Hotbloods 5: Traitors

I put the paring knife back in its place before putting the rest of the lab back in order. As soon as I was satisfied that the room looked undisturbed, I walked over to the trapdoor and opened the hidden panel. Meanwhile, Mort resumed the form of Doctor Ulani, morphing seamlessly from shifter to coldblood. He walked over to the workbench, where he’d left the silver box and his strange screen-covering device, and pocketed both.

“You should put that back where you found it,” I insisted. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea to take something from Jareth’s lab that actually belonged to him, where he was bound to notice something missing. I mean, I’d come to steal the black box back, but that wasn’t his to keep.

“Don’t you want to see what’s on it?”

“Can’t we take a look now?” I urged.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway beyond the lab’s main door, startling us both.

“I say we blow this joint before old man Idrax gets back,” he whispered, running back over to where I stood, still holding the silver box. With Jareth, or whoever it was, loitering outside, I realized we had no choice but to steal it and hope nobody noticed it was gone.

Mort peered down into the passageway below, giving an impressed whistle. “Down the rabbit hole we go!” he enthused, dropping into the underground tunnel.

Where this new allegiance against Orion would lead, I had no clue. I just hoped it didn’t end with us losing our heads.





Chapter Sixteen





“Where’s the real Doctor Ulani, anyway?” I asked, as we wandered through the passageway.

Now that I knew Mort was a shifter, it was weird to see him back in the form of Doctor Ulani. I kept looking for gaps in the mirage, trying to see where the flaws were in the shifter design, but I couldn’t see any. The guise was as close to perfect as possible. I supposed it had to be, considering the people he was trying to fool.

“No idea. Last I heard, he was MIA somewhere in the far reaches of the universe, presumed dead,” he mused, smirking. “I altered the paperwork, and hey, presto… he is resurrected!”

I rolled my eyes at him. “How long have you been on Vysanthe, then?”

“I’ve been here for a few months, masquerading as this beloved doctor of Gianne’s,” he replied. “Although, in hindsight, I might not have picked the best profession. Turns out you actually need to know how to fix people to be a doctor, especially when you’re taking up the role of a well-respected specialist.”

“Instead of spouting a load of medical nonsense, like you did upstairs?” I teased.

“You caught that?”

I nodded. “I was under the bed the whole time.”

Mort laughed. “No way! I knew that grumpy one was talking weird. Nobody needs to speak that loudly.”

“Yeah, I was under the bed, and my friend was in the cupboard,” I admitted. “I don’t think you ever met Ronad, did you?”

“Was he the weird, tanned coldblood in the Siberian hut?”

I glanced at Mort suspiciously. “How’d you know that?”

“Relax, nobody else knew he was there. He just happened to be taking up one of my old hiding spots. I used to go there when I couldn’t be bothered with the rebel base anymore. Anyway, I let him be, but I was pretty annoyed at losing the hut,” he said. “I liked it there.”

“Well, he’s here again, and now we’re stuck in this house until Navan comes back and we can decide what to do.”

“Princess, he is never coming back,” Mort insisted. “I told you back then, and I’ll tell you again: a human and a coldblood will never last. He’s probably seen something he likes better and run off after it.”

I gritted my teeth. “Navan is coming back. I spoke to him a few weeks ago. Well, he said he was coming back, but I think something might have happened to him, because he still hasn’t turned up.”

“I bet you twenty credits he never does.”

“Don’t say that!” I snapped, punching him in the arm.

Mort raised his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry, it was a joke! I’d ask what’s got your panties in a twist, but even one day in this place would make me want to hang myself.”

Ignoring his comment, I pressed on with more serious matters. “I don’t suppose you had anything to do with blowing up Queen Gianne’s hangar, did you—the one with the deep-space fleet inside?”

Mort grinned. “I might’ve. Why, you impressed?”

“It’s a simple question. Did you, or didn’t you?”

“I was part of the strike team that Orion sent to blow it up, but I only helped out because it sounded like a fun mission,” he explained. “What can I say, I like things that go boom! Plus, it meant I got to leave Earth and the threat of being the next lab rat in line for the chopping block.”

I frowned, wondering how much I could trust Mort. “Why did you join Orion in the first place?”

He shrugged. “I originally signed up in the hopes of having a bit of power, you know? I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself, and there was nothing for me back home, unless I wanted to be a gumshi farmer.”

“Gumshi?”

“They’re hard fruits filled with sour, noodle-like fronds. It’s the staple food for my people back on our planet, though you can’t find it anywhere else,” he said. “It was a bit of a shock to discover the delights of human food, let me tell you! I think I doubled in size the first month I was at the base.”

I laughed, trying to imagine the shifters eating burgers or sandwiches. “Where’s home for you?”

He snorted. “As someone who wants to keep her planet a secret, you’re a little hypocritical,” he teased. “It’s way out in the Tarantora Quadrant. Most people call it Mallarot. I’d tell you its full name, but your puny human tongue wouldn’t be able to cope.”

“Are you glad you left your planet?”

“Easy, Diane Sawyer,” he chided playfully. I guessed he’d seen a bit of Earthen TV too.

I shrugged. “I’m just curious to get to know you better, since you asked me to trust you.”

“I’d never do a thing like that,” he shot back with a mischievous grin.

“You know what I mean, Mort. Better the devil you know, right?”

“Well, I didn’t fit in any better with the rebels than I did on my home planet, if that’s the scoop you’re after,” he said, after a moment’s pause. “I was an outcast on Mallarot, and I was an outcast with Orion’s posse. So, now, my loyalty is up for sale. I’m not sure it’s worth much to anyone, but I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity—and the right person—to tether my proverbial wagon to.”

“Are you tethering it to me?” I wondered.

“That depends.”

“On?”

“On whether you can offer me the revenge I want. That’s my price, for now.”

I smiled. “Well, there’s six of us who are looking for allies to join in our fight against the rebels and the rule of the two queens. We want to do away with Orion and keep Earth safe from Brisha and Gianne,” I explained. “If you help us, we’ll offer you the revenge you want and safe passage off Vysanthe, when we all escape ourselves. In exchange, we’ll need intel about the rebels, and whatever you can tell us about Queen Gianne from what you’ve learned as one of her doctors.”

Mort scoffed. “And why would you want to do that? As long as Orion is on Earth, he’s your best bet for keeping it safe from the queens.”

“A threatened planet isn’t a free one. With Orion there, the human race is at risk,” I replied. “He’s using our blood in his elixir—you know that. As long as he’s on Earth, he has a free supply of it, and he’ll continue to kill my people until he gets his fill. We’ll end up as slaves, and I refuse to let that happen.”

“You make a good point.”

“Plus, he had shifters draining the blood out of humans, right? As far as I’m concerned, your people are cold, ruthless killers,” I said, recalling the husks of the shifter victims. “You might have forgotten, but the last time I saw you, you were threatening to drain the blood out of me. So, you might make it sound like you’re all peaceful gumshi farmers, but I know different.”