Crossways (42 page)

Ben had a package for the planetary network: the vid of his confrontation with Crowder, and Crowder's admission of guilt for the attacks on Hera-3 and Olyanda.

Olyanda had backfired on the Trust spectacularly.

Once Ben had extracted the whereabouts of the missing settlers from Crowder he'd happily throw him, and the Trust, and possibly Alphacorp as well, to the wolves, and let the combined might of the press and the law deal with them all. He'd even be willing to return to answer for Ari van Blaiden's death if he had to. He hadn't told Cara that part yet. He knew what her reaction would be. As for the Free Company, they'd manage without him.

“Everyone clear about what's going to happen?” Cara asked out loud for Ricky's benefit. They were crammed into the cargo space behind the flyer's seats, down and safe in the area of the airport reserved for private flyers.

“Clear.” Tengue, Gwala, Hilde, Archie, Bronsen, and Ronan all responded quickly and concisely.

“As long as I get a chance at Crowder once you've got him,” Nan said. She still clutched the bolt rifle that she'd taken from Minnow.

“You planning on using that?” Tengue nodded toward the weapon. “Because if you are, would you give us all fair warning, please?”

Nan sighed. “I don't need a bolt gun to blister Crowder's ears off.”

“I bet you don't, lady,” Gwala said.

“Nan, why can't I go, too?” Ricky put his hand on Nan's sleeve. “I knocked Minnow out.”

“You did,” Cara said. “You did absolutely the best thing you could have done. You kept your head and you used your brains. What you did was very smart. Without you I doubt we could have gotten in and out without someone getting hurt. Ben will be so proud of you. Do you know what the best thing you did was?”

“Figuring out how to use the skin gel as a barrier on Nan's neck?”

“That was clever, but it wasn't the best thing.”

“Switching the used blast pack for a fully charged one?”

She shook her head. “Same again, clever but not the best thing.”

“Knocking Minnow out?”

“Uh, no. That was courageous, though.”

“What then?”

“When we blew the ceiling you insisted we protect Minnow as well. He was your enemy, but you treated him with respect and human kindness. That was the best thing. It shows that you know how to fight when you need to, but you don't let people get hurt if you can help it. You're more like your Uncle Ben than you know.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“But you've got to understand that if you come with us it will be dangerous and you're not fully grown yet. So someone would have to look after you instead of looking after themselves, and that's when people get hurt under fire. And you know that you don't let people get hurt if you can possibly help it. Understand?”

He nodded. “Yeah, got it. Stay with Nan and Ronan on the perimeter.”

“Yeah, buddy. I'm missing all the fun, too,” Ronan said. “Not that I'm complaining.”

Nan looked sideways at Cara and winked.
*Are you sure you were never a negotiator?*

*Sure.*

*Cara, you all ready?*
Ben made contact.

*Abandoning the flyer now,*
she said.
*We'll be up-island in an hour. Rendezvous as planned.*
“All right,” Cara turned to the rest of them. “Me, Hilde, Archie, and Bronsen first, making a loud noise through the main gate. The rest of you, quietly and quickly as we take all the port master's attention. Ricky, stick with Gwala until you get to the perimeter. All right with the antigrav legs, Nan?”

“Oh, I'll just bump along behind Ronan like a half-deflated balloon. Don't worry.” She slapped Ronan's upper arm. “We'll be fine.”

“Who's got my buddysuit?” Hilde asked.

“It's in my pack,” Gwala replied. “Don't worry, you won't have to scale any walls in your high heels.”

Cara slipped on Hilde's brightest, most outrageous coat, a swinging swirl of lemon and crimson. It covered her from chin to midcalf. “I feel a bit ostentatious in this.”

“You look wonderful, dahling!” Hilde put on the voice to go with the high heels, white sheath dress, and gauzy wrap that fairly sparkled in the daytime lights.

Archie and Bronsen wore the same green flight suits that they'd worn to come through immigration, lightweight coverings to disguise the buddysuit beneath.

“Let's go give them a show,” Cara said.

“Walk this way.” Hilde sashayed out in front of them, hips swaying, heels clacking on the floor.

“If I could walk that way . . .” Archie left the old joke hanging as they followed her out into the morning darkness.

B
EN STUDIED THE CLIFFS. THEY COULD BE climbed, though his lungs weren't completely healed yet, and with his wrist still in the case he'd make heavy weather of it. Better to make an entrance and cause a distraction, let Cara's crew slide in over the perimeter wall. He wasn't going to put Gen in danger, though she wouldn't thank him for coddling her. Max was about as much use as a sugar teapot and Kitty had already admitted to being no use in a scrap, but he could use them behind a screen with smart-dart rifles to protect the entrance and draw fire. He only had Yan and Toni Horta, the taciturn merc, and he needed Horta on tactical. Just him and Yan as a landing party, then.

But he did have a very neat spaceship.

*Everyone in place?*
he asked from the ladder in the upper hatch.

He got a chorus of affirmatives.

*Here we go.*
He gave Gen a mental nod.

She raised
Solar Wind
from the ocean like a leviathan, perfectly level. Nose to the cliff face, she rose up and loomed over the cliff edge. A shudder through the body of the ship announced Horta letting loose with the pulse-cannon.

*Yes!*
Horta's triumphant affirmative was the nearest
Ben had ever heard her come to joy.
*Crowder's flyer, destroyed.*

A second shudder, smaller this time, signaled that she'd blown out part of the perimeter wall.

Gen planted
Solar Wind
firmly on the landing pad and the main hatch lowered. Max and Kitty, armed with smart-dart rifles, were lying flat in the hatch behind one of the portable body shields, the muzzles of their rifles poking through. It didn't matter how accurate they were, the object of the exercise was to draw as many of Crowder's people from the house as possible. If any of them looked close to boarding
Solar Wind
, Horta would lay down lethal fire, but until then, smart-darts would be enough. One dart would knock a man out. Two would probably not be lethal unless there was some underlying medical condition. Three would be fatal. Each dart was movement- and heat-seeking, so even if Kitty and Max were the worst shots in the world, the darts should find their marks in mobile, warm bodies. With luck, they should be able to knock out two or three in the first rush. After that it might be a standoff.

Ben heard pings as bolts ricocheted from
Solar Wind
's skin, but they were no more than gnat bites on her armor. He opened the upper hatch and slithered over to the far side, followed by Yan. By grabbing the handholds designed for use in space, they slithered down the hull, along the wing, now fully extended for atmospheric flight, and dropped down close to the cliff edge under cover of darkness.

*We're in,*
Cara said from the opposite side of the compound.

Ben and Yan circumnavigated the firefight going on at
Solar Wind
's hatch. There were four bodies on the ground.

*Good shooting, guys,*
Ben said.

*It's Kitty, not me,*
Max responded.
*Even with the heat-seeker things I've not hit one. Kitty's a whiz.*

*Keep it up. Pin down as many as you can. I'm counting at least another four still throwing bolts in your direction. If your shields show low power get back inside and dog the hatch. Don't take any chances.*

*Do I look like the kind of man to take chances?*
Max said.
*I'm an accountant, remember?*

Ben and Yan ran for the wall at the corner of the
compound. Ben boosted Yan to the top and Yan dropped a line, holding it firm from the other side while Ben climbed.

Yeowch, it hurt his wrist. He'd been overconfident about it. His lungs, too. His breath rasped in his chest. At the bottom of the wall he stopped, panting.

*You all right?*
Yan sounded concerned.

*I will be when we get Crowder.*

The house and gardens were ablaze with light. Figures moved inside. Someone screamed. Definitely not Cara or Hilde. Mrs. Crowder, then. Two figures ran across the manicured pink lawn from the direction of
Solar Wind
. Ben hit one of them with a smart-dart, Yan felled the other.

*Cara?*
he asked.

*All secured in here. We've got Crowder.*

*Any other guards?*

*Not in the house.*

*By my count, there might be one more watching
Solar Wind
.*

*I'll check.*
Yan doubled back.

Ben let himself in through the garden doors.

Crowder raised his hands.

How the hell had they figured out he was here?

Why hadn't he had a warning from Jussaro? The man was dead as soon as Crowder got his fingers on that kill switch.

He didn't recognize all of them, but he knew he was in trouble when Carlinni followed the thick-necked soldier type into the room. If his heart had been capable of beating any faster than it already was, it would have hammered its way out of his chest as soon as she arrived. Benjamin. Where was Benjamin?

Danniri had been blindsided at the stadium and Drew Wyndham had been worse than useless here, the first out at the sound of the alarm and not seen since. Crowder had managed a call to Danniri, but it would be four hours before she got here with reinforcements. About three hours and fifty-nine minutes too late. He'd told her to send a squad to the Benjamin farm and to the university where Kai Benjamin was studying, but he doubted they'd find anything. Benjamin wasn't stupid enough to leave any of his family exposed.

“Is this him?” A statuesque blonde female jerked the business end of a smart-dart rifle in his direction. Benjamin may not be here, but this had all his hallmarks, a soft operation. He recognized the weapon for what it was, nonlethal, and started to breathe again. This was one of the weapons he'd taken precautions against. You could never be too careful. Building an immunity to the anesthetic had not been particularly pleasant, but suddenly it all seemed worth it.

“Meet Gabrius Crowder,” Carlinni said. “Would-be mass murderer.”

“Unsuccessful, if I may remind you,” Crowder said, pleased that his voice hadn't broken. “I didn't actually kill anyone.”

“Don't tempt me to use this, Crowder. Not before Ben gets here. We've got two assassination attempts to add to your butcher's bill. One of them almost killed Serafin the day we arrived on Crossways and the second one, the Alphabet Gang, killed six station guards trying to take out Ben.”

“That wasn't me, honest. I tried once, sure. You can't blame me for that, but—what did you call them, the Alphabet Gang?—they're not mine. Never heard of them. Sounds like Alphacorp to me. Alphacorp. Alphabet. Know what I mean?”

“You're lying.”

“What? You think Alphacorp was completely innocent of all van Blaiden's wrongdoings? Didn't you know about Akiko Yamada? Of course not, why would you? Ari fucked his way to the top.”

Stall for time. Benjamin was on his way, good. If he was going down he was damn sure he was going to take Benjamin and Carlinni with him. The implant killers were still in his pocket. Right pocket for Benjamin, left for Carlinni. Pity those were the only two, but if he had to guess who else might be on the team that came after him he might have guessed Vijay Gupta, Gen Marling, and Wenna Phipps, possibly Ronan Wolfe. He'd never have picked Archie Tatum and Lewis Bronsen, and who the hell were the soldiers? Mercenaries. It was written in every line of their body language. Crossways hirelings, perhaps. Oh—his brain caught up with him—the mercs who'd brought in the injured woman. Damn, he'd been suspicious, but he thought they were contained at the burn unit.

“Check the other rooms,” Carlinni said.

The big black soldier and the woman left without a word. Within minutes there was a loud scream followed by a faint thud.

“You found my ex-wife,” Crowder said. “She never could stand me.”

“A woman of taste,” Carlinni said.

He shrugged. “Can I put my hands down?”

“No. Keep them up there until they fall off.”

“Just one woman,” the tall female said as they came back in. “She's sleeping off a smart-dart.”

Carlinni nodded. “Secure the house. Ben's here.”

As she spoke, Benjamin stepped over the threshold of the garden door. “Hello, Crowder. What a very fine day it is.”

Crowder's guts churned. This might be a soft operation, but Benjamin's expression was anything but soft.

“I see you've got a new ear. I don't like the color. It's still a bit too fresh and it doesn't quite match the other one.”

Crowder started to lower his hand to touch his ear, but the muzzle of Carlinni's rifle reminded him to keep it up.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Jussaro. Information goes both ways sometimes. Your Telepath was careless.”

I'll have him brain-wiped, Crowder thought. Fucking useless asshole.

“You've heard from the stadium, of course?” Ben asked.

“Yes, well played.”

“It wasn't me.” Ben jerked his head sideways to Carlinni. “These guys orchestrated it. What possessed you to go after my family, Crowder? Surely you knew I'd come for them?”

Crowder shrugged, trying to appear more in control than he felt. “What are you going to do with me?”

“Extract information for starters. The whereabouts of thirty thousand settlers.”

“I don't know.”

“Arcturus, you said. That was a lie.”

“I still don't know.” He truly didn't. Oh, gods, he wished he did. “I can't tell you what I don't know. And why should I tell you? You'll kill me anyway. Even with that popgun.” He jerked his head toward the rifle in Carlinni's hands. “One dart won't kill me for sure, three will. Two might. I'm
not as fit as I used to be. Two could do it for me, you know. Not feeling so good right now, in fact.”

“Nan wanted a word with him,” Carlinni said to Benjamin. “She's blue blazing mad and she picked up a bolt rifle in the stadium and won't let go of it.”

Crowder remembered the look on the terrifying old woman's face. Benjamin might not murder him in cold blood, but he'd locked up Louisa Benjamin for a month. “Ari van Blaiden,” Crowder said. “Van Blaiden was supposed to find them a planet and dump them.”

“You're stalling,” Carlinni said. “Just a few minutes ago you claimed that you hadn't actually killed anyone yet. Thirty thousand settlers, Crowder. Do you really want them on your conscience? Where did you send them? Don't give us that Ari van Blaiden crap. You knew him. Handing them over to Ari would be a death sentence.” She turned to Benjamin. “Let me clean him out, Ben. Strip it out of his mind.” She pressed the muzzle of the rifle into Crowder's belly. Reached up and tore one of the psi-dampers from the collar of his jacket. “Been relying on these, Crowder, to keep you safe from nightmares like me. I can kill you with my mind.”

“That's an old joke. You don't get me with that one.”

She reached up and ripped off the second damper.

“Cara, no!”

The genuine alarm in Benjamin's voice sparked icy fear in Crowder's gut. The double damper had kept his implant inviolate since the discovery of platinum on Olyanda. It had been inconvenient, but he wasn't a full psi-tech. Losing the facility to receive messages hadn't crippled him. He'd seen psi-techs with their implants decommissioned. It wasn't pretty. He'd had it described to him as like being hit on the head with a spiked club—from the inside.

Carlinni was inside his head, now, drilling down through layers of consciousness. He felt stripped naked; his thoughts started to unravel. He couldn't see, couldn't breathe.

Through a fog, he heard her say: “He's telling the truth, damn him.”

He dropped his arms, fell to his knees and folded over, desperately concentrating on moving his hands, managing to get them into his pockets. He didn't need to be an ace marksman to make these work.

Everything was happening in slow motion. As Crowder reached into his pockets and began to clasp the implant killers, Benjamin wrapped his arms around Carlinni. Maybe he was telling her to stop, but Crowder's ears were filled with a cacophony of bells and buzzers, whoops and whistles. Memories surfaced and sank as if she was rifling through them, keeping some, discarding others.

He brought the implant killers out and pointed them, his thumb on the triggers. Carlinni's mind contact snapped off. She flopped like a rag doll in Benjamin's arms. But Benjamin didn't fall. The implant killer had no impact whatsoever. He thumbed it again. Still no effect, but Carlinni was down and Benjamin was on his knees, lowering her to the floor, cradling her head, shouting something.

Tatum and Bronsen both sprang forward. Crowder felt one dart puncture his thigh and a second one pierce his shoulder through his shirt. He'd built up immunity, but he wasn't invulnerable. Two certainly wouldn't kill him. He wasn't so sure about three.