No More Heroes: In the Wake of the Templars Book Three (12 page)

*   *   *

Haoun discovered there wasn’t any human consul on Lautan. He went to the Shtrell Embassy instead. In general, the Shtrell were fussy enough that bureaucracy suited them. They were also nosy enough that it should be easy to enlist their aid, if he piqued their curiosity.

As he’d hoped, the ambassador had time to see him, now that travel had fallen off on the planet. Haoun brought a bribe. He set a bag of mixed dry roasted insects on the desk as he sat in front of it. The ambassador hooted, pleased. “How can I help you?” she asked.

“My girlfriend got arrested yesterday,” Haoun said. “Before she’d even been charged with anything, she was transported to Kai in the night. I’d like to get a message to her, make sure she’s all right, but the jail wasn’t any help. And since there’s no human embassy here—”

The Shtrell clicked her beak. “Your girlfriend is human.”

Even though their translators both spoke Galactic Standard, Haoun’s still decoded the words for him. It didn’t give any context for the emotion behind the Shtrell’s words, but Haoun didn’t entirely like the bureaucrat’s tone.

“Yes,” Haoun said. “Could you help me find her? You know how humans are mistreated in the galaxy. I’m worried about her.”

The Shtrell ruffled her feathers, but merely asked, “What is her name?”

After Haoun told her, the ambassador poked around on the computer. She fluffed and resettled her feathers again.

“She was taken from a holding cell around midnight,” the Shtrell said. “By Planetary Security.”

“That seems a strange time to transfer someone who hadn’t even had a hearing yet,” Haoun said.

“It gets stranger. On the way to the spaceport, the truck crashed. Apparently, the entire contingent of Planetary Security agents were injured in the wreck. Your friend was removed from the wreckage by a trio of bounty hunters.”

“What?” Haoun leaned forward. “How bad was the crash? Was Raena hurt?”

“There’s a video.” The Shtrell turned the monitor so that Haoun could see. The truck lay on its side, but didn’t look particularly damaged. Raena walked out of it with her hands fettered in front of her. One of the bounty hunters—a human—clipped a lead to her restraints and led her away from the camera.

Raena appeared unharmed. She walked upright, straight and proud as ever, despite being barefoot. Haoun could see no obvious bruises or blood on her—even though fallen Planetary Security agents lay all over the street. It didn’t look like a vehicular accident so much as the site of an attack. While Haoun had never seen an attack in real life, he had played enough games to recognize one.

“Who are those guys?” he wondered aloud. “How did three of them take out a truck full of Planetary Security?”

“They haven’t been identified officially,” the ambassador said.

“Is there any indication where they might take her?”

The Shtrell pecked at the keys, then sat back and cocked an eye at her screen. “There’s a bounty put on her by the Business Council of Kai.”

“Nothing else?”

The Shtrell stared at Haoun, unhappy that Haoun already knew about Kai’s bounty. “I don’t see anything else.”

By tesseract drive, Kai was only a day’s flight away. Since the bounty hunters were likely to have a slower ship, no telling how long the trip would take. The only way Haoun would know if she got to Kai would be if the bounty was claimed. Otherwise, Raena was lost in the galaxy.

It wasn’t the Shtrell’s fault. Haoun struggled to remember that. He flexed his hands, wanting desperately to shred something. “Thanks for your help,” he ground out as he got up to leave.

*   *   *

Haoun met his crewmates on the beach for lunch. Coni had never seen him angry before, but the way the muscles bunched alongside his jaw was ominous. She knew that whatever he was about to say would be bad news.

“Raena was extradited to Kai last night,” he announced. “As local Planetary Security escorted her to the spaceport, their transport truck was attacked. In the end, a crew of bounty hunters took her off Lautan.”

“Is she all right?” Vezali asked.

“Lautan does not seem to care. Apparently, their responsibility for visitors to their planet ends when anyone else accuses those visitors of a crime. I mean, she’s only human. Who’s going to protest if she’s hurt?”

Coni was surprised to see just how much Haoun cared for Raena.

Haoun continued, “If they could blame her kidnapping on her—or on us—they would. They’re just relieved that she’s gone.”

“Strangely enough,” Mykah said, “they feel the same about the
Veracity
. It was also kidnapped in the night.”

Coni watched the others react to the news that their home had been stolen away. She knew the fury and bewilderment they felt.

“Is this happening because we stole the
Veracity
from the Thallians?” Vezali asked.

“The
Raptor
was never reported stolen,” Coni answered. “Anyone who might claim it is dead. It’s registered in Mykah’s name. The loan was refinanced and paid off. We own the ship free and clear. Even the ID numbers don’t correspond to the
Raptor
’s. The only connection between the ships is that they are both Imperial diplomatic transports and both were on Kai.”

“Can you make them believe that?” Haoun asked.

“There’s no evidence to contradict it,” Coni said. “Kai’s dockmaster obviously confused the two ships. Everything else follows that mistake.”

“Stellar,” Vezali cheered.

“What do we do about the charge for kidnapping the Thallian boy?” Haoun asked.

“Again, no one reported Jain missing,” Coni said. “All Kai has is the video of Raena following him onto the
Veracity
. Once she gets to trial, it should be easy to refute.”

“What can we do now?” Vezali asked.

“Some of us are going to have to go to Kai to get the
Veracity
back,” Mykah said. “It would be cheapest to find a working passage, if there’s a delivery ship going from here to Kai. But that might take a while to arrange.”

“Or we could all get on the first transport out,” Haoun insisted.

“It’s too costly,” Coni protested. “We’ll need to save enough money that we can afford a place to stay when we get there.”

“And pay the docking fees to get the ship back,” Mykah said.

“And whatever Raena’s fine is going to be,” Coni added.

“She has some money of her own,” Haoun pointed out. “Didn’t her friend Ariel set her up with a trust fund?”

“It won’t do us any good,” Coni said. “We can’t access it for her.”

“Have you told Ariel that Raena was arrested yet?” Vezali asked. “Maybe she can arrange to pay Raena’s fine from Callixtos.”

“
If
Raena’s been taken to Kai,” Haoun pointed out. “Since the bounty hunters captured her, they could be taking her anywhere.”

“All the more reason to get the
Veracity
back first,” Mykah argued. “Once we have the ship, we can go after her.”

“Call Ariel,” Coni soothed. “She deserves to know what’s going on.”

*   *   *

Ariel expected a call back from Raena, but she wasn’t expecting to hear from the former waiter from Kai. “Captain Chen,” she acknowledged. He looked like he was calling her from a bar.

“Hi, Ms. Shaad. We got the message you forwarded to us, but there’s a problem.”

Before he could tell her what the delay might be, Ariel asked, “Is Raena all right?”

“She was arrested on Lautan yesterday.”

“On what charges?”

“Kidnapping the Thallian boy and stealing an Imperial transport on Kai.”

The
Veracity
, Ariel understood. Ariel had told her sister that prank would bite her in the ass. Anger prickled over Ariel’s skin. She couldn’t believe Raena had been stupid enough not to obscure the ship’s origins.

Mykah interrupted her thoughts. “The officials on Lautan mistook the
Veracity
for the
Raptor
and impounded it. An honest mistake,” he said, rolling his eyes, “since they’re the same class of ship, but if they’d just compared the ID numbers . . .”

Ariel drew a deep breath, relieved the kids had that taken care of. “Sounds as if you ought to sue for wrongful seizure.”

“We’re trying to figure out how to get to Kai to file now.”

“What do you mean, trying?” Ariel stared at him, but Mykah wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Is it a matter of money?”

“Well, there are four of us and we can’t all afford to go anywhere until we get our ship back . . .”

Ariel cut him off. “Captain Chen, you know I consider Raena family. If you need to get to Kai to bail her out and get her chosen home out of hock, then arrange it and let me know how much it’s going to cost. Don’t waste time being too proud to take a handout. I would do anything to help Raena.”

“Thank you,” he said, awed. “We’re pretty confident we can get the ship back. But there’s still the kidnapping charge . . .”

Ariel suspected that particular Thallian clone was dead. She would have to ask Eilif. In the meantime, she said, “I’ll have the Foundation investigate. Since Raena’s one of my wards—and it was my idea to take her to Kai in the first place—I am responsible for her. Can you send me a copy of the charges?”

The boy looked to someone offscreen, then nodded. “They’re on the way to you.”

“We’ll get this handled,” Ariel promised. “I have an advocate on retainer to protect my family in court. But the shadows on Drusingyi . . . Don’t go without Raena. I met him—” she paused, unwilling to say Thallian’s name. “I was his prisoner during the War. If we can’t get Raena to explore this, I will turn it over to the galaxy to handle. I want them all erased.”

Mykah nodded. A string of numbers came across her screen. “This is my comm code. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help with Raena’s defense.”

“Thanks.” But as Ariel signed out, she was tempted to go to Kai herself and straighten everything our firsthand. The sooner this was cleared up for Raena, the sooner Ariel would know what was going on in the Thallians’ undersea city.

CHAPTER 6

W
hen Raena got the ventilation to her cabin blocked up, she returned the grate to its place and tightened it back down. Whenever the lights came up again, the bounty hunters shouldn’t be able to tell she’d been tinkering.

She climbed down onto the floor and rested with her back against the bunk. If she slept, her body would use less oxygen. It would be stupid to die because she’d cut off her own air supply.

How many hours had she been awake, anyway? The day began with a bubble bath in Haoun’s hotel room, she remembered. That seemed so long ago.

She rested her head on her arms and thought about what she’d like to be doing with Haoun right now.

*   *   *

Ariel watched the news from Lautan, but didn’t see anything about bounty hunters capturing a small human tourist. Only after she delved deeper into the public Planetary Security records did she find what she was looking for. Raena Zacari, ward of the Shaad Family Foundation, had been arrested on a warrant from Kai.

Interesting that they should designate Raena as one of the Shaad Foundation wards. Ariel had run into the Security system on Kai twice before, after Raena went chasing off after Thallian. The first time, Ariel and Gavin Sloane had been picked up by Planetary Security and held in the local jail until Ariel’s mother paid their bail. They’d used false names then, but when Sloane returned to Kai later to beat up the Thallian soldiers left behind, he’d been subjected to a truth drug and blown their cover. Once Kai knew their real names, they’d called Ariel to pay Sloane’s bail. And she’d refused, because he’d burned his last bridge with her. Kai seemed to drop the matter.

Now, months later—when times for pleasure planets were hard—Kai remembered that Ariel had money. Apparently, they had decided to help themselves to some of it.

Ariel returned to the computer search to see what else she could find.

During Raena’s transfer to Lautan Spaceport for extradition, the truck she was riding in had been attacked. The entire PS detail had been taken out of commission. Raena had been seized by three bounty hunters.

That drew Ariel’s attention. How had three hunters taken out a truck full of Security? Why would they risk it, if they were only transporting Raena to Kai—where they would presumably turn her over to Kai’s Planetary Security? Ariel poked around some more, expecting to find warrants for the hunters, but there was nothing. It looked as if they’d gotten away with poaching a prisoner from Planetary Security. How was that even possible?

Planetary Security was a relatively new organization, created during the chaotic years after the Templar Plague. Security agents all trained on a planet out in the Guida system, then were hired as independent contractors by each planetary government according to that planet’s security needs. On duty, they usually wore helmets that didn’t reveal their species. That was supposed to protect their identities and keep them from being subject to bribery. Since they were planet-bound, Ariel suspected that corruption crept in to the organization anyway—and the helmets only made it more difficult to assign blame. She generally tried to avoid their notice. It wasn’t that any particular Security agent was dangerous, but there were always plenty of them. Like wasps, they didn’t take kindly to having one of their own attacked.