Lana's Comet (Outer Settlement Agency) (9 page)

On hands and knees, she crawled, shushing Cyprus the whole way. The cruel laughter stopped – Cyprus must have closed the connection. Soon, strong arms lifted and held her close. “It’s all right, Lana.”

“With all due respect, shut up and listen.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Now? Really, Cyprus?”

He laid his forehead against hers and dropped a series of feathery kisses, light as dew, across the bridge of her nose. If not for their jacked up circumstances, she’d have called him out on doing something so cutesy.

“Talk,” he said.

“Agree or disagree that our new friends are pirates?”

“Agree.”

“Agree or disagree that our new friends hate OSA agents?

“Agree.”

“Agree or disagree that we are OSA agents?”

The lips against her temple curled into a smile. “Disagree.” He sat her down and reengaged their would be captors. “I’ve killed men for calling me less.”

She cringed at disbelief falling like the most torrential of rains from the other side. “Where’s your proof,” the gruff voice asked. “You’re in an OSA ship.”

There was a rustling of clothes and she yelped as her hands were jerked and bound.

“Open up visual to see what I found,” Cyprus said. The video panel pinged and was soon followed by hoots and whistles. “Her partner had an unfortunate accident with an airlock and an open door. I kept for her...conversation. You’ll forgive my state of undress.”

“What kind of numbskull steals an OSA ship?”

“I wouldn’t say steal so much as escaped. But you’re right. I need off this vessel,” Cyprus said. I don’t have any hard currency, but I do have her. Give me passage to Mars. Take the girl. I’ll have untraceable credits waiting for you when we land. Vesuvian Night.”

Genius and terrible.

And stupid.

The pirates asked for clarification for that last bit, but Cyprus brushed it off as a hometown curse. She knew better. One day someone might make a time machine. She’d use it to go back to the third day of training and kiss Cyprus for making her miserable.

Granted a Vesuvian Night was a long shot, but she trusted him. If he thought they could manage to take out these pirates, then they would. Done. How hard could it be? She’d only heard two distinct voices anyway.

Ugh, maybe three.

C
yprus kept the vidlink open as a show of good faith and led Lana out by the leash he’d made for her. In the half breath of privacy they had between vessels, he ripped the edge of her tunic and planted a kiss on the exposed skin of her shoulder. “We’ll have one chance,” he said.

“I can do it.”

“I know.”

When the secondary gate opened and he walked in dragging her behind, she played her part, fighting against the belt that bound her, much to the delight of their hosts. His voice played the role of compass and she angled her head towards it, feigning sight.

“Thank you. Would you like to inspect my...uh...fare? She’s a fleshy one. I’m sure she can handle the three of you.”

Three?

“Actually, you’re more our flavor.”

Oh....

“Now be a good boy and drop your trousers.”

“Drop my – one problem,” Cyprus said, voice still solid and confident as ever.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t get on my knees for free. What are you offering?”

A deep voiced pirate cleared his throat. She didn’t need sight to know he grinned from ear to ear. “Same terms. A ride for a ride.”

She could sense Cyprus shaking his head and could almost picture his grin when he said, “I’ll need more than that. You’re huge.”

Laughter rippled through the group, but this was all taking too long apparently. Voices raised, tempers flared and someone’s hand cinched around her throat. Its owner, a man with roiling breath, bumped his miniscule penis against her bum. “I ain’t picky. You’ll do.”

She probably should have waited for Cyprus to give the go ahead, but she’d be damned if she let this unwashed animal get away with touching her again. She hooked her foot, took out his knee and smashed the rat bastard’s kidney to kingdom come – a perfect Vesuvian Night...

“Down!”

She ducked at Cyprus’s shout and the rancid smell of her singeing hair. That was a little
too
close.

A series of thuds and grunts had her reaching out for a wall. “Cyprus? CYPRUS!”

“Busy at the moment.”

More scuffling and a shadow fell upon her. She kicked like a crazy woman, putting every stitch of power into her leg. It worked.

Unfortunately.

Cyprus strung together a chain of swears between groans.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. You did the right thing. Two are out cold and the third, well, the third deserved what he got.” He pressed something into her palm – a weapon – and she maneuvered her fingers away from the trigger. “I’m going to drag them over to our shuttle and vent it.”

“What about oxygen? They may not be alive when backup comes.”

“I’m heartbroken over it. Listen, I’m busted up. I can only move them one at a time. If anything stirs while I’m gone, start spraying.”

*****

H
e dumped the last goon and made his way over to Lana, who still weaved the weapon in all directions. “Just me. How are your eyes?”

She let go of the gun, along with the check she’d had over her emotions. “I need you,” and her head dropped to his chest as she cried. “If I don’t get to a medipod soon, it’ll be too late.”

“So I’ll get you there.”

“I know. You haven’t let me down yet.”

“But I have. Lana, I’m sorry for how I’ve treated you—”

“You had a job to do. You’re also a jerk, but your heart is in the right place.”

“Even for a clone?”

“Don’t start.”

“I’m kidding.”

“Right.”

He shifted, but didn’t break contact, keeping one hand wrapped around her waist while the other tried to make sense of the non-standard communications system. The screen beeped, and then blinked to life. “We have an incoming message.”

“Are you going to answer it?”

“I don’t have a choice. If OSA picked up our distress call, it could be them. If we say nothing they’re liable to shoot first, thinking we’re the bad guys.” He flipped the switch and prayed for familiar faces.

Well...he got ‘em...

And they all stared back at him in open-mouthed surprise. All three of them: the two well dress men they’d fought with that night in the 22
^nd
and one very slackjawed Michi Yoshisumi.

The smaller thug – and that being completely relative – pointed at the screen. “It’s them, the two that got away from us. What are you doing on my cousin’s ship? Clash? Where are you boy?”

Cyprus chuckled under his breath. “And I thought my name was bad. Who names a baby Clash?”

“Where is my cousin?”

“None of your concern,” Lana interrupted. He kissed her. One, because he wanted to, but two, as an excuse to put his hand on the back of her head and angle it in the right direction.

Another look of surprise from the Yoshisumi girl, but still, she kept quiet.

Clash’s cousin cracked his knuckles and leaned back in his chair. “Either you produce my cousin, or I blow you out of the sky. See, I’ve known that boy my whole life. You’d have to kill him to take his ship. Hell, I’ve tried to kill ‘em to take it. So I’ll ask one more time. Clash or your life, Mr....”

Cyprus didn’t reveal his name. The whole thing was beyond insane. If they survived this, he’d add the scenario to one of the training simulators. This was one for the ages. He backed away, eyeing the control panels and calculating. This ship could take a hit and probably deliver a good wallop in the process. If could mean killing Yoshisumi, but the little brat deserved it.

“Nothing? Well, I am at a loss,” said the captain. I now have to tell my dear auntie that her son is dead.”

“He isn’t. He’s on a dying OSA ship not too far from here. You should be able to find it. You don’t want to get mixed up in killing agents, so go and get your cousin. Forget you ever saw us.”

“Not dead? That’s a pity. No help to you, either. If I can’t have the ship, neither can he. Michi, girl? You want to be a proper pirate? Here’s your chance. Smoke that ship.”

At the sound of her roommate’s name, Lana gasped and held her hand out to the screen, as if touching the image would burn an imprint of the girl’s face in her mind. “My Michi? Can’t be. What is she doing?”

“At the moment?” He checked the boards. “Turning their guns on us and...well...that’s something.”

“What? What is it?”

“She’s just pulled out a weapon.”

“You said that already.”

“Of the handheld variety...right. And the screams you just heard? That’s her taking out four men.”

“You’re full of it.”

“I’m full of jealously. The girl’s an ass kicking machine.” He tapped the comms again and Michi’s wide-eyed innocent face jerked up. “Yes, sorry to interrupt your somewhat, that is to say, totally unexpected rampage, Yoshisumi, but—”

“That’s not my name. What’s wrong with your eyes, Lana?”

Lana shook her head next to him. “Blind. Let’s stick to the big picture issues. Michi, why are you in a pirate’s cousin’s ship? What the hell is going on?”

“I thought you were some sort of genius. Think, Lana.”

“It’s not a coincidence that you were my roommate, is it?”

“Meash has more tentacles than you can begin to imagine,” the girl said.

“They can’t possibly pay you enough to do this.”

Michi grinned and started to pin up her fallen hair. “They try. They really, really try and it’s not bad money. So there I was, all set up to kill you, when I figured out
why
they’d hired me for the job. I hate when that happens. I go to war with myself, kill ya, not kill ya...it took weeks to decide, but it got me to thinking. If they do this, this whole infect the ‘verse thing, the demand for my services takes a nosedive. Who needs an assassin in a viral apocalypse?”

“I ask myself that all the time. To confirm, you’re not going to kill me or Cyprus?”

“Not if you do your job.”

“But how did you now I’d be here? At this place, this moment?”

Not-Michi snorted. “Girl, everybody’s got a biochip in you. Meash. OSA. Me. You don’t think Meash ever lets people go, do you? Oh and the datacell you’re using in my old omnitablet, that helped. I didn’t leave it behind by accident. It’s cute that you tried to secure it. Look, you’re good at doctoring, stick to that. Leave the spying and murder to me. And as for you, Officer Dhoma—”

“Yeah?”

“If I ever see you on the street, I’m going to break that pretty face of yours into teeny, tiny bits. Now I’m off. I can’t have any part in saving humanity. I’d never find work again. Oh, incoming.”

The screen vidlink went blank, but the radar blazed with new activity.
Oh, c’mon. What now?

“I have no idea what you’re seeing, Cyprus, but why does it sound like every ship in the universe is locking their guns on us?”

No picture this time, just audio from a voice he never thought he’d hear again.

“On orders of the Outer Settlement Agency and under the orders of my own damned self, you will state your purpose, state your claim and state where the hell I can find Agent Cyprus Dhoma.”

Cyprus turned on the vidlink, waved to his brother and fell back into the piloting seat. Relief flooded through him, unraveling every clinched and aching muscle. He was safe and more importantly, Lana was. “We’re free and clear.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that,” she said, pointing to her face. “It’s too late, I think.”

“You wrong.”

“I’m a doctor.”

“I feel it. Lana. Everything really will work out. Trust me on this.”

“What about us? This thing between us?”

The comms and panels blinked before he could answer. By the time he’d started the docking linkup process, she’d passed straight out. He kissed her sweat drenched face in full view of the screen, picked her up and carried her to his brother’s waiting ship.

L
ana blinked against lenses that still grated against her sensitive eyes. While nanocores fused with her visual relay system, she sat down in the chair of her dormitory one last time. She’d miss this place. Sure, her weeks here had been...rough, but she passed every test, ticked every box and brought down a multitrillion-credit organization. Doctoring isn’t what it used to be.

The ramifications of that were just starting to ripple through. Data cores were wiped clear, fifteen Meash Two directors now awaited trial in OSA prison cells and they razed two facilities to the ground in hopes of permanent decontamination. OSA waited until the beginning of the cleanup operations to release the details of the mission per Cyprus’s advice. It averted the threat of riot and regained wavering support for the government.

For their part, she and Cyprus faced a closed door meeting with twenty high-ranking officials. In the middle of this debriefing, two OSA generals had scrambled for the exits. Lana smiled at what the others had done to them for their disloyalty.

But that was then. She had less to smile about these days.

The lenses readjusted, the slight twinge on her pupils pulling her back to the present. She gathered up the last of her things and headed to the transport shuttle. Dozens applauded at her entry into the vessel and everyone offered to help her to her seat.

Everyone except for him.

Since that meeting, they’d been separated for questioning. By the time she told her story to every major council in the system, Cyprus had already been carted off for a promotion of some sort. At least that’s what they told her. That was four weeks ago. She hadn’t heard anything since.

One of the students from her recruiting class locked into the seat next to her at the front of the craft. “I officially forgive you for all those laps. Are you really blind behind those lenses?”

“You’re welcome and none of your business.” Also known as,
somewhat
. Cyprus had gotten her to the medipod too late and now her vision relied on these things. Her vision for her life? A fair trade. Her universe had been reduced in color, but not by much. There was another loss that cut almost as much.