Too much time to think, his breaths quickening, his heart racing, Seb almost welcomed the violent embrace just to stop the anticipation of it. The heavy metal chains—each link as thick as a mandulu’s finger—crashed into him, gathered him up like he weighed nothing, and squeezed the air from his lungs. The smell of metal surrounded him as he got scrunched into a ball. The momentum of the net dragged him out of the warehouse into the dock beyond. A loud whoosh filled his ears as the chains scraped over the concrete ground.
The cold links of the net pressed against Seb’s face, making it hard for him to see. Not that he needed to be a genius to identify the six large forms descending on him.
Seb’s bonds allowed him the slightest twist before they locked him tight again. He’d moved enough, however, to be able to see the blaster nearby. It must have been the one the mandulu had pressed to the back of his neck. He’d obviously dragged it with him when he got caught up in the net. As much as he fought to be free of his bonds, he couldn’t untangle himself. Thick, heavy webbing—the more he struggled, the more it crushed him in its grip.
Still partially blinded by the chains pressed against his face, Seb could have sworn he saw a figure move around the side of the warehouse. Clearly nothing to do with the lizard creature and his henchmen, they looked to be hiding. As much as he tried to angle his head to see better, he couldn’t. It had to have something to do with Moses.
In real time, the mandulus would have closed down on Seb in seconds. It felt like minutes as he waited for them to get near.
“You lot are brave, aren’t you?” Seb said as he tried to twist and shake against his bonds.
The mandulus closed in a little more, blocking out the bright Aloo sunshine.
“I wish I had the courage of you lot. I mean, it takes a fierce warrior to approach someone wrapped up in chains on the ground. Especially when they have five of their friends with them to hold their hands.”
“Shut up,” one of the mandulus said.
A shake of his head, his breaths running away from him, his pulse rampaging, Seb said, “You were just about to get your arses kicked. If I walk away from this, I promise you, I won’t forget I owe you a whoppin’.”
Before Seb could say anything else, he saw one of the mandulus lean over him and raise its fist. Telegraphed from a mile away, he could do nothing but wait for the inevitable sting as its punch forced the thick chains hard against his nose. A nauseating crack ran through Seb’s face and he instantly tasted the metallic tang of his own blood.
Another blow flashed white light through Seb’s right eye, and the sting lit up the side of his face like an electric shock. His head moved from side to side as several more blows crashed into him, each one fogging his perspective and slowly turning the daylight surrounding him to darkness.
Chapter 9
Every muscle in Seb’s body ached when he came to, but most of the pain sat in his face. The swelling felt like he had knots of fire beneath his skin. Whenever he moved, electric shocks streaked through his sinuses and jabbed knives into his eyes. Hardly surprising when he’d had six mandulus attack him. As much as he didn’t want to make a sound, his body betrayed him by releasing a groan like a punctured tyre leaking air. “Owwwwwwwww.”
A cloudy view of his surroundings, Seb tried to raise his hand to wipe his face but couldn’t. Heavy chains similar to the ones the net had been made from had been wrapped around him. Several blinks later, he saw they pinned him to an upright frame. A vertical rack of some sort. The realisation chased away the fog in his mind. They clearly weren’t done with him yet.
It took several more blinks for Seb to fully realise his surroundings. An office of some sort. It looked cheap in its construction. With yellowing stud walls and the thick smell of salty damp, it had a desk in one corner that looked one strong shove away from collapse. Two chairs, both of them with torn upholstery and the browning foam hanging out of them like lolling tongues, sat to either side of it.
Just one window in the cheap space, Seb looked out into the warehouse beyond. Maybe the same one he’d been in when he was last conscious. Maybe he’d been out for long enough for them to take him somewhere else. Had they called Moses to come and collect?
“Nice to see you’re finally with us.”
Seb gasped as he jumped and turned to look in the direction of the speaker. The heavy chains rattled against the metal frame.
Unable to calm his rapid pulse, Seb breathed heavily as the lizard creature moved towards him. Even in the poorly lit office, its skin changed from green to blue as the light hit him from different angles.
A grin spread across his face, showing he had a mouth wide enough to catch a frisbee in. His gums were studded with small but sharp teeth, gaps between each one. But Seb saw them for the distraction they were and looked down at his captor’s thick and powerful tail. It looked to be pure muscle and wore its barbs like a medieval club. One swipe of that thing would take his head clean off. Even at only five feet tall, it made sense why the mandulus called this creature boss.
A stale taste in his mouth, Seb gulped. As much as he tried, and as much as he hated himself for it, he couldn’t hide the shake in his nervous voice. “What do you want with me?”
Before the lizard could respond, something moved in Seb’s peripheral vision. Owsk stepped forward and Seb shook again. The chains rattled and the hard metal frame remained rigid. “You sold me out, you rat!”
A detached granite glare, Owsk watched Seb for a few seconds before he looked at the lizard.
As much as Seb wanted to continue to rip into Owsk, he didn’t matter at that moment. “Come on then,” he said to the lizard, “whatever you have to do, get it done … whatever your name is.”
The lizard regarded Seb with its cold yellow eyes. A dark mind looked through that pallid stare, sending panic spiking through Seb. As often happened when he got backed into a corner, his mouth ran away with him. “That’s how you want to be, is it? Go all dark and mysterious on me like the OG you are? If you won’t give me your name, I’ll have to give you one myself. I’ll call you Buster.”
A snap of its head to one side, an alien twist, the lizard creature said, “Huh?”
“Smuggler buster. That’s what you do, isn’t it? Bust being smugglers? Save the day by obtaining a commodity a grieving family would sell their soul for. And I thought drug dealers were bad.”
A crocodilian smile, Buster shook his head. “You’re quite a talker, aren’t you?”
As he looked from Buster to Owsk and back again, Seb said, “Someone has to be.”
A nod to concede the point. “So you’ve heard of me?”
“Only through that traitorous rat next to you.” Both Seb and Owsk stared at one another again. Impossible to read the granite troll, Seb squirmed against the metal frame behind him. It proved as pointless as it had the first time.
“In that case, I’ll forgive you for not understanding the gravity of your situation.”
“You think you deserve more respect, do you?” A still-galloping pulse, Seb’s mouth galloped faster. “I get out of trickier situations than this on a daily basis.” It took until that moment for Seb to see the bloodstains in the concrete at his feet. Old bloodstains from where other beings had suffered the same fate that clearly awaited him.
When Seb looked back up again, he met a slight narrowing of Buster’s yellow eyes. An agitated twitch sent his thick and powerful tail kicking out to one side. “You’re not that smart, are you?” Buster said.
“I’m not the one hiring mandulus for protection.”
“They dealt with you just fine.”
“Your net dealt with me just fine. They simply stuck the boot in when I was down. A child could have knocked me out at that point.”
Where irritation had tightened Buster’s features, it seemed to fade away. “I don’t know why, but I like you, Seb.”
Seb didn’t reply.
Buster shrugged. “So Owsk has told you a little bit about me, then?”
Owsk’s deep inhale punctuated the quiet office’s stagnant air.
“Well, I reunite families and take a small commission for saving their loved ones,” Buster said, “just to cover my expenses. I also find the smugglers themselves. And when I do …”
“You drop them in the sea?” Seb said, unable to avoid looking at the dark stains in the concrete by his feet again. Even drowning seemed like a better prospect than the torture device he’d been chained to. Drowning would be over relatively quickly.
“The creature who’s now at the bottom of the sea had a lucrative business in trafficking children,” Buster said.
An involuntary wince twisted through Seb to hear that information, but he fought against it. As much as he wanted to believe what Buster had said to him, he couldn’t take this creature at face value. He needed to remain objective until the lizard proved he wasn’t a psychopath.
“Anyway, this isn’t about him. This is about you. I must say, if Owsk hadn’t vouched for you, I’m not sure we’d even be having this conversation now. You knocked out one of my guards. I’d like you to apologise to him.”
The tall mandulu stepped from behind Seb. It had a swelling on its fat face.
When Seb twisted to try to look at the office space behind him—his chains rattling—he couldn’t get far enough around to see. “Have you got any more of your crew hiding in the shadows?”
His hands clasped together in front of him, Buster repeated, “I’d like you to apologise to him.”
“For him shoving a gun into the back of my head?”
“For knocking him out.”
“Knocking mandulus out is like swatting flies. Something I’d do without much thought or effort. A bit like trampling daisies when walking through a field. How am I supposed to apologise for that?”
“Just apologise to him.”
Seb looked back at the mandulu. “I’m sorry you’re so easy to knock out. Even if you are a big lump.”
“Is that it?” Buster said.
A sigh and Seb looked back at the mandulu again. “I’m sorry you have such a punchable face.”
“My patience is wearing thin, Seb.”
Unable to suppress his smile, Seb looked back at the mandulu and winked.
The beast tensed and straightened its back.
Seb’s smile broadened. “Sorry.”
Silence swept through the office again as they clearly waited for more from him.
The mandulu then looked at Buster. After a short and sharp nod from the lizard, the fat-jawed creature walked out of the office into the warehouse beyond. He slammed the door on his way out, the thin office wall shaking as a loud crack swept around the place.
“Bit temperamental,” Seb said. “Having so many mandulus must make you feel like you’re living with a group of teenagers.”
Buster glared at him. “I’ve not known you long, but I feel like I understand you already.”
The lizard’s tone had changed. A little darker than before, it lifted panic into Seb’s chest, tightening his lungs. As much as he’d stand toe to toe with the short reptile, in his current predicament, he had no chance. His shaky delivery undermined his cocksure words. “How wonderful, a pop psychologist. You can never get enough of them.”
“I think you’re not very good at making friends.”
“You just said Owsk vouched for me.” Seb looked at Owsk. “Thanks for that, buddy. Although, you did lead me into this.”
“I heard what you did to the Piscents,” Buster said.
It even hurt to frown through the beating he’d taken, but Seb couldn’t prevent it at that moment. “The what now?”
“My sub,” Owsk said, his tone cold, his expression below freezing.
“Oh. Yeah. Well, I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. I wish I could take it back.”
The emotion returned and Owsk raised his voice, his words echoing in the small office. “You keep doing what you think’s the right thing. The problem is, you don’t seem to think it through very well.”
“Give me another example where that’s true,” Seb said.
“Um, I dunno … leaving your friends behind, maybe?”
After looking from Owsk and back to Seb a couple of times, Buster laughed. “So he does have friends, then? Don’t get me wrong, there’s something about his spirit I admire, much like I would a wilful child, but I find it hard to believe he’d have actual real-life friends.”
“I know.” Owsk shrugged. “Hard to believe, right? Although I would imagine his friends are a lot smarter than him.” Then he turned back to Seb. “Maybe you should take their counsel from time to time. Maybe you wouldn’t end up in so much shit.”
The desire to get at Owsk tugged on Seb’s sore frame, but even the slightest of movements met the resistance of the taut chains. Were he not bound to the metal rack, he would have swung for him by now despite vouching for Seb to keep him alive, and having helped get him away from Moses.
“Anyway”—Buster stepped between Seb and Owsk—“regardless of your clear hatred for one another, Owsk still vouched for you. He said, although you’re an arsehole, you fly straight.”
Seb shrugged and the chains rattled again. He looked at Owsk. “You have to understand that I didn’t know what that sub meant to you.” He then added in a softer tone, “I’m truly sorry.”
Although Owsk looked like he wanted to reply, Buster lifted the dead grub up to Seb. “We took the liberty of removing this thing from your pocket. You want to find out where it’s from, right? This is a part of your crusade to make the galaxy a better place?”
Seb nodded.
“Well, I can find out. And seeing as you’re such a nice guy—that’s sarcasm, by the way—I’ll do it free of charge. Although understand this is a favour to Owsk, not you.”
Seb held onto his snarky impulse and simply said, “Thank you.”
“But I need a few hours.”
“I haven’t got a few hours.”
“I hear you’ve upset the big man, so you’re right, you really don’t have a few hours. I’d imagine a bounty’s already on your head. But, whether you have a few hours or not, I still need them to find out about this creature. If you can’t wait, I can’t help you.” While holding the grub in Seb’s direction, Buster said, “You’re welcome to take it back and find someone else.”
“You know I can’t find anyone else.”
Buster walked around the back of the robust frame and unlocked the chains holding Seb in place. The rush of heavy metal fell to the ground with a whoosh, gathering at Seb’s feet like large metal snakes.
Once free of his bonds, Seb tried to roll some of the pain out of his sore body by twisting and turning.
Buster walked back around to stand in front of him. “So I’ll see you in … let’s say three hours?”
“It’s not like I have a choice, is it?”
“We always have a choice. It’s just sometimes the alternatives aren’t very desirable. So see you back here in three hours?”
A slight shrug, Seb did his best to hide his petulance. “Fine.” He didn’t do a very good job of it.
Chapter 10
Neither Seb nor Owsk spoke as they stepped out of Buster’s office into the warehouse beyond. Seb pulled the door closed behind him, the flimsy wood so thin it felt like cardboard.
A deep breath, Seb released some of his tension with a hard exhale. Thankfully he’d managed to walk out of Buster’s office rather than leave the warehouse through the hole in the damp concrete ground. It might never have been the plan for him, but he’d had no way of knowing that at the time.
The large shutter remained up, the sun shining in through the huge space leading to the docks outside. Despite the bright glow, some corners of the warehouse remained impenetrably dark. Seb thought about the figure he’d seen when he’d been caught in the net. Lightning forks of pain ran
through his face when he squinted to try to see better into the shadows. It made no difference. If they were there, he couldn’t see them.
“I’m sorry,” Seb said again, his voice echoing through the seemingly empty warehouse. “If I’d have known about the sub, I swear …” he trailed off. What more could he say about it?
Owsk didn’t respond.
To get out of the warehouse, they had to pass the hole in the ground. Seb relived the moment when he’d seen the trafficker dropped into it. Not that he felt sorry for the creature, not if what Buster had said about it was true. Although, to look into the dark hole—the undulations of the sea running through the deep water—made his lungs tight and his breaths quicken. Because of his fists, he swam like a rock at the best of times, never mind being bound in heavy chains. Also, he had no SA to save him either.
“You know, you need to learn to stop being such a dick,” Owsk finally said.
Seb bit back his initial reaction. At least they were talking. After a couple of seconds, he said, “I’ve had trouble with mouthing off before.”
“Hmm,” Owsk said.
“What does hmm mean?”
“And you haven’t learned the lesson yet? You know Buster’s OG, right? You joked about it, but he is. If he didn’t owe me favours, then you’d be at the bottom of the sea like that rat he dropped in there earlier.”
“It looked more like a hedgehog to me.”
When Owsk shot him a glare, Seb pressed his lips tightly shut. A few seconds later, he added, “I hate to think what the seabed beneath this place looks like.”
“Well, don’t. Maybe think about what you can do to avoid being thrown down there with them.”
“You could have told me what you were doing. I wanted to trust you, but when you led me into a welcoming party like that …”
Owsk tutted at Seb and shook his head. “You need to take responsibility for your actions.” Saltier than the air around them, the troll looked away, a craggy frown on his face.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 81