A Dark and Hungry God Arises (54 page)

Angus caught it; held it as if he didn't need it.

'You were right, ' Davies muttered to Angus as if that were the worst insult he could level at Nick.

Nick ignored the boy.

'You've got it wrong, ' he said steadily. 'I told you I changed my mind. I didn't want any part of this operation because I didn't think it had a chance. I didn't feel like getting killed for the sake of your gonads. But now we've got help. ' He nodded at Mikka and her companions. 'Seven of us might actually be able to do it.

'I'm willing to give it a try. Unless you want to pretend you can pull it off on your own. '

'Pull what off?' Mikka demanded harshly. What operation? What the fuck are you bastards talking about?'

Angus gave a brutal grin. His eyes didn't shift from Nick's. 'These your people?'

Nick nodded.

Angus snorted through his teeth. 'I don't think they like you very much anymore. '

'I said, what operation?' Mikka yelled. Her anger and desperation seemed to burn in the air of the bridge.

Nick didn't look at her. He met Angus' grin with a smile of his own.

'You'll like it, ' he answered as if he were happy at last.

We're going to rescue Morn. '

Mikka's stunned silence at his back was as loud as a shout. Sib Mackern took a shuddering breath like a man on the verge of tears. Softly Vector whispered, 'Oh, my aching joints. '

Nick stood still, waiting for Angus to reject his help; daring Angus to say no.

But Angus didn't. Over his shoulder, he said to Davies,

'He's right. We need the help. '

Nick went on smiling like his scars.

Angus watched Nick smile and tried to find some way to squeeze murder through the interstices of his programming.

It was insufferable that Captain Nick bloody Sheepfucker stood there smiling as if he'd just won again, beaten Angus again. It was intolerable that Nick brought his own people aboard Angus' ship; that Angus had to accept them because he needed them. It was utter and absolute craziness to let them in here, to trust them -

Nevertheless his datacore issued its instructions, and he obeyed, ruled by the pitiless compulsion of his zone implants.

Nick's UMCP connection made him effectively immune to any real harm from Angus. And his offer of help satisfied the prewritten logic of Dios' exigencies.

Rescuing Morn took precedence over everything -

Angus had no idea why.

It's got to stop.

He didn't understand that either.

He was so full of hate that his blood seemed to steam and boil in his veins; so eager to break Nick's neck that his hands burned and his temples throbbed. Hate was all that sustained him in the cage which his mind had become - hate and a strange, ineffable terror at the thought of Morn Hyland. He paced inside himself like an imprisoned predator, driven and helpless; haunted by killing.

Unfortunately his passions meant nothing.

'So who the hell are they?' he demanded of Nick.

'What're they good for?'

The intercom interrupted him. From outside Trumpet's airlock, a voice blared, 'Captain Thermopyle, open up. We're coming aboard. You get to choose how we do it - that's as much courtesy as the Bill has left - but we're going to do it. If you don't let us in, we'll cut our way.

We'll do a little BR surgery on your ship, free gratis no charge. You can get it repaired when you have enough money - if you're still alive.

'You hear me? I said open up! You've got one minute.

'Then we start cutting. '

Davies flinched involuntarily. He'd been through too much in too short a time. Eyes like Morn's pulled away from Nick, came to Angus' face as if they were wincing: eyes exactly like Morn's, full of fear and need and revulsion. Swelling and contusions distorted his features.

Angus stepped to his command board, tapped a key which silenced the external intercom. Then he turned back to Succorso.

A woman, two men and a kid about Davies' age stood behind Nick: his people. At a glance, the woman looked too hostile to admit she was out of her depth, and one of the men had the round, calm appearance of a cat addict. But the other two were scared out of their skins.

The kid twitched nervously from one foot to the other; he was practically holding the woman's hand. The man with the abject mustache sweated and gaped as if he was being rendered down for grease.

'Come on, Nick. ' Angus' programming left him no more space for insults. 'I'm waiting. They look like you picked them at random on the cruise. What makes you think they can help me?'

Nick's gaze sharpened. Behind his grin, the lines of his face tautened across their bones. Color ebbed from his scars.

'Angus, ' he said softly, 'don't you think you should do something about those guards? They aren't bluffing. We saw mining lasers. '

'Nick, ' Angus returned, you shit-faced fucker, 'we haven't got time for this. We can't get started until I know who your people are and what they can do. '

For an instant Nick seemed to lose control. 'Then do something about those guards!'

Angus rolled his eyes, shrugged. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the rifle to Davies. Then he leaned over his board and typed in a quick command.

A moment later a recording of his voice played over the bridge speakers.

This is Captain Angus Thermopyle. I'm not aboard right now. To protect the security of my ship and my associates, I've rigged Trumpet for self-destruct as soon as her sensors detect any forced entry. The simultaneous explosion of her thrust and gap drives and other power systems will produce destructive force on the order of' -

the recording recited a number which sounded too high, but which Angus knew to be conservative. 'I estimate that will reduce approximately one third of Billingate installation to powder. If you want confirmation, analyze my in-coming particle trace. ' This is no ordinary Needle-class gap scout, you sonofabitch. 'Codes to enter and leave Trumpet safely are known to my associates. Codes to disable Trumpet's self-destruct are known only to me.

Until I return to my ship, I can do nothing to save you if you try to break in. My associates - if they're unlucky enough to be aboard - can do nothing to save you in my absence.

'Message repeats.

This is -'

Angus silenced the playback. That's on automatic. I set it when you came aboard. Those guards have been hearing it ever since they arrived. ' To Nick he growled, Thanks to you and Milos, the Bill thinks I'm here. But he can't be sure. And he probably thinks I'm bluffing -

but he can't be sure of that, either. Which buys us a little time. Maybe it'll be enough. '

Everyone around him could see that Trumpet's systems were up and active. Operations had the same information.

Nick couldn't hold Angus' gaze. To conceal his relief, he glanced at his people, scanned the bridge. Without bringing his eyes back to Angus, he asked, 'So where is Milos?'

He may have been trying to regain the upper hand.

Angus' programming didn't require him to answer that question. Its logic moved in another direction - toward possibilities of coercion which made Angus' veins throb with hunger.

'Nick, you've got a bruise the size of my fist on your forehead. When it's done swelling, it's going to turn purple. ' The mildness imposed by his zone implants amazed and appalled him. 'You'll look like you lost an argument with a steel piston. Stop asking questions. Start answering them. '

Abruptly the woman muttered a curse and pushed past Nick. Despite his reputation as a man for whom women were willing to drop dead, she shouldered him aside contemptuously so that she could confront Angus and Davies herself.

Fury nickered like a static discharge in Nick's eyes, but he didn't try to stop her.

'Captain Thermopyle, ' she announced in a voice made for shouting, 'I'm Mikka Vasaczk, command second, Captain's Fancy — or I was until recently. He' — she indicated the frightened man with the mustache and the staring eyes - 'is Sib Mackern, data first. ' Next she nodded at the cat addict. 'Vector Shaheed, engineer. '

That left the kid. 'Ciro Vasaczk is Vector's second. Also my brother. Nick wants to get rid of us. He was planning to abandon us here.

'I'll tell you why. We don't like what he did to Morn. '

She shifted her scowl to Davies. We all tried to help you.

Sib let her out of her cabin. Between the two of us, Vector and I let her at the ejection pod controls. That's why the pod brought you here, instead of to Tranquil Hegemony - why you're still human.

'But we weren't able to help her. ' She swallowed once, roughly. 'Or we didn't try hard enough. Maybe we all thought we were alone. Or maybe we just couldn't believe he would really go that far. '

'I knew it, ' Davies rasped back. 'I knew it from the moment I was born - and that was before I remembered anything about him. '

'Yes. ' Mikka nodded slowly. 'But you're a cop. You think differently than we do. '

Her glower swung back to Angus. The four of us are interested in rescuing Morn. If the Amnion haven't already finished her. But Nick isn't. You've got to understand that. He hates her - he wants them to have her. If he told you anything else, he was lying.

'He's only here because the Bill barred him from Captain's Fancy. He doesn't have anywhere else to go-'

Neither of the men behind her moved. Only the kid nodded.

Angus believed her. Her face looked as honest as a fist.

If she'd helped keep his son away from the Amnion, he could count on her to help him reach Morn as well.

Somehow the virile and invulnerable Captain Succorso had succeeded at driving his own people to mutiny.

Too bad, Mikka, ' Nick snarled. 'Nice try. ' His air of casual superiority had deserted him: he looked frayed and vicious. 'But Angus already knows my reasons don't matter. If this is the only choice I have left, so much the better for him. He wants my help. Now he's got it.

'The truth is, ' he finished, 'you haven't got anywhere else to go either. '

The engineer, Vector Shaheed, spoke for the first time.

'You're wrong, Nick. ' His tone was like his face and his eyes, too calm to be normal. Nevertheless Angus didn't hear cat in it: he heard old pain; pain which had been suppressed so long that it dulled everything around it.

We've already told you — we could have gone to the Bill.

We could have gone to Captain Chatelaine. Either of them would have been' - he smiled wanly - 'fascinated to hear about your adventures on Enablement. '

Angus would have been fascinated himself. Old instincts shrilled at him, warning him that what Nick had done on Enablement was important. Unfortunately his programming had no instincts. The countdown running in his mechanical mind ticked inexorably shorter.

'Discuss it later, ' he demanded. 'Right now I need answers.

'Have any of you done high-tension work?'

Vector, Mikka, and the kid all nodded.

'Angus, ' Nick put in, 'I'm going to help you, but only on one condition. ' Without transition his manner changed again. He was like a kaleidoscope, different at every turn. Now he sounded companionable and relaxed, as if he were among friends. 'I need to talk to Captain's fancy. I can do it while you get organized. My command third doesn't know what to do. She probably doesn't know I've been barred. As long as she thinks she has to wait for me, she's paralyzed. '

Angus wanted to snap, Shut up, asshole. If you ever talk to your ship again, it'll be over my dead body. His datacore had other priorities, however. Apparently its unintuitive logic had assigned Nick the status of a UMCP

officer in need of assistance.

Helpless to do anything else, Angus pointed at Milos'

station. 'You can access communications there. Just don't screw up - don't let Operations hear you. '

Grinning ferally, Nick slid into the command second's g-seat and put his hands on the board.

The abyss lurking at the back of Angus' mind taunted him. He wondered if his programming had just forced him to make a terrible mistake.

But he couldn't think about that. As if it were recircuiting neurons, his zone implants tuned one ear to listen to Nick. The rest of him focused on Nick's people.

'Have you got EVA training? You know how to use guns?'

Davies shook his head, then nodded in confusion as he remembered Morn's experience in the Academy.

'We aren't exactly trained for it,' Vector answered, 'but we've all done EVA. Pu - Ciro and I've never had to use guns.'

'All right.' Pieces clicked into place in Angus' plans.

'You're my high-tension crew. Davies, you're with them.

It's your job to keep them safe. When you're done, you can cover our retreat.'

'I don't understand,' Davies put in. 'You haven't told me what you're planning.'

Angus ignored him. The rest of us - Nick, Mikka, Sib and me - are going to get Morn out.' Brutal as impact fire, he added, 'Or kill her if the Amnion have already mutated her.'

At the same time he listened hard to what Nick was doing. But Nick addressed his ship entirely in written code: he didn't say a word. His fingers raced on the board, typing like volleys in a barrage. Under his concentrated gaze, his scars hinted at darkness.

'We're going EVA,' Angus explained, 'so we don't have to deal with the Bill's muscle. We'll cross the docks and the rock to the Amnion installation - roughly three k.

We'll cut our way in. That's the easy part. The hard part will be finding her. '

And surviving. Angus had already realized that he was effectively powerless against the Amnion. If his datacore hadn't ordered otherwise, for its own reasons, he would have been tempted to protect Vector and Ciro himself, and send Davies after Morn.

'Once we find her, we either deal with her or grab her.

We'll take an EVA suit for her - that's your job, ' he told Sib. It wouldn't hurt to encumber Mackern with an extra suit. He didn't look like he was good with a gun in any case. 'As soon as she's in it, we'll come back the way we went. '

And if we can do all that, if you're still alive, and I come back in one piece, and the Bill hasn't burned Trumpet open, we'll try to figure out how to get away from here.