At least he stopped screaming.
Fiona saw blood beginning to spread out where the man lay, and she forced herself to step around him and through the door.
Another shockgun blast was aimed at her, and the reflector flared again, encasing her and Trayla in pale blue light.
She heard the sound of a shockgun hitting a hard floor, deep in the gloom of the warehouse, and then the thud of a body.
Her eyes adjusted to the shadows of the unlit space, and she found herself in a large storage area, with rows and rows of stacks, most of them full of boxes.
She couldn’t tell exactly where the shockgun shot had come from and there was no sign of Natta.
Then she heard the sound of footsteps running toward them, and got a better grip on her silver rod.
She widened her stance, lifting her arms a little from her sides.
Time to fight.
CHAPTER 10
The manthat emerged from behind the stacks was Balcoan. He pulled up short at the sight of them standing with weapons raised, and glanced behind him.
Fee had only heard one set of footsteps, but that didn’t mean there weren’t others.
“Who are you?” Trayla’s voice, Grihan rough, startled the man almost as much as finding them in a fighting stance.
“You’re the ones who don’t belong here. Who are you?” He took a step back.
“We’re concerned citizens who saw you and your friends abduct someone off the street. Authorities have been called.” Fiona wondered if they shouldn’t have actually done that.
“I can call them,” Eazi said. “Do you want me to?”
“Not yet,” she murmured in English. “But if this goes south, then definitely.”
Both Trayla and the Balcoan turned to look at her as she spoke, then Trayla seemed to collect herself.
“Our courier, who was waiting to speak to us outside of the market, was incapacitated and then grabbed in front of our eyes,” Trayla said. “We followed the runner that took him all theway here, and we’ve been met with violence from the moment we stepped inside. So you explain yourself tous.”
She did outrage well. Fee was impressed.
The Balcoan took another step back. “You saw . . .”
“We saw, all right.” Fiona took a step forward, and flicked her silver rod as she did it. “And we don’t turn a blind eye to abductions. So where is he? Why did you take him?”
“I . . .” He glanced behind him again, and Fee had to guess there really was someone there, it wasn’t a bluff. He looked too rattled.
She braced, bending her knees a little, but the attack, when it came, was from behind.
A man burst through from the office, and Trayla cried out.
Fiona leaped to the side, turning to see what had happened.
Trayla was down, struggling with the Balcoan who’d shoved her to the ground as he tried to grab the shockgun she was holding.
“Arms in,” Fee called out, and Trayla let go of the shockgun and tucked her arms close to her body, and Fiona slashed down with the silver rod.
There was the sound of a bone breaking, and the Balcoan howled as he dropped the shockgun and staggered back, arm hanging strangely.
Trayla scooped up the weapon and was on her feet in a moment. She shot the man as soon as she was upright.
