Page 79 of Stealing Jia

“Go. Save them.”

“I’m going. I’m going.”

“Rakk and the twins are in the mess hall. Do you want me to port us?”Chiara asked.

The mess hall was fast becoming the Bermuda Triangle of the ship. “No, we might port into the middle of a blood worm battle or worse.”I sprinted down the hallway with Pepe and Adoz following me.“LeeLee and LooLoo I want you to get away from the bad Askole.”

“No, he hurt Bey. Try take Cason,”the twins said in unison.

“Father Trayon will punish Rakk for hurting him, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“We no hurt. Him is.”

Pulling my laser pistol, I stepped cautiously into the mess hall, and my jaw dropped. A web wrapped Rakk lay on the floor and his body seemed to be shrinking. Merda! LeeLee and LooLoo had their fangs buried in his neck. “Are you eating him?”

LooLoo quickly removed her fangs. “We hungry.”

“Him taste good,”LeeLee giggled and took another slurp.

Ugh. “Never eat people until you check with Father Trayon. You never know where they’ve been.”I frowned. That came out wrong.

“Yes, Momma Jia,”The twins said dutifully.

I linked with Bey,“The twins are safe, but it looks like they’ve been sucking out Rakk’s inners.”

“Children can consume someone his size in a day.”

“What?”

Trayon zoomed in, came to a dead stop, and grinned. “Well done children.”

“Help me,”Rakk moaned.

I sneered.“Not a chance.”

“I should have killed you, but he wants you and the spawn alive,”Rakk mumbled.

Trayon’s tentacles squirmed wildly. “Who wants Jia alive?”

“The human.”

“Is this the human?”I flashed him a picture of Giovanni.

Several spasms shook Rakk. “Yes. He… He said… You destroy… His lab.”

“I can’t take credit for that, but I did catch his wig on fire.”

Trayon laughed. “How did that happen?”

“The idiot made the mistake of attacking me and he accidently fell into some candles. It wasn’t my fault his wig was so flammable it burned the restaurant down.”

Adoz landed on my shoulder and held out a small metal disk.

I took it from him.“What’s this?”

“It’s a miniature encryption drive.” Trayon held his gauntlet over it and watched as information scrolled across his screen. “He downloaded all the security protocols, and he has the codes to disable our shields and weapons systems.”

Cazzo! Was Rakk working alone or did he have a partner?“What did Zarek learn from his mind meld with Cuylen?”

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