Chapter 6

SIX

F elix slapped his neck for the tenth time in a minute and felt something squash beneath his fingers. "Got you, motherfucker."

But not before the dead bug had bitten him. The warming itch on the side of his neck was just one reason Felix hated planets. In less time than it took for another bug to find his neck, Felix counted several other annoyances: the water swallowing their ship, the smothering darkness, the whisper and hiss of whatever lurked under the cloak of night, and the absolute fucking lack of information about their environment. They could breathe, but the air smelled and tasted weird. Air shouldn't have a flavor.

"Tides go back out, right?" When Zed didn't answer right away, Felix nudged him with his boot. Zed jerked and smacked his lips. "No sleeping," Felix grumbled.

"Wasn't sleeping."

"You need to tell me about tides. And fire. Then you can take a nap." Felix aimed the meager light of a holo into the chittering darkness of night and wondered if he was brave enough to go looking for something to burn.

"Best thing we can do tonight is stay close and make a lot of noise," Zed said. "We'll scout the area when it's light again. As for the tide, it depends on the moon."

"This planet has three satellite bodies."

"We know at least one of them is exerting a gravitational force." Zed shifted in the near darkness. "Why do you want to know about the tides? Even if the tide goes back out, you don't think you can repair the Apex Rapere , do you?"

Felix considered the muted glow of his crystalline fingertips. He could make small tools. Repair tools, not ship-salvaging tools. "I'm good, but not that good. No, I was thinking we need more gear. Some more protein bars, water pouches and maybe a hidden stash of Mendo."

"Wrist doesn't hurt much."

Ignoring the lie, Felix chose a direction and peered into the darkness. "I wonder if that energy signature was a settlement. Maybe they saw us go down?"

"Not sure I want to run into the kind of people who choose to live in uncivilized space."

Felix turned back to the vague shape of Zed and leaned in to bump their shoulders together. "I'm supposed to be the pessimistic one."

"I was trying for humor."

Wrapping an arm around Zed's broad shoulders, Felix encouraged him to lean forward, into his lap. "Why don't you try for that nap now? I'll keep watch and see if I can do something with the comms equipment I saved."

Zed nestled his head into Felix's thigh with a deep sigh. "You know, the tide is a good thing."

"Do I want you to explain that?"

"It'll hide all traces of our crash."

"Still trying to find the good in that."

"Think about why we're here, Flick. The data trail? This isn't a chartered planet. There shouldn't be anyone here, settlement or otherwise. But there is."

A growl built inside Felix. A roar of inaudible but familiar sound. Anger and impotence. Deliberately, he put his bare hand to the side of Zed's face, stroking his cheek. "Not going to let anything happen to you."

Maybe it was time to quit all this running around, chasing jobs and credits. Had Zed been thinking along those lines when he proposed marriage? Was he as bone-achingly tired?

Zed's warm hand covered his. "Ditto."

Felix moved his fingers up to stroke Zed's hair away from his face. "This hurt?"

"Feels good."

He stroked Zed's head—well away from the lump—until Zed fell asleep. Zed's immediate and soft snores made him smile. Covert ops agents don't snore, my ass . For a while, Felix concentrated on the whisper of connection between them. He never got much when Zed was sleeping, which was something of a relief as it meant Zed didn't get much from him at night either. They both had their own share of unpleasant dreams. He liked the thrum of association, though, as if their souls came into alignment when they touched, resting easily together until they parted. Even with Zed asleep, Felix could feel the essence of him. His strength and goodness, his concerns, his sense of rightness.

With another pat, Felix withdrew his hand and aimed the feeble light of a single holo projection toward the jumble of comms equipment spread across the ground. Working with something pinning his right thigh to the ground proved frustrating, but he'd rather cut off his leg than disturb Zed. As the blood flow to his foot diminished, he sorted components into two piles: useful and maybe useful. Nothing in the galaxy was totally useless. But by the time Zed stirred—and thank fuck because Felix couldn't feel his toes—he'd sketched a quick plan.

Zed sat up, rubbing the side of his head. He winced as his fingers encountered the lump.

"Feeling any better?" Felix asked.

"Not really." Zed nodded toward the holographic drawing hovering over the other side of Felix's lap. "What's that?"

"A beacon. I figure it's our best shot of getting a signal through this atmosphere. Not going to have enough power to send and receive, and I don't have the right components anyway. Unless I sacrifice my bracelet." Even then, signal strength would still be an issue. "We're going to have to gain some elevation, though."

Zed fingered the Guardian cuff around his right wrist.

"Can you use that to boost my signal?"

"I could try, but you know how imprecise anything I do with the cuff is. I could end up grabbing hold of all the comms equipment on the planet."

"Would that be such a bad thing?"

"If we don't want them to find us, yeah."

"We'll save it as a last resort, then."

The storefront looked promising—in a quiet, "we accept unhooked credits" kind of way. But the sign out front didn't simply lack holographic flair. It was dead. And the concourse sweeper had left a dusty curve by the sealed front doors, one unscuffed by recent foot traffic. Elias scanned the shop with his wallet to see if anything inside had a heat signature. Nothing pinged, not even a rodent corpse swarming with maggots.

He let out a heavy sigh. "Another dead end."

Nessa rubbed a circle in the middle of his back. "The Blythe is still in dock. They haven't found what they're looking for, either."

"Maybe we should compare notes."

"Ha!"

"We've met stupider criminals."

Nessa's brows drew together. "Yeah, but we still don't know exactly who we're dealing with."

According to Marnie and Ryan, the Blythe was registered to Havoc Shipping, and available to anyone with enough credits to rent her. Cracking Havoc's database had proved simple enough, but the identity of the last person to rent the Blythe was just thick enough to have a pilot's license in the name of Sora Berwad. Licenses were easy to forge. They had yet to identify the man in the holo capture Qek had provided.

Elias pulled out his wallet. "This was the last stop on our list." And not a promising one, at that. His wallet chimed and Elias opened a second display. "Hey, Marnie."

"Find anything at the last stop?" she asked.

"Nope." Elias turned a slow circle, showing her the derelict storefront. "We're probably the only people to have visited Pieces and Parts in the last decade."

"Pieces and Parts?" Marnie frowned offscreen. "Hon, are you sure about the coordinates for Arlo Beck's lab?"

A moment later, Ryan appeared next to her. "Yep, last stop on the list from Dieter's journal."

"If Fixer were here, he'd be muttering about bastard coincidences or something," Elias said.

"He wouldn't be muttering, he'd be digging a hole through the floor," Nessa said.

Gears slid together in Elias's head. "Maybe that's what we should be doing."

"What?"

"Let's check the back door." There wasn't a lot of traffic on this level, but if they loitered much longer, they'd look suspicious. "Marnie, send me one of your hacks. Something any idiot can use."

"How about if you just show me the lock and let me do it remotely."

From behind Marnie, Ryan said, "I don't have a detailed blueprint for that section of the station, but there could be a subfloor."

The access corridor behind the storefronts had an equally seedy atmosphere. Elias's heart leaped when he saw the dusty footprints by the rear door of the shop.

"We're not the first here," he murmured.

"Okay, scan the lock for me," Marnie said.

Nessa kept a lookout, her boots echoing softly as she paced back and forth. Four and a half minutes later, the nearly invisible lock clicked and Marnie grinned through the holo.

"Reckon Flick could have done it faster?" Ryan asked.

She turned to swat him.

Mouthing a quick thanks, Elias cut the connection, folded his wallet in half and slid it into a pocket. Then he nudged the door open and listened. He heard nothing but Nessa breathing behind him. Pushing the door wider, he stepped inside. The theme of abandonment continued inside the shop. Empty shelves, dangling light fixtures and debris collected in dark corners. Picked out by the light slashing through the open doorway, a trail of boot prints marched across the floor to an opening. One of the large tiles had been lifted away and set aside, exposing a dim square of light.

He glanced at Nessa. He couldn't make out her expression, but she touched his arm, nodded and pulled her hand back to her belt to liberate a hypo from one of the loops. Elias hadn't decided whether Nessa's willingness to use a hypo against someone was awesome or disturbing. He blew her a silent kiss and, pulling a stunner from his belt, crept across the floor. As he drew closer to the opening, he heard the soft susurrus of voices from below. He stopped when they became clear.

"Can you see anything?" a woman murmured.

"Shut the fuck up, Sora."

The admonishment was followed by a moment of silence, then Sora spoke again. "How much longer is this gonna take?" Her tone was odd—as if she were trying to sound more irritated than she was.

"It'll take as long as it fucking takes. Sit down and stop asking stupid questions."

The guy down there had to be the hacker, the one they'd chased on Chloris. That meant he'd…Elias blew out a quiet breath. That meant the guy in the hole was like Zed. Smaller—runtier—but able to Zone and phase-shift. Even if he lacked Zed's strength, in the Zone his reflexes would be enhanced and his tolerance for pain ramped up.

Keeping him confined to the hole seemed the best course.

Hopefully Sora was just the pilot. But if she could Zone, he and Nessa were in trouble. Elias flipped his wallet open again and keyed a quick message to Qek, explaining what they'd found. If they didn't make it back to the Chaos , she'd at least have a clue what had happened to them. He glanced at Nessa and nodded. They advanced to either side of the hole and Elias leaned out to peer down into the subfloor of the shop.

Beneath a layer of insulation obviously designed to protect the hidey hole was a laboratory full of humming terminals and a super main Ryan would pen sonnets about. They'd found Arlo Beck's place, and the guy in the hole was waiting for them, looking up with a weirdly lopsided grin. "Took you long enough to break the lock, but you seem to have forgotten I like alarming doors."

The hacker had a holo open showing a view of the interior of the shop. With the lack of light upstairs, he would have seen a door open and close. A low tech and silent alarm.

Elias couldn't see Sora. He decided that was good. Meant she was out of the way. He pointed his stunner through the hole. "We just want our data returned, that's all."

"It's a little late for that. I already sent it on to my employer."

"At Leonis?"

The guy's eyes narrowed a second before he shrugged.

"What's out there?" Elias asked.

The skewed smile returned. "Oh, I think you know what's out there."

"More soldiers?"

"I'd be more worried about what's here," the guy answered, tapping the keyboard in front of him. "Your friend Dieter had quite a number of interesting theories."

"Dieter didn't know any more than the AEF. Project Dreamweaver isn't viable." And supposedly shut down. "Who's in the Leonis System?"

"Dieter knew a lot, actually. Did you know he had the entire history of the project here? All the records supposedly sealed by the AEF." The guy continued working the holo displays in front of him, apparently unconcerned by Elias and his stunner.

"Why would you want the history?"

"Because my employer is a very thorough individual."

In the periphery of his vision, Elias saw Nessa had her wallet out and was keying a message. He glanced at her, eyebrows raised, but she didn't look up. Movement in the hole drew his attention back downward, but it was too late. The hacker surged upward, hands outstretched, the outline of his fingers a blur. Elias ducked back, not keen on the idea of having the guy pass through him. The hacker slammed into him regardless, rolling him away from the hole. Elias's stunner discharged uselessly.

A fist connected with his jaw. Light and pain obliterated everything for far too long. Elias couldn't even shake his head, let alone get his feet under him. When his eyes stopped rolling, he checked to see his head was still attached to his neck.

Thank Christ Zed had never actually hit him. No man could survive two punches like that.