Icarus (Interstellar Cargo Book 1) (22 page)

“Trust me, Dr. Dartmouth,” Emmerich began, “I don’t blame you for fearing me.” She grabbed Lin’s shoulder and turned her so she could cut the bindings. “But I’m not the monster you’ve made me out to be.”

Lin blushed and offered her appreciation in a voice barely above a whisper. She turned to Cole, her eyes falling upon his gloveless hands. “What did they do to you?”

I really need to find a new pair.
“Nothing. It’s just an old memory.” He walked over to the officers and nudged them with his bare foot. He eyed the shorter man’s boots, though he knew they would probably be too large. He sat down and began to untie the laces anyway.

“I’m glad to see your priorities are in order,” Emmerich scoffed tone. “We should be discussing what to do with them.”

“I can multitask. You try walking around barefoot on cold metal floors.” He yanked off the first boot and wrinkled his nose from the offensive odor. A pair of socks never seemed as necessary as they did at this moment.
Athlete’s foot, here I come!

“Don’t either of you find it peculiar Frederich Caliber personally organized this sudden transfer,” Lin asked, her attention focused on the flight console. “He has an army of underlings unto which he delegates his tasks. He’s nothing if not methodical. Why would he give his stamp of approval on so slipshod a course of action?”

Cole shrugged. “I could’ve asked this guy that very same thing if Inspector Testy here hadn’t intervened.” He ignored Emmerich’s one-finger salute. “My guess would be that Caliber didn’t have anything to do with us being transferred.” He met both their gazes in turn. “Are there any other members of your cabal I should know about?”

“Other than the traitor?” Emmerich asked, referring to Forester.

Cole tilted his head. “Technically, Lin and I are also traitors...to
your
cause, that is.”

She sighed and patted her rifle. “You have a death wish, Musgrave.”

“No,” Lin said, addressing his question. “There are just the three of us. Research kept the members of our group to a minimum.”

Cole finished tying his “new” boots and stood, trying not to think about the warm, moist feeling in-between his toes. “That you know of,” he said. He elaborated when Lin narrowed her eyes. “You, Emmerich...” He pointed to them both and thumbed behind himself, “and Forester were the three you knew of. Who knows how many other moles Research planted within this company to keep an eye on things.”

“Regardless,” Emmerich interrupted, annoyed, “even
if
we were being monitored without our knowledge, it’s not possible anyone would be able to infiltrate SolEx to initiate a transfer under Caliber’s name.”

“That is correct,” Lin said. “The SolEx security system utilizes a state-of-the-art nanobiotechnological CPU and is virtually impregnable. Upgrades are constant, and the AI is ever-learning to deter hackers. To override such a complex firewall is a monumental undertaking and would require directly accessing the mainframe and recoding the system. Such a task is impossible for humans, our feeble minds slow and predictable. It would take a superior mind—computer mind—to accomplish successful infiltration.

The trio’s eyes widened at the sound of CAIN’s androgynous voice through the ship’s loudspeakers. Cole was the first to recover from shock. “Hey, Cain.” He delivered a sloppy salute in no particular direction.

Cole couldn’t help but grin at the title. “This little gathering all
your
doing?”

He hacked SolEx!
“Glad to see you’re still with us,” he said, making his way toward the still-dark console, “but we’re all a bit confused as to your aim.”

Lin caught up to Cole and held up her hand to interject. “CAIN. How did you manage to come back online?”

“He seems...different,” Cole whispered. “Like he’s in control.”

Worry creased Lin’s brow. She placed her hand on the console, her fingers gliding across the smooth, metallic surface. “CAIN. Are you making your own decisions?”

Lin spun toward Cole, her eyes bulging. She grabbed both his arms and appeared on the verge of hysterics. He frowned. “You’re kinda freakin’ me out with those eyes, Doc.”

“Are the two of you done conspiring?” Emmerich asked. She was sitting on the backside of the unconscious officer. “They’re not going to sleep forever, and people are going to be asking questions soon. How long before they figure out a program duped an entire corporation?”

“She’s got a point,” Cole said to Lin, though she was staring off at nothing. “Yeah, keep doing that,” he said, freeing himself from her grip. He patted her on the head like a puppy and jogged back over to Emmerich.

“Any bright ideas, Captain?”

Cole raised his finger to answer, but no words fell from his lips. In actuality, he had no idea what was supposed to happen next. Common sense screamed that he to take the lift down, bolt from the ship, find the nearest foreman, and declare his innocence, minus the assault on two company officers. Despite his gut feeling about a bleak future, continuing any further down this current path would only make matters worse. Now that CAIN had come forward with its involvement, the status of his fate was still undecided. Perhaps there was a chance he would be spared the Debt Colony after all. If he saw things right.

The snapping of Emmerich’s fingers brought Cole back to reality. “Hey, I don’t need you going all mannequin on me too, Musgrave. Get it together.”

Cole gazed down at Emmerich, then at the assault rifle hanging from his grip. “I can’t help you.” The despair in his voice made him queasy.

CAIN said in response to Emmerich’s initial question.

Emmerich stood and nodded her approval. “Sounds good. Let’s get to work.” She slapped Cole on the shoulder and stepped past him. She slowed when he did not follow. “You got a problem?”

“Aside from the obvious?” He indicated the officers splayed out on the floor. “This has to stop, Emmerich. It’s gone too far.”

“Maybe for
you
it has.” She jabbed her index finger at him. “But as I see it, Dartmouth and I have no alternatives. We’re debtor fodder for certain.”

“And what do you think is going to happen after you roll said officers down the ramp and onto the bay? Are you going to put your faith in a glitchy AI program to fly you both to safety? Do you really think you’ll last more than a day on the run from Research, SolEx,
and
Terracom?”

Emmerich was unfazed. “Already distancing yourself from us?” She took a step closer to him, her expression intense—dangerous. “Do you honestly think you have any chance of salvaging your ‘career’ as an interstellar cargo pilot after what you did to them?” She pointed angrily toward the two officers.

“You’ll both be dead before the day’s out.” Cole set down the weapon.

Emmerich spat at Cole’s feet. “We’ll take our chances,
slave
. If we die, then at least we’ll die free.” She kicked the second rifle. “Have fun wasting away on Terracom 3. It’s where you belong.”

Cole turned to leave, forcing himself not to meet Lin’s pleading stare.

“First your mother; now us,” Emmerich said.

An inferno of hatred ignited Cole, and he rushed at Emmerich with every intention of murder. He came up short, however, when he found himself staring down the barrel of the assault rifle. He trembled with rage, searching for any sign she wouldn’t pull the trigger.

“Don’t think I won’t, because I will. It’ll be no less than you deserve.”

The calm in her voice was enough to bring Cole from his fury. He relaxed his white-knuckled fists and sighed. “You ignorant bitch. You might have served under my mother for a time, but you were oblivious to her true nature. If you’d seen through her heroic façade, you might’ve had a different view of her. She was a tyrant”

Emmerich stared through the weapon’s sight. “My view is impeccable.”

The ship lurched, the engines coming to life. An intense blue glow emblazoned the bridge console, casting everyone in an eerie, cold pall. Cole seized this distraction to reach for Emmerich’s pointed weapon. He grabbed the barrel and yanked hard, pulling himself toward her and out of harm’s way. His elbow slammed into her jaw, and she staggered, the rifle slipping from her grasp. Before she could recover, Cole drove his boot into her solar plexus, sending her reeling backward and falling atop the closest officer.

Emmerich cursed and was slow to stand up. When she managed to rise to a crouch, she looked up to stare down the same barrel. She sighed and remained seated.

“I’m glad you understand the severity of your situation,” Cole said, his trigger finger a hair’s-breath away from blowing open the back of Emmerich’s chest. “I should end you right here. It would be no less than
you
deserve.” He took a slow, steady couple of steps away from her.

Emmerich grinned. She raised her arm, and Cole fired. Lin gasped. Blood sprayed against the door of the lift. The heavy clank of metal against the floor barely registered above the din of the gunshot. Cole’s groan was deep and pained. He knew it was all over.

“
You shot me!
”

Emmerich was scurrying away from the writhing officer who had awakened during the argument. She glimpsed the plastol on the floor, the blood spatter, and the shoulder from which it had come. “Wh-what?”

Cole wished he could blame his regretful action on instinctive response, but his flaring temper and momentary paranoia had clouded his judgment. He saw a gun brandished, and he reacted accordingly. Only now did he understand how grave an error he had made.
I just shot an innocent man. I’ve lost my mind.

CAIN announced.

Cole’s head was abuzz with information overload. He had crossed a line from which he could never return. The moans of an officer, the glare of a terrorist, and the tears of genius...they bore into his soul. There was no way around it; he was a criminal who had made yet another powerful enemy. Terracom, SolEx, and the shadow of Research would all want him dead. It was all too much to process. He was at the eye of a galactic storm, being crushed by the weight of the unforgiving universe.

And it was here, on the verge of madness, that he finally found clarity.