Because he now saw the world in slow motion, Seb watched the mouth of the creature he’d tried to attack spread wide. It remained in the same spot as it watched him get dragged away to the left. In the dumb brute’s slack jaw and raised brow, he saw his own shock staring straight back at him. Then his other fist got dragged around next to the first, and he flew with both hands in front of him like a corny superhero.
Seb hurtled along about a metre above the spaceport’s ground. Now he’d been yanked around by the pull on his fists, he saw he was heading for a large ship. It had landed in the space cleared by the spectators. It had five huge discs on its side. The centre disc had the widest diameter of about two metres and looked to be covered in a layer of padding as thick as a mattress. The four surrounding it on each compass point were about one and a half metres across. Their exposed brushed metal glinted in the sun. He looked like he’d score a bullseye.
The docked ships on either side of him a blur—even in slow motion—Seb winced at the inevitable impact.
A shock wave ran through his skeleton when he crashed—fists first—into the centre target. Although jarring, the layer of cushioning helped a little. It didn’t feel like he’d broken anything. He didn’t hear a snap.
Not quite relief, but Seb relaxed slightly … until he turned and looked back at where he’d come from.
A wall of debris rushed towards him. All of it had been dragged in by the magnetic pull. Blasters, belt buckles, and even loose nuts and bolts. It came forward in a swarm.
Still pinned to the magnet, Seb winced, waiting for the metal onslaught to tear him to shreds.
CHAPTER 12
Powerless as he remained stuck to the magnet like a gnat on flypaper, Seb yelled in fear. However, a fraction of a second before impact, the debris split away, scattering in four equal parts. Above and below him, to the left and right. Not a single object hit him as the metallic storm of shrapnel found the magnets around him.
When the magnets had pulled in all the metal they could, the hum of them only became obvious because of their sudden absence. Seb and the metal fell, his stomach lurching at the unexpected drop.
Another loud crash as Seb hit the ground at the same time as the metal. In the mounds of debris, he saw Sparks’ computer. After picking it up and examining it, he looked over at his small—and now anxious—friend. He gave her a thumbs-up. Somehow, the device had survived. It had a thick rubber skin surrounding it that must have protected it. In the slight easing of her frame, he saw her relief.
An ache in his bones, out of breath, and his head spinning from what had just happened, Seb looked at his other Shadow Order friends. They’d taken advantage of the momentary distraction and disarming of the beasts. They’d battered the creatures that held them at gunpoint and had forced them all back together.
A loud whoosh sounded out to Seb’s right. When he looked across, he saw steps fold out of the vessel, and Moses appeared.
Instead of looking at Seb, Moses looked up at the magnets that had pulled him out of there. All five of them had been welded to the side of the vessel. His attention still on them, Moses said, “You can’t say I don’t think of you. I had this ship ready in case we needed it at any point. I knew it would be the quickest way to extract you from danger.” He pressed against the padded central disc. “But I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t hurt you if you clattered into it.”
Still no words, Seb shook his head at the Shadow Order’s leader and tried to roll some of the aches from his bones.
“I have eyes all over Aloo,” Moses said, clearly recognising the need to elaborate. “I came as soon as I heard what was happening. Sorry if I cut it fine.”
The stress of the past few minutes caught up with Seb, and a shake ran through him. “You wouldn’t have had to come if you hadn’t put a bounty out on me in the first place. And how long ago did you build this ship?”
“We’ve already discussed this, Seb. I know what you’re capable of. I have ways to defend against all of the Shadow Order members in case any of them try to kill me. When you’re in my line of work, you can’t be too careful.”
“If you have spies all the way through Aloo,” Seb said, his thoughts pulling him away from the moment, “you must have known when I was here and when I wasn’t after the prison break?”
With a slight nod, Moses conceded Seb’s point.
“Then why didn’t you bring me in then?”
“It wasn’t time for you to come in. You needed to follow your line of inquiry.”
“Then why put a bounty on me?”
“For show.”
“You made me fight for my life just for show?”
“Look at it from my perspective. What kind of example would it set if I hadn’t? I’m supposed to be the leader of the Shadow Order and the one responsible for keeping this place in check. If the beings on Aloo heard about you escaping and me not doing anything about it, what would it tell them? There’d be chaos.”
As much as Seb wanted to argue, Moses had a point.
As if suddenly remembering more than he and Moses were there, Seb looked over his shoulder at the thick-skulled beasts that had held them at gunpoint. Although they’d been herded into a pack, some of them remained on the ground from where the magnet had dragged them over while robbing them of their metallic possessions. Many simply stood and stared at Seb and Moses.
The lead creature broke the silence by calling across at them, “So there’s no bounty?”
His pulse still pounding, his breaths fast, Seb threw an exasperated shrug at the creature. “That’s what I told you in the first place, you fool.”
“Then why did you change your mind and tell me different halfway through?”
A mixture of rage and shame, Seb’s skin burned. “Because you were going to kill SA.”
The creature raised an eyebrow when it looked at SA and then back to Seb. “You were prepared to die so she didn’t?”
The anger left Seb, but the heat remained in his cheeks. His shoulders slumped as he let go of a sigh.
After nodding several times, the beast laughed. “Fair play.” Then to SA, he said, “You’ve got a keeper there, love.”
Before anyone else could speak, Seb walked away from Moses in the direction of his Shadow Order friends. Although he could feel SA looking at him, he didn’t look back. Instead, he focused on the ground. As he passed them, he gave Sparks her computer and said, “Come on, we have work to do.”
The sound of their footsteps ran in the opposite direction to Seb. When he looked up, he saw SA, Bruke, and Sparks all retrieving their weapons from the pile of scrap. A few seconds later, they ran to catch up with him.
CHAPTER 13
As much as he didn’t want to, Seb glanced at SA as they walked down the spaceport’s main street. Because of what she’d said, he wanted to give her the space she needed, but he found it hard when they had to work so closely together. To meet her stare—which wasn’t cold, just detached—forced his shoulders to slump as a twist ran through his heart. The tight-lipped smile she gave him spoke of neighbours passing in the street, not two beings in love with one another. Maybe an act, maybe not. Either way, he couldn’t affect her desire to back off from him, and if he didn’t respect it, he’d end up driving her farther away.
Just before they ducked down the alley leading to Buster’s warehouse, a group of beings in their path saw they were coming and quickly parted for them.
“The news has travelled faster than we have,” Seb said.
A cocksure bounce to her stride, Sparks swung her shoulders and smiled. “We’re operating with the big man’s backing now.”
Although Seb smirked, when he looked to either side at the vessels flanking the narrow walkway, he saw the cargo bay guards drop their focus to the ground. The lack of overt hostility unsettled him. It shouldn’t be this easy for a human on Aloo.
The wind rocked Seb when he stepped out of the walkway and looked across at Buster’s warehouse. His collision with the large m
agnet had made everything hurt. He rolled his sore shoulders and opened and closed his aching hands before snapping his neck from side to side. Something about the stillness of the building in front of them added to the deep unease in the pit of his stomach.
Sparks and Reyes on one side of him, Bruke and SA on the other, Seb continued to stare at the large warehouse as they walked across the open expanse of concrete. He kept his anxious feelings to himself because he had no evidence to back them up. Instead, he said, “The mandulu on the gate might still be a bit off with me. Just let him get it off his chest. His ego must have taken quite a battering to be knocked down by a human. We need to allow him to process it in whatever way he sees fit.”
Seb saw Sparks look across at him in his peripheral vision. “What if he tries to attack you again?”
“I think I can—” But he didn’t finish his sentence, stopping dead when he saw the warehouse more clearly. The others stopped too.
“Is it normally like that?” Reyes said.
Seb shook his head, the breeze tossing his hair. “No.”
The gate, which Seb had always seen guarded, crashed closed again. The splash of the chain-link rode the harsh wind. It then opened before being driven back against the fence with another shattering metallic rattle. He couldn’t see the mandulu anywhere.
The sides of Seb’s world blurred as his gift threatened to kick in. When he looked left and right at his friends, he saw SA had drawn her knives and had one in each hand, while Bruke, Reyes, and Sparks all had their blasters ready.
Seb led the slow approach, the gate slamming shut every few seconds. Most of his attention was on the open entrance, but he occasionally looked to either side of the large building.
Bruke looked around them and said, “Do you think we’re walking into a trap?”
The area surrounding the warehouse looked clear, but they couldn’t see everywhere.
Before Seb could answer, Sparks stopped and pulled her computer from her pocket. After several taps, a drone appeared like the one she’d set fire to when she’d met Seb and Reyes off their flight back from Danu. Although she didn’t look up, she must have felt the attention of the others on her. While still tapping at her computer, she said, “Moses gave me control of his security. I didn’t know if it would come in handy or not.”
All of them watched the drone shoot over the top of the warehouse to get a view of the opposite side.
Seb peered over Sparks’ shoulder at the footage on her screen. Although slightly grainy, he still saw what he needed to and said to the others, “It looks clear.”
No one else spoke.
“We need to go in,” Seb said. “Keep your guard raised and your wits about you. Something’s clearly wrong, but I don’t think we’ll find out what it is until we get inside.”
CHAPTER 14
Just before the gate slammed back against its frame, Seb wedged his foot into the space. The flimsy chain-link bent at the top from being halted so abruptly, and it catapulted back open again. It might have seemed a pointless action to the others, but something about the jangling sound rattled his already frayed nerves.
Once he’d stepped through, Seb held the gate open and passed it to Reyes, who let the others in while he moved on. A glance back showed him SA taking up the rear. Maybe to get as far away from him as she could, maybe not. Either way, if he were to choose for any of them to be watching their back, it would be her.
Not silent because of the fierce wind, but a stillness hung in the air that had the same effect as silence. The weather might have been making a fuss, but it felt like everything else held its breath.
As much as he’d hated it every other time he’d been there, if Seb rounded the corner to find Buster sending another slaver to their watery end, it would almost be a relief. His gut told him they were about to walk into much worse.
Seb winced as he peered into the place. When he saw the state of the warehouse, he froze.
Blood everywhere: on the ground, the walls, across the window to Buster’s office … What felt like already fragile nerves shattered, and Seb shook as he looked at the hacked-up mandulus scattered throughout the warehouse. Spilled claret and ripped flesh covered almost every inch of the concrete expanse. The sight scrambled his thoughts.
“How many of them died?” Reyes said, her voice shaking.
Seb’s stomach tensed against his need to vomit as he tried to count the heads. The only way they would know because every other part of them had been hacked into tiny pieces. Such carnage could have come from the death of tens, maybe more. A heave rising up in him, he swallowed it back down. It took a great effort to get his words past the shock clamping his throat. “I think four.”
“Just four?” Bruke said.
Seb shrugged. “I can only see four heads. Although, they might have thrown some in the sea.” The foam riding the top of the salty water in the hole Buster sent the slavers through had a red tinge to it.
As Seb looked around the warehouse, he said, “Can anyone see Buster?”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
Nothing from SA.
His attention on the door to Buster’s office, Seb led the way, zigzagging through the mandulu body parts. When he got close, he looked through the blood-splattered window, but he couldn’t see anything. He noticed the others had drawn their weapons in preparation for what could be inside. The muscles in his body worked against him, urging him to stop. But he pushed through it. If he delayed now, he wouldn’t go in.
Seb snapped the handle down, his grip sliding off it from it also being covered in blood. He shoved the door open with his foot and stepped through while wiping his hand clean on his trousers.
Maybe he would have looked there anyway, but the second he entered the office, Seb’s eyes ran to the metal rack he’d been tied to when Buster had got one up on him. It had a nearly whole mandulu chained to it. Dead now, its hands, feet, and eyes had been removed. It also had a bloodstained lap from where it had been dismembered.
The sound of Bruke’s heave ran through the quiet office. A second later, he bolted from the room, and the splash of his vomit hit the concrete ground outside.
The first of them to speak, Sparks said, “Oh my.”
Reyes shook her head.
To look at SA sent a chill through Seb. For a being who always seemed totally present, she looked like she’d left her body. Her eyes were dead as if she’d retreated into her skull.
It looked like the massacre hadn’t made its way into the office. Other than the mutilated mandulu, Seb couldn’t see any other signs of death in there. “Can anyone see anything of Buster?”
None of the others replied, the sound of Bruke’s heaves still calling through the warehouse outside.
“Whatever’s happened here,” Seb said as he left the office, “I think Buster’s still alive. This has the Countess’ crew written all over it. I think Moses was right; this isn’t going to stop with her death.” He sighed. “If anything, it looks like it’s getting worse.”
Before any of the others spoke, the sound of footsteps approached the warehouse from the same direction they’d come in from. Reyes, Bruke, and Sparks all snapped their blasters into their shoulders. SA raised her knives. All five of them faced the direction of the sound.
CHAPTER 15
The second Seb saw him, he raised a halting hand at the others and said, “Stop! Don’t shoot.”
The creature who’d just entered also froze. They stared at one another for a moment before Seb said, “What are you doing here? How did you get away?”
The mandulu he’d knocked out—the tall one that had stood guard on the gate—stared back at Seb and shook where he stood. The trauma of what he’d undoubtedly witnessed clearly still coursed through him. The tall beast then dropped his attention to the ground and hugged himself as if he had a fever. “T-t-they said they needed to leave one alive. One to tell th-th—”
“The story?” Seb finished for him,
moving a step closer to the shocked brute.
When the mandulu looked back up again, tears ran down his face.
Seb knew what he had to do, and despite the action being totally alien to him, he moved closer to the mandulu and put his arm around his shoulders.
The mandulu’s legs buckled beneath him and he crashed to his knees as if the extra weight of Seb’s arm was too much. Seb sat down on the cold concrete next to him.
Although Seb had consciously avoided sitting in the blood, he’d now dropped closer to the rich metallic tang of it. He hugged the crying creature as he watched the other Shadow Order members move closer.
Before Seb could ask the tall guard for any more information, the creature spoke of his own free will.
“Seven creatures,” he said, sniffing against his grief. “They approached the warehouse with guns and started shooting before I had a chance to do anything. They were coming in whether I liked it or not. I had to hide so they didn’t shoot me too.”
Every other time Seb had spoken to the mandulu, he’d received nothing but open hostility. Now the creature looked at him like a child seeking parental approval. He gave it with a nod. “I understand. You were being shot at. It’s absolutely what you needed to do. You shouldn’t feel bad about that.”
“At first I planned to jump them when they came in, but when I saw their brutality”—he looked down at the ground again, his frame sagging—“I knew I couldn’t do anything to beat them.” The mandulu lifted his head and looked at their surroundings through glazed eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he said to his dead comrades, “but I knew I couldn’t win against them.”
“Who were they?” Reyes asked. Her own eyes glistened with tears from clearly being moved by the creature’s grief.
“Bounty hunters. They took Ralph.”
“Ralph?” Seb said, his attention falling on the liberated head of one of the mandulus close to them.
Enigma: A Space Opera: Book Six of The Shadow Order Page 6