Break Out - By Nina Croft Page 0,30

have a next move, or whether he should just wait it out and see what happened next.

But he was fed up with waiting.

Patience had never been his strong suit.

Tannis would be furious if he got them all blown to hell, or even if he got them blown up just a little bit, and they missed the deadline to intercept the transport ship. He briefly considered discussing his suspicions with her, but dismissed the idea almost at once—however mercenary Tannis was, she wouldn’t risk her crew, and he wasn’t ready to give up on this yet. Besides, he didn’t think the risk was that big. It all depended on…

The door to the bridge opened, interrupting his thoughts.

Skylar stood there, arms folded across her chest, her gaze narrowing on him and Janey. “Daisy keeps rambling about a space cruiser. Is something happening?”

Suddenly, he knew what he was going to do. He was going to take the fight to the enemy—if they were actually the enemy. He really didn’t know, and that irritated the hell out of him. He gave Skylar what he hoped was an enigmatic smile. “It might be.”

“And are you going to tell us what?”

“Why spoil the surprise?” Pushing past her, he strode onto the bridge and sat in his chair. Next to him, Daisy watched, wide-eyed, while the others came to stand behind him. “You might want to sit down and fasten yourselves in. The ride might get a little bumpy.”

They didn’t move. “Actually, before you go, Janey, can you give me the last coordinates?”

“Last coordinates of what?” Skylar asked.

He ignored the question and waited while Janey reached across and punched in the numbers. She was right; the ship was behind them, just out of range.

He pressed his comm unit. “Tannis?”

“What?” Her tone was grumpy, and he suspected what he was about to say wouldn’t cheer her up any.

“If you’re not already strapped into anything right now, you might want to consider it.”

“What the…”

He closed off the connection and settled back in his seat, locking his safety harness in place. Everyone was still standing. Was no one capable of taking orders anymore?

“Sit,” he roared.

Rico gave them ten seconds to comply, and then hit the new coordinates. The Cazador slowed, shuddered, but before the ship had time to come to a complete stop, he hit the boosters and sent her into overdrive. The engines shrieked as she spun and shot off in the opposite direction, the force of her speed pushing him back into his chair.

Behind him, someone crashed to the floor. They really should have listened.

It was only seconds before he saw the speck of the space cruiser on the screen. They were hurtling toward it, but he didn’t slow down. They had to do this quickly, before the other ship realized what was happening.

The ship grew bigger, definitely the same one from the attack the other day. If attack was the right word. He locked on the lasers and fired. The Cazador wasn’t powerful enough to do any real damage, but he was betting he could still wind them up.

Now was the moment they should retaliate. But he didn’t think they would. Of course, if he was wrong they would all be space dust in about two seconds, and while he liked to think he was never wrong, there was always a first time.

The other ship wouldn’t even have to shoot. They could just keep going, slam into them and El Cazador would be smashed into tiny little pieces. The bigger ship probably wouldn’t sustain more than a scratch.

He held his breath, fighting the urge to change course as the image of the space cruiser filled the screen.

Mierda. He was wrong. They were going to crash.

At the last minute, the cruiser veered. The power of her back-thrust washed over El Cazador, rolling her, and for a minute, he hung upside down from the harness. He ignored the crash and subsequent yelp as someone collided with the ceiling.

When the ship righted itself, the screen was empty. Rico released his breath and assessed the place for damage. A few red buttons blinked on the console, but nothing too drastic.

Skylar was picking herself up off the floor. He should have guessed she’d be the one to disobey orders. She winced and rubbed a spot on her hip, but otherwise she appeared okay. Perhaps he would offer to kiss her bruises better… later.

Everyone else was where they should be. He paused to study Al. The boy’s eyes gleamed with excitement. He caught