“Dead.”
“Baer?”
“Dead.”
“Good.” She snuffled out a grunt of satisfaction. “All’s fair in love and war. So we’ve won?”
“I’d say so, outside of having no Starrunner.”
Wren swore. “Let’s go take a look. TK might be able to work some magic on it. Where is the old complainer?”
“I regret to say TK’s no longer with us.”
She gave her head a sad, wistful shake. “The man had a death wish right from the start. I almost felt he’d expected to join Billy one way or the other today.”
“Those were my very same feelings.”
She scowled. “Let’s get to the ship then.”
She held me tight, and I winced at the pressure of her trembling body, warm and a relief. “Thank you, Jet. You protected me when I thought I was done. You’re a good man.”
I grunted, not versed in any displays of emotion.
“Rusco, you’re quivering and all shot up.” She wiped away the blood smear off her hand.
“What about you? That nasty cut on your arm isn’t looking too good. Mine could have been worse.”
She lifted up my leathers, ignoring her own gash, and tore a strip off her own jacket and wrapped it around my ribs. “We need to get that wound cleaned up. You’re going to have a nasty scar there.”
“Nothing new.” I shrugged, taking only shallow breaths. “Looks as if we both need some patching up.”
We limped back to the landing dock.
Starrunner still smoked and crackled as we drew near. Molly’s voice, a low garbled robo staccato, rang out from the interior: “Warning, warning… Barenium irrecoverable leak...”
“Yeah, I know, Molly.”
The computer voice trailed out and died.
I blinked. Starrunner looked crippled beyond repair. I kicked my boot at her hull in despair. I winced at my futile action. “Sorry, Molly. Wherever you are.” I ran a caressing finger across the smooth smoking curve of her right wing. Maybe it was time to retire her. The old Rusco too—the one before the mechno hand, and let a new Rusco surface.
“Weeping for your old girlfriend?” she muttered.
“Sort of.”
“Sorry to hear, Rusco. She was a good ship to you, I know. She took you places. She brought you to me, and TK and Billy.”
“You don’t seem too broken up by her demise, considering she’s our ride out of here.” I clutched my side where the brown leather and makeshift tourniquet bulged and grimaced.
She looked at me with puzzlement. Her gaze shifted to the stealth ship. “What about that one there?”
“Worth a try.”
We advanced with caution. The ship was a black sleek killing machine, that manta-ray stealth V. I kept low, weapon ready, in case there were others aboard.
There weren’t. No movement, no life. I forced my way through the hatch. Kindly, the crew had left it open. None of the thugs had expected to lose this fight and resort to defending their ship.
We made our way to the bridge. Immaculate. The stealth V was a beauty with state-of-the-art weaponry, compact design, chrome, posh leather seats. Mong must have lent it to the dead Baer, rest his black soul. It would have trackers aboard, and that was a problem. We no longer had TK’s expertise to help us out with that. We’d have to make our getaway quickly then ditch the vessel first chance we got.
One more loose end to attend to. I jumped out and dragged two hulks of the shrapneled bodies over to Starrunner and lay them beside her open, smoking hatch. I was worried the Barenium might blow, given Molly’s last shrill warning, but risk was risk. I clambered in through the companionways, grabbing some personal effects, regen and the last bottle of whiskey from my smoked-out cabin. I coughed, edged back out in a hurry and dropped my gold watch on one of the charred remains. I aimed my blaster and blackened the remains some more, disfiguring the watch just enough so it could still be recognized. I grabbed Wren’s hand and tore off the ring that she still wore on her index finger. She protested, uttering no small number of profane words, but I ignored them. I put the ring on one of the corpse’s finger, nearly gagging from the state of the body. I made sure this one was messier than the last, and not easily recognizable as a male versus a female body. TK was next, dragged his sorry hide out, and placed it by the others, face down, what was left of it anyways. Dragged some more pieces of human torsos over to make it look more grisly and authentic. A thrum of voices ran through my head: Where’s Baer and the rest of the bodies? Who knows? Where’s the stealth ship? Oh, Baer and one or more of his thugs must have gone rogue and stolen it, took the phaso. Rusco and crew? Ha. You’re looking at them.
It was a sorrowful business, but anything that’d keep that killer Mong off my tail and make him believe we were dead, was worth the effort.
A sour taste flooded my mouth, surfacing from throat to palate, that bad bit of bile that comes from deep down as I mulled over the sordid events of the day. Up till the end it would remain a mystery to me what exactly TK’s motives were. I could only guess that he had some crazy scheme up his sleeve to try to rescue Billy or something. I was sorry he had to die, that the old man had to go and get himself killed, but he did it all under his own free will. For now, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt that he’d come back to help us.
We climbed aboard the stealth V and I slathered the last of the regen on Wren’s long gash, wiping the excess on my own
