20.
REDEK
Redek had barely hobbled into the medical bay, struggled to sit on a bed and had the nurse look at the knife sticking out of his leg with a shake of the head when he was being told he was needed back at the control room.
"Not a chance," the nurse said when he went to stand back up again. "At least let me fix your leg. It'll only take a moment."
He nodded, gritting his teeth as he watched her pull the knife out, hold the pieces of skin together and them stamped them with a burning coagulant. The pain was so intense his eyes watered, but only for a moment. Then the nurse got a needle and held his arm out, finding a vein and inserting it in moments before he could protest as to what it was.
"Painkiller," she said. "Of the non-drowsy, non-mentally-impairing type. Don't go back into the field, no matter how much better you're feeling. You're not fit for a fight. You still have multiple bullet holes and several stab wounds. Come back as soon as you're done with this issue." She said it all in a long string, already searching the room for the next patient she needed to see.
Redek stood up and tested the weight on his leg. He definitely didn't feel better. The pain was slightly less, but not by much, and he knew he wasn't all working properly.
He was more than well enough to get back to Maddie and see what was happening, though.
If they needed him there, it meant there wasn't a retreat happening like he'd been hoping for. He supposed there had been a slim chance of it, really, but he'd been counting on the fact they were owed some good luck by this point.
He walked as quickly as he could back to the control room, and was almost surprised to see it was still just Maddie, Tisya and Damien in there. "What happened?" he asked. He gave Maddie a once-over, but she looked fine. There was almost hope in her eyes.
"We spoke to a commander, the one in charge of the fleet, and I want to know what you think about what he said." She relayed everything that had just happened while leaning against the edge of a desk and playing with her fingers.
Redek stared at Damien the entire time she told the story, trying to gauge his response, and that was what helped him make the decision. Damien was scared. He was angry.
He thought Maddie had outsmarted him.
So that was the decision he made.
"I think we should trust him," he said. Damien's reaction was genuine, and that meant Yil was probably genuine, too. At least Damien believed it. There were still so many questions he didn’t have the answers to, mainly how they’d gotten to Lyskar so quickly, but he trusted the fear on Damien’s face. He looked at Tisya. "I'll pay you for the teleportation bands so we can come back if it's not genuine."
Tisya waved him off. "They're not the expensive part of the machine. We have plenty. You should get back in touch with him, tell him the decision."
Maddie hesitated, then pulled her laptop out. "This has the information on Damien stored on it. What happens if he's not genuine? What should I do with it?"
Redek told her with a look that he didn't trust the plan of leaving it here and trusting the gangs with it. She typed rapidly and he had no idea what she was doing, probably hiding it online somewhere. He was useless with tech. After a few minutes, though, she slammed the laptop lid and put it back in her backpack. She turned to the computer and turned on her earpiece.
"Commander," she said. "We're coming aboard now."
Yil jumped again at the voice booming through his cabin, and nodded. "I have the coordinates. It's—"
"I've already got them," she interrupted. "We'll be there soon."
She hung up and looked at Redek. He stepped forward and laced his fingers through hers. "Ready?" he asked.
She swung her backpack onto her shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Ready as I'll ever be."
They nodded to Tisya, who nodded back. They hadn't known each other long enough for more than that.
Redek grabbed Damien by the scruff of his collar and made sure he stepped into the teleporter first. If they were going to be met by any surprises, he wanted to be the one to deal with it.
They weren't, though. It was a large room at the front of a ship, looking down at the planet. Smoke billowed from the city and flashes of orange explosions continued to appear.
Redek let go of Damien, and he fell to the side because of the bindings. Redek didn't care, though. He stayed close to Maddie's side, posture poised for a threat, even though he hadn't detected one.
"Commander Yil," Maddie said, showing none of the due respect she was meant to. It made his lip quirk. "Thank you for providing us safe harbor."
"Of course." Commander Yil gestured for his men to deal with Damien. He was still a rich man, and he wouldn't be kept in the squalor he deserved. "I've had my men find you chambers in the ship for the travel back to the financial crime headquarters. It's a long trip from here. I hope you'll be comfortable there."
Maddie smiled. "Thank you."
"I can have my men take you there now. Or to the medic."
She looked at Redek’s still bleeding wounds and agreed, “The medic sounds good.”
“We’ll speak again when we’re on our way. Take some time to rest up.”
They were walking out of the room when Yil began talking again. He had pressed his earpiece and was back to directing troops. Maddie, who was helping Redek walk despite him not needing it, slowed down so she could eavesdrop.
“How long?” he asked. There was a pause, then, “Too long. I want the gang leaders dead by sundown so we can start rebuilding.”
Maddie stilled, opening her mouth ready to argue. It had been part of their promise that Yil would leave the planet and stop the fighting.
Redek linked his arm through hers and pulled her away before she could say anything. “Don’t.”
“What do you mean, don’t? He broke his promise. He’s still attacking them.”
“We’re in his hands now, we don’t want to get on his bad side. We’re not important and we don’t have leverage. There is no point in fighting this.”
She was outraged, but he knew he was right on this one. The fact they’d gotten this far was a miracle.
She jumped when Yil addressed them. “I don’t know what they told you down there, about themselves or about us, but I’m doing these people a favor. The ordinary people live in fear of stepping an inch out of line and being at the mercy of the gangs. I might have been manipulated into attacking at this time, but my fleet had been monitoring Lyskar from nearby for months now, waiting to attack. I was already here, I was always going to get rid of the regime. I never had any intention of letting their rights abuses continue. They'll be better off after this, that much I can promise you."
Maddie opened her mouth and shut it again, then turned away without response, tugging on Redek's arm. He nodded his respect to Yil to appease the commander who had control over their fates.
"I don't know who I believe," Maddie said when they were in the corridor. "The Lyskarians hated the IU so much."
"There's no way of knowing who is telling the truth. It's one word against the other. I'm inclined to think that if the IU had been acting like tyrants for that many years against so many planets that someone would have proven it by now, but the IU controls a lot of the media." He shook his head. "It's not our fight," he repeated. "I've done enough fighting for a lifetime."
She chuckled, though he didn't think he'd done a great job of appeasing her. "Yeah, I guess so."
"This is real life," Redek said. "A lot of shit we can't control happens, but at least we get control over the little things."
"The little things like getting to kiss you without being scared of Damien walking in." She did so now, for effect, and he resisted the urge to say fuck the medical bay and drag her back to a room to celebrate them having made it out alive.
He was determined that the next time he got her into a bedroom he was going to fuck her until he screamed, though, and that required not being filled with gaping wounds. So he settled for a kiss on the crown of her head and a contented smile.
He didn't need to fuck her right now, because they had the rest of their lives together.