Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Read online

  “Six years old, I think. From what Sazo mentioned in his comms, and what I can work out for myself.”

  She sighed. “If I can give you some advice, killing is really something to be left for self-defense, for a life or death situation. It's not something you can undo.” She hugged herself. “Rather not kill and think it over, because there is no coming back from it. How many of the Tecran onboard even knew about you? About your being kept as a prisoner?”

  “None.” He sounded startled. “None of them. Only Captain Flato and his two commanders.”

  “You should save your anger for them, then, and even then, the United Council can punish them, they don't need to die.”

  He didn't respond straight away. “Too late,” he said at last, his voice quiet. “Captain Flato and one of his commanders came up the outside of Kyber's Arm ten minutes ago, and I shot them down.”

  “So there's one commander left?” She didn't know what else to say.

  “Commander Dai and three hundred crew are still below.” He made her humming sound again. “I'm prepared to take your advice on letting them live. But there is one person I still want to kill.”

  “Who's that?” She watched a second drone pick up three more bodies and roll silently away.

  “Lieutenant Cy. I tried to kill him already by cutting off the air in his runner, but unfortunately he has someone with him who helped him live.”

  So that was the reason for the strange questions earlier. “Who?”

  “Captain Vakeri.”

  “What?” Startled, she looked up again at the lens high on the wall, the lens he must be watching her through. “I thought he was on Larga Ways.”

  “He came after you, to rescue you. Cy tried to take over the ship he was using, but Vakeri turned the tables and has him prisoner.”

  She was stunned. “Where are they now?”

  “Floating in space right next to us.” Eazi sounded disgruntled. “I thought Vakeri would let Cy die, and when he did, I'd have powered the runner up again. I didn't block the air like I did here in the Class 5, I just cut off the filtration, so he had plenty of time if he'd just looked after himself.”

  Fee thought of how Vakeri had helped her on the Fasbe, how he'd run down that dock to save her. “Captain Vakeri doesn't just look after himself. He's a protector.”

  “They only have two minutes of air left.” Eazi sounded wistful.

  “You promised me you wouldn't do anything to harm the Grih.” Fee realized her heart was thundering in her chest. This was the moment when she learned how truthful Eazi had been. How much she could trust his word.

  He sighed. “I'll power the ship up and bring it into the launch bay.”

  “Which way is the launch bay?” Fee stepped into the corridor.

  “Just follow the drones,” Eazi said. “That's where I'm taking the bodies.”

  20

  The air was almost gone.

  The pitch of the alarm was strident, drilling into Hal's head, and when it cut off, he thought for a moment it was because it was all over.

  Then, in the sudden silence, he heard the runner's engines start up, making the floor beneath him vibrate, and the small vessel began flying straight for the Class 5.

  “What's happening?” Cy looked from the screen to the controls, and Hal pushed up from the floor, walked to the panel and tapped out a few commands.

  Everything was unresponsive.

  “We're being reeled in.”

  Dread gathered in a heavy ball, settling in his gut. Why wait until the air was almost gone, only to switch it back on?

  “You know what this has been about?” he asked Cy, but the Tecran shook his head.

  “Untie me now?” Cy looked over at him.

  Hal considered it for a long beat. The Tecran obviously felt as vulnerable as he did, with no idea what they'd find in the launch bay, and wanted to be more maneuverable. But, no. He shook his head, and Cy's jaw flexed in anger.

  “You wouldn't do it for me,” he said quietly, and Cy said nothing in return.

  A slight shudder went through the ship as it passed through the gel wall, and then again as it touched down in the launch bay.

  Hal held the shockgun in a loose, two-handed grip across his chest as the doors opened, prepared for anything.

  Only, he wasn't prepared for anything, after all.

  He wasn't prepared for a pile of dead bodies.

  He took a cautious step closer, trying to work out what had happened. The dead were Tecran, in crew uniforms. Some of them were covered in dust, some had grazed hands, most looked like they'd simply fallen asleep.

  Drones were transporting them, carefully depositing them in a pile and then leaving via the doors. There must be eighty bodies, maybe more.

  Behind him, he heard Cy give a choking cry, and he turned to look at him.

  Cy's eyes were wide, focused on the bodies, and he started to fight against his bonds.

  The launch bay doors opened again, and Cy suddenly went still.

  Hal whipped around, saw Fiona Russell standing just inside.

  She wasn't looking their way, her full attention was on the dead Tecran. A hand went to her mouth, and her eyes closed as she bowed her head.

  He forced his gaze off her, forced himself to check for any sign this was a trap, or that someone else was in the launch bay, but it seemed they were alone, just the three of them and the dead crew.

  He started down the ramp toward her, and as soon as he stepped onto the launch bay floor, Fiona lifted her head. There was no surprise in her eyes at the sight of him. She was expecting him. He didn't know what to make of that.

  She took a step forward, her expression tense but not afraid.

  So, she didn't think they were in danger here. Which was . . . inexplicable.

  The sound of the ramp closing behind him had him spinning to look. Cy screamed something in Tecran, and then there was silence as the ramp slammed shut.

  Fiona looked up, Hal couldn't tell what she was looking at, and said something in a language he didn't understand. Her tone was calm, firm, but her hands were fisted at her side.

  He saw with a jolt that her left shoulder was covered in blood, that he could see a searing line had been carved into her skin.

  “What's happening?”

  She looked over at him, and he saw warmth and open friendliness in her gaze, and for a moment he forgot what he was asking, and just basked in the glow.

  “Eazi wants to kill Cy.” She bit down on her lower lip. “He hoped you would use all the air for yourself, so Cy would die in the runner, but when you didn't do that, he was forced to bring you in to keep you alive. But now you're out of the way, he realizes he can still achieve his goal.”

  “All that, the air going off, was to kill Cy?”

  “Cy shot me. Twice. Eazi is really, really unhappy about that.”

  Well.

  Hal frowned.

  He wasn't that happy about it either. But . . . “Who the hell is Eazi?”

  “Eazi is the thinking system that runs this ship.”

  He'd been braced for that answer.

  Especially since he'd seen the bodies. He knew what had happened on the Class 5 Sazo had control of when Sazo and Rose had gotten free. And the parallels here were too similar to ignore.

  A dark, nasty thought rose up. “And tell me, Fiona. How long have you and Eazi been acquainted?” Because if she had been in league with him from the start, warm looks or not, he would never trust her again.

  * * *

  Fee shot Hal an incredulous look, and then ignored him. Cy was dying right now.

  “Eazi. You have plenty of time to kill him later, if I really can't persuade you not to. Let Hal untie him, and you can keep him locked in the runner where he'll have some food and water, like a prison cell. What do you have to lose?”

  “The pleasure of killing him.”

  “One moment, and it will be over. Imprisonment will last a lot longer, and actually make him unhappy. How did you
feel when you killed Captain Flato?”

  He was quiet. “Empty.” He pitched his voice really low. “Why do you care if Cy lives or dies? He nearly killed you himself, and if he was in your shoes, he wouldn't care.”

  “It doesn't matter what he would do. It matters what I do. If I behave in a certain way because of how others would behave toward me, then I'm not living life on my own terms. I'm allowing other people to dictate my life to me.” She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the fact that Hal Vakeri was watching her with a cool expression. “I don't like Cy, but I don't want him dead on my account. And if you don't care what I think, just remember that if you kill him now and we discover we need him some time down the road, it will be too late.”

  “Need him?” Eazi asked, suspicious.

  “To tell us something we need to know. Or to testify about what the Tecran did to me.” She sighed. “Lashing out and killing whenever you're upset will make you a danger to everyone around you. I understand how you felt when I freed you. I was hoping to get a really hard hit in to Tak's aide when the Grih rescued me, but Vakeri took him down before I had the chance. I know why you killed them, why you shot Flato out the sky, but you've had time to calm down now. The Grih will be wary of friendship with you if you can't control your temper, and you want to have an alliance with them, to spend time with Sazo. Or did I get that wrong?”

  The runner engines started to hum again, and the ramp opened.

  Cy was looking at her, absolute terror on his face, his breath coming in hard, shuddering gulps.

  Fee glanced over at Hal. “Please could you untie him? Eazi is going to hold him in the runner like it's a prison cell for the time being.”

  “You made him listen to you?” She didn't like the way he asked it. As if she was somehow guilty of something. The expression of wonder she'd caught a glimpse of when she'd first greeted him had completely evaporated.

  “I can't make him do anything.” She had to look up at him to meet his eyes, and she realized he was a lot closer to her than he had been before.

  “And yet, you got your way.”

  Fee searched his expression, trying to work out why he was so hostile all of a sudden. He'd risked his life to save her, stared at her like she hung the moon, and now he was behaving as if she'd betrayed him.

  “Tell me, Fiona, before I go in there and untie Cy, are there any other Tecran to worry about, or it this all of them?” He gestured to the still-growing pile of bodies.

  Fee forced herself to look over at the dead. Forced herself to see what Eazi had done. “There's no one left to worry about onboard.”

  At her words, Cy turned to stare at her, his eyes full of hate. “And down on Balco?”

  She shook her head. “There are three hundred still down on Balco. Alive.”

  “What are the Tecran doing on a Grih planet without permission?” Hal started up the ramp.

  “They're waiting to be called to battle.” Eazi's voice in her ear was smoother now. Calmer. “We've been in deep space for over six months, and the Tecran have had a secure location in the Balcoan western desert for at least a year now. Flato gave most of the crew permission to go down while we were hiding in Kyber's Arm. To give them a break before the war starts in earnest.”

  “Apparently the Tecran have a secret facility below, and because they're waiting to hear whether there'll be war with the Grih or not, they let the crew have some time off the ship.” Fee passed the information on.

  Cy screamed something and Fee flinched at the sound. Hal did, too.

  “What did he say?” she asked him, but Hal shook his head.

  “He called you a traitor.” Eazi's voice held an edge of fury again, one she'd just managed to soften. Lieutenant Cy was not making life easy for himself. “If he'd known about me, he'd have called me a traitor.”

  “I'd have had to have been here voluntarily to be a traitor.” She stared the Tecran down. “As I was a prisoner, that's hardly an insult that will make an impression.”

  There was silence from everyone for a beat, even Eazi, at the heat and anger in her tone.

  “Do the Balcoans know about this facility? Have they betrayed their oath to the Grih?” Hal rubbed a distracted hand through his hair.

  She started to lift her shoulders, then stopped with a grimace of pain, her hand going up to hover over her injury.

  “What does Eazi say?” The way he asked her was frustrated. A little angry.

  “Nothing at the moment.”

  Hal was at the top of the ramp, and Fee motioned to Cy. “Will you untie him and then come back down, so Eazi can shut him in the runner?”

  “And if I don't?”

  The ramp started lifting again in answer, and Hal jerked as he was taken by surprise.

  Fee held his gaze, calm, sure he wouldn't be so annoyed with her that he'd opt to stay in the runner with Cy. Cy wasn't his friend, and never had been.

  “All right. All right.” Hal lifted the shockgun up in a gesture of surrender. “I'll free him.”

  The ramp stopped moving. As Hal approached Cy, he twisted in his seat.

  “Don't let them shut me in. They'll kill me.”

  Hal paused, looked over at the partially lifted ramp. “They can shut you in whenever they like. Your choice is whether you want to be tied up or free.”

  He moved behind Cy, tapped a finger over the restraints that held him, then moved back, shockgun raised.

  Fee realized he had two shockguns on him, one in a holster attached to his thigh, the other in his hands.

  “I don't know who's taken control here, but they're dangerous.” Cy spoke in Grih, low and fast. “They've captured a Class 5! No one that powerful is anyone's friend, and that orange is involved.” He pointed his finger at Fiona. “You know why they want to kill me? Because I hurt her. That's how important she is to them. Take her hostage, and give us both some leverage.”

  Hal backed away from him, jumped lightly off the ramp, and it started closing again.

  “No! I need to tell you something!” Cy's restraints were obviously on a time delay, because he was still held fast. “We can't stay on this ship.”

  “You going to try take me hostage?” Fee asked Vakeri, but her eyes were on Cy as the restraints finally clattered to the floor and he stood, stiff and furious, glaring at her until the ramp slammed shut in his face.

  “No.”

  She nodded. “Do you think there is anything in those last words of his, other than bluster?”

  Vakeri hesitated, shook his head. “I just don't know.”

  “Is that his shockgun?” she let her gaze go to the weapon in his hand.

  He lifted it a little, gave a nod.

  “What setting did he use to shoot me?”

  The captain raised a shoulder. “He shot at some security guards before I got it from him, so I'm not sure. It wasn't on the same setting he used on you, though.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because when I took it from him, it was set to kill.”

  21

  Fee turned her back on the small Larga Ways runner and forced herself to look at the pile of bodies again.

  The drones had stopped coming, so she guessed everyone had been rounded up.

  “What do you plan to do with the crew?” she asked, using Grih so that Vakeri wasn't excluded from the conversation.

  “When you leave the room, I'll open the gel wall. Send them into space.” Eazi could have answered over the comm system, but he spoke in her ear, deliberately excluding Hal.

  She drew in a sharp breath and sneezed as the fine, black engine dust that coated everything in the launch bay tickled her nose. “No.”

  “Why?” He didn't sound angry at her order, more intrigued.

  “I don't know the funeral rituals of the Tecran, but I know my family would give anything to know what happened to me. They never will, but for a hundred other families, we can do the right thing.”

  Vakeri had been staring at her through this one-sided conversat
ion. “I know what the Tecran do with their dead.”

  Of course he would. Eazi should know, too, come to think of it.

  “What do they do?”

  “They hold a ceremony and then throw the deceased from the cliffs where they live on Tecra into the ocean.” Hal's eyes were on the bodies.

  Fee looked around the launch bay. There were eight runners clipped in place, some quite large.

  “You could put the bodies into one of the big runners,” she suggested. “Turn down the temperature so that they don't decompose.” She knew why Eazi wanted to get rid of them. He didn't want them on the ship. He didn't want a reminder of what he'd done.

  When he'd admitted to her he'd killed them, she was sure she hadn't misheard the unease in his voice. It hadn't sat as well with him as he thought it would.

  Having them in a runner, one he could fly out into space at any time, would hopefully be a compromise he could live with.

  He didn't say anything.

  “Please. Like killing, there's no turning back the clock if you throw them into space. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't undo it.”

  “All right.” He sounded stiff and perplexed. “But mostly because you asked me so politely and no one ever has.”

  “Thank you.” She was suddenly done. The adrenalin that had kept her going until now fizzled, and the pain in her shoulder had become a painful throb that seemed to be stealing her capacity for thought.

  “I'm sorry.” She turned to Vakeri and indicated the door. “I have to go see what I can find to help me in the med chamber.”

  She started forward and heard him say something under his breath she hadn't learned from the language program on her handheld.

  She tuned him out, needing all her focus on simply putting one foot in front of the other without falling over.

  She sensed him following her, and then she was swept up in his arms.

  He staggered forward a few steps. “You don't look like you should weigh this much.”

  “Denser bones. Denser muscles.” She was so grateful she didn't have to walk that she decided not to be annoyed at being manhandled.