Chapter Twenty-Two

 

Brill says, “Gavin’s contact could only delay the landing for so long, Kaliel’s already on the ground.”

Chestla asks, “What’s the plan? Sit by his ship and wait until he comes back?”

“Pretty much.” Brill is checking his gun. I give him a pleading look. His eyes turn an anxious gray, pero, he nods and puts it away in the locked compartment molded into his command chair.

I mean, en serio? What is the point here if he’s just going to shoot Kaliel?

We have to save the loco pilot and figure out why he’s been acting so erratically. We need the Zantites to understand his actions, because right now Kaliel’s a stand-in in their minds for all of Earth. He has to live long enough to confess, or apologize, or explain the mistake. And preferably keep breathing after that.

Otherwise, we might as well have just let Tyson take him back to Zant.

“What about Kayla?” I ask softly. “Is she here?”

Brill looks at me, his eyes turning a sympathetic pale topaz. “Ven let’s go over there and see if we can find evidence of her having been on board.”

“Gracias, mi vida.” I hurry him outside, pero I find myself walking slowly across the spaceport, even more so when the battered version of the ship Chestla had showed us comes into view. I’ve been fighting for evidence of what had happened to Kayla – and now I’m terrified of what I’m about to find.

Some spaceports are high-tech wonders. This is just a paved area surrounded by fences. It’s a riot of smells – food and refuse, and whatever animals they’re raising on the other side of the fences. There’s no way Tawny was getting out here, either.

Chestla looks pale. I ask her, “Are you OK?”

She brings a hand up to her face, covering her nose. “It’s overwhelming my sense of smell. I can’t think straight.”

Brill pulls out a lock-killer device. Mi vida’s eyes are stormclouds as he looks back at me. “Promise you’ll stay back if we are going in here unarmed.”

“Be careful,” I say softly.

He drops the lock-killer on the door and disappears inside. After a few minutes he calls back at us, “Diay. Come on in.”

Chestla and I move inside the ship. Brill knocks on a door at the back of the space. There is a solid metal clang. “This leads to the cargo hold we saw on the schematics. It’s too thick to break and these physical locks will take a while. But unless she’s been staying in there, I don’t see anything that says Kayla’s been here.”

There’s a single cabin, with the door open. The bunk is made. From what I can tell, there’s not much evidence that anyone has been staying here.

“You don’t see two black travel mugs, or two black trash cans, or two black stereo speakers, do you? Somebody found a receipt that he bought two black somethings. It’s all over the bounty hunter forums.” Chestla moves into the galley, which looks completely nonfunctional. The range has caved in. If it even turns on, it’s an explosion waiting to happen.

He could be eating rations or granola bars. There are a few wrappers in the trash, pero I don’t see a big stash of anything.

I remember a conversation Kaliel and I had right after we first met about the best restaurants in Rio. Kaliel’s a foodie. I bet he doesn’t like rations. He’s probably stopping so frequently because he can’t cook here and needs food.

That doesn’t help us figure out what else he’s doing, though.

Chestla’s phone rings. She answers it immediately. Eugene blinks back at her. He’s hiding under a desk, his hand two inches from the wheels of his rolling office chair.

Eugene is the researcher Chestla was trapped in the rainforest with, while HGB was hunting her. He also helped us analyze both Serum Green and the chocolate laced with Pure275. He’s pretty hot from his work in the rainforest, pero he is Earth’s biggest nerd. And he is not supposed to be continuing his work in that lab. HGB forgot about him. Nobody wants to remind them.

Eugene whispers, “Somebody just broke in. What do I do?”

Chestla whispers back, “You stay out of sight. Don’t call HGB. Don’t call the police. Don’t be a hero.” Eugene nods. He looks terrified. Chestla asks, “What are they doing now?”

Eugene pulls at the collar of his shirt. “They’re stealing the poisoned chocolate. Case after case.”

Brill says, “HGB is probably moving it. They’ve done that before.”

Chestla nods, and some of the tension goes out of her frame.

Brill leans out the ship’s doorway. “Kaliel’s coming back.”

She whispers to Eugene, “It’s their rainforest and their building. They have the right to shoot you, so stay hidden, and I’ll call you back when I get a chance.”

“Are you in the middle of something?” Eugene asks.

“Kind of. Yeah. You better stay safe.” Chestla hangs up.

The three of us leave the ship.

Chestla says, “I’m going to see if I can find out what’s going on. Eugene’s a sweetheart, but he is not capable of taking care of himself.”

She takes her phone and heads for an area with slightly fresher air.

I spot Kaliel on the far edge of the open-air spaceport. He’s moving this way, carrying an oversized shopping bag in each hand. He’s looking at the ships he’s passing, hasn’t noticed us yet.

“Mi vida,” I whisper, putting a hand on Brill’s arm. “What do we do?”

Brill gestures around the side of the ship, and the two of us start edging out of sight. We’re watching Kaliel more than where we are going. He’s getting close.

And, I realize, so is Tyson. And about a dozen bounty hunters, all ranged strategically to keep sight of Kaliel’s front door.

As I squeeze up against the ship’s side, a hand comes around my mouth and something frío presses into my neck. I let out a soft, involuntary squeak. Whoever grabbed me had been hiding in a divot formed by one of the ship’s thrusters.

“Jack,” Brill says. As in the space pirate who tried to kill us aboard the Zantite warship not long ago.

Brill freezes as two of Jack’s henchpirates roll out from under the ship, training their weapons on him. Mi vida could flitdash. A Krom can outrun any bullet he sees coming, no?

Pero, we both know that if he did that, then Jack would shoot me.

My heart’s hammering as time turns to goo while my brain processes that horror-heavy thought and I try not to picture myself crumpling at the pirate’s feet.

Brill raises his hands in surrender. “Avell, don’t hurt her.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rise in a familiar prey response. I glance up. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Chestla moving silently across Kaliel’s ship’s roof.

Jack clears his throat. Though I can’t see his face, I can still remember what it looks like. Deeply tanned, with short dark hair and deceptively friendly warm brown eyes. “Drop all your weapons.”

Brill shrugs. “I’m unarmed, su. Kaliel’s a friend, and we didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Jack moves around me, keeping the gun at my neck. He takes a good look at Brill’s jacket, which is all scratched up from the explosion. It’s the same one Jeska stole off Jack back aboard the Layla’s Pride. He eyes mi vida. “And you haven’t even been taking good care of it.”

Brill straightens the cuffs, pulling the leather down over the proximity bracelet that tethers him to his ship. Then he zips it all the way up to his neck. “Does that mean you care enough not to put a hole in it? Because I’d appreciate the consideration.”

“I’ll have to think on that one.” Jack admonishes his henchpirates, “Grab the Krom and make sure he can’t run.”

“What is it, Jack?” Brill’s eyes are still that no-care-in-the-world blue, which means he’s hiding being terrified. A henchpirate takes him by each arm. “You must want something more than just Kaliel’s bounty, uan neither Bo or I would still be breathing.”

Now that he knows Brill can’t just grabsnatch me, Jack relaxes the gun away from my neck. It’s still pointed in my general direction. Chestla’s right above him, looking ready to tackle him as soon as she’s got an opening.

Jack says, “I want you to lure in Gavin. That little snot took something from me, and I want it back.”

Kaliel looks towards the entrance to his ship. We’re not exactly hiding. When he spots us, he drops the shopping bags, and there’s the crystalline sound of shattering glass. Then he pulls a long cylinder, like an oversized flashlight, out of his jacket, and crouches, smashing it against the ground.

Brill flinches before anyone else can react, pero his captors keep him from ducking. Chestla leaps, pero she’s not aiming for Jack. She lands on me, knocking me flat on my back as a blinding flash of light passes by in a ring, about four feet high. Everyone it touches collapses.

Brill has gone down with both of his captors on top of him.

“No!” I try to move toward him.

“He’s not dead,” Chestla says as she gets up and turns towards Kaliel, who was kneeling under ring-level.

Kaliel makes eye contact with me, then he flitdashes for his ship, getting there just before Chestla does. She makes a grab for him, and he kicks her off balance. This time she does fall. He slams the door in her face. All she can do is back away as his engines go live and he takes off.

I pull Brill out from under the henchpirates. He’s not breathing, pero, that’s not uncommon in an unconscious Krom. His hummingbird heartbeat is normal.

Jack fell on his vapgun, and the corrosive blue liquid is all over his new jacket. We should probably get the jacket off him. He is not going to be happy.

Chestla walks over to me, dusting off her pants. “Can you fly Brill’s ship?”

I nod. Brill has given me a few lessons. “Well enough to get off an open-air spaceport. Not well enough to chase anybody.”

“Good. Go get his ship, while I get these pirates turned in to the proper authorities.