The Gray Market: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 5)

by Valerie J Mikles

  Danny’s limbs were numb and his head pounding. By the ache in his joints, he knew he’d been dragged. His hands were bound and suspended over his head. A heavy device weighed on his neck and shoulders like a yoke. When he tried to blink, crusty flakes fell into his eyes. He was still in the basement, on the floor next to the discarded bodies. The stench of sulfur filled his nostrils.

  Thea sat half-way up the stairs, rubbing her temples, having recovery issues of her own. But she wasn’t tied up. Her side had won.

  “Roland, quit your complaining and get these upstairs with the others,” an old woman snapped. She wiped her wrinkled hands on her black-stained apron, giving Danny’s leg a kick as she stepped over him.

  “I can’t drop five bodies in an hour, Lois,” Roland retorted, crossing his arms over his potbelly.

  “Four,” Thea croaked, lifting her head. Her eyes were red and her face blistered. “We want Hawk alive. I know he’s the one we’re looking for.”

  “Don’t have to be drained,” Lois huffed, pulling out a pipe and lighting up. Danny wondered how she could do that without the whole place going up in flames, but she was on her home turf. “We can OD them and call the Enn. It’ll look like Matthews had a party with his friends.”

  “I—” Roland stopped mid-protest, doing a double-take when he caught Danny’s eyes open. But rather than concern, Danny saw relief. His lips curled into a cocky smile. “Then we should get the collars off before they leave any marks. Give me the switch.”

  “Just bring them upstairs with the others. We can drywall over the door so the Enn don’t destroy our lab when they take the bodies,” Lois decided, leaning heavily on the railing as she climbed the stairs.

  Roland put his hands on his hips, his head hanging in defeat. He disappeared from view for a few minutes, then emerged carrying Jamese over his shoulder. Her hands were bound, too, and a heavy, metal collar smacked against her chin.

  “Cyn, you should have stayed with Sikorsky,” Roland sighed, trudging up the stairs.

  “Sikorsky ditched me at the hospital when he figured out who I was,” Thea replied. “He assumed my intentions were twisted because of my name. I could have been a good doctor if I hadn’t been born a Ketlin. You gonna save me from that, Roland?”

  When Roland passed her, she turned her body and crawled behind him, leaning forward on her hands.

  “Hawk?” Danny hissed as soon as their footsteps faded. “Are you still in here?”

  “She took my blood,” Hawk moaned, his voice floating from behind the partition.

  “Are you tied up?” Danny asked.

  “She used rope. She knows I can’t move it,” Hawk replied.

  “My cuffs have an electronic trigger,” Danny said, pulling his wrists side-to-side to confirm the feel of the metal over his skin. “Can you find me?”

  “I tried to call Tray. I don’t know if it worked,” Hawk panted. “My Virp is gone.”

  Danny checked his wrist and swore. His device was gone, too. He rattled the cuffs some more. “Over here, Hawk. I don’t want to get gassed again.”

  The silence that followed seemed to last forever. Hawk’s raspy breaths punctuated the moments. Then with a click, Danny’s hands were released. Rubbing the feeling back into his arms and legs, he scooted across the floor to get to Hawk. Hawk lay on one of the beds, a bag on one side dripping clear liquid into an IV. Danny tried to undo the knots, but his fingers weren’t cooperating. Going to the counter, he found his knife and Virp.

  “Thank you,” he murmured, sliding the device into place. The power seemed drained. He pocketed Hawk’s device as well, then returned to the bed and sawed through the thin, coarse rope holding Hawk down.

  “Did we kill them all because we came?” Hawk said, looking at the empty bed beside him.

  “Hawk, I don’t think any of the people down here were ever going to wake up again,” Danny said, rubbing Hawk’s shoulder. They were free, but the only way out was up.

  “Can you give any juice to my Virp?” Danny asked. He was praying Tray would storm the building with an Enn army.

  “Energy is hard,” Hawk said, his eyes blinking slowly. “Different than machines.”

  “Can you do anything about this thing on my neck?” Danny asked. The collar had gotten tighter when Lois moved upstairs.

  “Can’t tell what it is,” Hawk whispered, his head lolling to the side as his energy waned.

  39

  Tray clenched his jaw, hands gripping his crutches, heart still hiding in the fortress with Hero while his feet took him on a journey into Ketlin territory. Demissie and Morrigan strutted confidently with Ayize by their side. Tray’s crutches tapped against his shin, and he shifted them under his arm. In the last two weeks since the grav clinic incident, he’s needed his crutches less and less, but on this journey, he couldn’t afford to leave them behind. He wished he’d taken the time to get that exo-skeleton fitted.

  Morrigan’s nostrils flared with unrequited anger, and tucked into her palm was a tranquilizer gun. Demissie was bolder, carrying a stunner on each side. Ayize also had two stunners visible, but likely had more weapons hidden on his person. Tray had a stunner, but also a knife and a pocket full of Detox pills just in case. This was Ketlin after all.

  It was mid-afternoon, and for most people in Clover, it was a normal day. There were people running errands, some with kids in tow. There were delivery people, bring food and mail. There were laborers cleaning, repairing, and maintaining the city.

  A portly, young teen with a cart full of paver stones stopped in the middle of the street and smiled over his shoulder at a woman sitting on the porch.

  “Look at that, Trina,” the boy crooned. He had flaky skin and crooked teeth. His tattoos identified him as Ketlin. “Baby Vimbais came to get culled with the rest.”

  “Roland said the time was coming,” Trina agreed, hoisting herself up on crutches. She had a large, unwieldy cast on one leg. “Roland! You better be ready, boy!”

  She directed the shout across the street, and a middle-aged man kicked open the screen door, emerging with Jamese on his shoulder. Jamese’s hands were bound and her neck encased in a mechanical noose. Her cheeks were blistered worse than Ayize’s after the Blaze attack.

  Demissie swore under his breath.

  Tray clenched his jaw. They’d been here for two seconds and were already surrounded. The boy, Trina, and Roland had them boxed in. Kit had mentioned that Roland meant to replace Lois, but that didn’t mean Roland was on their side.

  “Clearing the castle themselves. I like it,” Granny Lois sneered, coming out of the house a few paces behind Roland. She carried a lit pipe in her wrinkled hand. “Hang up the wares, Roland. Vimbai needs to purchase a bodyguard.”

  Roland glowered at Tray and dropped Jamese’s body, hanging her hands over a hook on the porch railing. The tattooed boy snickered, and sauntered to the porch, rubbing up against Jamese’s body. A few other boys cackled and charged over from a neighboring house. Men and women appeared on the porch steps of two other houses across the street. Tray wondered how many were on Roland’s side and how many on Lois’.

  “They like to get full use out of the skin,” Lois explained, swatting the boys away, pressing her pipe to one resistant kid until she burned him. “It’s all I can do to keep the sellables in good condition.”

  Tray’s hand tightened on his stunner, a righteous indignation taking hold. He’d seen Danny kill, and he’d seen his father kill. Saskia had killed. Tray was more of the fire wildly and run for your life type. For the first time, Tray wanted to shoot a person dead, but he figured the moment he did, he’d have to run for his life, so he held back.

  “Why did you kill my parents?” Morrigan demanded, her body so tense her shoulders rose to her ears. There was not a hint of fear in her voice, and Tray wondered if she was on something.

  “Me?” Lois asked, feigning innocence. “No, I didn’t. I just took advantage when someone else did.”

  “Who?” Demissie as
ked. He didn’t have his sister’s strength or forcefulness.

  “Let me think for you, idiot-child,” she said, exhaling a long stream of bluish smoke. “Who rules the water and whose grandson have you been holding prisoner for the last two months?”

  “Sikorsky?” Tray stammered, feeling the second sting of betrayal by that man in so many hours.

  “His bloodline is weak. The boy’s never gonna get you a good power boost,” Lois dismissed. “Most of the endemics that survived the Vimbai wars are equally weak. That’s why we need those Panoptica you brought from Terrana.”

  “They weren’t brought here for that,” Tray said, his voice catching in his throat when Roland came out with a second body—Amanda! Kit said there was a mutiny brewing and all they had to do was start the fight, but Roland looked pretty damn complicit.

  “Everyone went on about finding this one,” Lois said, delighting in the shock on Tray’s face. “Turns out Miss Disappeared ain’t nothing special.”

  “You’d be surprised what she can do,” Tray said. Amanda looked in better physical condition than Jamese, but stoned out of her mind. Roland hung her on a higher hook so that Amanda was standing, and though she couldn’t get free of the bonds, she was supporting her own weight.

  “If you’re waiting for he to teleport free, she can’t. I gave her enough elixir to dull her dead,” Lois said, tracing Amanda’s lips with her finger, leaving behind a white streak of powder. Amanda licked her lips, then gagged.

  Roland brought out Saskia next, hanging her across from Amanda. Saskia had a bag over her head and her shirt was ripped.

  “This one—no blood value, but precious to you. The boys didn’t cause too much wear.” Lois narrated the display like a sales pitch. “You know, when your mama was collecting, she’d give me 2000 a head.”

  “I don’t pay for what’s mine,” Tray said, echoing his father’s words. The phrase had been burned into his memory since the day his dad rescued him from his kidnappers. And killed them.

  “I’m not selling to you, Vimbai,” she cackled. “Already took your pharm. Next, I’ll take your house. I’m taking everything that was ever yours. There’s a new boss on the street.”

  “You were going to kill me because you wanted a house?” Morrigan seethed.

  “What are you going to do about it, Vimbai? Cry and beg me to stop?” Lois pulled a bag of powder from her apron and Tray braced himself for the terror of a fight. His anger was so intense back at the house. It seemed like it would be so easy to show up and fire a weapon and run like hell. The plan no longer seemed like a good one now that he saw the collars on the prisoners.

  Tray felt his Virp vibrate against his wrist and he saw movement behind the door. Danny was awake and free. Lois heard the scuffle in the house and turned her ear for half a second.

  “It’s over, Lois. Oriana came back. I’m back and you can’t take what’s mine,” Tray said, raising his stunner.

  “Don’t!” Jamese gasped, her red eyes blinking rapidly. “Chemicals. Fire. Don’t.”

  Lois cackled at the distraction and chucked her dust ball at Tray. Ayize dove onto Tray, knocking him to safety. Then Morrigan fired her dart. Lois touched her skin when she felt the dart pierce her skin, and gave a derisive laugh. Then the old woman collapsed.

  Danny’s swing was weak, but he managed to shove Roland Ketlin into the wall with enough force to knock the man out. He charged up the stairs, and on seeing him, Thea swore and dashed to a back room that had a second staircase leading into the attic. The air on the main level was more toxic than the basement and Danny pulled his shirt up to filter it. He didn’t see Jamese.

  “Hawk,” he beckoned, taking Hawk’s hand. Between Thea’s blood draw and the smoke-filled air, Hawk could barely stay upright, but he stayed at Danny’s side. The front door was open, and through the screen, he heard Lois’ voice, but then something happened. Her shadow was gone.

  “Move!” Danny ordered, blasting through the front door, dragging Hawk with him. He took a few precious gulps of fresh air as he assessed the situation.

  Someone shouted the order to take the prisoners inside. Shock-darts, bats, and chains appeared with the flurry of activity on the neighboring porches. The sounds of weapons fire radiated from their porch and into the street. Tray didn’t quite have the army Danny was hoping for, but they were fighting. Saskia, Amanda, and Jamese all hung from the porch, drugged and vulnerable to the crossfire. Danny stepped over Lois’ body and unhooked Amanda’s bound wrists from a nail in the post.

  Amanda dropped like a lead weight. “Danny,” she groaned, clutching his pant leg, pressing her face to his knee. She kept her fingers extended, and Danny saw splinters under her ripped fingernails. Whatever cage they’d had her in, she’d been trying to dig her way out for days.

  “We have to run, sweetie,” Danny said, getting dizzy when he squatted next to her.

  “Carry,” she murmured. Morrigan sidled out of the battle, running a quick scan on Amanda, then forcing a Detox tab into her mouth.

  A half-dozen men charged into the street, weapons bared, challenging each other. Tray, Ayize, and the Zenzele siblings tightened ranks around the porch. Tray made his way to Saskia and yanked the bag on her head. The bag didn’t move. It was cinched around her neck, attached to a collar like the one Danny wore.

  “What did they do? Glue it on,” Tray complained, abandoning the bag and trying to undo the knots on her feet.

  “Tray, knife,” Danny said, pointing to the knife in Tray’s boot. They couldn’t retreat through the house without risking getting gassed again.

  Tray undid the knot on one leg, then used the knife to saw at the second. He fired on the porch post with his stunner, searing the wood, and he pulled the rope through that way. Then he started searching for the cinch on the bag covering Saskia’s face.

  “Just cut the front open so I can see. We have to run,” Saskia said urgently.

  “What’s the escape plan, Tray?” Danny asked.

  “By water. Enn are coming,” Tray said. He made a slice at the edge of the fabric. Then he held one end and Saskia used her bound hands to pull at the other. Together, they managed to rip a hole wide enough to push her face through. As soon as she could see, Saskia took off running.

  “Danny, can you move on your own?” Morrigan asked.

  “A little ways,” Danny said, hooking Amanda’s arms over his shoulders and lifting. “Hawk is weak.”

  “How long is Lois going to be out?” Tray checked.

  “She’s dead,” Morrigan said, moving past Danny and scanning Hawk. “Or she will be soon. If not, then the cocktail she sold to me wasn’t poison.”

  “Morrigan. You weren’t supposed to kill her!” Demissie chastised, urging his sister off the porch. The way his wrists drooped when he held the stunner told Danny he’d never used one before. He’d burn his knuckles the minute he fired the thing.

  “Not the time or place, kids,” Ayize interrupted, carrying Jamese in his arms, herding the others off the porch. “Let the Enn handle Ketlin.”

  “Ayize, I’m not sure we can—”

  Ayize had already taken off with Jamese, overtaking Saskia, and Danny followed with Amanda. He kept his pace slow, making sure Tray wasn’t bringing up the rear. Tray wasn’t using his crutches, but his body hunched forward and he clutched his side as he ran. Danny hoped his brother wasn’t pushing himself toward permanent injury.

  Every step Tray took was agony, and then he saw Saskia go down. The flashing, yellow light and Saskia’s collar grew brighter, and Saskia grew bluer.

  “Breathe. Breathe,” Tray begged, crawling on hands and knees to get to her. He was in so much pain from his own injuries that he could barely see. “Saskia?”

  With her hands bound, she’d hit the ground face first. He pressed a sleeve to her bloody nose, and she rolled side-to-side, yanking at the bag.

  “We need to get off this street,” Danny said, setting Amanda down so that he could get a better grip on her. A mom
ent later, he pitched forward, too, and Amanda yelped, scampering to get out from under him.

  “We’re almost there!” Ayize hollered, spinning back.

  “No! We have to stop!” Tray cried. “I’ve seen collars like this before. They prevent slaves from running away by asphyxiating them until their masters retrieve them. They’re choking. We have to stop. We can’t go any further.”

  Ayize paused long enough to look at the blue-faced woman in his hands. Saskia, Danny, and Jamese all had collars on. They’d made it a few blocks away from Lois’ house and into the orchards. There was a canal that ran parallel, where the trade boats could load directly.

  “This way,” Ayize decided, detouring to the first boat shed he found that was controlled by a single deadbolt. He started to kick in the door, but Hawk stopped him, moving his thumb in a circle until the bolt released.

  Ayize carried Jamese inside, then came back to get Danny. Demissie scooped up Saskia.

  “You are going to lie down as soon as we’re in there,” Morrigan fussed, coming under Tray’s arm. Tray nodded, both because he was in pain, and because he found her scarier now that she’d poisoned Lois.

  None of the crates in the shed inside were wide enough to use as a bed, so Morrigan and Demissie shoved a few aside to make space on the floor. Hawk and Amanda were wilted on one end and the three collared patients were lined in the center.

  “Jamese isn’t breathing. The other two, struggling,” Morrigan observed. Tray squatted next to Saskia, stroking her face, but when Morrigan gave him a stern look, he laid down perpendicular to the patients so that he could touch both Danny and Saskia. Saskia kept clawing feebly at the collar.

  “You won’t get air into her lungs until you get the collar off,” Tray said.

  “You think Lois has the master release?” Ayize said, pacing in front of the door. “What am I looking for?”

  “I don’t know. It seems advanced tech for what she carried, but Kit was operating everything from a cube-sized metal chunk,” Tray shrugged.