Living in Freefall (Living on the Run Book 1) (13 page)

Just then Race and Josh come tearing in to the room. Rachel
skidded to an abrupt halt, and Josh plowed into her.

“We found it!” Josh announced.

“Yeah, what he said,” Race agreed.

Jordon studied the adolescents. “You found the bug?”

“Yes, sir!” the two said in unison.

“Sir,” interrupted
Freefall
, “we are being hailed by
the Archer crew.”

“Put them through on the conference speakers, please,” Jordon
said.

“Aye, sir.”

“Captain Kori? This is Riley.”

“Yes, Riley. You’re coming in loud and clear. Go ahead.”

“I know where the tracking device is, sir.”

“Yeah? Where is it, Riley?”

“You should find it on
Freefall
’s hull near the
starboard cargo bay door.”

“Hey, Riley!” interrupted Josh. “That’s right where we found
it just a moment ago. How did you know?”

“No time to go into that now, but I’m sure you’ll find good
use for it.”

“Yes, we will, Riley,” said Jordon, “count on it. Are you
coming home soon?”

“Negative. Ericca wants to stick it out here until the last
minute. The
Prince
has been a fair enough host.”

Jordon glanced up and caught Captain O’Dare’s expression.
There was something disconcerting in it, but Jordon couldn’t say what it might
be. “Roger, Riley. Stand by while I see our guests out, please.”

“Roger, Captain.”

With no further business to be conducted Jordon excused
himself and held Buck back from leaving as well. He saw the other captains to
the door then turned once again to his recon team. “Riley, I have bad news.”

After he learned what his captain had discovered, Riley
closed the com, turned an angry face toward Ericca’s monitor, and shook his
head.

Her eyes found his. “You okay?”

“I hope the captain is wrong, sis. You had to trust him. You
had
to! You
had
no choice. There would’ve been no way to take on
the 5th Fleet without Richardson and his commandoes. You know that don’t you?”

Ericca turned to peer out at the stars. “I told him, you
told him, Mom and Dad told him.” She shrugged. “I’m sure he heard.”

“You’d think a military man would understand the word
classified
?
Did he really think speaking about
Reliant
in his church wouldn’t get
back to the Confederation?” Riley
hmph
ed.

Ericca twisted around in her seat and brought her eyes back
to meet those of her brother. “Richardson heard us, I said. Whoever is saying
he talked is a liar. It’s just that simple.”

Riley inspected Ericca’s calm face for a moment. She had
said more than once that she liked Richardson. He was a man she could trust.
But Riley didn’t trust the man at all. Richardson was a former Confederate
officer. Ericca said he was a fallen angel trying to get back on his feet. But
for Riley this tore it. For Richardson to take such a cavalier attitude toward
their secrets was beyond belief. Riley ran a firm hand over his face, but that
did little to relieve his own building anger. That hellacious day those many
years ago had nearly cost them their lives. Now,
Reliant
was gone. Mom
and Dad were no longer alive, and Ericca had somehow gone blind to the facts.

He shook himself and made an effort to turn his mind to
other things. “Captain took the news of those Talon pilots pretty bad. I think
you should forgive him.”

Her head whipped back to him and her eyes narrowed. Her face
was now a mix of anger and confusion. “Forgive him? For what? No, wait.
You
thought I was mad at him? Archer, what did you tell our captain?”

“I told him you were mad. He took it to mean you were mad at
him
. Frankly, so did I.”

“Great. Another fire to put out.”

“You did blame him for their deaths, didn’t you?”

“Archer, there was no way to soften the blow, so I told
Captain Kori straight. I wasn’t upset with him, nor do I blame Jordon Kori for
their deaths. Captain Kori wasn’t the pus rat who pulled the trigger.”

“Then what were you upset about?”

Ericca sighed. “Seriously? You don’t know?”

Riley sat slack-jawed. He had no idea what to say. He
thought he knew Ericca, but apparently he didn’t.

“Fine. If I have to spell it out for you then, listen
closely. I’ll only say this once. I don’t like Confederates. At every turn
those retards give me reason after reason to hate them.
We
distracted
those guys.
We did
.
We
took their ships.
We did
. None of
that was the fault of those two men. None of that could they have helped. They
did nothing to warrant being executed. Nothing! Now do you understand why I told
Captain Kori?”

Riley hesitated.
He
was angry with Kori. How could
she
not be? “No. I don’t understand.”

Ericca blew a sharp sigh of irritation. “Jordon Kori twisted
no one’s arm. Whoever runs this fleet,
on his own
, decided those men
should die. Clearly the commander of this fleet is insane. Don’t you think Jordon
Kori should know what kind of man is coming his way?”

“So, you were pissed at the Confederacy, not at Jordon Kori?”

“Jordon Kori is a gadget guy. He’s a genius. A bumbling,
sometimes absent-minded teddy-bear. At times I find him frustrating, but he
really is a good man. Now and again he just needs to be reminded why he hired
us. That
is
all.”

Riley watched her face closely. She always surprised him.
“You’re a loyal woman, Ericca. You never give up on your friends, do you?
Richardson. Jordon Kori. Me.”

A faint smile flitted across her face as she turned away. Riley
thought he heard her mutter, “And Tyson Blackhart.”

Did he hear her right? “Should I add that name to my list?”

There was a protracted silence. “Good job, Archer,” she
said, wanting to be heard. “You figured it out after all. The bug and all, I
mean.” It was clear Ericca wanted to shift the subject away from Tyson.

“Thanks, sis. It was the old illusionist’s trick. They had
us so focused on their right hand; we didn’t notice their left. Like something,
say,
Tyson Blackhart
would do.”

“You just had to mention him, huh?”

“But you said—”

“Can’t you give it a rest?”

Riley exhaled sharply. “Fine. Pirate or no, I liked the guy.
And so did you.”

“I don’t need your teasing, and I don’t need you pressuring
me for answers that don’t involve you. If ever I return to him, it’ll be on my
terms, and on my terms only.”

“
Him
? Return to
him
? So it
was
Tyson
you left? You said before it was Coredei.”

“Okay, okay. You know what I meant.”

“Yes, actually, I think I do . . .
now
.”

She sighed and shook her head. “On another note, regarding
this mission, we thought it was just a chance occurrence that we nabbed a
tagged ship. Right? I hate to admit it, but
Freefall
was their intended
target all along. Maybe Richardson did talk—but if he did, it certainly wasn’t
at any church. If he talked, and I’m not saying he did, it would have been
after some serious torture. Regardless, with our cover now blown wide open
we
blindly fell into
their
trap. Not the other way around.”

Riley envisioned Race’s frustration, and chuckled. “Race
must have busted her chops to tear those Talons apart looking for that stupid
tracking device.”

“Bit-by-bit, knowing her.”

Ericca glanced over her shoulder toward Riley once more.
“This certainly is puzzling.”

“What? How those Inspectors got the bug past Mrs. Kori?
Simple. First guy aboard caught and held her attention while the second
inspector planted the bug.”

“No, no. The Koris are a piece of cake.” Ericca hesitated.
“I just don’t understand why
Freefall
allowed it. I’m sure it was
something obscure that no one would notice, but not even
Freefall
herself?” She turned back shaking her head again but only slightly. “You’d
think that the ship would have kept a scanner locked onto them and would’ve
noticed any odd behavior.”

“Perhaps
Freefall
did notice and told the Koris
later. Maybe the captain and his mom had planned on the Confeds doing this all
along. You think?”

“I don’t know, brother.” Ericca gave her head another slight
shake. When she spoke, she sounded troubled. “Something about the sequence of
events bothers me. And who in blazes is this O’Dare guy?”

Riley pressed back in his seat and gazed up at the stars,
and then allowed his eyes to close. “Maybe Richardson thought that . . .”
Riley abruptly sat upright. “Wait! You
know
Richardson.”

“Yeah?”

“No. I mean you
know
Richardson. You
know
the
type of man he was. In your opinion, would he have talked about
Reliant
to anyone?”

Ericca twisted back toward Riley. “I doubt he would even if
tortured.”

“But his commandoes, what were they, 120, 180 men strong? A
good number of them were former Confed soldiers themselves. Given half a chance
would any of them flap his gums? Who exactly is this O’Dare guy anyway? I’ll
bet you dollars to donuts he was there.”

“At Los Dabaron? I suppose he could have been one of
Richardson’s men.”

“Some of those religious types are descent folks. Some are
jerks. O’Dare said he was at the church. Who says he wasn’t the one who’d
gotten up before everyone to make himself look . . .”

“Important? Spiritual?” Ericca added.

“Who can tell what he was thinking, sis?”

“Yeah, but to give a sermon, Archer, to speak before a
church body, that takes planning doesn’t it? It wasn’t as though it was a slip
of the tongue.”

“I don’t know O’Dare. But I know you, sis. You tell me
Richardson was an upright guy, then he was an upright guy. For all we know,
O’Dare has some hidden agenda only he knows. Maybe he’s to blame and simply
wants to shift attention from himself. He might not even have wanted the world
to know about
Reliant
. But if he’s the snitch, and we find out about it,
then he screwed up royal.”

“I wish we knew more.”

“So do I. Right now it’s all conjecture. We’re just spinning
our wheels in gravel.”

“Still, little brother. I don’t think Major Richardson gave
Reliant
away.”

Riley sat back in his seat and shut his eyes. “Next time we
contact
Freefall
, we need to warn Captain Kori about O’Dare and tell him
our suspicions.”

“Agreed.” Ericca turned back to face forward.

Riley rolled his head to loosen stiffening neck muscles, and
then yawned big without opening his eyes. “Our guys seem to be in the catbird seat
this time around, sis. Knowing where the bad guys are, where they’re going, and
when they’ll arrive has given us every advantage. Richardson seems to be a side
issue, but when this is over let’s find the guy and ask him, kay?”

“We should do that, little brother. He should at least know
rumors are being spread about him.”

“The rebels are in control of this situation. But still, our
guys are still outnumbered two to one. If we expect to win this thing, we still
have to rely on Captain’s tech.” Riley drifted off for what he thought would be
a quick catnap. He knew they could rest assured now that the bug had been
found. But before any time had passed he heard a tap-tap on the side of the
ship.

He and Ericca looked up to see a Confederate trooper.

With the butt of his gun, he rapped on
Viper’s
side
again.

Both sat up and looked around—only a handful of spacesuited
troopers surrounded them. But hovering high overhead, a Gunship floated with
its weapons powered up, at the ready, and aimed directly at them.

Ericca spoke in a calm, businesslike tone. “I’m not eating
anything. Are you, Archer?”

“Nope. Not me. Why do you ask?”

“Hmmm,” she mused. “Captain Kori says they always come
knocking at dinner time. Think we missed a meal?”

“I could use another burger,” Riley said. “If you don’t
mind?”

The trooper butted
Viper’s
side harder, but with his
visor down Riley couldn’t see his face. “Is he scowling?”

Riley motioned with his hand for the trooper to raise his
visor, who in turn did so. “Yep. He’s scowling alright.”

Ericca pulled a sheet of paper from her notebook and wrote a
message on it then held it up for the trooper to read. “Surrender now and we’ll
go easy on you.”

“He does
not
look amused, sis.

Ericca sighed. “Why do they always choose the hard way?”

“I don’t know, sis. After all we’ve done for them you’d
think they’d be more appreciative.”

“You’d think.” Ericca touched a button.
Viper
lurched
left. Hitting all three troopers that side knee high, they flipped headlong
over the little ship. Ericca tabbed another button—
Viper
bolted right,
slid the downed men across the deck to cream the troopers standing on that side
as well.

Riley smirked. “Very nice, sis. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
a deck swabbed quite that way.”

“Thank you, Archer,” Ericca said cheerfully.

“And for an encore, what? You going to clean their clocks?”

“Let’s see, for an encore, what to do, what to do? I say we
just let these guys be our muse.”

Riley spoke as if he and his sister were in the comfort of
their own home. “Would you care for a snack while you wait? I’m sure you’ll
want to address their grievances once they’ve regained consciousness. Maybe
we’re in a no parking zone, but I’m sure I saw no sign.”

“I’ll take a burger if you got one,” she answered
nonchalantly. “
Viper
, evasive maneuvers right and left ten feet as
needed.”

“Aye, Captain,”
Viper
responded.

Riley popped a ready-made burger into the MicroFix, and, in
a moment,
while the lettuce, tomato, pickles, and bun stayed cool
, the
burger came out piping hot with the cheese on it melted to perfection. He
handed it to Ericca, and then set one in for himself.

The men staggered to their feet just in time to see Ericca
and Riley enjoy their burgers. Riley took another bite, and gave the
Confederate leader a happy wave to mock him.

One officer looked up at the Kodiak, which hovered above
them, then motioned to it.

Suddenly, the Gunship opened up on Ericca’s ship.

Viper
shifted leftward hard. The 50cal. charged
bullets tore open a huge fissure in
Prince Rutherford’s
hull. Air
exploding out knocked some troopers down. Internal hardware shot into space:
consoles, conduit, computers, chairs,
and
a body.

The gunship bucked, but held its position in spite of the
torrent of air and debris—a twisted console or some such thing, collided with
the Kodiak and ripped a skid from its belly. Inside the large ship’s protective
shield which surrounded her like a big bubble, there was nothing to stop the
Kodiak’s guns.

The troopers scrambled to their feet.

Ericca’s new note, written big and bold to the captain of
the Kodiak, “Nice shot! You got it.” The
Prince Rutherford
was a big
ship. How could they miss?

The gunship dropped down just above the deck to level itself
with
Viper
. The men within aimed to shoot
Viper’s
side panel.