“If they’re caught, I’m not leaving.” She would find a way to get them out. She wouldn’t leave them. She couldn’t.
“Don’t borrow trouble. They have the shields and the overrides I rigged. They’ll be fine.”
Knock got to his feet and stepped into her path. Momentum had her crashing into him before her brain could give up its worrying enough to respond to the movement. “Damn, Knock.”
He set her away from him, but kept a grip on her arms. “Sammie, we’ve been all through this. Covered every contingency. All we can do is wait. You wearing out the decking isn’t helping a damn thing.”
The
Gwendella’s
duty officer appeared in the hatchway. “Sorry to interrupt, Ms. Devlin, but there’s a woman demanding to see you.”
Everything that could go wrong crowded into her thoughts. Her pulse surged. “She asked for me by name?”
The man fidgeted with his jacket as he answered. “Samantha Devlin.”
“Damn. She alone out there?”
“Alone, yes. Out there, no. She begged me to bring her in,” he explained sheepishly. “She looked scared to death.”
Samantha and Knock exchanged a glance and Knock left. Samantha knew he’d make a sweep for surveillance and tracker tags and monitor the hangar for transmissions.
“Well, then. Bring her in. Maybe she’s in the mood for some Ping.” Samantha propped a hip against the Ping table and crossed one booted foot over the other.
The officer led the woman into the room. She gave her name as Rachel. Samantha took note of the mink brown hair she wore loose around her shoulders. She held her head in a way that made the hair fall artfully over one side of her face, but scars snuck out of hiding to trace across her nose and lips. Someone had clawed the woman’s face. Some Dog. She had a terrible feeling she knew exactly who.
Even with the scars, Rachel was attractive. The slashes had been shallow, at least where Samantha could see them. They hadn’t done any structural or nerve damage. The woman wore an evening dress that bared a lot of cleavage. It might have been a tactic to distract people from the scars. The dress synched tight around a narrow waist and a slit in the skirt showed enough leg to have the
Gwendella’s
officer acting like a schoolboy.
Samantha didn’t offer to shake her hand. “I’ve never understood how women manage not to fall out of dresses like that.”
“Practice. And Adhesive.” Rachel’s gaze swept the room before coming back to Samantha. “But I didn’t come here to talk fashion.”
Samantha said nothing, leaving the other woman to fill the silence.
Rachel adjusted a bag that hung from her shoulder. “I know you’re the one who freed Diablo, Mercury, and Carnage.”
Samantha shrugged, all cool on the outside. Inside her mind spun, searching for a plan. “That’s what the bulletins claim, but you shouldn’t believe everything you read. Can I ask how you found me?”
“I know they’re here. I saw Lo and I knew you had to be the one to bring them back. I checked all the ships that landed today. I did some cross checks and this seemed the most likely one.”
A fist twisted in Samantha’s chest. “You saw Lo?” She shoved her hands behind her to hide the fact she’d started to shake.
“Near the kennels. I don’t think anyone else saw him. They’re going after Hera aren’t they?”
“Hera?” Samantha fought to keep her expression blank.
“Carn’s mate.”
“He has a mate?”
Rachel shook her head. “We don’t have time for games. Owens expected they’d try to get Hera out. I don’t think he expected you to come so soon, but the point is—”
Samantha pushed away from the ping table and crossed her arms over her chest. “A point, that would be good.”
“He moved her. Hera isn’t at the kennel anymore.”
“And?” And Samantha knew there would be no way her men would come back empty-handed. Funny how they’d all become hers, even Carn. She hated her fear over how things might change when they brought Hera back. They had to come back.
“I can take you to her.”
“Me?” Samantha laughed, but she knew it sounded hollow. “And I’m supposed to blindly follow you? Owens must think I’m stupid.”
“I didn’t tell him when I saw Lo.” Rachel tapped the toe of her pointy shoe. “If I had, they would have everything on lockdown. Owens would’ve already dragged you off this ship. But he doesn’t know about the Dogs being here and he doesn’t know that your father was pals with the owner of this ship. He hasn’t bothered to look that deeply into your background.”
“But you know, because?”
“Sevti. I’m working with the resistance.” Rachel fingered the strap of her bag again. “I can help you. And unless you have some way to contact the Dogs without alerting Roma, you’re going to have to be the one to do this. I tried to get the resistance to help, but Sevti was my only contact and he broke transmission before I could explain. Now he’s missing. They’re likely questioning him. You might not be safe here long enough to wait for the Dogs to find her on their own.”
Samantha pushed her fear for Sevti aside. She would tell the captain, beyond that she could do nothing to help him. Samantha uncrossed her arms and reached for a ball from the Ping table. She closed her hand around the cool green surface. They were unlikely to reach Mercury—a downside of the scatter-shield. She wasn’t yet ready to trust Rachel, but she might not have a choice. “Lo gave you those scars.”
Rachel pulled her hair forward in a gesture that looked subconscious.
Samantha twisted the ping ball in her hand. “You betrayed him.”
“I needed him to attack me, so I provoked him.” Rachel shifted in her fashionably hazardous heels.
“Why?” Samantha set the ball spinning on the table. She wanted to slug the women who’d used Lo so callously.
“Owens was beginning to suspect me. When Lo attacked me, it put all of his suspicions to rest.”
Samantha huffed. “You’re insane.”
“I’m determined.” The fist she’d wrapped around the strap to her bag had gone white with tension. “You haven’t seen the arena up close and bloody. You haven’t seen the kennels.” Rachel swallowed hard. “You don’t know what it’s like to watch someone you love be drugged out of his mind so he’ll rip out the throat of a Dog he fought beside the night before or fuck any bitch that’s willing to pay.”
Tears rolled down Rachel’s cheeks. Samantha’s gut twisted in agony. She was talking about Lo. He’d told her, but she hadn’t had to watch. She’d filed it safely in the past. What would she be willing to do to keep that from happening to Lo, or Carn, or Mercury?
“We have to get Hera out,” said Rachel. “I know where she is now, but they’re going to move her again. They won’t risk losing her.”
“You make it sound like she’s more important to them than recapturing the guys.”
“She is.” Rachel studied her as if she were a flash flood that might jump the banks in a change of course that could drown her at any moment. “Hera is pregnant. It’s the first natural pregnancy they’ve been able to produce.”
The world had spun away and, selfish as it was, all Samantha could think was that it might be Mercury’s child. It was a miracle and all she could do was stand there with her heart in her throat. A child. She wouldn’t risk the life of an innocent. It didn’t matter if it was Carn’s child or Mercury’s, she couldn’t pretend it didn’t exist.
“Okay,” she said. “Tell me what I need to do.”
Rachel opened her bag and pulled out a roll of bright red cloth. “You can start by putting on this dress.”
RomaRex Arena
Roma, Earth Alliance Beta Sector
2210.185
Samantha had never felt more uncomfortable than now, wearing the tiny scrap of a red cloth and more glittery make-up than a veil dancer. There was even glitter in her hair. Glitter and something that made it stand out in spikes and ringlets. Rachel had at least provided reasonably sensible shoes. “In case you have to run,” she’d said.
She’d left Knock to try to get through to the guys and followed Rachel out of the port and through the throng of the passenger terminals. They slipped through a grate in a storage bay in one of the terminals and followed an underground tunnel to the underbelly of what turned out to be one of Roma’s luxury accommodation establishments. For someone who said she had proven her loyalty to Owens, she sure was taking every precaution.
When they finally slipped out of the building, Rachel guided her onto an elevated moving walkway that carried them to the gates of the arena. A steady stream of brightly dressed patrons moved through the entrance in anticipation of the show. In the center of the walkway, a line of familiar looking cages stood tempting the crowds to stop and gawk at the Arena Dogs on display. Here the cages were safely behind security fields, keeping the slaves from reaching out while giving the illusion of danger for the onlookers. On the level below a massive crowd of more drably dressed spectators jostled and shuffled their way through another gate leading into the standing-room sections near the arena floor.
Rachel led her to a guarded door marked private, then led her through a lounge where privileged guest gathered to drink before the event. The gowns and cosmetics they wore made her look sedate and boring, which was fine so long as it didn’t make her stand out and get her caught. The far wall was completely transparent and looked over a labyrinth of partitioned spaces.
Rachel punched in a code, opening a door to a narrow metal walkway. “This is the staging area. Come on.”
Across the space, Samantha saw a crisscross of similar walkways. She nodded at a small group of men dressed in evening attire on an adjacent path. “What are they doing?”
“They’re looking over the gladiators that will perform tonight.” The men talked among themselves, occasionally pointing to the area below. “There trying to get an edge on the betting by seeing what condition they’re in.”
“Oh.” It was awful. She could see the men being held below in chains. Some were being strapped into leather gauntlets. Others were being oiled down. “How do you stand this?”
“This is nothing,” Rachel’s voice was light, easy. “Toughen up. It only gets worse from here.”
They crossed to the far side of the staging area and through another door, then down a level. Rachel walked them right up to a cluster of uniformed men, standing near a transit tube. “Manny,” she called. “Can you give me and my friend an escort out to the Owens Kennel?”
Rachel had explained that to get to the tunnels that would take them to Hera they’d need to get inside a well guarded area of the kennel. Going in as privileged guests was the most reliable way.
As Manny separated from the crowd and led them to one of the transports, Samantha noticed that the men wore subtly different uniforms.
“There are five different kennels,” Rachel said. “They were established by the four men and one woman who created RomaRex.”
“Playing tour guide tonight, Lady Rachel?” Manny spoke politely as the transport pulled out of the station and moved them outside and along the tube-track. The land around them was open, flat, and empty and it flew by at dizzying speed. There wasn’t a soul in sight. Clearly a restricted tract. If Rachel had seen Mercury, Lo, and Carn at the kennel they must’ve made it across safely. If they were still there she might be able to connect with them and they could help her get Hera out—assuming she could get Hera back to the kennel once she found her. It was a damned big assumption.
Mercury crept along the rafter, edging his way in silence. The guards patrolling the corridors wouldn’t hear him, but the eyes of the Arena Dogs in the cells below tracked his progress. They’d have smelled him the moment he entered this wing of the kennel. He found the cell he wanted and settled his body against the cool metal to wait for the two guards to reach the optimal distance in their patrol pattern. It helped that it was an arena night. The guards were spread thin.
He barked a low yip and waited for Saber to respond. The massive male leapt to a narrow bar that had been hung in his cell to provide exercise. He swung his body up and balanced there, much as Mercury did with the rafter. The others in the cage watched in silence.
Saber got right to the point. “You’ve come for Carn’s mate?”
“Yes. I need your help.”
Saber’s unblinking stare gave none of his emotions away. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“Carn is my pack brother. I couldn’t ask him to abandon his mate.”
The big man dipped his head in a slow motion of acknowledgement.
“We need a distraction. Lo and Carn are spreading the word through the kennel.” The others wouldn’t make a move without Saber’s leadership.
Scowling, Saber shook his head. “I must think of the good of all. If you breach the kennel defenses, they’ll tighten security.”
Why would security be important to Saber? The implications flared through Mercury’s brain like the snap of a glow-stick. “You have a plan to free our people?”
Saber said nothing, but his silent stare was answer enough.
The possibility was an ember of hope that Mercury would hold close to his soul, but he couldn’t abandon his promises to Carn in hopes Hera would be able to escape in whatever scheme Saber was working. “Carn won’t leave without her. We only need the guards distracted. Our transport has room for a few more. We could take some of you with us.”
“No,” said Saber. “We let Owens believe this ends with you.” Tipping his big head back, Saber growled.
An answering growl sounded in the distance. Several howls sounded from other areas of the kennels.
Saber sighed. “We’ll do what you ask, but Hera isn’t in the kennel.”
Mercury steeled himself against what might come. “The guard’s quarters?”
Saber snarled. “I don’t think so, but Owens wants us to believe she’s in confinement. It’s a trap. They’ve put on an elaborate show, but none of us has scented her in days.”
Mercury breathed out a careful sigh of relief. The trap was a worry, but knowing Hera hadn’t been subjected to the guards eased his guilt.
Lo’s scent reached Mercury before he heard him. He shouldn’t have heard him at all. He was supposed to be in the east wing. Lo bounded from beam to beam, landing precariously in front of him.