Before anyone else could speak, Seb walked away from Moses in the direction of his Shadow Order friends. Although he could feel SA looking at him, he didn’t look back. Instead, he focused on the ground. As he passed them, he gave Sparks her computer and said, “Come on, we have work to do.”
The sound of their footsteps ran in the opposite direction to Seb. When he looked up, he saw SA, Bruke, and Sparks all retrieving their weapons from the pile of scrap. A few seconds later, they ran to catch up with him.
Chapter 13
As much as he didn’t want to, Seb glanced at SA as they walked down the spaceport’s main street. Because of what she’d said, he wanted to give her the space she needed, but he found it hard when they had to work so closely together. To meet her stare—which wasn’t cold, just detached—forced his shoulders to slump as a twist ran through his heart. The tight-lipped smile she gave him spoke of neighbours passing in the street, not two beings in love with one another. Maybe an act, maybe not. Either way, he couldn’t affect her desire to back off from him, and if he didn’t respect it, he’d end up driving her farther away.
Just before they ducked down the alley leading to Buster’s warehouse, a group of beings in their path saw they were coming and quickly parted for them.
“The news has travelled faster than we have,” Seb said.
A cocksure bounce to her stride, Sparks swung her shoulders and smiled. “We’re operating with the big man’s backing now.”
Although Seb smirked, when he looked to either side at the vessels flanking the narrow walkway, he saw the cargo bay guards drop their focus to the ground. The lack of overt hostility unsettled him. It shouldn’t be this easy for a human on Aloo.
The wind rocked Seb when he stepped out of the walkway and looked across at Buster’s warehouse. His collision with the large magnet had made everything hurt. He rolled his sore shoulders and opened and closed his aching hands before snapping his neck from side to side. Something about the stillness of the building in front of them added to the deep unease in the pit of his stomach.
Sparks and Reyes on one side of him, Bruke and SA on the other, Seb continued to stare at the large warehouse as they walked across the open expanse of concrete. He kept his anxious feelings to himself because he had no evidence to back them up. Instead, he said, “The mandulu on the gate might still be a bit off with me. Just let him get it off his chest. His ego must have taken quite a battering to be knocked down by a human. We need to allow him to process it in whatever way he sees fit.”
Seb saw Sparks look across at him in his peripheral vision. “What if he tries to attack you again?”
“I think I can—” But he didn’t finish his sentence, stopping dead when he saw the warehouse more clearly. The others stopped too.
“Is it normally like that?” Reyes said.
Seb shook his head, the breeze tossing his hair. “No.”
The gate, which Seb had always seen guarded, crashed closed again. The splash of the chain-link rode the harsh wind. It then opened before being driven back against the fence with another shattering metallic rattle. He couldn’t see the mandulu anywhere.
The sides of Seb’s world blurred as his gift threatened to kick in. When he looked left and right at his friends, he saw SA had drawn her knives and had one in each hand, while Bruke, Reyes, and Sparks all had their blasters ready.
Seb led the slow approach, the gate slamming shut every few seconds. Most of his attention was on the open entrance, but he occasionally looked to either side of the large building.
Bruke looked around them and said, “Do you think we’re walking into a trap?”
The area surrounding the warehouse looked clear, but they couldn’t see everywhere.
Before Seb could answer, Sparks stopped and pulled her computer from her pocket. After several taps, a drone appeared like the one she’d set fire to when she’d met Seb and Reyes off their flight back from Danu. Although she didn’t look up, she must have felt the attention of the others on her. While still tapping at her computer, she said, “Moses gave me control of his security. I didn’t know if it would come in handy or not.”
All of them watched the drone shoot over the top of the warehouse to get a view of the opposite side.
Seb peered over Sparks’ shoulder at the footage on her screen. Although slightly grainy, he still saw what he needed to and said to the others, “It looks clear.”
No one else spoke.
“We need to go in,” Seb said. “Keep your guard raised and your wits about you. Something’s clearly wrong, but I don’t think we’ll find out what it is until we get inside.”
Chapter 14
Just before the gate slammed back against its frame, Seb wedged his foot into the space. The flimsy chain-link bent at the top from being halted so abruptly, and it catapulted back open again. It might have seemed a pointless action to the others, but something about the jangling sound rattled his already frayed nerves.
Once he’d stepped through, Seb held the gate open and passed it to Reyes, who let the others in while he moved on. A glance back showed him SA taking up the rear. Maybe to get as far away from him as she could, maybe not. Either way, if he were to choose for any of them to be watching their back, it would be her.
Not silent because of the fierce wind, but a stillness hung in the air that had the same effect as silence. The weather might have been making a fuss, but it felt like everything else held its breath.
As much as he’d hated it every other time he’d been there, if Seb rounded the corner to find Buster sending another slaver to their watery end, it would almost be a relief. His gut told him they were about to walk into much worse.
Seb winced as he peered into the place. When he saw the state of the warehouse, he froze.
Blood everywhere: on the ground, the walls, across the window to Buster’s office … What felt like already fragile nerves shattered, and Seb shook as he looked at the hacked-up mandulus scattered throughout the warehouse. Spilled claret and ripped flesh covered almost every inch of the concrete expanse. The sight scrambled his thoughts.
“How many of them died?” Reyes said, her voice shaking.
Seb’s stomach tensed against his need to vomit as he tried to count the heads. The only way they would know because every other part of them had been hacked into tiny pieces. Such carnage could have come from the death of tens, maybe more. A heave rising up in him, he swallowed it back down. It took a great effort to get his words past the shock clamping his throat. “I think four.”
“Just four?” Bruke said.
Seb shrugged. “I can only see four heads. Although, they might have thrown some in the sea.” The foam riding the top of the salty water in the hole Buster sent the slavers through had a red tinge to it.
As Seb looked around the warehouse, he said, “Can anyone see Buster?”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
Nothing from SA.
His attention on the door to Buster’s office, Seb led the way, zigzagging through the mandulu body parts. When he got close, he looked through the blood-splattered window, but he couldn’t see anything. He noticed the others had drawn their weapons in preparation for what could be inside. The muscles in his body worked against him, urging him to stop. But he pushed through it. If he delayed now, he wouldn’t go in.
Seb snapped the handle down, his grip sliding off it from it also being covered in blood. He shoved the door open with his foot and stepped through while wiping his hand clean on his trousers.
Maybe he would have looked there anyway, but the second he entered the office, Seb’s eyes ran to the metal rack he’d been tied to when Buster had got one up on him. It had a nearly whole mandulu chained to it. Dead now, its hands, feet, and eyes had been removed. It also had a bloodstained lap from where it had been dismembered.
The sound of Bruke’s heave ran through the quiet office. A second later, he bolted from the room, and the splash of his vomit hit th
e concrete ground outside.
The first of them to speak, Sparks said, “Oh my.”
Reyes shook her head.
To look at SA sent a chill through Seb. For a being who always seemed totally present, she looked like she’d left her body. Her eyes were dead as if she’d retreated into her skull.
It looked like the massacre hadn’t made its way into the office. Other than the mutilated mandulu, Seb couldn’t see any other signs of death in there. “Can anyone see anything of Buster?”
None of the others replied, the sound of Bruke’s heaves still calling through the warehouse outside.
“Whatever’s happened here,” Seb said as he left the office, “I think Buster’s still alive. This has the Countess’ crew written all over it. I think Moses was right; this isn’t going to stop with her death.” He sighed. “If anything, it looks like it’s getting worse.”
Before any of the others spoke, the sound of footsteps approached the warehouse from the same direction they’d come in from. Reyes, Bruke, and Sparks all snapped their blasters into their shoulders. SA raised her knives. All five of them faced the direction of the sound.
Chapter 15
The second Seb saw him, he raised a halting hand at the others and said, “Stop! Don’t shoot.”
The creature who’d just entered also froze. They stared at one another for a moment before Seb said, “What are you doing here? How did you get away?”
The mandulu he’d knocked out—the tall one that had stood guard on the gate—stared back at Seb and shook where he stood. The trauma of what he’d undoubtedly witnessed clearly still coursed through him. The tall beast then dropped his attention to the ground and hugged himself as if he had a fever. “T-t-they said they needed to leave one alive. One to tell th-th—”
“The story?” Seb finished for him, moving a step closer to the shocked brute.
When the mandulu looked back up again, tears ran down his face.
Seb knew what he had to do, and despite the action being totally alien to him, he moved closer to the mandulu and put his arm around his shoulders.
The mandulu’s legs buckled beneath him and he crashed to his knees as if the extra weight of Seb’s arm was too much. Seb sat down on the cold concrete next to him.
Although Seb had consciously avoided sitting in the blood, he’d now dropped closer to the rich metallic tang of it. He hugged the crying creature as he watched the other Shadow Order members move closer.
Before Seb could ask the tall guard for any more information, the creature spoke of his own free will.
“Seven creatures,” he said, sniffing against his grief. “They approached the warehouse with guns and started shooting before I had a chance to do anything. They were coming in whether I liked it or not. I had to hide so they didn’t shoot me too.”
Every other time Seb had spoken to the mandulu, he’d received nothing but open hostility. Now the creature looked at him like a child seeking parental approval. He gave it with a nod. “I understand. You were being shot at. It’s absolutely what you needed to do. You shouldn’t feel bad about that.”
“At first I planned to jump them when they came in, but when I saw their brutality”—he looked down at the ground again, his frame sagging—“I knew I couldn’t do anything to beat them.” The mandulu lifted his head and looked at their surroundings through glazed eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he said to his dead comrades, “but I knew I couldn’t win against them.”
“Who were they?” Reyes asked. Her own eyes glistened with tears from clearly being moved by the creature’s grief.
“Bounty hunters. They took Ralph.”
“Ralph?” Seb said, his attention falling on the liberated head of one of the mandulus close to them.
It took a second or two for the guard to process Seb’s question. He nodded. “Sorry, you called him Buster.”
In a different situation, Seb might have found that funny.
It looked like it took him a great effort, but the mandulu forced his words out through stuttering sobs. “They knew I was hiding. They dragged me out and told me they’d come to collect and they’d let me live to tell the tale.”
“Why did they want him?” Seb said.
The mandulu shrugged. “I don’t know. They knocked me out soon after that.”
When the mandulu looked up again, Seb saw he had nothing more to say. A nod at him, he reached over and squeezed his shoulder as he looked him in the eyes. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. But they’ve gone now. If they came for Buster and they’ve taken him, then they won’t be back for you.” He looked at the others. “We need to find Buster, wherever he is. If beings are prepared to do this to get to him, I’m guessing he can help us find our target.” He purposefully didn’t talk about the Countess in front of the mandulu. He didn’t need to know their mission.
Although finding Buster seemed like an impossible task. Before Seb could ask the others for ideas, Sparks pulled her computer from her pocket. As always, her fingers turned into a blur while they danced across the screen. As much as Seb wanted to ask her what she was doing, he’d learned it paid off to wait and let her concentrate.
A hiss of static, Moses’ voice then came through the small speakers on Sparks’ tablet. “What’s up?”
“Do you have information on the ships that come and go from Aloo? Stuff like what cargo they’re carrying?”
“No!” The indignation seemed forced. To see Sparks raise an eyebrow showed Seb that she thought exactly the same thing. She didn’t reply.
It forced Moses to elaborate. “One of the most important things about Aloo is it’s a place that beings can pass through without fear of surveillance in any way.”
Sparks still didn’t reply. Neither did anyone else.
“Hello?” Moses said. “Are you still there?”
With a heavy sigh, Sparks managed to remain calm. “If you have that information, I really need to know it.”
“I don’t.”
“Come on, Moses, I know you have the information. I’ve hacked into your systems and looked at it. Several times.”
“What?!”
“I wanted to be polite and ask for it, but I can take it for myself if I need to. It’ll just be a lot quicker if you help us out.”
Another slight pause in the conversation, Seb forgot his surroundings and smiled at how Sparks had just played the Shadow Order shark. Moses finally said, “Who’s with you?”
“Just tell us.”
“Fine. Yes, I have it. Happy?”
A glaze covered her purple eyes as she looked around the place. “No. Far from it.” Before Moses could respond, she said, “Do you have information on how many personnel the ships have when they arrive and then when they leave? So if they picked anyone up, you’d know?”
Another begrudging, “Yes.”
Seb couldn’t help looking at SA at that moment. The death, the loss, the suffering. It all added to the weight he already carried in his heart. She watched Sparks for a second before she turned to him. He quickly looked away.
“I need you to find all the ships that left with more crew than they came with,” Sparks said. “Especially those ones that didn’t pick up any cargo other than that. We’re going to head over to the square now.”
Another cagey response, Moses said, “Why the square?”
“You have a surveillance hut there.”
“Is there anything you don’t know about?”
“This is why you hired me, Moses.”
Seb stood up, leaving the mandulu hunched over on the ground. He walked over to Sparks and rubbed her back. “We’d be lost without you.”
“Yes, you would.”
He then said, “Moses?”
The sound of Moses’ breathing came out of the speakers. Nothing more.
“There’s been a massacre down here. We need a team to come and help with the clean-up. Make sure they have strong stomachs.”
Again, Moses didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. “Com
e on then,” Seb said to the others, “let’s go to the square and find out who’s taken Buster from us.”
Chapter 16
Seb heard the flimsy chain-link gate crashing home again as they got closer to it. He led the way, holding it open so the others could walk through.
Reyes, Sparks, Bruke, then SA marched past him. Seb and SA looked at one another. A glance, nothing more.
As Seb tried to follow the others, the mandulu also moved forward. Seb stopped and looked up at the tall guard. “I know Moses didn’t answer my request, but he’ll be sending you some Shadow Order recruits to help clear up. Just wait here and they’ll show up soon.”
Not giving him a chance to respond, Seb then stepped out into the larger space beyond.
The mandulu followed him.
Thinking he must be in shock, Seb was about to repeat the instructions when the tall creature said, “I can’t wait in there on my own.”
What Seb had seen in the aftermath would haunt his nightmares forever. What must it have been like for the poor creature to actually watch it happen?
“Can I just come to the walkway with you and meet the guards there?”
It made sense, so Seb shrugged. “Sure. I don’t blame you for not wanting to wait in the warehouse. Moses’ guards will sort out the clean-up for you. You shouldn’t be dealing with that after what you’ve been through.”
None of the group spoke as they walked across the open expanse of concrete. The wind crashed into Seb, who’d taken the lead again. Not that it bothered him to bear the brunt of it. He’d grown up on Danu. He might have forgotten what it had been like before he returned, but with the place still fresh in his memory, this felt like no more than a heavy breeze by comparison.
The mandulu stammered when it caught up to Seb and said, “Th-thank you for helping me sort this out. I know we haven’t seen eye to eye, but you’re a stand-up guy.”
“It’s okay.” Something had seemed slightly amiss about the situation, and as much as Seb didn’t want to question it, if he didn’t now, he never would. Also, he’d asked for Moses to send a crew over, he needed to know they weren’t in danger of being hurt. “I have to say though, something’s been on my mind since we’ve come here.”
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