Alien Hostage (10 page)

Falinset had gone quiet after her uninvited stop at their home. He shut down as he had so many times before, becoming remote as he dealt with his personal demons. Seeing his clanmate remote and hurting was another reason Wekniz had needed to escape the home.

Clan protector. Ha. Wekniz had never been able to protect anyone from Maf and his lackeys. He was a joke.

Falinset needed the protection too. The Nobek thought that if any of his clan was a victim, it was his Dramok. He had the worst set of parents in that they were both calculating monsters. Falinset was further persecuted by the wrongs Wekniz and Nur’s parents had committed, wrongs that had made them Maf’s pawns. It was for his Nobek and Imdiko that Falinset put up with what he did from his mother and father. For his clanmates’ honor and peace of mind, he hid and kept them hidden with him.

At one time, Wekniz had been shamed but willing to do anything to keep his parents’ wrongdoings quiet. He was a loyal son, and for that reason he clanned with the son of the man who callously dictated their lives. Even knowing his parents were guilty of tremendous crimes had not shaken his devotion to his mother and fathers. Still, clanning with the son of Maf had been a bitter pill for Wekniz to swallow. It was that or see his parent clan exposed and sent to prison.

At least Maf had done Wekniz that one favor. At first the Nobek had resented Falinset for Maf’s interference. He’d outright hated Falinset in fact, as had Nur. Yet once he knew the man his Dramok was, Wekniz had forged the lifelong bond that was the sole good thing to come out of Maf’s meddling.

As the years passed, Wekniz’s loyalties had switched firmly to his Dramok and Imdiko. He thought about the last few times he’d spoken to his parent clan. They no longer repented of their greed. These days Maf paid them well to keep bringing him company secrets; technological breakthroughs that any number of competing security and defense companies or enemies of the Empire would pay vast fortunes to get hold of. Wekniz’s parents’ consciences had been bought by Maf, and they willingly committed corporate espionage. He no longer forced them into it with threats of turning them in.

Wekniz was certain he’d be willing to let his parent clan fall to the authorities now. He thought he could live with the dishonor if they were caught. Hell, he’d been tempted more than once to turn them in himself.

But like Falinset, the Nobek was trapped by another clanmate’s situation. Nur’s parents were not greedy louts like Wekniz’s. They were not manipulative shits like Falinset’s. They were victims of circumstance, their decisions made from desperation and love. Maf had them under his thumb, and so he had Clan Falinset at his mercy as well.

It was a wonder Falinset hadn’t walked into the nearby sea and drowned himself. Falinset despised people as a rule. He was suspicious of others, cynical of their motives. He wanted nothing to do with anyone outside his clan. For all that, Wekniz thought he was still a good man. A man who deserved so much more than what life had given him.

Wekniz punched a tree and kept walking, enjoying the pain throbbing in his knuckles. He’d hurt himself more than the tree, but it distracted him from the helpless rage that engulfed him. He inspected the damage and licked his own blood from the torn skin. He wished it was Maf’s blood on his hands.

The fantasy of driving his fist into the bastard’s face was interrupted by a low hum. Wekniz peered up, looking through the canopy of the trees to the black velvet sky stretching overhead.

A shuttle passed low over the woods, slanting down to make a landing nearby. Wekniz frowned, looking at the markings on the underside, lit by its white and red indicators. He was sure it was Maf’s shuttle.

Probably Feyom coming in from shopping in Nalta City
, Wekniz mused.  But why was the shuttle heading inland instead of towards Maf’s beach home on the coast? As far as the Nobek knew, Maf had not built a second home on the inland portion of his property.

It was none of his concern. Falinset had expressly forbidden his clan to go anywhere near Maf’s property. He wanted nothing to do with his biological father, insisting they keep their distance from him as much as possible. Wekniz had never had a quarrel with that. During his walks, he gave the border between Maf’s land and Clan Falinset’s a wide berth. Unless he was called in to fight a fire on Maf’s property, he was determined to stay away from the man.

Yet as he watched the shuttle pass through the sky, Wekniz thought about Feyom’s hint that Maf supported the Basma. What if that support was active? What if there was something inland where that shuttle headed, some bit of evidence that would give Falinset something to threaten the bastard with in return?

The hope for such an opportunity was too much to pass up. With a grin lighting up his marred features, Wekniz darted through the woods, following the shuttle’s path.

He maneuvered easily through the trees and underbrush, listening to the shuttle’s hum for guidance when he lost sight of it. Wekniz gave himself over to the thrill of the chase, though it wasn’t game he hunted this time. The Nobek didn’t actually think he’d find anything of interest. It was simply fun for him to track an enemy and spy on her without her being aware. Once he’d seen what was no doubt nothing to be excited about, he’d return home.

It beat walking around feeling glum about life.

Wekniz judged he’d gone nearly five miles into Maf’s property when he saw lights through the trees. They were bright and tall, the kind of free-standing lights that might stand over an outdoor sports field or landing pad. The shuttle’s engine lowered in pitch, indicating it idled. When it cut out altogether, the Nobek thought a landing pad was a pretty good guess.

But in the middle of nowhere? Though he worked in Nalta City as a firefighting authority, Wekniz was aware of most buildings and structures in his district. As far as he knew, Maf had filed no permits for any new construction out here. It was supposedly forest left wild.

Wekniz slowed his approach, becoming more careful as he neared the lighted area. He peered through the thinning cover of the trees, trying to see what was beyond them as he made his silent way towards the illumination.

He was still several feet in the cover when a good view presented itself. It was a landing pad all right. Three vehicles sat on its flat, concrete surface. The hatch to Maf’s was open. Feyom had already gotten out. But where was she now?

Wekniz crept even closer. He noted even more lights beyond the two full-sized shuttles and the smaller two-seater shuttle parked next to Maf’s. How big was this airfield anyway? Or were the distant lights for something else entirely?

The sound of voices made the Nobek hunker low to the ground. Three people rounded the nose of Maf’s shuttle, and Wekniz’s nose wrinkled in distaste as he identified Feyom, Maf’s aide Dramok Sitrel, and Falinset’s asshole of a half-brother – Nobek Ket.

Maf had hired Ket as security for his property. Why Maf thought his acreage on Lobam needed a guard was a mystery to Wekniz. The beachside home had a caretaker that lived on the grounds, and the crime rate in the barely-populated area was next to nothing. But since Ket was good at nothing except drinking, it was the perfect job for him.

The man had been thrown out of more training camps than could be counted. He’d been discharged from the military after numerous violations against fellow soldiers and civilians. He was violent, which was not really seen as a bad trait among Nobeks. Ket’s downfall – besides his overindulgence in alcohol – was the nature of his violence. He had been known to attack others like a coward; from behind and with help.

Plus he was as dumb as a rock. The man was a fool a billion times over.

Adding to what Wekniz counted among Ket’s many sins was how he openly worshipped Maf. He’d made no secret of how much he wished he could take Falinset’s place as the man’s natural son. As far as anyone knew, he was one of the few of Feyom’s sons who had actually been sired by her clan. Still, that was never a good bet.

Ket never missed an opportunity to show off what his loyalty to Maf gained him. The two-seater shuttle for instance was one of the newest gifts from Falinset’s biological father. Because of Ket’s bragging, Wekniz knew it was one of the first of the new Lightning Zips just coming off the assembly lines. The little shuttle didn’t look like much. It barely boasted enough cargo space to pack an overnight bag. But the time trials had proved it was almost as fast as a military fighter. It could cover the distance between Lobam and Kalquor in a matter of a few hours.

Wekniz doubted Maf bought Ket such nice toys because the Nobek offered any real service to him. Ket was a lunkhead – dangerous as hell, but a lunkhead nevertheless. Wekniz thought Maf’s generosity sprang from the hope that Falinset would realize what he was missing out on by rejecting a real father-son relationship.

The terrible trio of Feyom, Sitrel, and Ket stopped by the open hatch. Whatever they talked about, Wekniz was too far away to hear. The way Feyom tossed her head and laughed like she performed on a stage, Wekniz doubted it was anything important anyway.

He was more interested in what lay behind the shuttles. He wanted to know what was beneath the second set of lights. The Nobek began to move through the woods again, angling for a better view.

Wekniz found another space through the trees that gave him a clear sight line. What he saw made him stop short.

Nobeks in ground troop armored formsuits and armed with military-grade blasters stalked back and forth near a clearing. They looked like they were guarding the area, patrolling spaces between silvery poles. Wekniz knew such poles powered large containment fields that were usually found at prison work camps. There was a temporary shelter in the middle of the clearing, its metal glowing dully in the light. The trees between him and the area blocked his view of anything else.

What the hell did Maf have going on here?

Wekniz squatted on his haunches, considering what he’d found. The shelter was not on the area fire watch maps, but since it was a structure meant for temporary use, that wasn’t illegal. Maf was apparently using it – or allowing his friends to use it – to keep something valuable. The fact it was within a containment barrier with armed guards also pointed to something of importance being kept safe.

But why were the guards wearing ground troop armored uniforms? Surely this wasn’t a government operation.

Wekniz thought of his parent clan, of their access to weapons research. In light of Feyom’s hints that Maf might be involved with the Basma, he started to worry. What if Maf was letting the revolt’s leader build something to attack the Empire with? What if the guards were traitors to the military?

He might be looking at a secret training camp. Maybe the shelter was being used as a barracks. Yet it was small, surely unable to hold more than two dozen men comfortably. If that was all the Basma had to work with, his revolt was a joke.

The only way to figure anything out was to get closer. Wekniz considered the matter. He wasn’t a coward, but he wasn’t a fool either. He was armed with nothing more than a couple of blades. There were a number of blaster-armed Nobeks over there, and they looked like hardcore bastards who would shoot first and maybe not bother to ask questions later. He’d have to be extra careful.

Hoping foolish curiosity wouldn’t prove to be his undoing, Wekniz began to creep forward, watching the guards. He was so intent on keeping an eye on the men with the weapons that he almost didn’t see the gleam of reflected light coming from a tree he approached until it was too late.

Wekniz halted, his breath stilling as he looked at the small metallic object embedded in the tree trunk. The combination of having parents who worked for companies that developed defensive systems and his own work in firefighting let him identify the funnel-shaped heat-sensing eye immediately. He released the held breath after a space of a few seconds. He’d damned near crossed its sensor beam, which would have no doubt triggered off an alarm somewhere. If the light hadn’t caught it just right—

Wekniz looked around, more alert than ever to his surroundings. He realized how stupid it had been of him to come so close to what was obviously a closely-guarded secret. The armed guards alone should have warned him off.

He was not military. Outside of basic Nobek training, completed when he was still more boy than man, Wekniz had little to recommend him as a warrior. He could handle a standup fight, but he leaned more towards the protective side of being a Nobek, ready to die to save others. Wekniz knew that whatever he’d stumbled across, he had no business sticking his nose in it. Not if he wanted to keep said nose attached to his scarred face.

Wekniz got low to the ground once more and backed out the way he’d come. Only when he’d gotten out of sight of the clearing and landing pad did he stand up and hurry back to his clan’s property.

All the while he wondered what it was he had stumbled on, and if he’d be able to resist the deadly pull of curiosity that wanted him to go back and find out.

* * * *

Sonia stood just inside the darkness within the shelter, watching through the doorway. They’d all been alerted to the sound of a shuttle landing, and the women were curious who had ventured to their little parcel of hell. She reported when Feyom, Sitrel, and Ket had gone over to greet the newcomer.

The wan but tough blonde pulled a face and looked towards the pallet where Tasha sat next to the sleeping Noelle. “The princess has a VIP visitor. They’re coming into the yard. Ket’s with them.”