Page 27 of The Alien's Stolen Rebel

She was gone. I would have to search the entire ship to prove it, but I knew. What I didn’t know waswhere to?I checked the external feeds for clues, though Ididn’t expect to see anything. I’ve rarely been more wrong.

No.

No, I refuse to believe it.

Horrified, I stared at the viewscreen. Four mis-matched thugs surrounded Rachel and the Guildfather I’d seen at the wedding. If that had been all, I’d have leaped to her rescue without question or delay. But a dozen, maybe more, warriors of the Guild scanned the dock with careful vigilance. If I emerged from theStarshadownow, all I’d achieve was getting myself shot and perhaps Rachel with me.

The external feeds didn’t pick up sound, but I saw Rachel’s wide, wild gestures as she shouted and demanded. Was she trying to attract my attention? Distract her captors? Or still playing the pirate queen, for what little good that ruse might still do?

One thing was obvious—she wasn’t screaming for help or putting up a fight. Either of those would have prompted me to swift, brutal action to rescue her, no matter the odds.

She’d clearly done the math herself and reached the same conclusion I had. A fight here had too high a chance of killing one of us and even if we won, it wouldn’t help. Without a working hyperdrive, we couldn’t flee.

Rachel didn’t even glance in theStarshadow’sdirection, which let me understand her plan. She’d given herself up to keep me safe—and she would rathersuffer alone than take me with her. Fortunately, she had no way of making me go along with that.

She left, her head high and stride confident, surrounded by Guild thugs. I forced myself to wait, only emerging after a count of one hundred breaths. Risky as it might be, I had no choice but to leave my ship in Horzul’s hands. Saving Rachel was my only purpose now: if I rescued her but lost the ship, I’d call it a win.

It wasn’t hard to follow her captors through the half-functioning station, at least until they reached the station’s core. There, a powered spiral ramp took them up, and I cursed my luck. To be sure which level they left the ramp on, I’d need to get close enough to be spotted. Argentians aren’t exactly inconspicuous in a crowd.

If I stayed back and gave them space, I risked losing them. Following close risked starting a fight, which might get Rachel killed. Neither gamble was acceptable, so I looked for a third option.

He was perhaps ten years old, hungry, and not unskilled as a pickpocket. With practice, he might do well, but today he slipped up. My hand closed on his wrist before he could react.

Thieves were a constant risk on a station like Talbrek, so common they were more of an environmental hazard than criminals. There was no point in getting angry with someone just struggling to survive, so I crouched to look him in the eye with a smile.

“If you want to earn some CrImp enough to pickmy pocket, boy, I have a job for you. I need someone followed.”

“Lemme go,” he demanded, pulling at my grip. “I’m no thief, and I ain’t for sale either.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “You were almost good enough to get my coin, I’ll grant, but denying it does neither of us any favors. If you find out where those Guild thugs go from here, I’ll pay ten CrImp up front, ten when you get me an answer.”

He followed my glance and grinned. “Fifteen.”

My quarry had almost left our field of view, leaving me with no time to haggle. I grumbled but paid up, hiding a touch of amusement. The kid was grasping and greedy and reminded me of myself and my brothers when we’d been his age.

He vanished into the crowd, heading up the spiral. Watching him go, I sat back against the wall and braced myself to wait. Never had I faced a more daunting task.

By the timemy informant returned, I was a mess of nerves. Rachel might face any kind of trouble imaginable, and I wasn’t there to help her. Wasn’t even moving closer.

Dying for her would have been easier than waiting.

“‘Kay, I found ‘em, now pay up.” The kid’s brash voice pulled me back toreality, and I fished out another fifteen credits imperial. A broad grin spread across his face, revealing rows of tiny, sharp teeth.

“They’re in the old Guildhall,” he said as soon as he’d made my coins vanish. “Two levels up, turn left. It’s not far.”

The smugness in his voice didn’t surprise me. Ishouldhave thought of the Guildhall, though the last time I’d visited Talbrek, I’d found it sealed tight. The Guild of Criminals and Allied Trades was too up-scale an organization to maintain stay once the station started losing its fight with entropy.

But the Guild still owned it, so a Guildfather would have access… I left the boy to his coin and practically sprinted up the ramp.

The Guildhall had seen better days, but it still stood. More, its outer courtyard bustled with activity, busier than I’d ever seen it, all under the watchful eyes of an Akedian woman who seemed to be everywhere at once. She inspected deliveries, had some things hauled inside, shouted at others and sent them away. Flowers from whatever hydroponics still functioned, bolts of cloth looted from a half-dozen trading vessels, a high-class foodmaker, and wine in crates marked with laser burns.

I didn’t stop for long, not wanting to be spotted. Besides, I’d seen enough. They weren’t dragging her back to Caliban. Frax was bringing the wedding here.

My odds of intervening were poor and would only get poorer as more of Frax’s minions arrived. I contemplated barging in straight away, but with onlya plasma pistol for armament, I didn’t like my chances.

Rachel would not want me to die saving her. How much worse to dienotsaving her? I needed a plan I could half-confidently trust her salvation to.

Time to hit the bars.

---