Kill Shot: A Remnant of the Commonwealth, Book Two (25 page)

“While my men are inspecting the ship, why don’t you open up that secret cargo hold and let me take a look.”

Susan led the way. She motioned Russell to join them and had him open the concealed door. The cargo hold, which only hours earlier had contained two tons of PG, was now completely empty.

Reece nodded and Russell sealed the door shut again. “And the others?” Reece asked.

“Others?” Susan asked. She glanced at Reece and realized he was very much focused on her. Not quite so exhausted after all.

“Yes, the others. Don’t lie to me and tell me that’s the only compartment you have. I want to see the others, and I mean now.”

Susan sighed. Reece was correct of course, the
Long Shot
had numerous smuggling compartments, some small and others bigger. “I have three more,” she said, quickly picking out the ones that she would show him.

It didn’t take long. Susan led the way and Russell opened the doors. The other three compartments were in the common area of the ship and Reece examined them, his alertness already fading again to exhaustion.

Once the inspection was complete and the three of them headed back to the cargo bay, Reece asked, “You worked for Bailey long?”

Susan shook her head. “No. This was our first and hopefully last time.”

“Problems?”

Susan glanced to Reece and reached out again telepathically. There was a sense of general interest, but not suspicion. “I
guess it won’t hurt to tell you—you already know about our cargo,” she said. “We picked the PG up from a shady group, thought we were going to have a firefight right there in the spaceport.”

“Shady drug dealers? You don’t say?”

Susan smiled and found herself actually liking this man a bit. “Yeah, well, I think the only thing that kept them in line was the name Reginald Bailey.”

Reece nodded.
“My employer had the same type of recognition. Until, that is, he was shot at his daughter’s wedding. Blew him away, right there in the middle of the temple.”

Susan felt the deception immediately, but she didn’t know what it meant. Reece was watching the ground, but his alertness had shot up again. She decided to tread carefully. “How’d that happen?” she asked. “I’d have thought security be tight.”

Whatever she’d said, or perhaps not said, must have been right because Reece’s alertness and suspicion died away. “Security was tight and someone still found a way to kill Mr. Woodson.” He shook his head. “Bad business.” He glanced at her again. “Actually, Mr. Woodson was gunned down on the temple’s lawns.”

Susan nodded. The deception suddenly made sense. He’d been testing her. The comment about Mr. Woodson being gunned down in the middle of the temple had been a test to see if she would accidentally correct him.
Although it wasn’t much of a test. Richard had even mentioned to her that Woodson had been shot at the wedding. Any details she knew, she could have heard from him. Didn’t matter now; she’d passed the test.

Reaching the
cargo bay, Reece’s men were already waiting for them. Reece excused himself and stepped over to speak with them; it didn’t take long. He returned a few moments later. “You’re cleared for takeoff. My men are notifying Port Control now. Shouldn’t be many ahead of you, so it shouldn’t take long.”

Susan nodded as relief surged through her. “Thanks for doing the re-inspection.”

Reece only waved his hand as he and his men walked down the cargo ramp.

Susan glanced at Adam, but he was already heading for the bridge.

Reece had been correct i
n his guess that not many ships were ahead of them in the line for liftoff. Port Control gave the immediate green light and within minutes of Reece’s departure they lifted off the ground. Shortly thereafter, they were free of the atmosphere and pushing for deep space.

As soon as they broke free of the planet’s gravity, Russell left the bridge to go help Jessica move her patients to the
med bay; leaving Adam and Susan alone on the bridge.

“Where do we go from here?” Adam asked.

Susan hadn’t given this much thought. She’d expected Aaron to be here to make those decisions, but she didn’t want to wait around for him to get better. “Beta Leporis,” she answered after a moment’s thought.

Adam turned in his chair to look
at her. “That’ll take a month!”

“We don’t have to go the whole way,” she replied, “but it gives us somewhere to start.”

Chapter 34

The first three days of the trip passed slowly. Eric and Thomas were treated by Jessica and released. Their bones were fused, but they were still in bad shape. Jessica had given them some shots that would make their bodies heal quicker, but now it was just a matter of time for them. Susan ordered them locked in the two cabins again. Neither man had much liked this, but they hadn’t grumbled . . . well, not too much.

The rest of the crew fell into a normal routine. Besides the normal ship’s activities, they pretty much stayed to themselves. They were waiting, plain and simple. Waiting to see if Aaron would live or not.

Aaron’s condition improved with time and on the second day, Jessica proclaimed that she felt confidant her patient would pull through. This news brought smiles and cheers all around and it seemed like a depression lifted from the crew. There were even a few jokes for the first time in days.

Susan was sitting alone on the bridge, watching the deep
, gloomy blackness of the wormhole; for some reason she always felt it was depressing. She always preferred a star-filled sky. She was feeling better, relieved beyond words that Aaron would awake sooner or later and take back the burden of leadership. She didn’t like it, didn’t want it, and would prefer never to be in charge again. There were still worries, but somehow the simple knowledge that Aaron would still be around made those worries diminish. She might worry about them later, but not now. Now, she was simply waiting on . . .

“
Med bay to bridge. Susan, are you there?”

Susan’s feet slid off of the console and smacked the deck. She reached over and pushed the intercom button. “Go ahead, Jessica.”

“He’s conscious,” was all Jessica said, but Susan was already sliding down the ladder before she finished speaking.

Susan was quite sure that she had set some kind of record for getting from the bridge to the
med bay as she sprinted through the doors.

Aaron was lying on a bunk, looking frail. He’d lost
weight, and his skin looked pale and a bit waxen.

Susan stopped just inside the doors and telepathically reached out. It was Aaron all right. He was tired, sore, and even hungry, but it was him. A sadness gripped her then and she felt like crying. It was strange; she hadn’t cried since she was ten or so, but the urge to weep came upon her and it was all she could do to fight it off.

“Hey,” Aaron croaked. His voice broke in the middle and he half-grinned.

Susan walked over slowly, returning his smile as she got closer. “I thought we might lose you there for a while.”

“That’s what Jessica says.”

Susan glanced around and found Jessica smiling at
the two of them. The smile suggested that the doctor suspected there was more to Aaron and Susan’s relationship. Her smile faltered as Susan’s eyes swept over her, and she excused herself and stepped out through the med bay’s double doors.

Susan slid a small stool over and sat down to the left of Aaron’s bed.

“So how did your first command go?” Aaron asked.

Susan sighed. “I never want to be in command again,” she answered honestly. “You can have it.”

Aaron grinned. “Thanks, because I’ve missed it.”

She spent a few minutes catching him up on the drug run and the events at the spaceport. He seemed impressed with her command decisions and that she had locked
up Eric and Thomas for the time being.

“Enough about that, though
,” Susan said a tad impatiently. “I want to know what happened to you. I already know you completed the assignment, but I want to know the rest.”

Aaron nodded and told her the details of his mission, right up to finding Thomas sitting on his doorstep.

“Lucky for him that you didn’t follow through on your promise to shoot him the next time you saw him,” Susan said.

Aaron nodded again, but this time he winced. “Yeah, you’re right. I nearly did shoot him, but I’m glad I didn’t.” He continued on with the story, pausing only briefly before he told her the way he had turned control over to the computer. How it had killed Terra and the telepath at the business complex. He paused and waited for her to say something.

“I couldn’t sense you outside that building,” Susan said quietly. “I thought you were dying or something. Do you remember?”

Aaron shook his head. “I don’t remember anything that happened while the computer was in control.” He paused again, uncomfortable with the topic of conversation. “It’s showed me what happened, but to me, it’s like watching a movie.”

Susan didn’t say anything. She didn’t know what to say.
How do you respond to something like that?
she thought. She cast around for anything to ask, anything to keep the silence from dragging along. “So you killed all five?” she asked.

“No,” Aaron said, “only four. The fifth one wasn’t there. Emma the telepath said that someone called
Nelson was stuck in a place called Mettin City. I assume he’s the fifth.”

Susan frowned. “I doubt he could connect this ship with what happened.”

Aaron shrugged. “I doubt it, but I don’t plan on coming back here, and the name they have is wrong.”

“Better retire the
Soaring Freedom
name,” Susan said.

Aaron considered only for a moment and then nodded. “We have other falsified names for the ship. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

The ship had several false identities, just like each member of its crew. They had just lost one, but they still had several more. If it got bad, then they would have to purchase more. They weren’t that hard to get. As with all things, the better the quality, the more expensive they were.

“Any idea how they found Eric and Thomas?” Susan asked.

Aaron blinked. “I hadn’t thought anymore about it. Did you ask them?”

“Of course, but they’re clueless.”

Aaron chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Susan asked.

“Clueless is a fairly apt description for those two,” he said.

Susan shared in the joke, but only for a moment. “I could get them and we could discuss it.”

Aaron nodded. “Looks like they’ll have to get in line,” he said.

Susan looked around to see the rest of the crew staring at them through the windows; even Grady had left the quiet of his room. She smiled and waved them in.

As they entered, there were greetings, hugs
, and even a few rude jokes at Aaron’s expense. He didn’t mind; he was home and it felt good. Molly even shed a few tears for him. That felt weird; he hadn’t expected to ever have anyone crying over him again.

“So where we headed?” he asked.

“Well, at the moment we’re going toward Beta Leporis, but we’re still several weeks away. We thought we might change once you woke up,” Adam said. “Any idea where you might want to go?”

Aaron considered for a moment. “No,” he said finally, “but give me some time and I might just come up with a destination for us.”

“What about our two malcontents?” Eve asked.

Aaron sighed.
Leave it to Eve to bring down the mood,
he thought. “Susan and I were just talking about them. Why don’t you bring them in? I have some questions for them.”

Grady, Russell, and Adam all left the room and remained gone for nearly ten minutes. When they returned, a disgrun
tled-looking Eric and a rumpled-looking Thomas walked between them.

“Thought you were dead,” Eric said when he caught sight of Aaron. He and Thomas stopped at the foot of Aaron’s bed.

The crew was spread out, some on the left and the rest along the right wall.

Aaron grinned at him. “I feel like it.”

“So what’s the deal?” Thomas asked. “Why are we still prisoners?”

Aaron chose not to answer that particular question
; instead, he steered the conversation the way he wanted it to go. “How’d you get caught?”

Eric and Thomas shared a look, and they both shrugged. “No idea,” Eric said sourly.

“Did you get in contact with anyone in the Miram Union?” Aaron asked.

Eric snorted. “Do we look fucking retarded to you?” he demanded in his normal
, grumpy voice.

How do I answer that?
Aaron thought. He couldn’t very well give an honest answer.
Why, yes, Eric. You do look fucking retarded to me.
There was a muffled snort from behind him, and he turned to see Susan pretending to cough. He felt pretty sure she had just been in his mind and had heard his thoughts. She wouldn’t meet his gaze.

He turned back to Eric and Thomas. “How could they have found you, then?
”

Eric and Thomas shared another look and then shrugged again. “No idea,” Eric repeated.

“Did you contact anyone that you knew before?” Aaron asked again, “whether or not they are in the Miram Union?”

“No,” Eric replied, sounding annoyed.

“Did you contact any criminals and give them your actual names?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“Did either of you tell any of your whores an amazing story of your dramatic escape from a Unionist prison ship?”

“No.”

“Did you mention us to anyone?”

“No.”

“And you can’t come up with any reason why these people found you, when they were looking for us?”

“No!” Eric said, his voice rising now. “There’s absolutely no reason that I can think of for them finding us.”

Aaron lapsed into silence. His mind was racing, trying to find a reason why these two knuckleheads had been caught when Will and his group had been looking for them. Finally, he said, “Tell me step by step exactly what you did when you left this ship. I’m assuming that the first thing you did was to get drunk and find some female companionship.”

Eric looked sour, so Thomas answered. “We wanted a drink and some company, but the first thing we did was get a room.” He looked a little embarrassed, but continued, “You know, in case we did find a couple of women. We rented a room, dropped off our clothes and our guns, and then we . . .”

“Guns?” Aaron asked, interrupting. “What guns? You should have only had a few changes of clothes to take with you.”

“Uh,” Russell said, suddenly looking embarrassed. “I let them each take a gun. It seemed fair and you wanted
them to just go away. I thought it might help.”

Aaron ignored Russell, his attention was focused on his two malcontents. “Which guns did you take?”

“I took one of the Logans,” Thomas said slowly. His eyes narrowed and he watched Aaron closely. He seemed to sense that Aaron’s mood had changed.

Eric, however, was oblivious. “What does it matter?” he demanded. “It’s only right that you at least give us a chance to defend ourselves.”

“What gun did you take?” Aaron repeated, quietly.

Eric sighed deeply. “I took the Patterson,” he said after a moment.

The Patterson!
Aaron thought.

“What is it?” Susan asked. She must have sensed the change in him.

Aaron ignored her. He kept his attention riveted on Eric. “You found your pack when I freed you from the kidnappers . . . was it in there?”

Everyone seemed to sense that something important was happening, but they all seemed unaware of exactly
what it was.

“Yeah,” Eric said slowly, nodding.

“Where is it now?”

“I put it with the other guns
in a locker,” Russell answered. “Why?”

“Go get it, please,” Aaron said.

Russell frowned at not getting his question answered, but he dutifully left the room.

“Care to clue the rest of in?” Eve asked. “What’s so important about that gun?”

Aaron looked up from where he had been studying the shape of his feet through the blanket. “That gun is the one that Benjamin Dunn gave me after our smuggling run to Bathia. He gave it to me before I even asked about buying any guns. He called it my bonus.”

Every face looked thoughtful now.

“You think he, what, put a tracking device in the gun?” Eric asked slowly.

Aaron nodded. “That’s exactly what I think.”

Further discussion was interrupted by Russell’s sudden return. He carried the Patterson at his side. He stepped inside the doors and looked expectantly at Aaron.

“Break it down, please,” Aaron said.

Russell looked confused, but he moved over to a small portable table and quickly broke the gun down into its many small pieces. “Okay. Now what?”

“Anything unusual?” Aaron asked.

“Unusual?” Russell repeated, obviously confused.

Kyle and Susan moved closer and began sifting through the small pieces.

“What’s that?” Susan asked, pointing to a tiny piece of metal that was smaller than her pinky fingernail.

Kyle reached out and flipped it over. He and Russell both leaned in close and examined it. “This might be your tracker,” Kyle said.