Chapter 12
He scanned the keywords, narrowing the search to the sector for the past five months. That would overlap his last search by a month. Of course, 'Allen' and 'Cameron' were such common names, he had over 47000 findings. Nothing unusual in that. He narrowed the search. This would take longer because the search was for entire documents, not keywords. He pushed his chair back, closing his eyes to catch a few stray minutes sleep anytime he could.
"Hey Cody." the tall Kysain navigator knocked on his open door. "We put in on the station in four hours. I'm going to have the stabilizer on the port rudder replaced before it breaks off completely. We'll be down about twelve hours, when I can get a mechanic out to look at it. Anything on your schedule?"
"No, nothing." The computer had found one file, then five files that it red-tagged and uploaded, beeping for attention but he had the sound turned off. "Hang on." Cody saw the new files. "We have her."
"Who?" The Kysian, West, asked. Like all Kysians, he had black hair, black eyes, pale, pale skin. There were numerous targets they regularly tracked, and perhaps a dozen of them were female.
"The woman we always look for out here. Tane Allen, Tane Cameron now."
"And it isn't coincidental she shares your surmane?"
"No." Cody called up the files. Dated three weeks ago, and he saw why the computer had picked them up. Not one target. Two. William Johns. "Well, well. Johns, you son-of-a-bitch, if you take her in and steal my bounty, I'll kill you myself."
"Problems?"
"Nothing I can't deal with."
*********************************
The message came through without a time delay, which meant they were in the same lane, in the same sector.
"Wade. Can't say it's good to see you, but you are familiar face out here in the Wastelands." Cody said, a snake coiling to indimidate it's prey.
Wade, however, didn't intimidate. "I'll have to remember to have someone shank you next time you end up in the Slam, Cody. Then I won't have to waste the time to do it myself."
"I've spent ten years listening to you talk. And the results are the same." Cody was too damn smug.
"Why are you bothering me? I have a legitimate business to run."
"You mean running arms to the Frontier? How noble."
"Is there a point to your wasting my time?
"Always. When was the last time Tane made a run with you? Last year, out of New Boston, wasn't it?" Cody acted casual, but it was a threat. He knew where she had been; maybe he knew where she was right now.
Wade merely folded his arms. He didn't discuss her on an unsecure channel in an open system. Or with this asshole at all. He activated a program to keep Cody from planting anything in his hard drive and to scan for anything that might have already snuck in. Courtesy of Tane.
"I thought you should know. William Johns picked up her freighter in the Corbic system three weeks ago." He paused for a dramatic effect, smirking. Wade really would like to have killed him. "So, read that as you might. I know what I would think . . ."
"What you think is of no concern to me." Wade dismissed him abruptly. It could be another attempt to track her through him, certainly not the first time he had tried that.
"If you don't believe me, check the Port Authority in Corbic Station."
"She's been dodging your sorry excuse for a merc for four years. She can handle Johns."
"You think? Or does she still cling to the theory he has some honor left in him?"
"She can take care of it. Keep that in mind. Harlan is gone. If I find you, she'll never know where you disappeared to."
Chapter 14
(Note - there is no chapter 13, so you haven't missed one!)
Tane was sitting in the control center, re-routing the plot for landing sequence. It had proved to be a little rough, catching a due-south wind she hadn't experienced the first time planetside. The room could be sealed off and had an escape route through two sub-levels. That was Wade's idea.
Riddick was in the dayroom either playing video games or watching the vid. Both were relatively new discoveries for him. Tane had kept him busy the past few days, training on the simulator for a real pilot's license. He needed actual flight experience though. She told him he'd have plenty of time for that on their way out of the system.
When the beacon went off, it was loud enough to be heard anywhere on the ground floor level of the complex. Unfortunately for Tane, she was five feet away from it. The booming flux of static cut off as abruptly as it had begun. "Shit." she wiggled a finger around in her ear. "Now I'm deaf."
"What was that?" Riddick asked from the doorway. "Is someone here?"
"Not yet. It should be Wade . . ." And it was. Tane grinned widely at the image of her brother on the screen. It was a taped message, she didn't have to answer it.
"Tane." he spoke, setting back from the monitor. "We are out of the lane, clean and clear. By your time, we will be putting in at the complex in twenty-one hours. I understand you ran into some trouble in Corbic. You were tracked, of course."
Riddick would have know they were related without being told. He looked like her, dark hair, green eyes, same facial structure . . . More than that, he acted like her. Or she acted like him, Wade was oldest of the four siblings. Former Spec-Ops, too. Riddick sure as fuck didn't want him coming planetside pissed off at whoever had gotten his baby sister into the shit on Corbic.
"Guess who tracked you, all the way out here. I'd give you three guesses, but you only need one." He paused for a dramatic effect. "Col. Siefert. Told you that you only needed one guess. So, if Fleet has it . . ." Wade shrugged, leaning forward to tap his fingers on the consol. "I had an interesting meassage I saved for you. Bring a bottle of whiskey up and we can watch it together." He sat back again. He wanted to say something else, but Riddick got the impression he knew she wasn't there alone.
"He's expecting trouble. He thinks it might already be here. Riddick realized.
"If Will is there with you, tell him it's time to pull out the big guns."
"Shit." Tane said.
"You'll agree with me, this time, Tane. We'll talk when we get there. Kyle says he expects clean sheets and a hot meal." Wade grinned that one-sided smirk Tane wore so often. "Stay sharp." The vid went black.
"Great." Riddick drawled the word out. "He knows Johns too, and it sounds like they were friends."
"Knew." Tane felt compelled to point out. "He knew him, and they didn't particularly like each other."
"So what was that all about?"
"They'll be here in twenty hours."
"Was he signaling you, or something?"
Tane cocked her head to one side, impressed he had picked that up. "Yes, in fact he did."
"The finger tapping thing?"
She nodded. "He wants to talk to me alone."
"He said that."
"It's what he wasn't talking about that has him on yellow alert. That was the second signal, telling me we'd talk about it."
"You never have explained exactly why the Fleet Command is tracking you, or why you are in exile from the Inner Systems. Or why there are mercs out there that would like to pick you up."
"Sure I did."
"You told me you were in counter-intelligence. That doesn't really account for all this." He braced an arm against the wall. When he did that, Tane knew it was a sure sign he was intent on getting answers.
"Yea, it does. I'm an ex-spy, and they like to keep track of me. It's nothing extraordinary."
"What about the mercs? And the exile. That's a new one, Tane. How in the hell do you earn an exile from the Alliance?"
"Do you trust me?"
Ouch. "More than I've ever trusted anyone."
"Does that mean 'yes'?"
Does it? Decision time. "Yes, it does." She could have turned him in, hell, she could have killed him . . . Instead, she trusted him.
"Then just . . .let it lie. Leave it alone, for now. After Wade gets here, I can tell you."
"Why not now?"
"Because I have to know how much trouble I'm in before I drag you into it."
"How much trouble you're in?" he repeated, incredulous. "Little girl, did you forget who I am?"
"Not for a second." Tane said quietly. "Who you were doesn't matter to me. I hope who I am won't matter to you."
Oh, shit. There it is, Carolyn. She cares what I think . . . and the bad part is, I care what she thinks. "We all have our ghosts." he said deliberately, carefully.
"Then, trust me, just for one more day, twenty-four hours." She looked up at him through those dark lashes, with those devastating eyes.
"Twenty-four hours, Tane."