“How much time did you give it?” Ronon asked.
“One hour, just like you said,” Rodney assured him. “Trust me — this I’m good at.”
The Satedan’s simple nod was high praise indeed, coming from him. “I found their tracks,” he said instead. “They were in too much of a rush to conceal them completely. It’s this way.”
Rodney followed behind, hoping wherever the V’rdai had been holed up wasn’t more than an hour away. If it was, things could get a bit tricky.
Still, it felt good to be taking the fight to their attackers for a change. He was starting to see why Ronon and Sheppard enjoyed being so aggressive. There might even be something to this whole hunting thing.
Though he’d still prefer to relax with a good book.
Chapter Twenty-four
Boom.
“What the hell was that?” Sheppard started, glancing around. The ground was shaking slightly beneath him, and he fell back against Teyla — she leaned into him as well, so that they were propping each other up.
“Seismic activity?” she asked quietly. She pressed her bound hands flat to the ground, trying to get a better feel for the vibrations that were already fading.
“I don’t think so.” Sheppard tilted his head a little so he could watch their captors. Two of the four who had left earlier had returned, and now they were all clustered in a group. Even without being able to hear them clearly he could tell they were upset about something — the tall thin guy and the woman and one of the others were gesturing wildly, and the leader was trying to calm them down.
“Something’s wrong,” he told Teyla softly.
“Wrong for them, or wrong for us?” she asked.
“Wrong for them.” He continued to watch them. The tall guy was pointing off in one direction, and practically shouting. Sheppard strained to listen.
“. our ship!” the man was saying. “What if I can’t fix it? We could be stranded here on this rock!”
The leader replied, raising his hands to calm the others, but the tall man wasn’t having any of that.
“And what if they were caught in the blast?” he demanded. “They could be dead already! And we’ve still got at least one of them unaccounted for!” An accusing finger waved in Sheppard and Teyla’s direction had accompanied that last statement, and Sheppard tried hard to hide his smile as he turned back to Teyla.
“Sounds like they had a ship hidden somewhere nearby,” he reported in a whisper, though right now it wasn’t likely their captors would overhear them. Still, better to be safe. “That may have been the sound we heard.”
“An explosion?” Teyla looked at him, and they both nodded. Ronon and Rodney.
“What’s more,” Sheppard continued, “two of their friends are missing. I’m guessing they went to check on the ship and haven’t been heard from since.” That smile was creeping up again. “Which means we’re down from six to four. And they’re off-balance.”
“We are still tightly bound,” she pointed out, raising her wrists to demonstrate. “Even with the odds improving, there is little we can do.”
“We don’t have to do anything,” he answered. “Just wait. Our friends should take care of the rest.”
The argument had concluded, he noticed, so he turned his head to watch their captors again, though he also folded his legs under him and leaned forward a bit. It was a more casual position, so he’d look less threatening, but he could actually kick up to a standing position in a hurry if he had to.
The tall man was still upset, but the leader had calmed him down somewhat. Now they exchanged a few final words, and then the group split in half. The leader and the angular woman moved to the back of the ledge and the outcropping there — within minutes they had vanished from sight. The tall man and his remaining companion grabbed their guns and stomped over to stand near the fire, and their captives.
“What do you know about all this?” the tall man demanded, glaring at Sheppard.
“About all what?” Sheppard replied, giving his best unconcerned shrug. “About you guys luring us in here, damaging our ship, capturing us, and torturing us for no reason?”
“You’re the enemy!” was the angry response, and the tall man half-started toward them before his companion pulled him back.
“The enemy?” Sheppard laughed at him. “How’re we your enemy? We don’t even know you! We didn’t know you existed until you attacked us. So how does that work, exactly?”
“It doesn’t matter,” their other guard said. It was the first time Sheppard had heard him speak. Definitely male, with a deep voice that belied his short stature. Broad, though, and sturdy. Not someone Sheppard wanted to have to tangle with. Especially since this one was completely calm, his gun rock-steady in his hand. The tall man’s was bouncing all over the place as he twitched and jumped at every sound and every shadow. “All that matters,” the shorter guard continued, “is finishing this hunt and getting out of here.”
“That won’t be easy if that was our ship we heard,” the tall man argued. “And I’m pretty sure it was.” He glared at Sheppard again. “Your friends did this, didn’t they? The ones we haven’t caught yet. They found our ship and destroyed it!”
Sheppard held up his bound hands. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “I’ve been here, remember? But if they did, let’s face it — you earned it.” He met his captor’s glare with one of his own. “You attacked us. You hit our ship. Turnabout is fair play.”
“What I don’t understand,” the shorter guard said, low enough that it was probably meant to be to himself, “is how they’ve evaded our traps. That takes skill.”
The tall man snorted. “You’re thinking about those stories again,” he accused.
“So what if I am?” his companion asked. “Maybe they’re true!”
“They’re not,” the tall man insisted. “Nekai said it was impossible, remember?”
“Well, maybe he’s wrong!” Judging by the way the tall man recoiled, that was something people simply didn’t suggest, and the shorter guard sounded defensive as he continued, “it could happen. He doesn’t know everything!” Sheppard guessed that Nekai was their leader, the one who’d questioned him about the Stargates.
“He knows everything about Runners!” was the tall man’s angry retort, and beside him Sheppard felt Teyla stiffen and glance at him. He fought the urge to look at her as well. He didn’t want to give their captors any hints. But inside he was straining to take in everything they said, and doing his best to become invisible so as not to interrupt what was turning into a fascinating conversation.
“Maybe not everything,” the shorter man said softly. “Look, it makes sense,” he insisted. “Somebody got past our traps. Somebody managed to hide from us all yesterday and last night and this morning. That’s not just a hunter, it’s someone who’s used to being chased. Someone who’s good at disappearing. And that’s a Runner.”
“There are others with the same skills,” the tall man claimed, but he didn’t sound very convinced. “Fugitives, stowaways, refugees. It could be any of them.”
“And would any of them be able to take out Misa and Castor?” the other guard asked. “I couldn’t do that. Could you?” >From his tone, he already knew the answer. “That’s more than hiding, that’s fighting. And who can hunt, hide, and fight? A Runner.”
“There aren’t any other Runners right now,” the tall man said with as much certainty as he could muster, which to Sheppard’s ear didn’t sound like a whole hell of a lot. “There’s us and there’s the ones who died. That’s it.” Sheppard could feel Teyla’s look boring into his back but he refused to turn around. Yes, he’d heard. These men were Runners. From the sound of it, all of them were. He’d never heard of a group of Runners, and he wondered if Ronon had. Did the big Satedan know he wasn’t the only one? Did he know there were others who had banded together like this? If they got out of this, Sheppard had a lot of questions for his friend.