Mercenary Courage (Mandrake Company) (33 page)

“Looks like trouble up there,” Borage said. He and Viktor were walking ahead of Ankari and Azarov. “I was afraid of that.”

“Say nothing,” Viktor said.

Ankari peeked around his side to see what “trouble” awaited. They had passed through the atrium and were heading down the wide corridor to the bay where the
Albatross
was docked. Several officers in Fleet uniforms waited there, lined up with their hands propped on their hips or their arms folded over their chests, clearly expecting someone. Viktor?

Ankari had been worrying that they wouldn’t be able to return to the ship because of the androids enforcing the quarantine. In the chaos of the last couple of hours, she had forgotten about the Fleet problem. All of those officers, which included Captain Xu and at least two other captains, wore pistols at their hips. A couple of hands dropped to rest on those pistols as Viktor walked out of the corridor.

He had been in the lead, but the female reporter strode out ahead, waving for some of the cameras to follow her.

“Your ship is down there, isn’t it, Captain Mandrake?” she asked, then burbled on without waiting for a response. “XT-4, get a shot of the ship. XT-6, follow us to the ramp. XT-5, on me. We’ll add more footage for the background on the story. Here we are at the bay where the heroic captain’s ship is docked, his home when he’s not saving space stations from certain destruction and hostages from the promise of death.”

The Fleet officers looked at each other in confusion, more than one mouth sagging open. With the reporters ahead of and beside Viktor and all of those cameras floating through the air, none of them stepped forward to intercept him. The reporters’ enthusiasm for the story was far more than Ankari had expected, or could have even dreamed of.

She spotted a smirking Sergei waiting at the
Albatross’s
ramp, with Jamie leaning against his arm. Her eyes were wide as she watched the entourage approach, so she must not have been there for whatever Sergei did. Lauren was waiting with them, tapping her jaw thoughtfully as she read something on her tablet. Lab results or a recent scientific article, no doubt. Ankari suspected she would never catch her microbiologist wrapped up with a steamy romance novel or cozy mystery.

As Viktor left the Fleet officers behind, Ankari noticed Captain Xu eyeing his back. Even if he had not moved, he wore a determined expression, one that suggested this was not over for him.

Ankari detoured over to their group, something that might not have been wise, given her history with the captain’s tablet, but she hoped the nearby presence of the reporters would keep the men from grabbing her. And if she could possibly deter them from harassing Viktor further, it would be worth the risk to herself. As she drew closer and realized there was an admiral in the group, she almost faltered. What if this was the very man who had started everything? Sent the letter to Xu to have Viktor arrested? If so, he hadn’t been here earlier. His ship must have received a special exception to dock and send people onto the station, despite the quarantine. Either that, or the quarantine had officially been lifted.

“Captain Xu?” Ankari asked, choosing to address the man she knew by name rather than the sinewy admiral with salt-and-pepper hair beneath his cap.

The captain’s dark eyes narrowed. “What?”

“I know it’s not my place to advise—” especially when she had been digging into his pockets like an unrepentant criminal a few days earlier, “—but I wanted to make a quick point before we leave.” She met the admiral’s eyes briefly, trying to look sage and helpful rather than scared or intimidated. “It might be smarter to hire him—” she tilted her head toward Viktor, who had kept walking and was talking to Sergei at the ramp, though she could tell he was watching her out of the corner of his eye, “—to find your missing commodore and those relics, rather than trying to blackmail him. We probably know less than you think we do, anyway.” She certainly didn’t know much about the artifacts, since she had not been a part of that mission. “I
am
certain that everything was taken off Captain Mandrake’s ship, so there’s nothing there to be found.” She wasn’t positive about that at all, and was, in fact, fairly certain Commander Thatcher had a recently acquired alien map hanging on the wall in his quarters. Well, nobody had ever accused her of being a paradigm of integrity. “Just a thought,” she finished when none of the men said anything.

Not certain anything would come of her detour, Ankari nodded and strode away before any of them could decide that apprehending her might be a good idea. The reporters must have finally acquired enough footage, because the woman was leading the man back to the corridor with the cameras trailing them.

“...absolutely forbid it,” Lauren was saying when Ankari caught up with the group at the mouth of the tube leading to the airlock. Odd, she was addressing Viktor and prodding him in the chest with her finger. She didn’t usually presume to talk so forthrightly to him. Actually, she didn’t usually acknowledge his presence at all when he walked into the clinic or the lab. “You had us set everything up here, and you acquired medical equipment for us. You can’t ask us to leave now. Not when I’ve already started human tests, using your volunteers.”

“My volunteers,” Viktor murmured.

“Yes. Volunteers I haven’t had access to for weeks. It’s indefensible that we were asked to leave, even temporarily. I have five more men on the list for the next round of tests, but I haven’t been able to do the daily checkups on my original specimens. These interruptions have been intolerable. I would demand to Ankari that we leave, but I’ve already written up an article referencing the men I selected. And besides, where else would I find healthy specimens from a wide variety of backgrounds? Later on, we hope to help those of less pristine health, but it’s imperative to start with those tough enough to withstand difficulties that may arise during this early phase.”

“My specimens?” This time, Viktor scratched his head. Apparently, he did not think of his men that way.

Lauren noticed Ankari for the first time and turned her finger prodding into an agitated wave. “Ankari, tell him.”

Ankari had been watching Viktor’s reaction to the diatribe, trying to guess if he was annoyed, exasperated, or bemused. He wasn’t being quite as close-faced as he had been with the reporters, but it was still difficult to read his thoughts. Might this be the argument that actually swayed him? Convinced him that the
Albatross
was indeed the place for Microbacteriotherapy, Inc.? For
Ankari
?

“She has a point, Viktor,” Ankari said. “Where else would we be able to find such healthy and fit men—” she squeezed his biceps through his shirt, giving him a suggestive eyebrow waggle, “—who are willing to be test subjects simply because they’re so starved for feminine attention that they will agree to take suppositories because it involves a pretty woman scientist touching their butts.”

Lauren frowned at her. “I told them they’re doing it for the improvement of medicine and for the betterment of humanity.”

“That’s what you told them. That’s not why they’re doing it. As Viktor will attest, a man is more motivated by butt touching than by science.”

Lauren’s frown deepened, and she looked down at her hand, as if appalled that some man might have been having lurid thoughts about it. Jamie, who was leaning against Sergei, had been listening, and she nodded in agreement with Ankari’s reasoning. Or maybe she was simply amused at Lauren’s distress. Sergei was watching the Fleet officers—they had gathered into a knot for a discussion. It was probably a good idea to end
this
discussion and get aboard before the station people changed their minds about letting them go.

“What do you say, Viktor?” Ankari asked. “Are you willing to relent and accept that it’s important for Microbacteriotherapy, Inc. to stay aboard your ship for the time being?”

He had dropped his chin into his hand and appeared to be deep in thought. Ankari poked him in the ribs.

“Hm?” he said. “I got distracted. By thoughts of women touching my butt.”

“
Multiple
women?” she asked.

“Just one, actually.” His eyelids lowered, and he gave her his bedroom eyes.

Since all of those Fleet officers were looking on, Ankari resisted the urge to squeeze his butt, but she vowed to do so later.

“We’ll discuss specimens once we get your shuttle back on board and we’ve pulled out of the station,” Viktor said, looking Ankari, Lauren, and Jamie in the eyes. Then he gave a long, assessing look to the Fleet officers, or perhaps only Captain Xu, and strode toward the airlock.

Ankari was not positive their argument had swayed him, but she would work on him again once they had some privacy. And while she was squeezing his butt.

Chapter 14

Viktor turned off the water in the tiny shower in his cabin, lamenting that he and Ankari had not had a chance to return to that hotel room with the fancier bathing amenities. With the Fleet meeting less than a day away, he had wanted nothing more than to get the
Albatross
away from the station, especially since Xu and his buddies had been glaring icicles into his back as he had walked past them. Leaving his men in the hospital had bothered him, but neither had been fit for duty, nor would they be any time soon—after the burns they had received, they might never wish to return at all. He had contacted their families and left enough money to take care of the bills and see them through physical therapy, which was all he could do for now. He would be in touch with them later.

After stepping out of the shower, he rubbed shaving gel on his face while the wall absorbers sucked the droplets of water off his body, sending them into the filtration and purification system for later use. While the gel munched away at the hair and dead skin, he shifted his mind to a less grim subject. Ankari.

He smiled, remembering her and Lauren’s arguments for why their business must remain on his ship. Even if he questioned whether it was best for their future safety, it pleased him that Ankari wanted to remain aboard—with
him
. All that she had done for him on the station pleased him, too—he had gotten the report from Sergei that she had talked him into visiting the reporters to encourage them to share the truth. Apparently, that had taken less arm-twisting than expected; Sergei had simply found and killed the Fleet operative who had been blackmailing the lead reporter to start with, making the death look like an accident—or so Sergei had promised. Viktor had not condoned the action, but he had to admit it wasn’t entirely displeasing to have the truth shared with the public for once. Most of the time, he did not care what the news reported about him and his ship. Usually, he preferred they not mention him at all. He wanted to do his work and be left in peace. But in this case, Ankari had been right. It would be useful not to have to add to the places where the law had him listed as someone to be arrested—or shot—on sight. It had been worth dealing with the reporters’ interminable questions for that.

The twinkle in Ankari’s eyes as he had endured the interrogation had made it more bearable. She was always particularly attractive when she was up to something, her lips tamped down as she tried to hide her grin. Her eyes had also been twinkling when she and Lauren had been discussing butt touching, a conversation that should have been regarded with seriousness but that had caused him to imagine Ankari’s hands exploring his anatomy in the privacy of his cabin. He wished they were doing that now, but she had not been here when he had returned from seeing the
Albatross
out of dock and from a meeting with his section heads. She had gone with Jamie to bring their shuttle aboard, and they were probably making arrangements to deal with the graffiti and whatever other damage might have been done. That was fine. He’d had a chance to clean up for her—no need for her to be pawed over by a soot-covered man in an elevator this time. He would make sure that she knew how much he appreciated her support over the last few days, everything from kicking thugs in knees to shooting venomous dragons that were trying to kill him. His lips curved upward as he imagined her grabbing his ass—and other things—as she writhed beneath his touch.

Something else curved upward, too, and he snorted at himself.

“Let’s wait until she’s in the room, eh?” Viktor muttered, rubbing off the shaving gel with one of her teal-colored washcloths.

He tossed it into the laundry chute and padded out of the lavatory to look for clothes, debating between gym togs that could be removed easily in the throes of passion or something form-fitting that would display his attributes for Ankari. The question turned out to be moot, since Ankari was already in the cabin, quietly unpacking takeout boxes of food at a table already set with plates and silverware for two.

When he walked into view, a mischievous twinkle entered her eyes as she considered him from head to toe. Her gaze lingered on his cock, and that smirk he had been imagining tugged at the corners of her mouth. Heat flushed his body, along with the urge to stalk to the table, pick her up, and carry her to the bed. He resisted the urge, figuring she wanted to share the dinner she had brought first. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to keep walking to the closet. Now that they were alone again, and he didn’t have to worry about appearances, he could let his gaze roam, admiring the curve of her breasts beneath her blouse. His fingers twitched as he imagined pushing aside that blouse and letting his tongue explore, letting it please her. He might struggle to find words to admit his emotions, but he could
show
her what she meant to him.

“You weren’t starting something in there without me, were you?” Ankari stopped unpacking the boxes and turned toward him, giving him a better view of her figure.

“I was trying not to, but my long incarceration made me randy.”

“All eight hours that you were in there?” Her eyes crinkled.

She might be amused, but she seemed to be enjoying the view too. She gave him another long look, her gaze lingering on the muscles of his chest, and her tongue darted across her lips.