by E. A. James
Without another word, he hurried off, Kardok following quickly behind him.
It took them twenty minutes to find their cell—twenty minutes of ear-piercing sirens and wandering around amid a crowd of hardened criminals, lost in the rush of disorderly chaos.
As she got jostled back and forth, Kira’s head began to ache and her stomach began to turn. “This cannot be the rest of my life,” she whispered to herself. “No matter what, I will not let this be the rest of my life.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Thankfully, Thor and Kira were assigned to the same cell. Dario, unfortunately, was not. He was put in the cell next to them with a particularly rugged looking Arkadian woman. To make matters worse, for Dario, at least, the cells were small—very small.
“Originally, the cells were double the size they are now,” Aldo explained when they met with him the next afternoon.
The Pits were as crowded as they were the day before, which came as no surprise to any of them. Once they found Aldo and Kardok waiting in the exact spot they had agreed on the night before, they all moved together to a more private part of the central common area—as private as they could hope to find. There were still crowds of inmates huddled together in their groups around them and the ever-present security drones buzzing around over their heads.
“But, due to the whole overcrowding thing,” Aldo continued, “they came in and split them all in two—just sliced them right down the middle with a slab of metal.”
“They clearly didn’t have the inmates comfort in mind when they did that,” Dario said. “It’s impossible to move around in there. And sharing the space with a seven-foot-tall Arkadian doesn’t make it any better.”
“Is she nice at least?” Kira asked.
“A little too nice,” Dario replied.
“What does that mean?” Thor asked.
“Let’s just say that I’m pretty sure she wants to be more than just roommates,” Dario said, shaking his head.
Kira couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Dario trying to fend off the large, overly-friendly female. But when Dario shot her an annoyed look, she straightened up immediately and wiped the smile off her face as much as she could.
“Are we here to talk about Dario’s prospective love life or to figure out how to get in touch with Alaria and the others?” Thor asked.
“Being that my love life is perfectly fine the way it is,” Dario said, “I suggest we stick with how to get in touch with the others.”
Aldo nodded and leaned in, waiting for the others to do the same. “We need to figure out how to get the parts that are missing.”
“What parts are they, exactly?” Dario asked.
“First, a transmitter module,” Aldo replied. “It’s just a little part that will ensure that the message we send actually gets sent. And second, a power source.”
“A power source?” Thor asked gruffly. “What do you mean’ a power source’?”
“I mean something that will generate the power to make the communicator work,” Aldo said with a hint of sarcasm.
Just as the words came from Aldo’s mouth, Thor reached forward, moving faster than anyone in the group could process, and grabbed hold of Aldo’s shoulders, shaking him twice.
“What kind of game are you playing?” Thor asked, his words coming out in a low growl. “What good is a communication system if it doesn’t actually work?”
“Hey!” Kardok said, stepping forward hovering threateningly over Thor’s shoulder. “Let him go.”
Thor looked back at the large, green-skinned Arkadian, his hold on Aldo still firm.
“Thor,” Kira said firmly, “let him go.”
“Fine,” Thor said, releasing Aldo slowly.
Aldo straightened himself out quickly and glared at Thor. “Remind me again why I’m helping you guys?”
“Because we’re going to help you get out of here and prevent the crazed Colonel Grimm from blowing the entire galaxy to shit,” Kira replied.
“Sure,” Aldo said, still eyeing Thor suspiciously.
“Let’s get back on topic here,” Dario said anxiously. “Explain what you mean when you say the communication system needs a power source. You’re saying that it doesn’t actually operate at all?”
“What I mean is, I have a one battery pack, which is enough to turn the device on and off, but I need at least one more to build up enough energy to actually transmit the message,” Aldo replied.
“Transmit the message using the transmitter module that you don’t have,” Thor said with a grunt.
“Are you a problem solver or a problem enhancer?” Aldo asked.
“You seem to be a problem presenter,” Thor replied.
“How do we get the transmitter and the power sources?” Dario asked, waving his hand in Thor’s face.
“They are both items that are in those,” Aldo said, looking up and pointing at one of the drones drifting by overhead.
“I thought you said you were the one to ‘knock down and dismantle’ them,” Kira pointed out.
Aldo’s nose twitched a few times as he looked up at Kardok, who returned his gaze with a blank stare. “I said some ingenious inmates did that,” Aldo replied. “I only hinted that I was one of them.”
“But, you’re not?”
“Well, I am one of the ingenious ones that make things with the parts,” Aldo replied. “But the knocking down and getting hold of them for myself, not so much. I’m the one that the other inmates bring them to pull apart and make into other things. I keep some of the parts for myself, but obviously, the important ones, like the power sources, are in high demand. And, up until you three showed up, I was too worried about self-preservation and collecting up favors and the like, to make collecting my own equipment a priority.”
Kardok laughed and chimed in, “Aldo can make anything. All the inmates come to him to make things.”
"You flatter me," Aldo said, smiling up at his giant side-kick. "The thing is, we have two options for getting hold of what we need. The first is to knock down one of those things on our own—which I don't recommend. And the other is to find someone who already has our needed supplies in their possession and find some way to convince them to give them to us."
“Why wouldn’t you recommend knocking one of the drones down for ourselves?” Dario asked.
“Well, as chicken shit as the guards around here can be, they’re not stupid. After a few dozen drones got knocked out of the air, they started equipping them with explosives. What makes it even worse, is that the explosives are remote control operated. Meaning that the guards can determine when to detonate them—could be the second they hit the ground, could be when you get it back to your cell and tuck it under your pillow for safe keeping.”
“Explosives?” Kira and Thor asked in unison.
“Not all of them,” Aldo replied. “But at least half of them buzzing around up there are loaded down with bombs powerful enough to blow your hands clean off your arms.”
“Shit,” Thor said, running his fingers through his shaggy brown hair.
“Now, you may be thinking we could take our chances. There’s a 50/50 chance we don’t get one of the ones programmed to provide the inmates with our own personal fireworks show. Well, you have to remember that there are tens of thousands of other inmates around here, wanting to get a hold of the hardware inside of those flying spy-bots. Once they thought the coast was clear and the thing wasn’t going to blow to shit, they’d be coming after us in packs hoping to get their hands on our goods.”
“Alright, so, we’ll say knocking one down for ourselves is plan B,” Kira replied. “Looks like we need to start figuring out where to find someone with the parts we need.”
“Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Aldo said, shaking his head. “Before we get to that point, we need to figure out what it is we’ll offer in exchange for said parts.”
“The opportunity to help save the entire Galaxy,” Dario said. “If they help us, they’ll be aiding
in a mission to prevent what could be the most cataclysmic event in the history of the TAF.”
Aldo and Kardok both looked over at Dario with the same blank expression on their faces. “You do realize who these people are, don’t you?” Aldo asked.
“They’re not good people,” Kardok added.
“They don’t care about saving the Galaxy. They care about getting revenge or money or controlling whatever environment they’re in,” Aldo said. “If you’re going to get them to help, you’re going to need to offer them something they want.”
“What do criminals want?” Dario asked, looking around at each of them.
“Don’t ask me,” Kira said quickly. “All I want is to be out of this god-forsaken place and putting in my application for an office job.”
“I thought you were past the simple life plan?” Thor said, looking down at her.
“I’ve reconsidered. Exploding drones and mobs of criminals surrounding me at all times have put things into perspective again.”
“I think that a criminal would like something they could use to gain more control,” Dario said.
“Weapons?” Thor offered.
“Maybe,” Aldo replied, although the way his nose twitched gave Kira the impression that he wasn’t very certain.
“What is it?” she asked him. “What do you think we should offer?”
“It’s not that I don’t think weapons is a good idea,” Aldo replied. “I just don’t know how we expect to get them.”
“Don’t you have some?” Dario asked.
Aldo’s nose twitched. “Nothing that would be valuable enough,” he said quickly.
“Then maybe we should think of something else,” Dario said almost angrily. “There has to be something else that a criminal would want.”
A heavy silence fell between them as they all stared at one another, waiting for someone to come up with something—anything.
“Well, this is going well,” Kira said, throwing her hands in the air.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“What can we do?” Kira asked Thor as they lay in bed later that night.
The group had spent a good part of the day thinking. Ideas were thrown out and quickly discarded. Some arguments arose, and Thor threatened Aldo a handful of times. Dario ducked behind Kira at one point to stay out of the line of sight of his cell-mate and admirer. Aldo came up with a handful of creative nicknames to spread around the group. Kardok spent the entire time with the same, hopefully, ignorant grin on his face.
A lot had happened, but nothing had been accomplished.
Thor sighed, contemplating her question. His arms were wrapped around her, and her head rested on his chest. His upper body was bare. The jumpsuit he wore was unzipped half way, and he had slipped his arms out of the sleeves. As she lay there, her mind racing, she absentmindedly traced the outline of his tattoo. The feeling of his heartbeat pressing up against her fingers helped to calm her; being close to him helped to calm her.
“I don’t know,” Thor replied, his words slow with sleep. “We’ll figure something out.”
“Do you really think we will?”
“We have to.”
“That doesn’t mean we will.”
Letting out a soft sigh, he rolled onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. Leaning in, his face hovering close to hers, he said, “we will because you are Captain Kira Winter and you will not accept failure.”
“What if I have to accept it?”
“Then we’re all dead,” Thor said with a shrug. He slumped back onto his back and wrapped his arm around her again.
“That’s not very positive,” she said, pushing herself up onto her elbow now.
He looked up at her, his dark eyes sparkling softly in the low light. A smirk slid across his face as he reached up and wrapped his hand around her neck, pulling her down toward him slowly, and kissing her softly.
“So, you’re allowed to be negative and disheartened and I’m not?” he asked. “That’s not very fair. What if I want to be pessimistic one for once?”
“I’m not being pessimistic,” she countered, pulling back from him slightly. “I’m being realistic.”
“So am I,” he replied casually. “If we aren’t successful in this mission, we’ll die—all of us will. Grimm will win and he will blow the Galaxy to bits.”
Letting out a slightly annoyed groan, she slumped back down next to him and stared up at the bottom of the empty bunk suspended above them.
Thor laughed, which only served to make her more annoyed.
“I go back to my original statement,” he said, reaching out and taking her hand in his. “We will figure this out because we have to. And because you won’t settle for anything else. I’m not worried about it.”
“I am,” she confessed, rolling onto her side and resting her head on his chest again.
She thought to herself as she reached up with her right hand and traced the outline of the tattoo on his chest. His breathing was calm and his pulse was steady.
Without looking up at him, she continued, “I’ve never been this worried about a mission before. I’ve never felt this trapped before. I don’t like it.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to like being locked up.”
“It’s not just being locked up,” she said, “it’s this whole thing. It’s not being in control of anything. I’m a pilot, Thor. My entire life has been about being in control—of my ship, of my crew. But here? I don’t have my ship and I don’t have my entire crew. I’m not an expert at black markets and under-the-table deals. I’m an expert at flying and fighting.”
“You know more than just flying and fighting,” he said, encouragingly.
“Flying and fighting,” she said softly, an idea slowly forming in her mind. “Fighting.”
“And, running a crew takes a lot. You have to be level-headed, quick-thinking, disciplined, respectable…” Thor continued not noticing that she was no longer listening.
She pushed up slowly, her mind still working quickly.
“Fighting,” she said again, cutting him off. “That’s how we’re going to get the parts!”
“Look, I know I’m pretty badass,” Thor said, propping himself up on his elbows, “but I don’t think I can take on the entire prison population of Jaantu 7.”
“Not you,” she said, “Kardok.”
“Kardok? I’m stronger than Kardok.”
“Okay, then maybe you. It doesn’t matter. One of you, both of you.”
“So, we’re going to tag-team and take down the tens of thousands of inmates…”
“Let me finish,” she cut him off again. “We have a tournament. A melee.”
“A tournament?”
“Think about it, what is something all criminals want, besides weapons?”
He looked at her blankly.
“Fear and respect,” she said. “They want to beat the shit out of each other to prove that they’re the biggest and the baddest. Well, what if we give them a chance to do just that?”
“And how will this help us get the parts we need?”
“People like to gamble and bet on fights and tournaments, don’t they? We can use some of the crap we all know is sitting around Aldo’s cell to start, win a few bets, and work our way up. We just need to make sure that we have a guy we can bet on that will definitely win.”
“So, me or Kardok.”
“Exactly.”
His eyes narrowed for a second as he considered her idea. “It could work,” he said, nodding slowly. “It could definitely work. A criminal’s pride is always his biggest downfall.”
She smiled proudly as she leaned back against the cold metal wall. Her eyes flitted over him again and landed on his tattoo.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay with this if we go through with it?” she asked him softly.
He looked at her, confused.
“Well, it’ll get out that you’re an Arcanum,” she explained. “All anyone has to do is watch you fight jus
t once to figure that out. I know how much you hate people knowing that about you. You try to hide it.”
He nodded and shifted his gaze up to the bottom of the bunk above them. “I think I’ll be okay with it,” he said after thinking for a moment.
“Are you sure? After how you reacted when Nico mentioned it, and then Aldo…” she let her voice drift off. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”