Chapter Four
***Savanah***
Savanah left Lolita's cabin before the rest of her family began to stir. She wasn't going to wait until the city had settled down or the authorities had left the way station to begin the mission of saving the other captured women. Once the authorities were gone, the big boss would have complete control once more, and she would have zero chances to make a difference.
Some of Constantine's derelict pirates were on guard duty. It was easy to get them to give her information. They had no reason to doubt her motives. She was the injured party, and they felt she had a right to know what was happening in the city.
"Have you heard anything from your spies?" she asked the first man she came across.
"Only more of the same, miss," the guard answered. "The city remains under the watch of the Universal Space Authority. Ships come and go with tourists, but little cargo. Prices are rising. As long as the tourists are willing to pay them no one seems to care."
"Do they speak of the raid on the casino? Are we being hunted?"
"Some troops have gone out to look for us but haven't come anywhere near. We hid our route well. Don't fret, miss; all is well."
"And the ones who run Delti Utopia 6, where are they? Has any evidence against them been found?" she continued to grill the guard.
"What evidence could there be? The big boss always has an explanation for everything that occurs here, good or bad. He'll have told them some nonsense about the rooms below the casino, maybe claiming them to be cheap resting places for the gamers who can no longer pay for the regular rooms. He'd be making himself look kind as usual."
"Doesn't anyone in authority that lives on the way station care that he gets away with evil plots?"
"He pays most of the wages here, including the supposed authorities. There's the mayor, but he's no more than a figurehead. It's his job to make speeches and new videos to bring more trade and tourists. He's been too afraid to stand up to the big boss or men like Krane for years. The old mayor fought against the thievery; that's why we became derelicts. It was a choice to leave the city or go to prison. This new one just hides in his mansion until he needs to show his face. It's the big boss's men who keep us away now."
"Has anyone tried to talk sense into the mayor?" Savanah inquired, an idea coming to her mind.
"Not for years. There were people lined up at his office door every day for the first year or two. He gave them all the same reply to any request, 'It's all for the betterment of our home.' In other words, miss, the money is worth the corruption. We pirates should be thriving. Some are, but they are renegades who ignore the pirate codes."
"So, now the mayor hides at his mansion, so he doesn't have to answer questions," Savanah stated. "He may not know what has happened in recent days or even weeks. It might change his attitude if he knew there was sex trafficking and there were Naga who were willing to help him get back his authority. Thank you kindly for the information."
"No trouble, miss. I was having a hard time staying awake, and you helped, so I'll be thanking you."
Savanah went back to her cabin; however, she didn't go back to bed. She dressed in dark pants and shirt, hid her blonde braid under a hat she found in the chest at the end of her bed, and went out to confiscate a land skimmer. The guards were switching shifts, with transports coming and going, so she wasn't noticed leaving.
Everyone knew which mansion belonged to the mayor. It was the marble-like one that glowed in the dark. Savanah would have no trouble finding it. Getting inside would be the difficult part. There wouldn't be human or alien guards, because the mayor preferred to be alone and he had an unnatural obsession with droids. She had heard that gossip the day she'd arrived on the way station. You couldn't reason with a droid the way you could with a live guard. They were programmed to specific responses and would say no to her entrance unless told otherwise by their owner. It was a risk she was willing to take because she felt like if she didn’t do it now, she would never sleep again.
