Polaris Rising (Consortium Rebellion, #1)(45)

I grabbed his head when he would’ve bent back to my neck. “Loch, focus. Richard is going to be here any second and you are slowing us down. If Richard catches us, we’re done. He’ll kill us.”

“He won’t kill me,” he said. “And I’ll protect you.”

“That’s sweet, but does not help me right now. I just hope you’re high enough to forget this,” I said. Then I hit him with the stunstick.

He snarled at me and batted the stick out of my hand. I was so surprised that I let it go. I’d never seen anyone not go down when directly hit. Even the toughest von Hasenberg soldiers hit their knees. Loch just looked pissed.

“You better have a damn good reason for attacking me, sweetheart.”

I smiled in relief. “You’re back?”

He scowled at me but then paused to take in our positions. His face went completely blank, then he backed away like I was diseased. Okay, that stung a bit.

“I need you to help haul soldiers,” I said. If my voice was icier than usual, he didn’t call me on it. “We’ll put them out the cargo door before we take off. We have to hurry.”

“Or we could purge them,” Loch said.

“No. Help carry or get out of the way.” I moved to the closest soldier. He outweighed me by at least forty pounds, but he wasn’t going to move himself.

I pulled him up to a seated position, then squatted down and wrapped my arms around his waist. A heave up and he was standing enough for me to duck down and get a shoulder under his waist. I gritted my teeth and wobbled to my feet with him balanced in a fireman’s carry.

One down, a dozen to go. I would never make it through all of them like this, but I’d at least dump this guy in the cargo bay while I thought of an alternative.

Loch cursed behind me.

“Veronica, if you’re up, get a sled out,” I said. “We’ll pile these gentlemen on it then toss the beacon out the door.” Sleds were designed for hands-free operation, so they followed a paired beacon. If the beacon went out the door, the sled would follow. And as long as we were close to the ground, it would deal with the altitude adjustment without dumping the cargo.

“On it,” Veronica said.

The cargo bay stairs presented a challenge, but I still said a prayer of thanks that I didn’t have to maneuver down a ladder carrying this much dead weight. True to her word, Veronica had a sled out when I walked up, sweating and trembling.

I dumped the soldier on the sled and turned to retrieve another. Instead, I nearly ran into Loch. “You stack them,” he said. “I’ll carry them.” He dumped the two men he was carrying with less care than I would have liked, but he carried two at once and didn’t look close to death, so I kept my mouth shut.

Veronica and I sat the first two men with their backs against the vertical back of the sled. The rest we sat in front of them, between their legs, leaning back. It was the only way I thought we could fit them all and also not accidentally suffocate one of them.

Once they were all on the sled, we strapped them down as best we could. A peek at the cargo bay display showed that Richard had arrived and had spread his men out in a wide arc around the cargo bay doors.

He was in for a surprise.

“Infineon, take us up six meters and hold.” A chime answered me and the engines roared to life. Richard’s shocked face stared out of the display. Once we were at altitude, I partially opened the cargo bay door then chucked the beacon out through the opening. The sled sailed after it and landed softly in front of Richard.

Fury darkened his expression and he shouted orders I could almost hear. I blew him a kiss on the display, closed the cargo door, and ordered the ship to take us up to fifteen kilometers.

That done, I turned to Veronica and drew my pistol, but kept it pointed at the ground. “Now,” I said, “would you care to explain why there are two extra people in here?”





Chapter 13




Veronica’s chin tilted up to a stubborn angle, but she didn’t deny the accusation. When I continued to stare at her, waiting, she sighed and went to her sled. She pulled off various bags and boxes until the top of a perforated box appeared.

“It’s okay, Imma,” she said. “Open up.”

The click of a lock, then the top of the box swung open. A young boy of four or five with straight black hair and huge, dark eyes peeped over the top of the box. He had on a mask identical to the ones Veronica had procured for us.

On seeing Veronica, he smiled and reached for her. “Momma!” he cried. “I was very quiet for Imma, just like I promised. Wasn’t I, Imma?”

An older woman in a mask stood stiffly and looked around with suspicion. She put herself between a scowling Loch and the kid in an unconscious gesture of protection. “You were very good, baba,” she said.

The little boy beamed. “See, Momma?”

Veronica blinked away tears and reached for her son. “Yes, pumpkin, you were very good. I’ll get your surprise in a little while, okay? We have to unpack first, and I have some friends for you to meet.”

Veronica helped Imma out of the box then led the little boy over to me. I holstered my gun before they reached me. Veronica said, “Lin, this is Lady Ada.”

Lin swept into a respectable bow for a youngster and the suspicion growing in my mind solidified. Veronica and I would be having a very long discussion once the kiddo was asleep.