Wheeled vehicles were haphazardly parked, bodies of the slain slumped where they’d fallen. It was all the same. Debris and oil floated on the water; partially eaten human bodies showed the Xakul had been in their usual feeding frenzy.
Hopefully, they’d moved on.
The biggest threat to their mission now wasn’t resistance from the occupants of this planet—they were far too busy trying not to be eaten—no, the biggest threat was the Xakul themselves. If they encountered even one of the Xakul soldiers in its feeding frenzy, they would need to retreat, and they’d be lucky to get a second chance. As it was, they barely had enough time to get this mission over and meet their buyer.
No, it was now or never.
And it was never acceptable. Gark did not want to keep doing these kinds of missions. He wanted legitimacy, not the life of a mercenary—barely above that of a scavenger—that he’d been forced into.
Jarden slowed and took up a sentry position when they reached their destination. The building showed evidence of the neighborhood’s change from affluence to slum. The peeling paint and sagging windows gave the place the look of a leprous old man at the end of his life.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Vox looked from Jarden to Gark.
“It’s the location I was given.”
Gark raised his weapon and slowly climbed the steps to the doorway that led into the building. The hallway was narrow and dark, their heads scraping the ceiling and their shoulders almost touching the walls. He’d been provided a schematic of the building and had committed it to memory rather than relying on his tablet. There were some things he was happy to use technology for, but long experience had shown him that technology wasn’t as reliable as many of his counterparts thought.
“How small are these people?” Jarden asked, ducking to avoid hitting his head on a light fixture.
Gark shrugged. He didn’t care. What was the point of learning anything about the inhabitants of this planet when they were about to be annihilated by the Xakul?
“Most of them are much smaller than us, yes.”
Gark looked at Vox with a raised eyebrow.
“What? I was bored. I learned a few things about these humans. You should see their women.” He smirked, waggling his eyebrows at Jarden.
“What’s wrong with your face?” Jarden asked.
“Nothing.” Vox looked away, a slight flush coloring his bronzed skin.
Gark paused when he found their destination. He tried the handle and found the door locked.
“It’s a little strange we haven’t seen anyone,” Vox said, taking position to cover the hallway.
“It’s not a huge city. Maybe they’re all hiding,” Jarden said as he shrugged.
“But the bugs...” Vox trailed off.
Gark tuned out of their conversation as he opened the door. They were right. It was a little odd. He shrugged.
Get in. Get the goods. Get paid.
The door opened more easily than he anticipated, swinging into the wall with a loud bang. He paused, weapon raised, and after a few seconds of silence, stepped into the room. It was a small, one-room home. A compact kitchen was to the left, a table with two chairs, and a single bed was pushed against one wall. Gark took a step closer to the bed.
“Or maybe they’re all dead.” He said, looking down at the elderly man and woman's lax forms on the bed. The man had the woman in his arms, her head buried against his chest. They were dead, but not from the Xakul.
“Almost as if they knew what would happen,” Vox said, his voice devoid of its usual cheery tone.
Gark frowned and shook his head. That made no sense. Nobody knew what the Xakul were like until they’d seen the destruction the bugs wrought on planets like this. And humans? They were as naive and innocent as babies.
“Let’s get what we came for,” Gark ordered, spurring Vox and Jarden into movement.
The big navigator headed to a closet, dropping to his knees more gracefully than someone of his size had any right to, and pushed clothes aside as he looked for the safe they’d been told would be here.
“Odd that they’d need to hide any valuables,” Jarden muttered as he quickly attached a small explosive and covered the safe with a diffusion shield. A muffled bang sounded, and Jarden had the safe open and the contents in his hands. All in a matter of seconds.
Another question Gark didn’t ask his navigator was how he learned to open safes so expertly.
