Cook, Glen - Starfishers [Omnibus] by Cook Glen

Author:Cook, Glen [Cook, Glen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Fantasy - General, Science Fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Space Warfare, Short Stories, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Fantasy - Short Stories, Short story, Science Fiction; American, Science Fiction - General, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Fiction - General
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Niven was snoring. He had one arm beneath Marya’s neck.

The building shuddered like a dog shaking off water. A window cracked. Tableware clattered onto the kitchen floor. The whole neighborhood reverberated to the explosion.

Niven jerked upright. “D-14,” he grunted.

“What?”

“What was that?”

“An explosion.”

They dressed, almost racing. Reflections of dancing firelight colored the cracked window. Marya looked out. “Oh, Holy Sant!”

“What?”

“The warehouse . . . ”

“Eh?”

“I’ll be right back . . . What’s that?”

A yell had come from somewhere downstairs. Cries and screams followed it.

Niven knew that first yell. That was Mouse in assassin’s mind.

Earlier, he had seen the shape of the needlegun lumping her underwear in a dresser drawer. He beat her to it.

The door crashed inward. A ragged, battered, bloody Mouse hurtled through. He was so keyed for action that he looked three meters tall.

“Easy,” Niven said, gesturing with the needlegun. “Everything’s under control, Mouse.”

Mouse was not hurt. The blood was not his own. “Got everything,” he croaked through a dry throat. “Message away. Got to bend the bitch and get out.”

That was their business, but . . . Niven could not permit the woman’s murder. That she was Sangaree seemed irrelevant. “No. There’s no need. Not this time.”

Mouse was coming down. Thought was replacing action. He glanced at Niven’s weapon, at the woman. “All right. You’re the boss, Doc. But I’ve got to get something out of this. Where’re the damned kids?”

“Upstairs. But I won’t let you kill children, either.”

“Wouldn’t think of it, Doc. Wouldn’t even drown a puppy. You know old John. So tie her up, will you? Can’t have her coming after us.” He backed out the door.

Siren howls tortured the streets. The grumble of a gathering crowd slipped tentacles into the room. “Sorry it had to end this way, Marya. But business is business.”

“I almost believed . . . ” She stared at him. For an instant she looked small and defenseless. He reminded himself that she was Sangaree, that she would become instant death if he were careless. “I suppose you’re soothing your conscience. I wouldn’t if the tables were turned. You’ve hurt us too much already.”

Not a smart thing to say to somebody pointing a gun at you, Niven thought. He shrugged. “Maybe. It’s not conscience, though. A different weakness. You’d probably have to be human to understand.” He left it to her to figure out what he meant.

Mouse returned with the children and doctor. In the process he had acquired a weapon. “Tie these three, too, Doc.”

The doctor was more frightened than Brandy or Michael. Humans on the fringes of the Business generally imagined operations by and against the organization to be more deadly than they were.

Brandy asked, “What’re you doing, Gun?” Straight out, emotionlessly. As if she were used to being under the gun.

“Business, dear.”

“Oh.” She sped her mother a disgusted look.

“He’s the Starduster,” Marya told her.

“And you fell for his story?”

Niven tore sheets into strips, tied the doctor, then the girl, then Michael. “Told you I knew a pirate, Captain.”

“Good,” Mouse said.

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