Read Online Bravado's House of Blues by John A. Pitts - Free Book Online Page B

“Not long, I think.” She started crying harder.
    “We need . . .” Marta started.
    “Robert,” Mitch’s voice crackled across the speakers. “Get me the hell out of this soup.”
    “Oh, God,” Marta sobbed, leaning against the console. “Lucky sonuvabitch.”
    Susan typed furiously on the keypad. The winch whined to life.
    Marta leaned down to the mike. “I thought you were out of oxygen, you bastard.”
    “I am,” Mitch replied, “but Steve wasn’t. Too bad he didn’t need it.”
    “He’s dead?”
    “Yeah,” Mitch said. “Suit sensors show him flatlined. I’m sorry.”
    Marta collapsed into one of the operator chairs. Steve was dead. Tears flowed unbidden down her cheeks. Steve was dead and Mitch was apologizing to her? He never apologized to her in the five and a half years they’d worked together. Not once.
    “I got him hooked to the line with me, though,” Mitch said over the link. “At least Beth can bury him properly.”
    “Yeah,” Marta said. Mitch and Steve spun lazily on the vid screen as the line came in. The lightning continued to flash around them, but nothing touched the ship. When the winch stopped and Susan helped swing Mitch and Steve away from the access door, Marta called the captain. “Get us the hell out of here,” she said, overwhelmed. “This mission is over.”
    Susan tended to Robert, who had regained consciousness. Marta sat with her head in her hands, the pistol in her lap, when Mitch walked up to her.
    “That my pistol?” he asked.
    “Can’t be yours,” she said. “Regs prevent firearms on dirigibles. Since I know you aren’t one to take risks, looks like it’s my pistol.”
    “Whatever you say, chief,” Mitch said, patting her on the shoulder. “Thanks.”
    Marta smiled. Another first.
    The dirigible broke out of the storm system. They would reach the bio-station at Long Night Bay in six days. Robert, Mitch and Susan began packing the equipment.
    Marta pretended to be working on her after-trip report, but the implications of all that had happened kept interfering. She finally gave up and walked over to where they were packing.
    “There is a strong chance we will lose the remainder of this contract,” she said.
    They stopped working. Robert leaned against the crate they had just stored the towfish in. Susan sat on her haunches and leaned against the crate.
    Mitch folded his arms across his broad chest and cocked his bushy head to the side.
    “We’ll get paid for the data we’ve gathered so far,” he said.
    But will that be enough? Marta thought.
    Robert and Susan remained quiet, deferring to Mitch it seemed.
    “On one hand, I faced the final death of my father’s dream,” she said when no one spoke. “You know the Cofi group has been stalking us for the last two years.”
    “Fuck ’em,” Mitch said. “Worse comes to worse, we hire out as a merc crew. If someone else gets this contract, which I’m not believing,” he said with a grim smile, “they’ll need someone to do the work. Nobody knows this rock better than you. So what if there’s a different company logo on the uniform?”
    Marta’s eyes filled with water. She pulled her shoulders back. Only a small sniff betrayed her.
    “Besides,” said Susan. “Nobody’s gonna take this contract once they hear about poor Steve. This planet’s a deathtrap.”
    “No shit,” Robert chimed in.
    “And I think we have a good case against the ship’s crew over this mess,” Mitch said with a steely squint. “If we play our cards right, Walsh Corp. could own this damn boat by the time the legal horse-trading is through.”
    “Let’s not be hasty,” she said with a smile. “Start with getting the gear stowed. We’re low on replacement parts, as I’m reminded, and we can’t afford for anything else to go wrong.”
    “You heard the lady,” Mitch said, waving his arms. “Robert, pull the memory module out of the fish before you seal that canister. Susan, let’s start running the data