Scent of Treachery by Smith, T.L. (free books to read txt) 📕

in the ruse. “…five of us, the others can’t be talking to you.” She tipped her head at Breeze. “You have your own tells, Capt. Breeze, like the unconscious head tip to listen to reports. If I can see them, so will others.”

“You’re right!” Breeze nodded. “I’ll pay attention to my gestures.”

“No, the good doctor is right.” Dolan grit his teeth. “Most tells are unconscious reflexes. It takes practice to lie effectively.” He headed for Jayda’s work chair. “All communications need to be through me, so there’ll only be one voice in your ear. Once we determine their intentions, we can open the line.”

“Agreed.” Breeze approached Jayda. “With all the station’s monitoring systems active, Nick can track our every move…” She gestured to where Dolan was making himself comfortable, activating screens. “…while pretending to monitor our ship.”

Seeing anyone in her chair grated on Jayda’s nerves. Seeing Dolan…Nick… making himself so at home only rankled her more, but this was the plan. If all went well it wouldn’t last long. “Okay, let’s go make a visual check on the med lab. That’ll be ground-zero.”

“Let’s hope not.” Breeze waited for Jayda to take the lead, then fell in beside her, leaving Nick to the galley.

They didn’t speak to each other and Jayda didn’t push it. Once in the med bay Jayda saw Taylor applying a mask to one man’s face. Adams sat in his stasis tube, a mask on his face and bandages covering his chest. That was all that would be visible through the observation plate of the tube.

All the patients had been rearranged, the most injured at the back of the lab. The ones nearest the door were minor burns or respiratory. They could get up and fight. Taylor dressed their wounds to make them look worse than they were.

It all looked realistic, except for the two officers faking it. Jayda threw up her hands. “This is all wrong.”

“What’s the problem?” Taylor came over to the bed Jayda stood next to. Her hands went to the bandage over the man’s leg.

“No, the dressing is fine.” Jayda looked at the man’s face, leaning close. “Have you ever been seriously hurt?”

The man shrugged. “Broke my arm on a training exercise.”

“Yeah, well show me how that felt, before someone fixed you up.”

The man put on a grimace, holding it for her.

“Pfft, that’s the best you can do?”

Taking it as a challenge, he tried harder, the grimace turning into a snarl.

“See, that looks fake because he’s faking it.” Jayda took Taylor’s arm and pulled her to another man who really did have burns. “Tell me what you see.”

Taylor stared at the man, Breeze taking the other side of the bed. “Yeah, we didn’t think about that.”

“About what?” Breeze looked closer.

“Real pain.” Taylor jerked her head to the first man. “It’s not in his eyes. We’re trained to look because some people try to downplay it, but the eyes never lie.” She looked back at the walking wounded. “We don’t have time to change the plan.”

“Maybe not.” Jayda went to the med cabinets and looked through two before she found what she wanted. Returning to the man faking his pain she pulled part of his leg bandage loose. Before he could ask what she was doing, she squirted gel onto his leg and slapped the bandage back into place.

It took about ten seconds before he started squirming around. “What the hell is that?” He reached for the bandage on his leg.

Taylor slapped his hands, then took the tube and grinned. “Don’t worry, it’s basically harmless.”

“Tell that to my leg, it’s burning like hell.”

“Well, then you got an idea what the others are feeling.” Jayda smirked.

Taylor shook her head at his complaining. “It’s undiluted Methyl Salicylate, same stuff you use for sore muscles. Most you’ll get is a rash.” She turned to the other officer. “Your turn. Got to look like you’re suffering.”

He sneered, but stripped the bandage off his shoulder. “Get it over with.”

Jayda watched Taylor work her way through the others needing a boost in their discomfort. Breeze scowled. “You don’t think this is a bit too much, the squirming is a bit obvious.”

Taylor pocketed the tube. “It’ll taper off by the time the GR ship gets here.”

“Okay, long as they’re able to do what they have to.” Breeze bowed her head to Jayda. “Shall we proceed?”

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

 

Jayda followed the captain to the docking bay, checking on the position of the Dolan 4. It hung secured from the robotic arm. Smaller bots scurried over her hull, disappearing to the other side. Jayda had the computer run a scan for life forms. Static filled the screen, overload from venting fuel cells.

“Looks good to me. There was enough leakage to dissuade anyone from taking a closer look.” Jayda switched off the screen. “What’s their ETA?”

“This is Nick.” Dolan’s voice responded. “ETA in ten minutes.” The message repeated ship wide. A light flashed towards the station, from one of the bots. “Message received on the Dolan 4.”

“Then we’re as ready as can be for whatever comes.” Breeze fingered the pistol on her hip, the only person typically expected to carry a weapon.

“You know they’re going to take that the first chance they get.”

“Counting on it. I have two backups.” Breeze let go of her weapon. “Do you need anything before they get here?”

“Hope that I’m wrong and this is over.” Jayda could feel Breeze staring at her. She returned a glare. “What?”

“It won’t be over, either way. Say these people are the bad guys and we get the upper hand. There’s still whoever started this. If these guys are the real GR crew that means there’s still someone else waiting to hit the station. Nick tried to tell you that. Someone’s out to get you. You can’t stay here!”

“If all they want is the perfume, they can have it.” Jayda snapped, but deep in her stomach a knot formed. “I can’t leave the station.”

Breeze rolled her eyes. “I get this is your home, but your life