Relief washed over Eli when he heard the tone that meant that Gami was safe, but unable to communicate due to the presence of enemies. Where exactly she was in the bay, he did not know, and he willed himself to keep it that way. Because if he managed to spot her, one of them might wonder what he was looking at and follow his eyes.

  The ramp rose, the pressure door began to close. Rotek reached out, pulling another pirate aboard the ship.

  Eli felt the ship lift off. It was hard to tell with what had happened, but he believed that a good number of pirates had gotten on board. As it was, several of them were moving deeper into the ship. At least a few would make a beeline for the bridge.

  Tarl got up onto his knees. Eli managed to do the same.

  “Why didn’t you just shoot them?” Karr asked Rotek, the question full of hostility.

  “Because they’re smugglers. They have secret compartments and other tricks on their ship. I want to know about them,” she placed the barrel of one of her pistols against Eli’s head, “Straight for the karana, if anyone tries anything silly.”

  Eli grinned and pointed at Tarl’s butar with his chin, “Shoot him instead.”

  Judging by his expression, he understood Eli’s gambit, “Thanks boss, real kind of you.”

  Rotek drew her other pistol and pointed it at Tarl, “Why not both?”

  Now Eli could see her eyes. They were pools of black. In that blackness, bursts of light of every color; like ink being dropped into water, like little fireworks.

  “What do you see with eyes like that?” Eli asked.

  “Everything.”

  “She isn’t joking,” one of Tarl’s other bodies said over the com, “A Pygram can see in pretty much every spectrum. That’s why I warned Gami about her.”

  Eli forced himself to stay cool and not let his displeasure show on his face. One of their biggest assets had just been removed from the game.

  Rotek keyed her com device, “They tried to screw us. Send in a full strike team. Kill them all and take anything useful. We’re on the Apogee-class.”

  The being on the other end of the call sounded female, and more than a little irritated, “It will be done. I’m bringing Bukhara out of hibernation.”

  This caused Rotek to examine the deck plates for a few long moments, “Do it. We can’t come aboard yet. We’ll hold station until this ship is secured.”

  Another voice on the pirate’s com system, “Three more in the cockpit. They look like they could be the little one’s brothers.”

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  Rotek spoke into her com, “Tell them that if they try anything, we’ll kill this little one. Tell them that there’ll be lines of mourners in every direction, all the way out beyond the horizon,” she turned toward Eli and Tarl, “That it?”

  “That’s it,” Eli confirmed.

  “What about the one using the stealth field, that one of yours?”

  “Oh, her? She’s tried to kill me several times.”

  “She told me that when you first met, she kicked you in the throat,” Tarl stated.

  The pirate woman returned her pistols to their holsters, “I don’t blame her. Well, I aint gonna lie, I only caught a glimpse of her, lost track during the chaos. regardless of whether or not she’s with you, I have to be sure that she hasn’t gotten on board before we return to Dancing Phantom.”

  Over the com one of Tarl’s bodies spoke, “Gami, if you need a hiding place, they just searched my quarters. They overlooked my primary.”

  Rotek grabbed the back of Eli’s head and slammed his face onto the deck. Then she put the sole of her booted foot on the side of his face.

  “Tarl, buddy, I think that I’m falling in love,” Eli managed to say, despite the pain and disorientation.

  “I’m sure that you’ll make a cute couple.”

  She pushed down harder, “Where is she hiding?”

  “No clue. If she’s invisible, she could be in a lot of places.”

  In a flash, Rotek drew the whip and struck Tarl with it. It was electrified, the arcs dancing across the pilot’s body. The crack of the whip was a frightful thing, a weapon in itself. Agonized cries followed as he writhed around on the floor.

  “Hey! We don’t know where she is!” Eli shouted.

  “I’m sorry,” Rotek purred, “He clearly means something to you. I should have used it on you first so that you understood how much pain he is in!”

  She stepped away and brought the whip down on Eli’s back, going slow, taking her time, drawing out the pain. The electrified whip screeched like some cybernetic phantasm. By the fourth strike any sort of sick pleasure he had gotten from it had vanished. The eight strike was the breaking point for him. His response to the pain wasn’t to cry out, but to retreat inwards. The tenth lash was against a body where the mind had temporarily let go of the controls.

  A message came in on the pirate’s com, “There’s a bomb on the power core.”

  “Interesting,” Rotek purred, “Did Pon make it aboard?”

  “Yes.”

  “Get him to take a look at it,” she turned back to Eli and Tarl, “You put that bomb there?”

  “I can honestly say that I didn’t,” Tarl said.

  “One of your brothers?”

  “No. I think that Eli’s gone into some kind of shock. Can you please use an Iredell on him?”

  She grabbed the back of his head and pulled it up. Ripping one of the Iredells off of her belt she injected it into his neck.

  “Thank you,” Tarl said meekly.

  She let his face rest on the deck again, “What about you? Did you put that bomb on the power core?”

  “No,” Eli said with a surprisingly vigorous voice, “It’s a long story. But the funny thing is that I have the detonator on me,” with that, he showed them that he had the remote in his hands, having slipped it before they had bound them.

  “If I find out that it isn’t wired to a dead man’s switch, I’ll throw you out of an airlock,” Rotek snarled.

  Eli smirked up at her, “You don’t want to be buddies anymore?”

  “I’ve got people that can crew this ship, no problem. The only question now if you and your friends get dropped off on a habitable world or dumped into the void.”

  “I’ve got an even better option,” Karr said, the eye piece moving back into place on the side of his head, “We turn him in for the reward.”

  Her voice was laced with venom, “We don’t do that, and you know it. Escaped Sad’Daki slaves aren’t our concern.”

  “I aint talking about his brand. The Lashua syndicate has put a price on his head.”

  Her tone and expression changed to happiness, “Now that’s what I like to hear!”

  “I won’t go without a fight,” Eli insisted, “I’ll set the bomb off before I go.”

  Karr’s evil smile somehow got even bigger, “This is a nice ship, but the money we’ll get from Lashua is worth it.”

  Rotek was smiling too, “And it will help to get us in their good graces. This is a wonderful turn of fortune.”