14 Penny #2
The third guard pivoted and ran. His weapon clattered to the floor as he rushed for the control panel, fumbling to open the door. Beside him lay the motionless body of his fellow guard, slumped in an unnatural heap, his head tilted at an impossible angle.
I let the vermin go. Without the collar—without torture as a source of power—he was nothing.
I stepped forward as the doors slid shut behind him and picked up the broken rifle. Behind me, the habitation cells still roared with excitement, an orchestra of voices echoing through the corridor. I didn't care.
But off to my right, a ghostly figure stood motionless at the edge of my vision, a silent witness to the entire ordeal.
I turned my head to see Thraxxen standing in the middle of his enclosure, his head slowly cocking to the side, curious. He did not beg me to free him. He did not speak or try to bargain, but his eyes did flick briefly toward the rifle in my hand, daring me to use it.
I gave it a split second of thought before I raised the rifle and fired two shots at the side of his barrier, bringing it down between us. He did not shy from the debris or rush into the hall to wrestle the gun from my grip. He just observed, glimpsing the broken glass and then me.
I said nothing. I tossed the gun at his feet and I stepped back, waiting.
I wasn’t surprised when he stepped over the weapon and exited his cell, standing slightly taller than me in the open corridor, weaponless and menacing.
He raised his hand to the collar around his neck and in the same fashion that I had, snapped it clean off with one, tense tug.
“Can we go?” Sunhai said, pulling my attention toward her.
She’d ventured out into the hall with us, still toying with her collar.
I turned toward her and, with both hands, pried the thing off her slender neck, tossing the two halves to the sides.
A solid thump and a grunt drew both our eyes toward Thraxxen as he pried the electric door open with one of the fallen shikari’s shock sticks.
“Should we go that way?” Sunhai asked.
I turned toward Penny’s open cell and stepped inside, searching briefly until I found her wrist cuff tucked under the corner of her thin mattress.
“Meet me at the hangar,” I said to Sunhai as I stepped back out.
Sunhai’s big eyes narrowed. “You going for the human?”
I didn’t grace her with an answer. Instead, I moved past her, heading for the opposite end of the hall where the others had taken Penny.
I didn’t bother looking back. I could hear the doors give and Sunhai spoke a few nervous words to Thraxxen, though he didn’t bother responding either.
I didn’t expect them to work together, but Thraxxen alone would carve a path through the whole port now that he was without restraints.
I knew that much. Sunhai could simply tread behind him.
When I heard the unclear chatter of voices within the fibers of my helmet, I knew my khof karr had tapped into a monrian vessel, which meant they were close.
Soon enough, the asteroid began to tremble and alarms started blaring from across the entire station.
When I reached the elevator, I pried the doors ajar, not bothering with the controls.
I didn’t have clearance and I suspected even the backup power would get cut off soon.
Glass crunched to my left as a valerian male stepped out into the hall, staring at my efforts.
He was a fiery red color from head to toe, unlike the common race.
I didn’t know his name. The man never spoke—never interacted with anyone outside the games.
He looked me up and down, nodded once, and headed toward the other end of the hall, ignoring the other prisoners the same way I did.
He would add to the madness, and I needed the commotion to distract the guards from mine.
Once the elevator doors opened, I slipped into the hollow shaft and leapt onto the maintenance prongs lining the inner wall, scaling them toward the upper level at speed.
Reaching Pek-Tol's floor was easy. I braced myself against the platform outside the doors and forced them apart. With the added strength of my exosuit, the metal yielded quickly.
Beyond was a dark hallway filled with chaos. Shikari raced in every direction, panicked and disorganized, weapons raised and fingers twitching on their control panels, ready to fire at anything that moved.
The first one to rush past me met my fist. The impact flipped him backward onto the floor, his rifle spinning from his grasp. I snatched it from the air before it could hit the ground.
More monrian chatter came through as my helmet reformed across my head. That time, I tapped in.
“This is Commander Tuross. I’m on Mekah Prime.”
There were only a few beats of silence before someone replied. “This is the Qohaan. We have your khof kaar’s location and will extract you following the completion of our task.”
“What is your assignment?”
Another beat of silence followed by, “Execution of Pek-Tol and all benefactors.”
A thrill of excitement surged through me. The mere thought of tearing that damned place apart sent waves of heat pulsing through my armor, as though my khof kaar shared my anticipation.
“Permission to assist,” I said.
Just as I gave the request, three shikari bastards turned the corner into my view.
Two guards and Pek-Tol, his arms filled with treasures he did not want to leave behind in his evacuation.
He set his big eyes on me and paused, pure terror bending his features into something I admittedly relished. His fear. His dread. His regret.
“Permission granted,” the voice on the other end of my comms said.
I let my helmet recede, revealing my full face to him.
“Tuross,” he said shakily as his guards raised their weapons.
“You’ve never had permission to use that name,” I said as I took a step toward him.
The guards fired, but the shots bounced off me, what little damage they inflicted on my suit repairing instantly.
“I can pay you. Monrians love money. I have a lot of it.”
“Money earned because of me.”
“Take it. All you want.”
“You don’t hold a contract.”
I kept walking forward, and the guards retreated step by hesitant step, exchanging nervous glances as if neither knew what to do next.
One of them finally charged. I caught him by his thin neck and squeezed until it snapped.
The other fled immediately, shoving past Pek-Tol in his desperation to escape.
I let the body fall and continued forward, barely restrained fury burning in my chest. Fury at the damage he'd caused. To me. To Penny. To everyone.
His lack of honor disgusted me. His betrayal. His greed. Everything he was.
“I—I can make a contract. I can hire you,” he reasoned, dropping his riches and stumbling backward.
“Where is Penny?” I snarled.
“Who?”
“You know who.”
“The human? She’s… she’s…”
I held out my hand to the side, opening my fingers wide. Little veins of light and fragments trickled down my arm into my palm, forming a straight blade from the living fibers of my armor. Pek-Tol eyed it warily.
“She’s in observation!”
“Why?”
“She’s sick. I’m… I’m helping her. I—I can help you, too. I can bring—”
My body reacted faster than I could think and my suit, understanding my intent, didn’t make it any easier to resist the impulse.
I swept my hand horizontally and before I knew it, Pek-Tol’s head was rolling across the ground, finally silenced.
His body slumped to the ground, twitching, like all shikari bodies did after death.
I took a moment to revel in the sight of his corpse before I looked down the hall and started to move.
No sense in dragging it out. He was a side-mission, but he was not my main goal. Not anymore.
It wasn’t long before I reached one of Pek-Tol’s so-called observation cells, but it was empty.
A large crack bisected the glass door as if it had been struck and the door itself had been pried open just enough for someone like Penny to squeeze through.
Her scent was everywhere. Even among the blood and smoke, I could smell her.
Further down the hall, there were bodies as if others had already been through there.
I gripped my blade tight and ventured onward.