Alexander Outland: Space Pirate (21 page)

Not that I had much of anywhere to go. Couldn’t go outside, couldn’t go into the women’s baths, since the girls had been pretty clear that exclusivity was their word for the day. I could either stand around in the staff area or go into the men’s locker room and sit on a hard bench. Opted for the bench because I figured I could hit a locker if I really needed to blow off some anger.

I sat on the bench that was the furthest away from the main area and stewed. What had I done? I’d tried to take care of her and it had made her mad. I had to figure she just hadn’t been as aroused when I’d kissed her as I’d been. Nowhere close, obviously. She just wanted me to want her, but not do anything about it. Fine. There were plenty of other girls in the galaxy. I knew. I’d slept with half of them.

Considered kicking or hitting something, but at the last moment experience waved and reminded me that this led to broken toes and bruised knuckles, and almost never made the rest of me feel any better, either.

I heard a sound behind me but didn’t bother to turn around. “Nap?” Slinkie’s voice was soft. “I’m sorry.”

“No problem. It’s been great flying with you. Enjoy life as Missus Lionside.”

I heard her sigh. “Nap, you’re such an idiot.”

“Thanks. Great parting shot, Slink. Sorry, all I can come up with is ‘you’re gorgeous’. You win.”

Her arms slid around my waist and she leaned her head against my back. “At first I thought you were sick and then I thought you were making fun of me and then I thought it was just an elaborate ruse so you could see me naked.”

“Because I do that all the time. And I feel fine.” Well, I felt like I belonged in the sewage tank, but I wasn’t ill.

“Well, yeah, you tease me a lot. And I know you spy on me in the shower. All the time,” she added dryly.

“When have I ever run in with a gun drawn as a joke?”

She sighed again. I could feel her chest move against my back. My lower body mentioned that the rest of me should pay attention and not cause her to stop. “Never. Nap, I’m sorry. It’s just been a long couple of days.”

“Yeah. So, seriously, you’re ready to stay here with Lionside, aren’t you?”

Another sigh, another happy moment for my lower body. The rest of me didn’t feel nearly as good. “No, you moron. He’s okay, but I’m not in love with him. I’m flirting with him to get information and to keep us safe. You’re the one who insisted I make a date with him, if you’d care to recall.”

“Yeah.” I
was
an idiot, clearly.

Slinkie hugged me. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“What makes you think my feelings are hurt? I’m great.”

She chuckled, which my lower body said was as acceptable as her sighing. “You’re just like a cat right now. Keeping your back turned to me because you’re mad.” Slinkie hugged me again and snuggled closer. My lower body asked if it would be possible to turn around and move her into my lap.

“Okay. Maybe my feelings are a little hurt.”

“I liked kissing you.”

“My feelings are crushed beyond belief.”

She laughed. “I really liked kissing you.”

“I may have to commit suicide, my feelings are so badly shattered.”

“Oh, no. Maybe I should kiss you once more.”

I used the patented Outland Flip which moved Slinkie from my back into said lap in a matter of moments. “I don’t know, what if it doesn’t help?”

She gave me the dove-look. “Then I’ll just have to kiss you again.”

My Great-Aunt Clara always said the third time was the charm. I don’t know what she thought that meant, or why she felt it was good advice to impart, but I had to admit that kissing Slinkie for the third time gave me hope that I might have a real shot with her.

Kiss number three certainly had a lot going for it. Slinkie’s arms were around my neck, she was snuggled in my lap, and we were alone. Already a huge improvement over the prior two kisses. The floor was clean, and besides, we could always take another bath, this time together.

I was about to shift us to the floor when I heard a loud banging. I considered ignoring it, but it was persistent. It was also familiar. I’d heard banging like this many times in the past.

We pulled apart. “What’s your guess—Herion Military, jealous boyfriends, or the Business Bureau?”

Slinkie stood up. “The way our luck’s running on this rock? All three.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured. You get Tanner, I’ll hold whoever it is off.”

“Be careful, I don’t think we have a lot of escape options from here.”

“Oh, we can always run back to the sewage plant.”

Slinkie snorted and ran off towards the women’s bath. I pulled my trusty laser gun again and headed for the back door.

There was no window for the back, either in the wall or the door, so I was sort of stuck. I was also glad I’d shoved a chair under, because whoever was outside was trying to force their way in, and the chair was helping. It wasn’t going to last forever, but at least it gave me a little time to think.

I took the risk and ran to the front. No one at the front door. I took more risk and went up to it. No one I could see, at least no one who appeared remotely threatening. There were people out there, but no one was acting in a way that would indicate they were part of the military, the Business Bureau, or even noticed the bath house was here.

Experience had taught me how to spot the official lurkers, those trying too hard to look casual, and there weren’t any of them out front, either. So, whoever it was wanted to keep a reasonably low profile. That probably let out Herion Military.

I went back to the rear door. The pounding was still going on. Slinkie ran up. “Tanner and the girls are getting dressed. The girls insist they don’t have friends or relatives who would be doing the jealous boyfriend act.”

“That leaves the Business Bureau.”

“No,” Tanner said as he skidded to a stop next to us, boots and pants on, shirt and jacket on but not buttoned, gun belts over his shoulder. “We have to go, right now!” He grabbed me and Slinkie, and headed us to the front door. The girls were already there.

Suzie pulled at the door. “It’s stuck!”

“Tanner, button up.” I reached down and pulled out my impromptu doorstop. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Suzie jerked the door open and she and the other girls fled. “Take the kisses goodbye for granted,” she called over her shoulder.

Tanner grabbed me and Slinkie and dragged us out after them. “Run. Head for the sewage plant.” He took off, we went after him.

“What about the explosives?”

“I have them, Nap.” Slinkie handed me one case. “Tanner has his guns, I have the extras.” I took a couple off her hands.

“What’s going on?” I called to Tanner, who was still ahead of us, but not by too much.

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than there was a huge explosion from behind us. We were all knocked to the ground. I scrambled to my feet and pulled Slinkie up. Tanner grabbed the explosives case from her. “Keep running!” He took off again.

We followed, but I kept a hold of Slinkie’s hand. I risked a look over my shoulder. “Hey, that was the bath house.”

“Yeah, I picked that up. I don’t think that was the Business Bureau calling, Nap.”

“Nitin or the Land League, then.”

“Land League.” Tanner ran back to us. “Do you have any way of reaching the Governor?” He pulled us into a side street.

“Why?”

“Herion Military has the sewage plant blocked off due to the rupture. We have to get out of here, now.” He sounded close to panicked.

“Tanner, deep breaths. Well, as deep as you can stand.” The smell of sewage was still full in the air. “What’s going on?”

“The Land League’s after us. I think the ship is fine, because they don’t know we’re the ones who were in the reclamation suits. But—” Before he could finish, we all heard another explosion. This one was farther away, none of us were even rocked. But the blast was impressive. “Oh, my Dear Feathered Lord.” Tanner’s voice was a horrified whisper.

I thought fast. “They just blew up the Crazy Bear, didn’t they?”

He nodded. “There were so many people inside….” It was dark, but not pitch black, and I could see his face had drained of color.

Slinkie let go of my hand and put her arms around Tanner. “It’ll be okay,” she said softly. He put his arms around her, too, and buried his face in her neck. She stroked his hair and patted his back. I didn’t get jealous—he was shaking and I knew he was close to
losing it.

I put my hand on his shoulder. “Kid, we have to move. I can reach the Governor while we go. Come on—if they kill us, then they win.”

“Give us a second, Nap.” Slinkie made eye contact with me. Okay, correct that—the kid had lost it. But he didn’t need to know that I knew.

“Okay, easier for me if we’re not moving. But, let’s get into the shadows.” I moved them back so they were in a doorway, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed.

“I heard the explosions,” the Governor said by way of hello. “Did we lose anyone?”

“No, but it was a close thing. We need you to come pick us up. Unfortunately, I think you’re going to have to be obvious, because we don’t have time for you to be stealthy. Herion Military’s around the sewage plant, we’re a few blocks away from the bath house, the bath house that was just blown up.”

“How’s the ship?”

“Randolph and Audrey are there, hopefully it’s fine.”

“On my way. Please be ready to move quickly, Alexander.”

“I think we’ve given Randolph enough time.”

“If we haven’t, we still need to get spaceborne.”

“It’s what they want.” I tried to say it calmly, but it came out as a snarl.

“Yes, I’m sure I’ve arrived at the same conclusion as you. However, we may have to do what they want. For now. We won’t do what they want for long, Alexander. I promise you.”

“Why are you so sure?”

He chuckled. “Because I know you. How is young Tanner doing?” “Ah….” I took a look. “A little better.”

“From experience, telepaths have a very hard time with witnessing mass murder. You and Miss Slinkie will probably have to take care of him, longer than you might think.”

“Yeah, I’m picking that up. Speaking of which, are you coming to pick us up, or are we just running for the spaceport and praying
we don’t get blown up along the way?”

He sighed. “Coming. I’ll be there soon. Please be ready.” He hung up.

“The Governor’s on his way. We’ll need to move fast when he gets here.”

“Nap, why would they blow up the Crazy Bear when we weren’t there yet?” Slinkie was rocking Tanner. I still didn’t get the feeling he was going for the cheap and easy feel. I got the feeling the kid was trying not to have hysterics.

“They’re anal-retentive and really thorough? No idea, Slink.”

Tanner straightened up. “They got the Business Bureau.” Tanner’s voice shook, but he sounded like he was sort of together. “Lionside’s still alive, because he’s out looking for me.” Tanner jerked. “In fact, he’s close. He and his team are coming to investigate the bath house explosion.”

“Were we lucky and was Nitin killed in the Crazy Bear?”

“No idea, but I’d bet not.” Tanner gulped. “We need to move.”

“We move, the Governor loses our position.” Our cell phones had Universal Position Monitoring in them. But UPM only worked when the phones were engaged. So the Governor knew where I’d been when I’d called him. If we moved, he’d have to call me to find me—and if Lionside and other Herion Military were nearby, we couldn’t afford to have a phone ring at an inopportune moment. And our luck ensured that if the Governor had to call, it would be at a bad time.

We all heard the sounds of footsteps at the same time, and all three of us moved further back into the doorway, guns at the ready.

I
put Slinkie and Tanner behind me. I didn’t want her getting hurt and the kid was clearly not going to be up to much for a while. Besides, one of them might have an issue with shooting Lionside, and I knew I didn’t.

“Men, fan out from here.” Lionside was close. “Give me regular reports.” I heard footsteps fade away. Then I heard footsteps coming towards us. “I know you’re here. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t shoot me.”

My gun was pointing at him, but I didn’t say anything. Someone saying they knew you were around and them actually knowing you were and where you were hiding were not always mutually inclusive.

Lionside looked around, then stepped nearer to us. “Outland, we don’t have a lot of time. Please put your gun down. I don’t plan on arresting you. Unless one of my men spots us talking, that is. So time is of the essence.”

I could tell he could see us, he was only a few feet away. “You talk, maybe I’ll holster.”

He sighed. “Fine. I know you’re not the ones responsible for all the chaos and destruction. I have a man missing, no idea if he’s alive or dead, or if he’s involved or not. But he’s not the real problem.”

“The Land League and the pirate armada are the real problem.”

“Yes. If it’s really a pirate armada. You’re the only ones who’ve seen it. That’s why they want you and your crew dead, I’m sure.”

“Part of why. Let’s take your missing man out of the equation.” I made sure I was fully in front of Tanner. He was taller than me, but only by a couple of inches, so all Lionside was likely able to see was the top of the kid’s head. Hard to make a confirmed identification based on wet, tousled hair. “Who do you think’s behind this?”

“The same man you think is behind it. Nitin.” He spat the name out. “My men found a room filled with poisoned gas, and this was in it.” He held up a necklace. Slinkie’s necklace, the one that had the bug-spotter in it. I hadn’t realized she’d lost it, and clearly neither had she. “Is she still alive?”

“So far, all my crew’s still alive.”