Hotbloods 6: Allies

“Did we really need more weapons?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly looking for weapons, just the suits,” he replied, kissing my forehead. “Hey, you don’t need to be nervous about Stone. We’ll get him, and we’ll get Lauren. You’ll see.” Evidently, he’d interpreted my suspicion as anxiety.

Navan carried me all the way through to the bedroom, not bothering to stop and talk to the others. He kicked the door closed and threw me onto the bed, where he’d abandoned me that morning.

“I just want to hold you for a minute,” he murmured.

I smiled up at him. “Ha! I knew you were addicted to my cuddles.”

Chuckling, he scooped me into his arms, and my head rested against his chest. Ordinarily, sinking into his embrace would’ve brought me a sense of peace and contentment, but there were too many thoughts racing through my mind. Most of all, I couldn’t stop wondering what he was lying about.





Chapter Eighteen





All that morning, the green dot seemed to hover in the atmosphere, pausing on its diagonal trajectory, making no further motion to approach the Junkyard. A few hours later, with the day stretching into afternoon, three blue dots appeared on the compass, coming in the opposite direction of the green flashing dot. Bashrik put the locations into the navigation system, mapping the suspected trajectory of both—it appeared that the green and blue dots were headed for the same location. The Salty Siren Inn.

“Grab your weapons and get ready to go! We’ve got Ezra and two more coldbloods on the map!” Navan shouted. It wouldn’t be long before the two ships landed, and we needed to make sure we were there when they did. We’d forged a haphazard plan to try to get into Stone’s ship, one way or another, to snatch Lauren and the notebook in one fell swoop. However, we knew we might have to think on the fly, since we had no way of knowing how the two sides would make their exchange. Still, that was the goal: get Lauren and the notebook, any way we could.

I holstered a gun and grabbed a bandolier of knives that Bashrik had picked up for me, before taking a jar of the blinding dust that Xiphio had brought for us, to throw in Stone’s eye. I also had the small vial of strengthening serum that Kaido had made for me stowed away in the pocket of my pants, just in case the need arose. I prayed it wouldn’t, but there was no telling what kind of mess we’d get into with this gang of thugs. The scavengers would’ve been difficult on their own, but adding Ezra to the mix was a different story entirely.

“Green dot is about to land! ETA fifteen minutes!” Ronad yelled, going into elite corps mode.

I ran to the hatch, where everyone else was gathering. We were armed to the teeth, though most of our arsenal was buried under layers of clothing. After all, we still had to get through the labyrinth of the Junkyard streets before we reached the Salty Siren Inn, which was ten minutes away, and none of us wanted to end up in an accidental brawl. With the green dot landing in fifteen minutes, it didn’t give us much time to breathe, but that was probably for the best, driving us along on pure adrenaline.

Ronad passed the compass to me and paused beside the locking controls, taking them off the inside-only rig we’d put in place, before the hatch went up and our group sprinted from the ship. I stayed at the back with Navan, though my eyes were drawn to the sight of our motley crew, working together at last: Navan, Bashrik, Ronad, Angie, Mort, and Xiphio. It was an eclectic bunch, but I was glad everyone was pitching in. Nobody was staying with the cruiser this time, given that Ezra was going to be there, and we’d need all hands on deck to overcome him.

My heart thundered in my chest as we ran and tried to stay as incognito as possible. The streets weren’t as busy as they’d been the previous day, but we still got a few funny looks as we hurried along. Fortunately, nobody felt like stopping us and asking what we were up to. It seemed pirates and criminals knew when to keep to themselves.

Just under ten minutes later, we arrived outside the Salty Siren, having followed a different route than the ones we’d taken before. The inn was beside another of the sludgy canals, though a treacherous footbridge crossed this stretch of browned water. It looked rickety, barely held together, but I knew it might serve as an escape route for Stone and his crew. It would have to be covered by someone, as would the rest of the potential exits and hideaways. We had planned our course of action using the zoomed-in map of the compass, and from the reconnaissance that some of the others had done the previous day, but there was no telling what tricks Stone might have up his sleeve. He’d survived this long without capture, after all.

“Which dot is arriving first?” Bashrik asked nervously as we gathered in a shady archway, facing the inn. A few unsavory characters loitered by the entrance to the ramshackle building, but nobody was paying us any attention. Undoubtedly, we looked like just another gang of thieves, scheming within the lawless realm of the Junkyard.

I peered down at the compass. “Hard to say. They both seem to be coming in at the same time.”

“I was worried they might do that,” Ronad chimed in. “It’s typical divide and conquer tactics, in case someone has caught on to the supply drop.”

We’d been hoping that Stone would arrive first so we could take him out before Ezra. However, it seemed like they had other plans, as I watched the dots getting closer and closer, matching each other’s speed and course, though they were coming from opposite sides of the visible map. I supposed we’d been foolish to think we could plot their plan of action. Now, we’d have to fight both Stone’s crew and Ezra, plus the crew he had brought with him, simultaneously. We could see two more coldbloods on the compass; we just had to hope that was all Ezra had brought with him. It definitely wasn’t ideal, but if we wanted to get Lauren and the notebook back, we’d have to fight hard.

“What do you suggest?” I wondered, knowing Ronad had intimate knowledge of these kinds of situations.

“We can match their tactics,” he explained. “We need to split into teams, all of us with a focused task. I’d say Xiphio, Riley, Angie, and Mort—you guys should stick to rescuing Lauren. Navan, Bashrik, and I will go for Ezra, and focus our efforts on taking him down.”

Navan nodded. “I’ll send up a flare to briefly distract our targets. This will be your signal to attack, regardless of who your target is.”

“We should review the escape routes we need to cover,” Ronad continued, pointing them out as discreetly as possible. He gestured to the footbridge, an alleyway that ran down the side of the inn, and to the two archways that led into the clearing where the inn stood. “Try and attack from those positions if possible, and do what you can to prevent anyone escaping down those routes. If our pirate allies happen to show up, we can use them to our advantage, ensuring they block the exits so we can focus on the fight.”

“Everyone understand?” Navan asked. A murmur of agreement ran around the gathered group, and we separated into our teams.

Angie and I hurried across the clearing and ducked behind a stack of rusting metal barrels next to the alleyway. To our surprise, Kirin was already waiting there, her big eyes bulging as she saw us.

“How did you know we’d be here?” I whispered.

Kirin grinned. “We’ve been staking out the place for days, waiting for Stone to pop up. He always hangs out here, without fail. I’m guessing, since you’re here, that he’s on his way?”

I showed her the compass, where the dots were about to converge. “Green is Stone, we hope, and blue is someone else.”