“Okay?” He didn’t have anything else to say?
At that moment, Moses moved out of the door frame. It let a lot more light in and showed Seb the corridor beyond. The breath left his lungs. “Bruke? What’s he doing out there? Where’s he going?”
He walked with a line of Shadow Order soldiers. Reyes led the line. “Isn’t that the girl from the mech suit?” Seb said. “The one who barely knows how to pilot one and probably couldn’t tie her own shoelaces under pressure? The one who’s here because of a favour to Daddy rather than because of what she can actually do?”
The now familiar predatory grin spread across Moses’ face. He’d won and he knew it. “Bruke’s off on another mission while we wait for you to decide what you want to do. And yes, that is the woman you fought in the mech suit. And I can tell you, she’s not got any better. Hopefully she can look after your friend while they’re out in the field. It would be such a shame to see him die.”
It hurt to push off from the soiled mattress, the springs poking into the palms of Seb’s hands. He moved over to the door, close enough to Moses to smell the fishy reek of him. Close enough to see the gruesome details of every white scar on his thick grey snout. “Why are you sending him out on a mission? And why with her? She’s just a kid.”
“He’s joined the Shadow Order, Seb. I thought you already knew that? We feed, pay, and give him somewhere to stay. But we’re not a charity. As a Shadow Order member, he has to work for us. I wouldn’t worry though. The stuff Reyes has already survived, I’m sure she’ll be fine. Although, there was that one mission she led a team back from where over half the crew died. But a fifty percent chance of survival is better than none, right?”
Seb shook his head. “You’re lying. You’re not sending that lot out.”
“Maybe I am lying,” Moses said.
Heat rose up Seb’s neck in a tingling rush and spread through his face. He shook his head. “You’re lying to me.”
When Moses didn’t reply, Seb looked from him to the disappearing Bruke. How could he ever forgive himself if Bruke didn’t return?
Another look at the fat, scarred head of his boss and Seb let the tension fall from his body with a sigh. “Damn you, Moses.”
It didn’t look possible before, but Moses’ smile spread even wider. It turned his large head into ninety percent teeth. “Are you ready to go back to work?”
A shake of his head and Seb dropped his attention to the ground. “Damn you.”
Chapter 8
Tension wound tight in Seb at Moses getting one up on him. So when someone from behind him grabbed his arm, he turned on the creature, his fist raised and his teeth bared.
When he saw the grey being with the long black hair, he relaxed a little. “You?”
The creature shook in the face of Seb’s fury. Its voice warbled. “Take care of yourself, Chosen One.”
In that moment, Seb forgot about Moses and Bruke. So when the large creature snorted, sending a waft of fish forward, he spun around and glared at him. He then turned back to the grey being.
It encouraged the creature to continue. “You have something important to do. Much more important than the money-making missions he’s sending you on.” The creature looked at Moses before returning his attention to Seb. “Make sure you look after yourself.”
Seb could already see the beings closing in around them. By talking so openly to him, the grey creature had risked its life. A weary acceptance sat in its humble stare. It had clearly been important to it to pass the prophecy on.
When Seb looked towards the cell’s door, two guards had moved in front of Moses and raised their electric poles. The flicker of blue light strobed through the small room. “Steady on,” he said to them. “I’m coming peacefully, just hold on a minute, yeah?”
Seb turned and looked at the others in the cell. “If I come back from my mission and anyone has harmed this creature, I’ll make every one of you pay. Trust me.”
It seemed to be enough to relax the tension in the room and the other prisoners stepped back. Seb turned to the grey creature again. “Why did you call me the chosen one?”
Eyes the colour of granite like the rest of him, the beast looked at Seb and wrung its hands. It stammered when it said, “B-b-b-because you are.”
No more than he’d already been told, Seb said, “I’ve heard about the prophecy already, but how do you know about it?”
“We just know.”
A firm grip on Seb’s arm pulled him towards the door. Before he’d spun around, his world had slowed down. He saw the blue flicker of the prison guard’s pole.
Cattle prod or not, Seb continued to spin around and drove a strong cross into the creature’s chest. The guard might have been taller and heavier than him, but he still fell to the hard blow. They all fell if you knew where to hit them, especially when you had fists of steel.
After he’d watched the creature crumple, Seb turned back to the grey-skinned beast.
It reached up and grabbed both of Seb’s hands, its eyes widening as it said, “Fulfil your potential, Chosen One. Use your gift.”
Seb caught the rush of another prison guard in his peripheral vision. Before it could get to him, he spun around and drove an uppercut into its nose. The wet squelch of his metal fist crushing cartilage snapped through the room and the beast fell back, dropping its electric pole on the guard that had already been knocked out.
For a second, Seb watched the first guard twitch and convulse as electricity ran through it. The smell of singed hair came off the beast. Seb ruffled his nose at the stink before Moses stepped forward and kicked the pole away. Several creatures in the cell avoided its spinning trajectory.
Moses glowered at Seb, his patience clearly running out.
“Just give me a few more seconds, okay?” Seb said.
Moses didn’t respond, so Seb turned to the grey creature. “Do you know anything about my mother?”
The creature shook its head. “No.”
Frustration balled in Seb’s tense body, but what could he do? The creature looked like the kind of being to tell him if it knew any more. “Okay,” he said, and dipped a bow of appreciation. “Thank you.” And with that, Seb left the cell, stepped over the unconscious guards, and followed Moses away from there.
Chapter 9
After spending a few hours in the prison cell, it felt great to be back with the others. SA and her grace, Sparks and her wit, Bruke … Seb looked at Bruke at that moment to see the same anxious look he’d seen several times before on his green face. Not that he could blame him; they’d all seen the CCTV footage of what they were about to head into. But at least Moses hadn’t sent him on a death-wish mission with Reyes. She wouldn’t have been able to protect him like Seb could.
As much as Seb disliked the Shadow Order and their immoral approach to everything, they were his best option at present. A private firm had one motivation: profit. He might not like that, but it was the way of the universe, and until he’d done enough work for them to walk away, he had to accept it.
Besides, as he stood in the middle of the blaster section in their weapons warehouse, he couldn’t help but be impressed. Big-paying jobs meant the Shadow Order had every weapon in the galaxy and they were all at his disposal.
Although, when SA wrapped two harnesses loaded with knives around herself, Seb forgot about the weapons and stared at her instead. The strapping hugged her lithe form like wet fabric. It took for her to stop and look back at him before he realised he had his mouth wide open as he stared at her.
Seb closed his mouth so quickly it made the slightest clop sound in the hard metal room. “Um,” he said and shook his head to himself. A deep breath of the cold, metallic-scented air and he looked at the floor. Even in the frigid space, prickly heat rushed up his neck and smothered him. Could he have been any more blatant about it?
Because he didn’t know where else to look, Seb turned his attention to the wall of blasters in front of him. He heard Sparks giggle, but he ign
ored it.
The room had just three walls. Instead of a doorway to access the space, the entire back wall had been removed to allow the room to open up into the larger warehouse. Every inch of the three remaining walls had blasters covering them. Seb saw every gun he knew existed and many, many more.
“I can’t believe how many blasters they have,” Seb said, loud enough for his voice to echo away from him into the larger warehouse behind.
“Not that we can use them in the third section of the complex,” Sparks said. Her eyes widened. “Not unless you want to incinerate us all.”
Seb shrugged. “There is that.”
Bruke let out an anxious whine in response to Sparks’ statement, but the others ignored him.
Sparks had her computer in her hands and most of her attention on the screen. When she looked to see Seb watching her, she turned the screen around to show him. “I’m downloading the schematics for the mining facility.”
Seb didn’t understand the mess of lines on the screen, so he didn’t reply. Silence filled the space again and he returned to the shame of being caught gawking at SA. He hugged himself for warmth and spoke before he drowned in his embarrassment. “Why do you think it’s so cold down here?”
Not looking up from her screen, Sparks said, “They probably have some highly volatile weapons somewhere. Raise the temperature too much and Aloo will turn to dust when they go off.”
Before they could say anything else, Moses entered the room. He had four black radiation suits with him, all of them the correct size for each of the Shadow Order members. After he’d handed them out, he looked at the quartet, addressing them with his detached monotone. “You’ll need these suits when you land and take off. If you go outside at any point, make sure you’re wearing one. If you don’t, it’ll take just seconds for your skin to blister and your eyes to melt. Although, I’d strongly advise against going outside anyway. It’s not a good idea on Carstic.”
Not a whine this time, but Bruke shifted his weight from one foot to the other as if the ground beneath him had grown too hot to stand on.
Seb felt nervous too and drew a deep sigh that did nothing to calm the churning anxiety inside him. They were going into hell, but currently, hell seemed like his best option. He stepped towards the wall of blasters and pulled a semi-automatic from the rack. A two-handed weapon, he gripped its cold metal frame to test its weight.
When Seb turned around, he found SA watching him and instantly flushed hot again. Were it not for the biting air conditioning, he would undoubtedly be sweating at that moment. Why couldn’t he keep his cool in front of her? He’d known her long enough now.
Seb forced a laugh to break the awkward silence. “I know Gurt would be disgusted to see me pick such a crass weapon. It’s hardly the single-shot blasters he’d use. But we all know I can’t shoot like him. I need to be able to spray blasts to give me any chance of hitting anything.”
“Just make sure you don’t hit me in the crossfire,” Sparks said.
“You don’t need to worry about that. Unless I’m trying to kneecap someone.”
Sparks stuck out her long tongue at him.
Bruke still didn’t speak. By the look on his green face, he seemed close to vomiting.
Because Bruke hadn’t done anything since they’d entered the weapons room, Seb walked over to him and said, “Which one do you want?”
Bruke looked like he’d forgot how to talk.
When Moses tutted, Bruke’s frown deepened as he clearly grew more anxious.
Seb moved over to the blasters and got another automatic rifle like the one he’d taken for himself. He held it in Bruke’s direction. At first, Bruke stared at it and didn’t move. “Come on, you’re better having a weapon than not having one.”
Bruke took the blaster with shaking hands.
“We’re going to be fine,” Seb said to his friend. “We’ll land on Carstic, take out those parasites, and be back in time for dinner.”
Silence swept around the room. Not even Moses got behind that statement, despite it being in his best interest to.
“Right,” Moses finally said. “You lot need to suit up. We need to get you to Carstic.”
Seb raised his eyebrows at Bruke. Bruke finally nodded back and picked up the suit Moses had dropped in front of him. They wouldn’t be back in time for dinner, Bruke knew that, but Seb could see it felt better for him to pretend at that moment. Sometimes you needed to tell yourself lies to keep going. Sometimes the reality didn’t bear thinking about.
Chapter 10
The shuttle shook and wobbled as they entered Carstic’s atmosphere, blurring Seb’s vision when he tried to look at the planet they were heading for. They still had a way to go, despite the large red expanse of wasteland dominating the view for some time now.
They all wore their black radiation suits. Although, at present, they sat with their visors open. They weren’t close enough to need them closed yet. The thick suit restricted Seb’s movements, it smelled of rubber and a hint of glue, and a layer of sweat stood out all over his body. But if it stopped him getting microwaved on Carstic, then it would be worth it.
From the second it came into view, Seb had been unable to take his eyes from what looked like a scorched planet beneath them. The closer they got to it, the more he questioned his decision. The prison cell had been a far better choice, but could he have let Bruke go with Reyes? Maybe he should have called Moses’ bluff. They weren’t going anywhere. But the consequences would have been too great to risk it. He looked at Bruke. The green-scaled creature sat on the hard metal bench with his eyes closed.
The mission felt pointless. They were about to risk their lives so Moses could get richer. Sure, they’d all receive a healthy bonus for it, but credits seemed much less important to Seb than they had in the past. He thought about what he used to be and shook his head. He’d fight in the pits for a small purse, rest for a couple of days, and do it all over again. Had he moved very far away from that with his new life? At least he knew the pits; he understood them and knew he would walk away unharmed. Hell, he even enjoyed the battles in the arenas. Another look at the red planet and he shuddered. It seemed more hostile than even the most volatile of crowds.
Would it have been better had Moses not told them anything? Now that Seb knew about the radiation, infection, and parasites, of course he felt apprehensive. “We need to get in and out as quickly as possible.”
It took for Bruke to whine for Seb to realise he’d said it aloud. He clapped a hand to his mouth and mumbled, “Sorry, Bruke.” After sharing a glance with SA, he added, “I was thinking that we need to make sure we’re as efficient as we can be. Carstic’s far from a holiday resort. It’s not somewhere we want to hang around.”
For the entire journey, Sparks had fiddled with her computer. When she finally looked up, Seb flicked his head in her direction. “Have you got a high score yet?”
“I’m not playing computer games.” Sparks scowled at him. “If you must know, I’m making sure I have all the floor plans sorted before we go in there. Better to be prepared, eh?”
A nod and Seb said, “Jolly good. Keep it up.” Whenever he felt nervous, he behaved like an idiot. Although aware of it, he couldn’t do anything to change it, his mouth just ran away with him.
Before anyone else spoke, the monitor on the back wall of the shuttle burst to life. A bright glow as the screen flickered for a second, and then a close-up of Moses appeared.
Seb flinched and pulled his face back. “Urgh!”
As he always did, Moses fixed Seb with a cold glare and said nothing.
“I’m sorry, big man.” Seb laughed. “I wasn’t expecting such an extreme zoom. I hate to break it to you, but you ain’t the prettiest.”
“I’m just here to reiterate,” Moses said, ignoring Seb’s dig. “We expect you to land, get into the mining complex, flush out all those bloody parasites, and get the hell out of there. There are plenty of ships in the hangar, so you should be able to get
yourselves off the planet. However, if you don’t manage that, we’ll have a shuttle on standby. You got that?”
Nods moved around the shuttle and Seb gave Moses a thumbs-up and a wink.
“Oh, and Seb, I forgot to tell you; I give everyone three lives. Two warnings and you strike out on the third. Consider the nonsense with your refusal to go on this mission as your first warning.”
“So I’ve got one more life to use?” Seb asked.
“Or don’t use it at all,” Moses said.
“And what happens when I’ve used all my wishes up? Do you go back into your lamp?”
After a deep sigh and exhale that pushed his thick cheeks out, Moses said, “Just watch it”—he then made quotation marks with his thick fingers—“Chosen One.”
Before Seb could say anything else, the screen turned black. Probably a good thing; he didn’t know when to stop at the best of times. When he got such a favourable reaction from Moses, he found it even harder.
Seb looked at the other three to find them all staring at him. “What?”
“Why do you keep pushing him?” Bruke asked.
“Because it does him good to be challenged once in a while. We all need a challenge, right?”
“And what was he talking about when he called you Chosen One?”
Seb and Sparks looked at one another before Seb shrugged it off. “Never mind that. Hey, pilot,” he called out, “are we there yet?”
“About fifteen minutes,” the pilot shot back at him.
Seb turned his attention to Bruke. “I can’t handle sitting here in silence for any longer. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? We know you fight like the devil when pushed. What else is there to you?”
“I dunno,” Bruke said as he rested back into his seat. “What do you want to know?”
“Why don’t you have any family?” Sparks asked.
The same rage Seb had seen in Bruke’s dark eyes on the battlefield returned and he clenched his thick fists. A set jaw and gritted teeth, he spoke in a low growl. “The Countess got them.”
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 64