Chapter 3

Acouple of days later, the three of us are riding in a single buggy. We’ve got a lead on a possible location for one of the starships, and our Ruby City informant managed to send us a message about it. We had no choice but to follow up on it. I don’t like getting close to Ruby City in the first place, yet it has to be done.

“What does our guy do in that place, anyway?” I ask, sitting in the passenger seat.

Yossul drives the buggy across the red desert wasteland, the scorching midday heat making the air ripple all around us. “He’s a low-level grunt,” he says. “He doesn’t have much… what did you call it again? Security clearance?”

“Yes,” I reply with a cool smile. “He’s not privy to sensitive information. So why are we meeting with him, then? How did he get a lead on the starship in the first place?”

“His message was brief, given that he almost got caught sending it,” Yossul replies. “But he joined his superior officers for drinks one night, and they got chatty over a few casks of peppered wine. He overheard things he wasn’t supposed to and played it cool.”

“We’re meeting him about a mile outside Ruby City,” I say. “Where, exactly?”

“The Three Fingers,” Yossul says. “That cluster of obsidian rocks by the Sun River. It’s remote enough to be safe for a quick conversation before he has to get back to his base.”

“Do we trust him?” I ask.

Fadai scoffs. “We can’t trust anybody, really, but Lemuel has given us credible and verifiable intelligence before. He’s the one who pointed us in the right direction for the last starship we handled.”

“Okay,” I reply, smiling as I remember that entire mission.

It was a roaring success, in my humble opinion. We were well organized, too, with tight ranks and precision timing through each step of the operation. The Yellow Gang outdid themselves with the explosives, as well. It was a team effort, and we are motivated and experienced enough to pull it off again and again until the Sky Tribe is left with zero starships and no choice but to sit down at the negotiating table with us.

What irks me is that they’ve changed their communication methods and style. Jumping across radio frequencies has made it harder for us to pick up the important stuff, and having to rely solely on inside informants doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence, mainly because people are still people.

Devices can’t lie. People can turn against us. They can be followed. They can be killed.

But we don’t have any other choice at this point. We have to take those starships out before they launch them.

Ahead, Ruby City rises with its sparkling red towers and tall defense walls. As I look through my binoculars, I notice that they’ve added several barracks just outside. Those weren’t there before. “Huh, that’s new,” I say, nodding toward the visible new structures made of black limestone and steel. “Look for yourself,” I add, giving the lenses to Fadai so he can see.

“What are they doing with those?” he wonders aloud. “It’s not like we had any intention of invading Ruby City anytime soon.”

Yossul follows my gaze; his Sunnaite sight is much sharper than mine. He’s able to make out some of the barracks with a clear eye, but I still give him a brief description before he can form an opinion. His furrowed brow, casting a shadow over his red eyes, tells me he doesn’t like it any more than I do.

“They’re preparing for something, all right,” he mutters.

“Yeah, but what?” Fadai asks.

“It”s not an invasion,” Yossul says. “Maybe it”s a deployment. Our base is three hundred miles away, after all.”

The thought makes my insides squirm. “No, it can’t be. We’ve been too careful. They haven’t even had a drone flying anywhere near our base for almost three months.”

“Nothing else makes sense. We already know they’re not keeping any of the starships anywhere near Ruby City,” Yossul replies. “The only other reasonable guess is they’ve simply decided to fortify their defenses.”

“Wishful thinking would be to assume they’re expecting us to blow up those other two starships,” Fadai chuckles lightly. “And that’s when we’ll have enough to actually come knocking on their gates. Perhaps they’re preparing for failure.”

“You are absolutely right, brother,” Yossul shoots back, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “That is wishful thinking.”

Once we reach the Three Fingers, uneasiness takes over, making my stomach tighten as I carefully survey the area. Something feels wrong, but it’s not the first time I’ve been overly cautious. Then again, I’ve been living in a constant state of fight or flight since I was brought to Sunna against my will.

Everything feels off when you’re always expecting things to go tits up one way or another.

The obsidian rocks themselves seem like quiet guardians rising above the riverbank. The steamy stream flows southward, its crystalline water lapping at the shore before it continues its course over the polished black pebbles. Blackwood trees grow along this river, smaller and nimbler than their northern cousins, but their crowns are thick and generous enough to offer shade to any passing traveler.

For now, it’s just us.

“He should be here any minute,” Yossul says, checking his military-grade pocket watch. Sapphire City was a treasure trove of army equipment when we first conquered it. The inner-city barracks, in particular, held a plethora of useful things, including a batch of synchronized watches, which proved especially useful during the missions that followed. “Three o’clock, he said.”

“Assuming he can get out without his superiors noticing,” Fadai says.

I stay close to the buggy, my sidearm loaded and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Tension gathers in my shoulders as Yossul glances my way. I don’t know if Fadai told him about what happened the other night between us—I can only assume he did. They’re brothers, after all, and this bond concerns the three of us. I’m still reeling from that mind-crushing orgasm. I’m still recovering from the number Fadai’s foreplay did on my senses. And I am aching for more.

“The city’s surveillance drones,” Fadai says.

We hear the buzzing, and we spot a cluster of black dots flying across the red sky. “They’re not headed our way,” I mutter.

“That’s good,” Yossul says, inching closer to my side. “It means they haven’t spotted us just yet. It’s likely just one of their regular rounds.”

“They won’t see the buggy from that angle either,” I whisper, paralyzed by the feel of his hand brushing against mine. It’s one of those rare moments when our bodies do the talking for us, and I can tell from the look in his eyes that he and Fadai absolutely talked about the other night. I see it in both of them. The longing, the burning desire. I feel it, too.

“How much longer?” I ask, moving away from Yossul’s disconcerting touch.

He checks his watch again. “Another minute.”

“I can’t hear anything,” I say, looking around for the umpteenth time. “Surely, he wouldn’t walk over here.”

“No, it wouldn’t make sense,” Fadai replies, then grabs the binoculars to survey the city’s southern sections of the wall. “I don’t see him anywhere.”

“He’ll be here,” Yossul insists. “Lemuel hasn’t let us down in the past.”

He’s tempted to come closer again. This time, Fadai matches his movements, making them seem like panthers on the prowl, but the sound of incoming buggies has my pulse jumping on the opposite side of the spectrum as I see Sky Tribe soldiers quickly approaching us.

“Oh, no,” I mumble. “This can’t be happening.”

But it is happening.

Whether Lemuel ratted us out or not doesn’t matter at this point. What matters is that a dozen Sky Tribe warriors are heading our way, their buggies racing across the vast open space that stretches between the Three Fingers and Ruby City.

One glance through the binoculars, and I’m able to see their weapons, too. They’re not driving over for a quick chat.

“The ceasefire doesn’t apply anywhere outside Diamond City,” Yossul growls as he grabs one of the laser rifles from the back seat. “Prepare for combat!”

“We can’t outrun them,” Fadai adds and does the same.

I snag the third sniper piece and aim it at one of the Sky Tribe’s buggy drivers. A sudden burst of adrenaline ignites my whole body. There’s no time for me to wonder how the hell they were on to us so quickly.

“Shit, they flew the drones away on purpose,” I whisper mostly to myself. “They wanted us chilling out here, not expecting a raid.”

“Motherfuckers,” Yossul snaps and starts firing his weapon.

The enemy buggies are getting dangerously close and too fast. I look through the scope and shoot one of the drivers. I get him in the shoulder, and the hit is hot and unexpected enough to make him jerk on the steering wheel. The buggy flips over and explodes, the orange flames bursting outward and swallowing the rest of the armed passengers before the laws of physics manage to hurl them away from the deflagration.

There are too many of them, though.

And they’re only a handful of yards away.

“We have to kill them all,” Fadai gasps, reloading his weapon.

They’re here. Four buggies left, and soldiers are jumping out, firing at us. I take cover behind our vehicle, but they’re not aiming their guns at me. They’re trying to eliminate Yossul and Fadai. Of course. I’m the grand prize here.

“Bastards,” I hiss and poke my head out long enough to shoot one of them through the chest. I hear him drop dead before I take cover again.

Yossul fires a rapid succession of shots. Fadai does the same, but the first of the Sky Tribe soldiers gets close enough to knock the rifle out of his hands. The fight gets hard and bloody as Fadai struggles with his assailant.

I’m back up and shooting over and over again. Six of them left.

Still too many.

Fear grips me by the throat, getting tighter and tighter, but I can’t hesitate. I can’t slow down. I take them out, one by one. But it’s still not enough. A tall man with a long braided beard and a bloody look in his eyes comes for me, his sharp knife out, the blade reflecting the suns’ glare right into my face. I’m temporarily blinded.

It’s all he needs.

He’s got me, and I’m wrestling with a man too big for me to handle on my own. He punches me in the head, a mean right hook that rattles my brain and makes my jaw hurt. I hear Yossul snarling as he trains his weapon on the guy.

“Duck!” a man shouts. “Kreeks, duck!”

I do as I’m told and wriggle out of the Sky Tribe mercenary’s hold long enough for a laser beam to burn right through him. The scuffle thickens and turns to chaos as the remaining soldiers feverishly look around and as Yossul and Fadai manage to retrieve their weapons so they can kill them.

Everything happens so fast that I barely register the third party riding a buggy into the middle of this dusty storm.

“Lemuel!” Yossul says.

My heart jumps as I get away from the corpse of my last assailant and jump to my feet, desperate to get this over with. We’ve got four fuckers left to deal with, but they’re highly trained and determined to take my men out. Lemuel points his gun at one of them and fires a shot.

The buggy comes to a screeching halt, and one of the mercenaries turns around.

“Watch out!” Fadai shouts.

Lemuel tries to fight fire with fire, yet the Sky Tribe mercenary quickly shoots him. The laser beam hits Lemuel in the stomach, and the smell of burnt flesh seeps into the very air we’re raggedly trying to breathe.

“No…” I manage as Fadai kills the mercenary before he turns toward him again.

Two left.

I roar with volcanic rage and grab one of the weapons discarded on the ground just as a marauder comes for me. I raise the gun and fire at will. Perhaps too many shots, but he’s toast. It gives Yossul the split second he needs to kill the other guy.

I’m panting, my calf still burning from the other night, my bruises hurting with a vengeance, but I manage to pull away from this debacle and look around. It’s only a matter of time before reinforcements arrive. That’s not the worst part, however. Lemuel is on the ground, barely able to keep his eyes open.

Fadai, Yossul, and I rush to his side. I try to do something, my hands trembling from the overflow of adrenaline. There’s not much I can do, though. The laser shot went through, and it got major organs on its way out. Lemuel’s red skin quickly fades to a deathly pink as he struggles to look up at the Kreek brothers.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his voice barely a whisper. “I had no idea they had a line on me.”

“What the hell happened?” Yossul asks him.

Our time is running out, but Lemuel has information we need. Fadai grabs him by the shoulders and vigorously shakes him back into consciousness for this last moment. “Lemuel, talk to us. Where are the starships? Where did they move them?”

“I didn’t want to write it in a message,” Lemuel manages. “I worried that it… might get intercepted.”

“We know. Where are they?” Yossul asks.

I look around again. We need to be out of here in the next minute, tops, otherwise the enemy will catch up. I can already hear more buggies coming from Sapphire City.

“I saw them mobilizing at the outside barracks,” Lemuel says, his breathing heavy. “I was on my way to meet you. I was careful, I swear…”

“Lemuel! Focus, man! The starship!” Yossul insists.

He’d be way more sympathetic if there weren’t so much at stake. We can’t leave this place empty-handed, not after everything we’ve been through. We all know it. Even Lemuel knows it. The sadness in his crimson eyes breaks my heart, but with his dying breath, he gives us something.

“Pearl City,” he says. “One of them is in Pearl City.”

“In Pearl City? There’s no area big enough there to hold a hangar that big,” Yossul replies. “Where’s the other one?”

But Lemuel is gone.

“We have to get out of here,” I murmur, trying to get over what just happened.

Fadai and Yossul know it. We can’t even give Lemuel a proper burial, though he would deserve one and a gun salute to boot. There’s no time. We jump back into the buggy and speed away as though hell itself is about to open up and swallow us.

I sulk in the roaring sound of its engine, constantly looking back as we head downstream in order to lose any potential followers.

Yossul yanks the wheel and takes us along the riverside and over the pebbles, not wanting the Sky Tribe to pick up on the buggy’s tracks in the red dirt. There’s a small bridge farther ahead. We’ll use it to cross over and make our way into a patch of trees somewhere farther away before we stop to catch a breath and figure out what the fuck we’re going to do next.

Pearl City, Lemuel said.

That’s a name I’ve only heard about in passing. We don’t know much about it. It’s a smaller city than the others, once revered as a cultural hub of sorts. I think that’s what Yossul and Fadai meant when they expressed confusion regarding a hangar in the middle of Pearl City.

My stomach churns, my eyes sting, my whole body hurts. Fadai and I are huddled together in the back seat. He holds me close, and I find a tiny bit of comfort in his arms.

It doesn’t heal the pain in my heart after what happened, but it’s enough to keep me focused on what’s ahead. Yossul keeps stealing glances at me in the rearview mirror. I’d give anything for this whole nightmare to end.

It’s not going to end on its own, though.

We have to end it.