“Figured as much,” Larry said, not bothering to keep the smugness from his tone, especially given that Friday had been the one to suggest Jack’s ringtone. “He’d never have found it otherwise. That one goes way, way back.”
“It is, however, a song that you listen to with relative frequency,” Friday pointed out. “And you are brothers. Therefore, the choice seemed fairly obvious.”
Althea peered at him through narrowed eyes. “You listen to that one a lot? I’m surprised. You’ve never struck me as the type to have a problem with unrequited love.”
“I dunno why I’ve always liked that song. I just do.” Then again, as a Zetithian man who had spent his entire life keeping his dick securely in his pants to avoid hooking the wrong woman with his joy juice, perhaps he could relate to the lyrics after all. He’d had as many fantasies and crushes as any teenage boy. He simply knew better than to act on them.
Time to get back to the rescue business.
“So, Friday, where are the Statzeelians now?” he asked as he stepped into his shoes.
“They are currently in Dartula’s quarters.”
“Both of them?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Hmm… Do they strike you as being too busy to be disturbed?”
“I believe so.”
He glanced at Al. “What do you say we do a little reconnaissance on our own?”
“That might be best,” she replied. “If we all went together, we might draw too much attention to ourselves. We can contact them when we find something definite.”
He looked up at the computer’s receiver again. “We’ll be checking out the area where Al started feeling bad this afternoon, Friday. Better let Brak know where we went in case he has to come and rescue us.”
“I will comply,” Friday said.
Now fully clothed, he held out a hand to Althea. “We’ll go ahead and take the speeder. It’s risky, but I don’t relish tromping across the open plain in the middle of the night. I can cloak it on the way, although I don’t like the idea of parking it cloaked. We might have trouble finding it ourselves.”
Even though the romantic interlude had passed, a thrill crept up his arm when she grasped his hand. “Your speeder has a cloaking device?” Barely a second passed before she let out a groan. “Oh, don’t tell me you got it from Veluka.”
“Yeah.” Raising her hand to his lips, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “That was another modification Mom thought might be useful, and since you can only buy cloaking technology from a Nerik—legally, anyway—Veluka was the obvious choice.” Larry had his own ideas about how legal the transaction had been, particularly since cloaked speeders were outlawed on many worlds. The speeder itself might not be illegal, but getting caught using the cloak could end up costing him a bundle in fines.
Althea shook her head slowly. “I’ll never understand why she trusts him.”
“Me neither. Although I think their mutual lack of trust is what makes them trustworthy. Mom doesn’t trust him any farther than she can kick him, and Veluka doesn’t trust anybody. Theirs is a pretty strange relationship. It works for them, though—kinda like a double negative equaling a positive.”
“Never thought about it like that, but it makes sense—in a weird Jack-and-Veluka sort of way.” She covered a yawn as they made their way down the corridor. “Let’s make this quick, shall we? I could really use some sleep. It’s been a very long and highly eventful day.”
* * *
Althea wasn’t kidding. Even though she was young and strong, she’d been through quite a lot on a day that began long before the sun rose over Thewbeohol. With speed being of the utmost importance, Brak hadn’t timed their arrival on Palorka to coincide with the ship’s clocks. As they hurried along the corridor toward the docking bay, she felt…peculiar. Not quite like she had that afternoon but similar. Although she was quite certain she wasn’t sensing anyone else’s emotions aside from her own.
That was, until they came face-to-face with Brak, who stood at the door to the bay with his wings outstretched, barring the way.
“And what, pray tell, are you two doing heading out in the middle of the night?”
“Didn’t Friday tell you?” Althea asked. “Larry had a vision about where the Guardians are being held. We’re going to take a look around so we’ll know where to go when the time comes to free them.”
Brak folded his wings and tilted his long body forward and down until his eyes were level with Althea’s own. “And give their kidnappers enough warning to move them someplace else?”
A sideways glance at Larry’s chagrined expression proved he hadn’t considered that possibility either. “We hadn’t thought of that.”
“I suspected as much. If you will wait a few minutes, Keplok and Dartula will be here, and we can all go together.”
“Together?” she echoed. “We thought it best not to be quite so…conspicuous.”
Brak raised one eye. “Four Zetithians and a Scorillian? Even if we split up, how could we not be conspicuous?”
“I can’t argue with that.” Ever since they’d landed, Althea had felt like the proverbial sore thumb.
“It’s really dark,” Larry offered.
“Palorkan night vision is excellent,” Brak said informatively. “Almost as good as yours.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to wait for the Duo.” In an aside to Althea, Larry muttered, “Not much hope of convincing the bug when he’s got his wings in a wad.”
“I heard that,” Brak snapped.
“What’s got you so bent out of shape anyway?” Larry hesitated, then aimed a scathing glance at Althea. “You just had to tell him about the cream, didn’t you?”
She stared back at him, her hands firmly on her hips. “Whether it’s true or not, telling him only seemed fair.”
“Never mind that,” Brak screeched. “We have magic monkeys and stolen children to rescue.” The snap of his pincers was like the crack of a whip. “Where are those cursed Statzeelians?”
“We’re coming,” Keplok replied as he rounded the corner with Dartula trotting alongside him. “Although we would have come several more times if you’d left us alone.” Astonishingly, he grinned at his brother. “I get the joke now.”
“Well, thank my Maker’s wings for that.” Brak raked the newcomers from head to toe with a scrutinizing glare. “I see we are all wearing our combadges and are armed and ready to face the enemy as requested.”
Not only was Keplok wearing his sword, but he and Dartula were both carrying Nedwut pulse rifles. Brak himself was wearing two bandoliers bristling with various tools and weapons slung across his upper body. How he’d managed to get them on without help was a mystery, but apparently when it came to organizing an impromptu rescue mission, Brak and Friday had been even “busier” than the Zetithian contingent.
“You four take the speeder,” Brak continued. “I will fly on ahead and warn you of any opposition in your path.” He rolled his eyes toward Larry. “I trust you two know where you’re going?”
“Yep,” Larry replied. “I’m guessing Friday told you all about my vision.”
“Thankfully, someone did. Honestly, the first decent clue we’ve had, and you leave it to the computer to tell me?”
“She did tell you—which, by the way, I asked her to do—so stop being such a butt.” He waited half a beat. “And will you please move out of the way so we can get into the hangar bay?”
“What? Oh, right.” Brak’s accoutrements clanked together as he scuttled to one side of the corridor, which still didn’t leave a whole lot of room to squeeze past him. “Sorry, Captain.”
“Right then,” Larry said. “Let’s get this show on the road.” Darting past the Scorillian, he shouted, “Open the hatch please, Friday, and keep it open. We’ll probably be in one hell of a hurry when we come back. Start the prelaunch sequence
as soon as we clear the bay doors.”
“I will comply, Captain.”
He slid into the pilot’s seat while Althea climbed in beside him. The Duo had barely settled into the rear seats when Larry closed the canopy. As the hangar bay’s double doors slowly opened, Brak flew by them in a blur of his nicely moisturized wings.
“I won’t cloak us until we get across the plain,” Larry announced. “Everyone stay sharp once we’re cloaked. This is not the time to let some drunken Palorkan smash into us.”
As the engine began to whine, he ran his finger up the accelerator icon. With another tap on the controls, the speeder shot through the open doors and out into the night.
Chapter 25
The force of acceleration kept Althea’s back pressed firmly against the seat until they were almost to the outskirts of Thewbeohol, when Larry finally backed off the throttle.
“Engaging the cloak now,” he said. “If any of you see something about to ram us, give a yell.”
Despite the whine of the speeder’s engine, they seemed to draw very little attention as they sped through the nearly deserted city streets. Aside from the occasional solitary male Palorkan, Althea only spotted a few night prowlers slinking into the shadows beyond the pools of light from the hovering streetlamps.
Her own emotions were more than enough to deal with, but they were nothing compared to those emanating from the two in the rear seats. Excitement, fear, anticipation, and even a tiny bit of annoyance had bombarded her mind during the short trip.
Gratitude was not among them, an omission that left her feeling slightly miffed. They were, after all, about to rescue the Guardians. Without Larry’s vision and her ability to sense their presence, the Duo would’ve been hard-pressed to find the tiny primates, let alone set them free.
They certainly couldn’t have done it without Brak. She pressed her lips together, holding back a laugh as she recalled the assortment of tools and gadgets he apparently deemed necessary for their mission. The bandoliers surprised her a little, mainly because she’d never given much thought to how a Scorillian would carry a weapon, or anything else for that matter. It wasn’t as though he had any pockets.
“Sure looks a lot different in the dark,” Larry muttered as he turned off the main square. “We were about two blocks into the animal section when you started feeling bad, right?”
“I think it was closer to three,” Althea replied. “Although my mind was a bit off-kilter at the time.”
“It was three,” Dartula supplied from the rear seat. “There were two more blocks of animals after we left you.”
“Guess we should’ve come in the other way,” Larry commented. “Would’ve been more direct.” He tapped his combadge. “See anything from up there, Brak?”
“Nothing remarkable,” Brak replied over the link. “In fact, I can’t even see you, although I can read your signal.”
“Glad to hear it. Speeders don’t usually kick up much dust, but as dry as it is around here, I was afraid we might leave a wake.”
Leaving a wake was the least of Althea’s worries. A dozen different scenarios ran through her head, none of them good. The possibility that the trader who’d told the Statzeelians about the Palorkan market was in on the scheme and that this was an elaborate trap was first and foremost in her mind. On a world such as this, there was an even chance that they might be captured and sold as slaves themselves.
No. Probably not. That guy wouldn’t have had any idea who would be sent on this mission, and she doubted there was a market for Statzeelians. The males were too crabby, and the females were already too damn good at making their own brand of “slavery” look like the real thing. They’d have a rebellion organized in no time, although very few males knew that.
The kidnappers’ hideout would surely be crawling with guards. Anyone who would go to the trouble of trapping monkeys and transporting them across the galaxy would go to great lengths to protect their investment. And with most of the local populace heavily armed at all times, she doubted a shooting fight would end well for any of the participants.
Then there were the victims themselves. She could make the telepathic suggestion for the Guardians to follow them to the Stooge, but she couldn’t force them to do anything against their will. The children posed a different problem. Transporting them in the speeder was possible, but she hated the thought of having to leave some of them behind if they couldn’t get them all in one trip.
She’d known the little primates were worried about someone other than themselves, but she hadn’t imagined that children would be involved. Although she should have. Why else would they have been so upset?
Larry gave her a nudge, interrupting her reverie—or to be more precise, her mental turmoil. “This looks like the place. I’m pretty sure that’s the bench we were sitting on after you had your dizzy spell. Might slide the speeder in beside it. The overhang will make good cover.”
“You’re sure you can’t park it cloaked?”
He sighed. “I probably should. We can use our combadges to find it again, but the palm lock only responds to my hand, so I’ll have to leave it open for whoever ends up flying it. Which reminds me…” He looked back at Dartula and Keplok. “Can either of you fly a speeder?”
“We do not have such conveyances on Statzeel,” Keplok replied. “However, I have watched you enough that I believe I could fly it if needed.”
Althea almost turned around to assure herself that Keplok was indeed the one who’d spoken. Apparently, getting friendly with Dartula had made a new man of him—or at least taken the edge off the old one.
“Same here,” Dartula said. “I think I could do it if I had to.”
“It has an autopilot setting.” Larry pointed to an amber-colored button. “You can access the computer by tapping this button. It lights up when the computer is engaged. Then all you have to do is tell the computer where you want to go. It isn’t much good at evasive maneuvers, and it won’t work if you’re cloaked.” He indicated a different button. “This red one engages and disengages the cloak. If you’re cloaked, you’ll have to fly manually.”
Althea’s worries intensified, making her blurt out the worst of her fears. “What if they’re already wise to us and have moved the Guardians to a new location?”
Larry frowned. “You’re questioning the validity of my vision?”
“No, but we may have tipped them off by wandering around asking questions. You said they were underground, and while that may be true, they could be underground in a place that’s nowhere near the market.”
“Then we’re screwed,” Larry said. “But visions are usually more helpful than that. I think we have to trust it.”
“What is this vision of which you speak?” The edge might’ve been gone, but Keplok still sounded rather pompous.
“Zetithians get them once in a while,” Larry replied. “It’s how Dad knew who redirected the asteroid that destroyed our planet. Sometimes they involve the future, and sometimes they show something happening in the present. Either way, they’re nearly always correct.”
“Yes, but they don’t give you all the answers,” Althea pointed out. “And they can be misinterpreted.”
“I’ll grant you that,” Larry said. “Unfortunately, right now my vision and your empathic impressions are all we have to go on.”
She threw up her hands. “Okay. Let’s just park this damn thing and get on with it. Mulling over the possibilities has me more weirded out than I was this afternoon.” She huffed out a breath. “Honestly, I feel—” Her next words caught in her throat as a new wave of anxiety struck her like a thunderbolt.
“Feel what?”
“The Guardians,” she whispered. “They’re here.” Closing her eyes, she could imagine exactly where they were. “Right over”—she pointed her finger ahead and slightly to the left—“there.”
She opened her eyes
to find herself pointing at a building across the street. The irregular outline of the windowless structure was as peculiar as it was unmistakable. “I remember it now. I could see it when I was sitting on the bench.”
“We were that close and never knew,” Dartula said. “If we’d come here without you guys, we’d still be wandering around asking questions.”
“Or you’d have had a vision of your own,” Larry said. “You’re Zetithian enough to have them.”
“Maybe,” Dartula conceded. “I’ve never heard of any of us on Statzeel having visions. Or maybe we didn’t know what they were.”
“That’s possible,” Althea said. “Your mothers weren’t exactly given an owner’s manual to explain Zetithian culture and mysticism.” She thanked the gods her mother was around to help her understand her Mordrial powers. If she’d had to figure out those abilities and the Zetithian oddities on her own, she’d have gone bonkers long ago.
“Okay. Enough talk.” Larry maneuvered the speeder alongside the bench and lowered the parking struts. “I’ll go ahead and leave the speeder cloaked. You’ll run right into it if you head for that bench.” He popped the canopy and climbed out. “No matter where we go, we’ll likely be outnumbered and maybe even outgunned, so let’s try not to provoke anyone unless we have no alternative.”
The Duo didn’t say a word as they exited the speeder, and neither did Althea. Larry had already voiced some of her fears. She saw no need to add to the general angst.
Her own anxiety level was high enough as it was.
* * *
Larry knew his mother had dealt with a number of dangerous situations in the six years it took to find her kidnapped sister. Until she’d teamed up with his father, she’d faced them alone. There might be safety in numbers, but there was also an inherent sense of freedom in having no one to worry about aside from yourself. The fear that someone you cared about might be at risk affected your judgment in ways that could end up getting you both killed. If it weren’t for his vision and his firm sense of right and wrong, he might have said to hell with it and high-tailed it back to the Stooge.
Maverick Page 25
