“Theceremony? Like, the pleasure one?” I ask.
“What other ceremony is there? It’s the perfect distraction. Plus, they needed to ‘purify’ themselves to prepare. I don’t want to think too hard about what that means.” Bri looks extremely proud of herself. Truth be told, I am too.
“Those poor idiots are going to be so disappointed when they whip their dicks out and you are nowhere to be found,” I say with a grin.
“I stopped feeling sorry for them when you were on the ground unconscious,” she says. “Are you okay?” Her eyes pass over my face and chest, checking again for injury.
“I’m fine. Let’s get out of here. This place sucks.” I grab her hand and pull her behind me. The point of contact between us feels right. Even in the middle of this insanity, her presence has this strange effect on me.
By some miracle, we find a walk-in pantry filled with dry goods and a faucet down the hall from the sleeping guard. We quietly look for food we can easily carry, trying not to shift around too abruptly. I grab a bag of some weird grain mixed with dried fruit, as many flatbreads as I can hold, and all the dried jerky meat I can stuff into both our packs.
Bri fills up our canteens at the faucet and tosses me one. The two of us working together feels like everything is clicking into place. Nothing can stand in our way, not a colony full of murderous cultists, not a planet that’s actively trying to kill us. Nothing.
THIRTY
Bri
Tai is up and around like nothing happened. However, I am not so convinced he’s completely okay. I watch him out of the corner of my eye while he moves around the pantry grabbing supplies. It was really scary finding him unconscious on the ground. He catches me staring at him and flashes me a brilliant smile.
“I’m okay, really,” he says reassuringly.
“I know. I’m just trying to figure out if you got an upgrade from the shock. You don’t happen to have X-ray vision, do you? Lightning hands?” I keep my tone light to hide how worried I was.
“Come to think of it.” He points a finger toward the hallway, but nothing happens. “Damn. Maybe next time?”
“Should I go find a pair of those cuffs?” I ask. “We could try again.”
“And what exactly would you want to do with them?” he asks and pauses, clearly waiting for a response.
“You sure you want to talk about this now?” I say, impressed withmyself that I can stay on task. We still need to escape, and Tai is over here talking handcuffs.
“You’re right,” Tai says. “If my mental math is correct, they should be finishing their ‘purification’ any time now.”
The annoyingly familiar cockiness is back. It usually gets under my skin, except now it’s a relief because he sounds like himself again.
“So, what do you propose?” I ask, hoping he’s got some grand plan in place. I certainly don’t.
“I don’t have superpowers, but I’ve got this.” He pulls out the blaster.
“We aren’t blasting our way out of this. They are weird, but we aren’t killing anyone.” I don’t need murder on my conscience the rest of my life.
“Who said anything about killing? All I need to do is wave it around and everyone will back off.” He models the movement, waving the blaster over his head, he looks silly, not menacing.
“It was implied. Plus, you seem a little too eager to whip it out,” I say.
He shrugs and tucks the blaster back into his belt.
“You’re already dressed like them. I’ll grab a robe and we can pass ourselves off and make a run for it,” Tai suggests.
“There is no way you’ll pass for a brethren. You’re eighteen feet tall.”
“Seven,” he says, correcting me.
An idea pops into my head.
The robe should work for me. I’m only slightly taller than the brethren. But there is no point in trying to make Tai look like anything other than a Tilak.
“I’ve got it. I’ll be the brethren and transport the prisoner. We get to the top and get the fuck out of Dodge. And don’t you dare ask me what Dodge is. It’s just…Dodge.”
