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26
NIKATHY
"Nikathy?" Herod's voice came through my radio, and I already knew what he was thinking.
"Aye. It's me. You didn't think I was going to leave all the fun to you two, did you?" I called back, careful to keep my tone upbeat.
It was Adreax who answered back. "Where is Rhiannon? Please tell me she's not with you in that death trap." The concern in his voice was genuine.
I feigned hurt. "How dare you speak ill of the Deadly Gambit! I'll have you know-"
"Where's the girl, Nikathy? I don't have time for your games."
"Relax, Dre. She's back at the estate, safe as can be."
There was a long silence over the radios, and I knew that there was a conversation happening that I wasn't privy to, but I waited patiently.
"I thought you were defending Kychek from the ground. What are you doing up here with us?" Adreax asked.
I, of course, couldn't tell him that my home had been overtaken by two women who were likely to pull me to bits if I happened upon them at the wrong moment. I couldn't tell him any of the things bouncing around in my mind and stealing my focus.
"Needed a change of scenery," I said dully. "There wasn't any action to be had down there, and as long as we do our jobs up here, they'll have nothing to worry about, right?"
I hoped I was convincing, and I waited for Adreax to ask further questions, but he only grunted into the radio. "Make yourself useful, then. That little junk heap you're flying will make a perfect decoy to draw them in close."
I swallowed hard at the notion, but there was something in the suggestion that lit a fire within me. The Deadly Gambit hadn't gotten her name by playing it safe. If there was ever a time for her to earn her moniker, it was now, and Adreax knew it. He was challenging me, and I had no intention of backing down.
"It's been a long time since we've played this sort of game," I commented with a laugh. "Let me know when you're in position."
I should have felt more regret for not telling either Cosma or Rhiannon where I was going, but right now, I was glad I hadn't. I considered it an act of kindness that I had disappeared without a word, sparing them the fretful hours of hoping for my safe return.
I watched through my viewscreen as Herod and Adreax pulled their ships back in slow motion. It wasn't enough for them to leave me stranded out here. They needed to make their retreat convincing, and I needed to put on a convincing act myself. I cut power to my engines and then made a big show of struggling to get them started again. By fluttering the ignition on and off, I could produce the effect I was going for. I made a few distress calls, for good measure.
Carefully, I steered my ship toward the Patrol's cluster, fluttering the engines again just enough to make it look like I was drifting helplessly into their clutches, unable to regain control of my ship. The radios in the cockpit were silent as we all waited for the Patrol to make their move. I knew I had to time it just right to make my escape; if I moved too early, they would know it was a trap.
"Come on," I muttered to myself over and over, bracing my hand on the ignition and preparing to slam the throttle at the first sign of movement.
But it seemed that the Patrol was content to wait me out. They must have been suspicious because they let me get much closer than I would have liked before sending two smaller ships in a wide pincher to cut me off from my companions. I was about to be surrounded, and I had drifted too far from either of my friends for them to rescue me immediately. We were playing a very delicate game now, and if I screwed up, there would be no returning to the estate at all. I had been so desperate to escape Rhiannon's touch that I had put myself in great peril.
Then I saw my opening, and before I had time to think on it, I flicked the switch, listened for the catch of the engines and thumbed the throttle all the way up. The Deadly Gambit squealed in protest as it shot forward, barely missing the Patrol ship that was coming around on my right. I had to steer hard to the left to keep from slamming into the bewildered pilot head on. Then I was making a straight run between Adreax and Herod, dragging behind me a long tail of Patrol fighters intent on catching me.
It was always strange to me that tricks like this worked. After all, they could have let me run. But, like a wild beast seeing its prey streaking across the field, it was almost as if the Patrol pilots couldn't help their instincts from kicking in, driving them to chase me into the jaws of a larger predator than themselves. I didn't dare look back to see how Herod and Adreax were faring, but I trusted they wouldn't allow a single one of those ships to slip through unscathed. And so it was when I turned around, I found my companions were firing freely into the Patrol's ships, thinning their numbers until they left me with only a single pursuer. More importantly, the Patrol's main ship was now sitting alone out there, just waiting for someone to come pick it off.
