Recon Marines II: Marine's Heiress, The (10 page)

“
I think I’m the only one
who is going to hurt them.” Vin wore his confused look again, but
it didn’t touch Emma’s sympathy this time.

“
You will do no such
thing.” She tried to walk past Vin, but he grasped her arm above
the elbow. Unlike the way Moe held her, she sensed no give in Vin’s
grip.

“
Stay back from them.
They’re only helpless because I made them so.” Vin gestured with a
tilt of his head to the bench Vannie leaned on. A number of guns
and knives sat on the spotless surface. “They’re dangerous,
cowardly men and perhaps the ones who set the trap for
Russ.”

“
And opened the gates last
night. These bastards have disturbed my sleep two nights in a row.”
Vannie sounded as hard as Vin.

“
They’re probably right,”
Moe said. “Come on, Emma, I’ll walk you back to your
place.”

“
No! Stay here. Don’t
leave us with that madman.” The prisoner rocked his chair, but
Vannie set his big foot on a rung and held it in place.

Vin flicked the switch so the tool in
his hand whined again. It sounded worse up close.

Emma couldn’t let this happen though
the grim-faced men in the room clearly had their minds
set.

Vin gently forced her back a few steps.
“Do not interfere.” He turned back and took a step toward the
prisoners.

“
All right!” the man
screamed. “We came to rob you all. We heard you had a cruiser full
of silver hidden away.”

“
You needed all those
weapons for that?” Vin turned on his torture device so it filled
the room with its eerie howl.

“
We only brought them
along to scare people. We didn’t even expect anyone to know we were
here. No one told us about any guards,” the man
blubbered.

Vin turned off the tool and ran the
auger along the man’s cheek, stopping with it pressed against the
lower lid of one of the prisoner’s eyes. “But who told you about
the silver?”

“
Underboss Lee Caoca,” the
other man mumbled. He didn’t lift his head to speak, only rolled it
side to side.

“
Holy hell,” Vannie
cursed. “Why would Hadrason Mining want to steal from
us?”

“
What is an underboss?”
Vin lifted the second prisoner’s head by grabbing his
hair.

Emma hurried forward and knelt in front
of the poor man. His eyes rolled back, exposing the whites as he
lost consciousness again. She pushed at Vin, and he allowed it. “I
need to get this man into a bed.”

“
The Underboss runs the
entire operation. He answers only to the owners of the mine,” Moe
explained.

Emma sensed Vin tensing beside her, but
his voice didn’t change. “Hadrason is in prison.”

“
So we’ve heard,” Vannie
said. “But he has others in business with him. I guess they’re
running things now unless they allow Hadrason to conduct his
affairs from prison.”

“
So the orders of the
Underboss comes from the owner or these others?” Vin
asked.

Vannie shrugged. “Could be this Lee
Cacoa acts on his own unless this gentlemen can tell us
more.”

“
That’s all we know,” the
awake robber cried. “He told us the silver was in the basement of
the café with only two, old fat men to guard it. We expected to get
in and out without anyone knowing we were here. He told us to get
off planet by daylight.”

“
How did you get to Hovel
Port from the mine?” Vin asked.

The man leaned away from Vin though he
hadn’t moved closer. “We have a jet hopper parked a mile north
right on the road. We’re going to catch one of the cargo ships that
leave thrice a day. Let us go, and we’ll fly away. You’ll never
hear from us again.”

“
Can you guard these two
men?” Vin set his torture device down.

“
Where are you going?”
Vannie asked.

“
To get their
hopper.”

Emma felt the unconscious man’s head,
finding no obvious signs of a skull fracture. His breathing seemed
normal as did his color. She found the pulse on the side of his
neck, rapid but not alarming. Why wasn’t he awake?

“
What are you going to do
with it?” Moe asked.

Vin touched Emma’s shoulder. “I don’t
want you around them.”

She turned and faced him. “I need this
man carried to my surgery where I have better light to examine him.
What did you do to make him unconscious?”

“
These men need nothing
except to stay right here. Go back to your home and forget you saw
them.”

“
Forget I saw
them?”

Vin ignored her strident question. He
crossed the room and climbed the stairs to his loft. When Emma
looked at Moe and Vannie, they only shrugged. She shook her head at
them and walked behind the prisoners. A complicated webbing of
chains and bolts secured the men to their chairs and the chairs to
the heavy metal work bench a few steps away. Freeing the injured
man without Vin’s held looked hopeless until she noticed a long
bolt joining the bonds into one thick loop. A nut the size of her
fist kept the links from sliding off the bolt. She knelt beside it
and wrapped both hands around the hexagonal metal piece. Months of
kneading bread paid off when the nut gave way to her strong
grip.

“
I’m not sure you should
do that, lass,” Vannie said. “Let’s listen to Vin on
this.”

Emma pulled free the chain links
connected to the unconscious man and then redid the nut to hold the
other man in his place. Once the chains were free, she saw the
clever way Vin had woven them to keep the bounds tight. Not that
restraints were needed on the injured man. Her concern of a serious
head injury grew with his continuing unconsciousness. Nothing in
her surgery could treat a cerebral blood clot or any type of brain
swelling.

Worried that he might tumble from the
chair, Emma braced his shoulder with her one hand while she unwound
the chain that circled his chest and waist. Before she could set
the chain aside, the man exploded from his chair. He swung his arm
and caught her full in the chest. The blow threw her back against
the heavy metal workbench. Pain shot through her hip as she slammed
into the edge and then careened off it to land on the
floor.

“
Son of a bitch!” Vannie
shouted. But he and Moe closed in quickly on the thickly muscled
thief while the other prisoner begged his friend to free
him.

The escapee drove his shoulder into
Moe’s middle so the both of them tumbled to the floor. Before
Vannie could reach out and grab him, the man rolled free of Moe and
ran for the door. With a maniacal laugh he threw it open and
plunged into the night.

Emma tried to catch her breath around
the pain shooting from her bruised hip. She needed to check on Moe.
Before she could push herself from the floor, Vin was there and
offered her a hand. She expected to see anger, but instead he
looked at her in that even, careful way he had. His warm fingers
gripped hers firmly, an aura of calm and control emanating from him
to surround her.

Her racing heart slowed, and the fine
tremors of fear in her muscles stilled.

“
Are you injured?” His
gaze swept over her, and when it lifted to hers again warmth
darkened it.

The cool breeze sneaking in the open
doorway stirred her thin night shirt and alerted Emma that her robe
had been knocked open during her tumble. Vin still held her hand,
but it wasn’t his grasp keeping her so close to him. So close she
could feel his heat along the length of her body. All she needed to
do was rise slightly on her toes and touch her lips….

“
Did he hurt you, Emma?”
Moe’s big hand landed on her shoulder. She hadn’t even noticed he’d
regained his feet.

Vin dropped her hand and walked behind
the cursing prisoner where he checked the integrity of the
restraints.

“
I’m fine.” Emma retied
her robe. “I’m so sorry, Vin. You tried to tell me.”

Vin checked the gun and knife hanging
from his belt. More packets had joined the weapons, explaining his
reasons for going to the loft.

“
What do we do now?”
Vannie asked. “If he reports back to the Underboss that we know he
was behind this, he might send enough men to keep us quiet. All
these incidents must track back to him.”

“
The robber won’t get back
to the Underboss.” Vin strode toward the door. “I’ll bring him
back.”

They hurried after him out onto the
street. All the lights except the one spilling from Vin’s open
doorway were out, leaving the long nearly straight street silvery
with starlight. The escaped robber struggled with the bar on the
north gate. Even from over a hundred yards away, Emma could hear
his desperate curses.

Vannie snorted. “Vin set a bolt into it
today. It’s not so easily lifted as last time.”

“
Let’s go get him.” Moe
started down the street.

The man looked over his shoulder at
them and then started to scramble up the gate. Somehow he found
handholds and pulled himself over the top.

“
Let him go,” Vin said.
“I’ll follow him to their hopper.”

“
The guy inside said it
was on the road,” Vannie said.

“
Pretty sure that was one
of two lies.”

“
What was the other lie?”
Emma had only noticed arrogance and then fear.

Vin looked at her. “They were going to
kill Vannie and Moe when they stole the silver. Who knows how many
others when they didn’t find a cache of riches in the
basement?”

Emma felt even more the fool for
letting the man escape. “He might ambush you, Vin. Let him
go.”

“
We could use that
hopper,” Moe said. “We could fly up to the landing field at
Hadrason Mining and see why we haven’t received any shipments. If
these guys were intending to fly out on the next run that means
ships are coming in too. Someone up there is holding our
supplies.”

“
I’ll get it.” Vin started
running. He picked up speed, moving fast, too fast and then faster
still. It seemed between one blink and the next he neared the gate.
From a half dozen paces away from the barrier he leaped upward. One
foot briefly touched a spot more than halfway up and then his hands
grabbed the top. He vaulted over, lost to sight on the other
side.

Emma stared at the empty road,
replaying the physical feat she’d witnessed. She wanted to call him
back and ask him to do it again. Such speed, grace and strength
combined into a humanly impossible performance astonished her.
Nothing she’d observed in any ballet, athletic event or other
skilled art compared to what Vin had done. She looked to Moe and
Vannie, but they still stared at the gate with mouths
agape.

“
How did he do that?” Emma
knew of mechanical exoskeletons that allowed soldiers, miners and
explorers to carry heavy loads and keeping moving in hostile
climates beyond the limits of their bodies. But she’d treated the
wounds on Vin’s very human legs, nothing about his sleek muscles
hinting at superhuman abilities. His limbs had been his parts not
some kind of cyber-enhancement. Her mental search snagged on
enhancement. She’d studied and seen a few video lessons on another
type of improvement wrought by science on the human
physique.

“
If the two of you weren’t
with me as witness, I wouldn’t believe I’d seen that.” Moe said.
“Did you just see a man run like he had jets in his boots and then
leap higher than my best ladder can reach?”

“
No one can do what he
did,” Vannie said.

Emma had heard of one group of humans
who could do what Vin had done. Though some in the medical and
psychological fields of science didn’t count soldiers like Vin as
members of the human species. They’d didn’t receive intergalactic
news in Hovel Port but not long before she’d fled here, she’d heard
that the Recon Marines had been arrested and charged with treason.
Yet she was positive one had them had just leaped the
gate.

* * * *

Vin slowed to an easy jog he could keep
up for hours though he wouldn’t have to. The running thief panted
so heavily Vin could hear him from two hundred yards back. After a
little over half a mile, the man crashed into the lush greenery
growing tight against the road.

Before he’d entered Hovel Port the
first time, Vin had explored the surrounding jungle. A recent
lightning strike had burned a patch of the dense growth and left an
acre wide clearing where the foliage had yet to completely reclaim.
Vin ran faster, calculating so he would close the distance between
them at the exact moment his prey reached the hopper.

The two thieves had beaten a path to
the road from their craft. The frightened escapee knocked down even
more obstacles, making it easier for Vin to leap and dodge anything
that might make noise and give away his pursuit. The man fell a few
times, cursing and sobbing, but eventually he stumbled into the
clearing.

The bulky hopper had an old style open
cargo area and a small crew area built for two people. The robber
took the steps two at a time and then nearly fell backward when he
jerked the door open. He recovered and started to dive into the
pilot’s seat.