Oh, I’m alive. Alive and annoyed.
The second floor crew quarters had devolved into a battlefield. When the men found him naked as the day is long, holding a gun in Ballsy’s shrine, they hadn’t asked questions.Shoot first, ask later.
His eyes found the body closest to him—the last pirate who tried to ‘rush him.’
Let them think I’m dead.He jerked out another bullet, releasing a spray of blood.
“He ain’t dead. He’s holed up like a fucking trap-door spider. If you want to rush him, be my guest but I’m staying here. You saw what happened to the last guy. Only an idiot would charge a blind corner like that.”
“Where the fuck is Ballsy when you need him?”
“The asshole destroyed security—you didn’t see it—Ballsy’s corpse is probably among the burnt-out tech.”
They prattled on.
Gunner opened his clip and checked his ammo, then closed it again.At least one good fucking thing happened.He didn’t have to worry about being found out any longer.The jackal’s out of the bag. It wasn’t the opportune moment, his discovery, but it was one less thing to worry about.
If he had his way, he’d have the coordinates of his ship before the real bloodbath began.
“Captain’s not responding.”
“Piece of shit is safe, why would he fucking come out?”
That piece of shit is the smartest man on this ship.Gunner mused.Except for maybe Ballsy.That bastard was long gone.
“I’m going forward,” one of them hissed and Gunner heard the telltale click of a chamber being loaded.
The pirate inched forward, his steps light but hardly silent. Gunner kept his back to the wall at the corner of the hallway. On the other side where the men converged was the elevator shaft he needed to get to. It shouldn’t have been hard, but he was still weak.
He didn’t count the blood loss or the dozen or so additional bullet wounds in his back as destabilizing him. He’d had limbs torn clean off, been ejected out into the hard vacuum of space, had a gun fired off in his mouth, and had survived it all. No, it was Ballsy's damn program weakening him, unlike anything ever had before.
As if he summoned it, another cellular electromagnetic pulse fired off, temporarily plunging him into blindness.
The man’s footfalls were mere yards away. A normal man wouldn’t hear him under the sirens. Gunner was far from normal.
Gunner let his hand drop and closed his eyes, drooping his head, feigning death.
The guard sucked in a sharp breath when he saw him.
“Well!?” one of the others demanded.
“He’s dead,” the man yelled over his shoulder. “I think he’s dead!”
“Check him!”
The moment he rounded the corner and was out of sight of his crewmates, Gunner lurched up and dragged him to the floor, pressing a hand to his mouth and crushing the bones of his wrist until the laser pistol was released. The pirate’s body jerked in surprise, and he stared up at him just as he succumbed to death.
“Hey! Is he dead?”
“Where’d he go?”
“I told that dumbass he was making a mistake. I told you that twat was waiting for us.”
Gunner pushed the body away from him after he peeled it out of its pants and tugged the undamaged gun strap off it. He slung the strap over his own shoulder and stuffed his legs into the ill-fitting trousers, dressing himself.
“What’re we going to do? Half the crew isn’t accounted for. We can’t get to the bridge from this side.”
Gunner smirked.And I can’t get to the goddamned brig.He jerked and twitched as another pulse rolled over him. His nanocells were busy fighting off this cyberneticdisease, too busy to replenish his strength.
