Politics Equals Death: From the Athena Lee Universe (Smuggle Life Book 2) Read online

  Politics Equals Death

  by TS Paul and Nathan Howe

  BOOK II IN THE SMUGGLE LIFE SERIES

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Legal Stuff

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Author Notes - Nathan Howe

  Author - Nathan Howe

  Author Notes - TS Paul

  Author - T S Paul

  Legal Stuff

  Copyright © Nathan Howe, T.S. Paul, All Rights Reserved.

  Reproduction of any kind is strictly prohibited unless written permission granted by the individual authors.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Editing by Diane Velasquez, Dorene Johnson, and Kat Lind

  Prologue

  The room was dark and damp with little in the way to let Taylor know where he was. The worst part for him was that he had no idea how long he had been here. It could have been a week or years. The time had blurred together as had the beatings.

  Taylor rolled over on the chilly, hard floor as his stomach rumbled. His one meal a day sat on the floor next to him. It consisted of stale bread and cold soup. Nowhere near enough for a man of Taylor's size. Not that he was large anymore.

  This ordeal had taken its toll on his body and his mind. Taylor didn’t know why they wanted him. All they did was question him about random stuff. Never the same thing. One session was on Rea and the next about Parker and so forth. Sometimes, the questions were related to family and not just his. The asked for information on the ship, and the jobs they took. Never in any distinguishable pattern. Taylor wanted to figure it out. Try to learn who they were or why they took him.

  What kept him going was that Taylor knew that Captain Dodge and Kane would be looking for him. Both were loyal to every crew members. They wouldn’t rest until Taylor was found.

  After taking the bread in his hand, Taylor took a bit. It was dry and rough as it went down. Another bite and another. When it was gone, he was still starving and wanted more. What he would give for a nice drink, a well-aged beverage, one to take the edge off.

  The door opened, and the prisoner was blinded by the light. Every time Taylor saw the light, he had trouble focusing. These periods of light were few and far between. His body had adjusted to the darkness that was ever present.

  A woman entered the room. When she did, Taylor knew that it was going to be another bad session.

  “Hello,” she said. “You sleep well?”

  Taylor remained silent and looked away. He learned long ago not to talk to her. She used every word against him.

  “I’ll take that as a no,” she purred. “Very well. We shall begin.”

  Chapter One

  Steve stood on the bridge with most of the crew. In the darkness, they waited for Parker to arrive. Rea leaned over to Steve, “What’s taking her so long?”

  Steve shrugged, not like the Captain could see it anyway. “I don’t know. She was told to be here by now.”

  The young lady might be scared and worried that she was in trouble. They never did reprimand her for the time she violated their trust on the mission with Jack Drake. She had snuck into the secret cargo hold on their ship, the Rossi and opened the box they were smuggling. She did it even though it was against the agreement of the contract and they had never broken a contract before.

  In the long run, it worked out for them and made them better prepared. That job for Drake was the one that started Steve and his crew members down a path they couldn’t get off. Just before they took that job, their friend and fellow crewman, Taylor had been ambushed and kidnapped.

  The one directly responsible had been taken care of, a pirate, just a young kid really, who had tried to steal from them. They captured him on New Paris and sent him back to Celtica. The pirate’s home planet, to be handled by Kate O’Malley, the current leader of the pirates.

  Steve would hate to be in charge of pirates. In his experience, pirates were unpredictable and didn’t follow orders. And the last mission with Drake proved that even further.

  The wait for Parker was getting long, and Steve was losing his patience.

  Aldis leaned in. “I can’t crouch much longer.”

  The hacker who sat at a computer for endless hours wasn’t very good at sitting still. One of the few things about him that annoyed Steve. The feud between Aldis and Nicole was another.

  Steve liked the whole crew, but that didn’t mean some of them didn’t annoy him. Nicole, the CATT, might be the most frustrating of them all. That was a thought to be considered at another time.

  “She’s almost here,” the robot cat said. She had access to the whole ship. A scary thought especially because she used it to punish people who annoyed her. Steve did his best to purge the memories. Especially, of the time she made his room an icebox for a week, for just making a bad joke

  The door opened, and the youngest member opened the door. “Hello?”

  The crew jumped. “Surprise! Happy Birthday!” the team screamed.

  The lights returned, shining onto a cake for Parker.

  “Oh,” was all Parker managed.

  Steve walked over to her. “Breathe, kid.”

  She smiled. “This is for me?”

  The Marine nodded. “It is, kid.”

  The kid, who was no longer a kid, punched him playfully on the arm. “I’m not a kid.”

  “You’ll always be one to me,” Steve teased.

  The bridge was set up with a cake and some presents for Parker. It wasn’t much, but the Captain of the ship wanted her to feel like she belonged. She had talked the whole crew into it, not that it took much talking.

  One by one, the crew gave Parker a hug and wished her happy birthday. Parker was eighteen now, an adult, hopefully, ready to take on the world. She had been pestering Steve about her place on the ship and even more than that, her place in life. Parker wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her future. There was a reason she did a little of everything on the ship. Steve tried to help her as best he could.

  Rea helped her as well. They both had ever since they saved her from the men who had been chasing her. Slavers or something like that. Steve had wanted to kill them. Nothing bothered him more than slavers. Sure, he was a smuggler, but Rea and the Rossi wouldn’t take part in human trafficking.

  But that was the past. Now, Parker had a place with them. She might still be looking for how to help, but she had them. As strange a surrogate family as anyone could ask for. The kid was fed, safe and happy. It didn’t take long for Parker to make her way over to the gifts. “I’ve never been given gifts,” she said with a shaky voice.

  Hearing that hurt Steve and made him sad. Even one should have birthdays growing up and a family who loved them. Parker’s life w
as a mystery to him, and it didn’t seem like she wanted to talk about it. Steve respected her privacy and wasn’t going to push her. Perhaps, one day, she would be ready to talk about her past.

  Parker opened each one slowly, and her eyes watered. Steve got her some training equipment and supplies. She had asked Steve the last time they spoke to help her learn self-defense. That made his day, and he wanted to make sure she was ready for it.

  The other gifts were a mix of practical and fun stuff that they thought the young woman would like. Lindsey got her a kit to aid in learning some engineering skills and Aldis gave her a book on hacking. Parker appeared to love it all.

  This was a pleasant break from the drain of being on the ship and the grind of trying to find Taylor and Drake. Additionally, they sought the mystery woman. The unknown person who had hired Drake to kidnap Taylor, if the young pirate was to be believed. Rea trusted the kid’s information, and that meant Steve did too.

  What he didn’t like was not knowing who it was and what they wanted. That was the worst thing for Steve. He loathed not having all the information and knowing someone was pulling their strings.

  That needed to be remedied, and fast.

  The party continued as the crew bonded. Just for a while, they could forget about all the bad stuff. It was nice to see them happy and relaxed. It was the first time in several months. It hadn’t felt that long to Steve, but it had been over two months since their escape from New Detroit.

  Rea walked over to him toward the end of the party. “When this is over, we need to talk.”

  Steve nodded. “About?”

  “Think I have a job. Nicole said it should help with Taylor and Drake.”

  That was good news. Some action was needed and getting off the ship for more than a few hours would be nice. “Did she say how?”

  Rea laughed. “You know the answer to that.”

  “I do. That damn CATT. Someday, I’d like to meet this boss she absentmindedly mentions.”

  “You and me both,” Rea said.

  The party continued, and the crew had a blast. Even Steve relaxed as he watched his friends. It was a nice change. As much as he would like it to, he knew it could not last forever.

  Chapter Two

  The crew slowly filed out of the bridge one by one. Parker was the last to leave. Now, only Steve and Rea remained. She wanted to talk to him about the job, needing to see if he knew more about who was contacting her.

  The Marine was tall, muscular and had a wide frame. Rea knew that his physique was an imposing one to many people. She had used that to her advantage more than once. He was great at scaring people just by looking at them.

  “What’s the job?” Steve asked.

  Rea paced back and forth on the bridge before answering. This one might make Steve nervous or angry. From what little she did know, it involved politics or might be. Nicole wasn’t clear and wouldn’t elaborate on it.

  “You ever been to New Philly?” Rea finally asked.

  Steve folded his arms over his chest and stood stiffly erect. That was never a good sign. Rea knew he was remembering a bad memory.

  “Once,” he said, his tone harsh and firm. “Not a great system. Some shady stuff there. Looking back, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the Cabal or something.”

  Rea didn’t like the sound of that, but Nicole would have mentioned it. Her access to information was unparalleled.

  “Nicole didn’t mention the Cabal.”

  Steve’s body relaxed. “Good. Then just some ruffians. I can deal with that.”

  That was good to hear. Being smugglers, they dealt with all sorts of people. Not all of them were pleasant. Most weren’t when Rea thought about it. Her life was dealing with people who were trying to take advantage of her.

  The captain sighed. “You ever hear of an Eric Spacey?”

  “Nope. My time there was with a certain crowd.”

  Rea couldn’t help but smile when Steve said something like that. It was vague, and it could mean so many things. When Steve was in the Marines, they went to many places. From the stories he told, it had been an interesting time.

  It wasn’t that Rea didn’t do some fun missions when she was in the Navy. The captain did, but most of had been from the safety of her ship. The most exciting thing Rea had done was the one incident that told her she wasn’t going to stay forever. When she let Kate O’Malley go.

  But this mission wouldn’t be exciting. It reminded Rea of the last job for Drake and how little she’d known going into it. That troubled her. Before, lack of information hadn’t been much of an issue, but now, it was. Not knowing could get her killed or worse, harm her crew.

  “Okay,” she said slowly

  “You’re worried,” Steve said. “You don’t have all the info. Rea, you won’t. Time to get off the pot.”

  He was right. Not every job they took was going to have all of it laid out in front of them. If Nicole said this one might help with Drake, Taylor, and the mystery woman, it was worth taking a risk.

  <<<>>>

  “Where are we going?” Aldis asked. He was working the helm of the Rossi.

  It was the morning after the surprise birthday party for Parker. The crew had slept well last night, and it was time to get back to work.

  “New Philly,” Rea said.

  Aldis gave her a quizzical look. This was a new one for them. Rea was sure that the only person on the ship who had ever been there before was Steve. Most of her crew had only visited systems that the Rossi had traveled to on jobs.

  “Roger that, Captain.”

  Aldis went to work and set the coordinates for New Philly. It wouldn’t be a long trip. One of the good things was it was definitely away from any of the fighting and war going on. Not that it didn’t have any dangerous areas. The whole Empire was in conflict. There was no way to entirely avoid hazards.

  The Rossi was ready in minutes, with Aldis and Lindsey talking and working together. The crew didn’t ask Rea many questions about the job, and that was a good thing. She wasn’t even sure what it was. Just that it paid decently and might help on the hunt for the missing Taylor.

  The Drake’s trail had gone cold, and no one knew where he was. Last Rea heard, the pirate and his minions had fled Celtica in the dark of night and jumped away. No one had seen them leave or had a clue where they had gone.

  It frustrated Rea that she lost him and never got to see him. Drake had been so familiar to her and reminded her of someone. When she had learned that he claimed to be her long-dead brother, she’d wanted to talk to him.

  Of course, he’d tried to kill her, and that hadn’t made any sense. She had gotten along well with her brother. Back then he was known by his birth name, Quentin. With his new appearance, Jack Drake fit his pirate life.

  Steve entered the bridge. “When we leaving? I’m ready for some action.”

  Aldis turned to him. “Now.”

  He punched the Rossi’s controls, and it hurtled into space and toward their destination.

  As they flew, Aldis turned to Rea and Steve. “What is the job? Are we smuggling something good?”

  Rea shrugged. “No clue. Just that it might help.”

  Aldis jumped from his seat. “You don’t know?”

  “It’s okay,” Rea said. “Nicole said it—”

  “Nicole.” Aldis threw his arms into the air. “Not her. We can’t be doing this based on her.”

  Aldis didn’t like the CATT, not even a little bit. The robot had taken over many of his duties and made him look bad all the time. Because of that, he had grown to not trust her.

  “She said it will help with Drake and Taylor,” Steve said. “If that is enough for Dodge and me, it’s enough for you.”

  Aldis gritted his teeth, clearly not pleased. His frustration bled through. “Fine, but I’m not happy.”

  He returned to the helm and went back to work. Rea had hoped he would get over it all, but the Drake job had been rough. He had been against it from the start, but t
hat had been entirely different. That had more to do with him hating pirates, more than even Rea did, which was saying a lot.

  Rea had served on an anti-pirate ship in the Navy. She had learned to despise pirates from her time. That many pirates tried to raid them, and the Rossi just made her have an extreme dislike for them.

  This time, Aldis disagreed just to disagree with Nicole, and that was something that angered Rea.

  “Aldis, I get you don’t like Nicole, and the Drake job went poorly, but this will be different.”

  Aldis turned to face her. “If you say so.”

  It was clear he wasn’t going to like it until it was over. Rea inhaled deeply. Time to let it go and prep for the job at hand.

  Chapter Three

  Rea looked out as the ship approached New Philly after two short jumps. New Philly wasn’t any different than most of the planets she had visited. From space, most planets looked similar.

  Taking in New Philly for the first time was nice but not something that Rea would remember for the rest of her life. It just didn’t stand out like New Paris or some other planets that she visited.

  Aldis sat at the helm, waiting for contact from the planet. Rea wasn’t sure about the docking at the planet. It was big enough that landing on the planet was possible, but Steve wasn’t sure with a civilian ship.

  New Philly was part of the Empire but not a hub for much of anything. It wasn’t that it was forgotten, just not important. The planet had no major exports or products to offer the rest of the Empire.

  Aldis worked the communications with the planet. Rea was thankful for that. She hated having to do that. Not that she wasn’t capable of doing it. She was. She just was not as talkative as Aldis or Taylor. That really helped when dealing with people. Rea was blunter, and that might not be the best approach when dealing with security people.

  A few minutes later, Aldis turned to Rea. “Cleared to land in the city we want. Bay sixteen.”

  “Good,” Rea said. “Get us there.”

  They had arrived a few days early for the job, and Rea was sure that the crew would be thankful for a chance to get off the ship and explore the planet. She just had to make sure that they didn’t get into any trouble.