“Survivors will be glad they don’t have to split that wide a cut.”
Dancer grunted. “Boldorians won’t care about that. It’s now an honor quest for them to come get me. With reinforcements.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “You scared yet?”
Bastien let out a false laugh. “I’m hunted by League assassins for fun and promotion, and you think these backwater pussies scare me? Really?”
Dancer clapped him on the back as a sign of brotherhood. “When we get that chip out of you, if you need a place, The Sentella’s always looking for good people.”
Yeah, but that wasn’t him. “I have some long-overdue payback to shove up someone’s ass first. After that? I just might accept your offer.”
Dancer confiscated arms, ammunition, and a radio before pulling back. He paused long enough to check the tracking device’s broadcast frequency.
“What are you doing?” Bastien asked with a frown.
“Reprogramming this to their frequency. They land, talk to each other, and I can peg them as fast as they peg me.”
Impressive, but he should expect no less from a Hauk. “You are Fain’s brother.”
“Taught him everything he knows.”
Bastien arched a disbelieving brow.
Dancer grinned. “About electronics. He taught me fighting … usually by sitting on my ass until I got big enough to make it hurt when he tried.”
Like him and Quin … and Lil. Honestly? He’d have fought Quin twice before ever tangling once with his sister. She hit three times as hard and was four times meaner.
“Ah.” Bastien grabbed food and water. “So what’s the plan now?”
“Pull back. Keep them after me and away from my family until reinforcements arrive.” He pinned Bastien with a hard stare. “If I die, go out with a major body count.”
“My kind of plan.” And the kind that used to send Ember into apoplexy. Hence one mission when she’d shot him herself before battle even began to keep him out of the fray.
Not to mention the kind of plan that used to make his mother and sister break out in hives.
Dancer took a few minutes to siphon fuel from the two airbees on board the skimmer and add it to the ones they’d ridden in with.
Bastien hesitated, then realized that he might as well tell Dancer everything about his situation. After all, he had the only safe place for them to stay in the entire desert. There was no need in being selfish with it. “If you need a good defensive place to lead them to, there’s an old abandoned base not that far from here where I make my home.”
“Bredeh’s?”
Bastien furrowed his brow. “You know it?” That stupid question was out before he could stop it. Of course Dancer would know it. Being a part of The Sentella and one of Nyk’s friends, he’d probably been in with the run that had bombed it to oblivion.
“Yeah, I do. It’s where I sent my family.”
Should have known … And strangely, he had an odd feeling of being violated, knowing that there were strangers with his personal stuff. Not that he had much, but still … Been a long, long time since he’d shared a place with anyone else or had to worry about someone going through his things.
“Oh. Damn. Hope they don’t find my porn.”
Dancer arched a brow.
“I’m kidding. I have it all locked up.”
Laughing again, Dancer shook his head. “You have been alone far too long.”
Bastien sobered. “Yeah, I have. It’s good to be around people again.”
“Not people, human.”
“Not human, either, brother. Lost my humanity a long time ago when I got betrayed into this hell of a life.” Bastien glanced back to where they’d left the majority of the bodies. “The caves will give us some cover, but trap us in an attack.”
“Yeah. We’re in the middle of the great Oksanan desert. Not a lot here, period.”
“Nothing but buzzards and raiders,” Bastien agreed. “Look, I know you don’t want to chance leading them to your family. But I’m thinking that we can use the old transmitter at the base to signal your girlfriend’s transport back from the city.”
Dancer went ramrod stiff at those words. “What do you mean?”
“The blonde who joined you? I couldn’t really make out her features, but she came in locally, right?”
Dancer’s demeanor turned darker. “You saw her arrive?”
Bastien nodded. “She was dropped off a little ways from your camp a few days ago.… You look like you had no idea.”
Dancer didn’t comment on that. “What all did you see?”
Bastien shrugged nonchalantly. “It was a small transport. Looked like it came out of one of the distant cities here. Didn’t appear space-worthy. It lacked shielding and…” His voice trailed off as he met Dancer’s gaze. “Why are you so pissed now?”
His breathing labored, Dancer curled his lip. “Because I think I just handed my kids off to my worst enemy.”