GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) (21 page)

As he had been doing all day, he frowned at her and shook his head. "Take her down, Mar. I'm going to change. Cherry, feel free to use my chair to enjoy the landing."

"Golly gee, what a treat!" she exclaimed in a little girl's voice, but took advantage of his offer the moment he left the bridge. "So tell me, Dot, do you ever get to leave this ship?"

With Mar concentrating on their landing, Dot could not fully face Cherry as she spoke. "Of course we do. Sometimes it is our choice to remain behind, however. You remember how you stared at us when you first saw us."

"Oh my, I didn't realize—"

"It was not offensive, I assure you. But there are times and situations that are not quite... comfortable. Also, if a hasty departure is required, we stay on board to facilitate same."

"Ah, you're the getaway driver who keeps the motor running in the back alley."

"I beg your pardon?"

Cherry laughed. "Never mind. Why do you need to stay behind here? Norona's civilized and it sounds like the captain has a legitimate business appointment. You probably could use a little stroll around town." She hoped the suggestion sounded enticing.

"The captain—" Dot began.

"The captain said he would not be gone long and requested that we stay on board," Mar finished.

"But surely, you could take a few minutes... unless... did he order you to stay behind to make sure I don't leave?" As the seconds ticked by in silence, she had her answer without them having to speak aloud. "I see. I don't suppose either of you are susceptible to bribes."

"I am sorry, Cherry," Dot said sincerely. "But the captain has explained it is for your own safety."

Mar turned to her with a purposeful leer. "What sort of bribe did you have in mind?"

Dot twisted toward her. "Do not pay heed to his foolishness. We have our orders."

Cherry nodded her understanding, while she tried to figure out how to circumvent those orders. Moments after they touched down, Gallant reappeared on the bridge. Cherry swiveled the chair around and inspected him from head to toe. He was wearing a fitted white jumpsuit, like hers, and had exchanged his black boots and eye patch for white ones also. With his dark hair neatly tied at the base of his neck, he looked extremely dashing, and somewhat respectable, despite the white streaks.

Rising, she complimented him with her best wolf whistle. "Very chic,
mon capitain
.
Too bad I can't go with you. We could play the odd couple." Her humor was lost on him, as usual.

"Cherry, I need to speak to Mar-Dot alone for a moment. Would you mind?"

She smiled sweetly, wanting to show him how cooperative she could be. "Of course. Perhaps I should step outside?" Gallant merely smirked at her. "You can't blame a gal for trying. Okay. I needed to freshen up anyway." As she made her way down the corridor past the exit door, she figured the best time to slip away would be immediately after Gallant left. If she timed it right, Mar-Dot might think she was still in the facility chamber and not check on her for a while.

Standing inside the chamber with her ear pressed to the closed door, she listened intently for the sounds that would mark Gallant's departure from the ship. What she heard instead was a soft click very close to her ear. Jumping to the worst possible conclusion, she pressed the door opener then pushed on the door itself... to no avail.

The dirty rat had sealed her in.

Chapter 11

"You son-of-a-bitch!" She pounded her fist against the door. "Let me out of here! I swear I'll make you regret this until the day you die, Voyager." As she stood there waiting for some kind of response to her threat, she heard the unmistakable sound of boot heels walking toward the exit door.

She had underestimated him. Again. Only this time, perhaps he had also underestimated her... or at least her acting ability. She gave him ten minutes to be well on his way, during which time she set aside her anger and concentrated on becoming a helpless, near-hysterical woman.

In a high-pitched, frightened voice, she whined, "Gallant? Please don't do this to me. I can't stand it. Please talk to me. Mar? Dot? Somebody? Oh, dear God," she cried a little louder. "Don't tell me they left me alone in here!"

"You're not alone, Cherry," Mar-Dot said close to the door. She couldn't tell which was speaking, but she guessed it would probably be Dot.

"Please, Dot, let me out of here before it's too late." She wailed pitifully and scraped the door with her fingernails.

"Cherry? Are you all right?"

"It's... it's happening already. The walls are moving! They're closing in on me.
No-o-o!"

"Cherry, are you claustrophobic?"

Wheezing and gasping for air as loudly as she could, she knocked over a chair then waited silently beside the door.

"Cherry? Are you hurt? Say something!"

Exactly as planned, Cherry heard the click of the seal being removed and the door slid open. The second Mar-Dot appeared, Cherry used her robotic arm to yank them into the room, over her extended foot. As Mar-Dot stumbled to the floor, Cherry snatched the seal and hopped out the door. Before they could right themselves, she had locked them in.

"I'm sorry," she called through the door. "I hope I didn't hurt you, but I had no choice. Say good-bye to Gallant for me, and... and I hope his mission is a success. And, um, take care." When she didn't get a response, she had to stop herself from reopening the door to make sure they were all right but guessed that they were probably only trying to turn her trick around on her.

Seconds later she was outside of the ship, surveying her surroundings. She had observed the landing carefully and knew that they were parked at the edge of a sprawling city beside several other ships of about the same size. A few hundred yards away there was a large building where a number of people were moving about and an air shuttle bus had just floated in. Since there was nothing else nearby, she decided that had to be a terminal or greeting center of some sort and set off for it.

"Could you help me?" she asked the first woman she encountered inside the building. "I need to arrange some transportation." The woman directed her toward several uniformed people standing behind a long counter. It looked like she had found the ticket counter without much effort at all.

She approached the man with the friendliest face. "Hi. I'm trying to get to Terra. Can you take care of that here?"

"Sorry. This is strictly a local commuter station. The only ships leaving the planet from here are privately owned. Of course, the owners occasionally take on passengers. In fact, someone just landed who said he'd be departing again within an hour or two. You could wait here and check with him. Let's see." He scanned the monitor in front of him. "His name is Captain Voyager."

"Oh, I've already spoken to him," she said, not hiding her disappointment. "He's going in the opposite direction. Where would I be able to catch a regular flight?"

He pointed toward the other end of the building. "The D shuttleway will take you to the main transport center. Someone there should be able to help you."

Cherry thanked him and hurried away. She wanted to be as far away from there as possible before Gallant returned.

She was about halfway to her destination when a very familiar person walked past her going in the opposite direction. It was so unexpected she continued walking for several more steps before she realized who she had just seen. Whirling around, her gaze immediately latched on to a statuesque woman with a gorgeous mane of silver hair.

"Aster?" she asked herself, then called the name aloud. But the woman didn't turn around. Cherry had heard the saying that everyone has a twin somewhere, but this woman was also pregnant and wearing a dress exactly like one Aster owned. It didn't make any sense but her eyes told her Aster was here, on Norona. Her transportation problems were solved!

She called Aster's name several times as she tried to catch up but apparently her voice wasn't carrying far enough. For a pregnant woman, she was walking incredibly fast. In desperation, Cherry broke into a run as Aster exited the building.

Racing toward the parked ships, she never took her eyes off Aster but, in a heartbeat, the woman was gone—vanished into thin air. Cherry halted in midstride and blinked at the vacant space in front of her, half expecting Aster to reappear again.

"Get back on the ship, Cherry."

She gasped at the sound of Gallant's voice behind her. The shock of his catching her on top of what she had just seen... or imagined... froze her in place long enough for him to come alongside of her. He had a grip on her neck before she could think to defend herself.

"Don't try it," he warned in a flat voice. "Before you could use that arm, you'd be unconscious." He gave her a nudge and they started walking toward his ship. "How far did you think you were going to get without a travel visa or proper identification?"

She was so frustrated and angry, she couldn't have answered if she'd been willing. A sideward glance at him let her know he wasn't wearing his eye patch... and he was at least as furious as she was.

"I'll tell you how far. To the first administrator, who would have listened to your story and sent you to his superior. Eventually, you would have ended up in the one place sure to get you in trouble—some Con rep's office. And with my luck lately, it would have been the spy!"

The door to the ship opened and Cherry grimaced at the irate expression on Mar's face as he lowered the stairs to them. When she hesitated, Gallant's fingers tightened on her neck and she immediately retaliated by stomping on his toes with her heel. "Take your hands off me and I'll go up by myself. I know when I'm outnumbered."

He released her but remained close behind as she climbed the stairs.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Gallant said, "I'm getting out of this suit. Mar, take us out of here."

Cherry was about to go after Gallant when Mar turned to go to the cockpit and she saw Dot's face. Her eyes were downcast and a hot pink bruise marred her cheekbone. "Oh no. Did I do that to you?"

"It is nothing," Dot said quietly.

"Nothing?" Mar asked, spinning toward Cherry. "We disobeyed a direct order because we thought you were hurt. For our consideration, we received an injury from you."

Dot faced her with a sad smile. "Mar will get over his anger. I understand why you tricked us. The cage was always more terrible to me than it was to him."

"I really am sorry," Cherry said sincerely. She hadn't considered how being trapped in would upset Dot. "But that man had no right to lock me in either." The guilt she was feeling over hurting Dot was instantly obliterated by cold logic. She may have knocked Mar-Dot down but it was all
his
fault. "And somehow he's going to pay for that!"

Marching to the facility chamber, she noticed the seal that had locked her in was nowhere in sight. He probably hid it, suspecting that she might lock him in for revenge, but that would be much too kind. She wanted at least a pound of flesh. She pressed the door opener but it was sealed from the inside this time. Knocking didn't get her any results either.

"Come on, Voyager," she shouted and gave the door another thump. "Open the door. It doesn't take you this long to change."

His deep voice came to her clearly from the other side. "No, but it takes this long to cool down."

"What do
you
have to cool down from?" she challenged in a voice much louder than necessary. "I was the one that got locked in.
I'm
the one whose whole life has been turned upside down.
I'm
the one that missed her one chance to get back home before her whole career goes down the tubes."

"Can't you ever think about anything more important than your career?" he yelled back.

"As a matter of fact, I can think of a lot of things more important than my career... when someone explains them to me, calmly and rationally. You just keep throwing me into situations where all I can think to do is fight back! You want me to cooperate with you and care about what you're doing, but half the time you're lying and the other half you're evading. You've got more secrets than the Sphinx."

"I tried your way and look how that turned out. I calmly and rationally explained why you had to stay on board. But you never had any intention of obeying my orders."