Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Thurbass

D arius turned on the view screen as soon as he woke. Thurbass dominated the center of the screen, but he could only catch glimpses of the land masses through a dense cloud layer.

"Give me a graphic," he asked the IS.

A hologram of the planet appeared, its clouds stripped away, revealing one major greenish red continent and a host of islands.

" Thurbass is the fourth planet of the Aurong system. It has one major continent and a range of islands. Most of the continent is covered in dense jungle. The planet was settled four hundred standard years ago but most of the inhabitants live on the islands where the weather is pleasant.

You will be visiting what remains of an ancient city on the large continent. Archaeologists estimate the remains are at least five thousand years old. Who built it is unknown ."

Yes, he knew that much. It was hard to believe that some beings unknown to Humans or even the Ptorix had built a city and then … disappeared.

"What's the weather going to be like?" he asked as he headed for the washroom.

" It will be hot and humid. The guides will issue each guest with an envirosuit which will regulate the conditions while you're in the jungle ."

Darius headed to the foyer on his level to meet their guide and the other passengers going on the excursion. Berd Ahmed was there with his wife, both wearing practical clothing, which is more than he could say for several others, especially the women.

"Looking forward to this," the old man said. "Hard to believe, isn't it, that some civilization rose and fell and disappeared and not even the Ptorix know anything about them."

Darius nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."

He glanced around the gathering, a group of around twenty-five, all from Diamond class. Yrena and Thadeus arrived with their goon. She wore what Darius guessed were designer pants in a camouflage pattern and knee-high boots with spike heels. Probably her idea of a jungle outfit. Thadeus had more sense, opting for practical boots and loose-fitting clothes.

Ahmed's wife sniffed. "Some people have no idea."

There wasn't much doubt who the remark was about.

A guide arrived to escort the group down to the hangar bays, where she handed out the envirosuits. Darius put his on without comment, as did Ahmed. Several of the women complained but the guide made it clear that without the suit they wouldn't be leaving the ship.

Yrena pouted prettily but did as she was told.

"Where is Mister Kromm?" the guide asked, looking around for the couple's goon. "Is he not coming? I have him on my list."

"He's coming," Yrena said. "Thadeus has his suit. I've just sent him off to fetch someone."

The guide frowned. "Fetch someone?"

"Yes. Cilla Beckstein. I'd like her to come with us."

The guide's jaw sagged. "But… she's in Sapphire. She can't —"

Yrena rolled her eyes. "Oh, for goodness' sake. It's not a problem is it? We're all going to the same place. And I know there's room on the shuttle. You have places for twenty-eight and there are only twenty-five of us."

"I'll have to check." The guide stepped away for a few moments, then returned. "We can manage that."

Cilla, looking puzzled, arrived with Maahes and the goon.

"Cilla. Lovely to see you, and Maahes, too," Yrena gushed.

Cilla worked up an unconvincing smile. "The guide for our shuttle said I was to come here." She glanced around and caught sight of Darius. Her eyes narrowed and she looked away. She probably thought he'd organized it.

"We can sit together," Yrena said. "And I'm sure Maahes will simply love the jungle."

"I expect so."

Darius left them to it and looked over at the shuttle waiting for them. It was the up-market version of a Sieborn M7, a tough, practical ship for transferring goods, equipment, and people between ships in orbit and the ground. The military used M5s on frigates and the much larger M20 for large-scale troop deployments.

"If you'd all board, please," the guide called.

Darius hung back and let everyone else precede him. Yrena and Thadeus, Cilla in tow, went first. The M7 had a central aisle separating seven rows of seats, two on each side. Darius was pretty certain Cilla and Yrena would sit together in the front row with Thadeus and the muscle across the aisle. He boarded last and grinned when he found he was right. The problem with being first on, of course, meant Yrena and her party would be last off. She wouldn't like that.

The pilot warned his passengers that the trip would be a little rough plunging through the atmosphere. Darius had endured rougher trips without the dampeners fitted to the M7, but a number of passengers squealed when they hit rough patches. Soon the roiling clouds in the viewscreen gave way to a carpet of dark reddish-green, almost black. Occasionally he caught a sparkle, no doubt from one of the numerous creeks and rivers. His implant identified the Kograh River before the pilot told them. It was almost a klick wide at this point, well before it meandered its way to the delta at its mouth.

The shuttle shaped to land and Darius caught sight of the landing platform high above the treetops. The ship dropped gently into its designated spot.

Ignoring the twinge from his leg, Darius hurried down the gangway just behind the guide so he could watch his fellow passengers, all in their envirosuits, file off. The middle-aged cougar from the dining room was pale, a couple of others were obviously relieved to be out of the shuttle. Ahmed and his wife were headed in his direction but were intercepted by another couple. Yrena stalked off in front of Cilla, with Thadeus and the goon a couple of steps behind. The guide gathered everyone up and escorted them to an elevator which took them down into the jungle itself.

Darius was grateful for the envirosuit, although he thought a military camo suit would have done a better job. Enormous trees crowded close to the clearing where skimmers waited at the end of a long walkway, parked nose first like ships at space station docking bays. Weird ferny plants and reddish mushroom-like growths filled the ground between the trees and vines climbed up their bark toward the light. Between the trunks the view became hazy, as though the forest was shrouded in mist. The place smelled earthy and heavy.

"This way, diamond group." The guide backed away, rolling her hands in a "come this way" gesture.

They followed like herd beasts, taking seats in one of two skimmers. Darius was about to step into one and was directed to the other. He grinned. It seemed many of the guests preferred not to ride with Yrena and Thadeus. Or maybe it was their hired muscle that was the problem. Or maybe Maahes. Sitting down in the back, he soon gathered Yrena was doing most of the talking and much of the conversation was about the big cat lying quietly in the aisle.

The skimmer zig-zagged down a track while the guide told them about the ruined city, built over five thousand years ago by an unknown civilization.

They came across it suddenly. The skimmer shot out from under the canopy onto a rock-strewn hill topped with a massive black building. The citadel. The long black facade dominated the landscape, looming over the hilltop like a dozing dragon. A few people gasped.

The vehicle landed, balancing itself on the rocky ground.

"Where will all the other skimmers land?" one of the ladies asked.

"We deliberately take you to different places around the site so you get a sense of the remoteness of this location," the guide said. "You won't see your fellow travelers." She opened the hatch. "Come this way."

Darius's envirosuit took a moment to adjust to the heat and humidity as he waited for everyone else to disembark. They were down to ten now, all suitably awed at the building on the hilltop. Unlike the surrounding area, where plant life had invaded even in crevices, the citadel looked pristine. The guide had told them that nobody knew how it had been built, the stones so cleanly cut and stacked that not even a knife blade would fit between them.

"Everybody okay?" The guide asked. "It's a short walk." She set off, setting a gentle pace and they followed in her wake.

Except for one. Cilla stood waiting for him, Maahes at her side.

Darius nodded at her and wondered what this was about.

"Are you sure you don't work for my father?"

He smiled. "Quite sure."

"How come you're always where I am?"

"Coincidence. Come along, we're well behind."

She narrowed her eyes but matched his pace. "I'm not good on coincidences."

No, neither was he. A movement up ahead, from the side of the trail, caught his eye. His nerves sparked.

Maahes moved, stopping Cilla from walking on. "Maahes, what are you—"

Darius heard the unmistakable zap of an LS, then another. Women screamed, men shouted. Four armed men sprang out from behind undergrowth at the side of the track brandishing LS12s. Darius thought about trying to hide but one of the men had his weapon aimed at him. Maahes growled, a low rumble.

Cilla put her hand on the beast's collar.

"Put your hands on your heads," a fellow who must have been the group's leader shouted in stilted Standard. "Not move you not hurt."

One man tried to grab Yrena. She shoved him away, clawing at his face. "You murdered my husband," she shrieked. "You'll never get away with this. My father—"

The leader stepped in and slapped her across the face. Hard. Darius winced. That would have hurt.

Even so, she kicked and screamed until the leader shot her. Yrena hanging limp between them, two men dragged her away behind a low wall. Darius heard a skimmer start up.

Cilla stood rigid, staring. Darius would bet she was reliving some of that episode when she was a hostage. Maahes butted her gently with his head and her fingers splayed to stroke his fur.

"It's okay," Darius whispered. "It was set to stun."

She shot him a glance without moving her head. "How do you know?"

"The sound. Shhh."

"You." The leader loomed over the guide. "Take them back to skimmer. Now. Clear?"

The guide, her eyes wide, leaned away from him and nodded. "Okay. Thanks. I'll do that." She turned and shooed the passengers in the direction they'd come.

"What about the bodies?" someone called.

"You want, you take. Or leave for the wildlife." Grinning, the leader gestured to the remaining thug, then leapt away behind the low wall where the skimmer waited. It lifted and zipped away, vanishing into the jungle.

Darius guided Cilla off the path and sat her on a boulder. "Wait here."

Accessing his implant, he selected the fittest of the men in the group. "Kramm, Berman, Anh, come over here and help me shift these bodies."

They stopped and stared at him. "Why?" Kramm said. "They won't get any deader."

"They're human beings. We don't leave them out here like food for carrion. Kramm, you help me with Thadeus. Anh, you and Berman take Lutz."

Kramm's stare came nowhere near the kind of stare a senior NCO could muster up. They were no match for Darius in command mode.

Anh took one look at Lutz's body and vomited at the side of the track. Darius sympathized. He'd thrown up when he saw his first body, too. The man had been shot in the head, his skull opened like a ripe melon. Thadeus was the same. All they'd wanted was Yrena, with a minimum of fuss.

Darius lifted Thadeus's shoulders while Kramm took the legs.

"It's been a long time since I've done anything like this," Kramm muttered.

"Marine?"

"No. I worked on a trader. We came across a ship that had been hit by pirates. It's not a happy memory."

No, Darius knew it wouldn't be.

Cilla had left the boulder where she'd been sitting. Darius could see her and Maahes standing a little way away from the group.

Darius lined the bodies up a short distance from the others and approached the guide. She was in shock, her pupils dilated but she was trying to keep control.

"Mister Fletcher. Here, take some water." She held out a bottle. Her hand shook.

Darius put his hands on her shoulders. "It's okay. You've done well, Maisie. It was a targeted attack, everyone else is fine. That's great. There was nothing you could do. Your first obligation was to the other passengers."

He waited until she dredged up a hint of a smile.

"Good." He took the bottle and drank. "Is the skimmer working?"

She shook her head, close to tears. "They stunned the driver. He's alive, thank the Goddess. But the skimmer won't work. I've called the main base. They'll come for us as soon as they can."

"Excellent. Do you have anything we can cover the bodies with? Blankets? Anything?"

In the end he settled for spare coats that could at least cover the ruined heads. He had to brush away a hoard of insects come for the feast.

The rest of the passengers had formed small groups, some sitting on the ground. Many sipped on water the guide had handed out. Cilla sat on the ground by herself, her arms around Maahes. She looked a little calmer but Darius imagined she was still upset.

He walked over to her. Should he sit down beside her? Maahes looked up at him but the cat seemed relaxed. He decided to risk it and eased himself down. "You okay?"

"Yes. That was good of you to fetch the bodies."

"Marines don't leave people behind."

"But they weren't marines. That fellow Lutz was a hired thug. And Thadeus…" She shrugged. "He was just a pretty face. Yrena called all the tunes."

Darius nodded. He'd figured that.

She looked at him with those dark blue eyes. "What do they want her for?"

He'd been thinking about that himself. "Ransom." It was the obvious motive but not the only one.

She nodded. "Her father's rich."

He was aware of her scrutiny. "Is that what you think? Daddy pays the money and she walks free?"

"Yes."

She looked around her at the dark wall of jungle meters away. "But why here?"

He'd thought about that, too. "I'd guess she's well-protected at home. Out here, it's easy if you plan it well."

"She'll be able to contact her Dad, though, won't she? Through her implant?"

"Cilla, if it was me, I would be making sure she can't use her implant at all. "

She gaped at him. When she spoke, her voice wavered. "How?"

"There are apps, illegal of course, that can prevent an implant from working properly. I expect this lot has one."

She let out a sigh.

"They won't kill her, don't worry. I expect they'll be getting her off the planet as soon as they can."

She frowned, gazing into the jungle as if she could see further than a few mist-filled meters. "They'll be looking for her, then."

'They'. Darius joined the dots. "The local police. Yes."

But he hadn't seen any ships in the sky. It couldn't be too hard to find where the assailants had hidden next to the path. The guide must have contacted her base, at the very least. He'd hardly finished the thought when he heard the high-pitched whine of an engine approaching. His implant informed him it was an EV18, a patrol ship of the local police force. The ship had to be thirty years old, hardly top of the range. It sank to the ground in a swirl of dust. Two officers and two men in light green hazard suits climbed out and found the guide. Darius tuned in to their conversation. The woman did a fair job of describing what had happened, then took them over to where the bodies lay.

The younger man backed away, swallowing rapidly. The middle-aged fellow was a little more composed as he made notes. The two in hazard gear set to, examining the bodies. All the while Cilla watched the two policemen. The older fellow chatted briefly with the guide and some of the passengers while the techs loaded the bodies into the police vehicle. When they'd finished, he thanked the guide and walked toward his skimmer.

Cilla leaped to her feet and ran after him. "Aren't you going to see where they hid? Where the skimmer was? Where…" she waved a hand at where the bodies had lain.

The man stopped and smiled at her. "There's no point, Miss. We'll check our satellite images, of course. But Miss Cornelis is long gone. I expect her father will be hearing about a ransom soon."

Darius shook his head. All the fellow needed to do to complete the image was pat her on the head.

"And that's it?" Cilla virtually quivered with anger. "You're not even going to try to find her?"

Some of the other passengers turned to stare.

With a glance at Maahes, the officer took a step back. "She's in no danger. If her father pays the ransom—"

"Then they kill her. Or maybe it's not about a ransom. Maybe it's… it's a prisoner swap or something."

Darius stood, dusting off his pants. She was back in her own hostage situation, extrapolating the story to fit. And she was upsetting everybody else for no reason. He stepped over to her. "Cilla, Cilla let it go."

She turned, tight-lipped and furious.

"Let the police do their job. They know this place much better than we do." With an eye on Maahes, he put an arm around her shoulders. He could swear the big cat nodded at him. "Come over here."

The officer mouthed thank you and turned to his machine.

"They're not going to do anything," Cilla growled, staring as the ship rose into the leaden sky.

He could feel her tension. "Look, this is nothing like what happened to you. Forsyth was up front. He wanted a bunch of terrorists in exchange for you and your parents. Not money."

She glowered at him, her nostrils flared. "Forsyth would have killed us. He wasn't going to let us go."

Darius couldn't argue with that.

Cilla, calmer now in a cold way, stared out into the jungle. "I can imagine how she feels. Alone, isolated." Her head snapped back to look at him. "I wonder if those men will rape her. Forsyth's thug was going to do that to me."

The idea jolted him. It didn't matter if she was right. It was enough that she thought it would happen. Poor kid, living with those memories for all those years.

"That would be stupid. If it makes you feel any better, I think old man Cornelis will be none too happy about any of this. He'll pay the ransom, then he'll make sure every one of those fellows dies a messy death."

She swallowed. "Well, that's something, I guess."

Maahes leaned against her and she fondled his ears. She took a deep breath. "I'll be okay. I suppose it was a shock for everyone."

"I'm sure it was. You're handling it better than quite a few of them."

She snorted "Experience, I guess."

Darius heard the shuttle from Galaxy Adventurer before he saw it, descending through the cloud layer. Cilla waited next to him as the passengers climbed into the machine, all of them quiet and subdued. He and Cilla sat together in the last row. An attendant passed through the cabin, handing out snacks and drinks and even a bowl so Maahes could drink.

Darius flexed his leg. He was going to be very happy to get back on the cruise ship and take some more drugs. It had stood up well, better than he'd expected, but now it was starting to ache.

Cilla noticed. "What's wrong with your leg?"

"An injury. It'll be fine." He looked away.

After a moment Cilla said, "What happens now?"

"We'll get back on the Galaxy Adventurer and carry on with our cruise."

She nodded, chewing at her lip. As soon as the shuttle arrived on board the cruise ship, Cilla excused herself and headed for her cabin. Darius fervently hoped she would have a bath and a nap. That was what he was going to do.

***

In the sanctuary of her cabin Cilla peeled off her clothes and stepped under the shower. Memories rose of her ordeal all those years ago. Would she ever get over it? She washed her hair, scrubbing her fingers through the strands. That poor woman. Cilla hadn't really liked her, she was too pushy, too assertive, too full of herself. It was fascinating to watch Yrena in action. The world really did revolve around her.

But she'd watched her husband and one of her bodyguards shot dead in front of her. On her honeymoon, too. That thought brought up the image of Mister Awful's shattered head, and Bellamy, lying face down with a hole in his back.

Swallowing hard, she turned her face up to the shower head and let the water rinse away the memory.

Yrena had fought back, though. She wasn't going quietly. You had to admire that.

She shifted the shower cycle to dry, her body rotating as the warm air did its job.

But how would Yrena feel about it really? Cilla knew how she'd felt. Terrified. Terrified they'd kill her dad and her mother. And her, after Mister Awful had raped her. The worst was feeling helpless, that there was nothing she could do.

Cilla dressed, leaving the envirosuit tossed across the couch.

Fletcher didn't seem too concerned about it all. He was happy to go along with the useless police. 'Daddy will pay the ransom. We can get on with our cruise.'

What if he was wrong? Who else might want to kidnap a Cornelis? She sat down on the couch. Maahes jumped up beside her and put his head on her lap. She smiled, running her fingers through his fur. Just having him here made her feel better. He loved her unconditionally.

She accessed the ship's information system and asked for whatever it could find about the Cornelis family on Santara. Gangsters, no doubt about it. They had their fingers in so many places — and all apparently respectable, above-board businesses. Even the casinos and racetracks.

"Okay, they own the Nebula Casino. Who owns the Saint Ives Casino?"

The IS hardly missed a beat. " Saint Ives is owned by the Kuznetsov family ."

Kuznetsov. That sounded familiar. "Wasn't there a Kuznetsov in the courts a while back?"

" Yes. Demtri Kuznetsov was sentenced to fifty years in prison for murder three years ago ."

Cilla's heart hammered. Nothing like what happened to me, huh Fletcher? Maybe this was going to be a swap. Yrena for Demtri. But then, how would the Cornelis family get Demtri out of jail? Unless Cornelis had influence with the Government. Of course he had. Money bought just about anything.

" You are worried ," Maahes said.

" Yes. About Yrena. The woman who was taken away on the planet ."

He lifted his head. " But you are safe ."

" Yes. But she is not ."

Maahes could find her. They could have followed the trail. But no, it didn't matter.

Damn it, of course it did. She patted the big cat's head. " Come on, Maahes. We're going to find where they took the lady. "

" Why? "

She stared at him, surprised. " Because somebody has to care ."

She picked up her envirosuit and headed for the door. Maahes rolled off the couch and followed her.

***

Darius sighed as he allowed the connection from the hotel manager, Alvor Bintaran. Now what?

The man appeared on his suite's screen, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Commander Fletcher."

"Yes?"

"Er… I understand that you're a friend of Miss Beckstein?"

Not quite a friend, unfortunately. "I suppose."

"I wondered if you might talk to her."

"What about?"

The man cleared his throat. "She insists on staying on the planet."

Darius frowned. "What are you talking about? She came back on board with everybody else a few hours ago and went to her room."

"Yes, she did. But then she said she needed to pick up something important and wanted to go back down. We hadn't finished ferrying supplies, so she went down on the last shuttle and… er… disappeared." He licked his lips again. "Can you talk to her?"

"Do you know where she is?"

"Freetown. That's where we get our supplies. I don't understand what she's doing—"

Darius was pretty sure he did. "Do you have a connection?"

"With my own staff, yes. I'd hoped you had a link to her implant. "

"Surely you have?" He'd had to give his when he signed onto the ship.

"Er… yes. But she has blocked us."

"I don't have her ID. Where is she? Precisely?"

"We… the staff are not quite sure. She went off into Freetown. You understand they have no authority to stop a passenger in those circumstances. And we don't have much time. The ship is due to leave in three hours. I'm sure you appreciate that we can't afford to miss our schedule."

Oh, for pity's sake. He could just let her carry on with her juvenile plan and do… whatever it was she intended. Not his problem. But damn it, it was. That foolhardy escape when she was a hostage had saved everybody. And she was going to do that again, he knew it. In a jungle she didn't know. Because she had a jungle cat with her.

Stupid.

"Organize a shuttle to take me down there. I'll see what I can do." And when I find her, I'll put her over my knee and… Let's not go there.

The manager almost melted with the release of tension. No longer his problem.

"Thank you, sir."

Stupid, stupid, stupid kid. Woman.

Darius put on his envirosuit and found the gun he'd secreted in his luggage, then took the elevator down to the ship's hangar bay. The shuttle pilot was waiting for him. Darius flung himself into a passenger seat and the vehicle started its descent through the turgid atmosphere.

The shuttle settled into a bay at Freetown Space Port on the edge of the planet's main continent. Darius thanked the pilot and headed off through security into the main hall. She'd go to the citadel, he'd bet his life on it. Which meant she'd need transport. Two companies offering hire vehicles via automated services were located in the main hall. Darius contacted both and had his implant hack into their reservation systems. He'd had that function fitted not long after Cilla's hostage situation. It had come in handy more than once and he kept it up to date. You never knew when it might be useful. As he'd just proved. But no woman had hired from either company in the time frame when Cilla had arrived. He wasn't surprised and made his way to the exit and into the street.

It took a few seconds for his suit to adjust from the cool comfort inside the hall to sultry warmth. It was a different atmosphere to the jungle, though. Not as close, not as brooding. A slight breeze stirred the leaves of trees planted along the roadways and he caught a whiff of ozone from the nearby ocean. The buildings were all pastel colors, most of them cream, and most had no windows, no doubt because of the frequent storms in these parts.

He'd had plenty of time to think about where she would have gone on his ride through the atmosphere and he'd marked a few other places where she could hire a skimmer.

He called down a taxi and sent it to the closest business, Spaceport Rentals. He was surprised to find a real person at the counter, a pretty young woman with multi-colored hair and bright green eyes. She smiled at him. "Can I help you?"

Darius took out his comm. "I'm looking for a lady. This is she. Has she been here?"

The girl examined the image, frowning. "Did she have a great big spotted animal with her?"

"Yes." He showed her a picture of Maahes.

She shuddered. "Yes, she came here. We wouldn't let her take that creature in any of our vehicles. I didn't want it in the office. It should be in the jungle with the rest."

He had to admit that hadn't occurred to him. Of course, Yrena would have just thrown money at it. But how much money would Cilla have? Would she accept anything from her father? He realized he didn't know much about her at all.

"Do you have any idea where she went?"

But the receptionist made it clear she didn't know and she didn't care, as long as it wasn't in her vicinity.

He jumped back into the taxi and selected Budget Rentals, closer to the edge of town. If he was very lucky she would have walked so she wouldn't be very far ahead of him.

She wasn't.

He caught sight of her walking away from the company's office and had the taxi land beside her. She whirled, crouching into a combat stance he recognized. The cat settled his weight beside her, ready to attack.

Darius raised his hands, noting as he did so that Maahes relaxed, the threat gone. "Hi, Cilla. It's me."

She straightened, scowling. "What do you want?"

"I'm worried about you."

Her lip curled. "You do work for my father."

He pushed aside the irritation. "I don't. I'm concerned you're about to do something really stupid."

She put her hands on her hips. "Oh yes. What would that be?"

"You think you can rescue Yrena all on your own."

She said nothing for a moment, staring at him. "The coppers here don't give a damn. You saw them. She can stay there and rot for all they care."

"Look, all they want is a ransom. Old man Cornelis will pay it and—"

"You're making assumptions. Is that what they teach you at soldier school? It'll probably be all right. Somebody else can deal with it."

Darius shoved down the anger. She was behaving like a child. "All right. Let's look at this differently. Let's find a café and discuss what you propose." He forced his shoulders to relax, his arms loose at his side.

Her expression softened. She shot a glance down at Maahes, who had sat down beside her and returned her look. It was as though something passed between them. "No funny business, okay?"

He did a double take. "Funny business?"

"No forcing me back. I won't stand for it."

"Of course not. You're a grown woman." Even if you behave like a six-year-old .

He accessed his implant. "There's a place two streets away." He gestured at the waiting taxi. "Hop in."

She shook her head. "Not a chance. We're walking."

Darius swallowed the sigh. But he still had well over an hour before the Galaxy Adventurer was due to leave. It should be fine. He sent the taxi on its way.

The café had tables on the pavement. After they'd ordered, Darius said, "What are you going to do?"

She shrugged. "Find her."

"Uh-huh. First, you have to get over to where she went missing."

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously. Which is why I need a skimmer. I'm sure you worked that out."

"Okay. Let's assume you can do that, drive through the jungle to the citadel, find the spot where we were ambushed. Then what?"

"Then Maahes tracks them."

"They left in a skimmer."

"Doesn't matter. Skimmers leave trails. Don't they, Maahes?" She fondled the cat's ear.

"And then what?"

"Well… we find where they've got her. And tell the police."

"You're assuming she's still on the planet."

"If she's not, we'll find where she left from. They'd have to land a shuttle or something to take her into space."

He leaned toward her. "Cilla, you're playing a dangerous game. Her father's a gangster. He'll be looking for her. You don't want to be in the way of those people. Trust me, the bad guys will be taking her off-planet and I'm sure the local security is monitoring all the traffic up there to intercept such a move."

As he said the words, his mind switched gear. This was too well planned. They would have taken the planetary security systems into account. Everyone would be expecting them to take her off-world. How to do it so nobody would notice?

Cilla finished her juice and banged the glass on the table. "I'd be happy to tell her father where she is so he can rescue her. My only concern is Yrena and what she's going through."

"That's commendable. And I know why you're thinking of doing this. But you're out of your depth. Believe me, this isn't a bunch of amateurs."

She was frowning, chewing at her lip.

"Remember, too. You are still your father's daughter. If you get involved and somebody realizes they've got the president's daughter as well as Cornelis's — double pay day. You wouldn't want that."

She bit her lip and looked away, staring at the other side of the road where a couple of kids kicked a ball.

Darius shoved his chair back. "Come on. We've got—"

" Commander Fletcher? " a voice spoke via his implant. " This is the pilot of your shuttle. You need to get back here immediately. There's a solar storm coming in and if I don't take off in ten minutes I won't be able to. "

Hell's teeth. " Can we wait out the storm ?"

" No. Galaxy Adventurer is due to leave orbit at fifteen hundred ."

" I'll be back as soon as I can ."

He scanned for a taxi but they were few and far between in this outer suburb. He called the nearest one.

"Cilla, we have to get back to the space port or we'll be stuck here."

She grinned, a humorless stretch of her lips. "Better go, then."

The taxi appeared, heading toward them. "Cilla—"

She folded her arms. "What are you going to do? Force me?"

Drat the woman. He leaped to his feet but Maahes was faster. That rumbling growl would have menaced primordial cavemen. He sagged back down.

Damn her. Damn her lovely ass to every hell he'd ever heard of. "All right. If you're going to be a reckless idiot, I'd better come with you. Your father would never forgive me." And he'd never forgive himself. Truth be told, he admired her spirit.

He contacted the shuttle. "Take off. Tell the hotel manager I'm staying here with Miss Beckstein. We'll pick up another ship when we can."

" If you say so, sir ."

Damn it. Darius wished he could wipe that triumphant expression off her face.

***

Anger raging up from his gut, Simon Forsyth leaned at Captain Brimani. "What do you mean we can't make orbit?"

His eyelashes fluttering, the man leaned back as far as he could. "Thurbass is experiencing a major solar storm. It's dangerous to approach too close to the system."

Good grief. Forsyth clenched his fists so hard it hurt. "Isn't that why you've got shields?"

"Our shields are top of the range but it would be unwise to risk the ship against a storm of this intensity. It could take out all our comms, jeopardize the power supply. We could end up dead in space."

Gritting his teeth, Forsyth swung away. This whole plan was about timing and now the timing was shattered. "This ship is a crock of excrement. I need something reliable, not this." He waved his hand taking in the whole bridge.

"Calm down, Forsyth."

Forsyth glared at Serg Kuznetsov.

"Our people have the goods," Serg said. "Nobody's going to find it in that jungle. It just means a short delay."

"Short delay? That's what you told me when the ship's shift drive malfunctioned at Santara. Great, isn't it? If we'd left when we were supposed to —" He stopped himself from blurting out 'she'. Nobody but he and Kuznetsov knew what they were after. "The goods would be on the ship already and we'd be on our way."

Kuznetsov shrugged. "Life happens. The goods won't be going off. Go and get yourself a stiff drink. The captain knows what he's doing."

If looks could kill, Serg would be skewered, Forsyth thought as he slammed his way off the bridge. One of these days Serg would be skewered. But not now. In his stateroom he had the bot fill a large glass of best brandy. The liquor burned on the way down but he calmed down.

He was lucky the Kuznetsovs had taken him on. Well, maybe not lucky. He'd played his usual long game, becoming pals with Demtri while he was in jail. Nasty piece of work, Demtri. He'd rather have Serg to deal with than his little brother.

He turned on the entertainment system and looked for something to keep him busy while they idled around waiting for the storm to finish.