Chapter 124: An Unexpected and Unwanted Reunion
“Why do I find you in the unlikeliest of places?”
—Roezan Weth, a character in The Chronicles of Izolta series
“Baeus, stay back,” Zaina said, keeping her cipher trained on Reida. Both of the pirate’s hands were in sight, and neither held a gun—it looked like she didn’t have one on her at all, unless it was tucked away in the backpack slung over her shoulder. She wore shabby, gray light armor over a tan blouse and black slacks. Somehow Reida’s lack of an outward threat only made Zaina more suspicious.
“So,” Reida continued with a disappointed smile, flicking pink-and-blonde locks from her face. Though Zaina would never admit it, Reida’s appearance was quite pleasing. “You really did become a lancer after all. Congratulations!”
Zaina’s eyebrow raised. “I thought you hated lancers.”
“Yeah, but not you.” She glanced over at Baeus. “Oh, hello, there. Are you on a mission with my friend?”
“You’re not my friend!” Zaina replied through clenched teeth. “You’re a liar and a murderer!”
Reida smiled—Zaina hated how charming she was. “Yeah, guilty on both counts.”
“You killed Drel Ofrans. You killed all those people on Otmonzas!”
“Guilty again.”
“How can you even show your face after what you did? How—”
“You know,” Reida said, “you have company coming your way. You might want to get back to your ship before they get here. I know you hate fighting.”
Zaina’s eyes narrowed. This had to be a lie. “Yeah, right.”
Reida shrugged. “Believe it or don’t. Just like you can believe it or not that I can help you find who you’re looking for.”
“What?” Zaina shook her head. “That makes no—how do you know who we’re looking for?”
Reida smiled. “I can explain everything on your ship. But you really will have company in about three minutes. This is Tralgon territory, and they don’t take kindly to interlopers.”
Baeus gasped. “The Tralgon Cartel?”
“The one and the same,” she said. “I’m assuming if you know anything about them that you understand you probably don’t want to wait around to find out if I’m telling the truth.”
Baeus turned to Zaina and said in a quiet voice, “I think we should leave. You know her?”
“Yeah,” Zaina said, “and we can’t trust her.”
“She says she has a lead,” Baeus said. “It might be worth it to find out.”
“We absolutely cannot bring her along. She’s pure evil.”
Baeus sighed. “Sad to say, the Order’s probably worked with worse.”
Zaina groaned. She hated this, but Baeus seemed inclined to get out of there in a hurry. “Fine—fine. Come on, let’s go.”
Reida happily clapped her hands together. “Hooray! This is going to be fun.”
That only gave Zaina further pause. Reida’s definition of fun was different from anyone who wasn’t a violent murderer. This was a bad idea, and she knew it—but if push came to shove, Zaina could handle a single pirate, right? Plus, it presented an opportunity to apprehend Reida when her guard was dropped. Maybe she would pay for her crimes after all. This was a chance to right some wrongs.
They quickly made their way to the ship.
“This is yours?” Reida remarked. “It’s so small.”
“What, you think the Order of Riiva assigns warships to us?” Zaina shot back.
“Hey, no judgment here,” Reida said.
The moment everyone was on board Baeus said, “Navigator, activate. Immediate extraction.”
“Destination?”
“Let’s start by leaving the atmosphere,” Reida said. “I doubt they’ll chase us at that point.”
Zaina glared at her. “Because no one was really coming, were they? This was all a ruse to get on our ship.”
Reida shrugged and pointed out the bottom bay-window in the cockpit. “You tell me.”
Zaina peered outside—armored troop carriers were landing all around Atlande, and rifle-wielding men in full battle gear were spilling out and surrounding the wellstop.
She shook her head—Reida telling the truth about one thing didn’t change anything. “And here I was, happily going about my life hoping I’d never see you again.”
Reida rolled her eyes. “Last I checked, you’re the one who bailed out on the mission when things got a little heavy.”
“If by heavy you mean when your pirate friends started massacring civilians, then yeah!”
Baeus intervened. “So, Zaina, you haven’t introduced me to your—enemy? I guess?”
“I’m Reida Qarys, pirate by trade,” she said, placing a hand over her heart. “You must be one of the scholars I’ve heard so much about. Strange to see one out in the wild.”
“Yes, well, thank you for notifying us of the danger. What circumstances brought you to Calkhor in the first place?”
“Oh, you know,” Reida said. “A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Girl’s gotta eat, you know?”
Baeus turned toward her, his face serious. “If you’re going to work with the Order in any capacity, I’m going to need full honesty and transparency from you. Otherwise we’ll take the ship to CID and see if they can’t get the truth.”
All the color drained from Reida’s face. She glanced over to Zaina, who met her stare with a smile. They had the upper hand for the moment.
“There’s no need to be hasty,” Reida said in a calm voice. “If you really must know, we’re after the same thing. Kazlo had a contract to do a job for us before Tralgon swooped in and took him.”
“Took him?” Zaina asked.
“Yeah, they took him. Kidnapped, probably tortured knowing those psychopaths, and then forced to work for them. Tralgon doesn’t fuck around.”
Baeus jumped in and said, “I thought the Tralgon Cartel mostly stuck with drugs.”
Reida shrugged. “Mostly, yeah. But they get into anything that they think will make them money. Drugs, girls, weapons, you name it. Guess they wanted a new staging area, because they took over Atlande last year.”
He asked, “And no one did anything?”
Reida shook her head. “Tralgon’s head sits at the table of the Big 5 on Tedano. There’s nothing anyone could do unless they wanted to start a civil war. Anyone who speaks up gets a visit from the Mad Pilot.”
“So,” Zaina said, frustrated, “where is he, then?”
“Kazlo? He’d be somewhere Tralgon controls. I’ve got it narrowed down to Calkhor, which wasn’t the case, or Tralgon’s fortified data center on Dralkooth.”
Baeus said, “Dralkooth sounds much likelier. Why even come here, then?”
“Exhaust every possibility,” Reida replied. “Plus, the leader here’s a bit more rational than a lot of the other Tralgon captains—at least, that’s what I thought. I came to parley with him on behalf of Captain Danjai. Unfortunately, the parley went sideways, and well, long story short, a few people are dead, my ship got seized, and I needed a ride to get the fuck out of there.”
Zaina crossed her arms. “And that’s when you so happened to run into us.”
Reida shook her head. “Actually, I was on my way to Atlande to steal a ship.”
Baeus raised an eyebrow. “And how were you going to do that?”
Reida’s head tilted to the side. “How honest did you want me to be?”
“Completely,” he replied.
“Okay,” she said. “Well, stealing a ship always depends on who you’re stealing from. If you get most guys drunk enough and act all cute and interested, it’s easy. Sometimes you have to sleep with them before the chance arises, but if you’re alone with them, you could also just kill them. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t—it really depends on my mood. Being that I was in a hurry today, I’d probably have gone with the killing option since that’s easier.”
Baeus shot Zaina a concerned glance. “Oh, well—I see.”
She shrugged. “You asked, didn’t you?”
“I—well, yes, I suppose I did.”
“And now you know better than to ask a lady about her private affairs,” she said. “So—Dralkooth. Shall we?”
Baeus started, “Set course for—”
“Hold on,” Zaina cut him off. Then she turned to Reida and asked, “What do you want with him?”
“Huh?”
“You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?”
Reida’s eyebrow rose. “No—Captain Danjai needs him for a job.”
Zaina glared, staring into her eyes. “Well, I need his help with something very important, so don’t fuck this up for me. Okay? You get in my way at all and I’ll—”
“What?” Reida rolled her eyes. “You’ll throw me in lancer jail?”
“No,” Zaina said. “Regular jail. Or if it comes to it—”—she summoned her cipher—“—I know how to use this now.”
Sporting a pouty expression, Reida let out a sigh. “You’re so much less fun this time around. What happened to the lovable, gullible little wallflower I met back on Otmonzas?”
“You burned her,” Zaina shot back. “But this time I know better than to trust you.”
Reida’s reply was a coy smile. “You know, there’s an advantage to working with someone you know you can’t trust.”
“Yeah? What the hell could that possibly be?”
“You don’t have to wonder.”
Zaina shook her head. Ain’t that the fucking truth.
“So,” Baeus cut in. “Dralkooth?”
“Yeah,” Zaina said, her guard having doubled. She didn’t fully trust Baeus, and she didn’t trust Reida at all. Part of her felt like going anywhere with that pirate was a mistake, much less with something this important on the line. On the flip side, since it was that important, she had to take whatever risk was necessary.
She glanced at Gizmo. It’ll all be worth it. I hope.