ALEXEI WAS ALREADY ON HIS feet. “Find Mia,” he snapped.
Mia popped into view a few feet away. “Right here. What’s going on?”
“Rune just contacted me. She didn’t say much before the signal cut out.”
Mia swore creatively and at some length. “I knew it! What did I tell you?”
“Yes, that’s very helpful.” Alexei stormed into the crowd, catching our elbows to pull us along with him, apparently not at all concerned about the bounty hunters as he dragged us into the marketplace. I stumbled after him, my gaze fixed on the crowd, watching for a flash of silver.
Mia glared at him and shook loose. “Did Rune give you any idea where she was?”
“The comms cut out too quickly. Probably good, because wherever she is, the whole station heard her.”
I tugged free of Alexei and found myself running to keep up. “I guess we start in the docking ring, assuming you know where that is.”
“I do.”
“How many bounty hunters are there?” I asked as the three of us pushed our way through the crowds. I caught a glimpse of the men I’d elbowed earlier, thankfully on the other side of the market, and pulled my hood more closely around my face. Still no sign of the Silver Oni, or of his two partners.
“Five I’ve seen,” said Mia.
“Teams of four or five are standard,” I confirmed.
“But I didn’t see any of them in the market while I searched for Cage, who I didn’t find, obviously. I think they’ve withdrawn.”
Great. We were probably going to walk into a situation where as many as five trained bounty hunters, armed bounty hunters, held Rune captive. I didn’t think it was pushing things to guess they had Imani, Reed, and Jasper as well. And we had what to fight them? Fire, which would hurt our friends as badly as anyone else. I could speak to them in different languages, which was awesomely useless. Mia, though . . . could she slip in, vanquish them, and sneak out again? “No one knows you can share your invisibility. It’s not listed in your file,” I thought out loud as we emerged from the marketplace, unmolested. “That might work to our advantage.”
“Maybe.” Mia set her face in determination. We took the stairs at a run, Alexei’s bulk clearing a path through the crowds. We drew a lot of unnecessary attention, but did it really matter at this point? I wished we could get a message to Cage. I wished Mia had found him in the marketplace. His speed would definitely come in handy in this situation, and I knew how he’d react once he realized Rune was in danger and he wasn’t here to protect her. I’d simply have to stand in as best I could.
Mia vanished at will. Cage moved at the speed of light. Alexei made fire. Jasper dismantled buildings. Back home, I’d always been top of my class, working myself into exhaustion to master every skill. Here, no matter what I did or how hard I tried, I was never anything but a burden. The realization struck me with the force of a physical blow. Maybe the best thing I could do was surrender myself and give my friends a chance to escape.
With that unpleasant thought in mind, I followed Alexei to the very bottom of the stairs and into the docking ring. This must have been an addition to Obsidian after the criminal element took over, because it definitely didn’t resemble any Omnistellar design I’d ever seen. We emerged through what I thought would be the emergency airlock on Sanctuary into a large, donut-shaped area reminiscent of the alien ship. Doors spaced at intervals along the walls marked berthed ships. We’d seen it before for all of twelve seconds. Now I took a good look and confirmed my first instinct. This was a hasty but well-built affair, tacked on sometime after the criminals seized Obsidian.
For now, all seemed quiet. People milled about, working and talking and laughing. No one shouted or screamed. “Bounty hunters can’t be popular on Obsidian,” I said nervously. “Maybe we can convince someone to help us.”
“They aren’t, but my uncle also has an unofficial agreement with Omnistellar,” Alexei replied grimly. “Remember, this station is illegal salvage. It’s technically Omnistellar’s property. They ignore the fact that a gang of criminals has taken over their prison and turned it into a hub of illegal commerce, so if they demand the return of a few particularly dangerous criminals, Obsidian isn’t going to do much about it.” He hesitated. “That’s the people running the place, of course. Individuals might feel differently.”
“We don’t have time to make new friends.” Tension radiated from the corded muscles on Mia’s bare arms. “We need to find the others before they get themselves killed.”
“Can you make us invisible?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. First of all, I’m not sure it’s a great idea to vanish where everyone can see us. But it also took a lot of focus to hold all three of us in the market. I don’t think I can maintain it with everyone moving around.”
The very fact that Mia was admitting she couldn’t do something made me accept her statement without question. “Then let’s just start searching.” It wasn’t my best plan, but I didn’t have anything better.
We set off through the docking ring. It was less busy than the rest of the station, but enough people lingered that we didn’t stand out. Some of them looked like workers you’d see at any spaceport, wearing overalls, fixing things, munching on sandwiches, once again reminding me of how powerfully hungry I was. I resolutely pushed that thought away. We had friends to save. I was not going to start lusting over reprocessed cheese.
But we clearly remained in a criminal hub. People huddled in groups, marked as gangs by clothing or tattoos or other distinguishing features. Someone shouted in the distance, but it was only two men arguing. They shoved each other, and we quickly moved on before we got caught up in something new.
We made it halfway around the docking ring before a glint of silver caught my eye. I threw out my hands, arresting Mia and Alexei midstep. “Wait,” I said. “Ahead of us and to the right. See that?”
They followed my gaze, and Alexei instantly drew both of us into a more sheltered area, assuming a casual position leaning against the wall. I saw the wisdom at once: standing in the middle of the room staring would only attract unwanted attention. I angled myself, blocking his very recognizable bulk. Mia glanced both ways and, satisfied no one was watching, shimmered into invisibility.
About fifty feet ahead, five bounty hunters gathered outside a door. Of course, the Silver Oni instantly drew my eye, making me bite my lip in annoyance. I also recognized Priya and her partner from the market. There were two others, a man and a woman, all clad in black, all armed. They seemed to be, if not arguing, at least intensely discussing something.
“Mia,” I said. She didn’t answer. I reached for her and, not to my surprise, came up empty. “She’s gone,” I said in disgust.
“She does that.”
“I wish she’d let us know now and then.”
“Not her way.” Alexei flashed me a grin. I smiled in spite of myself. Over the last few weeks Alexei had revealed himself to be a surprisingly gentle, kind, and even humorous person. You only had to look at his relationship with the little girl Anya to see it.
Which was why I didn’t understand his obsessive attraction to Mia, the virtual epitome of selfish aggression. But to each their own, I supposed.
Mia alerted us to her return by jabbing us in the ribs. I jumped and swore softly, glaring in what I thought was her direction. “They’ve got them on their ship,” she said without preamble. “They’re talking about who’s going to stand guard while they go and look for us. I don’t know how these people function. They’ve been arguing forever.”
I shrugged. Bounty hunter interpersonal relationships were neither my specialty nor my concern. “Okay, we wait until some of them leave. Then with a bit of luck we eliminate whoever’s left and free our friends. Simple.”
“Sure, simple. They’ll probably leave the door unlocked for us too.” Mia brushed past me, sending chills down my spine. “Okay, they’re on their way,” she said. “Lie low.”
I turned, although I positioned myself to watch their passage. Four of the hunters stalked past us. I didn’t see the Silver Oni among them, meaning that, by process of elimination, he’d stayed behind to guard the ship.
That was good. He would be armed and well trained, but there were three of us and only one of him. Even if there was somehow a sixth hunter, we held the advantage, at least in numbers. And we had our powers. Against their weapons and training, well . . . I still liked our odds.
We waited until they passed, and the Silver Oni retreated into the ship. All we had to do was get inside without him knowing, incapacitate him, save our friends, and escape before the other bounty hunters returned.
And just maybe, we would finally get a stroke of luck. “If we get on that ship and eliminate the hunter,” I said, “and if we find Cage, I bet Rune can hack the system, no matter what kind of security they have.”
Alexei stared at me in confusion for a moment before his jaw dropped, realization dawning in his eyes. “You’re not suggesting . . . ?”
“Sure. Why not? We need a way off this station. And there’s a perfectly good ship behind that door.”
Mia materialized, something like admiration in her expression. “Well, well, well. Look at Ms. Omnistellar Guard. No qualms about stealing an entire spaceship?”
“From people sent to capture us so they can summon those things back to Earth? No. Definitely not.” And to my surprise, it was true. I didn’t feel even an inkling of guilt at the idea. If it meant protecting humanity from aliens, I wasn’t about to balk at stealing a ship.
Alexei buried his face in his hands like he was in pain, but when he raised his head, he smiled. “All right,” he said. “What the hell? If we’re going to do this, let’s go big.”
Grand theft starship it was.