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Scylla and her group quickly returned to base, bringing along a single survivor. I awaited them in my office, sitting alongside the open window and staring moodily out at the waves lapping just below.

  “Here,” Scylla said, interrupting my thoughts. Nyikit and a Teandian dumped the Fleet officer on the floor beside me. I glanced down. A bound Terran female, colonel’s insignia at her throat.

  “Did you make sure she’s clean? No weaponry, communication devices, anything?”

  “Searched, scanned, everything,” Scylla replied. Behind her, Nyikit nodded confirmation.

  “Right. Get lost.”

  Scylla paused at the hatch. “Sure you don’t want an extra pair of hands? After last time...”

  My knife was quivering in the bulkhead less than a handsbreadth from her head even before she completed her sentence. Scylla shrugged and withdrew.

  I nudged the Fleet officer with my foot. “Are you conscious?”

  “Yes. Not that it’ll do you any good,” came the icy reply.

  I yanked her up to a sitting position by her hair. It was nice hair, several shades darker than my own light brown. She had hazel eyes and freckles too, though her rosebud mouth was set in an unflattering grim line.

  “Here’s the deal. I’m bigger than you are and stronger. I’ve no doubt you’re highly trained, but so am I. Plus, I’m armed and I have reinforcements only a shout away. Do I make your position clear?”

  She set her jaw. “Perfectly.”

  “Good.” I deactivated the shackles at her wrists and ankles. She was smarter than the Leoan kid. She didn’t move.

  I looked her over. “Strip.”

  “What?” she demanded.

  “Strip.”

  “Your – associates – already scanned me.”

  “I wouldn’t trust them to find a laser cannon. For all I know you’ve got an arsenal in your clothes. Get them off.”

  She hesitated a moment longer, but when I started to get up, she reached for her collar. She kept her eyes locked on mine as she peeled off her clothes and dropped them contemptuously on the floor.

  I signaled my approval from where I leaned in my chair. “Good. Now step away from them.”

  She did so, then did a slow turn, hands out at her sides. “Now do you feel safe?” she asked scornfully.

  “Among other things,” I replied, pulling off my shirt.

  She clenched her fists. “Don’t try it.”

  “You want me to call for people to come in and hold you down?”

  “You’re disgusting,” she spat. But she didn’t pull away as I stepped closer.

  She wasn’t cooperative, but I made it through with nothing worse than a pulled muscle and some scrapes and bruises. The colonel was nursing a swollen lip and other minor injuries but she too was generally okay.

  “Get up.”

  “What now?” Her eyes still flashed defiantly.

  “Ever done it underwater?” I asked, fitting one end of the energy shackle to her wrist and the other to mine.

  Her jaw dropped in amazement. I grabbed her hand and dove out the window, dragging her with me.

  We surfaced several lengths away, and I struck out, swimming strongly until we were nearly half a klick from the base. Then I rolled onto my back and floated, catching my breath. Finally I glanced over at the colonel, floating alongside me. “Did you have to bite me so grikking hard?” I asked plaintively.

  She drove three stiffened fingers into my midriff. “After almost two years, you scavving slug? You’re lucky I didn’t chew your face off!” she retorted hotly. “I ought to drown you for taking this assignment!”

  “I’m sorry, honey,” I offered meekly once I’d regained my breath. “It wasn’t supposed to last so long. Happy anniversary, anyway.” I hadn't done ingratiating for a while, but it seemed to work.

  “That was three months ago.” But she was softening. “You probably didn’t even miss me.”

  “Didn’t I just demonstrate my enthusiasm sufficiently?”

  “Listen, you invited me out here for a specific purpose, or were you just saying that for the eavesdroppers? If you intend to make good on your promise, get busy.”

  Nag, nag, nag. “Yes, dear.”

  Afterwards, we floated on our backs, recovering. I now had even more bruises than before, but our reunions had always been… exuberant. Finally my wife sighed and said, “We’d better get to work. What’s the situation? Is Griff here? Is he all right?”

  I nodded. “He’s healthy enough. The kid didn’t make it easy for me to keep him in one piece and my cover intact, but I managed. He’s held at the far end of the complex in a shielded cell. In addition to Sslissim, there are twenty-two nasties in the base. They have five intersystem shuttles and defensive bases on both moons. What was the delay in getting here? I expected extraction a while ago.”

  She rested her head on my chest. “We lost our courier nine weeks ago – killed in a barroom riffifi on Piester’s Hole. We didn’t receive any messages from you after the one in which you named the sector but not the system for this place. We had to wait until Sslissim pulled his next job to follow him and find Mayim. And you.”

  Suddenly, she grinned. “Now ask why they sent me.”

  “A reward for a job well done?”

  “There was some concern that after so long you’d gone native. Someone even speculated you’d arranged the hit on the courier so you could disappear. They felt that if that were the case, you might decide that when the pod landed with the operative to extract you, you’d kill him. They felt you might not do that to me.”

  “Hm...” I eyed her speculatively, then reached out.

  She bent my pinkie backwards. “Ow!”

  “Work now, fun later,” she admonished briskly. “Did you have any trouble getting them to fish me out of the pod?”

  I shook my head. “Sslissim’s easy to manipulate. He’s cunning, but not to the degree he thinks, and he underestimates people. He also encourages dissension and mistrust in the ranks, which makes it simple to control his people too. He’s paranoid, like a lot of the saurians. There are hidden cameras everywhere for him to spy on us, and I knew he’d be watching your interrogation. After Enderan’s death…”

  “What happened?” Meg interrupted, her voice suddenly soft. “We found the body and assumed he’d been discovered, but –“

  I stared up at the moons, floating above us in the daylight sky. “Sslissim recognized him. I still don’t know how. He ordered me to interrogate Enderan. There was no way to get him out; Sslissim had guards all around him. I did the only thing I could to help him – I gave him a quick death. I told Sslissim I didn’t realize Antareans have a major blood vessel along their backs, that he was dead before I could do anything. He believed me.”

  “There wasn’t anything you could have done. Enderan knew that.” Meg squeezed my hand.

  I didn’t reply for a moment, then resumed as if she hadn’t spoken. “Anyway, after that, I knew Sslissim would monitor us. I gambled on the fact that he’d be sufficiently repulsed by ‘monkey sex’ to quit watching. Once he was convinced I’d nothing more on my Terran mind than abusing you, taking you out here guaranteed us freedom from observation.”

  “Of course,” Meg pointed out, “that is all you had on your mind.”

  “I’d say the abuse went both ways.” I fingered a bruised rib. “Your injuries just had to be more visible.”

  She gave me a highly familiar squeeze then became businesslike. “What’s the plan now? Our strike force will attack just before local sunset. There are teams poised to take out the lunar bases simultaneous with the assault on Mayim. They have orders to splash all shuttles unless I personally give the countersign.”

  “So if you’re careless enough to stand in the way of a plasma charge, the kid and I are toast? Whose idea was that?”

  She smiled sweetly. “Remember what I said about the doubts about your l
oyalty? Just be sure to protect your little wifey.”

  I made a retching noise until she punched me. “Sunset’s not far off, so we’d better get busy. We’ll swim back and I’ll tell Sslissim that my brutal methods made you talk. I’ll find some way to take you to where they’re holding Griff. The shuttle bay’s near the cell, so at that point we blow our way out. By then, our exit will correspond with the strike team’s arrival.”

  “You’d better have some weaponry for me,” Meg warned. “Remember: no wife, no life.”

  My face softened as I looked at her. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

  We swam back and climbed in the window. Mindful of the watching eyes, I was careful to stay in character. Shoving Meg roughly into a chair, I reshackled her wrists and activated the intercom. “Sslissim, I got the info,” I said, climbing into my clothes. “Now can I kill her?”

  “You’re sure she told you everything she can?”

  “If you want someone else to interrogate her so you can hear the same thing, be my guest. Just remember, every second she’s breathing, she’s plotting something.”

  There was a pause, then: “Kill her.”

  “Right.” I checked the hidden scanner on my desk. The telltale that indicated when Sslissim’s hidden monitors were active flickered and died. Still, there was no reason to take chances. Anyone could walk in.

  “Get up.” I took off the shackles and chucked Meg’s clothes at her. “Get dressed.”

  Under cover of rearming myself from my weapons locker, I took out enough extra munitions to blow up half the base.

  “Don’t forget your jacket, Colonel. You don’t want to die out of uniform.” I slipped Meg a sidearm and four mini-grenades along with her coat.

  “A kiss before dying?” I leaned towards her as she closed her collar.

  I saw her eyes widen, and I drew, turned, and fired in a single smooth motion.

  The thump on my back indicated my wife’s displeasure. “How am I supposed to get off a shot if you step in front of me, you big goon!” she hissed, tucking her pistol back under her jacket.

  I moved aside, allowing her to emerge from behind me. She gazed down at Scylla’s body in puzzlement. “What I don’t understand is why she had her gun trained on you, not me. Did she tumble to your ID?”

  “She was just ambitious. She figured you’d been beaten into submission and she could come in here, kill first me then you, and then blame you for my death.”

  Meg raised an eyebrow. “Clever girl.”

  I tucked Scylla’s body behind my desk. “Let’s go.”

  We passed Nyikit in the corridor. “All green?” he asked, eyeing Meg curiously.

  “Yeah. Thought I’d shoot the Fleet flit in front of the kid. Should make him more tractable.”

  His ears perked forward in admiration. “Good idea! And don’t forget your promise: when it’s time to dismember him, I get to do it.”

  Meg snarled something obscene at him in Leoan. She has a soft spot for kids.

  “Shut up!” I barked, cuffing her across the head before Nyikit could tear out her throat. “Move!”

  “You’ve some nice associates,” Meg snapped at me as we headed to the cell. “Ever want to break their necks?”

  “Yup. And I have.”

  Then we were at the cell door. After one last glance around, I deactivated the shielding. The cub stepped back when he saw it was me, but though his claws were out, he made no move to attack.

  “Get in,” I told Meg.

  She stepped into the cell, nodding reassuringly to Griff, who watched us both with alert eyes.

  I aimed my pistol at Meg, ignoring Griff’s squeak of horror, then at the last second changed my sights and blew up the far wall. I’d always suspected Sslissim of having another covert monitor there, but even if I were wrong, the billowing clouds of smoke and showers of sparks would hide our actions.

  Meg grabbed Griff’s arm. “It’s all right, young one. I’m here to rescue you. Your family sends their greetings.”

  “But – but – “ the cub hung back as she tried to pull him from the cell. He pointed at me urgently. “Look out!”

  “Let’s go!” I shouted impatiently from my position at the hatchway.

  “It’s all right. He’s with us,” she assured Griff, tugging at him.

  “That sindith?”

  Meg’s eyes flashed. “Watch your tongue, kid. That’s my husband.”

  “But he’s awful! He –“

  Meg’s patience was at an end. She gave him a yank that nearly jerked him off his feet. “Shut up and do what I say, or I’ll notch your other ear.”

  That convinced him of her sincerity. We all pelted from the room amid wailing alarms and flashing lights.

  Through the smoky haze surrounding us, I could dimly make out that the system’s sun was about to touch the shimmering horizon. The strike team would be en route. As we rounded the corner to the shuttle bay, we came under fire. I ducked back then laid down some covering bursts while Meg found the target.

  “Got him!” she exclaimed a moment later, and then we were again rushing forwards. “Hope you didn’t like him much,” she added as we hopped over her kill, a formerly morose Vegan now missing half his head.

  “I didn’t like any of them.”

  We gained access to a shuttle, and with me at the controls and Meg manning the communications, dodged out of the bay just as a squadron of strike force ships dove out of the dying sun.

  “Tell them we’re on their side!” I snapped at Meg as the lead ship tried to disintegrate us. “One more near miss, and I’ll open fire.”

  “Don’t get confused about your loyalties,” she snapped back. “Fighter One, this is Possum. Do you hear?”

  “’Possum’?” I snickered. She used her free hand to punch my shoulder.

  “Possum, this is Fighter One. Laser cannons are locked on your ship. We have verification of your voice print. Please offer countersign or we will destroy you.”

  “Fighter One, unlock those Thrumsnarfing laser cannons at once!”

  “Meg! Give them the grikking countersign!”

  She blinked at me innocently. “But Torin, that is the countersign.”

  Sure enough, the fighters broke off their attack and swooped away in search of other prey.

  “Who picked that countersign?” I turned to look at my disingenuous spouse.

  “Look!” Griff’s piercing yell from the back brought our heads around fast. He’d spotted two incoming shuttles on the screen. Obviously Sslissim wasn’t going to make this easy for me.

  I evaded the first one’s barrage with a quick juke left, but the second one stuck like epoxy through all my evasive maneuvers. I tried a barrel roll to confuse him, but he remained tight behind me, and his bolts were coming closer. Worse, the first one was doubling back.

  Weaving from side to side had so far kept them from locking on. I tried an abrupt bank to the left and the first pilot overshot. That was probably Zek, a predictable Eft who’d once tried to cheat me in a game of rasheedu. I blew up his ship now without a single qualm.

  That still left the other one, and even Meg was looking tense. In the back, Griff had his ears laid back and his eyes squeezed shut. “Where are the strikers?” I yelled at Meg. “I can’t shake this guy. It must be Eetip, and I can’t outfly an avian.”

  “They may not be sure which is us any longer,” Meg replied tightly. “After all these acrobatics in identical shuttles, they might not know which we are.”

  Suddenly a snarl that sounded like a catfight squealed over the comm channel. Instantly Meg slammed her hand down on my controls, hurtling us into a dive.

  We all grabbed for support as the gravity grid tried to stabilize the cabin’s field. Shadows flashed by the front port, followed by a distant explosion as Eetip was dealt with by the strikers that had swooped through the airspace we should have been occupying.

  Breathing hard, I looked
over at Meg. She too was pale, but she managed a grin. “That was a message in Leoan saying, ‘Colonel, dive!’” she explained. “I guess they were gambling that the other pilot couldn’t speak Leoan.”

  “Remind me to learn it.”

  A new voice crackled over the open channel, this time in Standard. “Colonel, this is Fighter Five. I’ll escort you to the main ship while mop up operations proceed. Are both the hostage and Colonel Torin all right?”

  Colonel? When I’d left, I’d been a major.

  “They’re both fine,” Meg reported, smiling at me. “Griff is eager to see his family and the colonel can’t wait to start debriefing.”

  I rolled my eyes. That would likely take another three years. I’d amassed enough sensitive information to cripple illegal activities in four sectors.

  “Are you really one of the good guys?” Griff asked me skeptically, fingering his ear.

  “So they tell me.” I paused. “If you tell your family I notched your ear while you were a hostage, they’ll fix it for you.”

  “If I tell them you did it after I ignored the Empress’ advice, they’ll notch the other one,” he replied, flashing his fangs in the first grin I’d seen from him.

  “Griff,” Meg said slowly, “I have bad news. Your father—“

  “He knows,” I cut her off. Griff nodded soberly.

  “I’m sorry,” Meg offered. “I wish we could have saved him as well as you.”

  “Are you going to return to your secret agent work?” Griff asked me, changing to a less painful topic.

  “No,” Meg answered before I could.

  “No?” I questioned.

  “No.”

  I glanced at Griff and shrugged. “No.”

  “I lined up nice quiet administrative posts for both of us, and don’t bother to object – it’s all settled. HQ even liked the idea.”

  “What idea?”

  “To set up an outpost in this system to thwart future criminal activities. It’s perfect; nobody knows Mayim better than you.”

  I clenched my teeth. “You know how much I hate water.”

  She quirked an eyebrow. “You still feel that way after this afternoon?”

  As I told the admiral a few days later, when I accepted my new post, oceans aren’t all bad.

  ####

  About the author:

  Kira Bacal is a physician and scientist who has worked at NASA and the US Senate, among other odd and wonderful places. She currently lives among towering trees in New Zealand with her two children and a vandalism-prone Leonberger.