A Fistful of Trouble (Outlaws of the Galaxy Book 2) Paul Tomlinson (reading strategies book .TXT) 📖

Once this was done, the men went to join Casey and the others at the front of the ship.

“Why is it so noisy?” Harmony asked.

“Wind noise and the sound of the engines reflecting back up off the ground.”

“How close to it are we?”

“Dangle a leg out and you could touch it with your toe.”

“Why so low?”

“Makes the ship more difficult to track,” I said. It also made it more difficult to fly. One slight miscalculation by the pilot and we’d be a fireball rolling across the desert. That was the image I saw in my head every time the Warrior Princess hopped or swerved.

“Stage two?” Harmony said.

I nodded. I was considering our options. My first thought was that we should fix explosives to the container – big ones – wait until the freighter was airborne, then open the hatch and drive the platform off the back so that everything could explode in the desert below. But as soon as the hatch release was triggered, alarms would go off in the cockpit. The platform wouldn’t move quickly enough to tip the container over the edge before Casey and his friends arrived to see what was happening. And stop it. And shoot us. And throw us out of the open hatch.

Another option was to use the explosives to critically damage the ship so that it crashed into the desert. Obviously, I didn’t want us to be on board when that happened. Harmony and I would have to get off the freighter in an escape pod before the big boom! But I didn’t like the idea that Casey and the gang might be injured or killed if they didn’t make it into another of the escape pods in time.

“Any thoughts on what to do?” I asked.

“Rush into the cockpit with guns blazing and shout ‘This is a stick-up!’,” she said.

This was the third option. Though in my version we would brandish our weapons rather than shoot them off.

“Let’s send the drones forward to see what we’re getting ourselves into,” I said.

The layout was pretty standard for a freighter. Immediately forward of the hold were two tiny cubicles – one for showering and one for squitting. Then there were two sleeping areas, each with bunks for two people, and a small galley with a table for meals. All of these were off a narrow corridor that was only wide enough for one person to pass. At the end, the corridor opened into the cockpit.

At the front of the cockpit, there were seats for the pilot and co-pilot. Behind that were two workstations – one for a navigator and one for a gunner. All four seats were occupied, but only the pilot seemed to be actively engaged. Casey was piloting the freighter.

“There are four of them and they don’t look like they’re expecting trouble,” I said, looking at the images being sent to my screen. “That’s the good news.”

“Is there bad news?” Harmony asked.

“There’s always bad news. Casey’s there. But the other three aren’t part of the Colonel’s usual crew. I think they’re mercenaries. And at least one of them used to work for Sheriff Galton.”

“That’s the trouble with mercenaries,” Harmony said, “they always go where the money’s good.”

“Not at all like us altruistic thieves,” I said.

“Today we’re stealing for the greater good,” she said.

“You should be a politician.”

She cast me an angry look. “I do have moral boundaries, you know.”

“I know. It’s just that yours are a little more flexible than mine,” I said. “For example, I would never steal from a friend – much less a lover.”

“Don’t give me that ‘honour among thieves’ squit. You’d happily steal from your own wife.”

“I’d happily steal back from her, but that’s a different thing.”

“You’re just upset because I’m better at the con game than you.”

“Is that all it was for you – a con?”

“Do you really want to have this conversation now?” she asked.

“In another ten minutes, we might both be dead. So, yes, I’d like to have it now.”

“And would you like me to give it to you?” she asked, leaning close and nibbling my earlobe.

“I’m not falling for that,” I said, pulling away from her.

“You don’t want to join the mile-high club?” She smiled seductively. But I wasn’t having it. Besides, we weren’t a mile above the ground. It was a hundred feet at most.

“I have my badge for the mile-high club,” I said. “And for the in-orbit club. I also went for the free-fall badge, but that one didn’t quite work out – it was colder and windier than we expected.”

Harmony smiled. “There’s so much I have yet to find out about you,” she said.

“You’ve got nine minutes to ask whatever you want to know.”

“Sssh!” Harmony put her finger to her lips.

“One thing you should learn is that I don’t like being shushed.”

“Someone’s coming!”

Chapter Twenty-Four

We watched in silence as a hulking shadow made its way down the narrow corridor towards us. He let himself into the toilet cubicle.

“We should take him out,” I said, “even up the odds a little bit.”

“You should do it,” Harmony said. “He might be embarrassed to see a woman follow him in.”

“I should do it,” I agreed, but for different reasons. I was worried she might shoot him in the head – in the head. I unholstered my zap gun.

“Be careful where you point that,” she said, “even on the low setting they can leave burn marks.”

“Keep an eye out for the others,” I said.

“Do you need these for the toilet door?” She held out a little pouch of lockpicks.

“Thanks, I have my own.”

I opened the lock on the toilet door, stepped into the cubicle, and quickly closed the door behind me. The mercenary was sitting on the potty with his pants around his ankles. He looked up guiltily. He had a sheaf of animated porn images in one hand and with the other he was, in his own fashion, trying to join the mile-high club. I didn’t offer to help him out. Judging by the images,