Chapter 9 – A Line in the Sand
"This is right, according to the coordinates." The speeder hovered outside the entrance to an old warehouse. Vacy frowned, but parked the bike in a nearby corner and reset the security features before stepping down.
Corso shrugged. "Well. Least we can check it out?"
She nodded. "Just – you haven't tested Ms. Puffs yet. So if there's any trouble, stick with your other equipment." Her eyes twinkled a bit. "You've got plenty of it, after all."
He let out a deep sigh, grumbling under his breath, but then nodded. "All right, Captain."
"Leave me alone! I haven't done anything to you!" A whiny voice pierced the relative darkness as Vacy and Corso paused just inside the doorway, blinking until they could see.
A small man cowered in front of a group of significantly larger men. With guns. Vacy looked at Corso, and nodded toward the group. The pair approached quietly.
"You stole corporate documents, Kamus," said one of them, his jacket fancier than the others'. "Czerka doesn't take kindly to industrial espionage."
Vacy heard another voice behind her. "Contact – unidentified subject, possibly a collaborator." She looked over her shoulder and swore quietly, looking at Corso with a sigh and a shrug of apology. Apparently there had been four of the goons. The leader of the group turned sharply, nodded to the man behind them. "You know the drill. No survivors, no leaks."
Definitely not a phrase Vacy liked to hear. She stepped forward, putting her hands on her hips. "What's your problem with this pipsqueak?" she asked, tilting her head toward the man they'd called Kamus. "He's really some kind of threat?"
The squad leader smirked, swinging his gun up toward her, and Vacy gulped. "Sorry, lady. Wrong place, wrong time. Open fire!"
At that, Kamus shrieked and ran.
Great. Of course you're useless in a fight. Vacy scrambled to a nearby computer terminal for a bit of cover. She heard Corso's yell as she charged Flashy, and she couldn't hold back a smile.
When she popped up and fired a series of shots that dropped one of the goons, Corso was already in the thick of things. He'd yanked one of them over toward him, and another had followed. He had a few scorch marks on his armor but seemed to be doing well, so Vacy turned her attention to the leader.
He didn't seem to be paying any attention to her at all. Vacy wasn't sure which she felt more of – relief at not getting shot at (or at least, not much) or annoyance at running into yet another sexist bastard who figured her for some no-account fainter. She slipped Kablam out of his holster and snuck around behind him. She fired both Flashy and Kablam right between his shoulders, then hit him with a flash-bang, charged Flashy and shot him again, then kicked him between the legs for good measure.
Delight surged through her as he curled over and then dropped to the ground. She dropped to a knee and jammed Flashy's barrel against his temple. "Stupid pisher. Never ignore a lady." She smirked as she pulled the trigger.
That taken care of, she looked around for Corso. Her smirk faded when she saw him limping toward her. She rushed toward him, gently putting an arm around his shoulders. "Here, sit down. I've got you."
They sank to the floor together, and Vacy checked him over carefully. She reached down, flipped the latches to his chestpiece, and lifted it off. Most of the wounds were shallow, but there was one down below his ribs that was quite nasty. Vacy looked up at his face – paler than usual – and smiled softly. "Just hang on for a minute, all right?" She untucked his shirt, then reached into her Darmas-bag and rooted around for one of her kolto patches. Lifting his shirt, she set the patch over the wound and then lay her hand on top of it. He tried not to flinch; she tried not to worry.
Neither of them was particularly successful.
But as the patch warmed under her hand and the gel began to heal the wound, she felt his body begin to relax, and she smiled at him again. "Riggs, next time, try to avoid the blaster fire. You don't get paid according to how many holes I've gotta patch up," she joked.
He reached down and took her other hand in his. "I figure any of it that gets me is that much less you've got to worry about, Captain," he murmured, smiling back at her. "Besides. None of this is near as painful as seein' you get hurt," he added, squeezing her hand.
For some reason, her smile was a little wobbly. "Well then you sure's anything need to be more careful," she retorted. "Because losing you would hurt an awful lot." And her throat was tight, and her stomach was in knots, but she held his gaze anyway.
They stayed there for a few minutes while the medicine worked its way through Corso's system. Finally Vacy nodded at him and stood up.
"Besides," she said as she handed his chestpiece to him. "If you die, when I get Skavak? I'm gonna hand Torchy over to Risha."