by S. E. Smith
“What are you smiling about?” Trig asked, folding his arms across his chest and glowering at her. “I haven’t said I’ll take you with me.”
Jordan gave him an exasperated sigh. “You look just like Dagger when he knows he isn’t going to win the argument. And yes, you are. I was right about where he was last time. I was right about him being alive, and I’m right about him this time.”
“I hate a female who is always right,” Trig muttered with an envious glance at the almost full bottle of liquor. “Very well. I’ll need to inform Hunter and set up extra security….” His voice died when he saw her face close up again and the same stubborn line pressed her lips tightly together. “What do you think we should do?”
Jordan bit her lip again and looked down at her hands. “I think we should leave tonight, now. Once we are on board your ship, I’ll tell you where he is,” she said quietly.
“How do you think Hunter will react to you disappearing with me? I’m not known for being nice,” Trig replied in a dry, mocking voice.
Jordan looked up at him, staring back with an intensity that she knew took him by surprise. Her lips were pursed and she frowned back at him. She knew exactly how Hunter, and Jesse, would react. They had both been adamant that she understood they would stop her from doing anything crazy, like trying to go after Dagger. In her heart, she knew that Jesse would understand. After all, her older sister had done the same exact thing when Hunter had been taken.
Well, Jordan thought stubbornly, I hope that she’ll understand.
Jordan knew her own personality. She always thought things through thoroughly before she did it. That was why she knew she could do this. All she needed to do was get to where Dagger was being held. She knew if she found him, she could figure a way to get him out.
It wasn’t in her nature to be rash, but it also wasn’t in her nature to ignore those she cared about because there was danger involved. She knew all too well what danger felt like.
“I know exactly who and what you are, Trig,” Jordan responded in a cool, calm voice. “You work for a special division designed specifically to do the dirty jobs that the Alliance doesn’t want anyone else to know about. You’ve been on twenty-four missions since your term of deployment with the Trivator military was completed three years ago. During those missions, you’ve lost two of your partners and swore to never have another; but, you’ve never lost the target you were sent in after. Would you like for me to detail each mission for you?” She asked, tilting her head and gazing back at him.
*.*.*
Trig’s mouth tightened when he saw the familiar tilt to Jordan’s head. It was like déjà vu of the night they left all over again. No, he had not needed her to give him a detail description of his missions. It was obvious that the human had somehow managed to get her hands on classified information and he seriously doubted that Hunter had just handed it to her.
“Are you sure?” He asked, briefly glancing down the alley at the passing residents.
He watched as she nodded. “Yes,” she replied in a soft voice. “I saw… him.”
“Where?” Trig demanded. “When?”
“He was in the fight ring.” She lowered her eyes when tears filled them again. “They… Trig, I don’t know how he has survived for so long,” she said in a husky voice. “The other men… They had to kill each other and then this creature was released into the ring. Dagger killed it.” A shudder ran through her body as she remembered what the creature did to not only the man in the ring, but to the woman outside of it. “The creature ate a man before it killed a woman who was watching outside of the ring. It tore her leg right off and no one bothered to help her. How can anyone do that to another living being. How, Trig?”
Trig’s expression softened as he stared down at the emotion-filled eyes looking back up at him. He had come to respect this quiet human female over the last four weeks. She didn’t talk much. She was always watching and listening to the things going on around her. She also spent every waking second going through the information she had filtered, searching for his brother.
Trig’s hand rose and he gently touched her pale cheek. A sigh escaped him as he looked back at the pedestrians going about their daily life. She wasn’t the only one who had done her homework. After he had finally answered Hunter’s repeated communications, he had demanded that Hunter tell him about the human’s background. He knew what Jordan’s life had been like back on her own world.
“You shouldn’t have gone there,” Trig admonished in a soft voice, turning back to look at her. “Jordan, the situation has become too dangerous. It is going to be extremely difficult to get in and back out. If it had been Arindoss, I wouldn’t think twice about going in alone, but I won’t with a Dreluthan. They are a vicious and very dangerous species. It would be foolish to try to go up against one alone. I’ve sent a message to Hunter asking him for some assistance.”
“I have two tickets to tonight’s fight,” she desperately interjected. She reached into the pocket of her cloak and withdrew the two inscribed pieces of metal. “We have to get him out of there, Trig, tonight, if possible. We have to.”
Trig’s admiration for Jordan increased when he saw the tickets in her hand. What struck him the most was that while her hand trembled, she had done something he had been unable to do for the past week. No one seemed to notice her as she moved about in the shadows. Perhaps it was because of the sense of frailty about her. She was not considered a threat. Unfortunately, he drew a lot of attention, even if he was known by many of the residents here on Bruttus.
“Come on,” he said gruffly, reaching up and pulling the hood back over her head. “Let’s go get something to eat and you can tell me what you found out.”
He waited for her to nod and cover her face again before he moved back down to the entrance of the alley. Pausing briefly, he glanced one last time at her before they melted into the foot traffic of the Spaceport.
Chapter 4
Dagger shook off the bands around his wrists as the guards closed the gate behind him. Rolling his shoulders to ease the strain, he pushed back against the exhaustion that still plagued him. There was something different about tonight’s fight. He could feel the tension in the crowds.
His eyes were fixed on the center of the cage. A large box stood in the center of the closed arena with two six-foot swords resting on it. His eyes scanned the other gated areas. There were no other opponents in them. Normally, there would be another fighter in each one, but tonight they stood bare.
A shiver of unease ran down his spine. He cautiously stepped into the arena when the gate in front of him lifted and the one behind him began to slide forward, forcing him into the dome-shaped enclosure. There would be no hiding from whatever ‘fun’ Kelman and the Drethulan had planned tonight.
The crowds cheered as he slowly moved toward the center. The lights had dimmed around them and a spotlight shone down on him as he approached the weapons. He turned in a half-circle, suspiciously scanning for a trap, before he turned and grasped the handle of a sword in each hand.
The moment he did, the spotlight shifted. He turned to where the light reappeared and released a silent cursed. The spotlight now shone down on his new opponent. How Kelman and the Drethulan managed to capture and transport a three-head Serpentian to the Spaceport wasn’t his concern.
No, what worried him was he only had the two swords and no other opponent to distract its attention away from him. Rotating each sword in his hands, he checked the balance of them as he stepped backwards, his eyes glued to the enraged creature. Unlike the Gartaian that was almost blind, the Serpentian had excellent vision. The creature hissed, all three heads turned to follow him as he tried to put a little more distance between them.
Dagger’s eyes flickered to the creature's sharp teeth, hard reddish-green scales, and foot-long claws that were digging into the metal floor. One of the heads reached out and gripped the thick, metal bar in its mouth, and began to pull on it. The fist-size iron bar groa
ned and bowed inward, a testament to the strength of the creature behind the bars. Within seconds, the other two heads gripped a different bar. The gate shook from the combined force pulling at it.
Silence descended among the spectators as they waited to see what happened next. Dagger ignored the silence, as well as the loud curses coming from the guards trying to open the gate. It proved an impossible feat due to the bent metal. Instead, they fell backwards when the railing holding the gate suddenly snapped.
Dagger ducked and rolled as the massive metal door flew through the air toward him. The Serpentian released a loud screeching sound as it moved out into the caged arena. The sound energized the audience who began to scream and yell. Dagger quickly climbed to his feet, warily watching as the creature moved along the perimeter of the arena.
His hands tightened around the grips of the swords and he stepped to the side. The movement pulled the Serpentian’s attention away from the screaming masses and toward him. The muscles in his shoulders tensed as all three heads turned in his direction. The creature’s pupils dilated and three sets of blood red eyes turned to focus on him.
Rage and determination burst through him when he saw the beast’s muscles tense before it swirled around and charged him. Dagger released a loud war cry and sprang forward, raising one of the swords over his head while he kept the other close to his body. The fight had begun.
*.*.*
Trig pushed through the crowd trying to keep up with Jordan’s small figure. He admired the way she gracefully moved through the packed corridor, weaving through the other spectators as if they weren't there. She did so with a quiet confidence that allowed her to blend until no one gave her a second glance. He wished he could say the same. There was no way to camouflage, who or what he was and he was definitely drawing some attention.
They had decided that it would be best if they appeared not to be together. Jordan had come through the entrance slightly behind him and in a different line. She was wearing the familiar dark brown cloak that covered her head all the way down to the tops of her dark brown boots. Light brown gloves covered her pale hands. He had given her a pair of dark goggles and a scarf to cover the majority of her face. She looked like one of the Sand people that inhabited the mining planets scattered throughout the star system.
He scowled when two guards walked toward him. His right hand instinctively tightened on the laser blade at his side. Only when they continued past him, did he relax his grip. He rounded the corner following the flow of the crowd toward the doors leading into the seating around the closed-in arena.
A frown darkened his face when he realized he had lost sight of Jordan. Unease rushed through him, and he moved closer to the wall as fans, eager to see the fight, pushed against him from behind. He started when he felt a light touch to his arm. Relief flooded him when he saw it was Jordan. She was standing in a small recess where a service access door was located.
He silently watched her wave a badge in front of the door before disappearing through it when it slid open. Pushing through behind her, he wondered how in the hell she had managed to get access. He took the steps leading up the narrow stairs two at a time and caught up with her on the second landing.
“How did you get a badge?” He asked curiously.
Jordan glanced over her shoulder and gave him a small smile. “I lifted it,” she replied softly.
Trig touched her arm when she started to turn away. “They will be able to track the missing badge,” he said with a frown. “It will trigger their systems when it is used.”
Jordan shook her head. “No, it won’t. I created a generic user when I printed out the tickets and dropped this one near the exit to the kitchen so it would appear that it was an accident. The new ID card will rotate through the system so it won’t be flagged if I use it.”
“How did you learn to do this?” He asked, puzzled.
Jordan shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve always been good at computers. I was a gamer before your people came to my world,” she said in a soft, sad voice. “When… When Hunter took us away from it, I didn’t know what would happen. I thought it would be important to know and understand how to use the technology on your world. It really became important to me when…” Her voiced faded for a moment. “Since Dagger disappeared, I knew I had to learn as much as I could so I could find him.”
Trig’s brow creased in confusion. “How did you know he was still alive?” He asked.
Jordan paused and a shadow crossed her face. “I couldn’t believe anything else,” she finally said, turning back around. “We can reach the third level through this access corridor. You were attracting too much attention.”
Trig’s gaze followed Jordan when she turned and proceeded up the stairs. She continued to amaze him with her resourcefulness. Following her, he waited as she stepped out and disappeared into the stand before he followed.
His eyes kept straying to Jordan’s cloaked figure during the first two events. While he was used to the violence and ruthlessness of the fight rings, he worried about how Jordan would react to it. It was one thing to know that she had been to the one earlier, it was another to be there with her and see the viciousness through her eyes.
A cold determination filled him as he watched the second match. The crowd around him had been whipped into a bloodthirsty frenzy. The final two warriors struck at each other in exhaustion. It was obvious that they both wanted to quit, but they knew the only way that would happen is if one of them were to die.
“Kill him!” The spectator in front of him screamed. “Kill him! I’ve got twenty-five credits riding on this!”
The quiet determination coursing through him changed to an icy fury. The male standing in front of him only valued the life of those forced to fight for the measly twenty-five credits he had bet. Trig's fingers curled into fists to prevent him from reaching out and wrapping them around the male's neck. It would take two seconds to snap it. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to hide the act and would draw more attention to him than he was already attracting.
Instead, he was forced to act as if he was unmoved as one of the men in the arena stumbled backwards and fell. The move left him vulnerable to the heavy mace swinging toward him. The second fight might be over, but not without its casualties. The winner swayed for a moment before he collapsed from blood loss. Trig estimated the male would be dead in just minutes unless a healer was brought in and could stop the bleeding. At the rate the fighters were dying, the Drethulan would need a new supply. He would do everything he could to make sure that supply line was cut when he killed the bastard.
*.*.*
Jordan trembled, but remained silent as she watched the fight below her. It reminded her of the ancient Gladiators. How people could stand around and cheer such brutality was beyond her comprehension. She had watched movies on it and had even studied it in school, but real life was far different than Hollywood dramatizations or reading it in a book. The thought that Dagger had fought and survived for almost two years sent a shaft of pain through her. She would do anything and everything she could to free him from this place.
She gazed around as more and more people filled the already packed stadium. Seeing the push of bodies coming toward her, she quickly turned and climbed up and over the seats to the highest level. The next event was scheduled to start in fifteen minutes. The last thing she wanted to do was get caught in the crush of bodies. As small as she was, it wouldn’t take much for her to get trampled. Working her way to the far end, she used the badge she had made and slipped through the locked doorway.
She made sure the door closed securely behind her before turning to the long ladder leading up to the top scaffolding above the stands. That was where she had stood earlier. She had to leave when another worker had come up to watch the fight as well. She hoped that no one else came up tonight. Grabbing the first rung, she began the long climb upward. There were eighty-seven rungs to the very top. Jordan counted each one, breathing deeply as she climbed. The excited cry
of the audience as she neared the top swept through her and she increased her speed so she wouldn't miss what was happening. From the excited screams, she knew that Dagger had been brought out.
"Please, keep him safe," she whispered. "I just need time to get him out. Please give me the time to do that."
Stepping onto the top scaffolding with trembling legs, she moved through the shadows until she was even with the top of the half-domed cage. Her hand violently shook as she raised a gloved hand to her covered mouth. She barely smothered the cry of horror when she saw Dagger standing in the center of the arena. He wore a pair of dark brown leather trousers, dark brown boots and nothing else tonight. In his hands, he held two six foot swords.
Jordan's eyes roamed over Dagger's defiant form. The goggles Trig had given her allowed her to zoom in on him. Dagger’s chest and arms were covered with deep scars from previous battles. She ignored everything, but the tall figure standing so fiercely before the screaming masses. Everything inside her willed him to win tonight's battle because she swore it would be the last one he fought if she could prevent it.
"Oh, God," she whispered when her eyes turned to his adversary tonight. "No!"
She watched in horror as the huge, metal gate flew across the center of the battleground below, barely missing Dagger as he rolled to the side. Silence descended throughout the fight-ring as the creature stepped out of the area holding it. Jordan leaned forward, wrapping her hands around the railing to keep from rushing down to Dagger. She knew any kind of a distraction would be fatal to him. Her chest hurt from where her heart was pounding as the creature turned and looked at Dagger. Her cry was lost in the screams of all the other spectators when Dagger released a war cry and rushed the creature.
"Dagger," Jordan whispered, unable to look away as the two deadly creatures collided.