We crept down the hushed halls, Wren, Blest and the others at my heels. A vengeful leer was carved on my face as we halted before the iron-bound door worked with ornate inscriptions of naked bodies plunged in orgiastic positions. I gave a quick nod. We blew the mechanism and burst through, our guns hefted. The place appeared deserted, but through the thick billows of reeking incense, I perceived goblets of stale wine and ale lying strewn all over the marble floor amidst the decorative fountains. I caught a shiver of movement in the back. Cushions and embroidered blankets sprawled on plush divans; heads turned at our approach and naked bodies twisted.
Amid the rank haze, I stared and found her spread-eagled under a drunken captain whose croak rose to a bull’s roar of defiance.
The naked, struggling figure underneath him kneed him in the groin. The man groaned, one hand groping for his weapon. Wren opened fire and he fell in a rapidly-spreading pool of blood.
Frenzied shrieks echoed about the stone chamber. Several of the dazed women rolled off their couches, uncertain what to do. Volia staggered up, pulling a fleece cover around her half-naked, olive-skinned body. She looked broken in some indefinable way, but I glimpsed a defiance still burning in her hazel eyes and a growing contempt for her captors and a raging desire for vengeance. I shuddered to think what those animals had done to her in here.
I moved forward to gather her up, snatching up a long fur coat draped on the side of a couch.
“Who’s she?” grunted Wren, motioning her gun. One of your girlfriends?”
“It’s Lady Volia—”
“Leader of the Melinar,” Volia croaked. She coughed, staggered up to her full height, fumbling to accept the garment in my hands. She leaned heavily on me and I caught the musky smell of sweat and sex. She wrapped the black-furred garment tighter, hugging the trim contours of her body, the smooth round of hip and curve of breast I’d glimpsed earlier. She was half drugged with something, still zoned on local poppy or some drug no doubt. Probably the least of what Mong had forced on her. Her eyes stared funny, all glassy.
Wren seemed to pause. “Your people are here, Volia, trying to rescue you.”
She nodded, gave a weak acknowledgement.
“What of these others?” Wren motioned to the scattered few in this smoke-hazed, degenerate orgy grounds.
A half dozen other women shied away from us. The riddled corpse spooked them and had them cowering back against the wall in even greater fear. “If you want to come with us, hurry your asses!” Wren called in a crisp, no-nonsense voice.
None of them responded, only quivered in doubt and fear, retreating to their shadowy corners.
“Broken as whipped dogs.” I shrugged in resignation. They were too far gone, too brainwashed and terrorized by Mong’s sadistic abuse. It was sad. I took a few halting steps toward the exit.
Blest’s moon-face blinked; he started to shiver again, still prey to convulsions.
“Blest, snap out of it.” I slapped him then gave him a reassuring pat on the back. “We have killing to do.”
“Yeah.” He shook off whatever was buzzing through him and took a firmer grip on his R6. Zan was doing better, though he was looking terrible. Pale-faced, bloodshot eyes, jittery hands.
Wren looked the epitome of health. Ready to take on a small army.
I shuddered to think what I looked like. Probably a ragged scarecrow with a shit-eating grin pasted on his gaunt-ugly face. I rolled my eyes. Quit mucking around, Rusco. You auditioning for a beauty pageant here? A second’s daydreaming and it’s graveyard time for you.
Another half-baked sot sprang to life from under a blanket on a nearby divan. His hands clawed for me. I kicked him in the gut, whacked him with the butt end of my gun as the snarl died on his lips and he fell in a soundless heap.
I stepped over the body and motioned to Zan. “Forgot to make the introductions. Wren—meet Zan. Zan, Wren.”
Wren waved her gun at the two young recruits. “These ugly mutts are Voj and Grild.” The whites of their eyes showed against camo-blackened faces, matching toothy grins.
Zan shook his head in confusion. “Rusco, who are these guys? What gives?”
“This is my swat team, can’t you see? If you want out of this prison, follow her lead.”
Zan gave a low whistle. “You’ve got friends in very high places. Or some guardian angels protecting you.”
“I followed Mong’s meditations, remember?”
“What’s our plan?” Blest growled, facing Wren.
“Get to the ship,” she said. “Noss is out there waiting for us. I told him to hide the ship not far away, on the other side of the river.”
“Good,” I said. “What is it, Alastar?”
“No, a new one.”
I shook my head in wonder and could have laughed for joy. “Wren, I applaud your resource. Good play. Can you reach Noss?”
“Of course.” She tapped her invisible earset. “All on a safe channel.”
“A bold move, considering Mong’s ruthlessness.”
“It was the only opportunity we had. Paid some mega yols out of your drug money for secret intelligence. I’d been watching Othwan like a hawk for weeks, then I saw the Vendecki move in. They must have used some force field to penetrate Mong’s defenses and used it to repel the host.”
“Heard them surge in,” I mumbled. “Sounded just like Mong’s bat fighters making a stealth swoop on a defenseless world.”
“The Vendecki can’t hold these brutes off forever. We’d better hurry.”
In that moment I realized the fortuity of Wren’s presence and loved her all the more for it. The gal was saving my ass again. All of our asses.
