AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course, we did,” Maverick snapped back. “We may be on the edge of nowhere here, but we still follow Alliance rules and regs when it comes to things like that. And we paid close attention since they were our first Tarins setting up residency here on the station.”
“Lieutenant Green handled their background checks. I know because I was supposed to do it, but she took over since it was high priority,” one of the officers said.
Lieutenant Green hadn’t been on their list, but she was now.
“I want her taken into custody now!” Maverick ordered.
Before the officers could move, Talon said, “Not yet. The station is officially locked down. No one is going anywhere, and we have more than just the lieutenant to round up for questioning. How quickly and quietly can you call your Strike Force Teams here?”
“We have four since we handle a lot of brawls and fights here,” Maverick told them. “They work on rotation, but I can activate them all now and have them meet us at the restaurant.”
“No, have them meet us here, and call them in one at a time. We need to clear them all before we use any of them for this mission.”
It took a little longer than Talon would have liked since each of the teams had more members than his own, but the process went smoothly. The Strike Force Teams were called into the docking bay one at a time, and each officer was given a brief interview by Talon’s team.
He and Secret stood by, watching for noticeable fluctuations in their auras. Maverick and the other officers had been baffled as they’d watched everything. To outsiders, Talon’s methods must have seemed a little unusual, but the results were undeniable.
Out of all the officers, two members were taken into custody.
Talon had marked one of them as a problem as soon as he’d entered the docking bay, but the other man had been trickier to spot. He’d been a master at hiding his true feelings, or perhaps he just didn’t feel things like normal people did. His aura had only changed during his interview, finally giving him away.
After reading their memories, Secret discovered the first male was just a greedy fuck, but the second was a true sociopath. Both males had not only taken bribes, they had also used the slavers’ services. Maverick and the other officers had been horrified by their teammates’ depravities, and they were even more fired up and determined to end the entire slaver network.
The perfect time to hit the restaurant was right before closing. It was the only time when all of the slavers would gather in the private room in back to eat a meal together and go over business. There was very little trust between most of the members, but they needed one another to keep things running.
After their meetings, the Tarins usually scattered. Some would stay out enjoying the various bars and clubs on the station until they passed out somewhere, while others would retreat back to their own spaces. From Secret’s memory scan of the Tarin back on Exodus, she knew that two of the slavers kept their own slaves hidden away in their quarters. Unfortunately, she didn’t know which two, so they would have to figure that out.
Right before closing, Laken and Teale would enter the restaurant. Once they were seated, they would release the modified somnium dispersal units and knock out any customers still inside the restaurant. They wanted to make sure innocent patrons weren’t used as hostages, but they also couldn’t be sure if all of those customers were, in fact, innocent. Anyone in the restaurant could be a potential slave buyer, and that was something that couldn’t be ignored.
Talon, Secret, and Maverick would enter through the front with one of the Strike Force Teams, while another team would go through the hidden entrance with Fadi, Yumi, and Winston. The rest of the officers were being sent to start rounding up a list of secondary targets who had aided the slavers.
Secret still thought everything would be a whole lot easier if they just took care of the problem themselves, but Talon had told her they had to include the commander and some of the officers from the station. It would be good to have more people working with them to make sure no one slipped through the cracks. It would also be beneficial to let the officers see exactly who they were fighting to ensure it never happened again.
Talon’s team walked over to join him and Secret as Maverick pulled the Strike Force commanders to the side to speak with them. The other officers left to get ready for the op, under strict orders not to speak to anyone until they returned.
“I have a bad feeling,” Winston announced.
“Oh, fuck,” Teale muttered. “Here we go again.”
“You just jinxed us,” Fadi complained. “Are you worried about the Beta Station 4 officers, or the mission itself?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s really helpful, Winnie,” Yumi said dryly.
“Don’t call me that,” Winston growled.
Before they could really start arguing, Talon said, “We’ll just have to proceed with caution. Once everyone is ready, things are going to move fast. I’ll contact the other teams now so they can go rescue the captives and take down the camps.”
After Talon contacted the other teams, Cedric confirmed all of their primary targets had gathered in the restaurant. Talon’s group left the docking bay ahead of Maverick and his teams. The remaining officers would go to the Tarins’ residences and rescue any captives they could find, as well as start tracking down secondary targets and taking them into custody.
As they entered the atrium, Secret scanned the area for any potential problems. They quickly moved toward the restaurant to minimize the chances of word getting out of their arrival at the station before shit went down. Talon’s particular reputation would definitely cause a stir, and people were bound to start speculating if he was recognized.
After days of relative quiet on board their ship, all the noise and the crowd of people were jarring to her. She and the rest of the team wore cloaks over their body armor so they could blend in with the crowd as they made their way through the busy atrium, but she’d forgotten that her own scarred face was quite noticeable. She reached for the hood on her cloak and started to pull it up, but Talon grabbed her hand and stopped her.
“Don’t ever hide your beauty from me.”
She shot him a look beneath lowered lashes as she squeezed his hand. He really did say the sweetest things sometimes.“I just thought my scars might draw too much attention. Besides,what if all the Tarins aren’t in the meeting? Someone might recognize me.”
