Free Fool Me Once (Privateer Tales) by Jamie McFarlane Page B

each and three knives. I remembered Alexander’s knife, he was pretty fond of it.
    “Take off your clothing.”
    “What? No way,” Alexander protested.
    “All of it. Otherwise I shoot you where you stand. Five. Four.”
    Alexander must have decided I was serious. He peeled off his vac-suit and wasn’t wearing a liner. What a slob.
    “Now help Olav off with his.”
    I finally had a pile of clothing and guns on the table.
    “Get in the bathroom. You show your head for twenty minutes and I will blow it off. I’m gonna sit out here for a while, just so you know.”
    With both of them in the bathroom, I pushed a chair in front of the door. It wouldn’t hold them for long but I didn’t need much time. I dropped their clothing into the garbage recycler at the end of the hallway. No self-respecting pirate hunts naked, so I figured I had bought myself a short period of time.
    Exiting the building, I didn’t see anyone standing outside. The two-guys-downstairs thing was a bluff. No one would bring four guys to take one girl back. Big frakking mistake. Oh … my head hurt. I walked briskly down the street. I wasn’t sure where I was going but until I figured out how they had found me, I was in trouble.
    “Hey! You! Stop there!” Oh frak, he really had brought people with him. I took off at a run, then stole a glance over my shoulder, nearly causing myself to trip. Sure enough two guys were giving chase. FRAK!
    Open comm with Tali Liszt, emergency priority .
    “Lena. What’s up with emergency priority?”
    “They found me.”
    “Where are you?”
    Constantly stream coordinates to Tali .
    “I’m ten minutes out. Hunker down somewhere.”
    Blaster fire erupted around me and I pulled up my cloak, remembering it had some capacity to absorb blaster fire. I hoped that wasn’t just a sales gimmick. I turned the corner and sprinted down a street with very little lighting. I hoped the guys following me were my worst problem. How was I going to make it for ten minutes?
    I wasn’t in good enough shape to keep running, but my pursuers weren’t coming right away. I hoped they had headed back to find Alexander and Olav. I needed to put some distance between me and Boyarov.
    Hail taxi service .
    My AI replied, Taxi service not available in this area for another six hours .
    Frak!
    I was running past obviously condemned buildings. In many spots the walls had completely crumbled away. Tali had said to hunker down. I was running in the open. It was mostly dark out but any vehicle would have the ability to light me up. I dodged through an opening in a wall and placed my back against it. My chest heaved with exertion. I wanted to see if I was being followed. I peered around the wall and didn’t immediately see anyone.
    Project light amplified path .
    Immediately I was able to see an outline of the floor of the building, making up for some of the details my eyes couldn’t quite make out. Still out of breath, I scrambled over piles of crumbling brick and other stuff which wasn’t quite as pleasant. I climbed a dilapidated staircase to the third floor. The exertion was nearly too much and caused my head to throb even more. I felt faint but I wouldn’t give in.
    I took up a position by a broken-out window, being careful not to fall through the floor but also staying out of sight from the street.
    “Lena, you stopped moving. Are you okay?”
    “Yes. I’m holed up in an old building. I haven’t seen them …” A light caught my eye. There was a vehicle moving slowly down the street. It stopped directly beneath my floor.
    “What’s going on? You stopped talking.” Tali’s voice whispered into my ear.
    “They’re here. Somehow they found me. I’m dead.”
    “What do you mean they found you?”
    “They just pulled up in a car.”
    “I’m three minutes out. Shoot at the car. Do anything to slow them down. Don’t give up, I’m coming!”
    “No. You can’t. They’ll kill you too. Please don’t.” I couldn’t bear to