Page 23 of The Last Hunt
Then she cuts off the comm.
Chapter 7
The Narrows
Maeve
Trell speeds away from Omega, leaving Maeve and the still disabled Archer behind. Maeve watches her sensors with a growing sense of desperation as he weaves through the cloud of ships around the starbase. How had Trell found out about Daik being in the Keidar Belt?
“Drone delivery incoming, Maevey,” TAI says. “It’s the plasma couplers.”
“Finally,” Maeve says. “Have the drone put it in the airlock compartment.”
“On it,” TAI replies.
Maeve strides to the back of the Archer to await the package. The airlock compartment is set within the larger door of the Archer. It’s small and cube shaped, and allows the ship to receive items without completely depressurizing. Maeve waits by the door - her foot tapping out a frantic beat on the deck - and tries not to think about Trell’s words, delivered in that deep voice of his, his golden eyes hard beneath furrowed brows.
You need me.
“No I fucking don’t,” Maeve mutters.
“What’s that, babe?” TAI asks.
“Nothing,” Maeve replies. She leans forward resting both hands on the Archer’s door, pressing all of her frustration into the titanium plating of the ship, as if that will make the plasma couplers arrive faster.
Maybe it works, because the airlock beeps and the compartment depressurizes. Within a minute, Maeve is racing back to the front of the ship, the plasma couplers in hand. Her hands shake with a mixture of anxiety and adrenaline, but she installs the plasma couplers as fast as she can, snapping them into place, and soldering the wires in. It still takes longer than she wants.
“We good?” she asks TAI, standing up and brushing off her knees.
“Good as gold, Maevey!” TAI chirps. The revving up of the ship’s engine cements her words.
“Get us the fuck out of here,” Maeve says as she chucks her soldering iron back into the kit under the dash and sits down in the captain’s chair.
TAI plots a route through the other ships and Maeve slams the Archer into gear, racing toward the next closest jump point. There are four more jump points between here and the edge of the Keidar Belt. It will take Maeve the rest of the day to get to the next jump point. She should get some rest before they reach it, but she knows she won’t be able to sleep. It’s been less than a day since Daik Montrose’s bounty was posted, and she’s already on her heels. Her muscles are tight, and her nerves seem to thrum with stress. But there’s another emotion threading through there too. A much less familiar sensation. Betrayal.
Maeve glares at the little dot that is the Menace on her sensors. Trell obviously knows now why she needs Daik’s whole bounty for herself. Maybe he’s not certain, but he has more than an inkling. That in itself, is a huge problem. No one should know that she’s planning on leaving Two Roses. At least he doesn’t know where she’s planning to go, but still - the fact that he knows gives him an advantage.
She still isn’t sure why he’s so set on this bounty, but there’s a tiny part of Maeve that expected him to retreat once he realized why she needs it. Why would she expect that? Trell is an excellent hunter and is more than capable of bringing in Daik Montrose. The sheer size of the bounty is an irresistible draw for anyone. But the week they were trapped on the escape pod is still in the forefront of Maeve’s mind. She supposes that some shard of stupid romanticism inside her must be responsible for her expectation that Trell back off. But clearly the man who had touched her with such reverence and called her chrissah and the cutthroat bounty hunter Aethon Trell are not the same person. She shouldn’t have any kind of expectations about Trell except for that he’ll do everything he can to beat her to Daik. Aside from a few moments of weakness, they’d left what had happened in that escape pod in the past. As they should. He’s acting in his own interest, and Maeve will do the same. Now she just has to beat him to the bounty.
As the Archer leaves the crowd of ships around Omega behind, Maeve increases her speed. Stars flash past the viewscreen, but the majority of the space is endless darkness. It envelopes the ship, making time and distance seem like impossible things. It would be easy to forget that they’re moving, aside from the thrum of the deck under Maeve’s feet.
“Time to the jump point, TAI?” she asks.
“Six hours, forty-two minutes,” TAI replies promptly.
“And how far ahead is the Menace?”
“They’re about an hour ahead of us.” TAI’s tone is vaguely teasing, but Maeve isn’t in the mood to find out why.
“Good, keep us on course,” Maeve says. She pushes herself up from her chair. “I’m going to try to get some rest.”
The next three days grind past. The only times Maeve sleeps are the lulls in between jump points when there aren’t calculations to do or other ships to track and the Archer is on auto-nav. So far, she has seen at least one other ship belonging to a Two Roses hunter, and three or four ships from Two Roses’ rival bounty hunter guild - Black Dagger Guild. Typically the ships will crowd around a jump point, all go through, and then all take off in different directions once on the other side. But the Archer and the Menace always head in the same direction. Soon enough, someone else will pick up on the pattern and join the race. The thought makes Maeve even angrier at Trell.
TAI is an unexpected bright spot. Though Maeve finds her company jarring at times as she’s used to traveling alone, she likes the AI. TAI is on top of calculations, and learns Maeve’s tendencies and routines quickly. She finds her way into the kitchenette’s online system, and has started encouraging Maeve to eat at regular intervals, enticing her with coffee and rehydrated scones. Maeve often forgets to eat during difficult hunts, so the reminders have been helpful. Several times TAI has found faster routes to get from jump point to jump point, saving valuable time and helping them catch up to the Menace.
The Archer has just finished recharging after a jump, and Maeve sets the auto-nav. She pushes herself up from her chair and starts back to her quarters, thinking she might get in a shower and a quick nap.
“Maevey?” TAI says. Maeve pauses as the AI’s tone is hesitant instead of her usual sassy or bubbly.