by Gail Koger
The area around Lothel shimmered, and presto, he became Geir, the master pilot. His cold, dead eyes stared out of a tattoo-covered face.
“They say every inch of Geir’s body is tattooed.” Ziyad’s gaze dipped to his crotch.
Geir smiled, exposing razor-sharp metal teeth. “Want me to drop my pants?”
“Goddess, no.” Another shudder shook me. “There are rumors Geir’s male parts are rotting off due to a sexually transmitted disease.”
“He has a form of Erolic syphilis,” Wulf said.
The always curious Ziyad wanted to know. “Isn’t that fatal?”
“It is.” Colburn placed a protective hand over his package. “Gangrene will eventually destroy all of his organs.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer male.” I glanced at my communications bracelet. “You now have two hours to get in and get out.”
I did a double take as the badly disfigured Micah Kidd suddenly stood before me. Pitted, badly rusted metal covered what remained of his nose and right cheek. The metal moved, and my stomach roiled. The skin on Micah’s cheek was gone, exposing part of his jawbone and horrendously rotted teeth. I jerked my gaze up. A single piece of red hair flopped over his scarred forehead. This was the Kidd known for seducing women all over the galaxy? He had to drug them. ’Cause no one in their right mind would touch that.
The Kidd brothers made me want to vomit and run as far away from them as I could get. “You’d think with all the credits they steal they would visit a medic.”
Wulf shrugged. “They don’t believe in medics.”
“Let me guess, they see a mundunugu or a witch doctor?”
“They have visited the mundunugu on Threll,” Lothel said.
“The Kidds would have been better off seeing the witch doctor.” My communications bracelet chimed. We were approaching the space station.
Ziyad calmly stated, “The ship’s holographic image is holding with no fluctuations.” She tapped a button on the command console. “We’re being hailed.”
Wulf moved into camera range. “Open the channel.”
Fritjof, the owner of the station, appeared on the screen. His chalk-white face was peppered with open sores. “The raid on Taavetti was successful?”
“The raid was on the Alliance outpost on Gangetic,” Wulf corrected, then added with a smug smile, “We took two tons of food stuff and several crates of Sommelier wine.”
Ziyad whispered in my mind. “Their weapons systems have locked on.”
“Standby,” I whispered back.
“The wine will pay your docking fees for the month. You can use the rest to get access to the gambling tables and females.” Fritjof’s smile reminded me of a bird of prey contemplating lunch. “Transmit the code.”
“Transmitting the code.” I typed in the data.
“Permission to dock granted,” Fritjof said, and the screen went dark.
“He’s planning something,” Ziyad commented with a worried frown. “There are rumors Amos is a card cheat, and he won over a hundred thousand credits in Fritjof’s Masters Tournament.”
“The rumors are true,” Lothel said.
Quinn picked up the mirror and inspected his disguise. “Fritjof is a master assassin. He took over the space station by releasing Tarin gas into the ventilation system. Given the chance, he’d kill all of us and take the ship.”
Not if I had anything to say about it. I grabbed Wulf’s hand. “Please be careful.”
“You have my word.” I felt the brush of his mind, like fingertips caressing my skin. “I love you.”
“I can’t wait until I turn twenty-one.” I tugged on his hand. “Come on. I’ll transport you on board that dilapidated piece of space debris.” I came to an abrupt halt.
Colburn stood at the transporter controls. “About time you got here.”
“Don’t be a jerk.” I pushed him aside and checked the coordinates he had entered.
My brother gave me the stink eye. “Like I would put them inside the bulkhead.”
“That five-million-credit bounty is a great incentive to do something really stupid,” I retorted.
Anger flared in Colburn’s eyes. “I’m not like our father, and I don’t have a death wish. Zarek would turn my brains into mush.”
“True.”
Ziyad stepped in front of Lothel. “Do not die.”
He touched her face gently. “I won’t.” He stepped onto the platform.
That definitely settled it. Ziyad had marked Lothel. What would an Askole-Rodan-Coletti hybrid look like? Hmmm. It would be a deadly combination. I sure hoped Zarek had found a way around the eating-her-mate thing. He couldn’t afford to lose either of them. Creative geniuses of Ziyad’s caliber were hard to find.
“Females make warriors weak,” Quinn muttered as he brushed by me and took his place on the transporter platform.
My temper flared. What had crawled up his ass and died? His sister, Kaylee, was one hell of a fighter, and she certainly didn’t make Talree weak.
Since Wulf hadn’t kicked any sense into Quinn, I would. I punched my jerk of a cousin in the stomach with my telekinesis and watched as he doubled over in pain. “Females do not weaken their mates; they make them stronger,” I informed Quinn on a private link. “If you let anything happen to Wulf, I’ll kill you.” I hit him again. “Understand?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Good answer.”
“Quit hitting my warrior, Yakira. I need him in fighting shape,” Wulf rumbled.
“Stay safe.” I pushed the controls, and a glittering blue light blossomed around the fake Kidd brothers.
Chapter Fourteen
“That ship is coming in too fast,” Ziyad said, bringing up the main view screen. A battered shuttle scored with multiple laser hits raced toward the space station.
My internal radar screamed, Danger. Danger. Danger. “The crew is a threat to us.”
Ziyad scowled. “What I want to know is who are they running from?”
“From the scoring, I’d say some kind of military ship.” Colburn checked the tracking scanner and whistled. “An Alliance battle cruiser is entering this solar system at warp 8.”
The sensation of danger was getting stronger. I knew Zarek was monitoring us and tapped on his mind. “My lord, we have a problem.”
“Explain.”
I flinched as his power surrounded me. “An Alliance battle cruiser just entered our quadrant in pursuit of a shuttle.”
“The shuttle has transmitted the proper code and is being allowed to dock,” Ziyad advised.
“Can you call off the Alliance ship? With the space station’s reputation, the captain won’t hesitate to destroy it and the shuttle.”
“Consider it done.” Our link broke.
One problem down. “Any idea who is on the shuttle?”
“Must be one of the space station’s regulars.” My brother scanned the life forms on the shuttle. “Balock’s balls. It’s the Kidd brothers.”
“What? How is that possible?”
Ziyad’s fingers raced across the command console. “The space station has locked down our ship’s docking clamps.”
“They have us trapped!” Colburn exclaimed.
“Have some faith in Ziyad’s skills.” I shot her a worried look. “You can unlock the clamps?”
“The nasty little virus I just downloaded into their systems gives me control of all their command functions. Including Fritjof’s famous knockout gas.”
I high-fived Ziyad. “You’re the best.”
“I am.”
“You’re also my favorite sister.” Colburn hugged her.
“Suck-up.” A wave of dread washed over me. “I think our warlords are in trouble.”
Colburn nodded. “The Kidd brothers probably contacted the space station about the battle cruiser on their tail. Once alerted, Fritjof realized he has two sets of Kidd brothers. Until he can determine who is the real deal, he puts our guys on ice.”
“I’ve tapped
into the space station’s surveillance system. They’re holding our warlords in the shuttle bay. I’ll bring it up on the main screen,” Ziyad said.
My blood turned to ice, and my stomach turned over. Wulf, Lothel, and Quinn were caged by a slowly shrinking ruby-red force field. A dozen heavily-armed security personnel guarded them.
My brother pointed out, “They aren’t injured, but if the force field keeps shrinking, they’ll be incinerated.”
“Gee, ya think?”
“Fritjof has locked the automated laser cannons on them too,” Ziyad remarked.
“Disable them.”
Ziyad typed in a command. “Done.”
“Can you stop the force field from shrinking?”
“I can.” Ziyad keyed in some data. “Done.” She frowned. “The sneaky bastard has booby-trapped the force field’s controls. I need to enter the proper password code to disarm it. If I don’t, it’s programed to cremate anyone within the energy field.”
“What happens if you kill the power?”
Ziyad’s tentacles drooped. “The power dies; they die.”
Sheer, blind panic swept over me at the thought of losing Wulf. I took a deep breath and fought for control. I could fall apart later. Now was the time for action. “I will get the password, even if I have to tear apart Fritjof’s mind.”
“Do it quickly.” Fear colored Ziyad’s voice.
Colburn patted her shoulder. “Has Yakira ever let you down?”
“Yes, once.”
I threw my hands up in disgust. “How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?”
Ziyad raised a tentacle in a rude gesture.
My brother goggled at her. “Who taught you that?”
“Don’t ask.” I took my very best friend’s hand in mine. “I am sorry, I didn’t kill your grandfather when I had the chance, but he’s dead now. So, get over it.”
Ziyad just sniffed.
“Are you going to pout? Or are you going to help me rescue your warlord and mine?”
She handed me four gold shield rings. “You’ll need these. I did some tweaking, and if anyone shoots you, the beam bounces back at ten times the intensity. Zap! Your enemy is now a pile of ashes.”
“Can I have one of those?” Colburn grinned when Ziyad gave him a ring. “You make the best stuff.”
She usually did, but every once in a while, her creations backfired. Big-time. “The first ring you created turned the laser bolt into a bouncy ball. It zinged all over the place and almost fried me.”
“The problem is fixed,” Ziyad huffed.
I placed the rings on my fingers. “Good to know.” The metal slithered over my skin as the rings adjusted to fit me. “Nice touch.”
“They are made out of Tadamich.”
Which was a rare and very expensive metal. I didn’t even want to know where she had gotten it.
Yeow! Wulf’s anger sizzled along my nerve ending. The guards were taunting the warlords. It was definitely time to let him know what was going on before he did something stupid.
I linked with Wulf. “We’ve tapped into the space station’s surveillance cameras. Can you break free of the energy field, honeybun?” Okay, I was being bitchy, but the big, strong warlords had been taken prisoner the minute they entered the space station. If I had been with them, I would have sensed the trap.
“No.” The word was just short of a bellow.
“Have you tried teleporting out of the containment field?”
A low growl echoed in my mind. “We are not younglings.”
“Copy that. Teleporting is out. Did they nullify your weapons?”
Wulf shot back testily, “Yes.”
“Mind control isn’t working either?” Gee, was my tone a bit snarky?
“No.”
“That sucks. Any bright ideas on how to get out of your predicament?” I figured I had better ask before I brought up my master plan.
Wulf responded with a touch of sarcasm, “We wait until we have the opportunity to strike.”
“The thing is, the real Kidd brothers just docked, and I’m sure Fritjof is eager to find out who are the real pirates.”
“It seems our intelligence source in the Alliance fleet has given us flawed data,” Quinn groused.
Lothel countered, “Commander Zan has never failed us.”
“And yet we are now being held by the master assassin,” Quinn retorted.
I let out a loud whistle. “Enough. None of this has anything to do with the Alliance battle cruiser chasing the Kidd brothers.”
“A battle cruiser that won’t hesitate to destroy the space station,” Quinn snapped back.
His mother should have drowned him at birth. Taking a firm hold on my temper, I replied calmly, “Zarek is contacting the captain to keep him from blowing the space station, and you, into itty-bitty pieces. Since we’ve run out of options on your end, we’ve come up with a plan to rescue you.” I waited for Wulf to explode.
“A rescue plan?” There was a note of horror in Wulf’s voice.
Color me impressed. Wulf hadn’t blown. Yet. “We keep it simple. Once we are on board, I get the password from the master assassin and give it to Ziyad. She disarms the force field, freeing you to kill the Kidd brothers, Fritjof, and any other warrior that gets in your way. While everyone is running for their lives, Colburn grabs Tol and brings him back to the ship.”
“No! It’s too dangerous.” This time Wulf did bellow. “You will wait for the Overlord to arrive.”
“Sorry, my love, no can do. They’re three hours out, and Fritjof does like to play with his prey.”
“If he doesn’t turn you over to the Kidd brothers first,” Colburn added cheerfully.
I gave him the stink eye. “Not gonna—”
Wulf butted in, “The second you set foot on this station, Fritjof will trap you too.”
“No, he won’t. I’m going in as Zelrine. I’m sure you have heard of her. She’s the hermaphrodite madam who runs the Erotic Delight pleasure house. Did I mention it’s a pleasure house Malik used frequently?”
“He used many pleasure houses. It means nothing,” Wulf snapped.
“I disagree. Zelrine came aboard two days ago, supposedly for the gambling tournament. Her ship is registered to Manang. You know, the planet the Rodans just took over. The ones allied with Malik.”
“You don’t have any concrete evidence that Zelrine is involved.”
Arrgh! What a stubborn, pigheaded male. He wasn’t listening. Wait a minute. He knew everything I said was true. He was trying to keep me off the station. Like that would work. “Nice try, but I’m still coming to rescue you.”
Wulf let out a long breath. “I know. Once you have made up your mind, nothing will stop you. Not even certain death.”
“No one is dying. Not even Quinn.”
“Feeling the love, cousin,” Quinn said drily.
“Right back at ya. You want to hear the rest of my evidence?”
Lothel inserted quickly, “I do.”
“It’s well documented that Malik and Zelrine had a five-year affair. There is also evidence that our hermaphrodite madam is a contract killer called Curran. Is it a coincidence she shows up when we have Malik on the run? I don’t think so.”
“Definitely not a fluke. They want Tol dead before he can spill their secrets,” Wulf finally agreed.
“Ziyad did some digging and found out the Kidd brothers’ mother is none other than Zelrine. Another coincidence? I think not.”
Quinn put his two credits in. “Tol knows where Malik is hiding.”
“That’s my guess, and they’re panicking.” I did a little happy dance. The warlords were all listening to me.
“It’s possible Tol knows the identities of Malik’s allies,” Lothel said thoughtfully.
Wulf abruptly asked, “What happens if you come face-to-face with Zelrine?”
“I won’t. We plan ahead. Zelrine is locked in her quarters, and Ziyad gassed her. She’ll be unconscious for the next four h
ours.”
“Fritjof is an even more dangerous adversary than the Kidd brothers. It’s too big of a risk. You will stay on the ship.” Wulf used his command voice.
Good thing it didn’t work on me. “I’m coming to get you, and there isn’t a thing you can do to stop me.”
Wulf’s roar reverberated around my skull. “You will obey me.”
I shot back, “If you die, I will not survive.”
That shut him up. Wulf’s ghostly lips pressed against my forehead. “Please be careful. I cannot lose you now.”
“You won’t. I’m tougher than I look.” I broke our link. I didn’t need him second-guessing everything I did.
Ziyad held out a holographic band. “It’s programmed.”
I snapped it in place, and wham! I was an ugly male masquerading as an even uglier female. This was Zelrine the hermaphrodite harlot? The legendary madam who lured males and females to her bed with her famous sexual prowess? Ewww.
Zelrine looked like an Earth clown with heavy white makeup smeared across her face in what I could only assume was a desperate attempt to cover the thick five o’clock shadow. Big red spots decorated both cheeks. The three-inch-long eyelashes were bright yellow and matched her lip covering. The wig perched on top of her head was a ghastly shade of purple.
I glanced down and gasped in horror. Zelrine had four huge breasts, and her rose-hued junk dangled between her legs. I took a closer look at Zelrine’s enormous quill-covered balls. They reminded me of an Earth porcupine. How did she sit down with those things, and who in their right mind would want to fondle them?
Zelrine also didn’t believe in underwear or clothing. The only garment she wore was a purple beaded scarf tied around her hips. A gold coin necklace hung from her neck, and, oh Goddess, she had multiple nipple rings.
“Whoa!” Colburn stared at Zelrine’s image in utter fascination.
Ziyad handed my brother his holographic band, and an instant later, a huge teddy bear with three-inch fangs stood there. “Why do I have to go in as a hairy Hus Ping?”
“Because Fritjof hired them to work as wait-staff, and Tol’s a bartender on the gaming deck. You’ll blend right in.” I studied myself in the mirror. “Are you sure this is what Zelrine looks like?”
