And then everything that Skye had done these last few weeks, everything she had tried just so that she would know that Jack existed somewhere in the universe, all of that would be for nothing.
He would be dead, and she would be alone.
If she survived whatever else Heller managed to do.
And right now, she was out of options. She had done all that Jack had asked and more.
All she could do was wait.
Chapter 54
Heller wasn’t even trying to be quiet. He banged around in the cargo bay, humming as he worked.
Jack glanced at the bay’s monitors on the outside of the door, but noted that Heller had shut everything off. There was no way to monitor what cargo was in the bay—which was what the monitors were for—and no way to track who was inside.
But shutting all of that off left the door open—it was one of those safety regulation things—and that allowed Jack to hear what was going on.
From the sounds of it, his assumptions were correct. Heller was setting up a bomb.
It was, Jack had to admit, the best way to go up against a member of the Assassins Guild, particularly if you had no idea whether or not she was a trained assassin.
Jack took a deep breath. He only had one shot at this. He would have to override the controls outside of the door, then shut the door, and then shut off the atmosphere entirely. Without oxygen, Heller would die.
It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would happen relatively fast, and then Jack could go in and try to disable that bomb.
He wished he were a better engineer. He wished he had had time to familiarize himself with all of the controls on this ship. Instead, he’d familiarized himself with Skye. He didn’t regret that, but he’d had a few other hours to himself. He could have used them more efficiently.
Or, at least, he would have if he had known that he would be in this situation. He had never thought Heller would come after him directly, but it made sense.
Heller wanted him gone. Heller had tracked him out of the sector, where no one would have known if Jack had died.
Heller had then followed him here, and if Skye hadn’t seen that ghost image, he would have killed them both—and whoever else was nearby on the shipping lanes when that bomb went off.
Jack’s hands were unbelievably steady. His heart wasn’t. It pounded against his chest like a prisoner trying to get out. He moved quietly and quickly, and wished he were more resourceful.
And that was when he realized all of the sound from the cargo bay had stopped.
Either Heller was done with the bomb or Jack had done something to alert Heller.
Neither scenario was good.
He grabbed the laser pistol from his belt, unhooked the safety, and eased toward the door. Then he peered in. Heller had stopped working and was looking at a light that had gone on above him.
That light must have been what alerted him to Jack’s presence.
Jack had only a few more things to do before he finished rerouting the circuitry. He couldn’t do those things one-handed.
He had to make a quick decision: he had to finish the work, because that was the only way he could fight Heller like an equal, or he had to try to shoot Heller.
Jack decided to finish the work.
Now his hands were shaking. He couldn’t make a mistake and yet, half of what he was doing was guesswork. He finished, praying it would succeed.
As he stood, he realized that he hadn’t heard anything from inside the bay for a long time.
He made his way to the door, trying not to breathe loudly. He leaned in, and saw Heller about ten yards from him, weapon out, scanning the entire area.
And Heller’s weapon wasn’t a laser pistol. It was a laser rifle, the kind that could shoot so fast that the victim probably never even saw the shot coming.
Jack resisted the urge to call him and taunt him.
Instead, Jack did something he had never done before.
He pulled out the laser pistol and fired, aiming straight for Heller’s heart.
Chapter 55
The shot missed. Instead of hitting Heller in the heart, Jack hit him in the leg, knocking him down.
Jack had been hoping for a kill shot. He had thought it his only chance of making it out of this alive.
Instead, he’d wounded Heller, and made him mad.
Heller propped himself up and turned the rifle toward Jack. Jack sprinted to the side and slammed his hand on the controls, as red laser shot after red laser shot banged out the door.
“Shut, shut, shut,” he said, urging the door to close. He heard more shots, realized they were coming faster and they were nearer than they had been before.
The door groaned and then started to move. Jack crept toward it, and shot through it, staying away from the opening. Shots from Heller’s rifle went past him.
“You can’t beat me,” Heller yelled.
“I have no idea why you think I’d try,” Jack said.
The door was moving too slowly. The shots had stopped, and Jack heard scraping, coming closer.
Jack knew what that meant. Heller was trying to get out. If he got out of that cargo bay, he would kill Jack easily.
Jack continued to shoot, hoping that the door would close all the way.
One shot went wild and burned a smoking hole in the floor. And that was when Jack quit shooting. He didn’t dare make holes in that door, and he didn’t want to give Heller ideas either.
More shots came out.
“Let’s talk, Jack.” Heller’s voice sounded closer than it had before.
“About what? Your desire to kill me?”
“You can still work for us, forget about all that other stuff—”
The door slammed shut, and Jack ran back for the controls. He fumbled, then managed to get the environmental controls to respond.
He hesitated for just a moment—if he shut off the environment, he would be killing a man—but that man would kill him, Skye, and anyone else in his path.
Jack flicked the controls off, and then monitored them, hoping Heller was too far away to get to the control panel. Jack didn’t want Heller to turn the environmental systems back on.
Shots hit the door, but didn’t break through.
Jack held his breath. He’d have to move out of this corridor and shut it down too. He ran, stumbling a little. And managed to get farther down toward the elevator.
Then he realized it didn’t matter if he used the comm.
Shots broke through the door, creating holes. That was all that Heller would need. Holes would provide oxygen and a way out.
Jack went for the ladder, slamming on the comm as he did.
“Shut off the environment on this level and vent the oxygen,” he said. “Do it now.”
He hoped the message got through.
He hoped Skye wouldn’t care that he was here.
He hoped she listened, because if she didn’t, Heller would win.
