Page 94 of Stealing Mercury
“I’m determined.” The fist she’d wrapped around the strap to her bag had gone white with tension. “You haven’t seen the arena up close and bloody. You haven’t seen the kennels.” Rachel swallowed hard. “You don’t know what it’s like to watch someone you love be drugged out of his mind, so he’ll rip out the throat of a Dog he fought beside the night before or fuck any bitch that’s willing to pay.”
Tears rolled down Rachel’s cheeks. Samantha’s gut twisted in agony. She was talking about Lo. He’d told her, but she hadn’t had to watch. She’d filed it safely in the past. What would she be willing to do to keep that from happening to Lo, or Carn, or Mercury?
“We have to get Hera out,” said Rachel. “I know where she is now, but they’re going to move her again. They won’t risk losing her.”
“You make it sound like she’s more important to them than recapturing the guys.”
“She is.” Rachel studied her as if she were a flash flood that might jump the banks in a change of course that could drown her at any moment. “Hera is pregnant. It’s the first natural pregnancy they’ve been able to produce.”
The world had spun away and, selfish as it was, all Samantha could think was that it might be Mercury’s child. It was a miracle and all she could do was stand there with her heart in her throat. A child. She wouldn’t risk the life of an innocent. It didn’t matter if it was Carn’s child or Mercury’s, she couldn’t pretend it didn’t exist.
“Okay,” she said. “Tell me what I need to do.”
Rachel opened her bag and pulled out a roll of bright red cloth. “You can start by putting on this dress.”
Chapter Thirty
RomaRexArena
Roma,EarthAllianceBeta Sector
2210.185
Samantha had never felt more uncomfortable than now, wearing the tiny scrap of a red cloth and more glittery make-up than a veil dancer. There was even glitter in her hair. Glitter and something that made it stand out in spikes and ringlets. Rachel had at least provided reasonably sensible shoes. “In case you have to run,” she’d said.
She’d left Knock to try to get through to the guys and followed Rachel out of the port and through the throng of the passenger terminals. They slipped through a grate in a storage bay in one of the terminals and followed an underground tunnel to the underbelly of what turned out to be one of Roma’s luxury accommodation establishments. For someone who said she had proven her loyalty to Owens, she sure was taking every precaution.
When they finally slipped out of the building, Rachel guided her onto an elevated moving walkway that carried them to the gates of the arena. A steady stream of brightly dressed patrons moved through the entrance in anticipation of the show. In the center of the walkway, a line of familiar looking cages stood tempting the crowds to stop and gawk at the Arena Dogs on display. Here the cages were safely behind security fields, keeping the slaves from reaching out while giving the illusion of danger for the onlookers. On the level below, a massive crowd of more drably dressed spectators jostled and shuffled their way through another gate leading into the standing-room sections near the arena floor.
Rachel led her to a guarded door marked private, then led her through a lounge where privileged guest gathered to drink before the event. The gowns and cosmetics they wore made her look sedate and boring, which was fine so long as it didn’t make her stand out and get her caught. The far wall was completely transparent and looked over a labyrinth of partitioned spaces.
Rachel punched in a code, opening a door to a narrow metal walkway. “This is the staging area. Come on.”
Across the space, Samantha saw a crisscross of similar walkways. She nodded at a small group of men dressed in evening attire on an adjacent path. “What are they doing?”
“They’re looking over the gladiators that will perform tonight.” The men talked among themselves, occasionally pointing to the area below. “They’re trying to get an edge on the betting by seeing what condition they’re in.”
“Oh.” It was awful. She could see the men being held below in chains. Some were being strapped into leather gauntlets. Others were being oiled down. “How do you stand this?”
“This is nothing,” Rachel’s voice was light, easy. “Toughen up. It only gets worse from here.”
They crossed to the far side of the staging area and through another door, then down a level. Rachel walked them right up to a cluster of uniformed men, standing near a transit tube. “Manny,” she called. “Can you give me and my friend an escort out to the Owens Kennel?”
Rachel had explained that to get to the tunnels that would take them to Hera they’d need to get inside a well-guarded area of the kennel. Going in as privileged guests was the most reliable way.
As Manny separated from the crowd and led them to one of the transports, Samantha noticed that the men wore subtly different uniforms.
“There are five different kennels,” Rachel said. “They were established by the four men and one woman who created RomaRex.”
“Playing tour guide tonight, Lady Rachel?” Manny spoke politely as the transport pulled out of the station and moved them outside and along the tube-track. The land around them was open, flat, and empty and it flew by at dizzying speed. There wasn’t a soul in sight. Clearly a restricted tract. If Rachel had seen Mercury, Lo, and Carn at the kennel they must’ve made it across safely. If they were still there she might be able to connect with them and they could help her get Hera out—assuming she could get Hera back to the kennel once she found her. It was a damned big assumption.
***
Mercury crept along the rafter, edging his way in silence. The guards patrolling the corridors wouldn’t hear him, but the eyes of the Arena Dogs in the cells below tracked his progress. They’d have smelled him the moment he entered this wing of the kennel. He found the cell he wanted and settled his body against the cool metal to wait for the two guards to reach the optimal distance in their patrol pattern. It helped that it was an arena night. The guards were spread thin.
He barked a low yip and waited for Saber to respond. The massive male leapt to a narrow bar that had been hung in his cell to provide exercise. He swung his body up and balanced there, much as Mercury did with the rafter. The others in the cage watched in silence.
Saber got right to the point. “You’ve come for Carn’s mate?”
