28. Ohara

THE DAY OF THE RIOT

Freedom was not what I thought it would be.

It'd been almost five years to the day since I had been set free from Ikmal prison, and yet I might as well have still been there for all I'd been up to.

I worked around the clock — not only for Thillak but doing research on Ikmal prison and how to bust someone out of there.

There was a reason it was considered the most secure prison in the galaxy. Ikmal had been selected specifically due to its turbulent surface where volcanoes and earthquakes erupted constantly.

The prison compound itself had been built to withstand such natural disasters, and made tunneling or approaching via air virtually impossible.

I'd made valuable connections both inside and outside the compound and I'd come up with a series of plans to get Lily out.

Two plans had already met with failure.

It seemed that no matter what I tried, something always come along to scupper it at the last moment.

And so I returned to the drawing board, to the books at the Galactic Library, to the blueprints I'd managed to scrounge from the black market.

There had to be a way to get her out of there. There just had to be.

I did have one idea… but it was beyond insane, and with the security protocols in place, it was virtually guaranteed to fail. It required a relaxation of the prison's protocols and that was never going to happen.

Sometimes the despair got the better of me and I lost myself to sheetghat spirits and alcohol and immediately regretted it the day after — not because of the pounding headache but because of the wasted time. I could have used it to find a way to rescue Lily.

It was all a matter of time, I told myself. The harder I worked, the more hours I threw at it, the more likely I was to find a solution.

It just hadn't come to me. Yet.

I scaled the tall steps to the plastic manufacturing plant with the package tucked under my arm. Five years later and I was still delivering packages for Thillak.

The day I'd almost attacked the guards so an extension could be added to my sentence, Cayggod had given me an alternative idea:

Work for Thillak on the outside and he would protect Lily on the inside. He would ensure she was never chosen as a Prize — under penalty of death at Thillak's goon's hands.

It meant Lily would be safe from harm, that she could live her life in relative peace.

With few other ideas, it seemed like the best option. But it meant I couldn't see her again… or until I figured a way to get her out of there.

Five years later and I still wasn't sure if I'd made the right decision.

Cayggod was right that I couldn't always be crowned Champion and that eventually I would lose — both the fights and Lily — but sacrificing my ability to see her was a high price to pay.

Very high.

I nodded to the guards outside the back entrance to the plastic factory. They opened the door and let me in.

I hated the stink of the molded plastic as it was warped and folded into different shapes. I didn't know how the workers could stand it day in and day out. They ignored me, just as I ignored them.

I wound my way up the steps to the main office and let my fantasies of Lily block out the sights and smells of the factory.

The silky smoothness of her skin and the look in her eye when I entered her. They were the only fuel I had to keep me going. Work this crappy job to keep her safe while I worked on a way to get her out of Ikmal.

Those were the only things that mattered.

I needed her, and if I wasn't with her soon. I didn't like to think about what state I would be in.

The factory secretary, like the workers, kept her head down and pretended not to see me. I walked straight past her and entered the main office.

Frana was overweight and smoked enough fhisic cigarettes to turn his office into a leptioc sauna. I dumped the package on the corner of his desk and turned to leave. I hated breathing in that poisonous air.

"You were at Ikmal, right?" Frana said, not looking up from his holo-monitor.

He knew I was — he loved asking me about my time there. For some reason, it held a great deal of fascination for him — maybe because it was where he would likely end up if he ever got caught dealing the stuff I delivered each day.

"Yeah," I said.

"Have you heard the news?" he said.

"What news?"

"Here."

He pressed a series of buttons on his holo-monitor and turned it so it was facing me.

Floating red letters proclaimed:

RIOT AT IKMAL PRISON

It took a moment for the words to process.

Riot. Ikmal prison.

And still, they didn't completely make sense.

"Pretty wild, right?" Frana said, chuckling to himself before it proved too much for his lungs and he hacked an ugly cough.

I ignored the words and looked at the images. Grainy footage from security cameras of flashing lights and screaming voices and guards under attack.

I recognized those hallways, those prisoners. There really was a riot happening at Ikmal!

The blood fell from my face. My initial reaction was horror.

Lily's in there! She's in danger!

And here I was, outside, working! I immediately wanted to leave, to get there, to take action to protect her…

But how could I?

That was the second overriding emotion. Panic that I couldn't do a damn thing. And then another thought occurred to me.

I had needed a disturbance to enact my most dangerous plan to get Lily free. Could this be what I was waiting for?

It was big… but was it big enough?

My insides twisted in that sensation I always got when I felt things were coming together. Yes, I thought. This was it. This was how I got Lily out of there.

"I have to go," I said, turning to leave.

I had to call my contacts, say the plan was a go, that I needed for everything to happen — and happen now. I felt excited that I might just get to see Lily again — and soon!

"Whoa there, partner," Frana said. "I'm getting a message from Thillak. He wants to talk to you."

I waved a hand dismissively as I had no time to waste. "I'll speak to him later," I said.

"You'll speak to him now," Frana said, pressing at the holo-buttons.

I growled and bent over the desk as the image snapped into place, revealing Thillak in the darkness of his cell…

Except it wasn't Thillak. It was someone else. Someone I knew only too well.

He grinned around a mouth full of bent and broken teeth. "Hello, Ohara," he said. "It's been a long time."

It was Druin and he was sitting in Thillak's seat.

What little blood I had in my head fell to my stomach. I felt unsteady and could have collapsed. "Druin?" I said. "What… what are you doing? Where's Thillak?"

"Thillak? Haven't you heard? He's old news. I'm in control now. I'm the one who calls the shots."

In the background, I could hear the riot in full swing.

It was real. It was happening. All of this was happening.

"When the riots kicked off, there was chaos, and I saw my chance," Druin said. "Thillak sent most of his men to defend the Prize Pool. Can you believe that? The idiocy of it makes me laugh! And so I ran to his office and took out Cayggod. He was so shocked to see me that he could barely get out of his chair before I clocked him over the head! After that, taking out Thillak was easy."

I wasn't sure my heart could take this. First the riot, knowing Lily was in danger. Then knowing this might just be the opportunity I needed to get her out of there. And now, learning Thillak was no longer in charge but Druin was.

Was the galaxy going mad or was it just me?

"Things look different now on this side of the desk," Druin said, "and you and I have unfinished business to take care of…"

I slammed a fist on Frana's desk. "Don't you dare hurt her!" I snapped. "If you come anywhere near her—"

"You'll what?" Druin said. "I'm sorry to break this to you, but you're all the way out there and I'm all the way in here. She's here too. I will take her the way I wanted to all those years ago. And I want you to know that while I do it, we'll both be thinking of you."

He let out a laugh that made his chins wobble. I felt sick to my stomach.

"That leaves just one loose end," Druin said. "Frana? Frana, where are you, you useless asshole?"

"Right here," Frana said from the other side of the desk.

"I'm in charge now," Druin said. "And if you want to keep your place in the organization, I suggest you prove your allegiance." Druin focused his beady black eyes on me. "And kill Ohara."

He switched the monitor off from his end, taking the roaring rioters with him.

I was stunned, speechless, mind blank.

"You know I've always liked you, Ohara," Frana said, reaching into the desk drawer.

Whatever he was going for, I didn't think it was going to do me much good.

"But Thillak is family," he said. "I hope you understand."

He pulled the blaster pistol from his desk and opened fire. My brain might have been asleep but my instincts were very much awake.

I dived to the floor and saw the plasma zip through the air and burn a hole into the front wall. A shriek came from someone outside. The factory secretary, I thought. She was sitting about there when I walked in.

I couldn't worry about her now.

I lashed out with my foot and smacked the desk, once, twice, three times, and each time, it slid back further until it almost struck the back wall.

Frana grunted as the desk pinned him in place.

I glanced under the desk and saw his pistol flapping around, opening fire randomly.

I rolled back and leaped across the desk. I needed to be fast — my body could only move so quick whereas his arm could snap up at a moment's notice.

Frana's eyes bulged as he saw me coming. He brought his arm up to fire at me but it got lodged between the wall and his desk. He needed to turn it sideways to get it free.

He did, but I had already launched myself at him, my foot aiming straight for his chin.

The moment he raised his blaster and opened fire was the exact same my foot connected with his jaw.

He made a deep "Duh!" noise that might have been comical under different circumstances.

His arm flapped around and fired haphazardly.

I drew back my leg and snapped at his face over and over again until, finally, his body went slack and he slumped forward.

I looked at him. Just a moment ago, he'd been a friend, someone I could rely on, and after a few words from an enemy, his allegiances had flipped instantly.

Now I knew there really was no one I could rely on — except myself. Me and Lily, always.

I grabbed the blaster from Frana's hand and hurried across the office.

I opened the door gingerly and peered behind it in case more of his goons were on their way.

The factory secretary lay slumped forward on her desk — the same way her boss was — with a plasma hole burned into her back.

I checked for her pulse but found none. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She was innocent in all this.

Like Lily was.

Ikmal prison. A riot. I never thought it would happen.

Hurried footsteps raced up the steps toward the office.

I turned and ran in another direction. I reached for my communicator and dialed in the number. My plan was a go, I told my contacts, and they'd better come through for me, or else they would be next on my list of names to take.

Lily, I thought, reaching out for my fated mate. Hold on, stay safe, I'm coming…