Page 37 of Claim
“The comm was activated.He was messaging with someone, but he blanked the record.All that’s left is this.”Teq hit a replay.
The screen was too small, reducing Mag’s face to a dull simulacrum.“The ship’s debts are cleared.Brother, you are apex now.I know your songs will carry you where raw ore cannot.”
They were silent.On the scanner playback, another ship loomed behind thePratorim.
“That is a Luster patrol ship,” Sil said.“Call the Dastard.”
But the vreign refused their message.Instead, his exo-suited second appeared, her boots kicked up to one side of the screen.“The Dastard isn’t available,” she said, and even through the breathing apparatus, she managed to project a tone of bottomless boredom.“Please leave a message.”
“Ah, Leani, wasn’t it?Just let your vreign know I’m going to be blowing up one of his lying, cheating would-be associates,” Sil said.“Thanks, bye.”
The functionary stiffened.“No explosions during the Luster.”
“The Luster is over.”
“No explosionsaroundthe Luster,” she clarified.“Bad for business.”
“So is sabotage and abduction.”
“Quieter, at least,” she muttered.“I’m hanging up now.”
“Then I will be making a lot of noise,” Sil warned.
Leani sighed so deeply it fogged her face shield.“Fine.Here’s what I have.”She punched at something out of sight, and their screen showed Mag, Szakh, Illgattoa, and the Dastard.
They were silent as the horrible moment played out.
June swallowed hard against a scream of denial, but her voice was raw and cracked anyway when she asked, “But…how could he just leave like that?Why wouldn’t he come to us so we could figure it out together?”
When Leani tilted her head in a curious gesture, her face shield went blank for a moment until the screen compensated for the polarization.“Are you so troubled at losing him?”
June wondered if all the toxicity warnings on the second’s exo-suit were adequate.“Of course we’re troubled.Wouldn’t you want your vreign back?”
“Of course not.There’s a reason they call him the Dastard.I’d kill him myself in one of his heartbeats—if he had a heart—but then I’d have to do all the work around here.”She glanced aside at something off screen.“But since you seem to want your apex…”
Teq twisted around when a secondary screen chirped.“What is this?”
“Coordinates to your apex.Maybe.”
Sil peered around the crusher’s hunched shoulder.“The…Gloom?”
Leani’s exo-suit let out a thin curl of gas that set off an alarm.She smacked at the pressure relief valve on the suit, silencing the buzz.“Scum and dregs lurking on the edges of the Luster.For reasons he refuses to give me, the Dastard won’t let me scour their atoms from the universe.But you could at least disrupt them…if you want your apex badly enough.If you don’t reclaim him before the Gloom breaks, likely you’ll never find him again.”
June’s stomach churned.“Thank you,” she whispered.“We won’t tell the vreign you helped us.”
Leani smirked, with enough flash of teeth even the polarized face shield couldn’t hide it.“If you make the explosion big enough, he’ll know I sent you.”
***
The plasteel gauntlets around Mag’s wrists and ankles were sharp edged, gouged on both the exterior and interior.The jagged bits cut at him, but he hardly noticed that pain over the rest of his wounds.
Szakh stood back after the last beating, letting the truncheon dangle at his side as he caught his breath.Licks of guttering electricity dripped from the end, making Mag’s nerves jangle in agonized echo.
His own breath was long gone, something inside cracked like his carapace, and ichor trickled down his flanks.Somehow that itch was as bad as the beating.
“That vugging Ajellomenes says it’s just business,” Szakh growled.“Floating there in its slagging bubble bath while we’re out here busting our asses.”
Mag grunted.“Seems mostly you’re busting my ass.”
