The Rush's Edge Read online

  The lab-grown assassin was nothing like his vat brothers in the military. While they were bred for strength, loyalty and an addiction to putting their lives on the line for whatever ACAS objective they were trying to win, the assassin had been coded to stalk and kill without question those that his handlers named.

  He’d had plenty of practice. There had been twenty of them in his batch, but not for long. He and his brothers and sisters had been forced to kill each other during training, and by the end, he had been the only one left standing. When he’d murdered the last of them, he’d “graduated” and shortly after that he’d been employed in the first of many wetwork jobs for whichever government shadow agency required his services.

  As far as Scalpel knew, there were two or three others of his kind – all from different batches. He assumed they went through the same winnowing process as he had. He’d never met any of them, but he’d heard whispers across the years. He didn’t wonder about them; it was in his nature to be alone, and he preferred it that way. Death stalked his prey alone; he needed no help.

  Scalpel watched as Astin Fortenot used his fingerprint to open the door of his apartment complex, then disappeared inside. Then the killer leaned back against a bulkhead across the avenue and waited.

  TEN

  “Hal. You’re a terrible patient,” Beryl chided as she ran through her neurologic tests. She’d already said she could find no biological cause for his sudden head pain and had told them she was ready to chalk it up to “one of those things.”

  “Any other feelings before it came on? Blurred vision? Weakness in one arm?”

  “No. The pain was there, then it was gone. I feel fine now,” Hal replied.

  “Close your eyes, and touch your nose,” she said. Hal sighed and did so, touching his nose with the index finger of both hands. It was the last of the field tests she used to detect neurological problems.

  Ty frowned and leaned back against the wall, watching them moodily. “Well, as far as I can tell, you’re good to go, kid,” Beryl said. “Ty, he’s passed every test I can give him.”

  “See? Five by five, Cap. No problems.” Hal jumped off the table.

  “OK.” Tyce nodded. “Any other symptoms, and you tell me straightaway. I know you too well,” he added in a low voice.

  How old was Hal getting now? Close to thirty? In vat years that was getting up there, and it was a subject Ty had been struggling with lately. He didn’t want to lose Hal. He was more than a best friend. They’d served together through almost everything the ACAS could throw at them. Ty’s brother and father were dead, and his mother had passed away long ago. Along with Beryl and now Vivi, Hal was the only family he had left. He grabbed Hal’s arm again to be sure his message was hitting home. “Hey – you’re hearing me, right? No toughing it out.”

  “Yeah, I hear you, Cap. I’ll let you know, but I’m all good. Don’t worry.”

  Ty nodded wordlessly.

  “I’ll go help Vivi set up her equipment in the cargo bay.”

  “Yeah. You do that,” Ty agreed. As Hal left, Ty leaned back against the medbay wall again and sighed. He could feel Beryl’s gaze on him and waited for her to speak. He knew she could read him better than he wanted to admit. She had his number since the first week she’d served on the Loshad. Maybe that’s why he kept her around.

  “He’s OK, Tyce. I didn’t detect any faults in his implant. We can have him tested at Omicron with more sophisticated equipment than I have here, but they’ll come up with the same thing, I’m sure. I don’t think you should worry.”

  Ty let out another heavy sigh. Beryl was a good medic, and he trusted her to know. “OK,” he nodded and headed for the door.

  “Ty? He is… getting older…”

  He paused at the door, head down. As far as he knew there was no way to solve that problem. When Hal reached his mid-thirties, his body would fail him, just like it did for all vats. And whether it was his implant malfunctioning, the effects of overproduction of adrenaline on his system or something else not yet known, Ty knew there was nothing he or Beryl would be able to do to stop the degradation. Not a damn thing. He knew she was thinking the same. “It’s OK, Beryl. No need to talk it over again,” he said hopelessly.

  “So, you’re good?” Vivi asked, looking up at Hal from where she was unpacking her bag. She’d jacked her datapad, analyzer, and microscanner into the ship’s feeds and was uploading their new content. Hal looked at the AI’s head sat next to Vivi’s datapad, along with the arm and strange silver sphere.

  “Yeah. Beryl says everything’s fine,” Hal replied. “What about you? Got everything you need?”

  “Yeah, I’m good.” She came over and swept the handheld scanner over the sphere. “This is just a little weird.”

  “What is?”

  “This thing. When I first picked this ball up, there was a weak power signature coming from it. But it’s gone now. The scanner doesn’t recognize the type of metal either.”

  “Maybe it’s some sort of power source?” He held out his hand for the metal ball. He shook it and listened. “Nothing.” He clunked it back down on the table as Vivi laughed lightly.

  “Great testing! Maybe you’re right, though. It could be a power source. The scanner originally picked up an electromagnetic field.” Vivi narrowed her eyes. “But a power source that’s lasted decades?”

  “You never know. I heard of another salvage crew who found a power cell that old. It still had a charge, according to them. It wasn’t very strong, but it was there.”

  “That’s crazy,” she said as she picked up the arm and began to scan that. “What do you think the Mudar came to the Spiral for? Do you think it’s like they always say? That they came to wipe us out? Seems weird that they’d travel so far to simply kill another species and not even bother talking to them first.”

  Hal picked up the AI’s head and turned it toward him, taking a seat on one of Vivi’s stools. “People hate what they don’t understand, Veevs. Maybe the Mudar were the same way. Maybe they saw people that were different, people they didn’t understand and just decided to end them.” He paused then spoke again, “I mean, look at it this way: some people hate vats because they don’t understand them. It’s not a far leap to think that the Mudar felt the same way about humans…”

  “Hal…” she said quietly.

  He glanced up at the change in her voice. Then he shrugged. “I’m not looking for sympathy. I mean it’s just how it is. It’s not as if I’m upset by it, or anything. It’s just human nature, Veevs.”

  “Yeah, but… it’s still not right,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “Don’t do that,” he said, forcefully. Noticing that he’d startled her, he softened his tone. “I mean, don’t feel sorry for me. It’s nothing.” Getting up, he set the AI head back on the table. “I’m gonna leave you to it, Vivi.”

  She remained staring after him for a long time, before letting out a heavy sigh.

  That evening, the Loshad’s crew was finishing dinner when Runa’s chime interrupted them.

  “What is it, Runa?” Tyce asked, setting down his fork.

  I am detecting a power surge in the cargo bay, Ty.

  Vivi leaped to her feet. “One of the artifacts?”

  I do not know, Vivi.

  “OK, we’ll go check it out.” Ty stood, and Vivi watched his gaze fall to Hal who had squeezed his eyes shut, and clutched the side of his head with one hand.

  “What is it?” Ty said.

  Hal swallowed hard as he let go of his head and stood up. “I’m good. Go, I’m right behind you.” Then the ship’s power cut out completely, leaving them all in darkness.

  “Runa?” Ty called, but there was no answer. A backup system kicked in and emergency lighting came on.

  “This is bad,” Beryl muttered, also on her feet.

  “Hal, arm yourself. Until we know what this is, I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Got it, Cap,” he replied. “C’mon, Veevs.”

 
She followed him to his room. “Take this,” he said, handing her his blaspistol. He shouldered his blasrifle and the two were back in the hallway in less than twenty seconds. “You know what to do, right?” he asked Vivi.

  “Point and shoot?”

  “Not as green as you look.” He elbowed her. “Just don’t point it at anything you don’t intend to kill. Be sure before you raise it.” He was ready – no, eager – for something to happen, she could see.

  They met Ty and Beryl in the corridor that led to the cargo bay. They had also strapped up, ready for action. The entire crew made their way down the hallway; Ty went first, then Hal and Vivi followed, and Beryl brought up the rear.

  Vivi watched as Ty and Hal communicated in hand signs. I need to learn those, she thought, as they approached the cargo bay. Despite what Hal had said, she knew she was pretty green, but now she had a blaspistol in her hand, and she was determined not to be helpless, no matter what happened.

  As they approached, Hal paused. He held out his hand, palm toward her, motioning for her to stay back. She nodded, and Hal and Ty entered the cargo bay.

  The ship’s main lights flickered back on.

  Vivi crept to the hatch and peered in with Beryl.

  “Clear,” Ty said.

  “Clear,” Hal repeated. “Shit. Veevs… You need to come see this.”

  Vivi and Beryl entered the room. Hal was standing by the table with Ty and they were both looking down at something.

  The sphere Vivi had brought back from the Mudar ship had cracked down the middle and was now in two pieces. The interior was filled with crystalline structures that caught the light of the overheads and reflected them back in rainbows.

  “Holy crap,” Vivi whispered.

  “I don’t think it was a power source,” Hal murmured, rubbing at his head.

  “Runa?” Ty called.

  There was still no answer.

  “Runa, respond.”

  Vivi went to the terminal and began to enter commands on the keyboard.

  “Runa!” Ty said again.

  Runa’s voice responded smoothly this time. I am sorry, Tyce Bernon. One moment. I am currently reinitializing.

  “Thank gods. Runa, I want to know what the hell happened, and I want to know now,” Ty responded.

  I am reinitializing.

  “I can’t access the system,” Vivi said. “I need to go to the bridge.”

  Hal had his blasrifle at the ready. “I’ll go with her.”

  “We’ll all go,” Ty said. “Beryl, bring the two halves of the sphere. I don’t want to let that out of our sight. Don’t touch the inside, though.”

  “Got it,” she nodded, pulling a pair of gloves from her pocket then picking the sphere up gingerly. Then she let out a short cry, dropping it on the table.

  Hal immediately trained his blaster on it.

  “What happened?” Ty asked.

  “It… It felt like it moved under my hand. It was weird,” Beryl said. “Maybe it was my imagination. Sorry,” she continued, carefully taking it into her hands again.

  They made their way up to the bridge together. Vivi went to the ship’s systems terminal and began to work her way into the system, but things were running very slow.

  “What would have caused Runa to go down like that?” Hal said.

  “I guess a power surge? Might have caused the system to shut down temporarily. Obviously, something happened with that sphere,” Ty replied.

  “I’m making her run a diagnostic. I’ve taken her speech offline until she reinitializes to speed things up,” Vivi said.

  “Beryl, make a sweep with sensors as soon as they’re back up. Check if anyone’s in the vicinity,” Ty ordered, watching the screen over Vivi’s shoulder.

  “All systems are reset,” Vivi said after a tense half-minute. “Diagnostics are coming back clear.”

  “No readings in the vicinity except the standard animal life,” Beryl added. “No other craft has entered the planet’s orbit either. Hal – you OK?” she said, coming over to check his eyes. “I saw you holding your head.”

  Hal nodded. “It was another spike like before, then it faded out. It feels fine now.”

  “OK. We’ll check you out again when we get this settled,” Beryl said. “It’s probably some sort of interference with your implant that keeps happening. It’s not beyond the range of possibility that the power surge scrambled your interface for a minute.”

  “Runa’s back online,” Vivi said, her gaze returning to the screen.

  “Runa?” Ty asked. “Can you explain what just happened?”

  There was a slight pause. It seems a power surge caused a sudden shutdown to protect the ship’s systems. I see no damage in my scans. Would you like me to report on each system individually?

  “No. Can you pull up video surveillance of the cargo bay? Playback on main screen. Start when we returned to the ship this afternoon,” Ty replied.

  They all looked up to see the silent footage. They watched as Vivi set up the terminal and scanners, then Hal came in and they talked as he picked up the AI’s head, then set it back on the table and left. After a while, Vivi left the cargo bay and the lights dimmed. “Here we go,” Ty whispered as he leaned forward. Then the footage greyed out with electronic snow.

  “What the hell?” Hal said.

  “Runa? Please explain,” Ty demanded.

  I’m sorry. It seems the power surge caused interference with the cargo bay sensors.

  “OK,” Ty was quiet a moment while everyone turned to see what his next move would be. “Hal, go let Beryl check you out one more time. Vivi and I will be in the cargo bay. I have an idea.”

  Vivi did another pass on the broken sphere while Ty rummaged in a locker in the back of the cargo bay. She too had donned gloves, unwilling to take any more chances. “This thing is made out of allenium and two other metals,” she said. “Scanner’s never seen anything like them.” She chewed her bottom lip as she nudged the mass of coppery connectors with a screwdriver.

  “I’m not surprised,” Tyce murmured, coming back with a small welding torch and two pairs of googles. He handed one set to her.

  “What’s your idea?” she asked, following him back to the alcove. “Are you going to melt it down?”

  “No. I’m going to put some EMP shielding in one of our compartments to protect against any more strange effects.”

  “Oh, good idea!”

  He pulled out some perforated metal sheets of various sizes from behind the locker. “This one, and this one.” Together they carried the supplies over to the wall.

  Tyce pressed the cargo bay wall in three different places, making one of the wall panels swing open, revealing a compartment inside.

  “A smuggling compartment?” Vivi asked.

  “I prefer to think of it as a strategic supply closet,” Ty grinned, moving to place the metal sheeting on the door and weld it on.

  “Nice,” Vivi laughed, putting her goggles on.

  Tyce lined the compartment with the metal pieces so that the modification was complete. Altogether, it took them close to half an hour to finish the process. “There,” he said. “That might keep any interested parties’ sensors from discovering what we have in here too. Bring the artifacts over.”

  Once they were safely inside, Ty closed the panel and they went to put the tools away.

  “Hal and I built in these compartments about three years ago,” he said. “They’ve really come in handy tonight.”

  Vivi nodded. “So, did you always want to own your own ship and become a salvager?”

  Ty shrugged. “Nah, I just fell into it. It seemed like an OK way to make a living and keep Hal occupied.”

  “Where’s your family from?”

  “Celian. I lost my brother when I was about eighteen. After that, things just weren’t the same at home, so I joined the ACAS.”

  “I’m sorry about your brother. That’s awful. He was younger?”

  Ty nodded. “Fifteen. It was a… a dr
ug overdose.” He shifted his focus to the toolbox. “Things were kind of bad at home after, so I figured I’d stay in the service, but… I got out about the same time Hal was discharged. What about you? Where are you from?”

  “Batleek. I guess my parents are still there.”

  “Guess?”

  “We haven’t talked in a while. I had a falling out with them over Noah when I quit uni to work for his tech firm.” She gestured to her eye. The bruises may have faded but the memories of Noah hadn’t. She shifted from foot to foot as she went on. “He was a hacker, and when I ruined a heist he was planning, he – er – attacked me in a rage. Guess my parents were right all along, but it’s hard to admit it to them.”

  Ty nodded. “When the time’s right, you’ll be able to.”

  “I hope so,” she said, glancing up at him uncertainly.

  “Let’s go check on Hal,” Ty said. He headed up the ramp that led to the main area of the ship, and Vivi followed closely behind.

  They found Hal and Beryl in the medbay. She had checked everything possible and again found nothing amiss with Hal. Ty asked to talk to Beryl and Vivi sensed that Hal needed something to occupy him, so she headed back to the galley with him to clean up after dinner. Afterwards, they walked back toward their rooms together.

  “Ever play squads?” Hal asked.

  “No. What’s it like? Vivi replied, glancing sidelong at him.

  “It’s a strategy board game we played in the ACAS. Want to give it a try? I mean, if you don’t have anything else to do?”

  Thinking they could both do with a distraction, she nodded. “Sure, I’d love to. I’ve got all night.”

  Hal grinned. “Let me grab the board and I’ll meet you in the common area.”

  The common area had a vid screen, a couch, and some low chairs, set up around a low table. Hal sat on a chair, then folded out a wooden box into a flat board with squares on it. Some of the squares were shaded with carved lines and others were not; together they formed an alternating pattern on the board.