Chapter 15 #3
Bright enough to maybe provide a distraction the rest of them could use to escape.
“Az, do you have a zuipi?” Kira called.
“I do,” Pye answered from the opposite direction.
“What are you doing?” Bez asked, suspicion on his face.
Kira moved into position, crouching at the very edge of the wing. Right on the cusp of leaving cover but still within its protection.
“I’m going to create a distraction,” Kira said, mentally judging the distance.
She could do it.
Bez must have figured out what she was planning because he grabbed her arm to pull her back. “Are you crazy? You just got done saying you were worried about another avalanche.”
Kira shrugged out of his hold. She was getting a little tired of all the manhandling. “A controlled burn is much different than an explosion.”
As long as she could figure out how to remove the fuel without exposing it to air, they’d be fine.
Probably.
“Are you always this reckless?” Bez demanded.
“Pretty much.”
Ignoring Bez’s appalled look, Kira raised her voice. “Pye, get ready to provide cover. The rest of you prepare to run when you get my signal.”
“What is the signal?” Az asked.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Kira ignored Bez’s hovering as she prepared to move. The Tuann must have known he wasn’t going to be able to stop her because he dragged a hand across his head while muttering a curse.
A second later, Pye fired a barrage in the general direction of the sniper.
That was Kira’s cue.
She launched herself toward the schooner, covering several feet in the blink of an eye. Commotion from behind warned that she wasn’t the only one who’d left the protection of the ship’s wing.
A quick glance over her shoulder showed Bez pounding after her with a determined expression.
“What are you doing? Stop following me!” Kira yelled.
“I’m not letting you get killed without me. Harlow is only slightly less terrifying than Caius when in a rage.”
Kira didn’t have time to argue as Pye’s assault ceased.
“The zuipi’s not working,” Pye called in a panic.
By that point, it was too late for Kira and Bez to retreat. They were already halfway to the schooner.
Kira ducked and weaved to make herself as difficult a target as possible.
“Shield!” Bez shouted.
Yeah, that wasn’t possible for her.
One of the sniper’s shots burned across Kira’s outer thigh. She threw herself into a forward roll, fetching up awkwardly against the side of the ship.
Another set of shots hit the ground beside her hand, sending shrapnel ricocheting to slice into her face.
Kira rolled away, scuttling to put the ship between her and the sniper.
Bez threw himself behind her.
“You’re worse than Caius,” he groaned, breathing heavily.
“I told you not to follow.”
“How’s the leg?” Bez asked.
“What do you think? It hurts.”
She’d live though.
“You realize that you were the only one they were aiming at,” Bez observed, his breathing stabilizing from his dead sprint.
“That had occurred to me.”
The sniper could have changed targets once Kira reached safety. Instead, he’d continued aiming at her.
Thinking back, the first shot had been directed at her too. As had every shot afterward.
Something in Bez’s expression shifted as he came to the same conclusion Kira had already made.
The sniper was acting under orders. Either he’d targeted Kira because of her history with the pirate clans or because of her status as Roake’s heir.
Kira was betting it was the latter.
As many enemies as she’d made among the clans, she doubted she was so infamous that even a low-ranking sniper like the one who’d been left behind would recognize her on sight.
More likely, there was a mole in their ranks. Someone who’d told the sniper’s handlers who she was and what she meant to Roake.
The only people who could have done that were those on this planet with her.
Kira rolled onto her stomach before crawling over to wedge herself into the small gap by the stabilizer. Whatever the case might be, she’d worry about it later.
How was she going to siphon off this fuel?
Bez peered into the hole after her. “Are we going to talk about this?”
“What is there to talk about? Will it change our current set of circumstances?”
No.
Kira preferred to focus on the things she could control in the moment. Like creating a bright enough flare that it knocked out whatever targeting system the sniper was using.
Bez’s sigh held a resigned irritation. “Fine—what’s the plan?”
Kira belly crawled deeper into the ship, trying not to mind the rocks and sticks poking into her abs and thighs. “I’m still working on that.”
“You mean to tell me we just risked life and limb and you have no real plan?”
Now, he was getting it.
Kira scanned the contents of the engine compartment, finding a bladder and hose not far away. She picked them up and eyed the stabilizer. If she could find a way to vacuum seal them to the injector, she might be able to drain the fuel with the manual function.
Occasionally, ship mechanics had to do maintenance on an engine while in transit. Leaving the fuel inside was too dangerous during that process.
Normally, the mechanic would have also emptied the compartment of atmosphere as an additional safety measure, since one worn gasket or seal anywhere in the system would result in a catastrophic failure, but Kira didn’t have that luxury.
She just had to hope the enclave kept their ships in pristine condition.
Bez watched Kira attach the hose and bladder to the bottom of the stabilizer. “This is an incredibly stupid plan.”
“You’d be amazed how often I hear that.”
There. Done.
Kira opened the bottom valve, holding her breath as the sludge in the engine drained into her bladder.
Several seconds went by before she relaxed.
“Looks like we might get to live another day,” she said, shutting off the valve when she judged the bladder full enough.
They didn’t need a lot to create the distraction she intended. Less than eight ounces.
Kira double checked that the engine valve was fully closed before nodding at Bez. “Let’s go.”
With another muttered remark about the sanity of her ancestors, Bez crawled back out of the ship, Kira following.
They moved as far away from the ship as they dared without leaving the protection of its shadow.
It wasn’t as far as Kira would have preferred. Definitely not the recommended safe distance for a stunt like this.
“Ready?” she asked.
Bez’s face didn’t hold much confidence as he stared down at the bladder. “Just do it.”
Kira punctured the bladder and then threw it as far as she could. It sailed in a wide arc, hitting the ground midway between them and Pye.
There was a brief pause and then a loud hiss.
“Let’s move,” Kira ordered as sparks started to shoot out of the bladder.
She hobbled forward as fast as her injured thigh would allow.
Bez swept her up into a fireman’s hold before she made it more than a few steps. “Pye, Az, move your asses! Retreat!”
He broke into a sprint, jostling her.
“What are you doing? Put me down!” Kira gritted her teeth against the pain that lanced the wounds at the back of her shoulder and the outside of her thigh.
“Settle down—Roake’s heir isn’t dying on my watch,” Bez growled.
“Insufferable—”
The bladder ignited. Kira shielded her eyes against the flash of searing white light.
“It’s working,” she breathed as the sniper’s shots went wide.
Kira’s relief was short-lived as a loud boom shook the space.
Bez was sent staggering by the concussion of the blast. He fell forward, Kira sliding from his shoulder.
She barely managed to catch herself before she landed on her head.
“I thought you said this would work?” Bez’s eyes were wide as he took in the schooner that was now engulfed in flames.
“It did.”
Kira didn’t know what had happened. She was sure she’d shut the fuel valve correctly.
There were several creaks from the mountainside above.
The sniper abandoned their position.
The tree line trembled. Almost like it was riding a wave.
The hillside rumbled.
Bez snatched Kira up. “Landslide! Move!”