“You have people coming to pull you out,” said the captain, as if he knew it for fact, which he almost certainly did not. Kit waited, giving him nothing one way or the other. Reynolds went on, “You don’t much cotton to leaving the job unfinished, on account of you were behind this one personal.”
Now that was either a daring guess, or some pretty sharp deduction. If it was deduction, it meant either this man had a way of tapping into some files there was no way he could get to, or…
“You know a lot about him.”
“Just what’s on the Cortex.”
“You start out lying now, Captain, and it’s going to put a severe strain on our relationship.”
“Mostly what’s on the Cortex. Some other stuff, too.”
“All right. I’m still doing the listening part.”
“So, we help you finish what you started, you help us get the gorram hell out of here alive. That’s the deal. You want it?”
“Get you out alive? Okay, now, last I heard, you had a ship. What’s keeping you here?”
“The ship got hit, and had to break sky. She’s hanging up there now with the best pilot in the ’verse fighting to keep her there. Can’t land on account of a big hole in her hull and too many control surfaces shot to hell.”
“What do you imagine I can do?”
“Get us to a safe place until my boat is working again. I know you got people coming.”
“You do.”
“I do.”
“All right, suppose I do. What do you mean about helping me finish the job?”
“We can take him out.”
“Take him out.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re offering to commit murder to an agent of the Anglo Sino Alliance?”
“What, that offends you?”
“There’s this thing called the law, Captain Reynolds.”
“Yeah. The Alliance enforces it; it doesn’t seem to much care about following it.”
“We will argue politics another time, Captain. For now, I’ll just say that I decline your offer. We do not commit murder.” As Reynolds started to speak, he said, “Very well, if you prefer, I do not commit murder.”
“You must have a nice set of problems with them that employ you.”
Kit shrugged.
“All right, so you don’t want to kill him. What do you want?”
“I’m afraid I can’t—”
“Evidence, right? Proof of forced indenture, child labor, safety violations. That’s what you’re after, isn’t it?”
“Suppose it is.”
“Suppose we can do that?”
“How?”
“That’s our business.”
“There are a couple of problems. The first is that I’m not going to believe you can do it unless you tell me how you’re planning to go about it. The second is, I have no way to get you off this world until my people show up, and that won’t be for a couple of days. And Sakarya’s people are looking for me as hard as they’re looking for you, and, between them, I don’t see any way they aren’t going to find us both before then.”
“Yeah, well, that’s a problem. How close are they?”
“From what I’ve picked up of their code, they’re going to be starting a building by building search tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow morning. That’s… what?”
The one called Zoë spoke for the first time. “Six hours, sir.”
“Six hours.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, isn’t that just shiny.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were out of town, weren’t you?” asked Kit.
“Yes.”
“East?”
“Yes, how’d you know?”
“They found tracks. By now, the perimeter is sealed.”
“I see.”
“So you’ve humped yourself pretty good, Captain.”
“It’s a specialty. You have a tap into their line, I take it?”
He hesitated, then, “Yes.”
“And their code?”
“Most of it.”
“Impressive.”
“It’s a specialty.”
“I like yours better. Where’s your gear?”
“Next office down, but there’s a window, so no lights.”
“Can you see at all in there?”
“A bit filters in from the moons.”
“Okay. Mind if we go there?”
Kit shrugged and led the way.
When they reached the other office, he fired up the link, listened on the headphones for a bit, and said, “Nothing new.”
“Good to have, though.”
Kit nodded. “It’s how I learned about the jailbreak.”
“So, you know who we are.”
“I take it you mean, I know who you’re carrying. Yes. Simon and River Tam.”
“I see.”
Kit felt the weight of his sidearm, and wondered how long it would take the captain to draw his. Zoë had hers out, but it was still pointed at the big man.
He leaned forward to make a meaningless adjustment on the comm, and in so doing moved about two inches to his right, positioning himself so the big man was squarely between him and the sawed-off, and kept his eye on the captain.
“And what do you plan to do about that?” asked the captain.
“My only orders were to meet with your man Cobb and negotiate a deal. I’ve already reported that that fell through.”
“And so?”
“If you had a way out of here, we might have something to deal with after all.”
“What, us rescue you? That’s not what I had in mind. And if you don’t mind my saying so—”
“You’re safer with me dead.”
“Seems like.”
“Only you don’t do that.”
“I don’t?”
“Nope.”
“What, you have a psych make-up on me?” The captain almost smirked.
“For this, I don’t need one.”
Reynolds shrugged. “Maybe you’re right and I don’t much care for the idea of shooting you cold. Still don’t mean I’d cross the street to save you, even if I could, now that I know who you are.”
“I have something to bargain with.”
“What’s that?”
“Simon and River Tam.”
“I don’t—”
“I can throw them off for a while.”
He felt the intensity of Reynold’s stare. “I don’t get it,” the captain said at last. “Are you that scared?”
“No,” said Kit. “But if I live through this, I still have a chance of taking down Sakarya.”
The captain rocked back, almost as if he’d been hit. He recovered quickly, though, and said, “Okay, don’t see as it matters much; we got no means to—”
“Sir,” said Zoë.
The captain frowned and looked at her. “What is it?”
Zoë was looking out the window. “I think we have the means.”
Everyone followed her gaze. A small, close-range shuttle was settling down outside the office.
The four of them stared at it, frozen in place, until the door swung open and a small figure emerged.
Zoë was staring at the captain, as if he could produce an explanation for what she clearly considered impossible. Jayne’s mouth opened and closed.
“Na, zhan wo zai qiaokeli dang zhong, jiu song wo dao leisibian gei tamen chi ba,” said the captain.
“Let me guess,” said Kit. “I’m about to meet River Tam.”
Chapter 12
My Own Kind of Landing
The fed grabbed a small disk and stuck it in his pocket.
“The evidence?” asked Mal.
“What there is of it. Nothing else here matters.”
“All right then,” said Zoë. “Someone probably saw the shuttle land. Maybe we should move.”
Mal nodded. “Let’s hurry; she’ll take off a bit sluggish with five on board.”