“Who were they?” she asked breathlessly.
“The enemy,” Maddox said.
“What enemy?”
He didn’t glance down at her. He kept moving his head unobtrusively, no doubt scanning the crowd.
“For now,” Maddox said, “we shall call the enemy them.”
“You can’t mean the New Men,” she said.
Maddox winced slightly. “None of that please. Them. That’s what we’ll call the enemy in public.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Ah. I didn’t know you had a sense of humor. Thank you for informing me.”
She frowned at him. “Are you making fun of me?” She didn’t let anyone make fun of her.
“Lieutenant Noonan, I am not making fun of you. This is simply my way when I’m nervous.”
She gave him a more careful study. He didn’t look nervous in the slightest.
“This way,” he said.
She didn’t need to ask. He had powerful fingers, and his grip hurt her elbow. There was a sense of urgency to him, too. Normally, no one guided her. It began to dawn on Valerie, however, that she had stepped into a seriously dangerous assignment. The Lord High Admiral had hinted in that regard. He had tried to warn her away from doing this. Well, he had pretended to. Valerie knew enough about dares to realize he had been goading her into going.
I’m as good as any taxpayer. I am a taxpayer now. I didn’t run away from the New Men. I followed the orders of the best officer in our fleet. The Lord High Admiral asked me to do this because this is finally my chance to shine in the line of duty. I’m going to show them. I’m going to show them all what Tank Noonan’s daughter can do.
“Do you see any more of the black leather jacket gang?” she asked.
“No,” Maddox said. “They’ve dropped away. They’re watching us, though. They wonder what I’m doing here with you. They’re curious about what we’re going to do next.”
“What are we going to do?” Valerie asked.
Captain Maddox glanced down at her. He was handsome and maybe even younger than she was, and there a feeling of extreme competence in his bearing.
“We’re going to do the unexpected,” he said.
“Okay. What is that?”
“Do you see that door over there?” Maddox asked, inclining his head to the right.
She glanced at it, a utility door it seemed to her. “I see it.”
“Good. Then turn around one hundred and eighty degrees from it and run,” he said, releasing her elbow as he broke into a sprint into the direction he’d just told her to go.
-8-
While panting, Lieutenant Noonan glared at Captain Maddox. She sat in the passenger seat of his flitter, a fast sportster with a bubble canopy. Below, the mall and the greater metropolis of Paris quickly faded from view as they climbed with unbelievable speed. She couldn’t even see the Eiffel Tower anymore.
The engine hummed, but there was hardly any vibration. This was some craft, clearly a specialty machine approaching combat efficiency.
After that harrowing sprint, Valerie was still sucking down air. Sweat prickled her face and neck.
Maddox glanced at her and flicked yet another switch. A conditioning vent poured cooling air against her skin. She repositioned, opening a top button. Ah, the blowing air felt good.
Valerie liked to stay in shape. Compared to Maddox, though, she was an out of shape slob. The captain seemed placid as he kept checking his instrument panel. He’d sprinted like a cheetah back there. Only as Valerie broke out of the mall, struggling to catch up to him in the parking lot, had she realized a sniper fired at them—not that she’d heard anything. The captain had thrown himself to the paving, and she’d seen something glittery break apart on the hard surface. Maddox had produced a long-barreled gun, snapping off several shots. Then he’d sprinted back, grabbed her and forced her to bend low as they wove through parked vehicles.
She would have asked what was going on, but it was all she could do to keep her legs churning as he propelled her along. Finally, he’d holstered the weapon and pulled out a black unit, pressing buttons. She’d yelped when a flitter literally dropped out of the sky in front of them.
Another of those glittery things broke apart against the machine’s canopy. Then they’d piled in. The flitter lifted before she clicked on her buckles. Now they headed north.
“Who shot at us back there?” she said between gasps.
“That’s a good question,” Maddox said. “I wish I knew.”
“You must have an idea.”
He glanced at her. “There are several possibilities.”
She frowned at him. “I’d guess it was the same people who came for me in the mall.”
“That’s loose thinking at best,” he said.
“What do you mean?” she asked, stung. “That makes perfect sense. They tried to kidnap me in the mall. I saw what the sniper fired at you. It wasn’t bullets. Steel-jacketed rounds don’t break apart on paving or against armored glass. He shot darts. Something with knockout drugs would be my guess.”
Maddox gave her another glance, this one more quizzical.
“Did I say something stupid?” she asked, exasperated.
“I didn’t expect someone like you to be so observant in these kinds of situations,” Maddox said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He raised an eyebrow. “A Star Watch lieutenant. What did you think I meant?”
She said nothing.
“Someone from Detroit perhaps?” he asked.
Her face stiffened. “You listen to me—”
“Save yourself the indignity,” Maddox said. “I meant no insult. I’m letting you know that I’ve read your file.”
“Yeah?” she asked. “What does it say?”
“For the most part it speaks about your competence in your chosen area of expertise.”
“And the rest?”
He grinned. “None of us are perfect, are we?”
“If you think because my family lived on welfare that you’re better than us, you have another thing coming. “
“That’s an interesting word.”
She scowled. “What is? What are you talking about now?”
“Better,” he said.
“What about it?”
“You asked if I think I’m better than you. That’s too broad of a question. I run faster, so that makes me a better runner. As a navigator in space, you would be better. You have to add a qualifier to your statement for it to make sense.”
She debated remaining angry with him, but he had helped her in the mall. The thugs with the black leather jackets… who knew what they would have done to her.
“You’re a slick operator,” she said. “I can see that.”
“And you revert to your upbringing in times of stress,” Maddox said.
“Maybe I do. Is that going to be a problem for you?”
“Negative,” he said. “It makes your selection more reasonable.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question. Who do you think shot at us back there?”
“I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities,” he said. “One, maybe the sniper belonged to the men trying to kidnap you. But then, why did they shoot at me?”
“Who were they anyway?”
“Yes. That’s a good question. Could our enemy have moved this quickly? I don’t like what that implies.”
“What does it imply?” Valerie asked.
“That they have operatives within the Star Watch,” Maddox said.
“So, who shot at you?”
“It could be the same people or one of the Methuselah People, a tycoon.”