Chapter Four

The female in front of Keenan, who had been running like an animal, screamed. A small monster with a pink eye suddenly appeared out of the darkness and grabbed her. Keenan leaped and had a handout to be grasped by a metal extension that closed around his hand.

"What the hell is going on? Have the damn guards caught us?" The female was kicking as they were lifted and now traveling faster than they could run, back towards the white light of his ship.

"Will you shut up? You are being saved, but if you keep up the noise, you will have every fucking guard within miles on top of us."

That made her legs stop their action, but she did talk at least a little quieter. "What is this damn thing?"

"Lady, don't curse at my crew. This is Poly, and be nice to her, or she will drop you here and take me back to my ship."

That did bring some quiet from the female, as the wind was cold, and the night flew past. Poly was able to travel faster, even with the load she was carrying, to get the two humans to the ship. Hanging on, Keenan was watching the light that he knew was the Adamant get closer; and at last, he could see the shape of the silver ship reflecting lights.

With the side ramp down, he let go and dropped to the ground to start running, to get into the ship himself. He let Poly take the teacher into the bay as he ran through the different sections to get to the bridge. Before he even sat down, he was moving fingers over glowing buttons, putting in information to move the ship away. The power of the Adamant immediately turned its nose upward and was leaving the library planet.

"Hey, how about a little warning, boss?" Bruno's voice was a grunt while he hung onto the door of the bridge when he tried to enter against the push of the take-off. Bruno was a stocky man with a different type of strength than Keenan's. Where Keenan's was something magical and given to him from his birth on a faraway planet, Bruno's was just a part of genes and a lot of work. He spent time daily in the big bay, working out on mats and punching a bag. He even worked out with Keenan when he wanted to collect some bruises.

Using those strong legs now, Bruno worked his way up to what was his favorite position on the front of the bridge. It was in a chair surrounded by a curved dash that controlled the stealth mode and the weapons. He also could bring up most of the other components as needed. Not only that, like his boss, he loved the comfortable seats on this ship.

At last, they were able to level out, and Keenan began to look for the closest jump point. Getting away from this system was important. Keenan wasn't sure about the laws connected with the Organization Of Worlds and the secret prison on Dupa, the library planet. Regardless, he didn't want to stick around for any discussions. He had another problem with the Preacher and a crime lord to chase. A crime lord just as bad as the Preacher.

"Will, someone tell this damn bucket of bolts to let me go before I turn the shit into a mixer?" It was the teacher being carried into the bridge.

"I bring," Poly spoke in that calm cultured voice with the short sentences, as usual.

There was a loud whistle from Bruno at the same time as a guttural sound came from the female when Poly dropped the teacher to the floor.

"Holy shit, boss. You brought me a present." Bruno was turned around in his chair, looking with a big smile at the beauty that was picking herself up from the floor.

"Don't get your hopes up, idiot boy. Touch me, and you lose your damn arm."

Raising an arm, Keenan was smiling. "Bruno, this is the teacher the Preacher sent us to break out of jail. Theadore Megan, meet my two crewmembers, the big guy is Bruno, the gambler, and the one that saved you is Poly. Please don't cuss at her since she just saved your life."

Sitting with a silly grin pasted on his face, Bruno faced the lady. "You're the teacher? What classes did you teach, ladies tea service?"

"Funny, asshole." The beauty frowned at Bruno and then instantly turned, and almost as fast as one of Keenan's movements, she had the heel of her foot an inch from Bruno's nose. Both froze for a second, and she dropped back to stand and smile with innocence.

"I teach self-defense to the students. I am an expert in all types, from Ah-bat and Kanta-sa and even some of the ancient types of Judo and Aikido. Don't push your luck, and you can call me Thea."

The lady turned and looked at the bot bobbing by the entrance that looked like an airlock door. "Sorry er, Poly."

"Self-defense. Also, killing tools. Use care." Poly's cultured voice did not match her limited vocabulary.

"I need a new pair of shoes with damn good heels," Thea spoke to the room as she stepped forward and claimed the co-pilot's seat. Turning it around a couple of times, she stopped it at the dash. Leaning forward, she put a handout and watched the lights turn on.

"Hey, Thea. Hands off my fucking ship." The beauty with the thin waist was no longer amusing Keenan as she touched his most important possession.

"Shit, I've been checked out on several types of ships. Although I admit, this one is unusual. Where did it get built?"

"Look, lady, I have a good co-pilot. And the place where this ship was built would not be of interest to you. So again, hands-off." With the limited AI and navigator set, Keenan leaned back and relaxed, at least as much as he could with this female firecracker playing with his console.

"Okay, Captain." Thea also slid back into her chair and drew her feet up to hug her knees. "Where are we heading?"

"Well, first, we want to drop you off wherever you need to go. The man who hired us to break you out said that we should take you to whatever place of your choice. Give us a location, and that is our first destination."

Bruno looked over at his friend, thinking the man's language was as clean as it had been when the child had been on the ship. That had been their last assignment. Pick up a child and take her to her mother. Sounded simple, but it also was a project for the Preacher, and nothing for the Preacher was simple. After the deed was finally done, they had ended up with an illegal robot called Poly. But Bruno liked Poly, so not everything was ended with a pathetic ending.

"Well damn, boys. I don't have any plans. So, I guess I will hang out with you for a while. I like this ship, and it looks like fun, but I do need some great shoes."

Now both Bruno and Keenan glanced at each other with deep frowns. Fuck.

Thinking about the situation, Keenan had a serious project to finish, revenge for his family's deaths. He didn't need the distraction of a beautiful teacher underfoot. At last, he put the ship into action, deciding that perhaps a shock might change this woman's mind. He needed to see an evil man in one of the dirtiest cities in a place on the fringe, and maybe this lady from a fine school would recoil from the sights and smells.

Once the ship was set for the first jump, Keenan got up and left the bridge to get some food, but the pantry was empty. Damn, now they needed to make a quick stop to pick up supplies. Keenan stopped and thought for a moment, did they have enough water to get through to Grey's Corp. planet? He opened one cabinet, and there were a half dozen unopened whiskey bottles, all lined up.

Well, maybe they had enough supplies to get through the next few days to get to see the Preacher. At that point, he could instruct Bruno to go into Morgan's Point, the so-called city near where the Preacher had his hideout. Bruno could re-stock the ship and see that the lady got her shoes or perhaps decided to leave them. There were a lot of ships that moved through that location and would give the teacher a choice of transportation.

The Adamant stood out at Morgan's Point spaceport like a diamond dropped in coal. Its silver sides reflected the lights from the field, and the sleek design leading to that pointed nose drew attention. The best part was that the ship could protect itself from anyone who tried to board it without the recognition of the limited AI. More importantly, there was Poly to keep anyone out that was not expected. Poly had weapons that no one wanted to face.

Keenan gave both the ship and Poly instructions that only he, Bruno, and Thea were allowed access to the ship. With his instructions in place, Keenan took off on the long trip on a free but ugly tram ride to get to the distant mines. It was what the locals called going to church.

Past all the starving families out in this dark area, Keenan ignored the beggars. At last, going into the large mines that had been the income for so many until the ore was no longer needed, that now had a different use.

The mines were solid and huge, going deep into the rigid rock that made up the surface of this planet. The bedrock had developed miles deep, and it made the original mining interesting. It was difficult to blast and drill through the hard surface; on the other hand, the caves and holes and long tall underground chambers did not need support. The vaults were their support of solid prehistoric rock.

Once the mining had stopped, these large chambers had developed into better use. Homes for the homeless and an unusual center for the protection of a particular person in this particular area. Including a secure hiding place for someone who needed to be out of the reach of the law. The man called the Preacher that Keenan needed to have a conversation with when this large rattling elevator finally took him down to the correct level.

No one got down this low into the mines without an escort. These men were soldiers with weapons and strength training, surrounding Keenan in silence. In a large high cavern with lights everywhere and the noise level low, the rooms and buildings in this area were barracks for a large number of soldiers.

They finally came to a tall wall that blocked off the entire end, and its only decorations were standard-size doors. Keenan was walked up to one that wasn't any different from any other, but it was opened for him. Without any conversation, he just walked into the inner sanctum of a man who ruled an entire system—an evil man who order numbers to be killed and changed the winds on some planets.

The Preacher looked up with his dead grey eyes and smiled across the wooden desk that he sat behind to wave Keenan to come forward. This was becoming a habit as the tall man walked across the room, glancing up at the many screens showing all the information that came into this room. Keenan pulled over a chair closer to the desk and sat down.

"You are an amazing person, Veldan. Job well done. I can always depend on you to complete a project. I could use so many like you." As he spoke, the average-looking man was pulling out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses from a drawer in his desk. He poured for both of them and slid one glass over for Keenan.

Taking the glass, Keenan looked over at the man who had so much power and thought about another who was said to be just as evil.

"What do you know about the head of a group called the Transformed?"

The man with the hopeless gray eyes took a long drink from his glass. Finally, he looked over at his guest. "A strange question from a rogue. Because I would say that what I have heard of that crowd, it is only made up of rogues."

"Well, I need more information than I can get from the strange library world called Dupa, or even the small one you have here in the mines. I need the information that you have on the man at the top and why he would order a hit on a Veldan modifier." Keenan also took a long slug of his drink.

The small man looked over and made a small tsk, tsk sound. "Now, even you must know that my personal knowledge has a price on it since it comes from my internal observations and contacts. I can't have anything dangerous come back at me with twice the results."

Nodding, Keenan finished his drink and slammed the glass down on the desk. "I have always agreed to pay your prices. I will not back away on the next one. This one is close to me, and there is no price too high."