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"No, we can't." Doc still sounded reasonable.
"He needs to be taught that the crew comes first. That we don't fuk around and delay payouts. Take a toe."
Huirre had him held down before Craig realized what take a toe meant. He got an elbow up, Huirre grunted, then Huirre's foot closed around his forehead and slammed the back of his head into the deck. Struggling to escape became weak flopping between the four points Huirre had locked down.
Doc got his boot off with terrifying efficiency.
He felt cold air against his sole.
A strong hand closed around his ankle, grinding the small bones together.
Metal pried the smallest toe on his left foot out from the one next to it.
Given the spikes of pain in his head, it wasn't the new pain that dragged the cry out of him. It was the crunch of the blades going through the bone.
The salt-copper smell of blood.
Closely followed by the crunch of Huirre's jaws.
Then the new pain hit. Over the years, the squatters had made very few changes to the layout of the station. Outside of the additional docking arms, most changes seemed to be a case of areas being used in ways the pla
"Not much they can do to the internal structure," Ressk noted as he climbed out the lip of yet another double decompression hatch. "This thing's been designed to break apart into independent segments rather than hole and blow in case of an explosion. Limits the damage. It used to be the default for stations supporting mining operations, but these days, not so much."
Mashona shook her head as she stood just the other side of the opening, watching back along their six. "You're just a font of knowledge, aren't you?"
"Knowledge is power."
"I think you're overcompensating for something."
"You think?"
"Less chatter, people." They weren't saying anything Torin gave a H'san's ass if Big Bill heard, nothing about Craig or the Heart or why they were actually here since they'd left the masking noise of the Hub, but she saw no point in sending up flares, giving him sound on top of everything else.
"Big Bill's got this whole place under surveillance, Gu
"Eyes and ears in the whole place limits him," Werst grunted, dropping down into the new section. The double decompression hatches were wide enough the Krai found it easier to climb over than step over. "He can't watch the whole serley place at once."
"We get into an area that's off limits, we'll trip a sensor. Talk, don't talk; doesn't matter. He'll know we're here."
Werst waved it off. "He didn't say this area was off limits. He didn't say any area was off limits."
"He's too smart to lay down those kind of rules for these kind of people," Mashona said, falling back into position behind the two Krai.
"You head out here when you're tired of rules," Torin reminded them. That was why they'd told Big Bill they were on Vrijheid. Better to leave it at bad things happen to people who go where Big Bill doesn't want them to; that implied choice.
Each new section as they moved away from the Hub had been less used than the one before. The pale gray bulkheads of this section had been scored and dented by old machinery-Torin neither knew nor cared how they got machinery over the hatch lips-but it felt as though it had hardly been used since. Every other light was out in the band along the ceiling, and the black rubber treads ru
This was the most direct route to the ore docks. Once the ore carriers stopped, there'd been no reason to use it.
"They're still using the smelter," Mashona said suddenly, as though she'd been following Torin's thoughts. "Not the actual smelters but the area they were in. Machinery's gone, and it's a big open space like… a parade square. They use it for things that affect the whole community. Trials and shit. Oh, and fights every now and then."
"Fights that affect the whole community?" Ressk asked.
"Fights the whole community makes book on, you ass."
Torin picked up the pace. According to the original schematics, this was the last section before the storage pods. This was the last hatch, last pair of hatches, between her and Craig.
The first hatch was closed.
And locked.
The lock had been added recently.
"Ressk…?"
His nose ridges flared as he exhaled long and loud, fingers stroking the screen of his slate. "That's a good question, Gu
"Not surprising," Mashona acknowledged, "given the rumors about how Big Bill scored this place."
"Yeah, exactly. I can break it. I can break anything eventually, but it'll take time."
How much time did Craig have left?
"How much time?" Torin asked, voice hard.
Given Ressk's expression, he'd heard the first question, too. "From outside the system? I couldn't tell you."
The gray plastic housing around the lock remained a gray plastic housing under her touch.
"Let's go." She pressed her palm against the hatch-Craig was on the other side-then turned and headed back the way they'd come.
"Where to now, Gu
"We're going to see Big Bill."
"Okay." Mashona fell into step beside her. "Why?"
"We're going to take him up on that job offer." "You're probably wondering, why I didn't just have Huirre bite the toe off." Doc removed a wad of blood-soaked bandaging, sprayed sealant on the stub, and began to apply an old-fashioned dressing. "Thing is, I can't trust him to stop and the loss of an entire leg becomes a bit more than an inconvenience."
Breathing heavily through his nose, Craig stared at the other man in disbelief. "Inconvenience?"
"Comparatively."
"It fukking hurts!"
"It's fukking supposed to. If I give you something for the pain, there'd be no point in taking off the toe." He stroked down the last bit of gauze, the heat in his thumb causing it to adhere to the layer below, then straightened, leaving a thin smear of blood across his cheek as he pushed his hair back off his face. "This way you'll remember that no one likes a delayed payout and you'll stop fukking around."
Doc had tended to the amputation like he hadn't been the crazyassed psycho wielding the tin snips. Watching him switch back and forth made Craig feel like he should add whiplash to his list of injuries.
"Now things are tidied up, I'd hustle your ass back to that storage pod before the captain thinks you're less than committed to the job and that it's not fair Krisk didn't get a bite. When you get to the pod, try and keep the foot elevated."
"Sure. Elevated." Balanced on the edge of the table, Craig took a moment to try and get enough air into his lungs, trying not to remember the sound of Huirre chewing on his toe. "How do I get back to the pod?"
Doc smiled, cracking the dried blood on his cheek. "Walk carefully. Keep your weight on your heel." Big Bill had claimed the station's central old admin area as his own and disabled all but one access.
He wasn't stupid, Torin reminded herself as they crossed the Hub to the one vertical that would take them up to his level. She needed to remember that.
"Hey, you!" The woman staggering toward her was very drunk. "You're the bitch who found the plastic aliens."
Torin kept walking.
The drunk managed to keep up. "Whole thing was a fukking fake. I seen vid shows before, you know. I know when shit is fake."
Torin ignored her.
"Hey! I'm talk…" The rest of the sentence devolved into a pained shriek that lingered for a moment, then disappeared into the ambient noise behind them.