Gunship (41 page)

“Damn it, Ty!” Tiny whispered as she tried to make him look normal. “This is like hauling a fraggin’ ox around!”

Tiny went back to rifling through the medical cabinets. Finally, she found what she was looking for. She filled the injector with a moderate dose of stimulants and shot Ty up. A few moments later, he opened his eyes and looked at her blearily.

“Oh shit. Am I in hell?” he asked, slightly slurring his words.

Tiny grimaced. “Not yet. But if you don’t do what I tell you to, you will be.”

She pulled Ty to his feet and pulled the mask up over his mouth. He looked back over at her, his eyes unfocused. “Where we going?”

“My room. Now shut up!” Tiny watched the cameras through the clear portion of the frosted glass slider and pulled on her own surgeon’s mask.

“Oh. Do I know you?” Ty wondered aloud. “You look familiar…have we…”

“Yes, you do, and no, we haven’t. No more talking, just walk!” Tiny put her arm around Ty and force-marched him out the door. She was surprised his legs were holding up as well as they were. She just hoped she had hit him with enough stims to get him back to the room before he blacked out again.

The torture wing was empty for the moment, and Tiny was able to make her way out without running into anybody. She continued down the corridor, half-dragging Ty as he leaned heavily on her while mumbling all sorts of nonsense. Tiny saw a small knot of people turn and head their way. She looked around and saw a nearby planter by the wall and quickly shoved Ty up against it, then turned him slightly so it looked as if the two of them were hanging onto each other in the corner.

“Why we here?” Ty slurred then blew a puff of air into his mask. “Got something on my face…get it off…oh, you have one, too…”

Tiny rolled her eyes as she waited for them to pass. The group, if they noticed, didn’t comment and continued on their way, laughing and talking. Tiny waited a moment longer for the corridor to clear, then hoisted Ty again and pushed for the next set of hallways. She had to stop twice more, once on a bench and then again using a planter. They passed by four more cameras. Tiny did her best to avoid them when she could, but there was no way she could avoid all of them with Ty. The last camera moved more quickly than the others, and she was sure it had caught them as they were walking away from it towards her corridor.

Finally, she reached her room. She promptly leaned Ty against the wall as she closed the door, sweating. He slid to the ground and then rolled to one side.

“Whoa…the room just tipped…I think gravity got lost again…” Ty murmured softly, his eyes rolling back.

“All right we made it, we made it,” Tiny said as she leaned against the door and patted Ty’s leg.

She sighed. She was wasting time, and she had a lot more to do. She grabbed Ty by the arms and hauled him into the back bedroom, then pulled off the mask and the borrowed clothes, stripping him down to his tac-shorts and shirt. The harness she had was going to be too small, but she had no choice. She wrestled him into the thing and checked all the bindings, then attached a locking carabiner to the loop on his chest. On the carabiner, she attached a piece of flagging. It would be the first thing he would see when he woke up. Tiny hoped he would be coherent enough to read it and keep calm until she returned.

She carefully removed the piece of wall she had precut earlier and proceeded to slide Ty’s head and shoulders into the ventilation shaft until she could clip him to the line she had rigged. She pulled a small remote from her pocket and slowly raised him up the shaft until he was out of sight. To prevent the wall from falling out of place, she tossed two magnet-locking devices in the shaft to hold it until she returned. They slid to either side, bracing the edges. Tiny entered a code in her handheld to lock them. Unless someone knew where to look, the wall would appear solid. And even if they did know something was wrong, they would need plasma cutters or a hacker to remove the magnetic locks.

As she grabbed the clothes and the masks, there was a knock at the door. Tiny momentarily froze, then quickly tossed the clothes into the waste disposal unit and grabbed her blaster and knife before walking casually to the door. She opened it a crack to see a small, thin man looking back at her.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Mr. Ray sent me. I’m Jamie. I’m to take you to his rooms for dinner.” The man smiled, showing sharp, pointed teeth.

“Right. I’ll be right out.” She closed the door in his face, then stripped and tossed on a black tac-shirt and black cargo pants with combat boots. She also layered knives on her belt, at her back, and in her boots. It would be expected, since she was a bounty hunter, that she would be armed at all times. She strapped on the blaster, then quickly smoothed down her hair.

She went back to the door and stepped out, closing it behind her. Jamie watched her, with his soft murderous hands and his watery blue eyes, before speaking. “The Boss must like you. He never has anyone up for dinner unless he likes them or he’s going to kill them.”

Tiny paused a moment to reflect on that comment and then calmly replied, “Well, I guess I shouldn’t keep him waiting, then. Either way, he’ll have an appetite.”

Jame nodded slowly and motioned for her to follow him. Tiny hoped Crazy Ray was leaning towards dinner as she walked to the lift and got on.

Idiot!
He had grossly misjudged her. He had allowed her to push his buttons and she had evoked a response, something that would not happen again. She had played him. The rage continued to well up as the bounty hunter dragged Reilly from the room and onto the lift, dripping blood as she went. She had knowledge, dangerous knowledge of his plans. How could she know? And now he had tipped his hand because he thought he had her trapped. He did have her trapped. She wasn’t going anywhere. He stopped his rampage and began to catch his breath. Welch looked around at his suite. It was in pieces.

His mind went over Reilly’s last words. There was no way a sniveling little freak like Raymond could have outsmarted him like she claimed. He was in charge now. In the back of his mind, a little voice reminded him of the people he had been losing, the fact that Raymond had been able to deactivate and flush the Enforcers, along with a number of other instances where the arms dealer had managed to get the upper hand. All little events that had slowly been chipping away at him, none of them overly damaging, like a swamp midge, small bites that over time turn into a bigger itch and then an infection that can kill you. Welch thought about this. There was no way Raymond could know. Still, it never hurt to be cautious, just in case. He pulled out his handheld and tersely contacted his security chief with what he required and clicked off, his anger simmering just below the surface. As he paced, the light from the red glass bottle caught his gaze.

He picked it up. The glass was thick but was leaking from the collision with Reilly’s skull. Or maybe some of it was blood, he couldn’t tell. He set it in the ice bucket on the bar, in front of the fractured mirror that now sported a reading lamp at its center. Welch smiled briefly. He would deal with her once he had inspected the hold. And when it turned out that there were no ledgers there, he would make sure she understood the price of lying. She was determined, but Welch had encountered many determined people in life, and when he was done with them, they were either broken to his will or dead.

That thought gave him pause. Reilly didn’t fear death, that much was clear. No, it would be much better to have her collared. Not implanted, because then she wouldn’t know she was his slave. But forced to be his military servant, she would stand by his side—fulfill his every whim while he could enjoy making her bow to his authority. She would watch his plan unfold and wish she had said yes to the gracious opportunity he had extended to her. By the time he was done, she would be begging him for the chance to prove herself worthy, to be part of his grand scheme. The famous Captain Campbell as his bootlicker for life! He sneered again. Why hadn’t he just gone with this option to begin with? It would be so much more enjoyable for him to have her under his thumb every waking hour…or sleeping, for that matter. He could implant her crew, and she could watch as they loyally obeyed his every whim, unable to do anything about it. So many more fun options! And so much more pain for her! These thoughts cheered him up immensely. He poured himself another drink while he waited to hear from his security chief. There was still much to be done, though, before reaching that point. He reluctantly forced himself back to the present, but smiled again as he remembered it wouldn’t all be work.

“The best part will be breaking her. It will be effort, but I have no doubt I’m up to the challenge, a very enjoyable challenge!” Welch smiled at himself in the broken glass as he considered all of his options. “Where to begin? Where to begin?”

—————

Ty woke up groggy in the dark. It was cold, and air was rushing by him in the enclosed space as he tried to figure out where he was. His head still hurt, but at least he felt like he could see a bit better. In fact, it looked like there was something in front of him. He strained to see it. It looked like writing.

“Don…Don’t…move…Don’t…move…harness…only…rated…to…one-eighty pounds…back…soon…Tiny…Don’t move, harness only rated to one-eighty pounds, back soon, Tiny. Harness?” He read the message again and then groaned as he realized where he was.

He looked up and then down as the darkness stretched away from him in both directions.

“That damn ninja chick…left my ass hanging in a ventilation shaft!” he mumbled to himself.

The cable that he was hanging from creaked with his movement. As he grabbed for it, wide awake now from the adrenaline rush, he realized he was clad just in his shorts and a t-shirt. Cold, unarmed, and in the dark, he attempted to assess his condition. His head was still fuzzy and he was sore all over.

“This is just great! I can’t even feel my legs! Or my ass…” Ty grumbled some more about what he was going to do to Tiny when he saw her. The adrenaline rush was short lived, though, as the cold and damage to his body gave over to fatigue and he passed back out, swinging slowly in the rush of air, surrounded by the darkness of the vent.

—————

Marek escorted Reilly to the detention wing. People they passed in the corridors ignored them, as if it was normal to see a woman in chains dripping blood from a head wound being escorted by a well-armed, fearsome-looking tattooed man in battle rattle.

He used his metallic pentagon key card that Welch had provided him to gain access to the wing. Cameras were everywhere on the space station, part of Crazy Ray’s paranoia and the biggest challenge to their rescue attempt. Marek escorted Reilly into the torture wing and past the camera leading down the corridor to the holding cells.

He opened the first empty cell he came to and ushered her inside. Reilly pretended to pass out, which really wasn’t too hard to do. Marek preoccupied himself with slowly removing her shackles while he took a look at the head wound. It formed a deep, angled depression with lacerations above her left ear that steadily oozed blood.

“You could’ve just got him to hit you with his fist instead of the bottle,” Marek whispered, gently probing the wound with his fingers while Reilly winced. He turned back to her wrist restraints.

“No, it had to be a one-shot deal. I knew if he knocked me out or close to it, he’d stop and turn to something else. He wants me alive for now, because he needs to know how much I know about his plan and how much Crazy Ray knows. And because he thinks he can get me to help him take down the galaxy—ow!” Reilly winced again as Marek leaned in and pressed a piece of cloth from her torn shirt to the gash, trying to stop the bleeding. He continued to stand over her in a threatening pose while he checked the rest of her face. Anyone watching would see a prisoner being bullied by a jailer, no more.

Reilly nodded for him to go. “I’m fine. Go find Ty and Tiny. We need to figure out how to get the hell out of here. Preferably sooner than later.”

Marek had started to go when she called out softly to him again. “Be careful!” Reilly admonished.

He looked at her incredulously. “Ma’am, no disrespect, but you’re kidding, right? Think about where we are right now!”

“You know what I mean!” she closed her eyes again as he stomped out of the cell and slammed the door behind him. The clanking metal and Marek’s receding footsteps echoed eerily in the silence of the wing. Reilly couldn’t help but shiver as she breathed in the smell of blood and vomit, sweat, urine, and disinfectant. She was ready to get the hell out of this place.

—————

Crazy Ray was perched lazily on a large white sofa with red pillows when Jamie ushered Tiny into his suite. An oval table with a bottle of wine and two glasses sat to one side while in the background the stars and asteroids drifted by, framed by the metal welds of the huge sky wall. He was simply dressed in an Asian-style, black button-down shirt, loose black pants, and shoes. The sleeves of the shirt were casually rolled up, revealing a series of dragon tattoos and kanji characters along his forearms. Tiny noted that a few looked like they had been done in a prison setting or at least somewhere less formal than a tattoo parlor.

He grinned his slightly crazy grin to welcome her. She noted with a bit of relief that his characteristic head tilt wasn’t present, so not in a killing mood, at least not at the moment. He patted the sofa next to him, and she calmly walked over and sat where he indicated. Jamie stood off to the side of the door, quietly fascinated with a bowie knife he had just retrieved from one of his pockets. He twirled it delightedly, oblivious to anyone else in the room, and retreated to a chair in an alcove, talking softly to himself. Tiny watched him go, more curious than anything. He seemed to her less of a sociopath and more like a mentally ill child. She wondered how he had come to be aboard Crazy Ray’s station.

She turned back to find Crazy Ray studying her again. He was constantly in motion, arms and legs sprawled about, eyes, eyebrows, mouth twitching. Tiny suspected it was part of his repertoire to prevent people from reading him easily. She sat demurely and stared back at him until he finally grabbed the other glass of wine and thrust it into her hand with a saucy grin and leaned back into the sofa.

“So, tell me what brings a lady like yourself to the bounty hunting business.” He took a gulp of wine and smacked his lips expectantly.

Tiny also took a sip from her glass and then traced her finger delicately around the edge. Crazy Ray watched her every move intently. She glanced up at him and shot him an intense stare, then looked back down. It was time to play the most dangerous of games. She paused again as if undecided and then glanced back at him, put her chin up, and stared him in the eye aggressively.

“Death, really. And the money isn’t bad. I like to travel, see new places.”

“Ah! Death, then.” His eyes gleamed. “Unusual for a woman, though not I suppose for one in your line of work. I too am in this line of work…for death, as you so eloquently put it. The pay and fun toys are just fringe benefits. Besides, I get to meet so many interesting people! Always so many coming and going with the business. Of course, some also get to stay on a bit as my special guests.” He smirked before glancing back at Jamie. “Jamie over there is one of my newest employees. I acquired him from a small freighter that docked a few months back. They didn’t want him since he had killed off a number of the families on board. He claims he did it because he was trying to make them beautiful, which I found to be fascinating. I was rather afraid he would be dull, but instead he has proven to be a prodigy of sorts. You should see what he can do with a bowie knife!” Crazy Ray leered at her and then sat back again.

Tiny looked at him again over the rim of her glass before taking a next sip. The man was quite insane. He obviously felt, though, that this was a normal conversation to have with a guest. She remained stoic, her face as smooth as glass as she returned his stare. He was sizing her up, deciding how much he wanted to share, and gauging her possible responses. She realized he was also a bit nervous.
He’s not used to dealing with anyone who isn’t implanted outside of the business arena.

A second, less encouraging thought also occurred to her.
He’s nervous because he fears rejection. And if I reject him or act negatively in any way, he will probably just kill me…or have Jamie do it.

“I had heard you have some of the more talented detainers in the galaxy. Perhaps I will have time to observe some of their work while I’m here?” Tiny suggested, although inwardly she was sickened by the thought. She had to build rapport with him if this was going to work.

Before she could say another word, Crazy Ray had grabbed her hand and pulled her off the sofa, dragging her over to the nearby wall. Tiny forced herself to relax as she tried not to spill any of the wine on the floor. Crazy Ray tapped on the wall once and it opened to reveal racks of discs. He gazed up at them lovingly. Then he looked back at her with a smile. “These are all of my sessions, gifts from my detainers, every one special, unique, made just for me. I have over seven hundred in my collection.”

Tiny casually sipped her wine as she regarded the discs. The job had taught her long ago how to close herself off from situations like this, how to shutter her emotions and bury them deep inside. That was the only thing that kept her from being sick now, and it was the thing that kept her alive. He was showing her a brief glimpse of his trophies, seven hundred people he had had killed to meet his insatiable appetite for blood. It made sense. She had given him a glimpse of hers, so he wanted to share his. At the same time, it was obvious he was trying to impress her. So she would play along and act impressed, since she had no choice. But secretly, she would imagine yet again how rewarding it would be when she killed him and all the lives she would be saving by doing it.

She nodded. It would be rude to directly comment on the trophies, so instead she gave him another intense look and turned just slightly towards him. The body language would make her appear interested, receptive to what he was saying, approving of him and his sick hobbies. “You have a very impressive space station, Mr. Alton. I am glad that we have had the chance to stay a bit. Everything is very well turned out.”

Crazy Ray grinned and took a step closer to her. “So you like it, then?” he breathed, a hint of relief and excitement in his voice. They both knew the space station wasn’t what was being complimented in this delicate exchange.

She smiled and nodded silently, then drank some more wine as he led her back to the sofa. He sat back across from her and stared at her some more with his very intense gaze.

“It’s not very often that I find myself intrigued by a woman.” Crazy Ray propped his head on his arm. “But you seem to be quite different. Most of them I get bored of within an hour, sometimes within a few days if I’m lucky. Do you enjoy literature?”

“Yes, if it speaks to me or if it has a purpose. I don’t enjoy art just for art’s sake.” Tiny was pleased to see the comment had struck another positive chord with him. He chuckled and then slid closer to her again.

“My dear, I’m beginning to feel that this is possibly the start of a beautiful relationship.” Crazy Ray put his free arm around behind Tiny’s back and removed one of her knives, looking at it, fascinated, before tossing it across the room into the wall near an unconcerned Jamie who continued to play with his bowie knife.