SA jumped aside to let Bruke clatter into Seb without slowing down. It sent both of them flying backwards and flipped Seb’s world into slow motion.
Despite being shorter than him, the broad creature weighed easily twice what Seb did. So when they connected with the ground—Seb first—fire ran through his shoulder blades from taking the impact of the fall.
Their clumsiness had scattered a group of jinds, who clicked and whistled their distaste at the pair, but Bruke didn’t seem to notice or care. Pure joy as he pulled his head back and looked from one of Seb’s eyes to the other. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
Despite the pain in his back, Seb laughed as the heavy lizard creature climbed off him. “You didn’t realise you’d be meeting us here?”
“I thought Reyes wanted our help tracking you down. That’s what she told us on the radio. Although I had no intention of turning you over to Moses.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at Reyes. “Like she plans to do.”
Another warm smile as he sat up, Seb said, “I know. I’ve never doubted you, my friend. And don’t worry about Reyes; everything’s not as it seems.” This time Seb looked at Sparks. It took a few seconds for her to look up from her screen. When she did, he nodded at her.
Bruke’s head moved so quickly from where he looked between Seb and Sparks that it almost turned into a blur. Then he gasped and pointed a thick accusatory finger at the small Thrystian. “You knew?”
Sparks shrugged and returned her attention back to her mini-computer, a frown of concentration crushing her brow.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bruke said.
Although Sparks looked down, she still answered him. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to keep it in. You can be impulsive sometimes.”
As much as Bruke looked like he wanted to take offence, he simply shrugged. He then held a hand towards Seb to help him stand up.
After Seb had gotten to his feet, he watched Bruke stare at Reyes again. “Well done,” he finally said. “You had me fooled. Hopefully Moses fell for it too.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Seb said. “I can’t believe Moses will have sent you two out without some kind of—”
A buzz of electricity sounded out and a fireball lit up in the sky about three metres away from them. A doughnut of black smoke lifted into the air away from the vessel while the charred husk of a spherical metal drone fell to the ground with a clang.
Every being in the spaceport seemed to stop what they were doing and looked at the fallen surveillance robot. Sparks addressed the others in a low voice. “I saw it coming and wanted to make sure I got it before it saw us.”
“And did you get it early enough?” Seb said.
A look at the beings around them, Sparks raised an eyebrow at Seb. The gathered crowd were now listening to their conversation. The slightest nod, Sparks dropped her tone and stepped close so only he could hear her. “Yes, and I think it’s best we get out of here now.”
“Good idea,” Seb said and led them away from the watchful crowd.
CHAPTER 39
Seb led the group away from the curious crowd and over to the docks. They needed to get the information from Buster and leave Aloo as soon as they could. The longer they stayed, the more chance they had of alerting Moses to their presence—if Reyes hadn’t already done that. But he wouldn’t let his paranoia get the better of him. She’d given him her word; he had to trust it until he had evidence to the contrary.
Do you think she’s told him? SA said as they stepped out of the walkway between the ships, entering the docks.
Can you read my thoughts even when I don’t want you to?
I saw the way you were looking at her. I’m worried about the same thing. If Moses was prepared to send a Godzilla of a mech to Danu, what would he send to catch us while we’re here? A whole fleet of them?
After he’d looked at SA for a few seconds, Seb said, Do you think I’m wrong to trust her?
No. I trust her too. I just think we need to keep our guard raised.
Instead of responding, Seb focused on the chain-link fence with the gate leading to the warehouse. After being on Danu, the wind coming from Aloo’s seas felt like a summer breeze. Despite the taste of salt, it ran a cleansing blast through him, which he pulled deeply into his lungs.
When the group got closer to the fence, the nine-foot-tall mandulu with a gun appeared. It still had lumps and bruises on its face, the swelling around its eye now mustard colour from where he’d started to heal.
A few metres separated them, so Seb raised his voice to be sure the beast heard him. “You look to be on the mend.”
But the creature didn’t respond to Seb’s words. Instead, he looked SA, Sparks, Bruke, and Reyes up and down. “Who are these beings?”
“They’re with me.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. What, you think you’re some kind of VIP here? Like you have special privileges? You’re one wrong step away from being dropped into the sea.”
After rolling his eyes at the others, Seb turned back to the mandulu. “Look, the boss man called me. I have a meeting with him and these are my friends. I understand you’re annoyed because I bitch-slapped you, but you need to deal with it and let your ego go. It’s preventing you from doing your job.”
The broken tusks on the mandulu’s face worked up and down as it ground its jaw. A shake of its head, it said, “I can’t let you in.”
“Are padlocks beyond your IQ level or something?”
Watch it, Seb, SA said to him. We don’t have many other options than this.
Seb pressed his lips tightly shut. She had a point. He smiled at the mandulu. An awkward few seconds passed before the brute shot air through his nose and walked away from the gate, back towards the warehouse.
It only took a few minutes for the mandulu to return. If he’d had a tail, it would have been between his legs at that moment. Whatever Buster had said to him, it worked. The creature stared at the ground while it undid the gate. The entire fence rattled with its aggressive actions. It then pulled the gate wide, stepped aside, and continued to avoid eye contact.
Seb led the way through the opening and patted the beast on the shoulder on his way past. The creature let out a low grumble of a growl. Such a brute, the deep bass note of his displeasure rolled like an industrial generator.
The last two times Seb had visited the warehouse, he’d come around the corner to find Buster wrapping some creature in chains and dropping them into the sea. Tense in anticipation of seeing it again, he relaxed a little to find the space clear. He led the group over to Buster’s office.
When Seb knocked on the flimsy door, the entire thing wobbled beneath his hard contact.
“Come in.”
Seb entered first and his crew followed him. He handed back the phone Buster had given him and dipped a nod at the lizard creature. “Thank you.”
“You haven’t heard what I have to say yet.” For a moment, Buster looked at the rest of them, frowning hostility in their direction.
While Buster checked them out, Seb looked at the metal frame. Still covered with a blanket, he didn’t need to see it again to know what it represented. The first time he’d been compromised in a while, Buster had well and truly gotten the better of him. A reminder that he could do it again if he needed to.
Buster then threw the dead grub through the air and Seb caught the hard little thing. “The gene farm’s on Earth.”
“Earth?” Seb said and looked at the others with him. “I thought Earth had been uninhabitable for decades now?”
Mistrust shone from Buster’s yellow eyes as he looked at Seb’s party again. “Not anymore.”
“Earth’s forever away.”
Raised eyebrows showed that Buster wanted to say it wasn’t his problem. He kept it in.
“How do the gene farms even work?” Reyes said.
Buster’s brow crushed down again as he looked from Reyes to Seb. He clearly didn’t want to talk to her, so Seb asked it instead
, “How do the gene farms work?”
“They create creatures that can be used in warfare.”
The others moved in closer to listen, but Seb continued the conversation. “So we’re about to go into a complex full of weaponised beings marching to the beat of their creator’s drum? A complex that’s bloody light years away.”
“Yep. From what I can ascertain, these grubs—like many of the created beings—are made and licensed to just one person. They probably created one queen, which they dropped on Carstic and let the rest of them move out and multiply.”
Not really sure where Buster was going, Seb stared at him.
“What I’m trying to say is you won’t have to face these parasites again, because they’ve probably all been killed since you killed their queen. And—”
“They should be easy to trace because one person bought the licence for them,” Bruke said.
Everyone in the dingy office turned to look at the large scaled creature. Buster broke the silence. “Not necessarily easy, but very possible.”
“Okay.” This time Seb turned to the others and spoke to them instead of Buster. “So we need to head to Earth and find this gene farm.”
When Buster spoke, Seb spun back around to face him. “It’s in one of the major cities. The place is called London and it’s on an island called the United Kingdom. The farm’s huge, so when you get close, you should see it from the air quite easily.”
A nod, Seb said, “Thank you. That gives us somewhere to start.”
Now we need to work out how to get there, SA said.
A look into the calm gaze of his love, Seb nodded and voiced it for her. “Now we just need to know how to get there. Very few ships in the spaceport will go to Earth.”
“I can get us there,” Reyes said.
Clearly not the only one who didn’t trust her, Seb watched Sparks look Reyes up and down as she spat one word. It sounded more like an accusation than a question. “How?”
“I can get a ship from the Shadow Order’s base.”
“Won’t Moses know you’ve helped us?” Sparks said.
“Only if I bump into him, which won’t happen. I have clearance to fly anything I want off that base. I can get in and out before he has any idea I’ve been there.”
At only three feet and six inches tall, Sparks still looked like she could—and would—tear Reyes’ head off. Were Seb a betting man, he would have gone all in on the small Thrystian. “We’re trusting you,” Sparks said.
Reyes nodded. “I know. And you can.”
It didn’t seem enough for Sparks, who clenched her fists and pulled her shoulders back. Seb moved in between them and faced Sparks as he grabbed the tops of her arms. While holding her in a tight grip, he said, “We need to trust her. It’s going to be so much easier to take a Shadow Order ship than try to hitch a lift to Earth. Nothing flies there from here.”
A sharp twist, Sparks freed herself from Seb’s grip and looked at Reyes again. “What about trackers on the ship?”
“I’ll make sure I leave them behind. You can check the ship when I get back with it.”
“Oh, I will. Don’t you worry.” Sparks then pulled out a small round disc much like the ones Seb had seen footage of his mum and dad on. He tried to ignore the rising sadness it triggered in him.
Reyes stared at the device. “What’s that?”
“A tracking device. You’ll want to find us when you come back, won’t you? Press the red button on this when you’re near and it’ll project a small local map so you can find us. It won’t work at the Shadow Order base, only when you’re close to us.”
Reyes didn’t respond. Instead, she took the device, looked at Seb, dipped him a sharp nod, and then walked out of the office.
After she’d left, Bruke said, “So what do we do now?”
Although Seb saw Buster would have let them stay, they couldn’t bring that kind of trouble to his door. “We go and find somewhere to hide and wait for Reyes to come back.”
“If she comes back,” Sparks said.
As much as Seb wanted to say she would, he couldn’t be certain. He could only hope for the best.
CHAPTER 40
Because he wanted to distance their group from Buster so as not to bring any more trouble to the slaver’s flimsy door, Seb waited until they’d entered the spaceport proper before he pulled the other three close to him. “Reyes said she won’t be long,” he said. “So what do we do while we wait?”
Other than a cynical glare from the cynical Sparks, Seb got no response. He watched the small Thrystian remove her mini-computer and plug some headphones into it. She then placed one of the ear buds into her right ear and let the other one hang down.
When Sparks looked at Seb again, he said, “That thing you gave Reyes …”
A blank expression, she fixed him with her purple gaze while waiting for him to finish.
“… was so you can track her, right?”
“Of course. But she’s not stupid; she’ll work that out. And you know what? If she has nothing to hide, then she won’t care either.”
“Said every fascist state ever …”
When Sparks glared at him, Seb shrugged. As much as he didn’t like the idea of total surveillance, it certainly served a purpose.
While Seb had talked to Sparks, he’d noticed Bruke throwing glances at the crowd surrounding them. “They’re looking at us, Seb.”
In a voice quiet enough for no one else to hear, Seb said, “Of course. When I was here last, I’m not sure every being knew Moses wanted me. They stared at me because I’m human, but now I can feel the tension has wound up another notch. I’d be more surprised to find a being that doesn’t know about the bounty on my head now. We need to find somewhere to hide while we wait for Reyes.”
Bruke’s face became a wreck of worry lines, SA stood as her usual serene self, and Sparks had slipped her other ear bud in, her attention totally fixed on her screen as she continued to spy on Reyes.
The lack of responses allowed the sound of the crowd around them to come through to Seb. The busy hum of chatter made it hard to pick out the details of the multiple conversations, but he did hear one word repeated several times. Moses.
“So where shall we go?” Bruke said.
SA stared at Seb. You’re going to say the sewers, aren’t you?
She knew him too well. Where else can we go? It’s getting tense out here, and I can’t think of anywhere better.
I’m not sure. I just hate it down there.
When have you been down there?
SA raised her eyebrows and tilted her head to one side.
Of course. That was you following me. I still struggle to associate what I saw as a threat as being you.
I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
I nearly killed myself running away from you.
I’m sorry. My intentions were only ever good.
Seb never doubted that. Because they’d had a conversation the others couldn’t hear, Seb looked at Bruke to see confusion crushing his features, which he then vocalised. “Well? Are you going to answer me?”
Hard not to smile. After all, he had a way to speak to his love that no one else shared. The secrecy of it made it somehow more special. Something they could partake of on their own. But if he wanted to keep it a secret, or if SA wanted him to keep it a secret, he needed to say something. “Sorry, Bruke.” No point in apologising to Sparks, she seemed too dialed in to her headphones to notice much else. “I think we should go to the sewers.”
“Really?” Bruke said.
A large creature bumped into Seb at that moment, nudging him in the back and sending him crashing into Sparks, who nearly dropped her device.
Sparks looked up at Seb and tutted as she scowled at him. Then she saw the back of the beast as it walked off into the crowd. Taller than Seb and twice as wide as Bruke, if not more, it had skin like an elephant and a lazy gait.
The creature had definitely meant to crash into Seb. He balled his fist
s to watch it walk away. The edges of his world blurred as his gift threatened to switch on.
Leave it, Seb. SA laid a gentle hand on Seb’s back. You kick off here and Moses will find us in a heartbeat. For some reason, no being wants to claim the bounty yet. Don’t give them an excuse.
When Seb turned back to Sparks and Bruke, he said, “The sewers are the only place we can go where there won’t be hundreds of beings deciding if they should claim the bounty on me. We won’t have to go down there for long, but I think it’s our best option. Sparks, how’s Reyes getting on?”
The way Sparks shifted her body showed Seb she’d heard him. A slight lifting of her head, but not enough to take her focus away from her headphones. A few more seconds passed as she listened in. Then she looked up. “She’s just got into the Shadow Order’s base.”
“That’s good. Hopefully she won’t have any problems while she’s there.” Now they’d been there for a few minutes, quite a crowd had gathered. As of yet, none of them seemed to want to follow the beast who’d just nudged him. But they had to get out of there before they grew braver. The courage of a mob went well beyond the sum of its parts. It didn’t matter how good the four of them were as a unit, they couldn’t fight everyone. One quick look at the other three, Seb said, “Does anyone have any objections to the sewers?”
Just before Bruke could speak, Seb quickly added, “And a better idea if they do because we need to move now.”
Bruke closed his mouth.
When SA grabbed Seb’s arm, he looked first at her and then in the direction she pointed. They didn’t have a uniform, but they didn’t need to. Seb recognised them from a mile away. Something about the way they held themselves. “Shadow Order guards. And the worst kind.”
“Rookies,” Bruke said.
“Jumped-up little pricks. So damn eager to please.” As Seb looked along the line of them, which stretched at least twenty wide, he said, “And far too many of the bastards for us to fight.”
At that moment, one of them looked up and Seb’s entire body sank. Not hard to find the human when everything in the crowd focused on him. “Damn.”
Fugitive: A Space Opera: Book Five of The Shadow Order Page 14