“We can’t lift off until Mal’s aboard to give the signal,” Zoë said resolutely. “If that’s a problem for you, you can find someone else to transport the goods.”
Badger’s eyebrows shot up. “Surely you wouldn’t renege on our deal. I’d hate for a lapse like that to become public knowledge. Remember what happened to Reynolds and your husband when you disappointed Adelai Niska.”
“Remember what happened to Adelai Niska’s henchmen,” Zoë shot back.
“Oh, dear lady, I’m no one’s henchman,” Badger said. “I’m the big cheese. The kingpin. A force in the community. If I spread word that you lot can’t be trusted—”
“I’m unloading the crates,” she declared. “You can find someone else to transport your cargo.”
Badger frowned. “It’s too late for that. The HTX-20 is already breaking down. It’s got a limited shelf life. And we have an agreement,” he protested.
Just then Borosky gestured to his boss. He might have been the forklift operator who’d loaded the crates, Zoe thought, but Badger’s men tended to look alike — solidly muscled and unkempt. The man was holding out a comm tablet.
Badger said, “Excuse me, missus. One moment.” He hurried over to the man and took the tablet, his lips moving as he scrolled with a fingertip. He said something under his breath to Borosky and they both looked at her. Badger walked back to her with the tablet, which he waved in the air like a trophy.
“Well, seems you got no choice but to keep my goods in your hold and get the ruddy ’ell out of here.” He tapped the tablet with his finger. “This is a bulletin, just got sent out all across the Cortex. Feds are hot on your tail. Seems you people have something they want. What is that, I wonder? What you got on board they’re so flaming interested in?”
Zoë scanned the bulletin, suppressing a sigh of exasperation.
What are the Alliance so interested in? Only River and Simon Tam. Has to be.
The Alliance was desperate to get its hands on the Tams, especially River, whom it seemed to consider its property. That detail was absent from the wave, and just as well, or Badger would even now be trying to detain Zoë, rather than urging her to leave, so that he could garner a portion of the bounty on the Tams’ heads.
If, however, another bulletin came through that mentioned the Tams explicitly or, even worse, if the Alliance caught up to Serenity, the siblings would be bound by law and River would be sent back to the place that her big brother had sacrificed everything to get her out of.
Qīng wā cāo de liú máng, Zoë thought. Badger was right. Mal or no Mal, she had to get Serenity off this world. ASAP.
“Well?” Badger prompted.
“Can’t say,” Zoë replied. “Could be any number of reasons. You know us. We sail close to the wind.”
“Not too close, I hope. For my sake.”
“Don’t worry, we’re going to finish the job,” she told him.
He grinned at her. “You mean you’ll skedaddle.”
She gave Badger a hard look. “And let me get something straight. If you are entertaining any notions of double-crossing us, sending the Alliance our way—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Badger held up his hands. “I’m crushed you think so little of me. I don’t peach on my partners. I’ve got a reputation to protect. I’ve got roots in the alternative income community. I live ’ere.”
“Still, if Alliance troops come, and I find out you sent them,” she persisted, “you won’t be living anywhere.”
He chuckled. “Such loyalty to your captain. What do you see in that cranky old sergeant that makes you do-or-die for him? It can’t be that he pays you well. As near as I can tell, he ’ardly ever pays you.”
“I don’t think you’d understand even if I had the time to explain it to you.” Zoë said. “But please, if you do get any information about Mal…”
“No worries there, darlin’. I’ll let you know, of course. And for a fair market price.”
Disgusted, Zoë spun on her heel and left his den. Overhead, as she recovered her weapons from the tattooed sentry, the bunting and pennants of Alliance Day flapped as if waving her on: Hurry, hurry.
Limping away down the street, she contacted Serenity.
“Did you find him?” Wash asked her, first thing.
“No, I didn’t find him,” Zoë said in a rush. “Now listen up, lover. According to Badger, the Alliance is closing in on us.”
“When are they ever not?”
“But I saw a bulletin, and this time it sounds like they mean business. I need a ride back to the ship, pronto. I’m moving slowly.”
“My desert flower, are you hurt?”
“Just a bit banged up.” It bugged her to confess it.
“I’m on my way in the Mule to get you myself,” he said.
“No. You need to be ready to lift off in case the Alliance shows up.”
“Zoë—”
“Is Book back?”
“Just got in.”
“Send him to fetch me. If we get in a scrape at this end, he’ll be able to help.” More than once, Alliance military personnel had shown deference to Shepherd Book. No one aboard the ship knew why, and Book hadn’t seen fit to elaborate, but she knew he would be her best bet.
“What if the feds board us before you two get back?” Wash said. “The preacher might do more good here. We can’t risk Kaylee, either. Someone’s got to hold Serenity’s engine together during the pre-flight warm-up. Inara’s free. Well, not free, but you know what I mean.”
“She’s not regular crew.”
“But she is a Registered Companion. She did great on Higgins’ Moon. People always bow and scrape and do whatever she wants.”
“I’m here,” Inara said through the comm link. “Of course I’ll come, Zoë.”
“Thank you, Inara. I’ll find Jayne, if I can, and we’ll meet you by the store where the captain bought Kaylee her dress.”
“All right,” Inara said.
“Wash, after Inara leaves, you see them Alliance bastards coming for the ship, don’t wait for control-tower clearance. Forget the gorramn blast zone safety recs. You light her up. Hear me?”
“Roger, baby,” Wash said. “We’ll be out of here like a cat with a firework tied to its tail. Not that I’d know what that’s like, because I never tied a firework to a cat’s tail as a kid, and anyone who says I did is a liar.”
11
For several minutes Wash fidgeted with his collection of model dinosaurs, too distracted to stage exciting claw and fang fights. It was hard to keep a lid on his freak-out. Once upon a time at Li Shen’s Space Bazaar he had cracked open a fortune cookie that read, “You will live in interesting times.” Enough with the interesting. Bring on the boredom.
“They back yet?” Kaylee asked, poking her head through the hatchway. She was wearing overalls decorated with happy teddy bear patches and a pink T-shirt splotched with engine grease.
“No,” Wash told her, depositing a T-Rex into the pocket of his vintage Hawaiian shirt for safekeeping.
“Niú fèn. And what’s this I’m hearing about the Alliance maybe boarding us? Inara mentioned it as she was getting into the Flying Mule just now. She said there wasn’t time to explain and I should ask you.”
Wash pulled up the latest Cortex-wide Alliance bulletin onscreen, which was undoubtedly the one Zoë had been referring to. It advised security personnel to be on the lookout for a Firefly-class transport suspected of an illegal smuggling operation.
“Has to be us,” he said.
“And has to be about River,” said Kaylee. “How come it doesn’t mention her by name, though? Or Simon?”