Gabriel's Ghost (39 page)

“We’ll need the files in that office, too. Whatever you can grab.”

“Agreed.” Sully peered over my shoulder. “Did you find an enviro hatch?”

“Closest one’s at the 24 mark. We’ll have to backtrack.” I kept paging. It looked like the only way. I took my fingers off the touchpad and rested them on my knees. Asked what I had to know but didn’t want to know. “When?”

“My first instinct is to go back there, now. But I don’t think that’s the best plan. It’s better if we do it as close as we can to meet-point. The gas we’ll release as soon as we clear the lab doors and they seal. That should take care of the jukors. The explosives I’ll key when we’re in the shuttle. I don’t want to wait too long in the terminal. Once those charges blow, they’re going to be looking for us. I guarantee the lab’s wired for alarms. We have to realize we could get caught at the terminal. They might not let Gregor bring the
Karn
in.”

“Eventually, they have to.” I just hoped it was before Ren’s forty-eight hours were up. “So, when?”

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“We’re five hours from meet-point, given transit time. I say at the two hour mark, we move. Agreed?” Sully’s gaze switched from me to Ren. We both nodded.

“Okay.” He brushed my hair back from my face, then ran his hand down my braid. “Now, no worries until then. We go in with clear minds.”

“And empty pockets?” I asked as his hand snuck inside his jacket.

He brought out his deck of cards with a wicked, wicked Sully-grin on his lips. “I’ve got to recoup that double or nothing. Besides, I have a new theory.”

I turned back to the datapad. Sully and his card theories could be painful to watch.

“Shall I deal?” Ren asked.

“Only if you keep your hands in sight at all times. And pull up those sleeves.”

“Certainly. Glad to oblige.”

God. We were sitting in Marker Two with enough explosives to take out a gen-lab—a genlab breeding jukors—and the most pressing issue was a game of cards.

But I couldn’t help myself. I watched the first two hands. I counted the angel of heart-stars cards, holding every one in memory as a good omen. We needed all the good omens, and all the good blessings, we could get.

What was it Berri Solaria said as she left us? Something about the Abbot’s holy sword guiding our way. Appropriate image. The sword often stuck out of the winged backs of the demons in the Englarian paintings. But all I had was my little dagger. Not jukor-proof, that.

I paged through the datapad and picked up the data on Crossley Burke again. The firm maintained a small office here on Two, uplevel, where the real estate got expensive. Shame we couldn’t get into that as well. I was in the mood to find out just what kind of contributions Burke made to charity. I could still picture him in his finery, oozing through that party…

The image of the sultry woman in blue flashed through my mind again. Superimposed, this time, with another image.

My hands hovered over the touchpad.

It couldn’t be. I had to be wrong.

I pulled up the vid, much smaller now on the datapad screen. Hit enlarge, enlarge, enlarge. Refocused. Brought her in, brought her face in, the arrogant tilt of a chin, the thin delicate features. I wasn’t distracted by the elaborate makeup highlighting her features this time. I recognized a smile as pure as an angel’s. Or as wicked as a devil from Hell.

Berri Solaria. With her hair down around her shoulders, not back in a bun as I’d always seen it. And it was several shades lighter. Her makeup was skillfully applied. I stared at the entrancingly beautiful Sister Berri Solaria. Leaning on Hayden Burke’s arm.

“Sully!” I barked out his name. My hands shook. I pointed to the screen. “It’s her. She knows him. She knows Hayden and Lazlo.”

“Who, Chaz? What—?” He leaned toward me, the smile dying from his face. Cards fluttered through his fingers. His eyes snapped to infinite black. I felt something move through the room, like a hot, angry wind.

“Bitch!” He knelt in front of the pad and grabbed for Ren. Webbed fingers clasped his and the blind Stolorth saw.

“By the stars. No.” Agony laced Ren’s words.

“Look.” I segued quickly to the image of her with Lazlo. Her back was to the camera, but her hand was clearly on his shoulder. It was the same glossy honey colored hair and rich blue dress.

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Sully shot to his feet. Cards scattered, fluttering. “We move. We move now. The bitch works for Hayden. She knows we’re here. What we’re doing. Which means, so does he.”

I felt the holy sword of Abbot Eng pierce right through the middle of my back.

I grabbed his arm. “They’ll have guards—”

“They didn’t an hour ago.” He checked the Carver, adjusted the straps of his shoulder holster quickly. “She may not have reached him yet. Or she may not know our schedule.”

“What does she know?” Ren was calm, the voice of reason.

“Whatever Verno’s told her,” Sully shot back. He was angry, sparing no one.

“Verno didn’t know we knew the location of the lab,” I said, pulling on my jacket. “Slow down. Five minutes isn’t going to make a difference now.”

Sully hesitated, his mouth a thin line. But he listened.

“Verno didn’t know we had the labs located on Level 28. Berri only knows we took the shuttle to M-2.”

“No,” Ren said. “She left first, for M-3. And none of us mentioned M-2 around her.”

“But Verno knew we were headed for M-2,” Sully argued. “She knows we’re here to take out the labs.”

“Then it’s a 50-50 split,” I said. “She knows we’re in Marker Two, looking for the lab. She doesn’t know we know where they are.”

“She said she wanted the labs destroyed as well,” Ren said. “Or was she lying? I never sensed a falseness.”

“I never heard her say she wanted the lab destroyed.” Sully’s voice was flat. “All she ever said was she wanted in on our mission. She called it her ‘holy mission.’ We all just assumed....” He clenched his fist, took a deep breath. “We assumed too goddamned much. I should have seen, I should have known her coming to us was too easy. Too much coincidence. But, God! I wanted the easy way in, after all we’d been through. After losing Milo.”

“Is it possible,” Ren asked, “her concern, and Hayden’s, is not the lab but control of the Sullivan fortune?”

I remembered Sully’s comment about his being the real heir. Not Hayden. It was an enormous amount of money to have at one’s control. I could understand why a man like Hayden Burke would kill for it.

“Hayden knows you’re alive,” I told Sully. “That’s not an assumption. That’s a fact.”

Sully nodded. “All the more reason we move and move now. Should have moved,” he said, shoving the charges into the inside pockets of his jacket, “when we confirmed the lab.”

“They’ll watch for us at the terminal.” Ren had a handful of charges. “She’s knows the
Boru
Karn
.”

The holy sword of purity.

Sully nodded. “We may need another way out of the shipyards. I only hope Gregor’s smart enough not to let himself get taken.”

I only hoped we’d live long enough to find out if he was.

I put the rest of the charges in my pocket, packed up the datapad, scooped up the cards. Sully handed me the robes. I shoved them in the duffle.

“We bring the bag into the core, leave it near an access panel. One we think we can get back to. If we can get back to it, fine. If not,” he held up a charge. “This will be inside. It’ll blow when the labs do. I don’t give a damn who it takes with it, either.”

He picked up the duffle and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

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We moved though dim, red-tinged darkness, through the clank and clang, through the hiss, through the high-whine of some unknown mechanism far below. Ren, between us, was the least hampered by the darkness. He lived in darkness, followed thermals.

We downleveled and hit 28 Green. Ten minutes to walk halfway around the core. We couldn’t hurry. The walkway was narrow. Hurrying could kill you.

Exiting at Blue, we left the duffle behind just inside the access hatch. Ren’s silvery-blue braid swung as he walked. No hiding he was Stolorth at this point. Fortunately, there were others in the shipyards. But he would, if we were seen, be remembered.

Past Bay 17. Sully shuddered slightly, sensing the jukors, sensing the dying Taka, the winged beast in her belly clawing, tearing its way out. There may not be time to put her down peacefully. Quickly might be all we could give her.

One shot, center mass. And a prayer. There were people in the corridor. Instinctively I noticed them, categorized them, but only as

threat or non-threat. No stripers and none that had uniforms like private security guards. There were a few techs in lab coats, maybe one in overalls. I couldn’t tell if they were male. Or female. I didn’t care.

A single doorway loomed. Enviro 24. That held an accessway to the air-handlers and recyc filters, as well as whatever else maintenance and station designers wanted to stuff in the overheads.

I noticed someone coming, a woman, a pallet trailing behind her. We slowed, as if stopping for conversation but no words came. None of us could think of anything to say. But we couldn’t just stand awkwardly in front of the doorway, mute. And we didn’t have time to waste by moving on, backtracking.

I looked at Ren, trying to force words out of my brain when Sully grabbed me and kissed me hard. I could hear Ren laugh, softly, hear the woman’s footsteps, the low hum of the anti-grav pallet getting louder. And I could feel Sully. Heat cascaded through me, swirling, cresting. I wrapped my arms around his neck, thrust my fingers into his short, thick hair just as my

tongue thrust into his mouth. It met his own as we tasted, no, devoured each other. An hour from now we could be dead. I might never kiss him again.
No
! The word shot into my mind, sweet, pleading and aching.
Gabriel will not lose you
. I heard a woman’s light chuckle. “I think this means she said yes,” Ren told her. I leaned my face against Sully’s chest, breathless. “Tell ’em the honeymoon comes after the wedding.” Her footsteps faded quickly, more

quickly than she came. I forgot. She was talking to a Stolorth. Don’t be impolite. But don’t tarry. I looked up at Sully. “Good thinking.” He answered with a sad smile, but no words. The poet had run out of words, again. “Any more?” he asked Ren. “No.” Sully pulled out a thin tool, touched the lock on the door and watched the lights dance.

Click. It slid open. “Go.”

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We surged into a small room cramped with duct ways and squat filters. Cables snaked overhead, disappearing through a large hole in the ceiling. Metal bars hung down from one side.

Sully reached up and pulled down a telescoping ladder.

I went up first.

It was hands and knees crawling on a narrow rampway that creaked under our weight. I found that placing my hands, and knees, on the outer edges kept sound to a minimum. When the creaking stopped behind me, I knew Sully and Ren had done the same.

It wasn’t as dark as the core. Light filtered in from the overheads in the corridor on our left, blocked only by the thick bulkheads that spanned to the outer hull of the station. Narrow passageways had been cut into each one, with recessed hatches that sealed in case of a hull breech. We had to pass through seven to reach the gen-lab.

I counted down in my mind. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two.

I stopped, waiting until Sully and Ren were closer behind me. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I caught Sully’s nod, answered it.

His voice sounded, clearly, unexpectedly in my mind. It wasn’t preceded by a touch.
Chasidah. We link. You. Me. Ren
.

I borrowed his favorite phrase.
Got it
.

Got it, too
. Ren was now in my mind, through the link with Sully.

I went forward, slowly, barely breathing. I could smell the fetid odor of the jukors. Huge enviro boosters were off to my left, blocking much of the light from the corridor. But it didn’t matter. Because the light from the lab filtered up through the breaks in the ceiling panels.

I moved another few inches, listening.

Then I heard it. A wheezing. Something crackling. Like the sound tissue paper would make if it were made of glass.

I crept forward on my knees in my odd, wide gait, looking for a break in the ceiling, looking for a way we could get down, into the labs, as quickly as possible.

Some ductwork had tilted, leaving a hole as big around as my fist. It wasn’t far from the rampway. I leaned to my left, held my breath. The stench was stronger. I looked down.

The long, grotesque face of a jukor stared back. Mucus dripped from its snout. And its red eyes gleamed back at me like the fires of the damned in the depths of Hell.

Chapter Thirty-One

I jerked back. Sully’s arm on my shoulder was the only thing that kept my head from slamming into the hard metal ceiling. He pulled me sideways, against him. I was breathing hard, bile rising in my throat.

Easy, Chasidah. Calm
. Ren’s presence floated through me.

I tried to focus on Sully, my eyes blinking rapidly. God. God. But what I saw looked nothing like anything any God had ever made. Ever could’ve made. I’d never seen one that close, that clearly before. The ones in the transport ship had been caged, crated. I’d only run escort, and had been on board the transport ship only briefly.

The one on Moabar had attacked at night. The forest had been shadowed. Its hideousness, less distinct.

I heard the crackling noise again. Wings moved below me. That was followed by a wheezing, snuffling sound. The jukor was scenting, for me.

It knows we’re here, Sully
. A sick feeling rolled through me again. Then immediately something cool, like clear water. Ren.

It senses something
, Sully answered.
It doesn’t know what. That’s okay. It senses people
passing in the corridor all the time
.

A parade out there might be a nice distraction. Know any way we could rig one
?