Sparks came through again. They’re following you a little bit quicker than before. I think they can see you’re going to disappear from sight any second now. Keep it up.
The desire to run sent a series of twitches streaking through Seb’s legs. They dared him to break into a sprint. A deep breath, he focused on moving at a slow pace. Unable to resist looking at the Pillar of Peace, he turned in the direction of the milky-green jade monument. Although Sparks had described it to him, he couldn’t appreciate its magnificence. At least three metres tall, it stood in the middle of the square. Because it was lit up from every side, it had four shadows.
They’ve stopped, Sparks said. They must think you’ve seen them.
“No matter how many times I see the Pillar, I can’t even get over how beautiful it is,” Seb said, fighting to keep the warble from his voice. A look up its long and thick shaft, he added, “I’m not sure I could even name all the religious symbols on there.”
Less successful than Seb had been, Reyes’ voice shook as she played the game. “I’m not sure any of those religions are about now. You know what this galaxy’s like for fads and how quickly they change. I would guess the majority of them are defunct.”
The end of Reyes’ words echoed in the alley as they stepped into it. The shadow created by the close walls helped Seb relax ever so slightly. Anything had to be better than the spotlight glow of the square.
Reyes threw a quick glance at Seb, her eyebrows raised. I suppose this is it, then?
Before he could reply, Sparks said, They’ve sped up; they’re following you in.
Seb rested his palm against the cold metal handle of his blaster. It took all he had to not turn around and face them. How many?
Five.
And the other three?
Staying by the pillar. I’ll count you down from three. Three …
A quickening of his pulse, Seb drew a breath to bring his world into slow motion.
Two …
Because Seb didn’t know if the creatures could see them yet or not, he refrained from looking at Reyes.
One.
Seb and Reyes spun around and opened fire. Both of them released a barrage of green blasts, the shadowy alley lit up by their rapid assault. Although he knew the guards to be there, it still looked strange to see the blasts halt when they hit solid air.
What must have been thirty to forty shots hit the invisible wall in front of them. The second Seb saw one of his blasts fly out into the square beyond, he lowered his aim and watched them sink into something on the ground.
Sparks then said, Stop! They’re all down. Their dots have gone off.
Seb rode his quickened breaths and watched SA and Bruke emerge from the alley opposite. Although Sparks’ voice came through to him, he knew it to be directed at them.
About one metre to the left of the monument.
Despite having a blaster on her hip, SA threw just one knife.
Seb ran to the end of the alley to see if it hit its target.
By the time Seb stepped out into the square—standing on the pile of dead guards as he passed over them—he saw the knife SA had thrown. He jumped when she sent a series of shots into the downed guard. Now she’d tagged it, she had to make sure she finished it.
A pool of blood at his feet, Seb stepped away from the guards they’d killed and heard Sparks again.
The last two are coming right at you, Bruke, she said. Seb watched Bruke open fire, spraying blasts out in front of him and spinning on the spot as he did so.
When a line of green laser fire came his way, Seb jumped back over the dead guards and into the alley he’d just stepped from. Bloody hell, Bruke!
Turn left, Bruke, Sparks said.
He turned right.
The other left.
He turned right some more.
As much as Seb wanted to help, friendly fire pinned him and Reyes in the alley. Bruke, what are you playing at?
But he didn’t reply. He’d clearly lost his head.
Sparks then shrieked, Help!
The shrill call rang through Seb’s skull. He looked across the square to see she’d been lifted from the ground and was being carried away.
As the closest, Bruke ran into the alley after her. At least it stopped him shooting. The slowest in the group, he found a burst of speed before he jumped over the top of the small Thrystian and spread his arms wide.
It did the job, Sparks falling from having been dropped. But the two guards grabbed Bruke instead, lifting him from his feet.
Before Sparks could open fire, a force field exploded to life between her and the invisible guards. She shot it all the same, her blasts ineffective against the yellow-tinged barrier.
Bruke yelled, “Help!”
Seb, Reyes, and SA ran across the square to join Sparks. They all opened fire on the force field. It remained strong against their onslaught, and Bruke vanished from their sight.
The panic of the past few minutes had left Seb breathless. Pains streaked through his tight chest. He panted as he said, Bruke, we’ll find you. Just tell us where you’re going.
It’s too late, Bruke said.
What?
At that moment, an engine started up and the whooshing sound of a booster flew through the streets so loudly it drowned out the baseline from the casino. A ship then thrust into the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, an orange tail of flame behind it. It glowed like a comet against the night.
Don’t worry, Bruke, we’ll find you.
Bruke didn’t respond.
Seb looked at Sparks. “Where are they taking him?”
While shaking her head, Sparks kept her focus on her tablet. “I don’t know. They’ve got something on that ship that’s stopping me tracking it. I don’t think he can hear us either.”
Reyes leaned over her and looked at the tablet. “Zinconium?”
“That’s my guess.”
Seb dragged his hair back from his forehead. “Then how are we supposed to find him?”
The sound of the casino pounded through the streets, louder because of the silence from his friends.
Chapter 30
The silence only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like much longer, even with Seb allowing for his current slow-motion view. Sparks finally broke it. “My guess is that Enigma have taken him.”
The four of them huddled in the dark alley. They watched the force field that had prevented them from saving their friend vanish as if it had never been there. Seb shrugged. “So we continue with our plan and hopefully find Enigma and then Bruke through that?”
Sparks’ eyebrows rose in the middle, and she winced an apology. “It’s the best I’ve got.”
As he let go of a sigh, Seb’s entire body sagged. “Too many plans are the best we’ve got rather than the best plan.” Before Sparks could defend herself, he raised a halting hand at her. “That’s not a criticism, just an observation.” When he looked at the others, none of them offered anything better. “I’d say it’s the best any of us have.” Both SA and Reyes dropped their focus to the ground as if to confirm his assertion.
As their leader, Seb needed to keep them moving. “We can’t give up hope for Bruke’s safety,” he said. “Sparks is right, nothing’s changed. We still need to find Enigma and, hopefully, that means we’ll find him too.”
Only a slight lift in those around him, but slight had to be better than none. They had something they could hang on to, a path to follow. They had to keep moving forward, and Seb had to lead them. “Is the square clear, Sparks? We’ve definitely killed all the guards?”
It took for that moment for Seb to see the tears in Sparks’ eyes. She pulled her glasses off to wipe them before she put them back on again and flicked through several screens on her computer. “Yep, we’re good to go.”
“And how far away are the slaves?”
“They’re still in the casino.”
The sound of the place continued to call through the city. It had been there all along, but wit
h everything else going on, Seb had stopped hearing it for a time. Because none of the others moved, he led the way back out into the brightly lit square. He ran towards the Pillar of Peace at a jog. The seemingly levitating knife in the downed guard helped him see where the body lay so he didn’t trip over it.
Seb stopped in front of the tall obelisk and looked all the way up its shaft. He pressed his hand to its cold surface and felt one of the many carved images. The shape looked to be the representation of a badger. No idea what sect it belonged to and what they thought about the galaxy, but at least they’d chosen a cool animal to represent them.
His palm resting against the jade, Seb felt a throbbing pulse run through it. Similar to when he healed people, except it came from the stone into him rather than the other way around.
The others appeared at his side, looking the pillar up and down like he had. Their confused frowns suggested they were at a loss for ideas too.
SA shrugged. I’m not sure why I got a vision of this. I don’t know what it means. When she looked at Seb, he turned away. She must know he’d seen it too.
Sparks stepped closer to the monument and picked at it with one of her long fingers. A chip of jade came free and fell to the ground. Seb winced as if he felt the stone’s pain. Despite not having any affiliation to any of the religions represented, they were damaging a sacred monument—probably the only sacred object in the secular city of sin.
It took for Sparks to shine her torch into the hole before Seb saw the different stone inside. It sparkled like a diamond. A red grid replaced the torch’s beam coming from Sparks’ computer. It scanned the stone beneath the layer of jade.
When Sparks pulled away, her attention dropped to her computer as she clearly assessed the results of the scan. Seb pressed the tip of his finger against the translucent and sparkling stone. The second he made contact with it, a rush of images overwhelmed him. A planet covered in the same crystal he currently touched, it had a sprawling palace made from the mineral. It looked like it had grown from the ground rather than been built. On the roof of the place, he saw a lady who looked to be in her sixties. She had white hair that rested against her long flowing robes of the same colour. Her eyes were brilliant green. She looked like an angel, but something about the sight of her twisted anxiety through him. For a moment, he watched her without her knowing, but then she stared straight at him. The radiance of her glare dealt him a physical blow. He gasped and stumbled away from the obelisk.
Two steps back, Seb tripped over the invisible body of the dead guard and landed on his bottom, the hard ground running a skeleton-jarring shock up his spine. As he looked up at the other three, he saw all of them staring down at him, waiting for an explanation. He only had one word. Sparks said it at the same time as him. “Varna.”
Sparks must have gotten the hint that Seb had nothing more to say. Distrust aimed at him, she then looked back down at her computer and read from the screen. “Varna is where this mineral comes from.” She looked back at Seb. “How did you know about it?”
“Just carry on, yeah?” Whatever he’d seen, he couldn’t and didn’t want to explain it. Although he felt SA focus on him with the other two, he refused to look at her, his cheeks burning. She already knew he’d had a vision that he hadn’t shared with her.
Sparks continued. “The mineral’s called stalt. It’s worthless, but it’s been long believed that it can be used for psychic broadcasts. Like an antenna sends out radio waves, stalt does the same for psychic ones. It must have been why the guards were here. They clearly didn’t want anyone getting too close to the pillar. Had Bruke not shot everything but the guards, there wouldn’t have been a chip in the jade and we wouldn’t have found it.” After a moment’s pause in the wake of her mentioning Bruke, she said, “Varna’s not far from here. As a planet, it’s pretty dead. At least, that’s how it looks from the surface.”
The palace and the woman with the green eyes burst into Seb’s mind.
Reyes looked between Seb and Sparks. “You think it’s Enigma’s base?”
“It has to be,” Sparks said. “They need stalt, and that’s where it is. Most of the planet is made from it. It’s the best place to send their commands from. It’s such a worthless planet I didn’t think of it before now.”
A sharp nod, Reyes stood taller than she had since Bruke vanished. “That’s where we need to go, then!”
But we don’t have a ship, SA said.
Her attention back on her computer, Sparks didn’t reply. Instead, she tapped furiously at her screen.
Only a background noise, but when the music in the distant casino stopped, all four of them looked in the direction of it.
“What’s happening, Sparks?” Seb said, the stillness of the planet almost deafening.
She didn’t look up from her screen, her fingers moving over it quicker than ever. “I’m not sure. There’s no reason why the power would go out there and nowhere else. Either the slaves have worked out how to shut the place down, or …”
“Or?” Reyes said.
“Enigma have done it.”
Reyes threw her arms up in a shrug. “Why would they shut the casino down?”
A shrill alarm then rang through the city. High in pitch, it called out loud and clear. The slaves in the casino screamed in response to it as if answering the call.
The sudden change in their circumstances sent a surge of adrenaline through Seb that forced him to his feet. “I think that answers our question.”
“Both of them,” Sparks said. “That sound’s coming from the closest ship to this square. That’s our ride out of here.” She paused as if listening to the screaming slaves before she added, “Now we need to get to it before they do.”
Chapter 31
The glare from their surroundings made it impossible for Seb to see Sparks’ computer screen. He adjusted his stance, moving slightly to the right. It helped, but how did Kajan’s residents ever get used to it? How were they not blind after spending a few months here? Since he’d been in the city, the lights burned his eyes and his face ached from squinting. Now he could see better, he watched Sparks draw a line with her long finger. She traced from where they were in the square to the ship with the alarm going off.
Although Sparks talked, Seb barely heard her, his attention on the mass of red dots heading for the very same spot they wanted to get to. The alarm called to the slaves, who screamed back at it. “And there’s no better option than that particular ship? There’s not one farther away that’s quieter?”
With a shake of her head, Sparks sighed. “Those guards knew what they were doing. All the other ships in this city are docked in the desert.” Again, she used her finger to point at a spot on the map. The route to all of the other ships would take them straight through the pack of red dots. “I’m guessing that noisy ship was flown in after the chaos spread through the city. There’s no way they would have been allowed in before. They’ve landed in the middle of a large road, blocking a main street.”
A knife protruding from the being next to them, Reyes stared down at it for a second. “Why don’t we just put their stealth suits on?”
“I thought about that,” Sparks said, “but they have antennas in them.”
Seb and the other two stared at her.
It took her a couple of seconds before she realised she hadn’t told them enough. “Enigma can operate them remotely. They can turn them on and off at will.”
“Like they can control the ship we’re about to board?” Reyes said.
Sparks shook her head. “I can override that. I understand the tech in ships. I wouldn’t have the first clue where to start with the nanochips in a stealth suit. I’m not even sure I’d be able to make it visible to work on in the first place, and certainly not in the time frame we have.”
The mass of dots continued to close down on the ship. Before Seb could say anything, Sparks did. “If we’re going to beat them to the ship, we need to move now. We’ll be pushing it if we wait much longer.
Come on.”
Glad to follow his small friend, running helped Seb escape some of the anxiety ripping through him. Not that it was any consolation, but they moved much quicker with Bruke absent.
Sparks took the lead, with Seb behind her, and SA taking up the rear behind Reyes. They all followed the small Thrystian as she ducked down a nearby alley, dodging the dead bodies lying on the ground. Still brightly lit, but nothing compared to the stark glare of the main streets.
They turned left, right, and left again. In slow motion, Seb had time to look at Sparks’ screen and the progress they made towards the ship. His ears told him they were drawing closer, the ship’s alarm still calling through the city. The cries from the slaves continued to call back.
Because Seb had his attention divided between Sparks’ screen and not tripping over the corpses everywhere, when Sparks stopped in front of him, he nearly went over the top of her.
A flash of irritation at Sparks’ sudden halt, before Seb could say anything, he saw the reason for it. “Damn!”
One of the burning buildings had collapsed across the alley, leaving a landslide of bricks. Even if they could climb over the large and unstable pile of rubble, it burned with the fire that had clearly weakened its structure in the first place.
Sparks shoved Seb out of the way as she spun around, doubled back, and took another route.
At the back of the pack now, Seb watched Sparks take two more lefts to get them back in the direction of the ship. The sound of the slaves drew closer.
Sparks stopped again, and her shoulders sagged. “Shit.”
A narrow alley, it was packed with several burning vehicles.
Her eyes wide, her words breathy, Reyes looked around them, scanning the windows of the nearby buildings as if they were being watched. “They’ve set us up. These look like they were dropped here by something.”
Now he’d caught up to Sparks, Seb looked at her screen and gasped. Already out of breath, the sight of the red dots made it even harder to recover. The slaves were just a few streets away from the loud ship. No doubt their path had far fewer obstacles too. He spoke through SA. I think we should hide out and get to the other ships. I think—
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 124
