C j barry unearthed 04, p.8
C. J. Barry - Unearthed 04, page 8
In the alley ahead, Nod had stopped. His light flickered, then faded completely. He dropped to the floor with a solid thud.
Qaade halted forward motion beside him and looked down at the now-black ball. “What happened?”
Torrie scooped Nod up and pushed him into a pocket. “He powered off.”
Qaade looked at her incredulously. “Now? Why?”
Guilt registered on her face as she looked at him. “It’s not like he can control it. He doesn’t have enough energy capacity or memory capacity. When he runs out of power, he just stops functioning.”
Qaade couldn’t believe it. “That’s why you call him Nod. Would have been nice if you’d told me he was defective!”
“He is not defective,” she snapped, and pulled out her datapad. “Don’t worry, we still have a map.” Torrie studied the datapad for a moment, pulled out her weapon, then took off running. “Keep up, pirate.”
Qaade could see their bay entrance fifty meters away. He had to admit, Torrie had done it despite the faulty lightball. His shoulders were burning, his arms ached and he would be damn glad when he could drop the cylinders safely in his ship.
“Run ahead and initiate the start-up,” he told Torrie. “Access code Delta Five-Two-Five.” Torrie sped up as he hobbled behind her.
He was nearly at the door when he heard, “Laghato,” in a small whimper of a voice. He turned at the sound and at the name the freed slaves had bestowed upon him. The name that meant “liberator.”
A frail woman wearing a long cape huddled in a doorway. He slowed to a stop in front of her without replying. It could be a setup. The black hair, round black eyes and smooth olive skin were mired with filth and hopelessness. She clutched two ragged children to her legs.
“Are you laghato?”
If it was a setup, it was a damn good one. Too good. “Yes.”
The woman smiled sadly and then her eyes darted around, fear clouding her delicate face. She gently shoved the two girls forward. They peered up at Qaade, lost. “I know you will take care of them. I can’t. Please. Please,” the woman whispered, the desperation in her voice tugging his heart.
Qaade glanced the length of the empty corridor. He thought about Horg’s men on their tail. This wasn’t a day of good timing. “I’ll take you all. Follow me.”
Ignoring the protests of his body, he sprinted the final meters to his ship, where Torrie waited in the hatch.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
He dropped the containers at her feet. “A small problem.” He looked back at the bay door. Where was the woman and her kids? Was she hurt?
Torrie eyed the Phellium reverently, and Qaade hesitated. He couldn’t trust Torrie with the Phellium, and he couldn’t leave the woman and children behind. He looked back up at Torrie standing in his ship. “I have to go back for something. Don’t leave.”
Her gaze moved from the containers to him. He could see the determination and resolve. “Your word, Torrie. You won’t leave until I get back.”
For a few seconds, she just stared at him, and then very coolly she replied, “My word.”
He paused, torn, but there was no real choice. Then he ran back out of the bay to where he’d left the slaves. The two children were huddled together, alone, but otherwise the corridor was empty. He sprinted a short distance looking for the woman, but she was gone. Obviously she didn’t want him to find her. She’d simply left her most precious possessions.
He tugged off his facemask and knelt down before the frightened pair of children. They had black hair, like their mother, and the largest brown eyes he’d ever seen. “Your mother asked me to take care of you. But you have to come with me.” He moved closer, and they cowered in unison. Regardless of how afraid they were of him, he needed to get them in his ship before Horg’s men arrived. He scooped the two little bodies into his arms and headed inside.
Horg’s thugs appeared just as he passed through the archway. Laser fire ricocheted around him. He kicked the bay door controls with his foot, dropping the rusted metal shield between him and them. Hopefully, it would last long enough to make their getaway.
Then the sound of his engine thrusters firing up stopped him in his tracks.
Torrie brought the ship’s systems up as quickly as she could. He’d given her the access code, the Phellium and then left. Even Nod was here. She couldn’t ask for better luck. The fact that she’d given her word only nudged her conscience a little. Screw him. He’d bullied her, enslaved her and heavens knew what he was going to do with her now that he had his Phellium. She was getting out of here while she still could. The comm announced she’d been cleared for lift-off by the Wryth controller.
She primed the lift engines and reached for the release. That’s when she saw him, unmasked and standing a short distance from his ship that was now trembling with harnessed thrust. In each arm, he cradled a small child, filthy and ragged, their faces buried in his chest. Is that what he’d gone back for? More slaves? No. She wouldn’t be a party to his slave operation. Her hand hovered over the execute control. She wanted to press it, wanted to free herself of him. But there was something about the way he held the two childrenprotectively and gentlythat gave her pause.
Their eyes locked. His were angry, but beneath that rage was a look of despair and burden. She fought the power that shook her to her soul. He was a good-for-nothing, lying, stealing pirate and slaver. He had no redeeming qualities. He … mouthed the words: You promised.
She willed her hand to initiate lift-off, thinking of all the good reasons she should leave him behind, but failed. She had given her word. And no matter what it cost her, a Masters never went against her word. It was what separated them from scum.
Besides, if she left Qaade now, the children would suffer. Anger surged through her from a source she couldn’t name, resurrecting a dark memory she didn’t want to recall.
She backed off the launch sequence and unsealed the rear hatch. She pulled out her pistol, and then thought better of it. It wouldn’t take long for Horg’s men to track them here. Number Onepriority was getting off Wryth in one piece. After that she’d deal with the pirate.
Torrie exited her seat and met him halfway. He handed her a waif of a child and deposited the other gently on his bunk. “Secure the girls as best you can without scaring them any more than they already are. I’ll take the helm.”
He brushed by her, leaving two pairs of huge, anxious eyes watching Torrie. Fear filled their meek expressions. Dirt marred their cheeks, covered their clothes. They smelled of hunger and human waste. The older one, maybe five standard years of age, peered at Torrie with such a look of hopelessness and submission that Torrie nearly crumbled.
She took a step back, unsure what to do next and wanting nothing more than to run from those needy eyes. Slaves. The past rushed over her, swamping Torrie. The little girl who’d lived next to her when she was a child. Zoe, with her ever-present marks and sad brown eyes. Guilt wracked Torrie’s conscience from an old regret that had never been rectified.
Qaade’s ship lifted off, reminding her that they would be launching into deep space momentarily. The two children nestled together, gripping each other, and Torrie’s heart ached. Broke.
“Secure them, Torrie,” Qaade barked. She moved, galvanized by his sharp order, and gently positioned the girls against the wall where she clipped them into flight harnesses.
The ship was just clearing the shuttle bay door into space when a voice echoed over the comm. “Hailing Vessel A55E-1CC. Return to port by order of Wryth SSC. You are under investigation for illegal activities. If you do not surrender voluntarily, you will be fired upon until such time as you surrender”
Qaade muted the message. “Illegal activities,” he muttered. “Nice try, Horg. Torrie, you need to come up here with me. We are about to have a rough ride.”
She looked at her seat in the cockpit next to Qaade, and then back at the two terrified little girls trembling in their harnesses. A hard laser blast rocked the ship, and the interior lights flickered.
“I need your help, Torrie,” Qaade insisted over his shoulder. “Five interceptors are on us.”
She clenched her fists as the girls whimpered pitifully. Then she grabbed a blanket and tucked it around them. “You will be safe here,” she whispered. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.” She gave the girls a little smile and headed to her seat.
Qaade spared her a quick look as he pounded the console controls. “I hope you know tactical. I need to get us far enough away from Wryth for a hyperspace jump.”
Torrie checked the small ship’s heavy armory. “Nice weapons system.”
“Comes in handy more often than I’d like,” he grumbled. Laser fire crossed their viewport, and Qaade wrenched the ship right. While he orchestrated some impressive maneuvers, Torrie concentrated on slowing their attackers down with a spray of cannon fire.
Qaade checked their coordinates. “Almost there. Give me another thirty seconds.”
She did, taking out two of the five ships before she felt the welcome tug of the hyperdrives. Then they were away.
As they jumped into hyperspace, Qaade relaxed for a blessed moment against his control panel. When he finally raised his head, he found the barrel of Torrie’s pistol in his face. Over the sight, her green eyes were fierce and wild.
“What are you going to do with those girls?” she asked.
He moved his hands a fraction, and her index finger tightened on the trigger. She said, “Don’t even try, pirate. I will shoot you where you sit.”
She would, too. He could see the tension in her body, and the glassy look in her eyes as her pupils grew huge.
“You promised you wouldn’t kill me,” he reminded her.
The muscles in her jaw worked. “I’ll find a way to live with myself. What are you going to do with those girls?”
Interesting. The woman wouldn’t break her word for herself, but she would murder for two children she didn’t know. Or maybe not. Maybe she was just looking for an excuse to get out of her oath.
“Would you be willing to trade your freedom for theirs?” he asked.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and Qaade watched fresh anger rise red in her face. Adrenaline radiated off her in waves. He’d gone too far.
“I would be willing to do whatever it took to stop you from stealing another soul,” she said through clenched teeth. Her finger squeezed the trigger.
Qaade inhaled. “I plan to save them.”
Chapter Nine
His softly spoken words barely penetrated all the layers of fury that raged in Torrie’s blood, uncontrolled and reckless, unlike anything she’d felt before. She was ready to pull the trigger to keep him away from those babies, willing to rip him apart with her bare hands, to die for them. She wouldn’t be stopped by gutless deceit.
“You lie,” she hissed, and raised her pistol to her eye-level.
“It’s true. I rescue slaves.”
The weapon trembled in her hand with burning tension. “Coward. You’d say anything to save yourself.”
“If you shoot me, you will be responsible for the deaths of thousands of slaves. My operation needs me.” He hitched his head back at the girls. “And you don’t want them to witness a murder. They’ve already been through enough.”
She frowned at him through the pounding of her heart, trying to make sense of what he was saying.
“I don’t believe you. You bought me. You said you owned me.”
He pursed his lips. “I didn’t buy you. I bought your freedom. I only let you think I was a slaver to protect my operation. And to get your cooperation to track the Phellium.”
The Phellium. Her resolution faltered. The drug that restored memory. For scrubbed slaves? Is that what he needed it for? It couldn’t be. Phellium was a valuable commodity in the underworld. His world.
She regripped the pistol. “You deny that you are the Ghost Rider of the Dead Zone? That you raid merchant ships for your profit?”
“I don’t deny it,” he said with a shake of his head. “But my profits go into my operation. And the Phellium is to help ex-slaves.”
“You steal ships that are never seen again,” she insisted.
“Most of them are slavers’ ships. It’s the only way to ferry so many bodies to safety. After they are transferred into Slipstream, I resell the ships to fund their relocation.”
Her hand wavered. “Slipstream?”
“The network I use to place former slaves in new homes.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I never heard of it.”
He smirked. “That’s the idea. If everyone knew about it, I’d be out of business. Not that they haven’t tried. Between InterGlax and the slavers, we’re lucky to make a complete circuit without detection.”
She studied his silver eyes, which had mellowed and softened as he talked. Gone was the angry man, the one who’d bullied and harassed her. He spoke calmly, quietly. Behind her, one of the girls whimpered and he turned to them. His compassionate glance wiped away the last of Torrie’s anger.
“They need to be cleaned and fed,” he told her. “I could use your help.”
Not yet, she thought. Not until she was positive without a doubt that he wasn’t going to turn back into slave master extraordinaire. “Prove to me that this Slipstream exists.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “I need to access the comm.”
“One false move”
He held up a hand. “I know. Believe me, you look very comfortable with that pistol. Computer, open a channel to Freeport and hail Brilliard.”
Seconds later, a familiar voice said, “Brilliard here. Please tell me you have our Phellium.”
Qaade’s gaze stayed on Torrie. “I have it.”
“Best news I’ve had all day,” the man said, sounding thoroughly relieved. “If you get it to me in the next fifteen hours, I can treat the group destined for Swayk Drop.”
“I’ll be there in ten. And I have two girls for you that I lifted from Wryth, probably three and five. Can’t tell if they’ve been scrubbed.”
Torrie’s eyebrows rose at the blistering language before Brilliard finished with, “Poor things. We’ll assess them when they get here.”
“Sounds good. Calculate a ten-hour rendezvous point and feed the coordinates to my ship.”
“Got it. Anything else?”
Qaade watched Torrie. “How many slaves do you think we’ve run through Slipstream this circuit?”
“In the past sixty days? All fifteen drops? I don’t know. Probably ten thousand. We’ve been busier than usual. Why?”
“Just curious. Thanks, Brilliard. Out.” The comm blinked off, and Qaade leaned back. “Believe me now?”
Torrie lowered her pistol slowly. “Maybe.”
“Close enough. I need to check the girls. I promised their mother I’d take care of them.”
“Where is she?” Torrie asked.
He betrayed a flash of sadness. “She stayed behind. The girls are mine to care for now, and that’s what I plan to do,” he said and shoved himself from his seat.
Torrie blinked after him, trying to defuse the adrenaline that coursed through her veins. Her mind would take longer to come around. Could it be that the pirate had a heart after all? She had to admit, it made sense. He hadn’t treated her like a typical slave as far as she knew, although he’d definitely tried to intimidate her. But everything he’d done had been to get the Phellium.
She rubbed her hand over her forehead. Could he really be telling her the truth? If so, then she was relatively safe from him. And so were the girls. But what about her cargo? He was still a pirate; he’d still stolen it from her. How could she trust him at all?
Confused and rattled, she got up and followed him to the rear bunk. He was skimming the girls with a scanner device, and the children watched him with fear in their eyes.
“You’re scaring them,” she said, giving him an accusing glare.
“I have to neutralize any embeds they may be wearing.”
“Embeds?”
He reached around and scanned the girls’ backs. “Trackers embedded in their bodies so their owners can locate them if they try to escape. Disciplineflakes to keep them in line. Explosive units that detonate if they pass a perimeter.”
Torrie swayed with horror. Good lord. Who would do such a thing to another human being?
He pocketed the device, looking satisfied. “Fortunately, both of them appear to be clean. Removing an embed is a pretty nasty procedure.” He turned to her. “I’m going to make them something to eat. I need you to wash them up. Check to see if they have any conditions that need medical attention.”
Torrie took a step back. She had nieces and nephews around thanks to her brothers, but she’d never bathed them or tended to them. She’d been too busy learning how to fight and fly. For some reason, being captain of her own ship and crew was far less frightening.
“Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I automatically know how to take care of children,” she warned him.
Qaade cocked an eyebrow as if he already knew that, and added, “They will probably trust a woman more than a man.” His gaze dropped to her hand. “Without the pistol, of course.”
He was right. For the girls’ sake, she slipped the pistol into a thigh holster. Qaade nodded with obvious approval, then headed to the galley.
From his seat, Qaade glanced up from his datapad to where Torrie was coaxing the girls to sleep in a bunk. The same woman who a few hours ago was prepared to fry his brains was now soothing with the gentleness of a mother. Qaade counted his lucky stars. Again. One of these days, he was going to run out of stars.
She’d surprised him, thoughboth with her protectiveness of the girls and the fact that she hadn’t left him behind on Wryth when she could have. Especially after he’d given her every reason. His treatment of her hadn’t been the kindest, even if he had taken the worst of their physical clashes.
He watched her interact with the children. Where before there had been only panic, the girls now peered up with curiosity and trust. Torrie smiled at one of them and said something soft. It was the first time Qaade had seen her smile, and he froze, mesmerized by the flash of white teeth beneath full lips.
