The clerk straightened and nodded.
Whoever this Boss was, Vi was not looking forward to meeting him.
24
Haze
It took an hour to make it back to the shuttle. Luckily, he wasn’t bleeding any longer, so he left no trail to give himself away.
He shut off the part of his brain that wanted to berate himself for being an idiot. No purpose now. He would need his wit to kick the ass of whoever this Boss guy was.
He let himself into the shuttle and radioed back to the Xeo.
“Vi’s been captured while I was being an idiot. How are things there?”
“What?” came Xain’s voice over the speaker. “Oh. Uh, we’ve got ourselves out of sight for now, while Oz effects a few more repairs. Is Vi—”
“Understood,” Haze said, cutting him off. “…Hey, Fyn, you hear anything about a Slave Boss taking over Latora recently. Apparently, he’s behind this.”
“Nothing came up, but I doubt the Mahdfel are too in-tune with this sector.”
“Fine.” Haze squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. “Will you run a check for me, in case? See if anyone’s heard anything?”
“Will do.”
“Comm back with what you find? I’ll be here for another ten minutes.”
After sign-off, Haze moved to the back of the shuttle to root around for the med kit he needed. He also grabbed a spare pack and put in supplies and lots and lots of weapons. Every weapon was a silent curse to himself. How could he leave her so unarmed? Never again, but how much did that matter now? He weighed the grappling hook gun in his hand. Yup, he’d bring it all.
Now, where to find this Boss and which merchant idiot would Haze need to go through to get to him?
One immediately came to mind: the cultured one at the shop. Quite out of place on this planet with his own meathead to guard him. Obviously, very high up in that food chain, probably the one who had betrayed Vi to the Boss.
He traced a few routes back to the shop in his mind. Something to give him plenty of cover, perhaps the roof-line through the center of town. It would be better to go at night. The need to hurry vs. the need for stealth warred at him, freezing him with indecision.
Fyn came over the comm. “Haze, there's no reference to a Boss at Latora that I could find. Oz tracked a reference to a slave boss the next system over though. That’s probably your guy. I’ll send you what we have.”
Haze moved back to the front of the shuttle. “Thanks, Fyn. In case you don’t hear from me in 48 hours, you might want to have a route to a safe harbor planned.”
Captain Vren came over the intercom. “If we don’t hear from you in 48, we’ll head to the planet. You think some Boss and a few scraggles would be a match for us?”
By the time the Xeo could possibly arrive, it would be long over. No one was saying it out loud though.
“I won’t argue that. Good luck getting Oz to let you beach the Xeo though.”
“Well,” the captain said with a chuckle in his voice, “we’ll worry about that. I’m sure you’ll have it handled by dinner anyway.”
“Thank you, sir. Haze going dark.”
“Haze?” It was Molly’s voice.
“Yeah, Molly?” He felt shame wash over him.
“Just be careful. But I know if anyone can do this, you can. Just let me know if you need us to beach Xeo …I got connections.”
“Thanks, Molly. Will do.” Haze chuckled as he clicked off. Molly was obviously joking, but Haze would have loved to see the First Officer, Fyn’s, face as Molly acted like she would make an end run around Fyn’s precious chain of command. The man was so serious. All. The. Time.
As Haze shot himself up with painkillers and a healing agent, he read through Oz’s info on The Boss. Most of it was pretty vague. No pictures, nothing really that Haze could use, not even which alien species Haze was dealing with. The guy kept a low profile, and he’d stayed almost completely off the Mahdfel radar.
25
Violet
They walked out, and Vi caught her breath in surprise and felt a sinking feeling in her gut. A car was parked by the hotel that obviously did not belong there.
For one thing, it hovered over the ground by a foot. Sure, she’d gotten to a whole new planet on a shuttle craft, but it definitely didn’t fit at this hotel. Maybe at The Carvada down the street but not here.
To think, a few roads over, people were lying or dying in garbage.
The vehicle was shiny white with a bubble top and dark windows so she couldn’t see inside. As they walked toward it, a hatch opened on the side, revealing an open interior with plush seats lining the edge.
Vi’s heart sank a little further as she realized her instinct was correct. The hover car was here for her, and whoever had sent the red-skinned goons to grab her, was probably pretty powerful.
Haze, I’m a gonna kill you, she thought. She would have added her fists shaking at the sky, for effect, except her hands were still tied behind her back.
One of the goons pushed her roughly into the vehicle, and she sprawled across the floor. She pulled herself upright, which was completely awkward without hands.
At this point, she almost started to cry; hot tears burned at the corner of her eyes. Greth grinned at her helplessness.
That did it. Keep smiling moron, she thought.
…Haze, you better kill these guys, she thought as she leaned back against the seat behind her, to help pull herself up.
Maybe she should start making a list, like that Arya girl did in that old TV show. What had that been called? Throne Game… something like that. Anyway, she could give the list to Haze later. …Make sure he didn’t miss anyone.
Greth sat on the other side of the car, which worked for her. At least he couldn’t lick her again. Her eyes slid away. No point antagonizing the guy.
The car said something, and her translator spit out: [Course laid in for Castle. Arrival in twenty-five minutes.]
Vi’s heart sped up.
All she could think — as they drove further away from town — is how would Haze ever find her?
They soon left the town roads and turned onto a one-lane road. Eventually, they came to a gate which swung open as they approached.
The tree line had obscured where they were headed, but the long winding driveway opened to an estate, even more ornate than the Carvada hotel. Guards lined the driveway. Glancing up, she saw several armed men on a few balconies. A chill of nerves ran through her, and she forgot to breathe.
So many guns.
The hover car came to a stop under a grand portico, and the door pulled out and up.
“Welcome to The Castle,” Layce said with a smirk.
He yanked her out of the car, but at least this time he didn’t toss her, to let her sprawl across the driveway.
Vi didn’t even spare a second to think about running, but instead, she tried to clear her head… to not panic. What might her dad have said to do in this type of situation? All she could think was: observe everything, memorize whatever details she could. At least it would keep her mind occupied.
She tried not to focus on the weapons- too distracting. Instead she glanced up and around, counting maybe seven soldiers stationed on this side of the house alone.
The guards seemed well-trained. A few had their guns trained on her and the car, but the others were still tracking their own assigned areas. Even if Haze tracked her down and created a distraction, they didn’t seem like the type to all abandon their posts and converge on the same misleading spot.
However, Haze was going to get her out… Haze was going to get her out… but it was going to have to be big.
…Possibly too big for even someone like Haze to pull off.
As if to make the hopelessness of her situation more explicit, Layce cut the rope off her hands. Obviously, there was nowhere for her to run.
Her arms prickled, uncomfortably. The goons could have done it in the car, but no, better to make her arms feel like they were about
to fall off.
Layce yanked her by one arm, through the doors, and into a large, high-ceilinged lobby. Greth took up a position slightly behind them.
The lobby was beautifully done in some sort of crystal and silver that sparkled and shone.
A scantily-clad man walked up. He was blue-skinned, like the Merchant Yarda. He held his four arms out to them in welcome. He was mostly undressed, except for fine white sleeves and cufflinks on his outer arms and a loin cloth at his waist. His inner arms were naked, displaying his defined muscle. His chest was naked as well, in similarly chiseled condition.
It was the strangest, barely-there outfit Vi had ever seen. Sleeves but no shirt? And a collar around his neck. So he was a slave but a male one.
Apparently - or maybe, of course - the slave trade wasn’t just women.
“Lady Vardon will be so happy to hear that you’ve arrived and brought her a much sought-after gift as well. If you’ll follow me?” He led Vi and the two delivery goons to an ornate office down the hall.
Sitting at a desk in the center of the room was an elegant woman in a white suit with medium-length, blonde hair.
Vi’s mouth dropped open. The woman looked human, completely human.
Had humans somehow made it to this planet, climbed to the top of the food chain, and started a slave business in the middle of nowhere?
Vi’s mind raced. It didn’t seem possible to see a human, here, like this.
But also a woman selling women? Not cool, no matter what species. Adding you to my list, lady, she thought, indignantly.
The woman raised her hand and signaled them to come closer.
The blue slave led them inside and moved to stand by the side of her desk.
The woman glanced at Vi with a faraway expression, still not saying anything, as though her mind was on something else. The goons next to Vi fidgeted.
“Idiot,” she yelled. “I said no shooting at the target.”
That’s when Vi realized the woman wasn’t addressing them, but instead talking on some sort of hidden comm device.
The blue guy neatened her desk, straightening items, as though the blonde woman wasn’t raging out nearby. He took an empty glass off her desk and refilled it from a sideboard.
The woman continued her tirade, spinning her chair around to face the window behind her. “I wanted him alive until I had his ship and cargo. You want to explain yourself?”
The woman shook her head as she listened. Vi could catch the top of her hand gesticulating as she spoke.
“What do I care if he’d taken that idiot. You think anything Nethar could say would present me with even the slightest problems? …You’re on very thin ice with me.”
She spun around again. The woman held up a finger to the goons to indicate it would only be another moment.
There was something strange about her hand, like it was oddly shaped or deformed.
The woman sighed as she listened. “Your blubber tires me. You’d better find him, or I will send someone who can take care of you and find him. You understand exactly what I mean by that, yes?” She paused. “Good.”
She reached up and clicked something at her ear and swiped it off, tossing it on the desk.
As her hair shifted, Vi saw a second ear, slightly behind and above the first. It was pointed at the top. Then the woman’s blond hair fell back into place.
So, not human, and there would be no common ground between them. Not that Vi expected this type of person would still maintain compassion for other beings anyway.
The woman steepled her fingers together and ran a long painted nail along her lip, which is how Vi figured out what was wrong. Her hands were larger than normal with an extra long finger on each hand.
“Good, good. You’ve arrived. I’m glad that you, at least, know how to follow orders,” she told the goons. She stood up and came around her desk, to lean against it. “Please, bring it here.”
Vi was pulled forward by the two goons.
The woman reached over and twisted Vi’s head side to side, inspecting her wounds. “I had hoped we could keep it undamaged, but this isn’t too bad. Good job.”
Her comm device beeped, and the woman brought it back up to cover her double ear.
“Yes?” she asked. A smile broke across her face. “Why, Mr. Feylor, it is good to speak with you. Yes, I think we can take delivery in two months, assuming the inspections are in order.” Her wide smile showed her perfect white teeth. “Yes, I look forward to meeting you then, too. One moment, Mr. Feylor.”
She clicked her ear again.
“Twenty-Five,” she said. The blue guy came over to stand near Vi. “You will bring this to settle in with the others. Pair it with… Let’s see…” She leaned back to inspect her desk. “Seventeen is available. For now, this one will be registered as Eighty-Three. Do not brand it yet, not until we’ve removed its owner, but let me know any marks of ownership that are found. Run them by Krayath, and see if he can do a records check. I want to know exactly what I’m taking on, before I take this beyond a simple misunderstanding.”
The blue guy, Twenty-Five, nodded and pulled Vi out of the room, not un-gently but firmly. She glanced back, but the woman had resumed talking. The two goons stood uselessly, still waiting at her desk for their reward.
It looked like the woman was going to be awhile.
“Well,” the woman said into her ear. “I think we have the planet for that, assuming—”
Vi didn’t hear the last of the sentence as Twenty-Five pulled her away and down a back hallway to a set of stairs.
“Twenty-Five?” she whispered, now that they were out of earshot.
“Hush now, you know better. …Or do you? Seems I’ll need to get you accustomed to the rules here.”
Vi nodded her head and followed him silently.
26
Haze
First things first, Haze needed to work out a plan for his tail and skin coloring.
Most aliens here were red, purple or brown, so he handled that first. He injected his skin with a ten hour adjust that would add red pigment to his skin and leave him a dusty brown. He would become a much more neutral-looking alien, boring, but it might do the trick.
He couldn’t do much about his height, but he dug a coat out of storage that would hide his build somewhat. Conveniently, it also had an inner strap he could use to hide his tail. With his tail restrained, his balance would be off, but he’d manage.
After a moment’s thought, he added a hat to the pile.
The problem with wearing a hat and coat on a hot, dusty planet was that it could potentially draw more attention, not less.
In a fit of inspiration, he grabbed a mask out of the shuttle to wear. Now, he should pass as someone with a severe dust aversion.
Of course, now, he probably didn’t need the pigment injection. Fraska. As it wore off, that chemical was going to make his skin itch like crazy.
Time to make some destructive inroads into local politics.
He set his wristband to give him a countdown to twenty-four hours, about the time when he expected to have put this mess far behind him. He also set up an encrypted packet blast for forty-eight hours from now, his last ditch timeframe. It would trigger the shuttle to send Xeo its current coordinates and any other data Haze might upload in the intervening time.
At least the Xeo could collect the shuttle and whatever data he could send them, so that, if he failed, they could succeed in freeing Vi.
Not that he would fail.
He ran a quick test and the packet was uploaded with test data from his wristband. All was in order, so long as he could keep his wristband’s shortwave transmitter within range of the shuttle. He figured thirty clicks would cover reaching the posh merchant and wrangling the location of the Boss’s hideout from him.
First thing when he got back though: more weapons training for Vi. A frasken load of weapons for her personal use. He’d gladly burn his own credits for that. And a frasken communicator. Everything that s
hould have been handled before this hurried trip.
He had this feeling about Vi. There was no way she wouldn’t have taken them out if he’d left her a weapon. But if she’d used a weapon against a slaver? She would have been hung in the square for all to see. On the other hand, if he’d brought Vi with him, she might have been killed by the idiot that killed Nethar.
As much as it pained Haze, at least this way Vi was alive.
He headed back to town by way of a different, circuitous route. It took longer. He hated the wasted minutes, but at all cost, the shuttle’s location must be protected. It was still their best way off this rock.
Not for the first time, he lamented them ever being in this ass-end of the universe.
The first thing he did was render a hotel worker unconscious and use the man’s universal key to check their room. The room was empty, his pack gone. The only thing he found was Vi’s drawing pad, left discarded on the floor, and the little trinket he’d bought her.
He glanced a moment at the drawings. They were so much of what Vi represented to him, full of movement and life. He would return these to her, even if he had to take out the entire planet to do it.
He hesitated at the sparkly, used reconstituter part. It was completely out of date, worthless, but he couldn’t leave it here. It was now something more than it’s function. He’d place it into her hands as he placed a kiss upon her lips.
He adjusted the pack on his back, now more precious to him than anything. He’d certainly brought enough ammo. Probably enough for three shots for each waste of space on this planet, which was more than enough for any Mahdfel worth the name.
27
Violet
The basement of the grand house seemed to be given over completely to the slave business.
Twenty-Five led her to a guard station with one bored-looking soldier, sitting at a desk. He was one of the red-skinned aliens, tall and bulky like the goons who’d captured her. Vi tensed in aversion.
Haze (The Telorex Pact Book 2) Page 10
