by Kate Rudolph
The ship was running low on fuel and if they didn’t stop in the next couple of days and fill up, Roski wouldn’t need to come after them to take them out, Vita’s own machine would do that for him. But the state of her credit accounts was just as dire as it had been before this job began and she wanted to make this final run before she had to use up the last of her credits. Brax had mentioned something about his own account, but he couldn’t know just how expensive it was to maintain a ship, and she couldn’t bring herself to ask him to keep them in the air. She’d forced him on this mission, even if he didn’t seem to hold that against her. She couldn’t take his money too. She wasn’t a thief.
Okay, if Roski had a pile of credits conveniently lying around, she’d have no qualms stealing that. But that was different. Roski dabbled in slavery. He had every horrible thing coming to him for the evils he had done.
Brax clambered up the ladder into the cockpit and took his seat beside her. He reached out and laced their fingers together and Vita had to bite back a smile. Every time they were in the same room together they couldn’t seem to stop touching each other. It was wonderful and a little terrifying how much she liked it.
“What’s the word from Ygreen?” Brax asked.
Vita let her head loll back and squeezed his hand. “He’ll be sending us a gift to give Roski. But we have to manually upload it to his physical computers. There’s no way it could get past his firewalls and attack the data through the cloud.”
“Well that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?” His tone was a little too light, like he knew that this mission was just at the edge of possible and if anything went wrong they wouldn’t be coming back.
She waited for him to tell her they could back out, that they could leave Roski behind and make their lives somewhere else, but all he did was rub his thumb across the edge of her hand and sit silently beside her.
“You understand why I have to do this.” It hovered between question and statement, and Vita wanted to curse her indecision. She’d lived her life certain of herself for the past ten years, she couldn’t be losing her nerve now.
“He hurt you,” Brax said with an almost scary level of intensity, his eyes briefly flashing blue. “He betrayed you. We can’t let him get away with that. You’re my denya. I’ll defend you and protect you with everything I am.”
If the comm on Vita’s dash hadn’t beeped with an incoming call at that exact moment, Vita would have climbed all over Brax and shown him what those words did to her. Instead she had to take a breath to cool off before engaging the call.
Ygreen’s twitchy face came through clearly, another sign of Brax’s deft hand with her machinery. “There’s a drop box in Haraydop on Jaaxis. I’m forwarding you the address. Take what you find there and follow the installation instructions exactly. The virus will need seven minutes before the damage done is irreparable. Roski’s tech security is top notch, and that’s assuming you get past whoever he has on the ground. They were able to counteract my last attack in three minutes.”
“And you still took out most of his data,” Vita pointed out.
“For a matter of days. Most of his backups were unaffected. Anything less than seven minutes and he’ll be able to rebuild. And it will take some tech know how to get into the machines, you can’t just plug a device in and let it do the work. Are you sure you can do it?” Clearly Ygreen didn’t have faith in her.
Vita didn’t blame him; she’d been flying around in a space ship that was falling apart for years, but she had Brax now. She looked at her mate, the question in her eyes. He nodded. “We can do it,” she said.
“This is the only chance you’ll get from me,” Ygreen said. “Fair warning, come tomorrow Coyl Ygreen never existed.”
The man should have changed his identity sooner if he didn’t want to get caught, but Vita understood clinging to a name. She didn’t want to think of giving up Vita Minnick after she’d pulled herself out of the dregs. “I hope whoever you become makes smarter bets.”
Despite himself, Ygreen smiled. “I make plenty of good bets. It’s the bad ones I need to avoid. Happy hunting.”
“Good luck.” She disengaged the call and looked at her mate. “Let’s go destroy a slaver.”
Chapter Sixteen
JAAXIS HAD BRAX’S TEETH on edge and his claws were itching to shoot out and slice something up. Haraydop was barely a smidge of a town and seemed to exist to hold nondescript office buildings and warehouses. A few vehicles zoomed down the streets, but otherwise the place was deserted. Standing as they were on a street corner and following Ygreen’s instructions to his drop box made Brax feel like prey. Anyone could be watching them. It didn’t matter that this was supposed to be a peaceful planet, he wanted out.
Vita finished entering the information and they walked into the storage unit. The only thing inside was a flimsy table and a small box. Brax was the one to open it. Whatever Ygreen wanted them to do, it would fall to him to carry it out. He had more technical know-how, and Vita was much better at holding a blaster and covering him. He didn’t let doubts creep in. His denya needed him to do this, and do it he would.
He read over everything Ygreen had given them and studied the parts. It didn’t look too complicated, but he wouldn’t know for sure until they got inside. He was more concerned about the seven minutes they’d need to find to let the program do its work. Ygreen’s instructions assured him that as long as he managed to keep the device connected as the diagram showed for the entire seven minutes, Roski would be destroyed. The tech team wouldn’t be able to counteract something physically plugged in without manually removing it. And Brax and Vita would make sure that didn’t happen.
A sense of calm suffused him. They’d made their plan. They were taking this chance. And there was nothing they could do but move forward.
They went back to the vehicle they’d rented and Vita sat in the driver’s seat. “Roski’s hub is two blocks over. I say we take a walk around the block and scout the place out. There’s little chance Roski’s actually here, and we need an idea of what we’re up against.”
A reckless part of Brax wanted to say they should just start their attack, but he wasn’t interested in a suicide mission. “Will anyone recognize you?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I doubt it. I’ve been here a few times, but I was usually in my full uniform, mask and all. And if they do... well, it’s not like Roski sends out a newsletter announcing who got fired. I doubt news has trickled this way yet. Let’s just see how close we can get. And if things look alright, we do this for real tonight.”
There wasn’t any time to waste. “Let’s do it.”
Brax watched as Vita grabbed a hooded jacket from the trunk and pulled it over her bright red hair, covering up her most eye catching feature. He still recognized her in the curve of her shoulder, the swell of her hip, the way she swayed as she moved, but someone who hadn’t memorized every aspect of her would just see a woman. Brax took a private thrill in knowing she was his.
They didn’t hurry along in their walk. Though the area was mostly clear of pedestrians, they didn’t want to stick out even further. Instead they took a sedate pace, waiting to cross streets when the signals told them to, nodding at the two other people they saw walking from the massive parking structures that housed most of the vehicles for the business park. The place looked just a little bit like Earth and Brax was struck by a pang of homesickness for a place he’d barely lived in.
He wanted Vita to see it. His family was there. The Detyen race had taken to calling it home, and there were billions of humans all over the place. Maybe Vita wouldn’t want to stay forever, but she needed to visit the place that should have been home. And he would make sure it happened. They were going to get out of this mess. Roski wasn’t going to be a threat any more. And then he was going to take his mate back to Earth and introduce her to his brothers and his brother’s mate. They were going to make it.
“That’s it.” Vita nodded towards a light blue building that lo
oked just like all the other buildings around them. It stretched out to cover the entire block, but it was only two or three stories tall. Still, there could have been hundreds of people inside. “There’s a small shuttle landing zone in the back, though it’s rarely used. Let’s try to get in.”
“Won’t that tip them off?” Brax wasn’t exactly experienced at breaking and entering, but he was pretty sure infiltrating the same building multiple times was asking for trouble.
“There are public areas,” she assured him. “And we have to get a look. Think of it as reconnaissance.”
That didn’t answer his question, but Brax followed after her as she walked up the front path like she belonged there. The front doors slid open as they approached and they entered into a functional lobby full of light and empty of people. Brax would have expected a receptionist or android attendant, but there was just a computer screen sitting on a stand with an office directory.
“Where’s the security?” he asked. He tried to be casual as he looked around and he spotted a camera in one corner, but that was it.
“Further back,” she assured him. “No need to secure a few offices like it’s a freaking military base.” She scanned the directory and clicked on a name Brax didn’t recognize, not that he had reason to recognize any of them. His heart was already pounding and he wanted to go back. He was a normal man, a mechanic from a space station and wannabe woodworker, not a spy or thief. And yet he followed his mate further into the building. He had a bad feeling about this. The longer they stayed around, the more certain it was they would be caught. But Vita didn’t seem to share his concern. Why was she so confident?
“Where are we going?” he asked, his voice a harsh whisper. He could see a few people walking down the long hall, but it was too far to make out features or even species.
“Empty office,” she said. “Old friend who used to work here.”
“And he’s still in the directory because...?”
“Because people are lazy and we could do with a bit of luck,” she said. “I don’t know why he’s there, but he is and we’re going to be grateful, got it?” And now he heard some of the tension. Of course she was trying to project confidence. It was how she’d made it this far. And she was still getting used to having someone on her side.
So Brax wouldn’t ruin it. “Got it.” But he did breathe a sigh of relief when they ducked into a large office and closed the door. Except when he turned around he saw it wasn’t an office.
“What the fuck?” Vita stole the words from his mouth.
A small human girl was hunched in the corner, her arms and legs tied with rope and her long, dark hair matted. Her face was dirty and tracks of salt ran down her face where her tears had dried. She was all Brax saw until a pained grunt drew his attention to the other corner. And that sight froze the blood in his veins. A Detyen lay tied up and bruised almost beyond recognition, his face swollen so badly that Brax couldn’t tell if he was covered in clan markings or injuries.
Brax took a step towards the man when the girl let out a meep of distress. “Don’t hurt him!” she whispered, her voice wrecked from crying. “Don’t hurt him. I’ll stop fighting, I promise!”
IF IT WERE POSSIBLE, Vita would have set the entire place on fire with her mind. There was no reason for a little human girl or an alien man to be chained up here, not unless she’d been more blind than she thought. She tried to take solace in the fact that the office was, at best, a makeshift prison. If there had been cages to throw these two in, whoever had stashed them here would have done it. But her heart was breaking and her hands shook. The girl was older than she had been when her parents had sold her, somewhere between twelve and fifteen, but it was impossible to tell exactly. It didn’t matter. She was a child.
And she changed everything.
“We’re getting them out of here,” she said.
Brax was a step ahead of her, examining the alien with careful prods. And as her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room, she realized that the alien was the same species as Brax, a Detyen. But unlike Brax his skin looked golden, at least, the skin that wasn’t bruised. What was one of them doing here?
There wasn’t time for questions. They hadn’t been spotted yet, but eventually someone would realize they were inside. And if they still wanted to make a play for the servers, they were running out of time. Someone would notice that, and they’d pay even more attention when they tried to limp out with an injured man and a child.
The Detyen’s ropes fell away and Vita spotted something she hadn’t seen before coming out of Brax’s hands. “Since when do you have claws?”
Her mate grinned at her, and it made her heart clench despite the terrible circumstances. “I’m full of surprises.” He turned back and then stumbled as the Detyen sat up. “Hold on,” he said gently. “Let’s get a look at you.” Then he said something in a language that her translator couldn’t parse. Detyen, it had to be.
“My wounds are superficial. See to the girl,” the Detyen said. There was something wrong about his voice, like some essential part was missing. He almost sounded like an android. Completely void of emotion.
But that had to be the pain talking.
Still, Vita approached the girl slowly. She knelt in front of her and reached for the knife she kept in her pocket. “Hey, there,” she said as gently as she could. “I’m going to get these ropes off you, but you need to hold still, okay? I don’t want to cut you by accident.”
The girl stared at her with eyes that were a thousand years old. It was a look Vita used to see in her own mirror. It wasn’t the girl’s first time being tied up, and though she hadn’t lost all hope, she wasn’t new to being enslaved. But after a long moment she gave a single nod and held out her hands. Vita cut carefully and took her time, even as she was conscious of the minutes flying by. This kid had been hurt enough and she wasn’t about to compound that.
“My name is Vita,” she said and nodded across the room. “That’s Brax. We’re going to help you. Do you have a name?” Some slaves didn’t. Masters passed them from place to place and renamed people as they saw fit. When the girl shook her head, Vita’s heart broke a little more.
“It’s Manda,” the Detyen said from across the room. He looked at the girl for a moment, but there was no affection in his eyes, nothing but endless pools of black. “We were both acquired at the Slave Markets. To my knowledge they have shipped the others off. Whoever purchased us has kept us here for three days. They feed us in the mornings and provide water at night. Besides that, no one comes.” He delivered the information in that flat tone and Vita wondered if something was wrong with him. Perhaps he’d been more damaged than he let on, a kick to the head breaking him somehow.
“What’s your name?” she asked. She freed Manda’s hands and began working on her legs.
“Doryan,” the Detyen replied.
“You don’t look like the kind of guy that ends up at the Slave Markets.” They didn’t like to sell warriors there, not unless they were thoroughly broken and useful only in blood sport. But despite Doryan’s lack of emotions, she didn’t think he was shattered inside.
“I was unconscious,” he reported. “I woke shortly after the sale, on the ship that brought us here. And you can see what happened when I attempted to free myself.”
“He protected me,” said Manda. And as Vita got her legs free she kicked out, catching Vita in the chest and sending her sprawling back. Her knife clattered from her hand and skidded away. The girl sprinted over to Doryan and put herself between the warrior and Brax. “Stay back,” she commanded. “I’ll scream.”
That threat was more effective than anything else. They couldn’t afford to get caught.
And it might have sent a jolt of frustration through her, but Vita had to respect the girl’s resourcefulness. “We want to get both of you out of here,” she said.
Manda glared at her and said nothing. Vita understood the distrust. She’d been there herself once. She forced herself to look a
way and focused on Doryan. She couldn’t afford to keep looking at the girl. They weren’t the same, no matter how similar their situations.
“Can you walk?” she asked the Detyen. Given the strength of Manda’s kick, she was sure the girl could sprint.
Doryan rolled his neck from side to side and slowly began moving the rest of his body, rolling to his side with a bit back groan as he got to his feet with excruciating slowness. He shifted his weight back and forth before finally answering her. “My range of motion will be limited and I cannot run at my highest capacity, but I can move.”
“Are you a—” she stopped herself from asking if he was a robot or something. It was rude. But people didn’t talk like that. And she couldn’t chalk it up to being a Detyen thing. Brax was Detyen, that guy traveling with Xandr was Detyen, neither of them had been so... stoic.
“Nothing about my current state will prevent our escape,” Doryan assured her. “I am proficient with bladed and projectile weapons, as well as hand to hand combat. I will be an asset.”
“I’ve seen people like you before,” Brax said. He took a step back, closer to Manda, as if he wanted to shield the girl. “The Legion doesn’t talk about you. But you’re one of... them.”
“The Legion?” They didn’t have time to talk, but Vita was intrigued.
