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“Not you, Shah.”
“Why not me?”
Malik sighs. “Shah, you run trillions of dollars’ worth of assets. We need you in one piece. I’ll send one of the lower ranks.”
“I like doing my own dirty work. We have a hundred people on this boat right now who I promised safe passage.”
“I know you like doing your own dirty work. Dirty work is all you do, Shah. That’s why you keep almost getting caught. As for the passengers, they can take care of themselves. It’s not exactly a load of orphans. Besides, getting undocked is only the first part of the problem. Finding out how the authorities located us is a much bigger deal.”
“We are in a heavily armored vessel. Maybe they ran a scan.”
“No. There are two dozen other similarly armored transporters in dock. We’ve been singled out.”
“Let’s get loose, then worry about how we fucked up this time.”
“I don’t think we did fuck up. I think someone sold us out. Or, more likely, I think we got baited.”
“What do you mean?”
“The worker in your bedroom, Shah. She’s probably tracked.”
“Doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way anyone could have predicted I’d take her. I’ve never taken a drone before.”
“The second you saw her, you couldn’t take your eyes off her. You left a deal on the table to take her.”
“Yeah. I was in the mood. It was an impulsive thing.”
“Others might find your impulses more easy to predict than you do, Shah.”
Malik is a very intelligent man. He often makes the mistake of assuming others are as smart as him. They almost never are. I put the jacket back. It’s too late to run. I’m going to have to play a card or two.
“Open a channel to the authorities. Let’s see if we can’t talk our way out of this.”
He shakes his head. “You’re wanted in every galaxy we have a name for, Shah. There’s no talking out of this.”
“Open a channel, Malik.”
He does as I ask, though I can tell he’s getting agitated, as even the best of us get when we think we might die in a hail of weapons fire. The shields are still holding, but our power reserves are dwindling. As soon as the shields drop, we’ll go up like tinder.
PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!It’s an almost constant barrage of laser fire. Makes it hard to think, let alone be heard over the din of it all. I raise my voice to be heard on the open channel.
“Authorities, this is Shah, Most Wanted. Stop striking my ship.”
It takes less than a second for them to reply.“Return our drone.”
“No.”
“Then the barrage will continue.”
“Destroying me will destroy the drone.”
There is a brief pause.“What financial compensation would you like to release the drone?”
“I’m keeping her. Next time I dock, I don’t want any trouble. I won’t hurt her as long as you do not attempt to hurt me. Call it insurance.”
“We will call it what it is, Shah, Most Wanted. You have taken one of our drones hostage.”
“If the shoe fits,” I say, evoking an ancient incantation. “She is now my hostage. If you keep firing, I will return fire. The damage to your docks will take months to repair, and you’ll lose your safe harbor status. Think of the revenues you’ll lose. Is one drone worth all that trouble?”
