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Chapter One
Ten years earlier
“Rock. Ranvir. You go right. Nas, you’re with me,” Major Reiji Demeter quietly ordered into his mouthpiece.
Two soldiers peeled off the formation, heading down the corridor their commander had indicated.
Reiji hated this type of mission. Pirates had taken control of the civilian transport, The Giles, and it was his job and the job of the elite soldiers he commanded to reclaim it with no loss of life. Except for those of the pirates, and therein was the problem. In a straight-out fight, it would only take minutes to neutralize the intruders, but with civilians on board, they had to take special precautions because civvies never reacted well to blaster fire.
They’d already taken down the pirates who had taken over the ship’s control center, more than a dozen of them, but their captain was still unaccounted for. The coward had taken off for the passenger section as soon as Reiji’s team had boarded, hoping the taking of hostages would save his life.
It wouldn’t because Reiji didn’t negotiate with pirates. They would either surrender or die, preferably with no additional loss of life.
He and Nas turned a corner, their blasters already raised, then immediately stilled. The pirate captain stood halfway down the corridor, holding a trembling female in front of him. The tip of his blaster pressed against her temple.
“I want safe passage back to my ship, or this bitch dies!” he screamed at them.
Reiji’s answer was to put a perfect smoking hole between his eyes. Slowly, the pirate fell back, pulling the female with him.
“Nice shot,” Nas commented, his eyes scanning for other possible threats as they moved forward.
“Target down,” Reiji spoke into his mic, ignoring Nas’s statement. “Stay alert in case we missed one.”
“Affirmative, Major.”
The female rolled away from the dead pirate and then hurried down the corridor to an open door. It sealed as Nas called out, “Wait.”
“Leave her,” Reiji ordered, tilting his head to listen as a transmission came through on his secure line. “Shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Nas’s gaze shot back to him.
“Rock. Ranvir. Continue your sweep. Nas and I will be going to the Premier Suite.”
“Copy that, Major.”
Spinning on his heel, Reiji made his way to the main lift.
“What’s going on?” Nas asked, following close behind.
“The family of a Supreme Judge is on this ship.”
“What?! What are they doing off-planet? Especially without an escort?”
“Don’t know, but now we have to verify their well-being, then babysit them until a fully armed escort arrives.”
“Wonderful,” Nas muttered.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
The Premier Suite took up the whole upper level of the ship and was accessed through a private elevator with a code generated by the current occupant. There was a military override, which Reiji received before boarding The Giles. Entering the lift, Reiji opened a concealed panel. After swiping his override card, he input the twenty-five-digit master code into the tiny numeric keypad, which sent the elevator directly up to the Premier Suite.
As the doors opened, he and Nas took up defensive positions. There was little chance that a pirate had made it this far, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t some untrained, trigger-happy idiot with a blaster inside, ready to shoot first and ask questions later.
Luckily, there wasn’t.
They quickly cleared the first lavish room, then moved on to the next, the next, the next, and the next.
“How many frigging rooms can this place have?” Nas muttered.
