Rebel (6 page)

Jatki shook her head. “I was too scared to follow them after they let me go.” She glanced at Kim. “And I had no idea where to find
you
. All I could do was go back to our meeting place.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I think they’re after you, Kim.”

“That’s not too surprising,” Onca said. “She’s the one that got away. She’s a danger to them, and they know it.”

“So what do we do now?” Kim asked.

“Hmm…well, they used Jatki as bait to try to get
you
. I guess we should use
her
as bait to catch
them
.”

Jatki started cracking her knuckles again.

“Oh, I don’t mean you, specifically,” he said. “I mean the tracking beacon. We could put it on someone else, and they’d follow the signal right into our trap.”

Kim tried to find a fault with this plan and couldn’t do it.
Yet.
“But wouldn’t we wind up just catching those Rackenspries?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Might catch the ringleader, although I doubt it. That’s the sort of thing flunkies usually do.” He chewed thoughtfully on a fingertip. “I guess we could torture them and make them talk.”

“You can’t be serious,” Roncas snapped. “That’s, that’s—”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is inhumane,” he said. “That is, if you happen to be Terran. Come to think of it, that’s the Stantongue word for it too.” He sat for a moment, staring off into space. Then his expression changed, becoming quite devious. “Aw…it couldn’t be
that
easy.”

“What?” Kim prompted.

“We’ll
buy
them off,” he announced. “I’m sure I can pay them more than those other thugs can. My business might be more legitimate than theirs, but I bet they don’t charge as much per hour as I did.”

Jatki stared at him. “Exactly what kind of business are you in?”

“Haven’t figured that out yet, huh?” Roncas snickered. “He’s a hooker.”

“I am
not
a hooker!” Onca insisted. “Hookers stand out on street corners trolling for customers. I am a highly paid private entertainer seen by appointment only. Women waited
years
to spend an hour with me.”

Roncas rolled her eyes. “He’s a
hooker
.”

“
Was
,” Onca snapped. “I’m retired, remember?”

“Yeah, well, you might have to go back to work to pay off those Racks,” Roncas said. “And don’t even
think
about revoking my bonus or I’ll sic the Brothel Guild on you.”

Kim glanced at Jatki. “Can you tell they’ve been working together too long?”

Jatki replied with a weak smile, which was an improvement of sorts.

“How did they get you to swallow that beacon, anyway?” Kim asked.

“Said they’d kill me if I didn’t,” Jatki replied. “Besides, it was wrapped up in a piece of bread. I was hungry.”

“Poor kid,” Onca said. “And here we are making you eat
tholuka
berries.”

“I don’t mind,” Jatki said. “I’d like to get that beacon out of me anyway. It’s a creepy feeling, knowing I can be tracked.”

“Better stay away from Terra Minor,” he said with a chuckle. “Immigrants have a tracking implant inserted into the base of their skulls when they land there. Keeps the riffraff in line—or so they think. Doesn’t always guarantee compliance with the rules, though.”

Kim shuddered. “Sounds terrible.”

“I’m told it’s painless, although I don’t see how it could be. By the way, that’s where you’d have to go to collect your share of that trust fund I was telling you about.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Zetithians are exempt from the implants. And you don’t have to stay there if you don’t want to. But since it was designated as the new Zetithian homeworld, that’s where everything’s headquartered, including the database from the refugee ship, which has just about every scrap of data there is pertaining to Zetith. Amelyana lives there. I’m sure she’d love to meet you.”

“Who’s Amelyana?”

Onca grimaced. “Technically, she’s the one who about got us all killed—but she
did
manage to save a few of us. She was Rutger Grekkor’s wife. Took a Zetithian lover—the son of the Zetithian ambassador to some planet or other. Anyway, after Grekkor killed
that
guy, she went to Zetith to find another lover.”

“You’d think she’d have learned from her first mistake,” Kim said.

“Yeah, well, that’s the problem, see? We’re not only the best lovers in the galaxy, we’re sort of addicting.” He held up a hand as if to silence any protests she might have made. “Trust me, it’s true. And I’m not the one who said it.

“Grekkor was so stinking rich, he paid an army of mercenaries to kill us off. As you might’ve guessed, he was a little nutso. After they blew up any means we had of getting off the planet, they diverted an asteroid to crash into Zetith. Then Grekkor put a bounty on any offworld survivors. Nedwut bounty hunters killed most of them—which I’m
sure
is what happened to your family. Before the asteroid hit, Amelyana stole one of her husband’s starships and picked up about a hundred Zetithian kids, including me. We flew around in space for the next twenty-five years until another Zetithian, Trag Vladatonsk, finally killed Grekkor. With him dead, Amelyana inherited his wealth and set up the trust fund.”

“I have to admit, I didn’t believe you when you first told me that,” Kim said. “It all sounds so…
crazy
.”

Onca shrugged. “You don’t have to take my word for it. There’s plenty of evidence to prove it’s true.” He glanced up as Ganyn returned with their food. She set the plates on the table and then pinched him on the cheek before swaggering back to the kitchen.

“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Roncas said.

“Probably.” Onca rubbed his cheek for a second or two, then picked up a piece of fruit and bit into it. “Not too bad. Watch out for those yellow star-shaped things, though. They’ll put a pucker in your mouth like you wouldn’t believe.”

He was quiet after that, leaving Kim to wonder if he was simply hungry or if telling that story made him sad. It certainly made
her
feel that way. All those people killed because Amelyana fell in love with one man—or maybe it was two. Onca didn’t say whether she had ever found another lover. Considering that part about Zetithian men being addicting, she probably had. But how could anyone become addicted to another person? It didn’t make sense.

Although Kim had done her best to avoid looking at him earlier, now that he seemed preoccupied, she found it difficult to keep her eyes off him. Watching him made her feel strange, but it wasn’t a
bad
feeling.

Maybe
he
really
is
addicting.

Kim tried one of the purple fruits. It tasted good but had a mealy texture. She liked the red, crunchy ones better.

“These berries are sweet, but kinda”—Jatki stopped in mid-sentence, her face turning even more yellow than it was before—“slimy.”

Onca pointed to a sign in the corner. “Restroom is that way.”

Onca could almost feel Kim’s eyes on him. The chance to further her education seemed to have pleased her, but something in her gaze was a bit…unnerving. He had eaten half a
crafnet
before he realized what the problem was. Zetithian girls had always made him feel like he was lacking in some way, and a few of his clients at the Palace had done the same thing.

As Zetithians went, Onca was about average—not as handsome as Tarq or as big and muscular as Jerden. He’d never admitted it to anyone, but since none of the girls on the refugee ship would give him the time of day, he’d been a virgin when he started working at the brothel—a fact that his flirty, womanizing attitude had concealed reasonably well. His first client—a Terran woman in her fifties—had given him confidence, along with a few suggestions. Still, as blown away as she’d been by the joy juice, he doubted she’d noticed how nervous he was.

His performance had improved with practice, and he was now as skilled as any lover and more experienced than most. After Audrey’s death, he’d done his best to pick up the slack rather than canceling Jerden’s appointments. Onca had assumed that, as far as their clients were concerned, a Zetithian was a Zetithian and none of them would care one way or the other. Most didn’t complain—at least, not afterward—but a few had been rather vocal about their disappointment when they got him instead of Jerden.

And now Roncas had called him a hooker in front of both of the girls. That it was essentially true didn’t matter; it was still a less than glowing assessment of his character. He could’ve done without the hugs and kisses from Ganyn too. Sure, she was a nice enough woman and had a good opinion of him, but the fact that she was a lizard emphasized just how indiscriminate he’d been.

Not surprisingly, his offer to let the girls stay with him hadn’t been met with much enthusiasm. No doubt they figured him for some kind of pervert. He wasn’t, of course, but he
could
relate to a couple of homeless orphans—at least, he assumed Jatki was an orphan. As afraid of him as she was, he thought there might be more to her story—perhaps including someone who really
was
a pervert.

Jatki returned from the restroom a few minutes later, her color a little more normal as she slapped the tracking beacon down on the table beside his plate. “Don’t worry. I washed it.” She resumed her seat next to Kim. “Could I have some real food now?”

“Sure,” Onca replied. “Anything you want.”

“I’ll have the vegetables,” she said, rubbing her belly. “Not sure I could take any more fruit for a while.”

Onca waved at Ganyn as she passed by and gave her Jatki’s order.

“Sure thing, sweetie,” the waitress replied. “Anything for
you
.”

Well…at least Ganyn thought he was sweet. Perhaps she even thought enough of him to take the beacon and be the bait for their trap. He could just imagine the piggy faces of the Rackenspries when they tried to capture a Darconian. Then he realized he didn’t have to give it to anyone. He could leave it right where it was. The little punks would come looking for it eventually. In fact, he was surprised they hadn’t barged in on them before now.

Unless their boss was smarter than they were—although if the boss had any sense at all, he wouldn’t have hired a bunch of Racks to do his dirty work.

Nor would Rutger Grekkor have hired Nedwuts to wipe out the remaining Zetithians. Nedwuts were good hunters, if somewhat lacking in intelligence. Still, when there was dirty work to be done, an instigator couldn’t always be choosy when it came to hiring henchmen.

Henchmen…
“Say, you girls don’t know any other street kids, do you? I mean, the sort you’d trust?”

“Sure,” Kim replied. “There are a lot of us—more than you might think.”

“What if we got all the kids together and organized them—you know, provide them with food and shelter so they wouldn’t have to steal? We could use them to search the city and try to find your friends. Think they’d go for it?”

Kim hesitated. “Some of them might. I’m sure they would all want the food and a place to stay, but there are some who actually
enjoy
stealing.”

“Those aren’t the kind we’d want,” Onca said. “I’m talking about the sort that wouldn’t steal unless they were forced to—who would jump at the chance for a more normal life.”

“Like me and Jatki, you mean,” Kim said. “Yeah, there are a few like us. Unfortunately, three of them are already missing.”

“There aren’t any others you’d trust?”

She chewed her lip as though pondering his question. “Yes, but finding them will be the hard part. We tend to hide from the other gangs—some of them are real creeps. There are a few that aren’t
too
bad, but none of us stay in the same place for long.”

“Yeah,” Jatki said. “It’s not like we have an official headquarters or a clubhouse.”

Onca nodded. “But you’re bound to have some hideouts you’ve used more than once. You know…the really good nooks where no one has ever found you?”

Fangs sinking into her lower lip, Kim looked at Jatki with such an unreadable expression, he half expected the Kitnock girl to start cracking her knuckles.

Once again, Onca felt his irritation rising. “You don’t need to tell
me
where it is. You can show Roncas if you don’t trust me.”

“It isn’t that we don’t trust you,” Kim said. “We’re not used to trusting
anybody
.” She glanced at Roncas. “Sorry, but that’s how it is.”

“Which makes it real hard for us to help you,” Onca said. “Every now and then, you have to take a leap of faith.”

Astonishingly enough, Jatki was the one who spoke. “There’s an empty warehouse on the north end of the commerce district. It was supposed to be torn down, but the owners are in a dispute with the city over how much the land is worth. We have a place on the upper floor. It’s a long way up and there isn’t much of an escape route, but at least the street sweepers can’t see us.”

“And neither can anyone else,” Onca concluded. He understood the need to avoid the sweepers. The flatbed droids roamed the city gathering up anyone they found sleeping in the street and carried them off to the city’s drunk tank. Onca had never been picked up, but he knew a few guys who had. Some of them had given up booze altogether as a result of the experience, and those who hadn’t made a point of staying off the street.
Nobody
wanted to get stuck spending the night with a bunch of drunken Drells. They were annoying enough when they were sober.

“Yeah,” Jatki said. “Hardly anyone else ever goes up there.”

“Maybe we should check it out,” Roncas suggested.

Kim shook her head. “Wouldn’t be anyone up there during the day, and we do our best not to leave any evidence that we were ever there.”

“So where did you leave your clothes?” Onca was fairly certain that Kim had never been one to wander the streets nearly naked—not that anyone would remark on it, but she didn’t strike him as the type.

“I had them,” Jatki said. She glanced at Kim. “Lost them. Sorry.”

“No worries,” Onca said. “Just a question.” Still, if anyone looking for Kim had found her clothing, there were plenty of species on Rhylos that could use them to follow her scent trail. “The bad guys didn’t get them, did they?”

Jatki winced. “Maybe. I’m really not sure.”

“Great,” Onca said with a roll of his eyes. If that was the case, the Racks could’ve already tracked Kim to his house—which meant he and the girls really had nothing to lose by going back there, whether they were followed or not. No matter what happened, he wasn’t about to let a bunch of fuckin’ Racks run him out of his house.

Shemlak swaggered over to their table with Jatki’s veggies. He was moving as nonchalantly as possible for a Darconian, but Onca caught the high sign he was giving him—not to mention the fact that her lunch was in a box.

“One of the guys spotted a bunch of Racks hanging out in the bar across the street. You might want to head out through the kitchen entrance,” Shemlak suggested. “We moved your speeders around back.” He glanced at the beacon lying on the table. “Leave that here. I’ll hang it on Draddut after a while. They’ll get a real surprise if they try to jump
him
.”

Since Draddut was even bigger than Shemlak, this was an excellent plan. “Ask him to squeeze some information out of them while he’s at it, will you? I’d rather do that than pay them off. Goes against my principles to throw money away like that.”

“Principles?” Roncas echoed. “Didn’t know you had any.”

Onca slammed his palms on the table. “Roncas, if you dislike me so damn much, why the hell did you ever come to work at the Palace?”

“Jerden hired me, remember? I hadn’t met you when I took the job.”

“I tell you
what
,” Onca grumbled. “You give your receptionist a big bonus and she turns on you.”

Roncas patted his hand. “I’m not turning on you. I’m speaking my mind.”

“Same difference,” Onca said, snarling. “Let us know what you find out, Shemlak, and tell Draddut not to lose that beacon. We may decide we want to use it to trap those punks ourselves at some point, but right now, we have another strategy in mind.” He got up from the table. “Kim, you’re riding with me—seeing as how Roncas can’t stand me and Jatki doesn’t trust me.”

Shemlak chuckled. “Just take it slow and easy and maybe no one will notice you’re going out the wrong door.”

Roncas led the way with Onca bringing up the rear. Their escape would’ve been perfect if Onca hadn’t yelped when Ganyn pinched his ass as he tried to slip past her.

“You come back and see me again sometime, sweet thing, and I’ll bring my friend Judie along for the ride. She misses you too.”

Which meant that at least
one
woman who didn’t have scales and a tail liked him. With a quick wave at Ganyn, he climbed into his speeder. The fact that Kim got in beside him without any hesitation made him feel a little better. “Let’s split up and take the long way back,” he said to Roncas.

“What if they’re waiting for us?” she asked.

“With Captain on guard duty, they’ll be sorry if they do—which reminds me, I’d better give him a call.”

“Right,” Roncas said. “See you there.” The canopy slid shut as she turned her speeder toward the east and took off down the alley.

Onca fired up his speeder and headed in the opposite direction. Closing the canopy, he activated the cloaking mechanism. “We’re, um, invisible now. So if you see anything about to hit us, give a yell.”

“Invisible?” Kim echoed. “Really?”

“Yeah. I bought this speeder from a Nerik who swore that feature would be the most useful thing ever. This is the first time I’ve actually used it.”

“Seems like it’d be kinda dangerous when there’s much traffic.”

“It is. Which is why it’s illegal—and also why I need you to keep a lookout. All speeders have anti-collision sensors on them, but they don’t work when we’re cloaked, and neither does the navigator function. I have to fly it manually.” He tapped the comlink pad. “Ahoy, Captain. Seen any strangers hanging around the house?”

“Not at this time,” the computer replied. “Shall I activate the defense mode?”

“Yeah, but let Roncas and Jatki in if they get there ahead of us.”

“And who, pray tell, is Jatki?”

“A Kitnock girl with purple hair. Trust me, you’ll know her when you see her.”

“I am certain of it,” Captain said.

“Okay. Call me if you notice anything weird going on in the neighborhood.”

“I shall comply. Captain out.”

Terminating the link, Onca turned to Kim. “So, you want to tell me why Jatki thinks I’m worse than a Herpatronian rapist?”

“She doesn’t think that. Really. Don’t feel bad. It’s more
what
you are than
who
you are. Men terrify her.”

“I noticed that. I’m guessing some guy roughed her up?”

“Yeah. Her father used to molest her, and when he got tired of that, he liked to beat her up.”

Expecting to hear almost anything but that, Onca felt like he’d been punched in the gut by a Darconian. “That’s—that’s…
horrible
. She’s a runaway then?”

“Yeah. Which is why she
really
doesn’t want anyone to know where she is. Especially her family.”

Onca had never known his family and would have given his entire fortune to see them alive and well again. He couldn’t imagine not wanting his family to find him. But then, he’d never been abused.

“Look out!” Kim shouted.

Onca halted the speeder just shy of another vehicle that was cutting through the alley. As inattentive as he was in the wake of Kim’s revelation, he considered it best to stop for a moment. Easing the speeder closer to one of the buildings, he lowered the parking struts.

“Why are we stopping?”

“Because I’m too freaked out to drive. Mother of the gods! How can a father
do
that to his own child? I don’t get it.”

“Yeah, well, he’s probably not the only one. Even on a nice, clean, happy planet like Rhylos.”

Damenk prided itself on being the cleanest city in the galaxy. Everything—buildings, streets, and especially the landscape—was scrupulously maintained. Even the alleys were pristine. Flowers bloomed from planters behind each building and trailed from balconies above. Litter simply didn’t exist, and the trash receptacles were works of art. And yet, heinous crimes still occurred—even in private homes like Jatki’s. Onca shivered. No wonder these girls felt safer on the street than they would in his house.

Until now, when someone was apparently hunting them down like vermin. “Look, Kim. I know you girls have no reason to trust me, but I swear on the crumbling dust that was once my planet, I will not hurt you or any of your friends.”

Onca had been trying not to look at her too much, but he couldn’t help it now—not when she sat with him in such a small, enclosed space. Nor could he ignore her scent. She had washed with the same soap he always used, and yet she smelled completely different—sweet, feminine, and something else he couldn’t identify. Swirling in the air between them, her aroma kept his gaze riveted on her, drinking in her deep brown eyes and shining curls. The curve of her cheek. The upward slant of her brow. She wasn’t just cute. She was
adorable
.