“Put your hands up! Put your hands up now!”
Reyer smashed the ends of the com together and dropped it. A hot, fast flame hissed out from the central seam as it fell. She put her hands up.
“Turn around get down on your knees, hands behind your head!”
Vas and Reyer hesitated, but with more than a dozen guns pointed at them, they had little choice.
Several peacekeepers broke away from the group to cuff and search them while the rest kept their e-weapons aimed at their chests.
“Sir.” A woman summoned the officer over to the computer.
Before he could get there, the screen went blank. Their attempts to get the bricked console to start made Adan snicker.
When the officer heard him, he walked over to look at the captain’s face. “Did you get the information you were searching for?”
“No,” Vas said. “You came in earlier than we thought you would.”
“How unfortunate for you. Captain Adan Vas and Sergeant Alix Reyer of the Uprising?”
The smile faded from Vas’s face. He didn’t answer.
“Sir.” One of the men held out the bottle and the weapon they had taken from Reyer.
“What’s this?” the man asked her.
“A knife, sir.”
“Yes, thank you. I had figured that out on my own.” The man shook the bottle in front of her face. “What are these?”
“Tranomine.”
He handed the knife back to the soldier, opened the bottle, looked at the pills he spilled into his open palm, then put them back. “The notice said you were injured.” He nodded. Two peacekeepers hauled the prisoners to their feet. Reyer let out a cry. The officer added, “Evidently fairly badly.” He turned, but stopped long enough to say to the two men holding her, “Go easy on her. There’s no need to injure her further. Unless she tries something.”
They were escorted out of the building.
As they waited for the transport to come around and retrieve them, Reyer asked, “What’s going to happen to us?”
“Because you’re both members of the Uprising, you’ll be turned over to the military. We’ll hold you in the peacekeeper’s building until that time.”
Reyer and Vas were both silent during the ride. Once they arrived, the peacekeepers split into two squads and pulled them apart. Vas struggled when they started to separate them, but the sound and movement of so many e-rifles being raised stopped him immediately. They were taken to different locations and searched more thoroughly.
The woman in charge of Reyer’s inspection nodded to the bandage on Reyer’s arm.
“What happened?”
“About a week ago, I took part of a blast to my arm.”
“Take it off.” To one of the other peacekeepers, she said, “Go get a first-aid kit.”
Reyer broke the seal and unwound the bandage. The woman grabbed her arm and twisted it so she could see the damage.
“Well,” she said, glancing up at Alix, “you weren’t lying about the blast.” She pulled it under the light, then glanced up more sharply at her prisoner. When the peacekeeper returned with the kit, she demanded a hemostat.
Everyone in the room winced as the woman pulled out the transmitter. Reyer had to grind her teeth to keep from groaning as it was extracted from where it had been shoved into her arm.
As the woman began disinfecting and re-wrapping the half-healed wound, she shook her head. “I’ll admit, I’m impressed.”
“So am I,” Reyer said. “Did you ever work as a soldier?”
“Finished my six years, two years ago. You?”
“Retired by injury.”
“Is that so? Then why are you here?”
Reyer pressed her lips together.
The woman huffed. “Yeah, you’re a soldier all right.”
When the inspection was done, they had her get dressed and took her down to the holding cells. Reyer caught a glimpse of Vas’s jacket in the cell next to the one they shoved her into. One of her escorts locked the door as the inspector reported to the officer that had arrested them. When the report was done, the officer turned to the cells.
“Captain Vas, Sergeant Reyer, the people who are going to take you into custody are already in velox. They should be here in roughly seven hours.”
“Who are these people?” Vas asked.
“Members of the Supremacy military. They seem to have been looking for you for quite some time.”
“Do they have names?”
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“None that I’m going to give you. They can introduce themselves if they see fit.” He turned to leave.
“Wait!”
The officer looked back at Vas.
“Will you withhold Miss Reyer’s medicine?”
The officer walked closer to Vas’s cell but was careful to stay out of his reach. “We may be from enemy parties, Captain Vas, but I’m appalled you felt you had to ask the question.” He turned when he heard Reyer laughing.
“Now, you’ve been a peacekeeper the whole time, haven’t you?” she said.
The officer took a step to the side so he could see her better.
Reyer went on, “The men you’re handing us over to—they would know why we asked the question. Of course, if it was them, we probably wouldn’t have bothered asking.”
The officer looked uncomfortable. “Things are different out on the front lines.”
“More merciless, yes. That’s war.”
“So you can’t blame us. If you would only stop fighting—”
“Stop fighting? And play a good little victim to the Supremacy’s rule?” Reyer shook her head. “Not my style. I’ll keep fighting. Even if I’m not very good at it anymore.”
The officer looked away. “If you need your medicine, all you have to do is call for it. It won’t be what you brought with you—unless one of my doctors can guarantee it hasn’t been tampered with—but it’ll be Tranomine.”
Reyer nodded.
“If there’s nothing else?”
When neither of them spoke, the officer started to walk away.
“Thank you,” Reyer said.
He nodded and left.
Reyer went to the front corner of her cell. “Vas?”
“Alix, are you all right?” He put his hand out through the bars.
She reached out and took it. “They found the beacon.”
“That’s fine. We’ll figure something out.”
“Okay.”
“Hey—are you all right?”
“I’m tired, Vas.”
“Go lay down. Get some rest.”
She didn’t let go of his hand. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Get some sleep. I’ll be here for you.” He laughed. “One cage over.”
She let go and pulled her hand away. Vas sat down where he was.
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The captain woke up when the last security door at the end of their area opened. He was on his feet before the familiar figure arrived in front of their cells. It was the older man—the military officer that he had seen back on P48.
“You again?” Reyer said. Either she’d been unable to sleep or had also woken up when the major entered.
“Good morning, Sergeant Reyer.” The major turned to Vas. “And you are Captain Vas.”
Vas lifted one of his hands in a dismissive shrug. “You have me at a disadvantage. I wasn’t able to catch your name the last time we met.”
“Tennama.”
“Well, Major Tennama,” Reyer said as she walked up to the front of her cell, “you’ve finally caught up to us. What happens now?”
“My subordinate is finishing up the paperwork to have you both transferred into my custody. After that, you’ll have to wait and see.”
“Why aren’t you out there doing the paperwork?” Vas asked.
“Because I wanted to make sure you were actually Sergeant Reyer and Captain Vas. I had my doubts.”
“Oh?”
“You’ve been frustratingly elusive. Then suddenly you show up on a central Supremacy planet and get yourselves captured? If it had been me, and I knew I was being hunted, I would not have brazenly broken into an enemy building. The risk was tremendous, and you both must have known that. However, my commanding officer assured me that it might be something that you would do—”
“Who’s your commanding officer?” Vas asked.
“All in good time, Captain.” The major took a step forward. Vas noticed that he was almost, but not quite, in reach. “You were looking for information, weren’t you? You risked your lives for information so you could take it back to the Rising? Amazing.” He shook his head. “And, as it proves, worthless.”
“I don’t know,” Adan said with a smirk. “Maybe we learned something before we were captured.”
The major echoed his expression. “Nothing I’m concerned about, I promise. And you won’t be getting what you did find back to the Rising, now will you?”
The door opened again. Their arresting officer was leading four men and two bots toward them, but Vas’s attention was seized by the man in the Supremacy military uniform. The lance corporal looked familiar in a haunting way. Vas was certain he’d seen the man’s face before.
The lance corporal walked up to the major’s side. “Everything’s arranged, sir.”
“Good.” Major Tennama said to their arresting officer, “You’ve searched them thoroughly? They have no weapons? Nothing?”
“No, sir.” The officer held out a bottle. “This is Tranomine. For Sergeant Reyer.”
“I see.” The major pocketed the bottle.
Reyer saw the reluctant skepticism in the arresting officer’s expression. It brought a rueful half smile to her face, which he glimpsed out of the corner of his eye.
Tennama continued, “Do you mind if I borrow this squad of peacekeepers until we’re able to get them to our ship? My own resources are strained, and Sergeant Reyer is good at managing miraculous escapes.”
“No objection, Major. They’re ready to go now.”
“As are we. You may unlock the doors and cuff them.”
As the group walked through the halls, the four peacekeepers surrounding Vas and Reyer stayed too far away to be attacked. Major Tennama and the lance corporal under his orders were even further back. Only the bots were directly beside them.
Vas watched their guards closely as they were forced to enter the transportation vehicle. They kept at least two sets of eyes and two XM4s on their prisoners at all times. They sat Vas and Reyer side by side with the bots flanking them. The four guards took their places across from them.
After they’d been moving for a while, Vas murmured, “Are you—”
“No talking!” one of their guards shouted. “If you speak again, you will be gagged. If you resist, you’ll be shot.”
Vas sat back. He realized that Reyer’s hands being cuffed behind her back was preventing her from being able to relax. It must have been painful, and her last dose of Tranomine would be wearing off. He twisted his shoulder so it was under hers. At least she would be able to lean back on him. With mounting frustration, he realized that was all he could do.
They arrived at a private port reserved for Supremacy officers, politicians, and military personnel. Once again, the two prisoners were painstakingly extracted without a second’s lapse in the security. The crew stopped in front of a medium sized ship—something between a transport and a battleship. The peacekeepers stood guard while the lance corporal fetched the two men assigned to work with the major and commandeered two bots from the station. When they were all in place, Major Tennama dismissed the peacekeepers.
He watched them until they left the port. When the doors closed behind them, he looked around.
The lance corporal said, “The only ones still here are a few mechanics and the man on station, sir. He knows we’re working a classified mission.”
“Excellent.” The major turned to his men and the bots. “Take Sergeant Reyer onto the ship. One of you will search her—thoroughly. When you’re done, cuff her to a bench, then secure her legs as well. Have the bots watch her at all times.”
“No!” Vas yelled. He crashed into the major as he shoved past him, trying to reach Reyer as they led her away.
Vas was tackled by the lance corporal before Tennama had time to recover. An e-pistol pressed Adan’s head into the cold floor. He could hear Alix shout his name, but the two bots closed in around her. She disappeared into the ship.
The lance corporal jerked Vas to his feet, keeping the e-pistol shoved under the captain’s right ear. The major finished straightening his jacket.
“Why am I not on that ship with her?” Vas asked.
“You won’t be able to protect her, Captain. And, frankly, you’re of no use to us—but I’m sure you’ll be trouble to keep.” Tennama looked behind Vas. “Deal with him. Then wait on this planet for further orders. I’ll be leaving as soon as possible.”
“Yes, sir,” the lance corporal said.