Turning to the navicon, he set a course for the Demon’s Eye.
He just prayed he wasn’t too late.
Chapter Seven
Trin walked carefully but confidently through the long metal halls of the space station. She kept her chin high and her hand near her blaster, which was strapped comfortingly to her hip. It didn’t do to show fear in a place like this but she wasn’t above letting people know she was armed. That was just common sense.
She’d taken her time circling the massive structure and picking the right place to dock. Using one of the smaller, more distant docking zones would have been more discrete and drawn less attention. However, it also would have meant traversing long stretches of poorly lit corridors alone until she got to a main branch.
On the other hand, docking in a central zone, close to the heart of the station, meant attracting immediate attention from the inhabitants. It also, however, guaranteed a swift getaway if the deal went south.
After almost an hour’s deliberation, Trin chose the central zone. She was one woman alone and she didn’t like to take her chances in the small, twisty corridors that ran through the peripheral branches of the station. Plus, she was hoping that B’Rugh would be willing to do a quick, straightforward deal which would allow her to go straight back to her ship with no problems.
Please Goddessof Judgment, she prayed as she walked, trying not to see the eyes gleaming in the dark offshoots on either side of the main corridor. Please—I’ve always followed all your precepts and held your laws sacred and holy. Let everything go easily and well!
She carried her credit in gold chip-coins hidden in the money belt strapped to the small of her back. Other establishments might be linked to various financial institutions and accept a thumbprint scan for a transfer but not here. The Demon’s Eye was a strictly cash-only kind of place. Not too surprising considering who ran it. B’Rugh wasn’t known for his tolerance or leniency—he was more famous for business acumen and cruelty, though he had always been civil to her.
Trin had met him when she sat in on a card game of three handed thrash in a trashy little dive in the Leffaba System. It was a complicated game which involved periodically trading hands with the player sitting three seats from you as well as managing three groups of cards at once.
Despite the fact that two of the players had been Leffbas—the species that had originally invented the game and who each had three arms and six hands, Trin had still managed to win. B’Rugh, who had lost badly, was much impressed with her skill and had been inviting her to come visit him at the Demon’s Eye ever since.
This was the first time Trin had taken him up on his invitation. She just hoped it wasn’t the last thing she ever did.
She scanned the long, dirty metal walkway as she went, her low heeled boots ringing against the floor. So far, so good. Though she could see the huge, lumpish shapes and gleaming eyes of males in the side corridors, no one had accosted or attempted to approach her yet. There were some leering expressions of lust and a few catcalls from time to time but that was all…for now. Had B’Rugh put out the word that she wasn’t to be bothered? Or were the thugs simply so surprised at seeing a lone female in their midst they didn’t know what to do?
Whatever the case, Trin hoped that their apparent policy of non-contact continued. Although at some point she was going to have to ask someone to point the way to B’Rugh…
“Greetings, my lady,” a high, grating voice announced.
It was so close to her and so unexpected that Trin nearly jumped out of her skin.
“I…what?” She looked around wildly, only to see the speaker appear suddenly right in front of her. He didn’t walk forward, he simply showed up as though he’d materialized out of nothing.
She took a look at him…and had to fight to keep from stepping back. He was a tall, skeletal male with a skull-like face and boney, prominent eye sockets around his deep-set eyes. Or eye, anyway. The entire right side of his face was covered with some kind of rigid metal mask with an unblinking purple light glaring from where the right eye should be. He had a knife blade of a nose and thin, almost non-existent lips that were the color of raw meat.
The worst part in Trin’s opinion, was that a piece of his skull had been removed and replaced with a clear, plasti-glass dome. Through it, she could see his pulsing gray brain implanted with a few weakly flickering lights. The brain matter around these implants was darker that the other tissue and looked almost…rotten. But that wasn’t possible, was it? How could anyone live and function with a rotting brain?
“I see you’re admiring my communications array,” the male said, tapping the plasti-glass shield with one skeletal finger.
“Oh, uh…” Trin wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s…like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” she said at last. Which was certainly true.
“It used to be my link to the beings I served—they are, alas, no more.”
“That’s too bad,” Trin remarked, keeping her hand near her blaster.
“I had another connection too—one to a dear friend—closer than a brother. But he died as well.” He sighed mournfully in a way that almost made Trin sorry for him. Almost.
“I’m very sorry to hear it.”
“Well, it cannot be helped. People do come and go in our lives sometimes, don’t you agree?”
Trin thought of the big Havoc chained to his cot back on The Alacrity—thought of her decision to let him go when she got back from doing the deal aboard the Demon’s Eye.
“True,” she admitted, her heart feeling heavy for no reason she could really name.
“But then…one moves on,” the strange male continued. “One finds new places to inhabit, one makes new friends. The universe becomes a brighter place—yes?”
He smiled and Trin had to keep herself from flinching away from him a second time. Pealing back those liver-colored lips revealed spit-shiny stainless steel teeth that were somehow even more grotesque than the exposed brain.
“Right,” she muttered, gripping her blaster.
“Oh, you won’t need that.” The male grinned even wider and nodded at the blaster. “It’s quite unnecessary. I’m not here to accost you—I’m here to lead you to our most estimable leader, Alile vuh B’Rugh.”
“I see.” Trin relaxed a little though she kept her hand hovering over her blaster. “You weren’t with him when I first met him, I don’t think,” she remarked. “I’m certain I would have remembered you.”
“As I would have remembered you, dear lady.” He bowed again and came up grinning. “As a matter of fact, I am relatively new here but I have quickly gained the confidence of our fine leader. You might even say I am his number Two male.” He laughed, as though he’d made a joke. Trin didn’t join in.
“So where is B’Rugh?” she asked tightly. More and more she felt she didn’t like this tall thin male with his exposed brain and steel teeth. As a captain she had learned to trust her instincts and he gave off a bad vibe. A bad, crazy vibe. Every nerve in her body shouted, run! But she couldn’t—she had a deal to make.
“B’Rugh is this way—waiting for you in his main receiving parlor. Or as the other denizens of this fine establishment call it—the Grog Hall.” He swept out one boney hand in an elaborately graceful gesture. “Ladies first?”
“I’ll follow you,” Trin said tightly.
“But I do not wish to be rude.” He opened his eyes wide—the left eye anyway—as though indicating his horror of the idea.