Dealers' Choice - Susan Hayes Page 0,62

team had made sure they had a map of the basic layout of the Malora, so Vic knew exactly where to go. It only took a few seconds to reach the open doors of the med-bay. “Get her settled. I want her secure before we disengage,” Caldwell pointed to an empty bed.

Vic placed Xori on it but couldn’t bring himself to move away from her side. “Xori’s safe in the med-bay. You good?” He asked his brother over their personal link.

“I’m good. Take care of her. I’ll be there as soon as Rossi stops asking me questions.”

“I’m sorry, but you need to let go of her. I can’t start the scanner until you’re clear.” Caldwell pointed to the stretch of wall near the door. “Grab hold of something and hang on tight. Depending on what happens next, this could get bumpy. I’ll secure the doctor.”

He went where he was told, belatedly noticing that Nyx was already standing there, one hand wrapped around a handle, her feet planted firmly on the deck.

“You’re a medic?” he asked as he joined her.

She scoffed. “Hell no. My job is to hurt people. Trip’s the one that fixes them afterward. I’m here for him.” She jerked her head toward the other bed. Eric Erben was lying on his side, holding a bloody towel to his face. His expression was one of annoyance, not pain, so Vic assumed whatever his injuries were, they weren’t critical.

“What happened?” Vic asked.

“That ship’s AI is a bitch. It deleted itself before I could lock it down, but it left a surprise for me. Good thing I wasn’t fully jacked in or I’d have more than a bloody nose right now.”

“You’re not supposed to be talking, Magi. Lie down, shut up, and let the system finish scanning you.”

Eric rolled his eyes, but he flopped onto his back and didn’t say anything else.

“Rank has its uses,” Caldwell started to chortle, but then the ship bucked, the engines came to life with a roar, and it was all Vic could do to keep his feet.

“Next verse, same as the first,” Eric muttered. “I’m getting really tired of having to evac from the Gray’s ships just before they blow them up. Don’t they get tired of it?”

“Not so far, anyway,” Caldwell said. He was holding fast to a handhold right beside the scanning system for Xori’s bed while the fingers of his free hand flew across the screen as he talked.

“Don’t let go of that handle. If they blew the ship, the shock wave will catch up with us any second now.” Nyx said.

“They do this a lot?”

“Uh huh.” Nyx nodded, relaxing slightly as the Malora leveled off. “The Grays live by the motto if we can’t have it, no one can.”

And that was what worried him. Not that he thought the Grays would come for him or Ward again. Vivian had made it clear they were a disappointing experiment, nothing more. But for the others: Nyx, Shadow, and now, Xori? They wouldn’t be safe until this fight was over. “We need to kill every last one of these bastards.”

“Yes, we do,” Nyx agreed, her words edged in ice.

Before Nyx could say anything else, a deep voice boomed out over the ship’s comms.

“This is Strak. We are away and clear. Please let go of my ship, now. She doesn’t like being groped by anyone but me.”

“Huh. No kaboom?” Eric said, then wilted under the medic’s gaze and lapsed into silence again.

“And in case you’re wondering why we weren’t hit with a shock wave, they went with explosive decompression this time. If the wonder twins hadn’t told us to haul ass, we’d all be sucking vacuum right now,” Strak informed them.

“That sneaky bitch,” Vic muttered.

“Who?” Nyx asked.

“Ariel. Or no, she’s calling herself Vivian now.”

All three of them stared at him for a long moment.

Nyx broke the silence first. “Vivian? Dark hair, hard face, weird laugh?”

“Sounds right. Thing is, that face isn’t hers. She stole it from a dead woman, Ariel Coal, our former handler.”

“Vivian was on that ship?” Caldwell asked.

He almost said yes, but he couldn’t be sure. “All we saw was a hologram. I thought she was there, but now…” he shrugged. The Grays were ruthless and more than capable of killing their own, but she hadn’t looked worried while she was trying to distract them, so either she was immune to open vacuum, or she wasn’t in any danger.

“She wasn’t there in person.” Xori joined the conversation. Her voice was soft and her