Mercenary Instinct (a science fiction romance) (21 page)

“There’s a Buddhist monastery in those
mountains. It’s on the map. Thomlin will know where it is.”

“You’re sure you’ll be all right down here in
the storm?”

“We’re fine. Out.” Viktor faced the others.
“Who’s up for a walk?”

Nobody groaned out loud, but the women’s
shoulders all slumped. Even Hazel’s might have drifted downward a
hair.

“Hand out the gum, Tick. Two miles, people,
that’s it.”

* * *

If one more vine smacked Ankari in the face,
she was going to let out a screech that would put those raptors to
shame. With every step, her feet sank into the mud, and with every
third one, she had to yank a stuck foot out of the mire. The
caffeinated gum the tracker had shared had helped for the first
hour of the march, but its effects had worn off, leaving nothing
but weariness dragging down her limbs. Thorny branches clawed at
her clothes, which were plastered to her body, the water adding at
least ten pounds to their weight. She was still carrying two packs,
because Lauren, despite the sergeant’s first-aid ministrations,
could barely walk.

Ankari tripped over another root and only
kept herself from sprawling by grabbing a branch. The branch turned
out to have thorns that sliced into her soggy palms like barbed
wire. She yanked her hand free, cutting skin in the process. She
kept herself from whimpering—or screaming—barely. Mostly because
she, once again, had no idea where she stood with Viktor and his
team. At first, she had been relieved, almost delighted, to see him
charging out of the jungle to demolish the other mercenaries. But
watching him slit throats and shoot men with the chilling accuracy
of a computer had reminded her how deadly he was—and how uncertain
she was of how he would feel toward her group. Once again, she’d
escaped—using the key she had plucked from his pocket—and this
time, they had succeeded in stealing his shuttle... and crashing
it. When she had stepped out of the trees, his stare hadn’t
seemed
angry—in fact, he had almost been gentle, but she
didn’t want to make assumptions or mistake weariness for
amiability.

“You all right?” Sergeant Hazel asked from
behind her, touching her shoulder.

“Yes, sorry.”

It was at least the fifth time Ankari had
apologized. Viktor and his tracker were up ahead, cutting a path
through the jungle, and it wasn’t as if the group could have moved
quickly under any circumstances, but she couldn’t help but feel her
and her team’s clumsiness was slowing everyone down. Jamie and
Lauren were just as tired as she, not to mention more badly
wounded, and they kept giving her looks back over their shoulders,
silently asking if they could sit down and mutiny. It was probably
only the continuing screeches from the jungle that kept them
moving. Nobody wanted to be left alone with those raptors roaming
about. The creatures hadn’t ventured close and attacked again, but
Ankari believed that had more to do with her well-armed escort than
any lack of interest in munching on humans.

Ground down by the events of the night and
the awful weather, Ankari didn’t notice at first when they turned
onto an actual trail, one where the vines and branches had been cut
back. It was still muddy, but it wasn’t as difficult to
navigate.

Viktor put away his big knife and waited for
the women to pass, then fell in beside his sergeant. It was the
first time the route had been wide enough for anyone to walk side
by side. Ankari kept her eyes focused on the ground ahead, but
listened, hoping to hear something useful—or at least that their
destination was close.

“Less than a mile to the temple,” Viktor
said. “We spotted some fresh tracks though. We’re not the only ones
headed that way.”

“Would the monks give refuge to mercenaries
on the hunt?” Hazel asked.

“They’ll give refuge to anyone. They only ask
you to leave if you’re fighting in the temple.” Viktor raised his
voice. “Markovich, you want me to carry those packs for you?”

Ankari wasn’t expecting the offer, or for him
to acknowledge her, and she managed to trip again, this time
without the help of a root. She found her balance before planting
her face in the mud, but Viktor caught her by the upper arm, too,
making sure she would remain upright before releasing her.

“Thanks.” Ankari’s shoulders burned and her
backed ached, so she would have loved to give him the packs, but
she made herself offer a stoic, “I’m fine,” instead. All right, it
might have sounded more long-suffering than stoic, but that was all
she could manage.

“How come you never offer to carry my stuff,
sir?” Hazel asked, amusement in her voice.

“You’re a highly trained soldier in superior
physical shape. Also, you glared lasers at me the one time I opened
a door for you.”

Hazel snorted. “I have no memory of
that.”

“Any sign of anyone following us?” Viktor
asked.

“Just the storm clouds.”

“They are persistent. Keep an eye out.”

“Yes, sir,” Hazel said.

Viktor jogged a couple of steps to walk
beside Ankari. “Miss Markovich, I’d consider it a kindness if you’d
tell me how you and my shuttle came to be down here on the moon.
I’m quite certain I left you in the brig. Again.”

Ankari could feel his eyes upon her, but she
stared at the muddy trail instead of meeting his gaze as she mulled
over possible answers. He had asked quite politely, but would that
politeness remain if she told the truth? At the moment, he might
think some of those thugs had kidnapped her from the brig. But if
she lied and was later caught—there had to be video coverage of
what had been happening on the ship—then she would only be delaying
his ire.

“Someone was attacking your ship, and when
the power went out in the brig, we let ourselves out,” Ankari
said.

“The
power
went out?” Viktor looked
back at Hazel.

“Just for a few seconds. Some men in black
were waiting in the hallway, and we figured they’d come to get us,
but we delayed them briefly, and then your people charged through,
mowing them down. After that, they forgot to come in and check on
us—there were still some other intruders on your ship—so we let
ourselves out of there too. There was another fight at the shuttle
bay, but we were hiding in the ladder well, so didn’t see any of
that firsthand. Afterward, we slipped inside and invited ourselves
onto the conveniently unguarded shuttle. Jamie closed the door, and
we had plans to find ourselves a nice city down here to disappear
into. But there was some device attached under the control
panel—Jamie could tell you more about that—and it caused the
shuttle to be on autopilot. It was determined to come down here. We
tore out the device, but too late to do anything. The storm hit us
hard, and we couldn’t find a spot to land, not that we had the
control to manage to land anyway.”

She sneaked a glance at him, wondering how he
felt about all this news, and the revelation that her team had been
responsible for crashing his shuttle. She refused to feel
that
bad, considering he had destroyed her own ship, but she
found herself reluctant to say things that would anger him.

It might have been the shadows, but his face
was hard to read.

“We got a glimpse of the ship attacking yours
as we were flying away,” Ankari added. Maybe he would be interested
in that and would forget about the shuttle. “It was disk-shaped. It
didn’t seem big enough to seriously damage your ship. More like it
was trying to distract them so the shuttle could escape.” She
decided not to mention the part where they had realized they had
walked into a trap. He would connect the dots by himself,
anyway.

“Did the boarding party come in through an
airlock?” Hazel asked. “Or up in the shuttle from the moon?”

Ankari shrugged, though she belatedly
realized the sergeant was talking to Viktor.

“Garland would have had all of Bravo squad
standing next to that airlock if a ship tried to attach or send
people over in suits. They must have come in the shuttle. With
someone there to guide them in and talk to Garland, make him think
there was no trouble.” Viktor’s voice had grown soft, dangerous.
Ankari wouldn’t have wanted to be the “someone” who had helped the
other side. “Markovich said someone—Tank, probably—was in the
shuttle and had already been killed.”

“So he betrayed us, then was betrayed
himself?” Hazel asked. “What happened to Rawlings then?”

“I don’t know.” Viktor touched Ankari’s arm.
“Did you see a runty fellow with shifty eyes and a missing finger
at any point?”

“I only saw the bald one and the people in
black, but we were hiding from everybody. Also, most of the men we
had time to take a good look at were dead, thanks to
your
men.”

“All right. I’ll have to wait for morning to
get the full report, unless the temple has a decent comm station.
Looks like you were coming down here one way or another tonight,
Markovich.”

Ankari nodded glumly. “Given what we
experienced in our five minutes of shared company with those
people, I think I’m glad we took the route we did.”

Viktor looked toward Lauren and Jamie.
“Jarlboro’s outfit always had a less than savory reputation.”

“Guess your Striker should have joined them
then.”

Viktor looked down at her, a hint of sadness
in his eyes. “Perhaps so,” he murmured.

Belatedly, Ankari got the impression he had
been hoping she would point out that his outfit was more... savory.
And she wished she had caught that before she’d spoken flippantly.
She didn’t know what her status was with him, but he and his team
had cut their way through the jungle and risked their lives against
those other mercenaries to save the lives of her and her partners.
Sure, they might have been protecting their investment, but the
result was that Ankari and the others weren’t being mauled by horny
brutes who couldn’t even keep their hands to themselves in the
pouring rain in the middle of a predator-filled jungle.

“I’d rather be completely free and not
anybody’s prisoner, but I appreciate that we’re not with them now,”
Ankari said. She couldn’t quite manage a
thanks-for-saving-us-Viktor. “I also appreciate that you haven’t
thrown us up against the trees and beaten us senseless for escaping
and crashing your shuttle.”

“Well, it looked like that had already been
done.”

Ankari grunted. That was the truth. She
wondered how bad she looked. Bad enough that he wouldn’t want to
strip her out of her soggy jumpsuit and engage in another round of
kissing, she assumed. Which was, of course, fine with her,
especially if he
was
just protecting his investment out
here. He might be polite about it, but in the end, she was still
his prisoner. Still, he’d been furious at Felgard when she had
shared Fumio’s letter with him. Maybe there was some chance she
might convince him that she could make a better offer. She just had
to figure out how to do that. Two hundred thousand aurums. She’d
never come close to earning that kind of revenue from any of her
companies, unless one counted gross sales, and she didn’t. Gross
sales couldn’t pay off a mercenary.

“Sir?” Tick stopped and raised his hand.

The wide trail had turned into a road, and
the foliage opened up ahead. The towering mountains had come into
view, rising sharply with little in the way of foothills to ease
the climb. The rocky spurs and cliffs were made of a dark stone
that didn’t support many trees or other shrubbery. If not for a
pair of lights part way up a steep slope, Ankari would have missed
the temple; its outer walls were made from the same dark rock as
its surroundings. The ground had been cleared around the base of
the mountain, including a broad cement landing pad kept clean of
encroaching foliage. She wasn’t sure how they would climb the steep
hill to get to the temple, but the idea of getting out of the rain
was nearly enough to send her sprinting ahead of the group to
try.

“Trouble?” Viktor asked when the rest of the
group caught up with the tracker.

Tick handed him a compact pair of binoculars.
“Hard to say. The doors in the wall are open though. Like someone
might have just gone inside. Or like they’re expecting guests for
some reason.” He lifted his eyes toward the black sky. Yes, this
wasn’t exactly good weather for visiting. Neither flying nor
walking had proven healthy.

After a moment, Viktor lowered the binoculars
and looked back at his bedraggled group. “You want to stay here
while Tick and I have a look?”

He was probably talking mostly to Sergeant
Hazel, but Ankari heard herself saying, “No,” before she could
think better of it. She held out her hand, grimacing at the rain
spattering her waterlogged skin. The screeches hadn’t sounded for
the last few minutes, but she was willing to risk the temple, even
if they had to fight another battle before a dry spot might be
found.

“Hazel?” Viktor asked.

“I’d rather stay together, sir,” she
said.

Viktor must not have had a strong opinion
either way, because he shrugged and waved for them to follow him
when he strode into the open. Both he and Tick kept their rifles at
hand and watched all around them. There weren’t any craft sitting
on the landing pad, nor was there any sign of life, apart from the
two lights.

From a distance, Ankari hadn’t been able to
see the road crisscrossing the steep slope in switchbacks, but it
led them up the hillside, closer and closer to the temple. The
structure itself was mostly guarded from view by the surrounding
wall, but a few rooftops were visible, and she had the impression
of different tiers of buildings, each nestled onto ledges and built
right up against the cliff. Her legs soon burned from the climb,
and her interest in the architecture waned. She decided to let the
men remain vigilant while she fantasized about dropping her packs
and changing her clothing. Maybe finding a bed. Some blankets.
Sleep.