Chapter 8

Suva P’Lak had Janessa by the shoulder, right by her neck, and judging by the stiff way she walked beside him, his grip was none too gentle. They emerged from the other side of the hangar; P’Lak must have disabled the gate.

Cursing, I threw my weapon to the side and raised my hands, approaching them from the hangar side of my ship. I wasn’t in full view of the operatives, but P’Lak and Janessa could see me.

“Let her go, P’Lak,” I said, my voice booming across the tarmac. “Take me instead. How ‘bout that, huh? A real live HRC operative who knows all the codes and has access to IGMC’s power.”

P’Lak barked a laugh, but stopped walking, jerking Janessa to a stop beside him when she would have continued.

“My clients don’t want to fuck an ugly old man,” he said, his black eyes piercing me to the heart. He knew exactly what to say to push my buttons. I was about to run at him with a berserker rage and damn the consequences, but a noise sounded from behind me.

The hatch to the drop ship slid open.

So help me God, if Cam walked off that ship and endangered herself, I was going to lose my shit right here in front of the Jepps’ most powerful crime lord and his two lackeys, the girl who cussed like a sailor, and every single one of the HRC security cameras. But I dared not turn my back on P’Lak, so I watched his and Janessa’s expressions, instead.

But they only looked confused, and I had to surmise that Cam had opened the door without making her presence known.

“That’s right, P’Lak,” I said, lowering my hands. “Let her go, and we’ll go easy on you. I’ll even give you a five-minute head start.”

Janessa winced and cut off her yelp, and I knew her captor had squeezed her bony little shoulder even harder, but she was trying to be brave. For Cam. And for me.

“Janessa,” I said without taking my eyes off P’Lak’s merciless gaze. “Believe it or not, there are worse things than being enslaved by planet trash like P’Lak, here.”

P’Lak cocked his head slightly, unsure where I was going with my speech.

“After all, bodies heal, brains habituate, and people have a way of surviving hell,” I said, thinking back to innocent Steve and how he’d stood between me and my drunken father and taken the beating that was intended for me because I’d eaten the last vitamin loaf. “You might be thinking to yourself, what could possibly be worse than suffocating under a parade of stinking, rutting men? Have you lost your mind? But I’m telling you, it’s worse to be someone like P’Lak, whose capacity for mercy and compassion has been burned out of his soul so thoroughly that even Shinterran’s Deep won’t take him when he’s dead. To be so heartless and cruel is a fate I hope never to meet and is impossible for you to even imagine because it’s simply not possible for someone like you. Even if I fail to help you today, you’ll make it. You’ll come out on top because you’re smart, fast, and caring. You have something precious that you won’t want to lose. But maybe today’s the day to risk it.”

I kept watching P’Lak’s eyes, so I had no idea if Janessa knew what I was talking about. Cam had told me Janessa had a weapon she could use but probably wouldn’t because she didn’t want to lose it. I hoped Janessa got the message; now was a very good time to use whatever means necessary. Yeah, people were resilient, yada, but I’d rather die than let P’Lak and his ilk traffic Janessa.

While I had lowered my hands, I’d kept my wrist unit in full view, so I could see the operatives. Their focus had remained on the ship after the hatch opened; it was like their orders had been to guard and seize whoever was on the drop ship. My only question was how could they even know? According to Cam, her previous employer had no idea where she or Janessa were. And yet. Whatever it was that Cam held back was making a play now. My thoughts turned to the woman and man arguing. He’d threatened to take her off planet, and she’d said, “you wouldn’t dare.” What did that mean?

P’Lak’s mouth split into a leer. “You’re grasping at pipe dreams, aren’t you?” he said, mixing human metaphors. “For whatever reason, your colleagues aren’t coming to your aid, and it appears that Suva Cam has lost her nerve. Not that I blame her. I broke her when we were both just teens. Kids, really. Imagine my shock to learn that she’d come back to me after all these years. Of course, since she ran with Lucretia’s lot, she won’t be in the best of health. Not sure how she’s still alive, if I’m honest. The virus tag usually works faster than this.”

Ice water purged through my heart’s chambers, and I took a stumbling step backward. The cruel motherfucker standing in front of me was Cam’s rapist? And he had his fucking hand on Janessa’s shoulder. I was so shocked at his first revelation, I barely had time to register the second thing he said about a … virus tag?

P’Lak laughed.

“You didn’t know? How do you think we keep them all in line?” he said with a shake of Janessa’s shoulder.

I dared a peek at her face, and saw it was wet from countless tears. She had her eyes screwed shut and her hands fisted at her sides, but then her right hand would flex and contract. She was going to do it. But I darted my gaze back to P’Lak.

“How do you keep them in line?” I asked, my voice brittle. My hands itched with the desire to throttle P’Lak until his tongue protruded from his purple face.

“Society’s stigma for sex work helps,” he said with a sage nod. “But the viral tag does the rest. If one of our whores leaves her assigned planet, the virus tag activates and sends her immune system into overdrive. Without our antidote, the virus wins. Do you hear that, little girl?” P’Lak said and knelt beside Janessa. He gave me a wink, and in a stage whisper said, “Not all bodies heal. Some waste away and die.”

Janessa opened her eyes then and stared at me, thrusting her right hand, or rather, whatever she held in it, up into P’Lak’s chin. He never saw it coming, and I wasn’t sure he saw anything at all now; his dead eyes stared toward his mercs. I dove for Janessa in case they shot at her, but they were running toward the hatch at breakneck speed.

“Cam!” I shouted, but I was too late. They’d disappeared into the ship.