Partners: Book Two, page 45
“Sucks,” Brent said. “But I’m glad you guys hooked up,” he volunteered suddenly, surprising Dev. “Been good for Jess.”
Dev sat down at one of the big consoles, and put her hands on the pads, but she didn’t start keying anything. “What does that mean?” She finally asked, turning to look at Brent, who had settled across from her.
He looked back at her, looking a little startled. “Huh?”
“That thing you said about it being good for Jess?”
“Oh.” Brent hunched over the inputs. “Nothin’.”
Dev waited, but there seemed to be no other response forthcoming, so she shook her head and went back to the screens, calling up all the schematics of the citadel and studying them.
“Hey,” Brent said. “She’s hot, huh?”
Dev watched her own reflection in the display as her brows contracted over her eyes. She turned her head and peered at Brent in bewilderment. “Excuse me?”
“Jess,” he said. “She’s hot, huh?”
Hot. “Um.” Dev was now quite distracted. “In my experience I’ve found her very pleasantly warm, actually,” she said, slowly. “Is there a purpose to the question?”
Brent grunted and shook his head, then went back to his console, tapping into the pad with stolid deliberation. “Fuckin’ A.”
Dev pinched the bridge of her nose and went back to her scan, shaking her own head in silence.
JESS WAS AWARE of Elaine’s eyes on her as they stalked the corridors, ignoring bio alts heading in the opposite direction. “You figure it’s some of us hiding?”
“Maybe,” Elaine said. “So tell me. What’s that thing like in bed?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“You mean Dev?”
“Yes. The jelly bag brain,” Elaine responded. “Your little mech tech toy.”
Jess glanced at her. “You trying to piss me off on purpose?” she asked, in a mild tone.
The next moment she was inside the corridor, and Elaine had her blaster pressed against her ribs. “Yes, I am. Because I don’t know who this Jess Drake is, and I have to wonder if they didn’t get to you after all. The Jess I know would have shot me for saying that.”
Jess felt a sense of shock and belated awareness of danger. She looked intently at Elaine’s face. “You want me to shoot you?” she queried. “You don’t think we’ve got enough trouble here without you and I scrapping it out? Really?”
“They get you, Jess?” Elaine stared right back at her. “Let me end it. You don’t want that on you, not with your history.”
Jess felt the tension start to build in her. “They didn’t get me,” she replied. “Maybe I’m just tired.”
“Bullshit.”
“Maybe being able to trust my partner made a difference.”
“Bullshit.”
“Maybe I just got a thing for her.”
“Really?” Elaine unlocked the blaster. “I don’t think so. I think they bought you and now we’re just the remnants being turned over to those bastards.”
Jess’s fingertips twitched. “Don’t be stupid.”
“I’m not. You’ve been acting like a space case civ since you got back. Either they got you, or you’re on something. Either way, you ain’t running me.”
The motion surprised both of them, but Elaine more, as the weapon smacked against the far wall and Elaine was on the ground, bent over Jess’s knee, fingers gripping her throat like a vise, inches from having her back broken.
“Nobody bought me.” Jess’s voice held a familiar rasp. “And the last thing I took was a bio pack inhaler since I had to breathe water out there saving everyone’s ass.”
Elaine looked up and saw the ice veneer on those pale eyes and in that moment she relaxed completely, holding her hands up in surrender, palms exposed. “Now that’s more like it.”
Jess relaxed her fingers. “Just because I’m not a fucking maniac all the time doesn’t mean I turned,” she said. “That’s a bullshit thing to say.”
“You’re different,” Elaine said. “Look what it took to get you to do this.”
Was she? “I’m tired.” Jess straightened up and pulled Elaine up to her feet. “And Dev’s made a difference, but not what you think.” From an objective view, she didn’t even resent Elaine’s attack. She might have done it herself if they swapped positions.
She had been acting a little weird. A little soft, maybe, distracted by the focus on these new and strange emotions she’d been experiencing. Still, no call to shove a gun up her nose.
Elaine went over and retrieved her blaster, safing it and shoving it into her side mount holster. “So you’re not screwing with her? I don’t believe it. You can’t tell me those vibes are fake.”
“C’mon.” Jess led the way back through the cross-corridor and into the main, walking with long, impatient strides. “Our sleeping arrangements are really none of your fucking business.”
Elaine kept up with her. “What’s the big deal? I sleep with Jason, and with Tucker, and everyone knows it. We all knew you weren’t bunking with Josh, but you’ve never been shy about that.”
“Dev’s different.”
Elaine rolled her eyes. “No shit.”
“Not like that.” Jess felt suddenly uncomfortable. “She’s just a nice kid.”
They started down the slanted path to the storage bays, tucked at the base of the cliff where the stone held the chill all the time.
“She’s technically off limits,” Elaine suddenly said. “Not that I figure that would stop you.”
“Didn’t stop her.” Jess felt a faint flush color her cheeks and was glad of the gloom of the corridor. “She’s pretty close to being one of us.”
“Wishful thinking?”
Jess shook her head. “You saw the comp vid. Dev’s got a mind of her own.”
They walked in silence for a minute. “She’s not a regular bio anyway, that’s true,” Elaine said, finally. “Got some smarts and I think she’s stuck on you.”
They reached the end of the hall and Jess cycled the lock, palming the patch at the door and standing back as the stone lined steel ground open. It exposed a man lock, and they entered, waiting for the door behind them to completely close before they triggered the next one.
The sound of the hatch opening echoed loudly, and as they stepped through, they both went quiet, and still, as the panel slid shut behind them and closed with a grinding snick.
Inside the big cavern were irregularly shaped storage capsules, originally part of the rock structure but sealed off with heavy plas, and doors that were firmly shut. Jess drew her blaster and unlocked it, making no effort to muffle the sound. She let the echo of that fade too, and then moved forward into the space.
Elaine followed, moving a shoulder’s width to her left, shifting her blaster to her right hand. She touched the comms set and lowered her voice. “Ops, ack.”
“Ops,” Brent answered.
“Target?”
“Standby.”
They moved farther into the cavern and approached the first set of storage alcoves. Jess turned her head to the left, and then the right, straining her ears for any signs of life. The fact that no one had come to greet them made her now expect intruders and not refugees from the base, and she felt a sense of impatient anger rising.
Her own comms tickled her ear. “Jess?” Dev’s warm, slightly burring voice whispered. “Go,” Jess said.
“Comp sweep,” Dev said. “Comms set to loop.”
Jess stopped walking. “Repeat?”
“Comms set to loop,” Dev said again. “Admin lock, top sec.”
“What?” Elaine drifted over, watching her.
Jess turned and started back to the hatch. “Let’s go,” she said. “Dev, break it.”
“Ack.” Dev responded readily. “In work.”
They got to the door and Jess hit the pad, turning and putting her back to the wall as she swept the area in front of them. “Seems like something got hung up in comms,” she told Elaine. “Got the feeling we’re being drawn here.”
Elaine didn’t question it. She ducked into the hatch as it opened and turned in a circle with her blaster drawn, moving in pattern with Jess as they retreated behind the closing door.
The rumbling blast sent them back against the inner door, but the outer held, and as the inner keyed open they tumbled out and started back for ops at a run.
“Day is full of suckage,” Elaine remarked.
“Getting worse every minute.” Jess powered up the ramp toward the main operations corridor, as alarms started to blare and lights rapidly morphed from white to red. “And it’s starting to really, really piss me off.”
Chapter Seventeen
DEV FOCUSED INTENTLY on the screen, her fingers tapping lightly on the input surface as she ignored the sounds and vibrations of the room around her.
A piece of debris flew by her and she ducked, pressing her hands flat against the pad and then straightening, surprised to see the screen go blank, then show a process in progress. She looked down at her hands, then quickly looked around the room, hoping whatever it was she’d done wasn’t too disruptive.
The door burst open and Jess appeared, outlined in raging red light with Elaine behind her. “What’s up?”
“Somethin’ blew up in the cave,” Brent said. “Plas based, but our sig.”
Jess hauled up short. “Ours?”
Brent nodded. “Key frequency defense plus four,” he added. “Like maybe they thought you were the bad guys.”
“Huh.” Jess circled the console Dev was at and safed her gun. “El, secure med, and get everyone under cover,” she said. “Can we get comms to the cavern? Bitch if they’re some of us making a last stand.”
“No.” Dev sorted through the requests. “Comms is cut to that whole sector, and most of scan.” She indicated the boards. “This junction here appears damaged.”
The door opened again and Jess’s hand went to her blaster, then paused as Dan Kurok’s familiar outline appeared. “Ah. You.”
He had a toolkit strapped around his body and if no one had known better, he’d have been taken for any other tech in the corps. “I think we’ve got incoming.” He slid into a seat next to Brent and pulled a pad over. “Ahead of the storm.”
“Scan’s clear,” Brent said.
Dev pulled over a pad of her own and called up the link to her own carrier, parked on its pad in the damaged carrier bay. She accessed its systems and studied the output, keying in and starting a scan from its position. “Jess...”
Jess’s shoulder bumped hers as she leaned closer and her eyes tracked to the reading Dev’s finger was pointing to.
Dev heard the hitch in Jess’s breathing and felt her straighten up as the door opened yet again and April bolted in, blaster in hand.
“Someone was bringing the grid down.” April’s voice was breathless yet crisp. “I blew out a body in a cabinet but didn’t stop to pick up the pieces.”
“Brent, lock everything down,” Jess said. “Go to emergency code two, and seal everything you can.”
“Ack.” Brent went to work.
“No time to draw them elsewhere.” Jess slammed a hand against the console. “Fuck I’m tired of not knowing what the hell is going on.”
Dev spoke into her comms. “Yes, please move clear.” She triggered beam level protections in the carrier bay, watching the power re-balance as Brent sealed the access. She paused, then switched over to a second set of comm syncs. “Kaytee, Kaytee. Ops.”
“Here,” the soft voice answered.
“There is danger,” Dev said. “Incorrect persons are in the facility, doing damage.” She looked up to find Doctor Dan regarding her from the next console. “Please make yourselves safe.”
“We will take care,” the Kaytee responded. “May we make the incorrectness stop if it is possible?”
Dev looked at Doctor Dan. After a very brief moment, he nodded. “Yes,” Dev said, into the comms. “Doctor Dan says that is permitted.”
“We understand,” the Kaytee said, and the comms clicked off. Dev took a breath and released it, then shifted her attention to her carrier scan. “Jess, there are crafts coming toward this facility,” she said. “Systems are now stable,” she added, as she felt Jess’s hand touch her shoulder, fingers warm and powerful as they squeezed gently.
“All right, let’s seal everything we can, and make it—” Jess stopped speaking as the inner door to ops opened, the one that led to the technical spaces. She turned to face the door, drawing her weapon as it filled with large, armored bodies.
“Ah, ah.” A tall, gaunt figure eased past them. “No shooting, Agent Drake. These fellows have no sense of humor.” Alexander Bain had his own blaster firmly in his grip, though the muzzle was pointed at the ceiling.
The armored bodies had long blasters cradled in their arms, the security insignia of Interforce silver and bold on their chests. There were six of them, and they spread out to cover the agents in the room.
Jess left her free hand on Dev’s shoulder but shifted slightly so her body was between the guns and Dev. “Glad we bothered to clear the shuttle bay for you.” She kept Bain in view, the security agents in her peripheral vision.
“Alex.” Dan Kurok stood up and faced him. “What’s going on?”
“Ah, that’s the question isn’t it?” Bain paused behind the damaged master console at the top of the stepped rise. “As Agent Drake noted, I appreciated the effort to allow my cruiser to land. Fortunately it will also allow me to leave, once my business here is finished. Pity you interrupted that.” He glanced at April.
“You were taking the power down?” April asked hesitantly. “But—”
“Yes. This facility has become...hmm...let’s say a pawn in a much larger struggle. A down payment, as it were.” Bain studied them. “This will make an excellent forward base.”
Jess felt a sense of shock as the words penetrated, matching up with the faint, instinct driven suspicions that had started to bubble up in her. “For them.”
“Certainly,” Bain said, in a mild voice. “You should have listened to Mr. Bock, Drake. He was telling you the truth about it being over. It is.” He checked a chrono strapped to his wrist. “In perhaps an hour, the West coast facilities will be finding that out as well.”
Kurok walked forward, ignoring the gun muzzles swinging in his direction. “You sold out.”
“Oh, come now, DJ.” Bain waved his free hand. “You know better than anyone how fluid sides can be.” He leaned against the chair behind the console. “I thought perhaps you realized what was in the wind when you volunteered to be captured. Didn’t figure you’d be back so soon.” He produced a chilly smile. “Didn’t offer enough?”
Kurok’s posture shifted, just slightly, just enough to make Jess’s nape hairs prickle. “They didn’t offer me a dime, Alex,” he answered softly. “But then I didn’t go for that.”
Bain eyed him. “You went for Tagaron.”
Kurok smiled faintly.
“You always were a sentimental idiot.” Bain shook his head. “After all this time? I hope you left him intact.”
Doctor Dan’s smile broadened, but showed no real humor at all. “I’m afraid I didn’t.” He glanced at Jess. “I didn’t mention it at the time, but that’s why they were chasing me.” He looked back at Bain. “So now what, Alex? They just come in and take over?”
“Yes,” Bain said. “A foothold on this coast, then the rest. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to get the rest of our leadership on board with my plan, but no matter. It’s just a little more time.”
“So that’s why you’ve been blocking comms, and why Bock did,” Jess said calmly. “You didn’t want them to know.”
“Of course not,” Bain said. “And indeed, you proved yourself to be the one consistently inconsistent obstacle in this entire affair, Agent Drake. You never did what I expected.”
“Not even when you had Josh try to take me out?” Jess said.
“Indeed.” Bain tilted his head in her direction. “And you can see, I couldn’t allow you to leave the force after that, Drake. You’re far too dangerous.” He cleared his throat. “Stephen would have shot you, of course. You never would have gotten to the harvesters, not with Drake’s Bay coming into your control. Too much resistance there.”
“I’m not an easy kill,” Jess said, in a quiet voice.
“Certainly not,” Bain said.
Dev just sat there listening. There was so much going on that was wrong. She could see how angry Doctor Dan was, and she could feel the tension in Jess’s body, and the shock of the agents and techs in the room was almost palpable.
This was very, very bad. This was betrayal, like the betrayal Jess had suffered when her partner had damaged her in that other place. She could see it in Jess’s posture, and in Doctor Dan’s expression, and in the look of fury in April’s eyes.
“So,” Bain said. “I will ask you all to go into the recreation facility, where we will seal the doors. Then I’m sure our friends will find something entertaining to do with you. Terribly sorry about it all. Nothing personal, you understand. I appreciate all of your talents, I just cannot afford them at this time. Ah, ah, none of that.” He pointed his finger at April. “My dear, this suit I’m wearing will send that blast right back at you and I would hate to damage the equipment here.”
April slowly let her hand fall away from her gun, glaring at Bain with seething intensity.
The security agents pointed their blasters at them. “Put your weapons on the table.” The nearest one to Jess barked. “Or I’ll blow your arm off.”
Jess stared steadily at him, leaving her hand on her blaster, her nostrils flaring slightly as she stood quite still in the silence. “Sure you want to leave me behind?” She met Bain’s eyes directly. “I might just kill them all.”
Bain’s ice gray eyes narrowed a trifle.
“You said yourself I was too dangerous,” Jess said. “You feel safer with those six bozos or with me?” She ignored the looks of startled outrage from her erstwhile team. “Maybe I want to go with you.”
