“I can come with you,” Emerald offered.

  “I’ve got it,” I replied, waving her off. “Wait here, okay?”

  “Two people can fetch two people faster than one people can,” she argued.

  “Two people can go missing faster than one, and then we’ll be delayed even longer. The ship isn’t that big, and Grizz can help.” She didn’t look happy to comply, but she nodded. “Ixy, ping me if Eubric shows up.”

  “Yesss,” she agreed.

  I left the hangar, making my way to Coil’s stateroom on the upper deck. Trying the door controls, I found it locked as Druck had claimed.

  “Coil,” I shouted, hoping my voice could pierce the sound insulated hatch and walls. “It’s Ben.” He didn’t answer. “Coil!” Still nothing. I used enhance to make my voice louder. “Coil, it’s Ben! Respond!”

  I surprised myself with the volume as the door and walls shook from the sound waves, a smile spreading unbidden across my face. It was a neat trick I hadn’t tried before. Even so, Coil still didn’t reply.

  Out of patience, I pulled the door open, snapping the locking mechanism in the process. Stepping into the room, I saw it had been ransacked, the sofa pillows torn open and thrown around the room, the artwork pulled from the walls, their frames broken. What the hell had happened here?

  “Coil!” I shouted again, crossing to the bedroom. It had suffered the same fate, the sheets torn, the gel mattress leaking onto the floor, the large display on the wall shattered.

  I cringed as I headed for the bathroom, expecting to find Coil hanging from the shower rod or in the shower with his wrists cut. He had been distraught over Chantal’s death, even though he had only known her a few days. The only woman who had ever understood him, he claimed. The agony was strange to see on a hardened soldier like the colonel, but I figured any man could fall hard for the right woman. In his misery, he had refused to let me heal him. He had refused to eat and had barely come out of his room at all.

  The bathroom was in tatters too, but Coil wasn’t there. He wasn’t in his quarters at all. Where the hell could he have gotten himself to…blind? Wherever it was, apparently Eubric had gone with him, because he was missing too. Were they just wandering around the ship? Or did they have a particular destination in mind?

  I hurried out of Coil’s quarters, wondering what he was up to as I headed for the flight deck. It only took me a minute to get there, but I nearly face-planted into the door when it didn’t automatically open upon my approach. Obviously, something was wrong. And obviously, Coil had everything to do with it.

  I didn’t hesitate to pull the door aside. The internal mechanism smoked and sparked, and I heard a loud, echoing crack. At first, I thought it had come from the hatch, until I felt a warm tingle in my abdomen that exploded into sudden pain. Looking through the smoke, I spotted Eubric to the right, just off the flight deck, a rifle leveled at me, his finger squeezing the trigger for a second time.

  Coil was on the left at the command station. He had Grizz’s arm pinned, a knife to the engineer’s throat. A malicious grin split his face from ear to ear, growing wider as a second and third crack from Eubric's rifle rolled like thunder across the deck, the slugs slamming into my gut. I stumbled backwards and fell on my butt, glowing blood pouring from my wounds onto the deck, where it immediately turned red.

  Eubric advanced toward me, keeping the rifle pointed at me. “I got him, Colonel!” he exclaimed.

  “Is he dead?” Coil growled back.

  “Nope. After three rounds to the gut, he will be soon. Lots and lots of blood.”

  “You idiot. You need to kill him. Now! Keep shooting!”

  Eubric’s eyes narrowed, still not realizing his mistake. Restore was already healing my wounds. As Eubric's finger finally stretched back toward the trigger, I still had plenty of chaos energy left in the tank to pull the gun from his hands and send it sliding across the deck.

  Eubric’s face shifted in surprise and then his expression twisted in anger. He pulled a knife from his hip scabbard and lunged at me. Still on my ass, I enhanced my strength and kicked him in the chest, the force enough to slam him back into the doorframe. His back cracked against it, and he slumped over on the deck, his eyes widening. “My legs!" he cried out, unable to do anything but lay there on his side. "I can’t move my legs!”

  I cringed, regretting hurting him so badly. My survival instinct had overridden my ability to control the strength of the action.

  “Damn it, do I have to do everything myself?” Coil snapped. He turned Grizz toward the doorway, keeping the blade against his throat as he turned in my direction. “No funny business, son, or he dies.”

  “Coil, what the hell?” I wheezed, grimacing through the pain of the gunshot wounds as my healing flesh pushed the first of the slugs back out through the holes they'd made in the white collared shirt I’d scavenged from one of the stateroom closets.

  “I’m commandeering this boat,” Coil growled. “You don’t need to be here. Get to the gunship and get lost. I won’t stop you.”

  “You just tried to kill me.”

  “Only because you opened the door.”

  “My legs!” Eubric again cried out. "Please! Help me, Colonel."

  “Can you shut the hell up?” Coil snapped. “Pansy. It’s just a busted spine. Get over it.” He shifted the blade against Grizz’s throat. “Don’t make me hurt him, Ben. I don’t need to. All I want is the ship.”

  “What about the passengers?” I asked, rising to my feet. The bullet holes felt like they had already closed over, and no new blood added to the stain on my shirt as the chaos energy dissipated.

  “Heh. Already taken care of. Grizz here helped me open all the airlocks down there and vent the whole lower decks. Problem solved. The ship is mine. I’m gonna bring it to Windfall, sell it for scrap, get my eyes fixed and disappear.”

  “They’re dead?” I exclaimed, anger clamping my teeth down tight as I looked accusingly at him and then at Grizz. Even though the old man's eyes were filled with guilt and remorse, I knew Coil hadn’t given him any choice.

  “That’s what happens to people when there’s no air,” Coil said. “Don’t sound so stricken. Those assholes watched you being hunted like vermin. They made entertainment out of it and came after you for the bounty on your head.”

  “And you don’t want the bounty?” I asked skeptically.

  “Who wouldn’t? But I’m a blind man with a paralyzed moron for a sidekick. I’ll settle for the couple million I can score for the ship. What do you say, son? Just walk away, and I’ll let the old man go as soon as he gets me where I want to be.”

  “You don’t need to go to Windfall for new eyes,” I said. “I can heal both you and Eubric.”

  “I don’t want to be part of whatever it is you call what you’re doing. And I don’t want to go out into the world dead-ass broke. Besides, if you give me back my vision, I’ll use it to hunt you down for leaving Chanty behind. It’s your fault she’s dead. This is the best solution for both of us.”

  “My legs,” Eubric continued crying. “Let him help me, Colonel. Please.”

  “I told you to shut the hell up!” Coil shouted. He pulled a gun from behind his back, and opened fire on Eubric, his aim surprisingly accurate as he followed the sound of the man’s cries. Eubric jerked when the rounds hit him, before falling silently still. “That’s better.”

  “I’m not leaving Grizz here with you,” I said, nauseated by his violent outburst.

  Coil hesitated before lowering his blade. “Fine. You can have him."

  He shoved Grizz toward me, and I caught him before he could take a nosedive.

  "Just leave me the ship.” Coil growled.

  “And how are you going to fly it?” I asked, shoving Grizz safely behind me. “You can’t see.”

  “I’ll figure it out or die trying. It beats the hell out of any of the alternatives.” He put the knife down on the console and reached out, searching for the pilot’s seat. When he found it, he dropped into it, his shoulders slumped. “It would have been better if that fool kid had kept shooting. We could have had the ship…and the bounty. But what can you do? Some folks are born killers. Some folks are born dumb. Just go, Murdock. Stay the hell out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours.”

  I stared at him, considering his request. He had put his future in my hands. I could just as easily kill him as let him go. He had murdered sixteen people, innocent or not, on the lower decks, Coil wasn’t wrong that they had profited from the misery of the Kill Spree contestants and from my part on the latest production of the show. But the contestants were all murderers too. Bad people who had earned their fate.

  Except that wasn’t completely true. Matt hadn’t deserved to wind up on Merton. Neither had the rest of my crew. Neither had Emerald. Not really. Sedaya had set her up. There might have been others like them that Coil had killed.

  “Well, son? What’s your verdict?” Coil asked.

  For him to put it that way was almost funny. Since Eubric had failed to kill me, Coil didn’t seem to care anymore if he lived or died. He had made me his judge, jury, and executioner. he wanted to live or die on his own terms.

  The man was a killer. A murderer. Taking a life meant nothing to him. After killing without a smidgen of remorse, he didn't deserve any favors from me. Leaving him to figure out how to fly a starship blind felt like a more just decision. “Son? You there?” Coil asked.

  Without another word, I draped my arm over Grizz’s shoulders and walked away.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Ben?” Emerald gasped as I entered the hangar. She had been standing near the hatch into the gunship, but now she sprinted toward me, her eyes drifting from the bloodstain on my shirt to my companion. “Grizz? What happened?" Matt leaned out of the dropship, face paling when he saw my shirt. “Ben?”

  “I'm okay,” I said, but it didn't stop Emerald from slipping her shoulder under my arm when she reached me, concern etching her features.

  "Did Coil do this?" She wrapped her arm around me as if I needed help. I didn't, but I didn't bother arguing with her. "I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.”

  “I’m fine," I assured her as we continued toward the gunship. "Really," I added, looking back up at Matt."Restore can’t fix the threads, but it fixed me.”

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Coil decided he wanted the ship. He talked Eubric into guiding him to the flight deck and accosting Grizz. Eubric jumped me when I opened the door.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “Eubric’s dead. He tried to stab me and I kicked him into the bulkhead. Broke his back. Coil shot him because he wouldn’t stop screaming.” I shook my head, struggling to rid myself of Eubric’s cries. “It was awful. Coil’s on the flight deck, trying to figure out how to navigate without being able to see any of the consoles.”

  “What about the Sanguine production crew?”

  “Coil vented the atmosphere on the lower deck. They’re all dead.”

  “What an asshole,” Matt said.

  Emerald fought to control her giggling in response to the news. “Sorry, but they kind of deserved it.”

  “Would I have deserved it too, Miss Emerald?” Grizz asked, leaning around in front of me to slant a look at her.

  Emerald’s laughter vanished in an instant and she let go of me and rushed around in front of me to wrap her arms around Grizz’s thick neck. “Oh. No, not you," she said as she walked beside him. "You’re different. You were up here fixing the ship, not watching the show.”

  “That doesn't mean they needed to die."

  Emerald let go of him and looked at the floor. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” She looked up at him again a moment later. “But you must have helped him open the airlocks. They would only be accessible with your admin rights.”

  Grizz turned white. “I…uh…I…had to.” Tears rolled onto his thick cheeks. “He had a knife to my throat.”

  She let go of him and walked backward in front of him. “So you chose your life over the lives of all the others?”

  “Emerald!” I snapped.

  “What?" She threw me a look. "Am I saying anything that isn’t true?”

  “If he refused, Coil would have killed him and found another way to get what he wanted,” I said.

  “No,” Grizz said. “She’s right. I told you, Sir Ben. I wanted to see my family again. I would have sacrificed you as well if that’s what it took to get back to them.”

  I stared at him, suddenly seeing the old engineer in a totally different light. I couldn’t really blame him, though. What would I have done to get Matt back? What had I done? Made a deal with a devil I didn’t know. Emerald’s gloating grin made the whole thing feel even worse.

  “What’s done is done,” I snapped, still hearing Euric’s cries for help in the back of my mind. I could have restored Euric's legs if Coil hadn’t killed him, but I had to remember, the man had murdered innocent people. He wasn’t exactly a good guy. Were any of us, anymore? “Let’s get aboard the gunship and get the hell out of here.” I turned to Grizz. “We’ll drop you off at the first place we go planetside.” The words came out with a harshness I hadn’t planned.

  He nodded with resignation. “Thank you, Sir Ben. For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry. I had to make a very hard decision, and—”

  “What’s done is done,” I repeated, interrupting him. “We can only go forward from here. Let’s make sure we don’t die here too.”

  I led Matt, Grizz, and Emerald back into the gunship, closing the hatch behind us and pausing at the back while the others took a close look at my shirt. “I’m fine,” I told them again, unprompted. “Look. All healed.” I pulled the shirt up out of my pants to show them my belly, my skin devoid of scars. That didn’t stop Shaq from leaping to my shoulder and rubbing his head against my neck out of concern. “I’m fine, bud,” I repeated.

  “Should have gone with you,” he buzzed back.

  “It wouldn’t have helped. He ambushed me before I could react.”

  “I’m faster.”

  I smiled and used my finger to scratch his chin. “I know you are.” He purred while I made my way to the front of the gunship. “Everyone strap in; we’re getting out of here.” I entered the flight deck and dropped into the pilot’s seat with Shaq still on my shoulder, quickly starting the reactor and running through the startup sequence. I didn’t expect Coil to be able to open the hangar doors for me, so I took care of it myself, pulling them aside as I opened the throttle and guided the gunship out into space.

  Angling toward Head Case, I advanced the throttle, and the little ship rocketed away from the Sanguine mothership. The luxury yacht remained completely stationary in space, Coil no doubt struggling to access the flight controls. The stubborn fool was going to die on that ship. I was certain of that much. I was also pretty sure he deserved it.

  “Leo, do you copy?” I asked, opening the comms and setting them to Head Case’s standard channel.

  “I copy, Captain,” he replied. “I assume that’s you coming toward us like a bat out of hell?”

  “It sure is,” I answered. “Don’t move. I’ll sync us up for mating.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Leo said. “That’s an NXGS Mark Four, isn’t it? Sanguine definitely didn’t hold back on their budgeting for spacecraft, that’s for sure.”

  “I think the ship belonged to the Niflin merc unit they sent to the planet to kill us,” I replied. “I don’t think it came out of their budget.”

  He laughed. “Probably not. I guess it’s ours now, though. I can't wait to get a look at her systems.”

  “Just sit tight, you’ll have your chance.”

  “Copy that,” he answered, barely able to contain his excitement.

  It took nearly twenty minutes to reach Head Case and slow down enough to maneuver the gunship into a position where we could link the smaller hatch on the robot head’s mouth with the hatch on the side of the gunship. It made Head Case look like it had a fish in its mouth.

  By the time the docking interlink was sealed on both sides, I noticed Coil had managed to get the Sanguine ship spinning in a circle. I shook my head and shut down everything inside the gunship.

  “Honey, I'm home!” Matt cried out as the gunship’s hatch slid all the way open, revealing Head Case’s hangar on the other side.

  “Sherlock!” I heard Keep shout. “I never thought I’d say this, but it’s actually good to see you.”

  “You too, you old buzzard,” Matt replied, his voice growing fainter as he left the gunship and moved farther out of my range of hearing. I stood up, leaving the ship right behind Ixy.

  Shutting the hatch, I turned around to a wave of relief washing over me, my heart rate quieting as my eyes swept across everyone in the hangar. My original and newer crews combined at last. I was grateful there was only one missing, though the hole his death had left was still palpable.

  “This is…quaint,” Emerald said, her head on a swivel as she stood in the center of the hangar, looking around. “I love the overhead lighting. It really sets the mood. What mood, I don’t know. But it sets it.”

  My heart lurched anew as Ki walked across the hangar to meet us. Emerald's lightheartedness and everything that had happened with Coil had distracted me from the inescapable moment I'd been dreading the most. A moment that was about to arrive.

  Emerald smiled at the rebel. "Heya, I’m Emerald. Who are you?”

  "I'm Ki," she replied, reaching out to shake Emerald's hand. "Welcome aboard."

  “Nice to meet you, Ki,” Emerald said. “This is Grizz. He’s my new grandpa.”

  “Hello,” Grizz said.

  Ki hesitated before responding, probably trying to figure out what Emerald meant by new grandpa. “Let me introduce you to the others.”

  “Oh, let me see. I already know you, and you, and you from the collator." She pointed at Justus, Keep, and Meg. "I think I know everyone.”

  My gaze settled on Ki, who was already staring at the gunship's closed hatch. Finally, her shadowed eyes swept toward me.