Page 73 of Keeping Sarah

“Here we go,” I muttered.

A very pretty woman carried a mic from the guard station and spoke over the loudspeakers. “Jacaranda Cozz, you are banned from the city of Faithless. Why are you here?”

I hit the button to my own speaker system. “I am a champion of the arena and I wish to compete again.”

Her eyes lit up and her face flushed as she stared into my ship’s window. I couldn’t tell if she was aroused or angry.

Omen quietly asked, “Is she having an orgasm?”

“Doubt it.”

But the woman said in a breathy voice, “Oh my. You have the balls to come here and ask for your champion’s privileges?”

“Itisthe law, isn’t it?” I insisted boldly.

My daring, fearless display seemed to excite her even more. “You realize you will be under guard the entire time, like you were before, correct?”

“I do,” I said on comms, before I turned it off and glanced at Omen. “Is she stalling?”

Omen’s gaze narrowed as she stared out the window to the woman below. “I’m not sure, but something is up. I’m going to go out the back and join the entrance crowd, before they block the ship’s rear exit.” She gave me a pointed look. “Don’t say anything stupid to her.”

I rolled my eyes at Omen. “I’ve got it covered.”

“That’s why I’m worried.” She winked and left out the back.

The woman outside instructed, “Turn your engine off. I’ve cleared you. The guards will come for you. Welcome back, Champion.”

I didn’t feel like a champion. And when I saw the particularly large, angry guards who came to collect me, I didn’t feel particularly welcome, either.

CHAPTER 21

Deacon

“It’s so blue,” I mumbled, not prepared for the contrast in colors I was seeing on Earth.

Treg nodded and said, “Yeah. Their water doesn’t reflect as silvery as ours does.”

Breaking the atmosphere, I hopedAllegiant’s cloaking system would function as Treg had promised. He had worked on the alterations during the journey, so I was hopeful our approach would not be detected. "If your tweaks work, we will know soon."

He chuckled, his gelatinous belly shimmering in the low lights of the café, while my pilot, Drift, cruised the ship at a slow speed. “Aye. There are a lot of people down there. I thought the targets lived on the outskirts of a town.”

“They do, but I wanted to test the cloaking, in case this all goes wrong.”

We watched the people on the street below, eating, drinking, laughing. Walking from place to place. They were oblivious toAllegiant, even though we were a mere three meters above the tallest buildings. Treg had sworn that at night, the ship would only look like a whisp of a cloud that fogged over the sky. No one paid us any attention, and even when people looked up, there was no screaming or pointing. They only saw a cloud.

I patted my engineer on the back. “You do excellent work, Treg.”

“I’m just glad you thought to bring me along. Without my modifications you would have been visible.” He shook his head, his brows furrowed. “Whoever sold you that cloaker needs to have their heads examined.”

“I will keep that in mind.” I called on the comms to Drift. “We are ready.”

“On the way, boss.”

The ship careened north toward our destination. Treg kept staring out the window, his expression now pensive.

“What is it?” I asked.

“All the times I’ve been to Earth, I never got off the ship,” he admitted. “I’ve never been seen by a human as one of their first visitors before. I’ll be honest—I’m a little self-conscious.”

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