she was close. Had she always smelled faintly like cherries, or was that new?

She slowly, softly—every movement primed with purpose—closed my cabin door. I watched the sweep of her silvery hair fall across the tops of her shoulders, and how her sweats hitched against her body. She was truly a delicious combination of silver and steel. I was still watching her when she wrapped her cool fingers around my throat and slammed me into the wall with enough strength to bend the panel and spritz stars into my vision.

She leaned all of her precise grace forward and pushed her face close to mine. Deadly intent glittered in her sharp blue eyes. The instinct to fight almost broke through my bubbling sense of panic, but her grip wasn’t shutting off my airway. She knew exactly how to hurt me, and right now, all she had to do was pin me still. Her next fucking words would be the killer.

“You’re lying,” she said. “With your words. With your body.”

I’d gripped her wrist and felt exactly how steel-like her arm was. If she didn’t like what I said, she’d snap my neck like Tarik had snapped Jesse’s. On Mimir, when she’d shot me in the head, there had been tiny flecks of doubt in her words. But now, there was only unyielding determination.

“Kill me and you can’t fly
Starscream
out of here,” I rasped.

She cocked her head. “I can fly
Starscream.
”

“Really?” A wry smile slid across my lips. “I could have done with knowing that. I’d have made you my second instead of my asshole brother.”

She slowly blinked and tilted her head the opposite way, roaming her analyzing gaze over my face. This wouldn’t go well. My heart was racing, and my thoughts were all over the fucking place. Fran, Ade, Jesse … and Haley before all of them. Asgard, Bruno, the Candes, and the cops. I could take a beating, but even I had my limits.

“One, look—”

“Lie.” Her grip tightened.

“Fuck.”
I can’t breathe.
She’s going to kill me here, in my cabin, and they’ll all think I deserved it.
“It’s not lies,” I wheezed. “I’m … I’m sick. I haven’t had a drink.” Her grip loosened again. “It’s withdrawal.” I made myself hold her gaze, even if it felt like she could see inside my head, into all of my messed-up shit.

“Do you think I’m so easily fooled? Yes, you’re sick, Caleb, but from the moment you greeted me at the police department, you’ve been lying. It’s not about Jesse’s death. I’ve studied your response to the accusation of guilt, and there is guilt, but something else happened. Something that is ongoing.” For a few seconds, she looked as though she might want to say more, or perhaps that was my own assumption. “I know guilt,” she said, her voice softening. And then her fingers released me and I dropped the few inches to the floor.

Starscream’s
recycled air had never tasted so sweet. I breathed it in and bowed over, bracing my hands on my thighs as the oxygen rush went to my head. I had to focus through the pounding headache, which had flared back to life with a vengeance. I had one more move left. One more way of throwing her off the scent of my lies.

“There is something.” I straightened but stayed slumped against the wall. “I didn’t want to tell you because it’s fucking private, but seeing as you’re so hell-bent on knowing everything, you might as well know this.” I wet my lips and opened my mouth to speak, but found the words lodged in my throat. She waited, infinitely patient. Shit, I had to say it. Best to get it over with. At least she’d know it was true. “I fucked Jesse. I was thinking of you. She knew it. Then the synth killed her. I’m an asshole, okay? Are you happy now? Fuck, it’s like Sunday confession all over again. Only with you, I gotta confess or die.”

She blinked her fine, perfect eyes and her smooth lips parted by the tiniest of margins. “That would account for the guilt.”

I massaged my neck. “We’ve already established that I’m all kinds of fucked up. You can leave now, so I can jerk off to your fucking memory.
Adiós
, honey.”

“You use shock tactics to divert attention from where you’re hurting. That method will not work with me, Captain.”

We were back to Captain, so yes, it had worked. Point for the captain. “I’d like you to leave my cabin, synth. Do I have to order you?”

She turned, and the remains of the injector crunched under her boot, giving her pause. She might have been about to add another wonderful psychobabble line, but then
Starscream’s
breach alarm sounded through my wrist comms.

Her wide eyes met mine. “Tarik?”

S
hepperd was back
in his flight chair in under a minute.
Starscream
didn’t have a vast array of control screens; the ship was more functional than pretty, which meant the flashing lights on the dash were the only indicators that something was wrong. I’d downloaded the ship’s manual, but knowledge didn’t account for experience, and Caleb recognized the problem without needing to decipher the flickering warning lights.

“An internal breach,” he muttered.

Starscream’s
inner hull was packed with sensors to warn the crew should the pressure change while the ship was in the black. Something was trying to get in.

I gripped the back of Fran’s flight chair. “Is he inside?”

“I won’t know without looking.”

If Shepperd left to investigate and ran into Tarik inside the ship, the captain wouldn’t last more than a few minutes against him.

“Do you know where the breach is?” I asked.

“Aft, by one of the rear struts, where she’s weakest.”

I turned and headed for the door, brushing by Doctor Lloyd. His words followed me down the catwalk. “Captain, I need to share with you the results— Where’s One going?”

“Hey!” Caleb called.

The commander emerged from the rec bay ahead and stepped aside, out of my way. I veered toward the rear of the ship and snatched open one of the inspection hatches. A brief change in air pressure breathed across my face and then I was inside the narrow inspection walkways.
Starscream
had two skins. If the outer hull were breached, the inner hull would keep the ship from breaking apart. The space between the two was narrow enough for a slim person to navigate. The dull sounds of my boots on the bracing trusses and the rustle of my clothing echoed around the ship’s belly and into the dark. Even with my enhanced vision, I had difficulties determining what was hull and what was empty space. Tarik could be anywhere inside the ship if he’d gotten through the outer hull.

I navigated my way to where the rear strut supported
Starscream’s
ample rear end. The vast tungsten carbide support splayed across the ship’s underbelly like a supporting hand. The strut was sound, but light spilled in through a small hole next to where the hull structure wrapped around it. I crouched beside the hole. Fifty millimeters by sixty-three millimeters. No bigger than a pebble. The sharp edges tugged at my fingertips. It was still warm, either from the force of entry or cutting gear. The hole certainly wasn’t large enough for a man to climb through, but something had gotten inside.

In the dark and quiet, I rocked back on my heels and listened.
Starscream
’s usual rumbles and snarls continued: the sounds of her air ducts, water recycling, latent engine power. I’d become accustomed to her background din and couldn’t find anything amiss.

When I returned to the hatch, Shepperd was waiting, pulser pistol in hand, eyebrow arched.

“There’s a small breach.” I climbed through the hatch, left it open, and peered back into the dark. “It isn’t large enough for a man to get inside. I wasn’t able to locate anything unusual.”

“Could it be metal fatigue?”

“No. It’s deliberate.”

The captain looked at me, suspicion heavy in his eyes. “So you wanna tell me what your synth friend is up to?”

There was no evidence that Tarik had caused the breach, but he was the most likely candidate. “I don’t know. Perhaps he was disturbed and wasn’t able to complete the intrusion.”

Caleb didn’t look convinced. Neither was I. “Can you repair it with the spares we have on the ship?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Do it.” He held out the pistol. “Just in case.” I took the gun. When my fingers brushed his, he snatched his hand back as though I’d burned him. The symptoms of his alcohol withdrawal muddied my ability to read him, just like they had in his cabin earlier. I couldn’t be sure his anxiety was real or the result of his body’s cravings, but from what I knew of Caleb Shepperd, I suspected the withdrawal masked a deeper secret. He’d agreed to hand me over to Bruno. Just because he’d told me, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t go through with it.

“What did Doctor Lloyd want?” I asked as he turned to leave me to the repairs.

Caleb tucked a thumb into his pants pocket and looked at me sidelong. “Nothing?” He’d phrased it as a question with a slanted smile.

“Lie.”

“Try this on for size, synth. You scare the crap out of me in a whole load of fucked-up ways, but I trust you. You’re about the only person in the nine systems I do trust. And that’s the most fucked-up thing of all.”

“Truth.” A smile pushed forward, but I kept it caged.

“We will get out of this.” He left me then, and I watched him step through the pressure door and close it behind him.

His last words had been a lie.

I
finished
the repairs to the hull in an hour. The new panel section would hold until we could dock
Starscream
at a professional depo. Caked in metal dust, the tang of metal on my tongue, I sought out the doctor’s cabin but detoured toward the bridge when I heard voices echoing through
Starscream’s
main catwalk.

“… could be a glitch, but I’ve been over the results several times.”

“We ain’t goin’ anywhere. Go over them again.” Anger tugged on Caleb’s voice. I wrapped my fingers around the door latch but hesitated.

“No matter how many times I go over the results, the data won’t change, Captain,” the doctor replied. A heavy silence hung in the air. I waited, listening to the information my acute diagnostics fed me.

“You can’t tell her.” This came from Brendan.

“I agree. She er … it wouldn’t help.”

“She’s a fucking lie detector. Good luck trying to keep it from her.” Caleb’s flight chair creaked as it often did when he fell back into it, and then the familiar sound of his boots clunking against the flightdash meant he’d propped his feet up.

“If we were on Janus, if I had my lab—”

“What ifs and maybes, Doctor. Worth about as much as dreams.”

“Without dreams, Captain, we’d still be bashing two rocks together and worshiping fire. Although, I’m not convinced you’ve yet to evolve beyond that.”

“Careful, Lloyd. Just because I don’t have your smarts with the numbers, doesn’t mean I don’t have other talents.”

“I’ve seen your talents, Captain. They mostly consist of blind luck and criminal behavior.”

“My criminal behavior is keeping Chitec off your scrawny ass and providing you with credits to send back to your sister. It sure ain’t nothing to do with luck. You got a problem with crime, then you sure picked the wrong ship to hang your conscience on, Doc.”

“I came for One.”

“From what she tells me, you came for you.”

“Things have changed.”

“Sure they have. You’ve got a crush on your pet project—” A rustling sound, a few grunts, and then Caleb chuckled. “You’d better act on your urges soon, Doctor. From what you’re telling me, she won’t be alive much longer for you to enjoy.”

I stepped back from the door. Brendan said something about the results, but I tuned out the voices and turned away from the bridge, retreating to Lloyd’s cabin. I stripped, discarded Caleb’s pulser pistol, and shut myself in the tiny shower cubicle. The sensation of water tracing over my skin buried me in enough nonsense data to fight off the fluttering sense of panic Caleb’s words had left me with.

I’m dying.

The data, the warring protocols, the broken failsafes—they ate at my processes like cancerous tumors. The battle with the truth was killing my synthetic mind. It would get worse, not better. That’s what Lloyd had discovered.

I spread my hands wide on the cool, steel cubicle and silenced everything but the water’s sensuous data. There was a way to stop this. I had to find Tarik. He followed orders. His orders were clear: retrieve me. Waiting in
Starscream
wouldn’t solve anything. All it did was put those I considered an asset in danger.

Friends. Haley had friends. What do I have?
Friends were dangerous. Tarik would use them against me. I couldn’t allow that.

I had to leave—resolve this—before it was too late.