“I didn’t ‘slip away’—I ran for my life after I found out you killed my friend and you were going to chop her up for food!” Penny snapped.
“Yes, well, that’s life in the Compound.” The Glorious Leader shrugged. “Waste not, want not—right? We must have protein to feed our workers in order to be self-sustaining.”
“You can justify it however you want,” Penny said coldly. “But the fact is, what you were doing down there was nothing but murder and cannibalism. Oh, and gang rape if you count the ‘Public Breedings’. And now I find out you were spying on me too—even after I got away!”
“I was keeping an eye on one of my breeders.” The Glorious Leader didn’t sound in the least guilty or perturbed by her accusations. “And I’m very glad I did because I learned some very interesting things. Such as the fact that you are working for the Kindred! The same Kindred who ruined my beautiful society.”
“What you had wasn’t a society—it was a cult!” Penny struggled against him again. “Let me go!
“I think not, my dear,” the Glorious Leader sneered. “Once we’re safely in my ship, about a thousand parsecs out, I’ll call the Kindred Commander and make my demands. And of course, if he doesn’t want to comply with them, well…” He shook his head and made a tsking sound. “What a shame that would be. Because they might have ruined my lovely equipment, but I’m still quite capable of recycling a breeder by hand.”
His words sent a cold chill down Penny’s spine.
“You wouldn’t,” she whispered.
“Oh, watch me, my dear. Now, march,” he barked and shoved Penny in the back so hard she fell to her knees.
She gasped and the velvet bag which was still tied to her wrist clunked on the metal floor as the Eye of Ten’gu bounced inside it.
“What’s this?” the Glorious Leader demanded, dragging her to her feet and snatching the bag off her wrist. He opened it one handed, while keeping the other hand firmly locked around her other wrist.
“Don’t!” Penny gasped as the gold and lapis painted Eye on its long gold chain spilled out into the Glorious Leader’s palm.
“Well, well…” He frowned at it with interest. “And what might this be?”
“Just a necklace—that’s all,” Penny said quickly.
“Or maybe it’s the ancient artifact you were sent to find?” The Glorious Leader raised his white, busy eyebrows at her as Penny gaped at him. “I told you I’ve been monitoring you, my dear! Well, if the Kindred don’t want you badly enough to make a bargain with me, maybe they’ll want this.”
And he put the gold chain over his own neck and adjusted the Eye over his chest.
“It’s mine now,” he said to Penny. He drew in a deep breath and straightened his shoulders as his grip on her wrist grew even tighter. “Ahhh! I can see why the Kindred Commander wants this so badly,” he remarked. “It gives me fresh strength! Why, I feel twenty cycles younger!”
Penny was confused at first—both she and V’rex had felt an evil presence that repulsed them when they touched the Eye. But it seemed to invigorate the Glorious Leader and give him fresh strength—how could that be?
“Because Evil calls to Evil, daughter,” whispered a warm, feminine voice in her head.
Goddess? Penny sent back, looking around wildly. Where are you? Can you help me?
“Help is coming, daughter! Do not despair,” the Goddess told her. “I have brought you here so this Evil one will get exactly what he deserves.”
And then she was gone and the Glorious Leader—resplendent with the Eye of Ten’gu resting on the breast of his snow-white suit—was marching her down the hallway again.
Chapter 114
V was so overwhelmed at meeting his kin for the first time, that at first he didn’t notice that Penelope was missing. But after a while, he missed her presence. They were rarely separated since they had been bonded and though he had spent almost his whole life on his own with no one to look out for or love, he found he couldn’t stand to be without his curvy little female for long.
“Did you happen to see where Penelope went?” he asked Commander Sylvan during a break in the conversation, when his new kin were describing the Beast Kindred home world of Rageron to him.
“I believe she went to the fresher.” Commander Sylvan nodded at a plain gray door at the end of the lounge. He frowned. “But that was some time ago.”
V started to reach out to his mate…and then stopped himself. He had learned early on that Penelope was what she called a “private bathroom person” and she disliked being bothered—even mentally—when she was “doing her business.”
I’ll give her a minute, he thought to himself She’ll be out soon.
But as the minutes ticked by and she still didn’t come out, he began to feel a tickling of unease in the back of his mind. Where was she? What was taking so long?
At last he sent a tentative call through their link, “Penelope?”
But he got no reply in return—not even an irritated demand to let her “finish.”
In fact, V realized, he felt nothing when he reached mentally for his new mate—nothing at all.
“Something is wrong!” he exclaimed. Ignoring the startled looks from his new kin, he ran for the fresher. “Penelope!” he roared at the top of his lungs, banging through the door. “Penelope, where are you?”
But though he could smell the sweet scent of her skin and hair, letting him know she had been there recently, the fresher was empty.
Penelope was gone.
Chapter 115
Drace walked quietly as he made his way down the old service tunnels that ran around the outside of the VIP area of Hell’s Gate Station. He had docked by a service entrance and let himself in using some codes he’d bought a long time ago off a mech droid who worked here. He liked the perks in the VIP Lounge—he just didn’t like paying for them.
This wasn’t something he did all the time—just once in a while when he wanted to treat himself. As a smuggler, he often lived in a gray area, just outside the law which was fine with him. He felt comfortable in that gray area. He—
Just then he heard a shuffling sound up ahead. He was coming to a T shaped intersection where he needed to take a right and go down the hall in order to slip into the VIP lounge via the service entrance of the fresher, but now he paused, frowning.
Usually, at this time in the morning, there was nobody in the service corridor. The service droids and mechs had already cleaned the lounge and the freshers and they wouldn’t be coming back for another sweep until almost time for Midday Meal. So it was generally safe to come and go this early in the morning.
Except this time someone was out there and there was nowhere for Drace to hide.
He started to turn and go back the way he’d come. If anyone asked what he was doing, he could always say he’d gotten lost looking for the fresher. After all, he wasn’t actually in the VIP lounge yet so nobody could rightfully accuse him—
“Go back.”
The voice in his ear was rich and feminine and very firm.
“What?” Drace hissed, looking around. Who was that? Who was speaking to him?
“Go back to the intersection, Warrior—there is one who needs your help!” the voice commanded.
For a moment Drace hesitated, wondering if he was going crazy. He had the impulse to run back to his ship but the presence in the corridor with him was so strong—so tangible—that he couldn’t ignore it.
Drawing his blaster, he stepped carefully towards the T-section and looked around the corner.
Chapter 116
“Stop where you are and let the girl go!” a deep, male voice shouted and a blaster shot fired over Penny’s head.
“What?” she gasped, ducking instinctively. Looking down the corridor, she saw that there was a junction coming up and a man who looked vaguely familiar had stepped out from around the corner.
“Let her go!” the tall male insisted, shouting at the Glorious Leader.
Finally,
Penny recognized him—he was the Havoc warrior who had helped them get away on Yown Alpha. Drace, that was his name.
“Help!” she gasped and at the same time the Glorious Leader let her go and ran.
“Penelope, isn’t it?” the Havoc said, coming forward.
“Yes and you’re Drace but we can’t let him get away!” she exclaimed, gesturing at the fleeing Glorious Leader, who was running much faster than an older gentleman in a white suit had any right to move.
“What? Why?” Drace demanded.
“Because he’s got the Eye of Ten’gu and it has to be destroyed. And he’s also the one responsible for kidnapping you and taking you to Yown Alpha in the first place,” Penny babbled. “Look, just get him!”
Drace took off in hot pursuit of the fleeing Glorious Leader and Penny ran after them both. As she did, she pried at the silver button that was stuck to her left temple. She had to get it off and let V’rex know what had happened!
There was another T-junction coming up and the Glorious Leader dived into it. Drace followed him, still firing his blaster. But the other man always seemed to know how to duck or dodge.
The Eye is helping him! Penny thought, feeling a sense of despair. It’s giving him strength and speed and letting him know when to duck! How are we ever going to catch him and get it back?
The corridor curved suddenly and she lost sight of both men. When she finally skidded around the bend, she saw a sight that nearly stopped her heart.
It was Granny Two-two. The tiny old woman with the wizened peach of a second head growing out of the top of her main head was standing there and beckoning to the Glorious Leader.
“This way!” she was shouting in her cracked voice. “Come this way, so you should!”
“So you should! So you should!” shouted her second head and Penny saw that the old lady was pointing to a ventilation shaft, which was big enough to admit a grown man.
“No!” she shouted breathlessly, waving her arms at the old woman. “No, don’t help him get away! He’s a bad guy! Don’t do it, Granny Two-two!”
But the old woman continued to wave and point. She even pushed open the swinging metal flap which covered the tube, holding it wide for the Glorious Leader.
The GL, as V’rex called him, dived into the tube with surprising agility. He looked like a stuntman in a movie, he moved so smoothly, Penny thought with despair. Oh no—they would never catch him now!
Drace seemed prepared to try, though. He started to dive into the tunnel himself, but Granny Two-two stepped in front of it and held up a hand.
“Not you,” she said to him, frowning. “Not for you.”
“Not for you! Not for you!” the tiny second head shouted and made a face at the big Havoc.
“Get out of the way!” Drace shouted. “He’s getting away!”
But Granny Two-two refused to budge and Drace didn’t seem to be the kind of man who would push an old lady aside.
At this point, Penny caught up and came to a skidding halt in front of the old woman.
“Granny Two-two, why did you do that?” she gasped, trying to catch her breath. “That was a really bad man! He’s responsible for thousands of kidnappings and deaths! He—”
“Oh, Granny Two-two knows that, dearie,” the old woman interrupted.
“Knows it! Knows it!” the second head sang out.
“Hush, you!” Granny Two-two batted gently at her “twin” before continuing. “He’s the one as has been sending those nasty orange people to kidnap decent folks from the station,” she said to Penny.
“Well, if you knew all that, why did you help him escape?” Penny demanded.
“Oh, I didn’t.” Granny Two-two shook her head. “Look, dearie.”
She finally stepped to one side and let Penny read the lettering over the hatch which the Glorious Leader had dived into.
“Main Waste Chute,” Penny read aloud, her translation bacterial allowing her to make sense of the alien lettering. “Oh my!” She turned to Granny Two-two. “What does that mean?”
“Just what it says, dearie. Have a look.”
Granny Two-two pushed up the metal flap again, allowing a rank odor to seep out of the tunnel.
Holding her nose, Penny leaned forward and saw that the “ventilation tunnel” was actually a hatch. Instead of a straight path forward, there was a slippery silver ramp that tilted sharply down. It was like an old-fashioned laundry chute, Penny thought. One that led down to the room with the washer and dryer. Only in this case, it led…
“Where does it lead?” Drace demanded. “And shut it, will you? It stinks!”
“Come along, and I’ll show you, dearie,” Granny Two-two told him and then she winked at Penny. “You’ll like it, I’m sure.”
“Like it! Like it!” shrieked her second head.
Bemused and still prying at the silver button on her left temple, Penny followed the old woman down the corridor to a door marked, Station Surveillance.
The room was empty, but inside there was a bank of monitors that seemed to be showing the outside of Hell’s Gate Station from all angles.
“Look—see here?” Granny Two-two pointed to one of the monitors in the far corner, which looked mainly black to Penny.
“See what?” Drace demanded. He was staring over Penny’s shoulder—not hard to do since he was as tall as V’rex. “I don’t see anything but blackness,” he told Granny Two-two.
“Ah, that’s because it’s always in the shadow of the station,” she told him. “Never a bit of sun ever reaches the waste field. But we can turn on the lights, yes we can, dearie.”
“Turn them on! Turn them on!” shouted the second head.
“Hush, you!” Granny Two-two said, frowning. Then she reached over and pressed a button under the black monitor.
Immediately, the scene on the monitor was illuminated and Penny realized it was because a light located somewhere on the outside of the station had been turned on.
At first, all she could see was what looked like a big blob of brown and black things floating in a cloud of yellow liquid. Then, after a moment, she was able to make out a white shape in the middle of it all.
“There—that’s him.” Granny Two-two said, pointing at the white shape. “Magnify!” she shouted at the monitor and at once the view zoomed in.
Penny was able to see more easily now what was going on. The white object floating in the field of black and brown things and the yellow liquid cloud was actually the Glorious Leader. He still had the Eye of Ten’gu around his neck and his lips were wide open in a scream—which had allowed one of the brown lumps in the cloud to float into his open mouth.
“What’s he eating?” Drace asked, frowning. “I mean, what in the Seven Hells…”
“Look, boy!” Granny Two-two sounded impatient. She pointed at the lettering above the monitor which said, Waste Field. “That’s where all the business of the whole station goes,” she explained. “All the turds, see?”
“All the turds! All the turds!” screeched her second head gleefully.
“And now that bad man is floating in the middle of it.” Granny Two-two had a triumphant sparkle in her faded eyes. “Which is just right, seeing as he’s the biggest turd of all!”
“Oh my!” Penny stared in a disgusted kind of fascination at the brown object that was halfway inside the Glorious Leader’s mouth. Now that she knew what it was, she wasn’t sure if she ought to laugh or be sick!
“Well,” Drace said at last, shaking his head. “Guess he got what he deserved.”
“Yes,” Penny said. “But what about the Eye of Ten’gu?”
It was still just floating there, the chain around the GL’s neck, but the pendant was flying free and the gold and lapis eye was clearly visible on the zoomed-up image. Somehow, none of the excrement in the cloud around it had touched it—it was as though it had some kind of force field keeping it free of contamination, Penny thought.
“The what now, dearie?” Granny Two-two asked.
&
nbsp; “That pendant he has around his neck.” Penny pointed to the monitor. “I need it back—he stole it and it’s very important I get it back.”
“Oh dear…” Granny Two-two shook her head sorrowfully. “I’m afraid you ‘ent gonna get it, dearie. Nothing can get into the waste field and get out again alive. See, it’s a super slow time-suck. Even my little quick-loris, as fast as he is, would be stuck like a fly in glue if I tried to send him out. Not that I would.”
She patted one of her many pockets and the little creature popped his head out and chattered for a moment before disappearing back down into the comfort of the worn fabric.
“Then I don’t know what to do…” Penny shook her head. “If only I could call my husband…”
Just then, the metal button she’d been working on getting off her temple finally popped free.
“V’rex?” she sent and was glad to hear her mate come back to her at once.
“Sweetheart! Where are you? I’m fucking worried to death! Did someone hurt you?”
“They tried but I’m okay,” Penny sent back quickly. “But I think we might have a problem. You and Commander Sylvan need to go down the service tunnels and meet me in the Surveillance Room. You need to see this.”
Chapter 117
“Well, I guess there’s not much we can do…” Commander Sylvan frowned at the picture on the monitor. He looked down at Granny Two-two. “You say that sunlight never reaches this spot?”
“Nope, never,” she said stoutly. “For the waste field is in the shadow of the station and nary a ray ever reaches there.”
“Nary a ray! Nary a ray!” shouted her second head.
“Yes, well…” Sylvan looked nonplussed by the second head’s interjection.
“Maybe it’s the Goddess’s will,” Penny offered and blushed when everyone looked at her. “I mean she…she talked to me. I heard her voice,” she said, feeling defensive. “When the Glorious Leader was dragging me along the service corridors and telling me he was going to use me as collateral to get his Compound back, she told me she was sending help.”
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