Company Wars 01 – Downbelow Station

“And Konstantin makes himself responsibile for your good behavior.”

It was all going wrong. “No one’s responsible for me,” he said, stumbling on the

words. “I want a ship. If Norway is all I’ve got, then I’ll take it.” He had to

look at her directly, at eyes which flickered with imagined thoughts, things

which were not going to be said here, before the troopers,

“You search him?” she asked the guards.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She stood thinking a long moment, and there was no smile, no laughter. “Where

are you staying?”

“A room in the old hospice.”

“The Konstantins provide it?”

“I work. I pay for it.”

“What’s your job?”

“Small salvage.”

An expression of surprise, of derision.

“So I want out of it,” he said. “I figure you owe me that.”

There was interruption, movement behind him, which stopped. Mallory laughed, a

bored, weary laugh, and beckoned to someone. “Konstantin. Come on in. Come get

your friend.”

Josh turned. Damon and Elene were both there, flushed and upset and out of

breath. They had followed him. “If he’s confused,” Damon said, “he belongs in

the hospital.” He came and laid a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Come on. Come on,

Josh.”

“He’s not confused,” Mallory said. “He came here to kill me. Take your friend

home, Mr. Konstantin. And keep a watch on him, or I’ll handle matters my way.”

There was stark silence.

“I’ll see to it,” Damon said after a moment. His fingers bit into Josh’s

shoulder. “Come on. Come on.”

Josh moved, walked with him and Elene, past the guards, out and down the long

corridor with the work crews and the chemical smell; the doors of central closed

behind them. Neither of them said anything. Damon’s grip shifted to his elbow

and they took him into a lift, rode it down the short distance to five. There

were more guards in this hall, and station police. They passed unchallenged into

the residential halls, to Damon’s own door. They brought him inside and closed

the door. He stood waiting, while Damon and Elene went through the routine of

turning on lights, and taking off jackets.

“I’ll send for your clothes,” Damon said shortly. “Come on, make yourself at

home.”

It was not the welcome he deserved. He picked a leather chair, mindful of his

grease-stained work clothes. Elene brought him a cool drink and he sipped at it

without tasting it.

Damon sat down on the arm of the chair next to his. Temper showed. Josh accepted

that, found a place at his feet to stare at.

“You ran us a circular chase,” Damon said. “I don’t know how you got past us but

you managed it.”

“I asked to go.”

Whatever Damon would have wanted to say, he swallowed. Elene came over and sat

down on the couch opposite him.

“So what did you have in mind?” Damon asked evenly.

“You shouldn’t have gotten involved. I didn’t want you involved.”

“So you ran from us?”

He shrugged.

“Josh—did you mean to kill her?”

“Eventually. Somewhere. Sometime.”

They found nothing to say. Damon finally shook his head and looked away, and

Elene came over behind Josh’s chair, laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“It didn’t work,” Josh said finally, tripping on the words. “It went everyway

wrong. I’m afraid now she thinks you put me up to it. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Elene’s hand brushed his hair, descended again to his shoulder. Damon simply

stared at him as if he were looking at someone he had never seen before. “Don’t

you ever,” Damon said, “think of doing that again.”

“I didn’t want you two hurt. I didn’t want you taking me in with you. Think how

it looks to them—you, with me.”

“You think Mazian runs this station all of a sudden? And you think a captain in

the Fleet is going to break relations with the Konstantins, whose cooperation

Mazian needs… in a personal feud?”

He thought that over. It made sense in a way he wanted to believe, and therefore

he suspected it.

“It’s not going to happen,” Damon said. “So forget about it. No trooper is about

to walk into this apartment, you can depend on it. Just don’t give them excuses