Chapter 24
Hal could see Fiona was almost jumping out of her skin with worry. He was sure Eazi had many layers of security in place to keep himself safe, and Paxe probably had security safeguards that were downright murderous before anyone got close to him.
Still, the lack of comms was concerning, and as the little runner Fiona had taken from Larga Ways down to Balco broke free of Balco’s atmosphere and headed toward the way station, he kept a sharp eye for any signals coming in.
The way station was close to their exit point, and as they approached, Hal could see what Olna meant about milling around.
They had lost connection to Grih headquarters in Distani as soon as they were in Balco’s nearspace, which made sense if satellite comms were down.
It meant he couldn’t ask for an update, but from the chaos surrounding the purple dome of light that encased Larga Ways, comms within the way station had obviously not been restored.
“Head under the way station,” Fiona said, coming to sit beside him as they approached.
Hal lifted his brows. “You have a secret way in?”
“Always have more than one way in,” Fiona said, and for the first time since she’d been unable to contact Eazi, she smiled.
“Good strategy.” He wondered what she and Eazi had built for themselves, especially as his instruments were telling him he was about to hit a wall.
He allowed himself to be impressed when he piloted the runner through the enviro barrier that wrapped itself beneath the way station, and found a neat little docking station waiting for them. “Have you ever used this?”
She shook her head. “But Eazi and Paxe ran quite a few trials with various sized runners after it was built, so I knew it would work.”
“Who actually built it?” he asked.
“Paxe got the motley crew involved.” Fiona stood as the runner clamped into place. “No one knows anything about it, I hope. As you saw, the sensor disruptors will show a solid wall, in case anyone gets the idea to look for themselves.”
Hal realized the motley crew was the perfect solution. The small group of miniature thinking systems who Paxe had found in his travels for the Tecran would have been more than capable of building this hidden dock.
They were helping Paxe rebuild his Class 5, but with no parts to be had, they probably had the time and inclination to take on another project.
When he stood himself, he saw Fiona had pulled out bags stored in hidden cupboards, and she’d opened them up.
There were various weapons available.
“Given this is a safe place to hide things, I’d suggest we leave whatever we aren’t going to use right away here.” She adjusted her bracelet. “I’m keeping what I have, but help yourself.”
Hal had his shockgun, but he looked over the offerings. He wasn’t familiar enough with what was available, though, and ended up only taking a second, much smaller, shockgun with an ankle holster, and securing it under his clothes. “Ready?”
Fiona was wearing her disguise, which they’d agreed was best if there were still assassins actively looking for her on Larga Ways, and she’d changed into a standard ship’s uniform of close fitting pants and top, with a loose jacket over the top.
She could be any one of the crew of his ship, which he had seen when they’d flown in. It was still docked where he’d left it.
His crew would be an easy call away, as long as short range comms were still operational. He would have a whole group of allies as soon as they got above deck.
“Ready.” Fiona opened up and he followed her out onto the small docking arm.
It was cold under the way station, out of the sun’s light, and the air they breathed puffed out in clouds of white.
A neat staircase had been fitted at the end of the dock, and he followed Fiona as she wound her way upward.
The door at the top opened into what looked like a storage area, and when the door behind them closed, Hal turned to find it looked like part of the wall.
When Fiona opened the door in front of her, he saw they were in a neat warehouse.
“Eazi’s workshop,” she explained. “This is where he tinkers.”
Hal hadn’t known Eazi liked tinkering, but he could see this was seriously well equipped. His chief engineer, Yiko, would be in her element in here.
Fiona stood for a moment, studying their surroundings, and then slowly began to walk along the many tables set parallel to each other, looking for something.
“Eazi, can you hear me? Paxe?” She stopped again, and then moved on. She occasionally bent down to look under the tables, which each had a long shelf below them for storage.
Something caught her eye under one of them because she crouched down, and when she straightened up she was holding a transparent crystal object that was slightly longer than her hand and about as wide as her palm.
It was cut into facets along the edges at interesting angles. She studied it with a look on her face he couldn’t interpret.
“What is it?”
“A replica of the award I received for an architectural design I did back in my university days.” She turned it over in her hands.
“You told Eazi about it?”
She nodded. “I don’t know why he recreated it, though.”
Hal knew.
He could see on Fiona’s face how lost she suddenly felt. He’d seen that look before when they’d touched on something to do with her old life. A mention of her family, or her friends. The life she used to have before the Tecran stole it away.
Eazi was trying to give her a tiny piece of that old life back, and an acknowledgement of her accomplishments was a very thoughtful way to do that.
He had been standing in the middle of the warehouse, watching her search, and he took a step toward her just as the main doors were flung open.
A tight group of four, armed and in dark clothing with masks over their faces, stepped inside, shockguns raised.
Hal raised his own, but it was almost instantly jerked out of his hand and he finally noticed one of the four was holding a type of whip. They had disarmed him so neatly, he was almost more impressed than angry.
“Vakeri.” One of the group stepped out of formation, shockgun pointed at Hal’s head. He continued to hold the weapon on Hal, but turned his gaze to Fiona. “Fiona Russell. Nice disguise.”
In the unlit gloom of the warehouse, in her Grihan disguise, Fiona did not look like Fiona Russell, manager of Larga Ways. So these people had some inside information.
“And well, well, well. She’s holding what we’re here for.” The man who spoke jerked his shockgun toward Fiona and one of the group approached her, hand out for the trophy in her hands.
She shook her head and hugged it to her body. “No.”
“I will shoot Vakeri in the head. He will die.” The man raised his shockgun a little higher. “Hand it over.”
Fiona slowly extended the trophy, and the woman who’d approached her snatched it out of her hand and then jogged back.
Fiona followed after her—both hands up to show she was unarmed—moving closer to Hal.
He understood why.
These people were going to shoot them anyway.
He could think of no good reason why they would risk letting them go or keeping them alive.
He took a step toward Fee, closing the gap between them even more.
“Stop moving.” The man jerked his shockgun and for a moment, Hal thought he would discharge it accidentally.
Fee gave a cry, like she was afraid or upset, and sort of leapt toward him, putting her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest.
Clever girl. He tried not to smile.
Her actions completely threw the team. They stared for a beat.
“It’s actually easier this way,” the leader said with a shrug, and everyone except the woman holding Fiona’s trophy raised their weapons and shot.
The warehouse lit up with reflected shockgun fire and when it winked out, the only one of the group left standing was the woman with the trophy.
She took a step back in shock, then turned and ran out of the warehouse.
Hal walked over to the fallen attackers and crouched beside the leader. He pulled off the face covering.
It was no surprise to see the man was Balcoan.
“Do you recognize him?” Fiona asked.
Hal shook his head. “But if he came to Larga Ways legally before the systems went down, there should be a way for Tean Lee to tell us who he is.”
Fiona nodded. “We’ll have to find him in person, given the comms are down.” She crouched on the attacker’s other side. “Is he dead?”
“Not this one. The trajectory was to my head from high up on his chest, so the return shot hit him just under his collar bone, probably. The one who tried to kill you with a head shot was the same height as you, so he’ll be dead.”
“What about the middle one?” She hopped a little closer to him and pulled off his mask. “Breathing.”
Fiona stood up.
“Let’s tie them up and go and find my security chief.” She looked around the warehouse. “And Eazi and Paxe.”