by Aaron Hubble
“You can’t have my girls.”
Ekene looked past him. The sound of crunching gravel reached his ears. Malone instinctively ducked and rolled to the side as a club whistled by his ear. He came out of the roll in a crouch and faced his assailant. A man, easily twice his size and with a face covered in tattoos, was momentarily thrown off by Malone’s quick movements. The enforcer quickly recovered and advanced on Malone.
His heart thundered in his chest. He took a step backward raising the wrench. It had been a long time since he’d been in a fight, but he’d always fought for himself before. If he lost, Galila and Safiya lost as well. It wasn’t money or land he was fighting for, it was the lives of his daughters, their purity. Images of sweaty men placing their hands on Galila crashed into his mind. His knees wanted to buckle, but he couldn’t let that happen. The only strength they had was his strength. Their future was riding on his ability to stay strong and move quickly.
The ape-man smiled and pointed the metal club at Malone. Its end crackled with electricity.
The thug barreled forward, swinging the club at Malone’s head. His toes dug into the Carrefour soil, pushing him to the right. The rod passed close enough he felt the little eddy of disturbed air. A roar of frustration escaped the man’s mouth. He whipped the rod to the side almost catching Malone again. Malone brought his wrench down in a wild arc and felt the wrench connect. The sharp snap of an arm bone breaking filled the air. The man howled in pain and crumpled to the ground, cradling his arm.
Malone watched the man rolling on the ground. Adrenaline coursed through his body. He gulped air trying to steady himself.
“Daddy! Please!” Safiya screamed.
The voice tore at Malone’s heart. He stepped over the injured goliath. Ekene would not turn his babies into property to be bought and sold.
He didn’t hear the sound of men stalking him from behind until it was too late. Malone whipped his head around. The three enforcers had already circled around him like a pack of wolves, cutting him off from his daughters. He swung the wrench wildly trying to break through, but they were ready and easily dodged the attack.
A lean woman was able to get in a quick jab that caught him square in the face. His head snapped and he stumbled backwards, dazed. The wrench fell from his hand. A pair of arms that might as well have been made of iron wrapped themselves around his chest, pining his arms to his side and strangling his hope. The woman and another man stepped in front of him.
Malone thrashed against the arms that held him. “Give me my daughters!”
The woman’s fist sank into his midsection. He gasped. The muscles of his abdomen seized in a painful spasm. He fought to draw a breath.
“Don’t hurt him!” Galila sobbed.
The man holding him pulled him upright. Behind the two goons, he saw Ekene open the back door of the transport.
The second blow doubled Malone over. All the breath was forced out of him. Over the pain, he felt tremendous guilt because he’d let his daughters come to harm.
“Daddy!” Galila screamed again.
Another fist smashed into his face. Lights danced across his eyes and blood flowed from his split lip and into his mouth. The blows came one after another, the man and woman taking turns using him as a punching bag. Pain blossomed with each impact. Their taunts were mixed with the cries of his daughters, creating a symphony of hopelessness that ripped at his soul.
Between shots, Malone saw Ekene shove Galila into the back of the transport. Little Safiya was tossed in behind. The slamming of the door drove a nail through his heart. With what energy he had left to him, he surged forward. The move caught the man holding him by surprise. Hope swelled in him as he stumbled toward the transport before a foot to his midsection brought him to his knees. He tried to call out to them, tried to reach for his girls, but was unable to.
Those hands of steel pulled him roughly to his feet again. The sound of the transport’s engine coming to life filled him with panic.
He’d failed.
He’d been unable to protect his daughters from danger. The one person they should have been able to count on had let them down in the worst way possible.
He struggled once more, but the hands held him fast.
The last blow came quickly, taking him in the side of the head and wrapping his mind in unconsciousness.
CHAPTER THREE
Galila scrambled forward and beat against the metal doors separating her from the man who had become her father.
“Daddy!” she screamed. “Daddy!” Her fist slammed against the door until it began to bleed. She crumpled to the floor of the van and began weeping. Her chest hitched uncontrollably. The van bumped down the dirt driveway and she was thrown around the inside of the vehicle. She didn’t care. She didn’t know what was happening or where she was going, but she was terrified.
Looking up, she saw Safiya, huddled in the corner, her arms wrapped around her skinny knees. Tears coursed down her cheeks and cut a path through the dirt that stained her face. Just five minutes ago, they’d been headed down to the creek with Joe to catch tadpoles and then the men had showed up.
She crawled across the hot metal floor and gathered Safiya in her arms. The girl wasn’t making any noise, but her whole body shook with silent sobs. Galila rocked her back and forth.
“It’s going to be okay. Daddy will find us and help us.”
“Joe,” Safiya croaked. “Is…is he dead?”
Galila squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to think about what she had just seen. Joe, pushing them behind him. Then fighting with the men. The sound of the gun would stay in her mind for a long time. So would Safiya’s scream and Joe’s blank eyes.
Dead eyes.
There would be no more easy laughter. No more playful teasing. His ever present smile was gone forever. Galila knew that look. She’d seen it on her real parent’s faces the day they’d succumbed to the fever that had decimated her village several years ago. She’d lived with the blank stare for three days before someone had come to check on the family.
She’d told herself she’d never see that again. Not with Malone and Luana; her new parents were there to protect her from such things. Now, she’d been forced to see it on the face of someone she’d cared about deeply. Someone who was too young to die.
Galila hugged her sister tightly and rocked back and forth. She tried to push the bad thoughts out of her mind. She needed to be strong for Safiya, but she was having a hard time. All she wanted was to crawl up in the lap of her mom or dad and listen to a story like she had when she was little.
Would she ever get to do that again?
She’d seen them hitting her dad and it scared her. She wanted to stop them. No one should beat another person like they’d beaten him. Galila had tried to help. Tried to get away, but she’d been too weak.
She wiped her eyes and took a couple long breaths, forcing herself to calm down. She wasn’t going to cry anymore. She wasn’t going to be weak. She was going to be strong for her sister and for her parents. They would get out of this. Nothing bad would happen to them. She promised herself she would never see that look in her sister’s eyes.
Not if she had anything to do about it.
CHAPTER FOUR
When his eyes opened, Malone was sure the sunlight would burn holes through his retinas.
He held his hand up to shade his eyes. Waves of pain rolled across his ribs. He groaned. Malone clasped his side, which left his eyes exposed to the afternoon sun and the pain it produced once again. Gritting his teeth, he tried to roll over. The thrumming in his head nearly drowned out the sound of someone calling his name. He grasped at the voice and used it to guide him out of the fog.
The face of Luana leaned over him. She held his head in her hands. Malone stared into her wide and frightened eyes. Tears ran down her cheeks.
Galila.
Safiya.
Joe’s body in the driveway.
His guts twisted. They’d been kidnapped, ripped fro
m his arms by Ely Ekene. Malone willed himself to his feet and took a step in the direction the girls had been taken before his head began spinning and the pain forced him back to the ground. Luana’s hands guided him back to the ground.
“Malone! What happened?”
He rocked forward and held his head in his hands, trying to steady the throbbing.
“Ekene…the Collective…they came for their money. They…oh god, Luana, they took the girls!”
Fear filled her brown eyes. She gripped his arms. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t have the money they wanted so they took the girls as payment.”
Luana covered her mouth with trembling hands. Tears ran from the corners of her eyes and down her brown cheeks. Her normally straight shoulders rolled forward and shook. “My babies,” she whispered.
Malone pushed himself to his feet and closed his eyes, fighting the nausea. “I need to call public safety and get to town. Let them know the EC kidnapped the girls. They’ll help.”
“And then what?” Luana slim face contorted into a look of indignation. She swiped at the tears with the back of her hand. “The EC has paid off public safety. They look the other way whenever the Collective comes to town. Nothing will happen.”
Malone staggered toward the house. The keys to the truck were in there, but the clashing cymbals in his head were making it hard for him to remember exactly where he kept them.
“Ben’s part of public safety. I’ll call him. Let him know what happened and that we’re coming in. He’ll‒”
Luana threw her arms out wide, her voice taking on an edge of hysteria. “Ben has a brand new house and car. Do you really think he financed all of that with his public safety salary?”
“He’s a friend, Lu, he loves the girls. He’s going to help us.” Why was she fighting him? Especially now of all times? Anger flashed through his mind and he wanted to react, but he pushed the feeling down.
Not now.
He limped toward the house again. Luana’s hand gripped his arm and pulled him back around. The intensity in her eyes made him stop. They blazed with the energy of a supernova, and made her look like an entirely different person. He paused.
She looked…dangerous.
“No. We go after the EC right now or we’ll lose them forever. We do whatever it takes to get them back because they’re everything.”
The force of her words surprised him. He knew she loved the girls, but he’d never seen this level of devotion from her before. Had he misjudged her when it came to the girls?
Still, what could the two of them do?
“Come on. Take on the Collective? With what? My wrenches? Your cooking pots? We’re not fighters.” He hated that he couldn’t be the type of hero Galila and Safiya needed right now. He had no military training. He was just a mechanic. She was just a former bartender turned housewife. They had no skills that would let them stand up to the EC.
She shook her head, her long dark ponytail swaying. He saw her hands clenching at her sides. “You don’t understand. I’ve seen what happens to little girls who get caught up in that kind of life. What the Collective will do to them, make them do, is beyond terrible. It will destroy them. They’ve already gone through so much, losing their real parents. It has to be you and me who go after them, or we’ll never see them again. We need to go now. Forget about Ben. He’s of no help to us today.”
Anger roiled inside of him. He’d been here, tried to help. Where had she been? Malone leveled a finger at her. “No help? Do you know what would have been helpful? If you’d showed up on time. The girls wouldn’t have been here, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. They should have been safely away with you.”
The words had been daggers, cutting much deeper than he’d intended. Luana flinched and her mouth moved but no words came. She turned away and Malone saw her shoulders shake. He ran a hand over his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. He laid a hand on her shoulder. It quaked under his palm.
“Look, Lu, I’m sorry. That’s not…I didn’t mean that. It happened. I didn’t have the money, you were late. It just…happened.”
She spun around and his hand fell away from her shoulder. The fire blazed in her eyes again. “No. It didn’t just happen. The Collective’s been squeezing the life out of what had been a good place to live. Taxes are one thing. Kidnapping and slavery are another.” She brushed past him and strode toward the barn.
“Where are you going?” he called after her.
“We’re in a race,” she called over her shoulder. If the EC get Safiya and Galila into their territory, we’ll never see them again. We’ll need some tools for this job.”
“Tools?” He shook his head sending bolts of pain through his battered skull. Pausing, he pressed the heel of his hand against his head until the storm of pain subsided. “I’m going to call Ben. If they can put out a wide enough net, they’ll find Ekene and force him to give the girls back.”
She waved him off and yelled before disappearing into the barn. “Whatever. Just have the truck ready and gather up whatever money you do have.”
Malone ducked into the house. He quickly called Ben who told him to come into the station. Panic still had a hold on him, but hearing Ben’s reassuring voice gave him hope. They’d get the girls back. Ben would make sure of it.
After gathering up the keys to his truck and the little money he had, Malone stepped on to the porch and saw Luana jogging toward the truck, a backpack bouncing on her shoulder. He met her at the truck and they slid into the seats. The energy meter was just over three-quarters full and Malone said a little prayer of thanks he’d hooked the vehicle up to the solar panels yesterday.
“What’s in the bag?” he asked as the electric motor pushed the vehicle down the dusty driveway.
Luana stared grimly out the window. “Tools for when Ben doesn’t help and we need to do this on our own.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Malone jammed on the brakes and the truck skidded to a halt in front of the public safety building. Ben stepped through the door and stood at the top of the steps, his blond head almost brushing the door frame. His tan uniform matched the native stones the public safety building was constructed from. A look of worry painted Ben’s face.
Ben had been one of the first to befriend him when he and Luana had first moved to Carrefour. He’d been an evangelist for Malone’s mechanic business, pointing many of the mines and farms in his direction.
Malone had barely slammed the truck into park before jumping out of the vehicle. When he didn’t hear Luana’s door, he glanced back. She was zipping up the top of the backpack.
“Are you coming?” he waved impatiently at her.
She opened the door and shook her head. “You talk to Ben. I’m going to see if anyone else has seen Ekene come through.”
Malone hesitated. What was her problem? Every second was precious, yet she wanted to go talk to people in town when the real person who could help was standing in front of them.
Fine. Whatever. As usual, he’d have to do this himself.
When Malone ascended the steps, Ben embraced him.
“Holy frag, Malone. What the hell happened?”
Malone followed his friend inside the public safety building. He barely registered the existence of the three other officers working at desks.
“It was the Collective. Ekene and his men took Safiya and Galila.” He paced the floor and ran his hands through his hair.
Ben moved in front of him, concern etched in his features. “Alright. Have a seat so I can get a statement and get things started.”
Malone froze in his tracks and gaped at Ben. “Statement? I gave you a statement over the phone. The Collective kidnapped my girls and are headed to who knows where. We don’t have time for a statement!” He leveled a finger at Ben’s chest. “Start setting up roadblocks. You can’t let them get off planet, otherwise—”
Ben’s gripped his shoulders, his voice lowered. “Hey, I’m on your side. I know you’re w
orried, but if we do this the right way now, it will save time and make sure there are no misunderstandings.”
“Misunderstandings? Are you kidding? The EC took Galila and Safiya. There’s nothing to get confused about. We don’t have time to talk. Start doing something. You’re supposed to protect the people around here.”
“And we do,” Ben said. The three other officers turned away from their holo-displays and moved to Ben’s side. “But there are certain understandings we need to abide by on Carrefour.”
Malone was having trouble processing Ben’s words. “Understandings?”
Ben nodded. “The Collective’s like a sovereign nation and if we take hasty action, it might be perceived as an act of war. They could bring the hammer down on this place if we meddle in their affairs and hold up business dealings. Our job’s to make sure that doesn’t happen. If the EC is happy, then everyone stays safe. That’s how we protect.”
“Yeah, because they never meddle in the affairs of the people around here,” Malone spat. “Level with me. Are you going to do something or not?”
Ben waved him forward and pulled out a chair in front of a desk. “Of course I am. Just have a seat. We’ll take your statement, send a petition to the Collective, and let them know they took the girls by mistake. If you have the money they need, I’m sure they’ll be willing to make an exchange. It was a mistake, right?”
His friend’s words hit him harder than Ekene’s enforcers had. Malone shook his head slowly and took a step back toward the door. “Luana was right. Stars, she was right. The Collective has you too.”
“Now, come on, Malone. Don’t do this.”
“I thought you were a friend. Apparently the money means more than the girls.” He spun around and marched toward the door.
“I can’t let you go,” Ben said behind him, his voice losing the friendly and caring tone. “Not in the frame of mind you’re in.”
For the second time that day, strong hands gripped him from behind. “Hey! What the hell is going on?”