OneLane stopped scrolling.
The second name down. Latoya Jemsin, currently sequestered in a New Alliance prison on Haladea III, after an early incident where she’d tried to question Jordan Rossi, and failed.
“You said this was new data. Dr. Jemsin has been in prison for months. If she wrote the report, it’s old.”
“This report has been ten years in the writing. Dr. Jemsin was part of the team.” OneLane pointed to a line farther down. “You will see as we scroll through that none of the later reports are hers. Dr. Adam EightFields has taken over her work.”
If she knew this much about every illegal item she sold, then no wonder she asked so much money. Radko nodded and let her continue to scroll through the pages.
OneLane scrolled through the first ten pages of the report slowly, then flicked through others, faster, and again slowed at the end. “It’s a massive report. Ten years of data here, and their conclusions.”
“How much?” Radko asked. And how did she buy it and keep it out of Vilhjalmsson’s hands.
Movement caught her eye, and she looked up to the screens. On the screen depicting outside, soldiers jogged into view. Five in at the front. Four at the back. A full team, dressed in military uniform. Redmond soldiers.
Callista OneLane smiled.
There had to be an emergency button here in this room. OneLane must have pushed it when she’d entered. Although it had only taken five minutes to respond. With such a quick response, one could almost think the whole thing was a setup.
For Chen? Or for Vilhjalmsson?
It didn’t matter who it was for. Radko couldn’t let herself or her team be caught or questioned by Redmond soldiers.
The soldiers in the back alley had to break the lock. Good. They’d arrive a minute after the ones who came in the front.
“Chaudry, Han. Get down behind the desk. Use it to cover yourselves while you cover me.” And Radko watched carefully—one eye on the screens—to see what Vilhjalmsson would do.
He inclined his head toward the office door. Maybe, today, they were on the same side. She’d soon find out.
She nodded and pulled her blaster from the holster at her back. It was good to be armed. She took a position to the left of the door. Vilhjalmsson took the right.
The door blasted open.
OneLane’s reinforcements had arrived.
“These people are—” OneLane said, as the lead soldier glanced around quickly.
The soldier turned his weapon toward OneLane and blew her away.
Radko’s answering blast went straight to his heart. Beside him, his companion went down. She and Vilhjalmsson seemed to share the same enemies. For the moment.
They downed two more before the Redmond soldiers realized they were a threat. A blaster fired over her left shoulder took down the final soldier in the first group. Han, as accurate and reliable as Vega claimed him to be.
The soldiers hadn’t been expecting trouble, so why a full team? To prevent a back-door escape? Or to remove all witnesses?
The soldiers from the alley arrived then. They expected victory, and the battle to be over before they got there. They were seconds too slow. Radko and Vilhjalmsson stepped out and took down two each before they even knew they’d lost.
CHAPTER NINE: DOMINIQUE RADKO
Radko calculated they had less than five minutes before Redmond sent reinforcements. There was no one in sight yet.
She waved to Han and Chaudry. “Go, go. Before the next lot get here.”
They scrambled out in an awkward run.
Radko snatched OneLane’s comms a second before Vilhjalmsson did, and the two of them ran out together.
Her comms started beeping as soon as they were outside. Van Heel. Radko flicked it on as they ran.
“I’ve been trying to call for five minutes,” van Heel said. “A team of Redmond soldiers went in there.”
“We found them.”
“There’s a backup team waiting one street south.”
They were headed south. Radko beckoned to the others and veered east. “How close can you get the aircar?”
“I’ll need at least two blocks if you think they’ll come after us.”
“Meet us two blocks east then.”
“Wait,” Vilhjalmsson said. “Maybe we could work together a bit longer. You have transport out. I have codes that should get us past Redmond military.”
His face was gray, covered in a film of perspiration. He couldn’t run far, or fast. He’d get caught quickly. Given the number of Redmond soldiers in the area—more when they saw the carnage inside the shop—they would find it hard enough to escape themselves.
He was Gate Union, Markan’s man, so he was likely to have codes he mentioned. Redmond and Gate Union weren’t working together at present, but they were still, officially, allies. They’d honor their ally’s codes.
“Give me the spear and we’ll drop you off on the other side of the city.” Radko hoped she’d made the correct decision.
He hesitated, then stumbled, winced, and tossed the spear to her. “It’s all yours.”
She covered him while he ran. From the way his back twitched, he didn’t like it any more than she did. Good.
They reached the aircar as the first soldiers came running around the corner.
“Go, go,” Radko said, and van Heel took off in a straight lift that pushed them all to the floor.
Vilhjalmsson grunted, the sound quickly cut off.
Radko pulled herself up, blaster trained on him. “Han, Chaudry. Cover him. If he moves—even a twitch—shoot him.” She didn’t look away as she backed across to van Heel. “How soon can we dump him?”
“It’s hard not to twitch,” Vilhjalmsson said to Han and Chaudry. “Not when I know she’s ready to shoot me.”
The two blasters were close together. Chaudry’s left arm against Han’s right. All Vilhjalmsson had to do was reach out, and he could grab them both.
Why did a left-handed linesman hold his blaster in his right hand?
“Move away from him,” Radko said. “Make him work if he’s going to take the weapon off you. A blaster set to burn is as deadly at two meters as it is at one.”
“Who is he?” Han asked. “Why so leery of him?”
“He’s a professional assassin. Reports personally to Admiral Markan.”
“So why help him?”
“He helped us,” Chaudry said.
If Chaudry thought like that about one of Gate Union’s best assassins, Vilhjalmsson would walk all over him. “He has codes he can use to get us past Redmond security,” Radko said. “We have an aircar. Mutual benefit, Chaudry.”
“We’re being pursued,” van Heel said. “I can drop him, or I can run, but I can’t do both.”
These were Redmond soldiers on their home territory. They couldn’t outrun them. How long would it take for Redmond to identify the aircar?
Radko looked at Vilhjalmsson. “Those codes you promised.” If he was working with Redmond, surely he would have let the soldiers capture them back at OneLane’s shop.
Vilhjalmsson stood up carefully.
“You should get your back seen to,” Chaudry said. “You shouldn’t be doing strenuous physical movement yet.”
Chaudry was never going to make a decent soldier. He didn’t have the personality for it.
The speaker crackled. “Aircar D-J-12351. This is Redmond Fleet. Please land in the nearest available landing space.”
“I need to call base over the aircar’s comms,” Vilhjalmsson said.
Radko nodded and held her blaster close to his back while he used the comms system on the aircar to call base. She didn’t relax even when an irate Redmond voice came through, demanding to know what was going on.