Page 76

“Why are you doing this?”

“Why? What kind of dumbass question is that?” she snorted. “You’ve hunted us for months across the damn galaxy. You’ve captured us, beaten us, and blown up our ship. And you want to fucking ask why? Are you having trouble connecting the fucking dots or something?”

Maxim nodded. “She does kind of have a point there.”

She shot him a look. She couldn’t work him out. He didn’t seem much like a psychopathic crime lord. More like a gentleman businessman.

Joe started shouting again, something about money and consequences. She could barely hear him over the pounding in her ears.

Rann had been on that ship.

“Gun it is, then,” she said, lifting the gun. “And the reason? I loved him. And you fucking killed him.”

15

They’d barely stepped through onto the other ship when they heard the first scream.

“Something approaching on the left,” Ryke warned, and Rann brought his weapon up, moving with the Reaper’s leader to cover the corridor as the rest of the team exited the cutter tunnel.

The sound of thunder filled the corridor, but it couldn’t be thunder, not on a ship. Rann frowned as the sound got louder. No, that wasn’t thunder. Was that⁠—

“Are those… hooves?” he asked, less than a second before a furred head appeared around the corner ahead, horns lowered as it looked at them. He took a quick step back as the animal barreled around the corner, then straight through the gap where his legs had been. It was quickly followed by its friends.

“What the actual Draanth?”

Rann flattened himself against the wall. More of the creatures shoved past, packed shoulder to shoulder, their hooves hammering against the deck. One scrambled halfway up another’s back before dropping down again. Neither appeared particularly bothered by it.

“Goats?” Jesh called out over the din. “What the fuck are goats doing here?”

“Draanthed if I know!” Ryke shouted, quickly stepping to the side before he got gored in a sensitive portion of his anatomy.

A goat leaped, bounced off the wall and hit Jex. There was a deep, hollow clang, followed by an indignant noise from the cyborg. The animal bounced backward, shook itself, and promptly tried to get around him instead. Jex looked down at the animal trying to force its way between his legs.

For a moment, Rann could do nothing but stare. They’d cut their way into an enemy ship expecting armed resistance. He’d been ready for weapons fire, for a fight to get far enough inside to find the females before Joe could move them.

He hadn’t been ready for livestock.

Keeping his muzzle clear of the animals, he leaned forward to check the corridor again. More fur. More horns. Beyond them, something crashed hard enough to carry over the noise right in front of him.

There were screams, followed by gunfire. Rann tilted his head, trying to place where they’d come from. Farther inside. Not this corridor, perhaps a few away though.

His jaw tightened. B was somewhere in there.

“I believe these are genetically enhanced goats,” Jex said.

Rann glanced at him. The cyborg had moved one foot, giving the creature beneath him enough space to wriggle through. It emerged with a toss of its head and hurtled after the others.

Genetically enhanced. Right.

That explained draanth all about why they were running loose.

Rann had no explanation to offer. He hadn’t left the females with goats. He was fairly certain there hadn’t been any aboard the trader. B would have had something to say about livestock interfering with her loading arrangements.

Movement at the junction pulled his attention up.

Three females stood among the goats. He recognized Layla first, then Myla and Hope beside her, and his grip on his weapon eased a little.

Layla looked straight at them, spotted him, and grinned.