Alex spun the chair and caught Mary’s wrists in his hands. She looked like she wanted to strangle him.
“How could you do that to me! Do you have any idea how terrifying this was I thought—”
“I know, I saw.”
“You were watching?” She tried to wrench her arms out of his grip. “I’m going to kill you! Why didn’t tell me they were with you?”
“Because I needed you to be scared. You think security would buy that you wanted to go to your home planet to be prosecuted? Compared to the prison the charges will send you to, this place is a paradise. Now—” one of the sentry programs he’d left floating in the system sounded an alarm. Someone he didn’t want to see in the hangar had just entered it.
“Go sit down, Mary, I have work to do.” He was listening to the system.
“No, I’m going to—”
“Sit the fuck down!”
Mary jerked back and he let her go, turning to look at the code. He noticed the earpiece he’d put on the board when they’d entered, and put it back in his ear. Never drop the act, that had been one of Tristan’s early lesson about wearing a mask. The term he used for assuming a different personality.
He brought up the image of the hangar. An older man in uniform was talking with the officer that had escorted Victor and Miranda. Alex sent programs to convince flight control everything was in order with the ship.
“What’s going on?” Miranda asked, standing behind him.
“Someone who shouldn’t be here showed up.” The green light came, and he initiated the takeoff procedure. So long as he did everything properly, no living being should get involved.
“And?”
“And he's talking with your escort.” Mentally he told the system to hurry up. The discussion was becoming agitated.
“And?”
“And he doesn’t look happy to hear it.” The ship was released and he began moving it toward the force field wall keeping the air inside the ship. The older man pointed at the moving ship and yelled something Alex was happy he couldn’t hear.
“And?”
“And it looked like he doesn’t want us to—” What was he doing? Dividing his attention like that. “Sit down Miranda, I have work to do.”
“This is my ship, I can—”
“Sit down,” He growled. “Unless you want us to be stuck in here.” Orders were being sent to turn the force field solid. He and his programs intercepted them, he added some to the force field controls to lock it in its current state.
He could feel Miranda at his back, but at least she kept quiet. The older man was screaming and running about the ship. Did he think he could just grab on to it and hold it back? Inside the system Alex saw internal communication points become active and swam of programs head for the force field controls. The ship’s coercionists were on the job, but not acting directly yet. Alex distorted the space between them to give himself the seconds the ship needed to exit. Once they were out there was nothing they could do to him. He reinforced his program, made a wall of them. They wouldn’t last long under that assault, but again, a few seconds was all he needed.
And they were outside.
He engaged the propulsion system and finally relaxed. He set a course away from Priam’s World as fast as Miranda’s ship could go, much faster than the other ship could go. He took off the earpiece and leaned back in the seat.
“Care to explain what happened? Now that you don’t seem to be too busy?” Miranda’s tone was that of someone who didn’t like being kept out of the loop.
He didn’t have to tell her anything, he reminded himself. He was in charge, not her. Tristan wasn’t in the habit of sharing anything, but he also had the advantage of being able to do basically any job needed for a mission. Alex needed them to do their part, so he had to placate her. But it didn’t mean he had to tolerate her attitude.
“First off, watch the tone, this is my job, so you’re going to speak to me appropriately.”
Miranda’s reflection on the screen raised an eyebrow and her lips tightened, but she nodded. He’d made her promise she’d follow orders.
“Secondly, that old man is the chief of security. A general of some sort. He’s one of the few people on that ship who would know about Mary, and clearly cared what was going on.”
“I thought you’d taken cared of all that. Put the files in their systems and all that.”
“I did, but unless you know something I don’t, there’s no way to insert files into people’s mind. The general didn’t bother checking his vault, otherwise he wouldn’t have shown up, just initiated a lockdown. But someone told him what was going on.”
“We came across a woman who wasn’t happy about us taking the chemist.”
“Biochemist,” Mary said from her seat.
“I saw. It might have been her. I was too busy looking into the security to make sure no alarms were given to follow individual communication links. But the general showed up and what the officer told him alerted him something was wrong. Fortunately I saw it coming by then and had enough program in place to give us time to leave. So get everyone ready for cryo.”
“Aren’t you worried about pursuit?” Victor asked.
Alex shook his head. “They don’t have a fleet. The ships they have are personal yachts. They could catch up to us, but they won’t be armed. People like that don’t bother chasing, they put bounties. So it means you’re going to have to get rid of this ship, Miranda.”
“I already figured that. You’re paying?”
“I’m paying you enough to afford a fleet of these.”
“I should have thrown in an expense clause in our deal.” She left the cockpit. “Come on, let’s get you two ready. I hope you don’t mine fluid replacement systems, there’s only two field cryo and they’re mine and—”
The ship stopped vibrating, an indication the propulsion system had shut down.
Alex was looking at the code and cursed. “How did he get in here?” he sent programs after the coercionist in the propulsion system. “You really think you can get control of my system?” The distance warped, putting him much further than he had been. There was a second coercionist there, no, two of them.
Alex realized the mistake he’d made. This wasn’t one of Tristan’s ships. He’d taken control of its system, but Tristan also had a bunch of hardware added to his, a lot of which was there to make it harder for anything to get into it from the outside. That wasn’t there here. Alex had only secured the communication ports enough to add to what Tristan would have had. Which meant it hadn’t done much here.
Now they were slowing.
“Did you really think you could steal from me?” There was a woman’s face reflected on eh screen. With a start Alex spun the chair and grabbed a knife. She was older and dressed in a silver gown. The edge of the gown, of all of her actually, were fuzzy. His heart slowed. She was a hologram. He hadn’t known Miranda had something like that installed.
“Lady Priam,” Alex said.
“It’s Mister Crimson, isn’t it? You’re Tristan’s partner, aren’t you?”
“Yes. And do you really want to piss him off by attacking our ship?”
“He’s not there, It’s only you, two others and my property. No Samalian.”
“This is still going to piss him off. He’s expecting me.”
“You shouldn’t have stolen from me.”
Alex shrugged. “I do what I’m told.” He was amused at how easily lying came to him now. Tristan had spent years coaching him about masks, now while it was as natural for Alex as it was for him, it no longer felt difficult.
“He sent a team instead of coming himself?”
“No, he sent me. I got a team because I knew I couldn’t set foot on your ship without alarms going off everywhere.”
“What did you expect, we found the programs you left embedded in my ship after the two of you left.”
“I didn’t expect anything else. But you should consider what it means that he sent me alone. You’re that insignificant in his world.”
She was silent. Alex couldn’t be sure, but he thought she was composing herself.
“You could have asked. We have done business together.”
“Why ask when you can take? That’s your philosophy, isn’t it? All you Sovereign just take what you want. Pay mercs to get it for you. Speaking of which, how’s your grandfather?”
“He’s better. It’ll be some time before his mind is fully repaired, but he’s himself again.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Your brother?”
She looked uncomfortable. “He isn’t well. He said some things about Tristan I don’t like.”
Alex chuckled. “Baran pissed him off. And to make something clear, one of the reasons I’m taking Mary, is that we told her you’d be grateful for her part in bringing your brother back to you.”
“I was grateful, it’s why I set her up here, where she could work without worrying about the Law. Do you really think she would have wanted to go back to that planet? Where she was already wanted?”
“You didn’t even ask her did you? You just decided for her. But you knew she didn’t want to stay. Why else keep her from communicating with the universe? You didn’t want her calling for help.”
“That’s irrelevant. She’s my property, you all are now.”
Alex smiled. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Really? And why not?”
“You think you’re possessive? What do you think Tristan is going to do to you, to your ship, when he finds out you took me from him? You know the kind of person he is. You know nothing will stop him from getting me back, that he’s going to destroy everything and everyone in his way. How much do you care about your ship? The people on it? Your family?”
She considered his words. “Return my property and I’ll let you go.”
“Can’t, he sent me to get her.”
“Then leave me one of the others to replace her.”
“Not going to happen. I don’t leave any of my crew.”
“I see.” Her face hardened. “You aren’t leaving me any choice as to what my response will be.”
Alex shrugged. “Let us go, or face Tristan’s wrath. It isn’t complicated.”
The woman nodded. “Very well.” She motioned to someone on her side of the communication. “You’re free to go, but tell Tristan that is he ever crosses my path, he will face my wrath, and I will be prepared for him.” She vanished.
Alex faced the board and went through the code. The coercionists had left, and their programs were unraveling. He set their course again, pushing the engines as much as he could. He didn’t want to take the chance she was going to change her mind.
“Did you just threaten Tristan on her to let us go?” Victor asked.
“Would you want to have him after you?” Miranda answered. “I take it you know about him, right?”
“Who is he?” Mary asked.
“How come she didn’t know he’s been captured?” Victor asked.
“Tristan has been held by the Sayatoga for over a decade,” Alex said, adding programs to the communication points. “Every since Miranda delivered him to them.”
“Except it wasn’t him. He tricked me.” Miranda said that with some admiration.
“Okay, then how does she believe he’s out there?”
“She hired him, and me, not too long ago. So she knows he’d free, in spite of what the Sayatoga says. Anyone who knows him knows better than to believe any reports of his capture.”
“And she’s afraid of him?” Mary asked. She sounded like the conversation made no sense.
“Maybe not,” Miranda answered, “but she respects him and what he can do. We all do, all of us who’s had the occasion to encounter him. Tristan isn’t someone you want as an enemy.”
“You captured him, doesn’t that make you his enemy?” Mary pointed out.
“If I had captured him, sure, but he tricked me. He used me. I doubt he even remembered who I am.”
Alex didn’t say anything. He’d seen the file Tristan kept on Miranda. That’s where he’d gotten her contact node, the one she kept hidden. She wasn’t someone Tristan was actively hunting, but he did plan on making her pay for his initial capture. It simply was low on his list of priority. What Miranda didn’t realize was that Tristan never forgot, and that he was patient.
“Alright, go under. I’m going to stay awake long enough to make sure the Priam’s World doesn’t do anything stupid, and then I’ll go under too.
