Private Dicks (50 page)

He wasn't making much headway; it was hard to concentrate when he could feel the security goon's eyes boring a hole into the side of his head. Ignoring it as best he could, Shi forced himself to eat, even though it was the last thing he felt like doing. He wasn't going to give them any reason to be suspicious. The coffee was even worse tonight than usual, and Shi couldn't wait to get back to real, civilized coffee.

If he ever got off this ship, Shi conceded, and it was looking like that was a big
if
at this point. Sighing, Shi glanced at the time widget on his tablet. 0350. Most everyone was leaving the mess hall now, to return to their stations. There were technically two break periods for third shift—one at 0200 and one at 0300—to keep the ship fully staffed even late at night. So other than the few stragglers like Shi, who had run late going to break, the mess hall would be empty until end of shift.

Shi could still feel the security goon staring at him, but when he glanced that way, the man was looking away. Shi rolled his eyes, wondering if he was getting paranoid. Probably, but paranoid didn't mean he was wrong about the man watching him. Stifling a sigh, Shi finished his coffee and flipped a page in his book. He could at least pretend to be reading.

He'd only barely bent his head over the tablet when the mess hall went suddenly quiet. Frowning, Shi looked up, and realized that the light fence around Elis was gone. The lack of its steady pulse was stark, and Shi stared, dumbfounded as Elis rolled off the platform as though he hadn't been caged within it for months.

Shi scrambled to his feet, snatching up his tablet and heading for the door. Elis glanced at him, quirked a smile, and sprinted that way as well. Shi didn't bother to glance behind him, relatively sure that the security goon was calling all sorts of hell down on his head. He hoped like hell Elis had a plan, because Shi didn't.

He met Elis at the door, dropping back slightly to let Elis lead the way. He was much thinner than Shi had realized, and Shi suppressed a flash of worry. He could worry when they were safe.

"This way," Elis said, not waiting to see if Shi followed, turning and darting down a side hallway. Shi followed, barely keeping pace despite Elis' prolonged confinement. It really shouldn't surprise him; Elis had always had more stamina than Shi… and now was not the time to be thinking about Elis' stamina. Elis flung himself around another corner. Shi followed, and nearly ran right into Elis, barely stumbling to a stop before thye collided.

Elis didn't pay him any attention, pulling a flat piece of metal from a pocket. He dug it into the side of a panel on the wall, yanking viciously. The panel came free, falling to the floor with a clatter that sounded incredibly loud to Shi's ears. He checked, but there was no one in the corridor. No alarms were blaring, and there didn't seem to be anyone chasing them.

It was odd, and Shi didn't like it. At the very least, the security goon who had been following him should be showing up. Shi really, really wished he had his stun gun. He hadn't missed it before, but he hadn't been in the middle of Volkov's flagship, on the run and with no idea what was going on.

"Do you have a plan for getting us out of here?" Shi asked. He had lots more questions—how had Elis broken free of the light fence, for one—but that was the most important. If they didn't get away, the rest of the questions didn't matter.

Elis grunted what sounded like an affirmative. Shi glanced at him, startled to find what looked like half the wall's circuitry on the floor in front of Elis. The little metal tool was in his mouth and his fingers were flying, switching wires around and sending sparks flying. Shi shook his head, taking a few steps away to glance down the corridor they'd turned down. They weren't that far from the mess hall, after all, surely someone was going to come this way looking for them.

The door to the mess hall was shut, for the first time Shi could remember. There were a few people standing in front of the doors, but no one was looking in their direction. One was pressing buttons on a panel next to the doors while another was trying to pry at them using the manual holds sunk into the door panels. Ducking back around the corner, Shi waited impatiently for Elis to finish whatever he was doing, watching the corridors and nervously anticipating when someone would show up.

"That should keep them busy," Elis muttered, shoving the wires and circuits off his lap. He stood quickly, then wobbled, losing his balance. Shi quickly steadied him, worried all over again, but Elis shook him off. "Come on, stop lollygagging."

"Yes, princess," Shi said, the familiar refrain rolling off his tongue before he could stop it. Elis smiled faintly, but only started down the hallway.

Elis led him down a few more twists and turns, circling back a few times before finally slipping into a restroom a few sections away from the mess hall. Shi followed him in, locking the door behind them. They'd managed to avoid running into anyone, though it had been a near thing a few times, and Shi really hoped Elis' escape plan became more about escaping and less about running in circles soon.

Elis climbed up on top of the sanitation sink, steadying himself with a hand on the wall. Shi leaned against the door to the bathroom, watching as Elis pulled out his flat piece of metal. He levered it between two tiles in the ceiling, prying one of them loose, and kept going until he had four of them down. There was a crawl space in the ceiling, Shi realized, wondering how Elis knew about all of this. Elis quickly tossed the four tiles down behind the toilet, shoddily hiding them.

"Someone will notice that," Shi couldn't help but say, and Elis rolled his eyes.

"That's the point. Back out, now," Elis said, gesturing to the door behind him. "Quickly, Shi, we don't have a lot of time."

"Right," Shi said, deciding to try and keep his mouth shut until they were relatively safe. Shi flipped the unlock button, then palmed the opening mechanism for the door. He froze, startled, when he came face to face with a security goon. The guard hesitated, obviously just as surprised, and Shi moved, slamming his fist into the goon's nose before he could do more than blink.

The man dropped like a rock, and Shi winced, shaking his hand out. He'd forgotten how much punching someone hurt. Shi glanced up and down the hallway, but it looked like goon was alone.

"Drag him in here," Elis said, backing up so Shi could do so. Shi grabbed the goon's ankles, pulling him into the tiny restroom, then pilfered the man's stun gun.

"Tablet?" Shi asked, holding up the tablet he was still carrying. He wanted one hand free, and the stun gun would probably prove more useful. Elis' gaze focused on the tablet, and he snatched it from Shi, a familiar pleased smile lighting up his face.

"Oh, this will be useful," Elis breathed, tapping a few keys before shaking his head. He tucked the tablet loosely into his waistband, then gestured for Shi to lead the way. "He won't be out long."

"I could stun him," Shi suggested, but he moved toward the door anyway.

"Left," Elis said, and Shi followed the direction, jogging down the corridor ahead of Elis. They went down three decks and across enough sections that Shi wasn't sure where they were, only that they were heading deeper into the ship.

Elis seemed to have some sort of sixth sense for knowing where to go to avoid people. They only ran into two more people—a pair of security guards that Shi quickly stunned before they could remove their stun guns from their holsters—before Elis pulled him into what looked like a cargo area. Elis headed towards the back wall, pausing to study the crates stacked there for a long moment.

"Help me move these," Elis said, gesturing to the set of crates in front of them. "Away from the wall about a foot and a half."

Shi nodded, setting to work. Elis helped, but he was obviously not up to the task. Shi didn't try to dissuade him from helping though, relatively sure that whatever Elis was planning, they didn't have time for an argument on whether Elis was physically capable.

"Slide the top ones back," Elis said, gesturing to the top row of boxes. Shi frowned, confused, but did what Elis said. Elis stepped back when they were done, studying the crates intently. "It'll do. Crawl in there." When Shi gave him an incredulous look, Elis shoved him towards the opening created by the crates. "I'll follow."

"Fine, fine," Shi muttered, dropping down to his knees and crawling into the little cubby created by the crates. It was barely wide enough for him to fit, but he managed, wiggling around in the dark cubby so that he was face up, back propped against the crate behind him. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but it would do.

Elis, true to his word, crawled in after Shi, fidgeting around until the opening at the far end was mostly blocked. Then he shuffled backwards, clipping Shi's shin with his elbow. Elis stopped moving, and Shi scowled into the darkness, wishing he could see better.

"What now?" Shi asked quietly. The dark, hidden nature of the cubby seemed to call for quiet, though Shi knew there wasn't anyone else in the cargo hold with them.

"We wait," Elis said, his voice quiet as well. "They'll be on high alert for the next few hours. They'll also be searching. If we can avoid detection and wait a few hours, security should drop their guard enough that we can surprise them."

"And do what?" Shi asked. "We can't get the drop on all of them."

"No, just the ones around the hangar. They'll increase guards there, because that's the only real way for us to get off the ship, but give it a few hours and they'll be tired and bored and we'll be able to steal a ship and leave," Elis said, as though it would be as simple as that.

"You better know how to fly a spaceship," Shi grumbled, well aware he was mostly useless for this escape. He could help keep Elis safe, though, and that wasn't a complete waste.

"I do," Elis said distractedly. Shi's tablet flared with light, highlighting his face. He bent over it, and Shi bit his lip. Elis' cheeks looked sunken in the pale light, the shadows it cast making him appear more gaunt than before. "You should try to get some rest. I don't know when we'll next have the chance."

"I think you need rest more than I do," Shi retorted, knowing he couldn't sleep if he tried. He was too keyed up to even think about sleeping, not to mention he was used to sleeping through the afternoon and late evening because of his third-shift.

"If you can reprogram this tablet to hack into the ship's controls so we can open the hangar doors, then sure, I'll rest," Elis said snappishly, his fingers not pausing as they flew over the tablet's controls.

Shi didn't reply to that—there wasn't really anything he could say, after all. Escaping with their lives was a little more important than making sure Elis wasn't overdoing it. He watched Elis in the semi-dark, wishing he could ask all the questions that had plagued him since he'd accepted this job. He wanted to know if Elis had meant to walk away from their relationship or if he'd had no choice in the matter. He wanted to know if Elis still wanted him, if he was still allowed to hold Elis, or if he was relegated to looking and not touching.

Stifling a sigh, Shi glanced around the little cubby, but it was small and dark and didn't have any answers for him. Shi shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable. He jarred Elis' knee, but Elis didn't even look up, sliding himself out of Shi's way without even a sideways glance. He ended up sitting closer to Shi, though, and Shi couldn't protest that.

He wasn't sure how long they sat there, Elis' fingers jabbing at Shi's tablet, doing whatever it was he had to do in order to make it a hacking device. It couldn't have been very long—maybe half an hour or an hour—before Elis made a quiet noise of triumph. He pressed a few more keys on the tablet, and the screen went dark.

"Good?" Shi asked, though he knew the answer already. Elis wouldn't have shut the tablet down if he hadn't finished.

"Yeah," Elis said, punctuating it with a yawn. He shifted deeper into the hidden cubby, worming his way up next to Shi, which was quite a feat in the narrow confines. Shi pressed back against the wall, giving Elis more room to squirm in close. He dropped an arm around Elis' too narrow shoulders, smiling faintly when Elis rested his head against Shi's shoulder.

It was a familiar embrace, as it was often how they ended up when they spent the evening watching vids together. Elis usually ended up passing out on Shi's shoulder, snoring quietly until the movie ended. He seemed to have the same idea here, and Shi didn't protest, happy just to have Elis close, even if he was still uncertain where it would end.

"Wake me in two hours, if I don't wake before then," Elis ordered quietly, leaning into Shi and resting a hand against Shi's stomach.

"Will do," Shi said, stealing the tablet from Elis to check the time. Its light flared briefly through the cubby, and Shi frowned to realize it was nearly 0700. "You really want to try to break out at 0900? That's the ship's busiest time."

"It'll be fine," Elis said, and Shi bit back further protest. Elis was the expert, after all. Elis relaxed after a moment, and his breathing evened out quickly as he dropped into sleep.

Shi frowned, worried all over again. Still, Elis was part of the infamous Team Bakala, the most highly trained special ops team in the military. If he said leaving at 0900 would work, it would work. It wasn't as though they had many other choices—they'd be found out eventually if they stayed where they were. The hidden cubby would work for a little while, but eventually they'd have to eat, or Volkov's people would search the cargo bay from top to bottom.

So they'd steal a ship and escape to the nearest planet. Shi ran his thumb over the gold ring on his finger, hoping Elis had considered how far out into space they might be. Any ship stored on the flagship—even as large as it was—would still have to be small, and have a limited range for flying.

Shi debated briefly turning the tablet back on, seeing if he could connect to anything to sort out any useful information. There was no guarantee he'd find anything, though, and Elis' plans would be irrevocably mucked up if he drained the rest of the power cell in the tablet with his attempts. He hadn't charged the tablet in a day and a half, so he should reserve whatever power remained for Elis.