Hotbloods 6: Allies

Ronad struggled to hide a smile. “You could say that.”

“Which of my triumphant endeavors have you been told of?” he asked excitedly. “Was it my work in preventing the trafficking of innocent Sonorans? Or my well-documented feats of charity with the Darian refugees? Or, was it the de-escalation of the Brimenian conflict, perhaps?”

Bashrik stifled a laugh as Navan made a tentative reply. “Uh… none of those, exactly.”

I stared at them, utterly confused by what was going on. Ronad was barely holding it together, and Bashrik was on the brink of collapsing into all-out giggles. Even Navan had a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

“We were thinking more along the lines of what happened to the planet Tiburon. You know, the accidental blowing-up of the asteroid that was threatening to destroy it—only, the charges were set on the wrong asteroid and Tiburon ended up getting hit anyway?” Navan ventured.

Bashrik nodded, chiming in. “Thankfully, the planet had already been evacuated, but there was an Agent Xiphio in charge of that mission, if I remember right.”

“I’m sure that was some other Agent Xiphio, though,” Navan added hastily.

An interesting shade of purple rose to the cheeks of the poor agent. He was blushing, evidently embarrassed. I wanted to turn to them and tell them off for being so childishly cruel, but I held my tongue, not wanting us to lose face in front of the Fed officer.

“I cannot confirm or deny what you have said,” Xiphio retorted, the warmth in his tone gone. “Now, if you would be so kind as to join me aboard my ship, we may proceed with the facial recognition screening. Since you seem to think you know so much about me, it is time to see if you are who you say you are. Oh, and please don’t try to run. I do not wish for things to turn violent.” He turned on his heel and returned to his ship, beckoning for us to follow.

“That was really mean,” I whispered to Navan as we hurried after the agent. “You embarrassed him!”

Navan pulled a face. “He’s earned the reputation, believe me! The Fed just won’t fire him, for some reason.”

My curiosity was piqued. “Why, what else has he done?”

“He’s the king of friendly fire. People across the universe call him ‘the Black Spot’ because if you see him, you know there’s a good chance you might end up dead,” he explained quietly.

“Well, that’s comforting,” I muttered.

“He crashed a cargo-freighter into a quarantine facility, releasing a toxin that turned patients into crazed zombies. He ended up giving fifty thousand credits to a bunch of gangsters, who ran off with the cash. He got honey-trapped into giving away Fed secrets to a Brimenian con artist, resulting in a universal scandal. And, he handed twenty crates of Sonorans to the very people he was supposed to be keeping them from—and those are just in the last year! He’s the laughingstock of the Fed.”

“Anyone can make mistakes,” I murmured.

“Not when their job is to protect the universe.”

I had to admit, that was quite the trail of chaos and embarrassment that lay behind Xiphio, but it only made me pity him more. I hated people being picked on or being made to feel like less than they were. In any other situation, I might have tried to befriend him, or at least attempted to make him feel better about what the boys had just said. Now, however, I was more nervous about getting through this scan without being arrested, especially given Mort’s disguise.

Xiphio led us to a flat metal screen in the middle of the main bay of the Fed ship, and had us line up in a row, facing the screen, standing shoulder to shoulder. As soon as we were in position, he walked over to a set of controls.

“Face forward and keep your eyes open for as long as you can,” he instructed, before pressing a large green button.

We all did as he said. A moment later, a bar of bright green lights emerged from a narrow panel in the floor and rose up, scanning us one by one. Mort was first. The lights moved across his body before coming to a halt in front of his face. I held my breath the whole time as the lights twisted and turned, processing every angle of his features, before the bar disappeared again with a loud clunk. Would it see straight through his Pandora disguise?

I couldn’t help but glance at the control panel, where Xiphio was working away at a computer, checking some unseen database for any recognition of our identities. A hologram of Pandora flashed up, her body spinning on a plinth.

“Pandora, you may step away from the screen. You are clear,” Xiphio said. A sigh of relief hissed from my throat.

Mort stepped back as the bar of lights emerged again, scanning Bashrik next. After another all-clear, it moved on to Ronad, who was also safe. Angie came after him, but no hologram emerged from the database. Fearing the worst, I looked to Xiphio, but he just shrugged.

“It would appear you are not in the database, miss,” he explained. “Not to worry, it can happen sometimes. It’s better not to be in here, honestly, because otherwise, you’re more likely to have a rap sheet!”

“Can I step back?” Angie asked anxiously.

“Of course. If you aren’t on here, you aren’t a wanted criminal.” He chuckled, gesturing for her to move away from the screen, which she did as quickly as she could.

Glancing at him, I wondered if he might be precisely what we were looking for, despite everything Navan had said about him. With a database that stored the names and identities of known criminals, Stone had to be on there. A third eye that could freeze people was exactly the kind of skill that made someone an ideal thief, and I’d already seen him and his band of merry men looting ruined houses. Even if he wasn’t in the database, surely the kidnapping of a young woman would be just the kind of case that would interest the galactic police—especially an officer who was probably looking to improve his reputation.

I mean, even if he was crap at his job, Xiphio was still a Fed agent. When were we going to get an opportunity like this again? We still needed allies, since the only ones we’d managed to get were Mort and Cambien, and Cambien wouldn’t be of long-term help. This was the perfect chance to gain more support. We could even tell him about the immortality elixir and ask for his aid in preventing Brisha and Gianne from creating it. At the very least, we could ask him to pass the message on to his agent buddies, who might be better at coming up with a solution.

The bar of green lights emerged again, distracting my train of thought. It ran up the screen to scan Navan, who was standing beside me. I watched as a hologram sprang up from the computer, showing Navan in all his glory.

“All clear, Navan Idrax,” Xiphio declared. “You may step away from the scanner.”

Navan gave my hand a comforting squeeze before stepping away to let the lights scan me.

My pulse quickened as the bar of lights shot up, stopping in front of my face. Green flashed in my eyes, temporarily blinding me, and the sound of the whirring mechanisms made my muscles tense up. It was like leaving a store and walking through the beepers, feeling guilty even though I knew I hadn’t stolen anything. Being human, I knew I wouldn’t have a record, just like Angie.

An alarm sounded as a hologram shot out of the computer, showing an image of me. Only, my picture wasn’t one of the dignified spinning figures that I’d seen for everyone else. Instead, it was a wanted poster, showing a blown-up image of my face and playing a short clip of me smashing the glass cabinet and taking the compass from the pawnshop.

“Stealing a valuable item and a dangerous weapon, destruction of private property, grievous bodily harm, unpaid toll fees… Well, well, well, it seems we have a criminal after all,” Xiphio said solemnly, peering at me over the top of his monitor.





Chapter Four