Song of Scarabaeus (30 page)

“Uh, I don't see how.”

“That link you set up between internal and external comms when Haller briefly gave you security access—”

“You found that?”

“Sure, but I couldn't figure out how to disable it. It would never have worked, by the way. You simply can't send a message out that doesn't go via the bridge. But we can use it now in the other direction.”

Edie saw where she was going. “If you can get Rackham to answer a hail, I can sneak in via the link and access the internal systems. You just need to keep him on the line long enough.”

“If the topic of conversation is himself, it's not that hard to keep him talking.” Cat turned to the console and sent out a hail. “The worm is hidden in the navcharts. It's programmed to migrate randomly, so you'll have to hunt it down.”

“How were you supposed to find it?”

“It's timed to make an appearance in three days for easy access, and then disintegrate after a few hours.” She grimaced. “Things aren't really working out the way they were supposed to.”

“No shit,” Finn growled, hovering over them.

“When you find it, the activation code is Cameo.” As the
Hoi
answered the hail, Cat hit the comm switch. “
Charme
to
Hoi Polloi
. Captain Rackham, please respond.”

“
Hoi Polloi
here. Cat Lancer. How delightful to hear your voice again,” came the sardonic reply.

Edie pressed her fingers to the access port and piggybacked along the comm line, quickly finding the link she'd made to the internal systems. The higher levels were impossible to breach remotely, but that was what the worm was for—if she could locate it. She shot a seeker, primed to track anomalous code, down the line. It would find a worm faster than if she trawled through the navcharts on her own, even if it turned up a few false positives in its eagerness.

“Sir, please don't leave without me.” Cat sounded suitably distressed. “They're all dead and no one knows I'm here. Wait for me.”

“I'm afraid I'm not inclined to wait, Lancer. I'm so sorry.”

Cat closed her eyes as if fighting for control. Her façade shattered. “Dammit, I know you planted that bomb and sab
otaged the skiff. You're responsible for all of this. For Haller and Kristos and Zeke. Have you killed Corky and Yasuo, too? And Jasna…you got Jasna killed.”

“Jasna was assassinated by eco-rads. You know that.”

Edie shut out the voices and concentrated on the seeker. It replicated and widened its search pattern, squeezing between the tiers. She sifted through the datastream, examining every discordant chunk of code the seeker threw her way, discarding the obvious errors and mutations that every system acquired after decades of use.

“Why did you do it?” Cat said, her voice choking.

“You wouldn't understand. You're too young. But my reputation, my family…they're all I have. They mean everything to me.”

Cat screwed up her fist in frustration, but again she calmed herself down. It was one thing to keep him talking, another to piss him off so much he cut the link. “Captain, please don't abandon me here.”

“We made a good team, didn't we, all these years?” he mused. “But I have other considerations. Now, I suggest you get back to that planet, young lady, before you maroon yourself.”

It sounded like Rackham was about to sign off. Edie snapped her attention back to the comm and jammed it open at Rackham's end. It would buy her a few more seconds until he physically pulled the plug.

“What the…what's going on?” came the captain's puzzled voice. “What are you up to, Lancer?”

“At least jettison an escape pod,” Cat said. “Leave me with supplies. Give me a chance out here.”

“What the hell are you doing? How did you…dammit…”

From the captain's increasingly frustrated cries, Edie could imagine him jabbing buttons on his console, trying to figure out why the link wouldn't close. He was no teckie.

While he raged, Edie listened to the music of the
Hoi
.

Deep inside the complex rhythms of the navcharts, exotic
notes wafted through the datastream. She understood the meaning behind the melody, but every note, every phrase of code held a foreign trace. The worm, elegant in its sophisticated simplicity, was the work of a master crafter. Suspended commands hovered over the security mesh, awaiting orders.

“I hear you,” she whispered. “I hear you.”

Cameo.

Cat's homeworld, the hellhole where the Crib had found her. They had that much in common, Edie and Cat. They had the Crib to thank for saving them, and to curse for what they'd become.

Edie sent the password and woke up the worm.

The worm uncoiled along the datastream, a disturbing bass note beneath the melody. In tune but offbeat. It attacked the highest security level, choking the internal access points and effectively cutting off the crew from the main systems. Edie changed the security codes to lock them out. Meanwhile, she had full access now for as long as the comm line remained open.

Edie gave Cat a nod to indicate she was in, and the skiff's console lit up with the
Hoi
's nav controls. With the
Hoi
only minutes from jumping, Cat punched in a new course so it veered away from the node.

“I want you to know, Rackham, you won't get away with this,” Cat said. “You'll pay for what you did.”

Rackham's line crackled. “Not in this life.”

Edie watched the navpilot's painted fingers flying over the console as she set the
Hoi
's engines to a hard deceleration,
followed by a full turn and a new course back toward the skiff. Now Rackham couldn't fail to notice—

“What's going on? Lancer! Is that cypherteck with you?”

“Go to hell, sir.”

The comm dropped out at his end. He must have finally yanked the right line. But it was too late for him. The
Hoi
was locked on a new course and Rackham was powerless to stop it.

Edie pulled her hand from the port. Her fingertips were white from pressing too hard. Finn gave her a rare smile. Hope burned in her chest for them both—an unfamiliar sensation.

Then he got back to business. “How long until we reach the
Hoi
?”

Cat checked their position. “I've set her engines to a crawl. Too much acceleration and she'll be a bitch to haul around again. At full tilt, the
Charme
will meet up in about four hours and be less than an hour from the jump by the time we board.”

“What kind of weapons does Rackham have at his disposal?”

“The
Hoi
has a couple of cannon but he's locked out. He has his personal spur. If he killed the engies”—Cat's face twitched in anguish—“he has two more, plus whatever ammo's in the armory. What about us? I've got a full clip.” She indicated her spur, hooked over a panel on the bulkhead.

Finn twisted his lips. “One round in the rifle. That's it.”

Edie gasped. “Only one?”

Cat wasn't worried. “Forget the rifle. It has limited use inside the ship anyway. You'll hole the hull.”

He glared at her. “Only if I miss.”

“What about the worm?” Edie asked to deflect their attention off each other. “How long will it last?”

“A few hours,” Cat said. “There should still be something left of it by the time we dock.” She looked to Finn. “So what's the plan?”

Finn took a seat at the back of the cockpit. “Get to the bridge. Eliminate the crew. In whichever order works best.”

“I told you, Yasuo and Corky will support us,” Cat said. “And I want Rackham alive. I want him to pay.”

“Death is a pretty good payment.”

“He deserves worse.”

Finn shrugged, perhaps in agreement, but didn't offer another option. Edie watched the two of them squabble, felt the tension of their uneasy truce. Cat was giving up a lot to help them—if things worked out she'd have control of the
Hoi
, but it was the new ident that had truly tempted her. Without it, Stichting Corp could still track her down.

Would Cat join her on her mission to the Fringe? Finn would only stay as long as the leash forced him to, but perhaps Cat could be persuaded to take up a cause. For the right price.

“I just want to find out why he did it.” Cat's voice was drained of anger. “I want to watch his face while I smash his precious antiquities to pieces. I want to see him hurting.” She drew a sobbing breath. “I want him to pay for killing Jasna and Zeke. Finn, I want you to leave him alive. Give me the chance to—”

Finn interrupted with quiet force. “Lady, you don't have the right to
want
a damn thing from me.”

Cat fell silent, her nostrils flaring as she breathed hard.

Leaning against the bulkhead, Finn closed his eyes, but Edie knew he had not let down his guard. She avoided Cat's imploring look. Mediation wasn't her job, and in any case perhaps Cat needed a reminder of the part she'd played in putting them into this position. Her sense of guilt was working in Edie's favor at the moment.

Edie settled into the copilot's seat and watched the scope. The
Hoi
drifted on the far side of the node, still decelerating as it started to turn. Nausea rippled in her stomach. Neuroshock. She gripped the arms of the seat until it passed, wondering if Finn sensed it. She didn't want him worrying about
whether or not she'd be able to make it through this. She had to make it through.

 

A soft jolt woke her.

“We're here.” Cat turned to Edie in the seat beside her. “You okay?”

Edie nodded and pulled herself up, fighting wooziness.

“We should start with the engine room,” Cat said. “With the worm, we can access most systems from there.”

Finn nodded, leading the way down the ramp. At the hatch, they found a couple of charged e-shields in a storage locker, and Cat still had hers. Not that they would offer much protection in a gunfight.

Cold silence and semi-darkness greeted them on the sleeping
Hoi
. Four hours earlier, Edie had set the worm loose on the nav controls, but enviros shouldn't have been affected. Something else had happened here.

Finn moved his arm across Edie to nudge her into place behind him, his body blocking hers from danger. In the glow of the emergency lighting, the equipment hold's haphazard stacks of containers and racks looked like a twisted cityscape bathed in moonlight. Edie saw upturned crates, panels hanging loose, cables swinging from the ceiling. Zeke wasn't the tidiest person but clearly this was more than that. This was the scene of a struggle.

Cat hit her commlink a few times. “It's working, but no one's answering.”

Rackham would know the skiff had docked, of course, and could determine their location by tracking their heat signatures. What mattered was getting to the engine room quickly before he could stop them. They stepped cautiously onto the deck and headed aft. As the only one properly armed, Cat took the lead.

Edie's heart beat a rapid tattoo. One look at Finn's self-assured stance as he quickly surveyed their surroundings helped soothe her adrenaline rush. In take-charge mode he
was in his element, and she felt a flush of pride as she saw again the man he could be. The man he
had
been before the years of chains and drubs. Confident, competent, determined…irresistibly attractive. She pushed away that last thought. With her nerves jangling from lack of neuroxin, her heightened senses must be getting her confused.

Something clattered in the distance, and they froze as a group. Finn tilted his head, listening.

“Just a tom.” Edie whispered. The little machines would continue their routine tasks regardless of the human drama around them.

A volley of shots rang out. Edie dropped to the deck as crates fell around them, Finn sheltering her from above. While Edie's ears still rang from the noise, Finn pointed aft to indicate to Cat where the shots had come from. His perceptiveness amazed Edie—she had no idea of the direction.

They regrouped behind a barricade of crates. Footsteps moved through the hold, followed by another round of fire. Cat darted out and returned fire—not very effectively. Overhead, a coolant pipe ruptured and hissed in protest. Finn took Edie's hand and led her in a crouch to the next stack of crates under the covering fire.

Cat joined them.

“You never told me you were such a lousy shot,” Finn muttered.

Before Cat could retort, a voice called out.

“Why'd you do it, Cat?”

Cat looked horrified. “It's Corky. I thought…dammit. Rackham's got to him somehow.”

“Captain told us what you did. Now you're back to finish us all off, eh?” Corky's words were slurred, and he sounded scared, like he was in over his head.

“Drunk bastard,” Cat muttered. Then she yelled back, “Don't be a dick, Corky. Rackham did it. He's responsible for what happened down there.”

“Give me the spur,” Finn hissed.

“Fuck, no!”

Finn glared at Cat like he might just take it anyway. Edie had no doubt that he could.

“You are not going to kill him,” Cat hissed. “It's not his fault—he doesn't know the truth.”

Finn didn't waste time arguing. “Stay here,” he told Edie. Then he slid away, out of sight.

“You betrayed us to the eco-rads again,” Corky called into the hold. “You killed everyone!”

Cat crawled along a line of crates, keeping low. Edie stayed where she was and peeked through a crack between two stacks to see Corky standing near one of the seed husks, closer than she'd realized. His tattooed face should have looked fearsome, but he was unsteady, swaying from foot to foot.

“Rackham planted a bomb,” Cat said from a few meters away. “We all know he has an arsenal of that crap.”

Corky swung around and fired in the direction of Cat's voice.

“Hold up, Corky! Listen to me. He killed Zeke. You know I'd never do that.”

“He said it was you!” But his voice wavered with uncertainty.

“I didn't kill anyone. Let's put down our weapons and talk for a minute.”

“Where are you?”

Edie watched Cat step out into a clear space on the deck, spur retracted. She had guts, for sure. Corky lowered his spur and took a few sloppy steps toward her, and they faced each other uneasily.

“Now, listen.” Cat held one hand palm-up in an appeasing gesture. “Rackham's being blackmailed. I don't know the details, but we both know he's not the hero he claims to be. He abandoned us on that planet, but three of us made it back.”

“Three of you?” Corky looked around the dark hold. “Who? Where are the others?”

Edie knew exactly where Finn was—stepping out of the
shadows behind Corky, rifle raised. Cat did a good job of not reacting to the sight.

“They're not coming out while your finger's on the trigger,” Cat said.

“And I'm not throwing down my weapon until I know what's—”

Finn struck Corky cleanly in the back of the head with the butt of the rifle, and the engie slid to the ground. Finn disarmed him in a second.

“Hey, I could've handled him,” Cat said.

Finn said nothing, but rustled through junk on the deck and pulled out some wiring. He started binding Corky's limp body.

“I said, I could've handled him!” Cat's voice rose. “I've known him for years. He's a friend.”

“Friends don't shoot friends. He's a loose cannon.”

Cat came suspiciously close to pouting. “With Haller gone, I'm second-in-command of this ship.”

“And I'm first-in-command of this mutiny.” He stared Cat down with such intensity that Edie saw the navpilot's face melt in submission.

Face down on the deck, Corky groaned and started moving. Blood tricked from his skull, soaking the collar of his jacket.

“Where's Yasuo?” Cat demanded. “Is he still alive?”

“Damn kid's too tough to kill,” Corky mumbled. “Captain ordered us to leave and he locked himself in the engine room for hours. Then we had to chase him all over the decks…”

“Where is he?” Cat insisted.

Corky wouldn't or couldn't respond. He seemed to pass out.

“Get us back on course for the node before we lose that worm,” Finn told Cat.

Cat turned on her heel and stomped down the main corridor leading aft to the engine room.

“Will he be okay?” Edie asked.

“He's fine.” Finn finished tying Corky to the gravplating and checked the man's spur. He shook his head. “I guess Cat
could've handled it after all. He's out of ammo. Let's check the armory.”

On deck three, they found the armory hatch welded shut. The captain had prepared for their arrival.

Finn glowered. “We need cutting torches.”

They returned belowdeck to the engine-room control booth, where Cat looked harried.

“We're headed for the jump node,” she reported, “but the worm's dying—I only have partial control and I'll lose that in a few minutes. Internal sensors show Yasuo's in the cellblock. Rackham's on the bridge with Gia, and it's locked down tight.”

“Can Rackham override our course?” Edie asked.

“Once the worm's gone, yes. But I imagine he wants to leave this system as much as we do.”

“Can he handle the jump?”

“He's a fair pilot, but I'd rather be on the bridge myself when we cross the horizon.”

“Well, he's welded the armory hatch and the lock,” Finn said. “It'll take me half an hour to cut through.”

“Half an hour? We'll be in nodespace by then.”

“I'd rather be armed before we tackle the bridge.”

“Then with your permission, I'd like to free Yasuo,” she said sarcastically. “He can help us.” Edie understood her anger wasn't really directed at Finn. She'd been betrayed by her captain and now the chief engie. Zeke was dead and her plans for a new future with a new ident were dead with him.

“Do that.” Finn moved aside to let her pass. “Can you take out the internal sensors?” he asked Edie. “It'd be nice if Rackham couldn't track us through the decks.”

“But then we can't track him, either.”

“I don't think he's leaving the bridge any time soon.”