Rotek and her new hunting partners left the cargo hold. Karr had his cybernetic locked into pce over his eye and was seemingly staring off into space. Another pirate milled around the bay, absentmindedly looking into random containers for anything of value.

  Tarl looked at Eli, “I have to ask, did Gami really kick you in the throat like that?”

  “Yep. Next time we met, I choke smmed her into a wall. So, I think that makes us even.”

  “Fair enough. Well, what now?”

  “We need to get ourselves into a better position. Gami might need us.”

  “She’s a master of stealth, even without the ability to go completely invisible,” Tarl offered.

  “That’s true, but she’s still at a big disadvantage, and so are we as long as we’re tied up.”

  “Your cuffs don’t look like they were meant to be used for this. They look like they were made for quick maintenance jobs.”

  Eli looked at the cuffs that kept Tarl’s hands behind his back, “Ya, I think you’re right. I wonder if I could break them.”

  Eli flicked the safety on the detonator on and started flexing his muscles. The pain in his shoulder felt like a bde being pushed in, slicing muscles and tendons as it was worked around beneath the skin. The cuffs didn’t budge.

  “Damn, well it was worth a try.”

  “We aren’t out of options yet. Remember how we had my hakan in reserve?”

  Eli grinned, “And you never sent them out, probably because of all the smoke.”

  Tarl grinned back, “Exactly.”

  ***

  “Where are you?” Rotek taunted as they entered the maintenance area.

  She forced herself to move with cool confidence. Inside, she knew just how dangerous someone like her target could be. The fear was eagerly kept at bay by visions of glory and treasure. She allowed these images to feed into her movements giving them a sense of joyful belligerence. She wore a big smile, showing the rows of sharp teeth.

  The formations of micro brains in her head crest fed data into the mind that controlled the rest of her body, which contained her seat of consciousness, her “Karana.”

  Some of these little brains saw shadows in which her prey could hide. Others didn’t know the meaning of that concept. Whether Rotek saw her heat signature or yers of radiation that her stealth system didn’t hide, one thing was certain, that woman would be caught.

  In one of her secondary minds, blood glowed on the deck ptes in front of the power core. She cautiously followed the droplets to the life support compartment and quickly found where the bodies had been stashed. She reported this to Karr and moved up to the passenger cabins.

  She had one of her underlings keep watch in the hall while she cleared the first cabin. It was unoccupied, clean and ready for use. This made sense, they’d want to keep as many rooms open as possible, so the brothers would share one of the crew quarters located in the upper hull. The hairy thing with the Sad’Daki brand would live in the other room. She had always been taught to avoid crazy men, this would not stop her from making use of him before he was put in an airlock or left on a habitable world, which ever it ultimately came to.

  Pistol in one hand, long bde in the other, she searched the room. The third member of her ad hoc hunting team kept watch on her while she checked the closet, searched the tiny restroom, and looked under the bed. Nothing. She went out into the hall and gave it a look, still nothing. So, she crossed the hall and entered the next room.

  To her surprise, this room was being used. And from the decorations, footlockers, and other signs of habitation, she guessed it was by a permanent crewmember.

  There was some sort of machine against one wall. She could tell that it was a piece of equipment because it was giving off heat. There was a transparent bulb on the top. She could make out signals being sent and received from it in constant streams. She was also able to perceive pulses of ultrasound emanating from nodules on the sides, pulsing out in steady waves. Deciding that it was a monitoring device, she looked elsewhere.

  Rotek recognized a few of the religious symbols that hung from the walls and sat upon the altar. Strangely, they were for different faiths.

  There was blood on the bed. It looked fresh. No other traces of it. Interesting.

  She took another look at the thing with the bulb on it. If it was a monitoring system, what was it monitoring and who was it reporting to. Then she took note of the heat signature again. It wasn’t a device, it was organic!

  The sliding door to the closet was open. The clothes that were hanging there moved ever so slightly. Rotek went to one knee. The knife sailed over her head. She put three rounds into the closet. Wondering why her escort wasn’t firing, she gnced over to see him sliding down the wall, a nasty-looking metal dart stuck in his neck.

  No more movement from the closet. There were too many heavy garments in the way to see heat or other giveaways. If she had realized this, she would have checked it sooner. She was contempting if she should go ahead and put another couple of rounds into the closet when two things simultaneously happened.

  The other pirate entered the room, no doubt summoned by the gunshots. The thing with the bulb moved toward her, the cables that hung from it shed out, wrapping around one of her legs and the arm that held the gun. She was pulled to the ground.

  She sshed at the cable that was around her leg with her knife. The thing let out a cry of pain and pulled it back.

  The heavy work clothes moved violently. The woman in the armor bolted forward, holding a sword in a ready position. Her camo system was malfunctioning. Two of the bullets had struck her, the slugs denting ptes on her belly and left breast. In those pces, in certain spectrums, light squirmed and bubbled. The glitches ceased and the system failed completely, leaving her completely visible by the time she had made it across the room.

  The pirate that had been guarding the hall took aim. Rotek moved to cut the cable that held her gun hand. It snaked away. A jet of blood shot across the space in front of her face. Rotek turned her head and saw that her comrade’s hand had been severed. It and the gun it held y on the floor. Pain and horror twisted his face as the woman in the armor moved behind him and wrapped an arm around his throat.

  Rotek pushed herself using her legs, sliding under the thing with the cables. She pressed the barrel of her pistol against the bulb on it, “Let him go or this one gets it!” then she keyed her mic, “Karr, I’ve found her! Send reinforcements to the passenger section!”