Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
The world hummed loudly around her. Wynn’s entire head buzzed with the noise, her temples throbbing. Stale air swirled up her nose.
She forced her eyes open and focused on a metallic deck. She didn’t remember getting here. Where is here?
The hum changed, the pitch lowering, and she tried to place the sound, knowing she’d heard it before. Wynn turned her head, and something tugged at her throat. She reached toward it.
“Touch that and lose your hand.”
The distorted voice came at her from the right. Wynn froze, her hand hovering near her neck. A chilling sensation crawled up her spine as she remembered the events of the past day. I’m in the tether cabin.
Those last few moments before she’d gone unconscious muddled in her head. She remembered seeing the two men fight, and the beasts so close to her. Too close. She remembered the need to help Iax, but also to defend herself if the beasts neared.
She closed her eyes. Her last memory of Iax played against the back of her eyelids.
Her fingers twitched where they’d stopped near the throat of her UV-suit.
“They told me to bring you in,” Sawyer added. “They didn’t say it had to be in one piece.”
Nausea swirled in her stomach, realizing he must have attached a node of some type. What had he given her?
She dropped her hand and pushed herself to sit straight.
The cabin spun in a never-ending streak of gray and black.
Pressing her thumbs to her forehead, Wynn waited until the world stabilized before turning toward the voice.
She found him near the main terminal clothed in his flight-suit, his helmet engaged.
What did a monster look like? She couldn’t decide if she wanted to know.
The main viewer in front of him revealed stars and the bright glow of nearby stations. The cabin’s humming lowered again as they slowed toward orbital level.
“Engage your helmet,” he ordered without looking at her.
Hopelessness and rage swirled together in a heady mix. She needed to get away from him, to hell with whatever orders he obeyed. Her every cell screamed danger, even more so after what she’d witnessed on the surface.
Iax. Was he alive or dead? She swallowed around the large lump in her throat, the skin of her neck tugging with the motion and reminding her of the node. Her fingers twitched to take it off, but Sawyer’s threats rang in her head.
He turned his body until he looked in her direction. “Engage. Your. Helmet.”
Wynn hated this man with every fiber of her being.
Glaring at the reflection in his helmet, she reached and pressed the control on her suit.
The visor slid into place with a snap. Behind him, the viewer blacked out as the tether cabin inserted itself into the orbital station.
Her heart raced, a foreboding itch crawling over her skin.
Clank. The docking clamps engaged, the sound echoing twice more before everything fell silent with deafening finality.
“Up,” he ordered without looking at her, grabbing his case off the deck and slinging it over his shoulder.
Tension surged through her body, her limbs stiff with the need to flee. She stared at him for a long minute, waiting to see what other threats he would throw her way, then pressed her hands against the deck to push herself to stand.
The cabin swayed, and she tried to focus on the blackened viewer to regain her balance. But there was something wrong with her, like whatever he’d given her remained in her system, making the bulkheads undulate.
Strong fingers encircled her upper arm, holding her in place. She jerked, trying to get away from the vise-like grip, unnerved she hadn’t heard him move.
He tugged her closer and bent his head until the only thing she could see in the reflection of his visor was the warped image of her pale face behind hers.
“If you try to talk to anyone,” he said, his voice sliding directly into her ear now that the comm interface was engaged, “I’ll start shooting indiscriminately, and their deaths will be on your head.”
“What the hell?” she choked out, her throat feeling like he still squeezed it.
He had to be bluffing.
“Do you want that? Blood on your hands?”
She stared at him with a slack jaw, disbelieving he would actually follow through.
He must have seen her skepticism, because he said, “My superiors don’t care as long as I get you to your end destination. They’ll blame it on some extremist attack and call it a day.” He stepped closer. “So I ask again, do you want blood on your hands?”
She swallowed, unable to move, but whatever he saw on her face must have appeased him. He straightened and yanked her toward the exit.
Wynn tugged on her arm, trying to free herself, but when he loosened his hold a fraction, the bulkheads swayed. She stumbled. The grip on her arm tightened, and he jerked her forward.
The inner decontamination doors opened with a swipe of his hand. Sawyer pulled her inside. As soon as the doors closed behind them, the process started, a fine mist covering their suits.
Keeping hold of her, he pressed his PALM to the outer control panel. Wynn leaned as far away as she could get from him. The need to curse at him, to kick and punch, burned through her blood. But it was all she could do to keep her balance.
“Make your visor opaque,” he said without looking at her.
She fumbled a moment, then tapped her PALM to obey.
The decontamination process stalled before it could go through a full cycle. The moisture on their outerwear evaporated in a gust of wind. He dropped his hand from the panel, and the inner doors opened.
A woman stood there, backed by two defenders in uniform. A superintendent’s emblem graced the left side of her pristine white uniform, with the CORE insignia above that. She frowned at them, her gaze bouncing from one to the other.
She opened her mouth to say something when Sawyer spoke first. “Is the ship I requested ready?”
More tension climbed Wynn’s spine as the woman’s scowl deepened, a red flush traveling up her throat. “I could not obtain the exact vessel. You didn’t give me enough time.”
“Then you’ll take us to the fastest ship docked.”
His anger whispered into Wynn’s ear through their comm connection, twisting her already nauseous stomach.
One perfectly groomed eyebrow arched with skepticism, then the superintendent snorted and turned on her heel. “This way. We have one ship you can commandeer, as you put it, but that’s all. You’ll need to make do.” The defenders stepped to the side, their backs to the bulkhead, and waited.
The grip on her arm tightened a moment, then relaxed.
Sawyer guided Wynn forward, and they followed the superintendent down the typical corridor of a space station, the bulkheads lined with shiny black terminals, some turned on, but most off.
The footsteps of the defenders thumped behind them, adding to the anxiety growing in Wynn’s head.
The superintendent tossed them a look over her shoulder. “Chancellor Fearing is my uncle. I’ll be sure to tell him about this encounter.”
Sawyer stopped walking, and so did everyone else. “Make sure you do.” He stepped to the terminal beside the superintendent, dragging Wynn along, and pressed his hand against the dead surface.
It lit up at the touch, then data scrolled across the top. The superintendent’s face lost all its color. Wynn tried to read the information by adjusting the angle of her body, but Sawyer jerked her back.
The superintendent’s eyes narrowed the longer she stared at the terminal, then she snapped to attention. “Like I said, this way.”
Two corridors and one uncomfortable lift ride later, the five of them entered a cavernous docking bay filled with ships. Open blast doors revealed a chunk of space, the dark side of Earth a slender slice.
Wynn couldn’t tear her eyes away from it. Iax was down there somewhere. Was he even alive? Did he heal as before? Her stomach clenched while the questions choked her.
The superintendent’s clipped pace stopped beside a small shuttle.
Sawyer looked at the ship, then at the superintendent, then back at the ship. He laughed, his fingers flexing on Wynn’s arm tighter than they had been before. Her skin stung under the pressure, focusing her.
His laughter cut off abruptly, and he straightened. “No. Unacceptable.” He yanked Wynn forward, past the little shuttle and the shocked expression of the superintendent, toward a yacht docked two ships down.
It was three times the size of the cruiser they’d abandoned, and bright white instead of black. Wynn had to tip her head back to see it all as they neared.
“We’ll be taking this one,” he declared, stopping in front of it.
A gasp, then the slap of shoes as the superintendent caught up. “That’s impossible. That ship belongs to Administrator Jannex.”
“Even better.” Sawyer jerked her toward where the ramp extended from its belly, guarded by a two-man security detail. “Is the administrator aboard?”
The superintendent scoffed. “No, not currently—”
“Send him my regards.”
The guards drew their weapons at their approach. Wynn sucked in a breath, feet skidding.
Pop. She hadn’t even realized Sawyer had let go of her until the shot pulsed out of his gun. The wave of the stun caught both guards in one fell swoop before either of them could get off a shot. They crumpled to the ground.
Wynn’s heart pounded as she took in their slumped forms, her feet frozen to the deck. They weren’t defenders, but they might as well have been since Administrator Jannex, one of the ruling class, employed them.
Swallowing, she glanced back at the superintendent. She’d frozen too, her hands out at her sides, the two defenders behind her holding their weapons, one aimed at her, the other at Sawyer. Wynn braced herself, ready to get stunned again, but no one moved.
Except for Sawyer, who had returned to her, grabbed her arm, and led her toward the ramp.
Wynn cast another glance at the trio. Why was everyone letting him do this? What had the superintendent read on that terminal?
During her dazed shock, he’d dropped the security field protecting the ramp.
They passed by the motionless bodies of the guards and stumbled up the ramp, their hollow footsteps echoing loudly in the unnerving silence of the bay.
Reluctance dragged at her feet, but Sawyer yanked her up the rest of the way.
They entered a darkened space, a cargo hold filled with crates and containers. Sawyer dropped her arm to access the control panel near the door. The ramp whined as it lifted, and her heart pounded harder and harder. Automatic lights brightened as the cargo hold dimmed.
The ramp closed with a hissing clank, and she turned her head to find Sawyer standing right beside her, though she hadn’t heard him come closer.
He touched his PALM. “Sleepy time.”
“No—” The word stuck in Wynn’s throat as her knees gave out.