Marathon: The Complete Series (Books 1-9) (Complete Series Box Sets), page 56
part #1 of Marathon Series
He almost regretted his decision to take over Aistenz’s empire. He’d enjoyed being independent and unknown all these years. He didn’t resent Alice for her decision. He envied her.
When the Marathon finally docked on the Atera’s landing platform, Eckhart went down to the cargo hold with Dallas and Bing. “You two go up to the command center and wait for me there. I want to talk to you both.”
“What do you want to talk to us about there that you can’t talk to us about here?” Dallas asked.
“I’ll explain it all when we get there. Go on.”
The two friends exchanged glances, and then shrugged before they headed off. Eckhart almost left, too, when Rixby showed up. “I found DeWalt, Eckhart. He’s at Oiwei Station.”
Eckhart raised his eyebrows. “Is that so?”
“Why does it matter which station he’s at? He’s just as dangerous there as anywhere else.”
“He’s more dangerous because he’s deeper inside fringe territory. The Regiment must be about to use him.”
“Is that all you want me to do?” Rixby asked.
“Not all. I want you to make a decision now about whether you’re staying or leaving. Do you want to stay here and help us get DeWalt back, or do you want to leave and stay independent?”
“How can you even ask that, Eckhart? You know I’m staying.”
“All right. I just wanted to make sure you’re sure.”
“I’m sure, Eckhart,” she insisted. “I’m insulted that you would even ask.”
He had to smile at her. “I’m sorry. Now could you please go back up to the command center and meet up with Dallas and Bing? I need to talk to the three of you.”
“Okay.” She waddled off and left him alone in the Marathon’s cargo hold.
Only now, when he was totally alone, did he allow his emotions to come to the surface. He’d known this would be hard, but he didn’t think it would be as hard as this.
He went back up to the bridge, and this time, Alice rose from her seat, turned around, and confronted him. “It’s time, Eckhart.”
“Yeah.” Tears stung his eyes when he gazed into her black sockets. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I’ll never forget you, and…I’ll owe you for life. If there’s anything I can do for you, just tell me.”
“You’ve done enough, Eckhart. Just don’t try to stop me from leaving.”
“I won’t stop you. In fact…” He choked on the words. “I want you to take the Marathon.”
She stared at him. “You’re insane.”
“Not really. I won’t need it anymore. I want you to take it. Consider it compensation for all the jobs when I couldn’t pay you what you’re worth.”
“I can’t take the Marathon, Eckhart. This ship…it’s like your right arm.”
He had to smile, and he didn’t even try to control his face. The softness in her tone hurt too much. “I know. That’s why I want you to have it. I know you’ll take care of it and make good use of it. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have it. Just do me one favor as payment, and take Innyria back to Parilia. Then we’ll call it even.”
She kept still for a long time, and then sighed through her mask. He’d never seen her let her guard down like this. “I’ll take the ship, but we’ll call it a loan. If you ever want it back, just ask.”
“Okay.” He smiled again, and one tear streaked down his cheek. He would never ask for the Marathon back. He never wanted it back. He wanted her to have it. Maybe then she would understand how he felt about her. He couldn’t think of any other way to show her.
She still didn’t move. She didn’t go over to the command seat. She just stared at him.
He couldn’t stand the silence any longer. He walked up to her and put his arms around her for the first and only time. He hugged her bony, unforgiving frame.
She stiffened at first and then, without warning, she pressed her hand to his back, just once.
That was enough. He broke away and whispered, “Bye,” before he walked out. He didn’t give himself a chance to look at the ship on his way back downstairs. He wiped tears off his face and managed to pull himself together by the time he stepped out onto the landing platform.
Innyria came up to him when Eckhart approached the elevator. “You okay, man?” Innyria asked.
Eckhart nodded with difficulty. “I just said goodbye to Alice. She’s agreed to take you back to Parilia.”
“Okay. I guess so.”
Eckhart bumped his friend’s shoulder. “You don’t want to stick around here. Go back to Parilia where you belong.”
“Thanks, Eckhart—again. I owe you even bigger for this than I did before.”
Eckhart laughed it off. “Forget it.”
“You always say that, but I can’t forget it. You know where to find me if you need me.”
“Yeah. I do.” Eckhart hugged Innyria, too, but it didn’t carry the same weight as parting from Alice.
Both men smiled when they separated, and Eckhart watched Innyria climb on board the Marathon. The engines fired up and the ship lifted off. It turned out of the Atera’s hold and drifted off before the engines flared. The ship raced away and vanished into the stars.
7
Eckhart gathered his resolve riding the elevator up to the command center. Alice was gone. Innyria was gone. The Marathon was gone.
No more lies. No more running around like a rat. Aistenz’s empire needed a leader. The whole fringe alien population needed a hero right now, and Eckhart found himself becoming that person on these rides up and down the Atera’s internal elevator.
He knew exactly what he had to do. He had to become a crime lord as bad as Aistenz—or worse than Aistenz. The galaxy needed that right now, not another worthless unknown mercenary. It needed someone merciless, single-minded, and unwavering. It needed someone who would stop at nothing to do what had to be done.
He braced himself for the battle when the car stopped outside the command center. He would do it, and not because he had to. He would do it because he was born for this. It had been in his DNA since birth. He just didn’t see it until now.
Aistenz had seen it. Aistenz had tried to bring Eckhart into his network when Eckhart was a seventeen-year-old street kid, but Eckhart wasn’t ready then.
He stepped out to find Dallas, Bing, and Rixby all waiting for him. They weren’t the only ones.
Akkek Stratha stood nose to nose with Squids, yelling at the poor man while the rest of the command center staff watched in horror. None of them would dare to raise their voices to Squids—not ever.
“I demand to see Aistenz now!” she roared. “What have you done with him? Why isn’t he on this ship anymore? He’s nowhere in the whole fleet. Where is he? Do you think I came all the way here to answer to you?”
Squids cowered before her wringing his hands. “I’m dreadfully sorry, Miss Stratha, but—”
“Don’t give me your pathetic excuses!” Akkek cut in. “Just answer the damn question. How many times do I have to stand here and repeat it?”
“I can’t…” Squids cast a desperate glance around at the listening command center staff.
Eckhart stepped in. “I’ll handle this.” He took Akkek’s elbow. “Come here.”
“No!” She ripped her arm out of his grasp. “Leave me alone! I told you before. I didn’t come back here to answer to you or Aistenz or anyone else. If these idiots would only tell me where he is, I’d tell him myself. I’m not afraid of Aistenz, Squids. You might be, but some of us still have some backbone.”
“I know you aren’t afraid of Aistenz, Miss Stratha,” Squids began. “I just…”
“Forget it,” Eckhart interrupted. “Come on, Akkek. I’ll take you upstairs myself to see Aistenz. I’m going there myself.”
Squids spun around with a gasp. “What?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.” Eckhart tugged Akkek’s arm again. “Come on. We’ll all go together. You come, too, Squids.” Eckhart nodded to Dallas, Bing, and Rixby. “Come on, all of you. We’re going upstairs to see Aistenz.”
Squids stood rooted to the spot. He gawked at Eckhart with his mouth open as though Eckhart had completely taken leave of his senses.
Akkek took a moment to realize that Eckhart was serious. Then she marched over to the elevator and stormed inside. She stood there waiting for the others to load up.
Bing shrugged and went in there to join her. Dallas and Rixby followed, and Eckhart finally stepped inside. “Let’s go, Squids,” Eckhart repeated in a harder, more cutting tone.
Squids reacted instantly and stepped inside the car with them. They rode upstairs in a tense silence. Akkek kept shooting nasty glares at Squids, who did his absolute best to stare at the wall.
Bing and Rixby kept looking at everyone, and Eckhart could swear he spotted Bing grinning.
Halfway there, Bing turned to Eckhart. “Does Aistenz need any more Eplite treatments?”
Eckhart skipped a beat trying to come up with an appropriate answer. “I don’t think so, no.”
That was the extent of the conversation. When the doors opened, Eckhart led the way over to Aistenz’s apartment, while Squids dragged his feet and wrung his hands at the very back of the crowd.
Eckhart could only assume Squids had already disposed of Aistenz’s body. That must be why Akkek didn’t detect Aistenz on the Atera or any of Aistenz’s other ships.
Squids became even more agitated when Eckhart opened the apartment doors and escorted everyone inside. Dallas, Bing, and Rixby looked everywhere for Aistenz, but of course, Aistenz wasn’t there.
“What the hell is this?” Akkek demanded. “Is this another trick? Where is Aistenz? Don’t think you can get away with going back on our bargain, Eckhart.”
“I have no plans to go back on our bargain. I brought you here to tell you that Aistenz Trotaer is dead.”
The others stared at him. “When? How?” Akkek stammered. “What happened?”
“We don’t know how it happened. Squids found him dead a few days ago. That’s all we know. Aistenz is dead, and now we’re going to use his fleet and his resources to find DeWalt and stop this Regiment plot. That’s all we really need to know.”
“That will never work,” Akkek countered. “A criminal organization this big needs a leader. No one will do their jobs without one man at the top who can enforce the rules and make everyone else fall in line.”
“As it happens, Aistenz left a successor. That successor is already in command of Aistenz’s empire, and has been ever since Aistenz died.”
“That changes everything,” Rixby replied. “If Aistenz’s people don’t approve of this successor, they won’t help defeat the Regiment. Everything depends on showing them that the successor is as powerful as Aistenz was.”
“Who is this successor?” Akkek asked. “How do we know we can even trust him?”
Eckhart took a deep breath. “I’m the successor. I’m taking over Aistenz’s organization.”
Both Bing and Dallas burst out laughing. “Good one, Eckhart!” Bing spluttered. “Who’s the successor, really?”
“I’m telling you the truth. I’ve been in command of this fleet since we came back from Black Mountain.” Eckhart turned to Akkek. “I meant what I said. You can work independently. I don’t expect you to come under my authority, and I wouldn’t be able to make you do it even if I wanted to. I’m only asking you to help us to protect the fringes. That’s all.”
She narrowed her eyes at him so dangerously that he fully expected her to walk out on him and abandon the whole project. In the end, she sized him up with unflinching scrutiny. “I guess it could be a lot worse. At least I know who I’m dealing with.”
“Thank you,” he breathed. “I don’t know what you need from me, but if you want to stay on the Atera…”
“I have other things to do. I’ll be leaving, and I’ll come back when you go out to fight the Regiment at Oiwei.”
“How will I get in touch with you when I need you?”
“You won’t. I’ll keep an eye on things. I’ll know when you need me.”
“I won’t say I like it, but I guess I have no choice but to accept it.”
Akkek actually smiled, and she looked genuinely happy for the first time since he met her at the Silvercloud Vault. “No. You don’t.”
“So…are you just gonna leave?”
“Unless you have some other revelation to make.”
“No. That was it.”
She nodded. “I’ll see you in a few days, then.”
She vanished in front of his eyes, and Eckhart sighed. “I really wish she wouldn’t do that.”
“So…” Bing tiptoed into the room, glancing right toward the curved pillar and left toward Aistenz’s empty bed. “Is he really gone? Are you really the head honcho now?”
Eckhart chuckled. “Looks an awful lot like it.”
“This is great!” Dallas exclaimed. “No one will ever screw with us again, and we don’t have to go shooting the place to hell just to get paid.”
“What do you want us to do first?” Rixby asked. “How do you want to go about getting DeWalt back?”
“We’re going to Oiwei to get him. Did you find any information about where on the station they might be holding him?”
“His exact location is buried under heavy classified security measures, but an encrypted message definitely went out that Coleman DeWalt was logged into custody at Oiwei Station. The message left Oiwei for Earth a few days after we left Pheste, and he’s been there ever since.”
“So that’s a no,” Bing translated. “We don’t know where on the station they’re holding him.”
“Which means we can’t just fly in and start shooting,” Dallas added.
“We can’t take the chance that the rest of the fleet will fly in and start shooting, either,” Eckhart finished.
Bing looked around him again. “Where’s Alice? Why didn’t she come with us?”
“She’s gone,” Eckhart replied. “She wanted to leave, so she took the Marathon and—”
“She took the Marathon!” Bing gasped.
“Did she steal it?” Dallas asked.
“Of course not. I gave it to her.”
Rixby, Bing, and Dallas exchanged another, much longer glance.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Eckhart told them. “We can do this without Alice. I made her a promise that I wouldn’t try to stop her from leaving, and that’s exactly what I would have been doing if I told her I was in charge of Aistenz’s fleet now. She wanted to leave, and I made it easy for her. Now it’s on us to deal with the Regiment. We have all of Aistenz’s power, and we have Akkek. That’s enough.”
“You’re the boss, Eckhart.” Rixby waddled over to the door, and Squids moved out of the way to let her by. “I’ll be in the command center if you need me.”
Eckhart faced Bing and Dallas. “Well? What do you want to do?”
“You know I’m with you,” Dallas replied. “I just don’t know how much good I’ll be to you. This will be an air battle, and I can’t fly.”
“Well, you can,” Bing pointed out. “You have your jet thrusters.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Actually,” Eckhart interjected, “we have ground troops moving into position. We’ll land them on Oiwei during the battle to overrun the station. I want you to lead the ground assault.”
“Oh, yeah!” Dallas replied. “That sounds perfect.”
“What about me?” Bing asked.
“We’re going to send you undercover like you did with Vora.”
“But the Regiment doesn’t use Yakits,” Dallas pointed out. “They don’t let the alien scum—”
“Watch it, pal,” Bing interrupted.
“The Regiment doesn’t have to use Yakits,” Eckhart replied. “They trade in stolen goods and illicit products.”
“What do you have in mind?” Bing asked.
“You and I are going for a little ride. We’re going to pull the same thing we pulled at Kukuri, but on a much smaller scale.”
“How do you mean?” Dallas asked.
“I’ll take Bing to Oiwei and offer to sell him to the Regiment. That will get both of us onto the station to look for DeWalt while you organize the ground assault. Rixby can launch the air strike, and once we find DeWalt, Akkek will come in to deal with the Regiment for us.”
Dallas moved his head back and forth. “Do you honestly think that will work?”
“It’s got Eckhart written all over it,” Bing added. “It’s the most Eckhart plan that ever was.”
“Well?” Eckhart asked. “Can you see any flaws in it?”
“Besides the obvious stupidity of it all?” Bing asked. “Not really.”
“Does that mean you’re ready to go with me?”
Bing laughed. “Why not? If there’s a chance I could get killed in a blaze of gunfire, I’m right there.”
Eckhart beamed at his friend. “Thanks, buddy.”
“Where should I go to deal with the ground troops?” Dallas asked.
“They’re assembling on Tictus,” Squids interjected, “but they already have their own battalion commanders and generals.”
“Dallas is in charge of the generals as of now,” Eckhart ordered. “Bing and I will leave for Oiwei. We’ll send you a signal when we find DeWalt.”
“How will you do that?” Dallas asked. “You’ll both be under deep cover.”
“Rixby will bring the fleet to surround the station from the air assault. You’ll bring in the troops to surround the station on the ground. I’ll set off some kind of explosion to tell you when to launch the strike.”
“An explosion,” Bing muttered. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“So Bing and I will need a ship—something that can’t be traced back to either the Marathon or to Aistenz’s network.”
“If I may make a suggestion,” Squids added, “we do have a few craft confiscated from Black Mountain. They’re still registered as belonging to the Lion Tribe.”
“That’s perfect. Let’s go.”
8
