Kill Shot: A Remnant of the Commonwealth, Book Two (18 page)

It took about forty minutes for the train to reach the station near his hotel, and it was quite a relief once Aaron stepped off. Once again he had to fight his way through a station overloaded with people, but this time he didn’t mind so much. He was away from the danger, and these people just helped hide him all the more.

He emerged from the station and walked along the street. The sun was starting to go down and he found the cooling temperature relaxing.

It was a short walk to his hotel and he was pleased that things were exactly as they had been before. There weren’t any signs of increased security, no police waiting for him to arrive. The sick-looking man was at the desk, and Aaron chose to avoid him, even though he was pleased even to see the sick man. One more thing that was normal, and he suddenly found himself liking normal. He stepped into the stairwell and paused—looking upward and sighing. Seven flights of stairs.
Oh well,
Aaron thought,
one more time up and then one more time down!

He climbed the stairs slowly, his tired body complaining the whole way. At long last he reached the seventh floor and stopped on the landing. He waited a moment, catching his breath
, then opened the door. He stepped into the seventh-floor hallway and froze. A man sat on the floor in front of Aaron’s hotel room door. Even though the man sat with his head leaning forward and his face hidden, Aaron knew who it was. It was Thomas.

Chapter 22

The
Long Shot
landed at landing bay Alpha seventy-four and Susan was pissed. They had reached the planet nearly three hours ago, but they had been held up by Port Control and it was driving her nearly out of mind. She was worried about Aaron, but there also was this little issue of cargo to deliver.

As soon as Adam set the ship down she bolted from th
e bridge, heading for the cargo bay. Even before she reached it, the buzzer was already ringing.

The buzzer nearly made her heart skip a beat.
Surely Richard wasn’t already here,
she thought.
Customs? Woodson’s people?
That last thought made her insides tighten up and her mouth went dry. But there was precious little she could do about it now. Remain calm and lie through her teeth if necessary.

She ran out into the hold and Terry was standing near the cargo
-door controls. He was looking out the small viewport. “Who is it?” she called to Terry.

Terry glanced back and said, “It’s that old man who hired us. Looks like he’s got a bunch of goons with him.”

For the briefest of moments, Susan misunderstood that remark. Her first thought was that they had been found out and the “goons” were here to escort them to a cell, but then her paranoia dissipated a bit and she realized that Richard couldn’t carry twenty tons of fish away on his own. They must be cargo workers.

“Open it up,” she called.

Terry pressed the button and the ramp descended slowly.

Richard stood at the bottom of the ramp with a bunch of men
; some of them were muscular and the others were fat. Susan could now see the cargo transports farther off in the distance.

Richard slowly climbed the ramp, his eyes raking over the crates in the hold. His eyes came to rest on Susan. “Everything okay? I don’t see the second cargo.”

Susan nodded. “Everything’s fine. I have the second cargo out of sight until the custom’s inspection.”

Richard smiled. “There won’t be an inspection,” he said. He opened his mouth to say more, but cut off at the sound of a new voice.

“Oh, yes there will,” the new arrival called.

Richard
and Susan turned to see a large, muscular man stalking up the ramp. A group of armed men had taken up positions around the cargo workers.

The
man moved into the light. He wasn’t just muscular, he was abnormally large. It was like someone had shoved a water hose up the man’s ass and turned it on. He looked swollen, like he might pop at any moment.

“Reece?” Richard said, sounding confused. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Orders,” Reece said simply.

“Orders? But we have a deal with your boss, remember? He helps us get our cargo in without inspections.”

Reece nodded. “That changed today when he was shot down like an animal.”

Susan took a deep breath. So Aaron had succeeded in killing Woodson. Part of her was thankful that it was done, but there also was a part that was saddened by the news. Like it or not, she was a part of it. She had given it her blessing and that made her partly responsible. More important at the moment, she now knew that Reece worked for Woodson.

Richard blinked several times. “Surely, you don’t suspect us in that?”

Reece snorted. “I don’t suspect anybody. My orders are that every ship will be searched after they arrive and before they take off again.” He looked around at the crates. “Tell me what you got here and don’t leave anything off.” This time his words were directed to Susan and not Richard.

Susan hesitated, glancing to Richard. He caught her look and nodded quickly.

“We have twenty
tons of Brazziouri,” Susan said. “It’s a type of . . .”

“I know what it is,” Reece snapped. “Anything else?”

Susan took a deep breath and glanced at Richard again. He nodded for her to continue.

“We also have two tons of PG hidden in a special compartment.”

Reece nodded. “Have your men open each crate,” he said to Richard. “We’ll inspect them and then they can take it away. After that, we’ll inspect the PG.” After the briefest of pauses, Richard nodded. Reece looked back to Susan. “Anything else?” he demanded.

She sighed and shook her head. She so dearly hoped that Aaron wouldn’t show up for at least an hour or so.

Chapter
23

In a flash, Aaron drew the Oliver handgun from his shoulder holster. He turned, looking up and down the hallway, half-expecting to see Eric running at him, but the hall was deserted. Deserted and silent.

Aaron swallowed hard, trying to work up a bit of moisture. This was
n’t the homecoming he had hoped for.

He checked the hallway one more time and then strode over to Thomas. He pointed the Oliver at the sitting man’s head and then kicked him with his foot.

Thomas started and raised his head to look up.

Startled, Aaron took an involuntary step back. “Gods above! What happened to you?”

Thomas’s face was battered and bruised. His eyes were swollen and nearly closed up—it was amazing that he could see anything. His lip had also been busted, and Aaron thought he might even be missing a tooth or two.

“Aaron?” Thomas croaked. He sounded as bad as he looked.

Aaron checked the hallway again, still afraid that someone might be sneaking up on him. It was still as empty as before.

“What happened to you?” Aaron repeated. He was still pointing the gun at Thomas’s face, but he no longer felt he would need it. Thomas
looked like a man who had been beaten to within an inch of his life.

“Trouble,” Thomas said slowly.

Thomas was talking slowly and a bit awkwardly. Aaron suspected he had been right about the missing teeth.

“Trouble,” Thomas repeated, “men came for us. They got Eric.”

Sighing now, Aaron put the Oliver away in its holster. Then he reached down and grabbed Thomas’s shoulders and heaved him to his feet. Thomas swayed and for a moment, Aaron thought he might collapse. But the moment passed and Thomas remained standing, although he did lean against Aaron for support.

Aaron took a step closer to the door and unlocked it. He pushed it open and
helped Thomas inside.

Thomas sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. He looked like he might be sick at any moment, but Aaron didn’t much care. He didn’t know what they had done to get into trouble with the law, and he rather resented Thomas coming here.

Aaron froze with his hands outstretched to open the small safe. He desperately wanted the feel of the Horace handgun on his hip, but a new thought had penetrated his stressed-out mind.

“How did you know where I was?” he asked.

“What?” Thomas asked, looking up.

“How did you know I was here?” Aaron repeated.

Thomas shrugged. “Saw you that first night. You know, that first night when we made planetfall. Saw you heading into this hotel. Didn’t think much of it, as I had other things on my mind.”

Aaron snorted. He remembered the “other things” that had been on Thomas’s mind that first night. He seemed to remember the “other thing” on Thomas’s arm had been blonde.

“Anyway,” Thomas continued, “when I got here, I threatened the receptionist and he told me what room you were in.”

So why didn’t the sick bastard call the cops?
was Aaron’s first thought, but even as it crossed his mind he thought he knew the answer. Most of these hotels that catered to spacers wanted the cops to steer clear. Cops were bad for business. The sickly receptionist didn’t know what was going on between Thomas and Aaron and he probably didn’t much care, as long as it happened quietly.

Aaron turned back to the wall and opened the safe. He removed the
Horace and checked the charge, pleased to see that none of the charge had slipped away. Sometimes plasmics would lose their charge over time. It tended to happen more with older or cheap guns. The Horace was neither cheap nor old and was still fully charged.

He turned back to Thomas, strapping the gun on his waist as he did so.

“So what did you do to get into trouble with the law? Is it serious?”

Thomas looked confused. “What do you mean?”

Now Aaron was confused. His first thought was that perhaps Thomas had a concussion or something—it was certainly possible with the way he had been beaten.

“You said you were in trouble,” Aaron prompted.

Thomas nodded his head vigorously one time, winced, and then held his head still. “Yeah, we’re in trouble, but it’s not with the cops.”

“Then who?” Aaron asked, his eyebrows pulling down in confusion.
I don’t have time for this!
he thought.

“I don’t know who they were,
” Thomas said, “but they weren’t really looking for us.”

Aaron shook his head and shrugged. “What does that mean?”

“They took us, but they asked us about you.”

The words made Aaron’s skin go cold
, and chills danced up and down his spine. “Me?” he said dumbly.

Thomas nodded, grimaced, and began rubbing
his neck. “Yeah, you, Susan, Adam, Russell, and the doc.”

Each name was like a kick to the gut
, and his mind whirled through the possibilities. Woodson’s people was the first thought but, of course, it wasn’t them. Even if Woodson had known about Aaron, he wouldn’t have known about the rest of them.

Could it be Locke’s people?
he thought.
Could one of them be betraying us?

The endless horrible possibilities were flowing through his thoughts now and then the really bad one came to mind.
Oh God! Could it be the Miram Union?

“Describe them,” Aaron commanded
, and then he started at the sound of his own voice. He was surprised at how steady it sounded.

“I saw five of them,” Thomas said. “Three men and two women. They burst into our hotel when we were alone and took Eric and me.
” He shrugged, looking confused. “They took us several days ago. I’m not exactly sure when, three or four days ago.” A haunted look stole over Thomas’s features and his eyes went glassy. “There was something strange about them. When they came through the door, I was standing near the table. My gun was on it and my mind was screaming to grab the gun up, but I couldn’t move. One of the men seemed to move funny. It was weird. He would be standing in one place and then he would be somewhere else. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Aaron stared at Thomas
, and it felt like his stomach was being twisted into knots. The people that Thomas described did sound strange, but in a way they also sounded familiar. They sounded vaguely like Aaron and his group from the Commonwealth army.

Aaron’s mind was a panicky jumble of thoughts, but there was a flash of insight and he asked, “How did you get away?” Once again he was astounded at how normal his voice sounded.

Thomas looked up. Once again he looked like he might be sick. “They questioned me for hours this morning.” His face left little doubt as to the means they used to get answers. “I don’t think I told them anything—I was still managing to resist.” He paused and looked embarrassed. “I don’t know how much longer I could have held out, though.” He shrugged and looked away. “Anyway, when they were returning me to my cell, I managed to hit the man over the head.” He shrugged again, “I didn’t know what else to do. I had no idea where Eric was, and I didn’t want to wander the halls until they caught me, so I climbed out the first window I saw and ran.”

Anger welled up inside Aaron
, and he stepped closer and pulled Thomas to his feet. He held him by the front of the shirt. “And you came here?” he demanded.

“I needed help,” Thomas said quietly. “There was nowhere else for me to go.”

It was at that moment that the floor outside Aaron’s hotel room creaked. It wasn’t much, but it spurred Aaron to action. He threw Thomas backward onto the bed and then fell back toward the bathroom door. Aaron almost made it. The door was kicked open. It flew into the opposing wall and bounced back, shaking. Aaron lay on his back partially in the open bathroom doorway.

A man and a woman charged through
the open doorway. Aaron was quite sure he had never seen either of them before. In the blink of an eye, the Horace was in his hand and he was raising it to shoot. His arm, and the gun, froze about halfway up. He couldn’t move it anymore; he couldn’t even pull the trigger. He lay there on his back, straining to raise or lower the gun, but it wouldn’t budge. But it wasn’t just his arm. Aaron quickly realized he couldn’t move at all. He couldn’t turn his head, crawl, or even stand up. He was helpless.