Sky Hunter (23 page)

And then perhaps figure out what to do with
the information she had. Most importantly, she had a few questions
for Djari.

By the time Nova delivered her passengers to
the skyranch she was utterly weary, stiff from her tumble in the
desert and wondering why she had gotten herself so worked up about
a bunch of thugs and smugglers. She thumped the shuttle quietly
into its cradle and waited for the air lock to do its thing,
wishing she could fall asleep right here.

Soren was right. That one thought had
wandered around her mind since about leaving Bellac’s atmosphere.
Keeping her mouth shut about all this would have been the
healthiest option. Smuggling was an inevitable part of any shipping
port on any planet, Union-owned or not. Was she so driven to seek
some sort of revenge on Beryl that she’d risk not only her own neck
but Soren’s as well? And now, instead of acting oblivious to that
Caspian’s careless comments about payment to Beryl, she was a fresh
target walking the halls of Skyranch Twelve. The message she got
before the nomads intervened was all too clear. No doubt, news of
the failed chase across the flats had preceded her to the
orbiter.

The only way to escape more and perhaps
permanent damage was to go directly to Lieutenant Colonel Thedris
with what she knew, with or without a witness or anything
resembling proof. And ask to transfer off the station to avoid
floating out in space without a pressure suit before morning.

But first she would give Djari a chance to
put her mind at ease.

Could he really be part of this? Or was it
possible that he had fallen victim to Beryl’s unchallenged
intimidation of those around him? Djari’s connection to the needs
of the grow rings would definitely make him a valuable part of the
whole scheme. He could easily use his position to bring the drug in
as part of his regular request for plant material and growth
medium. All of it appearing organic on the scanners and, thanks to
the other half of the gang on the ground, not deeply scanned for
precisely what sort of organics.

Once her passengers had cleared out, Nova
signed the ship over to the technicians and headed toward the
lifts. Before her fingers touched the keyplate the door slid aside
and two uniformed Centauri stepped out of the elevator. She
recoiled when she recognized Beryl’s men.

One of them, a sergeant named Rafe, smiled
broadly when he saw her. “Lieutenant Whiteside. We were just coming
to welcome you home.”

She looked around. “I’m not sure that
welcomes are required. I’m familiar with the place.”

“
Well, the boss sent us to find you.
We’ve been looking all over. He wants a word with you.”

Nova felt her heart jump in her chest. No
doubt Trakkas had given Beryl some very firm orders about her
immediate future. “What boss?”

“
Lieutenant Colonel Thedris. How many
bosses do you have?”

“
The colonel doesn’t even know I exist.
Why didn’t he just call me?”

The Centauri pointed at her forearm, still
missing the data sleeve she had dropped in the skimmer before it
blew. “A little hard to find without your com. So he asked us to
take a look around.”

His companion nudged her not too gently
toward the lift. “And he seems to be in a hurry for that to
happen.”

“
I’ll go see him right away,” she said.
“After I get a fresh uniform. I just got back from the surface.
Tell him I’ll just be a few minutes.”

The Centauri guards crowded her into the
elevator that simply did not seem built for men of their size. The
one whose name was Rafe let his eyes wander over her body for a
thoughtful moment. “That uniform looks just fine to me.”

Nova swallowed the ugly lump of fear that
rose in her throat. Her every instinct and every bit of training
and experience told her to flee. There was no colonel waiting for
her. There was only Beryl and these thugs, ready to silence her
permanently in some entertaining fashion. The soldiers stood too
close to her. She could feel them, smell them. She recalled Djari’s
comment about the usefulness of fear. She beat it down, little by
little, as the lift rose toward the upper levels. “I mean it. I
don’t want to be seen by Thedris like this. It’ll just take a
moment.”

“
We’ll come with you,” Rafe offered.
“Just to make sure you don’t get lost.”

“
Are you arresting me, then, Sergeant?”
she snapped, grateful when her words came out firm. Without waiting
for his response, she changed the destination of the lift to stop
two floors below the administrative level. With luck, some of the
pilots were loitering around there as they sometimes did before
hitting the lounge for a late-evening drink. “Because unless you
are, I can find my room on my own.”

Both men stepped out of the lift when she
did. The hallway was deserted and there was no one lounging around
the common area near the arched windows. Nova took a few steps
toward her room, spun around again and leaped into the lift just as
its door closed. She punched the controls for the floor below,
praying to the gods of Bellac that the other lift was on some
distant level.

She squeezed out of the car before the doors
had fully opened and raced down the corridor. She passed one, two
sub-sections of residential units before slapping her hand against
the keyplate of one door among many. It slid aside and she stumbled
into Djari’s room with a loud sob of relief.

She pressed her mouth and nose into her elbow
to muffle the sound of her deep gasps for air, out of breath with
fear and exertion. She leaned against the door, listening to the
menacing thump of combat boots. They grew louder, then passed. Then
stopped. Then rough voices murmured something too low to make out.
The footfalls returned and then faded again.

Nova closed her eyes and tipped her head back
against the door. Now what? Where was Djari? Working late? Or was
he down at the docks, perhaps, packing up the latest shipment of
dope? The bed was unmade, which wasn’t all that unusual, and once
again he had left his com band on the table beside it. But the room
wasn’t just empty of boyfriend but also empty of the stacks of
boxes that he had stashed here. None on the floor, none on the
unused bunk. She suddenly had a fairly reasonable guess as to what
had been in them.

She picked his com band up and idly turned it
over in her hands when a terrible thought struck home. Had Beryl’s
men done some harm to Djari? Did they know about her involvement
with him? She looked around the room again as if in search of a
splatters of blood or some sign of a struggle. Was she the leverage
they were using to get him to cooperate?

It would work, of that she was certain.
Neither of them had indulged in breathless declarations of love and
dedication during their magnificent bouts of lovemaking but they
both knew the possibility was there. She needed his serenity as
much as he craved her passion. He would go far to keep her from
harm. It was also the reason she had not told him that it was Beryl
who had assaulted her at Rim Station. She had no doubt that he
cared for her deeply. What was a bit of smuggling to keep her safe?
He had little to lose up here.

Nova looked around for something to use as a
weapon, should Rafe still roam the halls. Feeling a little uneasy
about looking through Djari’s things, she peered into some of the
cabinets. Most held only untidy stacks of clothes and work
coveralls. But when she opened a bin near the door her breath
caught. A rail gun, fully charged. A small projectile weapon and
cases of bullets. A precision laser tool not usually employed by
botanists. With a silent curse at finding yet more hints about his
new career choice, she took the projectile weapon and tucked it
into her uniform blouse.

She went to the door and pressed her ear
against it. Someone, distantly, was singing off-key and joyfully.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and peered outside.
Empty. It was only a few seconds to the lifts.

But instead of directing the car to the
administrative level and the colonel’s office, she dropped it to
the shipping floor. She had to know for sure. She had to see.
Somewhere down there was the evidence she needed. She was also
quite sure that somewhere in the back of her mind she hoped that
there was nothing to be found at all.

The hallway outside the restricted area was
silent. She listened to the heavy tread of boots to warn her of the
guards’ approach. When she heard nothing but the muffled sounds of
industry behind these walls, she stole along the corridor to the
unfinished passenger lift Djari had shown her. It was still
unlocked and she slipped inside and then up the ladder to the
catwalk. The stairless gap in the wall showed her a view of the
elevator hub, looking much like the last time she had seen it.
Workers, supervisors, but no armed guards tonight. Were they all
out looking for her?

She did not resist the pull of the shimmering
stars outside and stopped to remember the moments she and Djari had
shared here. Perhaps she was avoiding what she had come here to
see. Resolutely, she went to the corner of the secret space and
pulled one of the bins into the light. It was sealed but unlocked,
marked by customs agents as cleared. She broke the seal wire and
slid the lid aside.

And found coil upon coil of
mince
.

Nova closed her eyes for a moment. When she
opened them again, the stuff was still there. She slipped her hand
down along the inside of the tub to feel more of them and
encountered something hard and smooth. Pushing the coils aside
revealed some sort of opaque bottle, tapered at the ends, without
markings and likely some liquid form of the drug. Quickly, she
closed the bin back up and pushed it back into the corner to pile
another on top to hide the broken seal. There was nothing left to
do now but to find someone who was not on Trakkas’ pay sheet and
reveal what she had found. One of the other pilots, perhaps. Rolyn,
surely, would stand by her. And then it was most definitely time to
see the colonel.

She hurried back down to the corridor and had
just pulled the door shut when someone in stained coveralls turned
the corner, carrying a container like the ones she had seen above.
She froze and he froze and both of them stared at each other for a
moment before he dropped the box and ran.

“
Hey!” she called after him, surprised
by his escape. She raced after him down the hall leading to the
lifts. If he ducked into a restricted entrance on this level the
chase would end quickly. Nova’s daily and strenuous exercise
routines served her well and she soon caught up to the Bellac. When
he sprinted past the elevator doors and to a short staircase she
launched herself over the railing and pulled him to the floor. She
had straddled him, her gun to his throat before he had even
realized what had happened.

He squeezed his eyes shut and spread his arms
out in defeat. “Don’t shoot. Please, Lieutenant!”

She let him cringe for a moment while
catching her breath. “Why did you run?”

He opened his eyes slowly, one at a time. The
network of veins normally visible on a Bellac’s neck had turned a
deep purple with the exertion of the chase. “Because you have a
gun?”

She jabbed him with the barrel. “It was
holstered. Again, why did you run? You were taking the box up to
the stash, weren’t you?”

“
Please don’t turn me in, Lieutenant.
I’m just doing what I’m told.”

“
Told by whom?”

He shook his head. “No, please. I can’t.”

“
You’re going to have to.”

“
No. Shoot me now. I don’t care. Better
that than…
that
.”

“
Than what?” She shifted away from him
and gestured with the gun for him to sit on the bottom stairs. The
foot she had injured down on Bellac throbbed steadily after her
dash to catch this man. “Talk to me or we’re both going topside
right now.”

Again, he shook his head. “I can’t. I have
kids. Two girls. Here on the station.”

“
He threatened your
children?”

“
I didn’t say that. But things happen.
You know about that accident when one of the deck hands fell off
the upper scaffolding?”

She nodded.

“
That’s not how she broke her
neck.”

“
They are murdering people now?” Nova
gasped.

“
There were others. I won’t be one of
them. I just do what I’m told and get to go home to my girls at
night.”

“
Names. Just nod. Beryl?”

His eyes darted around the hallway before he
nodded.

“
Vel Ancel? Tajana?”

Again, the nod.

She wavered for a few seconds before asking:
“Nathon Djari?”

“
Who? No, don’t know that
one.”

“
Human, works in the rings. Nasty scar
on the side of his face.”

“
Seen him around. But he never talked
to me. Is he one of them?”

Nova put her gun away and pulled him to his
feet. “Look. These people have to be stopped. You can help stop
them. Tell the colonel what you told me.”

“
I told nothing!” he said and moved
ahead of her back up the stairs.

“
This is going to come out sooner or
later,” she tried. “Is this worth losing your job over? Maybe going
to prison?”

He turned back, angry now. “It’s not worth
losing my life over. What do I care what gets smuggled through
here?”

“
People are dying over
this!”

“
Only the ones that don’t mind their
own business. I’m doing well so far.”