by Aaron Hubble
The deputy’s hands wrapped tightly around his upper arms. He tried to shake them off, but they guided him toward the chair Ben had urged him to take.
Ben pulled the chair out further. “If you’ll sit down, I think you’ll see that the path I’m outlining for you and your family is the best and only course of action open to you.”
Malone let himself be guided to the chair. He offered no resistance until he started to sit and felt the officer’s grip loosen. At that moment he lowered his shoulder and sprang forward, catching one of the deputies in the chest, knocking him backward. He twisted out of the grip of the other and bolted toward the door.
Ben stepped into his path.
Malone swung and caught his friend square on the jaw, throwing him sideways. He rushed past Ben only to be tackled from behind by the third deputy. They crashed to the tile floor, the air rushing out of Malone’s lungs. He tried to wrestle out of the man’s grip, but the two other deputies recovered and pinned his arms to his side before hauling him upright.
“Ben! What are you doing?” Malone said, straining against the deputies.
Through his rage, Malone saw Ben collect himself and wipe a smear of blood from his chin. “I’m trying to save your life. You might not see that right now, but you will after you’ve cooled down a bit.”
Malone stared at his friend, someone he’d trusted, someone he was sure would do whatever it would take to find Galila and Safiya. Ben had often been more than just a friend. Malone had gone to him with his deepest problems, his business, the trials of being a father, and his failing marriage. He’d been a sounding board, a support, a brother. Now Ben had turned his back on him when he needed him the most.
Ben’s betrayal hurt worse than the beating he’d taken from the Collective enforcers.
Ben pushed desk chairs out of the way as he walked toward the back of the office and turned down a hallway. He stopped at a control console with several screens. The gray images on the screens were of empty holding cells. Malone watched Ben press his thumb to a print scanner and then push a button. On the screen, one of the cell doors slid open.
Malone’s eyes widened and he tried to plant his feet on the tile floor. “You can’t do this, Ben!”
The deputy behind Malone hit the back of his legs and Malone’s knees buckled. The other two deputies dragged him after Ben who’d moved down the hallway and stopped in front of a cell.
The deputies shoved him in. He skidded across the floor and heard the magnetic lock clink into place. Scrambling to his feet, Malone rushed the closed door. It rattled as he threw himself against it.
“I thought you loved the girls!”
A pained look flashed across Ben’s face. “I do, but if you do something rash, you’ll only make things worse for yourself and everyone on Carrefour. Maybe if you sit for a while, you’ll see I’m right.”
“Ben! You bastard! What are you doing? Let me go.”
“I’m sorry. I really am.”
Malone watched Ben and his deputies walk away. The bars held fast as he tried to force himself out, hoping that the rage of a father who’d lost his children could somehow break iron. He yelled at the one man he thought he could trust as he felt his hope evaporate.
CHAPTER SIX
The screeching of metal on metal made Ely Ekene look up. The roof above the docking platform opened. Bright sunlight filled the previously dim hangar. It glinted off the gloss back finish of his cruiser. He squinted and put his sunglasses back on. They would raise ship soon and start their journey to Vina. Right after he tagged these last few people. He took a couple of steps to the side to avoid being directly in the sunlight.
Several of his men bustled past, guiding crates of Carrefour’s famous sapphire wine on mag lifts. While much of the planet was arid plains dominated by mining operations, the west coast of this continent was rolling hills and received a generous amount of rain. The climate supported vegetable farms and vineyards. The wine was a particular favorite at Vina Resort where most of these people were headed.
He pressed the tagger onto a man’s upper arm. The trigger hissed and implanted a chip under the skin, basically marking this man as Europa Collective property. He motioned for the man in front of him to move on. The man remained rooted where he stood. Ekene looked up and into eyes that held a mixture of shock, sadness, and fear. It was a look Ekene had seen so many times before.
The man’s lip quivered.
“Please, I have a family,” he whispered.
“You should have thought of them before you lied about the amount of taxes you’d collected. The Europa Collective doesn’t tolerate employees who turn into thieves. If we can’t trust you, there’s no reason to continue our working relationship.” Ekene nodded his head toward the dark hold of the ship. “Move along.”
The man stared at Ekene for a moment longer. His eyes pleaded, but Ekene remained motionless. The man hung his head and trudged up the loading ramp.
Ekene looked down the line of wretched souls who stood inside the hangar of the Carrefour spaceport. They’d picked up ten new indentured servants who, for one reason or another, hadn’t held up their end of an agreement they’d made with the EC. Now they would need to work that off. For some, it would be a short sentence. For others, it would be much longer.
He looked around the circular shaped hangar and absently rubbed the brand on the left side of his neck, the insignia of the Europa Collective. Most other made men had a tattoo marking them, but Ekene had chosen to burn his loyalty into his flesh. The brand covered the scar where his own RFID chip had been implanted when he’d been a prisoner on Titan, Saturn’s moon. The chip was the second thing he’d cut out after the penal colony uprising gave him his freedom.
The first had been the tongue of his cell block guard. Ekene had made sure he’d never hear the man’s grating voice again.
An older woman stepped up next. Ekene tagged her and made a mental note to be sure she was assigned to kitchen duty on Vina. The Collective had squeezed her small restaurant near the mine out of business by setting up their own dining establishment complete with gambling and a brothel. The thirsty men, and a few women, had been more than happy to spend their hard earned dollars in a place with a little more than good food.
He wiped a slick of sweat from his dark, bald head and readjusted his sunglasses. The heat didn’t bother him too much. It reminded him of his home country of Rwanda, back on Earth. Much of this area of Carrefour was a lot like his home. Dry and dusty plains stretching on for miles and miles.
Ekene reloaded the tagger. Carrefour seemed like any other of a hundred worlds. Fairly insignificant, a modest mining industry and a hard scrabble people who were used to making their own way.
But he knew the significance of this world and so did Maksim Laukkanen, the leader of the Europa Collective. Carrefour and several worlds that bordered EC space would be the first in a march back toward Earth. The more territory the Collective gobbled up, the less there was for the Earth-based companies they competed with. Eventually, there would be nothing flowing back to Earth, nothing to keep the industries churning out the luxury items the fat and lazy inhabitants of Earth needed. Industries would dry up, stores would empty out, and banks would collapse. A total global crisis that even the World Senate couldn’t pump enough relief money into.
That’s when Laukkanen and the Europa Collective would swoop in as the saviors of the day. Laukkanen’s goals were simple. He wanted the president’s office and he wanted to see the companies who had imprisoned and enslaved him and others in penal colonies to fold. Raw materials from Collective controlled worlds would flow back to Earth to newly formed companies whose titles were held by the EC. It would be total domination and a shot would never need to be fired.
Ekene’s hand rested on the long bone handle of the knife at his waist. He hoped there would be a little more violence.
Laukkanen might want to avoid bloodshed‒it was bad for PR‒but Ekene found a certain amount quite enjoyable. There w
ere more than a few individuals he hoped to bump into on Earth. A judge who’d been paid off by Deep Luna, the company that had run the Titan colony, to send cons their way for use on the penal colonies.
He wouldn’t mind a private meeting with the CEO of Deep Luna. Ekene could show him all of the unique skills he’d picked up while working on Titan.
Ekene flashed back to when he was fifteen. He remembered when he stood wearing an orange jumpsuit, trembling, in front of that judges bench. Who sentences a fifteen-year-old boy to hard labor light years away from home for breaking and entering?
Ekene’s hand flexed over the bone handle and he gritted his teeth. He could still picture the judge’s fat, red face and hear the gavel striking the bench after his sentence was pronounced. Anger swelled in him and he jammed the tagger into the arm of a middle aged man. The man winced, but stayed quiet.
That’s how the system had worked. The moons of the solar system’s outer planets were a boon of raw materials, and laborers were needed for the extreme work it required to extract it from the rock. What better way to get rid of the refuse of Earth than transport criminals to where they would be forgotten and just enjoy the fruits of their enslavement.
But they’d done something unthinkable. The cons had fought back. Europa had been the first to revolt, but had been brutally put down with over four hundred prisoner casualties. Laukkanen rallied the prisoners of Titan. They’d fought with the brutality and tenacity of men and women with nothing to lose and everything to gain. They’d taken Titan and Ekene still remembered the elation of that day.
Other colonies had followed suit. Deep Luna and the other corporations with penal colonies didn’t have the resources to rein them back in.
Ekene smiled as he tagged a man in his twenties. That was Laukkanen. He was always the one thinking ten steps ahead of everyone else. Even when they were in the penal colony on Titan, he was thinking of this plan.
Now it was really happening and Ekene was in a position to be one of the most powerful and richest men in the galaxy. Earth wasn’t really his goal, that was Laukkanen’s. After it was the EC’s, he’d settle for Vina. All the booze, women, and debauchery a man could want.
Shuffling footsteps brought his attention back. Ekene looked down and saw the two young girls they’d picked up at the mechanic’s home.
Malone Kay’s daughters.
They didn’t really look much like him. He was lily white. Their skin was olive colored with dark hair and eyes. Probably some middle-eastern Earth in their heritage. He shrugged. It didn’t matter where they came from. All that mattered was where they were going.
Ekene lowered the tagger and was about to press it against the younger girl’s arm when the older sister pulled her protectively toward her.
“Can’t you see she has a hurt arm?” the older sister said.
He looked closer and saw a decent cut running across the upper arm. Squatting down he took the girl’s arm in his and inspected it closer.
“How did this happen?” he asked the little girl.
The sister spoke for her again. “It happened when you threw her into the back of the van.”
He appraised the older sister. There was a stout spirit in the girl, a fire that burned behind her dark eyes. He grinned at her and watched her shift uncomfortably. Yes, she would do well in the brothel. She’d last longer than most because of that spirit. People would pay extra for someone like her. It didn’t hurt she was attractive, in a fresh sort of way.
After another look at the sister, Ekene turned his attention back to the little one. “Once we’ve broken atmosphere, I’ll find you and take care of that cut. For now, let me have the other arm. I still need to tag you.”
The older sister’s protective embrace remained around her sister, holding her back. Ekene sighed and looked at the older sister again. “Make no mistake, this is going to happen. The only difference will be whether you like it rough or easy,” he glared at her, taking in her young form. “It’s up to you.”
He watched her look away and swallow. She bent down and whispered to her sister before gently pushing her forward. He tagged the young girl’s other arm. The older sister stepped forward. She thrust her chin out and stared straight ahead.
Ekene leaned in close. “Keep fighting me, little girl. It only makes you that much more valuable. Your first time is going to bring in a quite a nice sum.”
“I hate you,” she whispered as he pressed the trigger. The tagger hissed and Ekene smiled. He lightly rubbed one hand down her smooth cheek.
“And yet, you’re mine now.”
He saw her lip quiver, and a tear glided down the cheek. It hung from her top lip. He wiped it away.
“Shhh. No crying, princess, the girls on Vina will take care of you. They’ll be your new family.”
The girl stepped forward, wrapped her arm around her sister, and disappeared into the hold of the ship. Ekene watched them disappear. The Collective was coming out ahead on this deal. Those two would more than make up for the taxes their father couldn’t pay.
Who knew. He just might take that one as his own consort. Breaking her would be so enjoyable.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The steel bars were cool against Malone’s forehead, the very opposite of the fire churning inside of him. His breath came in rapid, shallow gulps as frustration grew in his chest. The cell seemed to contract with every passing second. The girls were beyond the walls. He needed to find them, but he was locked in a cage.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying to loosen the tightness in his chest. How could Ben do this to him? His fingers wrapped around the bars and his jaw tightened.
Why had he ever trusted Ben?
He thought he would’ve learned his lesson a long time ago that trusting people would just lead to hurt and betrayal, but apparently he needed one final reminder. The problem was he’d let himself get comfortable here.
The business had been doing well. He’d married a beautiful woman, adopted the girls, and life was good. Then one by one things had turned on him. The business starting going downhill because of the Collective. His relationship with his wife became complicated, and now his best friend had sold him out when he needed him the most.
And where was Luana? She’d probably abandoned him too. Malone felt like the only one who cared.
He pushed away from the cell door and kicked it, the noise echoing down the hallway. Malone was about to shout at Ben again when he heard sounds coming from the main area of the public safety building.
He held his breath and strained to hear. There were several shouts, what sounded like furniture breaking, and then something heavy hitting a wall or a floor. After several seconds all was quiet. He stepped back to the door and tried to get a good view down the hallway, but couldn’t see much of anything.
There was a metallic clink and the cell door slid open.
Malone frowned. Had Ben come around? Maybe he was going to help after all. Malone leaned into the hallway and peered around the door.
Luana stood behind the monitor of the control station. His eyes widened. She beckoned to him.
“Are you coming or were you comfortable in there?”
He shook the confusion from his head and jogged down the hallway toward her. She wiped a sheen of sweat with her sleeve. Half of her long dark hair had come out of the ponytail and hung over the side of her face.
“How—”
She cut him off and turned toward the door. “There isn’t time to explain right now, but I need your help.”
Malone followed her into the lobby. He pulled up short when he saw Ben and the other three officers lying on the floor in the middle of a pile of broken furniture.
“What in the—”
“Again, explanations will need to wait. Help me get them in their restraints. The longer they stay in here before anyone finds them, the more time we’ll have.”
“Time for what?” Malone said, while he continued to stare at the chaos in front of him.
<
br /> “Getting our girls back.”
“Wait.” He took a step backwards. “These are officers of the law. We can’t lock them up.”
Luana snapped a restraint closed over an officer’s wrists and then stared at him for a moment. “I’ll assume you didn’t put yourself in that cell.”
He shuffled his feet, but remained silent. Luana stood and strode toward him. There was steel in her eyes, but then he saw them soften a bit and she laid her hand on his arm.
“I’m sorry Ben betrayed you, but right now, we need to do whatever it takes to get the girls.” She pressed a pair of restraints into his hands. He looked down at them and nodded. Malone realized there were no lines he wouldn’t cross to see Galila and Safiya again.
Her hand squeezed his arm. “The longer we spend here, the further away they get. We might still be able to catch them at the space port, but we need to hurry.” She closed her hand over his. He felt the warmth of her skin against the cool metal of the restraints.
“Trust me. With the Collective there are no rules. They’ll do whatever it takes to collect on the debts owed to them, so we need to be willing to do the same to take back what’s ours.”
He searched her dark eyes. “How do you know so much about the Collective?”
She spun on her heel leaving his question hanging. “Lock them up, and then we need to move quick or Ekene and his men will be long gone.”
Luana’s movements were smooth and determined. Questions ran through his mind, but he pushed them aside and knelt down by Ben. His friend moaned and moved.
With shaking hands, he snapped the restraints closed over Ben’s wrists.
His friend’s eyes fluttered open. “Malone,” he croaked. “What…what’s going on?”
Malone stood and looked down at the man he’d thought was his friend–someone who’d sworn to protect the innocent. Any warmth he had for the man now struggling on the floor had evaporated.
Luana moved next to him. “Time to go.”