Of course, he had his own ship to launch off world, but Galton would be too unconscious to do anything about stopping him.
As they approached the large gates, the shouting in the courtyard seemed to change in intensity. Lianna found a spot to climb and slung the rifle on a strap over her shoulder as she nimbly scaled the wall.
An alarm sounded, and the sentries on the gates were looking all kinds of bamboozled as they approached, no clue if they should hold their positions or go inside. Rian and Jase fixed their problems by knocking them out.
Rian hefted one of the unconscious men and held his limp hand up to the palm scanner, making the gates unlock and swing inward.
Qae didn’t wait for the others, but squeezed through as soon as there was a gap wide enough, leading with his gun. The courtyard was emptying fast, and none of Galton’s men paid the least bit of attention to the opening gates since the message had told them the threat was already inside. Galton obviously didn’t keep them around for their IQs.
“Morons,” he muttered as he shoved his gun into the holster and ran across the courtyard toward the cage.
Despite the audience leaving, the fight continued on. The two guys both looked worse for wear, so equally matched neither could get the upper hand. Cami, however, had the other woman down, and she delivered a vicious kick to the woman’s head, knocking her clean out.
Cami didn’t even pause to catch her breath, ignoring the split lip and blood dripping down her face from a cut above her eyebrow. She launched herself at the bigger dude and leaped onto his back.
The cage looked to have some kind of bio lock, which meant picking it would be next to impossible. If Tannin had been here, he probably could have hacked it, but since Qae wasn’t a tech genius the next best thing was—
He yanked the ion blaster out of his lower back holster and fired at the mechanism. It popped and flashed, and was apparently connected to the electrified fence, because sparks started raining down from all over, like fireworks exploding in his face. He ducked back, losing sight of Cami for a second as a final surge flashed blinding white.
When the blue electrical smoke cleared, he hurried forward to yank open the broken gate. Cami was holding onto the dark hair guy, the two of them hunkered down in the middle of the cage. The bigger guy had apparently been too close to the fence and got cooked, extra crispy.
“Cami!”
Her head snapped up and she scrambled out of the other guy’s hold as she saw him.
“Qae!”
They collided into each other, and he grabbed her up tightly against him. Thank jezus. He could breathe again.
“Are you okay?” He pulled back to look down at her. Beside all the blood, a bruise was forming under her left eye that promised to be a decent shiner.
“I’m fine. Nothing happened to me. Except this fight. But I found my brother!”
She stepped out of his hold and motioned to the other guy, who was still crouching where she’d left him, head down, blood dripping onto the mat near his boots.
“Dare!” Cami hurried back over to him and lifted his head up.
He winced, probably because his face was even more messed up than hers.
“I’m okay, just a bit dizzy.”
“You need a doctor.” Cami glanced up at him. “Where’s Kira? Is she back on the Imojenna?”
“She should be by now, yeah.” He went over and helped Cami’s brother to his feet, and between the two of him, they got him out of the cage to where the others were waiting.
“We’re going in to clean house on Galton,” Rian said as they stopped in front of him.
“Sounds like a plan.” He was itching to fill the guy with nucleon fire. But Cami needed to take her brother to Kira. “Dareon needs medical attention.”
“I’ll take him,” Jase said, holstering his gun as he stepped forward. He paused to hand Cami his gas mask.
“It’s Dare,” the guy said, sounding woozy but still determined. “No one calls me Dareon. Not unless they want to get punched.”
Jase looped Dare’s arm over his shoulder to take his weight. “Noted. Dare it is. Come on, let’s see if we can’t fix that stunning face of yours.”
“I should go with him.” There was a reluctant tone to Cami’s voice as she watched Jase lead Dare away.
Qae set a hand on her shoulder. “Dare is fine. And no one would blame you if you wanted to sit this one out. I can make sure Galton is taken care of.”
She shook her head, her typical stubbornness returning to her expression. “I came here to face my nightmares and see this through, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Holding out one of her hands, she turned an expectant look on his holstered guns. He held his arms out to the sides.
“Help yourself to whatever you want.”
She yanked on his pulse pistol. “You sure know how to treat a girl right.”
He closed the distance between them, sealing his mouth over hers gently, doing his best to avoid her split lip. But he couldn’t have gone another second without kissing her. Not when his insides had been fraying for the past hour.
“Get a room or save it for later,” Rian said in a cool voice, forcing him to end the kiss sooner than he would have liked. “Let’s bag ourselves a bad guy before the sedative gas wears off.”
“Bag him?” Qae asked, catching up to keep pace with Rian as he strode purposefully toward the doors, pulling his gas mask into place. Qae scrambled to get his own on.
“Killing Galton would be passé. We’re going to take him back to Blackstone. I think the corsair’s birthday is coming up, and I can’t think of any better gift than his sworn enemy chained and ready for deliverance.”
Well, there went his plan to shoot Galton in all the soft places. But as furious as he was for what Galton had done to Cami, Blackstone’s rage had to be worse. Whatever Blackstone did with Galton, it would be some kind of justice, and Blackstone deserved the recompense more than anyone. Except maybe Dare.
Rian yanked the door open and they went in, guns ready. But just like they’d planned, everyone they came across was all nighty-night with the sedative gas in their systems.
Until they got to the main hall, anyway. Galton and three other men were unsteadily dragging themselves to their feet.
“Why the hell aren’t they unconscious?” he asked, voice muffled through the mask.
“I’ve got a theory.” Rian pulled out his razar and shot Galton, sending him to the floor.
“Oh shite.” Why hadn’t he thought for even a second Galton might be Reidar? It made too much sense.
How long had Rian suspected? The guy was so great at sharing.
Galton slowly got to his feet again, proving Rian’s theory right, because his human disguise was now gone. He stared at them with the hollow gaze and slight sneer typical of all Reidar. They thought themselves so much better than humans.
“That’s a neat little trick.” Galton looked down at his hands, which were now shimmering slightly in the light as if he had scales beneath his skin. “How is it I didn’t know humans possess this technology?”
“We didn’t feel like sharing just yet, dick-face.” Rian had Galton lined up with his nucleon gun. “And it’ll stay our little secret for the time being.”
The Reidar’s sneer deepened. “You really think you’re going to walk out of here alive? How amusing.”
The other three men who hadn’t succumbed to the sedative gas—obviously also Reidar—closed ranks with Galton. Without any warning, they started shooting, sending them all diving for cover. Rian tipped over a table and dropped behind it, Qae and Cami getting down next to him.
Zahli ducked behind a nearby threadbare, stained couch, drawing some of the fire.
“I want Galton alive!” Rian called over the sound of gunfire. “Kill the others. Lianna, I could use that cover fire about now.”
“On it.” Lianna’s voice came through Rian’s comm. A window exploded and one of the Reidar took a shot to the he
ad, fragmenting half his skull.
“Jezus Jones,” he muttered as Galton and the two remaining men scrambled to find cover. “That sniper rifle packs some serious punch.”
“That’s the way Callan liked it.” Rian ducked his head over the top of the table. “They’re making a run for it.”
Qae was on his feet, leaping the edge of the table a spilt second after Rian, to go after them. Cami came with them, while Zahli took up a position to watch their backs, making sure no one could sneak up behind them.
“Tannin, lock down the doors.” Rian demanded as Galton went through an opening at the end of the hall.
“Two minutes,” Tannin responded distractedly, as though he was already working on it from his post inside the Imojenna.
“Make it one.”
They reached the door and paused, needing to check the way was clear before they went charging in there or risk taking ammo to the face if Galton or his men were lying in wait.
Qae went through first, leading with his gun, but only found a bunch of unconscious people and Galton disappearing through another doorway.
“Clear,” he called over his shoulder, already going after the three Reidar.
Rian cursed as he and Cami joined him.
“Tannin, the doors!”
They reached the end of the corridor, and weren’t quite as careful going through. They’d come out in some sort of gallery where Galton had all kinds of expensive shite on display.
“Got it!” Tannin’s triumphant voice came through Rian’s comm. “The doors are my bitch.”
At the end of the gallery, Galton was trying to get through another door and having no luck, his curses echoed off the high ceiling. He ordered one of the other men to fix it.
“No joy, Galton,” Qae said as they stopped a few feet away. “We’re in control of your doors, your environs, your security feeds, and pretty much everything else on your property.”
“You can’t escape,” Rian finished, a cold but gratified gleam in his eyes.
The Reidar’s expression hardened, as though before he hadn’t really considered them a threat, but now he was fully pissed.
“You’re going to—”
“Regret this?” Qae interrupted, rolling his eyes. “For once, couldn’t one of you roaches come up with something original? Or do you really just enjoy mediocrement that much?”
“Mediocrement again?” Cami murmured under her breath.
“Heard it somewhere, seemed appropriate.”
“Enough!” the Reidar snapped. “I will see all of you dead for this. I will gut you from head to toe. I will pull out your entrails and remove your organs one by one, cutting each into tiny pieces until you’re nothing but human mincemeat.”
Qae made a face. “Okay, that was grossly specific. You have a serious problem.”
Galton brought up his gun, but before he could get a shot off, Cami fired, catching him in the hand and sending the weapon spinning out of his grip.
“Kill them!” Galton yelled hoarsely, backing up several steps and letting the other two men step in front of him.
This time, there was no cover to duck behind. It was a straight-up, old-fashioned showdown. But they had the advantage. Rian and he stunned the pair with their razars, disorienting the aliens and forcing them to change back. It sent them stumbling, too dazed to aim, let alone shoot. After that, it was a matter of peppering them with their ion blasters until they went down and stayed that way.
“Now who’s mincemeat?” Qae said with a grin, lowering his gun.
Cami rolled her eyes at him, but Rian was already advancing on Galton. The Reidar scrambled for the gun he’d dropped, except Rian got to him first. He kneed the Reidar in the head, knocking him back. His cousin set a boot on the gun and skittled it backward toward him. Qae stuck his foot out and stopped it under his heel.
“You’re done,” Rian said, not even bothering to point his weapon at the guy. If Galton moved, Rian could put him down in a blink with his freakishly fast reflexes.
“Then kill me. What are you waiting for?”
Rian shook his head, the gleam in his gaze nothing short of maniacal.
“Oh, we’re not going to kill you, we’re all going on a little trip together.”
Chapter Thirty
After all the drama, the week-and-a-bit trip back to the Barbary Belt had been uncomplicated and quiet, which was exactly what Cami needed.
Once they’d left the Maristian system, they’d connected the Ebony Winter and the Imojenna via their airlocks in their respective cargo bays and were traveling as one entity. Which was probably a relief for everyone, since the Imojenna was more than twice the size of Qae’s Ebony Winter and with the airlocks open they had two ships to roam around. But apart from sleeping in Qae’s cabin, she’d spent most of the trip back on the Imojenna with the rest of Rian’s crew.
And her brother, Dare.
Cami still couldn’t believe she had a brother. She could understand why her father had kept it a secret when her mom had been alive, but didn’t know why he’d continued with the lie after she’d died. They were going to have a very frank conversation about it, one that definitely included Dare.
He’d obviously been through a lot in the six years he’d spent as Galton’s slave, but it had made him tough and formidable instead of breaking him. Yet, despite the hard exterior, he was definitely a good guy underneath, and she was looking forward to getting to know him better. Rian had pulsed Dare with a razar when they’d gotten back to the ship, just to make sure he wasn’t Reidar either.
As for the person responsible—actually, person probably wasn’t the right word since Alvar Galton had turned out to be an alien. Rian had a brig on his ship, converted from a storeroom with a barred door instead of a normal hatchway.
The Reidar had been eerily silent since they’d locked him in there. Rian and Varean were taking turns checking on him to make sure he hadn’t killed himself or was trying to escape. But he just sat in the middle of the brig, staring at them with freakishly empty eyes.
Varean had said Alvar was trying to contact other Reidar through that joint consciousness thing all the Reidar shared, but so far, Varean was successfully blocking him from doing it. But Varean couldn’t last forever. It was easy to see he was exhausted from the effort. Luckily, Rian believed once they made it inside the Barbary Belt, the Reidar wouldn’t attempt to come after them, no matter if Alvar did give away their location. He still didn’t know why the hell not—it was something he’d need to figure out eventually.
She’d only gone to look at him once—he had Alvar’s face on again—and once had been more than enough. Since then, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to go any closer than the end of the cargo bay.
“Here you are.”
She glanced over her shoulder to find Qae approaching.
“Here I am,” she murmured.
Qae stopped next to her and pulled her into his arms.
“What are you doing down here? You know Rian and Varean are keeping close tabs on him. He’s not going to escape.”
“I know.” She rested her head against his chest, drawing comfort from him. He’d become her everything so fast. Every night they went to bed together. And every morning they woke up together, and it was the closest thing to paradise she’d ever experienced. “I just can’t help wondering.”
“What?” He pulled back a little to look down at her.
“Do you think he was Reidar back then? Back when my mother was killed and he first abducted me? Or was that the human Alvar, before they replaced him?”
“The only way you’ll know is by asking.” There was a note of concern to Qae’s voice and his expression. “I don’t know if you’d get a straight answer out of him—it—the alien. But I’ll come with you, if you want to try.”
“I think that’s why I keep coming back here. I need to know.”
“Will the answer make it harder or easier to live with what happened?” Qae smoothed a hand over her hair, n
othing but love and support in his gaze.
“I don’t know. But maybe it will help me to understand.”
Qae dropped his arms from around her, but took her hands. “You’re going to do this, then?”
Her throat tightened, apprehension swelling within her, so she nodded instead of replying.
Together, Qae and she walked along the dim, short corridor until they’d stopped in front of the brig.
The Reidar was still sitting in the same spot in the middle of the cell. And now that she knew what he really was, seeing him wearing Alvar’s face made it even creepier.
“Do you remember me?” she asked, stopping a few steps from the bars and releasing Qae’s hand.
The Reidar focused on her, but didn’t reply. “I don’t mean from last week. I mean when I was twelve. When I was first abducted and got these tattoos.”
When she motioned to her arms, the Reidar followed her gaze.
“I remember,” was all he replied. No explanation. No excuse. Nothing.
“So you were the one who killed my mother and abducted me.”
“No.” The Reidar shook his head. “Alvar Galton killed your mother and abducted you. In the confusion when Galton’s forces were raiding that dwarf planet, I had him removed and took his place. You were insignificant to me, so I sent you to the auction with the other slaves.”
It had been the human Alvar, after all. But this Reidar had been responsible for the horrible things that had happened to her at the hands of the slave trader. The real Alvar was long gone and couldn’t pay for what he’d done to her mother. But at least her father would make this alien answer for what had happened to her and Dare.
“Why take my brother?” If she was so insignificant, why had the Reidar repeated Alvar’s plan and taken Dare?
“Blackstone was constantly trying to retaliate for what the real Galton had done to his wife. The boy was simply my insurance to keep Blackstone at bay. As long as Blackstone stayed away and let me be, his son stayed alive.”
“That’s it? That simple?”
Entropy Page 28
