Page 28 of Relyn
“What’s stopping them from deactivating the beacon as soon as they get far enough away? I’m sure they’ll check for that.”
“True, true. Perhaps we could- We’d need- But-” Relyn just stood there while Rutra hatched his plan. He couldn’t seem to finish a sentence before coming up with a counter thought. After the cake timer was nearly gone, Rutra finally turned to Relyn and uttered a complete sentence.
“I have a plan.”
“Plan?” Relyn prompted.
“Yes. It is a decent plan, I think. At first I couldn’t decide, but then I settled on it. You see, I thought to send two of them on, and leave one behind, but which one? That’s tricky. I thought Gale, but she has the knowledge of Alana, then the other one, the small one, but then Gale would send in the Mahdfel. Then I thought of yours, but Ketle is, as I speak, hatching a plan to murder her. He’s very sloppy. Almost too sloppy. I’m half sad that you didn’t kill him. That would have solved at least that problem.”
It had not occurred to Relyn that Ketle would turn his wrath on Nora and not him. She was safe in his quarters, at least, but he would have to take extra care to protect her.
“So all three must go, and if I send Grom, then he must have assistance, so I will send you.”
Relyn blinked out his surprise and kept his face neutral. Did Rutra just propose letting them all go without a fight?
“You want Grom and me to go undercover on their ship, and send you word when Gale contacts Alana?”
The females, finished with their cake, settled next to each other on the bed and began to sleep, or at least pretend to sleep.
“You seem to know how to deal with them,” Rutra said.
“Yes. It seems that way.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll fill Grom in on the details and we’ll be underway shortly.”
Relyn couldn’t get out of the suite fast enough. Not only had he secured his position with Rutra, but he’d gotten them all safe passage off the ship. That would buy him some time with Nora, so that he could see her somewhere safe, while still keeping his cover intact with Rutra. Grom couldn’t be that hard to fool. And perhaps he could also find this Alana that Rutra was so set on finding. She had to be involved in the whole ring somehow.
A few minutes later he went back to his quarters and unlocked the door. To his surprise, it was already unlocked. The room was empty, and Nora was gone.
Chapter 13
Nora
Afew years ago Nora had mastered old fashioned key locks, and had felt like challenging herself further. She’d moved onto the fancier space locks, which relied mostly on the same set of override codes and wire layouts, and the one on the cabin door was no different, especially when she was on the inside trying to get out.
Once she tricked it into resetting, she had the door open in less than five minutes. Stay here, Relyn had ordered. Well, technically, she was a prisoner on a pirate ship, and according to all the romance novels she’d read in her time, it was practically her duty to escape, even if it was just to feed the cat.
Nora had also learned the trick to navigating the crowded school hallways. Always walk with a purpose and act like you expect everyone to get out of your way. That kind of attitude parted the throngs of students like Moses parting the Red Sea. Nora adopted that stance now, even though the halls were practically empty. If she walked with purpose, people would assume that she belonged there, and no one would stop her. It seemed to work. She got the odd look from a passing pirate, but considering she was wearing an oversized shirt and she waswandering around in socks, plus the fact that all of the pirates seemed to be male, Nora stood out like a sore thumb.
She probably wandered for about ten minutes, not wanting to stop and ask for directions, before she found the large bay that she’d been carried out of the night before. There was a very shiny ship parked in the middle and stacks of unidentifiable crates here and there.
Along the right side of the room were three hatches. Two of them looked identical and the third had many more blinking lights. She assumed that was the one that Clover’s ship was attached to. Nora crossed over to the panel and rolled her eyes. It was the exact same setup that was in Relyn’s room. It would take her less than two minutes to pop that sucker open.
About one minute and forty seconds in, she noticed a commotion behind her. Two pirates flanked the big warthog gorilla and they were approaching fast. None of them looked amused. Nora keyed in the final sequence and the door slid open just as they pulled up.
“And what do you want?” Nora demanded. She put her hands on her hips and gave him the best teacher stare that she had refined over the better part of ten years. He actually took a step back. It was amazing how many bullies across the universe were all the same. When he didn’t answer, she turned around and headed into the ship. Warthog gorilla made a move to follow her, and she swiveled around.
“Does this ship belong to you?”
“No, but-”
“Well, then you need to ask permission to come aboard. That’s just polite manners. And before you ask, no. You may not.”
Nora managed to get through the airlock tunnel and into Clover’s ship before the hulk processed the fact that she didn’t actually have any authority and got mad. She heard him growljust as she closed the door. Hopefully he wasn’t as good at opening doors as she was. Nora had no idea how she was going to get past him again. Perhaps he would just get bored and go away. Either way, she had time to find Data, feed him, and figure out how to take him with her.
Nora shouldn’t have worried about locating him. The moment she replicated his food, he brushed up against her leg. It was so like a cat. She gave him a few pettings and kind words and then went in search of her other business.
First of all, it wouldn’t do to walk around in this shirt. It was ridiculous. She peeled it off and grabbed a black t-shirt that the ladies back on Etlon Two had replicated for her. Next, she opened the secret compartment under the bed that Clover had quickly shown her. It was for emergencies, and this definitely qualified. Nora had gone out shooting with her father when she was young, so she knew the basics, and could handle both guns with bullets and laser pistols. Bullets were apparently frowned on in space, as putting holes in things was generally bad for everyone’s health. Clover had stashed two laser pistols, a rifle in pieces and two wicked looking knives. There was also a credit stick there with a thousand credits on it. That could be useful, but she would feel bad taking it without replacing it.
