Chapter 32 Darren
Darren
Darren’s mind raced, turning into a mess as Aiden dragged him through the hordes of people crowding Reikhei’s central section.
Marcus was here. Now. So close.
Darren shuddered, replaying that single heartbeat in which their eyes had met. The icy blue had paralyzed him, the resentment and loathing in it so profound, so deep, it had coiled around him like a snake, squeezing and squishing and suffocating him until he’d felt about to pass out.
But he hadn’t. Because Aiden had saved him, dragging him through the confused onlookers and away from the enemy.
Darren inhaled sharply. He was both scared shitless of Marcus, and reeling, wanting to hurt him.
To end the man and end this. He was reliving the torture and his first days in prison, the chase, Claudia’s confrontation, the night his family had been murdered.
It all mixed together and he couldn’t tell what was what anymore. His body vibrated, his ears hissed.
Should he go back or should he run? Could he even fight? Was there any point in running?
He wanted to do both and neither at the same time.
“Darren, you’re fine! Stay with me!” Aiden screamed, squeezing Darren’s wrist.
That knocked Darren back to the present, pulling him out of his thoughts. He couldn’t lose it now. Marcus was here. It didn’t matter how, not right now. They needed to get off the station or they were all dead.
Alarms went off all around Darren, blaring and painting the surroundings in red.
[Attention. Emergency lockdown initiated. Please remain in your quarters or head to the assembly points.]
“No, no, no, no. Guys, where are you? You need to get here right now! They are grounding all ships!” Nyle spoke in Darren’s earpiece, his voice agitated and shaky.
“We are five minutes away!” Kristen said, crashing into George as the older man abruptly stopped after rounding the corner. “Fuck! The doors to Arrivals are down!”
“Bea! They’ve been cut off!”
“Fuck!” Bea groaned. “By the time they bypass that, this place will be swarming with guards. I need to get the Maine out of here!”
Commotion behind them as the door started closing had them scrambling back so they wouldn’t get trapped in this section of corridors. They slipped back into the entertainment zone, using the panicking crowd for cover.
[Attention. Please head to the closest assembly point. All personnel must present a valid station ID. If you don’t have an ID, you will be detained until your credentials are checked.]
Holographic billboards with the station layout flashed to life, outlining the routes to the closest assembly point.
“Guys, there is an emergency airlock on the other side of the entertainment zone. Just past the green park, in one of the maintenance tunnels. I’m pinging you the route,” Bea said, her voice clear in Darren’s ear even with the noise and screams around him.
He was still holding Aiden’s hand, clasping it as hard as he could because it felt like he’d collapse the moment he let go.
“Bea, the tunnel entrance is right by one of the checkpoints!” Kristen said, panting as he slowed down to a jog.
He stopped by a lamppost and so did George, the two of them waiting for Darren and Aiden to catch up.
“I think they have jammers,” Kristen said, his eyes darting left and right as people ran past them. “Bea’s not answering.”
Darren tried to contact her or Nyle, but got only static. “We need to make it to that airlock.”
“We’ll need to get past the checkpoint first,” Aiden said, scrunching his eyebrows. “Marcus probably already has people there.”
Darren ground his teeth. They had no choice. If they wanted to get off the station, the airlock was their only chance. “George, are there any other routes that can get us to those maintenance tunnels?”
“I’m afraid not on this level.”
The crowd started to thin, making it easier for anyone looking for them to spot where they were.
Darren scanned the surroundings, his eyes zeroing in on the ramp along the deck overlooking the lower levels of the station.
Marcus and his armed bodyguards were standing there, flicking through the surveillance feeds via the control terminal.
“We need to move,” Darren said, ducking out of sight of the camera mounted on a nearby shop’s awning. He headed toward the checkpoint where the maintenance entrance was. “Station security uses tranquilizing bullets, don’t they?”
“Yes. From what I could see, so do Marcus’ men,” George said, trailing behind alongside Kristen.
Did that mean Marcus wanted them alive, after all? He probably knew there was another part to the legacy then. Good thing he’d left the earring with Leonard.
“I need you and Kristen to create a distraction. Aiden and I will get us some guns.”
George nodded, halting Kristen. “Be careful.”
Darren led Aiden to an alleyway behind the shops.
They followed it until its eventual dead end, then climbed up the air-circulation system situated there.
Humidity clung to his face, making his lungs work double, but he clenched his teeth through it and made it all the way to the roof of the building next to the vents.
The assembly checkpoint was right across, its entirety visible from this vantage point. And just as he’d suspected, Marcus’ men were monitoring it from here.
Crouching behind an air-conditioning unit once he’d vaulted over the edge, Darren took a moment to evaluate the situation.
There were three men. Two snipers and a lookout. They were focused on the crowd below so they hadn’t noticed him and Aiden yet, but the moment the lookout decided to do his job, the two of them would be busted.
“Aiden,” Darren whispered, gesturing at the three men. “Go from the left. I’ll take out the lookout, you go for the closest sniper. His gun will slow him down. The other one is distracted.”
Aiden squinted, his lips twitching in a hint of a smile. “I’m the decoy, aren’t I?”
“I’m better at close combat.”
“I know.”
Darren chuckled, feeling some of the tension leave him. “We go on three, two, one.”
Dashing out from behind the AC, Darren jumped the lookout.
Before the man even had time to react, Darren’s arms were around his neck, squeezing.
He crumpled to the group without a fuss just as Aiden punched the sniper with the back of the gun.
The third guy yelped in surprise, his face contorting in shock as he watched his buddy trying to fight off Aiden.
Darren took advantage and barreled into the man.
They fell to the concrete, the gun skidding away.
“Aiden!”
Aiden didn’t hesitate, sending the butt of the gun to the man’s head. He blacked out momentarily.
Panting, Darren crawled off him and took Aiden’s offered hand. A bolt of panic raised the hair at the back of his neck. Shit, did someone see them? He turned around, a wave of cold sweat washing over his entire body.
“We are good,” Aiden said from next to him, squeezing his arm. “No one saw us.”
Darren exhaled, shuddering from the force of it. “I’ll take care of the guards. Get the roof hatch open.”
While Aiden did that, he lay on the concrete with one of the sniper guns and slowed down his breathing.
He needed to concentrate. Knowing that Aiden had his back, he focused on the task at hand and tuned out everything else.
The word narrowed down to his five targets and he took them out one by one in a quick succession of precise shots.
“Shit, you’re good,” Aiden said as Darren tossed the gun and stood up.
Grinning, Darren pulled him in and smooched his cheek. “I know. Let’s go.”
They used the hatch to get into the jewelry shop below.
The street and the park were full of panicked people running in all directions.
He held Aiden’s hand and pushed past them, headed for the maintenance tunnel’s entrance.
Kristen and George were already there, working the control terminal to get the panel open.
“Hurry!” Darren urged as two SUVs pulled where the park started.
Station security got off the first one, shouting through megaphones for the crowd to calm down and line up in front of the fountain. Marcus and his three bodyguards got off the second one. They did a quick scan of the people and quickly seemed to realize that Darren wasn’t among them.
“Got it!” Kristen gasped as the terminal pinged.
A square section in the metal panel slid to the side, screeching so loudly, the entire crowd hushed and snapped their heads in the direction of the noise. Marcus froze in the middle of saying something, his gaze cutting to Darren.
Darren’s heart jumped, but before he’d had time to freak out, Aiden pushed him through the opening, screaming for Kristen to close the hatch.
In a blur of black and red, they ran down the tunnel to the airlock. Darren’s ears were pounding with his pulse. His legs were shaking. But even so, he somehow didn’t pass out, following the rest inside the decompression chamber. The Maine was just outside, docked and waiting.
It took about a minute before the outer door opened and they entered the frigate, but Darren felt every second.
“Bea, go!” Nyle’s voice sounded through the ship’s comms once they were inside the Maine’s pressure chamber.
“Get your asses up here! We have company!” Bea said back, grunting as the entire ship shook.
By the time they made it to the bridge, Darren’s heart was galloping again. “Bea, what’s going on?” he asked, joining Bea in the cockpit.
The ship veered sharply to the left. “I’ve got a GN tail. Marcus came prepared.”
“Can we slip them?” George asked, panting.
Nyle looked up from the left gun control. He had the tactical visor connected to it on. “Negative. Bea, I’m all loaded up. Spin us!”
“Hold onto something, everyone!” Bea said, yanking the ship’s controls to the side.
The Maine stopped abruptly and spun around, giving Darren a throbbing headache. His stomach sloshed, swaying to one side and then the other as the ship stopped moving. A high-pitched low sound accompanied the thin laser Nyle shot at the GN vessel. The ship exploded two seconds later.
Bea cheered. “Okay. Time to leg it. I suggest you strap in. We’ll be passing through some rocks.”
Darren’s knees gave, but Aiden was there to catch him, whispering encouragements and leading him to the mess hall so they could sit down and catch their breath.