Alien Warrior’s Treasure by Sue Mercury
Chapter 11
“He’s not here,”Commander Vensinn said with a growl, his gaze sweeping over the unit of warriors who’d just searched Leader Bricco’s house. “His wife is missing too, though a neighbor claims she is visiting her sons at an outpost.”
Gavvin stepped forward. “Bricco owns three businesses in Starrzia.” He lifted his wrist and used his comm to project a three-dimensional map of the settlement into the air. He pressed a button and three red blinking dots appeared, each marking one of the traitor’s buildings. The warriors in Commander Vensinn’s unit gathered around Gavvin to stare at the map, along with several warriors from an additional unit, Khann and his brothers among them.
But just as they started discussing how they would split up and converge upon all three buildings at once, an incoming message flashed at the bottom of the map. Figuring it was an automated alert about another intercepted Irrcon message, Gavvin made to swipe it off the projection, intending to deal with the new alert once Bricco was caught, but he paused when he recognized one of Leader Bricco’s comm numbers.
“What is it?” Khann asked, stepping closer.
“It’s a transmission from Bricco himself.” A cold feeling descended upon him as he opened the message. He’d never actually spoken to Leader Bricco before, so it was odd that the traitor would be contacting him, especially on this night of all nights.
A short but chilling video recording played, the projection from Gavvin’s wrist comm making it possible for all the gathered warriors to watch.
“Warrior Gavvin,” Leader Bricco said with a cold smile. “You intercepted messages that were not meant for you. I suspected someone on New Vaxx was intercepting and decoding encrypted Irrcon transmissions, but until this evening, when I set a trap for you and managed to trace your location while you hacked my systems, I did not realize it was you. And I managed to do some hacking of my own and got a peek at your decryption records.” He chuckled. “What a pity everyone thinks you’re as treasonous as your dead brother. If only all the warriors in Starrzia knew the truth—that you’ve been intercepting Irrcon messages for many moon cycles now and sending your findings to Vaxxlian High Command.”
Gavvin growled, his muscles tensing and his blood running hot as he envisioned himself shoving a dagger deep into Bricco’s heart. He glanced up and was shocked to find many of his fellow warriors staring at him with expressions of… admiration. Before he dared to allow himself a moment of hope, he refocused on the video projection.
“Just last week, you outed one of our best spies on the Giaha Outpost.” Leader Bricco shook his head as his lips curled in disgust. “One of our best spies and now he’s dead. You’ve caused us a lot of trouble, but you will cease your interference at once. No more intercepting or decoding Irrcon messages. If you do, she pays the price.” The elderly traitor reached off camera and yanked a golden-haired human female in front of him. Though her mussed hair partially obscured her face, Gavvin would recognize the sweet human anywhere.
Molly.
His heart clenched. Leader Bricco had Molly.
Axall and Myadd gasped, and beside them, Khann released a menacing growl.
“I’m quite serious,” the traitor said, tugging on Molly’s hair until she winced. “I was hoping we could have this chat in person—while I held a blaster to your head—but since you’re not here and I’m on a time schedule, I suppose a hostage will have to do. I will be going into hiding now, obviously, but you will cease your activities at once. If I even suspect that you’re working against the Irrcon cause, I will not hesitate to make this human female suffer.”
The message ended and the projection of the map from earlier took its place. Gavvin cursed and lowered his wrist comm. The three-dimensional map disappeared. But it didn’t matter. The map was useless now. Leader Bricco wasn’t at one of his three remaining properties. Gavvin had recognized the background of Bricco’s video message.
“I know where he is,” Gavvin said, peering at the warriors. “Or at least, I know where this video was recorded.” His gaze came to settle on Khann, who appeared equally shaken and angry. Not that Gavvin could blame him—the human female he’d been charged to protect was in danger.
“Where?” Khann asked, stepping closer as his eyes darkened. “Where is he?”
“That video message was recorded in my home office.”
“What would Molly be doing at your house?” Khann asked with a growl.
“I will explain later.” Gavvin spun to face Commander Vensinn. “Leader Bricco likely has help. An ally who can fly him to a hideout on New Vaxx or to an outpost far from our planet. He hasn’t piloted a Vaxxlian cruiser himself in years and sold his personal craft to another warrior.”
Commander Vensinn immediately contacted High Command, requesting a temporary no-fly zone be erected around Starrzia. Leader Bricco would not find escape easy. His only option would be to escape on foot, and Gavvin doubted the elderly Leader would manage to get very far.
Most Vaxxlian males as old as Bricco were in excellent shape, thanks to the healing nanobots in their systems, which helped keep them strong and ward off the effects of aging. But it was well known that Leader Bricco didn’t trust the nanobots and had refused an injection. He was therefore a frail old man.
Gavvin prayed the traitor’s physical weaknesses would prevent him from doing any real harm to Molly, and he prayed that she would be able to defend herself if he attempted to hurt her.
A vision of Molly standing in the forest, her fist raised as a bear charged at her, entered his mind. She was strong and brave. But if Bricco had a weapon? He could do away with Molly at the press of a button, the pull of a trigger.
Several hovercars zipped into a nearby clearing, and Gavvin joined his fellow warriors in boarding the hovercars. The vehicles were fast and could move stealthily between the trees, and they were also quieter than Vaxxlian cruisers or hovercrafts.
In total, one hundred and twelve warriors boarded twenty-three hovercars. The armored vehicles would converge upon Gavvin’s home from different directions, covering a vast area of forest surrounding his home in the process.
I will find you, Molly. I will find you, I promise.
* * *
The vines wrappedaround Molly’s wrists chafed her skin. She shot a dirty look at Leader Bricco as he tugged her through the forest, using a length of the vine like a rope to pull her behind him. He kept speaking into his wrist comm in Vaxxlian, which she could not understand, and casting frantic glances into the lightening sky.
“That recording you made in Gavvin’s study,” she said, yanking backward on the vines and causing him to trip. Sadly, he managed to steady himself, failing to fall on his ass as she’d hoped. “What did you say in the recording? I heard you say Gavvin’s name. I want to know what you said.” Not for the first time, she wished she could at least understand spoken Vaxxlian.
“Nothing for you to worry about, human.” He gave the vines an especially hard tug. She hurried to keep up with him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of making her stumble.
What the hell was going on? She didn’t know much, if anything, about Leader Bricco. But he’d mentioned using her as a hostage, and she was very much his captive at the moment. If he needed a hostage, it reasoned that he was a wanted criminal.
What crime had he committed?
Coldness gripped her as dark possibilities swarmed her mind. Given the violence in his eyes and the desperation that radiated off him, she suspected he was in serious trouble with his people. Maybe he’d killed someone, and maybe Gavvin knew about it.
She winced and barely restrained a cry of pain as Leader Bricco tugged harder on the vines. Fast as he was walking, she had to jog to keep up with him. What would he do with her once he reached his final destination?
They traveled deeper into the forest, over small streams and through flower-covered clearings, farther from Starrzia than Molly would have ever dared to walk by herself, even if she had a working stunner. Her sides ached from the elderly Vaxxlian’s rapid, unrelenting pace. She kept glancing at him, hoping he would show signs of growing fatigue, but it seemed he was determined to escape.
The fact that he continued glancing at the sky gave her pause. Was he expecting a Vaxxlian cruiser to pursue him? Or was he expecting rescue from an ally?
“Who’s chasing you?” she asked. “And who might we be expecting from the sky?” She slowed in her steps and gave a fierce yank on the vines, but his grip remained firm, and he pulled back, causing her to stumble over the increasingly rocky terrain.
He ignored her questions, not even bothering to glance over his shoulder at her. As she hurried to keep pace with him, lest he tear the skin off her wrists with the vines, she felt the reassuring weight of the kitchen knife in her pocket. It hit her thigh with her every rapid step.
All she needed was a moment, a moment during which they weren’t running and Leader Bricco wasn’t paying attention to her, and she could reach into her pocket and use the knife to slice the vines. Her stomach flipped at another possible use for the knife—as a weapon against her kidnapper.
When she’d swiped the knife from the kitchen and snuck out of the house, she hadn’t anticipated having to use the blade at all. She’d taken it as a precaution, just in case she happened to have the misfortune of running into another forest beast. But she hadn’t expected she might need to use it against a male Vaxxlian. Her blood ran cold. Could she do it? Could she use the knife against him?
Nausea bubbled up inside her at the thought of stabbing the man, even if he had kidnapped her and planned to use her as a hostage.
Nanobots. Her heart sank as she remembered the nanobots.
All Vaxxlian warriors had healing nanobots inside them, and human females were given injections containing the nanobots once they mated with a warrior. Though Molly had never seen the nanobots in action, she’d heard they could work miracles and start healing wounds almost instantly, as well as cure any sickness inside a person.
Even if she worked up the courage to stab Leader Bricco, he would heal from the injury quickly. Dread filled her. If she stabbed him, she would have to cause grievous injury to him, the sort of injury that would stun him enough to allow her to escape while he healed. That meant stabbing him multiple times, slitting his throat, or maybe plunging the blade directly into his heart.
Her nausea increased and the knife suddenly felt heavier as it slammed against her thigh, its weight now as ominous as it had once been comforting. What she wouldn’t give for a working stunner, one that would actually fire when she pulled the trigger.
A new fear seized her when they reached a cliff face that contained multiple caves. The cliff face was well concealed by the forest, many of the wide tree branches touching the rocky surface.
Leader Bricco finally paused, and Molly gasped for breath as she stared at the cliff, praying the elderly male wouldn’t expect her to climb the rocks. He turned and shot her a disgusted look.
“I suppose I’ll have to carry you up there, puny human that you are.”
She lifted her chin. “I can climb just fine,” she said, holding out her wrists, “if you take this off.” She fought the urge to smirk at him, even as her insides trembled.
Something told her that if he got her in one of those caves, she would never come back out. She would never see the blue sky again or walk through the glorious nighttime forests of New Vaxx. She would never reunite with her friends or Gavvin. She would never have a chance to embark upon the life she was supposed to enjoy on this planet—a life that included a mate and children, a family of her very own. Only death awaited her in the caves.
She needed to escape now.
Leader Bricco approached her, peering down at her tied hands, and she thought he meant to remove her makeshift manacles… until his fist slammed into her face, so fast she never saw it coming. Pain radiated through her jaw and she tasted blood. Black spots danced in her vision. Her knees hit the forest floor hard, then she slumped to the side, falling into oblivion.
