Part of my brain waited for his dad to emerge, but the apartment remained dark and silent. A few people were loitering about a half a block away—two smaller figures and one larger.
They didn’t use the mover that most did, especially in this area, so they lived here, and if they lived in the Hub, they were potentially dangerous.
“We have to move.”
Dax’s father’s words echoed in my mind. There were stories of slavers and indentured servants. Hell, most Hub kids had to sell years just to get enough food and O2 to live. But it hadn’t seemed so bad when I’d lived in the Sat. The news had made it all seem so humane and kind to provide for these lost souls.
I should’ve known better.
I shook Dax, who grunted and winced.
“We have to go, and I can’t carry you. Now come on.” I seized his free hand and pulled back hard enough to arch my back. He got to a sitting position, emitting a low, pained moan.
I struggled to my feet, trying to pull him with me. His hand slipped out of mine, and he drooped back.
My heart wilted in me. I wouldn’t leave him, but I had to get back. So did he.
And three hooded figures were approaching.
I scoured the alley for anything I could use for a weapon.
The knife I’d stolen from Dax’s father. I palmed it. I’d had some training.
Dax only had me, and I wouldn’t let him down.
Bending my knees, I turned slightly to the side, creating a smaller target.
I’d never take three. The sound of cheers from the Big Green echoed. The humbleball game must be in full swing.
I glanced up, still worried that Dax’s dad would appear and hurl himself at me. My hand quivered from the adrenaline rush, most likely from the emergency first aid and the threat of attack.
It didn’t matter that I understood the why of what was happening. I was still scared.
The figures grew closer and sped up. Two of them were smaller, like planetborn small, and the third had a strange gait and couldn’t keep up with the small ones.
They were almost on me before I realized who they were.
“Daxy!” One of the cloaked figures squealed. “What have you done to my Daxy?”
Oh no. I was standing over Dax with a blood-stained knife. It didn’t look good.
The first figure smashed into my midriff. I had no time to respond as I folded back, and the second small figure snatched at the knife and laid across me, pinning me to the ground.
“Get off of me!” I yelled.
“Ma, we got her. We got the Sat girl.” My back throbbed from the impact and the weight of the girl on me. The second figure, who also looked to be a small child, dug an elbow into my chest. I hissed at the pain.
“Get off me.” This time my voice was low, and I hoped, threatening. I wiggled and bucked, but between the two of them, I couldn’t gain leverage.
The third person loomed, blocking out the light. It had to be Dax’s mom, and these were his sisters. Once I explained who I was, everything would be fine.
“Who do we have here?” The woman sounded different than the others I’d spoken to in the Hub, no accent.
“I’m Cadet Dupree. I came here to help.”
I got a full view of the woman’s face as she hung over me. With flint-hard eyes and a smirk, she didn’t look worried about Dax or concerned for me.
The pressure on my chest increased, and it wasn’t from the weight of the girls.
“You most certainly are here to help. Tie her up.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
Vega
I awoke bent over someone’s shoulder with legs held in a vice grip. My head ached with barbed spikes of pain as if I’d been clobbered with a rake handle.
I’d stepped in to fight some lummox on the street, and the next thing I knew, I was bouncing on a mountain of hard muscle. I raised my head slightly.
Where the Hell were they taking me? This looked like the beginning of a nightmare I’d had. He hadn’t yet realized I was awake, so I had surprise on my side. A quick knee strike into his chest using my planetborn strength might force him to drop me.
But that might not work.
With effort, the heat in my blood cooled. I only had one chance at surprise. I had to think this through.
The older man seemed to be leading. The female fighter jogged at a good clip. Her frame was heavy with muscle and weapons, and the dude carrying me was the biggest and had a knife on one hip and an electro cudgel on the other.
They’d taken me down fast and quick. I didn’t think it had been a blow. The tiny sharp teeth on their clothing made more sense now. They were probably covered in something nasty.
If I could activate my com, I could get help. I moved slowly to mask my movement and reached across to press the button. Nothing happened. No signal.
This thing could work almost anywhere, and for some reason, it showed me a blank, flipping screen. So no cavalry from the Ax-Mil.
Maybe a passerby would intercede?
The area was getting less and less populated. The people we did pass averted their gaze from me.
Figures. Kidnapping was probably an everyday thing here.
They moved at a spooked moonya rate through the open avenues. I couldn’t see where they were headed. Mostly darkness and opaque covering were visible. We must have been at the far corner of the atmo shield.
There were rumors even as far as U170 about the wicked things Hub gangs could do to someone, like OE torture stuff. Interesting tidbits to overhear at the space dock when you were supposed to be harvesting sev.
Not so interesting when you were the subject of the wicked things.
There were three of them.
But I was planetstrong and all kinds of pissed. I’d fought the damn aliens. I could handle three hooligans.
I bucked up and planted an elbow in my captor’s neck. His head jerked to the side violently, but instead of stopping, he lurched forward off balance. Like a jack-knifed train, we barreled toward a shielding.
He released my legs, and I flew, tucking into a ball to absorb the impact. He smashed his face into the hard surface.
The other two stopped and looped back to snare me again. I leaped up and ran. My best bet for escape was to return to where I came from.
I dodged and pushed through people. None of them would help me, judging from the hooded expressions I was getting. My only goal was to lose them.
The sound of my heart slammed hard in my ears, and my muscles electrified, humming with energy. I couldn’t let them corner me.
I had no weapon, no com unit, no allies. Right now, all I had were my legs. I powered on through the forest of girders, which opened into a widened area. It reminded me of the market street back home but in miniature.
Scads of vendors lined the street with food products, small luxuries, and—people. There were people shackled with ecuff. Most were younger than me, all tall and thin, many with wide, confused eyes. Others stared at the ground, barely moving.
I stopped running. The Hub had allowed ownership of people for centuries, but the Corps provided for them, allowed them autonomy. They weren’t cuffed and imprisoned. If they worked hard enough, they would free themselves from servitude.
But these people were not autonomous. They were in pens like moonya, getting branded on their left forearms in bloody, angry red. Numbers had been gouged into their skin with a laser.
The central government satellite must not know about this market. No way they would allow humans to be treated in such a horrible way. I would make a point of reporting them, and these people would be freed.
Footfalls sounded from behind me. Crap, I’d paused too long. Glancing back, I saw my three kidnappers flying toward me, shoving people from their path like rocket-powered dozers.
If I couldn’t outrun them, maybe I could outclimb them. I grabbed a girder and shimmied upward. The cold plastimetal numbed my hands, but I made it up about ten feet before they arrived at my location.
/>
They wouldn’t follow me up. They were too big and bulky and—the female with all the muscles scaled up behind me with the short, confident movements of someone who’d been climbing her entire life.
Moonya crap.
Pushing up with my legs, I jumped from my girder to another to stay just out of her reach. But I was tired. My legs wobbled, and my upper body, although still strong, wasn’t as developed as my legs. My arms quaked, and my breath shortened to gasps.
The girl wasn’t even breathing hard. I caught a smirk on her face as the gap closed. Her hand flashed out in a quick snatch.
I couldn’t avoid her this time. She wrapped my ankle like an iron vice and yanked. My grip came loose. I flailed, vainly snatching at air. I dropped like a stone.
Nothing stood between me and the floor as air whooshed by my ears. I grasped at the rafters, trying to stop my fall, and smacked my hand. I braced for impact, clenching every muscle, and closing my eyes.
Something broke my fall, and I woofed out air.
Arms squeezed me tight enough to bruise. Tight enough to break.
“Throw her in the pen.”
“But she whacked me up’side my head and hurt my chest.” The man whined like a child. His body was massive, but his face was still hairless. I writhed and fought, almost freeing my arms.
“She’s strong,” he said in a dull, stupid monotone.
“You bet your ass I’m strong.” I whipped my arm out of his grip and punched. He stumbled back, releasing me. I struck the ground and jumped to my feet.
But not fast enough. The girl had descended the girders and snagged my wrist.
I struggled to rip my arm out of her grip. Her lip curled, and she pulled me so hard, my feet lifted from the ground and threw me into one of the unforgiving metallic girders. My head rang as if I was inside a large bell, and my vision doubled.
More rough hands seized me and shoved me into an opening. I was still too disoriented to fight back. I landed on my back. Blinking a few times, I saw my surroundings come into focus.
It was a pen. Like the ones I’d seen earlier. I pushed up on my elbows and saw some of the other captives cowering in the corner. An energy door glinted in flashes as power ran through it. The bulky Hub-girl stood on the other side, leering in at me.
Behind her was the older man and the other muscle head. They were speaking with one of the merchants. The older man, the leader, approached me and smiled. The kind of smile that squeezed my insides like tentacles.
“Get her ready for branding,” he said as if he was ordering an appetizer before dinner.
“No one’s branding me.” I pushed myself to stand even though my legs were twin noodles, and my vision blackened around the edge.
The man appeared to take what I said into account and pursed his lips. “We shall see, girlie. We shall see.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Ethan
“Get up.” A hard object jabbed my side. Instantly, I leaped up and dropped into a fighting position.
Binary stood before me with McKenzie at her side. Both had their arms crossed and pinned me with narrow, laser-focused stares.
“What happened? Where’s Vega?” I pieced the memories together and scanned for any trace of Zagan and his gang.
They remained stationary, staring at me as if I’d grown horns.
“They’re gone. They took her.”
“What? How long was I out? Why didn’t you follow them?”
Binary lifted her eyebrows so high her hairline moved. “We did. We lost them. And our coms aren’t working, so we couldn’t call for help. You need to call.”
I wanted to argue with her. To blame her for losing Vega. But I couldn’t. Anything that happened to Vega now was on me. Shit. I tapped my wrist com. An image flickered in 3-D then died.
“Mine is down too. Coms are always bad in the Hub.”
“It was working when we were fighting the gang. Why didn’t you call then?” Her words struck with the power of a sternum strike.
“I should have.” It was an honest answer when I should just shut up and begin my search, but I didn’t like the accusation in her tone. I was blaming myself enough for the both of us. For the three of us.
McKenzie didn’t speak, but her eyes, sneer, and tight body language spoke volumes.
“Vega is going to pay for your mistake,” Binary spat.
No training could’ve stopped the raw lava of emotion that shot into my veins.
I clamped my teeth. “I thought I had it under control, and I don’t need to explain myself to you.”
Being back in the Hub and losing Vega stirred a vicious reaction inside. But my training still echoed through my head in Gleason’s voice.
Put emotion away. Use logic to decide the next steps. Emotion will get you killed.
Emotion would not only kill me but Vega and these two. Gleason was right. I settled my mind into a calm center. “Which way did they go? Show me.”
Binary swiveled and trotted to the end of the alley and onto one of the main thoroughfares. I followed with McKenzie, still scowling at me, bringing up the rear. The farther we went, the more my nausea rose. We were headed for the market. He meant to sell her.
That would not happen.
The skin on my left forearm itched and throbbed—a phantom pain. Something remembered from a lifetime ago. I ignored it, and I doubled my pace, passing Binary.
“Hey, how do you know where to go?” She ran without breathing hard. Her cardio was elite-athlete level.
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. We have to get there fast.”
All pretense of calm and logic sloughed off. I surged forward. Binary and McKenzie flanked me as we barreled through the crowd.
The stench of unwashed bodies reached us before the sight of the Marketplace.
I looked for Zagan in the masses—the short, round body and shiny black overcoat.
It was the sound of his laughter that caught my ear. Irritating and mocking. I followed the sound and motioned for the others to fall in behind me. The girls were not used to taking orders yet. Or maybe not taking orders from me.
“What? Do you see her? Shouldn’t we get back-up?” Binary asked in a whisper.
At least she was smart enough to be wary. I’d already seen three dealers eyeing her tall, muscular body, probably setting a minimum bid amount. Everyone was meat to be bought and sold here.
McKenzie kept her cool masked expression that promised a slow death to anyone who touched her.
“Even if coms worked here, they wouldn’t come. The market’s out of bounds. It’s an unspoken arrangement.”
The usually unflappable Binary’s mouth dropped then shut as she nodded. Her eyes said she was still confused, but again, she was wise enough to hold her questions until after we were out of danger.
“Come with me. Show no weakness. Do not break eye contact. Do not smile. Got it?”
“Do I seem like the sort to smile?” Kenzie said. “Do either of us?”
I didn’t want to discuss procedure with them anymore. Too much time had passed in which a lot of really terrible things could have happened to Vega.
I strode over to one of the pen holders, my chin up, eyes locked on his. If I avoided his gaze, he would think I was credit-less or clueless. One wrong twitch could get us thrown into the fresh meat category.
“I'm looking for some new blood,” I drawled.
He tilted back and leaned against his stall. I had to hope the guard was a greedy man and wasn't very observant.
“You don’t have enough credits to be buying and selling down here, boy.”
“Listen, my credits are as good as any bastard here. My parents are from the Sat.” The lies flowed fairly easily even though I was laughing inside. I hoped my accent was correct. I’d never been good with accents.
Faces stony, Binary and McKenzie must've figured out what I was doing this time and stayed quiet.
“If you are a satellite kid, show me your balance. I ain't s
howin’ the stock until I see some digits.”
“I'm not stupid. I know what happens to people who come to the Hub flashing balances. I just got to see what you have.”
In the Hub, the only real motivator was credits. Credits equaled food, shelter...life.
He motioned me forward. I held my breath, hoping I’d find Vega at the first pen. Three people were inside the thin blue electrical enclosure. All of them had been collared and branded. They were very young.
So young it made my stomach turn to think of what they could be sold to do, I remembered it well—the horrible people I’d served until I’d escaped and gotten drafted by Zagan then Gleason. I forced the memories back down under the dark water where they belonged.
A blood-curdling scream erupted from fifty feet away.
“She bit me!”
Vega. Definitely Vega.
I dropped all pretense and bolted. Binary and McKenzie followed, close on my heels.
It didn’t take long to figure out where she was. A crowd had surrounded the pen, shouting.
“She’s really strong. Freak. I’ll put ten credits on her to take out the wrangler.”
Another observer slowly raised his eyebrows, nodding. “I’ll take it. They’ll dose her for it gets too much further.” as if betting on a race.
Mil personnel were not supposed to interfere in the Hub Marketplace business. One of the oldest rules since the establishment of the Axis. I could get actual brig time.
The brass didn’t want interference because they enjoyed the products the Hub produced, the whiskey, the companionship, the disposable labor. Bastards.
But they’d saved me. Kept saving me. I had to remember that.
The Mil-station had given me everything.
But...Vega was in trouble. I pushed through the last few gawkers and saw her. Her hair loose and flying like a black cloud over her short form. She wasn’t an elegant fighter. She jabbed, slammed, and elbowed anyone who got close to her. Her sleeve had been ripped to the elbow, and the beginnings of a burn seared into her flesh. That was it. I’d had enough.
“Hold her down,” the dealer shouted. “Double the dose, or it’s your hide.”
Cadet: Star Defenders Book Two: Space Opera Adventure Page 27