“You drop them in the sea?” Seb said, unable to avoid looking at the dark stains in the concrete by his feet again. Even drowning seemed like a better prospect than the torture device he’d been chained to. Drowning would be over relatively quickly.
“The creature who’s now at the bottom of the sea had a lucrative business in trafficking children,” Buster said.
An involuntary wince twisted through Seb to hear that information, but he fought against it. As much as he wanted to believe what Buster had said to him, he couldn’t take this creature at face value. He needed to remain objective until the lizard proved he wasn’t a psychopath.
“Anyway, this isn’t about him. This is about you. I must say, if Owsk hadn’t vouched for you, I’m not sure we’d even be having this conversation now. You knocked out one of my guards. I’d like you to apologise to him.”
The tall mandulu stepped from behind Seb. It had a swelling on its fat face.
When Seb twisted to try to look at the office space behind him—his chains rattling—he couldn’t get far enough around to see. “Have you got any more of your crew hiding in the shadows?”
His hands clasped together in front of him, Buster repeated, “I’d like you to apologise to him.”
“For him shoving a gun into the back of my head?”
“For knocking him out.”
“Knocking mandulus out is like swatting flies. Something I’d do without much thought or effort. A bit like trampling daisies when walking through a field. How am I supposed to apologise for that?”
“Just apologise to him.”
Seb looked back at the mandulu. “I’m sorry you’re so easy to knock out. Even if you are a big lump.”
“Is that it?” Buster said.
A sigh and Seb looked back at the mandulu again. “I’m sorry you have such a punchable face.”
“My patience is wearing thin, Seb.”
Unable to suppress his smile, Seb looked back at the mandulu and winked.
The beast tensed and straightened its back.
Seb’s smile broadened. “Sorry.”
Silence swept through the office again as they clearly waited for more from him.
The mandulu then looked at Buster. After a short and sharp nod from the lizard, the fat-jawed creature walked out of the office into the warehouse beyond. He slammed the door on his way out, the thin office wall shaking as a loud crack swept around the place.
“Bit temperamental,” Seb said. “Having so many mandulus must make you feel like you’re living with a group of teenagers.”
Buster glared at him. “I’ve not known you long, but I feel like I understand you already.”
The lizard’s tone had changed. A little darker than before, it lifted panic into Seb’s chest, tightening his lungs. As much as he’d stand toe to toe with the short reptile, in his current predicament, he had no chance. His shaky delivery undermined his cocksure words. “How wonderful, a pop psychologist. You can never get enough of them.”
“I think you’re not very good at making friends.”
“You just said Owsk vouched for me.” Seb looked at Owsk. “Thanks for that, buddy. Although, you did lead me into this.”
“I heard what you did to the Piscents,” Buster said.
It even hurt to frown through the beating he’d taken, but Seb couldn’t prevent it at that moment. “The what now?”
“My sub,” Owsk said, his tone cold, his expression below freezing.
“Oh. Yeah. Well, I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. I wish I could take it back.”
The emotion returned and Owsk raised his voice, his words echoing in the small office. “You keep doing what you think’s the right thing. The problem is, you don’t seem to think it through very well.”
“Give me another example where that’s true,” Seb said.
“Um, I dunno … leaving your friends behind, maybe?”
After looking from Owsk and back to Seb a couple of times, Buster laughed. “So he does have friends, then? Don’t get me wrong, there’s something about his spirit I admire, much like I would a wilful child, but I find it hard to believe he’d have actual real-life friends.”
“I know.” Owsk shrugged. “Hard to believe, right? Although I would imagine his friends are a lot smarter than him.” Then he turned back to Seb. “Maybe you should take their counsel from time to time. Maybe you wouldn’t end up in so much shit.”
The desire to get at Owsk tugged on Seb’s sore frame, but even the slightest of movements met the resistance of the taut chains. Were he not bound to the metal rack, he would have swung for him by now despite vouching for Seb to keep him alive, and having helped get him away from Moses.
“Anyway”—Buster stepped between Seb and Owsk—“regardless of your clear hatred for one another, Owsk still vouched for you. He said, although you’re an arsehole, you fly straight.”
Seb shrugged and the chains rattled again. He looked at Owsk. “You have to understand that I didn’t know what that sub meant to you.” He then added in a softer tone, “I’m truly sorry.”
Although Owsk looked like he wanted to reply, Buster lifted the dead grub up to Seb. “We took the liberty of removing this thing from your pocket. You want to find out where it’s from, right? This is a part of your crusade to make the galaxy a better place?”
Seb nodded.
“Well, I can find out. And seeing as you’re such a nice guy—that’s sarcasm, by the way—I’ll do it free of charge. Although understand this is a favour to Owsk, not you.”
Seb held onto his snarky impulse and simply said, “Thank you.”
“But I need a few hours.”
“I haven’t got a few hours.”
“I hear you’ve upset the big man, so you’re right, you really don’t have a few hours. I’d imagine a bounty’s already on your head. But, whether you have a few hours or not, I still need them to find out about this creature. If you can’t wait, I can’t help you.” While holding the grub in Seb’s direction, Buster said, “You’re welcome to take it back and find someone else.”
“You know I can’t find anyone else.”
Buster walked around the back of the robust frame and unlocked the chains holding Seb in place. The rush of heavy metal fell to the ground with a whoosh, gathering at Seb’s feet like large metal snakes.
Once free of his bonds, Seb tried to roll some of the pain out of his sore body by twisting and turning.
Buster walked back around to stand in front of him. “So I’ll see you in … let’s say three hours?”
“It’s not like I have a choice, is it?”
“We always have a choice. It’s just sometimes the alternatives aren’t very desirable. So see you back here in three hours?”
A slight shrug, Seb did his best to hide his petulance. “Fine.” He didn’t do a very good job of it.
CHAPTER 10
Neither Seb nor Owsk spoke as they stepped out of Buster’s office into the warehouse beyond. Seb pulled the door closed behind him, the flimsy wood so thin it felt like cardboard.
A deep breath, Seb released some of his tension with a hard exhale. Thankfully he’d managed to walk out of Buster’s office rather than leave the warehouse through the hole in the damp concrete ground. It might never have been the plan for him, but he’d had no way of knowing that at the time.
The large shutter remained up, the sun shining in through the huge space leading to the docks outside. Despite the bright glow, some corners of the warehouse remained impenetrably dark. Seb thought about the figure he’d seen when he’d been caught in the net. Lightning forks of pain ran through his face when he squinted to try to see better into the shadows. It made no difference. If they were there, he couldn’t see them.
“I’m sorry,” Seb said again, his voice echoing through the seemingly empty warehouse. “If I’d have known about the sub, I swear …” he trailed off. What more could he say about it?
Owsk didn’t respond.
T
o get out of the warehouse, they had to pass the hole in the ground. Seb relived the moment when he’d seen the trafficker dropped into it. Not that he felt sorry for the creature, not if what Buster had said about it was true. Although, to look into the dark hole—the undulations of the sea running through the deep water—made his lungs tight and his breaths quicken. Because of his fists, he swam like a rock at the best of times, never mind being bound in heavy chains. Also, he had no SA to save him either.
“You know, you need to learn to stop being such a dick,” Owsk finally said.
Seb bit back his initial reaction. At least they were talking. After a couple of seconds, he said, “I’ve had trouble with mouthing off before.”
“Hmm,” Owsk said.
“What does hmm mean?”
“And you haven’t learned the lesson yet? You know Buster’s OG, right? You joked about it, but he is. If he didn’t owe me favours, then you’d be at the bottom of the sea like that rat he dropped in there earlier.”
“It looked more like a hedgehog to me.”
When Owsk shot him a glare, Seb pressed his lips tightly shut. A few seconds later, he added, “I hate to think what the seabed beneath this place looks like.”
“Well, don’t. Maybe think about what you can do to avoid being thrown down there with them.”
“You could have told me what you were doing. I wanted to trust you, but when you led me into a welcoming party like that …”
Owsk tutted at Seb and shook his head. “You need to take responsibility for your actions.” Saltier than the air around them, the troll looked away, a craggy frown on his face.
The wind caught Seb off guard again when he stepped out of the warehouse. It crashed into him and threw him a couple of steps sideways, making the fabric of his trousers and top flap. Heavy with salt, the saline breeze had teeth that now chewed at the corners of Seb’s eyes and mouth. As much as he wanted to rub them, it only made them worse. Besides, the bruising hurt too much to touch.
“I can’t help it,” Seb finally said, raising his voice over the howling wind.
Owsk kept up a brisk pace as he led them out of there, but he still turned to look at Seb as he walked. “Help what?”
“My reaction to tense situations. I know I turn into a dick. I should be dead by now a million times over. The thing is, when you can knock a creature out like I can, it makes you fearless.”
“Stupid, more like.”
The words stung, but Seb couldn’t deny them. The taste of salt dried his throat when he swallowed. He then dipped a nod of concession at his granite friend. “Yeah, okay, stupid.”
Owsk shook his head. “It doesn’t matter how well you can fight when someone shoots a metal net at you.”
Another nod. “I’ve found that out.” The words stuck in Seb’s throat as if his thirst clung onto them. “I’m sorry. Again. And thank you for vouching for me.”
“I’m vouching for the prophecy. I believe in it.”
The spaceport loaded with ships filled Seb’s view. What would a few hours out there be like? Bad enough being human. But being human and being wanted by Moses …
Owsk stopped. Seb did too. The rock troll held a card in Seb’s direction.
Black and plastic, the rectangle was no more than four inches wide and three inches tall.
Seb took it in a pinch and examined it. A plain black card. “What’s this?”
“It’s a travel card.”
“Huh?”
“My family have been smugglers for centuries.” After a deep breath as if to hold his emotions back, Owsk said, “As you know.”
Seb nodded, the image of Owsk’s sinking submarine running through his mind yet again.
“There’s a network of smugglers who all have these cards. Show them to any ship’s captain and they’ll grant you free passage on their vessel.”
“Any captain?”
“As long as they’re not affiliated with any government or enforcement agency, yes.”
Seb turned the black card over as if it would make something magically appear on it where it hadn’t been before. “They don’t look very hard to forge. How will the captain know to trust me?”
Owsk removed what looked like a small lamp from his pocket, flicked a switch on the side, and held it over the card. An emblem glowed on the black plastic. A circle with a submarine in the centre of it.
Neither Seb nor Owsk spoke as they both stared down at the card. The wind buffeted Seb’s hair and clothes. He had to tense different parts of his body to fight against its push and shove. Owsk stood seemingly impervious to its effect, a rock in every sense.
When Owsk finally looked up at Seb, tears stood in his granite eyes. Although, when he spoke, his voice showed no hint of the emotion he clearly felt. “They’ll know it’s from me and that it’s legit. They’ll let you on their ship, no questions asked. You can be a ghost with this card and go wherever you need to.”
“It seems like you’ve made a lot of friends and connections in your time,” Seb said. Where he’d seen him as a small and meek character when he’d met him in the prison, he now saw him as so much more. Strength didn’t always have to be worn like a badge of honour.
“I try my best,” Owsk finally said. “Now get out of sight for a few hours. You’ll need to go back to the warehouse on your own. I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve lost days being locked up in that damn cell. Days and hundreds of credits.”
Seb opened his mouth to speak, but Owsk cut him off.
“Days, hundreds of credits, and a submarine.”
Sadness sank through Seb’s weary frame.
“Should you need any more help from me,” Owsk said, “ask one of the captains to put a call out, and I’ll come.”
Before Owsk could say anything else, Seb stepped forward and hugged the creature. Despite his rough appearance, the strange-looking rock troll had a heart of gold. “Thank you.”
Owsk didn’t return the embrace, standing board stiff until Seb pulled away from him.
“Learn your lessons, Seb Zodo. This galaxy needs what you can bring to it. I just hope you have the presence of mind to work out what that is.” And with that, Owsk turned his back on Seb and walked towards the spaceport.
The wind seemed to blow harder now that Seb found himself on his own. Harder and colder. Owsk had just shown him how it paid to make friends in this life. Not everything had to be a battle.
CHAPTER 11
Seb could have followed Owsk out into the spaceport to try to prolong their friendship, but he held back. Mainly because the rock troll had made it clear that their time together had come to an end. Not only had Seb sunk his legacy, but to associate with a human so publicly would be a black mark from virtually every other species. A human that maybe already had a bounty on his head. And if he didn’t yet, he would soon. Besides, Seb had already asked too much of him, and Owsk had more than settled his debt for being broken out of the prison. Maybe their paths would cross again at some point.
The black card in his hand, Seb turned it over while he continued to stare at it. Owsk’s emblem had glowed so brightly when he’d passed his lamp over it, but he couldn’t see any trace of it now. To think of the submarine logo twisted another pang through his chest.
Still burning with the pain of the beating he’d taken from the pack of mandulus, Seb squinted against the wind as he looked over his shoulder at the warehouse. The salty onslaught continued to sting his eyes and forced his hair back. It rocked him where he stood.
Seb took the same route out of there that Owsk had about ten minutes previously. As he walked the pathway—flanked by two ships—he looked at each of the vessels. The one on his right loomed over him, casting the entire path in shadow. A flying warehouse, it must have made a fortune in freight if it filled its hull.
The ship on Seb’s left must have been used for something other than smuggling. Small and aerodynamic, it clearly only carried passengers. Quite unusual on Aloo, as it seemed that most of the vessels there
had a cargo of some sort. Why else would they come here? Maybe it was a satellite ship coming down from a larger fleet.
The second Seb stepped out into the walkway, the raucous commotion of a bustling spaceport crashed into him, hitting him harder than the wind had. A swirl of tens, if not hundreds, of conversations came at him from all angles. The collective funk of so many beasts and their meals forced him to crinkle his nose in disgust, aggravating the throbbing pain in his face. The thought of the sea slug he’d tried to eat the last time he’d visited turned his stomach.
It only took a few seconds before Seb could feel the attention of nearly every being on him. His world slipped into slow motion, but with such a large crowd around him, he had no chance of getting out of there if they turned on him.
A look to his left, Seb saw two brown, rocky creatures standing by their open ship. They both wore guns slung across their fronts, and they both held them like they’d use them in a heartbeat. Like they were desperate for the excuse, in fact. He dropped his attention to the ground.
A few steps later, Seb looked at the creatures on his right and met a similar hostility. Laser crossbows in their grips, the tall tree-like beings glowered at him. From left to right and everything in between, every being he looked at in the dense crowd seemed to be watching him.
As much as he tried to regulate his pulse with slow breaths, it did nothing, his heart hammering with such ferocity it threw him off stride. When he crashed into a large purple-skinned brute, it raised its top lip in a snarl at him.
After he’d walked no more than about twenty metres, both of Seb’s shoulders hurt from where creature after creature had barged into him. To kick off now would start a fight he couldn’t win. A fight the crowd seemed to want. He still couldn’t tell if the hostility came from him being human, or if Moses had put the word out that he wanted him. A pain in his jaw from clenching it, he pushed on through the dense crowd.
At least Seb saw everything in slow motion. It made it much easier to navigate the hostile press of bodies, even if there were too many to avoid all the collisions. Biting his tongue as well as holding onto his physical desire to lash out, he looked up to see the next beast heading his way.
Fugitive: A Space Opera: Book Five of The Shadow Order Page 5
