Page 20 of True As Steel

I wanted to intervene but kept my peace. Haelin was currently assessing my companion, and my gut told me Jarog would successfully sway her the way he had done with me, despite his past. Trying to protect him by injecting myself in the conversation would likely only undermine him and imply that I did not trust in his ability to handle himself.

“Although they hid it very well, your security guards knew the attack was imminent,” Jarog continued. “Why did they delay raising the energy wall on the staircase to protect you? Without my intervention, the first blade would have hit you.”

A slow smile stretched Haelin’s lips. “I’m the one asking the questions,” she replied, a slight warning in her voice, “but I will indulge this one. There are far more defense mechanisms in this club than meet the eye. None of their weapons would have ever reached me, assuming you had failed to intercept any of them. But thank you for sparing me from revealing another one of those defenses. The main goal was to see what you would do, and how effective you would be at it. I am slightly disappointed you let one slip through. Still, you did better than most would have.”

I bit my tongue and cast a sideways glance at my companion. To my relief, Jarog didn’t appear angered or otherwise slighted by the little jab my friend had taken at him. The Narengi was trying to get a rise out of him, to see how much self-control he possessed. Rather than worrying me, this gave me hope. That she would take the time to evaluate how much she could trust him meant she was considering my earlier comments about him becoming a part of our rebellion. As her people were our allies, she would want to make sure we didn’t have a snake in our midst.

“What, no comments?” Haelin asked, when Jarog remained quiet.

“No. You are right that I failed to stop the second blade. But I didn’t have to overly worry about it since the energy wall went up, allowing me to dodge the attack aimed at me by the third assassin,” Jarog said with a shrug. “Anything I would actually want to say would be a couple more questions. As they are not welcomed, I see no point wasting either of our time with justifications or excuses.”

“Oh, now you have me curious,” Haelin said with a grin. “Ask your question, Cyborg.”

“Why did you execute him and allow your guards to kill the couple instead of keeping them for interrogation? And what the fuck are they?” Jarog asked.

“I’m quite curious about the answer to both of those questions as well,” I said before taking a bite of my food.

Haelin smiled, cut a piece of meat on her plate and slowly chewed it, giving herself the time to reflect on the answer she would give us.

“All three of them were enhanced Ferein agents. Their human appearance could not be more deceiving. Beyond their great physical strength, they are able to produce an adrenaline variant that essentially makes them insensitive to pain,” Haelin explained. “It is quite effective on the field. They are able to remain focused on the battle or on completing their mission despite grievous injuries to themselves.”

“Wait, I thought the Ferein were bald with a series of small, horn-like bone ridges covering their heads, and a thicker, broad spine that extended into a short tail?” I argued.

Jarog nodded, the same thoughts having visibly crossed his mind.

“It is common for agents to shave their horns and have their tail either cut off or tucked in. A good wig, dissimulating clothes, and no one will be the wiser,” Haelin explained. “They want my business, but for this, they need my territory. Assassination attempts have grown exponentially of late, which is becoming a serious problem.”

“You’re expecting an all-out war?” I asked.

Haelin shook her head. “No. We don’t believe in blood baths, here,” the Narengi leader said with an amused smirk. “We may be a merc planet, but we’re civilized in our hostilities. Assassins are mere soldiers performing the task they were given. Had any of the three succeeded in killing me, they would have been allowed to leave with their lives—their reward for winning. In the case of Dokolm, he hadn’t struck against me, only against you,” she added, turning towards Jarog. “Had he managed to defeat you, he would have gotten to live another day. Thanks for winning. I would have hated to let that one loose—he was vicious.”

“Interesting rules of engagement,” Jarog said, to which I nodded.

“Indeed,” Haelin replied. “But enough about them. Tamryn wants to reunite with her family and rebels. What about you, Cyborg? What do you want?”

This time, I held my breath as I stared at Jarog, just as curious about his answer. His face closed off, looking even more unreadable.

“First, to get Tamryn back to her people, and then I will go to Gorkon,” Jarog answered.

Haelin stiffened. I immediately got a bad feeling, while Jarog suspiciously narrowed his eyes at her.

“I’m afraid you will need to revise your plan, Jarog Kaijo,” Haelin said, the sympathy in her voice knotting my insides further. “It appears that many of your surviving brothers went to Gorkon after the transport ship’s explosion. Emperor Shui got wind of it and sent in his army.”

I felt the blood drain from my face and braced for what I knew would follow. Jarog sat so still, he might as well have been a statue. Haelin issued a vocal command, and the giant screen on the wall lit up.

“Replay Gorkon news for the past 48 hours,” Haelin said, before turning back to Jarog as images of sheer devastation on the surface of Gorkon filled the screen. “I’m sorry, but whoever didn’t perish in the initial bombardment, has fled and gone into hiding. Therearesurvivors, but I don’t know how many. A couple more planets and a moon were targeted as well. The Emperor, and Kirs as a whole, are getting a lot of backlash for this. But Shui is claiming to be protecting the galaxy from the rogue Cyborgs out for blood.”

“I see,” Jarog said in a neutral voice.

His face was so empty, so devoid of emotion, a cold shiver ran down my spine. The machine that had abandoned me in the desert was back. Gone was the man who had begun to surface over the three days of our journey here. Coping mechanism or not, I couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of pain the human part of him had to be feeling right now. I put down my utensils, whatever appetite I had left vanished. Thankfully, I’d already almost been full.

“I understand you have lost most, if not all, of your pod brothers?” Haelin asked in a soft voice, the contrast with her previously harsher attitude quite striking.

“All but one has died, and the last one is either critically damaged or dying. So yes, any way you look at it, I’ve lost them all,” Jarog said matter-of-factly.

“Then you will have some thinking to do as to what your next steps will be,” Haelin replied, casting a sideways glance my way. “You may stay here until you have made a decision.”

Heart pounding, I licked my lips nervously to ask the question that had been burning my tongue since arriving here.

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