A hoarse, stifled moan started deep in Maurus's throat and stayed there, trapped behind tightly sealed lips. There was pure terror in his dark eyesâfrozen in place by the controlling collar, Maurus had no chance to defend himself. Chase stepped forward between Maurus and Rezer Bennin.
“I won't let you kill him,” he said.
Bennin raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“I won't let you do it,” Chase repeated. Behind him Maurus made frantic, unhappy noises.
Bennin's cold eyes flickered thoughtfully over Chase. “Keep this up, and I'll use the device on you instead.”
The shackles bit into his wrists and caused a painful tingle that Chase knew meant he was about to phase through them again. He had to focus all his concentration to keep them from sliding off. When he looked up, he saw Asa watching him with a strange, piercing gaze, but still the man made no move to help.
“I suppose you were hoping to find this?” Bennin took something small out of his pocket and held it out, pinched between his forefinger and back thumbâa tiny metal cylinder that looked like it would fit in the hole in Maurus's collar, obviously the key. Bennin tossed it on the floor. “Go on, get it,” he said in a taunting voice.
Chase stared at the key and nearly gave in to the temptation to pull his wrists through his shackles and dive for it. But he glanced at Asa, who gave another tiny, deliberate shake of his head, with a look so menacing that Chase wasn't sure if he was more scared of Bennin or him.
The comm panel chimed again. With an impatient sigh, Bennin stalked across the room and thumbed the panel. He tapped his many fingers across the table as a soft voice mumbled something. A sudden expression of sheer delight broke out on his face.
“Bring them up,” he purred, and turned to Asa. “What an unexpected treat! We have more guests.”
Asa nodded. Chase tried to catch his eye again, but Asa ignored him. Anger began to cloud Chase's thoughts as he stared at Asa's straight profile, his expression utterly calm, as though Rezer Bennin hadn't just threatened to disperse Chase. Was this really the man they'd thought would be their savior?
The door opened, and the maroon-haired woman led a small group into the room. As each person entered, Chase's heart plummeted.
Mina, carrying the slack form of Chase's sister in her arms.
Parker.
And the mercenary, Fersad. Pointing a blaster rifle at all three of them.
For Fersad to capture them so quickly, he must have been tracking them since they left the medical center. Chase strained to get a look at his sister. Mina shifted her onto her hip, and one of the girl's arms flopped down at her side, making it look like she was still unconsciousâor worse.
A large, fresh bruise was forming on the side of Parker's face. His eyes traveled from Chase's shackles to Maurus's bloody nose, and then widened when he noticed Asa. “How theâ”
In a flash of movement, Mina clamped her hand onto Parker's shoulder. His words cut off in a gasp as he nearly buckled to the floor. Oblivious to this, Rezer Bennin had already turned to Fersad, a smile stretching across his flat face. “Fersad, I don't know how you do it. As a tracker, you are a true virtuoso. How ever did you find her?”
Fersad's tattoo-marbled face bent into a frown as one of Bennin's henchmen relieved him of his blaster. “Spotted her coming out of a Fleet medical center. She was holed up in a warehouse in Nano City with these kids.” He glanced nervously around the room and paused when his eyes reached Asa. “Hello, Jonah,” he muttered in acknowledgment.
Asa returned a thin, irritated smile, giving no sign that he recognized Fersad's captives.
“Welcome back, my dear,” Bennin crooned to Mina. He looked down at the girl in her arms and prodded the child's neck. “What's this, is she dead?”
Chase's heart jumped up in his throat.
Mina shook her head. “She needs to see a doctor immediately.”
“I see. Thank you, Fersad. I appreciate you returning my property to me.”
Fersad gave an awkward half nod and stayed where he was.
Bennin paused for a moment, and made an inauthentic noise of surprise. “What am I thinking? You're expecting a reward.” He went to the comm panel. “Saleh, bring up aâ”
Fersad coughed. “Actually, I'd like to make a trade. For him.” He raised a clawed finger toward Maurus.
Of course it hadn't been hard for Fersad to track him down. The whole population of the Shank probably knew Maurus had come here, just like they knew that Bennin was looking for his missing android. Chase glanced at Asa, who watched the exchange dispassionately. It took all his self-restraint to keep from screaming at Asa to step up and tell Bennin that he was Mina's true owner.
“Ah. The Lyolian.” Rezer Bennin stood for a moment with his head inclined, and then whirled around, his long coat flaring out around his knees. He opened one of the containers along the wall and removed a long cylinder of black metal, dotted with a few levers and fitted with a strap. “Do you know what this is, Fersad?”
“I can't say that I recognize it,” said Fersad nervously.
“No, you probably wouldn't. It's a particle disperser.”
Chase stared at the device. This was the creation that had, if he could believe what Dornan said, supposedly blasted him into nothingness. It didn't look like much more than a metal tube, but the simplicity of the device somehow made it more ominous. He couldn't take his eyes from it.
“Fersad, do you know what this device does?” Bennin asked.
Fersad hesitated, and nodded quickly. “Vaporizes.”
“Well, yes, that's the fool's answer. âDisperses' is the technical term, but more precisely, it blasts a stream of evanescent energy at its targetâfor the sake of this explanation, let's say it's you.” He paused to flash a vicious smile. “This energy dissolves your body down to the very molecular level and flings those molecules out across the galaxy. A slight trace of you will remain, a biological smudge to show your final standing point, but that's all. Isn't that fascinating? I'm just aching to try it out.”
Fersad's eyes darted nervously at the weapon. Chase felt as tense as a drawn wire, waiting to see if Bennin would pull the trigger. Hovering at the edge of his subconscious was a small, morbid curiosity to see the device in action. Would Fersad just vanish? Would he explode? With a start, Chase realized that the shackles were slipping off again and pushed his wrists closer together.
When Bennin spoke again, his tone was silky. “Now, Fersad, I have only one question for you. How high is the bounty?”
“The what?”
“For the Lyolian, Fersad. I'm no simpleton. To me, he is simply the man who wronged me. But, I realize, to the rest of the universe he is a destroyer of worlds, the most-wanted man in existence. So what's the going rate?”
Fersad narrowed his feral eyes. “I brought you the android,” he growled.
Bennin leveled the particle disperser at Fersad's chest. “And your reward will be your life. I think it's an excellent bargain. Anyone else I would have killed without asking, but you're an outstanding tracker and I may need your services again. My offer will expire shortly. I suggest you take it.”
Fersad reached for Mina's arm, and Bennin pulled a lever on the back of the particle disperser. The weapon responded with a surging hum and a crackling film of orange sparks danced along the black cylinder. Two of the henchmen stepped on either side of Fersad.
“Get out.” Bennin's voice was as flat and hard as his eyes.
With a snarl of frustration, Fersad turned on his heel and stalked out of the chamber, followed by the two Ambessitari henchmen.
Bennin smiled as the door closed behind Fersad and turned to Mina, staring with an intensity that would have made any human uncomfortable. Mina stared blandly back.
“That's quite a high-caliber android you've got,” Asa commented.
Rezer Bennin turned slowly to face him. “We can stop the charade now.” His voice had gone low and dangerous.
Asa said nothing, a hint of a smile playing around his mouth.
“You've been supplying me with your goods for, what, twelve years?” Bennin said. “But I'll admit I know next to nothing about you, other than the fact that you appeared out of nowhereâdespite my efforts, I haven't been able to find a shred of information about you prior to our first transaction.”
“You mean when I outfitted your men to help you overthrow the previous Rezer?” Asa asked, arching an eyebrow.
Bennin smiled. “Correct. You're an enigma, Jonah. But it's never really mattered, since you produce the most advanced weapons available on the black market.”
Twelve years? Black market weapons? This sounded to Chase like someone very different from the owner of a tech corporation.
Asa inclined his head. “I appreciate the compliment, Benninâ
Rezer
Benninâbut I don't quite see what this has to do withâ”
“Stop,” Bennin interrupted in a derisive tone. “Rumors have been circulating for years that you have any number of other high-tech endeavors outside the weapons field. You think I didn't immediately suspect that she might be one of yours? That I didn't check for your mark before I had her reanimated?”
Asa's features hardened, and in a threatening tone he said, “Then I'm sure you're pleased that I'm giving you the opportunity to return my property to me.”
At last Asa had finally claimed what was his, but instead of satisfaction, all Chase felt was more anger. Was this just about his propertyâabout getting Mina back? He hadn't even looked at Parker since he entered the room. Chase wrestled with disappointment as he watched Asa. This cold-blooded weapons dealer, whatever his name was, wasn't anything close to the hero he'd hoped for.
Bennin arched an eyebrow and looked down at the weapon in his hands, running his fingers over the levers, adjusting one of them by a few notches. “What's your relation to the children?”
Asa shrugged noncommittally. “No relation.”
Bennin tilted his head with a smirk. “No? Then you won't mind if I justâ” He pointed the particle disperser at the girl in Mina's arms.
“No!” Chase's hands flew up automatically, reaching for his sister. The shackles clattered to the floor.
Rezer Bennin turned, swinging the crackling weapon toward him. Staring down the barrel of the disperser, Chase froze down to the very last hair on his head. Bennin looked down at the empty shackles lying on the floor, and his eyes narrowed.
“What remarkable children. Or should I say, experiments?”
Asa's cool expression broke, and anger flooded into his face. “They're
not
experiments. I'm their guardian. Let them be.”
“I'm not sure I believe you. Maybe if you have to start from scratchâ” Bennin hoisted the disperser into firing position, still pointing at Chase.
Chase sucked in a gasp. It was all he had time to do.
In the corner of his eye, he saw Mina shove his sister into Parker's arms and throw herself at the henchman guarding the door. Asa dove across the room, tackling Bennin at the waist. A brief blast of the orange disperser beam skimmed just over Chase's head and hit the ceiling, sending down a rain of concrete chunks.
The disperser flew free and skidded across the floor.
“How dare you!” cried Rezer Bennin, who lay on his back with a look of stunned fury.
Asa crouched at Bennin's ankles. “Don't make me hurt you, Bennin. Just let us walk out.”
“So the children do matter,” Bennin spat, teeth bared.
“If you hurt any one of them, I'll kill you,” Asa promised.
Chase took a step toward the fallen disperser. Bennin yanked a handblaster from his coat and pointed it at Parker, who stood wide-eyed, clutching Chase's sister to his chest.
“No!” Asa's voice rose in panic, and he leapt at Bennin as he fired. The red blast hit Asa square in the chest, and sent him flying backward. He rolled across the floor and lay still.
Holding the handblaster out in front of himself, Rezer Bennin got to his feet. His flat features were disfigured with rage. He walked over to pick up the disperser, looping it around his shoulder, and pressed the comm panel.
“Saleh, send up the men!” Bennin paused and, when no answer came, slapped at the panel again. “Saleh! Where are you?”
He primed the disperser using the hand that was still holding the small blaster. The weapon crackled and spooled up as he brandished it at everyone. “I've had enough of this.” He pointed it at Asa's body. Then he cocked his head, frowning.
A rumbling noise sounded outside the room and deepened, joined by a sound like grating steel. Rezer Bennin reached for the comm panel again.
And then the door exploded off its hinges.
A tall, imposing figure stepped through a cloud of smoke into the chamber, blaster raised. Behind the helmet visor were familiar craggy features and pale wolf eyes.
Despair struck through Chase like a deep chord. It had taken Captain Lennard less time than he had expected to catch up. He'd almost forgotten that the captain was pursuing them. But with Bennin on one side, Lennard on the other, and Asa possibly dead, they'd never be able to escape.
Five more armed soldiers slipped through the door behind the captain. “Rezer Bennin, on behalf of the Federation of Allied Planets and the Federal Fleet, I order you to surrender!” Lennard shouted.
“I don't think so!” Bennin brandished the disperser. “Do you know what this is, officer?”
“That is illegal contraband,” said Lennard. “Under section 427 of the Fleet charter, I order you to surrender your weapon and come peacefully.”
“Fool! This weapon? You don't stand a chanceâI can disperse this entire room before anyone takes their next breath. Do you want everyone here to die?”
An orange beam burst from the end of Bennin's particle disperser, and Lennard dodged, narrowly missing the shot. The beam hit the wall behind him, leaving a gaping hole. “Rezer Bennin, put down your weapon!” he thundered.