Pirates of the Outrigger Rift (22 page)

Hank grinned at Sai. “I think I’m in love.”

“Can we get on with it?” Sai said.

“Right,” Chandler said. He turned to the pirate. “We have
some questions, and you’d better have some answers or this game isn’t going to be
any fun at all. First, what’s your name?”

The man smiled. “My name is Tenet Jonquil and I’m an open
book. I’ll tell you anything and everything you want to know. I have no reason
to lie.”

Hank and Chandler looked at each other and shrugged. Hank
spoke. “That’s a refreshing attitude, Tenet, but you just tried to run away.”

Tenet nodded. “Sure. If I think I can escape, then I’m gonna
run like hell. You have to understand I’m in this for myself. If I can get away
and steal something to boot, why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, I suppose that fits,” Hank said.

“I only joined up with Thorne for the money. I was scrabbling
around the streets on Matilda and making a bit here and there as a pickpocket
when drunk Confed sailors staggered by with pockets obviously full of credits.
Like a burglar when a door’s left unlocked, ‘opportunistic’ is my middle name.”

“We need to know how to find Thorne’s base. What are the
coordinates?” Chandler asked.

“Therein lies the tale.” Tenet made a fake
cough-cough
sound then broke off into a hacking fit. “Do you have something to drink? I am
parched
.
The pod must have dehydrated me something fierce.”

Sai, who sat on the sidelines, piped up. “I’ll get some
water.”

“Er, if you don’t mind, water is rather, well,
thinner
than I was hoping. I sometimes have difficulty adjusting my system to the local
flora. If there was some beer perhaps, or better yet, whiskey. I need a bracing
drink after my ordeal.”

Sai bristled. “Listen, pirate, if you think for one minute
that—”

“Sai, get him a beer. We’ll stay and guard him,” Hank said.
“I have a feeling that this guy can tell a mean story. Oh, can you get one for
me, too?”

Sai cocked her head at him and stared, mouth open.

Hank looked to Chandler, “Beer?”

Chandler shrugged then nodded.

“Three,” Hank said, raising three fingers to Sai.

Sai smiled and returned the gesture, then she lowered two
fingers, leaving only her middle finger upright and proud. “I think some water
for our frozen storyteller will work just fine.” She turned on her heel and
walked away.

Hank shrugged. “Oh well, I wasn’t that thirsty anyway.”

“So who’s the little solar flare?” Tenet asked.

“Mind your own business. We’re asking the questions,”
Chandler said.

“Just making polite conversation,” Tenet said, shifting in
his chair. “There’s no need to get cranky about it.”

Sai returned with the water and waited while Chandler
unhooked one hand from the cuffs to allow Tenet to hold the drink. Then
Chandler hooked the open handcuff to the chair frame to re-secure him.

Tenet took a long swallow of the water and made a great show
of leaning his head back with eyes closed as he sighed. “Yuck. I don’t see why
anyone who had a choice would ever drink that stuff.”

“So, you have your complimentary drink. Start coughing up
the story, pirate.”

“Tenet, please. Tenet Ezekiel Jonquil, pilot, adventurer,
privateer, and rogue, at your service,” he said and tipped his water at the
trio.

Hank grinned. “I hate to admit it, but I kinda like this
guy,” he said. “At first I just wanted to kick his ass, but I gotta admit, he’s
got style.”

“I thank you, sir. You asked how I came to this sorry
state?”

Chandler interrupted. “No, I asked you for the coordinates
of the base.”

“Well, yes. That is as true as gospel, but you see, not
quite so simple. Navigating to the pirate base is more than just a set of
coordinates. That’s why the base has remained hidden for so long. It takes an
experienced hand to manage the helm. For it lies in the dark recesses of the
Outrigger Rift. The Rift is a mysterious place, containing zones of dangerous
gravity-wave distortions, areas of energetic dark matter that can rip through a
ship—”

“Also vortexes of space-time,” Hank said.

“Oh, so you know about the vortexes?”

“Yep. Been there, done that. I actually charted some of it
when I was in the Scouts. I can handle the dark waters, so to speak. What I
need is either coordinates or landmarks and guideposts.”

Tenet sighed. “Well, that somewhat complicates things.”

“How so?” Chandler asked.

“I had planned to explain how treacherous the area was and
try to convince you that you really needed to utilize me as a guide to pilot
you there then find some clever way to betray you and get a huge reward for
your capture.”

“You bastard!” Chandler grabbed the neck of Tenet’s tattered
Confed uniform.

“It was brilliant, actually. I mean, what are the odds of
this freight hauler here being an expert on the Rift? Well, I suppose they were
about the same as his ship having a plasma cannon. That’s two miscalculations
in a row. I really need to focus.”

Chandler reached into his jacket, pulled the slim blaster
from his shoulder holster, and aimed it between Tenet’s eyes. “I want you to
write out the coordinates. Then I want a map of the base, including the
detention area, along with any known guard locations, vulnerable points of
attack, entrances and exits, et cetera. Then we’re going to stick you back in
that box on ice until we get back. If we don’t get back, then I’m going to
instruct the staff to dump the contents of that box into the fusion furnace, so
I suggest you don’t make a third miscalculation.”

Tenet looked cross-eyed at the barrel of the blaster and
took a sip of water. “Right-o. As I said, I am an open book, more than happy to
cooperate.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

T
hey gathered in the library. Randol punched up a group of
star charts that projected into the air between them. Chandler studied the
display with an intense stare. Hank had an arm around Sai. He pulled her close
and pointed at an area of the chart. The map zoomed in to where he pointed.

“This is the Outrigger Rift. It serves to keep away
uninvited guests. This area is nasty if you don’t know what you’re doing. Weird
eddies in the space-time, gravitational vortexes. I made quite a living hauling
wrecks out of there when I was younger. The base is off to this side, hidden
underground on a cold hunk of mined-out asteroid.”

A tiny speck expanded into an outline of the planetoid.

“At this point, I want to tell you that we are better off
contacting the Confed to do this. They have the firepower needed to blow these
pirates to bits.”

“Yes, and my daughter Helen with them,” Randol said. “No, I
can’t take that risk. We have to try to get her out first.”

Chandler walked to the display and took over. “In that case,
let’s look at our attack options. Our pirate friend, with a little persuasion,”
Chandler winked at Hank, “was able to expand on the map I previously obtained. He
said he was privy to those areas, such as the detention area, that my other
source was not.”

He worked a few controls, and a sketch superimposed itself
on the image of the asteroid. “Thorne mainly concerned himself with concealment
when he constructed the base. And that’s where we have our first break. In
order to avoid detection, Thorne had to skimp on the sensor arrays, since they
cast out too wide a signature and are detectable. He has some passive units
installed, but they’re configured to spot large Confed cruisers. I’m assuming
that the new pirate lord, Glenn, hasn’t had time to expand these arrays. The
Elsa
ought to be able to slip in unnoticed.”

“But you can’t possibly fit a large enough detachment of men
in the
Elsa
,” Randol said. “You’re going to need handheld artillery,
possibly some small attack vehicles.”

Chandler shook his head. “No. We’ve discussed this, and we
feel our best chance of success is if we go in alone. Just Hank, Sai, and
myself.”

“And me,” Elsa added from Hank’s com.

“But that’s insane,” Randol said. “You’ll be completely
outnumbered!”

“The all-out assault is not an option. We’d have that with
the Confed, and that’s what you said you wanted to avoid. Too much chaos and
too great a risk to Helen,” Chandler said. “We’re not going there to win a war—we’re going there to rescue your daughter. Speed and stealth will count for
more than firepower. Once we get away, we’ll call the Confed to come clean out
the nest.”

Hank traced his finger along one side of the structure. “This
is where Glenn docks his fighters. Elsa can drop us off on the opposite side of
a ridge here,” he said, pointing to a spot on the map. “Then while she monitors
all communications, we can use hovercycles to move overland in vacsuits to the
airlock here. From what Tenet the Ice Pirate said, these corridors are rarely
used. We should be able to walk along them, quietly taking out what little
resistance we may find there until we reach the opposite side of the security
section, here, where the cells are.”

“How do we know the information is accurate?” Randol asked.

“We don’t,” Chandler said. “But we have nothing else to go
on.”

Hank continued with his outline. “We can take some equipment
and quietly cut through the wall into the cell block. More than likely, this is
where they’ll be keeping the girl. The trouble is, we don’t know which cell. This
is where we’ll have our largest firefight. Up to five men guard the cell block
at all times. But being grunt-level pirates, they’ll probably be stupid and
half drunk. The area where we’ll be cutting through is here, just around the
corner from the guard station. If we can get through without them spotting us,
we should be able to strike quickly and take them out before they can signal
for help. We open the cells, find her, stuff her into the extra vacsuit we’ve
packed, race back the way we came, and dust off before anyone even knows we’ve
been there.”

Randol shook his head. “It looks good in theory, but it
seems you’ve left out a number of variables. What if you’re spotted by roving
patrol ships? What if our pirate friend was lying about those corridors? For
all we know, Glenn has them heavily guarded. What if the alarm is sounded
during the raid on the cell block? What if Helen isn’t even in the cell block? What
if you can’t get back to your ship? What are your contingency plans?”

“You sure know how to screw up a perfectly good plan,” Hank
said. “Sounded great to me. Hell, I’m not going now!”

“We can think this thing to death,” Chandler said. “The fact
is, we don’t even know if the pirate base is there. If something goes wrong, we’re
more than likely going to die. This is the only chance we have to get your
daughter. I say we go for it.”

Randol nodded. “I understand. Thank you. You will all be
well rewarded for this.”

“We’re not doing this for money. We’re doing this to get our
lives back,” Sai said.

“But,” Hank said, nudging Sai with an elbow, “a reward would
be greatly appreciated. Fuel is mighty expensive, you know.”

Randol watched the
Elsa
take off. His own transport
to Nebula Prime awaited him. He had an hour until he had to depart.

The mansion was almost empty. His few remaining staff were
elsewhere performing their duties. Randol was alone with his thoughts for the
first time in days, and his mind reeled.

He wandered down the corridor to his daughter’s bedroom. He’d
seldom entered the room while Helen was with him. Now, as he stepped through
the doorway and stared at her belongings and paintings on the walls, he cursed
himself for a fool. He’d been in the process of sending her away to be
educated. To become an adult. But Randol had never taken the time to get to
know the child.

What would Margaret have thought of the way he’d raised
their daughter? Helen was a bright enough girl, a kind soul, but that was her
mother coming out in her. He’d done his best to stifle the girl’s caring side,
calling her weak. Telling her she had to grow up. To become hard. Logical. Stoic,
like her father.

Her father, the fool.

Randol had enough wealth for a thousand men, but his
greatest treasure had slipped through his fingers.

He prayed that Chandler, Hank, and Sai would bring his
daughter safely back to him. He would do his part and agree to the sale. He couldn’t
care less about the corporation or his riches. He would trade them all in a
heartbeat to hold his little girl once more in his arms.