Mercenary Courage (Mandrake Company) (4 page)

“Just trying to keep us out of debt, old friend.”

On that note, the mechanics waved for them to come over. They must have finished talking to their employer.

“Let’s see if these numbers are less despicable,” Borage grumbled and headed toward them.

Viktor kissed Ankari on the temple, then released her shoulders. As much as he would have enjoyed sharing far more intimate touches, the noisy, worker-filled machine shop was not the place for it.

“I’ll leave you to your repairs,” Ankari said, though she gave him a swat on the butt before stepping away. “Do you want me to investigate this tablet?”

“Normally I would give it to Thomlin, but since he’s gone and I haven’t found a new intelligence officer yet, I’ll leave it in your hands.”

“If there’s a passcode, Jamie might have some ideas. She’s resourceful, especially when your assassin isn’t around distracting her.”

She winked and headed for the door. Viktor caught himself watching her hips swaying again, and he tore his gaze away. Borage and the others would be waiting for him. Besides, he would go mad, taunting himself with thoughts of sex that could not be acted out, not until the ship was in shape again and he could let the men take leave. Only then would he allow himself to relax.

Chapter 2

Jamie flopped down into the booth opposite from Ankari, sighing dramatically, or perhaps melodramatically. “Can’t you get Captain Lovergrunt to release the troops?”

“Lovergrunt?” Ankari raised her eyebrows as she sipped from her coffee cup. The purloined tablet lay on the table next to her elbow, and she worried that the Fleet captain would track it down soon, but she kept her expression calm and indifferent. If Security stormed in, she fully intended to pretend it had been at the table when she sat down and she had no idea where it had come from, no, sir.

“Gruntlover? He’s your lover, and he grunts more than he speaks. I’ve been trying out different nicknames for him. Mostly because it mortifies Sergei when I do it, because he worships the captain.” Jamie issued another dramatic sigh. “But I haven’t seen him for
weeks
, so I haven’t been able to test this one on him. He said he can’t leave the ship until the captain announces shore leave.” Jamie glowered balefully at Ankari, not that she managed to look very baleful. As usual, Jamie wore her blonde hair in twin braids that fell down the front of her mechanic’s overalls; she appeared far too young and wholesome to manage baleful.

“Viktor’s hoping that the ship is in decent shape by tomorrow, so he can let non-essential people take leave. I’m sure your libido can wait until then to... share nicknames.” Ankari tapped the tablet, wanting to set the “girl stuff” aside, so they could get to a more important subject, such as how to hack a passcode-protected computer.

“Easy enough for you to say. The captain is on the space station with us. You’ve probably already had hot, sweaty, shoved-up-against-the-wall-of-the-shuttle, earthquake sex with him.”

“No, he’s too busy being mocked by colleagues for having a pink shuttle.” Ankari grimaced at the memory of the conversation she had walked in on. Even if Viktor had hugged her and let little of his irritation show, he would be grumpy about that. The last thing she wanted was for her relationship with him to result in him being less respected, either by his men or by other men he had to deal with in the system. He deserved his fearsome reputation and used it to his advantage, so losing it could prove problematic, both as a captain and as a mercenary for hire. She wanted a joyful reunion with him, not a grumpy one.

After making sure nobody was walking by, Ankari pushed the tablet over to Jamie. “Did you manage to find that program?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Thomlin left all of his security and hacking programs on the
Albatross’s
network before leaving.” Jamie pulled out her own tablet. “What do you need to know?”

“If there’s anything on there about Viktor or Mandrake Company. Also, what earthquake sex is.” Ankari managed a smile, amused that her twenty-year-old pilot who had been a virgin a couple of months earlier now had a sexual vocabulary that surpassed Ankari’s. Or at least, she had learned some new slang.

“I guess the saying comes out of the Fleet. It’s when you and your lover are rocking the bed so vigorously that the bunks in the cabin next door shake.” Jamie started running some program on her own tablet and flipped open the other one.

“Put those in tight privacy mode, please,” Ankari said, watching past Jamie’s shoulder to the front of the coffee shop and the wide balcony that overlooked the atrium. So far, she had not seen anyone in a Fleet uniform, just shoppers and tourists in civilian clothing, along with the occasional brightly feathered bird or miniature dragon. “And if any men in uniforms show up, stuff the stolen one in the napkin holder and run into the kitchen with me.” Ankari jerked a thumb toward the door at the back of the shop. “I’ve already checked, and we can get out that way if we need to.”

“I’m guessing that means you didn’t simply find this tablet somewhere,” Jamie said, working as she spoke.

“I found it. In a pocket.”

“I thought you weren’t doing that anymore, now that we’re in a less desperate situation.”

“The desperateness of the situation remains to be determined.” Ankari pointed at the Fleet captain’s tablet. She thought about explaining that trap those men had seemed to be creating for Viktor, but the sight of dark uniforms on the far side of the atrium froze her mouth.

Her first hope was that Security had stepped out of the lifts over there, but no, those were the black uniforms of the Fleet, the silver piping on the trousers and sleeves distinctive. The three soldiers were young, so probably not high ranking, but she picked out a sergeant’s double wings in the mix. Of course, those men might be here for another reason—some of the shops carried toiletries and useful items, and there was a hair-cutting place a couple of doors down. Would three men have been sent to retrieve a tablet? No, surely not. Unless they knew that a thief had taken it and it had not simply been lost.

“Have you made any progress?” Ankari murmured.

“Just got in.” Jamie swiped a finger through the holodisplay above the captain’s tablet. “Thomlin had some impressive programs. I wouldn’t have thought I could get into a military unit so easily.”

“Search for Viktor, please. And hurry.”

The soldiers had walked out of view, following the curve of the circular balcony. While Ankari hoped they were heading for the barbershop, she would not want to bet on it. Unfortunately, she and Jamie were in far more incriminating positions now that they were into the tablet. When it had been resting innocently by the napkin holder, they might have pretended it had been there when they sat down. But now...

Ankari was on the verge of grabbing the tablet and heading for the kitchen, even though someone tracking the device would be sure to notice movement. Jamie spoke first.

“Got something.”

Ankari leaned forward. “What?”

“Viktor Mandrake came up in a message from an Admiral Petrakis at high command. It says—”

“Wait,” Ankari said, as much as she wanted nothing more than to hear the rest. Two more black-clad Fleet personnel had come out of the lift on the far side, and she recognized the Chinese captain from the mechanics’ shop. “Can you copy the file? We have to go. Now.”

“Already copied.” Jamie slid out of the booth, snapped the tablet shut, and held it over the napkin holder. “Shall I?”

“Yes. No, wait.” Ankari snatched it from her and strode down the aisle between the booths, toward the rear exit.

She forced herself to walk instead of sprinting, though that first group of soldiers could reach the front of the shop at any second. She slid the tablet into the refuse chute without pausing. When she reached the swinging door in the back, she thrust it open and ushered Jamie through before her. The scent of cinnamon and freshly baked pastries surrounded them, but Ankari barely noticed it. She closed the door, turned, and pressed her nose to the small square window at the top.

“They probably would have been less irked if they had found it on a table,” Jamie said dryly. She did not sound concerned, either because she doubted they could get in trouble for this, or because she hadn’t been the one to steal the tablet.

Ankari did not believe she was safe, either way. The first three soldiers walked into the shop, and she knew without a doubt that they were tracking the tablet. “At least it will take them longer to find it now. Come on. Let’s—”

“This is for employees only,” a man said, stepping around a giant automated mixing machine. He was as wide as he was tall and had a maximum of three hairs sweeping across his bald pate.

“We were looking for the lavatory. Is it through there?” Ankari pointed toward a back door that she knew, from the map she had downloaded of the installation, led to an employee corridor with cargo elevators and stairs. Either would work for their escape. She stepped in that direction, but the man frowned and moved to cut them off.

“That’s for employees only too. There’s a customer lav back out on the balcony.”

“Is there? So inconvenient.” Ankari gave the man her best flirty smile. Viktor told her she wasn’t that good at flirting her way out of trouble and should stick to mashatui kicks, but she already had problems without hurling bakers across kitchens. Besides, she doubted her best side kick could move a three-hundred-pound man far. “We really need to use the one back there. The facilities out front were terribly dirty, with a toilet overflowing like an erupting volcano. I’m sure your colleagues won’t mind.”

The baker’s eyebrows had risen at her imagery, and some of his resoluteness faded from his face while he pondered.

Since they did not have time for him to ponder, Ankari smiled even more broadly, clasped his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she said and rushed for the back door.

Jamie hustled after her without comment.

“Oh,” Ankari added before slipping out into the corridor. “If anyone is looking for us, we’d appreciate it if you hadn’t seen us.”

The baker had his hand to his cheek as he blinked after her in surprise. “I... no. I saw nothing.” He smiled.

Feeling guilty for using her feminine wiles on him—and toilet-volcano imagery as well—Ankari pushed into a utilitarian white corridor. It lacked the vines curling along the railings and the gurgle of waterfalls and fountains that provided ambiance to the atrium balcony, but that suited her fine. She had dodged parrot poop more than once during her shopping trip earlier.

“You think he’ll talk?” Jamie asked as they jogged around a bend and spotted a cargo elevator at the end of the corridor.

“I hope not. I hope the soldiers don’t think to question him, that they’ll run straight down to wherever that garbage chute comes out. The trash probably gets incinerated and turned into compost for the armada of plants here, so they’ll want to hurry.”

It was wishful thinking, but Ankari hoped the tablet
would
end up being incinerated or so damaged that the Fleet captain would not be able to figure out who had been tinkering with it. She also hoped that the coffee shop had not been recording video that could be requisitioned later. It was a lot to hope for.

“Any chance you were able to erase your tracks after you copied that file, Jamie?”

The cargo elevator doors opened, and they stepped into a musty car with a sticky stain on the floor.

“No, I barely
got
the file.” Jamie’s mouth twisted. “I’m not that fast. Or experienced with bypassing computer security systems. We didn’t have a lot of security on the tractors back home.”

“No nefarious neighbors coming into your barn in the middle of the night to plow your field on the sly?”

“No. Sorry.”

Ankari gripped Jamie’s shoulder. “Your help was perfect. More than I could have done. Thank you for taking a break from pining for Sergei to come help me.” She hadn’t wanted to risk leading the Fleet men back to their shuttle, but now wondered if they might have had more time with the tablet if she had done so. But what trash chute would she have thrown it down then?

“I wasn’t pining. We were talking about our plans to enroll in a distance learning course together.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Did you think earthquake sex was all we had in common?”

“No, but I
have
walked in on you two with your hands under each other’s clothes often since you met.”

“That’s nothing compared to the number of people who have walked in on you and Captain Lovergrunt without any clothes on at all.”

“That only happened once,” Ankari said, though heat crept into her cheeks. “With Lauren. And I’m not sure she even noticed. She went straight to her lab.”

“It’s happened more than once. I’m fully aware of the dastardly things you two have done to my navigation panel in the shuttle. There’s a reason I don’t set my donuts on there in the mornings anymore.”

More warmth rushed into Ankari’s cheeks. She could not remember a time when Jamie had walked in on her and Viktor, but it was true that they had used the shuttle for... atypical purposes more than once.

“About that file,” Ankari said, as the cargo elevator took them to the bottom floor. “You said Viktor was mentioned in it?”

Jamie pulled out her tablet and handed it to Ankari. “Yes. There’s the text version of a message that came into the Fleet captain’s inbox this morning.”

The elevator came to a stop, the doors sliding open, but Ankari ordered them shut and hit the emergency stop button. The Fleet people would be racing down to this floor to hunt for that tablet, so she dared not linger for long, but she needed to read the message before deciding whether to head back to the shuttle or to find Viktor and warn him.

Captain Xu,

The Fleet meeting between the flag officers will commence in three days, as planned. Please run extensive security checks and ensure Midway 5 is safe for the senior admirals, and take precautions against the mob activity that has been frequent on the rim stations. The council has promised the citizens of the Galactic Conglomeration that we will maintain a stronger presence in the outer core, especially in light of the Nimbus debacle.