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Chapter Thirty Seven
Adreax
On the floor beside me, Herod rolled onto his side and spit up a murky mix of bile and blood, coughing forcefully and glaring up at me.
“Would you like some help before you get us both killed?” he asked snidely.
“She’s a beast, but I won’t let her get away from me,” I said, speaking of my ship between gritted teeth.
“Move aside, Adreax. I will get us there. You need to be preparing.”
Herod’s voice was soft, brotherly again.
“I am prepared,” I insisted, not ready to give control of the ship back to him just yet.
“No, you must get ready. When we pass overhead, move quickly. Don’t be stupid.”
He was right. I needed to be ready to jump as soon as we got close enough to the ground. There would not be time to land the ship. We would be an easy target for the Patrol to pick off, and we’d never get off the ground again.
“Lead them away from us,” I said firmly, knowing that Herod would do whatever he could to protect me once I was on the ground.
I held out a hand and helped him up, glad to have him back on my side. As much as I hated to admit it, I wouldn’t be able to save her without him.
“Get ready.”
I slipped out of the seat and let him drop into my place. He took over control seamlessly and held the ship steady as I made my way toward the back. There was no good way for me to hit the ground. We weren’t equipped for an air evacuation. It had never even been a thought until now.
“I’m going to take us down to ground level. Brace yourself,” he called back to me.
I hung on, breathing slowly as the ship went into a steep dive. I didn’t look back to see what he was aiming for. I was afraid I might lose my nerve if I saw all those guards waiting for me. A few seconds later, I felt him pull up hard, putting our tail down close to the ground and creating a cacophony of noise as gravel and dirt pummeled our hull.
“Go!” he shouted, and I slammed the control pad next to the rear cargo door, letting it bang open, and tucking myself into a tight ball as I leapt for my life.
I hit the ground hard, all the breath knocked out of my lungs as I tumbled through the gravel. I could feel skin tearing away as I finally skid to a halt. Overhead, I heard the screech of the Greedy She-Devil pulling up again, fighting for the sky and daring the Patrol to engage. I sent a prayer up for Herod’s safety and success and dragged myself up off the ground.
I had to get to her while the Patrol still had all eyes locked on him. Now the question was: where did they take her?
I stayed low to the ground, scrambling on hands and knees and hoping to go unnoticed as I made my way toward the absurdly large ship. With a mouth full of grit and my eyes stinging from the dust, it was hard to tell where the entrance might be, or how I might get to it. Nearby, I heard gunfire aimed at Herod’s retreat and begged the bullets to fly wide and miss him for all our sakes.
Somewhere to my left, the sound of engines spooling up told me that the Patrol was really ready to make chase this time. I only needed a few minutes to get inside and free her. Then we could figure out how to get away from this place. I just kept telling myself she was in there, alive, waiting for me to rescue her. They wouldn’t have taken her back to their ship to kill her, not after all this time. She was in there, and I was going to get her out one way or another.
I found the concealed outline of the airlock on the outside of the ship and started running my hands up and down the area, looking for some kind of control panel or trigger. If I got caught now, I was as good as dead. A faint click, followed by a hiss of air. The door was sliding open for me.
“Some security,” I muttered to myself before squeezing through the barely-opened door and pressing the inside panel to close it before it could open any further.
On the opposite side of the airlock, there was a tiny porthole window, and I went to look through, surveying the scene on the other side. It shocked me to see rows of desks with women chained at the wrists. I scanned back and forth, but Tayla was nowhere in sight. Fortunately, there were also no visible guards in the room.
I supposed, with the chains in place and nothing but the vacuum of space surrounding them, these guys had little fear of an uprising. But something still didn’t feel right. I’d spent too much time in Patrol holding cells to think that they weren’t watching from somewhere close, ready to quell any violence with cruelty.
I kept watching, waiting for some sign of Tayla. Maybe they had taken her up the stairs on the far side of the room to get changed or examined or something? I tried to plan my route to those stairs, wondering if the shackled women would sound the alarm when they saw me. There were too many variables in this scenario for me to control. I tried to be patient, telling myself that I just had to keep watching until I had a clue.
Finally. From the side of the room, a hideous man emerged, followed by Tayla and a couple of guards. I tracked them as they moved toward the stairs and hoped that I could take out both the guards in close quarters without much of a fight.
