by Jodi Redford
“Let me guess,” Lucus said, his voice carrying a fine-honed edge of apprehension. “More guards are behind us?”
Wetting her suddenly desert-dry lips, she squeezed his biceps twice.
He tensed. “Damn, those slippery bastards move fast.”
The four guards in front of them inched forward as General Quarrel waddled through the debarking door.
“We seem to have a problem.” A squishing noise came from the general when he extended a tentacle and plopped one of the caviar bags onto the floor. “How do you expect me to distribute damaged goods?”
Lucus cleared his throat. “I can explain. You see, there was a—”
“I’m not interested in your excuses.” The general slammed his cane down, and a clanging vibration shuddered through the steel flooring. “No one fucks me over. No one.”
The biceps beneath Rini’s fingers went rigid, and she swallowed down the fear blooming at the back of her throat. Panic was the enemy in situations like this. If nothing else, the ranger academy had drilled that bit of wisdom into her. She needed to think…and fast. “We’ll replace the crate. Just give us an hour.”
An almost-imperceptible hiss came from Lucus. She squeezed his arms again, hoping he’d understand the silent communication and allow her to try winging them out of their sticky predicament.
General Quarrel’s hideously long fingers slithered along his neck and stroked his chin. “Ah yes, I should just allow you to fly out of here. Why didn’t I think of that?”
For a lawless dictator, he sure knew how to lay on the sarcasm.
The general slashed his tentacles through the air. “Guards, bring them into the compound.”
A cold, clammy tentacle clamped Rini’s shoulder, dragging her back. Another guard reached for Granger. Lucus growled and swung his fist at the guard’s head, knocking the alien on his ass.
Five pairs of electro-pulse rifles took bead on Lucus. His breath whistling between his teeth, Lucus held up his hands.
“Much as this display entertains me, I don’t have time for your pitiful struggles.” General Quarrel’s mouth twisted in a mocking sneer. “Besides, you should conserve your energy. You’ll both need it when you’re testing out my new torture chamber.”
A suffocating blend of terror and dread clogged Rini’s windpipe. Torture and chamber—two words that never mixed well. All the more reason she needed to keep her wits together and figure a way for them to escape.
The guards wrangled her and Lucus down the Liberty’s debarking ramp and across the tarmac to the large metal-sided structure holding center court over the cluster of domes. Inside, they followed a twisting passage to an enormous atrium flooded with artificial light. Strange coral formations and towering, wispy ferns lined a path leading to a miniature castle carved from granite.
Her mouth gaping, Rini stared at the odd sights surrounding her. “Are we inside a…an aquarium?”
“Weird, eh?”
She turned and met Lucus’s stare. “Uh, yeah.” The guard imprisoning her wrists shoved her roughly towards the graveled path. It took all her willpower not to kick back with her boot and nail the bastard in the groin. Of course, who knew if alien squids even had balls? Yet one more mystery of life she really didn’t care to discover.
They approached the castle and the rock doors slid open, revealing a steel-walled chamber. Rini’s heart performed a somersault. I hope to God this isn’t the general’s torture chamber.
General Quarrel waved Rini, Lucus and their two escorts inside the castle before waddling in after them. The remainder of the guards took up station outside the doors.
“Lower level.” No sooner did the general bark the command and the steel walls spun, locking them in.
Rini’s stomach plummeted along with the chamber as it descended. On one hand, she was relieved they were apparently in an elevator rather than a torture chamber, but going underground would make escape a lot trickier. With a bone-jarring jolt, the elevator stopped and she swayed to keep footing. The guard was kind enough to wrench her upright by tugging hard on her hair. She gritted her teeth, her tear ducts stinging. “Watch it. That hurts.”
“I know.” The jerk-off sounded quite proud of the fact. One of his tentacles slid up her rib cage and groped her breast.
Revulsion shivered along her spine. First chance she got, she was so turning this asshole into a sushi spring roll. The doors opened and she and Lucus were thrust into a long corridor. Their captors steered them down the tunnel-like passage until they arrived at a glass-walled room with four small, circular openings cut eye level in the glass. Weird prong-like apparatuses ringed each circle.
The general hobbled forward and pressed a tentacle against the fingerprint analyzer recessed in the wall. Of course, in his case it was more of a suction-cup analyzer. Green numerals flashed on the reader pad and a door swung open in the glass wall. Rini blinked. The door had been virtually undetectable. Whoever constructed this room was a master craftsman. If she ever escaped, she’d have to track them down and commend them for building such a high-quality deathtrap.
“Place them inside,” the general said with a tap of his cane.
In Rini’s opinion, placing conjured images of a gentle nudge and a hearty there you go. It definitely didn’t entail having her butt smacked with enough force to hurtle her head first into the empty cell. Before she could untangle her limbs and push from the cold tile floor, Lucus went sprawling on top of her. His crushing weight pinned her in place.
Lecherous chuckles sniggered from above, and Rini lifted her eyes to the speaker boxes affixed to the wall.
“Really, you two should get a room.” Loud guffaws followed the general’s quip.
Talk about suck ups. The joke wasn’t even that funny. She shoved at Lucus and he rolled off her with a groan. A click sounded and they both turned their heads just as the door locked in place.
“Make yourselves comfortable.” The general gave a magnanimous sweep of his arm. “In a few hours, we’ll test out the best feature of the torture chamber. I’m sure you’re almost as excited as I am.”
Oh yeah, buddy. I’m so flippin’ excited, I could pee my pants. Unfortunately, her sarcasm wasn’t a complete lie. She stood a good chance of being embarrassed any second by her skittish bladder. Rini whisked a lank of hair behind her ear and glanced through the glass at General Quarrel. “What are you going to do to us?”
He pealed a laugh that would be envied in any government-operated psych ward. “If I told you now, my fun would be ruined.” With that unhelpful yet chilling explanation, he waddled off.
Chapter Six
Lucus leaned his head against the wall and stared at Rini. For some unknown reason, she was trying to squeeze through one of the cutouts in the wall. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Trying to find a way out of here.”
“By stuffing our bodies through a six-inch diameter hole?” He propped one foot over the other and grunted. “Babe, unless you’ve got some radical weight-loss pills tucked inside those pockets of yours, it ain’t gonna happen.”
She continued wiggling her arm. “Of course I know we won’t fit through the openings. I’m just testing the width and stability of the glass.”
He used the toe of his boot to scratch the back of his ankle. “So what did you find out?”
“Um…we’re screwed.” Rini pulled her hand out and grimaced. “This glass is deceiving. It’s much thicker than it looks.”
“Terrific.”
Sweeping her hair over her shoulder, she glared at him. “Why are you sitting there like a bump on a log?”
“What do you want me to do? Storm the glass with my goddamn head?”
Her hands slammed onto her hips. “Well, it certainly wouldn’t hurt anything.”
Oh yeah, she was a fucking laugh riot. He hefted to his feet and stalked towards the wall. She popped her fist through the opening again and fiddled with the prong-like apertures circling the hole. Pathetic as it was, her stroki
ng motions titillated his baser instincts.
He faced death with a raging hard-on. His ma would be proud.
Rini continued swirling her fingers over the prongs. “What in the universe could these be for?”
Lucus wiped the sweat from his brow. At the moment, he was convinced the damn things held no further purpose than to torment his overheated libido. “For God’s sake, would you stop doing that?”
Pulling her hand back through the hole, Rini gave him a confused look. Luckily, she didn’t comment on his desperate plea or dripping forehead. Their gazes moved in unison when voices drifted down the corridor. A guard approached with a female Aquatican outfitted in a tight, navy blue jumpsuit.
The female flicked back her seaweed-green ringlets and sniffed. “I don’t care what you say, Fimordan. Your tentacles were all over Saribeth.”
“They weren’t, Jeneet. I swear it. You know how Saribeth constantly throws herself at me. I was just trying to fend her off.” The guard’s ineffectual attempt to hug his companion was met with a sharp slap across his head.
Lucus winced. Shit, that had to hurt. Bad enough being slapped by one hand. Try four.
“If you wouldn’t constantly show her your pleasure valve, it wouldn’t be an issue!”
Rini shot a look at him and he shrugged. “Yeah, I’m thinking we don’t wanna know.” He eased away from the wall, but Rini stayed put, her attention riveted on the lover’s tiff playing out in front of them.
“You’ve grown tired of me. I can see it.” The female Aquatican lifted a tentacle and wiped her eye. “This is what I get for putting out on the first date.”
The guard heaved a sigh. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“So now I’m being ridiculous. Well screw you, Fimordan. Screw. You.”
An exasperated groan filtered from Lucus. “Oh for Christ’s sake. This must be the torture Quarrel promised.” His fists thudded against the glass. “Quarrel, you sadistic son of a bitch, just kill me and get it over with.”
Jeneet spun from Fimordan, her expression weepy. She stalked to the section of wall across from the cell and pressed a button. Another hidden door whooshed open, revealing several large coiled hoses. Gathering one in her tentacles, she walked to the glass wall and snapped the end of the hose onto one of the pronged openings.
So that’s what they’re for. Discovering the prongs’ purpose didn’t exactly set his mind at rest. Toxic nerve gas? A flesh-eating virus? The hoses could deliver anything.
“Wh-what are you doing?” Rini demanded, her voice quivering with a fine thread of fear.
The idea of Rini being afraid of anything surprised the hell out of him. In the short time he’d known her she acted like she had bigger balls than half the men he knew.
Jeneet lifted her gaze to Rini’s. “Pumping water into your cell.” She said it like it was the most logical answer in the world. “You’re going to become living specimens in your own private aquarium. Won’t that be fun?”
Rini blinked. Her expression reminded him of the look Roscoe always got whenever the word bath was mentioned. “But we don’t have gills. We can’t survive underwater.”
“Oh. Well that stinks.” Giving a sympathetic smile, Jeneet tightened the fittings before strolling to the remaining hoses. Fimordan joined her.
“Do not talk to those earthlings. They can’t be trusted.”
“How dare you tell me what to do?” Turning up her nonexistent nose, Jeneet snagged the next available hose and wrestled it to the glass wall. While she clamped it in place, Fimordan dragged the third hose over.
Lucus stared at the fourth—and final—opening. If he didn’t think of something soon, he and Rini would be belly-up in their own death tank.
Fimordan pointed to the farthest hose. “That one doesn’t look properly fastened.”
Jeneet swung on him, her small, beady eyes bugging from their sockets. “It is. I checked it twice.”
“Maybe I should check it.” Fimordan started to move to the hose in question and got another tentacle upside his head. “Damn it, Jeneet!”
“Because I’m a female, you think you’re so much smarter than me.”
Fimordan gingerly probed his skull. “It’s been proven that the males of our species have bigger brains.”
Jeneet planted her tentacles on her hips and blocked Fimordan’s path. “Too bad the same can’t be said for your pleasure valve.”
Throwing his companion a hard glare, Fimordan stalked to the final hose and twisted it onto the prongs. Once he completed his task, he returned to the room across the way and flipped down a metal lever. A rumbling gurgle pulsed through the hoses. Seconds later, water blasted from the openings. One of the geysers slammed into Lucus’s shoulder and he stumbled back, his boots sliding in the rapidly filling cell.
“What are you doing?” Jeneet screeched. “We’re supposed to wait for General Quarrel.”
“What does it matter? He’ll be down soon enough.”
Jeneet waved her tentacles in the air. “This is what I’m talking about. You never listen to me.”
Lucus sent a look skyward. “God, I know I haven’t exactly been a model citizen. But do you think maybe you can just take me out with a quick brain aneurism?”
Rini banged against the glass, catching the attention of both Aquaticans. “Jeneet, girlfriend, don’t let him walk all over you like that!”
“Girlfriend?” Lucus ducked beneath the cascading water and sloshed to Rini’s side. “Hate to break it to you, babe, but getting chummy with the enemy isn’t going to save our asses.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s precisely what’s going to get us out of here.” She kicked at the wall, stirring up a small wave. “Listen, Jeneet, I’ve known males exactly like Fimordan. They only care about themselves. Before you know it, they’re stomping all over your heart and leaving you with the shattered pieces to pick up. Alone—while the bastard goes about his life like nothing happened. Like he didn’t just send your world toppling off its axis.”
Lucus stared at Rini’s profile. Either she was freakishly good at improvisation or she’d been majorly burned a time or two. Shit, no wonder she flattened me with her ninja moves. She probably hates my entire gender.
Her scrutiny moving to him, Jeneet shuffled closer to the glass. Righteous anger seethed in her sea-foam eyes. “Is he one of the males you speak of?”
Rini flicked him a quick look before shaking her head. “No. And surely you don’t want to snuff the only decent male on your planet?”
“I don’t know. How big is his pleasure valve?”
Ignoring his sputtering choke, Rini held her hands roughly nine inches apart. Well, at least she didn’t shortchange him.
Smiling like she’d just hooked the biggest fish in the ocean, Jeneet trotted to the hose room and reached for the lever. Fimordan’s tentacle slapped over hers. The two battled for supremacy of the lever. Meanwhile, the water rose at an alarming rate, almost reaching Lucus’s upper thighs.
Rini maneuvered around the water spray and pummeled the glass, apparently still intent on cheerleading the showdown between Jeneet and Fimordan. “Kick the low-down bastard in the balls. If he has any.”
Lucus cocked his eyebrows. “Jesus, remind me not to make you mad.”
Rini ignored him and kept her attention centered on the power struggle waging across the corridor. “Come on, Jeneet. Show him the true meaning of girl power.”
A shrill, fingernails-on-chalkboard shriek rang from the female Aquatican and she gave a vicious tug. She stumbled back, the lever clutched in her tentacles. Her tiny lips blossomed into an O. “Whoops.”
“Oh shit.” No sooner did the words leave Lucus’s mouth and a fierce rumble convulsed through the hoses, followed by an icy torrent. One of the jets nailed Rini and pulled her in its undertow. When she didn’t immediately surface, he dove after her. Grasping her waist, he dragged them both above water.
Rini gasped, holding onto him with a bone-crushing grip. “This pro
bably is a bad time to bring this up, but I’m a lousy swimmer.”
Keeping her anchored at his side, he slammed his fist on the wall, praying the combination of his pounding and the stress from the pumping hoses would fracture the glass. The water kept pouring in, forcing him to tread furiously to keep both he and Rini afloat. He could feel the spastic pressure of her chattering teeth against his collarbone.
“I-I’m s-sorry. This-s all my f-fault. Should have mentioned sm-smashed crate.”
He slid his hand from the glass and hugged Rini tighter, trying to calm her. “Babe, give me some of the credit. I’m the one who agreed to smuggle it.”
“Tr-true.”
The water level kept steadily climbing and Lucus glanced skyward. His gut gave a kick. If he reached up, he’d be able to touch the ceiling.
A massive shiver quaked Rini and her cheek bumped his shoulder. “In case I d-don’t get another chance—thank you. Th-thought maybe you’d prefer let-letting me drown.”
He searched for the words that might banish the bleak hopelessness in her eyes. “What, and deprive myself the opportunity of copping a feel?”
A quivery smile overtook her face. “Glad you’ve g-got your p-priorities straight.”
Pressure scraped the crown of his head. The ceiling. Reading the panic on Rini’s face as the water sloshed around her neck, he hoisted her higher. Her arms banded around him. They didn’t have much time. He needed to keep her calm and focused. “Breathe.”
“P-pretty soon th-that won’t be an option.”
“I know. That’s why you’ve got to do it now.” The water crept to their chins and she began to shake harder. He bobbed his head to gain her attention. “Here we go. One big breath. Then another. You can do it.”
