by Mima
“You know, this is probably going to be only slightly easier than escaping an ambush,”
Kor mused. “He's going to have her wrapped up tight, expecting her father to try to get her back. And the Ion Blades, for all their false rep, actually have some decent skills.”
“No,” Shon shook his head. “That's not who he's going to be expecting. He already cowed her father, who'll keep the Blades from her. It's her Luo team that he'd be wary of.
That's who we have to contact first. Kor, do you remember who it was?”
“Yeah, ummm. Sig twelve.”
“That's right. They lost Dixon when Radha was taken,” Vel murmured.
“How do you always remember everyone's name?” Grady sighed. “You're like a
walking vid plate.”
“I'm just that good, lover. I've got better genes than you peasants.”
Grady grinned, leaning over and kissing him.
“Hey,” Shon spoke sharply. “Sex after the assignments. I want to be off-station within ten hours, preferably less. Thanks to Malla, we have a ready-made means of travel, and a three-day grace period to execute within, although we’ve wasted half of it.” Shon looked at his vid plate. “Bea agreed to help us hide Vel’s recovery from High Post to throw off the Duke’s spies, although they’ll know Malla made it through to us. I can bully and bribe the station manager to keep the humans on gate and to hold silence on our departure for twelve hours. If we move fast, we can be at Dunru before he gets wind that we’re fighting strong again.”
Chapter Seven
Everyone scattered to their individual assignments. Malla was given one, too. She was to contact her headmistress, which would trigger no flags. She was to find out the current status of Team Sig twelve, especially the quality of their current servers. Since that would take all of five minutes, she reminded Shon she had hacking skills. She'd been able to breach into their team's security codes when she hadn't wanted to use the ones she'd been given.
But Shon couldn't confirm that she'd truly done it without being noticed, and asked her to sit tight.
Malla called up her base. It was so good to see Headmistress. Her familiar office, with the grand wooden desk and the window displaying servers at target practice tightened her throat with oncoming tears. She'd mailed her after Vel's healing to tell her that the destroyed medallion hadn't destroyed her, and to warn her of the potential fallout to the Base when it was revealed Malla had actually made it to her team after all. The headmistress had sent a relieved mail back, telling her round one of the fallout had already happened, and she would be up to round two. Now they had gone through the protocol for a secure link, plus a few more steps Grady had insisted on as extras.
“Headmistress, I can't believe I've only been away two days.”
“I can't believe it either, Malla. You are missed. You look well.”
“Thank you. I am very well.”
“You're not calling to check in. You are readying for your man's ritual? Do you have questions?”
“Headmistress, it is done. Vel is fine. I need you to tell people that the reason I com'd you was for details on the ritual, and how sick he is. I’m really calling because I need to ask you for some information on another team.”
Headmistress sat back in her chair. “This has to do with the drama of your transfer?”
“Yes. This has to do with the man who tried to kill two of my team, and keep servers from joining them, and killed four men trying to stop me from arriving. It also has to do with trying to rescue an Elite server he's holding hostage.”
Headmistress stood and moved thoughtfully to her window. Malla was surprised, but waited. She had been so sure that Headmistress would help her. Headmistress touched the key around her neck and the window’s view changed to a classroom. The servers, all ages, all colors, both sexes, were laughing with the professor. Malla recognized Sila, the too-young professor of energy theory. The one that had mentioned harmony.
Headmistress turned toward Malla, and her face was forbidding. She looked older and meaner. “Radha.”
Malla nodded, surprised. “Yes. My team wants to get her, to surprise their enemy by changing the balance of power.”
Headmistress slapped her key in the palm of her hand, rather viciously.
“Team Epsilon 983 specializes in extractions. I expect that they will succeed where the others have failed.” She made it sound like a threat.
“Headmistress?”
“Radha was taken eight months ago! And while that thug with a Duke’s label kept the best teams from being assigned to her, he couldn't block High Post from bowing to the will of the Bases entirely. They have sent three teams in. Three! And all have failed. Five servers burned out in all and several Luo seriously hurt. They never even got close.”
“I'm sorry to hear that. We plan on doing better.” Inside, Malla trembled at the danger her men were facing. If this didn't work, the Duke would be able to put his trap in place, and the odds of their survival would go way down. She lifted her chin. “I need Team Sig Twelve's file and their servers' files.”
“My dear, Malla. You may have the files. And more than that, you may have all the details of the failed missions.”
The older woman sank into her chair gracefully, and within a moment, a file was
blinking on Malla's com.
She accepted it. Malla stared at her headmistress, her heart pounding. “Thank you. You know her, don't you? Radha?”
“I know her. Or rather, I knew the woman she was before she existed eight months in that pustule's control.”
Malla shuddered, bile churning in her stomach. For the first time, she understood that Radha had probably not been simply locked in a cell. Oh, sometimes she was so naive.
“We'll get her back.”
“I have every confidence. Good luck, and Spirit bless you.”
The com went dark. Malla opened the packet of attachments. There was one on Radha, one on Sig Twelve, and one on their two current servers, both unregistered. There was also a file named “Dunru.”
Malla read all of them. Several hours later, she was still sitting in the dark when Grady came to the door.
“Malla?”
She wiped the tears from her face. Recalled where she was, who she was, what she could do. “Do you seek service, Grady?” It was his turn, since the others had fed in the living area.
He knelt by her. Cursed Luo eyesight. His hand cupped the side of her face. “What happened?”
Malla gestured at the com screen. “I learned more about Radha and her team. If you knew she'd been taken, why didn't you go get her, Grady? Why!”
“Ah, sweet.” He took her off the chair, scooping her into his lap as he sat on the floor.
“We actually talked about it. Kor wanted to go, and Shon was considering it, because we smelled the Duke’s hand. But then we were assigned to an emergency and then another.
Malla, it's war. There are so many people to rescue. Elite servers are a hot item on the black market. Do you know that last I heard, about a month ago, there were five missing? We can't rescue everyone.”
Malla shivered. She was safe in Grady’s arms. Knew it to her bones the minute she saw him, an immense black shape in that empty hangar. If she was to be taken, these men would come for her, just like Radha’s team had never given up on her.
“Plus, we're not trackers. We didn't know where she was. We started to make
inquiries, but it just fell away in the heat of our missions. Later on, we heard a couple young teams had failed, and we asked to be assigned. We were refused. We suspected the Duke again, but we're soldiers, trying to keep a low profile because of Vel. We have to follow orders.”
Malla cuddled into his strength. “You're not following orders now.”
He sighed. “No. Not anymore. And this could blow Vel's cover.”
“Not if you let another team take credit for it.”
“Yeah?”
“Her team. Sig Twelve. They're in place
. They've already made two failed attempts.”
Grady pulled her away from his chest, looking down at her incredulously. “What?”
“Let's go get the others. I have news. I was a little overwhelmed by it all, before, but I'm ready now.”
He stood, helped her up. A few moments later, they were all in the living area. Kor looked at the couch, looked at her, and rubbed his erection, grinning. She shook her head at him, mouth twisting to keep from smiling.
“My headmistress gave me a lot of information. I got the specs on her team, like you asked, Shon. But more than that. I know where Radha is and most of the schematics of her imprisonment.”
Shon didn't even bat an eye. “Tell us.”
Malla shivered under his intensity. She held up her vid plate, synched it to the large viewer in their room. She put the team summary up on the board. The very first line had Kor and Grady cursing.
“Rogue Team. AWOL. Resisted court marshal. REWARD.”
“This was posted after their first attempt to get Radha out, three months ago. It took them that long to organize, because they had to arrange for black market servers. They were on grief leave during that time, and so weren't given a new team member to replace Dixon, who was killed when the Duke’s men took Radha.”
“I hope he didn’t die knowing he failed,” Kor spat darkly.
Malla swallowed at the depressing thought and continued. “Their team leader is Char, 34. He's gifted with electric skin. He can control it to a certain extent, but like your Fury, Shon, he sometimes loses time to it and anyone near him can get fried. He's never killed a friendly, but it's been close. Their second in command is Cristanna. She's 31. She's gifted with mind control. She can tamper with memory and sometimes induce hallucinations. Like Kor's skills, hers require some base psychic ability, so there are some whom she simply can't affect. Dixon was 28. Ungifted. The youngest member of the team is Ahmed. He's 27, ungifted. He took serious spinal damage in the kidnapping, and apparently still can't walk well. They're all lovers.”
For every bio, she’d shared their file pictures. To her, they’d looked young and happy.
She was sure they no longer resembled those images. She had no pictures to show for the next bios. “Their current servers are Lali, a prostitute, age 23. She's an addict, and likes pain.
The other is Ben, 19. He's been an addict, but current intel says he's clean and was clean prior to hiring on as their server, unlike Lali.”
Malla took a breath and changed the slide on the screen. They weren’t going to like this. She was right. The team's tense focus erupted into curses again. This time Shon and Vel added their variations.
“They're on a moon called Dunru, artificial atmosphere, population at least five thousand. They've eluded multiple assassins and killed several of the station officials who have attempted to arrest them. They're on the move. High Post has two clearly separate groups operating around them on Dunru. The non-Luo one is trying to kill or capture them.
The other is a Luo team, Kappa 49, trying to help them and hinder the captors. I suspect they may have come at the demand of the server Bases. Sig Twelve now has ties to both the prostitution and drug culture, probably through Lali. Currently, those elements seem to be working for them.”
Sharing the next bit was depressing. “They made another attempt on Radha two
months ago. Char was wounded and is still recovering. Only he and Cristanna went in.
Unlike the first time, they haven't contacted Kappa 49 to share information from this raid.
They don't trust anyone and have dropped completely out of sight for weeks at a time.
They're really on the move through the underworld, and they're hurting. An attempt was made on a server two weeks ago. He wasn't taken, but the kidnappers did manage to get him away from his team for a short while. He was told they needed service, and then they’d let him go. It's suspected that Sig Twelve was behind this, although on Dunru, it could really be anyone.”
Malla turned to the next slide. Vel stood, moving up to the screen to study it intently.
“This is what intelligence has been able to gain on the highly secure facility Radha is being housed in. It's owned by one of the subsidiaries of one of the Duke’s corporations. It used to be a drug lab, but no drugs have moved in or out for eight months.”
Malla turned to Shon. “It's clear to me what the easiest strategy is. Get me to Char, and we'll combine forces with Sig Twelve and Kappa 49. If Vel’s going to remain on active duty, let one of those teams take the credit when the mission is over.”
Kor came to his feet. “You are not going near Dunru, Malla. Especially if we have to focus on Radha.”
Shon and Grady remained sitting side by side. Shon narrowed his gaze on her.
“That was an excellent report, Malla. Thank you.” He held out his hand for the plate.
Frowning, she gave it to him.
Kor waved his arm wildly between the screen and Malla. “You're not considering this!
Shon! Tell her! Dunru is a pit. No, it was a pit before the war, and now it's a hole. A stinking butthole full of crap. She's not --”
“Kid, shut yourself up before I do it for you.”
“Shut the fuck up, Grady!”
“Grady, isn't it your turn to be served?” Shon's eyes burned into her.
“Yup. I do believe that's true.”
Kor growled.
“Since you have so much energy, Kor, you can go work out.”
“Yeah, and fuck you, too.” He stomped out of the room.
“Grady.”
Grady stood up at Shon's soft word and held out his hand. “Shall we go, sweet?”
Malla put her hand in his, and let him pull her up. She looked at Shon and said, “You need me, Shon. I can harmonize. This isn't a normal mission, where you're going to go in and out several times. You need to take me with you, so I can feed you on the move.”
Grady tugged at her hand. “Let's go to bed, lovely.”
Vel turned from the screen, looking at Grady with polite disinterest.
Malla was distracted from the mission. “Vel?” She looked up at Grady, who simply watched Vel. “Did you want to come, too?”
Vel didn't answer, he just stared at Grady. His face was a handsome mask. Too still, too removed. Eventually, Grady tugged her hand and she followed him to his room and its gigantic bed. He began to undress.
“Are you tired from the workout we've given you? Now that we're all back to full, we would probably slow our schedule down, but now it seems we're going to stay at battle ready.”
“I'm not tired, Grady. What was that about with Vel back there?”
“He's a moody bastard. It comes from reading too many books. His head is full of stupid ideas. How are you feeling, though? Are you sore?”
Actually, she was feeling a bit sore, but not enough to forgo the pleasure of being with her men. “I'm all right. He can't possibly be jealous, can he?”
“He is possibly stupid enough to be jealous, yes.”
She didn’t know why. They were the ones with the love that had transcended death.
The ones who had a respect and passion honed by years. The two men were riveting every time she saw them together. They made her yearn. “Well, why didn't he come with us then?
And he can see.” That she was a mere shadow compared to their love.
Grady lay down next to her on the bed. On his side, he was like a wall of heat next to her. He put his hand in the middle of her body. He could almost span her ribs.
“Wait for it.” His hand moved up to her breast, fondling it gently.
“Wait for what?”
The door whooshed open. Vel stalked in.
“That.”
Malla laughed, a little chuckle. Her breast bounced in Grady's grip and he hummed, lowering his face to her free one and nuzzling her nipple with his lips.
Malla sighed, shivering at the swirls of pleasure Grady sent to her belly. “Vel?”
�
�Are you laughing at me?” He spoke stiffly from the foot of the bed.
“Lover, get your clothes off.”
Malla laughed at Grady's words again, then moaned when he mouthed her nipple, his fingers toying with its twin.
“Am I invited?”
“Of course! Vel, I’ll never come between you and Grady.”
Grady apparently ignored her words. “Sort of. Malla's mine right now. It's my turn, and I don't want to share. My hands on her body, my dick in her cunt.” Grady lifted his head and looked at the large, powerful man standing in the shadows. “But I'm always yours, Vel.
Always. Whenever you want to fuck me, wherever, I'll never tell you no.”
Malla shivered as Grady's voice rumbled into her from where they pressed together.
She shivered from the intensity of Vel's glinting silver eyes, his sharp, indrawn breath. She shivered from Grady's long erection thickening on her hip. And she shivered from the passion in his words, the vibrating love that flowed out of him toward Vel.
Vel stalked to a side cabinet built into the wall. He took out a tube and threw it on the bed. Malla recognized it as warming lube. She sighed, rolling her hips against Grady's huge penis.
Grady moaned happily as he settled his face to her chest again. He licked her, a long, warm drag. He suckled her nipples, then the whole tip of her breast. Malla moaned. Grady was the most gentle of her lovers, and it wasn't because he held himself back due to his size.
It was really the way he liked it.
Vel finished undressing and stalked onto the bed on all fours. His eyes were on Grady's thick dick. Malla reached down and closed her hand over him. Her fingers could barely touch.
Deciding that Vel needed to lighten up if he was going to join her and Grady in bed, Malla tipped her shoulder to get her hand on Grady’s balls. The big man hummed against her nipple. Malla smiled sweetly at Vel's narrowing eyes. Grady scooted down, so he could kiss and lick the under part of her breast, along the crease. He rolled his face in her, inhaling, thrusting his hips against her hold on him.
