Escape from Olympus (The Falken Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Falken turned his head and saw that the first dragon had finally succumbed to the tranquilizer dart – it lay still, breathing slowly next to the snare. In the vehicle bay, he could see Brondi’s proxy lying in an unnatural tangle of limbs next to one of the research center’s trucks – the proxy’s limp, rag-doll attitude told him instantly that its bones were shattered, and it would not walk again.

  Scratch two proxies.

  Luthena stood at the entrance to the vehicle bay, rifle in hand. She spotted Falken watching her, and held up a hand. She mouthed: Don’t move.

  Then she turned and hurried back into the bay, slinging her rifle and pulling another snare device off of the storage shelves. Walking backwards, she dragged the case by one handle, tugging it toward the bay door. Falken remained on the ground, but moved his limbs experimentally. Other than the holes in his chest, the proxy seemed to be fine – his joints all rotated normally, and he could sense none of the tell-tale looseness in his limbs that suggested a broken bone.

  He turned his head slowly, cautiously looking for the dragon that had arrived last, but it was no longer atop the rock formation where he had last seen it. He turned back to watch Luthena. She had paused for a moment, getting a better grip on the carrying case. Then she stepped clear of the bay’s door.

  In a blur of speed, the last dragon tackled her from above – it had swooped down along the face of the mountain to catch her unawares. Luthena was knocked to the ground, and Falken saw her weapon tumble off her shoulder, rolling several yards away. The dragon landed on her a split second later, pinning her to the ground with its claws. Then it bent over, digging into its meal.

  Shit. Just me left.

  Slowly, Falken pushed his head up off the ground, searching. After a moment, he spotted what he was looking for: his tranquilizer gun lay less than ten yards away, where he had left it. Falken glanced at the eating dragon again, then jumped up and ran.

  He heard a snarl behind him, and a rush of wind, but he forced himself to stay focused on the gun – in a few strides, he was there. He dove forward, grabbing it with one hand and then rolling onto his back. The dragon, jaws still bloody from its recent kill, loomed over him. Falken fired instinctively, and saw the dart bury itself in the dragon’s skin in the center of its chest. The dragon screeched in alarm, and beat its chest with its wings. Falken pushed himself off the ground, turning to run, but he felt the dragon’s tail wrap around his legs, and he fell down again, face first this time. The dragon pounced on him, but Falken managed to twist onto his back, just as the dragon lunged at him. The bite missed, and the dragon’s teeth gouged the earth beside his head. It lunged again, and this time, Falken held the rifle up over his head. The rifle caught between the dragon’s jaws, and Falken, gritting his teeth, pushed back with all of the proxy’s might. The dragon’s carrion-scented breath wafted over him – it grunted and pushed, forcing the rifle slowly backward, its jaws creeping closer and closer. Then, with a noise between a groan and a sigh, it collapsed, unconscious, on top of him.

  Chapter 25

  Sprays of sparks flew off the sides of a temporary plate as the crew labored to weld it into place over the tear in the CGS Extremis’ hull. From her vantage point up in the bridge, Jiyake could see Chief Risley floating next to one of the younger members of the crew, supervising the weld job closely. As she watched, he patted the crewmember on the back, and then floated across to the welder on the far side of the metal plate, to check on their progress. Above the hull of the station, a group of dockworkers was busy detaching the bent crane boom from the cab, preparing to replace it.

  Jiyake frowned. Something just doesn’t feel right about this whole situation.

  She strode away from the viewport and took a seat at her station, then keyed a command into the computer. Video from the ship’s external cameras appeared. Jiyake rewound the tape, watching as several deck plates appeared to pop off the hull and disappear. Then a flame bloomed from the hull breach, and she saw a space suited person – herself, she realized – zoom into and out of the hull breach. Finally, the fire disappeared, and the crane’s arm raked across the hull. Jiyake stopped the tape.

  Okay, let’s watch it happen.

  The crane cab spun on its axle – Jiyake wasn’t sure, but she thought that was a standard safety measure that all crane operators did when first powering up. Then the boom extended, and swung over the CGS Extremis’ bow, before lowering into place. Jens had paused at that point, waiting nearly a minute, and then Jiyake watched, wincing, as the crane did its damage. She rewound and watched it again.

  Well, that minute-long pause before he jacked us up is a little odd, she thought. I don’t know why he paused.

  On a whim, she called up the ship’s other cameras, displaying multiple angles on her screen at once. Then she played through the crane accident several times, scanning the other cameras to see if anything else had happened at the same time. Jiyake double-tapped on a single camera, blowing it up to full screen.

  Starboard long range camera – showing the other docking arms along the station. On the screen, the Liberty Belle pulled out of her docking station, heading for space. Two docking arms down, a larger ship decoupled soon afterward, heading out along a similar vector.

  Harrison’s Control said they were holding inbound craft to keep the departure lanes clear for us, Jiyake remembered. They weren’t holding outbound craft, I guess … but, still. Everyone knew we were headed out on a rescue mission, it was all over the radio. So what asshole decided their timetable was more important than staying out of the way of a rescue?

  Jiyake queried the Extremis’ database for the ship’s identification and it appeared a moment later: Starfarer. Her computer provided tonnage and registration info – Jiyake paged through to more recent information.

  >>>Flight Plan / Destination: New Caledonia.

  >>>Cargo: custom shipping containers.

  Jiyake put her chin on her hands and played the video forward. The Starfarer had leapt to FTL less than a minute after the CGS Extremis was disabled, just ahead of the Liberty Belle, who had stuck around briefly to ensure Jiyake and her crew were safe.

  And New Caledonia is roughly along the vector the Starfarer left on. But the timing sure is … coincidental. I remember those shipping containers. Big crates, and they looked reinforced, too … definitely not a typical design.

  Jiyake opened the inspection forms she had filled out and spent a moment skimming them, but there was nothing useful in them. She pulled up a crew list and passenger manifest and then fed them to the computer as well, running the names against police databases.

  >>>No results.

  Jiyake frowned. None? No one on this ship’s crew has ever had even the slightest run-in with the law? Not even a parking ticket? … that’s odd.

  She double-checked the passenger manifest next, but found only one name on the list: Hoyt Cadellium. An internet search led her to the website of an investment firm, at which Cadellium appeared to be the chief executive.

  He’s a banker or an investor or something, Jiyake thought. Those guys usually fly in style, they don’t hitch rides on cargo ships.

  Her wristpad buzzed; Jiyake glanced at it, then answered the call. “Detective Adnan, how are you?” she asked.

  “Good, Commander. I’ve got a couple developments I’d like to share with you, if you have a minute.”

  “Of course,” Jiyake said. “At the station?”

  “Actually, I was in the area, so I just dropped by. I’m at the docking tube outside the Extremis right now.”

  “Oh, okay. Hang on one sec.” Jiyake pressed an intercom at her station. “Officer of the Watch.”

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “There’s a detective hanging out by our docking tube. Do me a favor and escort him up to the bridge?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Adnan arrived a few minutes later, and Jiyake pulled a spare chair over from the navigation station. He sat down gratefully. “Thanks. Been running aroun
d a bit.”

  “I guess so,” Jiyake said. “I didn’t expect you to get back to me so soon.”

  Adnan shrugged. “Some cases drag out, but a lot tend to break in a matter of hours. There’s not much we can’t figure out in this day and age.”

  “Apparently,” Jiyake said. “Coffee? I think we have soda down in the wardroom, too.”

  “I’m fine, thanks,” Adnan said. He pulled out a datapad and activated it, sifting through to a notes application. “Okay, here’s what I’ve been up to. I started with Jens’ wife – paid her a quick visit at home. She basically repeated what she told me over the phone: Jens has been acting a little distant, but she doesn’t know why. He called her this morning after the accident and apologized in tears, then hung up.”

  “Same story he gave,” Jiyake said.

  “Yup,” Adnan agreed. “I pulled phone logs just to confirm their story, and they did talk. But … the timestamp on the call was off.”

  “What do mean, ‘off’?”

  “I mean that Jens called his wife to apologize before he hit your ship with his crane. She just assumed it was afterward, and hell, I did, too. But there’s no doubt: he got the crane all set up, then called her, then went ahead and hit you.”

  Jiyake snapped her fingers. “That explains the pause.”

  “The pause?”

  Jiyake nodded. “I was watching the video back, too – he lined the crane up, then waited for a minute, then hit us.”

  “Right,” Adnan said. “He was calling her.”

  “He was apologizing to her for hitting us, before he’d even done it. So he knew what he was about to do – he meant to do it.”

  “Looks like it,” Adnan said. “And I think I know why. I don’t think he was apologizing to his wife for the crane thing. Well, not just for that.”

  “What else, then?” Jiyake asked.

  “Well,” Adnan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Here’s where it gets a little awkward. I did a location trace on Jens over the past two weeks, and found he mostly stuck to the usual spots – home, his normal crane assignments for work, a couple shops and restaurants, and a bar he hangs out at most evenings before going home.”

  “Okay,” Jiyake said. “Why’s that awkward?”

  “Because he also spent two hours in a motel one evening after leaving the bar. And according to video surveillance at the bar and the motel, he wasn’t alone.”

  “Ah,” Jiyake said. “And I’m guessing the lady in question was not his wife.”

  “No,” Adnan said. “She was not.”

  Jiyake put her hands behind her head, frowning. “So you think he was apologizing to his wife for that, not what he was about to do with the crane?”

  “Maybe,” Adnan said. “Or maybe a little bit of both.”

  “Okay, I buy that. But … why sabotage the Extremis at all?” Jiyake asked. “The whole crane thing still doesn’t fit. Nobody throws away their job and trashes someone else’s ship just because they’re having an affair.”

  “No,” Adnan said. “They don’t. But Jens wasn’t having an affair.”

  “Well, don’t tell me he took some strange lady to a motel room to play checkers with her.”

  Adnan chuckled. “No, ma’am. The woman was an escort – she’s fully licensed to work here on Harrison’s. She’s also … uh … very highly regarded in her field. ‘High class,’ I think the term is.”

  Jiyake arched an eyebrow. “So Jens has expensive tastes.”

  “Too expensive,” Adnan said. “Way beyond his means – we’re talking a couple weeks’ pay for those two hours. And in fact, Jens didn’t pay her at all.”

  “Now you’re starting to lose me,” Jiyake said.

  “Yeah, remember how I said Jens might be over his head in something? That’s looking more and more likely. I spoke with the escort next. She told me she was recruited by an anonymous third party several weeks ago. They offered her double her normal rate – half in advance – to approach and seduce Jens.”

  Jiyake’s frown deepened, and then she looked up suddenly. “Blackmail,” she said.

  “That’s what it looks like to me,” Adnan said. “It all fits. Jens was set up – it would have been too easy to tail him and the girl leaving the bar, and catch them coming out of the motel a few hours later. Photos, video … it doesn’t matter. All they would need to do is threaten to send a copy to his wife.”

  “If that’s true, then it’s likely that the Extremis was the target all along,” Jiyake said, straightening up in her chair. “Somebody wanted us out of the picture.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Adnan said. “That’s my conclusion, as well. But the question is: who?”

  Jiyake rubbed at her forehead with her hand, and studied Adnan for a moment. “I have a hunch, Detective,” she said.

  “Hunches are good,” Adnan said. “‘A wild theory’s better than no theory at all,’ as my old captain used to say.”

  Jiyake played the footage of the Liberty Belle and the Starfarer leaving the dock for Adnan, and explained what she had turned up in the ship’s records.

  Adnan pursed his lips. “They had an unusual passenger, and unusual cargo ….”

  “… and a crew with a perfectly clean criminal record,” Jiyake added.

  “… okay, and that,” Adnan allowed. “And they left at the same time all of this was going down. That’s all circumstantial, honestly. It’s worth looking into, but … what’s their motive?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know,” Jiyake said, slumping in her chair and shaking her head. “I’ve got a feeling this is all interrelated somehow, I just don’t know how.”

  Adnan nodded. “I know the feeling. Gotta give it time,” he said, standing up to leave.

  “What if we don’t have time?” Jiyake asked. “What if it’s all going down right now?”

  Adnan frowned. “Well … I dunno. Where were you guys headed before the accident?”

  “Olympus,” Jiyake told him. “To support the Liberty Belle on their rescue mission.”

  “Can you think of any reason why someone wouldn’t want you to go to Olympus?” Adnan asked.

  “No ….” Jiyake’s voice trailed off. “We can’t even land on Olympus. But come to think of it, there’s been some suspicious stuff happening at Olympus in the last twenty-four hours, too.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like one of the tourist ships crashing out of the blue, and the other tourist ship’s emergency beacon malfunctioning.” Jiyake’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit. What if that emergency beacon wasn’t malfunctioning?” She swiveled in her seat, and keyed her long range radio. “Come in Adrenaline Junkies.”

  At the rear of the bridge, the hatch slid open, and Chief Risley strode in. “Hull’s all patched up, ma’am,” he reported, before noting the detective.

  Jiyake held up a finger for silence. “Adrenaline Junkies, Adrenaline Junkies, this is CGS Extremis, come in, over.”

  “Extremis, this is Liberty Belle, what’s up?” Captain Muir’s voice replied.

  Jiyake frowned. “I’m still getting an emergency beacon signal from the Adrenaline Junkies, Captain,” Jiyake said. “Can you give me a status?”

  There was a long pause, during which time Jiyake’s brows knitted even closer together.

  Finally, Muir spoke. “Uh, no, sorry – I don’t have an update on the Adrenaline Junkies. Maybe they’re having comm problems, too?”

  “That’s an awful lot of electrical issues,” Jiyake said.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Extremis,” Muir replied.

  “Well, what’s your status?” Jiyake asked, changing tacks.

  “Good news on that front: all passengers and crew survived the Ecolympus crash, and managed to relocate to the research center. We’re preparing to descend to retrieve them.”

  Jiyake digested this news in silence, then punched the Transmit button again. “Acknowledged. Keep us posted on your status.”

  “Roger, Extremis,” Muir replied. “Be advise
d: we’re expecting heavy cloud cover later this evening. Looks like a storm’s coming. Could interfere with communications. Liberty Belle, out.”

  Risley rubbed a hand along the back of his neck. “What the hell’s she talking about? Since when have a few clouds interfered with long-range comms?”

  “They don’t,” Jiyake said, chewing the inside of her cheek. “But her pilot likes to say that storms are a bad sign – they bring the dragons.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Risley asked.

  “It means Muir’s trying to tell us something,” Jiyake decided. “She’s in trouble.”

  Chapter 26

  Falken gasped, and pushed the sensory displacement helmet off his head. The pod swung upright, draining of fluid, and he stepped out of it to find Luthena, Brondi, and Kuda waiting for him.

  “Did you get it?” Luthena asked.

  “Yeah,” Falken said. “It’s not tied down to anything, but I got a tranquilizer in it.”

  “Did you lose the proxy?” Brondi asked.

  “No,” Falken said. “But it’s pinned under the dragon right now.”

  “Head for the conference room,” Kuda said.

  “We can’t change?” Brondi asked, indicating his dripping wet bodysuit.

  “No,” Kuda said.

  They found Raynard awake and sitting at the conference room table. Kuda took his pistol back from Shep when they entered, while Falken and the two researchers took their seats.

  “Call the ship,” Kuda said. “We got two dragons.”

  “How are you feeling, Raynard?” Falken asked quietly, as Shep placed the call.

  “Kinda wish I was still passed out,” Raynard told him. “This trip is starting to really suck.”

  “Yeah,” Falken agreed.

  Vina made eye contact with Falken and shook her head slightly from side to side.

  Damn it, Falken thought. She couldn’t get a message out.

  * * *

  “Take us in,” Auresh ordered, standing in the Liberty Belle’s cockpit with Cadellium at his side.