“I’d rather die than let myself be owned by some damn alien,” Lory snarled angrily.
“She’s right,” said Amber. “We’re never going to get home again anyway. It’s hopeless. Who knows how far from earth we are, and where are we going to find someone who’ll take us back?”
“I can think about that when I get out of here,” Lory insisted. “Anything is better than being bought by a damn alien and bearing its little monsters.”
The very thought of being sold to one of the various aliens that she had seen here on the streets of Betzlawk made her blood boil. Most of them did not look even vaguely human. Besides, she would definitely not give herself to a man that she did not want. And Lory was choosy where her sexual partners were concerned. They had to have style and moral fibre. And of course they had to deal with the fact that she knew her own mind and stuck up for her rights. No! She would most certainly not be anyone’s sex slave. Not as long as she still had a spark of life in her, and right now she had a good deal. She would get out of here, whatever the cost.
***
Hours passed by and no one came. The conversation amongst the women had long since stopped. Lory had not taken part anyway. She was walking up and down like a tiger in a cage, thinking about her situation. She simply could not sit still, knowing that they were planning to sell her to some monster.
“Can’t you just sit down now?” said Keela, irritated. “You’re making me completely dizzy, walking round in circles.”
“I don’t understand you lot,” Lory blurted out angrily. “How can you sit here, totally calmly, waiting till someone flogs you to the highest-bidding slimy or hairy alien? I certainly do not intend to give up without a fight.”
“Perhaps it’ll be easier to escape once we’ve been bought,” interrupted Keela. “If we appear to be weak and helpless, maybe the one that buys us will be less watchful and when the right moment …”
“If, if, if!” Lory interrupted Keela. “If you wait for someone to serve you the return ticket to earth on a golden platter, you’ll never get it.”
Lory was not one of those people who waited for everything to possibly work out. She was used to taking things in her own hands. She would rather die trying to escape than allow others to order her around.
“Someone’s coming,” warned Amber urgently.
The women fell silent and they could indeed hear footsteps approaching the hut. The door was unlocked and two men appeared with a woman carrying a tray of food. The men were largely humanoid, if one overlooked their green skin and the small, wart-like pockmarks on their foreheads and temples. They were large and powerfully built, but they were not carrying weapons. That was good. Lory did not doubt that she could deal with them both. She studied the situation and prepared herself to attack at the right moment.
Once the woman had put the tray in the middle of the room, Lory picked her moment. She grabbed the man standing closest to her and smashed his head on the doorframe three times till he became limp in her hands, then she simply dropped the unconscious man onto the ground. The other guard threw himself at her and they exchanged a few hard blows and kicks. As the surprise effect had passed Lory did not have an easy time of it with this well-trained man, despite being well trained in close combat herself. The alien was an evenly matched fighter and he was not making it easy for her, but she loved the fight. It was better than sitting and waiting. Both of them were dealing heavy blows and taking heavy blows. Her opponent was already bleeding from his mouth and nose and breathing heavily, but she was not faring any better. With a yell Keela, Charly and Amber suddenly threw themselves at the guard. Charly climbed onto him from behind whilst Amber and Keela helped Lory by kicking and thumping him until he fell to the ground.
Once both of the guards were lying motionless Lory turned to the other women. The woman who had brought the tray was standing in the middle of the room, her mouth agape and her eyes wide, and she seemed incapable of saying or doing anything.
“We have to act quickly, before anyone notices what’s happened,” said Lory, and the women, including Ayakala, her daughters and the girl, followed Lory outside. Only Bebenile and the woman with the tray stayed behind.
There was no one to be seen in the yard. Everything seemed to be silent and deserted, but they knew that there were more guards in the hut next to the entrance, not forgetting the two guards outside the gate.
“We’ll try to find another exit. I think we should be able to get over the wall over there,” whispered Lory, and they quickly crept across the yard to the side opposite the gate.
Lory felt euphoric. She was thrilled to have fled from the cramped hut, despite knowing that her escape was a long way from getting her back to earth. But it was a start. She could think about what to do now once she was in safety somewhere.
Suddenly loud shouting and footsteps could be heard behind them.
“Shit! They’ve caught us,” cried Lory. “Come on, girls. Faster!”
They now ran as fast as they could. Lory was the first to climb over a barrel onto the roof. She glanced back hastily. Ayakala and her daughters, as well as the small girl, had stopped. They clearly thought that they did not stand a chance any more. There were at least ten men behind them – four were dealing with the women who had stayed behind and the other six were pursuing Lory and the others. Lory carried on climbing quickly, Charly close behind her, but Amber and Keela seemed to be having problems.
“Hurry up!” shouted Lory on reaching the wall.
She jumped and Charly immediately did the same. Lory glanced up at Keela and Amber, who seemed to be hesitating. She gesticulated wildly to them to jump.
“Shit,” she heard Keela murmur quietly.
Keela closed her eyes and jumped. Amber landed with a quiet “Ow! Fuck!” next to her.
“Come on!” Lory urged the others to hurry and ran with Charly along the narrow alley that they had landed in.
Chapter 2
“I think they’ve caught Keela and Amber,” gasped Charly. “They’re not behind us anymore.”
“That’s bad luck but we must keep going or they’ll catch us, too. Come along here,” replied Lory, turning into a narrow alleyway between two houses.
She hoped that they were vaguely going in the direction of the spaceport. She had lost her bearings a little and was not a hundred per cent certain. She actually had no idea what to do next, but the most important thing right now was that they escaped from their prison guards. Then they somehow had to figure out how things worked on this damn alien planet. She had seen that the entrance to the huge spaceport area was closely guarded. People had to identify themselves with either a handprint or a type of permit. Inside there were then what appeared to be different classification sections.
“Please! I need a rest,” Charly panted behind her, and she stood still.
“A little bit further,” she said. “But we don’t need to run anymore. I think we’ve lost them.”
They continued at a normal pace and Lory steered them into a quiet alley filled with junk. They sat down among a few crates where they could take a rest, shielded by the rest of the crates and pieces of furniture, so that no one could see directly to them.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Charly. “Do you have a plan?”
Lory shrugged.
“We’ll see what happens and improvise. The most important thing right now is that we’re free. The next step will be to find out how we get into the spaceport and where we can spend the night.”
“Do you think these men have given up the search? I mean, they might put out a kind of APB on us or something. We don’t know how things are done here,” Charly objected.
“I have no idea, but it would be good if we could fake our ID somehow. We may need to change something in our appearance or something. We should keep going now. I don’t know what the time is or how quickly it gets dark here.”
“I think we’re very close to the spaceport,” said Charly after a while. “You see tha
t tall building there? I think that’s one of the hotels in the up-market area of the spaceport. I remember the strange shape of the windows.” She was pointing at a tall building that was several stories higher than the rows of houses in front of them. The windows were shaped like an upturned heart with a slightly bent point.
“Yes, you’re right. I remember that building, too. We have to be especially careful near the spaceport. You’re right, they may have set up a sort of APB because of us. I wish we had some sort of weapon.”
“No! What do you want from me?” a woman’s voice could suddenly be heard nearby.
“Your credits and the girl,” replied a man’s voice.
Lory and Charly looked at one another, then they both nodded and crept quietly into the corner, carefully looking into the narrow alley from where the voices were coming. They could see an elegantly dressed woman and a young one in simple clothing. The young girl had hidden herself in fear behind the slightly older woman. Two sinister figures, humanoid in form, but with orangey-red skin and blue hair, had planted themselves in front of the two women.
“You can have my credits, but please leave the girl alone,” begged the older of the two women.
Just as Lory had decided to get involved, she saw one of the figures draw a long dagger and stick it onto the woman’s abdomen. He slit her stomach from the bottom to the top and blood sprayed everywhere. The woman uttered a stifled cry of pain and the girl behind her screamed. Whilst the older woman slowly sank to the ground, Lory rushed over to attack the two bastards. She had the element of surprise on her side, so she was able to grab the man’s blood-covered dagger. She stuck the blade into his throat and performed a karate chop on the other man’s neck, as he was about to attack her. As he fell to the ground she grabbed his blue hair and pulled his head back. In one move she had cut his throat. The girl had stopped crying. Lory turned to her. Their eyes met. After a little hesitation the girl ran away.
“Don’t run away! Stay here!” Lory called after her, but the girl just kept on running.
“Urgh!” she heard Charly next to her. “That’s horrible.”
Lory’s eyes fell upon the dead woman whose innards were pouring out of the gaping wound.
“Yes, that kind of thing is always an ugly sight,” she agreed. “But when you work for the FBI, as I do, you get used to that sort of thing. And worse.”
“Worse?” Charly asked in disgust. “What can be worse than this?”
“You don’t want to know. Believe me,” replied Lory, with an image in her mind that she would never get rid of. It had been last year when they had been pursuing a serial killer. At the last scene of the crime it had disturbed even Lory so much that she had had to go sick for two weeks. The bloody pig had brutally beaten a young woman then tied her three year old daughter to her dead mother. The girl was also dead when they found them both. She had died of dehydration after spending days on her mother’s dead body, a gag preventing her from screaming for help. One could only imagine the horrific torture that this poor child had endured and it had completely enraged Lory. She had caught the pig and he had even done her the favor of putting up such a fight that the shots that she dealt him were justified. His death had been satisfying but not enough to erase those horrific images from her mind.
“Are you OK?” Charly pulled her from her thoughts.
“Yes. Yes, I’m OK,” replied Lory, kneeling down beside the dead woman. She began searching through the woman’s pockets.
“Whatever are you doing?” asked Charly in disgust.
“Those men wanted her credits, so she must have money or some sort of credit card on her. It may be of use to us,“ replied Lory.
In a belt purse she finally found what she had been looking for. The card was gold-colored and printed in a font that she did not recognize. Along with the card she found something that looked like an ID card and a note in some foil.
“Look! We’ve got it. We just need to find out what’s written on the damn card and this note.”
Charly looked around, concerned.
“Don’t you think we should see to it that we get away from here?”
“Yes, you’re right. Let’s go. We’ll look for a restaurant and try out this credit card. Come on!”
“But what if they realize that the card’s stolen? They’ll lock us up, for sure.”
“No risk, no fun,” said Lory, laughing. “Come on, scaredy-cat. We’ll crack this. I just have a feeling that we’ve found our ticket home. Come on!”
***
They were in fact able to pay with the card with no problem. They had had something to eat and drink and Lory felt her spirits rise.
“May I just ask you something,” she addressed the waitress when she came to clear away the empty plates.
“Yes, of course.”
“But I have to be sure that you’re discreet. I’ll give you a thousand credits if you can give me the information and you’re discreet. No one can find out what I’m about to ask you.” Lory hoped that she had not taken too high a risk and that the card had enough credits on it.
“OK,” the green-haired waitress with four arms agreed. “Ask away. I am discreet.”
Lory held out the ID card and the note to the young woman.
“I need to know what it says on here.”
The waitress looked at the ID card first.
“This card belongs to a certain Kirilyla Man’krishar. She comes from Verliyx3 and she’s thirty years old.”
Is it possible to change the photograph?” Lory asked quietly.
“Yes. I know someone who’ll do that for you for two thousand credits.”
“I don’t know exactly how much I have on the card,” admitted Lory.
“This is a golden Tik-card. There’s no limit,” replied the waitress. “I can take you to Morass. He’s the man who can do this sort of thing. I finish in an hour, then I can go to him with you.”
“Good. And what about this note here?”
The waitress read the letter through carefully.
“It’s a certificate of ownership for a slave called Nanuk. There are just details about the girl’s background and the purchase of the certificate.
“Perfect!” said Lory, happy, and she grinned at Charly who was looking a bit skeptical.
“Just wait here until I’m done,” said the waitress. “I need to get to work again.”
“OK, thank you!” said Lory.
“Are you insane?” Charly hissed quietly once the waitress had gone. “What if she grasses on us?”
“She wants the money, and this ID and the certificate are perhaps our only chance of getting away from here. We can’t miss this opportunity just because you’re wetting yourself with fear. This little card …,” Lory held the credit card up to Charly, ”… will buy us our ticket home, and without the ID and the certificate we’ll never get past the guards at the spaceport. From now on I’m Kirikyla and you’re my slave, Nanuk. I just need to sort out different clothing. I think these rags are a bit too cheap for a woman with unlimited credit.”
“Why do I have to play the bloody slave and you get to act the high-ranking lady?” Charly grumbled sullenly.
“Because it was my idea and because I sorted out the cards and the certificate. I knocked out the two jerk-offs. Any further questions?”
“Yes! Have you always been such a cold-hearted bitch?”
Lory stared at Charly, bewildered. Those words had thrown her. She knew that she was mean, but that was an important part of the armor that she had put around herself. If she constantly sprayed venom, then no one had time to catch her and hurt her. It also helped her to be one of the best FBI agents. Nice girls did not catch killers.
“Once I’ve got us home you can hate me as much as you wish, but until then you should do as I say. Or maybe you’d rather stay here and spread your legs for a damn alien!” she replied quietly but firmly.
“You can be sure that we’ll part as soon as my foot touches earth,” responded Charl
y.
“No problem.”
The waitress had taken them to the aforementioned man who, within minutes, had put her picture onto the ID. After that Zola, as the waitress was called, had helped them to replace their clothing. Lory bought herself a ridiculously expensive dress made of a shimmering dark blue material, as well as another one in sunshine yellow. Charly was given simple white clothing that the better slaves tended to wear. Zola also dragged them into a beauty parlor where three reptilian women gave Lory a hairstyle befitting her station and applied make-up subtly. Lory, who was not keen on make-up, had protested as they were about to paint her lips blue, and after a lengthy discussion the three women had just painted her lips with a sort of silvery shimmering lip-gloss.
“Thank you for your help,” said Lory, giving Zola her promised reward of a thousand credits. Zola had shown her how to use the card to withdraw a sort of cheque from the mobile cash robots. The cash robots were small boxes about the size of a shoebox that flew propeller-driven through the streets and came in to land at the wave of a card. As with a cashpoint machine one simply had to put the card into a slit and enter the sum, then a cheque was printed. Lory was glad that no secret code was needed for these cards, which would have been disastrous. The system here on this alien planet was not particularly secure, but that was to their advantage now, so she was not going to complain about it.
Fighting Lory (English Edition) (Lords Of Arr'Carthian 2) Page 2
