Spy to Die For

Chapter 56

Shots. The entire cockpit warned her of them. Shots in the cargo bay. Someone was using a laser rifle on that level, and Skye knew that someone wasn’t Jack.

Skye stopped pacing and went to her chair. She wasn’t sure what she could do, but she wanted to be ready.

And then she realized there was one thing she could do. She knew where Heller was. She knew where he wasn’t.

And he wasn’t on board his ship.

She turned on the exterior program that separated objects from the Hawk. She scraped that ship off the side of the Hawk as if it had never been. Then she monitored it. If it spun uselessly away, no one was on board.

If it righted itself, then Heller had companions.

Because no one left an autopilot running if a ship was attached to another ship.

She swallowed, watching Heller’s ship spin away.

If it spun in the right direction, it would become Kordita’s problem. She sent out a message, though, warning about loose space debris in the area. That should protect some other ships.

Then Jack’s voice echoed in the cockpit.

“Shut off the environment on this level and vent the oxygen. Do it now.”

She hit the comm panel. “Jack! Jack!”

But he didn’t respond. And she cursed.

If she shut off the environmental control, she would kill him too.

She glanced at the red dot that was Jack, saw it was on the ladder going off that floor. On the floor, near the cargo bay, another red dot appeared.

Heller.

Shit. He was coming for Jack. No wonder Jack wanted the environmental controls off.

She sealed the level, hoping the seal wouldn’t impact Jack on the ladder. Then she shut off the environmental controls to the entire floor.

She wanted to close her eyes, but she didn’t. She had to see if Jack made it.

She had to see if he survived.

Chapter 57

“You son of a bitch!” Heller shouted. “I’m going to make sure that your death hurts.”

His voice echoed from the floor below. Jack kept climbing, slower than he wanted to. He tried pulling himself up two rungs at a time, his hands sore.

No sign that Skye had heard him. No sign that she had shut off the environmental controls.

Jack was trapped. Once Heller got to this part of the ship, he would shoot upward, and Jack would die. It would probably be painful.

And then Skye would die, and so would everyone nearby.

He tried to go faster. Maybe if he got to the next level, he could shoot down at Heller.

But Jack was a terrible shot, and Heller killed people for a living. Jack had only had one chance, and he had blown it.

He got to the next level, and pulled himself out of the engineering circle. Then he leaned over the edge, pistol pointed downward, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Heller hadn’t said anything for several seconds. And Jack couldn’t hear him moving below.

Jack finally rolled over, got up, and checked the security system. One red heat signature on the floor below him, and it wasn’t moving. In fact, the red was fading.

Was that possible? Was the heat fading away? Did it get that cold that fast in an area without oxygen?

For a guy who loved being in space, Jack was truly clueless about the deadliest parts of it.

He slammed his hand on the comm. “Skye?”

“Jack! Oh, my God, are you all right?”

“Yeah,” he said, although he hadn’t done an inventory. He could move. He could talk. That was enough. “Did you shut off the environmental controls on that floor?”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s sealed off.”

“And you vented the atmosphere?”

“Yes,” she said.

He let out a small sigh of relief. Then he said, “You have to scrape off the ship. Make sure no one else boards.”

“Already done,” she said.

“God, you’re marvelous,” he said, and meant it.

He glanced at the heat signature. It was so light as to be indistinguishable.

“Do you have a temperature reading from down there?” he asked.

“You don’t want to know,” she said.

“How long will it take him to die?”

“Not long,” she said. “And if you’re thinking of going back down, it won’t be pretty.”

“I have no choice but to go down,” he said. “There’s a bomb down there.”

Skye was silent for a moment. “I can help,” she said.

“You know that building a bomb is different from dismantling one,” Jack said.

“Yes, but at least I know what the components are,” she said.

She had a point. Jack let out a small sigh. Still, he didn’t want her down here.

“Tell you what,” he said, “I’ll turn everything on when I get there, and you can talk me through it.”

“Jack, it’s better if I come down,” she said.

“No,” he said. “You might have to open the cargo bay doors. It’ll be better to sweep me and that bomb into space than it would be to have it explode on the ship. I’ll hook everything back up.”

She was silent. He could tell she was thinking about it.

“Can’t I do that from below?” she asked after a moment.

“No,” he said, even though he had no idea if that were true. “Is he dead yet?”

“I don’t know,” she said, “I’m not watching it. I don’t like watching someone die without an atmosphere. It’s worse than drowning or suffocating. It’s the worst way to die.”

Jack knew that, but he was a bit stunned that Skye, who had told him she didn’t get grossed out by anything, was squeamish about this. Of course, anyone who had seen someone die in space without oxygen or a pressurized cabin never wanted to see that again.

“But,” Skye said into Jack’s silence, “even if Heller isn’t dead, he won’t be in any shape to come after you.”

No kidding. And that would be even worse. Parts of Heller would have already been so badly damaged that he probably couldn’t move.

Jack didn’t want to think about it either, but he had to.

“All right,” Jack said. “Turn the environmental controls back on. I’m going in.”