Page 144 of Star Claimed Omega
In moments, the weapon sat in her coat.
The pistol was already nestled against her ribs.
As she crept away from the room, sight unseen, her eyes burned with unshed tears.
Get out now,she told herself, before she lost her last shred of sanity.
24
Chapter 24
SANTIAGO
TheCrimson Shrikedrifted in the murk of the Cerulean Veil, its battered hull gleaming ruby under fractured starlight.
Once a fearsome pirate stronghold, now a wounded beast hanging in space, bleeding yet still clinging to life.
TheRedSkulls’ station appeared held together by rust, wire, and duct tape.
Santi stood on the dorsal platform of theÚltima Bruto, his violet-gold spectral form glimmering behind the shimmer cloak.
The corvette’s engines were idle, masked from every scanner within a few thousand klicks. No pings. No signals, not even a shadow.
Beside him, Miral ran silent feed taps, patching through station comms. ‘I’ve looped their internal cams. You have ten minutes before redundancy kicks in.’
Kaal grunted, checking his blade-locks. ‘Ten’s more than we need.’
He and Santi landed on an unsealed thermal vent just aft of theShrike’shabitation wing.
Metal groaned beneath their boots as they slipped through maintenance shafts, past old bio signs and half-burnt gang insignia.
Santi’s mind scarcely registered them.
He was hunting her, his nostrils flaring to detect her.
The corridor ahead shimmered with dim-frequency red pulse lights, yellowed and cobwebbed with age.
The place reeked of engine grease, sweat, and malted liquor.
Signs of a pirate crew still clinging to memory more than glory.
But that wasn’t what caused a lurch in Santi’s heartbeat.
It was the unique scent that hit his airwaves, her foil that sent a lurch through him.
She was here, inside, theCrimsonShrike.
The station’s walls and girders groaned like a dying animal.
Rust coated the walls. Grime congealed at the base of every air grate.
The corridors stank of spilled coolant and blood that had never been cleaned.
Lights buzzed weakly overhead, shivering in and out of voltage.
All around them was decay, and beneath that, hunger.
Miral’s voice whispered through Santi’s neural node.
