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Chapter 22

Ivy looked at the messin front of her. The shock of what had just happened made her bones shake.

Marcus had regained consciousness and been arrested by station security. He sat with his hands bound and head down. He muttered under his breath, no doubt about getting revenge as soon as he got out of prison. She cared nothing for what he did, so long as it didn’t involve her.

Her attention turned to Karn. He was out cold. The laser blast wasn’t life threatening. It had been aimed at his shoulder. The force had slammed him to the ground and knocked him out.

Karn’s friend, Billy, also sat in the back of the station’s security ship, clearly unhappy from the sullen expression on his face. Ivy recognized him. She’d seen him hanging out with Karn on numerous occasions.

“I should have been able to fight them off,” Billy said to no one in particular.

Ivy studied him. It looked like he’d taken a beating before he’d let the security team get on the ship. His eye was puffy, and red marks covered his arm. “Karn won’t blame you for this.”

“Not to my face. I should have done better. I want to be just like him.”

Ivy smirked. “Nobody wants to be just like Karn. Not even Karn. What makes you think he’s so great?”

“He’s got skills. He’s the best spy, I mean intelligence gatherer, out there. Everybody wants to work with him.”

“I don’t see him being busy,” Ivy said.

“Everyone takes him seriously.”

“I don’t,” Ivy said.

“How can you not? You love him.”

Ivy’s eyebrows arched. “I only said that to make him realize something was wrong.”

“You don’t like him at all?”

“He’s not so terrible.” Ivy looked down at Karn. She was still amazed he’d come to save her. She hadn’t expected that. What he’d said as he’d pounded into Marcus like he wanted him dead, it all sounded so real.

How could it be? This day was anything but real. Ivy hadn’t expected Marcus to arrive, drug her, and then kidnap her. She was still stunned Karn had come to her rescue. It seemed too surreal.

“Karn’s great,” Billy said. “When everyone else ignored me or made fun of me, he stood up for me. He looks out for me.”

Ivy hadn’t expected to hear that, Karn looking out for anyone but himself. She nodded at Billy. “What happened to your arm?”

“I lost it in a mining accident.”

“Where were you working?” Billy couldn’t be out of his teens. What the hell was he doing slumming it down some toxic mine?

“I was on Tenkcet. I couldn’t get work on Earth, so I decided to try my luck elsewhere. There were plenty of jobs in the mines. The work was okay, nothing like the old coal mines on Earth. It was clean, and they looked after us. They even gave us free food.”

“What were you mining?”

“Disqus. It’s hard to find, even using scanners. When we discover a seam, it can run for miles. You always get a bonus when you find one. That was my problem. I got greedy. I was working late when everyone else was gone. I was tired. I’d pulled a double shift but was sure I was close to a new seam. I wanted the bonus to go traveling. The cutting equipment slipped.”

Ivy winced. “You did that to yourself?”

“I woke up in a huge pool of blood, with some pale-faced dude looking down at me and checking to see if I had a pulse.”

“They couldn’t save your arm?”

“It got too mangled in the machinery.” Billy shrugged. “I’m saving up to get a new arm. Karn said he’d help. He’s got most of his money tied up in his work.”

“Sure he has, if you consider work all the designer things he buys.”