Dragonfly (17 page)

Spider shoved Vish’s shoulder, artfully oblivious. “Stop showing off, Vishnayev. I told you, the new girl’s taken, and Sasha’s is way bigger than yours.”

Vish giggled. “You mean his brain, right?”

“Not my ego, that’s for sure.” Dragonfly shook dust from his hair and stripped his boilersuit off, then rolled it and tossed it in the corner. He was still dressed in grey and black underneath—not that I was looking. “Hello, Vish. Now can we get on with this? I’m a little stretched for time.”

I pulled the pins from my hair and unclipped my uniform, stretching my neck with relief as the tight collar peeled away from my throat. I hadn’t actually thought about how we’d get back to
Ladrona
now that the whole station was on alert. In any case, what now? Spider had trapped his bait. Would he call the admiral for ransom? Or make the poor man suffer a while?

Spider poked the girl in the chest, but she didn’t move. “Foxy Lady, come deal, can you?”

Foxy slung her rifle and pulled out another hypodermic clip. She yanked up the girl’s coat sleeve and pressed the clip into her arm, and the girl spluttered and jerked awake, her face green like airsickness.

“Wh … what? Where am I?” She pushed herself up, staring around her and shivering, like the bridge was the jungle and we were the beasts.

“Hello, Natasha.” Spider dragged her back down by one arm. “We’re your new friends. Sit down and shut up, and I’ll play nice. Piss me off and I’ll forget the nice part. Okay?”

He snapped a smartcuff against her slender wrist. The flat metal coil unfolded and wrapped itself tight. He guided the other end around the console strut, and the metal melded itself seamlessly together, tough, flexible and unbreakable.

Natasha struggled, blonde hair tangling in her face. “You can’t do this to me! Let me go, you dumb Britsky oaf!” Her accent was New Russiya boarding school, affected and snooty. Queen of the rich girls. Not in her favor on this ship.

Lux and Foxy grinned at each other. “Ten seconds to impact,” Lux said.

At the nav console, Vish snickered, nose in his book. “Five, more like.”

Spider rubbed his big palms together, dangerously calm. “I’m sorry, what?”

Natasha yanked at her cuff, furious. “I said, you can’t do this to me! Let me go at once! Do you know who I am?”

“Huh?” Spider blinked, playing stupid.

I squirmed.
Look around you, girl. Shut your mouth before you get hurt.

But she glared at him, girlish breasts heaving. No doubt she thought herself so brave and romantic. I wished she’d put all that skin away. Lesson one in talking down a crazy: don’t get him thinking about his dick. Not unless you’re prepared to follow through.

She tossed her haughty head. “I’ll have you know my father is a very important man. You don’t want to cross him. He won’t stand for this—ugh!”

Spider caught her by the hair, dragged her face close. His thick biceps bulged, and that golden crazylight swirled in his eyes. “Newsflash, Natasha Pyotrova Verenskaya. This dumb Britsky oaf won’t stand for
his
shit.” She whimpered and struggled, but he held her, staring into her eyes. “Wanna see? Want me to show you how I play, you snotty rich bitch? You ain’t seen nothing like me before.”

I stepped forward, alarmed. Clearly, she’d jammed her finger firmly on Spider’s buttons. Was it just the accent, the stupid rich-girl attitude? Or something else? “Hey, look, don’t harm the merchandise—”

But Dragonfly was quicker. He appeared at Spider’s side—how did he move like that?—and grabbed one thick leatherbuckled wrist, light but firm. “Let it go, Lukas.”

Spider snarled, trying to shake him off. “What the fuck do you care?”

Dragonfly held on, calm. “Let me handle it. She’s nothing. A brainwashed kid. Break her now and you’ll lose everything. Save your
loco
for
el almirante
, no?”

Spider gritted his teeth and stalked away. He vaulted up onto the command platform to plant his
loco
in the chair and glower.

Natasha giggled, terrified, and Foxy scowled and reached for her rifle. “Shut it, you stupid little tart.”

“Relax, Foxy.” Dragonfly leaned over the girl, resting his hands on her chair’s arms. “Listen to me,
hija
. Are you listening?”

I held my breath. Time to show your colors, Sasha, or whatever your name is.

She shrank away, trembling. He didn’t follow her. Just fixed her with a steady stare. “You’re thinking you’ve landed on a ship full of dangerous lunatics, yes?”

She nodded, eyes wide.

“Well, you’re right.” His brown eyes glittered bright and hard. “Think you can figure us out? Make us play your game? You can’t. You’re dirt to us. A waste of space. Filth in our air scrubbers. So don’t fuck with us.
Entiendes
?”

Unconsciously, she licked dry lips. “I—”

“Shut up.” He jammed his finger roughly over her mouth, and there wasn’t an atom of compassion in his tone. “Don’t waste your brainwashing on me. I’m not the nice one. We don’t have a nice one, get it? You know what I’d really like to do to you, you useless little bitch?”

She shook her head.

“Use your imagination, then.” He thumbed her chin, his voice a velvety threat. “Are you using it?”

Tears sparkled in her eyes. She nodded, frantic.

“Good. Then you can imagine that I won’t save you from him,” he flicked a glance at Spider, “if he loses his temper. So enough with the attitude. Keep your mouth shut, and act like what you are—a means to an end,
es todo
—and you might make it out of here breathing.”

Natasha swallowed, shaking, her face white. She believed him.

Hell, I believed him, and I’d spent the evening listening to him trying to persuade Spider that kidnapping her was a bad idea. If I hadn’t known he didn’t give a damn, I’d have thought he was trying to save her from herself.

Vish giggled, eyes rolling. “Well, you sure scared the shit outta me, Sash. Someone save me! I’m on a ship full of crazy people! When can I get off?”

Dragonfly stalked over to stand beside me, his expression dark. Spider just rocked in his chair, flexing his fingers like they hurt. I stood there, uneasy. You could taste the tension stretching the air. The sooner we got our ransom, the sooner we could get off this madhouse of a ship, return to
Ladrona
and get on with the mission.

I shivered. Imagine, actually wishing I was alone with
him
. But right now, it seemed a pretty good option.

Spider leaned over the command console and crunched a contact. “Let’s talk to his holiness. Lux, give me unsecured etherwave. I want everyone to hear this.”

Lux sauntered up to the comms and switched control, swiping in a frequency. “Open.”

Spider lounged back in his chair, clasping big hands behind his head. “Hello, Vyachesgrad. This is
LightBringer
. Are we listening?”

A delayed hiss, just a fraction of a second—what was our slipspace trajectory then? were we circling?—and a woman’s voice clipped on, echoing on an open channel. “
LightBringer
. This is Lieutenant Colonel Boranova, Vyachesgrad security—”

“Don’t waste time, lady. Put the admiral on. I know he’s standing there, I can hear him shitting himself.”

Etherwave crackled, another silence. Then: “Vice-Admiral Verenski here. State your name.”

Natasha opened her mouth, and Dragonfly silenced her with a glare.

Spider laughed, stretching long legs. “You know who this is, Pyotr.”

An intake of breath. “Lukas Nero.”

I noted the alias. I didn’t remember it from Spider’s Axis file. But this admiral knew it. They’d met before. My spine crawled. More was going on here than I understood, and it itched my nerves raw.

“Close enough.” Spider studied the ceiling, his big brown fingers locked in his dreads. “I’ve got something of yours, Pyotr. Just like you once took something of mine.” He stretched out his right arm, clenching his fist—the tattoo and the wrist guard covered a scar, I noticed, a pale rope twisted between his veins—and his tone sharpened. “I’d say let’s trade, but hey. Some things can’t be returned, can they?”

Dragonfly shook his head, his eyes closing for a moment. I looked a question, but he just bit his lip grimly.

“Let me talk to her.” Verenski’s voice rippled with stress.

“Daddy!” Natasha called, trembling. “Daddy, I’m h—mph!”

Foxy slapped her hand over the girl’s mouth and gave a female groan of pain. Lux laughed and muttered deep and dark, muffling it behind his hand, and Vish dropped his lunch tray with a clunk and clatter of metal. Nice bit of audio theatre, considering the admiral probably didn’t know that Spider crewed
LightBringer
with three skinny-starved freaks and a cat. The stupid girl had played right into their hands.

But was it really just three? Surely he’d need more. I’d done tours on battleships as a marine. The flight crew was sizable. For all I knew, Spider had an army of brainwashed minions below decks. Memory scratched at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t catch it. I chewed my lip. Lux, Vish, Foxy Lady. I hadn’t seen anyone else.

Spider clicked his tongue. “Down, lads. Keep it clean. Listen, Pyotr, this is getting messy. How about we talk price?”

“Name it.” Background scuffle, probably the security colonel protesting. “Name it! Tell me how much.” This time, desperation hardened Verenski’s tone.

I held my breath. How much would Spider ask for? A decorated officer like Verenski was worth a lot to the navy; even apart from his own personal fortune, which must have been substantial if the corruption I’d seen on Vyachesgrad was any guide. The Empire would pay a lot for him to save face, and he’d be able to pull strings at High Command to get his way. Spider was an idiot if he gave her back for anything less than ten million sols.

But Spider just grinned, wicked teeth shining. “Who says it’s money I want?”

My pulse throbbed cold. Beside me, Dragonfly flipped his hyperchip over tense fingers.

Static noise, a pause. “Then what?”

“Oh, I’m so pleased you asked!” Spider twirled around in the command chair, and gripped the walkway rail to jerk to a stop. He leaned into the comms console until his mouth brushed the etherwave sensor, soft and intimate. “I want your filth off that station, Admiral. I want every marine, every soldier, every brainwashed Imperial flunky gone from Vyachesgrad and the civilian hierarchy restored by twelve hundred local, or your daughter dies. Simple enough for you?”

A cold crackle, and silence.

My throat corked dry. Verenski could never do it. High Command wouldn’t let him, no matter how personal the threat. The Empire never ceded territory to rebels. Ever.

“Hear that, Admiral?” Spider whispered, his cheek pressed to the console, his fingers caressing the plastic like piano keys. “That’s your heart breaking. Music, isn’t it? Call me back when you’ve thought about it. I don’t wanna see a single traffic movement from that station before you talk to me. But don’t take too long. My boys are hungry, and so am I.”

And he slammed his palm on the etherwave contact, severing the link.

19

Silence clanged around the battledeck, like that moment of quiet after a fusion bomb, before the sound rips your ears bloody. It was broken only by Natasha’s harsh breathing and the urgent throb of my heart.

Vish giggled, breaking the spell. “That was fucking fantastic.”

Spider levered himself from the command chair and stretched with a feline grin. Lux just shrugged, thoughtful, his gaze drifting. Foxy jumped up on the nav console beside Vish and swung her skinny legs. “Hell, yeah. Did you hear him shit himself?”

She elbowed Vish’s bony ribs. He poked her back, laughing, and for a moment, they just looked like two shy young people who liked each other. A lunatic love scene. How touching.

Dragonfly slipped his chip into his pocket. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously smooth, like calm air before a sonic riptide. “Foxy, why don’t you take this girl down to the galley and find her something to eat?”

Foxy stared. “But—”

“Just do it, please.”

Dragonfly flicked her that cold, brown glare, and sullenly she slouched off the console. She dragged Natasha up, popping off the smartcuffs with a tiny electric disruptor that snapped the metal in two, and dragged her to the elevator. Apparently, Natasha was lost for words, because the elevator door hissed shut without any audible complaints from her.

Dragonfly whirled on the spot and hit Spider in the jaw. “You fucking liar.”

Nice punch. Spider staggered, blood splashing his lip.

Lux goggled, his pimply nose quivering, and Vish’s mouth dropped open. Dragonfly’s stormcloud expression suggested he was too pissed off to care that Spider was a head taller than him and a third again his weight.

Spider spat a red stain and shoved him away. He was armed, his disruptor holstered at his thigh, and my pulse leaped as his fingers hovered dangerously.

But he didn’t draw. His gold-flecked eyes glowed with relish. “Wanna take me on? We’ve tried before. You know how it turned out.”

“The Empire never cedes territory!” Dragonfly’s voice actually shook, something I’d never heard before, and my bones vibrated with it. Would this be the end? Would they finally kill each other? But his rage was quiet, festering, a starburst waiting to erupt. “You know Verenski can never do what you ask. What are you playing at?”

Spider shrugged, an evil little twist to his smile. “I’m only giving him the choice he never gave me.”

Dragonfly stared, pale. “You always meant to kill her, didn’t you? You never planned to give her back.”

“Damn right. They don’t hear us when we whisper, Sash. We have to scream in their fat fucking faces—”

“This is not about a message! It’s about you. It’s always about you! Why do you think I left?”

“You left because I kicked your sorry ass out. And don’t change the subject. What about your little game at Esperanza? That’s hardly impersonal.”

“That’s different.”

Spider laughed. “Uh-huh. You just keep telling yourself that.”