Rage (Galactic Cage Fighters) (14 page)

Tipin
smiled an evil smile. “I want to go first.”

“Of course
, dear, and I’ll watch.”

Rachel wanted to gag.
It was so hard to sit there and listen to all the horrible things they planned to do to her and try not to show any kind of reaction.

It was worth it
, though. She had already learned a lot. The person they answered to was named Stergin. She wasn’t sure if he was the head honcho or not, but he would be the one to start with who might know the locations of the women.

She wasn’t sure how long they were on the shuttle but Rachel was glad they had stopped. Unfortunately, she
had to tolerate Tipin’s hands on her as he lifted her from the shuttle and carried her into what she assumed was the warehouse. She heard more voices inside.

“Is this the one?” A nasally voice asked.
Hard fingers gripped her hair and lifted her face up. “Pretty. I want to see her eye color. When will she wake?”

“I had to give her almost double the dose because the last one didn
’t work. We think it’s because she’s more athletic, her metabolism must have processed it faster. She should be awake in a couple of hours.”

“Give her over to
Rork so that he can put her in the holding chamber.”

“First, where’s our money
, Stergin?” Tipin asked not letting go of Rachel.

“You’ll get your money as we have agreed upon.”

“Well, that’s something we want to talk about. We feel that we should be getting paid double. This one took a lot more effort to retrieve,” Tipin complained.

“I’ll have to send a text to the big boss to get approval for a change in payment
,” Sergin told him. “Let’s go upstairs so I can text your request. I also need to check her destination. Once we ship her out, you’ll get your money. Give her to Rork to take to the back.” Tipin still hesitated to hand her over.

“Give her to
Rork, Tipin.” Resa told him. He did so, reluctantly.

The other man bent down and sniffed at Rachel’s chest. “You touched her already!”

“Only a feel. It doesn’t count,” Tipin tried to defend himself.

“She will need to be cleansed before we ship her out. The buyers will be displeased if they scent another on her so recently
,” Sergin reprimanded them.

Rachel heard their voices fading as she was carried to the back of the warehouse. The big guy carrying her had an unpleasant smell. She had to concentrate hard to keep her breathing deep and controlled. He laid he
r down on something that felt like a cot. She listened for his footsteps as they trailed away. Then a door shut and locks were set.

She waited a few minutes before she opened her eyes slowly. She had to adjust to the dimness of the room. There were no win
dows. Tipin had taken her phone on the shuttle. She thought he might have left it on board. It had a tracking beacon in it. She reached down to touch her watch. It lit up and she set off another beacon signal. She had less than thirty minutes from the time the second beacon was set off to search the place before her partner and the local authorities arrived. It wasn’t a lot of time.

She got up and walked over to the door. It was pretty secure. She glanced around and noticed a venti
lation system. She moved her bed over to directly underneath the vent opening. By standing on the bed, she was able to remove the cover and pull herself up. She was grateful to be a puny human for once, otherwise she never would have fit.

She maneuvered through the duct
s, taking the routes that led to the upper level of the warehouse. She could hear voices and moved as close to them as she could without giving herself away. She had to keep enough distance that none of them would smell her.

“Mr.
Talis, this is Sergin. Yes, we have her. I just received her destination coordinates. She’ll be shipped off in an hour. I do have a problem, sir. Our two people, Tipin and Resa, are asking for more money. No, I left them in the room next door while I came here to contact you. They suspect you are involved but they don’t know for sure. Won’t it look suspicious? Which one should we eliminate? The male has a hard time keeping his hands off the merchandise, but the female is the one with the brains. I agree. I will notify you once she has been shipped off and the other issue is dealt with.”

Mr.
Talis? That was who Sergin answered to. But his name didn’t ring a bell with Rachel. Rachel listened as Sergin hung up the phone and opened the door to some kind of office. “Rork, is the human secured?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. The transport for her will arrive in close to fifty minutes. I need you to come with me. We have some greedy employees we need to deal with.”

Rachel waited until the door was closed before she removed the cover to the vent. Sh
e dropped down as quietly as she could. She didn’t have much time. She found Sergin’s computer still opened with his password activated. It appeared to be showing regular shipping invoices for standard food rations. She pulled up today’s shipment log.

Human ration 120 pounds to be shipped to Southern Beta Region
. Credits on Delivery:100,000 credits.

That had to be it. She inserted
the disc that would send all the information from the computer to their IT guys at headquarters. While that was running, she used the report feature to search for all human rations shipped in the last eight months.

“Come on
, come on,” Rachel whispered to herself. It was taking a lot longer to generate than she had anticipated. The IT guys would be able to generate this from their end but she wanted to see it for herself, and for Talon. He deserved to know.

She glanced nervously at the door when the voices next door
suddenly got louder.

“What do you mean
, he said no?” Resa yelled.

“I relayed your request to the boss
. He has declined the raised price that you requested for the job,” Sergin explained in an emotionless voice.

“You better tell Mr.
Talis that if he wants any more women from us, he better pay up.” Rachel could hear her gloating. “You didn’t think I knew who your boss was? Well, I do. And I have it set up so that his identity will be revealed if anything should happen to us. We’re not leaving here until we get the money we think we should get.”

“I guess that you won’t be leaving here
, then,” Sergin said with menace in his voice. There was a popping sound, a thump as if something fell to the floor, and then wailing.

“
Pleeease, it was her idea. Don’t kill me!” Tipin begged.

Rachel
returned her focus to the computer screen. The shipment invoice report was finally showing results. She quickly emailed them to herself and directly to her boss. Then she scanned down the invoice to almost two months ago.

Human ration 122 pounds to be shipped to North Quarter Gamma Region
. Credits on Delivery: 100,000 credits.

That
was it! Lindy had been sent to the Northern Quarter of the Gamma Region. They would have to see if there were any warehouses owned by the same company there. She jerked up from the computer at the sound of people walking towards the office.

She didn’t have to do anything with the
disc, it was locked in and could only be removed by the IDJ IT guys. She closed the shipping details so that no one would know that she looked at it. She then moved the desk slightly so she could stand on it and lever her self back up into the venting system.

She made her way back down to the holding room. She lowered herself back down and closed the vent. She had just laid herself down on the cot when the door was opened.

“Scrub her down and put these clothes on her. Keep gloves on at all times so that you don’t leave any scent on her skin,” Sergin ordered.

“Yes sir,”
Rork answered.

The man moved into the room and squatted next to the cot. He started to undo the buttons on Rachel’s top. He didn’t try to grope at her like
Tipin had. He was all business. He turned for a second to pick up a sponge and Rachel used that moment to reach up and use a blood choke hold. It compressed the carotid arteries and jugular veins. In a matter of seconds the large man slumped over on top of her, unconscious.

She pushed his body off of her and onto the floor. She tied a strip of cloth over his mouth in case he woke up too soon. She then dragged his body over to the door and used his thumbprint to
unlock the door. She slowly, quietly made her way through the warehouse. She needed to get to her phone, which she was pretty sure was still located inside Resa and Tipin’s shuttle.

She stuck to the shadows as she made her way through the warehouse. She snuck on board the shuttle, grateful no one notic
ed her. She found her phone on the seat where Tipin had been sitting. She sent several text messages, including one to her partner Trig requesting his ETA. He responded quickly.

Am at beacon location. Count down from ten.

Talon had been following her when she first entered the shuttle with Tipin. He had followed her and called Rage with the location. They had both been waiting outside of the warehouse in case she needed their help. She sent a text message to Rage letting him know to stay back and that she was fine but the authorities were about to barge in. Then she sent a text to Talon. It might be the only chance she had before …

Chapter 16

The entrance to the warehouse was nothing but a huge gaping hole. Rachel heard the blast but she remained in the shuttle. She ingested some of the drink that she had not finished when Tipin tried to drug her. Then she laid down on the floor of the shuttle.

The drug
had just started kicking in when the doors of the shuttle were pried open. She heard the shuffling of feet. Someone touched her wrist, checking for a pulse, then called out for a healer.

Rage was fuming. He had to sit back and let his female be taken into a dangerous situation. He wanted to go in after her, but she insisted that he stay out of
it while her partner took matters into his hands. He couldn’t help but be jealous over the confidence she had in the human male.

He had never felt so helpless in all his life. Not even when his father would beat him. He wanted to know that she was okay. The text she
sent was too brief. He watched as the healers wheeled someone out on a gurney and lifted them up into the Healer shuttle. He listened carefully and finally heard something.

“I’m okay
… I’m okay.”

Talon put
a hand on his shoulder and gave him a comforting squeeze. “Did you hear her? She says she’s okay.”

“I heard.”

“Why aren’t you more excited about it?”

“Because I have to get back to the GCFA ship and pretend to know nothing about all this until someone comes and tells me. My inner beast is ready to rip something apart to get to her.”

“Yeah, patience was never your virtue, my friend.” Talon smirked at him.

“Talon, you coming back with me?”

Talon grew serious and shook his head. “I did my part. I helped watch over Rachel when Tipin and Resa took her. I stayed here with you in case things turned ugly. Now it’s time I go find
my
woman.”

“Be careful
, Talon.”

“You
, too. You know it’s not completely over yet.”

“I know.”

Four healers and two different antidotes later, Rachel was finally proclaimed well enough to go
back to her suite. In fact, she was told that she would be able to participate in the upcoming match the next night. Oh joy!

The story was spread that an anonymous caller
had reported to the authorities that they had seen a man and woman carry an unconscious woman into a warehouse. The local authorities had come in and found Rachel drugged on the shuttle floor. Five other people were found inside the warehouse. A female Rasilian and two male Slurchans were found dead. Two other males were taken into custody, Sergin and Rork.

Rachel was frustrated. Somehow,
Tipin had evaded capture. But what really pissed her off was that the two males arrested attempted suicide. They were both here at the same healing facility, under tight security.

While in the healing facility, Rachel had received a call from her partner Trig on a secure line. He informed her that the locations were being tracked down. She had texted him the name that
Sergin and Resa had used for the boss, Mr. Talis. Unfortunately that name was fake.

Rachel was ready to get out of the healing facility.
Sersan greeted her when she came into their suite. She threw her arms around her and hugged her tight. “Easy, still a little sore.”

“Sorry. Do you know how worried I was? I came to our suite and found your clothes packed and a note stating that you were leaving the circuit.
That you just couldn’t handle it.”