The Forever Quest (The Forever Series Book 4) Read online

  I slapped way too much money down on the table and stepped over to pull out her chair. “We’ll get a cab, and I’ll see you safely to the ship. Then I’ll slink alone to the cold loneliness of my sparse hotel room.”

  On the ride to Desolation, Kayla finally spoke. “How about I drop you off first? If Karnean’s still awake, which I know he will be, I’d really hate for him to see us together.”

  She had a valid point there.

  “You sure you’ll be okay?”

  As I spoke, I slipped a probe fiber against the driver’s ankle. Who are you?

  Didn’t take long for me to find out. Kayla was perfectly safe with this guy. He was daydreaming about guys that didn’t look at all like her.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Just before we stopped, I planted a seed. “If Karnean and you haven’t met with your contact here, I’d like to come along when you do.”

  She looked at me hard. “Why?”

  “Because I worry about you.”

  “Already? One foreshortened date and you feel the need to protect me?”

  “I did some asking around. There’s a guy named Varrank Simzle who, more or less, runs this planet. If you’re dealing with him, I have some insight you’ll need.”

  There was no way I could have known that was their contact. She looked at me longer and harder. “You are a wellspring of surprise, aren’t you?” After grinding her teeth, she said, “I’ll favor your attendance. But Karnean should hear it from you that you want in. The meeting is in two days.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “We will both see what it is you can do, Jon Ryan.”

  The cab pulled up and I got out. Through her open window, I said, “Thank you for one of the best first dates I’ve ever had.” For once in the proverbial blue moon, I was serious. Sorry, Jane Geraty, Kayla beat you by a hair.

  I returned to Desolation the next morning. My leave was up, and I didn’t want my ankle to explode. I also needed to convince Karnean to include me in the meeting with Varrank Simzle. That would be some trick. In fact, I couldn’t wait to see how I pulled it off. I checked in with engineering as soon as I was aboard. Everything was fine, so I hit the officer’s mess. Maybe I caught a lucky break. Karnean was eating, and he was alone. He was reading something on his handheld, probably updates on the last of the nonessential systems repairs. We were rarely at mess together if Kayla wasn’t there, so I figured I was in for an uncomfortable session.

  I set my tray down and grunted an acknowledgement. He didn’t bother to return it. He kept reading whatever held his attention. What a big baby. I decided to force a conversation based on my role as chief engineer. He was nothing if not a thorough captain, so he’d would respond to business matters, albeit tersely.

  “I checked on the ship’s repairs. We’re almost back in one piece. All we need to do is replace the backup generators, and we’ll be good as new.”

  Slowly, reluctantly, he lowered his handheld and looked at me. “I agree. The generators will be delivered in three days. Once they’re operational, I think we’ll have completed repair.” He paused, probably because the next words were clinging to his throat like a frightened squid, trying not to come out. “You’ve done a fine job, Mr. Ryan. The speed and quality of your efforts will be reflected in your cut at the end of this voyage.”

  “I’ve checked the cargo hold a couple times, but I can’t sign off that it’s shipshape until we deliver it to whoever it’s going to. Do you know when that’ll be?”

  He studied his half-eaten meal a moment. “Tomorrow we met with our client. Assuming all goes to plan, it should be offloaded the following day. You’ll be able to go over the hold thoroughly after that.”

  “To plan? What could go wrong?”

  He stiffened when he heard that crack. “Nothing that involves you,” he replied coolly.

  “I guess you’re probably right.” I said that as flippantly and as annoyingly as I could, which meant it was pretty flippant and annoying.

  Karnean sat mute, steaming, but finally gave in. “What precisely does that remark mean, Mr. Ryan?”

  “What remark?” Man, I could be problematic.

  “You know perfectly well. The one about you guessing I’m probably right as opposed to just me being right?”

  “Me? Nothing.” I giggled like a boob. “I suppose.”

  “You clearly have something you wish to say. I suggest you say it before I draw my sidearm and terminate that possibility.”

  He was a huffy son of a gun, wasn’t he?

  “Well, I guess what I mean is that you probably already know that there’s the possibility of, you know, complications. I mean, you know who you’re dealing with, right?”

  “I will ask for the last time. What are you so obliquely driving at? Of course, I know the party I am delivering the cargo to. How else could I deliver it?”

  “Hey, easy. I’m just talking here. I’m sure you trust your buyer. If it isn’t Varrank Simzle, there’s no need to worry.” I stabbed loudly at my veggies.

  Karnean transformed over the next few seconds. It was the ugly change he went through that was scary to watch and scarier to experience. He went from being a pissed off, unfriendly jerk to a singularly focused psychopath bent on murder—or worse. His voice softened to an almost agreeable tone, and he wore a constant smile, reflecting the joy of being a bloodthirsty maniac.

  “Isn’t that a coincidence? You seem to have divined the party to whom I’m contracted to deliver our entire cargo. Isn’t that amazing? You, my engineer, a man who says he’s never been to Deerkon before, and a person completely in the dark as to the ship’s business knows that tiny fact.” He sipped his drink, then set it down gingerly. “You are a man of miracles, Jon. There can be no alternate description. Miracles, I tell you.” He pointed a finger rapidly up.

  “If—”

  “Silence! We are at the I’m-talking-and-you’re-listening part of the program. I was about to say that I’m not a religious man, Jon. Not in the slightest. Hence, miracles are foreign to me. Do you know what I think when confronted by a radically foreign phenomenon? I grow suspicious and ultimately wrathful. I know, it’s a character flaw, but at the very least, I own up to it.

  “So,” he held up a fist, “let me count them. One,” a finger snapped up, “Jon knows the engine seals are about to fail. Miraculous, if you ask me. Two,” another finger, “an attacking ship with our testicles in its hands miraculously explodes. And now three,” a third digit snapped up, “Jon knows who I’m selling to when he can’t. Simply miraculous.”

  “Karnean, I’d like to say I hate to interrupt, but I don’t. You weren’t listening. I remarked that hopefully you had the good sense not to sell to this Varrank fellow, not that you were going to. You spilled those beans. Do us both a huge favor and lighten up.” I know, I pushed him a bit hard there. To tell the truth, I was done with his attitude.

  He stared at me and, darn it all if his psycho face didn’t melt back into his earlier, angry petulant expression. Thank God for minor miracles.

  “You did,” he said with contempt, “But you had better tell me quickly how you came to that conclusion, or you’re in for a significantly unpleasant interlude.”

  “Karnean, let me start by setting the stage here. Picture in your mind’s eye a sheet of paper with three columns. The headings of those columns read: Thing You Know About Jon, Things You Think You Know About Jon, and Things You Don’t Know About Jon but Wish You Had. Guess which column has the most entries?”

  “Am I supposed to answer that question?”

  “No. I’m just framing the picture.” I dropped my handheld on the table in front of him. “I would have assumed a careful, long-lived captain would have checked on this. You know what? I did it myself.”

  He picked up my handheld and studied the screen. “This is just a list of the ships that have come and gone from Deerkon in the last six months.”

  He looked up at me. “Why should I care about thi
s public information?”

  I took the device back and hit an icon, then handed it back.

  “This is just the same list, filtered for deliveries to Varrank. It’s meaningless,” he said

  I took the handheld back and hit a button. He reached over and studied the screen.

  “Jon, I’m getting bored and testy. This is a stupid list of off-world flights over the last six months.”

  “Hit the green icon,” I said while chewing.

  He examined the screen. One. Two. Three. Boom. His eyes popped open like saucers.

  “Yeah. Like I said, kind of mission critical info, eh?”

  “Seven of the eight ships contracted to Varrank never left port.”

  “If you’re totally curious, hit the button again. It’ll display a list of all vessels renting docks in Monzos for more than one month. None of those seven ships are on that list either.”

  Karnean rested back in his chair. “Jon, I don’t find myself in this position often, but I must apologize to you.” He held out his hand to shake, and we did. “Once again your diligence has likely saved my ship and my life.” He sat for a few minutes, thinking. “I’m not sure what our options are. If we suddenly blast off and run, I doubt Varrank would let us escape.”

  “Not the charitable type.”

  “Once we deliver the goods, he’ll probably kill my sister and me and claim the ship.” He tapped at his lower lip. “Not sure why he hasn’t done that already.”

  “Two reasons, no three. One, what’s the hurry? Two, his goods might be damaged in an attack. Three, it’s fun to watch your victim, knowing what’s in store for them.”

  “You’re smarter than you look, Jon. Has anyone mentioned that before?”

  “More times than you might imagine.”

  “So, how do you suggest I proceed?”

  I looked to him with an enormous smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  SIXTEEN

  Varrank’s people picked up the three of us and drive us to his palace. Actually, “palace” might be too small a description, but it’ll do for how. His place was huge, guarded better than I’d ever seen anything guarded in my life. It was built with the type of excess that was meant to offend you when you looked at it. No aspect, from the smallest corner to the tallest tower, wasn’t lavished with overly ornate designs, engravings, and appointments. Really, it was so far over the top, I couldn’t see the top. It was disgusting, which of course was Varrank’s point. Money meant nothing to him. People meant nothing to him. Message received, loud and clear.

  They dropped us off at the front of one of the larger buildings and ushered us into a massive room. I can’t say if it was a library, a study, or what. It was garish and ridiculously overdone, naturally. They gave us drinks and trays of delicacies for us to pick from. Each tray had to be worth more than any house I owned back on Earth. Varrank was such a sick puppy.

  We waited for an hour before I heard rustling outside in the hallway. Varrank came around the corner, followed by an entourage of thirty or more lackeys. Some assistants even carried cages with exotic birds. Way too much. As if by magic, servants appeared behind our chairs and made us stand quickly. Royalty was among us. I had an impulse to spit on the floor, but that might have been counterproductive.

  Varrank walked regally over to the head of the table, and several aides pulled his chair out and slid him forward. He rested his hands on the table and turned to speak to someone who leaned in with a cupped ear. I’d seen pictures of Varrank, but they didn’t do him justice. He was larger than life, in every way one could be larger than life. He looked fully human, mid to late forties and of average height and weight. It was hard to say much more about him since he wore layer upon layer of colorful gowns like an ancient Chinese emperor.

  His eyes told his whole story. He had the emotionless black eyes of a white shark. I could see endless enmity in those eyes, boundless contempt, and unending malice. Varrank Simzle was not a man to be taken lightly. He was evil incarnate, knew that to be the case, and was proud of it.

  “Captain Beckzel,” he finally said with a flourish of his hand, “so nice to finally meet you.”

  Karnean nodded silently.

  “And First Officer Beckzel, wonderful to greet you in my home.”

  Kayla nodded also.

  “This man,” oops, he was gesturing at you-know-who, “I neither know nor am inclined to welcome. Captain Beckzel, what is the reason you’ve brought along an uninvited stranger?”

  When Varrank was upset, people were going to die.

  Luckily for us all, Karnean was a psychopath. They lie well and never appear rattled. “This, Lord Varrank is my engineer and trusted friend, Jon Ryan. He has been with me for years and has become part of our inner circle. He is here today because he has an equal stake in the venture and deserves to be included in its negotiation.”

  “I was not aware you had a new partner. As there is nothing I do not know, so I find your claim to be unlikely.”

  Gulp.

  “Nevertheless, Great Varrank, it is true. Might I suggest we proceed to our negotiations and not worry about the participants?”

  One of the entourage gasped. Yeah, we were digging ourselves a big ol’ hole.

  “I am accustomed to being the one to make all determinations, Karnean. I am offended that you would presume to tell me what to do.”

  Any sane person would be a puddle on the floor. Fortunately, again, Karnean was not sane. Of course, Karnean had the foreknowledge that Varrank planned on killing us. He couldn’t make our sentences any bleaker.

  “Lord, I mean never to offend, especially one as powerful as yourself. I wish only to complete our transaction and be on my way.”

  “You most assuredly will be on your way soon. Perhaps—”

  An assistant interrupted him. They leaned toward each other and whispered. Lucky I was an android and could hear them.

  “Lord, your men have arrived at the ship and have found the crew missing. The entire vessel is wired with high explosives controlled by an AI.” The woman then receded into the rest of the entourage.

  “Captain Karnean, it has come to my attention that you have taken certain precautions against me treating you harshly.”

  Varrank clapped his hands the way obnoxious rich people do. You know, fingertips hitting the butt of the palm, hardly making a sound. Disgusting.

  “Bravo, I say. You would have been a worthy asset were you not slated to die. Boldness combined with recklessness is so uncommon in the present day.”

  “If I die, Varrank, you lose your shipment. You know that, right?”

  “It matters nothing to me either way. You know that, right?”

  “Why would you spend a fortune for me to bring supplies from light-years away only to see them destroyed?”

  “You suffer from not knowing me. I did not spend a fortune. I merely promised one. As for the equipment, it would be useful to have it, but not critically so. No part of my empire is indispensable. If it were, I might be held hostage by ineffective fools trying as ineptly as you do now to do just that. This I cannot allow.”

  He stood, and his people pulled his chair back and flanked him.

  “I will take my leave of you and shall not suffer to see you again. My guards will show you to your separate temporary accommodations pending your untimely deaths. Good day.”

  Okay, my plan wasn’t working out the way I’d drawn on paper. It should have worked. I simply didn’t include the variable that Varrank didn’t need what he’d ordered. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Wait, hopefully I would make that mistake again since it would mean I’d lived long enough to make that mistake again. Crap.

  Six guards strode up behind us and assumed possession of an elbow each. They preferred to drag us away, but we had the choice to walk if we did so rapidly and despite significant jostling.

  Karnean turned to his sister as they took us in separate directions. “I’ll get us out of this, Kayla. I swear it on our father’s g
rave.”

  “Goodbye, brother,” was her only response.

  I was led up some stairs, then some down others. Up some more, and down some more. What a warren of inefficiency the palace of Lord Varrank was. Finally, we stopped at a plain looking door, the first plain thing I’d seen since our arrival. One guard keyed in the code, and the door opened. They made it a point to throw me as hard as they could into the room. The door closed, leaving me alone.

  Hmm. What to do? I scanned the room visually. It was more than a prison cell but much less than a guest room. Four walls, a toilet, and a simple bed to sleep on, if I lived long enough to need sleep. No holo, computer, or game station. Let the punishment begin. Each wall had two cameras on it, one stationary, the other sweeping back and forth. Not much in the way of privacy.

  I could escape the room, but what then? I could take out a lot of guards, but could I take them all? Probably not. This man spared no expense to keep this place secure.. Even if I could escape, could I retrieve Kayla and Karnean? Almost certainly not. A lot depended on time. If we were all executed quickly, there was no time to plan anything elaborate. I couldn’t afford to blow my cover, but I couldn’t afford to be too subtle either. I’d come for information on the worldships in the first place. Saving the three of our lives was not my primary concern. Anything I learned was passed to Al at once, and he could alert the humans if a credible threat existed. I was expendable, and so were the Beckzels. Remembering that helped me decide what to do next.

  The surveillance cameras were attached to computers. Computers were linked and might hold the information I needed. I slipped one probe fiber along the floor, into the corner, up the wall, contacting the camera. It would be nearly impossible for anyone to see what I was doing, even if they were looking for it. I decided to give them something else to look at, just before I launched the probe, just in case.

  I collapsed to the floor, cried like a baby hippo, and wailed like a politician who just lost. I kicked my legs in the air, swung my arms in the air, and banged my head on the floor. I kept screaming that I was too young to die and that I was too good looking to die. Hey, no one was going to critique my decompensation. I could afford to take some artistic license.