The taller of the two sneered. “Your only purpose in the arena is to be the incentive, keeping this gladiator on track to win his battles. He’ll try harder if he’s protecting someone, however, do not make the mistake of overestimating your significance.”
“If my presence is his incentive to win, then I’d say I’m pretty important.”
Will stepped closer. “She stays.” He looked at the others as if to ensure they understood. Parisa hoped they wouldn’t turn around and leave him to fend for himself.
They traded another poignant look. “Fine. But we only talk to you. We only train you. If she listens in, I can’t stop her.” But he sounded like he’d rather push her head in the privy hole to keep her from hearing whatever fabulous and astounding tips he had to offer Will, rather than allow her involvement. Bastard.
“Perfect,” she said. “I’ll just stand here in the doorway and watch all the strong men work hard as they exude gallons of testosterone, doing my best not to giggle like a school girl,” she whispered under her breath.
Will glanced over his shoulder and grinned, but if the others heard her sarcasm, they ignored her.
Parisa didn’t much care for the second-class citizen status she’d been awarded here. She’d have to be careful not to overestimate her significance in the coming battles.
Chapter Five
Jeremy had just spent two solid weeks pushing the limits of endurance for his quest. At the same time, he also tested the patience of his senior officers with his brand-spanking new rules adherence outlook of what regulations? He’d alienated too many of his friends, trying absolutely everything he could think of, lawful or not, to locate Angelica.
His complete and utter lack of results battered his soul with the stench of repeated failure. It was like she’d evaporated into space dust and blown away to hide behind the blinding brilliance of the stars.
The well-meaning friends who’d remained, and a few senior officers, had told him he should stop the madness and give up before he did something he couldn’t take back. But he didn’t care about himself, and he wasn’t planning on giving up. Not ever.
Standing before his boss, Gray Wyckoff, this morning, made him take a couple of seconds to reconsider all of his actions to date. Especially the truly foolish one from yesterday. He should have realized he wouldn’t get away with it. Then again, given the same parameters, Jeremy decided quickly that he wouldn’t change a fucking thing. His back straightened with his improved resolve.
He’d burned so many bridges in such a short time, he likely smelled of ash, flame, and smoke. Not to mention he’d be amazed to find there were any land connecting conduits left standing in the surrounding galaxies from his relentless pursuit. He’d stop when he found Angelica, and then answer for all his current transgressions at that joyous time.
Unless he was about to lose his job.
“I’m at a loss as to what to do with you,” Gray said, his tone civil for his first few words. Jeremy didn’t expect his voice to remain that way for long.
“I do. Let me go back out and keep looking. It’s what I’m going to do regardless of our discussion today.” Unless you fire me. Please don’t, though. I need your ship to continue.
Gray looked troubled. “Honestly, I don’t think that’s up to me anymore.”
There was a quick knock at his door. Gray didn’t say anything welcoming or a response at all, but Nathan Tyndall came barging inside anyway.
“What’s up, troublemaker?” he said as greeting. “Heard you’ve been tearing up the solar system looking for Angelica. While I sympathize and agree with your dogged pursuit on many levels, you’ve just taken your search to a whole new altitude, haven’t you? I can’t believe you aren’t already taking up space in the slammer.”
“This is a private conversation, Nathan,” Gray said, but he didn’t look too upset with his second-in-command.
“Not anymore,” Nathan said, sitting down in the chair. “I’m staying. I want to hear all the juicy details first hand.”
Shit. If even Nathan was about to castigate him for his recent crimes, perhaps he should pay attention in the short term at least. Nathan Tyndall was an excellent ship captain and pilot, but if something off limits or out of bounds was on the table, usually he was the perpetrator of the scenario. In fact, Jeremy was usually the one reviewing any and all regulations in order to get Nathan out of trouble.
“I’m sorry—” Jeremy began, not quite sure what he should say he was sorry for since there were so many items to choose from. And, truthfully, he wasn’t a bit sorry for anything he’d done in the name of finding a single vague clue as to where Angelica had disappeared to.
“No you’re not,” Gray said, cutting him off with the first true amusement of this difficult conversation. “You aren’t even the least remorseful. And that’s the other problem. You don’t care about any of the numerous consequences of your actions, even though they’re racking up like mega credits on a planet lottery’s unclaimed carryover prize. But that’s about to change.”
Yesterday Jeremy had set the ship’s coordinates for someplace he knew he couldn’t go, but he’d done it anyway. Desperation had a way of upping the ante.
Gray had brought him back to Bravura, threatening to shoot the Stargazer—his very own, highly prized, and recently acquired spacecraft—out of the sky in order to get Jeremy to comply and change his heading. The meeting this morning was likely to discuss his actions from the previous day. Hell, probably the previous two weeks, when his relentless search had begun.
After a fitful night of sleep, Jeremy hadn’t changed his mind. He didn’t regret what he’d done and given the chance, he’d do it again. For both yesterday and the two previous weeks.
“I don’t understand. What’s changing?” Shit. Maybe I am about to get fired.
For the almost three years Jeremy had worked for the Dalton Prime Corporation, he’d always been unofficially called Mr. Regulation. Sometimes he’d been labeled behind his back, but mostly not. And it had always been true. He knew every rule and regulation in every book forward and backward with regard to space travel and also the military and its various strategies and practices.
Although in the past two weeks, he hadn’t concerned himself much with any of them. Which wasn’t like him. Jeremy had truly learned every bit of what he’d be willing to compromise in the wake of Angelica’s inexplicable disappearance. Upon another speedy reflection of his actions, he wasn’t sorry about any of that either.
“The ruling Council of Bravura has issued a Warrant of Detention with your name on it.”
“Fuck,” Nathan said quietly.
Jeremy responded with, “What the fuck!” in a much louder tone. He’d made some creative decisions regarding all the rules he’d broken, but nothing that had warranted a WOD. Well, to be fair, perhaps yesterday’s reckless trip merited one.
Gray picked up a document from the surface of his desk. “This says I must turn you over to the authorities just as soon as I find you.”
Jeremy figured that since he wasn’t currently in handcuffs, and face down on the floor with his nose grinding into Gray’s nice, thick office carpet, there might be hope.
“I’d rather keep looking for Angelica, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Well, it’s not all the same to me. I can’t let you go. Especially not if you head in the same direction as yesterday. And we haven’t even talked about that little stunt, yet, have we?”
Jeremy averted his gaze to the Warrant of Detention, not wanting to see any disappointment in Gray’s eyes. He read the upside-down word Stargazer. Yep. That was the ship he captained. At least for now.
Gray looked over at Nathan and pushed out a long sigh. Meanwhile, Jeremy did his best to read more of the document Gray was holding, albeit upside down. He saw something that might offer his salvation. But he’d need both of these men to help him. Especially Nathan’s willing cooperation. A tricky proposition, at best.
Jeremy cleared his throat.
“That document says that they are requesting you turn over your third-in-command.”
“Which is you.”
“No. Angelica is third. I’m number four in the officially listed chain of command of the Dalton Prime Corporation.”
Gray shook his head. “Semantics. You’re third when Angelica is unavailable.”
“No, sir. Official regulation, of which I’m well versed in, states…”
“Not lately,” Nathan murmured from his casual perch.
“…that she is still third until her whereabouts have been confirmed,” he finished.
“What are you suggesting?” Gray asked.
“May I read the document right side up for a minute?”
Gray handed it to him. He glanced it over, noting quickly not one but four major irregularities, any one of which would work well for his purposes of evading this detention. “It also lists the Stargazer by name,” Jeremy said and kept reading.
“So?”
“Nathan is listed as third-in-command of my vessel.”
“You mean, my vessel,” Gray said, snatching the document back.
“Yes, sir. Your vessel,” Jeremy said respectfully. “However, if they are asking you to turn over the third-in-command of the Stargazer, that’s Nathan, not me.”
“So…you think I should hand over Nathan to the authorities?”
“Yes, sir.”
Nathan sat up and took notice. “Now wait just a minute here. You’ve been pissing everyone off from Bravura to the Forbidden Zone of District Six, and suddenly I’m the one who’s about to be slapped in irons? I don’t think so, bucko.” He stood up, eyeing the document Gray was reading carefully.
“He’s right. Technically this document requires that I bring you to the authorities, not Jeremy.”
“And are you going to do it?” Nathan asked, sarcasm filling his tone.
Gray lifted his gaze, rolled his eyes for Nathan’s benefit, and went back to reading.
“Oh I get it. You want me to be the sacrificial lamb, so that the troublemaker here can make his great escape.” Nathan crossed his arms. “Even if I do this—and I’m not saying that I am—where are you going to look for her next, Hot Shot? Haven’t you already been to the four corners of the galaxy at least four times by now?”
“Yes. But I haven’t crossed over into the Forbidden Zone of District Six.”
“And you aren’t allowed to,” Gray said, zeroing a stern gaze his direction. “That’s why I stopped you yesterday and made you sit in a time out last night to reconsider your foolish attempt.”
“However, it’s literally the only place I haven’t looked.” Jeremy hated the desperation-rimmed tone he heard in his own voice. The anxiety-filled one he couldn’t afford to let in.
“If Angelica is in the Forbidden Zone for some unknown reason—and I can’t even invent a plausible basis for why she would be—you won’t be able to get her out.” Gray’s voice had gone flat, as if he didn’t even want to contemplate her being anywhere near there.
“But I won’t know that for certain until I get past the neutral zone border, now will I?”
“This is a really bad idea, kid,” Nathan said. “Used to be that disabled ships were nudged out if they accidently crossed the line, but not for the past five years or so. Nowadays, no one comes out of the Forbidden Zone once they’ve gone in. No one.”
“I don’t think you understand my motivation to succeed.” Besides, bad ideas were the only ones left to choose from at this point.
“Slavers run that area with iron-fisted control. You’ll be scooped up the moment you put a single baby toe over the Forbidden Zone border and sold off to God only knows what depraved entity. That entire area of the galaxy operates like unyielding martial law in a demilitarized zone, and those few with the ultimate power only care about finance, fighting, and fucking. But mostly they are demonic about the finance that they can earn on either the fighting, and, or, the fucking.”
Jeremy said, “Not if the ship I’m on is cloaked.”
“But in order to fire your weapons, or transport anyone on board, you’d have to de-cloak. Defeats the purpose if you get there and see her, but then can’t get her on the ship. And trust me, I’m not so foolish as to believe that if you actually found Angelica in the Forbidden Zone, that you’d just say, ‘oh there she is,’ and return to Bravura post haste.” Gray leveled a look at him that he took heart in.
Jeremy shrugged. “Maybe I’m only going to make certain she’s not there. I don’t actually expect to find her there.” Please don’t be in a place where I can’t get to you. “It’s just the only place left to go. So if I just sneak past the border, look around at the larger planets, I can still scan for her signature without de-cloaking, then no one will ever know I was even in District Six.”
Nathan piped up. “But what if you do find her in the Forbidden Zone? How will you get her out? We all know you’d sell your soul to the Dark One to save her. That means you’d have to de-cloak to use either the shuttle or possibly the emergency life pods. Again, you’d be clapped in irons immediately. Let me explain the difference of handcuffs in Bravura over the iron shackles in the District Six. The restraints there would never come off. Not ever. Think about that for a minute.”
“I haven’t thought about anything else since I discovered her missing. If she’s in the Forbidden Zone, then she needs to come out. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen if it’s my only option. Even if I have to sell ten innocent souls to the Dark One. But I hope she’s not even there. Either way I have to find out.” Jeremy’s voice had risen.
“I appreciate that. But you need a better plan than the Hide and Go Seek in the Forbidden Zone preparation you’re currently considering.”
Jeremy took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down. “No doubt.”
Gray was not only his boss, he was a very good friend. Anyone else would have fired his ass after day one. While he’d been searching endlessly for Angelica these past couple of weeks, he also hadn’t been doing any work for Gray.
No money-making opportunities on any of the trips he’d taken. No ferrying supplies about the galaxy. No transporting people from planet to planet. No stepping in to show force when Bravura’s military needed to make a powerful statement to a small colony on a nothing planets in the solar system.
Nothing.
He should be grateful, Gray had let him loose to roam the galaxy as long as he had. No one else would have. Gray and Nathan were on his side. They wanted him to succeed, but they didn’t seem to have any better ideas of how he should accomplish his singular goal. Find Angelica.
Jeremy pushed the air slowly from his lungs. “I’m ready to hear any suggestions that you have, sir.”
“I know Angelica is the only one you’re looking for, but there are also others missing. Fifteen other souls are unaccounted for, in this scenario.”
“The crew of the Mirage.” In the back of his mind, he’d always figured once they found the ship and the crew, they’d also find Angelica. They were an entity already put together in his mind.
“Yes. I’d like to find them, as well.” In this, Jeremy was sincere. He wanted to find them all and bring them home.
“So…maybe they had trouble with the ship and ended up in the Forbidden Zone,” Gray said quietly as if his mind was working on something else as he spoke.
“But no one has found even a vapor trail of the ship since it left the Fulchrome system, right?”
Nathan answered. “Right. Something else you two aren’t thinking about. If you set your flight plan for anywhere near the Forbidden Zone, the Council of Bravura will stop you. They’ll probably send the military to keep you away. Especially after yesterday’s stunt.”
Jeremy released a defeated sigh. Nathan was right. If Gray hadn’t followed him and threatened to shoot him out of the sky, the military would have eventually caught up with him and done the same thing.
He’d been planning to push the Stargazer’s engin
e capacity past the safety percentage allowed in order to get away. Which hadn’t been a guarantee. And now the military knew what he’d been planning, and more importantly how far he was willing to go in his quest. He’d been rash, foolish even. He hoped he hadn’t doomed any further plans.
Being affiliated with the Forbidden Zone of District Six in any way, shape, or form was strictly prohibited. Bravura and its various authorities were stanchly clear on the matter. With absolutely no exceptions.
In point of fact, a trade governor’s daughter had gone missing a year or so ago. It was widely understood that the ship she’d been on had encountered a unforeseen meteor shower, and had been possibly set adrift near the border of District Six.
No one even tried to go find her in the Forbidden Zone. The military had been sent to the area of the last reported signal. They reported not finding a hint of wreckage, but only a thin vapor trail showing signs of engine distress on a trajectory with the border of District Six. Nothing further had been done in the wake of that tragedy. The military ship had turned around and come back to
Bravura post haste. No other attempt of search or rescue had been made.
Nothing.
Not even for a Trade Governor’s daughter. A week later, Governor Winnick had a memorial ceremony for his only daughter, Olivia, bidding her farewell. Because absolutely no one was allowed to search in the Forbidden Zone.
Jeremy understood the nature of what he planned was dangerous and not sanctioned in any way, by any entity in power. If Olivia Winnick hadn’t garnered a negotiation with the powers in District Six, then he had no shot at all.
“Additionally, even if you set your cloaking device, they’ll know you’re using it when you disappear off the area screens. Best chance is to book a job to the Fulchrome system, head for the far side of that galaxy and then put your cloaking device to good use and go dark.” Nathan shrugged. “It’s your best shot. But even then it’s only a slim chance.”
“I wish the electronic red tape wasn’t so invasive where cloaking is involved.”
“How else can the Council of Bravura keep all the wily citizens in line?” Nathan asked with a laugh. He sobered and added, “Although, my limited understanding is that using a cloaked ship in District Six is even worse. It’s grounds to send the perpetrator straight into slavery. Like pretty much everything else.”
Sexual Memory [Dark Colony 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 6