Alien in the Depths (Thryal Mates #2)

Chapter 8

Zaraq

The gray haze that hung over Rikuus was visible even from space, and Zaraq couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt for bringing Sofia and her family to the dirty blot that was his home planet.

At least, his home planet insofar as he could remember. Though he was Thryal by blood, he had never set foot there until he was on the run. For all intents and purposes, he was a Rikuan, and he had the shady past to match.

“Whoo! Here we go!” Sofia yelled with inexplicable gusto as Arccoo brought the ship down to broach the planet’s atmosphere.

The whole craft shuddered with the sudden change, and Zaraq gripped the steel and leather arms of his seat. It wasn’t just from the turbulence, though. He’d been on edge for days, ever since Sofia and her family insisted on clearing his name. In fact, the only time he could remember being at ease was the night of the “opera”…

Turning his head, he looked over at Sofia, strapped into the seat beside him. His gaze traced the soft curve of her jaw, skimmed the wild smile that pulled at her lips, and then came to land on her eyes alight with adventure and passion. He felt a squeeze in his heart, knowing he’d never be able to live with himself if something happened to her.

“You know this isn’t going to be fun, don’t you?” Zaraq yelled over the turbulence of the ship.

Sofia just shot him a wicked grin, and for the hundredth time since accepting her help, he wondered if he’d made the right choice.

Elena called from the seat behind him. “Just give up, Z! She lives for this stuff!”

Zaraq let out a sigh, inaudible over the sound of the engines. I just hope she won’t die for “this stuff,” he thought as Arccoo stabilized the ship over the Rikuan parking dock.

“Here we are,” Arccoo announced formally, setting the ship down. “The planet Rikuus.”

To Zaraq’s utter surprise, the three women on board let out a series of celebratory whoops. It was a far cry from what he felt touching down on this cursed planet. The look on his face must have given him away because Sofia reached out and squeezed his hand.

“You have to remember, this whole space travel thing is still pretty new to us,” she explained with a guilty smile. “Every new planet is like Christmas.”

“Who’s Christmas?” Zaraq asked, but even as the words left his mouth, he knew it was a futile question.

“Just another Earth thing,” Sofia explained with a sigh of mock exasperation. “It just means it’s exciting.”

Zaraq nodded as Sofia took her hand back and unbuckled her seatbelt. The place she had touched him was still warm, and he allowed himself a second to savor it before turning his mind back to the dangerous task ahead.

“I can’t be seen in public,” Zaraq explained as the rest of the party got ready to leave the ship. “Bounty hunters are looking out for me, law enforcement, not to mention Slik.”

Just mentioning the name made Zaraq tense up, but looking around the ship, he saw the women break out in grins.

“We thought about that,” Carmen said, stepping forward. “Lucky for you, we have the whole of the royal wardrobe at our disposal.”

Sofia and Elena let out a giggle at this while Arccoo looked a little uncomfortable.

“What does that mean?” Zaraq asked. Instinctively, he took a step back, but Carmen had already hurried to the back of the ship and collected a large suitcase, which she now opened with a flourish on the ship’s cold metal floor.

Zaraq raised one sleek black eyebrow as he peered into the suitcase. It contained a jumble of clothes, wigs, makeup, suits, and assorted accessories that Zaraq guessed were intended for him.

“You can wear a disguise!” Sofia announced proudly. “At least to get you somewhere safe so we can start digging into this whole deal.”

Zaraq had to smile. Though he didn’t think the plan would work, he appreciated the thought. And, if he was honest, he didn’t have any better ideas. As a show of goodwill, he kneeled down, pulling out a ridiculous bright orange wig, a tunic made of fine silk, and a pair of Thryal army boots.

None of this will work , he thought. But then, at the bottom, he glimpsed the telltale dome of a breathing helmet and grinned. He grasped the tube that protruded from it, yanking the whole apparatus from the tangle of other clothes.

“Now this…” he muttered to himself, digging through the suitcase to find the rest of his outfit. To his relief, he found a bright blue skin-tight suit and a matching pair of gloves. Not his usual attire, but that was the idea.

“You’re going as a spaceman?” Sofia asked. When he stood up, he saw the teasing smirk on her face.

“He’s going as a Gorian,” Arccoo interjected before Zaraq could answer. “A methane-breather.”

Zaraq grinned and nodded, holding out the mask and other clothes to inspect as he spoke. “The one good thing about Rikuus is that it’s a magnet for the galaxy’s shady types. That means shady types from all over. I’ll be better disguised as a Gorian than a Thryal wearing a wig.”

He glanced back down at the suitcase, and Carmen laughed.

“I guess it would have been a good idea to consult an actual alien about these disguises,” she admitted a little sheepishly.

Zaraq shook his head. “You nailed it with this,” he told her, holding up the suit. “There’s just one more thing.”

Zaraq stepped out into the dim gray light of Rikuus, the sun further dulled through the dome of his helmet. Despite the clothes, the mask, and the thick layer of purple makeup that Carmen had gleefully applied, his heart raced to be back on the streets that he’d fled from.

“I hoped I’d never have to see this place again,” he told Sofia, leaning in close.

His voice came out tinny through the helmet’s speaker unit, and he hoped he wasn’t speaking too loudly. The last thing he needed was the wrong person to overhear him.

“Better to see it again like this than in handcuffs or a bodybag,” Sofia whispered back, her mouth close to the microphone that relayed the world’s sounds directly into Zaraq’s ear.

He couldn’t argue with that. Ahead of them, Arccoo, Carmen, and Elena were leading the way to their hotel. It wasn’t the Constellation Casino and Luxury Hotel, but it was close enough that Zaraq began to sweat.

The grimy streets of Rikuus were just as he remembered, rife with the kinds of people he’d rather avoid. The kind of people I used to be , came the sudden thought.

Though he knew they were on one of the planet’s safer streets, he couldn’t ignore that just out of sight, in the dark alleyways that led off left and right, all manner of crime was taking place. Petty theft, drug deals, extortion, kidnapping. Not to mention the kinds of things he used to do—beatings, or worse, to those who didn’t play the game.

But then a squat yellow building caught his attention. Despite the obvious danger, his steps slowed of their own accord until he finally stopped in front of it. Beside him, Sofia stopped, too.

“What is it?” she asked, following his gaze.

“That’s the office where my dad used to work,” he said, his voice coming out quieter than he meant it. “I used to go in there with him sometimes, and he’d let me play under his desk while he went through old archives. He had this huge stack of document boxes, and I’d make a cave with them and pretend I was a space explorer.”

The memories came rushing back, warm and comforting, even if they were tinged with sorrow.

Beside him, Sofia took a step closer, sliding her hand around his gloved fingers.

As he peered at the building, sharing what little of his past wasn’t completely tainted by horror, he caught sight of a Rikuan. The man was leaning languidly against the office wall in dirty jeans and a ripped shirt, smoking a cigarette. Zaraq knew if he wasn’t entombed in his gas mask, he’d catch a whiff of shaka, the street drug that had its grip on most of Rikuus’s underworld. The shaky look in the man’s orange eyes confirmed the suspicion.

For a second, those eyes caught Zaraq’s gaze, and a sneer arrived on the Rikuan’s face. Before it could turn into an unseemly interaction, Zaraq turned away, hurrying ahead and pulling Sofia with him. Instinctively, he wrapped his arm around her, wishing they hadn’t come here. This was no place to bring someone he cared for.

Sofia turned to him with a smile that showed she was oblivious to Zaraq’s fear.

“Laying on the moves again, huh?” she asked teasingly. “At least wait until we get to the room.”

She winked at him, and Zaraq didn’t have the heart to tell her his affection was fueled by panic, not lust.

“We’re here,” Arccoo announced ahead of them. “The Kaylian Hotel.”

Zaraq knew the place well. It was Slikrim’s main competitor in the luxury hotel market, and he shuddered to remember some of the horrible things he’d had to do there back in the day. Flashes of violence broke through his thoughts as the rest of the group filed into the pink marble-clad building, oblivious.

“Coming?” Sofia asked as Zaraq hung back at the door.

“Uh, yeah,” he replied. He didn’t know if he was safer out on the street where gangsters and cops were looking for him, or inside where any member of staff that he’d formerly brutalized might see through his flimsy disguise.

Finally, he decided on the latter and followed Sofia and the others inside.

Their first night in Rikuus was uneventful. Thankfully no one at the hotel had recognized him, and now that he was off the streets, Zaraq managed to relax a little. That all changed the next day, though, when the plan started to emerge.

“I’m going to start at the casino,” Sofia announced over breakfast in their room.

He’d hidden in the bathroom while she’d gone to the door to collect their room service. Now they were sitting at the large table their room had come equipped with, eating their gourmet Rikuan breakfast, all on the prince’s dime.

Zaraq could hardly enjoy it, though. His stomach was twisted in knots at the thought of Sofia going out there alone, especially into the belly of the beast.

There was that word again.

“I really don’t think you should go in there alone,” Zaraq warned, watching as Sofia nonchalantly popped a jaran cherry in her mouth. “Slik is dangerous, and his men are just as bad. I should know.”

Sofia stopped chewing for a second, giving Zaraq a look. “You know as well as I do that we’re here to gather information, and since you can’t leave the room without someone coming after you, you’re just gonna have to be okay with me doing it for you.”

Zaraq frowned, but he knew she was right. He was sending her out into the unknown while he sat in the comfortable safety of their lush hotel room. But what choice did he have?

“I just wish I could go with you somehow,” he told her, releasing his grip on the tablecloth. He didn’t even realize he’d been grasping it until now.

“Well… actually…” Sofia got a conspiratorial look in her eye, but before Zaraq could say anything, she’d rushed out the door and down the hallway.

Within a few seconds, she was back with a groggy-looking Elena.

“What’s all this about?” she asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“What do you know about radio transmitters?” Sofia asked, pulling her sister into the room with a look of excitement in her eyes.

“Can you hear me okay?” came Sofia’s voice, crackling through the room’s intercom.

Or rather, what used to be the intercom. Haphazard black and red wires were snaking out of it and connecting to the Gorian helmet lying on Zaraq’s purple-stained pillow.

“Yeah, but stop talking to yourself,” Zaraq replied, sitting on the bed beside the mess of electronics that Elena had quickly constructed. Elena, Carmen, and Arccoo had abandoned their rooms for Zaraq’s and Sofia’s, and they were taking up all the chairs.

“All right, all right,” came Sofia’s voice again. “I’m going in.”

Zaraq took a deep breath and held it. The stillness in the room told him the others were doing the same.

“Hi!” came Sofia’s chirpy voice, devoid of its usual sass. “I was wondering who I should talk to if I want a job?”

Zaraq’s heart stopped beating for a second, and he somehow inhaled even further. That wasn’t the plan. She was just supposed to be a patron, keeping an eye out for anything useful. But this…

Zaraq wheeled around to look at the others, but they seemed just as perplexed as he was. Carmen gave an apologetic shrug but turned her eyes back to the intercom when a gruff voice came over the speaker.

“That’d be Slikrim,” the voice said, and Zaraq’s blood ran cold. “Come with me.”

Zaraq could hear the tap of footsteps over the casino’s background noise. Then the sound of patrons and music died away, and Zaraq knew Sofia was being taken up to Slik’s office.

“Who’s this?”

Zaraq clenched his fists as Slik’s slimy voice came over the speaker.

As he listened to Sofia enquire after a job, he became more determined to get himself, and her, out of this mess before it went too far.

“We run a very prestigious establishment here,” Slik was saying. “We don’t just accept any girl who walks in off the street, you know.”

“Of course,” Sofia replied, her voice smooth even through the crackle of the speakers. “But how many Earthling girls do you have working here?”

There was silence for a moment, and all Zaraq could hear was the pounding of his own heart. He had to admit, it was a good ploy. Slikrim, for all his terrible traits, was a savvy businessman, and Zaraq knew he’d struggle to resist an exotic creature like Sofia to bring in customers.

“Can you dance?” Slik asked, and again, the question burned in Zaraq’s ears.

“Sure can,” Sofia replied confidently.

Behind him, Carmen scoffed. “Sure, the chicken dance maybe.”

Zaraq didn’t even ask what the chicken dance was, or even what a chicken was, for that matter. His attention was focused entirely on the conversation playing out before him.

“We’ll see about that,” Slik replied, and Zaraq could hear a cruel smile in his voice. “Go to this address tomorrow at noon. My second-in-command, Vexis, will give you a trial.”

Zaraq heard the rustle of paper, Sofia’s thanks, and then her footsteps echoing through the corridor. It wasn’t until ten minutes later when she walked back into the hotel room that Zaraq finally allowed himself to breathe.