Phantom of the Wind (16 page)

“All right,” Jaborn said, “then I will move my
guarda primero
to block his attempt.”

“Do you really want to do that?” Breen asked. “Look at your board, Sayed. My
guerrero primero
can not be stopped and if you move your
guarda primero
to cut him off, you will leave yourself open for me to attack.”

Jaborn seemed to hesitate with his hand paused over the board. He glanced up at the Vid-Com for a moment then returned his attention to the game as though deep in thought. “I could send my
guarda primero
to the fifth level and that will block any interference.”

Breen threw up his hands. “Shit, then I’ll have to figure out how to get my
GP
past the fifth and onto the Golden Sixth without being detected,” he mumbled. “I’ll get back to you.”

“It’s just a game,” Jaborn said, yawning. “Don’t pester me anymore tonight, Liam. I’m moving my
guarda primero
out of the way and then I’m going back to bed! We’ll finish this tomorrow.”

Jaborn’s face vanished from the Vid-Com screen.

Breen turned the lights out in the sick bay and headed for Kendall’s quarters. He would be there if she needed help.

* * * * *

When Quinn materialized aboard the
Borstal
, the Amazeen was waiting for him. No alarms went off to signal his intrusion and no one saw the tall man suddenly appear beside the Riezell Guardian.

“So what do you think of the Maze now, Shanee?” he queried.

“Gloat later about your
Scaan
invention. We don’t have that much time, Phantom,” she snapped. “The prince is in a deep containment cell, kept strapped down.” She looked him over. “You are healed?”

“I am,” he assured her. “Now where is he?”

She took his arm and pulled him down the corridor. “You smell of that woman,” she accused, her upper lip curling.

“She is my woman,” he reminded her.

Shanee stopped, her hand tight around his biceps. “I could be your woman, Phantom.”

He just looked at her. There was nothing to say that he hadn’t said before. She knew how he felt—he’d explained it to her many times over the last two years—but she refused to accept it. Perhaps now she would.

The Amazeen hung her head. “She doesn’t know what she has,” she whispered.

They hurried along the corridor, deeper into the bowels of the penal transport. Past cells that were securely locked without even a peephole to break the smooth, black surface of the titanium doors. Shanee took him to the very last cell.

“I can’t get it open and I have not found even a vestige of a slit through which you could pass,” she told him.

Quinn ran his hands over the door, the sensitive pads of his fingers searching for the minutest of imperfections in the metal and around the frame. The door slid into the wall without a break. He couldn’t find an entry point either.

“Have you made friendly with the gatekeepers?” he asked.

“Aye,” she said.

“Take me to the control room. You’ll have to distract them while I find a way to get into that cell.”

She nodded and they started back down the corridor. “Every other cell has its inmate labeled except for that one. I knew he had to be in it.”

“Good work, Shanee,” he complimented her.

The control room where the mechanics of each cell was maintained held two guards behind a securely locked portal. They both looked up as the Amazeen came to the thick, glass view panel and pressed her breasts against it. She smiled coyly then ran her tongue over her lips. She watched the men exchange glances before one got up from his chair and came over to open the door.

“Are you lost, Major?” the guard asked.

“I was looking for company,” she said in a throaty whisper. “I chose the two of you.”

The guard looked pleased but he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but we aren’t allowed to have visitors in the control room.”

Shanee felt a wisp of movement against her and knew the Phantom had slipped in unseen. She flicked her eyes up and down the guard as though assessing his ability to satisfy her. “Too bad,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“Perhaps when we get off our shift?” the other guard called out. He got up from his console—completely unaware of the switch to temporarily shutdown the alarm system in the deep containment cell area being disengaged or the pressure lock for cell number 18 being pressed to release the seal on the door.

As another light touch pressed against Shanee to let her know the Phantom had exited the control room, she leaned against the doorframe, thrusting her ample chest forward to garner the immediate attention of the guards.

“When will you men be free to take me?” she asked, her words having a jolting effect on the men.

“T-take you?” one of them stammered.

Shanee smiled. “I want you both,” she said, her sultry gaze spearing into them, raking down their bodies to linger at the juncture of their legs. “One may hold me while the other fucks me.”

The guards drew in quick, excited breaths. They licked their lips, and when she continued to tell them they could then switch places holding her and making love to her, the men actually groaned. One put his hand on his erection and rubbed.

“How long will you be?” she asked.

“We g-get off at 0630,” the taller of the two guards informed her.

“Then we’ll all get off at 0700,” she said with a wink. She put her hand to her breast and rubbed, holding their fevered stares as she told them what else they could expect when they came to the quarters that had been assigned to her. She spoke slowly—drawing out the lurid, detailed description of what would happen in her bed—to enthrall them and hold them captive until she felt another light touch slip past her. Looking over the guards’ shoulders, she saw switches being maneuvered by an invisible hand then once more something pressed against her before vanishing.

Straightening, the Amazeen flicked out her tongue one last time then turned to amble away, casting a seductive look over her shoulder as the guards re-closed the control room door.

Once out of sight of the guards, Shanee hurried down the corridor and was in time to see Quinn helping a young man up from the floor where he had left him so the Phantom could re-engage the security system on the containment cells.

“Is he all right?” she asked.

“Weak but he’ll be able to dematerialize when the time comes.”

The young man being supported by Quinn lifted his head, craning his neck to gaze up at the tall woman towering over him. “Amazeen?” he questioned.

“Friend,” Quinn told him. He held Shanee’s gaze. “A very good friend, Your Grace.”

Sagging against Quinn, the Crown Prince of Cengus could barely walk. He had been so long stretched out on his back, his arms and legs fettered to the bunk, he had little control over his ability to maneuver.

“The Wind be at your back, Phantom,” Shanee said.

Prince Aleyn Kaneen gave a start and he swung his gaze to Quinn. “You are Rory Quinn?” he asked.

“Aye, Your Grace,” Quinn acknowledged, “and we have to get the hell out of here before the Coalition snags us both again.” He pushed lightly against the prince. “Can you invisibilize?”

“I hope so,” the prince replied. For a moment he seemed to be deeply concentrating then his body began to slowly disappear.

Quinn waited until the prince was nothing more than a wisp of smoke before turning to Shanee. “Be safe, Lady,” he said to her.

Shanee nodded.

The Phantom smiled at her for the last time then disappeared. A slight rush of air was all there was as he and the prince fled the corridor and were transported to the
Lhong Shee
.

* * * * *

0359 CMT

Paton Dougherty intercepted Quinn’s thoughts as he and the prince sped across the distance from the
Borstal
to the
Lhong Shee
via the Maze of undetectable transporter beams between the two ships then turned to his wife Fenella. “Bring her over. Now!”

Fenella engaged the transport, snatching up Kendall and her Elfinish only a microsecond before transporting the ‘bots as well. The massive cybots materialized first on the pad, then the Elfinish’s kennel then finally Kendall.

“They are in!” Paton shouted. “Douglas, get us the hell out of here!”

Douglas, the
Lhong Shee
’s co-navigator and pilot, didn’t answer. He just nodded, his eyes glued to his screen.

The
Lhong Shee
jolted forward—her cloaking device still engaged. The Phantom’s vessel banked steeply to larboard and shot away, her engines screaming as she went.

“We’ve got company,” Paton said, and his wife came rushing over.

The StarDestroyer was in hot pursuit and Paton’s engineer Xavier Morgan reported the massive ship was gearing up its plasma cannons.

“How did they know we were out here?” Fenella asked.

“They must have a more sophisticated scanning system than we know about,” Paton said. “When we accelerated, the air displacement must have triggered some monitoring device and alerted them.”

“Do you think they can see us?”

“I doubt it, but their monitoring device must be following our heat signature,” Paton told her. “All we can do is attempt to evade until we can shake them.”

“
If
we can shake them,” Fenella muttered.

“We’re a smaller ship,” Paton said. “We can maneuver where they can’t.” He looked at the navigator. “Find us an asteroid field, Douglas.”

One of the crewmen had helped Kendall to a chair and was locking her into the safety harness. Munchkin’s kennel was being securely lashed to a stanchion attached to the wall. The two ‘bots were lumbering toward a section of the ship’s wall that obviously had been designed to store their enormous chassis in flight. The cybots locked themselves in then appeared to turn off.

“You all right over there, Healer?” Paton called out to Kendall.

“Aye,” Kendall said. “Where’s Quinn?”

“Don’t worry, wench. He’s on the ship with our target in tow,” Paton told her.

“They’re getting ready to fire, Mr. Dougherty,” Xavier warned.

“Where’s that asteroid field, Douglas?” Paton snarled.

“One coming at us!” Ian Shannon yelled.

The
Lhong Shee
bucked, dropped a few hundred feet as the repercussion from the cannon fire streaked past them.

“Piss-poor shot if you ask me,” Ian commented with a sniff of disdain.

“They’re not trying to hit us, Ian,” Quinn said as he and a tired-looking young man came onto the bridge. “They can’t afford to take the risk of blowing us up with the prince on board. That would start another war.”

Paton clapped his commander on the back then handed him the infamous scytheblade that marked Quinn as a member of the Order of Taibhse. Quinn strapped the short sword and its fine leather sheath to his left thigh.

Kendall breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the Phantom. She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer of thanksgiving to Alel. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring across the expanse of the bridge directly into her lover’s cool blue eyes. She smiled when he winked at her then turned back to his 2-I-C.

“You think they know we have him?”

“Morrison knows I wouldn’t have left there without him. My guess is he came to collect the both of us to take back to Riezell—me to my death and the prince to a cell somewhere where no one would ever see him again.”

The prince looked up from the floor. “You think our father wouldn’t keep trying to get us back, Rory?”

Quinn’s face softened. “I would hope so, Your Grace, but—”

“Aleyn,” the young man said firmly. “My name is Aleyn and I’m your brother. Don’t call me Your Grace again or I’ll slap you in irons until you say uncle.”

The Phantom threw back his head and laughed. It was the first time in a long, long time Kendall had heard the man she loved more than life itself laugh and it felt good. It sounded good to her ears and brought a sheen of tears to her eyes.

“They’re firing at us again,” Xavier reported.

“Get yourself buckled in, Aleyn,” Quinn told the prince. “Those idjuts just might hit us by mistake.”

The young prince walked over to the seat beside Kendall and smiled at her as he sat down. “Is that your Elfinish?” he asked.

“Aye, Your Grace,” Kendall replied.

“What’s his name?” he asked as he secured his harness.

“It’s a she and her name is Munchkin.”

“I have a male,” the young man said then his face turned sad. “Or I did. I hope my mother is caring for him since I’ve been gone.”

“Elfinish live well over a hundred years,” Kendall said. “I’m sure your companion is awaiting your return, Milord.”

“Does she insult you?” he asked.

“Only every chance she gets,” Kendall replied.

“Dasher did that to me,” the prince said with a sigh. “He doesn’t think I’m particularly smart.”

“I suppose to them we aren’t,” Kendall said.

“I have heard it said they only speak to certain humanoids. I guess our two consider us smart enough to communicate with.”