by Nina Croft
"Turn around," she said.
He turned and she unlocked the clip that held the cuffs fastened together, but left them in place. When she looked back, his expression was puzzled but not quite trusting.
"Why?" he asked.
"We're getting out of here."
"I take it you have a plan."
"We're going to tell Sanderson we've changed our minds. That we'll return his deposit—when we have it—and we all go home."
He gave her a look. "Good joke. Now tell me the plan."
Mel scowled. "Okay, there is no plan. This is sort of spur of the moment stuff."
"Great, just great," he said. "God preserve me from working with women."
"Don't be so negative. You never know—Sanderson might be reasonable."
"No, he won't. He'll kill you both, and he'll torture me. Then he'll kill me as well. We're all going to die."
"Oh shut up. I need to think."
"Bit late for that. Have you got a weapon for me?"
"Do you have a spare blaster?" Mel asked Leila.
"Never go anywhere without one." She pulled a blaster from where it was tucked into her belt and handed it to Mel. She shoved it down the back of Zach's pants.
"Mel." He stopped her as she made to step away.
"Yes?"
"I just wanted to say, I did want you. I'm not denying about the plan, but I still wanted you."
"I know."
"You do?"
She nodded. "Leila told me."
Zach glanced over to where Leila stood, tapping her foot impatiently. "Good, but tell her to keep out of my head from now on."
Leila glanced up and shrugged. "As if I'd want to go in there again. It's a cesspit."
"She also told me you had nothing to do with the massacre," Mel said. "But I think I already knew."
"So you've decided I'm not the type to feast on dead babies?"
"Maybe."
"Hey, you're not going to go all soft on me are you, just because we're about to die?"
"We're not going to die," she said, scowling.
"Hmm, I like your optimism even if it is totally misguided. But, if we do get out of here, the first thing we're going to do is finish what we started."
"We are?"
"It's a promise." He paused. "Not that I think we have a hope in hell of getting out of here, of course."
"God, you are so bloody negative."
He smiled. "Come here."
She took a step toward him, and he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. They touched nowhere else but the now familiar heat stole through her body.
Behind her, Leila made a retching noise, and Mel smiled against his lips and kissed him some more. He tasted good.
"Mel, they're coming," Leila muttered.
She took a reluctant step back.
"Mel."
She was about to turn away when Zach spoke her name. "What?"
"Just be careful out there. Don't underestimate him."
"I won't."
"And don't say anything smart. He'll come across as all smarmy, he always does, but he hates smart women. Doesn't like stupid ones much, either."
Mel peered out from the rocks where they were waiting. Zach came up beside her. Two men were crossing the open space. The one in front must be Sanderson, the one at his shoulder some sort of body guard.
"There are only two of them," she said.
"He'll have others somewhere."
"No, we agreed only two."
"Are you totally naive?" Zach said, and she glanced at him. He was looking at her in amazement, shaking his head. "How the hell have you survived this long without me? He'll have at least three others."
"Why should he? This was a business deal. He's a politician, not some sort of warlord."
"Yeah, but he's a politician who's planning to take over the Universe. He happens to have an army of ten thousand trained killers on Talmare. And he'll have another three with him because he always does. He never goes anywhere without at least four bodyguards." Zach stared out over the barren, rock strewn landscape. "They'll be over there, using those rocks for cover."
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm a soldier. It's what I do."
They were close enough to see clearly now, and she studied Sanderson, trying to picture him as a megalomaniac killer intent on ruling the Universe. He appeared so ordinary. Quite nice actually. Around medium height, slender, his blond hair immaculate, brushed back from his forehead. His face was pale, and so were his eyes.
The man beside him was much taller, broad at the shoulder and walked with his hand on his blaster, his eyes constantly flickering all around them. Definitely a bodyguard. "Sanderson's quite handsome, isn't he?" she said.
"He's a slimy bastard," Zach growled, and she smiled.
"Okay, this is it. You two stay out of sight until I call for you. And Leila, find out what you can. We need to know what Sanderson's intentions are."
"I told you what his intentions are," Zach said.
"Yes, but you're not always right, are you?"
Without waiting for an answer, Mel stepped forward into the clearing. She watched as the two men approached, trying to appear calm and unworried as they came to a halt only a few feet away from her. She was as tall as Sanderson, and she looked him straight in the eyes. They were blue and cold. He frowned slightly, and then smiled, his eyes warming.
"Captain, may I say what a pleasure it is to meet you at last."
Mel nodded. "You may."
"And now the pleasantries are over, where's my cryotube?" He glanced around as if expecting the cryotube to appear. His face in profile was scarred with four parallel stripes, as though he'd been scratched by a very large and unfriendly cat.
Mel almost smiled. "Where's my money?" she countered.
Sanderson held out his hand to the bodyguard, who passed him a small bag. Flicking it open, Sanderson showed her the contents. Gold coins. Mel reached in and touched one reverently with her fingertip before the bag was snatched away and returned to the bodyguard. She watched as he slipped it into an inside pocket, and made a mental note to keep an eye on that pocket when the going got rough.
"Now," Sanderson said, "my cryotube."
"Er, there might be a small problem with that," Mel said. A shiver ran through her as those blue eyes went instantly cold. "Absolutely nothing to worry about," she added quickly.
****
Zach stood in the shadows, watching her. He found he was flexing his claws. He'd seen Mel's avaricious little fingers running lovingly over the gold, and he wondered whether those fingers would ever run over him in the same manner.
God, how he wanted that. He was going to get out of this if it killed him. No, perhaps that wasn't quite right. He shook his head and turned to Leila. She was concentrating hard, her eyes closed, a frown on her face.
"What's he thinking?" Zach asked.
She blinked. "I don't know."
"What do you mean, 'you don't know'?"
"I'm not getting anything. It's like I'm hitting a wall."
"Well, try harder."
She shot him a look of intense dislike but closed her eyes again. After a moment, she opened them and he could see her frustration.
"Nothing," she muttered.
"Maybe he's had something done, some sort of surgery or implant. I've never heard of anything like that, but it would make sense if he was in contact with telepaths. He would hardly want them to be able to see into his mind. Try the other guy. At least we might find out what they're planning."
Leila fixed her attention on the bodyguard and smiled in relief. "Got him. Though there's not a lot going on in there at the moment." She frowned.
"Anything?" Zach asked.
"Yeah, trouble. Big trouble."
"God, I hate it when I'm right. Can you tell how many others there are?"
"Three."
"Right again," Zach said. Why didn't it give him any pleasure? At least they were equal in numbers though he e
xpected he'd have to do all the fighting himself. He just hoped the women would stay out of his way.
"Not a chance in hell," Leila said from beside him.
He glanced at her; she'd been reading him again. "Don't do that," he snarled.
She just smiled, and he sighed. He'd always had a problem controlling what he said, there was no way he could control what he was thinking. "Why don't you contact your people, tell them what's happening, and make sure they're ready."
Leila nodded and spoke briefly into her communicator.
"Okay," Zach said, "I think we're on."
"Leila," Mel called, "bring the prisoner."
Leila took hold of his arm. She only came up to his shoulder, and it occurred to Zach that she was only twenty-six years old and was probably going to die here. It didn't seem fair. It was different for him; he was a soldier. He had always expected to come to a violent end. "If this goes bad, no hard feelings, huh?"
Leila stared at him as if he were crazy. "You've got to be joking."
He shook his head. "Just let us know what he's thinking, okay? Tell me when they're going to make their move."
She nodded and pushed him forward into the clearing. A flicker of surprise flashed across Pieter's face as he saw them walking toward him, and his hand lifted almost automatically to stroke the scratches on his face.
Leila tugged him to a halt beside Mel, and he stared across at his old friend.
"Pieter," he murmured, "so nice to see you. What an unanticipated pleasure."
Pieter smiled. "I don't see why, I did tell you we would meet again. And I think pleasure might not be quite the word you were looking for. At least not on your side anyway. I, on the other hand, have been looking forward to our little chat." He turned to Mel. "I thought my instructions were very clear. He was to be delivered in cryo. What's he doing awake?"
"Yeah, well, we had a little accident with the cryotube. It was either wake him or let him freeze to death. We figured, since you'd asked for him alive, you'd prefer us to keep him that way."
Pieter looked about to say something, then he shrugged. "No matter, it makes no difference."
Zach knew that Pieter's plan all along would have been to dispose of Mel and Leila and probably go after the rest of the crew as well. Pieter didn't like witnesses. His disposal of the breeding camps showed that.
"I take it you've shared your delusions with your captors," Pieter said.
"I've told them nothing."
"Hmm, now why don't I believe you?" He turned his attention to Mel. "Just give me a minute. We need to change our plans a little as our friend here is awake. I need to sort out transport, preferably return him to cryo."
He took a step back and spoke quietly to the man at his side.
****
"Okay, so what's their plan?" Mel asked Leila.
"They're going to kill us, and then they're going to torture Zach." She smiled and nodded in the direction of the bodyguard. "He's really looking forward to that by the way."
Mel frowned. "That's it? That's their plan?"
"Well, they honestly don't think it's going to be that difficult." She grinned. "I told you, your reputation sucks."
Mel pursed her lips but decided not to comment. "There must be something else you can tell us."
"Basically, when Sanderson gives the signal, the others will come out and overpower us." She paused. "Oh, and he's hoping that Sanderson will let them rape us before they kill us. He thinks he probably will. He usually does."
"Great," Mel grumbled, glancing at the huge hulk of the bodyguard as he stood whispering with Sanderson. A shiver of revulsion ran through her at the thought. No way was that happening.
"Okay, when we move, I'll take the big ugly one. Zach goes after Sanderson, and Leila just shoots anything else that moves. Hopefully Angie and Grace will back you up."
"Great plan," Zach muttered.
"Can you think of anything better?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"Well, shut up then."
Sanderson had finished his conversation and turned back toward them.
"Right," Mel said, "it looks like something is happening. Are you ready?" No-one answered and she frowned at them. "Are you ready?"
Leila shrugged. Zach scowled. "Not a lot of choice. What a fucking mess. Why...?"
She glared at him, and luckily, he bit off what he was going to say.
Mel looked back at Sanderson. If she hadn't been expecting it, she would have missed the slight gesture he made with his left hand. Unfortunately, she couldn't have missed the three men who slid out of the cover of the rocks and arrayed themselves around him. They were all armed, and their blasters were out and pointing at her.
"I hate to say I told you so," Zach said from beside her.
"Don't then," she snapped. She caught sight of Leila's expression. "What is it, Leila?"
The girl was staring at the man on the far right. Her eyes narrowed, gleaming, ice cold, almost glazed.
"Leila!"
She finally glanced away. "I know him," she said.
"Who? How?"
"From Talmare. He was the man in charge of the camp. He's the man who killed my mother, raped me, and sold me to that place." She took a step forward.
"Leila, wait!"
Mel reached out; put a hand on her arm. The muscles were rigid with tension beneath her fingers, and for a moment, she was sure that Leila would shrug off her touch. But instead, she went still.
"I want him."
"You can have him," Mel promised. "He's yours. Just wait till we make our move.
Leila nodded sharply.
Mel took a deep breath and strode across to stand in front of Sanderson. Hands on her hips, she looked him slowly up and down. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, her fingers itched with the need to draw her weapon.
"What's going on?" she asked. "We agreed only one man each."
"Well," Sanderson said, "there's been a small change of plans. You really should have followed my orders, you know."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm afraid I'm saying that you and your friend here are going to have to die. A pity, but there it is. I have to be sure." He smiled at Zach. "More deaths on your conscience, Zach."
"Smug bastard," Zach said. "I just want you to know that I never liked you." He turned his head and stared at Mel. She nodded. In the next second, Zach kicked out almost faster than she could follow, ramming his foot into Sanderson's crotch. Sanderson screamed and fell to the ground, hugging himself.
Mel drew her weapon at the same time Zach did, and they both blasted the bodyguard closest to Sanderson. The shots hit him directly in the face, and he crumpled to the ground.
"Mel, look out!"
Zach leapt across the space between them and shoved her to the ground. The beam of a blaster zapped past only inches from where she lay.
The air left her lungs, and for a moment, she lay breathless. She would be dead if he hadn't pushed her. She looked across at him but had no time to think further as he grabbed her arm and pulled her to the cover of the rocks, blasters firing in all directions.
She peered out into the clearing "Crap!"
"What?"
"Sanderson's gone."
"Right, stay here," Zach said.
"Why? Where are you going?"
"I'm going after him."
****
Zach made his way around the edge of the clearing, keeping under cover of the rocks, his eyes glued to the spot he had last seen Sanderson. The slimy bastard had done a disappearing act at the first shot, but he couldn't have got far.
He was halfway around the edge of the clearing when something caught his eye. He glanced across to where he'd left Mel tucked safely away.
"Shit."
What the hell was she up to, and why couldn't she follow orders? She'd left the shelter of the rocks and was creeping across the open ground toward the fallen bodyguard. She reached him and fumbled inside his jacket, retrieved whatever it was she was l
ooking for, stuffed it inside her shirt, and started to creep backwards.
