Page 24 of Rescued

16

HEROD

Announcements blared through loudspeakers somewhere at the edge of my consciousness. I sat up, confused by my whereabouts, and then the memory of the night before came back into focus and I realized that it was Caimbrie’s warm form pressed up against my body. I rubbed my eyes and tried to listen to the words from the announcer, willing myself to decode them so I could plan our next moves.

“Code Blue. Repeat, Code Blue. This is a level two threat. Please be advised: all ships are to remain locked and parked until the threat has been cleared. Repeat: All ships must remain locked and parked until further notice. Thank you.”

Shit. We had already been here too long, and this meant a further delay. We should have taken off last night while it was still dark out, but somehow, I’d let myself get distracted by her. Not just distracted, but captivated. Now we were in danger of being late to our rendezvous with Tayla and Adreax. We were also in danger of another run in with my pursuers.

I scrubbed my hands up and down the stubble of my beard, trying to wake myself up even as Caimbrie continued to sleep beside me. Should I wake her? No, I decided. Waking her was sure to complicate things. She would have questions, and I didn’t have any good answers to give her. Not yet, anyway.

I hoisted myself up and made my way past her to freedom. Despite my best efforts, she woke and looked up at me with bleary eyes and a sleepy smile. Instinctively, I leaned down and kissed her gently on the cheek.

“Go back to sleep, love.”

She mumbled something unintelligible, but she rolled over, pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, and snuggled down into the pillow. Simple enough.

I stopped by the washroom and splashed water on my face, but I struggled to meet my own eyes in the mirror. My inner skeptic kept speaking devilish words in my ear: this was a mistake, a big mistake.

“No, it wasn’t,” I muttered to myself aloud, but I didn’t feel reassured. Not at all.

Another announcement came over the loudspeakers and I cut the water off, ready for more bad news.

“Repeat: We have moved to threat level three. Please stay inside and await further information.”

That wasn’t good. The threat was increasing, not decreasing. In all my travels, I had rarely been caught up in ports like this, usually because I only put in long enough to get laid and restock my ship before I took off again. But this time was different, wasn’t it? I’d restocked my ship, and I’d certainly gotten my pleasure with Caimbrie, but I couldn’t send her away. For the first time ever, I was stuck on this ship with a woman and there were expectations. I recoiled at the thought.

“Nothing is going to change,” I said to the mirror, but I could almost see my reflection roll its eyes at me. With a snarl, I turned away and headed for the cockpit. At least I might be able to find out something useful there.

Sliding into my chair, I reached for my headset and fiddled with the radios. After several attempts, I was able to find a channel that was moderately clear. As I listened to the crackle and hiss of the transmission, my mind worried over the implications. There was a criminal on the loose, and it sounded like security was having trouble tracking them down. On the public radio, there was lengthy speculation from the announcers about who and what was out there, punctuated by the automated reminder to keep all doors locked until further notice. I switched on another radio and tuned in to the underground scanner, hoping to pick up something a little more useful.

I caught the middle of a transmission and turned up the volume, waiting for the reply. I needed context. But a single thump from beneath my ship made me freeze. I waited, head cocked to one side as I pulled my headphones off. There was another thump, and a second later, I heard the tapping of a key somewhere down below. A staccato of beats and pauses that I instantly recognized.

“Not now,” I groaned, despite the fact that I was already on my feet and hurrying to unlock my door. Almost as soon as the lock was unsealed, the familiar face of Nikathy snaked out from beneath the hull of the ship, grinning up at me. He glanced from side to side, checking his surroundings, and when he was satisfied it was all clear, he jumped up and through my door. I snapped the door shut behind him and re-locked it in a heartbeat.

“Thank goodness you’re still here!” he exclaimed with a chuckle, like we were part of some kind of game. “I was afraid you’d split after the way you treated old Aamira earlier.”

“Are you crazy? What’s this about, Nikathy?” I growled. I was startled he had already heard about me and Aamira, but I didn’t have time to address that at the moment.

“Don’t be so salty, old friend. You know how it goes sometimes.”

“I can’t have you here. You need to go,” I said, lowering my voice to a menacing hiss.

The last thing I needed was Nikathy making even more problems for me and Caimbrie.

He looked around and shrugged, indifferent to my threat. “I won’t be any trouble, as long as we get out of here quickly.”

“What do they want with you now?” I circled around, placing myself firmly between him and the sleeping Caimbrie.

“Oh, you know. Might have skipped out on some import taxes, might have robbed someone. Who knows, really? In any case, the alerts will die down when they realize I’m no longer in the port, and we’ll be free to go.”

“What makes you think they’ll give up that easily?”

“They’ve been searching high and low for hours. They can’t keep the port locked down forever. And in the next few minutes, they will helpfully receive an alert that someone who looks suspiciously like me was spotted outside the port city in a neighboring establishment.”

As he spoke, the loudspeakers outside interrupted with another helpful announcement.

“Please be advised: All threats have been neutralized. Takeoffs will resume shortly. Please stand by.”

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