Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis (ebook reader ink .TXT) 📕

slowly and deliberately. The big guy standing behind him tensed his neck muscles. Edgar must have sensed it, because he cracked a grin and snickered to himself.

Slay turned to the bank of monitors on the wall and waved her handheld at it. An image of a modern, half-sphere station with a gleaming clear dome appeared on the screens. The 600-foot-tall cross protruded from the top of the dome.

“Jasper Station,” Slay said. “Home of the Believers.”

I traded a look with Batista and we both had the same thing on our mind: when did that place become the center of the verse? I couldn’t tell if Slay noticed the brief exchange.

“We have reason to believe the Roxelle Baker, which you probably all know as The Rox, will be attempting an attack on the station in less than a week. Normally, the federation would simply send a dozen warbirds to protect the station and intercept the attack, but in this case, there are special circumstances.”

“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” I noted.

“Indeed,” Slay agreed, annoyed by the interruption. I put up my hands in mock surrender.

She proceeded to explain there was an item aboard the Rox that the federation needed to acquire in order to ensure “safety and balance” in the verse. When Edgar asked exactly what that item was, she refused to answer, saying it was not relevant and that if we eventually needed to know, she’d inform us then. Edgar already knew what the federation was after, as it was the same thing Desmond wanted to get his hands on. It was really starting to scare me. I knew I’d have as much luck getting the answer out of Slay as I did Edgar, so I just nodded and continued to listen.

The reason they’d chosen my ship – and me, specifically – is that they needed someone to get aboard the Rox and secure the item. They had come to the same conclusion as Desmond: a wrecker was the best way in. And since I already had a bounty on my head, they had leverage.

“Why not a Silver Star ship?” I asked. “Plenty to choose from.”

“Because we don’t want this to fall into Jack Largent’s hands, either,” Slay responded.

Add one more complication to the plan, I told myself. The more I thought about the situation, the more I felt I was being dragged slowly toward my death, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

One question that had bothered me ever since Desmond enlisted me to do the very same thing for him and the Tracers was how they were so sure the Rox would need a wrecker in the first place. Now Slay was sure, too. When I asked her about it, she smiled.

“We’ve got that taken care of,” she replied.

For a fraction of a second, I saw surprise flash across Edgar’s face. He must have been wondering if Desmond’s plan had been compromised. Had the federation found out the Tracers were planning to cripple the Rox somehow, and they decided they could swoop in too? That didn’t make sense. If they knew that, then surely they would have known I was part of the plan as well. The rendezvous between the Stang and the Golden Bear that Slay’s Burnett had broken up would be a tipoff that I was involved, meaning the federation probably didn’t know about Desmond’s seemingly identical plot. They were just there to grab me.

Maybe those missiles they’d fired at the Stang were warning shots. Edgar has destroyed them in time, but maybe Slay was just trying to throw Desmond off the notion they were going to try and enlist me. It would’ve been a risky gamble, to assume I could either out-maneuver or somehow disable the missiles. I wanted to ask about that, but I tried to keep my questions to a minimum so I didn’t accidentally tip them off to the fact we were working for Desmond as well.

The other thing Slay didn’t realize was that Edgar – who she probably viewed as some random thug – was actually a former crew member of the Rox and also the Golden Bear, giving him maybe the best pedigree of any weapons specialist in the verse.

According to Slay, our role was simple. Get the Stang to Jasper Station in time to service the Rox, once the call went out. And it would go out, she assured us. Then, once aboard, we would work with Romy and Gareth (the beefy silent guy) to extract the item. We’d then meet up with the Burnett to transfer the item and our part of the deal would be fulfilled, and we could go on our merry way.

“Two problems,” I said, motioning to Romy and Gareth. “Her and him. The last thing I need is two more crew members on my ship. You want us to extract something, fine, we’ll do it. But I’m not bringing two more people I can’t trust onto my ship.”

“More?” Slay asked.

“You know what I mean,” I said, waving away my verbal stumble. I looked at Batista and Edgar with the best smile I could muster. “Are we in agreement?”

“He’s the captain,” Edgar said, doing his best impression of a dutiful subordinate. Batista also gestured as if to say it was my call.

Slay wasn’t fooled by the shows of deference. She evaluated the situation for a few moments and then came to a decision.

“Romy is non-negotiable,” she said. “She has expertise that none of you could possibly possess as it relates to the item we need to remove.”

“Yeah, and what expertise is that?” Edgar asked.

“I helped design it,” Romy said, speaking for the first time. She didn’t look up from her handheld, but if she had, she would see the grimace on Slay’s face. It was clear the admiral would’ve preferred Romy hadn’t divulged that information. Edgar was not only satisfied with that response, he was pleased with it.

“If she’s so smart, why don’t you just have her design another one