The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1)(55)

“He’s in the passenger ring section,” Pinton replied. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to find out what he’s up to.”

“The Yes, Sir is underway,” Blinnikka reminded Kiva. “Whatever you plan to do, I have to approve. I don’t want this asshole damaging the ship.”

“It’ll be fine,” Kiva promised. She turned back to Marce. “So this asshole is a marine.”

“Was a marine, yes. Is now a bodyguard.”

“You think you could take him?”

“What? No.”

“Does this asshole know that?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, good.”

*

They waited until Chat went on a walk and then positioned a couple of security crew at the end of a corridor they knew he was casing, giving every appearance of just having a conversation with each other. Chat saw them, decided to consult his tablet about something, and then headed back in the direction which he had come from, to find two other security crew there. He stopped and appeared to be calculating his odds when Marce stepped into the corridor, his Kristian Jansen disguise removed, and walked toward him.

“Hello, Chat,” Marce said, and that was as far as he got before Chat materialized a blade out of fucking nowhere and rushed directly for him.

And then was on the floor half a second later, twitching, three stun bolts in him.

“Did you pee yourself?” Kiva asked Marce ten seconds later, when the all clear had been given. She and Pinton had been waiting a bit down the corridor and had been watching through the corridor camera, feed piped into a tablet.

“Maybe a little,” Marce admitted, looking at the downed Chat, who was now being bundled up by security.

“There’s no shame in pissing yourself like a goddamned fire hydrant when a trained killer is about to knife you in the throat.”

“Can we change the subject?” Marce asked, plaintively.

“Why don’t you take the rest of your shift off and shiver in your bunk,” Kiva suggested. “In your shoes that’s what I’d do.”

Marce motioned toward Chat. “What are you going to do with him?”

“I’m going to encourage him to talk.”

“That’s not going to work.”

“You know nothing of my methods.”

“He’s trained not to talk.”

“He was also trained to kill, and look how he fucked that up.”

“I want to be there when you question him.”

“No you don’t.”

“I really do.”

“Let me put it another way, Lord Marce. Fuck you, go away.”

“He almost killed me. I think I deserve to know why.”

“And maybe I’ll tell you, later. But for now, if you don’t fuck off, right this second, I’m going to stab you myself. And none of these security guys are going to put a bolt into me, I guarantee you that.”

Marce looked like he was going to say something else, then shook his head and walked off.

“Your people skills are admirable,” Pinton said to Kiva.

“Fuck you, too,” Kiva said.

Pinton smiled at that and pointed at Chat, secured and ready for transport. “He’s right, you know. This one’s not going to talk. They’re trained to resist aggressive questioning.”

“‘Aggressive questioning’?”

“That’s the euphemism we used for torture in the imperial service, ma’am.”

“Just fucking call it torture, then.”

“My point is he’s been trained to deal with whatever humans can do to him.”

“We can do better than humans,” Kiva said.

*

“He’s coming to,” Pinton said, some time later.

“Turn on the speaker,” Kiva said. Pinton pressed the button to open a channel. “Good morning, fuckface,” she said, to Chat.

Chat looked at his surroundings. “Where am I?” he asked.

“You’re in a service airlock, in an EVA suit,” Kiva said. “Well, most of one, anyway. You might have noticed you’re missing a helmet.”

“I noticed,” Chat said.

“Good. So, this is the deal. You tell us everything we ask you questions about, and don’t give us any shit about it, and I don’t purge you out the airlock without that fucking helmet.”

Chat looked exasperated, confused, and tired. “Look, I don’t even know what’s going o—”

Kiva pressed the “Emergency Purge” command. The airlock door burst open and Chat was sucked out into space.

“Well, that was quick,” Pinton said.

“I told you I don’t fuck around,” Kiva replied. She pressed the “Emergency Retrieve” button. The winch that held the cord attached to the EVA suit slammed into overdrive, reeling the suit back in, triple-time. “Anyway. So how long can a human live in hard vacuum?”

“Maybe a minute, if he didn’t hold his breath.”

“He was talking,” Kiva said. “He didn’t have time to hold his breath.”

Less than a minute later Chat was back inside the airlock, which was fully pressurized with an oxygen-rich mixture. A minute after that Chat was awake, coughing and vomiting. He looked up at the airlock camera with hemorrhaged eyeballs. Pinton opened the communication circuit again.