Part 15 (1/2)
”Is it?” Alisa asked. ”We didn't see any signs.”
He glared at her.
”We were just on the way to my s.h.i.+p,” Alisa said. ”Anyone hungry? I can see if Beck is still grilling.”
Alisa envisioned him barbecuing skewers of meat, filling her mind with that thought instead of contemplating the container in her pocket. There was no reason these people should object to getting some answers, unless they already knew the truth and simply did not want her to know.
”Stay out of this investigation,” Erick said. ”You're lucky Lady Naidoo is letting you leave. If not for your relation to some of our people...” He frowned at Yumi and Young-hee. ”Most intruders disappear in the mists.”
”They're not intruders,” Young-hee said, surprising Alisa by standing up for them. ”Yumi is my sister.”
”A mundane n.o.body of a sister.” Erick curled his lip.
”Leonidas should have crushed your windpipe,” Alisa snapped before she could think better of it. ”Maybe not being able to talk would improve your personality.”
I don't need my windpipe to talk, b.i.t.c.h, the man snarled into her mind.
Before she could respond, a wave of power smashed into her chest. She was hurled across the room, slamming into the wall before she registered what was happening. Pain lanced through her body as she slid to the floor. A cold breeze stirred her hair, a breeze coming through the hole in the wall. She was less than two feet from it. Icy terror washed through her as she saw how close she had come to being hurled from the tower.
Erick strode forward, his hand lifting. Three suns, was he going to finish the job?
Alisa pushed away the pain and scrambled to her feet, reaching for her holster. But it was empty. She didn't have any way to fight him.
”Erick,” Young-hee said. ”Stop being an a.s.s.”
The man kept walking toward Alisa. I'll teach you to respect a Sta.r.s.eer, he growled into her mind.
Alisa found her feet and stared defiantly at him. She clenched her fists and was on the verge of leaping for him-weapons or not, she refused to go down without a fight-but something seemed to strike him. He flew abruptly, almost comically, to the side. Just as Alisa had done, he slammed into a wall. This one was full of shelves and books, and heavy tomes tumbled out, landing on his head.
Growling, he pushed himself to his feet. This time, his glare was for Young-hee. She glared right back at him, and then she glared at the other three warriors who had come in with them, a challenge in her eyes.
”You should be ashamed of yourself, Erick. All of you.” Young-hee snapped her fingers and waved at Alisa, Mica, and Yumi. ”Come on.”
Normally, Alisa would object to being ordered around, but with her back aching and Erick glowering at her, she had no problem with rus.h.i.+ng to obey Young-hee.
”I'm starting to like your sister, Yumi,” Alisa whispered as their small group followed Young-hee through the corridors.
”I think she likes you,” Yumi whispered back.
”Really? She called me a clumsy spy.”
”But you drugged our mother and made her giggle like a schoolgirl while waxing philosophically over the qualities of forks. I gather that Young-hee found that even more amusing than I did.”
”The things I miss by staying in engineering,” Mica murmured.
”I did invite you along,” Alisa said.
”If you hadn't been beaten up and thrown in a dungeon, I might have regretted pa.s.sing on that invitation.”
They walked out of the temple and into the docking area, the cold air extra frigid with night on the verge of falling again. Maybe Alisa would join Leonidas on a tropical beach somewhere after this. If only she could find Jelena and take her to that beach too. She had always loved the water. They had visited the sh.o.r.e often during the summers in Perun Central since the harbor had only been a few miles from their apartment. She and Jonah had strolled along, wet sand under their bare feet, as Jelena zigzagged all over the place, hunting for rainbow stones and sea spirals. They had used the sea spiral sh.e.l.ls as inspiration for a chocolate mold during one of their candy-making adventures.
Alisa blinked a few times and put the memories aside as she strode toward the Nomad's ramp. If she got out of here with Leonidas at her side, her odds would be much better of surviving the dangers of the system and finding her daughter.
She touched the container in her pocket, hoping her hunch about the blood proved to be right.
Beck jogged out of the open cargo hatch and almost ran into them on the ramp. He had put away his grill and was now clad in full combat armor, his helmet and two rifles included.
”Captain,” he blurted in surprise.
”Going somewhere?” Alisa asked, a twinge of suspicion running through her as she imagined him off to meet some fellow conspirator to plan how to extricate Leonidas and take him off to collect that reward.
”Yes, to rescue you. I just heard you were in jail.”
Some of her suspicion faded. He sounded utterly sincere. But...
”You just heard? Weren't you here when Young-hee came to get Mica and Yumi?” Alisa looked at the women, realizing she did not know how they had all come to be together.
”He wasn't here,” Mica said quietly.
”No, I just got back from-” Beck started to wave toward the temple, but paused, and his arm dropped to his side. ”Uhm, an errand.”
”An errand to betray Leonidas?” Alisa asked coolly.
”No!” Beck lifted his hand to his head, as if to push it through his hair, but it only clunked against his faceplate. ”I mean... it's not a betrayal, Captain. You must see that. He's a mech. He did horrible things during the war. The Alliance wouldn't want him if that weren't true. I don't understand why you don't want to work with me to turn him in. And having him on the s.h.i.+p, it's a danger to you too. We've had people come after us already because of him.”
”We've had even more people come after us because of you.”
”Captain...” A truly anguished expression contorted his face. He lifted his hand to the fasteners for his helmet and tugged it off, his tousled blond hair as much in need of a brush as Mica's. ”I know that, and I hate that I'm putting you in harm's way. I hate it, I swear. That's why I want his reward money, so I can try to pay off those thugs, get them to leave me alone. Or hire an outfit even bigger and scarier to threaten them on my behalf.” This time, he succeeded in pus.h.i.+ng his hand through his hair in a quick, agitated gesture. ”I don't want to be a burden on you, but I swear that with me, it was entirely accidental. Whatever money they've got on my head, it's not fair. I was wrongfully accused.”
”And how do you know Leonidas wasn't?” Alisa felt for Beck, she truly did, but she could not have him gunning for Leonidas. ”He's a good man, Tommy. He's saved the s.h.i.+p-saved our lives-several times.”
”But we don't know what he did in the war, and there's got to be a reason the Alliance wants him. There's got to be.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
”Would you be so eager to turn him in if there wasn't money involved?”
Alisa could see his shoulders slump even with the armor encasing them.
”Listen, Beck. I don't know his war history any more than you do, but we all did things we regret. We all committed what would be considered crimes during peacetime. But that doesn't matter right now. They want him alive. You know what that means? That he knows something they want to know. If all the Alliance wanted was for him to die for war crimes, then his warrant would say you could bring him in dead or alive, but preferably dead. Instead, it's very clear that he's wanted alive. It even says that in the fine print, doesn't it?” Alisa knew it did because she had read that digital wanted poster several times now. ”The reward will only be given if he's brought in alive.”
”I figured it was because they wanted to torture him before they killed him.”
”Trust me, he's been tortured enough,” Alisa said, thinking both of his current wounds and of those he had received in the past.
The soft murmur of Young-hee's voice came from the doorway where she had stopped. She finished a comm conversation and walked over.
”You should go now,” she said. ”Erick is whining to Lady Naidoo that I violated Order law by striking him.”