They walked farther into the Shank until they made it to an area the soldiers hadn't reached yet. Outside one of the buildings, a tall, broad creature with a tapered snout and an extremely wide mouth stood guard. A roar of shouting and cheers poured out of the open doorway behind him, but the creature remained perfectly still.
They couldn't keep walking aimlessly forever, not with the soldiers so close by. Chase turned before Parker could stop him and approached the tall creature. “Sorry, can you help us find an electrostruct?”
The creature glared down at him with beady eyes and grunted.
“I'm sorry, my friend is new around here,” said Parker, running up beside Chase. “And we don't speak Horga. Sorry to bother you.” He started to walk away, but the creature grunted again and pointed down the street.
“I'm sorry,” said Chase, who hadn't moved. “I don't know what you mean.” The creature glared at him for a moment and then crossed its arms and resumed its vacant gaze.
“Did I not tell you to keep your mouth shut?” said Parker, pulling him away.
“He didn't seem so bad,” said Chase. “And he told us to go this way.”
“Oh yeah, clearly he understood what we were talking about,” scoffed Parker. “Clearly he knows exactly what⦔ He paused, looking up, and mumbled, “an electrostruct is.”
A jagged blue lightning-bolt symbol was painted on the sign above the shop before them. “Is this it?” asked Chase.
Without answering, Parker walked into the shop. The room was long and brightly lit, lined with benches covered in tools and devices. Shards of plastic chips and metal wires covered the floor. There was no one in sight.
“Hello? Anyone here? I'm looking for the best electrostruct in town,” Parker called as he picked his way across the shop floor. “I don't suppose anyone would know where I could find him?”
A broad figure wearing a heavy protective mask and gloves rose from behind one of the benches at the back of the room. “I do, in fact,” the person said in a muffled voice, and pulled off the mask to reveal the same sort of icy white, flattened face as the man from the plazaâbut this one appeared to be a woman. An Ambessitari, Chase reminded himself, an Alpha, like him. She grinned at the boys with small, stubby teeth that ended in dull points. “I'm the only electrostruct in town.”
“You're the only electrostruct in the entire Shank?” Parker asked.
She shrugged. “The only one worth knowing. What are you boys doing in this part of town?”
Chase started to open his mouth, but Parker gave him a warning look and he stopped himself. The woman seemed friendly, but he didn't want to say the wrong thing.
“I'm looking for something,” Parker said slowly. “Something nice.”
The electrostruct took off her gloves and set them on the workbench. “That's rather vague. Care to specify?”
“It used to belong to me, but someone took it. I'm hoping you can help me find it.” Parker paused, making his way over to her bench.
She narrowed her wide-set eyes. “I don't know anything about any stolen goods. You boys should probably leave.”
“I think you might, actually. It's a
very
special thing, and it's broken.”
The electrostruct looked past the boys at the alley outside her shop. “You boys need to leave my shop right now, or I will pull out a blaster and shoot you dead. You're in over your heads, Earthies. Do yourselves a favor and get out of the Shank.”
“Happily, once I get my anâ”
A scuffling noise sounded behind them. Chase looked back at the shop door as three Ambessitari men entered, each one larger, filthier, and more unfriendly looking than the last. They filled the front of the shop with their bulky frames, blocking the exit.
“Parker!” Chase said.
Parker whipped around and froze.
The largest of the three men squinted at the boys with one beady eye, a mass of gnarled tissue where the other should have been. “What's this? Earthies in the Shank? You boys part of this Fleet interference?”
“We've got nothing to do with that,” blurted Chase, squeezing his sweaty palms against his legs. These men looked like exactly the kind of creatures who would tear his limbs off.
“These boys were just on their way out of here,” said the electrostruct. “They were asking for directions. What did you come here for, Gorma?”
“The Rezer needs to see you immediately,” growled the one-eyed man. He added something else in a choppy, harsh-sounding language.
“Understood. I'll be right there,” the electrostruct said in a tight voice. Under her breath, she muttered, “You boys get out of the Shank. Get back to where you belong.”
Chase grabbed Parker's arm and took a step toward the front door, where the thugs stood and waited. “Thanks so much for your help,” Parker chirped, too brightly, as he twisted around to the electrostruct. “I don't suppose you have a back exit?”
“Don't be so hasty, boys,” rumbled Gorma. Eyeing them with frightful interest, he grinned, revealing his small teeth, which, unlike the woman's, were filed to sharp points. “Wouldn't you like to meet the Rezer?”
“The what?” asked Chase.
“Uh, sorry, we really have to be going,” said Parker, pulling Chase back toward the workbench.
“The Rezer,” said Gorma, a sly expression unfolding across his wide face. “Rezer Bennin. He's our leaderâwhy, here in the Shank, he's everyone's leader. I think he'd very much like to meet you.” He took a step closer, his companions flanking him. “We can give you a hand with those directions, and maybe you can help us resolve some of the ⦠misunderstandings ⦠stirred up by today's Fleet intrusion.”
Chase shook his head. “I don't think weâ”
“Don't do this, Gorma,” said the electrostruct sharply. “You're just bringing more trouble on the Shank.”
The one-eyed man's smile vanished, and he shot her an ugly glare. “You will not tell me what to do. These boys are coming with us.” His hand slid to the blaster at his waist. “Now.”
Â
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sweat trickled down the back of Chase's neck as he stumbled through the narrow alley alongside Parker. The three men behind them didn't speak, but their presenceâand the presence of their blaster gunsâmade Chase's back tingle. He repressed a strong urge to bolt, certain that the one-eyed man would not hesitate to fire on him if given the opportunity.
With a bag of equipment slung across her back, the electrostruct led the way at the front of the group. As their path through the winding alleys of the Shank narrowed and darkened, Chase struggled to keep his legs moving forward. He pretended to trip and nudged Parker's arm.
Parker barely glanced at him, shaking his head. “Just keep moving,” he whispered.
“Quiet up there,” barked Gorma.
The electrostruct turned down a slanted side street that opened into a small, dilapidated courtyard filled with a milling crowd of shifty-eyed Ambessitari men. They hunched together on pieces of broken foundation and lurked under the overhanging roof. In one corner of the courtyard, a group of them clustered around a squealing commotion on the ground. Most of the men paid no notice as the small group passed through and headed up a set of stairs into a ramshackle building.
When they entered the doorway, a slender woman with cascades of dark maroon hair stepped out of the shadows. “The Rezer is waiting for you,” she said in a smooth, harmonious voice. She looked from the electrostruct to the boys and tipped her head to the side, her silver eyes flashing with curiosity.
They entered a long chamber decorated with thick carpets and gilt-edged wall panels inlaid with pearl, an unexpected contrast to the rough exterior of the building. Chase glanced back at Parker, who looked as intrigued as he felt. Gorma threw open a set of wrought-metal doors and stepped into a short entryway, putting his arm out to stop the others from entering behind him.
“Rezer Bennin, may we enter?” he asked.
A loud sigh echoed from inside, and a voice rang out in a cold tone that automatically conveyed a subtle threat of pain. “Did you bring the electrostruct?”
“Yes, sir.” Gorma bowed his head and swept his hand across his forehead before grabbing the electrostruct from the group and pulling her into the doorway.
She stepped forward and made the same subservient gesture. “At your service.”
“Come in.”
Prodded by the two men on either side of them, Chase and Parker followed the electrostruct through the entryway. The first thing Chase saw when he crossed the threshold was a man standing in the middle of a richly decorated chamber, wearing a long, dark coat with huge embellishments on the shoulders. He was a beady-eyed Ambessitari like his minions, and his wide face looked as hard and cold as marble, making Chase feel anything but hopeful. This Rezer Bennin didn't look up to see who had entered, as he seemed to be staring at something on the side of the room. When Chase turned, he saw what it was.
Maurus sat hunched on a gilt bench against the wall, with Mina lying askew at his feet.
Hearing Parker suck in his breath, Chase grabbed his arm and dug his fingers in, willing him to keep his big mouth shut. Starting a fight surrounded by these dangerous men seemed enormously foolish, and just like something Parker would do. Maurus stared at the floor, one hand raking through his hair. He looked up after they had all entered, and immediately his gaze zeroed in on the two boys. His dark eyes widened.
Rezer Bennin spoke, still fixating on Mina. “The Lyolian wishes to sell me this damaged android. You must tell me if it can be repaired and at what cost.”
The electrostruct ducked her head and hurried across the room, slinging her bag on the floor beside the android. With no gentleness, she grabbed Mina's shoulder and laid her flat, examining the blackened scar on the bio-molding of her chest and yanking her head to the side to pry open a panel on her neck.
Maurus wrapped his fingers around the edge of the bench and inched forward, his gaze jumping back and forth between Bennin and the boys. “Are these your friends, Rezer Bennin? I thought we'd agreed on a private transaction. What are they doing here?”
“You can't do this.” The words were out of Chase's mouth before he could stop them. He pressed his lips together, cursing himself for doing what he'd expected from Parker.
Bennin looked for the first time at the two boys, and an expression of surprised disgust crossed his face in a way that would have been comical, had it not been so terrifying. “I have no idea,” he said slowly. “Gorma, would you like to explain why there are two Earthan boys in our midst?”
Before the one-eyed man could answer, Parker exploded, “We're here for him, the murdering thief!” He lunged at Maurus, but Bennin reached out and snatched Parker by the throat, wrapping his wide hand all the way around his neck. He stared at Parker as if he were a talking chicken and turned back to his henchman.
“It's, uh, we found them at the electrostruct's shop,” stammered Gorma. “I thought maybe we could use them to barter back some of the items the Fleet confiscated.”
Parker wheezed and scrabbled at Bennin's hand as the Rezer pulled him closer. “Barter them? Like livestock? Your stupidity confounds me, Gorma. How likely do you think the Fleet is to show us leniency if we tell them we're holding two Earthan boys as hostages?” He released Parker, who stumbled backward into Chase, gasping. “What were they doing at the electrostruct's?”
“I ⦠I don't know, sir,” Gorma stammered. The electrostruct cast a cautious glance back at the boys, but kept her mouth closed.
Bennin stared at his henchman for a long time, until Gorma lowered his head uncomfortably. On the other side of the room, a sequence of beeps rang out from a piece of equipment the electrostruct held over Mina. Bennin stalked across the gilded chamber, his long coat swinging at his ankles, and stood over her. “And?” he barked. “Can it be fixed?”
The electrostruct startled slightly and turned her head. “Yes, sir. It's an easy fix, shouldn't take me more than fifteen minutes.”
Bennin gazed at his new possession, his eyes glittering with greedy pleasure. “Very well.” Without even looking in Maurus's direction, he said, “I'll give you twenty thousand for her, Lieutenant, and no more.”
Maurus's mouth tightened. “I'll need that immediately.”
“I'll bet you will.” Bennin waved his hand, and one of his men left the room. “I don't know how you came across an android this fine, and I don't particularly care to know. I don't do business with strangers very often. Woe to you if this turns out to be some sort of a trick.”
“It's no trick,” said Maurus, his eyes flashing dangerously at Chase and Parker. “I won her, fair and square.” Anger surged through Chase as Maurus spoke, as smooth and straightforward as if he were telling the truth.
Bennin had settled his stare on the two boys. The indifferent coldness in his black eyes sent a shot of fear through Chase. “Now what to do with these Earth rats. We can't just let them goâthey'll run straight to the Fleet with news of this transaction.”
“No, we won'tâpromise!” blurted Parker.
Bennin ignored him. “If my new particle disperser had arrived, I could try it out on them, but ⦠no. I don't want them hanging around here that long.” He turned back to Gorma. “Take them over to the port. There's a Goxar slave trader docked thereâjust sell them off and get rid of them. Do not keep the profits for yourself, Gorma. You are not being rewarded for terrible judgment.”
Gorma nodded and jabbed his blaster into Chase's arm. Chase didn't move. Mina was right there, right in front of themâthey'd gotten too close to just give up. But what could they do, surrounded by all these men and their weapons? Maurus's dark eyes burned into him, and the expression on his face lay somewhere between a snarl and a triumphant leer. Chase tried to direct the sheer energy of his fury at Maurus, wishing he could blast the arrogance right off his face.