“That’s bullshit,” I said.
“Of course it is. Oeri had an agreement with the Monks of the New Wandering through the end of this year. But before I knew it, the Mayir were dragging my ass to Vortis.”
“So once you found your parents, what was your plan?”
“Honestly?” She smiled a crooked smile. “I didn’t have one. I was kind of hoping you’d show up. Maybe break us all out. I sure as hell didn’t expect you to launch a mid-air attack on the shuttle.”
“Yeah, well. I didn’t have a lot of options.”
“We still don’t. We have to fly this thing to Vortis and find my parents. Let’s see if we can get Grannt to convince the pilot to take us in.”
“What’s the deal with that guy? Is he some kind of psycho killer criminal?”
“No, he’s a former Imperial army guy. Major Leocald Grannt. Retired.”
“Retired?”
“Yeah, now he kind of just bums around. The Mayir don’t like vagrants, so they picked him up.”
“Does he know who you are?”
“Not really, but I get the impression he might be up for helping. He’s the soldier-of-fortune type.”
“Well, maybe we should talk to him before we get our hopes up.”
As we left the Mayir launch I saw our own shuttle hovering nearby. It descended, kicking up a cloud of dust which caught the fading sun.
“That will be TenSix,” I said. “Right on time.”
We walked over to a rock outcropping where Grannt was waiting with the pilot. The big man was standing over his prisoner, who was now cuffed and stripped down to her underclothes. A small pile of the pilot’s personal effects was arranged on her clothes.
Grannt motioned to the shuttle. “More hostiles?”
“No,” I said. “He’s with us.”
We all watched as TenSix ambled out of the shuttle and headed our way.
Grannt took a step towards the pilot, his shadow eclipsing the woman on the ground. “Sergeant Ulla Zulch. Orders were to transport the prisoners to Vortis. No specific timetable. The transport operation appears to be fairly lax. As does the procedure for prisoner intake. Basically, the shuttle lands and they call for guards to escort prisoners to the detention block. There’s an intake station in the block where they sort out who’s who and who goes where.”
“Impressive,” Kira said.
“No,” Grannt said. “Not impressive at all. Sloppy.”
“I meant you. Can we speak?”
Grannt handed me the pilot’s pistol without a word and followed Kira as she moved out of earshot.
TenSix made his way over to me. “Well done, J—”
“No names!” I cut him off. “We have a prisoner.”
“I see.”
I addressed the pilot. “Zulch, huh?”
The woman just groaned in response. Her nose was split and swollen and her face was bruised. Obviously Grannt had no issues with slapping around a woman in order to get information.
“What’s going on at Vortis?” I asked. “Why are you locking up scientists there?”
“Fuck you,” Zulch muttered. “You’re going to be dead in an hour. All of you. Your bot too.”
“How rude!” TenSix exclaimed.
“And you’re going to be dead sooner. Now talk. Unless you want me to call my big friend over again.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Well, it could matter to you. Specifically whether or not someone much larger than me stomps on your hands and feet until they are just bone fragments. Or maybe I could give it a try. This suit has a lot of power in it.”
I picked up a hunk of volcanic rock and squeezed it. The exosuit’s kinetics kicked in and I was able to crush the rock into powder, which I menacingly sprinkled over the prone pilot.
Personally, I didn’t think I sounded particularly convincing. I wasn’t really a torture kind of guy. To be honest, it made me uncomfortable. I preferred straight-up fighting myself.
But either the impressive suit or the fresh memory of the beating Grannt gave her compelled Sergeant Zulch to sing like a Rygondian canary.
It turned out that the Mayir had several hundred scientists working on some secret project codenamed “NECRO-7.” Zulch had no idea what this NECRO-7 thing was, but it was supposed to be important. She didn’t know much about the captive scientists either, but she guessed that they were being put to work in the labs. In addition to the scientists, there were another group of prisoners: non-humans, including Naba-Sa’im, Bondril, and a whole lot of Shima.
“Shima? Where’d you get Shima?”
“I have no idea. They were here when I arrived. I smelled their stench the second I touched down on this forsaken moon.”
Kira and Grannt returned from their discussion.
“He’s in.” Kira announced.
“Really?”
“Sure,” Grannt said. “I’ve got nothing better to do for the next twenty-four hours. Might as well free some scientists.”
“They’re political prisoners,” Sergeant Zulch said. “And there’s no way you’ll be able to free them. We’ve got an entire battalion keeping the facility secure. The three of you will be ground down to nothing the second you make a move.”
“Four,” TenSix said.
“How about you go into a little more detail about this battalion?” Grannt growled at Zulch.
It turned out that the big man was much better at interrogation than I was. He got answers to all kinds of things—from the physical layout of Vortis to the types of locks on the cells to the location of the armory.
“We need to get going,” I said. “Eventually they’re going to realize that one of their launches is missing.”
“So what now?” Sergeant Zulch asked. “You kill me?”
“Yes,” Grannt said.
“No,” I said. “She’s been helpful.” I looked down at the pilot. “How about we let you go and you walk back to Ganga Kos and keep your mouth shut?”
“Across this desert? That will take days.”
“Technically, it’s not a desert,” Kira said. “It’s a xeric scrubland.”
“And it might take a little longer than you thought.” Grannt squatted down next to Zulch, grabbed the woman’s foot, and twisted it sharply—causing the pilot
