Relaunch Mission by Robyn Bachar

Author:Robyn Bachar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“He lives, Tomas,” Lindana said as her brother approached.

“So I see.” Tomas looked weary and a bit filthy, but otherwise okay.

“I mean it.”

Tomas met her gaze, then nodded. “Understood.” He approached Gabriel and frowned. “I see your first aid continues to suck.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t suck if you spent less time trying to sneak into the engine room and more time teaching proper first aid techniques to the crew,” Lindana countered.

“Yeah, yeah. So noted, Captain. Go on, I’ll take good care of Sleeping Beauty. I promise.”

Lindana squeezed Gabriel’s shoulder, then rose and grabbed her brother in a quick hug.

Tomas rubbed her head. “You need a haircut, Lindy.”

“Also noted. Diesel, keep an eye on them.”

“You got it, boss.”

Lindana made her way to the Novosibirsk’s bridge. Soviet ships were needlessly complicated due to a long history of spaceship design by engineers who mistrusted pilots. Soviet engineers automated everything, leaving as little to human error as possible. The result was a bridge crammed full of data stations providing readouts of a million different ships’ systems.

Ryder silently studied Raiya as she barked orders at the surprisingly compliant Soviet crew. “She reminds me of Jiang,” he said.

“It’s the training,” Lindana said. Raiya and Jiang had both been through the Soviet flight program, which was efficient and unforgiving. “Status?”

“We’re proceeding to the rendezvous point. The Mombasa was holding her own when we jumped.” Ryder rolled his shoulders. “The Novosibirsk’s bridge crew seemed happy to see Raiya. Most of them have already asked to defect. Other than that, we have an unknown number of pirates aboard and a KGB agent on the loose. Raiya really wants to find him.”

“I bet. We’ll see what we can do. I want to have this ship under our complete control before we reach the rendezvous point.”

“Do you trust her?” Ryder nodded toward Raiya.

“She’s been honest with me in the past. I trusted her enough to get naked with her.”

Ryder stroked his goatee. “Fair enough. It would’ve been nice to know she was our mission objective.”

“Gabriel’s going to answer for that after Tomas patches him up. Though really being gut shot seems like punishment enough.”

“True,” Ryder agreed. “Do you trust him?”

“That’s...complicated. We’re still trying to access his service record.”

“We can’t afford complicated right now.”

“Don’t I know it.”

* * *

Gabriel hated being shot. Oh, he hated being wounded in general, but a bullet wound was particularly vexing. He’d take a cutlass slash or a taser burn any day over the trauma one tiny ballistic missile left in its wake. Bullets rattled around your guts and redecorated your insides, and right now Gabriel felt as though his entire abdomen had been demolished. He had been shot with an incendiary round, judging by the faint smell of singed flesh and melted armor that lingered in his nostrils. Dragon’s Breath, pirates called it. Animals. He said a silent prayer of thanks for the continued good health and fortune of his armorsmith and cautiously opened his eyes. The face he saw staring back at him made Gabriel squeeze his eyes shut again.

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