Page 67 of Irene

Jemi had come to stand next to him. Sherv was at the other door, but Rusp could feel his gaze on him.

“Nothing will be the same when she’s gone.” Sherv’s rasp was stronger than usual. “If I could, I’d clan her in an instant, but…”

“We can’t hurt her. She has to be with her parents as much as she’s allowed. Which might be always now, since Earth is bringing their women home. She’ll be so happy then.” Jemi stared at the floor, his hair hiding if his face matched his choked voice.

“Yeah, Earth has done enough damage by stealing her and keeping her from them.” Rusp wished he could go to the planet and pound everyone in charge. It was awful he couldn’t fix the situation for her. More awful he couldn’t fix it so she could stay and have her parents nearby.

Life had played its share of tricks on him. To have met Irene, to have found such perfection in music thanks to her, to have fallen in love only to have to give her up…it was the cruelest trick of all.

* * * *

Sherv toweled his hair in the clan’s sleeping room. He listened to the shower run as Rusp washed and the distant hum of conversation from Irene and Jemi, who were enjoying a late dinner after the show.

A com went off, the distinctive buzz recognizable as Rusp’s. His Nobek received few calls, so Sherv grabbed it off the shelf and noted the frequency. A twinge of worry stabbed him to recognize Ezrob’s identification.

He clicked it on. “Hello, it’s Sherv. Rusp is in the shower.”

“Hello, Sherv.” Ezrob sounded neither happy nor irritated to talk to him, as usual. Sherv had the impression the Nobek couldn’t be bothered to waste feeling on him. “You have trouble on the way.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“Captain Nil. I’ve been doing my best to keep tabs on his destroyer. I just got a hit on his whereabouts, and it seems he somehow tracked down where you are. He’ll be at the station you’re hiding on in an hour. Maybe less.”

Chapter Fifteen

Sherv stared at the com, as if it might bite him. “Shit! How did he—”

“Not important now. You need to get the hell out of there. If he grabs your Earther friend, she’ll be clanned to men she’s never met. Your clan will likely go to prison for defying the fleet.”

Sherv had set the com down. He jerked clothes on, his brain flying in a hundred different directions. “Which sector are they coming from? I don’t want to rush right into that asshole’s arms.”

“Sector Seven-Two-Five. If they catch up to you, don’t fire on them, Sherv. It’ll make what happens next worse. There are only so many strings I can pull to help you, and if you give up quietly, it’ll go a long way toward earning leniency from the court.”

Strings he could pull. Irene clanned to men she’d never met. The words screamed discordantly in Sherv’s head, and he grasped at straws. “Can you do anything to keep them from handing Irene off to strangers? Can you take custody of her yourself?” He hopped around on one foot, shoving the other in a boot.

“They have her clan picked for her. Unless she’s already married and able to prove it, she’s stuck as their Matara. I’m sorry, but if you can’t escape Nil, she’s going to be forced to Kalquor and clanned to some bunch whose Dramok is on the Royal Council.”

“Not while I draw breath.” Fury was rising higher than his panic, and with it came determination. He poured every ounce of command he possessed in his voice. “Listen to me, Ezrob. You’re helping me help her. Listen very carefully.”

Minutes later, Sherv pounded on the shower room’s door. “Rusp, get out here! We have to go!”

He raced up the corridor, shouting on Rusp’s com. “Taru, are Anez and Lorj with you? Good! Get your asses to the ship now!” He was in the main cabin, rushing past Irene and Jemi’s startled exclamations. “Nil’s destroyer is coming, and it’s nearly here. We’ve got to go.”

He was in the cockpit, tossing the com unit aside, going through pre-flight checks and readying to take off. He ignored Jemi’s breathless jabbering and shouted over him, “Watch for the crew! As soon as they’re onboard, let me know.”

As the ship performed its automatic checks, he brought up sensors, whispering thanks to the ancestors it still had its military-grade systems. Jemi rushed to the cabin. Irene was silent, but she held onto the back of Sherv’s chair. Rusp slid into the seat by him a second later. “Son of a bitch. How did Nil find us? Is he here?”

“Ezrob commed to warn us.” Sherv scanned the readouts and jabbed a finger at a red triangular shape on the space scan. “There he is. We have twenty minutes.”

“We can’t outrun him. Unless…” Rusp’s fingers flew over the controls. “The Moclu System’s ten minutes away, running engines all out. There are comets, asteroids, moons, a couple of planets. We can use any of them we can reach to hide traces of our passage, at least for a little while.”

It was next to nothing, and both men knew it. They were about to get caught, and there wasn’t a damned thing Sherv could do about it.

Jemi’s shout came from the end of the corridor. “The guys are here!”

“Close hatch. We’re going.” Sherv sent the order to the dockmaster to uncouple the ship.

Seconds later, they were winging toward the Moclu System at top speed. Taru, Anez, and Lorj had joined them, as had Jemi, packing the cockpit tight. Sherv watched as the destroyer’s icon changed course. They’d been identified.

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