Page 36 of Darken
“Oh, no!”
“I have more news. Is Joaquin here, too?”
“Yes, come on in. We were just finishing lunch.”
Darken followed her inside, and they joined her husband at the kitchen table. “Your cattle herdsmen have been arrested for human trafficking.”
“That must be why they resigned two weeks ago,” said Joaquin. “I can hardly believe they were behind this. They took some of our own people.”
“They got back all right?”
“Yes, and Maryanne brought the cyborg from the transport to meet us. He said she was his genetic match---Hagen Ledder---a nice young man.”
“Yes, he’s going to be one of my protectors assigned to this area to make sure nothing like this happens again.”
Darken went on to tell them about the incident.
“I thought something strange was going on, and that building is on old state land.”
“We had everything under control until two flyers joined them. The one guy Gina thought was neutralized regained consciousness and shot her with a modified rifle that pierced her armor. It was bad, but our chief medic has her stable, and she is slowly improving.”So damn slow.
They were a little disturbed to learn what their cowhands had been up to on the side. On top of everything else, they had been stealing cattle a few at a time. Darken suspected they were trading them. But that didn’t matter anymore. The Morenza’s got new cowhands, and the others were going to prison. A few minutes later, Darken was on his way to the next community to continue his work.
He went on for eleven days, feeling like he was running on autopilot. He gave each community the news about the war ending and the Enclave, passed out the tablets, and answered their questions. Fortunately, he didn’t discover any more serious problems, at least not law enforcement problems.
The Enclave was starting to send the technical assistants to the towns and villages he had cleared. Finally, he got the information from the spy cams locating where the abductees were held. From conversations recorded, he determined that they were bringing a group of people in for an auction---a slave auction just days away at White’s compound. It was time to call the team.
The six of them flew in on their sky cycles in stealth mode to the designated meeting spot just after sunset. Landing about a half-mile away, they walked the rest of the way in with full-body armor, carrying their rifles, two blasters, smoke bombs, and various knives.
When the compound was in sight, they sent in two armed drones to blow up the armed towers and blow up the front gates. Meanwhile, the cyborgs scaled the ten-foot walls with climbing hooks and ropes. As Devlin’s security rushed to defend the front gate, Darken and Blaze broke through the mansion's front door.
Darken and Blaze searched room to room with their rifles poised for action, looking for Devlin White. They found him in his BDSM playroom tormenting a female who didn’t want to submit. She was crying and begging him to stop hurting her. Apparently, the room was soundproofed because White hadn’t been aware of the melee outside.
As Darken and Blaze kicked the door in, Devlin turned and gasped at the two armored beings pointing lethal ion rifles at him. Blaze freed the female, telling her to dress because they were rescuing her and the rest of the captives.
Darken advanced on Devlin White until he was backed against the wall. He lowered his rifle, gripped Devlin by the throat, and lifted him against the wall.
“I can’t think of a single reason why I shouldn’t kill you. It would be so easy, and I would relish every second.”
Devlin tried in vain to pry Darken’s hand from his throat, gagging and gasping. Darken lowered him, keeping his hand on his throat. Noting the chains and manacles mounted on the wall, the cyborg moved his captive and fastened him there. How he wanted to kill this excuse for a human being, who sent the man who almost killed Gina! Darken gripped him by the throat again, squeezing it until he could see the fear in Devlin’s eyes.
Then Darken let go. “I could kill you so easily, but I gave my word. So, this time you get to live. Next time I will kill you.”
Darken did an about-face, intending to march out the door, and stopped.
The female had found her clothes and dressed, and Blaze had determined she was an abductee. She seemed a little shaky as she stood, so Darken stopped to help her out of the room and down the stairs to the main floor.
He took her to the room where the others were waiting for transport to take them home. They found a few more male and female abductees as they finished clearing the rest of the rooms in the house.
Outside, the other cyborgs had killed or captured and secured all Devlin White’s guards they could find. The cyborg Darken encountered was not among them. Learning the rest of the abductees were in a large outbuilding in the compound’s back corner, Blaze signaled the team to rescue them.
The cyborg Darken encountered at the hold in the desert was nowhere in the compound. One of the guards said he had been away for more than a week. Darken decided not to pursue him because he had nothing to do with hurting Gina. Darken wasn’t sure what he had to do with the trafficking operation.
He fought Darken until he was stunned. He regained consciousness and fled instead of attacking Darken again. It seemed getting away was more important than stopping Darken from releasing the captives. If he wasn’t helping the traffickers, why was he there?
He didn’t spend too much time worrying about it. Once the abductees boarded the transport carriers, Darken and the other five rangers returned to their sky cycles and flew off into the night.
Darken was home in his lonely, empty house a few hours later. His heart and soul ached for Gina even more than his body yearned for her. He parked his sky cycle in the garage and removed his armor, ambling into the house.
