by E. A. James
“Then I guess no water for me either,” Bron said, turning back toward the table.
“No water,” the receptionist said between gritted teeth as she turned on her heel and marched off.
Together, Alaria and Bron shared a quick, relieved laugh.
“Dearest?” Alaria asked, wrinkling her nose.
“Sorry, did I go too far? I thought we were supposed to be partners,” Bron said, leaning in and speaking in a gruff whisper.
Alaria giggled again. “Business partners. But, that’s okay. I don’t mind the other way.”
Bron’s cheeks flushed.
When they heard the door to the office slide open, they straightened up and assumed their roles once again. And again, everything continued to work smoothly. They looked at security plans, chatted with the woman, who had changed her clothes during her short absence and even began to feign interest in purchasing one of the plans in particular.
That’s when things fell apart.
It started with an alarm—an ear-piercing alarm that echoed off the walls and hung in the air.
"What is that?" Alaria asked, putting on an air of ignorance, although the concern and surprise in her voice were very real.
"There's been a security breach," the receptionist answered Alaria's question before the woman working with them could.
They all turned to see the pale-face receptionist standing at the doorway. The look of worry on her face was concerning enough. The heavy footsteps of armed security guards only added to the tension of the situation.
"Oh, my," Alaria said, her eyes flying in Bron's direction. "Is it really that serious?"
“It’s a precaution,” the woman who had been talking them through security systems reassured them. “We are very protective of the client information we keep here.” She pushed her way around the desk separating her from Alaria and Bron and marched toward the door to her office. “I’m sure it’s nothing. I’ll be back shortly.”
They waited until she disappeared out the door and rushed down one of the hallways leading off the main reception area before they pushed themselves up out of their seats.
“We need to move fast,” Bron said, reaching out and take Alaria’s hand in his.
He tugged her forward, trying to ignore the way her hand felt in his—the way it seemed to fit perfectly in his. They emerged into the reception area, two pairs of security guards rushing about, checking each of the offices around them.
One group rushed into one room, the other into the next. Bron and Alaria waited until they were both tucked into one of the offices down the hall to bolt forward, going in the direction they saw Vinnie go roughly fifteen minutes before.
“Do you think it was him?” Alaria asked.
Bron looked back at her quickly. “I have no doubt in my mind.”
They hurried, their hands still linked, down the hall. When they heard one of the office doors open behind them, they ducked into the room they were closest to.
It was a storage closet, thankfully.
Again, they waited until they felt the coast was clear. Rushing back into the hall, they hurried from door to door, looking for any sign that their teenage partner in crime was inside.
That’s when they heard someone exclaim, “hurry up, you piece of metallic shit!”
Without needing to discuss it amongst them, they burst into the room the frustrated exclamation came from.
“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Vinnie asked. “Shouldn’t you be stalling them?”
“Do you not hear the siren?” Bron asked as he hurried into the room, reluctantly letting go of Alaria’s hand. “What the hell did you do?”
“Well, Alaria’s password didn’t work,” Vinnie said. “So, Rob figured out a way to hack the system.”
“Rob?” Alaria asked.
“Rob, the robot,” Vinnie said, pointing to his repair bot.
Alaria began to giggle at the wittiness of Vinnie’s bot’s name, but the sound of footsteps rushing down the hallway caused the laugh to catch in her throat.
“Apparently, their security is pretty good, though,” Vinnie said in a whisper. “Even though we’re in, their system still detected unusual activity and the alarms started blaring. If we really were looking for a security system, I would definitely recommend theirs.”
“We’ll keep that in mind,” Bron said, rushing over to him and setting his hand on his shoulder firmly. “We need to get out of here.”
“We can’t,” Vinnie said. “Rob’s not done downloading the plans.”
“Tell him to hurry,” Bron said.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Vinnie replied.
Alaria scooted back to the door, pressing her ear to it and listening. “They’re getting close,” she warned.
“What do we do?” Vinnie asked.
“What we do best,” Bron said, reaching around and pulling out a sidearm he had hidden beneath the loose-fitting flight gear he was wearing.
Alaria did the same as Bron hurried over to where she was standing. Vinnie, too, garnished a small weapon of his own, and he ducked down behind the desk where his repair bot continued to work to download the plans.
They all waited, holding their breath. The door to the room next to them opened. Footsteps grew closer. Alaria crouched down; Bron pressed his back to the wall behind her.
The second the door flew open, Alaria grabbed hold of one of the guard’s ankles and pulled him down to the ground. Bron wrapped his arm around the other’s throat and pulled him into the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
“What? Why didn’t we just shoot them?” Vinnie asked, popping up.
“There are two more of them out there. If they heard gunshots, they would have come running, Bron explained, throwing his prisoner down to the ground.
Alaria pointed her weapon at the man she was now standing over and motioned for him to remain silent. His eyes were fixed on her gun, but there wasn’t fear in his face. He looked determined more than anything.
It was then that she realized he was reaching for his gun, which had slipped out of his hands and landed just a few feet away from him. Putting her foot on it and kicking it away, she shot him a stern warning glare.
“Done!” the repair bot informed them, rolling out from behind the desk.
“Can we shoot them now?” Vinnie asked, his gun trained on one of the guards.
“No,” Alaria said sternly.
“Then at least let me show you what I did to Rob,” Vinnie said, nodding to the repair bot.
His small, metallic side-kick rolled over to the guard that was still lying on the ground near Alaria’s feet. A small panel lowered from his chest and out popped the barrel of a pulse gun.
“Vinnie, we’re not going to…” Alaria started, but it was too late.
A beam of energized matter flew out of the bot’s frame and hit the guard square in the gut. His eyes slipped closed and his breathing slowed almost instantly.
“He’s fine,” Vinnie explained as the bot turned its sites to the other guard. “It’s just a stun setting.”
“Oh,” Alaria said, watching the second guard slump down to the ground next to Bron.
“Let’s get moving,” Bron said, pulling open the door and poking his head out into the hall. “We don’t have long.”
Huddled together tightly, their small group emerged back into the hallway, rushing toward the exit as quickly as they could. Their focus was so honed that they didn’t hear the door down the hall fly open. They didn’t hear the shouts to stop.
They did hear the faint click of a gun action locking into place.
“Shit,” Bron said, spinning around, lifting his gun up quickly.
There, the two remaining guards were barreling in their direction.
“Stop!” one of them demanded. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”
They didn’t stop; he did shoot.
The buzz of energized matter zipped past Bron’s right ear, close enough that he felt the heat of it burn ag
ainst his face.
“Okay,” Alaria said, spinning around. “We can shoot them now.”
"Hell yes!" Vinnie cried, turning around, running backward, and pointing his gun back down the hall at their pursuers.
He took his shot, hitting one of them in the shin. The guard fell to the ground, but his partner continued after them. Alaria looked back to see that he held up his weapon and aimed for Bron. Just as he squeezed the trigger, she reached out and pushed against Bron’s shoulder, urging him to move out of the way.
He moved just as the bolt of energy whipped between them. Alaria, without looking back, extended her arm behind her and pulled the trigger, hoping to at least detour their pursuer long enough for them to reach the main lobby.
It didn’t work.
He not only continued after them, he was radioing for backup.
“I’ll give you backup!” Vinnie yelled, spinning around and aiming his sidearm at the guard.
With one quick pull of the trigger, the second guard was down. Alaria didn’t see where he got hit, and she didn’t care to look back to find out. Her focus was on the open room just a few yards ahead of them.
The second they reached that point, the point that meant they were only a short hallway away from their ship, the relief she had hoped to feel was nowhere to be found. There was, however, a group of guards ducking behind the receptionist’s desk, their guns aimed in their direction. The entire group skidded to a stop and stumbled back.
“I’ll go first,” Bron offered.
“No, I will,” Vinnie said.
Alaria could feel an argument coming on—an argument they didn’t have time for. She was about to intervene when the sound of an explosion caused them all to fall silent. Looking around quickly, she realized that the repair bot was nowhere to be found. She squinted and looked into the reception area, where a cloud of dark gray smoke was quickly filling the air.
“Rob!” Vinnie yelled.
Bron raised his gun and plunged into the fog. Although it was becoming impossible to see, the sounds of gunshots being fired in their direction gave him an idea of where to aim, which he did. Shooting blindly, he led the others toward the ship.
“But what about Rob?” Vinnie asked as Bron ushered him toward the hall leading to the airlock.
“What about him?” a small, metallic voice asked.
Right behind them, barely visible in the smoke, was Vinnie’s repair bot.
“You can thank me later for saving your asses,” the bot said as he rolled along at an impressive speed.
“That thing has been spending way too much time with you, Vinnie,” Bron said as they emerged into the airlock. “Way too much time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“You better not be lying, rat,” Thor said, stalking back and forth outside the entrance of Aldo’s cramped little hideout.
“I’m not,” Aldo replied.
To Kira's surprise, his reply didn't come with a nickname or insult built in. She could see that he was tired. His normally beady, bright, black eyes were listless and his fur was matted down around them as if he had been rubbing them a lot.
For two days straight, Aldo had been dedicating all of his energy to pulling apart the drone and using the parts to complete his comm device. The others had tried to help out when and where they could, but most of the time, they were more in the way than anything.
So, instead, they spent their time going through their other winnings, sorting them, trading them, using them in whatever way they could. Some of them turned out to be a lot more useful than they had originally assumed.
Kira took the pulse gun she had won after Thor’s first match as her own. “This will have to do,” she had said as she slipped it into her pocket. “It’s definitely nothing like my Phantom that bounty hunting freak took from me, though.”
Thor claimed a sidearm that Dario had won as a result of one of Kardok’s victories. Even though they were leaving the prison soon, it never hurt to be armed, just in case.
“It works,” Aldo continued, stepping back as Kardok moved to the front of the group and lifted the hidden panel from its place. “I tested it this morning. I sent out a preliminary message to see what happened.”
“What happened?” Kardok asked, holding the panel between his large, green hands and spinning around with a look of confused excitement on his face.
“I don’t know yet,” Aldo said, elbowing his way past his over-sized, over-zealous companion and marching straight up to the console. “That’s what we’re here to figure out. Remember, it’s an old model, made with old parts. Don’t expect any miracles.”
Kira, Thor, and Dario all held their breath as they followed him inside, their hearts pounding wildly and their hands nearly shaking with anticipation. Kardok followed them in, sliding the panel back in place and hunching down near the low doorway.
“Shit,” Aldo said, leaning back in his chair. “Shit!”
“Shit,” Thor muttered in reply, his shoulders hunching forward.
Dario remained silent, and Kira thought she could see a single tear of frustration form in the corner of his eye.
“Is there anything else we can try?” she asked, pushing past Thor and Dario and walking up behind Aldo.
As soon as she rested her hand on the back of her chair and her eyes fell on the screens in front of him, she, too, muttered a profanity, followed by an audible gasp.
There, illuminated in bright blue glory, was the feed of a conversation; a large, multifaceted conversation taking place all over the Galactic Bazaar surrounding Jaantu 7. The longer she stared, the faster the replies came in. They scrolled by faster than she could read them. She did catch glimpses of them, though.
“I’m in!”
“Four here.”
“… is the hit?”
“Do we know where…?”
“Hell yes! Count me…”
“About time… assholes!”
She stepped back and looked at Thor over her shoulder, her eyes wide. He returned her glance with one of confusion. She didn't speak but motioned for him to join her at Aldo's side.
“What did you say in your message?” Thor asked, his hand resting on Kira’s shoulder.
“I might have thrown out the idea of a massive criminally organized assault on the prison,” Aldo said.
“Just tossed it out there, huh?” Thor replied, his eyes fixed on the screen.
“What’s going on?” Dario asked.
“It would appear we are in the midst of a Revolution,” Kira muttered. “A Criminal Revolution.”
“You wanted to get out, didn’t you?” Aldo replied.
“We wanted our crew to bust us out,” Kira said. “Not the entire underground population of the Galactic Bazaar.”
“Better safe than sorry, right?” Aldo quipped.
“I don’t think any of us are safe,” Thor said. “What are they planning exactly?”
"Hold on," Aldo said, leaning forward and pulling up randomly selected sections of the still ongoing conversation. "It looks like they're not completely organized just yet," he said. "They're still working on figuring out how many of them there are nearby. They're eager, though. I'd say they'd be ready to act in…"
“Wait!” Kira said.
Aldo froze, as did the scrolling text on the screen.
“There,” Kira said, leaning in and pointing to one small section of the text. “It’s Alaria.”
“Alaria?” Dario asked, shouldering his way to the front. “My Alaria?”
The text that had caught Kira’s attention wasn’t much. Just a few lines. But, she knew right away that it was their crew out there, replying to the mass message sent out by Aldo. Alaria’s response read:
“We have the plans. We’re waiting for your orders, Captain Winter. Please reply. Please let me know that Dario is okay.”
“Alaria,” Dario said softly as he read the message.
“Aldo, can you isolate the signal that was transmitted with that message and reply onl
y to that specific location?” Thor asked.
“On it,” Aldo replied.
His little fur-covered fingers flew over the illuminated keyboard in front of him. It took him a few moments, but soon enough, they were opening a private channel of communication with the Curio.
“Alaria?” Kira said, speaking into the small microphone.
