Chapter 25 #2
Everywhere she could see. Trees that were far taller than they had any business being. Someone had cut away the container ceilings, allowing them to grow unobstructed. Shrubs crouched at their feet. Flowers flourished in their own little beds.
It would have been beautiful if not for evidence of the wanton destruction someone had wrought.
Some of the flowers had been trampled on. Stems broken and their petals ripped out. Others had been torn out by their roots. The tree trunks carried scars. Scorch marks and bullet holes.
Broken branches crunched underfoot as Kira crept further inside.
“How did they grow all this with no one noticing?” Kira asked, unable to help her wonder.
From the outside, this place looked no different than every other row of shipping containers. However, inside, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to customize the space, ripping out walls and ceilings to create large rooms capable of sustaining a massive conservatory.
“These are choko trees.” Graydon dropped his hand from the tree he had pressed it against and looked around. “Many of these plants are Tuann.”
“Not all of them,” Kira said, her gaze falling on the leaves of a belladonna plant. Next to it was a bush of pityrodia augustensis. Mount Augustus foxglove. Two plants native to Earth that wouldn’t normally be found together.
Amila ducked inside, only to stop short. “What is this place?”
“That’s what we’ve been asking ourselves,” Kira said.
The wonder and confusion that had filled Kira earlier was reflected in Amila’s expression as she looked around. “Why would someone ever want to hide something as beautiful as this?”
Kira’s gaze lingered on the pityrodia augustensis. She could think of a few reasons.
A harsh crackling sound came from the squirrel.
“Ki..ra…co..me…”
“Jin?” Kira held the squirrel up to her face. “Jin, can you hear me?”
There was more crackling.
Concerned, Kira carried the squirrel outside of the container. As soon as she cleared the walls, Jin’s voice blared from the squirrel’s throat.
“Kira, there’s some interference. Something is blocking my signal,” Jin yelled.
“Yes, I figured that out on my own.”
“Oh, good, but you’re still a little difficult to understand. Can you go somewhere else?”
Spotting a nearby metal staircase, Kira nodded. “Stand by.”
Solal looked over curiously from his position on top of a stack of nearby shipping containers as Kira climbed up to the next level. She waved at him to show she was okay. He went back to his surveillance, leaving her to find her way onto the catwalk.
Kira settled against the rail, looking out over the shipyard as one of its cranes lifted a pallet of containers and started to move them to their next destination.
“Is this better?” Kira asked.
“It is. Thanks. I have an update for you.”
“I have one for you too.”
Kira’s gaze drifted back down to the container as Graydon and Amila stepped out. Graydon glanced around, finding Kira quickly. She lifted her fingertips in greeting, relieved when he went back to examining whatever had caught his and Amila’s attention.
“Exciting—but me first,” Jin said.
The squirrel’s eyes started glowing a minute before they projected a close up of Raider’s grumpy expression.
Finn stood behind him, hanging onto a puking woman.
“I see you found Martha,” Kira observed.
Raider opened his mouth, but before he could speak the woman started wailing.
There was a scuffle as she flailed against Finn’s hold.
“Stop that. You’ve already tried escaping several times. You should know by now that you’re not going anywhere,” Finn snapped, looking more irritated than Kira ever remembered seeing him.
Martha didn’t stop her struggle.
If anything, his words renewed her determination to wiggle free. She twisted wildly, thrashing in his grip.
When that didn’t work, she went limp.
No matter what she did though, Finn simply adjusted his grip, never once losing control of the woman.
Raider’s patience snapped when Martha started wailing again. “Will you shut up? No one wants to hear your screeching.”
Martha’s caterwauling got louder.
“One moment,” Raider said.
He turned his back to the camera, gripping Martha’s jaw. “If you don’t shut up right now, I’m throwing you out that airlock.”
Martha froze, her face pinched into a fish’s pout by the strength of Raider’s grip.
“Good.” Raider let her go, tapping her cheek. “Keep that up.”
“Trouble?” Kira asked.
Raider’s eyes glittered with barely suppressed fury. “That bitch broke my nose.”
“She’s also drunk and smells like piss,” Finn added. “Finish your business quickly so we may part ways posthaste.”
Kira gestured for him to bring Martha closer to the camera.
Finn shoved the woman forward.
Martha shoved several strands of straight black hair out of her face with a heavily tattooed hand.
“Hello, Martha. It’s been a while,” Kira drawled.
Martha squinted. “Kira?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“You’re the one who sent these two assholes after me?” Martha’s laugh was sharp and mocking. “I can’t believe this. You’ve lost your damn mind.”
“You’re as pleasant as I remember,” Kira observed neutrally.
Martha leaned too close to the camera, giving Kira a disturbing glimpse down her low cut shirt.
“Kiss goodbye to any hope of completing another salvage.” Finn had to steady Martha when she staggered and would have fallen.
“My sister and I will make sure you pay for this. We’ll dog every step.
Steal every salvage until you’re broke and have to sell yourself for parts. ”
“Lovely.” If Kira was still a salvager, that threat might have worried her. “By the way, where is Maggie? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without your shadow.”
“None of your business.” Tears welled as Martha tried not to cry. “We’re going to fuck you and your stupid ship up.”
“Lady, you couldn’t fuck up a toaster right now. Let alone her,” Raider said.
Martha turned and swung. Raider leaned back just slightly. Martha’s fist went wide, missing him by a mile.
She wobbled, almost falling before she managed to catch herself. “Asshole.”
“I didn’t even touch you,” Raider said.
Martha raised her fists, dropping into a drunken approximation of a boxer’s stance as she squared off against Raider.
“Are you kidding me? You can barely stand straight,” he pointed out in disgust.
“Speaking of ships—where is yours?” Kira asked hurriedly, shooting him a “cool it” look.
Raider raised his hands, making a show of backing off.
Martha lowered her fists slightly. “Someone took it. Why?”
“Did they also take Maggie?”
That question had Martha raising her guard again. “Why should I tell you?”
“Because I might be able to help you get them both back.”
“You? Help me?”
Martha barked out a laugh that left no one in any doubt as to her feelings on that proposal.
“I know. I know. I find myself just as stunned and disbelieving of this turn of events as you.”
Who would have ever thought a day would come where she would voluntarily team up with the Sweet sisters?
Not Kira. That was for sure.
While the Sweet sisters had never managed to elevate themselves to the level of a true enemy, they had cemented themselves firmly in the realm of a nuisance. The kind of irritating splinter that got trapped under your skin and drove you a little crazy.
Much to her dismay, Kira couldn’t kill them.
Nothing they’d done had ever justified that course of action.
Sabotaging their business and ship only did so much.
Rather, they saw such actions as an invitation to reciprocate.
Threats went in one ear and out the other.
Steering clear was the best and only way Kira had found to handle their particular brand of crazy.
Martha blew a loud raspberry. “Who wants your pity help? Not me, I promise you that. I can get my sister and ship back by my own damn self.”
“Right.”
This wasn’t working. Time to change tactics.
“I should have known better than to expect signs of intelligence out of you.”
“Yeah, you should have,” Martha agreed with a nod. A second later, she frowned as her brain finished processing Kira’s insult. “Wait.”
Kira had already wasted enough time on this.
She looked beyond Martha to Raider. “Make sure to get her ship codes from her. She and Maggie will have tagged their equipment with trackers we can trace.”
It was an old salvager tactic meant to prevent the theft of expensive tools.
The criminal element on Titan would likely know about it and have taken steps to disable them, but Kira was hoping they overlooked something.
“It won’t work.” Martha attempted to shrug out of Finn’s hold. “Do you really think that wasn’t the first thing I tried?”
“I have no idea,” Kira said truthfully. “You’ve never struck me as the intelligent sister. Either way, I’d prefer to verify the trackers have been disabled for myself. Past encounters have shown your promises to be less than reliable.”
Finn clamped down on Martha’s shoulder when she opened her mouth on a scathing retort.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get them,” Raider told Kira, cutting the feed from his side a second later.
Jin’s face replaced him in the hologram. “Do you think Martha really doesn’t know where her sister is?”
“They’ve fooled us before.”
More than once. It was what made the sisters so difficult to deal with. There was usually an element of truth in their fabrications. Maggie could be an unfortunate victim. Or she could be a willing partner who’d left her sister behind for reasons unknown.
“Keep me updated,” Kira instructed.
“I will,” Jin assured her. “While I have you, you should know Maksym checked in while the comms were offline earlier. He found Pye.”
“What about the other three?”
“Gone.”
Kira settled against the railing, glancing down to check on Graydon and Amila.
They had wandered away from the container Caius and the other two had come out of and were now following the signs of pursuit. Solal kept watch from his position atop the containers
“What do you mean gone?”