Page 5 of Stolen Slave

My impatience grew, but I kept my tone pleasant. “How many chits to tell me which way he went?”

The Wsoau’s black eyes took in my phasers and durable gear.

“He paid me twenty chits to keep quiet.”

“I’ll pay another twenty if you tell me where he is.”

“Forty.”

My brows rose in surprise. I had the chits, but the Wsoau weren’t known for their interest in system-standard currency. They wanted supplies. Always.

“What are you going to do with sixty chits? Is there a station around here that I don’t know about?”

“We have an Oebri bathhouse. Worth every chit.”

An Oebri bathhouse was rare. Too few females were willing to charter with one, no matter the lure of riches and pampered lifestyle. Likely, the Wsoau had procured a sex-bot. It would explain the obscenely low bathing price. It also explained the territorial plate rattling and their hurry to get rid of me. These simple fools were protecting their sex-bot.

Instead of grinning, I tucked that interesting bit of information away to explore after I had my bounty.

“Okay. Forty. Which path did he take?”

An arc later, I was cursing the fleking smuggler’s persistence and every Wsoau on the planet. Stooped in the humid, squat tunnels, I ran after my quarry, my patience at an end. The tunnels formed an endless maze, and I had no doubt my bounty knew I was on his tail. He was running in circles. Thankfully, the heavy scent of fear proved a more accurate means to trace my bounty than my stim tracker.

A scuffle of noise ahead gave me warning, and I pressed to the side of the tunnel. The phaser blast meant for me seared the terra where my head had been.

“Go easy, my friend. Damage me, and I will repay like for like.”

“You’re no friend of mine. Die, hunter!”

I lunged around the bend in the tunnel, barreling into my bounty before he had a chance to fire his next shot. With one hand around his throat, I pinned him down.

“Anerman Cu Behan, you are being detained in accordance with warrant 75204377.”

I moved my stim tracker toward his forehead.

His tail wrapped around my neck, along with two of his hands, and squeezed. I squeezed harder. He wheezed and punched my sides with his other two hands. My stim tracker touched his head, and he jerked.

“Warrant 75204377 confirmed,” the tracker intoned.

He released me and tugged at my wrist. I sighed, preparing myself for the begging and bargaining that always came at this phase. It was so much easier when the bounties didn’t have translator implants and thought I couldn’t understand them.

“They have females,” Anerman said.

“Given their numbers, that’s obvious.” And I pitied their females, kept chained in the tunnels by the wealthiest males and bred like crazy.

“Not Wsoau females. Humans.”

My grip on Anerman’s throat tightened. Humans were on every warrant vid in every Helix station. Extremely reproductive and delicate, the females of that species were being farmed from their home planet as birthers for those with enough chit to pay for them. While the Wsoau had the financial means, they didn’t have the genetic compatibility. Why would they want humans?

“That’s a heavy accusation.”

“Bathhouse,” he rasped.

I low-pulse stunned him, and I watched his eyes roll back in his head. Grabbing his claw-tipped foot, I turned around and started dragging his dense form back to the entrance. Anger fueled me. When I reached the surface, I gave in to the need to hurry.

Human females. Here. And bathing Wsoau for only sixty chit.

I understood well what that meant. The Wsoau did not understand the treasure they held. Considering how the Wsoau treated their own females, I started to jog.

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