“We’ve reached the corner of the alley and are ready to move in.”
Keryn shook her head, though she knew Rombard wouldn’t see the movement. “Negative, Talon One. Hold your position on the secondary street. Wait for my command.” Without speaking it aloud, she finished her thought: if we need you, you’ll know right away.
Having been inside when Rombard began pursuing Cardax, Keryn could only make assumptions on which alleyway the Oterian was cutting through. She had assumed that they would have plenty of sunlight left to find the smuggler before the red orb disappeared over the horizon, but the rapidly setting sun caught her off guard. At the rate the sun was disappearing, it would only be another twenty minutes or less before they lost the meager light they had remaining.
Motioning ahead, Keryn drew her pistol as she and Adam moved cautiously forward. Cardax was hiding from her, toying with her while they quickly lost their sunlight. In spite of the heat of the Pteraxis afternoon, Keryn felt a chill at the thought of getting stuck on the planet after dark. A knot formed in her stomach, as though her body was reacting to the unseen danger. The planet itself seemed to want them gone, and Keryn was all too willing to oblige once they’d captured the smuggler.
Though there seemed to be movement from every shadow, Keryn was still surprised when one of the shadows detached itself from the side of a building. Still a block away, the towering figure moved slowly and deliberately until he slipped out of the shadows and into the dim, red light. Even from a distance, the Oterian smuggler towered over both the Pilgrim and the Wyndgaart. Standing over eight feet tall, he was swathed in dark fur. His long horns bent forward like spears. Though the Oterian appeared to smile, it came across significantly more like a sneer of displeasure.
“Cardax,” Keryn growled at the smuggler.
“You reek of it, you know?” Cardax yelled across the distance. “You and all the rest of your little group. You all carry the disgusting scent of the Alliance. I smelled you the second you entered this town.”
“Spare me,” Keryn yelled back, raising her pistol. “One way or another, you’re coming with us!”
“Such dangerous threats from such a little girl,” Cardax said, raising his arms to the side as he started stepping forward. “There’s really no need for all that. In fact, if you were smart, you’d go ahead and put that toy gun down before someone gets hurt.”
“Are you threatening me?” Keryn asked indignantly. “You turn your back on your race and the entire Alliance, and you still have the audacity to threaten me?” The anger built within her and she ground her teeth together while she spoke.
In response, Cardax laughed heartily. “Betray the Alliance? That’s rich. This is the same Alliance that hunted me like a dog from one end of known space to another. I spend just as much time now fleeing bounty hunters as I do conducting my business.”
“You betrayed us!” Keryn screamed. Try as she might, she couldn’t understand how Cardax was so blinded by his own arrogance. Though she kept her eyes on the Oterian, she also scanned the buildings around her. Their conversation was far from quiet; the townsfolk had to have heard them. Yet no faces peered from closed windows to see the disturbance. Keryn longed to have the Voice once again. Its consult would have been useful in a situation like the one she now found herself, and it was always capable of watching the periphery while she focused on the task at hand. Realizing how lost she felt without the Voice, Keryn felt a pit grow in her chest, filled only with a dull ache of loss.
Cardax, blissfully unaware of Keryn’s inner turmoil, continued talking. “I never betrayed them. They betrayed me. I made one of the greatest discoveries in history when I found Deplitoxide. I was a businessman and only wanted to profit from my discovery. And what did I get for my troubles? The High Council sent Alliance Warships after me; chased me all the way into the Demilitarized Zone. I was captured by the Terrans because I was trying to save my own life! You have no idea the tortures I endured at the hands of the Terrans. A weaker man would have died, but I persevered.”
“Enough talking,” Adam interrupted, pulling his rifle free from under his jacket. “Get on the ground.”
Cardax continued walking forward and talking, as though he hadn’t heard Adam speak. “But I learned an invaluable lesson as a result of being the Terran’s captive. I learned that loyalty has nothing to do with oaths of allegiance to one side or another. Loyalty, just like everything else in this universe, has a price. You find how much someone charges for their undying loyalty, and even the most devoted soldier will willingly die for your cause. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re with all your friends, ask them how many would continue to serve the Alliance if they no longer received a paycheck. None of you are doing your job because you have some unfailing sense of loyalty to the Alliance. Take away the money, and every one of you would find a new line of work.”
“What’s your point?” Keryn yelled, though Cardax was now only a few dozen feet away.
“My point is that this entire town had a price, and I had a lot of money to spend. My point is that these people appreciate the money I give them and aren’t eager to lose it. My point is that they’re willing to do anything to protect my donations…”
Cardax smiled wickedly, his dark eyes glistening in the dying light. “…even kill your friends guarding your ship.”
“Is someone there?” Penchant called out in a coarse voice. His Lithid eyes, covered by his Uligart disguise, worked like a solar panel, absorbing the dim light and amplified it, allowing him to see well in darkness. Even with his enhancements, however, he didn’t see anyone nearby. In a normal situation, that would be a blessing. Just moments before, though, the entire landing zone had been teeming with life. Now, as though whisked away on the warm Pteraxis breeze, the place was dangerously quiet.
“No one’s there,” McLaughlin said in his thick accent. Sitting on the ground with his back against the Cair Ilmun, the Pilgrim tilted back his hat so he could see the Lithid. “You’re hearing things.”
“Lithids don’t have an active imagination,” Penchant said. The Uligart face he wore wrinkled its forehead as he strained to hear another sound.
“You don’t say?” McLaughlin said sarcastically. Pushing off from the ship, he stood and dusted off the back of his pants. “You’re just on edge, and there’s no reason to be. We’re on guard duty, the absolutely most boring job they could find for the two of us.”
“Something’s wrong,” the Lithid said, turning to stare at McLaughlin with a stern glare. “We should contact the others.”
As Penchant reached toward his throat, the Pilgrim reached out and grabbed his wrist. Though Penchant looked angry, McLaughlin simply shook his head. “If there was trouble, don’t you think we would have heard something by now? We’re close enough that we would have heard gunfire or explosions. Since we didn’t hear anything, then I think you probably need to relax a little more.”
Penchant pulled his wrist free of McLaughlin’s grip and turned the opposite direction. McLaughlin shrugged before rolling his eyes. “Listen, if you’re that’s worried about them, let’s just ask someone if they’ve heard anything from town. That way, we don’t have to bother Keryn with radio chatter if nothing is really going on.” Glancing toward town, McLaughlin smiled. “We’ll just ask one of these people.”
Turning quickly, the Lithid saw figures materializing from the dark shadows cast between the ships. From the angry expressions on their faces, Penchant knew they came with deadly intent. Though the smile never faded from McLaughlin’s face, Penchant noticed that the Pilgrim slid his hand beneath his coat in an innocent gesture, but one that put his pistols easily within reach. A noise behind him alerted Penchant that other crewmen from the various ships had circled around and now had the pair trapped.
“How’s it going, gentlemen?” McLaughlin asked, stepping toward the approaching group. “How about this weather?”