Mantis rising, p.12
Mantis Rising, page 12
“I’m surprised you know the name of the man who came to me. He assured me you wouldn’t. In turn, I assured him I would keep his identity confidential.”
“How much did you pay him?”
“A significant amount. Ten percent of the bounty once the identity of our captive has been verified.”
MC nodded. “A reasonable expense, I’m sure. Are you going to kill me? I know who betrayed me.”
“No, young lady — MC, isn’t it? If the kid’s DNA is female, we’ll stun you and dump your body in an alley. If it comes up male, you’re both free to go, with my apologies. As far as Hamy goes, he’s on his own.”
“How many others know I’m hiding someone on my ship?”
“My, my, MC. Curious woman, aren’t you? I’m not here to satisfy your curiosity.”
“I knew I should have brought a truth serum with me. Dammit! Oleon, are you awake yet?”
“Yes, Captain, almost.”
The man said, “So that is the princess.”
Ignoring him now, MC said, “Oleon, honey, I’m sorry you have to see this.”
“Captain?”
The least dangerous person in the room was the woman. She was also the only one within arm’s reach behind MC. She died first. Extending her talons, MC ripped open the woman’s throat. The two men with the stunners came next. One died with his neck snapped. The other from a pinwheeling kick to his sternum, smashing through his rib cage and exploding his heart inside of his crumpled chest. MC sprang two body lengths through the air to land behind the heavyset man. A quick twist of the neck finished him. She looked over at Oleon and asked, “You OK?”
She looked a little pale, but said, “That was amazing, Captain. What’s that loud buzzing? Is it just in my head?”
“No. The bastard set off an alarm before I got to him.” She went over and tried the door. It was now solidly locked. She could get through it, but didn’t know what she faced in terms of defenses on the other side. Going that way would entail risk to Oleon. “Get up, if you can, and take the belt off one of the men. I’ll get the others.” She took two more. The fat guy had a nice, sturdy, large one.
“What are the belts for, MC?”
“We’re going climbing. They’re to strap you to my back. It’ll be fun. Buckle the smaller one around your waist.”
As Oleon put on the man’s belt, notching it as tight as it would go, she said, “It’s pretty loose and I still don’t understand.”
MC threaded the second of the smaller belts through the one Oleon was wearing and turned with her back to her. “Now, jump up on my back with your arms around my neck. Don’t worry. You can’t hurt me.”
Once Oleon was in position, MC strapped the second belt around herself. “That will help to hold you in place and support some of your weight. I’m not concerned about your weight, Oleon. I could run all day with you back there. What I am concerned about is you losing your grip.” She took the largest belt and placed it over both of their shoulders. As she cinched it as tight as she could, she said, “This needs to stay under your armpits. It will hold most of your weight. You need to keep your shoulders down so that it doesn’t slip off. I still want your arms around me. The belts aren’t as secure as I’d like.”
“Isn’t my weight on your neck going to injure you?”
“No, I’m not like other people. Hang on. I’m going to get the woman’s belt too. We’re lucky they all had belts. Yours isn’t sturdy enough to be good for anything other than holding up your pants and I’m not wearing one. Careful now, I’m going to bend over.”
Once she had the additional belt, she walked to the desk to close the lid of the DNA analyzer. With the belt through the handle, she slung the strap over her neck so that it hung on her side below her right arm. Oleon asked, “What’s that for?”
“It’s a gift for your doctor. I don’t think he has a DNA analyzer. It’s here and these people owe us, so why not? OK, honey, we’re leaving now. You ready?”
“I like that you call me honey, MC.”
“Yeah. I’m growing fond of you.” MC picked up the conference table and, after looking out the big window to make sure no one was below them, used it to smash the glass. Sticking her head out through the opening, she realized she was going to have to jump sideways to reach the brick part of the building.
“Oleon, we’re going to be climbing up to the roof. I can’t climb a glass wall. To get up to the roof, I’m going to need to jump out of the window and snag hold of the decorative brickwork along the side. We’re going to fall a bit before I can catch the brick part of the wall. It’s going to be scary. Close your eyes if you want.”
“MC, I saw you kill four people in three seconds. I’m pretty sure you can do anything. I’m not scared. Let’s go.”
MC smiled, although Oleon couldn’t see it. Then she crouched on the window frame and jumped. They actually fell almost two stories before she was able to snag the brick with her talons. She supposed that was more than a little bit. The fact was, they were too high for her to jump to the ground. She had no doubt it wouldn’t kill her but she might be somewhat injured. She doubted she could protect Oleon from death.
With extended talons, she ascended to the roof, arm over arm. She had no purchase for her booted feet, so she carried all of the weight on her arms and shoulders. It wasn’t even a struggle. Oleon didn’t make a sound the entire time. Maybe she had closed her eyes. Standing on the roof, MC said, “We’re up. I’m going to unbuckle you now.”
Oleon walked over to the edge and looked down. Then she followed MC to the autogyro. She didn’t even ask if MC knew how to fly one. Once they lifted from the roof, she did ask, “What are you, MC?”
“Determined.”
After a moment, MC grunted. “About that. Remember when I told you about Celeste and that you had to keep what I told you a secret?”
“Of course. I guess I need to keep you having talons a secret too, don’t I? Can I see them?”
MC didn’t answer. She placed her right hand palm up in Oleon’s lap. Oleon said, “Your hand looks normal.”
“It’s supposed to. Don’t jump and don’t touch the claws — they’re sharper than you can imagine. You could accidentally slice fingers off.” Then she extruded them for a few seconds before retracting them and taking back her hand. The nanobots under skin sealed the openings practically instantly. “Oleon, don’t tell anyone anything about your rescue. Keep it simple. I followed you, stunned everyone in the room with you, and then stole an autogyro. Can you do that for me?”
“I will. Can I tell Ema? And why didn’t my disguise work?”
“No, Ema doesn’t need to know about my enhancements. The disguise did work. Someone on the ship sold us out. I’ll deal with him when we get back. Your kidnappers were quite confused. The woman tried to pull off the prosthetic and accidentally gave you an erection. You might want to reach in and turn that off, by the way. We’re almost to the ship.”
“I want you to take it off tonight, please.”
“OK. Tonight.”
“Good enough.”
Chapter 23
Confrontation
Once she and Oleon boarded the Star Rover, MC led them directly to the mess hall. Using the intercom, MC said, “I need everybody to the mess hall for a quick meeting. Sergeant Heidel, please bring me a phase pistol. I am currently in a very bad mood. If anyone else comes armed, that person will die. I don’t care who it is.”
Heidel arrived first. She handed MC the gun and took a seat. Crawford, inevitably, arrived last. His behavior had significantly improved, but still had a ways to go. She pointed to the black case on the table. “That’s for you, Doctor. It’s a portable DNA analyzer.”
“Thank you, I guess. Why did you get me such a thing?”
“It was convenient. Its owner died suddenly.” MC looked around the table at her crew. “You all know we went to a good deal of trouble to disguise Oleon so that she could leave the ship and not be recognized. Oleon, would you stand up and walk around the table please?”
After she got back to where she had been sitting, MC said, “One more thing. Display your penis. I don’t think everyone has seen it.”
“Captain!”
“Don’t be embarrassed. We all know it’s not real.” Once Olean had shown the room her prosthetic, looking aggrieved while she did it, MC said, “Go ahead and button it back up. Thank you. Now, like I said, we went to a good deal of trouble to make her disguise realistic. I cut her hair. She practiced for days learning how to walk like a boy. And Doctor Crawford made her a functional male organ. Despite all that work, she was kidnapped this afternoon by people who thought she had to be our runaway princess. Does anyone have an idea how that happened?”
Doctor Crawford said, “Maybe the disguise wasn’t as clever as we thought?”
MC nodded. “That’s a possibility. Anyone else?”
Roge said, “Someone talked.”
“You could be right. Was it you?”
He shook his head, his face pale. “I would never. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m terrified of you, Captain.”
That was an interesting comment, worthy of a momentary digression. “If you’re terrified of me, why did you decide not to leave the ship? I gave you my permission.”
“It’s complicated, Captain. I’m terrified of what you can do, not of what you will do as long as I don’t give you cause.”
She smiled at him, despite her underlying anger. “That’s a very good answer, Roge.” She looked directly at Crawford. “Gabon didn’t die of a heart attack.”
Crawford protested, “Are you questioning my diagnosis? He had all of the indications of one.”
“Yes, he did. The drug I used to kill him is designed to fool an autopsy more sophisticated than anything you can perform with the equipment you have available on the ship. I don’t have a problem with killing people. I don’t enjoy it. I’m not threatening any of you, yet. I do know that someone tipped off a criminal element in the city about Oleon and the bounty on her. I also know that Gabon intended to do exactly that. That’s why he died. Ferguson?”
He jumped. “Er, what? Oh, Gabon planted a tracking device down in the engineering compartment. Is that what you wanted me to say, MC?”
“Yes. He made it possible for another ship to follow us in case Oleon never left the ship and his contacts couldn’t grab her on Koveen.”
Heidel said, “But she was grabbed. Did he get a message to them?”
“No. I didn’t allow him the chance. He had a partner. Anyone want to confess?”
She got only stony silence from everyone. Oleon said, “I was stunned most of the time. Did they say who it was, MC?”
MC smiled at her. “If I’m being devious, you should keep some comments to yourself. No, they didn’t.” She looked at Hamy. “They did confirm that I already knew who had talked to them.” She was holding the phase pistol centered on his face. “Why, Hamy?”
He squirmed, feeling cornered. “You’re wrong, Captain. I wouldn’t.”
“Roge, tell Hamy why I didn’t kill you, Gabon, Lancome, and Hesta when I took your ship.”
He shrugged, feeling safe for the moment. “You needed us. You said you’d give us a second chance.”
“I did, didn’t I? A trained pilot, two marines, and two engineers. Lancome, can you think of any reason why I need Hamy?”
She said, “I like him, Captain. But no, you don’t need him.”
“I didn’t think so, either.”
Ema said, her voice pleading, “I need him, MC. He’s my big brother. Please don’t kill him.”
“Do you know why he betrayed Oleon?”
She shook her head. “No, I would have told you if I had known he was going to do that. Are you sure it was him?”
“Very. Again, why, Hamy?”
He sighed. His face was very pale. “It was for the money, Captain. Just for the money. They weren’t going to hurt Oleon. They were just going to turn her over to her family. That didn’t seem like such a bad thing. If my kid ran away, I’d want her back, too. But with that money, I could pay for Ema to get her education. I might have enough left over for me to do the same.”
“Brother Mason, tell him what will happen to Oleon if she is returned to her family.”
He looked up, surprised at being called on. “She is slated to be sacrificed to their false gods in an ancient religious ritual. Turning her in to those people wouldn’t be harmless, it would mean her death. It would not be a gentle death, either.”
Hamy looked at Oleon and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Oleon made a “fuck you” hand gesture. MC wondered where she had learned that.
“How many people here care if I take Hamy down to the cargo hold and blow his brains out?”
Crawford said, “I can’t condone murder. I doubt Brother Mason will either. The whole point of this was to prevent Oleon’s murder. Why don’t you just leave him behind on Koveen when we leave?”
Hesta said, “I don’t care one way or the other, Captain. But I do think that if we leave him behind, he’ll report us to someone else.”
MC shook her head. “That’s less of an issue than it would otherwise be. People already know. I’m pretty certain that the four people I executed weren’t the only ones who knew about us.”
Oleon said, “Executed? You told me you stunned them.”
MC smiled at her. Oleon was parroting the line MC had asked her to relate. She had seen the truth. Princess Oleon, it seemed, was a born actor. “I try to shield the young people from some of the things I do. What about you, Ema?”
“I guess if it’s a choice between killing him or stranding him, I have to be in favor of leaving him behind.”
“Does anyone else have a relevant comment?” When no one answered, MC said, “So, Hamy, I’m the only one at the table who feels you should get a phase pulse to the head. I’m the captain, so it is my decision. Doctor Crawford, how long before we can get our pharmaceuticals loaded?”
“Two days. Possibly less than two full days.”
“OK, then. We’ll be grounded on Koveen until then. Ferguson, please add a lock to Hamy’s cabin. I don’t have a brig to throw him in. We’ll let him live at least until we’re in space where it’s easier to dispose of bodies. Hamy, you are confined to your cabin. I’ll bring you meals and escort you to the lav. And I will terminate you if you give me any further cause. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Captain. Thank you, Captain.”
“Next, we are again known to have Princess Oleon on board. Annoying, but we’ll need to change the ident, again, Roge. Our situation has changed. The Star Rover will be pursued when we leave here. If anyone wants to resign from the crew before we lift, let me know ahead of time. I won’t stop you. If anyone wants to leave the ship, either to shop or to explore, you have my permission. I want you armed with stunners. No one goes outside alone. I need to do some shopping, I promised to pick up a new dress for Oleon. Ema, if you want to help pick out clothes, you can come with me. If anyone else wants to accompany me, you’re welcome to do so.”
She paused. “Ferguson, take care of that lock. I’ll be here with Hamy until you’re done. Ema, Oleon, you can stay if you want. Everyone else, go do something.”
That night, when she arrived at her cabin, both girls were there and already naked.
Ema said, “Thank you for not killing my brother, MC.”
MC sighed, wondering if it had been a mistake letting these two know more of her past than was really wise. “I still might. I let him live so as not to hurt you, Ema.”
“I understood that. I don’t think he’s a bad person, MC. I think he really believed no harm would come to Oleon and that he could help me.” She hugged Oleon to her as she said that.
“I think you’re right. It makes things difficult. Do you still want me to take off the prosthetic, Oleon?”
“Yes, please.”
“Go into the lav and empty your bladder first. I don’t want you leaking all over my bed. Then we’ll take care of it.” She didn’t even ask why Ema followed Oleon into the lav. She didn’t really care.
When they came back out, Oleon had been erected. Ema said, “It’s a shame, in a way. That’s the only penis on the ship I would want to have in me.”
Oleon looked at MC. “Do you mind if we use it one last time, for Ema?”
MC grinned at them. “Go ahead. Do you want me to leave the cabin?”
The girls looked at each other. Ema said, “No, you can stay.”
“Fine. We’ll unglue it in the morning, Oleon.” Then she lay down, rolled over, and went to sleep while shutting out the noises coming from the two girls next to her.
