War Criminals by Gavin Smith (ereader for textbooks .TXT) 📕

angry. ‘Do you get that we’re not actually toy soldiers? That we’re living, feeling people, just like you? It’s bad enough that you put bombs in our heads—’ he tapped the side of his skull ‘—but we also have to live in fear of you just flipping out and killing us when you hear something you don’t like.’

‘I’m sorry!’ It had practically exploded out of her.

Torricone didn’t say anything. He glanced behind him at where the hologram of Christ on his cross had been just moments before.

‘I mean, you pick a fight every time you see me, what’s that about? Are you just trying to hurt me?’ she asked more quietly. ‘Do you not get that I don’t care about these things, that I’m not … wired up properly?’

Why are you telling him this? Her internal voice was a scream.

‘You certainly seemed to care earlier,’ he said softly.

That made her stop.

‘It wasn’t about …’

Torricone just watched her.

‘I like you, Miska.’ He pointed between the two of them. ‘I know … everybody knows that there’s something between us, even if you won’t admit it. It’s going to get me killed.’

‘Maybe,’ she said, looking down. ‘So what? We both know that nothing can come of it. You going to pull my hair every time you see me?’

‘It’s not like that.’

‘Then what’s it like?’ Miska hissed, the venom in her voice surprising her. Because it did hurt. Every time.

‘I got a second chance.’

Miska frowned. Pavor/Phobos, the Small God entity that had inhabited Teramoto’s body, had run Torricone through with a sword. The car thief should be dead. Only jumping into the artefact had kept him alive. He had been fully healed when they had emerged from it some hours later.

‘So, what?’ Miska nodded to where the hologram of Christ had hung in the air. ‘You’re resurrected? Got religion? Is that why you’re so fucking judgemental? Maybe you want to martyr yourself like Christ? Make mommy proud of you for once?’ She saw him flinch just a little at this last. It didn’t make her feel good.

‘I’ve never not had religion,’ he told her, ‘but if I get a second chance then what kind of a coward would I be if I didn’t speak up? Because somebody’s got to. What you’re doing is wrong and you need to stop.’

She regarded him carefully. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t said before. Except this time …?

‘Maybe you’re right about us,’ she said carefully, ‘but you keep doing what you’re doing and that’ll fade and you’ll become just another irritant.’

She turned to leave.

‘See, that’s the thing,’ he said. Miska paused. ‘Neither of us can be what the other one wants.’

Miska left the chapel.

The Central Concourse was strangely quiet as Nyukuti and Miska made their way down it. All the viz screens still seemed to be playing the story of the massacre on the aerostat.

‘Hangman-Actual to Hangman-One-Actual,’ a very harried sounding Vido said over a direct comms link. ‘Look, don’t shoot the messenger but I’ve got some more bad news for you.’

‘What?’ Miska subvocalised through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the stares from the few bar patrons on the Central Concourse.

‘The Sneaky Bitch just docked,’ he told her.

‘What?’ Miska demanded as she approached Raff’s hotel. She had no idea what he was talking about.

‘The Crimson Sisterhood. Captain Gosia Tesselaar’s ship,’ Vido told her. Then it clicked into place. It was one of the corsairs that had attacked them when they had left the asteroid belt freeport of Maw City in the Sirius System.

Shit! she thought. It was the last thing she needed at the moment, but frankly unless they started firing on the Daughter it was going to be a case of having to wait and see what they were up to. She knew that Tesselaar wanted all the male members of the Crimson Sisterhood pirate organisation released from the Daughter. This included the captain’s own man, who was currently down on Ephesus as part of the flight crew of one of the big Harpy drop shuttles, along with a number of the other Crimson Sisterhood pirates. Just for a moment she was tempted to give Tesselaar what she wanted for a quiet life, but that would set a dangerous precedent.

Suddenly Miska found herself standing in the shade. She looked up to see a large, implant-scarred, bullet-headed individual that she suspected had been injecting himself with silverback gorilla hormones. Glancing around she realised that there were several more approaching her and Nyukuti. She guessed they were members of the Dogs of Love.

‘So this is—’ the gorilla started. He stopped when Miska levelled her gauss pistol at him.

‘I don’t have the time,’ she told him. ‘Vido, there’s nothing we can really do about the Sneaky Bitch,’ she subvocalised over the comms link. ‘We’re supposed to be confined to the ship.’ She heard a pop from behind her and then a cry of pain as Nyukuti shot one of the DoL mercenaries with a hardgel round from his PDW’s over-barrel 25mm grenade launcher. ‘Make Salik’s security people aware that they’re known pirates.’

‘Will do,’ Vido told her.

‘Back off,’ Miska told the gorilla, gesturing with her gun.

‘I’ve still got a few people on the station. I can see if we can get eyes on Tesselaar and her people,’ Vido said over the comms link.

‘If you can do that without getting us into more trouble, then sure,’ Miska told him. She glanced behind her to see Nyukuti practically back to back with her, his PDW at his shoulder, covering the DoL mercs trying to surround them.

‘What’s up?’ Vido asked.

‘The dogs are circling,’ Miska told him. ‘No offence,’ she said to the gorilla. ‘Look, tell your people we didn’t kill your guys … well, we killed some of them but it was a fight. We certainly didn’t torture anybody to death, that was Triple S when they relieved us.’

Somehow the gorilla didn’t look convinced, but they were all backing away from the guns, helping the merc that Nyukuti had shot to his feet.

‘Miska …’ Nyukuti