Page 15 of Taming Chaos

They were in some sort of outer holding chamber, a small rectangular room illuminated with soft greenish light. The boss Ephrenian, the one who did all the talking, had left her here with two faceless guards. They sat on either side of her, saying nothing. The room was warm and humid, the air stale. Sweat trickled down her face and neck, and she desperately wanted to take off her cloak, but she couldn’t.

She had no choice but to wait and see where they were taking her.

Now more than ever, she regretted her impulsive decision to take up the job with Nonhuman Affairs.

Analysts like you come and go.

In the end, Markov hadn’t given a shit about her. He’d sold her out. The asshole had actually sold her out. And for what? So he could take credit for securing the weapons deal and get a promotion? Because he resented the fact that she studied alien cultures for a living?

Bastard.

Because of him, she was on a mysterious ship facing an uncertain fate, and the weirdest thing about it all was that the Ephrenians were shit scared. As soon as the ship’s doors closed, they’d burst into frantic conversation, their rapidly spoken words melding into a long stream of chatter. With her limited grasp of Ephrenian, Seph couldn’t understand much.

One would think that there would be a translator app for this sort of thing, but nobody on Earth had been able to fully decipher the Ephrenian language. Nobody even knew what an Ephrenian looked like. The slender ones kept it that way on purpose, concealing their features behind those shiny glass helmets.

Still, she caught a few snippets of meaning here and there.

Kordolian. Danger. Run.

How could a single mercenary spook the Ephrenians that much?

The mercenary had followed Seph’s team down to the lower decks. Had that been his intention all along? Was it no coincidence that he’d taken the same elevator platform as them?

I want her.

His words echoed in her mind, sending an electric prickle down the back of her neck.

Who the hell are you?

She remembered her initial shock as the mercenary had drawn his menacing obsidian blade. The Ephrenians had actually flinched when they caught sight of the strange black metal. The sword seemed to be forged from the shadows themselves; it absorbed all light, reflecting nothing, obliterating everything.

Seph’s heart had skipped a beat as the full realization struck her. That mysterious, articulate, tall, intimidating mercenary was a Kordolian. The Callidum in his hand confirmed it.

Now it all made sense. His flawless Universal. That powerful build. The way he’d seemed so damn relaxed, as if he owned the fucking place. He hadn’t even reacted when Markov pointed his bolt-gun at him and pulled the trigger.

What kind of monster didn’t so much as flinch when someone shot at them? And then the way he’d taken down those two elite guards, as if they were nothing…

That had been scary.

Seph shuddered. And to think he’d tried to bargain with the Ephrenians for her. Why me? What could he possibly want with me?

She closed her eyes as the ship shook. A low hum reverberated through the walls, and for a moment, there was blessed relief in her arms and shoulders as she became weightless. We’re entering space. For all their advanced technology, it seemed the Ephrenians hadn’t perfected the transition from a gravity-controlled environment into the cold vacuum of space. Then the gravity-whatevers abruptly kicked in, and her ass plopped back onto her seat.

There it is. They had left Zarhab Groht.

A wide chasm of terror opened up inside her heart, threatening to swallow her whole.

Get a grip. Get a grip. Get a grip. She silenced her fear by repeating the mantra in her mind, and after a few deep breaths, her panic subsided.

Seph wished there was some sort of window or port-hole she could look through, but stark grey walls greeted her on all sides.

“Where are we going?” She spoke in Universal as she turned to one of her guards, trying to get a glimpse of something—anything—behind that faceless ovoid helmet.

The Ephrenian didn’t even dignify her question with a response.

She didn’t know what was creepier: their silence, or the fact that she didn’t really know what they looked like. If Seph’s hands were free, she would have pinched herself. She was caught in a surreal nightmare. Everything had happened so fast, and her overloaded brain was still struggling to process this terrifying new reality.

“At least tell me who wants me,” she said. “I deserve to know that much.” Tears pricked her eyes as the terrible weight of her aloneness crashed down upon her.

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