maybe not all relationships that started with lies also had to end with them.
30
Leon
LEON GRUMBLED TO HIMSELF as he stood over the broken-down parts of a baby crib. Bonebreak had agreed to the safe room idea, but only if Leon forfeited his cut of each smuggling run, which was extortion if he’d ever heard of it. But he’d begrudgingly agreed, and Bonebreak’s underlings had taken him to this dusty storeroom that, as best he could tell from the smell, used to house rancid cheese.
“Why don’t these bloody things come with instructions?” he muttered to himself, picking up a piece that might have been a railing. It was the same crib he’d busted out of when he’d first met the Mosca, pink penguin bedding and all. Beside it sat a stack of baby supplies he’d managed to scrounge. Some tiny cowboy pajamas. A bottle with dancing giraffes on it. A stack of old shirts advertising a dentist in San Diego that he figured they could use for diapers.
“Let’s see, this part matches this part. . . .” He fumbled with a screw, and cursed as the entire crib fell apart again. “Well, shit.”
He seriously needed a hammer, or whatever super-advanced alien tool would stick two pieces of wood together. He sauntered through the halls of Bonebreak’s lair toward one of the back rooms. It was in a sector Bonebreak said was off-limits, but the hell if he was going to rebuild that crib with spit and duct tape alone.
“Hey, anybody here?” He stuck his head into a few empty rooms. “Hello?”
He riffled through a few crates but found nothing useful, and kept searching. All the doors were unlocked except the last one, at the end of the hall. He shoved it with his shoulder, but it was stuck.
He backed up, aiming his shoulder with the artificial shielding, and raced toward the door. He felt the force of the impact all the way to his teeth, but the door buckled open. He rubbed his shoulder, then pushed the door all the way open.
He stopped.
What the hell?
Bonebreak and his men stood in a circle beneath a ship. A real goddamn ship. It was a clunker to be sure, painted a pukey shade of green, but there it was. All docked, everything official. Mosca writing on the side. Spare parts and tools lined the walls. A goddamn ship in a goddamn flight room Bonebreak had told him was off-limits.
“You liar!” Leon barked. “What happened to forty years before the next ship returns?”
Bonebreak turned, and Leon caught sight of what they were all gathered around. A dead body lay in their midst. Upon closer inspection, Leon noticed the red-soled boots of the Mosca crew’s former second in command. He also noticed the knife jutting out of the second’s back.
“Uhh . . . on second thought, I’ll come back later.” Leon whirled.
“Stay.” Bonebreak’s voice crackled with static. He stepped around the second’s sprawled arm. “This is just a little housekeeping. So. You got curious and came exploring, hmm?”
Leon held up his hands, stuttering to think, which was hard while staring at a dead body. “Just, uh, my mistake.”
“Well, now you know. There is a ship. Yes. If I had told you as much, I would never hear the end of it. Take me home, Bonebreak. I miss my family. I miss taco night. I miss my kitty-cat.” Bonebreak made a disgusted sound from behind his mask. “Do you really think you’re the first human we’ve worked with? I’ve heard it all, boy.”
Bonebreak’s disdain was starting to wear on Leon. He narrowed his eyes, darting his gaze between the dead crew member and the ship. “You should have told me anyway.”
“You work for me, not the other way around. My second in command had a problem understanding that.” He stepped right on the Mosca’s dead body, whose bones snapped beneath his feet. “Do you have a problem too?”
“Me?” Leon winced as more bones popped. “Nope.”
“Good. You never saw this ship, understand? If I let you return to Earth, then who is going to crawl around the tunnels for me, hmm? As you said yourself, nobody steals quite like you do.” Bonebreak poked Leon’s stomach with a spindly finger. “Unless you get too fat to fit in the tunnels. Then no home for you, no nothing for you, just a knife in your back.”
Leon clutched at his stomach. “It’s mostly muscle!”
“Silence. Do you have the payment for the last trade?”
A sinking feeling overcame him. He touched his pocket,