Chapter 133: Chapter 45: Nowhere to Run

Milia led Dash and Gaius into the gate. Inside, the remaining scavengers waited, weapons raised. The ops crew and Porter watched helplessly from along the far wall. Milia stopped her prisoners just inside the hatch. Mylo stepped forward, lowering his pistol. “Nobody shoot unless I say so,” he barked.

“Where’s Wesley?” Dash demanded.

“Vascaloppa had the kid,” Mylo said, “and he’s not here. Probably dead. So I don’t know where the kid is.”

“Quiet now,” Milia said to Dash. She peered at Mylo from behind her prisoners. “Look at you, taking charge. Where was that attitude during my mutiny?”

Mylo straightened up. “With Rakton dead, I’m captain now.” Behind him, Milia noticed the handful of remaining crew traded unpleasant glances and eye rolls among themselves. “I really wanted you to succeed, Milia. But you know how Rakton is.”

“How she was,” Milia corrected. Though Rakton was dead, she felt cheated out of the opportunity to be the one to pull the trigger. But given the stroke of luck she’d been granted in escaping the auction, she’d gladly take the current outcome.

“Hard to believe it, right?” Mylo said with a half-hearted smile. 

“It’s about time. She’s had it coming for a while.”

“She did,” Mylo agreed.

Milia admired his boyishly charming face for a moment. “I’d have done a better job,” she said, and projected her pout that she knew he always fell for. “You know that, and yet you didn’t stand by me.”

“I know.” Mylo’s eyes drifted to the floor. “Again, I’m sorry.”

Milia stepped out from behind Dash and Gaius. Mylo looked her up and down. The haze in his eyes seemed to clear. “I have a proposal for you,” she said as she sauntered closer to him.

Mylo licked his lips. “I’m all ears.”

Milia stopped well within his personal space. She could smell hints of Rakton on him. “You owe me,” she said, and ran a finger down his chest. His nosed twitched. “I propose I finish what I started and become captain of the ship. You remain first mate. Then we pick up where we left off, minus all the baggage Rakton brought.”

Mylo took her hand. “I want you back on the ship. I really do. But as my first mate.”

Lon grunted. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

“Mutiny’s kind of her thing,” Jido added.

Mylo glared at them. The brutes returned the gesture to the smaller man, but Mylo held his ground. Milia said, “It’s okay. It’s a valid point.” She cupped Mylo’s cheek. “But you don’t have to worry.”

“I don’t?” Mylo said, and gasped when Milia shot him in the heart. His eyes glazed over, and he crumbled to the ground.

“You don’t,” Milia said, and shot Mylo again. That was for Rakton.

The other pirates didn’t flinch. The ops crew eyed Milia warily. Draug trembled, holding the wall for support.

Milia surveyed the remaining crew. She’d liked Mylo enough, but his skills—in and out of the bunk—could be replaced. Loyalty had to be absolute. She gathered herself and said, “I’m in charge now. Accept that, and we move forward with a fresh start. If that doesn’t work, you’re free to leave, no hard feelings. I’m sure the Gyhera or another pirate crew will take you in.”

The scavengers turned to each other, silently conferring over their PDs. Finally, Jido said, “We accept. You know we never had a problem with you.” The other scavengers nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Milia said, and nodded at the Stardancer’s ops crew. “Let them go. We’re short on headcount now. We’ll need them to continue operating.”

Lon said, “But we came here to—”

“Did you not just pledge yourself to me as captain?” Milia said.

Lon frowned, then unlocked the restraints of the ops crew.

“You’ve got your ship,” Dash said. His voice was soft, yet firm. “Let us have ours back and we’ll be on our way. No one else has to get hurt.”

“No, they cannot go free!” Porter said, slipping out from his hiding spot behind a pallet stack in the far corner of the gate. “They’ll reveal what’s going on here. If this gets back to SecForce or management, we’re done for.”

Milia regarded the sniveling man. The thought of shooting him briefly crossed her mind, but there remained too much potential use for him. “Your input is appreciated, Dockmaster. But they’re my prisoners. It’s my decision. I suggest you get back to work and make sure our operation remains undetected.”

“No, this whole operation has gone too far,” Porter said, and peered at Dash, his eyes slitted with devious intent. “I say we shoot the captain here and then frame him for everything.”

“How would anyone believe I’d be running a trafficking business right here under your nose?” Dash asked.

Milia tilted her head at Porter. It was a good question.

Porter said to Dash, “I left Boci and Galo behind to take care of you. Given that you’re here, I presume they’re dead.” He glanced questioningly at Milia. She nodded in confirmation, wondering where the man was going with this. Porter continued. “Now they’ll serve another purpose. They can finally be of use for once, instead of their incompetence screwing me over. The story is they ran a little side hustle on their own. I discovered the scheme and took them down with the help of Captain Milia here. I’d say that would be worth a nice fat reward from SecForce, busting slave-trading haulers. And the other pirate crews can’t go to SecForce, but we can use any reward to compensate them for the bloodshed.”

Milia looked at the Dockmaster in a new light. “That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard come out of your mouth. Do you have other security officers you can trust to make this work?”

“There’s some. But we’ll need to stage the crime scene first.”

Milia pondered the possibilities. Slaving was such an ugly business. She wouldn’t pursue it like Rakton did. But maybe, when the right opportunity came along—

“Milia, please,” Rosalie said, interrupting Milia’s thoughts.

“This has gone too far,” Draug added.

“You got your revenge and your ship,” Brock said.

Henrik spoke last, in a low voice. “Let’s take the win and leave.”

Milia faced the ops crew. They stared at her, something lingering in their eyes she hadn’t seen before. A sense of fear, of disappointment. The unflappable sway she held appeared to crumble.

Questioned by her crew, challenged by partners, advised by those she defeated. It was not how she imagined victory would play out. Could there be some force, be it karma or the machinations of another universe, or even divine influence—the Lords or otherwise—who conspired to deny her what she fought so hard for? She held triumph in her palm, yet it still flowed through her fingers like a clump of sand, unable to be fully grasped or contained.

The feeling erupted the ever-present heat inside her—like oil sprayed into a flame. She bellowed, “What part of ‘I’m the captain’ do you fucking people not understand?”

Her crew stared at her. No one spoke, yet their conflicted feelings shone from their faces.

“What’s your first order, Captain?” Jido asked.

A brief smile flashed on Milia’s face. “Secure the prisoners. Lon, keep watch in case anyone else tries to sneak up on us. The rest of you, get this docking bridge open so we can board the Terran. If this scheme doesn’t work out, we’re out of here.”

Dash stepped closer, and spoke to Milia in a hushed voice. “You promised us in the lounge that we were through. You wouldn’t have made it out of there without us.”

“Don’t worry, we are through,” Milia said. “Through dealing with each other. I’ll need the Stardancer’s salvage to  have any chance of paying off the pirates. Whether you and Gaius are part of that compensation is yet to be determined.”

“Eh, boss?” Lon said, interrupting Milia. “We’ve got a problem here.”

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“What is it?” Milia snapped. She spun around to see the Gyhera captain clinched onto Lon’s back and holding a pistol against his forehead.

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Cutter, clutching his aching side, took in the kid. It was not the way he had imagined his capture of the target would play out. After all the tedious searching up and down Cova Straits, the dead ends and close calls, it finally came to an unremarkable close in a maintenance tunnel of a shuttered wing of a failed mining station.

He looked into the kid’s eyes, who stared back with a serene expression. Cutter thought he even detected a hint of relief. He’d seen it before, the stress of life on the run swept away when taken captive. 

“I see you received my message,” Wesley said. His voice held the decorum of someone more mature than his age.

“It’s a good thing you sent that out, Wesley. Otherwise, the Gyhera would have you.”

“Are you sure? Your client has gone to great lengths to … acquire me. Maybe they have something worse in store?”

“It’s hard to imagine something worse than the Gyhera, but you never know,” Cutter said. He moved closer to Wesley, who instinctively stepped back. He narrowed his eyes at the medtech. “You don’t want to run on me. Not with the day I’ve had.”

Wesley nodded, and leaned against the tunnel wall. “There’s nowhere to run. I’m trapped on a station with corrupt officials and slavers after me. I suppose I could try to hide.”

“That might work, if it wasn’t me who was after you.”

Wesley gave him a weak smile. “Hired the best, did they?”

“If someone has to tell you they’re the best, they’re not. You can call me Cutter.”

“I imagine I’m not like your typical contract.”

“Nothing about you is typical.”

“What happens now?”

“We head to my ship and get out of here.”

Wesley looked at Cutter curiously. “What about the rest of your team?” he asked. Cutter didn’t answer. He peered beyond Wesley. Twenty meters and closing, running at a steady jog, was Parr.

“Cutter?” Parr came to a halt. His thick hands flexed on his repeater. “How’d you get out here?”

Cutter didn’t move, keeping Wesley between him and Parr. “I took a shortcut,” he said. After shooting himself out of the lounge, he made use of the suit’s limited propulsion and aimed himself toward the scavenger ship. The maintenance airlock had been the closest one he’d found on short notice. “Where’s Bloek?”

“He didn’t make it. Scavengers got him,” Parr said. He started forward slowly.

Wesley whispered, “Your friend is lying. He shot the other one.”

“If he did, he won’t get paid,” Cutter whispered back. He believed Parr was capable of doing so, but wasn’t dumb enough to do it; the client had built in provisions to the contract to protect against such an action.

But then he reminded himself it was Parr’s idea to leave him to die.

Parr halted his progress, his eyes shifting between them. Cutter could see in Parr’s face that he recognized the truth had been revealed. Parr swore and raised his repeater. Cutter stepped in close behind Wesley. 

“What are you doing?” Wesley asked, terror in his voice.

“Using you as cover,” Cutter said.

“But I’m the bounty! I’m not supposed to get hurt!”

“Better tell that to him.”

“Don’t be stupid, Cutter,” Parr said. He approached one calculated step at a time. His eyes never strayed from Cutter. “You know I’m not afraid to bring the kid in with a few chunks missing. Drop the pistol, now.”

“Gentleman, please!” Wesley pleaded.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Cutter said. He pinched the grip of his pistol between his thumb and index finger and held it out beside Wesley.

“Place it down. Very, very slowly,” Parr said. 

Cutter began to lower his hand to the deck. When Parr’s eyes shifted their focus to his gun hand, he whipped his other hand around, sending the stunner spinning at Parr. He followed through on the motion, shoving Wesley into the open airlock hatch, and slapped the panel to close it. Parr tracked the arc of the stunner and sidestepped. Cutter dove into the substation as Parr’s shots tore through the tunnel. A jolt of pain raced up his arm as he hit the floor, and his pistol skittered away.

Parr cursed repeatedly. “I see you’re going to make me work for this.”

“I’m going to do more than that,” Cutter replied, shifting deeper within the cluster of equipment. He searched for his weapon but couldn’t find it.

“This will only take a minute. Then we’ll talk,” Parr said to Wesley. He called out to Cutter, “I’m not going to lie, I’ve dreamt about putting a burst through your head for a while.”

“How do you think I felt when you screwed up on Praxa Prime?” Cutter answered, examining his surroundings. He was stuffed between tight rows of utility equipment, boosters, and regulators. Parr had the firepower advantage, and could sweep each row to flush Cutter out. He needed a plan, and fast, or he was dead.

“I was going to kill you quick. Now, I’m going to take my time.” Parr said, and strafed the second row. A chunk of metal ricocheted off the ceiling and struck Cutter’s shoulder. The electrostatic material of his jacket stiffened to absorb the impact, turning what might’ve resulted in a bruise or even a cut into a poking sensation. Without it, he would’ve been dead from Rakton’s early draw. He slipped farther into the cluster, gaining distance from Parr.

“You go back to the Envoy without Bloek and I, you don’t get paid.”

“That’s right. I won’t get a single cred from that contract,” Parr said, shooting up another row. “But I will get more from the other one I signed. The one calling for killing you and bringing the kid back myself. Bloek, he was optional, depending on if he got in my way or not. He demanded to go back for you, so I had no choice. Smart man, but not smart enough.”

Cutter’s stomach knotted. This was madness. It made no sense. Why would the client want him dead? To have recovery agents disposed of was a risky proposition. The client could risk the wrath of other agents coming after them. Could the motivation be revenge then, for some bounty he brought in? Nothing came to mind, but he pushed the thought aside. There was little time left before Parr stitched him to pieces.

Parr fired again, then moved on to the next row. “Here’s the truth as I know it, Cutter. This wasn’t only about the kid. It was also about you. The client suspected it was you sticking your nose in their business. They set out a nugget to catch your eye cycles ago. They didn’t say what it was, only that it was expensive. Then they brought you onboard for this contract, knowing you’d jump at the creds. All so they could keep a close eye on you. Whatever they found in the hackware I installed was good enough to offer me another contract. Except this one was to kill you. Once we got the kid, of course. It was one I gladly accepted.”

The revelation weakened Cutter’s knees. He steadied himself against substation equipment. All along, he thought the reward would allow him to find the truth. To purchase the assets, and access the survey data. But it was a trap, created solely to lure him in. Blinded by his thirst for vengeance, he never saw it coming. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, still searching for his pistol.

“Deny it if you want to. I really don’t care. The client brought me on because they knew I could take care of business when the time came. You’ve been a two-faced punk this whole time by the way, lecturing us about double dipping while you’re running your little side gig.”

More shooting.

“I’ll be sure to take care of your ship. Though honestly, I’m going to sell it at some point and get me something with more firepower.”

Parr shredded an equipment locker. His distorted shadow danced against the wall as he examined his handiwork, then moved on. 

Cutter slipped another row, and saw he’d run out of space. He backtracked to the previous row.

There was nowhere left to run.

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