Page 78 of Tribute
ONE
Planet Mitan
He was having a nightmare aboutUngrichspace . . .
Aled Price reminded himself that it wasn’t real, and that if he just woke up, all would be well. He’d be tucked up in bed with Kai Mexr, who would be hard, naked, and more than willing to start the new day with some lazy lovemaking.
He forced his eyes open.
And screamed.
“Rehz . . . just hold up a minute.”
Ignoring Kai Mexr—because damn, he had to get to Anna before anyone hurt her—Rehz Akran increased his speed and charged out into the street, scaring several pedestrians as he turned to find his vehicle. The alarms inside the military admin building were still wailing, but no one had followed them out. They were probably all still fussing over fucking Palk. He really wished Kai hadn’t laid Palk out with a single punch, because he’d wanted to deal with the bastard himself.
A few hours earlier he’d returned home from buying groceries to find the door of his apartment blasted off and signs of a struggle. It hadn’t taken him long to realize that Anna must have been taken, and exactly who had taken her and why. He’d decided to start searching at the military hospital and had run into Kai, who was searching for Aled.
“Rehz!” Kai grabbed his arm and hauled him to a stop, dragging him around a corner into a less populated street and slamming him against the wall. “This isn’t going to work. We need to slow down and think about what we’re doing here.”
He tried to shrug off Kai’s hold. “Anna is in fuckingUngrichspace. That’s all the fuck I need to know. I’m going in there and fucking destroying it.”
Kai shoved his hands flat on Rehz’s chest. “If you go in like that, you know they’ll kill you. This isn’t like you.Think.”
“Better to die together than let those fucking bastards touch my woman!” Rehz snarled. He didn’t feel like himself anymore, didn’t care how much damage he did as long as he got to Anna.
“That’s fucking stupid,” Kai said patiently. “I want to get Aled out as much as you want Anna, but I don’t intend to be a martyr.”
Rehz gave a deep, shuddering breath. “Okay.Okay. What are you suggesting we do? Turn up and knock at the door with a bunch of fricking flowers?”
“I think they’d let us in. They know us. They let us live twice.” Kai swallowed hard. “We’re going to have to use our wits rather than our fists, agreed?”
Rehz scowled at his best friend. “I’ll try it your way first, but I still prefer mine.”
Kai exhaled. “Good. Now we need to find out whether my security clearance for the Tribute facility still works.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I have a few friends who still work there. If they won’t let me in, I’ll threaten to kill them. But first I suggest we pay our good friend General Palk another visit.” Kai’s smile was lethal. “I bet he can tell us exactly what’s going on.”
Less than an hour later, he and Kai were back inside the military medical center, where everything seemed to have calmed down. Kai had used his tech skills to get them in the door and find out exactly where Palk was being treated.
“Floor thirteen. We’ll use the stairs.” Kai severed the link into the main data center. “I’ve turned off the alarms in that sector. They won’t be expecting us back here.”
“Because they’ll assume we’re at the training facility.” He cut Kai a frigid look. “Which is where we fucking should be.”
“Palk knows something.” Kai kept climbing the stairs, his breathing easy, his weapon ready. “He took Aled right out of here and no one stopped him. That either means the government is complicit in his actions or he’s fooling everyone.”
They paused on the thirteenth level, and Rehz took a quick recce of the white hallway. “He’s got to be in the room with the two guards stationed outside.”
“You think?” Kai raised his weapon. “I’ll stun them. We won’t be there for long.”
Even as Kai fired the second tranquilizer shot, Rehz raced toward the two men. He removed both their weapons, propped one of the guys on the chair beside the door to make it look like business as usual, and searched the other.
“Door’s not alarmed. Neither are the men.”
“Then let’s go and see Palk.”
Rehz opened the door, and Kai dragged the unconscious guard in with him and dumped him unceremoniously on the floor to keep the door jammed shut.
