Avalon

CHAPTER 20

THE FIRST PRO JOB THE MALLEUS SHADES HAD EVER worked ended in disaster.

There’d only been four of them on the crew then—Jeth, Celeste, Flynn, and Shady. Lizzie was still a few years away from catching Hammer’s notice, and they hadn’t yet found a suitable teenage candidate for tech ops. Instead, a man named Trent Danforth had been running tech for them. Well, Danforth ran everything, actually. Hammer didn’t think Jeth was ready to lead yet, insisting the four of them were too young and inexperienced to be flying around the galaxy on their own.

Jeth hadn’t liked Danforth much—an instinct that proved true a year or so later when Jeth discovered Danforth making side deals behind Hammer’s back that cut into Jeth’s profits. But right from the beginning, the best Jeth could say about the man was that he wasn’t one of the Malleus Brethren or Guard. No, he was more a garden-variety criminal: amoral, crass, and with hygiene bad enough it even bothered a bunch of teenage boys. Jeth had a hard time listening to instructions from a man who smelled like three-week-old garbage. He just couldn’t respect someone like that, no matter if Hammer had put him in charge.

It was perhaps this very lack of respect that had caused the disaster when they went in to steal a painting from a private collector on Gallant Prime, the nearest planet to Peltraz spaceport. Danforth had wanted Jeth to wait before entering the vault where the painting was stored when it wasn’t on display, but Jeth was certain it was okay to go in. He’d done all the checks, ran all the scans. Shady was with him, his impatience to get on with the job feeding into Jeth’s.

And so the two of them went in. Screw Danforth and his paranoia about secondary alarm systems. Jeth knew what he was doing. He was a natural at this. Besides, he thought, taking in the sight of the painting they’d come to steal, who would bother adding extra protection for that ugly thing? The woman in the painting looked more like a man, despite her long black hair and plump chest. Her smile seemed more like a smirk pointed right at him.

As Jeth took a step toward the painting, an alarm began to sound. Shit, shit, shit. So much for instincts. Even worse, this meant Danforth had been right. Damn him. Scowling at the woman, Jeth ripped the painting off the stand and bolted for the door after Shady.

Three guards armed with stunners were waiting outside. Jeth stared at them, wondering how they could’ve gotten there so fast. They stared back, shouting at him to hold still. Jeth didn’t believe they would actually shoot him. He was just a kid. He’d once been a good kid, from a well-known and respected family.

He made a run for it. All three men shot at him at the same time, three stunner blasts striking various parts of his body and knocking him unconscious for hours. During that time strange, painful dreams had kept him company.

There weren’t any dreams this time.

Jeth woke to the feel of someone prodding him hard in the shoulder.

“Come on, Jeth. Get up!”

Celeste.

What’s she doing here? Where is here? What happened?

Jeth opened his eyes. His thoughts remained incoherent until he tried to move. Then agony shot through his body as if someone had doused his nerves with acid. He knew the aftereffects of a stunner well enough, and the memory of what happened struck him full force.

Sierra shot me.

That bitch.

“Good, you’re alive,” Celeste said. Jeth looked at her, but she’d already stood and headed for the door. “Jeth’s awake!” she shouted.

He pushed himself up, trying not to groan. His pride had taken enough of a beating already. He looked around, realizing he was still on the Donerail. “What’s happening?”

Celeste turned back to him. “We’ve been double-crossed.”

“Double-crossed?”

“You know, tricked, duped, betrayed, made to look like idiots. Take your pick.”

Jeth scowled as he lurched to his feet. “Tell me what happened.”

“We’re over here on the Donerail while Vince and Sierra are over there on Avalon. They forced us over here at gunpoint.”

“What?” Jeth pushed past Celeste, breaking into a run. He spotted Flynn coming toward him. That made two of his crew members where they shouldn’t be. Jeth kept going, making his way to the Donerail’s bridge. The moment he arrived he spotted Avalon through the main windows, and the hammering in his chest slowed a little. His ship was still here. As always, he found comfort in the sight of her.

Lizzie was at the central control station, her fingers flying over the buttons.

Forcing his attention on her, Jeth said, “What’s going on?”

She didn’t look up. “They just disconnected the towlines.”

“What?” Jeth’s heart began to pound again.

“They’re leaving.”

But they weren’t just leaving. They were stealing his ship. Waves of outrage and dread erupted inside him.

“I’m trying to hack into Avalon’s nav system, but nothing works on this stupid ship.”

Of course it didn’t. The Donerail was a wreck. Which was why they wanted Avalon. Even with a busted metadrive, Jeth’s ship was better than this one.

He watched in horror as Avalon began to soar away from them. “They’re heading for the border.” He turned to Lizzie. “We’ve got to stop them.”

“Working on it,” Lizzie said, moving to another screen. “Okay, I’ve diverted what power is left on this heap to the remaining engines. It’s not pretty, but we might be able to follow.”

Jeth dashed to the pilot’s chair, instinct taking over. He grabbed the control column and felt the sluggish response. Still, it was better than nothing.

“What do we do?” Celeste asked from behind him.

Jeth glanced over his shoulder. She and Flynn were standing side by side and looking at him like lost children. He shook her off, fighting back the helplessness that made him want to scream and kick something. They’d never be able to keep up with Avalon on this ship.

“Are the guns working, Liz?” Celeste asked a moment later.

“Far as I know. The crow guns, for sure.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jeth saw Celeste stride toward the ladder leading up into the crow guns. She yanked it down and started climbing.

“What are you doing?” Lizzie said.

“I’m going to slow them down.”

“You can’t. Milton might get hurt.”

“What?” Jeth said, glancing back at Lizzie.

Her voice shook as she answered him. “He’s still over there.”

Jeth turned to the window. What would they want with Milton? Then the answer came to him—they wouldn’t want him. Milton was probably still passed out in his room, the door chained shut from the inside. It had been impossible for Sierra and Vince to get to him, not without taking the time to saw through the door.

“What about Shady?” Jeth asked, pushing even harder on the Donerail’s controls. It seemed as if the ship was slowing down rather than going faster.

“Down in the cargo bay,” Celeste said. “He put up a good fight, but Vince took him down with a stunner. Then he threatened to do the same to the rest of us if we didn’t do what he said.”

Jeth had no trouble picturing it. Shady was a helluva good fighter, but he was rough, relying more on brute strength and courage. Vince, on the other hand, was easily as big and strong, but he possessed all the training and experience of an elite combat soldier, too. Shady hadn’t stood much of a chance.

But at least he put up a fight, unlike me. Shame seared Jeth’s insides.

“Get up to the crow,” Jeth said to Celeste. “We’ve got to stop them.”

And with that, he switched on the targeting system and centered the crosshairs of the pilot guns over Avalon’s port-side thrusters. He exhaled, preparing to do the impossible and fire on his ship.

He pulled the trigger, a spray of gunfire bursting out from the Donerail, but the bullets fell short of the mark. “What the hell?”

“It must be interference from the border. They’re crossing through now,” Lizzie said. Then she gasped. “Oh God.”

“What now?” said Flynn.

“They’re engaging the metadrive.”

“They can’t,” Jeth said. “The metadrive is failing. The jump won’t work.” Or it might work, but not all the way. They might enter metaspace but never come out of it again, lost forever. Dead. Jeth pushed and pushed against the controls, his hands and forearms aching from the effort. If he could just get into firing range, he might be able to stop them.

A brilliant, pulsating light flashed in front of Jeth’s eyes, making them burn and half-blinding him. He blinked the tears away a moment later and looked out at the empty scene before him.

Avalon was gone.