Starship: Mercenary (Starship, Book 3) Read online

  Her image vanished, to be replaced by a ship only a bit smaller than the Teddy R, displaying no insignia. Even as it appeared, its bay opened and disgorged a shuttle, capable of holding fifteen armed men, which promptly headed down toward Bannister II.

  “Well, Val,” said Cole, getting to his feet, “there’s your ship. Let’s get ready to take it.”

  12

  Cole watched the shuttle as it touched down at the nearby spaceport. Ten Men, three Lodinites, and two Mollutei emerged from it, all heavily armed. They approached the Apollo Building, then fanned out. Only two men actually entered.

  “They’re getting smarter,” remarked Cole to Val, Pampas, Chadwick, and Jack-in-the-Box. “They’ve already figured out that their previous parties made it this far and none of them came back, so they’re not all going to walk into the same trap.”

  “You want us to keep out of sight at the start, like the last two times?” asked Val.

  Cole shook his head. “Don’t bother. They have to know I’m not alone. We’ll handle the ones who come in here, and I’ve asked the police to help us round up the rest of them. They won’t have any idea what’s happened up here or how many of us there are, which should certainly put them at a disadvantage.”

  “Weapons out or in?” asked Pampas.

  “If you’re holding weapons in your hands, it’ll just encourage them to do the same,” said Cole. “And if that happens, someone’s going to start shooting.”

  “That’s what we’re here for,” said Pampas. “We’ll win, sir.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” said Cole. “But they can’t tell me what I want to know if they’re dead.”

  “They’re not going to tell you, period,” said Val.

  Cole shrugged. “You never know.”

  “You’ve got something up your sleeve, don’t you, sir?” said Chadwick.

  “Just his arm,” said Val. “I say kill them the second they walk in, and then go after the others.”

  “Then what?” said Cole. “If we destroy their ship, you’re still without a vessel and we haven’t earned our money, since he’ll probably send his whole fleet here, guns blazing.”

  “We have to face them sooner or later,” said Val. “I prefer sooner.”

  “Oh, we’ll face them, all right,” agreed Cole. “But let’s see if we can reduce their firepower first.”

  “One at a time or all at once, it makes no difference to me,” said Val.

  Suddenly Chadwick chuckled and Cole turned to him. “What’s so funny?”

  “It reminds me of something Commander Forrice is always saying after he and you discuss some problem,” answered Chadwick. “Something to the effect that the problem was a whole lot simpler when it only had him thinking about it.”

  “That’s Four Eyes, all right,” said Cole.

  “They’re coming, sir,” said Jack-in-the-Box softly.

  “Whatever happens,” said Cole, “no one shoots or does anything else until I give the signal.” He stared directly at Val. “That’s an order.”

  A few seconds later two leather-clad men, one bearded, one clean-shaven, entered the office. Both were heavily armed. The smooth-faced one had a pulse gun in his hand, and immediately trained it on Val, Pampas, Chadwick, and the Mollutei.

  The bearded one stared at Cole for a moment. “I should have known those spineless cowards would hire help.”

  “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance too,” said Cole.

  “I know who you are, Wilson Cole,” said the man. “I’ve seen your face on enough Wanted posters and holocasts. Why is the most decorated officer in the Republic hiring out as a mercenary?”

  “Because I’m not in the Republic, in case you hadn’t noticed,” said Cole. “But there’s no need for us to be enemies. Possibly Genghis Khan is looking for an ally.”

  “Why should he want to deal with the notorious Wilson Cole?”

  “There’s no reason why we can’t be allies.”

  “We need no allies.”

  “Why not fly me up to the shuttle and let me send a subspace message to him?” persisted Cole. “I’d do it from here, but I don’t have the necessary access codes.”

  “You don’t need the codes,” said the man. “Besides, they only respond to my voiceprint. And you’re not going to live long enough to contact him.”

  “It’s a pity,” said Cole. “We could have been friends.”

  “We don’t want any friends.”

  “What can I offer you as a show of good faith?”

  “Keep your good faith,” said the man.

  “We’re wasting time,” said the smooth-shaven man. “Let’s take care of business and get the hell back to home base.”

  The bearded man stared at Cole. “I’m only going to ask once: Do you have the money?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got it. I don’t suppose you’d care to split it down the middle? You take half, we take half, nobody shoots anybody, and we all walk away a little richer.”

  “Nobody shoots anybody,” said the man sarcastically. “I think we’d rather have the money and take our chances.”

  “Don’t do it, Bull,” said Cole to Pampas, who had been standing absolutely still. “This man you’re facing is Demon Jack Devereaux. He’s killed twenty men. Maybe twenty-five. You don’t want to go up against him.”

  “You sure as hell don’t,” agreed the bearded man. “But I’m Blackbeard Strahan. Never heard of this Devereaux.”

  “He’s a pirate,” said Cole. “Weapons or freehand, you’ll never find anyone tougher. And he’s got a little eight-man ship that could probably blow that big vessel of yours right out of the ether.”

  “The eight-man ship’s never been created that could harm the South Star in battle.”

  “It’s that formidable a ship?” asked Cole.

  “If we don’t come back with the money, it’s got orders to blow this whole city away. We could demolish it in ten minutes’ time.”

  “What would it take not to blow it up?”

  “Just pay us our money and we’ll leave the city alone,” said Strahan. “Until the next time. Now, are you going to pay up or not?”

  “Not, I think. And this conversation has gone on just about long enough.” He nodded almost imperceptibly to Val. She edged over to Chadwick and gave him a sudden shove with her hip. He wasn’t expecting it, and careered into Jaxtaboxl, who grunted and spread his arms for balance. The unbearded man immediately trained his weapon on the Mollutei, and as he did so Val’s long leg lashed out and kicked the pulse gun from his hand as Pampas launched himself at Strahan. Within seconds both men were on the floor, Pampas sitting atop one, Val with her boot in the middle of the other’s back.

  “One last chance,” said Cole. “Will you tell me where I can find Genghis Khan?”

  “Do your worst!” rasped Strahan. “We’re not talking!”

  “I can make them talk,” said Val.

  “Forget it,” said Cole. “We’ve got thirteen men and aliens to disable. Put these two out of commission—that does not mean kill them —and get to work on the others. If you need help, Domak’s over at the hospital. Probably you won’t; you may be outnumbered, but you know who they are, and they have no idea who you are—except maybe for Val; people don’t forget nine-foot-tall redheaded giants.”

  “I’m not even seven feet tall,” she said, putting both men to sleep with a pair of karate chops to the backs of their necks. “If I was nine feet, I’d own the universe.”

  “I can believe it,” said Cole. He gestured to the two bodies. “How long will they be out?”

  “A couple of hours,” she replied. “And by the way, I’ve spent fifteen years on the Inner Frontier, and there’s no Demon Jack Devereaux.”

  “I must have been mistaken,” said Cole easily. “Now I think it’s time for you four to go out and take care of the rest of Strahan’s landing party.” He knelt down and trussed his prisoner’s hands and feet with glowing manacles. “Remember, the police will lend a hand if y
ou need them.”

  “You’re not coming with us?”

  “I’ve got my own work to do,” said Cole. “Report back when your mission’s been accomplished. And don’t kill anyone you don’t have to kill.”

  “Our brig can only hold three or four of them, sir,” said Chadwick.

  “I’ve arranged for the city to provide them with accommodations in the local jail.”

  “Not if they think there will be reprisals from Genghis Khan,” said Chadwick.

  “There won’t be,” said Cole. “Now get going.”

  The four of them left, and Cole immediately contacted the Teddy R.

  “Yes, sir?” said Malcolm Briggs.

  “Where’s Christine?” asked Cole.

  “Her shift ended, sir,” said Briggs. “I believe she’s in the mess hall.”

  “Patch me through to her.”

  A moment later he was facing Christine Mboya’s image.

  “What can I do for you, sir?” she asked.

  “I’m going to transmit some captured audio to you,” said Cole. “I want you to edit it as follows.”

  He spent the next five minutes telling her what he wanted.

  “I’m sure I can do that, sir.”

  “It’s got to sound natural, and pass a voice ID test.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem, sir.”

  “Okay,” said Cole. “After you send it back down, I want you to supply me with codes that will enable me to choose each sentence in the order I want it, based on what is said at the other end.”

  “That will be the easiest part of all.”

  “Good. If I was paying you anything to start with, I’d give you a raise.”

  “Thank you, sir. I think.”

  He had her transfer him back to the bridge and uploaded the captured audio of everything Strahan had said, then broke the connection, went to the executive restaurant on the top floor for a sandwich and a beer, and returned to the office.

  He wasn’t worried about his team. He wouldn’t be surprised if Val alone could take out all thirteen of the enemy, and he had total confidence in the other three as well, plus Domak if they needed her (and he was sure they wouldn’t need her or the police). He found himself idly wishing that some of the modern weapons made a loud bang like the pistols of old, so he could try to follow the battle by the number of gunshots and the direction they were coming from, but though he ordered the windows to remain open not a sound came to his ears.

  Then, almost an hour after they left, Luthor Chadwick returned alone.

  “How did it go?” asked Cole.

  “We killed four and captured nine, sir,” said Chadwick. “Val and Bull are escorting the captives to jail, and they’ve had Domak tell the hospital to transfer the ones Val put there to jail as soon as they’re healthy enough.”

  “What about Jack-in-the-Box?”

  “He took a pulse burst to his leg, sir,” said Chadwick. “He’s at the hospital, though I don’t know if they have any experts in Mollutei physiology.”

  “How bad did it look?”

  “I don’t think he’ll keep the leg, sir.”

  “All right. Tell the hospital to bill the Teddy R for his treatment and his new leg.”

  “The Teddy R, not the Apollo Cartel?” asked Chadwick.

  “The Teddy R takes care of its own. And it’ll come to the same thing, once we collect from the Cartel.”

  “Will we collect, sir? I know we took care of the landing party, but the planet’s no safer and we’re no closer to Genghis Khan than we were a week ago.”

  “That’s true,” said Cole. “Temporarily.”

  “Temporarily, sir?”

  “Ask me again in an hour. In the meantime, contact the jail and tell them to collect these two,” he concluded, indicating the manacled Strahan and his companion, who were still lying unconscious on the floor.

  Val and Pampas showed up a few minutes later, and Cole listened as they gave their accounts of the battle.

  “Okay,” said Cole. “The bad guys are dead or jailed, and the hospital’s doing what it can for Jack-in-the-Box. I suppose it’s time to get to work.”

  “I thought that was what we just finished doing,” said Val.

  “You were doing a preliminary exercise,” replied Cole. “Christine has been preparing the next phase.”

  “Christine?” said Val, surprised. “Is she down here?”

  Cole shook his head. “No. She’s at her station on the Teddy R, doing what she does best.” He contacted the ship, and Christine’s image appeared. “All set?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “I’ve just downloaded everything to your computer. The first thing you’ll see are the identifying codes you asked for.”

  “Thanks,” said Cole. He broke the connection and brought up the codes on a holographic screen, each attached to a read-out of the sentences he wanted.

  “What’s all this?” asked Val.

  “This is everything Strahan said,” answered Cole. “Though not quite in the order he said it.”

  “So that’s why you kept him talking!” said Pampas. “You recorded him and rearranged all his words!”

  “Christine rearranged them. They’d spot it in two seconds if I’d done it. I don’t have her skills.” He stared at the codes. “Okay, let’s try it out.”

  He sent a signal to the South Star.

  “Identify yourself,” said a voice.

  “This is Blackbeard,” said Strahan’s voice.

  “I can’t see your image, sir.”

  “Check my voiceprint.”

  “The computer confirms that it’s you, sir. I assume the battle’s over?”

  “There was no battle,” said Strahan’s voice. “We’ve become allies.”

  “Allies?”

  “I’m going to bring them to the South Star as a show of good faith.”

  “Then you don’t want us to destroy the city?”

  “Leave the city alone.”

  “Yes, sir. Will we be staying here awaiting further orders or returning to home base?”

  “We’re going to get the hell back to home base,” said Strahan’s voice.

  “How soon shall we expect you, sir?”

  “In ten minutes’ time.”

  “We’ll be ready, sir,” promised the voice, and then the connection was broken.

  “Do you think it worked?” asked Pampas.

  “They know he’s on the planet,” said Cole. “They can match his voiceprint. They know he’s just fought a pitched battle, so they should be able to buy that he can only transmit his voice and not his image. They can assume that mercenaries would sooner join up with Khan than fight him. Yeah, I think it’ll work.” He walked to the door. “We’ll know in nine minutes. Let’s go.”

  13

  The shuttle encountered no opposition as it reached the bay of the South Star. As the hatch slid open, Val strode out and aimed her burner directly at the Lodinite who had come down to receive them.

  “What’s going on here?” demanded the Lodinite as his T-pack took all the emotion out of his tone while translating it into Terran.

  Cole emerged from the shuttle and confronted the Lodinite. “Keep quiet and there’s an excellent chance that you’ll live through this. Do you understand?”

  The Lodinite made a gesture with his head that Cole took for an affirmative.

  “Bull, take his weapons away from him.”

  Pampas disarmed the alien.

  “Now, to coin a phrase,” said Cole, “take us to your leader.”

  The Lodinite led them to an airlift.

  Cole stopped and stared at the airlift. “Have you got any stairs?” he asked.

  “Yes, but the airlift is faster.”

  “I lost all faith in these things a few months ago,” replied Cole, recalling how he had tricked a pirate named Windsail into entering one of the Teddy R’s airlifts and then cut off the oxygen and gravity.

  “This way,” said the Lodinite.

  They fol
lowed him up the narrow, winding stairs, then burst onto the bridge, weapons at the ready, surprising the eight men and aliens who were on duty there.

  “Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt!” said Cole as Pampas, Val, and Chadwick spread out.

  “Who the hell are you?” demanded the captain.

  “We’re the people who are going to put your boss out of business,” said Cole.

  “The four of you?” said the captain, arching an eyebrow in obvious amusement.

  “We’re very ambitious,” said Cole.

  “Being very lucky would serve you even better,” remarked the captain, showing no sign of fear. “Genghis Khan is not known as a forgiving man.”

  “He’ll have to learn to live with his inadequacies,” said Cole. “Bull, you and Luthor get their weapons. Val, kill anyone who resists.”

  “Why don’t we just kill them all anyway?” she asked.

  “You must have had a very embittered childhood,” said Cole. “We’re not killing them because we’re civilized men and woman—and more to the point, now that we own two ships, we need some more crew members.”

  “Them?” she said contemptuously. “They’re just common thugs.”

  “And I’m a common mutineer, and you were a common pirate, and the two Men and the Pepon we picked up on Cyrano were just common murderers. We’re mercenaries, not pacifists.”

  Val snorted in amusement. “That sounds like something I’d say.”

  “What inducement can you offer us to join you?” asked the captain.

  “The very best,” said Cole. “If you don’t, we’re going to load the lot of you into your shuttle and program it to take you down to Bannister II, where they will immediately put you in jail and prosecutors will be lined up around the planet to make sure you never get out. Do you doubt that?”

  There was no answer.

  “You have only one alternative,” continued Cole. “Swear your allegiance to me, and most of you will be transferred to the Theodore Roosevelt , where you will join my crew. I should tell you up front that, regardless of our differences with the Republic and its Navy, we are a military vessel and we demand military discipline. The choice is yours. I’ll give each of you five minutes to make it.”