He cleaned his knife and slid toward the mouth of the alley, tucking the credits back into his belt. His eyes scanned the streets. The pleasure slaves stood about, most of them blank-faced and tired. The wind never blew there but the sluggish currents of damp and foul air that wafted up from the bowels of the planet and the flat air that got sucked in from the planet’s surface via extractor fans did.
He took a deep breath and moved, his legs carrying him fast toward his dwelling, which was made of a combination of the dripping stone so plentiful there and bits and pieces of wrecked air crafts.
He stepped inside, his eyes missing nothing as he checked each and every corner and trap to make certain nobody had been there or was there now.
He was unsettled and anxious, no matter how much he would have liked not to be. He paused, all of his senses on full alert. His hands dropped to his weapons again, and he slid into pleats of shadows that put him behind the ones he had just spotted.
“Hello, Blade.”
Talon. The best flight captain in the universe. A Revant who had been battling the Federation for centuries. His mate, Jessica—a former Capo for the Federation and a warrior whose name had spread across the universe—Jeval—Talon’s brother—and a young and beautiful woman whose name Blade didn’t know, stood there next to Marik—another of Talon’s three brothers—and yet another woman.
Blade said, “I guess I should kill you for trying to sneak up on me,” but there was amusement in his words even as curiosity and suspicion filled him.
Talon said, “We need to talk.”
Blade said, “You know the way to my abode.”
They did, and soon they were all crowded within it. Blade offered water and food, the universal sign of trust even if he didn’t really trust that group.
He knew Talon well enough to know that Talon had his own agenda, as did every being on this side of life. He asked, “What brings you here?”
Talon said, “War against the Federation.”
Had he heard him right? Blade tapped his fingers along the hilt of his dagger. “What?”
Talon said, “Aren’t you tired of dealing indirect blows? You know all you are doing is inflicting wounds that heal far too fast. We have to take the Federation down and the time for outright war against them has come. We need you and your crews.”
Blade laughed. It was insane, that. His eyes lay on Talon’s face then moved across the faces of the others gathered there. His eyes narrowed as he asked, “Why now?”
“Because we have something we never had before. Aid from the very top of the Federation’s echelon. Aid that knows secret supply places and lines. Aid that can give us maps that Federation has never published and routes that have long since been marked as dead but are, in fact, secret trade routes and passageways for the Federation’s highest officials to travel without fear of being assassinated.”
Was he serious? If he was, that was exactly what they had been lacking all that time and having that would be exactly what was needed to assure that a real war against the tyrannical Federation could succeed.”
But how had they gotten that aid? He said, “Really? And in what form does this aid come?”
Talon said, “In the form of your father. He has turned his back on the Federation and joined our ranks.”
Blade had never expected to hear those words. He shook his head. “He is playing you for a fool. He intends to turn you all in. Die as a fool if you’d like, but count me out.”
Jeval stepped forward. “I can see past mind wipes and implants. You know that. There has never been any made that can keep my gift from finding them. He has none, and there is no treachery in him. Well, there is, but it is all directed toward the Federation. He wants it dead, and his reasons are valid and real.”
Blade’s heart tumbled within his chest.
Could that be true?
His father, General Bates, was one of the top ranking Generals in the entire universe. He was privy to secrets so huge that the Federation would probably hand him death before retirement and call it a heart failure or some other thing. It was their way, and everyone pretended to believe their lies on the matter.
Maybe that was what had motivated his father to toss his hat into the realm of rebellion.
He asked, “You do know that if we do this, there is no going back?”
Talon said, “Yes. But we could not go back even now. None of us.”
Blade considered that.
War.
Real war.
