“What!” but that didn’t escape my head, either.
“Pay attention,” I heard, followed by Mack’s sigh.
“Fine,” he said. “Yes, I had my people hack your shuttle, and fly it over the electrified force net the raiders had set down, before returning control to your pilot.”
He didn’t try to justify it, and he didn’t apologize. Barangail pressed his advantage.
“And are you my chip-stealing visitors?” he asked, although his voice said he already knew the answer.
Mack sighed.
“Yes, we are the ones who retrieved the chip you acquired from Miss Delight.”
“Excellent,” Barangail said, and clapped his hands together.
I flinched. Either we’d done something right, or we were about to die in a particularly spectacular rain of energy bolts and solid projectiles. Barangail gave a short laugh at my reaction, and rubbed his hands together.
“Then we can do business, although I don’t think you really need my costumers.” He looked at me. “Your armored corset did do its job, after all—and I know Mack couldn’t care less how you looked on his arm, given that’s not your primary role, is it?”
I glared at him, and shook my head, wondering if Rohan had unlocked my mouth enough to let me speak.
“Not a chance,” he replied, and I could hear Tens’s echoed “Uh, uh,” in the background.
Barangail found my silence intriguing.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Don’t make me regret this...” Rohan said, and I felt my jaw unlock.
“No,” I managed, and stopped myself from saying more.
Barangail cocked his head.
“I remember you having more of a mouth on you than that,” he said.
“Oh, you do, do you?” I asked, and heard Mack shift uneasily beside me.
I glanced at him, frowned, and turned back to our host, with a shrug.
“What can I say? I have orders to behave.”
“You have orders to behave...”
I nodded.
“Yup,” and I cast a rebellious glance at Mack, “and, contrary to popular belief, I can follow orders.”
Barangail looked from me to Mack, and then he grinned.
“You have to give her orders to get her to behave?” He made it sound like the joke of a millennia.
I didn’t have to look at Mack to see his mouth curl in distaste. His answer said it all.
“Yup.”
Barangail laughed, and I could see several of his guards smirking. Right now, I wanted to smack the ever-loving crap out of all of them...with my blaster. I felt my hand twitch, and then my arm froze.
“Not right now, you don’t,” Rohan told me, and I knew he’d taken control of my limbs, again.
It almost made me regret teaching him the trick of which synapses to fire to drive a human. Almost. Him getting me out of a very bad place before even worse things could happen to me just about made up for what was happening, now.
“I’m saving your ass. Again,” he said, sounding disgruntled. “Pretty sure Mack would kick me ten ways to stardust if I let you do something stupid and you got yourself shot.”
Given Mack would probably get his ass shot off at the same time I did, I didn’t think Rohan was in any danger of Mack doing anything if the boy let me loose.
“No, but I could.”
And there was Tens, sticking his nose in just where it didn’t belong.
“Mack’s kinda integral to the ship,” he said, then added, “You, too, I suppose.”
He didn’t have to sound like he hated the idea so much, but, before either of us could say anything else, Barangail stopped laughing.
“Inside,” he said, all business. “There’s a meal, as per the invitation, and we have trade to discuss.”
7—Of Lords and Kings
“Snipers are still on full alert,” Case said, as Barangail turned his back on Mack and me.
I resisted the urge to look for them, almost relieved Rohan had locked my head facing to the front. The stims were wreaking havoc on my self-control, and I almost looked forward to them wearing off. This was embarrassing. The kid was getting good, though. I felt things unlock as soon as I’d focused on the way Barangail’s guards formed a wall around him.
The guy was as paranoid as Hell.
“With good reason,” Case said. “He’s got enemies in every quarter, and is hated by his own.”
She paused.
“He’s also the second or third richest man on the planet, and one of the few with holdings in the Gorge, so he was a good choice for employer. Just don’t piss him off, any more than he already is, until we’re gone.”
Now, how in all the stars did they think I....
“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Mack muttered, as we followed Barangail and his entourage up the stairs and into the mansion proper.
As we did, another set of guards formed up around us. They stopped us once we got through the doors and into a very large foyer. Barangail was nowhere in sight.
“We’ll need your weapons.”
Mack and I looked towards the guard who’d spoken, and I noticed he was wearing the same uniform and subdued markings as Targil. Mack must have picked it up, as well.
“Are your men collecting them, or are we permitted to disarm, Captain...?”
It was a good question. The way the men around us were standing, they were looking for an excuse to add another hole to our body armor. The captain smiled.
“Foksall, and I will do the disarming. I’m sure you know the drill.”
His smile disappeared as he said it, and Mack raised his hands, slowly.
My own hands did the same, and I realized Rohan had more sense than my stimmed-up self. At least he let me turn my head. My lady’s costume didn’t show any of the weapons I was carrying.
“Excuse me, ma’am.”
One of the guards had come up on my blind side. He was standing just out of arm’s reach, not that it mattered. Beyond the fact that Rohan had a firm grip on every muscle I might use to try for a grab, I could just see another two guards moving up close behind me from the corner of my eye. I
