Azrim looks over at me with deep longing in his eyes as he banks us toward the closest ship. Whatever he’s thinking, he keeps it to himself. He hits the brakes hard as we glide in to dock.
37: Azrim
Radar doesn’t like being left behind in Tessi’s ship and sneaks out at the last second.
Tessi silently swears. We’re low on ammo and didn’t find anything useful inside her ship. We sneak through the ship littered with bodies of Denaroans and Novarks. She looks them over but doesn’t seem bothered as we hunt for the rest of my brother’s crew.
I catch a sign of Carnas in an adjacent hallway. He stops and lifts his hands, like he’s asking where the hell I’ve been.
I point to Tessi. He tilts and slaps a hand to his forehead. He directs to her, to the back of his neck, and then toward the forward section of the ship.
Zorin is alone against the royals. I should be fighting alongside him. I hope we aren’t too late.
Davarok walks up, one hand on the rifle across his chest, sees me and Tessi, and rocks backward with a head shake. I can practically hear him in my mind.Are you kidding me? What is she doing here?
Carnas motions that the other crew is clearing the rest of the ship and freeing the prisoners. He and Davarok are on clean up duty, evacuating bodies.
Gunfire behind me makes me whip around.
Tessi enters the royals’ chamber, igniter bright from recent discharge. I hustle after her just as she steps over the slumped body of a Neb commander. He grabs her leg, wheezing as blood drains from his chest. She gasps, swivels, and shoots him in the chest. Tessi frees her boot from his grip and keeps going.
Carnas jerks his head back in shock. Davarok playfully backhands me in the chest and suggestively waggles his brows.
I growl.Shut up.
Several Myndrous are down in a corner of the chamber. But there’s no sign of Zorin. We look around while Radar puts his nose to the ground and sniffs a milky white streak that looks like blood.
When Tessi sees it, she commands Radar after it. “Radar, track: Zorin. FindZorin.”
Radar leads us out of the room and down a set of steps.
I’m concerned even though it isn’t blood.
“Someone used a capture net on him,” she quietly says.
“How do you know?”
“Carielle always used them to steal my shit. She’s the one that betrayed me and kept updating the Myndrous. She was working with Geist.”
Carnas swears. “Not that fucking guy.”
“Yeah. But she got captured by a big, horny Neb who just needed a little shove to realize shesecretlywanted him.” Tessi opens a hand and motions with her palm.
“That’s maniacal,” Davarok remarks. “But I like it.”
We move deeper into the ship when Tessi suddenly jerks Radar back by the handle on the back of his vest. We sneek out into a narrow hallway. A nearby door with a window drenches the hallway in blue light.
“Shit, they have one of those machines here.” Tessi eases Radar alongside her until she can peer in through the window. “They’ve got Zorin.”
She draws me in and motions for me to look. Then she leans back against the metal wall beside the door. “Three control stations. The last ship didn’t have those. I’m not sure I can figure out how to get him out. Can you do that?”
“What are you going to do?”
She grins. “Handle them like greedy scavengers. Snagged a few goodies from downed Myns.”
I catch her before she enters. “Be careful.”
She crouches low, speaks quietly into Radar’s ear, then eases the door open and slips inside. I step out of view and wait. I don’t know how long I’m supposed to wait, only that the Myndrous that appears at the end of the hallway becomes a concern.
