The buzz of the victory lessened, and Binary mentioning Ethan’s rank pulled me forcibly down from my crazy emotional spacewalk. Having feelings for Ethan was five kinds of stupid, and I couldn’t afford stupid.
The majority of onlookers waited for the medal ceremony, which was also an event packed with sparkly entertainment.
But I’d had my fill. Binary led the way down the stairs and out into the cool evening air.
My first live humbleball game. If only my brother Kal could have seen me now.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Ethan
My nerves stretched over a thousand pinpricks of heat and electricity. Had I ruined everything? My brain had turned off when Vega touched me.
I’d never imagined she’d ever reach out to me again.
Getting this close to her was a dangerous game. Gleason was clear what he wanted. How was I going to get it without betraying her?
If only I could get her to open up about what happened on Clementine, then we could put this behind us.
“I used to come down to the games all the time,” I said to start some kind of conversation.
“Really?” She gave me the slightest of smiles.
“Yeah, my crew and I would sneak into the rafters and watch through the cracks.”
“There are cracks? How did you survive?” Vega asked.
Both Binary and Kenzie also stared at me wide-eyed.
“There’s enough atmo to survive. If you’re used to it.” I hadn’t thought about that time in so long. Or of the crew. Or of Zagan. I almost snarled at the thought of him but then tucked it away, as usual. Thinking about the past never led to anything good.
The street was crowded but not jammed. My wrist com gave me direction to take the main thoroughfare.
The directional finder didn’t consider that the promenade would be swarmed with street vendors, hustlers, and thieves who’d extort credits from unwary humbleball fans. The next side street would cross to the station just about two blocks down and avoid most of the congestion.
“Follow me. I know a better way.” I cut down the egress between two interconnected structures. Many buildings in the Hub were made of recycled sheets of plastimetal soldered together.
But close to the stadium, the Ax had cleaned up. Couldn’t have the Satellite elites exposed to the underbelly of the Hub. They didn’t want to see the starving masses or the children who lacked enough O2.
Being here wasn’t good for me. It reminded me of what was wrong with the Axis.
We forged on, keeping an eye on the staircases lining the walls that connected everything. Sometimes gangs like the Blood Stars and the Sac Street Killers would send a crew into the patrolled area, but it was rare.
“Hello, Ethan.” The voice consumed everything like a black hole. Then I saw him, appearing to my right as if by some OE magic spell. He was still short and round with twice the facial hair of Gleason. His appearance otherwise was tidy, a conservative lime-green suit and a pocket square to denote Satellite royalty.
Zagan wasn’t a Sat royal, but he fancied himself one.
He played the part of one very well and duped a lot of travelers out of their credits.
“Still in the game, I see.” My voice came out collected, way more controlled than I felt on the inside. On the inside, I wanted to grab his fat neck and squeeze, or smash him in the head and run. Vega stepped up, and I automatically raised my arm to keep her behind me.
“I heard you ended up in Lockup.”
“Listening to rumors?”
He focused on my uniform. Then his eyes slid over the girls.
“They’d fetch a price in the market. Especially your companion with the fuchsia hair.”
“I’m done with this. Come on, Kenzie.” Binary pushed roughly past me on the right and made for the end of the alley.
I tried to block her. I needed more time to talk Zagan down, to make him properly fearful without drawing blood.
But I didn’t have a chance. Two of Zagan’s band leaped down from the rafters where they had been hanging.
Grime covered their hands and faces. They wore threadbare, dark-blue long jackets, the sign of Zagan’s kids. One was a solid-built female I didn’t recognize. The other was a boy I’d run with on the streets. Seth. He avoided looking directly at me. Neither of them would.
I was the mark now.
A sharp pain jabbed into my chest that I shook off. I had to remain in the present. I wasn’t one of them anymore.
I was an officer in the greatest military force of all time. Street thugs and criminals would not cower me.
“Leave them alone.” I hadn’t brought a weapon, but I reached toward my side anyway, attempting to spook them.
Binary and Kenzie froze in their tracks. Both crouched into a fighting position. Next to me, Vega coiled, ready to spring.
They didn’t understand the risks.
Micro-pins coated in a sedative adorned the exterior of their jackets. If any skin was nicked, the attacker would go down.
“We don’t want trouble,” I said.
“Yes, we do.” Binary’s mouth spread into what I could only describe as a wicked grin. She wanted to fight. Her fingers splayed then rolled into fists.
I shot a look at Vega. Her eyebrows were tight and drawn together. More ready to fight than listen to me.
“We have to stop this and get out of the Hub. Now.” I remembered my wristlet com unit. Calling the MPs would solve our problem. But they could end up killing someone. People I had known. People I had lived and almost died with.
I stepped forward, patting my hands in the air. “We all need to calm down—”
McKenzie moved like liquid lightning. Dropping, she spun and connected with Zagan’s leg. He yelped and toppled forward onto his face.
He wasn’t used to prey who fought back.
With a right cross, Binary connected with the female’s lantern jaw. The Hub thug should’ve gone down. But she flicked her head back and shook it off. Lantern Jaw lunged back toward Binary. Her fingers hooked like claws.
Before I could shout a warning or intercede, Vega jumped forward and tackled the Hub girl around her waist. They both fell backward, Vega lying on top. But instead of continuing to fight, her body went limp. The big girl laughed and rolled her off.
Kenzie and Binary took in Vega on the ground and kept their distance from the crew.
“Zagan, I’m the law now. Don’t make me do something we’ll both regret.”
I eyed him, trying to forget he’d fed me when I was ten and hungry.
“Come on, Ethan. We only want to take one of them. I prefer the fighter, but this little planetborn would be fine.”
“You understand that she’s military. You're not going to get away. It's not just me.” I edged forward a bit. All three of them tracked my movement. Dammit, they knew me well.
But I’d learned a few things since I'd known them.
“What’s the price range we're looking at?” I asked.
Binary and Kenzie shifted to stare at me, jaws dropping. I winked slightly at Binary and made a smoothing motion with my hand.
A familiar smile deepened the lines in Zagan’s face. His eyes sparkled.
He loved dealing. He loved the bargain. He loved winning.
And now the world made sense to him. I was again the hustler that he trained. Zagan knew how to deal with me.
Rule number seventeen: Take out the leader; the others will run. They were betas.
One of Zagan’s thugs twitched a hand. I had no idea what weapons they were using. I wasn't extremely concerned as they wanted the girls in one piece for the marketplace.
The marketplace.
The thought of that disgusting place twisted my insides.
Binary shook her head. Her hands remained in fists.
One quick throat punch and Zagan would go down. Just a bit closer.
“I can give you two, maybe two and a quarter. I can sell her for ten. She's young and clean. That’s a fair cut.
” Zagan’s tone turned jovial.
Sell her. Humans should not be selling other humans. Although I'd been sold not once but twice in my life. It was a world I knew but wanted to forget.
“I can't do less than fifty percent, instant transfer. Take the girl. Let the rest of us walk.” I was almost there. Two more casual steps and—
“Like Hell! You won't be selling anyone today,” Binary growled.
My subtle eye contact and hand motions hadn’t gotten my message across apparently.
The lantern-jawed female had been waiting for her opportunity for revenge and slammed a fist into Binary. Although they were almost the same height, the girl’s punch lifted Binary off her feet.
McKenzie flashed to Binary and kicked her attacker’s kneecaps so hard, Lantern-Girl screamed and dropped.
Everything was moving too fast. I lunged forward at Zagan. He darted like a slippery python of Sigma out of my reach. Something hard slammed against my back. A new fighter grappled with McKenzie.
I shot back up to my feet to find three additional members of Zagan’s crew. I pulled my wrist com to call reinforcements just as he attacked with an uppercut to my jaw.
My vision darkened, and I sensed my body falling backward onto the worn polyplastic street. As my hearing dimmed, the last thing I heard was laughter.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Amelie
A head poked up through the hole. I remained pressed against the wall farthest away, gripping a piece of wood. My stomach roiled at the smell rising from the pit.
I watched, fixated as the man hauled himself from the enclosure onto the floor. Dax stared at him. All of his natural calm and steadiness had vanished. He scrambled back away from the entry, and his face twisted.
A layer of grease and grime coated the man’s overalls and mismatched boots. He was thin, and when he finally pulled himself upright, he was about the same height as Dax and had sharp cheekbones under almond eyes.
“Where are they?” Dax’s voice was hoarse, weak. He used a sharper tone than I’d ever heard from him, a slicing tone that would brook no refusal.
“Out with yar Ma.” The man blinked slowly, the stench of Hub whiskey wafting off of him.
“I sent the credits home as we agreed. Why didn’t you feed’em.”
My hands ached, and I realized I was squeezing the piece of wood in a death grip.
The space was open to the outside like a garage.
“Cool ya launchers, Daxson.”
“They waved me, Da.”
The older man moved, slow and deliberate, and strolled to where Dax lay. Standing over him, the older man’s face betrayed no pity, no interest in his injuries, no concern.
My parents weren’t much better, but they would care if I was lying writhing on the floor. I instantly wanted to defend him from this walking skeleton. With all the stealth I could muster, I inched forward.
“Who ya?” The man snapped his attention to me.
I looked to Dax to see if I should respond honestly. This was his family. I assumed this was his father. He glanced at me and back to his father and shook his head.
My legs locked, and my breathing shallowed. “I-I-I...”
“Hmm...a Sat girl. Daxson, you brought a Sat girl? Up-jumping and such. Nice.”
“No. Stop. I came to get the girls some food and move them somewhere safe. I’m risking everything to be here.”
“What ya doin? You can’t lose that job. You should’ve just sent more creds.”
Dax’s face contracted in more pain than before. “I thought the girls needed me.” His voice was weaker, and his head dipped.
“You stopped taking our wavs. We got the food supplies and the new digs, but your Ma and I needed creds to live. You wouldn’t answer. So...”
“You made them call,” I whispered.
The man’s head jerked back to me. His eyes were the same brown of Dax’s, but somehow the warmth and the gold and the kindness had frozen over.
“Stay out of it. It’s family business.” He stumbled toward me a step.
“Oh, it’s my business.” Fear disappeared in a wink. No one would hurt Dax. No one. “Dax is my friend.”
He lurched at me. I used a Vega move and dodged out of the way, leaving my foot directly in his path. He toppled to the flooring.
Dax fought to push himself up. I joined him and helped him to stand.
“Are you okay? Do you want to leave and try to find your sisters?” Everything in me screamed to leave and escape this oppressive, soul-sucking pit.
“Leave.” His tone had lost all emotion, but his arm around my shoulders was gentle as always. The pain and sadness in his eyes made my heartache. How had someone so wonderful come from something so heinous?
I dragged him past his still prone father, who wiggled like an aquatic creature on land. The way out and down was daunting with Dax leaning hard against me.
“Why didn’t I work harder on strength and cardio,” I mumbled while almost slipping down the staircase. “No autoprotections. No real safety bars either. If we fall and hit the polyasphalt ground, we’ll be seriously injured if not killed. Probably broken legs and contusions on our lower extremities.”
Dax snorted. “Let’s hope not. I have enough wrong with me now.” A cough racked his body, doubling him over. Shaking, I almost dropped him. His hand was coated in a wash of red.
Blood.
“Your broken rib could have punctured your lung,” I said simply, but my heart leaped into hyperdrive. That was bad, like really bad if he was already coughing up blood.
He snorted weakly and half chuckled. “I suppose dying would be what I deserve for believ—”
His voice trailed off, and he collapsed. I tried to hold him, but his full weight slipped from my grasp, and he tumbled down the remainder of the stairs.
“Oh, by Sol.” I wasn’t religious. I always thought that religion was a way for the uneducated to explain the universe, but I needed some divine intervention.
A hundred options screamed through my head, a half a dozen ways to make the situation better, but I had to pick one.
But what if I was wrong?
I would not panic. Dax’s life depended on me.
First, try and get help. No matter if it cost Dax his commission, it would save his life. I pressed an emergency code into my wristlet and bolted down the stairs.
He lay unmoving on his front, which sent another spear of fear into me. I knelt and gently rolled him on his back. With effort, I focused on the list of first aid treatments I’d memorized in prep school. I probably shouldn’t have moved him.
Dax’s normally tawny skin blanched. He sucked in air with a wet wheeze. All his effort went into drawing more air.
I took his vitals with my wristlet. Bad, really bad. I tapped the screen. “Request time until med evac arrival.”
“Service not provided in your current location.”
I almost collapsed on top of Dax. “Service not provided! What in the mines of Clementine is happening?” My parents had guaranteed that my wristband would be functional anywhere in the Axis.
Maybe the deep ghetto of the Hub was not considered part of the Axis? Nausea wrapped my stomach in its grip, and I almost threw up, but one look at the paleness of Dax’s face sent a shot of steel into me.
I dug deeper into the med books I’d memorized. Having all the information was wonderful and horrible. Trying to reorder the material to make it useful without any practical experience was...daunting.
Especially when Dax’s wheezing got worse with every second, I narrowed down to one thing. He needed air from his collapsing lung. It was called a pneumothorax, easily treated with the right equipment. I just needed to vent his chest so the lung could expand.
I had no equipment. Nothing.
Unless.
I ran back up the stairs to the apartment and smashed against his father. The older man cursed at me and fell again.
“Damn, Sat girl. I should grab ye and put you up for auction.
Where’d my Daxson go? I just need a few more credits for this month.”
“He’s dying. No more credits from him. You may have just killed your patron.” I wanted to say more. To slice him with my words, but I was there for another purpose.
Maybe a cart with various knives and forks and other cutlery. At last, I saw a small hand knife, stainless steel, but so dirty.
“Do you have alcohol?”
He barked a laugh and pointed to a wall of half-full bottles of Hub whiskey.
Of course, he had alcohol. I snagged a bottle, stepped over him, and took the steps two at a time. Dax wheezed, his skin clammy. I grasped the knife and alcohol.
“Treat him like an experiment. You can do it.” I obscured the image of him bleeding to death and of him kissing me earlier. Had that just been yesterday?
With effort, I forced my mind back to Dax...the experiment.
I pulled an image onto my magnifiers that overlaid the body’s inner workings over Dax so I could see where I cut him without hitting any major arteries.
Probably.
No. This was science.
If I’d learned one thing, it was that science never failed me. Logic was key.
I unzipped his tattered gray outfit and found his skin. With an unsteady hand, I poured alcohol on him and the knife.
He jerked at the contact, but his eyes remained closed.
Any hesitation or overthinking would kill him.
I took a breath and pressed on his skin.
The diagram told me how many centimeters deep to cut. I’d done it on SIMs. Multiple times. But this was Dax. Flesh and blood and—
His lips turned blue, and his gasping sounded deeper, more desperate. I pushed the knife in hand—one good cut, just deep enough.
A sound like a popping balloon and he gasped again. This time I could hear the air go deeper. His chest fully expanded. Damn. That had been close. Blood dribbled from the wound, but I had nothing clean to place on it.
I doused a clean fragment of the cotton-based outer garment with alcohol and pressed it against the incision.
He moaned and writhed. I grabbed one of his hands and pressed it against the cut.
“Hold this here. I have to figure out how to get us back to base.”
Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two: Space Opera Adventure Page 26
