Thief (18 page)

Jace couldn’t move, couldn’t scream. His vision went grey around the edges.

Kraft released the pressure, but kept her body pressed against his as he sat on the little bench at the head of the kitchen table. If she hadn’t held him gently, he would have tumbled to the floor.

“Wasn’t that fun?” she whispered to his ear with a moist wind that made it impossible for him to stand up anytime soon.

“Only if you’re a masochist.” Jace shook his head. “Where in the Void did you learn that?”

“Charm school.” She dropped him a curtsy with an imaginary skirt.

“I couldn’t even breathe.” Jace shook his head. If she’d been so inclined, she could have killed him right then and there. Why in the Void had she allowed him such liberties last night when she could have killed him with a flick of her damn fingers?

“I know, too much pressure in the right places. It’s a quiet way to get folks out of the way without killing them or raising a fuss.” She pointed back to the diagram. “So, now, the two guards are out. I gag them, bind their hands with their own hardware, lock the door, and I’ve got the main control room all to myself.”

“And you can run it?” Garrett asked.

“IWOG controls are so simple even Heller could likely fall on the right ones.” Kraft winked and Garrett laughed.

“Freak-show,” Heller snarled.

“Village idiot,” Kraft returned.

“Unruly children.” Garrett tsked and sighed.

“Get on with it!” Jace bellowed, poised on the edge of his seat.

“From that room, I lock everything down but for the hatch where you’ll dock.” Kraft pointed. “We can strip them bare and be gone before the guards ever wake up.”

“Sounds too easy,” Garrett said.

“Too good to be true,” Jace agreed. Every single time he found a job that looked easy, it turned out to be anything but.

“Lord on high. Look. The only place they can override my lock down is from here.” Kraft pointed to the only other security cell. “And we’re gonna let them think they have.”

“Feel like a repeater, but how?” Garrett asked.

“Bailey will help me build a False.”

“A what?” Bailey asked.

“A False. A wireless contraption that I’ll put on this wall, here.” She pointed to the diagram. “Don’t worry, it’s on my way up the hall to the main control room.”

It was the back wall of what should have been a sealed-off security cell, but it wasn’t separated from the main by more than a wall. The IWOG went cheap on routing expensive wires and com boosters to the Tasher drive. They thought that separating the cells with a wall would be good enough.

“And what’s this False gonna do? Pipe in the latest IWOG commercials?” Garrett asked.

“That’s an interesting idea for a torture device, but, no. It’s gonna look to those IWOG officers like they’ve sounded the alarm and all hands are responding.” Kraft grinned, her wide and luscious mouth bracketing her perfect teeth. “Don’t you get it?” She leaned forward as if she expected them to get the obvious joke. “It’s gonna be a False—a computer loop that will keep them occupied for the time it takes us to strip them bare.”

“And you really think this will work?” Jace asked.

Kraft lowered her head and winked. “I know it will.”

A sudden surge of lust made Jace want to order the others out of the room so he could take Kraft hard and fast right on the kitchen table. Even if it killed him, he wanted to find out if she’d obey or object.

Before he could issue the order, Garrett asked, “You’ve done this before?”

As if she read his mind, Kraft smiled at Jace. “Oh, yeah, I’ve done this before.” She turned her gaze to Garrett. “Once. The station we hit had 100K in script goods
after
being stocked for a month. This station just got restocked two days ago.” Kraft paused and let that information sink in.

“It’s got to have at least…” Heller trailed off, and Jace could practically see smoke coming out of Heller’s ears as he tried to calculate.

“Almost a Mil, maybe more.” Garrett shrewdly assessed the schematic again.

Kraft nodded. “And that ripe chunk of change is just sitting there in that cargo bay, waiting for us.”

“But the hallway, here,” Garrett said, pointing. “There’s bound to be guards stationed. How are you gonna get past them?”

“I’m a shadow,” Kraft said.

“Unpack that,” Jace said.

“Well,” Kraft hesitated. “Guess I gotta show you one of my super powers.”

Kraft disappeared.

“What the hell?” Jace looked around.

“Looking for me?” She appeared on the other side of the table and touched Jace’s shoulder. He almost shot from the bench in shock.

“How’d you do that?” Garrett asked.

“It’s a trick of the mind. I make you forget to see me.”

“There’s a thought,” Heller said.

Jace now understood how she snuck up on him in the derelict Basic. “You walked right past Garrett and Heller. They didn’t see you because you didn’t want them to.”

Kraft smiled and nodded with abashed assurance.

“I pondered that for days!” Garrett leaned back. “I thought you were some kind of magician.”

“See, she’s a freak-show!” Heller glared.

“That may be true, Heller, but my talents could make us all the richer.” Kraft moved back to the other side of the table. “Isn’t it best to have the freak-show on your side?”

“But they’ll alert the whole quadrant about the stolen goods. We won’t be able to unload them.” Jace looked desperately for holes.

“Nope.” Kraft shook her head and grinned. “They won’t say a word.”

“
Mutiny
strips an IWOG transport and they don’t put out a lure on the Tasher? Are we blessed, or did they get real stupid real fast?” Garrett asked.

“To add insult to injury, a splash of vinegar to their salt filled wounds, they’re gonna think it was an inside job,” Kraft said. “They’re gonna be real quiet about it.”

“Beginning to feel like an IWOG ditto-head, but how?” Garrett asked.

“When we’re done with the False, it melts down and starts a fire. They’ll be dealing with that while we make a fast get away. And, since they had no indication of a ship approaching, they’ll think it was an inside job by the two guards who’ll swear up and down they ordered the crew to respond.”

“That’s fairly evil,” Heller said with admiration, and a low, deep chuckle. “I’m beginning to like this job more and more.”

Jace realized even Heller had been swayed. Script and revenge at the expense of the IWOG was a combination all of them could appreciate.

“I’ve got no problem making them chase their own tail,” Kraft said.

“We’ll have to maintain com silence. How will I know when to approach and dock?” Bailey asked.

“I’m going to invite you to dock,” Kraft said.

“You’re mad!” Garrett exclaimed.

“No one but
Mutiny
will hear it, and I’m going to erase even the tiniest smudge of it from the IWOG computers.”

“They won’t have a record?” Garrett asked.

“Not after I get done with the computers.” Kraft gave Garrett a saucy wink.

Later that night, Jace found Kraft sitting at the kitchen table, fiddling with circuit boards and wires. She bit her bottom lip, one corner tucked below her perfect gleaming teeth as she concentrated. A soldering iron smoldered next to her, and she picked it up, dabbed it to the works, then considered the wires again.

Even though she seemed oblivious to him, Jace felt her awareness that he entered, yet her gaze never left her task.

“You’d be taking all the risk.” He poured himself a cup of the ever-present swassing that simmered on the back of the stove.

“Risk is minimal, but I would be taking it all.” Kraft focused her attention on building the False. “Call me greedy.” She smiled then frowned. “If something goes wrong, you hightail it out of there.”

“Fancy yourself captain?” Jace plunked himself down in the chair opposite hers.

Kraft stopped what she was doing and caught his gaze. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yes, you did.” He sipped his drink. “Right under my nose you’re running the show.”

“It’s a good plan.”

He nodded. “But you’re still taking all the risk. And I’m beginning to feel like window dressing, being so pretty and all.”

“Is that what this is about?” She pushed the gizmo aside. “When I call you pretty that’s just my way—you’re like a fancy package—hell, you’re making this job so much harder than it has to be.”

“My ship. I’m captain. We run a job only if I say.” To his own ears, he sounded like a tyrant, one desperate to assert his authority. He’d never felt a need to declare himself the alpha dog with any of his crew in such a surly manner, until Kraft came along, all powerful and enticing.

“I’m not disputing that.”

“Not overtly.”

“I’m taking the risk, sure, but we’d all make out like Berserkers.” She slapped her palms to the table. “What is this really about, Captain?”

“If they catch you, they’ll kill you. I won’t be able to save you.” He took a casual sip of his swassing.

“I’m not asking you to.” Kraft gave him a sharp one-eyebrow-up look. “You can’t honestly think I don’t know how to take care of myself.”

He didn’t dispute that for a heartbeat. Kraft could take care of herself and just about anyone else. Dropping his imperious captain tone, he quietly asked, “Is it so bad here that you’re willing to take this risk just to get away from me?” He looked deep into her fathomless eyes. “What happened last night won’t happen again.”

“That’s too bad.” She winked. “I’d like to finish what we started.”

Anger surged at her smirky tone. “It’s not funny. I hurt you, and I didn’t mean to. Why are you acting like it wasn’t any big deal?”

“Because it’s not.” Kraft shrugged. “Look, I know you’ve only been with your wife, but if you’re thinking you’re the second or third in my line, you’re sadly mistaken.”

So now she was trying to push him away with her experience or his lack thereof. “You make it sound like you’ve done half the Void.”

“Well, probably less than half, but I’m working on it.” She winked and flashed him that slow, lazy and sexy smile.

His answering frown dropped the grin right off her face.

“Anyway, last night has nothing to do with this. If you don’t want to do this job, then pull rank and put the synch on it. I’ve got no desire to step on your captain toes. And if that’s what you think this is about, some kind of pissing match, then say.”

“Fine. I’m saying no.” He leaned back and took a swig of his drink. Her excellent swassing rolled over his tongue.

“Fine.” She pushed away from the table and tucked her chair neatly beneath it. She unplugged the soldering iron with a yank. “Night, Captain.”

“Night, Kraft.”

She made it all the way to the door before she turned back.

“You know—”

“I know there’s no way you’re giving up without an argument.” He kicked her chair out from under the table. “Plunk yourself right back down and let’s have it out.”

Kraft smiled and poured herself a cup of swassing. “And you think only I can read you.” She sat down and leaned back in her chair. “Are you saying no just to keep me on your ship?”

“Do you want to do this job just to get off my ship?”

“We could play dueling questions all night.” Kraft leaned across the table, her palms flat to the battered surface. “Or we could just cut the crap.”

“Ladies first.” Jace didn’t touch the table, because he didn’t want her to read him through it. Drawing his body and mind tight, he forced a mental shield around himself.

Kraft uttered an annoyed sigh. “If I sit at the table and touch it when you do I can read you.” She stood. “Just so we’re real clear on the concept, I’m going to stand over here.” She leaned against the wall that separated the kitchen from the main hall. “I want to do this job so I can get back to where I belong—on my own ship.”

“You expect me to put you in a terrible position.”

“That’s what a captain does.”

“Did you?”

“All the time.” Kraft nodded earnestly. “I put Danna and Tan into the mouth of hell, over and over, because that’s what our life demanded. It was my call not to stand down, and my call cost seven women their lives. Don’t look at me like I don’t know what it’s like to be captain.”

In her eyes he saw the pain that made her flee the kitchen in tears. She would have sacrificed her ship and all her cargo if only she could save her crew. Kraft had never been given the option and only a flimsy piece of paper had kept her alive.

Jace knew what crushed her was not the loss of her ship or her cargo, but the loss of her crew. Kraft failed to protect them. As she said long ago, everything hinges on the captain.

“And now you’re punishing yourself for surviving.”

“I’m not.” Kraft looked offended at the very idea. “I’m not going to get a ship of my own again with piecemeal jobs. I need something big. I could take my share from this job and wager it ten times over.”

Jace saw her frustration building.

“Look, you gotta use your people for the skills they have. You wouldn’t take Bailey off being pilot because it was risky, right? No one but me has the skill to pull off a shadow. Not even you. Let me do what I’m good at.”

“Use you.” Suddenly, the thought of her in his bed, captive to the needs of his body, made him look away.

“If that’s the way you want to look at it, fine. Use me. You’ve had no problem making me cook.”

“You’re not likely to die from it.”

“Is that the rub?” Kraft frowned. “You’re all for letting me use my skills as long as I’m safe? You hold Garrett and Heller to that too?”

“We’re not talking about them.”

“No, but maybe we should be. You’re holding
me
back. And for the life of me I don’t know why. If
you
were taking all the risk, you’d be all for it, and you know it.”

“I guess that’s the problem,” he said. “I’m sitting back, safe, while you risk your neck.”

“I’ve got no problem with you sitting back and being captain, while I, your intrepid cook, bring down an IWOG transport. Sure, I risk my neck, one person, one you know you can spare, to bring a bonus—what you paid Trickster for me would be returned to you a thousand times over. Or more.”