Page 45 of Relyn
“Bring it here and I’ll key it in,” the Melian said.
“No, that’s not how this works, buddy,” Nora said. “You tell us the code, and we don’t break your arms. That's how this works.”
The Melian gave the code and Wendy nodded when it unlocked the com.
“Good,” Relyn said. “Can you open that case? Empty it.” Nora reached down to the largest case and opened it. She dumped the contents out on the floor.
“Now wait one minute here. That’s my stuff. I gave you what you wanted,” the Melian protested.
“Yes, that’s why we’re not going to kill you. I’m sure in a place like this, unattended luggage won’t sit for long,” Relyn said. He stuffed the Melian into the case. “Move your arm or I will break it,” Relyn warned when he tried to resist. Finally the fight went out of him and he curled up into a ball with a whimper. Relyn shut the case and dropped it on the ground with a thud.
“Does he need air holes?” Nora asked.
“No, cheap case. He’ll have enough air to breath in there for a couple of hours. I doubt it will take anyone that long to steal it,” Relyn said.
The key was to get back to the ship and download the data before the Melian escaped from the case and got to a terminal where he could delete the data or lock it down.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“Whatever happened to Grom?” Wendy said as they headed back. Relyn was tempted to carry his mate, but considering theycould only go as fast as Wendy could walk, it would serve no purpose, and she seemed to find it objectionable.
“He’s fine. A little splattered, but he was supposed to put himself back together and head to ship with Bright. I’m sure she’s got things handled on that end.”
Another minute and they were back in the hangar. Bright greeted them, hands full of two sensor beacons.
“I see you managed,” Bright said. “Not that I doubted you would. I’ve seen what happens when someone gets between a male and his mate.” She held up the beacons. “That asshole put two of these on the ship. I did a triple check. Pretty sure that’s it. We’re clear to go wherever we like.”
“And we got this,” Wendy said, holding up the Melian’s com. It’s information, or so we’ve been told.
“Shall we get the heck out of Dodge, just in case the dude’s got friends?” Nora asked. Relyn agreed. It was best to leave before anyone came asking questions, or they drew any more attention to themselves.
They boarded the ship and within a minute, Bright had clearance to leave and they were off. He plugged the Melian’s com into the ship’s computer and began to comb through the download. Bright joined him as soon as they’d left the space around the station and were far enough away from the station to make pursuit difficult.
“Where did you find this? If half of it’s true, this would speed up any and all operations in at least eight sectors,” Bright said.
She was right. Laid out in front of them were coordinates of safe houses, bank account numbers, arms merchant connections, flesh merchant connections and much more. This was going to throw a new wrench in the plan. They had to get this information to the Mahdfel so they could use it before it all went cold.
He was going to have to tell Nora that her trip to Terra was going to be delayed again. There could be no way around it. He checked the charts.
“There’s a Mahdfel carrier here. If you contact them now, we can meet in eight hours.”
“That’s in the wrong direction,” Bright warned.
“I know. But a small delay is worth potentially saving thousands of lives.”
Bright nodded and Relyn stood up from his chair. He didn’t delight in telling his mate, but perhaps some imagination could soften the blow. He smiled to himself. He might have just the form to do it.
Chapter 19
Nora
Nora had decided to take a shower to get the stank of those yellow things off of her. Despite putting on a brave face for Wendy, she’d been slightly shaken by watching Relyn drop those things like a cold blooded killer. She’d been only slightly relieved to find out they weren’t actually alive, or sentient, more like. She’d done a bit of research once they’d gotten back on the ship. Polings were mostly husks, creatures created in labs, bred to be brainless, and then shot full of nanites that allowed them to move and communicate, but only as directed. They were mostly used for lower tasks, like mining or manufacturing, and were actually very crude killing machines. They were slow and coded to avoid doing harm.
Nora sighed. She’d read enough literature and watched enough Terminator vids to know that was a murky path to head down, at least in science fiction. But, here in the real world, or space, she had to keep reminding herself, humans didn’t write the rules. They had come to the game later than most and were still playing catch up.
Relyn appeared in the doorway. Despite being an absolute murder machine, he was still devastatingly sexy. It didn’t seem to matter what form he took. Nora was drawn to him and asingle brush of his skin against hers sent lightning bolts coursing through her system.
Nora had been wearing a towel, but dropped it to the ground. There was no need for modesty between them. He’d literally touched her everywhere and she’d been enveloped by him. Just the thought of it drew her nipples into peaks.
