Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) Read online

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because we’re not going to shoot the place up. I just want someone there to discourage anyone from trying to talk to him—and Domak is a warrior-caste Polonoi. Her appearance, with all that natural spiky armor, will scare off more cops and hospital attendants that Bull’s muscles.”

  “Anything else?”

  He considered for a moment. “No, that should do it. The next move is up to them.”

  And it came the next afternoon, when a subspace message came through to the president’s office.

  “We haven’t heard from our representative” was the demand. “Where is he?”

  “I’ve no idea,” answered Cole. “We were expecting him yesterday, and he never showed up, never even sent a message saying he would be delayed.”

  “If we find you’ve lied to us . . .”

  “Why would I lie?” asked Cole. “The money is right here, waiting for you. Of course, I could have it delivered if you’ll tell me where.”

  “We’ll pick it up at your office.”

  “You’re sure it won’t be inconvenient?”

  “Just have it ready. And you’d better be telling the truth.”

  “Why would I lie to you?” asked Cole. “I’m paying you to protect me from everyone else. I’m not paying anyone to protect me from you.”

  “Keep a civil tongue in your head. We’re on our way. We should be there in six hours.”

  “Fine,” said Cole. “I look forward to it.”

  11

  Cole sat at the desk, idly watching a murderball game that was piped in on the office’s holo from the Quinellus Cluster and wondering why anyone would willingly play in a game that averaged seventy percent casualties, no matter how much it paid. He decided not to consider the casualty rate of mutineers, pirates, and mercenaries, because he was so far ahead of the game it was time the odds caught up with him and his crew.

  He knew that Khan’s representatives would be suspicious, and half expected them to prevent anyone from signaling him that they were on their way up to his office, but as they boarded the airlift the receptionist on the main floor alerted him to the fact that he was about to have visitors.

  He deactivated the holo, made sure—for the third time—that his burner and screecher were fully charged, and waited.

  Within a minute two men, a woman, and a Lodinite entered the office and confronted him.

  “Who are you?” demanded the taller of the men.

  “What do you care, as long as you get your extortion money?” responded Cole.

  “Protection money,” the man corrected him.

  Cole shrugged. “Whatever.”

  “I don’t like your attitude,” said the man.

  “I’ve heard that before,” said Cole.

  “What became of our representative?”

  “How would I know?” said Cole. “I haven’t left the building except to eat and sleep for the past two days. He never showed up, never sent a message, never sent a surrogate.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Look around,” said Cole. “Do you see him anywhere?”

  “Don’t be clever with me!” snapped the man.

  Cole was about to reply when he noticed the woman staring intently at him.

  “I know you from somewhere,” she said.

  “I doubt it,” said Cole. “We hardly travel in the same social circles. Besides, I’m sure if we’d met I’d remember you.”

  “I’ll have it in a minute,” she muttered, still scrutinizing him.

  “Where’s the money?” demanded the man, who seemed to be their leader, or at least their spokesman.

  “In a safe place,” said Cole. “Surely you didn’t expect me to have it right here on my desk, where any thief could walk in and take it.”

  “Get it!” snapped the man.

  “I don’t believe you’ve heard a word I said,” replied Cole.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I just told you: I’m not leaving it right here for any thief to take—including you.” He paused. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to get yourself an honest job, and we’re not hiring at present.”

  “I know who he is!” shouted the woman suddenly. “He’s Wilson Cole!”

  “This is our lucky day,” said the man. “The Republic has put a ten-million-credit reward on your head.”

  “You might want to take a look behind you before you try to collect it,” said Cole calmly.

  The man and the Lodinite turned their heads and found themselves facing Val, who had a burner in each hand.

  The second man, who had remained silent throughout, went for his pulse gun. A fraction of a second later he lay dead on the floor, a black bubbling hole between his eyes. As Val shot him, the Lodinite launched itself at her. She sidestepped and clubbed it across the back of the neck with her sonic pistol. There was a cracking noise, and the Lodinite fell to the floor, motionless.

  “Does anyone else want to act stupidly?” asked Cole, getting to his feet.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” demanded the man. “You’re supposed to be on the lam from the Navy.”

  “I am.”

  “So now you’re holding up businesses?”

  “Just one,” said Cole. “Yours. Where can I find Genghis Khan?”

  “What do you want with him?”

  “Everything he’s got,” said Cole.

  “You’re a fool,” said the man. “He’s Genghis Khan. He’ll squash you like a bug.”

  “If that’s the case, then you can’t have any objection to telling me where he is.”

  “What’s it worth to you?”

  “Wrong question,” said Cole.

  The man frowned in puzzlement. “I don’t follow you.”

  “The question is: What’s it worth to you?”

  “We’re not telling you anything.”

  “That’s your choice—but I promise you it’s going to prove to be a very painful choice.”

  Suddenly the woman went for her screecher. Val melted it with her burner, and the woman screamed in agony as she found herself with a handful of molten metal. She dropped it to the floor, then knelt down in pain, holding her hand.

  “This one’s a pirate called Jezebel or Cleopatra,” said the man, jerking a thumb at Val. “What the hell is she doing working for the Navy?”

  “Her name’s Val—this month, anyway—and as your friend noted, we’re not the Navy anymore. Now why don’t you make things easy on yourself and tell me what I want to know?”

  “Not a chance,” said the man. “You won’t kill us. You do, and you’ll never find out where Khan is.”

  “I won’t begin to enumerate the logical fallacies in that statement,” said Cole. “I’ll simply repeat, for very nearly the last time, that I want you to tell me where I can find Genghis Khan.”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  “Okay,” said Cole, drawing his burner, “I’ll ask you an easier question. Which one is your favorite testicle?”

  “What?” said the man uneasily.

  “I’m going to let you keep it,” said Cole, aiming at his crotch. “At least I’m going to try. Now, which one can you spare?”

  “You don’t mean that!” said the man nervously.

  “Do I look like I’m joking?” asked Cole.

  “That’s inhuman!”

  “You come here to threaten and kill us, and I’m being inhuman?” said Cole with an amused laugh. “Now either tell me which one you can do without, or I’ll have to guess.”

  “No!” screamed the man. He suddenly charged at Cole, oblivious of the burner that was trained on him, but before he could reach him Val stepped over and tripped him, sending him plunging headfirst into the desk. He was unconscious before he hit the floor.

  “Thanks,” said Cole.

  “Would you really have shot him?” she asked.

  “Of course not. I just wanted to scare him into talking. I don’t shoot unarmed men.”

/>   “I would have.”

  “I know,” said Cole. “That’s why I’m the one who made the threat.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Same as before,” replied Cole. “Have the hospital send an ambulance and a pair of airsleds.” He stared at the woman who was still kneeling, holding her hand. “She’s in shock. Let them know that she needs immediate attention.”

  “And the two dead ones?”

  “I don’t want anyone to see the bodies leaving the building, so we can’t bury them. Have Bull Pampas and Luthor Chadwick come down from the Teddy R and move them into the basement or some storage area. They’re not going to turn into any nosegays, so have Bull bring a couple of body bags as well.”

  “I could do that myself.”

  “I know, but I want Bull and Luthor stationed down here anyway, so we might as well give them something to do. And have them bring Jack-in-the-Box with them.”

  “Jack-in-the-Box?” she repeated.

  “Jaxtaboxl,” answered Cole. “The Mollutei from the Gunnery section. His name’s a pain in the ass to pronounce, so I exercised my captain’s privilege and gave him a new one.”

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll get right on it.”

  The ambulance arrived in a few minutes, and the crew members Cole had requested made it within an hour. When everything he’d ordered had been done, he opened a visual communication with the ship.

  “Hello, sir,” said Christine, who was in charge of the bridge at the time. “I’m glad to see you’re all right. Will you be coming back up soon?”

  “Not for a while yet,” said Cole. “Patch me through to Four Eyes. If he’s asleep, wake him up.”

  A moment later Forrice’s life-size holographic image appeared in front of Cole.

  “I heard about your little adventure this afternoon,” said the Molarian. “Congratulations, though without knowing the details I suspect the credit should really go to Val. I assume you’re staying down there.”

  Cole nodded. “The next group isn’t going to have any doubt that something’s happened to their first two parties. One missing bag man is one thing; five are a little hard to ignore. After all, Khan’s the biggest criminal kingpin in the sector; how dumb can he be?”

  “So they’ll be coming in force?”

  “After a fashion,” said Cole. “I don’t imagine Khan himself will show up, not until he knows what happened to his men. For all he knows, a rival warlord with twenty ships is making the Bannister system his headquarters. But he’ll send a much bigger force than this afternoon’s.”

  “I want to come down to the planet before he gets there,” said Forrice.

  Cole shook his head. “I need you right where you are.”

  “Damn it, Wilson . . .”

  “We can’t have the Captain and the First Officer both putting themselves at risk away from the ship,” said Cole. “If anything goes wrong down here, you’re in charge of the Teddy R, and it’ll be your job to attack whatever shows up before they can return to Genghis Khan’s base and you have to face an even bigger force.”

  “But—”

  “It’s got to be you, Four Eyes. Christine’s the best computer expert we’ve got, but she’s got almost no battle experience, and you’re the only two senior officers on board.”

  “So send Val up and let me come down,” protested the Molarian. “After all those years as a pirate, she’s got more battle experience than you and me put together.”

  “She’s worth three of you and ten of me in a pitched battle,” answered Cole. “I need her down here.”

  Suddenly Sharon’s image appeared a few feet away from Forrice’s.

  “May I make a suggestion?”

  “Who told you to eavesdrop?” demanded Cole irritably.

  “I’m the Chief of Security,” she replied. “It’s my job to monitor transmissions.”

  “I can already guess what your suggestion is,” said Cole.

  “Then why not come back to the ship?” she said. “Khan’s going to send a force to Bannister whether you stay on the planet or not, and like you said, Forrice and Val are both better equipped to fight them than you are.”

  “This is my operation,” said Cole. “I’m staying.”

  “Wilson, be reasonable,” she said. “You’re in fine shape for a middle-aged man, but the fact remains that you are a middle-aged man, and half the crew of the Teddy R can beat you in a fair fight.”

  “Then I guess it’s damned lucky for me that I don’t fight fair,” he responded. “Now, is there anything else?”

  “Just that I’ve had two messages from the executive you’re impersonating,” said Sharon. “The Cartel is getting nervous. They’re wondering what’s to prevent Khan’s men from bombing them from space.”

  “The Teddy R can stop anything they’ve got.”

  “Not from where we’re hiding, Wilson.”

  “You know it and I know it, but they don’t know where the hell the ship is, or where it plans to be when the bad guys show up. Also, and more to the point, the Apollo Cartel is a prime source of income for Khan’s organization; why the hell would he destroy it?”

  “I don’t think they’re worried about his destroying the Cartel. They’re just afraid he might kill all the current officers who hired us.” She paused. “Maybe you’d better talk to them.”

  “All right,” said Cole. “If you think it’s necessary.”

  “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “Okay. Anything else?”

  “Just take care of yourself. I’d hate to go to the trouble of breaking in a new bedmate, like for instance that gorgeous, sexy, young Bull Pampas.”

  “Then I guess it’s a good thing that I left you to him in my will, isn’t it?” he said, breaking the connection. He hunted through the office for a source of coffee, couldn’t find any, finally settled for some whiskey that had been distilled on Pollux IV, and then contacted the president.

  “Captain Cole! I’m so glad to speak to you! We’ve been wondering what steps you’ve taken to protect the Cartel’s executives now that Genghis Khan will have no doubt that we’ve hired someone to protect us from him.”

  “We’re on round-the-clock alert,” answered Cole. “As soon as they enter the system, the Theodore Roosevelt will plot their course and then approach the planet from the far side, keeping it between us and them.”

  “All they’ll have to do is fly above the plane of the ecliptic, and they’ll spot you.”

  Damn! thought Cole. I’d have sworn you’d never think of that. Aloud he said: “The Theodore Roosevelt is a Navy ship. Whatever the hell Khan’s got, our range is probably twice as great. If need be, we can monitor him from Bannister III. Besides, let’s be realistic; why would he kill a cash cow like the Apollo Cartel?”

  “I’m not worried about the future of the Cartel, just its leaders,” came the acerbic reply. “After all, you’ve had your chance with five of his henchmen and you still don’t know any more about him than when you arrived.”

  “I know one thing,” said Cole.

  “Oh? What is it?”

  “I know he can’t ignore or tolerate what we’ve done. A man in his line of business can’t show any weakness or his days are numbered. He’ll be back, and we’re ready for him.”

  “You’re ready for him,” said the president unhappily. “But are we?”

  “Look,” said Cole, starting to lose his patience. “We took this job to earn a million Far London pounds. If you want to call it off, that’s fine with us. Just pay us off and we’ll leave.”

  “And leave us to bear the brunt of their reprisals?” demanded the president. “Never!”

  “Then go do whatever you were doing, and let us do our job,” said Cole, breaking the connection.

  He didn’t know how soon Khan’s men would arrive, and he hadn’t eaten all day, so he went to the executive restaurant on the building’s top floor, where he found Val, Bull Pampas, and Luthor Chadwick seated at a table and joined them.r />
  “Where’s Jack-in-the-Box and Domak?” he asked.

  “Domak’s still at the hospital,” said Val. “The police are there, of course, but she doesn’t trust them to stand their ground if there’s an attack. Personally, I’d rather be protected by one warrior-caste Polonoi than a dozen human cops. The last time I checked, Jaxtaboxl was off trying to find some Mollutei food, but it’s been half an hour now; he should be back any second.”

  “Have we got any medical reports on the three survivors?”

  “I stopped by the hospital on the way here,” said Pampas. “The woman’s going to lose her hand; Sharon Blacksmith told me to have them bill the Apollo Cartel for her prosthetic hand and for the two men’s treatment. Colonel Blacksmith also told Lieutenant Domak to have the hospital keep them sedated until we told them otherwise.”

  “Good idea,” agreed Cole. “I should have thought of it myself.”

  “Have you got any idea what we’re expecting, sir?” asked Chadwick.

  “Not really,” said Cole. “But it’s got to be something a few levels of magnitude more powerful than the last group. Khan still has no idea who we are or how powerful we are, so he’s not going to increase the size of his force gradually. If we can kill or capture one man and four men, probably we can kill or capture six or ten or a dozen, and he’s got to have a limited number of men to spare, so I imagine this time we’ll see something a lot more impressive.”

  No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Sharon’s image appeared above the table.

  “I hate to disturb the Captain when he’s busy telling dirty jokes,” she announced, “but you’ve got company.”

  “How big?”

  “Eight laser and pulse cannons, crew of twenty-seven that we’ve been able to pick up with our sensors so far.”