“You want me to do what?” Commander Jayla asked as she and Renna strode toward the cargo hold.
Renna kept her gaze forward and her voice steady. “I want you to be my prisoner.”
Jayla stopped dead in the corridor. “No way. If you’re wrong and this goes… what is that phrase you use? Tits up? I do not want to be out of commission.”
Renna paused, turning to face the commander. “You won’t be. But bringing you in as a trophy might be our best and only chance to get inside that bunker.”
“What makes you think they’ll let you inside in the first place, with or without me?”
Renna gestured at Jayla to keep moving. “Because someone has a grudge against MYTH that’s big enough to destroy an entire headquarters. Getting their hands on one of their top officers will be a chance they can’t resist.”
The women cleared the cargo hold hatch, and Renna headed for her arms locker. She grabbed some extra clips for her blaster and slipped them into her pockets. “Not to mention, if this is a trap, don’t you want to take down whoever did this yourself?”
Jayla smoothed the front of her uniform jacket and glared at Renna. “You know I do. This is personal now.”
“Then we don’t have time for subtle. You heard Dallas. MYTH will be sending strike teams any minute.”
Jayla cleared the chamber of her pistol to check it before slipping it into its holster. “I wish I knew what’s going on. Who this Pallas is and why he’s doing this.”
“Don’t we all?” Renna strapped a knife to her thigh and slipped another one into the special slot on her left boot. She was all about stylish and functional.
The commander narrowed her eyes. “If our resident thief thinks this is the only way, then I’ll have to trust you.” She frowned at Renna. “But don’t try to pull anything.”
Renna threw up her hands. “I promise. I’m a reformed woman. A MYTH girl, you could even say. I’ve got too much riding on all of this to play games.” She patted her pockets one last time. “Ready to go? My implant says the bunker is a ten-minute walk through town.”
Lieutenant Blake joined them at the hatch. His full lips were twisted in a pout, and he crossed his arms as he leaned against the opening. “I don’t like this. I should be coming with you. Damn, the whole team should be coming with you. There’s no way you’re going to get out of this alive.”
“Then I guess you’ll be captain,” Jayla said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about us, Lieutenant. I need you keep the ship ready for immediate take off. If we’re not back in two hours, get the hell out of here before the strike team arrives.”
“But, Commander, this is insane.” His gaze flitted between them, a frown puckering the skin between his eyebrows. “I can’t agree with this plan.”
Renna chuckled. “You don’t even know what the plan is. But if you did, you’d like it even less.”
Blake’s frown grew deeper. “Commander…”
“You have your orders, Lieutenant.” Jayla smiled at him, then marched from the ship.
Renna waved to Blake and followed. He sighed nosily as the hatch slid shut behind her.
In the Eris’s hangar bay, Renna slapped a pair of exovises around Jayla’s wrists, fastening them loosely in front of her, but the commander still didn’t look much like a prisoner. Renna wrinkled her nose at the gray dust coating the ground and any flat surface.
“I wish this was at least clean dirt,” she said, picking up a handful of the gritty sand. It immediately turned her fingers gray. “Sorry about this.” Renna rubbed a handful across the back of Jayla’s dark uniform, then turned her around and smeared another handful across her front.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.
Renna arched an eyebrow. “I couldn’t capture you without a struggle, right? We might need to mess up your hair a bit. And maybe add some strategic dirt to your face.”
Jayla took a step back and raised her shackled hands. “Oh, hell no. You are not putting that in my hair.”
“Fine. At least let me pull some strands out of your bun. I want you to look disheveled.”
Jayla’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t protest as Renna pulled some of the commander’s dark hair from her bun to curl wildly around her face.
“Hey, you have nice hair. Why do you always wear it back?”
“This is not the time to go all girly on me, thief. We need to focus.”
“Talking about hair is always appropriate.” Renna dusted off her hands, careful not to get any of the dirt on her own clothes. “You can get to the key, right?”
“It’s right here in my pocket.” Jayla patted her hip. “We’ve been through all this all ready. Are you stalling, Carrizal?”
Renna smirked. “Is it that obvious?”
“A little. Now come on. We have MYTH soldiers to save.”
Jayla marched out of the hangar in front of Renna before she could stop her. Renna scurried to catch up, pulling her pistol and shoving it into Jayla’s ribs as they started down the street. The Tholi spaceport was a shithole if she’d ever seen one. Dirty streets, even dirtier humans. The air smelled of dust and garbage and human stench. Renna wrinkled her nose.
Leading the stately commander through the slums earned them quite a few wide-eyed stares and a couple of cat calls from the men who lounged against the peeling buildings. They spat long strings of black liquid between stained teeth, and Renna shuddered as one landed feet away from them. The Eridu aliens had a special herb that calmed the nerves and supposedly made people happy. The poor of the community chewed it like gum, but it also gave them a vacant expression and black teeth. Not exactly her idea of attractive.
“Hey, baby, why don’t you tie me up, like that?” one man called, leering at them through watery eyes. “Even better, I’ll tie you both up and have some fun.”
“Pretty sure your penis isn’t big enough for one of us, let alone two.”
He spit again. “Got a big mouth on you, huh? How about you come over here and show me what you can do with it?”
“I’d rather suck off a Russka.” Renna smiled sweetly. “But you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, handsome?”
He growled and pushed himself off the building.
“Renna, behave,” Jayla muttered. “I don’t want to have to take down this guy with my hands tied. We don’t have time for a brawl.”