their being captured.”
“Well, whoever you hired to do the job was utterly incompetent.” His gaze focused and his tone snapped. That was more like the Indrex she used to know.
“In what way?”
“Rather than using common weapons, they used some sort of exotic gun. It left the victims looking as if they’d been butchered with razor-swords.”
She tensed. That was a legitimate concern. She asked Hastos to send a team of his best mercenaries. They killed for a living. It never occurred to her to specify when and how she wanted the raid to take place. She presumed they would know what the hells they were doing.
Shrugging with indifference she didn’t feel, she met Indrex’s gaze. “This could work to our advantage. Hopefully, the investigators will be so fixated with the anomaly that they’ll accept the rest without question.”
“Or they could be busy tracking down the manufacturer. A process that will lead them to you, I suspect.” His bitter sarcasm made him sound just like his sister. Thank the gods that bitch was dead.
“They don’t even know what kind of weapon they’re looking for, much less where to find it.” She dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand.
“I’m pretty sure they’re looking for this kind.” He activated a holo-image of a Cretzian laser pistol. “They left nine at the scene. Nine! There were only two rebels. How in the name of all destruction were they supposed to have used nine guns?”
The number surprised her for an entirely different reason. She told Hastos to send a team of four. That was small enough to be agile, yet large enough to ensure success. Had he ignored her directive and sent a small army? “I will deal with my contact. Clearly, he was over-zealous.”
“You need to do more than that,” Indrex said firmly. “You need to get your ass home before the rebels figure out what you’re attempting to accomplish.”
No one on Sarronti Prime knew what she was “attempting to accomplish” and that included Indrex. Despite his melodramatics, she wasn’t worried that the rebels would figure out her true motivation. The only Sarronti capable of discerning any of this was collared and helpless right here on Cretz. “I appreciate the warning and I will—”
“You’re not listening to me,” he snapped. “Malik’s brother, the sentinel, got his hands on one of the weapons. The danger is real, Zerna. It’s just a matter of time before they track the gun back to you.”
Those blasted Xetts! Every time she turned around a Xett was complicating her best-laid plans.
“Malik is ruthless, but Salvo is tenacious. He will never let this go,” Indrex added when she didn’t reply.
She nodded, seriously concerned for the first time. “I hear you. Thanks for the com.”
He sighed and his expression softened. “Come home. Let your family protect you. And if they won’t, I will.”
She smiled. She was a few cycles older than Indrex and he’d always had a crush on her. Rather than risking an awkward interaction, she ended the com with a bland gesture of farewell.
This was unbelievable. How could Hastos be so careless? She ordered the com-computer to interrupt Hastos’ sleep as rudely as Indrex had interrupted hers. “We need to talk,” she said in lieu of a greeting. “Now! Get your ass over here.”
He gritted his teeth so hard a muscle in his jaw twitched. “I do not take orders from females.”
“Then I officially end our association and—”
“I will be there shortly.” He stalked across the room and began to dress. Clearly, she was not the only one who preferred sleeping naked. “What is so damn urgent?”
His features might be blunt and unappealing, but he had a fabulous body. She let her gaze wander at will, lingering in all the naughtiest places. “The errand I had you run for me went badly.”
He paused with his shirt in his hand and looked at her. “How is that possible? I sent—”
“We’ll discuss details when you arrive.” To ensure his discretion, she terminated the link.
She paced her rented room as she waited for her incompetent partner. This is why she preferred to work alone. At least that way if anything went wrong, she had no one to blame but herself. It was also the reason her ambitions ran toward becoming a monarch or a dictator. Participatory governments had too many moving parts.
Hastos flashed into her room a few moments later. Unlike the sentinels from her planet, he could move instantaneously from one place to another without any sort of conduit. Of course,