Hotbloods 6: Allies

As we headed back toward the engine room, my mind was working overtime, trying to come up with a way I could let Stone in on what I’d seen without the stowaway finding out. It was a delicate tightrope to walk. Even if I wrote something down for him, there was no guarantee the stowaway wouldn’t look over our shoulders and see it.

“So, whaddya think’s wrong with the wires? Did any jump out at ye?” He laughed, not realizing just how close to the truth those words were.

“Funny you should say that,” I replied tentatively. “I think there might be some kind of space rats on board. The wires for the main room were all chewed up when I got to the mainframe. I was going to fit some connectors to make it work again, but then I followed the cables up and saw something I didn’t like the look of. I figured I should get some help instead of trying to overcome the problem myself, in case I ended up getting hurt.” I hoped I was being obvious enough, but there was no way of knowing.

He glanced sideways at me, a look of semi-understanding on his face. “Space rats, ye say?”

I nodded. “I don’t know when or how they got on board. We might have picked them up on the Junkyard. I don’t really know where these things can come from.”

“Nasty things if they get into all the wrong places.”

“That’s what I thought. I figured you’d have more experience with them than I do. I thought you might be able to do something to get rid of them. I’m happy to help,” I said slowly. “I just couldn’t see where they were coming from, you know?”

“Any sound o’ them?”

“Not really. Just a glimpse of some when the live current surged through the cable. It’s pretty dark down there with only the emergency lights on.”

He nodded, letting me know he understood. “I hate vermin… Let’s see what we can do with ‘em.”

With him going ahead of me, we clambered back down into the overwhelming heat of the engine room, where the green glow was still shedding its eerie light on everything. Down here again, I could sense eyes watching me, but there was no way of knowing if I was being tracked or if it was just my own paranoia getting the better of me. Either way, I was glad to have Stone for company—he was exactly the kind of guy to have by your side in a fight.

“Do you wanna get the hatch, Ri? If we’re flushin’ these rats out, we don’t want ‘em getting into the ship proper,” Stone suggested, a curious look in his eyes. I wondered if his ambaka senses were already picking something up, now that he knew there was something to look for.

I did as he said, pulling the hatch down behind us. Although it meant our stowaway couldn’t escape, it also meant we were locked in with whatever shadowy creature was hiding from us. I didn’t know who should be more frightened.

“See what I mean? It’s all been chewed up,” I said, moving over to the electrical mainframe where the cable had been severed.

“Yeah, some nasty little rodent’s definitely gone to town on this.”

“Do you think we should put some pest-killer down here or something?” I wanted to play up to the part in case our hiding foe was still listening. Meanwhile, Stone’s perpetual sense of calm seemed to be doing the trick. I’d never have guessed there was anything wrong, if I were only judging by the look on his face.

A smile curved up the corner of his lip. “You still got that gun on ye? How’s yer aim?”

“I’m better with a knife.”

“Well, set it to stun and ye can take a few potshots, see what ye get. Ten points for a biggun, five for a wee one.”

Reaching for the gun in my waistband, I turned the dial to stun mode, grateful for Stone’s subtle suggestion. After all, we didn’t want to kill whoever was lurking here; we wanted to find out what they were doing here and why they were watching us from the shadows.

“I’m a pretty lousy shot,” I admitted, forcing a laugh.

“I can teach ye to be better, if ye’d like?”

“Let’s see how I do first. I wouldn’t want to intrude on Lauren’s territory.” I flashed him a knowing grin that made him blush a little, before he turned his focus back to the rest of the room.

“It’s hellish hot in ‘ere, right?” he mused. “Me forehead’s sweating bullets!”

Holding my breath, I watched as he removed his bandana, revealing his third eye. Sticking close to his side so I wouldn’t get caught in its gaze, I waited as he moved his line of sight across every inch of the room, starting from one side and moving all the way over to the other. There were plenty of places to hide in the engine room, but Stone was already one step ahead.

“Where’s a wrench when you need one?” he asked, weaving through the built-up machinery, casting his glance in every direction. All I could do was follow him as he hurried along, his expression thoughtful, as though he knew precisely what he was doing. “Why don’t you shoot in all them corners, see if we can catch any of the buggers!”

I did as he instructed, firing rounds off into the darkened corners of the engine room as we pushed through from the back of the space, heading for the hatch again. If our stowaway was down here, they would have no choice but to run or reveal themselves. As it happened, they seemed to agree with the idea of running.

“There!” Stone yelled, turning his gaze toward the stepladder.

A slight gap had appeared between the hatch and the engine room ceiling, letting us know that someone was trying to escape. Now that Stone knew they were there, he had them caught in his freezing vision. The gap in the hatch stayed the same, even though I couldn’t see the person holding it up. Evidently, they’d made a break for it, hoping they could get out into the ship, where they could lose themselves in another hiding spot, using the vessel’s vast size to their advantage.

What they hadn’t counted on was me having an ambaka as my secret weapon. With the ambaka species well-documented as being extinct, I doubted our stowaway would even have known what Stone was, especially as he kept his third eye under wraps. Even in discussions about what we were going to do on Earth, we’d kept Stone’s skillset vague, speaking only about his “powers,” so it was likely that the hidden lingerer had no clue what trouble they’d stepped into. If they had guessed, they would still have only had two options: run or attack. The fact that they hadn’t attacked made me even more curious.

I fired a pulse of blue light at the stepladder, the stun setting sending electrical charges out of the barrel toward its victim. At first, I missed, which forced me to fire out another few rounds. The last of them hit its mark. The invisibility suit flickered, as it had done above my head earlier, and a clear shape faded in and out of sight.

With Stone holding the stowaway in place, we approached. He leaned forward and grasped at the flickering suit, finding the switch that rendered it useless. The invisibility shield crackled for the last time as it fazed back into sight. The silver, rubbery material covered the whole body, with a ski mask-like hood concealing the face. I reached for the hood.





Chapter Thirty





As the hood came away, I gasped. A female Rexombra stood before me, the silky black of her fur spiking up in two mohawks that rose from the base of her neck, up to the peak at either side of her forehead. She had the face of a panther, her feline eyes piercing into mine. Hooked inside one of her cat-like ears, a scarlet feather dangled from a silver hoop. I’d seen a similar piercing in the ear of Alfa, Stone’s friend and crewmate, who was of the same species as this female, though I didn’t know what the feather was supposed to represent. Both of her muscular arms were frozen in the air, lifting the hatch up, her body stiff. Even so, judging by the pure fury burning in her eyes, I could tell she was fierce.

“What’s a Rexombra doing on board our ship?” I asked, thinking out loud.

Stone offered a shrug. “’Tis not unusual for folks of all kinds to hire Rexombra as spies or assassins—any job they don’t wanna do themselves, usually. They’re trained killers, no two ways about it. A useful skillset to a lot of folks, given they’re stealthy and never get themselves caught.”

“You think the rebels would send an assassin?”

“Dunno, could be. Bit pricey for ‘em, I would’ve thought.”