Page 36 of Max
“How the hell am I going to do that?”
“When and where is he going to land?”
“He doesn’t land his ship. He sends a shuttle from orbit to here and one to the starport. The shuttle for here is cloaked. By this last communication, he should come sometime next week.”
“Are you his main contact, or was it Thrix?” Max asked.
“I am,” Driscoll admitted reluctantly.
“We want you to get him to send the shuttle for your captives and give us the landing coordinates. We’ll do the rest,” said Max.
“And I don’t go to the mines?”
“I will make that request.”
“Request? That’s not good enough. I need a guarantee, or you get nothing.”
“In that case, you are guaranteed to go to the mines. If I make the request, the odds are 91.6% they will act on my recommendation, especially if it gives them Gergis.”
“Fuck!” Driscoll grumbled. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Good choice.” Momentarily, two cyborgs entered the tiny room. “These protectors will take you back to our base to secure lockup, where you will receive basic necessities. We have your com-tablet and will monitor it until you’re needed to communicate with Gergis.”
Max turned abruptly and left as the protectors freed Driscoll’s legs and escorted him to the transport. Everything was under control, so he was going home to Falyn.
His plan was simple. When the slaver’s shuttle landed to pick up the victims, the cyborgs would take control and return the shuttle to the slaver’s ship filled with cyborgs. The cyborgs would seize the vessel, arrest the crew and rescue any captives.
Max would lead that team because bringing down the human traffickers would bring order to all their territories. That would make it safer for people to settle in and build families. But foremost in his mind was keeping Falyn safe.
In a civilized society, he should be able to leave his home without worrying whether his mate would be safe alone. Max was still angry that she had been terrorized by those thugs. Granted, they paid with their lives, but they didn’t experience the fear Falyn faced before they died.
Then his thoughts drifted back to Colton Price finally finding his wife. How would she get over the horror of her captivity? He hoped Colton would be astute enough to get help for her.
Would Falyn need therapy to deal with her ordeal?
He wished the sky cycle would go faster so he could be with her sooner. Only, he was already flying at top speed, and every minute still felt like ten. Max stopped at the base mess hall to make things easier by picking up dinner for them.
He thanked Force and Brute for securing the homestead while he was gone and dismissed them. They had come on one sky cycle to take the flyer and the bodies back to the base for processing.
Max was surprised when he arrived to find the front door reattached with its window boarded over and the kitchen cleaned. His men indicated that Falyn was in the barn, so he set the self-heating container on the counter by the sink and went back out to find her.
Falyn had just finished milking and set the last goat off the milking stand. She looked up and smiled as she heard Max enter. He deliberately scuffed his foot on the floor so she wouldn’t be startled.
They came together in a heartfelt hug and a smoldering kiss. “I am so sorry that happened to you,” Max murmured. “I was missing factors when I calculated the possibility that the enemy would come after you. We had a spy posing as a refugee.” He gazed down at her, continuing to hold her in his arms.
“I am much better now that you’re here. I am spitting mad about what they did to my kitchen.”
“I’ll get someone here to fix it as it was with any improvements you’d like. I have pictures in my CPU of the room before the damage.”
“I am glad you weren’t damaged during your mission if you had to face men with weapons like those.”
“We had armor to protect us. Our only concern was that they might have some Mesaarkan high-tech weapons. They didn’t.”
“So, what happened to them?”
“We stun blasted them and took them all alive. The only casualty was the Mesaarkan, Thrix. Colton Price killed him after catching him apparently raping his wife.”
“How awful for her!”
