Avalon

CHAPTER 30

NO ONE SPOKE AS THEY CRAWLED THROUGH THE HATCH. To lessen the risk of detection, they would maintain comm silence unless absolutely necessary this close to the ship.

The Northern Dancer’s hatch was a good deal larger than the Citation’s, and the four of them fit inside more comfortably. Sierra activated the gravity drive, and they peeled out of their suits, which were far too cumbersome and noisy to go crawling through the ventilation shafts.

Sierra retrieved the palm-sized tablet from her jacket pocket and switched it on. The tablet contained detailed schematics of the C-93. She examined them a moment, then motioned at Shady and pointed at an area low to the floor on the left side. Shady stepped forward, pulling out the plasinum cutter he’d carried over. The cutter was of the illegal variety, designed to penetrate the plasinum walls of most spaceships. Hammer kept one stocked on all of his ships.

Moments later, Sierra slipped through the hole Shady had made. Jeth followed behind her, with Dax coming after him and Shady in the rear. They emerged in a blower duct, the air moving past them hot enough to burn and reeking of that terrible chemical stench of treated spaceship air. Sierra led the way, scooting along on her belly with impressive speed. Sweat stung Jeth’s eyes and dripped from his nose as he crawled after her. Behind him he could hear the others’ labored breathing. It’ll be a miracle if no one hears us.

They stopped twice while Sierra checked the tablet. She made several turns, some right, some left. As they went they passed metal grates that looked down into various rooms. Whenever one of the rooms was occupied, Sierra would slow down to keep from drawing notice.

Eventually the duct dead-ended into a main heating shaft that seemed to run the entire height of the ship. Jeth palmed sweat from his face as he stared at the opening, wishing they would be moving upward, away from the furnaces, instead of downward toward L Deck.

Sierra rolled onto her back, sliding her head out of the duct and into the shaft. She leaned to the right, grabbed the rails of the maintenance ladder, and hoisted herself out. Then she started downward. Jeth followed, trying not to pant as he descended.

Sierra continued on at the same relentless pace. A faint, eerie light from the furnaces below lit the shaft, casting orange shadows. Jeth counted the ducts they passed, knowing that each one represented a deck. He was up to five by the time Sierra finally moved into one of them.

After another long crawl through more ducts, Sierra at last came to a stop. She double-checked the tablet, and then pointed at an area of the shaft in between her and Jeth. Jeth took the cutter from Shady and started making another hole. The machine itself was virtually silent, but what little noise there was seemed as loud as gunfire in the small space. Jeth half expected an entire brigade of ITA soldiers to be waiting below them as he pulled off the cover to the hole he’d made. The loud grind of machinery rose up to greet them.

Jeth moved aside, letting Sierra go first. She lowered herself through the hole and then swung outward, dropping down safely on a pile of discarded insulation. Jeth followed after her and stepped out of the way for Dax and Shady.

He looked around. They were in the recycling center where all the reusable shipboard waste was sent for reprocessing. It smelled like a combination of melted plasinum and rotting meat being cooked on a barbecue. More than a dozen giant bins filled the place, each one centered beneath a large chute.

“The brig is to the left of this door, one corridor over,” Sierra said, pointing at the only exit. “There’s no way to get into the brig through the ventilation system without triggering the alarms. They’ve got the place rigged with both electronic and bio sensors. There probably won’t be any guards in the corridor, but there will be at the entrance to the brig around the corner. Two is standard, but I can’t guarantee that’s all there will be. Either way, we’ve got to take them out before they hit the alarm.”

Tricky, Jeth thought. But doable. He was already running through scenarios, drawing on the many jobs he’d pulled with the Shades.

“We’ll need to do it quiet like,” Dax said, and he withdrew a Luke 357 from his shoulder holster. It was outfitted with a silencer.

Jeth swallowed. He didn’t like the idea of killing, ITA soldiers or not.

“No killing,” Sierra said, her voice firm. “Enough people have died because of Renford.”

Dax rolled his eyes. “They don’t make silencers for stunners, sweetheart.”

“I don’t care,” Sierra said.

“Oh, this is just great,” said Shady. “You spent all that time planning how to get us in here and nobody bothered to think about how we’re gonna take out the bad guys?”

A flush blossomed in Sierra’s cheeks.

“Normally,” said Dax, his nostrils flaring, “it doesn’t require any planning. You just take them out the old-fashioned way.”

“I said no.” Sierra’s face was completely red now, but Jeth could tell she wasn’t going to back down.

“I’m with her,” Jeth said. “We shouldn’t kill unless we have to.”

“Okay, Captain,” Dax said, his tone dry. “Then how do you suggest we get in to rescue your sister?”

Jeth looked around, searching for an answer. He spotted a row of safety suits hanging on the far wall behind Dax. They were the kind that a maintenance worker might put on when cleaning up something nasty or dangerous. An idea unfurled in his mind. Sierra wasn’t going to like it, but he was pretty sure it would work.

“Let me see the schematics,” Jeth said, holding out his hand to Sierra. She gave him the tablet. He studied it for a couple of moments, then handed it back. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.”

Five minutes later, Jeth and Sierra stepped out of the room into the corridor beyond, both of them wearing safety suits. When Jeth saw the corridor was empty, he waved at Dax and Shady to come out. They emerged, both in suits too, but with guns drawn.

Sierra fingered the collar of her suit. “Are you sure this will work?”

Jeth smacked his lips. “Yep, we need them to think we belong on this ship just long enough to get the drop on them.”

She frowned, still unconvinced.

Jeth smirked, the expression at odds with the nervous energy pulsing through him. “Celeste and I pull this con all the time. Trust me. It’ll work.”

He didn’t wait for a response but headed left down the corridor toward an adjacent hallway. He stopped just before the turn into the brig corridor. He sensed Sierra standing behind him. If she was unhappy about the next part of the plan, she hadn’t complained about it so far, which he was grateful for. Truth be told, he wasn’t thrilled with what was coming next either, but it was the only way to take down the guards without killing them.

Dax and Shady got in position, one on each side of the corridor and as close to the edge as possible without being seen.

Jeth looked at Sierra. “Are you ready?”

She nodded, blinking nervously.

He squelched his own nervousness. “Make it look good.”

“You too.”

Jeth grinned with more bravado than he truly felt. “Always do.”

He stepped toward her, cupping her face with both hands as he leaned down to kiss her. At the same time, he pushed her back into the other corridor, assuming the aggressive role that Celeste normally took. To his surprise, kissing her wasn’t difficult. He hadn’t forgotten the last time they’d done this. It had been pretty wonderful up until she’d shot him.

Sierra resisted him a moment, her body as rigid as metal and her mouth like velvet-covered stone. Jeth’s heartbeat doubled in alarm. This isn’t going to work.

But a second later, she began to kiss him back. Her lips slid open against his, and he breathed her in, savoring the sweet scent and taste of her. Her body softened as she wrapped her arms around his waist. A sudden swell of desire, stronger than any he remembered, rose up in Jeth, muddling his thoughts. He dropped his hands from Sierra’s face and gripped her hips, pulling her even closer. She leaned into him in response, head tilting farther back.

“What are you doing down there?” a voice shouted at them.

Jeth ignored it, unable to open his eyes, even to survey how many of them there were. For the moment, he didn’t care. It was as if his body had risen up in mutiny against his brain.

Sierra whispered against his lips, “Two. Coming this way.”

He recaptured her mouth in answer. He didn’t have to worry about the ITA soldiers. They were someone else’s concern. The soldiers were shouting at them, but Jeth couldn’t make out what they were saying.

And it didn’t matter. The moment the two soldiers reached them, Dax and Shady stepped around the corner and bashed them in the head with the butts of their guns.

Sierra pulled away from Jeth, and he almost forgot to let go. The moment there was distance between them, he came back to his senses.

“Go get us through the door,” he said, risking a look at Sierra. Her face was flushed and her lips swollen. He looked away.

Sierra trotted past him down the short corridor to the security station in front of a sealed door. Jeth helped the other two drag the soldiers toward it, while Sierra worked on overriding the locks.

Pulling off the safety suit, Jeth stepped behind the security station and examined the control panel. Several monitors showed a live feed of the inside of the brig. All the cells were empty except for L-11. He saw Lizzie, sitting on the bench in the back, her knees drawn up to her chest. He couldn’t see her face, which was buried in her arms, but he thought her body was shaking from sobs.

A fierce, protective anger surged through Jeth. If they’ve hurt her . . .

With an effort, he looked away from Lizzie’s feed to the only other screen with activity.

“There’s just the one guard,” Jeth said, seeing the man in the top right monitor. He clearly had no idea what was going on outside the door he was guarding. Jeth guessed he should’ve been watching the monitor beside him instead of playing a video game on a handheld. If he had been, he would’ve noticed the absence of the other guards.

“I saw,” Sierra said. “We take him out the same way.” She yanked the decryption card out of the door’s access panel as it clicked open.

Dax charged through the door first, dispensing the guard on the other side in moments. He grabbed the man by the arms and dragged him into the nearest cell. Jeth and Shady pulled the other two soldiers through the door and into the cell as well.

“Somebody needs to stay out here, to let us out again,” Sierra said. “The door might set off an alarm if it’s open too long.”

“Right,” said Dax. “I’ll stay here. You three go get Lizzie.” Dax stepped back into the outer corridor without waiting for a reply and then shut the door behind him.

Sierra was already charging down the corridor toward L-11. Jeth turned and followed after her.

“Stay there, Shady, and back up Dax,” Jeth called over his shoulder.

“Okay, but hurry up. I don’t like just hanging around. Feel like a big fat target.”

Jeth ignored him and hurried to catch up with Sierra. The corridor was narrow and brightly lit, like a hospital. None of the cells had windows or bars but were solid, barren little rooms, the kind of place that would drive a person mad if they were locked in it too long, Jeth thought.

Sierra halted outside L-11 and jammed the decryption card into the access panel. Jeth counted off the seconds, hoping it would work again. A click sounded a moment later, and the door slid open. Sierra stepped into the cell.

Lucky again, Jeth thought as he came in after her. He supposed Lizzie had either been wrong about decryption cards or the one Sierra was using was a top-of-the-line model worth as much as a starship.

This is too easy.

But Jeth dismissed the concern as he saw Lizzie’s tearstained face looking up at him. Her mouth fell open in shock, and she leaped up. He heard the sound of the door sliding closed behind him, but he didn’t panic. It was just a safety feature.

“Are you all right?” Jeth said.

“I’m fine. Just ready to get out of here.”

“Let’s go, then,” said Sierra. She slid the decryption card into the access panel. A moment later the words ACCESS DENIED flashed on the panel’s tiny screen.

“What the hell?” Jeth said.

Sierra pulled the card out, then jammed it in again. Another failure message appeared. “No,” Sierra said through clenched teeth. “It can’t be.” She tried the card a third time, and the locks at last disengaged.

Jeth let out the breath he’d been holding and charged through the door, victory like a balloon swelling inside his chest.

He froze just beyond the doorway. More than a dozen guards were waiting in the corridor, guns drawn and aimed at him.

“Put your weapons on the floor,” the nearest one said.

Jeth’s head spun. How did this happen? They’d been so careful, made no mistakes.

Then the explanation struck him full force. Dax stood among the soldiers, and not as a captive. He stepped forward as Jeth spotted him.

“You betrayed us,” Jeth said. He couldn’t believe it. Dax had seemed so genuine, his story so true and believable. So much like my own.

Dax nodded, his expression impossible to read. “Hammer just cut a deal with Renford. And it’s like I said, Golden Boy: Nobody outruns Hammer. Not even you.”