Hotbloods 6: Allies

Our conversation was cut short by the sound of our special code beeping through the loudspeakers from the ship’s entrance panel. It was a tune we’d come up with so we’d know that anyone typing it in was a friend and not a foe. Even though the ship was still cloaked, we didn’t dare risk someone hacking the panel and breaking in, so we’d set the front hatch to open internally only—someone had to go to the hatch and physically let a person in. I could only imagine the hassle that had caused last night.

Leaving Angie in the dressing room, I went to the front hatch and pressed the camera symbol. Doctor Ulani’s face appeared on screen, though I knew it could only be Mort beneath the gray skin and doctor’s coat. He was wearing a wryly unamused expression on his stolen face, like he was completely at his wit’s end with everything the universe was throwing at him. I guessed he’d had a bad day on the Junkyard and felt a little sorry for him. Secretly glad he’d come back, I turned the handle to let him in and pushed the door wide.

“What’s the matter with you?” I asked.

“Oh, where do I even start!” he muttered, turning slightly to the side to reveal a hooded figure standing behind him, holding a gun to his back.





Chapter Sixteen





“Might I come inside?” the hooded figure asked with cold politeness, though I didn’t have much of a choice. He’d shoved Mort halfway across the entrance, meaning the shifter would be cleaved in two if I decided to close the hatch on him.

“Navan!” I yelled, stepping aside to let Mort and the hooded figure fully into the ship.

Navan came running a moment later, his boots thudding on the metal walkways of the ship, sounding exactly like the cavalry I needed. He froze as he rounded the corner, seeing the three of us standing there, and the gun now pointed at Mort’s neck. The hood still shrouded the figure’s face in shadow, but he chose that moment to throw it back, revealing himself.

Agent Xiphio glowered at us.

“Perhaps, miss, you ought to call for the rest of your friends and get them to gather in here, where I can see them, or else I shall be forced to shoot your shifter friend,” Xiphio said frostily.

Navan moved closer. “I don’t care what you do to the shifter. If you want to kill him, kill him.”

“Charming!” Mort muttered. “You slog your guts out for a coldblood, and this is always what you get: a bullet in the head and no hint of a thank you.”

“You may not care for the shifter, Navan Idrax, but I know you care for the criminal traitress over here!” Xiphio declared, shifting the gun from Mort’s neck to my face, the barrel staring at me, at point-blank range.

Navan froze, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace. I kept my eyes on the muzzle of the gun, realizing that Agent Xiphio’s hands were shaking, his gills fluttering. It brought me comfort, making me doubt the agent’s actual intentions. In fact, I doubted he’d even pull the trigger on Mort, let alone me.

“Are you here to arrest us, Agent Xiphio?” I asked calmly.

His huge, aquamarine eyes studied me for a moment. “I desire something else first.”

“What might that be?”

The tremor in his hand eased slightly, though he kept the gun leveled at my face. “I have been following your trail since you left the port-planet of Wander, where you trussed me up in that unseemly manner!” he began, a flush of purple darkening his cheeks. “I gathered clues of what you were up to from footage I acquired from the Galactis Club and continued to pursue you from there. Now, it has come to my attention that you are seeking an ambaka named Stone. Is this correct?”

I cast a glance at Navan, not sure how much to reveal. “We are. What’s it to you?” I said, at last, realizing that the Fed really weren’t the enemy here, especially since Xiphio hadn’t arrested us on the spot, or called for backup.

“I require your assistance in catching a much larger fish than you and your motley crew of misfits," Xiphio explained. “You see, I have been searching for Stone for countless years, trying to outsmart him so I might throw him in a Fed prison for his crimes. Until now, he has always been one step ahead. I believe you may be the key to finally netting him.”

“You’re getting nothing out of us until you shift that gun away from my girlfriend’s face!” Navan snarled.

“Of course, you must forgive my brutish actions. They were the only way I could get on board and ensure that you listened,” Xiphio said, lowering the gun and re-holstering it within his hooded cloak. “I’m sure you can understand the actions of a determined man, Mr. Idrax. You are of the same breed, I am certain.”

Navan took a visible breath of relief. “We’ll hear you out, as long as you don’t try anything like that again. You’ve got our attention.”

“I am glad to hear it, Mr. Idrax.”

Mort, looking utterly fed up, padded away from the merevin agent, morphing back into his natural state, a sour look on his face. As he stalked past me, I heard him muttering: “Stupid fish-boy, stressing me out, making my terror glands ooze. Now I’ve got to have a bath… I hate baths. That’ll bring it up to three this year!” He grunted in displeasure, keeping his head down as he moved toward the bathroom, his fleshy feet slapping on the floor. Only now that he was in his normal form could I smell the foul scent coming off him—a mixture of rotten eggs and liquified asphalt.

“Don’t you want to join in our discussion, Mort?” I asked, feeling bad for the shifter.

He shot me a nasty look over his shoulder. “No, I don’t want to join your little parlay! I’m sick of you all. I’m going to have a soak, so don’t you dare disturb me. Oh, and you’d better hope your toothbrush isn’t in there, Riley, because if it is I’m going to use it to slough out every nook and cranny!”

I shuddered in disgust as he disappeared through the hatch, into the bathroom where we’d locked Killick. At least it meant we could have a conversation with Xiphio without worrying about Mort saying something inappropriate and ruining everything.

“Come this way,” Navan instructed, leading Agent Xiphio toward the observatory, where he called over the intercom for everyone else to gather.

We sat in the armchairs scattered around the observatory, pulling them into a haphazard circle in the center of the room. The view wasn’t quite as pleasant as usual, with us being perched on the side of a sludgy canal, with fog and passing barges filling the window. Beyond that, there were mountains of scrap metal, plumes of billowing smoke, and the endless wasteland of the planet’s surface.

Angie, Bashrik, and Ronad appeared a few minutes later, their gazes snapping toward Agent Xiphio.

“Did we miss something?” Ronad asked, looking to us for answers.

“Sit down, and we’ll explain everything,” Navan replied, gesturing toward the circle of seats. I supposed he was including Xiphio in that statement, since there wasn’t all that much to catch the others up on.

As soon as they were seated, Navan offered the floor to Xiphio, allowing him to repeat everything he’d said before. He told the newly arrived trio that he was after Stone, after years of trying to pin him down and take him in.

“I know why we want him, but what’s he done to you?” Bashrik asked. “I thought he was just a scavenger.”

Xiphio spluttered in disbelief. “Just a scavenger? I do not think so, sir! He’s far more than a simple scavenger, and he has the criminal record to prove it!”

“How bad can it be?” Angie wondered, her tone curious.

“He’s stolen from some of the finest individuals in the universe and has managed to get away with every single theft!” Xiphio remarked. “He took the Cascade Orb from right around the neck of Queen Anthippe of Xalassi, and sold it to a Xalassian warlord, who then used it to purchase a great deal of contraband weaponry, and waged war on the queen and won!”

I wondered if it was the same Xalassian warlord that Kirin had cheated on Stone with, but it didn’t seem appropriate to mention it. Maybe that was where she’d met the warlord—on a delivery run with Stone.