Spy to Die For

Chapter 58

It took longer than Jack expected to get back down to the cargo area. The ship wouldn’t allow him access until the environment was human-friendly. That meant oxygen at the proper mix, and temperature somewhere above freezing.

He could feel the clock ticking with each wasted moment. He had no idea what was going on with that bomb, and he worried that it was ready to blow.

Finally, the ship let him into the floor below. When he reached it, he was stunned to see ice on the floor and the walls. The ice was slick and starting to melt, but he had to be careful.

Apparently, he and Skye had had the humidity higher than usual in the ship, and the moisture had become ice as the air leached out of this part of the ship.

He came across the rifle first. It had slid away from Heller’s body. The body itself was gruesome. He was glad that Skye didn’t see it. He hoped she never would.

He wasn’t sure he would ever forget it.

He made his way—gingerly—to the open door to the cargo bay. He stepped inside and went to the interior controls first, turning the security video feed back on.

“Got me?” he asked.

Skye’s voice floated around him. “Yes. Are you all right?”

He wasn’t about to assess his feelings at the moment. “I think so,” he said. “Can you see the bomb?”

“No,” she said, “but there’s equipment on the floor about a dozen feet to your left.”

He walked over there, carefully again, and saw it. The bomb was large, hanging off one of the empty cargo containers, right in the center of the room. He couldn’t tell what kind of bomb it was or even if it was active.

He swallowed hard. “Found it,” he said. “Follow my finger.”

He pointed at the bomb, and hoped she could focus in somehow.

“Got it,” she said. Then she was silent. He wasn’t sure if she was contemplating what she saw or if he had lost a connection somehow.

“Skye?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I think it’s not active. But I need you to do a few things.”

She outlined them. He didn’t understand why she needed that connection checked or a particular chip located except that she had a hunch about the bomb itself.

He was glad she talked him through the process. If he had come here alone, he would have had no idea what to do.

“Why can’t I just pull it off the container?” he asked.

“Because then it’ll go off.”

He glanced at the cargo bay doors. “What happens if I jettison it?”

“And another ship hits it?” she asked.

“Can I jettison this thing after we have dismantled it?” he asked. “There’s always space debris.”

“Yeah, there is,” she said. “I just sent out a warning about Heller’s ship as debris. I figure it’s large enough. Other ships can avoid it, and Kordita can deal with it when they want.”

Jack peered at the bomb.

“Then let’s jettison this thing as well,” Jack said. If he survived dismantling it. If it didn’t go off now.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s get to work.”

Chapter 59

Thank heavens, the bomb was pretty standard. Skye had unsuccessfully tried to build one half a dozen years ago for one of her classes. She understood the principles, and in that case, she had deliberately screwed up the execution. She hadn’t wanted to build a bomb ever, just like she hadn’t wanted to kill someone ever.

Only she had broken that vow, hadn’t she? By turning off the environmental controls and venting the atmosphere on that lower level, she had killed Heller.

And really, she should have regretted it.

But if she hadn’t, Heller would have murdered Jack—and relatively quickly. Since she had to choose between Jack and Heller, she didn’t even have to think about it.

She chose Jack.

It took fifteen minutes to make certain that the bomb wasn’t active. Jack didn’t want to send it into space, but Skye did. She didn’t want it on the Hawk.

Jack thought Heller wasn’t that bright, but Heller had managed to follow them from Krell to Zaeen and back here. He’d also managed to shield his ship in such a way that they almost didn’t catch it.

If they hadn’t had that lucky break, then they would be dead by now. And so would others.

“That should be it,” Skye said. “Let me know when you’re out of the cargo bay.”

“You’re going to have to seal off this level again,” Jack said. “The door into the bay is ruined.”

He didn’t say that Heller ruined it, but that was what happened.

She felt oddly calm about it all, and wondered if that was her assassin training.

“Let me know when you’re out of there,” she said. “And leave the door to the cargo area open.”

“Why?” Jack asked.

“Cleanup,” she said, unwilling to say more. She had scanned the corridors as the video surveillance came back online and she had seen just enough of Heller’s body to know she didn’t want to see any more. Better that it get jettisoned into space along with some of the empty cargo containers.

“All right,” Jack said, and signed off.

She made sure everything was locked down. She watched his heat signature, so that she wouldn’t have to see that hallway again. Jack took the elevator up to this level, and let her know on the comm that he was clear.

“Go ahead,” he said.

She locked down the lower level, then shut off the environmental controls. Then she opened the airlock and the cargo bay doors. For a moment, she thought they weren’t going to work. Then she realized that doors were moving slowly because they were going through the system that Jack had jury-rigged. Apparently Heller had shut down the direct controls to the outside doors and the airlock.

Still, everything opened, and the Hawk acknowledged the change in pressure. It didn’t lurch like that other ship had or even move. This ship was in good shape. But it told her that something had gone wrong in the cargo bay—at least from the Hawk’s point of view.

From hers, the worst of it was over.

The door opened to the cockpit and Jack stumbled in. His hair was messy, and his shirt was torn. His pants had tears in the knees, and he had scrapes on his elbows.

She had never been so glad to see someone in her life.

She launched herself out of her chair and into his arms.

And all of the panic she had felt, all of the fear, all of the worry, surged through her. She had to blink hard to keep herself from tears.

That made her angry. She wasn’t a woman who cried for any reason.

Still, she clung to him, and he clung back.

She had no idea how long they held each other.

“I thought he was going to kill you,” she said.

“I told you I’d be back,” Jack said.

“You also gave me one hell of a good-bye speech.”

He leaned back so that he could see her face. His looked vulnerable. Then he grinned. Her Jack, always a glass-half-full kinda guy.

“I did, didn’t I?” he said. “I meant every word.”