“Guys?” Allie asked.
“This one figured that if’n you’d landed, that would make it a good time to send out a call for the other SC bastards,” Jacqs offered.
“He didn’t exactly say that,” Ben said, “but that would be my guess.”
“Because it’s the only guess that makes any fucking sense,” Jacqs shot right back.
“Let’s get back to the house and worry about it then,” Zeke said.
“Wait,” Jacqs said. “I’m guessing he had a transmitter. We take him back, and we’re leading them right to our door. I ain’t a fan of that plan. I say we kill him.”
“Jacqs!” Allie barked. “We don’t kill people.”
He looked at her strangely. “Of course we do. Least, I do. You just drive the ship, and I’ll do the killing.”
“You’d make an enemy out of SC if you did that,” their prisoner observed. For someone who was getting threatened by Jacqs, he sounded remarkably calm.
“I think they’ve already done that by booby trapping our ship,” Ben answered.
“They don’t mean you any harm,” the guy had the nerve to say.
Zeke gave a sharp whistle. “We’re not killing anyone. Not yet.” He gave their prisoner a hard look. “We’re heading back to the house, hunkering down with some supplies, and then we’ll deal with whatever happens when it happens.”
Jacqs gave them a look that he might have intended to be reassuring. “Yeah, if you end up getting stuck here, it ain’t so bad. The food’s pretty good, and supplies come all regularlike.”
Allie closed her eyes and counted to five. It was kinder than telling Jacqs exactly what she thought of any plan that ended up with them as slaves. That was not in her life plan, and while she was trying to be much more flexible and less judgmental, she didn’t flex that far.
“More running, less talking. Now!” Zeke ordered.
Jacqs was the first to react, pushing the prisoner ahead of him, but then everyone else got moving too. Ben jogged a little faster to take point, Copta and Becca got into position right behind Zeke, and Allie and Shank brought up the rear. They were making good time until Ben reached the top of the hills. Without warning, he dropped to his belly. In seconds, Jacqs had pushed their prisoner facedown on the ground and he was on one knee, his weapon up.
Copta and Becca both retreated to stand with Allie and Shank while the commander ran ahead to check the problem.
“This isn’t good,” Allie said softly.
“Don’t borrow trouble. Maybe Ben’s just being paranoid,” Shank said.
Copta made a little huffing noise. “That man is not paranoid enough. If he was, he wouldn’t always be putting himself in the middle of danger.”
“Amen,” Becca added.
The rest of the conversation got cut off when Zeke came trotting back down, Ben close on his heels.
“Did my ship come?” their prisoner asked. Since he was still facedown and cuffed, he didn’t pose much of a threat, but Allie was starting to think shooting him was a pretty good idea.
“Sir?” Shank had his military manners on, which did not soothe Allie’s frayed nerves.
“SC ship.” Zeke looked furious. “We can go back to your ship and try to stand them off—wait until the bats show up—or we can go down there and face this head-on.”
“Can I shoot someone?” Allie asked.
Shank grinned at her. “I’m not going to stop you.”
“We aren’t going to threaten violence at all,” Ben said, his voice serious. “SC missions are always overplanned, so if they are down here, that means they have ground-based backup and ships in orbit. They probably already have us surrounded. SC missions are all about making sure every contingency is covered by three different plans.”
“At least,” the guy in the dirt agreed. “That ship back there was left as bait. We thought the Lacroixs might take it because she’s a sweet little ride, a retired diplomatic vessel no longer useful to the ambassador who used to ferry some pretty questionable cargo in her. He’s gone, and the ship is scrubbed clean of every identifying mark. When Ms. Lankan took it, we almost retrieved it. Luckily, we found out about her history with Mr. Lacroix and left the bait in place.”
“Who?” Allie asked.
