Fifteen minutes are up, Gavras voice over a comm announced. Get the hell out and make your way to the main warehouse. Now.
Armed sentries herded those attempting to linger toward the door. No one but Mara saw the microbot hidden in the cuff of Kells pants scuttle away. Two more of the tiny bots clung to the cuff, but if someone noticed all he would see were a couple of dustbeetles hitching a ride. Kell moved with the crowd exiting the building, betraying no signs that he directed the movements of the microbots using his tech implants. She could only marvel at his control. His engineering ability was damn impressive too. Hed built the little bots out of spare parts en route, hunched over the table in Arcadia s galley.
Torn between admiration and anger, Mara walked silently beside him as they returned to the main warehouse. Her timing was worse than a sipkaswine accidentally wandering into a Joppian cookout. This was not the moment to stew over Kell and the lieutenants affair. But hard as she tried, she couldnt get the images out of her head, envisioning Lieutenant Jurs handsand other thingsall over his hard, solid body. Him kissing her with the
same hunger hed shown for Mara. Biting the lieutenants neck.
Gods, she was going to lose her mind, and the real danger hadnt even begun.
You have to stay with me, Mara.
She nodded, feeling ridiculous. The only way they could survive the next hour was to stay alert.
Im here. She would make herself focus.
They entered the main building and saw that the crowd had thickened. Scavengers, smugglers and other assorted criminals from all over Ryge filled the warehouse. Mara knew most of them, and she traded nods of reserved greeting. The atmosphere held no friendliness, not even good-natured rivalry.
Profit was all that mattered this day. The air droned with collective anticipation at the prospect of bidding on both an 8th Wing ship and an 8th Wing pilot.
A beautiful pilot. Who once shared a bed with Kell.
Stop it.
He paused to lean against the wall. As he did, the remaining microbots scurried off of him and up the wall, blending in with the other dustbeetles and grimespiders darting back and forth. She made certain not to follow the progress of the bots, lest she draw anyones attention to them. Aside from the subtle twitching of his fingers, no one would suspect that Kell controlled the tiny machines.
Everything in place? she murmured.
Positioned and ready.
He cleaved a path through the mob. Or, rather, people stepped aside to let him through, including some of the toughest and most ruthless lawbreakers she knew, men and women who would trample their aged grandparents to steal an aurelia nugget. Yet these coldblooded thieves gave Kell a wide berth.
Mara stayed close, drifting in his wake, and she, too, felt the strength of him, his energy and ferocity. Intoxicating, dangerously alluring. And targeted toward a single goal. Soon, Kell had crossed the length of the warehouse to stand right in front of the dais. She positioned herself beside him, both because it was part of the plan, as well as in response to an instinct that told her it was the safest place.
We need to find out where theyre keeping Lieutenant Jur. He spoke low enough so that only Mara could hear. Following the guards will take us to her, then its a matter of overpowering them and decoding the locked chamber theyre most likely keeping her in. Then we She laid her hand on Kells arm. Ive been thinking about how Gavra operates. We wont need an elaborate plan. At his frown, she added, Trust me.
She wondered if he would, after everything. Yet, incredibly, he nodded, then turned his attention to the platform.
Gavra stood on the dais, flanked by four armed mercenaries. She eyed the crowd with a strange mixture of disgust and eagerness, as if she despised them but loved what they could do for her cred values. A voice amplifier attached to her shirt threw her voice across the warehouse. Want to see what youre bidding on?
The mob roared its assent, raucous and eager.
Gavra motioned and two mercenaries stepped down from the platform, only to return a minute later. They held a woman between them, their grips tight on her arms as she twisted and struggled. She wore a grimy 8th Wing uniform, torn in places, and her dark hair spilled over her shoulders.
For your buying pleasure, Gavra shouted, I offer you Lieutenant Celene Jur of the 8th Wings Black Wraith Squad.
Another roar from the throng. The sound grew rowdy, avid, as the guards tried to tug the lieutenant up the steps to the dais, and she managed to kick one of the mercenaries in his upper thigh.
She took advantage of the moment, tugging her arm free from his grip. Her punch landed on the second guards jaw, but he did not release her. Three more guards surged toward her. She tried to fight them, but in a moment they had her up on the platform and completely subdued. One guard for each arm, and guards pinning her feet to the floor.
She glared at the mob.