by Maia Tanith
But I don’t recognize any of the other symbols on the tanks. There are no obvious signs of anything like that around me.
This place is going to go up. And soon.
I have to warn Azr.
Everything else leaves my mind. He won’t get a chance to steal something to keep the Galgog happy if he dies in an explosion first.
I sprint towards the ship, forcing myself to run faster than I ever have before. If this place burns, Lila will try to save her ship, she might be going back towards it now, to get out of here and keep their precious cargo safe. I need to get to Azr in time.
Behind me, another boom, and a shockwave that makes the ground shudder. I stumble, then keep going.
Around me is chaos. Kargans are running for their ships, yelling at each other. One ship has already taken off, shooting up into the safety of the sky.
I keep pumping my legs, running faster than I ever have in my life before.
I have to reach Azr before it is too late.
Chapter 9
Azr
There’s no security on Fortune Favors. No guards. No nothing.
The back of my neck itches. This is all eerily familiar.
I imagine Lila setting up another of her honeytraps, targeting some lonely freebooter and waving the tantalizing prospect of a rich ship ready for plunder in front of his nose. Flashing him her smile, encouraging him to throw caution to the winds, to live dangerously. And then catching him neatly in her trap, arresting him, and sending him to the pits to die.
Just like she had with me.
I’m doubly cautious as I creep my way through the ship’s corridors towards the control room. Ten seconds. That’s all I will need to download the slave code into the ship’s command center and then I will be able to take it over at will.
I did it once before. I can do it again. But this time I won’t make the mistake of trusting anyone else with my secret.
The ship is quiet. Empty.
Almost empty.
As I noiselessly enter the control room, a familiar figure uncurls from the pilot’s seat and turns to face me.
That Kargan body, all rippling muscles and strength. That caramel-colored hair, cropped just under her ears. That beautiful, treacherous smile.
Lila.
I hear a roaring in my ears.
I had hoped never to see that treacherous bitch again. I wanted to steal her ship and luxuriate in the knowledge that I had beaten her. I wanted to repay her for my broken heart and my broken dreams. I wanted to see her suffer.
In one hand is a nerve detonator, trained directly on me. “Azr. I have been expecting you.” Her voice, silky smooth, shivers down my spine.
I can’t speak. I can’t do anything but stand there as Lila trains a gun on me.
I’m caught.
Again.
Her smile fades. “Did you really think you could get away trying to steal my ship? Again?”
“It’s a government ship,” I say stupidly. It’s all I can think of.
“And that makes it okay to steal it?”
I shrug. “Certainly less morally reprehensible.”
“I’m going to have to arrest you again. You know that.”
I shrug again. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”
If I am not mistaken, a momentary flash of regret passes across her face. Then her expression hardens. “On your knees, pirate.”
I comply. There is no help for it. I’m just sorry that I have brought Delia into this mess. I should have kept my promise to her to return her to Earth first. Then I could truly die with no regrets.
As if my thoughts have summoned her, there is a giant clatter and I hear a voice calling me.
“Azr? We’ve got to get going. Azr? Azr?” She sounds frantic, panicked.
“Delia. Get out of here,” I yell back. There is no point both of us being caught. She at least has a small chance of escape. A very small chance.
Lila bids me be quiet with a wave of her gun.
My warning didn’t scare Delia away, but told her where to find me. She appears in the doorway, her red hair more than usually frizzled around her head. Brave, stupid human.
With her, wafts in a scorched smell. Burning wood. And fuel. She barely spares Lila a glance. All her attention is focused on me. “Azr, get up. There’s a fire in the space port. Near the fuel storage tanks. We’ve got to get going now, before we are blown to smithereens.” Her eyes are wide, wild, and her clothes are definitely singed.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Those were the fuel storage tanks? And Delia has set off a rocket in the middle of them.
I scramble to my feet. We don’t have much time.
Lila shakes her head. “Not so fast now, pirate.”
Delia turns her attention to her. “Who are you?”
Lila looks her up and down slowly. “Why have you got a little human running around after you, Azr?”
I grimace. There’s a venom in her words that I don’t like the sound of.
“You’re Lila?” Delia asks. Her eyes narrow as she looks at the Kargan, as if she is considering taking her on in a fight. Even though Lila is a head taller, twice as well-muscled, and has claws as long as Delia’s forearm. Then her eyes stop on the nerve detonator and she blanches. Her eyes flick to me and back to the gun faster than I can blink.
“Delia, you need to get out of here,” I mutter, my voice low but desperate.
Lila glances at me, then turns back to Delia. “You might as well get on your knees too, human. If you’ve been aiding and abetting a criminal, which it certainly looks like you have been, then-”
“We’ve been looking for you,” Delia blurts.
I swallow my gasp of surprise. What is she doing?
“Azr told me all about you,” she continues stoutly, although I can see her hands shaking. “We want to make a deal.”
I suck in my breath. Oh, this has got to be good.
Lila arches one perfectly manicured eyebrow. “You do?” The disdain in her voice is venomous.
“You want to find a weapons smuggling ring? We can deliver one to you with all the proof you need to take them down. It’s run by one of those nasty lizard men.”
“A Galgog.” Lila stares hard at Delia. “And in return?”
She gestures at my collar. “Take the collar off Azr. The nasty-lizard man put on him to try to force him to steal weapons for him. We decided we’d rather make a deal with you instead. That is, if you have the ability to take it off him. You’ve got the resources of the government behind you. We were hoping you would have the technology available to you.”
Lila steps forward and inspects my collar. “Yes, I’ve seen these before. They were banned years ago. I could take it off,” she says. “If what you claim is true. Just who is the leader of this weapons smuggling ring you mention? What’s his name?”
Delia looks over at me. “Cretin the Duck? Something like that.”
I can help there. “Crethin par Druk.”
Lila’s eyes widen at the sound of his name, but she regains her composure within a second. This guy must be on her radar. I can see the cogs turning in her brain. Lose me and gain someone far more notorious. An arrest that would help her career. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, of course I’m sure,” Delia snaps. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here because this space sport is about to blow, and I don’t want to be anywhere near here when the fuel tanks go.”
Lila stands undecided for a moment. “Why should I trust you?”
“Why not?” Delia’s voice is unwavering. “You can always arrest us later if it turns out we made it up. But we haven’t.”
Lila looks back at me, her eyes narrowed. The nerve detonator is pointed squarely at my chest.
“We need to go now,” Delia says. Her voice is frantic. “We are literally all going to die in about a minute.”
Lila blink in indecisions. “You can go,” she says finally, waving her gun in my direction. “And I’ll follow in this ship.”
I grab D
elia’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Not so fast. Your little human stays behind here. With me.”
“No.” My protest is instant. Instinctive. I can’t leave her behind, unprotected. “I won’t leave her.”
Lila’s voice is cold. “You don’t have a choice, pirate. I’m not fool enough to let you out of my sight without a form of security.”
Delia pulls her hand away from mine. “We don’t have time to argue. Just go,” she says to me. She averts her face, but I can smell her fear anyway. She pushes me out of the door. “Good luck. And hurry. We’ll see you at the lizard man’s hideout.”
“Thank you,” I murmur to her as quietly as I can, before dashing out the door.
Lila shouts after me as I run. “You try to play me on this, and you won’t see your human again.” Her voice echoes in my ears as I run.
I run to my ship.
The space port is burning behind me. Delia was right, when the fuel tanks go, we’ll go up in smoke with them.
Damn Lila and her stupid games. Damn her treachery. And damn her for keeping Delia as a hostage for my good behavior.
May good fortune keep Delia safe in her care until I can come for her again.
My ship is the last to leave. I make it out by the skin of my teeth. The first of the fuel tankers blows up just as I get a safe enough distance away. The explosion lights up half the sky. As I exit the planet’s atmosphere, I can still see the fire.
Only then, when I have a chance to catch my breath do I realize a couple of facts that had previously slipped my mind.
Lila knew I was alive.
And she was not at all surprised to see me. It was almost as if she was expecting me.
A tracker. I’d found one in my necklace and tossed it away, thinking I was clear.
I scratch at the back of my neck where my collar is itching me worse than ever. She must have realized I would find the first tracker and throw it away. In fact, she was counting on that to lull my suspicions. Meanwhile, there will be another one planted on me somewhere.
I scratch my neck again when a realization hits me.
I probe the itchy patch on my neck with careful fingers.
Yes, there it is. In the middle of the inflammation, a tiny raised line of scar tissue, no wider than the breath of Delia’s dainty little finger.
No wonder I didn’t find it before. It’s inside me. Just in the place where it is most difficult for me to reach.
Difficult, but not impossible.
With the tip of one claw, I stretch behind me and nick the skin right on the scar. Then I push down on either side of the cut with my fingers.
A small black device pops out onto the floor.
A tracker. Just as I expected. It’s circular, and only millimeters thick, the size of one of Delia’s fingernails.
I bend over, pick it up and put it in my pocket. I am so tempted to chuck it down the garbage chute and send it whirling out into space, but I can’t do that. Not yet.
I don’t want Lila to know that I am on to her. Not while she has Delia in her grasp.
Delia
Lila sits in the pilot seat fussing with the controls and ignores me.
I watch anxiously as we blast off into space and then hang there, hovering, until Azr’s ship breaks free of the planet’s pull, too.
I let out the breath I have been holding. He made it.
Lila mutters something under her breath as she adjusts the controls to keep his ship in sight. Once that is done, and Azr shows no sign of trying to evade her chase, her grip on the controls loosens and the tension lines around her eyes smooth out.
Eventually she turns her head and regards me seriously. “So, what are you doing on our planet little human? And how did you get involved with a pirate?” she asks.
The dismissive tone in her voice needles me. “I was paired with him in the Games. He protected me then, and he’s been protecting me ever since.”
“You’re a pirate, too?” she asks. “A human pirate?” Aside from her patronizing tone, she sounds genuinely curious.
“Pffft. Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t even drive a car, let alone a spaceship. And I’ve never broken a law in my life. I’m an accountant. Or at least I was an accountant until I was captured by some ugly hyena men and taken away from Earth and somehow ended up here. Not that I have any idea where here is anymore. I just know that it isn’t Earth.”
Lila raises her eyebrows at me. “Slavers? Really?” Her voice drips with disbelief.
“How else could I have landed up here. Not so long ago, I didn’t believe that aliens existed. And then I was kidnapped and thrown into the Games with a bunch of them. Now I’m stuck in a spaceship with one.”
“You mean, your planet doesn’t have space travel?”
“We’ve been to the moon.” I cross my arms, defensive as her patronizing tone.
“I bet you feel special, then. Being one of the few humans to explore the galaxy.”
She is nasty. I don’t know what Azr saw in her. Aside from her beauty. She’s like an Amazon warrior princess, tall, and toned, and graceful, and dangerous. Still a bitch though. “Apart from the other women that were captured alongside me. And goodness knows how many other shipfuls before. And no, not really. I would rather not be fighting for my life every day.”
“You want to go home?”
I shrug. Without Azr, I can’t get back home anyway, so there is no point thinking about it. “Of course I do. Azr promised he will take me back when he can. He’s a good man.”
I’m not sure why I say that. The words slip out before I can stop myself. I shouldn’t care what this beautiful alien thinks, and I should care even less that she will think well of Azr. But I can’t help it. He is good. She put a good person into the Games to die.
Lila sniffs. “He’s a pirate.” Her voice is flat.
“You think you’re so much better, don’t you? And you work for a corrupt government that allows those disgusting hyena men to land on some poor unsuspecting planet and take a bunch of innocent women captive to sell them off to be butchered like animals so others can watch and laugh and cheer.” I am so angry I am almost spitting. She is a fine one to talk about morals.
She doesn’t even look at me but replies in that same flat voice. “Not the fault of the government. Slavery is illegal.”
“Yeah, right. Then how do you think we found you again?”
I have Lila’s attention now. Clearly, she was wondering the same thing.
“We took over a slave ship and surprise, surprise, Azr found it was connected into the government network. That’s how he found out where you were.”
Lila’s face gives nothing away, but I have a feeling I’ve hit a nerve.
I don’t let up on my attack. “I suppose you are going to try to arrest him again for that, are you? You think that laws about protecting government property are more important than saving the lives of dozens of innocent women? Azr was prepared to put his life and his freedom on the line to save those slaves. He’s a good man. He didn’t deserve what you did to him. You betrayed him and sent him off to die.”
She sits still, with her back straight, not moving a muscle, but her face pinkens slightly. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, human,” she hisses.
I didn’t know exactly what had happened between the two of them, but I could make a pretty good guess. She broke his heart and arrested him. I grit my teeth. Of course he’d fall in love with someone like her. Tough and beautiful and his match. I’m not sure if it’s my jealousy speaking or my anger at her for hurting him. “You arrest people for crimes, but you work for the biggest gangster on the planet. It’s your Emperor that runs the slavery rings. He’s the one that runs the Games. The Games where people fight to the death in front of crowds for entertainment. You sent Azr to die!”
“No, I didn’t.” She looks at me hard. “I sent him there because that’s the law. I also made sure he didn’t die. He was never going to die there. I made
sure he could get out, so I could keep an eye on him.”
I roll my eyes. “Just beaten, starved, tortured. Injured some, but that’s okay because he didn’t die. Then you put a tracker on him so you can find him and arrest his friends. Oh, you are such a saint.”
“I didn’t know they’d torture him first,” she says quietly. “He should have told them what he knew, should have given them something, and they wouldn’t have hurt him.”
I make a rude noise. Is she stupid? Or just stupidly naive? “Do you honestly believe that?”
“Of course. I’ve sworn my life to protecting the law.”
“Even when the law is evil? When it protects slavers and torturers? And it allows people like me to be kidnapped?”
She sighs. “Firstly, I don’t really care how you got here, and I don’t believe your story. Secondly, I don’t need to justify myself to you.”
“No, you don’t. You can’t. Because nothing you say would justify what you do,” I spit back.
She rolls her eyes as if she doesn’t care, but I can see her shoulders tense. “I recommend you sit quietly, human girl. You’re wearing my patience thin.”
I grit my teeth and sit back in my seat. I’m furious at her, at her pig-headedness, for ignoring the truth and being blind to what’s happening around her, while she furiously pursues the law.
Around us, her crew are getting ready to storm the lair of the Galgog mob leader. There are eight of them on this ship. Kargans of both sexes are suiting up into armor that reminds me of riot police gear, with weapons slung over shoulders and clipped onto belts. Their weapons scare me slightly.
I know Azr’s reaction to what he called a nerve detonator was pure fear. These weapons look like they’re the next level up in terms of danger.
I watch in curiosity as they put on their helmets. Their helmets are futuristic looking, sleek and smooth, the same golden color as Azr’s skin, with tiny slits for their eyes.
“How do they see out of those?” I ask, before I can help myself.
Lila glances back. “Oh, those? They have full screens in front of their faces. They’ve got a full range of view. The slits are misleading—so people underestimate what they can see. They also act as air vents.” Her voice has a tinge of pride to it.