Zero Recall by Sara King

head hurts too bad to
see straight, this place is on lockdown at this time of night, and you’ve got a
personal access code set on that door—I wouldn’t get far.”
    “Yes you would.” 
The Huouyt continued to watch him, tapping his fingers on his borrowed bicep.
    Joe grinned,
despite himself.  “I think I’m starting to like you.”
    The Huouyt gave
him a long, utterly unamused look.  “Let me make something clear to you,
Commander.  You are due to depart for Neskfaat tomorrow at noon.  I intend to
see you get on the ship as planned.  No amount of cajoling, sweet-talking, or
bribing will convince me to do otherwise.”
    Joe grimaced. 
“I was serious.”
    “And so am I.”
    “Scratch that,”
Joe growled.  “I don’t like you.  You’re a real pain in the ass.”
    “As are you,”
the Huouyt responded.  “If you didn’t have the drinking habits of a Cu’it
slave, I don’t think I ever would’ve found you.”
    Joe cocked his
head at Be’shaar, who was still leaning against the door, barricading it.  “Was
that a compliment?”
    The Huouyt
twitched, but only momentarily.  “Why did you run, Commander?”
    “Why didn’t you
tell them I ran?”
    “I enjoy lying
to people.”
    Joe laughed. 
“Now that I believe.  Was it the only reason?”
    “Yes.”
    “You’re lying.”
    “Perhaps. 
You’ll never know.”
    Joe dropped his
hand from his temple with a sigh.  “Listen to me, Be’shaar.  I know why you
saved my ass.  It was a challenge.  You wanted to bring back the legendary Joe
Dobbs so you could whip it out and throw it in my face whenever I got uppity as
your Prime.  That’s fine.  I deserve that much.”  He stood up and stumbled
toward the Huouyt, his head on fire.  “But if we’re going to work together, you
and I are going to have to come to an understanding.  We’re going to have to
start trusting each other.”
    The Huouyt
looked him up and down.  Be’shaar’s voice was laden with disdain when he said,
“Huouyt trust no one.”
    “Good.”
    Joe rammed the
blade of his knife into the Huouyt’s lower leg and yanked up hard, severing the
large artery that led from the thigh to the heart in several places.  The
Huouyt’s eyes flashed open wide and he began to collapse, forced to focus his
attention on mending his pattern before he bled to death.
    Joe stepped over
the body of the assassin and punched in the sound combination he had heard the
Huouyt enter to lock them inside.  The door slid open with a high-pitched beep,
then slid shut again when Joe activated it on the outside.  Then he changed the
Huouyt’s passcode to a code of his choice and hit LOCK.  He heard Be’shaar
struggle to reach the door just as the door made another high-pitched beeping
sound and sealed the Huouyt inside.
    Joe opened the
intercom.  “You all right?”
    “No,” Be’shaar
said, panting.  His voice sounded strained.  “I’m bleeding bad.”
    Joe laughed.  “I
thought Huouyt were better liars than that.”
    “I’m not lying. 
The artery you cut was too large—there was too much internal pressure to stem
the flow of—”
    “Can it.”
    The Huouyt
waited in silence.
    “Look,” Joe said,
“I know you aren’t here to be my Second.  You’re some poor bastard Phoenix sent
to hunt me down so she could make an example out of me.  That’s fine.  I don’t
hold it against a soldier for doing his job.”
    “Commander,
listen to me,” the Huouyt growled, dropping the act completely.  “They’re not
trying to kill you, but they will hunt you down.”
    “No they won’t,”
Joe laughed.  “They don’t give a rat’s ass about some retired grounder Prime
who went AWOL.  Not when they’ve got bigger fish to fry.  I disappear, they’ll
let me go without a fuss and we both know it.”
    “I’m your
Second,” the Huouyt snapped.  “Look it up.”
    Joe laughed. 
“Nice try.  I’d have to come back inside to do that.”
    “Here, I’ll read
it to