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  “Eddie Ander, Griggs’s enforcer. He’s one hell of a badass. In fact, both of them are. If I were you, I’d stay well out of their way,” the bartender advised.

  “Gotcha,” Matt said, fighting the urge to flip the guy off.

  What was it with him and homicidal delinquents? Was he some kind of a magnet for attracting the attention of dangerous criminals, or was it his horrible luck at work again? Typical, that the second things were beginning to pick up, the shit had to hit the fan in the most spectacular fashion. Not that he could blame Val for his blowout, given the circumstances, but absolutely none of it was conducive to their getting off this godforsaken station as soon as possible.

  Matt got out his commlink to notify Tony and Ryce of the recent developments and headed to the station’s Security Center to try to get his misbehaving engineer out of jail.

  Chapter Three

  “HOW MUCH LONGER is this going to take?” Matt grumbled.

  Ryce, who was sitting next to him, put a soothing hand on his arm.

  “It’s just the formalities now. They have to hold him for twelve hours for inquiry even if no charges are pressed. I suppose he’s lucky the security folks didn’t insist on pursuing the public disturbance angle,” he added as an afterthought.

  Matt huffed in annoyance. “Lucky my ass. He was only lucky in that this Ander guy wasn’t armed with a blaster gun. He could’ve been killed, going after him bare-handed.” He checked the clock on his commlink for the hundredth time. “This twelve-hour thing is taking way too long.”

  “I’ve never met anyone who was as constantly offended by the concept of linear time progression as you are,” Ryce said, his lips quirking. “Anyway, he should be out any minute now.”

  He glanced at the door of the Protective Services Office. They were sitting in the waiting area, which consisted of several rows of metal chairs and smelled faintly of disinfectant and despair.

  “Wiseass,” Matt said. “By the way, I had to cancel our engagement with Captain Tanner. He wasn’t best pleased, but I don’t know yet who this Griggs person is, and I thought it’d be best to let sleeping dogs lie until we got this whole mess straightened out. Besides, ain’t much we can do by way of hauling without Val’s help.”

  Having to give up an easy job rankled, even if the pay wasn’t so great. Canceling at the last minute wasn’t going to reflect positively on their reputation, especially since their next contract would be largely dependent on favorable word of mouth. But the most important thing was getting Val back from the clutches of station security. Matt suspected the only reason Val didn’t get into much worse trouble was because his victim was somewhat of a known thug. Well, that, and Matt’s willingness to pay the bail money in cash. He sighed heavily, imagining all those credits leaking out of his account like water out of a cracked plastic cup.

  “Is it true this Eddie Ander was complicit in the death of Val’s wife?” Ryce asked in a low voice, though nobody was close enough to overhear them.

  “I have no idea,” Matt said tiredly. “I couldn’t find out anything beyond what Val had told me, but the security folks weren’t especially forthcoming, and I didn’t have time to dig deeper on my own. If it’s true…”

  If it was true, it would present a whole new set of problems because Matt was pretty sure Val wouldn’t let it go. He’d served five years in federal prison for killing one of the men who’d raped and murdered his wife, and considered it a fair exchange. If there was a second killer on the loose and within Val’s reach, Matt was certain no power in the universe could stop him from hunting him down. And as much as Matt sympathized with the sentiment, he couldn’t let Val pursue a path which would most likely end with him locked up for good, or worse.

  He was about to say so to Ryce when the heavy armored doors finally slid open, and a harried-looking officer escorted Val out. Matt jumped to his feet and rushed to meet them, with Ryce following on his heels.

  “You’re Captain Spears?” the officer asked.

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  “Try to keep your crew out of bar fights,” the officer said in the weary tone of someone who’d made that request too many times to believe it would be granted. “You’re to remain at Freeport 73 for the next forty-eight hours. Then you’re free to go if no complaint is filed against Mr. Sokolov here.”

  “Couldn’t leave even if we wanted to,” Ryce observed while Matt signed the custody release form on the officer’s commlink. “Are you all right, Val?”

  Val nodded curtly. Since walking out of his detention cell, he’d kept ominous silence, only curling his hands in and out of fists. His knuckles were scraped raw, but Matt remembered all too well how the other guy had looked.

  “Care to explain what the hell happened in there?” Matt asked once they were out of the Security Center and safely on their way back to the docks.

  “No,” the engineer said curtly.

  “Listen here.” Matt rounded on him, taking advantage of the secluded stretch of corridor they were currently in. Ryce hung back, glancing between them with concern. “I’m on your side here, remember? But I can’t do anything to help if you refuse to even talk to me.”

  There was a pause as Val considered his words. For a moment, it seemed like he was going to say something, but finally, he only shook his head.

  “You can’t help me with this. And if you try, it’ll only make it worse.”

  “Why?” Matt faced him, hands on his hips. It wasn’t the best time and place to have this confrontation, but he was too damn frustrated with worry and the long wait to postpone it until they were in the privacy of Lady Lisa’s galley.

  Val’s mouth thinned into a hard line, and he stared determinately at the wall above Matt’s head.

  “I’ll tell you why,” Matt said angrily. “You think you’re going to track down that fucker and finish what you started, don’t you? Well, you better think again, because I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let you get yourself killed or put away for life because of some lowlife scum!”

  “You don’t understand,” Val said harshly.

  “Then explain it to me because I sure as hell don’t!”

  “He has a point, Val,” Ryce interjected before the argument could escalate. His tone was level but firm, bringing to mind that, despite his youth, he’d had plenty of experience as a commanding officer. “You certainly don’t owe us any explanations, but shutting us out isn’t going to make this go away.”

  Val took a deep breath and glanced sideways at Ryce.

  “Elena was an eco-architect. She designed environmental habitats for people living and working in small colonies—the ones it wasn’t cost-effective to terraform. She’d won awards for creating affordable and ergonomic living spaces. She wanted to make people happy. We wanted to start a family.”

  He swallowed and briefly closed his eyes but continued. “And those two bastards took it all away from her, just because they could. They took her away from me, and I wasn’t there to stop it when it happened. When they arrested that trash, Corgan, he claimed they didn’t intend to kill her. They only had a little fun with her, and she resisted too hard.”

  His accent, which was usually hardly noticeable, became thicker as he struggled to keep his emotions in check. “She’d been beaten so bad I had trouble recognizing her afterward. They never caught the other one. And Corgan…I couldn’t take the chance of him ever walking out of prison alive. I waited until they were transporting him for the trial, and I went over there, and I bashed his face in. And it felt damn good because at least he suffered a fraction of what Elena had suffered before he died. I did the time for that, but I didn’t care. My freedom meant nothing without her.” He paused again, visibly calming himself, assuming his usual taciturn demeanor.

  “But I didn’t forget about the second guy who had been there. Eddie Ander. I tried to find him, but that piece of shit was good at covering his tracks. After joining the Lady Lisa and moving to the Sonora sector, I kinda lost hope of finding him. But
now… Captain, I know you want to help. I know you want to keep me safe. But you can’t, not this time. Just stay out of it.” He looked between Matt and Ryce. “All of you.”

  Val turned and strode purposefully down the corridor toward the docks without waiting for Matt and Ryce to catch up.

  THE ONLY THING that made the miserable day marginally better was the prospect of a fresh brew. Matt could definitely use some coffee, along with whatever he could find in the pantry to fix himself a quick snack. He was starving.

  “I think I’ll go talk to him,” Ryce said, pausing in the main corridor.

  “Really? I’m not sure it’s such a good idea right now. Val’s pissed.”

  Matt had never seen his engineer so worked up. That angry tirade in the station hallway was more words than Val had uttered over the past year, and the first time he’d opened up about his personal tragedy to anyone but Matt. He was familiar with the gist of Val’s story, of course, but not with all the gruesome details.

  Ryce grimaced. “I know. But I want to be sure he doesn’t run off and do something rash.”

  He’ll probably do it anyway, Matt thought wearily, but Ryce was right. Val needed to cool off, and perhaps a sympathetic ear lent by a friend would not go amiss. Ryce was a good listener, as Matt knew from his own experience. Ryce also possessed an uncanny ability for finding the right words of solace, which had never been Matt’s forte.

  “Fine. Good luck.” He squeezed Ryce’s hand in reassurance, and, once the man turned toward the cabins, made a beeline to the galley and its promise of salvation.

  Tony was there eating a sandwich. “Val just stormed past here,” she said, watching Matt turn on the coffee maker and pour himself a large steaming mug. “I have it that detention didn’t sit well with him.”

  “Not even a little bit.” Matt took a can of creamed corn soup out of the pantry and sat at the kitchen table without bothering to heat it up. He badly wanted to cap the day off with a shot of something stronger, but Tony was watching him, and he decided to forgo the alcohol for the moment.

  Tony made a face at him, though it was hard to tell whether it was prompted by his words or his meal choice.

  “Hopefully Ryce’ll do a better job of reasoning with him than I did,” Matt said around a spoonful of cold soup. “Otherwise, with us stuck on this godforsaken station, it’s only a matter of time until he goes all vigilante again. And by time, I mean however long it takes him to clean up and find a weapon.”

  “God, what a mess.” She finished her sandwich and folded her arms on the table’s shiny white surface, a look of deep concern on her face. “Val’s not gonna let this go, is he? What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know what we can do, short of locking him up in his cabin. Besides, he’s a grown person. He can make his own choices, however foolhardy they are. But there are other ways to bring someone to justice, besides breaking their teeth. Maybe I’ll try going to the station authorities, see what can be done.”

  Matt scraped out the last drops of the corn emulsion from the can and leaned back in his chair, sipping his coffee. He hated involving the Federal authorities in any of his or his crew’s private affairs, and the chance of them actually being helpful was slim. But it was a better option than the alternative.

  “There was something else I wanted to talk to you about,” Tony said.

  The hesitation in her voice caught Matt’s attention.

  “Go on.”

  “I managed to get in touch with some people from the station IMA branch.”

  “You did? That’s great,” Matt said, though Tony seemed anything but enthusiastic. “What did they say?”

  “As I expected, most of them weren’t thrilled to hear from me.” She sighed. “But the branch head used to be a friend of mine back when we both worked at the clinical trial administration division. She said they’re in the market for a contractor to take over regular and emergency medical aid shipments to the outer moons of Elysium-8. There are a few colonies there, mostly mining, and one research facility that’s currently under construction. There’ll be a tender, of course, but since it’s a lot of hard work and the job is less than stellar, there’s not a lot of interest.”

  “It could be a good niche for us, though.” This was exactly the sort of job Matt had hoped to score—small but steady, something that could allow them to get back on their feet and gain repute, albeit slowly. There was only one problem with this otherwise promising scenario.

  “Provided we win the tender based on our bid,” Matt continued, “do you think the IMA would be willing to give us an advance on our contract? Otherwise, the job is no good to us if we’re stuck here indefinitely.”

  Tony shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She must have had the same concerns, which would explain the lack of eagerness. “As a Federal agency, they have regulations regarding these things. But I did manage to set up a meeting for us tomorrow. Perhaps we can work something out.”

  “That’s good,” Matt said, though she didn’t sound convinced. “Really, don’t worry about it, Tony. Even if this doesn’t pan out tomorrow, it’s a good option to keep in mind if we manage to set sail again soon. Thank you. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  Tony shrugged and pulled at her braid.

  “It was nice to see some old faces. Not all, but some.”

  Matt patted her hand. “Whoever is wrinkling their noses at you can suck it. If they can’t see what an awesome person you are, it’s their loss, hot stuff.”

  She smiled at him, but the sadness still lingered in her eyes.

  WHEN MATT WALKED out of the galley, he bumped into Ryce coming up the corridor.

  “Look, Val gave me a book,” Ryce said.

  Matt glanced at the book. It was dog-eared, the yellow pages fragile enough to crumble at the wrong touch. The faded cover read Slime Monsters from Outer Space! and depicted said monsters cavorting with a scantily clad busty blonde. Ryce was holding it as if it were a precious museum piece, his face alight with childlike happiness. He was always stunningly gorgeous, but when he smiled in genuine joy, it was like watching the sun rise over the ocean on old Earth. It made Matt happy in an absurd way.

  “I’ve never actually owned a real paper book before.”

  “I hope that doesn’t mean Val is giving away all his earthly possessions,” Matt said, tearing his gaze away from Ryce’s sparkling gray eyes. “Or, well, shipbound possessions.”

  “Of course not.” Ryce turned, and they both walked down the corridor, heading toward Ryce’s cabin by some unspoken mutual agreement. The cabins were too cramped for people to share comfortably on a day-to-day basis, so they just drifted in and out of each other’s living quarters as the mood took them. In any case, it was a good idea to have some breathing space once in a while, seeing as they were cooped up together for days on end.

  “In fact, we had a good talk,” Ryce said as the door slid open before them. “He agreed his actions had reflected poorly on the rest of the crew. We can’t afford getting caught in any criminal activity while looking for work.”

  Matt, who was far more lenient than Ryce on the concept of “criminal activity,” merely grunted noncommittally. It was surprising that this argument, over all others, could convince Val to cool his head and proceed with caution, but Matt was going to take whatever he could get. Besides, Val and Ryce seemed to have some sort of special connection, so it figured Ryce would be more likely to get through to him. Sometimes Matt envied that connection, but he couldn’t fault Ryce for wanting to talk to someone who came close to being his intellectual peer. God knew Matt wasn’t up to par in that regard.

  He sat on the bunk bed heavily, running his fingers through his hair.

  “God, I’m so ready for this day to be over. Gotta go to the Freeport admin to see what they can do about this Ander guy if Val files an official report on him. But first, Tony has set up a meeting for us tomorrow morning at the IMA branch office. If we’re lucky, we might get us a haulin
g contract.”

  “Do you want me to go with you?” Ryce ran his fingers gently over Matt’s temple, skimming above the pilot’s neuro-implants that created the link with the ship’s computer during flight. Matt hardly used his anymore except for routine checkups.

  Matt took his hand and turned it to kiss his palm. They were both still a bit self-conscious about these little gestures of intimacy, neither of them the overly affectionate type. Three weeks of living together as a couple were too short to negate lifelong habits—especially considering they were stumbling through the “get to know one another” phase of their budding relationship. But Matt couldn’t deny it felt good. Each touch was like a sip of cool water on a hot day, like a first taste of strong coffee in the morning—something to satisfy a craving that verged on need.

  “Definitely,” he said. “We can use every ounce of good impression, and you’re by far the most articulate. Though, to tell you the truth, I’d prefer someone stay here and keep an eye on Val, just in case.”

  “Don’t worry so much,” Ryce said. “Val promised me he wouldn’t do anything impulsive.”

  Matt nodded, but despite Ryce’s assurances, he had a very, very bad feeling about this.

  Chapter Four

  THE SHADOWS ALL lay in odd angles, and the perspective shifted without him moving. He knew it was a dream, but this knowledge didn’t make it any less terrifying. The memories he tried so hard to repress filtered into his subconscious anyway, feeding the nightmares.

  He was half-naked, strung by his arms to the ceiling with his feet barely touching the floor. He had to stand on tiptoes to ease the pain in his shoulder blades.

  He wasn’t alone. Every time he jerked gracelessly in his bonds, there was laughter and jeers, though he couldn’t see the faces of his tormentors clearly.