by Laurie Bell
She barely held back her eyeroll. “Friend, remember?”
“Your friend won’t mind. Trust me, I know her.”
“Do you?” She glanced up, feigning interest in his answer.
“Old friends, yes.” He bent his head closer. “How long have you known Jasmine?”
Toni let herself giggle again and hated herself for it. “Not long.”
“Jasmine definitely won’t mind, then. Stay and chat to me for a little longer?”
Toni shook her head. “It’s too loud in here. Besides, I came to dance.” She pulled her hand away but allowed him to capture it back.
“Then let’s find somewhere quieter.”
This was too easy. She hesitated as a river of ice ran down her spine. Who was playing who? Was Jas setting her up? No matter. She was prepared. She nodded and followed Colten from the bar. Keep your weapon close. He’s up to something. For a while they walked along the beach in the moonlight. Thankful for the excuse, Toni kicked off her strappy, impractical shoes and trailed her feet in the warm, wet sand. It would be easier to fight this way. In the moonlight, her feet seemed to glow. The briny smell of the sea tickled her nose.
“How long have you been on Nizlec Six?” he asked.
A cool breeze caressed her skin, bringing a real shiver to her body. Channeling her mother again, she began a story she’d heard the woman give several times in various forms. Lowering her eyes to stare at the sand beneath her feet she said, “I’m a scout for the Holoshot Media Conglomerate. I’m officially here looking for a set, but really, I’ve always wanted to visit. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She faked a look out to sea, sensing him move closer.
There was no one else at this end of the beach and the further they walked, the darker it became. She brought her gaze back to her feet. He was so close to her side his hands appeared in her field of vision. His thumb twitched. The footprints he was leaving in the sand grew deeper. Her hand dropped so she could draw her weapon should he move to attack her. She had to get him a little further from the lights of the bar before he made his move.
Letting out a whoop, she raced down to the shore line. The cool ocean water kissed her toes, sending more shivers over her body and goosepimples to her exposed skin. A lone avian cry sounded in the distance. When Colten caught up she continued, “The main scene in the movie involves a beach like this one but during the day. I had to come here and see it like this. If I can convince the assistant prod a night scene would work just as well …” She shot him a shy smile to see how he was taking her little story.
Colten watched her intently. By the light of the moon, his eyes were two orbs focused only on her. It sent a buzz through her body making her tense up. Her involuntary reactions were going to tell him she wasn’t quite as tipsy as she had wanted him to believe. She didn’t want him to sense how alert she was or how skittish she felt but she didn’t know how to stop it.
She skipped away, turning toward the upper beach. The lapping waves hid the sound of her rapid breathing. That lonely birdcall sounded again. Circling the path, Toni slipped a little in the dry sand. Colten grasped her arm, his warm fingers curling around her elbow. “I’ve been here before.” His voice was soft, disappearing into the darkness around them. “With several pals. The night was not this beautiful though, or perhaps that’s the company.” She forced herself not to pull away and allowed him to direct her into the shadows of the surrounding beach huts.
“I remember Rycee and I found this greying sandcat. It must have lived behind those huts.” As he spoke, he pointed toward several wooden huts hidden by tall trees that edged the beach. Toni wasn’t listening. She murmured soft sounds to keep him talking, and as they rounded the first building she spun, drawing her weapon, and came face to face with Colten’s pistol. She stared up into the smuggler’s cold, dark eyes. The gun in his hand did not waver.
“Interesting,” he said, his voice a sharp. “Who are you?”
Shenghi! Her heart now raced for another reason. She sucked in a breath and steadied her aim. “You pulled a gun on me. You first.”
“You pulled a gun on me,” he countered. “What do you want?”
“To ask you a few questions.”
“And you needed a gun to do that?” He waggled his own weapon back and forth. “Looks like you’re at a disadvantage. I suggest we lower our weapons, leave in opposite directions and forget we ever met.”
“Who says I’m the one disadvantaged?”
“I have the better position and I’m bigger than you are. Trust me, you are disadvantaged.”
Toni smirked. “You don’t say?”
Out of the darkness behind the smuggler came a low growl. The growl built as Mate prowled from the shadows of the second hut. His snarling snout dipped, and moonlight lit up the jagged edges of his teeth. Warmth filled Toni at his presence. Right on time.
“Unexpected,” Colten said backing up, his gaze swinging from Toni to Mate and back again.
“I’m sorry, can you tell me again who is at a disadvantage?” Toni flashed him a sweet smile.
“I guess he belongs to you?” Colten holstered his pistol, his movements slow and steady. Toni kept her weapon on the smuggler as Mate crept forward to sandwich Colten between them.
“About those questions.”
His shoulders slumped. “It’s your show, sweetheart.”
“The shipment of supplies bound for Milten Seven. Where is it?”
Colten’s head snapped up. “Who are you?”
Toni raised her weapon higher. “My questions, your answers. My show, remember?” Power was a heady thing. Her body pulsed with it. Was this what it was like to win? No wonder her father loved all his manipulation games. I could get used to this.
“I don’t know where they are.”
“Oh, come on. You’ve been seen twice in the area of the hijacked ships, searching the same corridor off Waystation EEXDU. Where are the supplies?”
“How do you know about … oh, the Hegnforth lightship, she’s yours?” He stepped forward. At Mate’s sharp bark he froze. Slowly, he raised his hands. “I’m looking for the shipment, too. I don’t know where it is.”
Oh, come on! His expression was earnest. Perhaps a little too convincing. “You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth. I know a few of the people relying on that delivery making it to where it’s meant to go. I’m just keeping a casual eye out for it. I was hoping to get lucky.”
“Friendly interest, huh?”
“Absolutely.”
“Who took it?” She lowered her weapon a fraction. If he was speaking the truth then she needed this information. But she had no way to know if he was being honest with her. He was a friend of Jasmine’s and Toni figured Jas had been playing the same game Toni was, manipulating the conversation for her own interest. So what game was he playing? The same one as Jas, or something else?
His eyes flicked away. “I have my suspicions.” His body was still tense, but his shoulders dropped and his fingers relaxed.
“Care to share?”
“As you’re currently holding a weapon pointed at my chest, no, not really. What’s it to you, anyway?” He shifted weight onto his front foot. Toni hitched her gun arm straighter.
“Interested third party,” she told him. “Look, say I’m willing to believe you. Just give me a name and we can go our separate ways.” Not that she would actually let him go. He was a smuggler after all, and it was her duty to arrest him. But if he believed she’d release him, he might give her the answers she needed. Colten seemed to consider that. He shrugged.
“Pirate by the name of Dalmith. He’s a bad guy. You don’t want to go after him alone.”
Toni gestured to Mate. “I’m not alone.”
Colten inched forward, his eyes glittering. “I’m serious. Dalmith is bad news. You’ll need back up.”
Toni tugged her badge from her bra with her free hand and flashed it at him. “I’m covered, thanks. Now turn around and put your han
ds behind your back.”
The smuggler glared. “I thought you were letting me go.”
“Right,” she said with a laugh. Waving her weapon at him again, she ordered, “Turn around.”
“You don’t want to do this. You don’t understand what is going on. It’s not just the supplies,” he told her, his voice dropping low. She shuffled forward to hear him. “It’s not what you think.”
“Turn around.”
He shrugged and raised his hands higher. Moonlight glinted off something between the fingers of his left hand. Small, round and metallic. What is that? A personal alarm? He threw it into the air. Her stare locked on the device. Colten dropped to the ground as a blinding flare flashed across the black sky. Toni’s sensitive eyes screamed, and she hit the sand hard, clawing at her face. Blinded, she struggled to her knees and froze at the cold touch of metal against her neck. Mate’s growl rose. Colten spoke quietly. “Call your robot off, Agent.”
“Mate, hold,” she cried, her eyes streaming with tears. Her heart thundered, and sweat broke out over her body. I’m dead. He’s going to kill me. She gasped but couldn’t find air.
“The blindness will last a few hours. You’re going to need your bot’s help to get to safety. Call him off and I’ll disappear.”
He’s not going to shoot? She gulped salty air, finally getting some of it into her lungs. Khegh it! She had no choice. Clenching her eyes shut, she realized her face was wet from her streaming tears. Swearing softly, she raised her hand. “Mate, stand down.”
His growl grew louder.
“Here,” she ordered. After a pause that went too long, she heard his feet pad toward her. His growl became a rumbling snarl as he approached. Colten jammed the gun harder into Toni’s neck.
“No sudden moves now,” the smuggler said loudly.
Toni held out her hands until she felt Mate’s fur beneath her fingertips. He scooted close to her side. She clutched his body with shaking hands. Mate’s here. He’ll help. She heard the smuggler step away and the cold barrel left her neck.
“If I see a twitch, I shoot. Do you hear me, Agent?”
“Yes.” She listened to the man walk away. When she could no longer hear him, she buried her head in Mate’s metallic smelling fur. “Mate, I can’t see.” Toni could hear how terrified she sounded and swallowed back a scream.
“I am here, Toni.” Mate’s voice was a comfort in the endless darkness. I can’t do this. She’d had the smuggler on the ropes and he’d got the drop on her. She could have died. Why didn’t he kill me? Confusion spiraled her thoughts faster and faster.
“Help me,” she whispered.
“Always.” Mate nudged her with his nose. Toni gripped his neck fur tightly and struggled to her feet. Trusting her partner and friend to act as her eyes, she let him lead her back to the Blackflame, and to safety.
CHAPTER FIVE
Pain exploded around her knee. “Khegh it!” Freezing in place, Toni tried to work out where she was. Her breathing was too loud. The scent of ozone and copper didn’t give her a clue “Mate?”
When he didn’t immediately reply, her pounding blood thudded harder. “Mate?” I can’t even find my way around my own kheghing ship. In two days, there had been no change in her vision. She was afraid that with her sensitive eyesight, the effects of the flash flare would be permanent. Mate and Zach attempted to keep her calm but it was a losing battle.
“I am here, Boss. You are three paces from the passageway entrance. Step back half a pace and over half a pace to your right.”
Following his order, she found the wall and traced her way into the Blackflame’s central room. I’m completely useless. She’d never been so aware of how dangerous the Blackflame was and vowed to clean the entire ship if only her sight returned.
She refused to imagine what her life would become if it didn’t. Fear lurked in the periphery of her mind. She could feel it waiting for her to drop her mental shields.
Her body ached. She was sure her blood pressure was too high and she wasn’t getting enough air. Colten got so close. She was such a fool to think she could bring down an experienced smuggler. What if my eyes don’t get better? She’d always lived with the fear that her delicate skin and eyes would be her downfall, and blindness had always been a threat, but to have it made real in this way truly hit home how vulnerable she was. If she was permanently blinded, she’d lose her job—she’d lose everything.
Thank Xendia for Mate, her calm center, her focal point. He’d been designed to be her companion as a child by parents embarrassed by her appearance and lack of friendships. She learnt how to program because she’d wanted to make him a true friend. When Zaambuka had arrested her and offered her the choice to enter the Academy, he’d told her to leave Mate behind. She’d outright refused. She couldn’t do it without Mate. He was her partner and now her lifeline.
To keep her mind occupied, she asked Zach to run a search for the name Dalmith. So far, nothing had popped.
By early evening, she began to distinguish shadows. Relief of a sort settled into her belly when she avoided bashing her knee against the bench a heartbeat before Mate warned her away from it. “I think, I think I . . . something’s changed.”
“What do you see?” Mate immediately asked.
“Not a lot, a slightly darker shadow in front of the never-ending darkness.”
“That is a good sign.”
“I’ll kill him,” she said for the umpteenth time.
“Are you positive the smuggler is not connected to the hijackings?” Mate asked.
Toni took a deep breath as he brushed against her leg. Her pulse settled. Just the sound of his voice, the feel of his fur at her side, was all she needed. Never had she been so thankful for such a special friend.
“I have a strange feeling he was telling the truth.” Toni cringed. Admitting that hurt somewhat, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. Nibbling at her bottom lip she stretched out with a hand. The chair was around here somewhere.
“You cannot trust him, Boss. He blinded you.”
“Really, Zach? You thought I forgot?” Zach fell silent. “Urgh,” Toni rubbed her eyes. “Zach, I’m frustrated …”
His reply, when it came, was a lot softer. “I’m sorry, too, Boss.”
Toni’s questing hand found the leather and turned the seat toward her. She sat gingerly. The smell of her ship was so clear to her now her eyesight was compromised—a mixture of electrified air and ozone with a hint of oil, grease, and burned hair. Khegh it. A rodent must have invaded while they were docked at the Waystation. Beneath the sound of Mate’s servos was the rumble of the Blackflame’s powerful engines.
“Do you have anything to report, Zach?”
A grin twitched her lips. Trust Mate to get things back on track.
“I’ve searched the embarkation records for the Waystations along the shipment routes and uncovered a ship registration for a man named Dalmith. He appears to be a frequent visitor to Waystation Tildex.”
“The second Waystation,” Toni mused. The dots of the case were starting to connect. “Wait, the registration was under his own name?”
“He also has a business registered in his name. A bar and several warehouses.”
“If this man is who Colten accused, would he not attempt to disguise his identity?” Mate commented.
“You would think,” Toni muttered. Did it really surprise her that Colten had lied? She could talk to Dalmith and rule him out as a suspect. By that time, her eyesight should be returned and she could go after Colten with a vengeance.
“So, we are going after Dalmith?”
“For now, Mate,” she confirmed. “But Zach, keep a search window open for Colten.”
“Absolutely, Boss.”
*
Colors and shapes were still blurry, but she was able to distinguish between people and inanimate objects by the time they landed on Waystation Tildex. It helped that people moved. She set her shades display to heat vision to give her more clarity, a
nd Mate stayed close to her side in the event she needed his assistance. Since her balance was uncertain, she had Mate in a harness and was using him to guide her around the station. It was a comfort to know that if she missed anything, the C-bot would not.
The station smelt old, like moldy grease and dry oil. Mate spoke to her softly. “Are you sure you cannot wait until more of your vision has returned?”
Toni was not helpless. She refused to be helpless. “No time. The next shipment leaves Marn tomorrow. If we don’t stop the hijackers, it will be weeks before Milten Seven can receive any water. People will start dying. We have to stop Dalmith now if he’s the one behind it.”
“You suspect he is not?” Mate asked.
Toni tightened her grip on his harness. “I don’t know.”
She kept her pace steady, taking careful steps and feeling Mate’s fur brush against her leg. He was leading her toward dock seventy-nine, where Zach reported Dalmith’s ship was berthed. Voices echoed the halls but did not come close, squeaks and hissing followed their path. Thumping vibrations rose over her feet and up her ankles, something heavy, machinery of some kind, operating below decks. As the ship came into view, Toni scanned it with the various settings of her shades. “Khegh it!” It was a monster. Her glasses outlined seven external gun mounts on this side alone, and there were ports for torpedoes as well. She picked up a shimmer that indicated some kind of stealth technology had been paired with the ship’s shielding. A man stood guard outside the lowered ramp. Her blood ran cold.
Shenghi. There went her idea to sneak on board. She strengthened her grip on Mate’s harness and let him lead her forward, making a show of tilting her head from side to side at any sound. If she was going to appear blind she might as well use it as a disguise. Holding aloft a small container, she called, “Hello? Is there someone here?”
“Hey, you, this is a private dock. You need to leave.”
“Please, Sir.” She moved in the direction of the voice. A red body blob moved into the center of her vision. She rattled her container—the coin she’d collected with Jas lent reality to her ruse. “Please, Sir.” She let her voice wobble, and listened to it echo around the quiet bay. “I am poor and unfortunate. My condition has caused me to become blind at an early age. Would you have any coin to spare for food, Sir?”
