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CHAPTER SEVEN


For once, my fears proved groundless. We made it back to the Ruth to find the entryway still sealed and Nikki nowhere in sight.

We went aboard and I started the preflight while Selene called the tower to get us a lift slot. “Well?” I asked when she signed off.

“Forty minutes,” she reported. “We can extend that if Nikki doesn’t get here before then.” Her pupils went a little darker. “If we still want her aboard.”

You want to tell her we’re abandoning her on Vesperin?” I countered. “More to the point, do you want to tell Floyd and Cherno?”

“And we just pretend the StarrComm shooting didn’t happen?”

“We didn’t see it,” I reminded her, painfully aware of just how thin that particular sheet of ice was. Especially given Mindi’s name drop. “All we know for sure is that Nikki was at the StarrComm center sometime before or during the shooting. Possibly calling her client to tell him the deal was off, like she’d told me she was going to.”

“Yes, you said you’d explain about that later,” Selene said. “This would seem to be a good time.”

“Okay,” I said. “Just bear in mind that it sounds weird to me, too.”

I went through the whole off-limit former client explanation that Nikki had laid out for me. It sounded better this time through, though I could see several ways an enterprising person could game that kind of system. “So if she’s telling the truth Markelly would be untouchable,” Selene said thoughtfully when I’d finished. “But the man who tried to hire her to kill him wouldn’t?”

“Because he tried to hire her but she turned him down?” I shrugged. “That’s how it reads to me.”

“So if the other client was here to watch Nikki work, and Nikki talked to Markelly about it, Markelly might have hired her to kill him instead?”

“I suppose that’s possible,” I said slowly. That possibility hadn’t even occurred to me. “Though showing up to watch your hired killer work sounds pretty stupid. You’d do better to be halfway across the Spiral meeting with top government officials when it went down.”

“Unless he thought that was what everyone would expect him to do,” Selene pointed out. “And where you are doesn’t really matter when you’ve hired out the job. What the badgemen follow then is the money trail.”

“I suppose,” I said. “And given that the trail was half a million commarks long, he might very well want to see for himself that everything went as planned.”

“I don’t suppose she was careless enough to mention her client’s name.”

“You don’t get to her level by being careless,” I said. “No name, no hints, not even a planet. But if one of today’s victims turns out to be one of Markelly’s rivals, we’ll know who to start pointing fingers at.”

“Starting with us,” Selene said in a low voice. “Do you suppose that’s why Gaheen hired us for this job?”

I frowned. “Not following.”

“Let’s say he puts out a contract on Markelly,” Selene said. “Part of the deal with Nikki is to arrange her transport to and from Vesperin.”

“We’re crocketts, so our schedule is all over the map,” I said slowly, starting to see where she was going with this. “We show up someplace and then disappear for days or weeks at a time.”

“And Floyd will have told him we have several false ship IDs.”

I made a face. One of which we were using right now, in fact. With a professional killer aboard, I’d decided early on that I didn’t want the Ruth to be one of the dots the badgemen might soon be connecting. “He also knows we have shadowy friends in high places. If we happen to attract official attention, they would probably try to get us clear.”

“Which would then muddy our connection with Gaheen himself.”

“Right,” I said. “And like Cherno said, we were the only ones Gaheen knew would make this kind of deal in exchange for a portal.”

“Other than the Patth.”

I snorted. “Somehow, I can’t see Nask agreeing to cart an assassin around the Spiral.”

“He carries Expediters all the time.”

“There’s that,” I conceded. “Though they’re really more all-around troubleshooters than just killers.” I shook my head slowly. “No, Gaheen’s target wouldn’t be Markelly. This might have been a test run, a shakedown cruise to see how well we and Nikki work together. If so, his real target would be down the line somewhere.”

“Another four and a half weeks away, if what Cherno said about a six-week time limit was accurate.”

“Or that number could have been a diversion,” I pointed out. “Or Markelly was a side job that Nikki decided to pick up given she already had free transport for the next few weeks.”

Selene gave a sudden shiver. “We keep calling her Nikki,” she said softly. “I keep thinking of her as Piper. We need to remember that we have no idea who this person actually is.”

“Well, we know she’s the same flavor of assassin as the real Piper,” I said. “But you’re right, we still don’t know why the two of them switched on us. Can you pull up Floyd’s list of planets?”

“Certainly.” A moment later, the thirty names came up on one of the helm displays. “Are we going to one of those next?”

“That is what we’re supposed to be doing,” I said. “I presume that after this Nikki’s going to at least want a breather before she wants us to take her somewhere else. We might as well throw a dart at this list and see which one seems the most likely place for a Gemini portal to be lurking.”

“She’s here,” Selene said.

I looked at the entryway display. Sure enough, Nikki had appeared and was walking up our ramp.

At least I assumed it was her. The veil was the same, but the rest of her outfit had changed from black and dark green to a patterned maroon with blue highlights. “Nice reversible outfit,” I commented, getting out of my seat. “I’ll go let her in. You stay here and keep an eye on our lift slot.”

Nikki was waiting patiently when I opened the entryway. “Nice outfit,” I commented, stepping aside to let her pass. “Even the cut and hang look different from the other side.”

“Thank you,” she said, pulling off her veil. “I’m always amazed at how easily such an obvious gambit fools people’s eyes. I trust you have a lift slot set up?”

“Thirty minutes,” I said, a knot forming in my stomach as I sealed the entryway behind her. Fresh from a kill, calm as a solar minimum, and ready to make herself scarce. “You always in this much of a hurry afterward?”

She gave me a measuring look. “I take it you heard about the StarrComm center?”

“I was at the StarrComm center,” I retorted, my underlying fear of this woman suddenly vanishing into the memory of Mindi’s drawn face. “And you’d better hope to hell you’re not the one who shot Mindi.”

“That the girl bounty hunter?”

“Yes,” I bit out.

“No, I didn’t shoot her,” she said. “She caught a round from one of the other three hunters.”

I frowned. Three hunters? Subtracting whoever the target had been, that left only two additional bodies “What do you mean, three? Did the last one get away?”

“Not unless the morgue has takeout,” Nikki said, frowning.

“Then who was the target?”

Her face cleared. “Ah,” she said. “No, you’ve got it backward, Roarke. The target wasn’t any of the deceased.

“The target was me.”

* * *

“I think now that what I thought was distraction was just that he was juggling two different StarrComm calls at the same time,” Nikki said.

“Yours and one of his other people in the same center,” Selene murmured.

I looked at her, noting the mix of reluctance and antipathy in her pupils. I’d offered to take Nikki’s statement in the dayroom, where Selene could watch and listen via intercom without having to be in the same room with her. But Selene had insisted on being physically present, and since we were too close to lift for both of us to be out of the cockpit she and I were seated at our usual helm and plotting table stations while Nikki stood in the open hatchway.

It was, I had to admit, the ideal setup if Selene was going to perform her magic in regards to the olfactory changes that might indicate a lie. Less ideal was the fact that my partner was now stuck three meters away from our assassin.

“I doubt his stooge was at the Mikilias center itself,” Nikki said. “Too much risk of me spotting him. Better to put him on the other side of the planet and just have him phone out the hunter notice.” Her lip twisted. “There would certainly be no problem figuring out where I was.”

“How did they know it was you?” Selene asked. “They couldn’t see your face.”

“The outfit is pretty distinctive,” I pointed out.

“Yes, that’s probably what they zeroed in on,” Nikki said ruefully. “In retrospect, I should have switched before I made my call.”

“That must have been the notice Mindi was looking at just before she left me,” I said. “So how long exactly did it take you to turn down your prospective client? Or is he just the talkative type you can’t shut up?”

“Not long, and no,” Nikki said. “I assume you’re wondering why I was at the center long enough for that kettle of vultures to gather.”

“Basically,” I confirmed. “Setting up a new job?”

She shook her head. “No, I was just making some other calls. One to each of my three mail drops . . . ” She paused, her eyes suddenly hard on me. “And one to Cherno, trying to find out what’s going on with you two.”

“What do you mean?” I asked carefully.

“You two,” Nikki repeated. “This ship. Your connection to him. This ridiculous six-week delay between picking me up and the job.”

“I assume there’s always some prep work.”

“On the ground, yes,” Nikki said. “But not usually six weeks’ worth. Certainly not six weeks gallivanting around the Spiral.”

“What did he tell you?” Selene asked.

“Nothing,” Nikki said. “Oh, he talked a lot. Lots of nice-sounding purr words and bafflegab. But he didn’t tell me anything.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Except that you’re looking for something that has a bearing on the job. So. Your turn.”

I shook my head. “If Cherno won’t tell you any more than that, we shouldn’t either.”

“What if it’s something I need to know?”

“It isn’t,” I assured her. “Or at least, it isn’t at the moment. You’ll know when it’s time.”

“Almost exactly the words he used,” Nikki growled. “It just better not impact the job, or the price goes up. All right. First thing I need to do is to make some more calls.”

“To whom?” I asked.

“To people,” Nikki said in a tone that strongly discouraged further discussion of the point. “If my prospective client was behind this, he needs to know that he missed.”

And that he should now start watching his back?” I asked.

“I’ll leave that part to his imagination.”

“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “Actually, we should check in with someone, too. Once we lift, we’ll head across Vesperin to Lotearro or Blipni—”

“No,” Nikki interrupted. “They know I’m here, and may have all the local StarrComm centers covered.”

I looked at Selene, saw the reluctant agreement in her pupils. If the notice had indeed been a general bounty alert, every hunter on Vesperin would know about it by now.

Actually, given that Bounty Hunter Central had a permanent StarrComm repeater booth on every major planet in the Spiral—as did most interstellar governments—every hunter everywhere would know about it by now.

Nikki might have been reading my mind. “Or maybe they’ve blanketed the whole Spiral,” she said. “Though if it is a general, you could tap in and see if you can figure out what’s going on.”

“Let’s not try drawing any more attention our direction than we have to,” I said, a sudden thought occurring to me. One of the names on Floyd’s list . . . “How about Lucias Four?”

Nikki shook her head. “Never heard of it.”

“It’s a very minor colony about seven hours away.” I gestured to Selene, who nodded and pulled up the planet’s stats on one of her displays. “More of a glorified crop research station, actually,” I continued. “It’s got . . . let’s see”—I peered past Selene’s shoulder—“only about a hundred people there. But it’s a Crodalian Enterprises operation, which means they’ve got enough backing to have their own StarrComm array.”

“That’s a lot of money to spend for a hundred people,” Nikki said suspiciously.

“Crodalian really likes their people to stay in touch with each other,” I said. “I once did a job for one of their subsidiaries, and I can tell you they have money to burn.”

“And there is a StarrComm facility listed,” Selene added, pointing to the relevant line on the planetary stat listing.

“So I’m thinking we go there, beg, borrow, or buy a few minutes on the system for our calls and be off again before anyone off-planet has any idea we’re there.” I held a hand up. “At the very least I think I can guarantee there won’t be any hunters nearby.”

“Yes,” Nikki said thoughtfully. “All right, it sounds reasonable. So what exactly do you want with the place?”

“As I said, to make some calls.”

“I mean what else.” Nikki pointed to the display where I’d pulled up Floyd’s list. “Lucias Four is one of the places you were already looking at. Very convenient that they just happen to have what I need, too.”

“Fine; you caught me,” I admitted. “Yes, we do also need to take a look at the place. But our target is a group of alien ruins on the other side of the planet, and we don’t have to land to check them out.”

“Some kind of fancy sensors?”

“In a way,” I hedged. “The point is that I can pick our in-vector so that we swoop over the ruins before continuing on to the research station. It’ll cost us an extra three hours at the most, probably closer to two.”

“What if someone spots us incoming and sends out the word?” Nikki asked.

“To whom?” I countered. “Three hours incoming plus an hour at the research station isn’t enough time for any hunters to get to Lucias before we’re long gone.”

“The Ruth also won’t be using the same ID that we are here,” Selene said. “That will blur any connection with Vesperin.”

And we’ll be going in as crocketts,” I added. “Nothing remotely odd about crocketts checking out an unexplored part of a mostly virgin planet.”

Nikki hesitated, then nodded. “All right, you’ve sold me. Make it happen.”

Considering how fast those hunters had responded to the notice it was clear that whoever targeted Nikki had a lot of money or influence or both. Enough, possibly, to call in favors or pull strings and strand us on Vesperin.

But of course, that would require him to know which specific ship Nikki was flying on, and the ID that ship was currently flying under. Without those, he didn’t have a chance of finding us, certainly not with the brief window he had to work with.

We lifted on schedule, without a whisper of complaint or suspicion, and were on our way to Lucias Four.

And if we were very, very lucky, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

* * *

We reached the planet, coming in on a vector that would take us over the ruins Floyd’s list had marked. A hundred kilometers short of the site, Selene dipped us low into the stratosphere and I launched the shiny new bioprobes the Icarus Group had bought for us.

Nikki had retired to my cabin for a nap a couple of hours previously, and I’d expected her to sleep through the whole procedure. To my mild surprise she showed up in the control room hatchway two minutes after I sent the probes on their way. “Anything wrong?” she asked.

“Not at all,” I assured her. “I just launched the bioprobes. Did you feel a kick?”

“Yes, a small one,” she said, her eyes flicking across the displays. “Woke me up.”

“Occupational hazard,” I said, nodding. “I used to sleep on hair-trigger alert when I was on a hunt, too.”

“Not quite the same,” Nikki said. “So those little missiles of yours just swoop down, scoop up some air samples, and then come back up?”

“Basically,” I said. “The actual procedure can be complicated, but that’s what it boils down to. Once they’re back Selene and I will sort out the spores, seeds, and anything else they picked up, seal them into ampules, and file them away for delivery to our client.”

“What happens to the samples if you don’t have a client?”

“Crocketts nearly always have a client,” I told her. “Running a planet on spec usually isn’t cost-effective. Though sometimes if you’re passing a wild-card system that isn’t on your schedule you may swing in for a quick scoop. If the samples show promise but your client isn’t interested, you can buy a certified storage vault at an Association facility while you try to hunt up a buyer.”

“Who may never materialize?”

“Who often doesn’t,” I agreed. “See on spec above.”

“Yes,” Nikki said thoughtfully. “All in all, I think I prefer my job. At least there aren’t any doubts about what you’re getting into. How well do you know her?”

I frowned. “Who, Selene?”

“Mindi,” Nikki said. “When you thought I’d shot her you looked ready to jump me, suicidal odds or not.”

“Oh,” I said. “No, she was just an acquaintance. It was just . . . ”

“Just that you knew her at all?” Nikki offered.

I felt my throat tighten briefly. “Basically.”

“I understand,” Nikki said. “Assassin is a pretty nebulous concept to most people until they know someone connected to a job.”

“I suppose,” I said. “You’re sure they were coming after you, right?”

“Oh, yes,” Nikki said, a sort of mask settling over her face. For a few minutes she’d been able to talk to me almost like a real person. Now, suddenly, she was a professional killer again, with all the distance and psychological walls the job entailed. “For whatever it’s worth, if there’d only been one or two I’d have just disabled them instead of killing them outright.”

“If for no other reason than so you could interrogate them?”

She flashed me an approving half smile. “I can see why Cherno keeps you around,” she said. “Exactly.” The smile disappeared, and the mask came down again. “But with four of them moving on me, three with guns already in hand, I didn’t have that luxury.”

I took a deep breath. A part of me still wanted to hate this woman, and all of me still didn’t like her. But having been in similar situations I couldn’t really argue with either her reasoning or her response. “At least you saved Mindi for last,” I muttered.

Nikki shrugged. “Of course I did. She was the one who hadn’t drawn.”

I nodded. More logic, more cold-blooded calculation, and again I couldn’t really fault her. “So which one of them shot her? Do you know his name?”

“Don’t know any of their names,” Nikki said. “One of the questions I plan to ask on that StarrComm call.”

The intercom pinged. “Gregory, we’re getting a signal from the surface,” Selene said. “They say this is a private and restricted area, and that we need to recall our probes immediately and leave.”

I frowned. “Since when is this part of Lucias private?”

“I don’t know,” Selene said. “There wasn’t anything about that in the listing.”

“Maybe someone bought the planet since it was updated,” Nikki suggested.

I scowled. Crodalian Enterprises was known for quick and sometimes heavy-handed business dealings, and they certainly had speculation money to drop on a virgin planet if they thought it might turn a profit someday. “Tell them we understand, and that we’ll be out of here as soon as we can,” I told Selene as I cancelled the probes’ programming and keyed for retrieval. “Should be about ten minutes.”

“Understood.” The intercom clicked off.

“So much for your little side trip,” Nikki commented.

“It was a long shot anyway,” I said. “And it may not be a total loss. The probes got deep enough to have grabbed at least a few samples. Feathers in particular are really good at grabbing altitude.”

“Interesting,” Nikki said. “Let’s hope you get lucky.”

“Let’s hope,” I echoed. “But as my father used to say, Lady Luck usually sticks with the people she’s already friends with.

“That’s not you?”

“She barely even knows me.”

* * *

Five minutes later, I used the Ruth’s twin tight-core grav beams to pull the bioprobes back to the ship and into their aft starboard and port bays. Selene got us out of the area, and as we let the autopilot sweep us in a gentle arc toward the other side of the planet she and I went to the clean room to run the samples. Not for spores or feathers, but for the telltale scent of portal metal.

Of course, as my father also used to say, Lady Luck’s bad-news sister, on the other hand, will hang out with pretty much anyone.

There was no portal scent that Selene could detect. But there was another molecular trace that I’d neither expected nor wanted.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said, staring at her across the examination table. “There are Patth down there?”

“I wish I was,” Selene said, her pupils looking pained. “But they’re definitely there.” Her nostrils twitched twice. “It would seem they’re working off the same list we are.”

“More likely they worked up their own,” I growled. Stupidly obvious now, of course. Nask had the same baseline data on the Erymant Temple and grounds that we’d given Cherno, and they were just as eager to find the other end of the Gemini as he was.

Actually, probably more so. Whatever the details of Cherno’s acquisition of the Patth’s new toy, I doubted it had been an amiable transaction.

Unfortunately, the fact that the Patth were digging into the Lucias Four ruins also guaranteed their presence at or near the research station. And, more to the immediate point, at or near the station’s StarrComm facility.

Selene would have been following the emotional aspect of my analysis via the subtle changes in my scent, and she knew me well enough to have tracked me to my current conclusion. “What do you think?” I asked anyway.

“I think we have to keep going,” she said, her pupils showing resigned reluctance. “If we take off now, they’ll think we spotted something.”

“And even if they’re not set up to chase us, the word will go out instantly to every Patth and Expediter in the Spiral,” I said heavily. “Sort of wishing now that we’d used one of the other IDs.”

“We couldn’t,” Selene said. “Not if we wanted to come in as crocketts. The Ruth is the only ID that matches that job.”

“Unfortunately, it’s also the ID that matches us,” I said. “Well. Nikki needs to make some calls, and so do we. We’ll just have to hope that whoever the Patth have at the StarrComm building doesn’t have any instructions concerning us.”

“Yes,” Selene murmured, looking in the direction of the dayroom where Nikki had gone for a snack while we worked. “And not just for our sake.”

“No,” I said, wincing “For his.”


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