Rykal emerged from his corner. He regarded her with a long, burning look before he activated his comm and spoke to someone on the other end in rapid-fire Kordolian. When he concluded his conversation, he drifted to her side like a silent shadow. He’d activated his armor again, much to Arin’s disappointment. She appreciated his naked form. He leaned in, his lips grazing her cheek. “I don’t understand your planet’s politics, but you don’t need to shield me from your people. They can’t halt the inevitable. Iaman enemy to your people, Arin. That isn’t going to change just because you’re mine.” His lips found their way to hers, and he kissed her again. “My brothers encountered a little problem, but they’re on their way now. Soon, we’ll be away from all this unnecessary nonsense. By now, your leaders should understand where we all stand.”
She shook her head, her jaw set at a stubborn angle. Her mind was racing. “We haven’t declared war on Kordolians and vice-versa, at least not yet. I don’t think the Federation knows where you stand in the grand scheme of things, but we need you to kill the Xargek for us. Maybe that makes us allies. What we’re doing isn’t breaking any laws, but my people won’t see it like that.”
“I don’t care how they see it,” Rykal murmured. PerhapsArin was imagining things, but he seemed to radiate menace. It was like a black aura surrounding him. “If they try and mess with you, they’ll answer to me.” He said it matter-of-factly, and that made his statement all the more chilling.
“Rykal,” Arin warned, “you need to let me deal with my people. They don’t respond well to threats and violence.”
“But they work, don’t they? Look how far we’ve come with just threats and violence.” Somehow, he managed to look deceptively innocent.
Arin wasn’t fooled. “You deal with your people, I’ll deal with mine.”
“That sounds rather sensible, Sergeant Varga.” Arin froze as the holoscreen came to life. There had been no calling chime; noaccept/denyoption. The holoscreen had just switched on, overriding the usual channels.
“What do you want?” Arin blurted, taken by surprise. On the other side of the comm was the woman who called herself E1. She was wearing Federation flight attire and sitting in what looked like a standard transport seat.
She wasn’t on Earth anymore; she was in space.
“It appears you’ve done exactly as we asked,” E1 said, giving Rykal a cold look. “We’ll be retrieving you now for a debrief. Get ready for an inter-space evac. We’re coming up beside you.”
“No,” Rykal growled, placing a possessive hand on Arin’s shoulder. It wasn’t just her imagination. A palpable darkness rolled off him, oppressive and terrifying. “She stays with me now.”
“We’re coming to retrieve her, alien. You don’t have a choice.”
“Touch her and I’ll skin you alive.”
E1 wasn’t moved by his threats. “The sergeant has some information we need. Therefore, we need her. In the event that we are unable to retrieve her, we have been authorized to erase that information in order to prevent it from getting intothe wrong hands. As long as she’s with you, she’s a liability to Earth.”
“Erase?” Rykal’s tone made the fine hairs on the back of Arin’s neck stand up.
“Rykal,” she began gently, trying to hold his seething anger at bay. She knew him well enough by now to be able to sense the danger radiating from him.
“There are two options here, alien. Release Sergeant Varga, and we will leave you, or keep her with you. If you refuse to let her go, we have no alternative but to eliminate the evidence.”
“What are you trying to say, agent?” Arin raised her voice in frustration. A bad feeling had wormed its way into the pit of her stomach. This didn’t make any sense. Evidence? Liability? The Kordolians could have pumped any of the humans on theHendrix IIfor information.
“We have a high-powered pulse-cannon and four super-nuclear missiles aimed at your pod. In the event that we fail to retrieve the hostage, elimination has been approved.” The holoscreen flickered, showing a medium-sized Federation cruiser with artillery bristling from all sides.
“That’s insane,” Arin whispered, as Rykal went still. He was like a statue suspended in mid-air, barely breathing, barely moving a muscle, and that terrible tension was still rolling off him, growing in intensity until Arin could almost read his thoughts.
He wanted to kill his enemy, but the cold vacuum of space separated them.
If they were together in the same vessel, chances were E1 would be dead right now.
“Hand her over, alien, and nobody will get hurt. Refuse, and you’ll only have yourself to blame.”
Rykal’s hand was still on her shoulder. Arin covered his armor-encased fingers with her own, looking up at him. “I have to go with them. We have no choice.”
He nodded, staring straight at the holoscreen with scaryintensity, as if he could burn through the woman with his eyes. “Go,” he said softly, his gaze fixed upon the cold-faced woman on-screen. “If anything happens to her,” he told E1, “I’ll personally hold you and your entire race responsible, and in my culture, revenge is sacred.” He smiled, but there was nothing good in his smile. It was a smile that held promises of blood and retribution. It was the worst smile she’d ever seen him wear.
E1 looked right back at him, her face a blank mask. If she was at all bothered by his words, she didn’t show it. “She’s coming with us.”
Rykal glowered at the holoscreen as he moved back. Arin tried to appease him with her glance, but that feeling of dark pressure was still there, curdling the air until it was thick with a sense of impending violence.
Arin was glad Rykal was on her side, but if they ever made it to Earth, he would have to try and tone down that death-aura of his. It was enough to give people nightmares.
“Prepare for retrieval,” E1 said in that same emotionless tone. If Arin didn’t know better, she would have sworn the woman was an android.
She still couldn’t believe they had the audacity tothreatenthem like this. What right did they have to do this? Even if they were operating under the guise of protecting Earth’s borders, this kind of thing was unheard of.
