Ghost Jumper (Interstellar Getaway Pilot Book 2), page 9
I jogged toward it, cutting off a squat, furry alien in a blue jumpsuit. He jabbered at me and waved a tiny fist. I shoved him aside and slotted my card.
“Sorry, pal. I need this more than you do.”
The little guy growled as he gave me an obscene gesture. Then he waddled back into the crowd. I kept my head down as a sleek blue-and-white cruiser swooped overhead. Tulas Port Authority... The last thing I needed was attention from the cops.
The charging station beeped, and my card slid out, glowing bright as new. I scrolled through my recent transactions, looking for Xiri’s deposit. Money had been tight lately, so I didn’t have to look far. I found her info and tapped my pad to call her. A few seconds went by, then the card blinked red. No answer.
Gritting my teeth, I considered just calling it a day and getting the hell out of there. But I was still missing the part I needed. And Xiri was still in danger. I tapped the pad again. Baxter whined in my ear.
“I know, buddy, I’m sorry. Ran into some trouble at Sal’s.”
I glanced over my shoulder, making sure no one was following me. If anyone was on my tail, I wasn’t good enough to spot them. Merging with the crowd, I took another lift up to a walkway over the main strip. A steady stream of hover vehicles and low-orbit ships streaked through the gorge below. Baxter kept barking and whining the whole time.
“Yeah, I know, I know," I said, struggling to get a word in. "I need you to find Xiri. Can you track her comm card?”
Baxter gave me a suspicious-sounding growl.
“I think she’s in trouble,” I answered. “Oh, and I’m fine. Not that you asked.”
If he understood my sarcasm, he didn’t give any sign. Instead, all I heard was that weird, semidead static I got when he delved into the data web. As I crossed the walkway, he came back online.
I listened to his barks and grunts. Sure enough, he routed me a set of coordinates. Reaching into my jacket, I pulled a pair of AUGRE goggles from the inner pocket. When I slipped them over my eyes, a tiny holographic map blinked in my peripheral vision. The augmented reality display identified the location as a storage facility. Apparently, Xiri was waiting there to meet her contact.
“Bax, prep the Hawk as best you can. When I get back, we'll drop in a new relay and jet, understand?”
He whined again. It didn’t take a supercomputer brain to figure out things were going sideways.
“I’ll find her, trust me.”
He told me to be careful. Nice to know someone cared. Sure, he was just programmed to say that, but it was a rough galaxy out there. I’d take what I could get.
I tapped my interface pad and cut the signal. Following the crowd along the other side of the trench, I vanished into the endless sea of bodies. Using my goggles, I followed the tiny blinking dot on the map. It glowed brighter and brighter the closer I got.
Baxter could track Xiri’s screen because she had linked it to mine to pay me off. Which meant she also must have linked to her contact, whoever it was, to get the credits. Which meant they could lead Agnar and his goons right to her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The storage facility sat in a run-down section of the colony, and in Tulas, that was really saying something. The crowd here had a different vibe. They kept their heads down, and their hands (tentacles, pseudopods, whatever) jammed in their pockets. Rows of modular buildings nestled within the rocks on either side of the cavern, with a dusty, cracked stretch of pavement running between them. There was no artificial daylight here, and a sea of black shadows lurked between buildings.
I zoomed closer with my goggles and cranked up the light amplification. The storage facility looked like your standard black-market drop site. No security staff, not even a cashier. Just a terminal up front next to a pair of heavily armored doors. The building itself seemed reasonably secure, but those doors looked like they could withstand a full-scale military assault. Whatever people were keeping in there, they clearly didn’t want the cops breaking in to take a look.
I heard the creaking of hydraulics behind me. A skimmer truck was parked a few meters away, and the slab-like vehicle bounced up and down on its landing skids. A few stray tentacles waved from the open front window. Just my luck. I must have stumbled into the Tulas equivalent of lovers’ lane.
I’d been watching the facility for twenty minutes or so, but there was no sign of Yar or any other Syndicate thugs. I slid my goggles back and stood up. As I walked past the truck, the door slid open, and an amorphous blob spilled out onto the pavement. One of the alien's flailing tentacles held up a tiny glowing screen. The human inside the cab reached out to transfer some credits from his card.
I shook my head. Who was I to judge? To each their own.
I took the lift down and crossed the street. A dark alley ran between the storage facility and the neighboring building. There was no way I’d make it through those security doors, but I figured maybe there was a maintenance hatch somewhere. I ducked into the shadows, leaving the street behind me.
It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dim light, then I crept along the wall, feeling for any signs of a grille or panel that I could pry loose. The farther down I went, the darker it got. I slid my goggles down, and the darkness turned vivid green. I could see everything now. And that was when I noticed him.
A human male lay crumpled against the alley wall, just under a ventilation panel. I drew my pistol and stepped back, but this guy wasn’t moving. Kneeling next to him, I checked for a pulse.
Dead as a doornail. Whatever that meant.
I examined the corpse and quickly discovered the cause of death: a massive energy weapon burn right over his heart. Probably boiled the organ through his skin. I checked the guy's pockets. He was carrying a tiny bolter pistol jammed into his waistband. I slipped the gun into my jacket. After a few more seconds of searching, I finally found what I was looking for—his data card.
I slipped my own card from my pocket and pressed the two glowing screens together. “Baxter,” I whispered. “Can you spike the code from this data screen?”
A second later, the screen pulsed with information. I swiped through the call log then tapped a single entry. My goggles dimmed as a tiny hologram glowed to life above the screen. It was Xiri.
This guy had to be her contact. Which meant…
Suddenly, I heard the high-pitched whine of bolter fire, followed by screams. The racket was coming from the street. I stalked down the narrow passage, keeping my back against the wall. Aliens and humans alike rushed past the alleyway, screaming in a dozen different languages.
Glowing energy bolts struck one of the fleeing aliens. They screamed and collapsed to the pavement, smoke rising from their charred clothes.
As I peered around the corner of the alley, I saw Xiri kneeling behind the security terminal up front. A pair of Vrell thugs across the street fired bolter rifles at her. Sparks erupted from the terminal as one of their beams scorched the structure. But they were spraying wild, full auto. Most of their shots were hitting the crowd. Three more charred corpses littered the pavement, and the air reeked of burning flesh.
Xiri's back was to me, so she didn’t see me as I aimed my pistol at one of her attackers. But before I could fire, I heard a soft rustling behind me. Something hard and sharp pressed against my neck. Something that felt a lot like a knife.
“Do not move, human,” a woman's voice whispered in my ear. It sounded more like a song than someone speaking. The air suddenly smelled sweet, like floral perfume. I felt dizzy, lightheaded.
I blinked as another stray bolt hit the building less than a meter from my face. The explosion and glowing shrapnel snapped me back to reality.
“Look," I whispered. "Whoever you are, we can work this out. Call off your muscle. If you kill her, you’ll lose a fortune.”
I was lying, of course, stalling for time. Had to figure a way out of this, something that let Xiri and me walk away from whatever hell we had stumbled into.
The blade left my neck. “Turn around,” the woman whispered.
I turned around. And… Damn.
The woman standing before me was a goddess. She was more than just beautiful. She was divine.
Her skin was blue, and she was showing a lot of it. A white sheet was draped over her shoulders like a makeshift robe. It didn’t leave much to the imagination. I could make out some kind of elaborate tattoo covering her skin. It was also blue but a darker shade than her flesh. It looked like waves swirling down her chest, along her arms, running down her legs.
Her eyes sparkled like metallic gold, and her ears were ever so slightly pointed. Other than that, she looked perfectly human. Literally perfect.
My head felt fuzzy again. Whatever that smell was, it was starting to overpower me again. I blinked, struggling to clear my mind. That was when I noticed that she wasn’t holding a knife. She didn’t seem to have any weapons at all.
“You… You are Xiri's human. Trev Corvus,” she said in a breathy voice. “You are… a pilot?”
I gave her my most charming smile. "Depends who you ask."
Another energy bolt bounced off the wall. I winced as the sparks burned my arm. Shoving the alien woman behind me, I aimed my pistol at the thugs. “We’ll talk later. Right now, we need to—”
But before I could finish my sentence, she yanked my jacket aside and reached for my waistband. She stared into my eyes, and I was at a total loss for words. It was like looking into the ocean at sunset.
Her fingers wrapped around the pistol I had taken from the dead guy in the alley. “You are a skilled pilot. You will help us. We must leave now.”
She took the gun, stepped out into the street, and opened fire.
Not exactly what I was expecting.
The Vrell backed off as her energy bolts exploded near their feet. She had guts, I had to give her that. But she wasn’t much of a shot. As she drew the Vrell's fire, I rushed out and took cover next to Xiri.
“Hey,” I said to her as I ducked behind the terminal. “Is this a ladies-only gunfight, or can anyone play?”
Her big black eyes opened even wider than usual. “Trev? What are you doing here?”
I peered around the terminal. The goons had focused their attention on the blue girl in the sheet. Couldn’t say I blamed them. I took aim and fired. My beam struck the thug in the chest, and he staggered backwards. But he must have been wearing some kind of armor under his vest, because he was still standing.
“You forgot to leave a tip,” I replied, ducking as the Vrell I’d scorched swung his rifle back toward the terminal. Sparks exploded around me as energy bolts strafed the metal console. I turn to her and grinned. “I was afraid maybe you weren’t happy with our service.”
She laughed in spite of herself. “Are you insane?”
“The talking dog in my head thinks so.”
I leaned around the terminal and fired again. This time, I aimed high. The energy bolt lanced through the thug’s left eye, and he went down hard.
The other one aimed his rifle at us. But before he could shoot, the alien blue girl raised her pistol in both hands and fired. The shimmering bolt struck him in the leg. He dropped to one knee, howling in pain.
Xiri popped up and took a shot. The Vrell collapsed in a smoking heap. She gave me a questioning look, as if she wasn’t sure what to do next.
“I can’t believe you came back for me!” she said.
Almost made me feel guilty. Because I almost hadn’t come back. But before I could answer, thruster jets rumbled overhead. I looked up and froze. I knew that sound intimately.
Xiri saw the look in my eyes. “What is it?” she asked.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the street. The blue alien woman still stood there, motionless, staring down at the Vrell's smoking body. Wind from the cavern’s ventilators whipped through the sheet covering her body. She looked at the gun in her hand then at me.
“I… I killed him?” she asked. She sounded surprised. Maybe it was her first time. We all start somewhere.
“Actually, Xiri killed him," I said. "But we’ve got bigger problems!” I pointed at the parking garage across the street. “We have to take cover! Over there—run!”
The engine roar grew louder. I could see the ship now, barreling down above the street. A black Vrell Interceptor, just like before. Whoever the pilot was, they were maneuvering for a strafing run on our position.
And as we raced for the parking garage, all hell exploded behind us.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The landing platform was less than a hundred meters away. But it might as well have been light-years. I was still holding Xiri’s hand, dragging her behind me as I sprinted for the lift tube. The blue woman, whoever she was, raced beside us, easily keeping up. I caught glimpses of her long, shapely legs as the sheet billowed behind her. Her sapphire skin shimmered in the streetlights.
For a second, I could have sworn I saw the blue pattern shift and move across her skin. The waves became spirals then a series of interlocked rings. But it was hard to focus on little details like that when a star fighter was diving toward us on an attack run.
The roar of cannon fire was deafening. I kept charging forward as the street exploded around us. The high-powered energy beams tore up the pavement, sending shards of rock flying through the air like shrapnel.
The engines grew faint as the ship streaked overhead. But I could hear the echo of its maneuvering thrusters. It was looping around the far end of the cavern, heading back. A few hundred meters away, it opened fire again. Blinding purple energy bolts hammered the other side of the street.
Somehow, all three of us made it to the lift. I pounded my fist on the control panel as the blazing energy bolts swept closer. The blue woman stood there, waiting patiently. She looked like she was waiting for the lift in a department store.
I grabbed her arm and yanked her closer to the lift tube as the Vrell fighter continued blasting the street.
“You got a death wish or something, lady?” I gasped as the lift doors slid open and we piled inside.
Her long, feathery lashes blinked, and her golden eyes opened wide. “Death wish? Why would one wish for death?”
“It’s a human figure of speech,” Xiri snapped, rolling her big black eyes. “It means you have to be more careful.”
I touched the controls, and the lift hummed as it carried us up to the landing platform. I turned to Xiri and arched a single eyebrow. “So, who’s your friend?”
Xiri tapped her foot and wrinkled her nose. I got the distinct impression she didn’t really want to introduce us. But finally, she said, “Trev Corvus, meet Lynara.”
“That doesn’t answer my ques—” I started. But before I could finish my sentence, the lift tube shook, and sparks fell from the ceiling. I braced myself against the wall as the lights flickered and dimmed.
“Dammit. Okay, everyone out!”
“What?” Xiri shouted. “Are you crazy? We have to get to—”
The car rattled again. Lynara gasped as a maintenance panel exploded. The lift screeched to a halt.
“It’s not safe in here! We have to climb the rest of the way.” I slipped the skinny tool from my sleeve and reached up to the ceiling. The car shuddered as I pried the panel loose, revealing a circular hatch in the roof. Using both hands, I gave the locking handle a good twist. A hiss of steam blasted from the mechanism, and the hatch opened upward.
The lights flickered again, and I could hear the muted roar of the fighter swooping past. I gestured to Lynara. “Come on, I’ll give you a boost.”
She put her arms on my shoulders. “Thank you, Trev Corvus.”
I tore my eyes from hers and laced my fingers together. She stepped on my hands, and I heaved her up. As she scurried through the hatch, I looked up. Xiri grabbed my ear and yanked my head down.
“Owww!”
“Don’t be a pervert!” she said.
I shook my head to clear the fog around my brain then held out my hands again. Xiri stepped up, and I boosted her through the hatch.
The tube shook again, this time more violently. The control panel on the side exploded, and a brief flash of sparks lit the darkness. I squinted in the sudden glare then leapt, grabbing the edge of the hatch with my fingers. I pulled myself up and balanced with the two women on the roof of the lift car. A small ladder ran up the side of the tube. The fighter’s engines roared louder. I pointed up the pitch-dark shaft.
“You waiting for a formal invitation? Climb!”
Lynara went first. I grabbed the ladder, but Xiri pushed her way in front of me, giving me a sharp look. I shrugged and let her go ahead of me.
As I stepped on the ladder, I heard the whine of the fighter’s cannons. A glowing purple beam exploded through the interior of the lift car. The energy bolt vaporized the brake locks, and the mangled remains of the car plummeted down the shaft, crashing to the ground in a crumpled heap of metal.
A second later, and I’d have gone along with it. Xiri looked down as the impact echoed through the shaft.
“Move your ass, human!” she shouted.
I gritted my teeth and climbed after her. Luckily, we didn’t have far to go. About fifty meters up the shaft, the ladder ended at a tiny service alcove next to the upper doors. There was a control panel mounted on the wall. I balanced next to Lynara and handed my skinny to Xiri. Her long, graceful fingers were a blur as she tore off the panel cover and reprogramed the terminal, spiking the access codes in the time it would have taken me just to turn the damn thing on.
The doors hissed open, and we stumbled out onto the upper platform. Lynara blinked, looking around with her golden eyes. “Do you have a ship here, Trev Corvus?”
“Just call me Trev. And no, I don’t. Follow me.”
A scorching breeze whipped through my hair as the fighter streaked overhead. We only had a few minutes before it circled back again. And if the pilot lined us up in his sights, those cannons wouldn’t leave enough ash to fill a maintenance synth’s cleaning bag.
