Page 80 of Polestar
“Tell them they’re all welcome and that wasn’t part of the plan.”
Emilio laughed when Ana relayed his words.“No shit, huh?”
“Have you all been together this whole time?”
“Our crew?Yeah, for the most part.We don’t even know who these pricks are or what they want from us, but we’ve seen a lot of other folks coming and going.I think we’re here because we’re the troublemakers,” he gave a short laugh.
“They’re traffickers.Everything from drugs, weapons, animals, people—anything their clients want.”
“Animals?Yeah, that makes sense.A while back, they had us in another crate and something happened that made the guards panic and all we could hear was roaring.Like a lion or something.Made all the hair on my body stand on end; kinda glad we were locked in here.”
“Itwasa polar bear.Pretty freaky seeing it going wild like that before they brought it down with a tranq.I went to see what all the noise was when the roaring started,” Antony said.
“A polar bear?”Ana asked.Aksel?
“Who knows?”Emilio said.
Antony said, “Yeah, big son of a bitch, too.It was weird.That girl you talked to that split?”
“Bi-located?Sascha?”
“Yeah, the one that gave you my message.She was there.I thought maybe the animal had tried to attack her or something because it went nuts when they pulled her out of the box.Emilio and the guys had stepped in and tried to protect her from some nasty shit they were doing to her a few days before.I thought they were going to feed her to it or something.”
“Sascha?You’ve seen her?”the woman asked.
“Yes.My team seized the ship she was on.Everyone on board was rescued.”
The woman sobbed.“Oh, thank God.Thank God.She’s my student.I teach her English.They grabbed us together while on holiday.I’m so glad she made it out.”
“Yeah, we were all worried the creepy guy got her,” Emilio said.
“Creepy guy?”
“There’s two of ’em in charge,” Antony said.
“Who are they?”Ana asked.
“A guard mentioned Wulker,” a crewman said.
“Adolf Wulker.Looks like an underfed accountant,” Antony said.“There’s another guy.Big guy.Doesn’t say much.Clean-shaven blond guy that came around with a woman around a couple of times.A tall blonde.Nice to look at.”
“Have you seen anyone with weird throat tattoos?”
“Yeah sure.Most of them don’t get seen again, though.What is it?Like a brand or a tag for a gang or something?”
“More like a brand,” Ana said, drawing a deep breath.“It’s dangerous.”
“The tattoo?Do they contaminate the ink with some contagion or something?”Emilio demanded.
“Ehm.Well.Sort of?”
“But?”
“Here’s where the woo-woo comes in.”
“Ah shit.Don’t tell us.If we get tattooed, we’re screwed?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
