How long before anyone came after them? It depended how long it took Redmond to link their missing aircraft with the stolen shuttle. Radko guessed they had an hour’s lead, at best. She hoped it was enough.
In that time, they had to find the ship Gunter had arranged to transport the shellfish, intercept the shuttle pilot—who would already have started the delivery to Redmond—and convince him to collect them and return to his ship without making the delivery.
She counted on three things. First, that Renaud Han was genuinely fond of his son-who-wasn’t; second, that Renaud and Gunter Wong were close friends; and lastly, that because it had been arranged at such short notice, the ship Gunter had called in to do the job was one that spent a lot of time ferrying shellfish for him. Which meant, she hoped, that Gunter had influence with the ship captain. Enough to convince him to pick up four strangers out of space, and order another jump, hours earlier than the one he already had.
She identified the ship. The Mikasa. The ship they’d caught off Lancia to Barth. How much was this diversion costing Gunter, for that had been a full passenger ship?
Half an hour. The timing was close.
“Han, I want you to call Gunter.” Maybe it would have been smarter to call Renaud Han, but Renaud was probably still with Gunter anyway. “Tell him you have escaped from Redmond and that we’re in space. We want to rendezvous with the shuttle that’s delivering the shellfish to Redmond. We want the pilot to pick us up and return to his ship. We want the captain of that ship to organize his jump for as soon as we get on board.”
They only had one chance at this. Further, they could only do it because the lag time between the two sectors was so short. Surely, someone had reported that by now. Radko couldn’t see any reason for such rapid communication, yet someone had paid hefty premiums for that type of lag.
If this worked, Radko owed Gunter Wong and Renaud Han. A debt she’d be happy to repay.
Han opened his comms. “I hope no one at the barracks ever gets to hear about this.”
So did Radko, but not for the same reason Han was hoping. She had to remember that Renaud had contacted someone at those barracks. Whoever he’d contacted would be looking out for Han.
If Renaud had convinced them it was serious.
“I mean it.” Han looked at Chaudry and van Heel. “One word passes either of your lips, and you’re totally dead. Or arrested on a trumped-up charge, at least.”
Chaudry mimed zipping his lip. “Not from me.”
“Van Heel?”
Van Heel struggled to reply, and when she did speak, it was through gritted teeth. Her wound must be bothering her more than she admitted. “I’ll keep silent if you introduce me to your father. After all, I have to thank him for saving our lives.”
Han looked at Radko.
“If you think this reflects badly on you,” she asked, “how do you think it reflects on your team leader?”
“Badly,” everyone agreed.
Radko laughed and checked the emergency suits as Han called Gunter.
There were six suits. Four of them were simple emergency suits with twelve hours of air and an emergency beacon. The other two were full suits, with controls. That was standard in a shuttle like this. The shuttle pilot always had a full suit—in case he had to do emergency repairs outside—and a standby suit in case that first one failed.
It was better this way. Han and Chaudry had probably never used suits outside of training. Ean had said his first time in space was terrifying.
“Yves.” Gunter seemed to have aged in the time between calls. “We thought something went wrong.”
“We were on Redmond. Have to avoid the enemy. Hello, Papa,” as Renaud moved into sight as well. “I apologize for worrying you.”
“We called Fleet Headquarters,” Renaud said. “They will get you out.”
Han kept talking, for they couldn’t wait for the lag to catch up. “We got ourselves off Redmond. No need to stress, Papa. But I do need another favor from Gunter. I know it’s a big ask, but people are chasing us. We need to get away.
“We booked passage on the ship that is taking the Gippian shellfish.” He grimaced as he said it, but they all knew he had to mention it. “We’re about to meet up with the shuttle. We want it to pick us up and take us back to the ship. We need you to tell the captain what’s happening and that it’s okay. We’ve less than half an hour before we intercept the shuttle. We need to do it fast. And you’ll need to ask the captain to organize another jump. Before they realize what we’ve asked and stop him.”
The delay for a reply took forever. Radko had time to think of five thousand ways that all this could go wrong. Renaud had a contact in the Lancian fleet. They might be listening to this call—but that could be advantageous. They might convince Gunter and Renaud to act fast.
Even if Lancia wasn’t listening in, Redmond would certainly be. The only reason this plan might work was because even the military had to work with bureaucracy of the jump gates, and a captain who used the gates all the time might get precedence over someone who was trying to prevent that.
Chaudry moved over to check van Heel’s wound again.
After the wait, it was Renaud who answered rather than Gunter. “Yves. We’ve organized a rescue. You’ll be rescued soon.”
Thankfully, in the background, they could hear Gunter talking. “Collect them and take them where they need to go.”
“We don’t need rescuing, Papa. It’s a job. We ran into a little difficulty.”
“Understatement of the century,” van Heel murmured quietly to Chaudry.
“They might even compromise the mission if they try to help.”
Radko nodded approvingly.
“We are nearly at the shuttle. We need to intercept it now.”
Whoever Gunter was talking to was arguing back.
Gunter cut him off. “If you still want my business, you’ll do this.”
They were in range of the other shuttle and were out of time.
Gunter said in the background. “I’ll give them the codes, Captain Engen.” He repeated them aloud, much to Radko’s relief. “The numbers are 436-243-043-341-094-334-234.”
“Thank you,” Han said, though the message wouldn’t get back to Gunter for fifteen minutes. “We appreciate this, Gunter. And we’ll repay any expenses as soon as we get home. Look after Papa and Mama for me, please.” He clicked off, then sagged into his seat.
They had to keep moving. “Suit up.” Radko chose the full suit for herself and gave van Heel the second full suit.
“I like your family,” Chaudry told Han.
So did Radko, but this still had to be the strangest operation she’d ever been on. She punched in the code.
“Captain Engen. Gunter Wong called you a moment ago, asking you to change some plans.”
Engen had a broad, flat face and a yellow net covering her brown hair. At least, Radko thought it was a net until it moved a tendril.
“You’re not who I’m expecting.”
Thank the lines for instantaneous communication within a sector. Han leaned into the call with her. “That would be me. I won’t introduce myself, as I suspect people are listening.”
“We’re nearly at your shuttle now,” Radko said. “As soon as your shuttle acknowledges it’s ready to collect us, we’ll suit across.”
Captain Engen nodded and opened another comms line. “Come in, Leonard. Change of plan.”
“These babies have a restricted shelf life. We can’t change too much.”
It was the same shuttle pilot who’d brought them on planet initially.
“This one pays more,” Captain Engen said. “You’re about to receive some visitors. Let them in, then return to ship.”