Haywire (9 page)

“
I cannot believe you just did that,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

Shawn chomped his teeth in several large bites, then swallowed and drained his coffee cup. After a healthy burp he said, “Don’t worry. I know how to act in front of company.”

“
Then perhaps one day I’ll be afforded the same polite treatment,” she replied as she took their dirty dishes and set them in the sink.

He wasn’t sure if she was seriously offended, and a small part of him worried that his behavior had undone some of the goodwill that had finally been built between them. When he opened his mouth to offer an apology, the doorbell chimed, cutting him off.

“
Can you get that please?” she asked as she turned off the coffee maker.

“
Sure.”

The front door was only a few meters from the kitchen. Next to it was a control panel. He pressed a button, activating a small monitor that showed the courtyard on the other side of the door. On it he saw a man holding a large, fat envelope in his hands. He was dressed like a courier, from his unflattering orange shorts to his yellow cap with a Jovian Deliveries patch sewn onto its front. The rest of the courtyard was lost in early morning shadows.

“
Yes?” Shawn said after pressing the intercom button.

The courier jumped, but then leaned forward until his face filled the camera lens. “Um, yes, I have a delivery for Dr. Alicia Campbell. It’s... uh... marked ‘Urgent.’ “

Shawn stepped back and looked toward the kitchen. “It’s a delivery guy. Says he’s got something for you.”

“
A delivery?” She came around the breakfast counter with a towel in her hand.

“
Yeah. Says it’s urgent.”

Lines appeared between his mother’s eyes as her brow knit together. “Does his ID check out?”

Shawn silently admonished himself for not already checking that and pressed the intercom button again. “Go ahead and put your ID on the scanner plate.”

The courier nodded and pulled his badge from his breast pocket. “Sure, doing it now.”

The security system scanned the man’s ID, took a picture of his face at the door, and then ran a check. A positive identification came back a moment later.

“
He’s legit, Mom.”

She nodded toward the door before turning back to the kitchen sink. “Okay. I can’t imagine what could be this urgent, but maybe it has something to do with today’s delivery.”

Shawn nodded, activated the intercom, and said, “Step back, man. I’m opening the door now.”

When the front door opened there was a sudden surge of footsteps. Three second later he was faced with four men, each one holding a gun pointed at his head. They were dressed in dark, nondescript clothes, their coats large enough to hide anything under. His mother screamed, but before she could make a move to do anything two of the guns swiveled toward her.

“
Non, non, non,” one of the men said. “There is no need for screaming.”

A finely shaped goatee rimmed the speaker’s mouth, which was set in a cheerful smile as he slipped his gun into a holster hidden by his coat. The man seemed capable of a great deal of violence, and he looked like he delighted in it.

“
Who are you?” his mother asked, her voice shaking. “What is this about?”

“
Mademoiselle is quite correct,” the man said. “Introductions are in order. My name is Captain Julien Laroux.” He bowed with a flourish. “And these are my men. As for what this is about, that is a longer conversation. For now all you need to know is that we are in need of entrance to your museum, Dr. Campbell.”

She blanched. “You’re… pirates? I… You… What could you possibly want with my museum? It’s full of relics, nothing more.”

“
Perhaps you do not know your museum as well as you think you do.” Laroux gave her a slow wink and tapped his right temple.

Shawn stepped backward to get closer to his mother, but the swiveling of guns toward his head stopped him. “The museum isn’t locked down or anything. If you want in, just buy a ticket like everyone else.”

Laroux turned his dark eyes on Shawn and smiled, but then his left hand lashed out in a backhanded slap that sent Shawn stumbling to his knees. The sharp crack of flesh on flesh filled the room. His mother screamed and lunged toward him, but a gun was shoved in her face before she could move more than two steps.

The pain that filled Shawn’s head was immense. He’d never been struck on the face like that before, and he wasn’t prepared for how disorienting it was. The living room swam in front of him, scorching heat burned across his jaw, and blood pooled in his mouth from where his teeth had cut into his cheek.

“
I am not in the habit of harming children,” Laroux said, rubbing the knuckles of his left hand, “but I can form the habit quickly enough if you continue to be a nuisance.”

“
He’ll be good,” his mother said, tears streaming down her face. “You hear me, Shawn? Be good. Do not antagonize them.”

The pirate captain chuckled. “Yes, Shawn. Be good. We are all very bad men, capable of very bad things.”

In spite of his fear, Shawn rose to his feet and squared his shoulders. He’d allowed himself to be bullied once. After that first humiliation he’d sworn to never let it happen again, so when the pirate sneered down at him it started a fire roaring in his chest. “I’m not afraid of you.”

Laroux stared at him for several long heartbeats, then snapped his fingers. One of his crew, a large battleship of a man with a neck thicker than Shawn’s thighs, reached behind them and pulled the delivery courier forward. The courier’s knees quaked so hard it was a wonder he didn’t collapse on the ground, and sweat poured down his face in thick drops.

“
P-p-p-please,” he said, the word having a hard time finding its way past his quivering lips. “Let me go. I don’t want to be involved in this. I have a wife and childr-”

A loud bang cut the courier’s words off, and a ragged hole blossomed like a dark rose on his forehead as he fell to the floor at the captain’s feet. Blood splattered across Shawn in a hot spray. His mother shrieked. Even some of the captain’s men seemed shocked at the sudden turn of events.

“
I hope that makes things clear, yes?” Laroux said, leaning his smoking gun on his right shoulder blade. “Now, Dr. Campbell, we need access to the lower levels of the museum, and you will take us there.”

“
I don’t–”

Laroux leveled his gun at Shawn’s head. Never in Shawn’s life had he ever seen something so large as the open end of the barrel less than a meter from his face. It pulled at him like a black hole, and the part of his mind that wasn’t quivering in fear wondered if it would swallow him up.

“
No!” his mother shouted. “Whatever you need, I’ll do it, just don’t hurt my son.”

Smiling, Laroux holstered his weapon. “That is better. No more talk of what we cannot do, no?”

His mother nodded, then shook her head. Tears glittered as they fell down her cheeks. “What exactly is it you want? If you tell me what you want, then I will know better how to get it for you.”

The pirate captain grunted and dug into a pocket of his coat. When a palm computer appeared he said, “We want access to Groesbeck’s lower laboratories.”

A puzzled look created deep wrinkles around his mother’s eyes. “Lower labs? There are no lower labs.”

“
As I said,” Laroux replied, tossing the small computer to her, “perhaps you do not know your museum as well as you think you do.”

She nearly dropped the computer before her shaking fingers could close around it. She looked down at it as though it was the most fascinating thing in the galaxy, but after a moment she shook her head. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary here.”

Laroux grinned. “Scroll down.”

Shawn’s eyes were riveted on his feet. In the glow of the overhead lights, the courier’s blood seemed too red to be real. The way the floor tile took on a burgundy stain in the wake of the man’s death made tears well up in his eyes. It was all his fault. The pirates had gained entrance to their home because of him, and one man had already died because of his carelessness. It was entirely too possible that he or his mother could be next. Vomit pressed against his throat, but he held it in. Barely.

“
Where did you get this?” his mother said. The shock in her voice drew Shawn’s eyes from the bloody floor to her. “This can’t be right.”

Laroux raised his hand and snapped again. A beefy pirate and his lanky crewmate went to the entranceway and pulled something in after them. Seconds later a new person was brought into the room, but this time it wasn’t a quivering courier.

His mother put her hand to her mouth and her eyes opened so wide they could have tumbled from her face. “Oh my god.”

In front of them Shawn saw what he thought at first was a towering knight in shining armor the color of cherry and honey beneath a blue summer sky, but a knight with a distinctly feminine shape. He’d never seen someone so tall in his life, and the fact that she was covered head to toe in metal only made the moment seem that much more bizarre. Part of him, though, felt like he knew her, had seen her before. He then noticed her arms where locked together from wrists to elbows by restraints so large they could have anchored a boat. That, coupled with her sagging shoulders and bowed head, made her seem like a statue of some warrior goddess brought low. It was then that he knew why he recognized her.

“
Mom,” he said, unable to look way from the figure before him, “is that what I think it is?”

“
I don’t believe it.” His mother’s voice was soft, breathless. “A Titan.”

She was as stunned as he was. Probably more so. He felt like someone was trying to pluck him from reality and toss him into a strange universe where the unexpected was commonplace and myths walked. The smell of blood was the only thing that kept him grounded.

“
Ah, I am glad we do not have to waste time explaining things,” Laroux said. “As you can see, our intelligence has been gained from the highest source. If she says there is a lower laboratory at the Groesbeck site on this moon, then I would believe her.”

Shawn was too busy staring at the Titan to really hear what the pirate said. He couldn’t see her face, but the lines in the plating of her armor, in the way it segmented and layered over itself, was both graceful and frightening. He could easily imagine her striding through a field of battle, asking for no quarter and giving none in return, decimating legions of enemies in a dance of death. But her sluggish stance robbed her of all her apparent power, made her less than she was. When he looked closer he noticed she was trembling. It was slight, but there all the same.

“
Is she okay?” he asked before he knew the question was coming out of his mouth.

Laroux shook his head. “Non. She is far from ‘okay.’ But that is of no consequence to you. All you and your mother need to concern yourselves with is getting us to the museum without raising alarms and attracting unwanted attention.”

“
Please,” a voice whispered, the word barely audible.

Shawn turned his head quickly and looked at the Titan. He marveled as her helmet melted and pulled away from her face like paint washing off in the rain. Beneath it was a strikingly attractive woman, her dark skin marred by scars across her cheeks and forehead. Her black hair was smooth and pulled back into the armor below her neck. She was beautiful, yet seemed incredibly sad.

“
Please,” she repeated. “Help-help me.”

The Titan fell to her knees and hung her head. The pirates around her jumped as though they expected something to happen, but all she did was kneel and shake. Shawn gasped when her armor rippled and jittered across her body.

“
Is that why we’re going to the museum?” his mother asked. “To help whatever is wrong with her?”

Laroux walked forward and grabbed his mother’s face. “I grow tired of being questioned. I had thought my display with the courier would have clarified any misunderstandings you might have about my intentions, but perhaps another example needs to be made, yes? Perhaps a more personal one?”

Strong arms grabbed Shawn from behind, capturing him before he knew what was happening. The pirate captain drew his gun and pointed it at his head. The weapon was as steady as a tree on a windless day.

“
No, please!” his mother cried out. “All right, no more questions. I’ll do as you ask.”

Laroux looked at her, then turned and looked at him. The dark glint in the pirate’s eyes was proof enough that he’d kill him without batting an eyelash. The fear that filled Shawn’s stomach was nearly overwhelming, and it didn’t leave when Laroux pulled his arm back and tucked the gun away.

“
Good. I hope you remember this conversation, Doctor, because we will not have it again. If you or your son proves to be a problem, then I will kill both of you, and then I will go to your museum and kill everyone in it, all to get what I want.”

His mother nodded, her wide eyes sweeping back and forth between her son and the pirate.

Seemingly satisfied that an accord had been struck, Laroux crossed his arms and smiled. “Now that that is settled, let us discuss the infiltration of your museum. I would prefer to do so quietly, if possible.”

Shawn looked at his mother. She seemed lost in thought and fear, but then she gave her head a small nod and looked up. “I can get you where you want to go. We’ll have to stop somewhere along the way though.”