Her body hurt.

Whatever she’d done last night hadn’t been a good idea. She reached next to her to ask Tom what they’d been up to, but her hand didn’t find anything there, not even his side of the bed. The emptiness under her hand hit her heart like a blast and she sat up with a gasp.

“Careful there, Ma’am, you have a mild concussion.” The man talking to her was young, in a blood red body suit. The room was a peaceful light green, the bed was utilitarian and the screen on the wall gave readouts of her condition. She was in a hospital.

“How long?”

“I need you to lie down, it could be days before you’re ready to leave.”

She pushed his arm off. “How long have I been unconscious?”

The man consulted his datapad. “You were brought in twelve hours ago.”

The string of curses she let out made him stare at her.

What had hit her? She vaguely remembered seeing a canister. Those people in Gray, who had they been? There’d been a flash of light, concussive force, but that hadn’t been it. She’d gotten up, only for a man to press a stick against her chest. That had been what had knocked her out.

“Ma’am, you hit your head pretty hard, not to mention all the bruises you have.”

“Those are from the explosion,” she said offhand. She’d been outside the main blast range, but the debris had flown pretty hard. “Have you given me an Heals?”

“Ma’am, Heal-Alls are only to keep someone in one piece long enough so they can make it to a hospital, they aren’t a replacement for proper care.”

She swung her legs off the side of the bed. “Fine, get me two. I have work to do.”

“Ma’am—”

“Kid, I don’t have time for this shit. I’ve already lost twelve hours, not to mention how many of my people died. I’m walking out of here, you want to be responsible for me collapsing once I’m out of here, that’s fine.” She looked at what she was wearing. “Oh for fuck’s sake, where’s my armor?”

The man pointed at the closet.

“Why are you still here? Get me those Heals.”

It might have been the tone in her voice, but he almost ran out of the room. Before the door closed a man entered. She took one look at him and growled.

“I’ve got nothing to say.”

“Miss Silt, you were found at the site of a battle. I have questions for you."

She almost yelled at him not to call her that. She didn’t want to be reminded of what she’d lost, but she’d given them that name. Katherine Silt was the partner in the security firm. The police wouldn’t talk to someone else.

“Fine.” She glared at the man as she pulled off the gown. He was thin, with long light brown hair falling behind him in a braid. His eyes didn’t leave her face as she exposed herself. Well, not distracting him that way. She turned and headed for the closet, walking in measured steps to keep her head from exploding.

“What were you doing there?”

“Hunting down a criminal.”

“A Martin Asinsky, correct?”

“Yeah.” She reached the door and placed hand next to it to rest.

“Maybe you should come back to bed, Miss Silt.”

“Fuck you.” She cursed herself for her lack of control. “I’m sorry. I’m told I hit my head.”

“Which is why you should get back in bed. I’m sure the doctors are going to want to examine you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t have the time for that. So ask your questions and then I’m getting out of here.”

“It’s my understanding that Mister Asinsky is a blackmailer, and yet you went to a drug lab, care to explain why?”

She opened the door, and the smell of dust and soot wafted out. Really? They hadn’t even bothered installing a cleaner in this thing? What kind of hospital was this?

“Miss?”

“I heard you. My information said that’s where he was heading. I’m guessing he had something on them and was going to use that to get help.”

“And the Silver Hand?”

She almost told him they’d just showed up, and then remembered that as an outsider she shouldn’t know what they were called.

“Who?” she pulled out the underclothes and looked them over. Still in good shape.

“They’re a local cartel, with planetary reach. What were they doing there?”

“I don’t know.” She started dressing.

“We found dead mercenaries.”

She paused and closed her eyes. Bile rose in her stomach as she asked. “How many?”

“Fifteen.”

The bastard had killed fifteen of her people. How the fuck did one alien kill fifteen trained mercs.

“Miss Silt? Why were there mercenaries there?”

She forced herself to calm and continue dressing. “They were my backup.”

“Against an extortionist?”

“Yes, against an extortionist.” Anger was slipping through. She turned. “Tell me again how many are dead? Fifteen, right? That’s half the people I brought. Maybe you think that just because he’s a smooth talker, has a nice smile, and that he can cajole what he wants out of you means he isn’t a threat, but I know better. That bastard is deadly. I thought that I’d sent enough people to catch him, and look what happened.”

The man looked at his datapad. “You’re saying Asinsky killed them?”

“No—” she closed her mouth. She’d been about to say that little shit had nothing to do with this. “I’m saying that he knows to hire someone deadly for protection. Where the hell is that kid with the Heals?”

She adjusted the underclothes, made sure they didn’t have any wrinkles. There was nothing worse than having them bunch up under your armor. Then she put the armor on.

“Alright, so you don’t know why the Silver Hand was there. It’s possible your timing was bad and you stepped into the middle of a takeover, that building is pretty deep into one of their rival’s territory, but it’s been known to happen. Maybe they were even after Asinsky, he might have something on them and they need him silenced, or on a rival they wanted to use.”

“Could be.” It sounded plausible enough for her to use it.

“Then who is the third party?”

She didn’t say anything. Gray armor didn’t mean anything. Some mercenary units like to think of themselves as more than a bunch of thugs for hire, so they created a uniform for themselves. She hadn’t seen enough of them to tell if they had training. People had screamed, the grenades came, and then the stick rendered her unconscious.

“Miss Silt?”

“I don’t know about them.”

“Witnesses say they came in and left with someone.”

She spun and had to grab the wall to avoid falling. “Who?”

He consulted his datapad. “I don’t have that information. Either the witness didn’t know, or that information wasn’t entered into the system by the time I left to come here.”

“Then access your damned system and get me that information.”

“I can’t do that. We have a strict ‘no open connections’ at the precinct.”

“You what? That’s stupid, how do you get up to date information?”

“If it’s vital, we have an unconnected comm system and someone will call me. I can’t contact them.”

“Why would you do something like that?”

“Because we’ve been the target of coercion assault for years now. Cutting ourselves off was the only way to keep our system secure.”

She stared at him. What could they have that would warrant that level of attack? Sure this was a moderately important world, but they were Law, not corporate or even government.

“Okay, so if I want that I need to go to the precinct?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re flying me there.”

* * * * *

Her head was clearing by the time they landed. The Heals she’d taken from the medical carts were finally having an effect. “Where are my people?”

“They were mercs operating on the ground without authorization. They were treated and incarcerated.”

“I need them released.”

“Miss Silt—”

“They’re operating here under my orders. I’m their authorization. Do you need me to read you the Jobulan Corporate Act?”

The man sighed. “No, as a corporate agent, you have the authority to hire supplementary forces to help in the pursuit of your duties.”

He wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t care. “Then make it happen.” She opened the hover’s door and stepped out.

“I don’t have the authority. I’m going to have to run that by my captain.”

“Then you do that.” She headed in. When an officer tried to keep her from entering the inner room of the Precinct she chewed him out and when he was a puddle of fear she showed him her ID. No one got in her way after that.

She looked the room over, forty or so desks; most were occupied by officers busy at computers or talking among each other. One man was looking at her. Broad shoulder, short brown eyes and a cocky smile that made her hate him on sight. She went to his desk.

“Ma’am, what can—”

“Get me everything you have on the group that left the drug lab attack. I’m told they carried someone off.”

“I’ll be happy to do that, but I think—”

She leaned in so close he had to lean back. “No, you don’t think. You do what I tell you. You might think you’re some impressive thing, that you can say anything you want, do anything you want ,and never have to pay for it, but I’m telling you right now, that if you piss me off, I’m going to crush you. Do you understand me?”

“Miss Silt.” The voice came from behind her and carried authority. She continued glaring at the man before her a little longer, so he’d know she wasn’t impressed with that voice. Then she straightened and turned.

The man was another young one. He wore a suit that might almost be corporate, but it didn’t fit him quite right.

“Captain Sinor.”

“The fact that you’re corporate doesn’t give you the right to harass my people. The procedures are clear, you need something, you talk to me.”

“My apologies, I didn’t see you here and he looked to be in charge in your absence.”

The man barely hid the snarl. “Please come to my office.”

She followed him, and once the door was closed he rounded on her.

“What the fuck is this I hear about you blowing up a building?”

“That wasn’t me.”

“No, was it one of your mercs? What are you doing hiring those?”

“I have the—”

“I don’t give a fuck about your authority. I want to know what you were thinking. When you came here you told me you were after a blackmailer. One man. You never mentioned needing your own army to do that. Do you have any idea how many dead we have? Eighty-six. That’s how many people you’re little hunt killed.”

She got in his face. “Let me remind you, Captain, that I don’t have to tell you fuck all. I let you know I was here as a courtesy, I can show up, level this city and so long as my bosses don’t complain about it, there’s not one fucking thing you can do about it, so why don’t you sit your fucking ass down and get me the information I need.”

The man’s face was red, and she knew someone would pay for how she’d spoken to him. But it wouldn’t be her, and that was all she cared about. He did sit behind his desk.

“I want everything on the group who left the building. One of your officers told me they had someone with them.” He continued glaring at her, but his fingers typed away. The wall behind him changed from boring gray to the scene of a street. A distortion was moving along it until it turned into an alley.”

“That’s all the recorders saw.” He growled. “I have people working on the images, trying to get anything out of them, but that wasn’t done within the net. They had something that distorted how the camera saw them, so they don’t know how to go about reconstructing what was really there.”

“Witnesses?”

“After an explosion like that one, people stay away from windows, but a few people reported seeing six or seven people walking away, could be as much as twelve, and they were carrying people.”

“People? As in more than one? Your officer said one person.”

“That’s what the initial witness said, but a few more came forward. Seems there was an altercation and they grabbed a few more.”

“Any details?”

“Only that one wasn’t human.”

Not reacting took everything she had. No, she wouldn’t accept that someone else had beaten her to him. She’d worked too damned hard. She wasn’t going to let some other team have the pleasure of making him pay.”

“Where did they go?”

“We were able to track their movement to a transport hover, and that to the port. From there they took a shuttle to a ship.”

“Which one?”

“No idea.”

“Excuse me? You have a ship parked in orbit and you don’t bother finding out who it is?”

“They weren’t anywhere near this planet. They were stationary around Bramolian Eight. It’s nothing but a hunk of rock. Hasn’t been anything there for centuries so we don’t care who stops there or what they do. Unlike you corporates, we have something called privacy, and we respect it.” His pleased expression at her anger made her want to rip his head off, but as satisfying as that was, it would cause them to look a lot deeper into her and she couldn’t risk them finding out she didn’t have corporate authority anymore.

“Fine, my people? Are they released?”

“That’s being processed.”

“Where are they?”

“Still in their cells.”

She turned and left his office. She attracted stairs as she walked through the room to the door marked ‘Cells.’

“Open it,” she told the woman at the desk closest to it.

She obeyed and she had to go through a second set of doors, these reinforced. She entered a hall with small rooms on each side. They were old styles, having bars instead of force fields to keep the prisoners contained. Only the last one had the glow of a forcefield. Curious she headed for it.

“I wouldn’t get close to that one,” one of the officers said. “That alien’s crazy, sent seven of ours to the hospital.”

“What did you do to cause him to do that?”

“Hey, we didn’t do anything. We had to bring him in but he didn’t want to come. He kept holding that other guy close to him.”

Her insides grew cold and she hurried to that cell. The Frenian didn’t even look up as she stopped before him. He was sitting on the floor, the metal bench that had been welded to the wall was crumpled against the force field. The toilet and sink were crushed in a corner, a puddle of water around them.

“No,” she whispered. If Armiln had been alive, he would have been in that cell with Jurran. Neither would have accepted being apart.

Jurran looked up, the misery in his eyes mixed with barely contained rage.

“I’m sorry.”

“He killed him. He broke him and threw him away. They wouldn’t let me take him. Where is he?” the rage flared. “Where is Armiln!”

“I don’t know, but I’ll get him for you. I promise.”

The Frenian nodded. “I want that Samalian. I want to break him. I want to make him feel everything he did to Armiln.”

“You will. You’ll get your revenge too.