Taken By Terror by Lolita Lopez
Chapter Eighteen
Terror grimaced as the man standing next to him on the packed shuttle lifted his arm and let loose the worst stench he had smelled since living in a dorm at the Academy. He turned his face and shifted his weight toward Maisie who had taken up the small space between him and the wall of the passenger cabin. She still wouldn’t meet his gaze, keeping her head down and her face hidden by that ugly hat.
You are the biggest fuck up in the universe.
Silently berating himself for what had happened back at the safe house, he wondered if Maisie would forgive him. He realized now he should have warned her about his prior relationship with Pam. He shouldn’t have let her be blindsided like that. If the tables had been turned, he would have been furious to see a strange man walk up to her and kiss her so he could only imagine how angry Maisie was right now.
Ever since their tryst in the bunk room, he had been fucking up left and right. It was embarrassing, really. He had always prided himself on being capable and confident in all situations, but he seemed to be fumbling like a stupid teenager. Maisie, on the other hand, had made it clear that she could handle herself in any situation. She wasn’t fazed by anything and pushed through even the toughest moments without complaining.
He cringed at the memory of how he had reacted to her unexpected haircut. When it came to Maisie, it was so hard for him to control his expressions. She threw him off-kilter and made him feel things so strongly. Seeing her sitting there on that bed, all of her soft, silky hair gone, and looking like a slim young man had rocked him.
It was another reminder of his failures. She didn’t think he could keep her safe so she had drastically changed her appearance to avoid attention. She was still just as beautiful, but he knew that losing her hair was another blow in a long line of demoralizing events. He could practically feel the tension radiating from her in waves of anxiety and anger. She had been running on adrenaline and a drive to survive for long that it wouldn’t take much to set her off like a rocket.
She glanced up at him, sparing him only a moment’s attention before shifting away and presenting her back. He fought the urge to step closer and gave her the space she wanted, even though it made his chest ache to be separated from her. She had made her feelings clear, and he had to respect them.
The shuttle made good time and docked with the interplanetary ferry idling above the planet. Even though Maisie had given him a cold shoulder, she still stayed close as they exited the shuttle and made their way onto their flight. It was the cheapest form of planet hopping available so there weren’t any attendants checking tickets. A quick swipe of a reloadable ticket card at the entrance of the passenger cabin was all that was necessary. Because they were outside of Alliance controlled sectors, there were no biometric scanners either.
Instead of chairs, the ferry offered only benches with seatbelts. This sort of transportation was illegal in Alliance controlled areas, but out here anything went. He tugged on Maisie’s sleeve and steered her toward a bench close to an exit. It was the safest place for them, especially if the ship collided with space trash or cracked apart from stress. In this part of the galaxy, that was actually more probable than not.
Maisie shifted closer to him when a tired mother and two young children looked at the empty space next to her. Maisie gestured to the space, inviting the woman to sit, but she seemed uncertain, especially when her gaze fell on him. He didn’t blame her for being skittish. He didn’t have the friendliest face, after all.
Understanding what the problem was, Maisie lifted the brim of the hat she wore just high enough to show her full face. The mother narrowed her eyes and then relaxed at the realization Maisie was a woman in men’s clothing. She smiled warmly and took the seat, placing the older of her two children in the space between them and keeping the infant on her lap.
Terror ignored the family to surveil the rest of the cabin. The benches were filling up fast and soon people would be standing in the aisles if the rear cabins were equally as full. Not wanting to deal with anyone’s bullshit, he stood up and gestured for Maisie to switch places with the woman and her children. After everyone moved into their new spots, the mother sat in his place and Maise sat in the mother’s. He dropped down next to Maisie and stretched out his legs, rudely blocking their aisle and making it clear he wasn’t interested in his sharing his area with anyone else.
The flight departed the shuttle pickup station and rapidly increased speed until it hit cruising pace. The skinny little boy next to Maisie picked at the buttons and patches on her jacket. She seemed amused by him and enjoyed his attention. He wasn’t at all surprised by her softer, nurturing side. To see her playing with the little boy while his tired mother rested and nursed her dozing baby made him feel things he didn’t know were possible.
Hazard’s voice popped into his head, telling him to retire, find a mate and have children. Watching Maisie play peek-a-boo with the toddler drove home how right Hazard had been. Yet, sitting there next to Maisie in that cramped, smelly interplanetary ferry, he wasn’t sure how to make it happen. How did he get from here—on the run with a fugitive—to there, a life where he and Maisie could be together without the threat of his own people coming to arrest and execute her.
The possibilities rattled round and round in his head as their flight continued. He got up once to take a leak, using his trip to the rear of the ship as recon. All of the other cabins were equally as packed as the one he and Maisie had chosen. Some of them were far rowdier, and he suspected there would be at least one bloody flight before they arrived at their next destination.
The unisex bathroom at the rear was filthy, and he wrinkled his nose at the horrible stench. If Maisie needed to go, she would have to hold it. There was no way in hell he was letting her come near this cesspool of germs. She had bandaged her injured hand back at the safe house, but all it would take was one microscopic blip of bacteria to render her sick and feverish.
When he returned to their bench, he found Maisie spooning bits of one of their rations into the little boy’s mouth. His mother was eating from another package and smiled gratefully at him when he approached. He kept his expression neutral even though his inner soldier wanted to frown at the easy way Maisie was handing over their provisions.
Seeing how hungrily the little boy swallowed each spoonful shamed him. The child wasn’t starving, but he wasn’t regularly getting enough to eat either. The mother looked just as hungry as she carefully scraped the inside of the bag holding her ration, gathering ever last morsel of sustenance. He didn’t know much about breastfeeding, but he figured that it required a great deal of calories and water to make nutritious milk for an infant.
Maisie glanced at him as he settled in next to her. Their gazes held for a moment, and he gave her a brief smile. The furrow in her brow relaxed, and she returned to feeding the little boy. Terror reached into the backpack he had taken from the safe house, now filled with supplies, and handed the mother and Maisie cartons of flavored water. The little boy’s eyes lit up at his first taste of the fruity drink, and Terror had to look away, his once cold heart now feeling things intensely and leaving him off-kilter and uncomfortable.
By the time they arrived at their destination, a giant skyport orbiting an uninhabitable planet, Maisie had the little boy in her arms as he napped with his thumb stuck between his teeth. She caught his eye and gestured to their two backpacks with a nod of her head. He understood what she wanted and transferred all of the food and water rations to one backpack and their things to the other. He placed the backpack at the foot of the mother who thanked him with a big smile.
Maisie reluctantly shifted the little boy onto the bench next to his mother. She slipped off her hat and tugged the hood of her jacket over her head. Terror watched as she placed the hat on the boy’s head, leaving him a souvenir for his trip. She smiled and squeezed the woman’s shoulder before backing away and falling into step beside him.
They blended into the crowd leaving the ship and funneled into the arrival corridor for the skyport. The gigantic floating airport had once been a shining example of the best of Alliance technology and architecture. Thirty years ago or more, he figured. Once it had outlived its usefulness, the skyport had been sold off to Wings Intergalactic, the largest private commercial transport business in the galaxy.
Glancing around, he could see how little money the company had put into upkeep. The poor lighting made it easy to overlook the grimy floors and stained ceilings. A deep breath confirmed his suspicions that the air quality was total shit. He could just imagine how gunked up and nasty the air filters and ducts were.
Maisie touched his arm and gestured toward the blinking information screens. Warnings about an outbreak of a highly virulent respiratory disease filled the screens. Certain he had been vaccinated against whatever the hell it was, he wasn’t too worried about himself. Maisie tapped her upper arm to signal that she had been vaccinated against it and then held up four fingers.
“Four times?” he asked, surprised. “Boosters?”
She nodded, and he relaxed at the notion that she was protected. Still, the outbreak posed other problems for them. If they chose the wrong destination, they could end up in a quarantine, neither of which would end well for them. Wanting to learn more about the outbreak, he moved closer to the nearest information screen and read the scrolling bullet points. Maisie stayed close, her back to his and kept an eye on the throng surrounding them.
The outbreak had started in Sector 21, far away on the other end of the galaxy, but it had been brought here, to Sector 2, by passengers aboard various ships. Three of the planets he had been considering as possible places for them to lay low were already on lockdown. He mentally crossed them off his list and decided to cross off the two planets nearest to those locations, just in case.
Eyeing Sector 8 where the Valiant and the rest of their ships were currently deployed, he ditched anything in Sectors 4, 7, 11 and 12. Deciding their best bet was to jump to the farthest sector available, he tapped at the screen to find a departing flight. He flicked by the ones that were leaving too far in the future before arriving at a handful of flights that might work.
There was availability in steerage on a cruiser leaving for Sector 14. The cabin was small with a single fold-up bunk and one chair. Definitely not. All of the other ships that fit his criteria had the same meager offerings, crummy little bunks and cramped cabins with bathroom facilities shared by an entire deck. Maisie wouldn’t complain if he booked them on one of those flights, but he couldn’t bear the thought of asking her to sacrifice her comfort a moment longer.
He scrolled to the next screen and spotted a shuttle connecting to a mid-sized ship headed for Sector 16. There were two seats on the shuttle and one cabin left on the ship. By the price, it was a large cabin. He tapped the screen to get the details, but Maisie suddenly tugged on his sleeve. He glanced back at her, and she used her eyes to urge him to look to the left.
“I’m looking,” he said, keeping his head toward her so it looked as if they were discussing the flight on the screen. His practiced gaze finally found what she wanted him to see. Two men, both of them marked on the face with prison tattoos, haggled with a food vendor. They were ex-Land Corps soldiers judging by their size. The tattoos identified them as deserters who had been convicted of cowardice and sentenced to hard labor on a prison planet. He understood Maisie’s concern. Deserters only gained their release from prison by signing lifelong contracts as bounty hunters for the Alliance.
The glasses he wore and his knit cap would buy him some time, but he was taller than most of the people surrounding them. His build was lean, but he still had the look of a Harcos male about him. An appraising glance was all it would take to nail him as the one-eyed Shadow Force operative on the run with a fugitive.
Not bothering to read the details on the cabin, he hastily booked the flight using his travel card, tapping it on the screen twice to buy the tickets. The fake names on the card he had gotten from the safe house populated the fields, and he quickly poked the screen to agree to the seemingly endless small print about regulations and rules and advisories.
When it was finally done, he pocketed his card, closed out of the screen and glanced at the pair of bounty hunters now messily eating their food. They weren’t as slick as he was when it came to surveillance. Their behavior was obvious, and their gazes lingered too long on Maisie.
He tapped Maisie’s arm, and she started walking a few steps ahead of him in the direction he indicated. The crowd was heavy in this part of the skyport, and the corridors were too narrow for the constant flow of bodies. He let the wave of travelers carry him to the left of Maisie, staying parallel to her while also maintaining enough space to dart a glance back every now and then to keep track of the bounty hunters tailing them. Maisie met his gaze at each gate they passed, silently questioning whether this was the one or not. Each time, he shook his head, and she kept walking.
One of the bounty hunters—the taller of the two—started to move in Maisie’s direction. Terror captured her gaze and used tactical signals to tell her what to do. Enemy. Double time. Go around. Don’t land.
It was a mash-up of directions. He hoped she understood meant that he wanted her to move quick, loop the departure deck and lose her tail. She signaled she had received his information, and he trusted that she did. He gestured for her to meet him and then placed nine and then seven fingers against his chest to let her know which gate was theirs.
Nodding, she lifted her hood a little higher to hide more of her face. Like an alley cat, she slipped through the crowd and disappeared from view. His concern for her safety remained paramount, but he trusted the survival skills that had kept her alive so far. If anyone could shake that bounty hunter, it was Maisie.
A sidelong glance confirmed the other bounty hunter continued to shadow him. Terror angled toward the left, using his shoulders to make his way through the crowd crammed into the bottleneck of the corridor. He managed to free himself from the throng and kept close to the wall, inching forward until he reached a wider section. Most of the crowd seemed to be continuing straight so he chose to turn left, taking a set of stairs to a lower level of the skyport where he would have fewer witnesses if he needed to handle the bounty hunter.
The lower deck proved to be much less crowded. There were no travelers down here, just flight crew members and skyport employees. The lighting was terrible, and the air was heavy with the stink of sweat, old food and cleaning chemicals. The climate control didn’t seem to work well, and he grimaced at the unnaturally humid and warm conditions of the service deck. The sooner they got off this rotating hunk of junk, the better.
Not a single person on the deck spared him much more than a passing glance. They were all too tired, too underpaid or poorly trained to care that a passenger was traipsing through an area that should have been off-limits. The lack of security made this an excellent target for terrorism and an easy layover spot for traveling Splinter operatives. It was exactly the sort of place where he would have placed undercover agents, but Savage had pulled all of their far-flung operatives for planetary detail on Calyx and its colonies.
He rolled his shoulders with unease as he considered one of the consequences if he chose to never return to the Valiant and his duty. Savage was a skilled Shadow Force agent, and he was damn good at dealing with the brass back on Prime. He knew how to play the political games and get what he needed for his men, but he lacked the killer instinct that allowed Terror to make ugly decisions. It was an intuition some men had and some didn’t. Leaving Savage in control would get men killed, maybe even men Terror considered his brothers. Vicious, Torment, Menace...
Torn between his desire to be with Maisie and his duties, he tried a few doors until he found one that was unlocked. He stepped inside and found himself at the top of an access shaft. The landing where he stood was only a few feet wide and long, barely enough room for a man to stand, and there was no safety rail of any kind to prevent a nasty fall.
Perfect.
Terror melted back into the dark corner of the space, waiting just behind the door. In less than minute, the bounty hunter followed, opening the door and stepping inside after his target. Terror waited for him to be free of the door before slamming it shut with his heel and grabbing the man, hooking his forearm under the man’s chin. He took hold of the bounty hunter’s arm and twisted it behind him, breaking his thumb and yanking hard to force the man’s spine into a hyperextended curve.
“What gave us away?” Terror asked, his voice low and menacing.
The bounty hunter grunted. “The girl used her hands when she ran into some guy getting off the ship.”
Terror grimaced. He would have to tell her to make sure she was more cognizant of her hand movements in the future, and she would feel guilty. Taking out his irritation on the bounty hunter, he applied more pressure. “How much is our bounty?”
“No money,” the bounty hunter coughed out. “Full pardon.”
Of course. Offering these lowlife scumbags pardons for their crimes was the best sort of motivation. Wondering where this particular scumbag had gotten into trouble, he asked, “Where did you desert?”
The bounty hunter made a low whining sound as Terror pressed on his neck. Through gritted teeth, the hunter confessed, “Concord Settlement”
What little chance the man had had to escape evaporated at his admission. The Concord Settlement had been one of the most beautiful and peaceful settlements available to retired Harcos males and their families. The settlement had been founded on an incredibly lush paradise planet, and deployments there as part of the security force were greatly desired. Men traded the assignments for credits or to jump the line on Grab lists. The childbirth rates were higher there than any other place in the Alliance. It wasn’t unheard of for families to boast three or even four children.
But then the Maul had descended on the planet and decimated it in a night of horrific bloodshed.
The families there hadn’t stood a chance once half of the security force had mutinied and fled, abandoning the planet to a nightmarish fate. The Maul were a violent, murderous reptile-human hybrid species. They had mottled, slimy skin and teeth like razors. Their claws sharp enough to disembowel with one swipe.
No one knew their origin. The Alliance had sent scout ships and scientists all over the galaxy to find their home planet. Were they a natural evolution? Had they been created in a laboratory experiment gone awry? To this day, no one had those answers. Their ships appeared without warning, and the creatures tore through settlements like locusts. They would disappear before sunrise and leave no trail to follow.
Images of the Concord attack aftermath flashed in his mind. It had been nearly fourteen years since the attack, but he could still smell the stench of the bodies. His boots and uniform had been beyond salvageable. Blood had congealed on the streets, and the homes that had once been filled with happy families had resembled slaughterhouses with limbs and torsos and organs flung far and wide.
Terror had been desensitized to death from an early age, but that day, walking through what was left of Concord and seeing the remains of innocent children nearly broken him. Back in his quarters, he had cried. Cried, for fuck’s sake! He’d nearly choked on his tears as he imagined the horror those children had endured before their painful ends.
And to know this rotten piece of shit had fled rather than fight infuriated him. Rage boiled up inside Terror. He snarled and snapped the bounty hunter’s neck before shoving him down the shaft. The man landed with a gratifying thud. Good fucking riddance!
Popping up the collar on his jacket and tugging his knit cap back into place, he left the utility shaft and continued walking the length of the smelly, hot deck until he found another stairwell. He took the steps two at a time, checking his watch as he climbed. Dispatching that bounty hunter hadn’t taken as long as he had expected. Now, he had to find the other one.
A klaxon blared suddenly, startling him briefly, and he glanced around, fully expecting a team of hidden security to run toward him with weapons drawn. When none appeared, he relaxed a little and decided the alarm wasn’t about him. Hoping Maisie had made her loop and lost the bounty hunter, he emerged on the main departure deck.
A disturbingly happy female voice crackled through the public announcement system. “Passengers, please disregard the alarm and proceed to your assigned gates. All flights will continue as scheduled.”
The message was repeated two more times as he oriented himself. With purposeful strides, he walked toward their assigned gate, all the while scanning the crowd for Maisie or the other bounty hunter. He touched his pocket to make sure he hadn’t lost their travel card. It had been a mistake not to hand it over to Maisie before they separated. What if he had gotten captured or killed? How would she have gotten onto the ship?
Frustrated with himself, he eyed their gate as it came into view. The flight was already boarding the fourth and final group which meant there wasn’t much time. Expecting to find her waiting with the other passengers, he looked around the waiting area, searching for her hooded jacket. His concern ratcheted up to straight anxiety when he didn’t see her.
Where the hell is she?Did the bounty hunter get her?
He edged toward a full panic before he caught a flash of that ugly jacket she was wearing. His hammering heartbeat slowed as she met his concerned gaze. At first glance, she looked calm and relaxed, but he spotted the slight tension in her smile. She could hide her true emotions from everyone else, but not him. Something had happened. Something bad.
When she was close enough to touch, he noticed the minute flecks of red on her neck. They looked almost like tiny freckles, but he knew exactly what they were. Blood.
Not hers, judging by the clean state of her clothing and her exposed skin. He didn’t see any injuries. She must have felt his lingering gaze because she reached up and wiped at her neck, clearing away the blood with the dark sleeve of her jacket. He wanted to take her hand, to let her know that whatever had happened was over now. He wanted to assure her that whatever she had done was necessary for her survival.
She bumped against him, as if seeking his comfort and protection. He briefly touched her lower back, letting her know he was right there with her, before stepping in front of her. He led the way to the automated boarding screen and swiped their card. They passed through the gate and onto the shuttle, taking their seats in the uncomfortable exit row that no one else had wanted.
The departure was uneventful. Maisie kept her hood up and focused on the window, watching the skyport grow smaller and smaller as they gained speed. It was a short hop to the larger ship, but he was thirsty and suspected Maisie was as well. He touched her arm and asked, “Are you hungry?”
She nodded. “Can you see if they have any soup? Spicy,” she added. “And with noodles.”
“Okay.” He left his seat in search of the refreshment station and waited in the short line behind other passengers seeking food and drinks. There were a pair of flight attendants in the galley nearby, close enough that he could hear them talking. He kept his gaze forward but listened to what they said, wondering if he might hear something useful.
“All I’m saying is that we should get hazard pay for landing on that janky ass station,” one of the women said. “That thing is older than both of us!”
“I always worry that it’s going to pop a few rivets and explosively decompress,” the other attendant replied. “I thought for sure that’s what happened earlier.”
“False alarm my ass,” the first woman grumbled. “I was in the cockpit asking the captain and first officer for their drink orders when I saw the message pop up on the dash about avoiding the debris.”
“Debris.” The other woman snorted. “That’s one way to describe a dead body.”
“I just want to know how he got out of the airlock. My ex was a mechanic, and he used to tell me about how many redundancies there are on those doors. No way that guy just opened the lock, closed it and waited to be sucked out into space to die.”
“People are weird, Cary. I’ve seen passengers do all kinds of loony shit. Taking a spacewalk without a pressure suit isn’t even the strangest.”
The alarm. The blood on Maisie’s neck. A dead body.
Maisie had done exactly what he had asked. She had lost her tail. Only he hadn’t meant for her to risk her life to vent the man out into space!
The line moved, and Terror stepped forward to order drinks and a cup of dehydrated spicy soup. He carried it to the hot water dispenser, tore open the small opening for adding water and filled it with the steaming hot liquid. He tucked the flap back into place and made a face at the spicy, sour scent of the broth. He wasn’t a fan of exotic flavors and spices. He liked things simple. Holding the hot cup of broth made him want to gag, but Maisie wanted it. After everything she had been through, she deserved whatever small comfort this cup of salt and heat would provide.
When he rejoined her at their seats, she perked up at the sight of the cup and happily took it from his hand. She tugged the sealed package of disposable sticks from the cup and expertly wielded them to peel back the top film and expose the steaming hot soup inside. She stirred the contents, releasing a cloud of peppery, savory scents and loosening up the long strands of noodles inside. He spotted flecks of vegetables and droplets of fiery oil floating on top.
His mouth burned just from looking at the soup, and he watched in a strange sort of amazement as she shoveled the extremely spicy noodles into her mouth. She grinned at him, her expression childlike and sweet, and his heart thumped wildly as he realized how much he absolutely adored her. He suddenly felt like the stupidest asshole in the universe for the way he had behaved back on the cargo ship and at the safe house.
Why was he fighting this? Why was he warring against his own heart? Why couldn’t he just accept that for once in his miserable life something beautiful and pure and good had been entrusted to him? Why couldn’t he let himself have what he wanted? What she obviously wanted?
When the shuttle docked at their long-haul ship, he had made up his mind. He was done running from his feelings. He was done walling himself off and denying himself the love and companionship she was so eagerly and freely offering. I’m going to make her mine.
Of course, little did he know that in his hurry to quickly book a cabin he had overlooked an extremely important detail about the ship he had chosen, a detail that became abundantly clear as he and Maisie departed the shuttle and emerged into the opulent arrivals deck of their new ship.
This wasn’t a regular civilian cruise ship that catered to families and solo travelers crossing the galaxy.
No, the extremely erotic art decorating the arrivals lobby and the risqué uniforms worn by the staff corrected his assumptions. This was a pleasure ship. It was wall to wall sex and sensual delights. It was the kind of place lovers escaped to when they wanted to dabble in new carnal experiences and wildly illicit parties and games.
This was either going to be the best hasty decision of his life—or the absolute worst.
