by E. A. James
“Who are you?” the Rengar asked, eyeing Dario suspiciously, “besides the group of people now officially in my debt.”
“In your debt?” Thor asked, walking up to him quickly and pushing back against his chest.
The Rengar stumbled slightly then shrunk back against Thor’s abrupt show of aggression. His beady, black eyes darted back and forth between the Terran man now hovering over him and his two companions.
“What? Did you think that that Dralaxian just released you because we’re such good friends? Or maybe he was won over by my charmingly good looks?” the Rengar replied, straightening up and squaring off in front of Thor.
“Why did he?” Kira asked.
“He owed me a favor, a favor I just cashed in on your account. This means that you three are now in my debt.”
“We didn’t ask for your help,” Thor said.
“Big talk now from the guy who is firmly back on the ground,” the Rengar replied with a chuckle. “You weren’t so badass suspended two feet in the air.”
Thor did not take well to this comment, and lifted his hands again, this time balled into fists, ready to throw a strike, or two, in the oversized rodent’s face.
“Aldo,” the Rengar said, covering his face with his tiny hands and shrinking back. “My name is Aldo Firax, and I’m someone you want to be friends with.”
Immediately, Thor dropped his fists to his sides.
“Damn,” he muttered.
Kira, walking up behind him, whispered, “just because we were looking for him doesn’t mean you still can deck him a time or two.”
“Aldo?” Dario asked, stepping up to the Rengar quickly and eyeing him suspiciously. “Aldo Firax? Are you telling the truth? Is that really your name?”
“Why would I lie about something like that?”
“Maybe he overheard us talking,” Thor said, looking between Kira and Dario.
“Talking about what?” the Rengar asked.
“I don’t know,” Dario replied. “Just because he heard a pair of names doesn’t mean that he knew which of the two was a Rengar.”
“Two? Two what?”
“I think we can believe him,” Kira said.
“I’m not lying about my name!” the Rengar nearly shouted. “I am Aldo Firax, sentenced to life here in this multi-leveled paradise for stealing from the all-mighty Colonel Grimm.”
“It’s definitely him,” Thor said.
“If by him you mean ‘Aldo Firax’ then yes, I’m definitely him. And ‘him’ would like to know how it is that you know him?” Aldo asked, crossing his fur-covered arms over his chest.
The crowd that had gathered to watch the fight had completely dispersed, but the ever-cramped condition of The Pits made it hard for any of them to feel completely relaxed or free to discuss delicate matters openly.
Kira, Thor, and Dario all exchanged the same apprehensive look. “Is there anywhere we can go that’s more private?” Kira asked Aldo.
“There is,” he said nodding his head twice. “But, given that robo-soldier over here tried to knock me out twice within the span of two minutes, I’m going to go ahead and request that we remain in public until I’m more comfortable around you.”
Thor grunted. “Robo-soldier?” he asked.
“You are Arcanum, aren’t you?” Aldo replied. “I may be a rat but I don’t live under a rock. I know how to identify an enhanced fighter when I see one. And, as a general rule, once I identify said robo-soldier, I avoid them at all costs.”
Kira noted the way that Thor tensed when Aldo made a reference to his past and his enhancements. It was the same way he had tensed up when Nico taunted him on his ship, just before he wrapped his hand around the rodent robot’s throat.
She slipped her hand into his and gave it a soft squeeze. He looked down at her, and she nodded slowly.
“Yes,” he admitted finally, turning back to Aldo. “I was an Arcanum.”
“As I thought. Again I say, I would like to remain in public until I’m sure you won’t actually release one of those enhancement backed punches you keep threatening me with,” Aldo replied.
“That’s fair,” Dario conceded. “We need to earn his trust as he will need to earn ours.”
“Well, let’s make this quick then,” Kira said, inching forward and waiting for the others to do the same.
Thor, still disgruntled by the situation, was reluctant to join until Kira shot him a stern “this is Captain’s orders” style look.
“We came to Jaantu 7 specifically looking for you,” Kira began.
“You seriously expect me to believe that you got yourselves thrown into this hell-hole just to search for little ‘old me?”
“Believe it or not, it’s true,” Dario replied.
“I feel so special,” Aldo replied, feigning flattery.
“Don’t,” Thor said sharply.
Aldo shot him a sly, obnoxious smile and Thor simply glowered in reply.
“Anyways,” Kira said, bringing the conversation back to point, “we came here looking for you because we need your help locating Grimm. We believe that you are one of the few individuals left that can help us find his base of operations.”
“Why would I want to locate that maniac?” Aldo asked.
“Because he’s more than a maniac now,” Kira replied. “He a maniac with a mission and a highly advanced, extremely dangerous weapon.”
“He staged a coup not too long ago,” Dario added.
“Let’s get candid here,” Aldo said, leaning back slightly. “Why the hell should I care about any of this? As far as I’m concerned, I just want to stay as far away from that crackpot as possible. And, you telling me that he has a ‘highly advanced weapon’ only solidifies that choice in my mind.”
“That highly-advanced weapon he has,” Kira replied, “is capable of destroying entire star systems. Which means that everyone should care about it because it can and will affect all of us.”
Aldo’s eyes narrowed as he looked at each of them individually, reading their expressions carefully, searching their faces for signs of deceit.
“Why would we lie about something like this?” Thor asked pointedly.
“I don’t know, why would I lie about my name?” Aldo replied.
“Because you’re a no-good little son of a…” Thor started, but Kira put her hand firmly on his wrist and cleared her throat.
“So, we’re all suspicious people,” she said. “That’s clearly something we’re going to need to get over because we are going to have to work together.”
“I still haven’t agreed to this,” Aldo said.
“You will,” Kira replied. “Because we are going to bust you out of here. And then, you’ll be in our debt.”
“To be fair, then we’ll be even,” Aldo replied.
Moving faster than any of them could process, Thor reached out and took hold of Aldo by the throat. With a menacing grin on his face, he leaned in and said, “let’s consider me not killing you right now payback for you sweet-talking me out of that mess before.”
Aldo tried to respond, but Thor’s hold on his throat prevented any sounds from coming out of his mouth. Instead, he nodded quickly, his eyes bulging slightly from the strain.
“Good,” Thor said, pushing him back forcefully.
Aldo nearly tumbled back but caught his balance at the last moment. Straightening up quickly, he patted down his fur and shook his head a few times, regaining his composure. Taking a step back toward the group, he resumed the conversation as if nothing had happened.
“As wonderful as freedom sounds,” he said, “I should point out that we are indeed in the toughest maximum-security prison in the entire galaxy. Breaking out isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence.”
“We didn’t purposely get ourselves locked up in here without a way out,” Kira said.
“We have a team on the outside,” Dario explained. “They are preparing our escape as we speak.”
“A fool-proof escape, I’m sure,” Aldo rep
lied.
“Yeah,” Kira said, looking quickly from Thor to Dario
“Yeah right,” Aldo said, clearly noting the doubt in Kira’s tone. “What’s the catch?”
“We were separated from our team before we could finalize the escape plan,” Dario explained. “So, we don’t know exactly what they are going to do to get us out of here, but we do know that there are people out there working on it.”
“Do you have any way to communicate with them to verify that?” Aldo asked.
“We don’t need to verify it,” Kira replied sharply. “I trust my crew. If they said they’ll get us out, they will get us out.”
“Okay, calm down there, Captain defensive,” Aldo said. “All I meant was, is there any way you can communicate with them to ensure that they are okay and everything is still a go?”
“Oh,” Kira said, relaxing slightly. “No. We don’t.”
“If we were still keeping score, I’d say you’re about to owe me again,” Aldo said, glancing quickly over at Thor. “But, since we’re becoming such good friends, I’m going to go ahead and give this one to you for free.”
“Give what to us for free?” Thor asked.
“I might just have a way for you to get in touch with your crew,” he replied with a smile.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“You have a way to communicate with people outside of Jaantu 7?” Dario asked excitedly.
“Almost,” Aldo replied.
“What do you mean, ‘almost’?” Thor asked.
“I mean I’ve been working on it for some time now.”
“How close are you to being done with it?” Dario asked.
Letting out an almost exasperated sigh, Aldo turned around and said over his shoulder, “come with me. I’ll show you.”
Without waiting for any indication that they had heard him or intended to do what he had said, he took off, darting effortlessly through the cramped prison common area. Kira, Dario, and Thor hurried to keep up with him, their agility with scampering through large crowds not as well-honed as the Rengar prisoner.
As they moved through the mass of individuals, Kira couldn’t help but notice that there was one major prison element missing. No matter where she looked, she didn’t see any prison guards on the ground level of The Pits. Instead, it appeared that the prisoners were the ones calling the shots and keeping the order—or really, the disorder.
“Aldo,” she said, shouldering her way past a group of large, grizzly Bandurians. “Why are there no officers down here? It’s like there’s no real law or order.”
Aldo laughed and replied, “it’s because there’s not. There is no controlling a group of individuals like the ones you’ll find in here.”
“No controlling them?” Kira asked, shouting over the sounds of a fight that had broken out somewhere to their right.
“I’ve been here for two years,” Aldo explained, “and in that time, things have gotten progressively worse. It’s probably because it’s gotten so damned crowded in here. For a while there, Grimm was sending everyone and anyone he could here. Half of the people in here did nothing more than look at him the wrong way, I’d bet.”
Thor, following close behind Kira, remarked, “it’s like Grimm’s personal holding cell for anyone who might be crazy enough to try to stop him.”
“Then it appears we’re in the right place,” Dario replied.
“I wouldn’t get too excited about that,” Aldo said over his shoulder. “Just because Grimm is the reason these thugs are here that doesn’t mean that they didn’t deserve to be here in the first place. Back when I was working for Grimm, he was getting involved with some particularly shady people.”
“So?” Kira asked.
“So, they’re not really the kind of people you want to team up with,” Aldo replied.
“We might not have any choice,” Thor said.
Kira, still distracted by the overwhelming condition of the bustling prison floor, continued to pressure Aldo for information on the inner workings of The Pits.
“So, Jaantu 7 has become overcrowded,” she said. “That still doesn’t explain how it’s become a criminal’s paradise.”
Aldo chuckled and nodded. “It sort of is a little slice of crime-ridden heaven, isn’t it?”
“I was joking,” Kira said.
Aldo looked back at her, his nose twitching a few times as his beady eyes observed her. “You’re new to this whole criminal thing, aren’t you?”
“Not as new as I’d like to be,” Kira replied.
“Either way,” Aldo said, turning his face forward and quickening his step. “Because of the overcrowding, prison officers have all but stopped coming down here. It’s too dangerous for them. Riots have become commonplace and some of the prisoners have even begun damaging some of Jaantu 7’s systems from the inside.”
“And there’s nothing the prison can do to stop all of this from happening?” Dario asked.
“They did try sending in riot squads a time or two,” Aldo replied with a snicker. “That blew up in their face. The prisoners overwhelmed them with ease. They even took their weapons.”
“Armed prisoners,” Thor said. “That’s comforting.”
"Now you see why the prison guards don't want to come down here anymore," Aldo replied. "Weapons have become pretty prevalent around here. There's even an underground market that's sprung up recently dedicated just to the exchange of arms. The guards have just sort of decided to lock the doors up tight and monitor everything from the safety of their aerial perches. Their obnoxious little drones are always buzzing about, but no one really pays them any mind. Except for the few ingenious inmates that know how to pull them apart and make them into innovative little gadgets."
With his last statement, Aldo turned around and raised a furry little eyebrow as his nose twitched another time or two.
“I’m assuming you’re one of the ingenious ones?” Dario asked, picking up on the obvious.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to say ingenious,” Aldo said, feigning modesty. “But, I have been able to keep my ass safe by providing mechanical servicing and alteration work the other oafs around here are too stupid to do for themselves.”
As they talked, Aldo led them toward the far end of the large, open space. There, he directed them toward a hallway. Although there were fewer people crowding the passageway, the thick metal walls and low-hanging ceilings gave the long stretch a cramped, confined feel. As Kira looked around at the enclosed space, her stomach tightened apprehensively.
Looking back over her shoulder at Thor, she said, “I would kill someone to be sitting on a flight deck right now.”
“Not a fan of tight spaces?” Thor asked, reaching out and sliding his hand into hers.
“Let’s just say I prefer wide open space to suffocating, restricting places.”
Thor gave her hand a soft squeeze which she returned. She laced her fingers with his. Confined spaces, armed criminals, life-sentence in a maximum-security prison—as overwhelming as it all seemed, she felt better just knowing he was there.
“So, this underground market,” she asked, refocusing on the conversation, “how does it work? What do the inmates use as currency?”
Despite no longer being in The Pits, they still had to shout to hear one another. There was a chorus of yells and cheers coming from the end of the hallway, which threatened to drown out their conversation.
“Why do you ask? Hoping to get your hands on some weapons or something?” Aldo asked.
“Just wondering for future reference,” Kira replied.
“Inmates use whatever they have,” Aldo replied. “It’s all based on trade. Which means that you three—new-comers with nothing—are completely screwed.”
More questions were forming in Kira’s mind, but the shouts and cheers coming from the end of the hall had grown to deafening volumes. The closer they got to the end of the hall, the louder they became.
Thor gave her hand another squeeze as they emerged into what appeared t
o be the center of a sporting event. The roar of the crowd vibrated through the air, shaking the sand covered ground under their feet.
“Where are we?” Thor yelled over the clamor of voices.
“Where do you think?” Aldo replied, smiling back at them over his shoulder.
Kira gazed up at the crowds that filled the shaky, poorly constructed, stadium-style stands surrounding the sand, gravel, and grit covered ground. The tension and excitement in the air were almost contagious. She felt herself growing restless along with the mob surrounding her, without even knowing what it was that was provoking the excitement.
