Chapter 4

FOUR

S tupid, stupid, stupid…

He'd been distracted and now some asshole had him around the neck and what felt like a stunner pressed to his temple. Shit. Should he try to step back and duck? If he moved fast enough, he might just end up with a few crispy curls rather than scrambled brains—which would seriously diminish his capacity to unlock a shipping container.

Felix breathed out and forced his body to relax. There was only one play here, the one directed by the man with the weapon.

"Hands where I can see them," the asshole said.

Zed twitched in place, the odd movement consistent with the weird way he'd been acting since he'd followed Felix off the Chaos. The quiet moment stretched and Felix got the sense, via a creepy creep over the back of his scalp, that Zed was more dangerous than the man holding a stunner to his temple. Felix looked into the eyes of his erstwhile friend, and then wished he hadn't. Zander Anatolius had checked out. The man before him had become someone else, the mysterious Loop who'd been covert ops for five years, deeper for the last two.

The man behind Felix either didn't get the same sense of doom from Zed's flat gray eyes, or he was used to staring down danger. He dug the stunner into Felix's temple and growled past his ear. "Turn and face the container and put your hands?—"

He got no further. Zed exploded into action, barreling forward in an unreal blur. Felix chose that moment to try ducking. He dropped down and pushed back just as the whirlwind named Loop hit. Electricity snapped, stinging the top of his ear, and a heavy weight slammed into his shoulder, opposite side. His gloved hand clattered and screeched against the metal grid flooring. Felix tucked and rolled, readied a kick and looked back for an opening. Zed stood over the immobile form of the asshole, both men utterly still. Zed's head didn't hang at an unnatural angle, though.

Felix pushed to his feet and wrinkled his nose at the acrid stench of singed hair. He prodded the back of his head and winced as his fingers encountered crispy curls. He fingered his burnt ear. "Ouch." But better than scrambled brains.

"Can you open the container?" Zed asked, his voice as flat as his gaze.

Nodding, Felix raised his left wrist to access his bracelet. As he tapped at a projected display, he used the moment of near normalcy to gather himself. Five years with the AEF had left him combat trained, but his term in the stin work camps had worn down his starched, military lines. Felix felt he could hold his own in most situations, but…

He glanced over his shoulder at the cool, unflappable figure of Not-Zed. Loop. "What did they do to you, man?"

"Review later," Loop said.

Brow furrowing, Felix turned back to the menu hovering in the dusty air above his wrist and quickly accessed his list of hacks. He flicked open a second window to monitor the heat signatures inside the container and breathed a sigh of relief as two glowed into being. A third command opened a channel. "Eli?" he whispered.

"Here."

"Outside, working the lock. Hang tight." Thank all the stars he wasn't inside; he didn't do well in enclosed spaces. Dark enclosed spaces? Nope, nope, nope.

"This container is slated to be loaded aboard the Gregory at sixteen-oh-five," the lock cheerily informed him. "To alter this schedule, please input authorization."

Felix sensed rather than saw Zed-Loop-Whoeverthefuck tensing behind him. Resisting the urge to turn, he continued scanning his log of hacks until he matched the make and model of the chatty lock sealing the container. He knew how to work as part of a team, how to let another man watch his back, and even after years of separation, he remembered who Zed used to be. He trusted him.

The first display flashed and code began streaming top to bottom, symbols spinning, glowing, and turning as the program sought the right combination. Felix added the human element, tweaking the direction of the stream when he sensed a quicker path. He didn't always get it right, but he did more often than not. He had a knack…and it required almost all of his concentration.

Two digits unlocked, he ran into a block.

"Are you trying to change the schedule? Please input the correct authorization."

Fingers flying over the truncated virtual keyboard, Felix called up a second routine and plugged it into the first.

"You could've picked a cheaper container, Elias," he muttered.

"Maybe we could steal it when you're done."

Three digits unlocked, three to go. Felix dismissed the second routine and assisted his hack with the fourth and fifth digits. The display dimmed as the fifth locked.

"That is not the correct authorization."

A soft curse whispered past his lips as a timer materialized in a fourth display. Sweat gathered under the curls flopped against his forehead, and the stink of burnt hair intensified. Felix felt his shoulders twitching together in a programmer's cramp. He considered himself a competent hacker, but this lock might have him beat.

"Jesus, Joseph and Mary," he murmured, the three distinct names loosening his tongue and a degree of tension. It had been his father's favorite curse and Felix only used it when he truly needed divine help.

"I hate it when you swear biblically."

"Shh!"

His fingers became a blur as he fought to beat the clock, his hack scrolling on, digits revolving, flashing, winking out of existence. He assisted, he battled, he sweated and strained. He thought he heard movement behind him but couldn't waste the seconds it would take him to glance over his shoulder. If he didn't disable the lock in thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight seconds, a small detonation would fuse it permanently to the door. They'd need a laser torch to cut Elias and Nessa free.

Twenty-two, twenty-one…

He had a thousand combinations left. Too many, too many!

Biting his lip, Felix made the decision to abandon the least likely half. The display flashed again, the frame deepening to a worrying shade of red. The program didn't like being overridden.

"That is not the correct authorization."

He should have silenced the lock first. Sixteen, fifteen…

Felix caught a pattern and stabbed the display. It locked and froze. Heart slamming against his ribs, Felix shook his wrist in the direction of the lock, the metal of his hand flashing in the dim light. "Open, damn it."

The display turned green and the lock chimed in joyful echo, celadon points of light blinking happily across the top. The container door hissed open. Felix breathed out and gripped the side. His head made one lazy loop of the cargo area before returning to the situation at hand. Nessa rushed out first, her delicate features tightly pinched. She ducked under his arm and stopped still.

"Holy crap."

Felix turned around and swore under his breath. Zed stood in exactly the same spot as before, close enough it appeared he hadn't moved. But there were bodies on the floor. Four of them. The scene couldn't have been more chilling if blood speckled the bland coveralls of the Agrius thugs. And they were Agrius. Each had the distinctive moth tattoo peeking over their collars.

A shiver crawled down Felix's spine as he glanced up to meet Zed's gaze. The flat edge of detachment hit him first, the slam of a palm to his sternum. Beneath, however, swirled something else—darker, scarier. Felix's hair tried to stand on end, the weight of his damp curls notwithstanding. He looked away, but not before he recognized what had scared him nearly speechless. That dark thing lurking in Zed's gaze, unfathomable and strange, meant him no harm. In fact, Felix formed the distinct impression Zed would have cut through twenty men to keep him safe.

Elias bumped him out of his daze, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into a sideways hug. "Knew you'd come through."

A stiff smile visited Felix's mouth. "'Course." He pulled out of the half hug, measuring his discomfort with close contact against the fact he was glad he hadn't had to watch the container get loaded into a waiting hauler. Turning, he gripped Elias's upper arm, the gesture as close to a hug as he usually gave. Elias patted his hand.

Felix glanced at Zed. "Thanks, man."

Elias eyed the bodies gathered at his feet. "Thanks for helping out."

A sideways glance at Nessa confirmed that she knew the bodies weren't unconscious. She hadn't crouched to check the pulse of a single one.

Zed twitched. "We're not clear of the hot zone. We need to leave, now."

Shaking his wrist, Felix dismissed all displays but one. "I think we're going to need a different exit. The rear corner of the warehouse is still under construction."

Like many orbital and ex-orbital stations, Dardanos had sustained damage during the war. Scaffolding and construction plastic masked many of the scars, but the blackened edge of steel framing a new door served as a bleak reminder of the long conflict. The fact the warehouse stood nearly empty of containers was a more poignant reminder of the lasting effects. The human economy had yet to fully recover, giving cartels like Agrius openings that had not existed before.

Familiar heat prickled his skin as Felix jerked his gaze away from the bodies. Swallowing the anger that threatened to engulf him every time he thought about the war, about the stin, he lifted his chin toward the exit he'd marked. "We can access the service corridors from there."

Zed visually assessed each member of the team and gestured. "Single file, Ingesson rearguard."

Felix felt himself responding to command even before his feet actually moved to take up his position. Annoyance pinched his shoulders, but he shook it off. Zed knew what he was doing. Hell, without Zed, he'd probably be a drooling mess of scrambled brains right about now.

Nessa grumbled but took up her position; Elias did the same with an arched brow. Silent as a snake, they slithered through the stacked containers until they reached the quiet construction zone. The workers were absent, maybe on a break, maybe paid off. Zed disabled a solitary guard with quick efficiency. When he straightened, he stumbled forward a step, one hand rising to rub at his temple. The square line of his shoulders shifted and the hand not pressed to his temple had acquired a tremble.

Felix pushed forward. "You all right?"

"Fine." Zed wrenched his hand away from his temple and stood tall. He pointed toward the rectangle of light at the other side of the maintenance bay. "There's your exit."

"Right," Felix murmured, disturbed by the pain etched across Zed's forehead, deep furrows that hadn't been there nine years ago.

He'd wanted Zed off his ship and out of his life, but the bastard had followed him across the port and, damn it, he'd saved his life, and by extension, the lives of Elias and Nessa. They owed him more than thanks.

"You're coming back to the ship, right?"

"Of course he is," Nessa said, tugging at Zed's elbow. "C'mon, let's get out of here before Agrius catches up with us again."

To Felix's surprise, Zed allowed himself to be led through the quiet zone and didn't utter a single complaint as Felix assigned himself to the position of vanguard. He might have stayed where he was. Shadows converged soon after they entered the labyrinth of service corridors, from the front and behind. Felix ducked down and pulled his stunner from his belt. Fuck Zed and his call for quiet, they were in a compressed space that left them little room to maneuver.

Agrius obviously didn't feel the need to observe the quiet rule. Yells cut through the air, interspersed with grunts, groans and the snap of electricity as stunners sought targets. Felix thrust his weapon forward, thumb activating the release at the same moment. His most immediate foe doubled over, falling into him. Stepping up, Elias caught the guy and heaved him aside.

Felix took aim at figure waiting behind, a squat woman whose mouth appeared to be fixed in a permanent snarl. She had a stunner raised at a similar angle. If they didn't get closer, they'd merely singe one another's extremities. Not fun and not useful. Elias leaped forward, turning his shoulder in, catching her side. The woman flinched as she spun, her stunner discharging harmlessly into the wall. Taking advantage of the opening, Felix leaned in and pressed his stunner to the plain brown coverall she used as a disguise. Compressed voltage shot through the stiff fabric and into her flesh. She jerked, her snarl widening into a grimace.

The wall shook beside them. Felix turned to watch another jumpsuited figure collapse to the floor. Nessa turned, a hypo-syringe in her hand.

"Remind me never to sneak up behind you," Felix said.

"I shouldn't have to." Nessa's expression countered the glibness of her tone. She hadn't seen much combat during the war, but she'd dealt with the aftermath during her several tours with the Red Star.

Felix didn't doubt that Nessa was tough. Still, he asked, "You okay?"

She offered a nod in reply.

He then noticed they were missing a member of the party, Zed's absence all the more weird because he'd only recently appended himself to Felix's life. "Where's Loop?"

"He ran back?—"

Nessa broke off as Zed reappeared at the end of their corridor. Zed moved with the calm precision of a scout, but the tremble in his hands had increased so that it was visible at ten paces.

"How many?" Felix could have asked if they were dead, but he knew they were.

"Two. There could be more. We should keep moving."

"Do you have to kill them all?" Elias asked.

Zed's unemotional stare flattened by another degree. "The mission dictates?—"

Felix waved his hands. "We don't have time for this. Our mission is to get back to the Chaos. "

No one disagreed. Moments later, they stepped out into the crowded concourse just outside their own dock.

Beyond the press, the Chaos nestled against her pier, looking like a beached crab. She was an ugly ship—squat and bulbous. Not sleek, and with her pitted and scarred hull, far from beautiful. But to Felix's practiced and fond eye, she was a ship designed to do one thing very, very well. The flare of ceramix plates at her rear housed an ashushk star drive. Bobbing in the gravitational differential of a space dock, she appeared ungainly. In j-space, however, the Chaos 's shape mattered little. There, her superior drive and pilot gave her an enviable edge.

Elias let out a slow whistle. "We're done dealing in pharmaceuticals."

"You think?" Nessa's eyes flashed angrily.

The captain held up his hands. "Just what we need to keep ourselves happy and healthy."

Nessa huffed and pushed into the jumble of people flowing toward various piers. Elias followed. Felix turned to Zed. The man's eyes were no longer flat. In fact, the steely blue had dulled to a soft gray.

"You all right?" he asked again.

Zed stiffened, frowned more deeply, lifted his chin and shook his head. No, he was not all right. "Headache," he murmured.

"We'll get you something for that," Felix said, "and then, ah, we should talk."

Elias glanced up as Nessa stepped into the bridge. "Close the hatch would you, Ness?"

She frowned but turned to do as he asked, smacking a small fist against the release.

"Why are we having a secret meeting in the Batcave?" Fixer asked.

"Batcave?" Qek echoed.

"Hmm, yeah, maybe it's more like the Justice League Satellite in here." Fixer rocked forward in the copilot's chair.

The what now? "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I'll assume we're in here because voices carry from the mess to the crew quarters," Nessa said, "but if you're going to yell, I might as well open the hatch."

Elias exhaled sharply and waved at Nessa. "Just grab a seat, will you?"

She parked her butt on one of the jump seats and leaned forward to prop her elbows on her knees. The posture gave a good view of her cleavage, but Elias wasn't in the mood to leer.

"Is he sedated?" he asked.

"If you're asking if I knocked out our client, the answer is no. I gave him something for his headache and suggested he lie down. And that's what he did."

"Sensors indicate Mr. Loop is sleeping," Qek reported.

Fixer appeared as frazzled as his hair. His left knee bounced against the edge of the seat and his gaze jerked around the bridge, searching for a place to settle. Though every instinct coached him to demand an explanation, loudly, Elias recognized a man on the edge. "Want to tell us about your friend?"

"Not much to tell." One shoulder hitched up. "We went to school together, then served together for a few years. Not in the same unit. Z—Loop's something of a specialist. I'm just an engineer."

"Who is he, Fix?"

Expression guarded, Fixer met his gaze. "I can't tell you."

"Then we put him off the ship."

Nessa sat up straight. Qek clicked.

"Unless you intend to eject Mr. Loop from an airlock, he will be traveling with us until we dock again."

"That's what I meant."

Qek could be so damned literal.

"Are you forgetting he just saved our asses?" Nessa said. "We wouldn't be having this meeting if he hadn't been there to back up Fixer."

A needle of pain shot through Elias's temple. He massaged the point and heaved out a sigh that felt like it started in his boots. "Fuck." Dropping his hand back to his lap, he looked over at Qek. "Any sign of pursuit?"

"None, Captain."

A departure slot had opened up shortly after they returned to the ship, so they had been able to leave in a timely and inconspicuous manner.

"Instead of voting to space our client," Nessa said, "we should be talking about the ambush."

Briefly, Elias wondered if his father had encountered as many problems running a trade ship. Probably. He remembered the excitement of his childhood and the reason he and Fixer had decided to pool their resources to buy their own ship. They wanted to be captains of the sea of stars, cresting the waves and lolling in the troughs. They'd chosen this, and they'd chosen that ambush as well. "We shouldn't have taken those antibiotics from Leto."

"You think?"

"Cut the sarcasm, Nessa. You were only too happy to play the part of benefactor when we passed them on."

Chastened, she leaned back in her chair.

"We all agreed that sometimes the gray market was worth the risk," Fixer put in, his tone oddly reasonable. "What we need to do is chalk this one up to experience." He held up his glove and tapped the first metal finger to tick off a point. "From now on we steer well clear of the Agrius cartel. Of any group calling itself a cartel." He tapped a second digit and moved to a third. "We don't take any deals that are too good to be true." He tried for a smile that came across more like a grimace. "Not for a while, anyway." He moved to the fourth finger. "No drugs, ever. I don't care if we hear of an opportunity to cure the Thaxian Bends. We're traders, not Robin Fucking Hood." He contemplated his fifth finger for a moment. "And I'm out of points."

"Is that smell coming from your hair?" Qek asked.

"Yeah." Fixer fiddled with the burnt patch at the back of his head. "Really lingers, doesn't it?"

This was his crew. His crazy crew. Before Elias could declare his undying love for the three best shipmates in the galaxy, he had to be captain, however. "What do we want to do about Loop?"

"We're not shoving him out of an airlock," Nessa said, all tigress with her red hair and flashing eyes.

"I meant the job, Ness. Jesus." Elias bit off another sigh. "Fix?"

Fixer pushed down on his left knee, halting the bounce, and an expression Elias recognized crossed his face. Determination. Whatever he said would be something he not only meant but felt with every fiber of his being.

"He's a good man, Eli. I believe that. He didn't have to follow me this afternoon, he could have grabbed his gear and gone." Fixer paused to catch the eye of everyone in the small bridge. "He pretty much saved us. Agrius might not have killed us, but they'd have taken their pound of flesh. This job he wants us to do? It's important to him and…it is to me too."

Why had he hesitated? Loop and Emma were both old friends, weren't they? Except…Fix didn't have friends, not outside the Chaos. It was clear he and Loop had a past, though. Something more than simple friendship, and that was weird. Elias had never met anyone Fixer truly cared for before.

Elias opened his mouth, closed it again when Fix finished his twenty seconds of contemplation.

"Emma would come after me. Hell…so would Loop."

When? After he finished reading the obituary notice?

As if party to his thoughts, Fixer shot him a glare. "He had a war to fight, Eli."

Point.

Elias leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. He pulled a second sigh from his boots. "Okay. We'll take a vote. All in favor of not spacing the crazy man?"

Three hands rose in unison. A half smile pulling at his mouth, Elias put his own hand up. "The ayes have it." But he wasn't done. Turning back to Fixer, he said, "You need to decide if his secret is more important than what you have here."

Fix's jaw tightened. "So does Loop."