In the sudden silence, I withdrew my weapon from the smouldering remains of my pocket and kept it trained on Mulch. The man was injured, but I could see his chest rise and fall and knew he was still alive. My left hand covered the wound in my side. Hot blood welled between my fingers. A roar filled my ears and my vision smeared and swam.

The former contents of the barman’s head began to drip and slide down the wall.

With her smoking gun held at the ready, the woman with the dreadlocks assessed the room. She had two black eyes and a strip of white tape across her nose. When she spoke, it was to Konstanz.

“You good, Captain?”

With her eyes still fixed on Mulch, Konstanz nodded. She seemed stunned by the violence. A shotgun pellet had taken a bite from her sleeve, and I could see blood soaking into the material. The captain didn’t seem to have noticed.

“Yeah…”

A fresh burst of automatic fire perforated the front of the building. Glass rained down around us.

I looked across at Laura. The hole in her left thigh told its own gory story. That damn barman had got us all with a single shot. Laura was sitting with the leg out straight in front of her. She had drawn her own weapon, which, I was unexpectedly irritated to see, was bigger, sleeker and much more powerful than my own. She kept it pointed at the floor.

“Does your ship have a shuttle?” she asked, voice tight with the strain of her injury.

Kneeling beneath the table, Konstanz frowned, as if the words Laura used made no sense.

“What?”

“We’ll never make it to the port,” Laura said, speaking slowly, raising her voice over the sound of gunshots from outside. “There are too many people out there. But if the ship can send a shuttle to pick us up…”

For a moment, I thought Konstanz hadn’t heard. She looked down at her ragged and bloody sleeve as if seeing it for the first time. Then her eyes seemed to snap back into focus and she grinned.

“I can do a lot better than that!”

Possessed of sudden energy, she tapped her ear and barked at her ship, “Are you fuelled? Do you have the rest of the crew on board?”

Twenty-Two: Trouble Dog

TWENTY-TWO

TROUBLE DOG

“Emergency evacuation,” the captain ordered.

“Hostiles in the vicinity?”

“Yes, danger near. Four for extraction; three wounded.”

“Am I allowed to engage ground forces?”

Captain Konstanz didn’t answer straight away. “No,” she said after a thoughtful pause, “only if they threaten us directly. In which case, they deserve everything they get.”

“I understand.”