Smugger's Virtue (Lathos Galaxy Chronicles Book 2) (2 page)

Kellenar Ragen looked down at the unconscious body of Xandra Torin and shook his head. He wished that Ilyea Kurt hadn’t gone to all the trouble to have his medical staff tend to her wounds. From the medical report, it looked as if she might have died from the wounds she had received otherwise. It would be so much more convenient if the girl would just die on her own.

Ragen looked every bit the part of a military leader. Tall, with broad shoulders and sharp brown eyes that took in everything, he was the living embodiment of authority. Despite that, he had spent his entire military career in the shadow of Maxall Torin, and he was ready to step out from that shadow and show everyone what true leadership looked like.

When the two men were younger and Lathos was yet to be a unified planet, Torin had led a military coup and then, before the dust had settled and anyone had a chance to process what had happened, he and Ragen led a daring attack to bring all the nation-states of the planet under one rule.

Since then, however, Torin had grown soft. Rather than attack the other planets in the system and bring them under Lathonian rule as well, Maxall Torin instead chose to trade with them. Lathos had more than enough natural and industrial resources to make this happen, and the planet was still recognized as the leader of the system, if not the entire sector. The problem was that if the other planets decided to do business elsewhere, then Maxall Torin’s economic empire would crumble overnight.

If that happened, then any use of the military by Lathos to try to bring them back in line could be met by outside forces trying to protect their new trading partners. Kellenar Ragen had always thought it was better to conquer those planets before they had a chance to make any other diplomatic alliances. Just because they hadn’t so far didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

"What is Miss Torin’s condition?" Kellenar asked the young medic who was tending to their passenger. The girl was about the same age as Xandra Torin and had training as a field medic, but she wasn’t a doctor. This didn’t matter to Kellenar. Keeping Xandra alive was not a priority.

"She had internal injuries that were recently repaired," the woman said as she looked at a monitor similar to the one in Ilyea Kurt’s hospital. The image of Xandra was glowing red virtually throughout her entire chest and abdomen. "She was just starting to recover from her surgery when we extracted her. Her body wasn’t given the time it needed to heal, and now it looks like those wounds have been reopened in the rush to get her out of there. Her condition is worsening."

"All of that is the fault of the man who took her in the first place," said Kellenar, rubbing his thumb and forefinger along his jawline. "If anything happens, her blood will be on his hands." Then he turned and walked out of the tiny room and headed for the ship’s command center. The transport vessel was huge and sprawling, and decidedly military. The metal alloy used in its construction was left unpainted and unadorned. Only light panels and computer terminals at regular intervals gave any decoration whatsoever.

When he reached the turbo shaft, Kellenar pressed his hand to the metal plate to open the door and stepped inside. "Command center," he instructed, and the small compartment began to move. In a few seconds the door slid open, and Kellenar stepped out into a room full of soldiers all looking at computer monitors and view screens. Some were navigating the ship as it made its way slowly back to Lathonian space. Others were monitoring the ship’s various systems, making needed adjustments and recalibrations to keep her running smoothly.

Kellenar barely noticed as he climbed the steps to his office, which looked out over everyone. His troops knew their jobs and he trusted that they would do them, every bit as much as he trusted their loyalty to him and not Maxall Torin. He sat down at his desk and opened the direct com link to the man who was still Chancellor for the time being. Once his heir-apparent was out of the way, Kellenar could focus on the slightly more difficult task of eliminating Maxall. He had no doubt the government would act quickly to name him the new Chancellor, and he had the loyalty of enough of the military to coerce any in that government who might waver.

"I hope you have good news, General," said Maxall Torin when his image appeared on the view screen.

"I’m afraid the news isn’t entirely good," Kellenar replied, putting on his best concerned look. "Your daughter suffered greatly at the hands of the man who abducted her. My medical staff and facilities are not equipped to treat her injuries properly. We are heading back to Lathos at top speed, but her condition is grave." The Chancellor looked as if he might explode. Good, thought Kellenar, the more irrational he is, the easier it will be to catch him unawares when the time to eliminate him comes.

"Did you capture the man who caused all of this?" asked Maxall. Maxall Torin was the same age as Kellenar but he looked at least a decade older. His hair, once the same brown as the general’s, was now completely gray. His hazel eyes looked tired and worn, and the lines that creased the man’s face seemed to deepen with each new worry. He was never equipped to rule an entire world, thought Kellenar, and the years of trying have taken their toll. He would be doing the Chancellor a favor by relieving him of this burden.

"He was killed during your daughter’s rescue."

"Even better," the Chancellor said. "General Ragen, you insisted that no one but you and your men be involved in the mission to rescue my daughter. The man that took her away from me may be the cause of her injuries, but I want to make it clear that I am holding you responsible for her safe return. See to it that she makes it back to Lathos in one piece, or don’t bother to return at all."

"Understood," said Kellenar with a grim smile. "I will do everything in my power to get her back to you safe and sound, old friend."

"See that you do,
old friend
," the Chancellor sneered and then the view screen went dark.

Kellenar sat back in his high-backed command chair and cupped his chin with his palm, placing his elbow on the chair’s armrest as he thought about the way their conversation had ended. Maxall certainly had reason to be angry and upset. After all, Kellenar had just told the man that his daughter was clinging to life by a thread. It was a little surprising that the chancellor was turning that vitriol on him.

It was possible that he had discovered what Kellenar was planning. It wasn’t as if this was something that had just been conceived of overnight, and no matter what else Maxall Torin was, he wasn’t a fool. After mulling it over, Kellenar decided that it didn’t matter. Xandra’s death would be easy enough to blame on the man that took her away from Lathos. It seemed now that she may not have been as unwilling as everyone thought, but since she would never live long enough to tell her side of it, that didn’t matter either.

As far as her father was concerned, there were any number of poisons that were undetectable in the body and would make it look like the overworked and grief-stricken old man’s heart finally gave out when news of the death of his only daughter reached him. Timing, of course, would be everything. Xandra needed to die first, but the poison needed to be administered to Maxall soon after. That way, even if he did suspect what Kellenar was planning, he wouldn’t have time to tell anyone else. Fortunately, he already had a man in place that was just waiting for the order to be given.

Kellenar Ragen had always been a man who knew how to make the most of an opportunity. He had been assembling people loyal to him for years and putting them in positions to be of use when the time came. Now, his patience was being rewarded.

Xandra was always the most difficult piece to the puzzle. Getting rid of her father would be simple, but if they were to both die under suspicious circumstances and so close together, questions might be asked. Her disappearance from Lathos with a man they had on camera attacking Xandra’s bodyguards had removed that problem. Her death could now be blamed on him, and the fact that it was General Ragen himself, the oldest and most trusted military advisor to Chancellor Torin, who had fought so hard to return Xandra to her people only to have her die on the journey home would be enough to keep anyone from suspecting him. Kellenar pressed a button on the com unit.

"How is Miss Torin’s condition?" he asked when the young medic appeared on the view screen.

"It hasn’t changed since you left," she informed him, "but if she doesn’t get proper medical attention soon, then she will start to deteriorate."

"Keep me apprised of the situation," he commanded, and then left his office and walked over to the man currently sitting at navigation control.

"What is our current speed?"

"Right now we are traveling at half our maximum capacity," the officer said. "I can increase to full power if you like."

"There’s no need," Kellenar said with a reassuring smile. "Everything is proceeding according to plan."

A green light on his console began to flash, bringing Matt out of his thoughts. He had been thinking about Xandra, about the first night they met. She had been so eager, so insistent that Matt take her away from Lathos. At first it had all been a game to Matt. The other men at the party that night couldn’t crack her defenses. Matt was going to show them how it was done, how to get this beauty into bed and make her think it was her idea all along.

He felt guilty about that now. Xandra was different from the other women he had met, and he knew he should have realized it from the start. He wondered, though, what he would have done if he had realized it. Would he have even approached her at all? He knew one thing, if he had been smart enough to realize how special and unique Xandra was right from the start and he had still approached her, he never would have lied to her about who he was. He felt guilty about that, too. She still thought his father’s name and life was his.

If he really thought about it, Roger Britton was the man Ilyea Kurt was sure she was in love with. That was who she thought she had met, and Matt had refused every chance he had been presented with to set the record straight. It meant that everything they had was a lie, and even though she had been less than truthful, it was still Matt’s fault that the lie was still playing out in her head.

The green light meant that he was closing on the Lathonian ship. He touched a button on the console above the flashing light and the outer hull slid away from the cockpit window. Matt could see the ship in the distance, and it was huge. It was only a transport ship, but the information that mysteriously found its way into Matt’s database showed that it had more than enough firepower to destroy his ship if it were detected. Matt knew he had to remember to thank Ilyea for the information. Without it he might have gone in guns blazing in an attempt to disable the vessel and cause enough confusion to allow him to land, find Xandra, and get out. He still had to do all of that, of course, but now he knew he had to be a little more subtle about it.

He wondered why Ilyea Kurt was bothering to help him. There had to be more to it than the fact that the man was a closet champion of true love. If there wasn’t something in it for him personally, there was no way Ilyea would have risked doing everything he had to help Matt in this fool’s errand.

It had to do with this General Kellenar Ragen, Matt was sure of it. The voice in his head was insisting as much, and it was the only thing that made sense. Otherwise, why would Ilyea go to all the trouble to see to it that Xandra was turned over to the man only to immediately reverse that position and give Matt all the information he needed to sneak in and get her back?

That information even included a way to approach the general’s ship without being detected. It seemed that Lathonian engine design created a rather large plasma exhaust. It wouldn’t be enough to have any effect on a large ship, but a smaller one the size of Matt’s could slip into that exhaust and fly right up to the ship without being noticed. Then he just had to find a way into the landing bay, locate Xandra, get her back to his ship, and leave without being discovered.

Okay, so maybe Ilyea Kurt didn’t actually provide Matt all the information he needed, but he had provided enough to at least make it possible. The rest would be up to Matt, and he felt confident he at least had a chance to pull it off. As he approached the ship, Matt felt that old familiar rush.

Every smuggling job he had ever done involved an element of stealth and an element of the unknown. To have a chance to pull it off, much less be as proficient at it as Matt had become over the years, you had to not only be able to operate under those conditions, but also be able to thrive while doing so. For that to happen, you really had to enjoy what you were doing, and Matt always did. The adrenaline rush was enough to mask the pain in his ribs and head and give him the focus he needed.

The first trick was entering the exhaust stream. He had to fly in rapidly enough to avoid detection and then decelerate rapidly enough to not fly right back out of the stream and be seen. It took a steady hand and nerves of steel. Without hesitation Matt angled his ship to enter the plasma trail as abruptly as possible. Once inside, he threw his throttle back instantly and cut the engine. The ship made a violent lurch and Matt had to fight to stay in the pilot’s seat, but the maneuver was a success. He fired his thrusters just enough to keep him steady in the plasma stream being expelled from the Lathonian engine.

Ilyea’s information didn’t include a schematic of the Lathonian ship, but the landing bay was easy enough to find. It was on the ship’s aft side, only a few meters from where he was currently hiding. A quick scan told him that there was no attendant on duty at that time, so all Matt had to do was find a way to lower the energy shield for a few seconds so he could glide right in unnoticed.

Since there was no reason for the Lathonian crew to believe there was any sort of threat, their defensive shields were down. The bay was protected by an energy shield designed to keep space debris from finding its way in and, of course, to keep someone from doing what Matt was about to attempt. He figured that an electromagnetic pulse would disrupt the field just long enough to get beyond it. He quickly reconfigured his com system to send the EMP and pointed his craft towards the landing bay. He held his breath as he approached. Even though no alarms were sounding, Matt knew he wouldn’t be entirely comfortable until he had cleared the energy shield. Once he did, he exhaled and landed. As he thought, the disruption was only momentary, and the shield was back in place before he could set his ship down.

When he exited, Matt was greeted with the sound of alarms going off. Fearing that he had been found out, he flattened himself against the bulkhead and made his way as quickly as possible to the computer terminal. When he did, he found out that the alarm was in response to the EMP and the damage to the shield. There was no indication that Matt had been discovered, and seconds later the alarm stopped.

Unfortunately, there was not much else that Matt was able to learn. He could tell that live support was functioning, that environmental controls were operating at optimal levels, and that the door to the landing bay was unlocked. Everything beyond that required some sort of passcode to access, and Matt had no idea what it might be. The problem with that was that the ship was huge. Matt had no idea how many decks there were, but he was pretty sure that even if Xandra and he were currently on the same deck, he wouldn’t have enough time to search for her. He had to figure out a way to hack the computer and he had to do it soon.

Matt knew that he would have to rely on more than just blind luck. Randomly punching information into the keyboard or so much as trying to access the voice interface could be enough to trigger an alarm if he didn’t know what he was doing. He cautiously pressed the pressure plate to open the landing bay door and peered out. Across the corridor was another computer terminal. It took a minute or so of waiting, but a soldier came by and went up to the terminal. Matt watched as he took a keycard out of his pocket and slid it into an access port. Matt quickly checked and saw that there was a similar port next to the computer in the landing bay. That must be the way to gain access to the entire computer system. Matt went back to the door and slid it open again. The soldier was still across the corridor at the computer terminal.

"Hey buddy, can you give me a hand?" called Matt, making sure to stay away from the door and back in the shadows. The soldier looked a little confused but walked into the landing bay. The second he did, Matt closed the door and grabbed the unsuspecting soldier from behind, locking him in a choke hold.

The man was about the same size as Matt and at least as strong, and he fought violently to free himself from the hold. Matt had the element of surprise, however, and was able to keep his grip intact long enough for the man to pass out. Then Matt dragged him behind one of the ships and, using electrical cord he found in a tool locker, tied the man’s hands and feet. He then took the man’s keycard and used it to access the computer. Matt was able to pinpoint Xandra’s location in seconds, but that’s when his luck ran out. The computer listed Xandra Torin as being in the medical bay, which was on deck two. According to what he was seeing, that was five decks up from where he was currently, and on the other side of the ship.

"Well, I guess I wouldn’t want this to be too easy," he said out loud to himself. "That would take all of the fun out of it." Then, knowing he needed a way to move about the ship without being seen, he went back to the still unconscious soldier, untied him, stripped off his uniform, tied him back up, and donned the uniform himself. Once he was satisfied that he looked the part, he went out into the corridor and looked for a turbo shaft.

Along the way Matt passed several other soldiers, but he just met each of their gazes confidently and did his best to look like he belonged. No one questioned him and eventually he found his way to a turbo shaft. "Deck two," he said into the voice interface when he entered. All he had to do now was get to the other side of the ship and then get him and Xandra back without anyone figuring out what was going on. No problem, he thought. The turbo shaft doors opened and another soldier got on.

"Deck one," the soldier said into the voice interface, then looked up and gave Matt a friendly nod. Matt returned the nod and smiled. The soldier turned away but then turned back quickly. Matt noticed the man looking at his chest. Matt looked down and saw the word "Cappos" emblazoned across the left half of his uniform. He hadn’t paid any attention before and now guessed that Cappos was the man’s name.

"Halt turbo shaft," the soldier said into the voice interface and then turned back to Matt. Matt saw then that the other man’s uniform included something that Matt’s did not: a sidearm. This can’t be good, Matt thought.

"You’re not Laythen Cappos," the man said. "If fact, you look a lot like the man who shot at me back on that moon."

"It was nothing personal," said Matt with another smile, "and neither is this." Then he punched the man in the jaw just as he started to pull his sidearm. The man staggered backwards and the gun dropped to the floor. Matt lunged for it just as the soldier did. The two men ended up on the floor of the tiny turbo shaft in a scrum for the weapon. Matt’s fingers wrapped around the gun, but the soldier grabbed Matt’s hands and tried to twist the gun towards Matt. Facing each other as they knelt on the floor, both men grunted with the effort of trying to pry the weapon away from the other.

Matt was the stronger of the two, and eventually he began to slowly pry his hands out the soldier’s grip. At the last second, the soldier shifted his weight and, just as Matt was about to pull the gun free, they both went tumbling to the floor again. While this was happening, the soldier made a lunge for the gun and grabbed it with both hands. While lying on the floor, Matt tried to jerk the gun away and when he did, the weapon discharged.

Thinking he was shot, Matt slid back to the corner of the turbo shaft. With the gun still in one hand, he frantically checked his body with the other. Realizing that he was unhurt, he looked across at the soldier. The man was lying flat on the floor. His eyes were open but he wasn’t moving. Matt checked for a pulse but couldn’t find one. The man was dead.

Horrified by what he had just done, Matt threw the weapon down, jumped to his feet, and pressed the heels of his palms to his temples. It was self-defense, he told himself, and it was an accident. It didn’t matter, though. In all of the things he had done in his life to this point, Matt had never killed anyone. He was a smuggler, not a murderer, and he was horrified at what he had just done.

This was not part of the plan. No adrenaline rush could get him through this. Matt may be a liar, a thief, a bandit, or whatever other term you wanted to give to his smuggling lifestyle, but he had never been a killer. Now, all that had changed.

It was only when he remembered his reason for being there in the first place that Matt was able to find the strength to do anything. If he didn’t find a way to finish what he started, Xandra was going to end up just like this poor man, and Matt couldn’t let that happen. He took a deep breath, picked up the weapon, and resumed the turbo shaft’s progress.