Chapter 21
STRON
She was wearing a tracker?
The whole time?
Stron wanted to scream.
But that would just bring more attention to them in the tunnels, and they needed to find a safe harbor.
He wasn’t taking her back to his home because he didn’t want to bring any danger on Baba.
Partially, because he wanted to be in private with Adryel to find out if the sensations he’d just felt were something real, or if it was just getting wrapped up in the moment.
That it was nothing more than a physical reaction.
Not a true connection.
But unlike any kiss he’d shared with a female before, it felt like more.
A great deal more.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I forgot about the communicator.”
“Later,” he said. The kiss had been a distraction. A way to let the ones following them get ahead and let Stron see what they did. Maybe even figure out if they were from a particular family or organization.
That had been his thought, anyway. A simple, practical plan.
But now, they’d found them. The tracker had seen to that.
One of their pursuers kept looking at something in his hand, then back up at the crowd.
“Look there,” he said softly to Adryel.
“What’s he doing? Scanning for us?”
“Most likely.” If the male was, in fact, scanning for them, then he’s tracking for the girl’s genome, because that would be easy to spot in the sea of Kantenans.
He glanced at her. Through the hood, she just looked like a short Kantenan female, her face not visible except for her mouth.
If they were from Knobb, then they wouldn’t be following them now, so whoever they were, they were connected to some other aspect of this situation.
“Where to now?” she asked as they moved through.
He started thinking about the nearest safe station he could take her to. Someplace close that would get them both out of harm’s way. Someplace that they wouldn’t be able to be followed into…
There were places like that in the Underground, but one had to know where they were.
Stron knew where one was.
But were they close enough to get to it? They were still in the main corridor, and he started mentally drawing the map of the Underground. Where they were, and where the side channels were that he was familiar with.
The ones that would get them out of there, as quickly as possible.
Before Khalzin sent a search party after Adryel.
“This way,” he said, leading her back the way they’d come for a bit.
“Got a secret hideout?” she asked.
“In a matter of speaking,” he replied, and saw what he was looking for. A tunnel was partially obscured by two vendor stands, not as wide as the main corridor, but obviously a tunnel for foot traffic.
It was darker than the main tunnel, and low lights illuminated the walk, colors of blues and purples that gave everything a surreal nightlife. Though water could be heard dripping from somewhere, and it smelled more like an underground cave than the main corridor did.
Less air purifiers here.
Even their footsteps echoed more on the ground. The rumble of traffic from the main passage hushed as they walked away from it, and it was more distinct, their footsteps from others.
They weren’t alone, though. There was a few walking through this tunnel as well, but not like the main passage with its thick flow of patrons.
It had been years since Stron had been this way. He hoped everything was still as he remembered.
“This is less crowded,” she said as they walked. Her voice seemed to echo, even though she hadn’t spoken too loudly.
The noise of the market area was already fading away, and the cave itself was quiet except for footfalls on the stone floor.
He kept her close as he checked again, to make sure they weren’t being followed. The few who were in the tunnel paid them no mind.
“They gone?” she whispered against his chest.
“Probably still looking for us,” he whispered softly.
“So where are we going?”
“Shh,” he whispered. He could hear footsteps behind them, and he casually guided her to the wall. He put one hand on the wall, pinning her between him and the rock.
She looked into his eyes, her lips parted, and he leaned down, his horn brushing against her head.
“We’re being followed,” he said. “Put your hand on my hip, inside the shirt fold.”
She did. Her finger grazed his skin.
He felt his heart race at the contact.
“Grab the—”
“This,” she said, her hand hitting the hilt of the collapsed blade he wore.
She pulled it out and held it between them both.
That’s when their follower made his presence known.
Stron grabbed the blade from her, and spun, shielding Adryel from the attacker, and he came at them hard, swinging his own blade at Stron.
Stron blocked and shoved back.
The two went back and forth, until Stron got him against a cave wall.
The male was shorter, but he had something in his eyes, something that Stron hadn’t seen a long time.
He was a Believer.
One who believed hard in Kantenan doctrine. Exactly the ones who wouldn’t like another race of females in the world, mating with Kantenans and contaminating the bloodlines.
How had they known that Stron was down here?
“Who are you—”
“Fo-Trima-Grona!” he chanted, and winced.
Stron pulled back. The words, old and meaningful, was a curse on him for daring to destroy the way of doctrine.
The male winced, and Stron knew what was next.
“Did you—” Adryel asked as he stared.
The Kantenan had stabbed himself with his own blade, and started shaking violently. Adryel jumped back, like the male was on fire.
“We have to go,” Stron said, guiding Adryel away.
“What was that?” she asked, her eyes wide and her hands shaking.
“Zealot,” he said. “We have to hurry.” If there were zealots looking for him, and for Adryel, then they had some kind of connection to the whole mess.
Just perfect.
She didn’t ask any more questions as he led her further down the tunnel toward a private entrance he knew.
They moved quickly past the other doors and businesses along the tunnel. The lights illuminated the private entrances that only a select clientele could use. Not many came back here.
Stron hadn’t been in years. But he had no time to reminisce, he needed to get her to safety, and soon.
Khalzin would be putting out a security team for her if he didn’t reach back out and let him know they were safe. Which right now, was a question.
An occasional door would open, and the loudness of whatever business was on the other side blared into the corridor for a moment until the door sealed shut again.
Each one gave Stron pause, even though no one seemed to pay either of them any mind.
The lights dimmed to a single yellow light at the end, a safety light that shined against the rocks. A ladder was attached to the stone, and as they approached it, she stared.
“Am I climbing that?” she whispered.
“Do you not like ladders?” he asked.
“I don’t like ones that look like they’re older than my grandmother.”
They reached the ladder and the yellow light, and he touched a rock on the wall. It revealed a scanner pad.
He touched his hand to the scanner.
The stone and the ladder shifted to the side, revealing a door. A more secured door, not something carved out of the cave, but something that had been forced into the stone. The kind of blast door that would keep a citricite bomb at bay.
“What is this?” she asked.
“A back door,” he replied, and ran his hand over the panel on the wall next to the door.
It glowed green for a moment, before the heavy door released.
He pulled it open, and was greeted by two guards.
Adryel froze.
“Gol-Vett,” the first guard said, and stepped aside.
“We need a room,” Stron said.
The guard nodded. He pulled out a data panel and held it up.
Stron touched it, and it lit green. The guard grumbled an approval and led them through the hallway, an extreme change to the cave they were just inside.
This had squared walls, proper lights, smooth flooring, and an opulence that wasn’t seen in the Underground.
“Where are we?” Adryel asked. Her eyes darted around. “Did we just walk into a palace or something?”
He glanced at her. “It’s an exclusive location.”
“I kinda figured,” she muttered as they walked. The guards were covering them, one in front and one in back as they walked through the long hallway.
Light illuminated the walls, these hallways structured and framed with ornate fabrics covering the stone, not carved out of the rock. The floor was soft, covered in an absorbing carpeting to keep sound down.
The walls had a row of trim through the middle, and Adryel raised her hand, caressing it.
“It’s wood,” she whispered. “And fabric.” She stroked the material on the walls.
“You seem surprised.”
“Considering where we were, yeah. I am.”
“Trust me.”
“Don’t think I have a choice at this point.”
The guards escorted them to a lift, and without a word, took them up to another floor. This floor, similar to the one they’d just been on, with the same trims and flooring, was intensely quiet. Almost unnervingly so.
Even Adryel seemed to realize this was a quiet space. She kept looking around, and then to him. Her eyes scanned everything, like she was trying to figure out her escape.
Honestly, he wouldn’t blame her. She’d been through a lot in the last few days. The fact that she wasn’t a pile of blubbering fear right now said a lot.
The guards opened a room for them.
“The Baron will summon you when he returns from the Coalition.”
Stron nodded. “Thank you.”
Adryel walked through, looking around, but didn’t put her hood down until the guard was gone and the door sealed. Quite a change from the cave, the suite looked like a smaller version of the apartment that Adryel and the others had been given in the tower before.
A private place where Stron had been known to spend time that was both secure but also very separate from prying eyes. Even the guards here were known to be some of the best.
Discreet as well as protective.
Adryel spun on him as soon as the door was sealed and they were alone. “Okay, Stron. It’s time. Start speaking.”
He crossed to the food prep area. “Are you hungry?”
“For information,” she replied.
He headed to the food prep unit, and got two glasses of juice. “Here,” he said, handing her the cup.
“Thanks. Now speak.”
“Do you have a particular topic you want to discuss?”
She glared at him, her bundles of her red hair piled on top of her head, frayed and chaotic, matching her frustrated expression.
He found it adorable.
“Don’t look at me like that. Just tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I’m not looking at you any particular way,” Stron said.
“Yes you are. Like I’m some cute little child you’re amusing.
Knock it off and tell me what the hell Knobb was talking about back there.
And what does it have to do with me and the rest of us brides.
” She spat out the last word, like it made her mad to even admit that’s what they were there to be.
“And why a damn zealot was following us, and, what was that, did he kill himself right there in the tunnel?”
“Yes, unfortunately, he did. Rather disappointing,” Stron said.
She waved a hand. “We’ll get to that in a minute. Right now, Knobb. Talk.”
He nodded, focusing his thoughts. “Yes. Knobb.”
“You seem to have an idea of what is going on. Share it.”
“Knobb mentioned stranding someone somewhere to make sure the job was done. In the past, this has been a way of making sure that certain tasks, especially those of questionable origins, get finished as they’re supposed to be done.”
“Like killing the assassin after the job’s done,” she said. “So, no one can trace it back to who hired them.”
Stron nodded. “Exactly. But in this case, it was internal within the Galactic Alliance.”
Adryel nodded, and her expression shifted, like she understood suddenly. “Someone was on the Galactic Alliance’s ship, and it was blown up to make sure that no matter what, none of us would be getting off this world.”
“Yes. And it’s much easier to let a xenophobic species take out the foreign humanoids when they’re stranded on the world, than to give them a way to leave.”
“It doesn’t make any sense though,” she said. “Why would anyone come after us. There’s no one of value on that ship, as far as the potential mates.” She walked over to a chair and sat down.
“You think none of you are important?” Stron asked, joining her.
“No one is. You gotta understand. We’re all from Kerde.
It’s a moon of Trinity Alpha Prime. We’re basically a part of the system that’s overrun with, well, lowlifes.
There’s not anyone important there. It’s all homeless and addicts and—” She stopped speaking and stared at him. “And organized crime.”
Her face paled. “Oh, my stars, I know why.”
“What is it? What do you know?”
“They’re here for me. This is about me,” she said, shaking her head.
“What do you mean? Why you?”
“They’re looking for me.”