they kiss? A rather violent form of affection, don’t you think?”
They’d found Delilah with Martino and Adan, but no sign of Lucius. Blood streamed from Martino’s nose, the source of the smears they’d tracked.
Del said, “The bloody drunken idiot fell down and bloodied his bloody drunken nose.”
“There’s a large Syndonese strike force incoming, Commander. Someone gave them Turnlee’s encryption keys, so they’ve got access to the local command grid. They’ll be inside long distance bombardment range within the hour.”
Goutain’s plan had been to take Lucius and the Nine and their heirs as prisoners, use his hidden firepower to hold the planet long enough for a much larger force to arrive and secure his position. But Charlie’s sucker punch had worked. Darmczek had nailed the four warships without a fight, and got the troop carrier before it landed all its troops. The two hundred regulars that Charlie had at his command had outnumbered the Syndonese decisively. But when Goutain’s strike force arrived that situation would change.
“I will not leave without my husband,” Adan screamed. They had yet to account for Lucius.
“Mother, please,” Del pleaded. “Don’t you understand? If he has father he has the king. And if he kills father, then he has nothing. As long as he doesn’t have Martino, then he must keep father alive. But if he has Martino also, then father is a dead man. We have to do as Commander Cass says and evacuate before the Syndonese strike force arrives.”
Adan screamed at Del, Del screamed at Adan, and Martino took a sip from a small flask. They were all standing in the royal apartments, trying to get Adan to see reason. Charlie turned to a marine medic and whispered, “I need a palm patch. A sedative. Three of them. Something that won’t react with alcohol,” he glanced knowingly at Martino, “but something that’ll put them down fast.”
The marine grinned. He handed Charlie three small patches, started to explain, but Charlie growled, “I know how to use the damn things.”
He selected one and slapped it hard between his palms to activate it. He was careful to keep the active surface away from his own skin as he marched up behind Adan, who was busy arguing with Del. He pressed the patch carefully against the side of Adan’s neck. It pulsed underneath his hand as she turned on him indignantly. “How dare you? You have no right . . .” She hesitated, then her eyes glazed over and Charlie caught her as she fell.
He lowered her carefully to the floor. “Bag her up and get her out of here.”
He turned toward Martino, who offered him a drink. Charlie smiled as he pressed the palm patch against Martino’s neck. Martino went down like his mother and Charlie turned to Del.
She held her hands up and backed away from him. “Charlie, you don’t need to sedate me like that.” Their eyes met and she seemed to read his thoughts. She shrugged and laughed. “Then again, it’ll be easier for you if I am sedated. No chance I might turn hysterical at an inopportune moment, eh?” She curtsied. “Commander, I capitulate.”
She rose and approached him confidently. He raised the palm patch toward her neck, but she caught his wrist. “No. I’m told it leaves a mark. And I’m so vain.”
She turned to one side, swung a hip toward him, angled in a way that no one else could see. She started raising her skirts and petticoats, exposing first her leg, then her knee, then her thigh, and lastly some rather enticing undergarments. “I think I’d rather have it here,” she said. All he could say was something to the effect of “Uhh,” and while he stood there speechless she grabbed his wrist, pressed his hand with the palm patch against her bared thigh, and closed her fingers, forcing him to squeeze her skin in a most inappropriate way. “I like that much better, don’t you? Sometime I’ll have to show you . . . if it sca . . .” Her eyes glazed over and Charlie didn’t have the presence of mind to catch her as she fell. Thankfully, Ell stepped in and scooped up the princess effortlessly.
With Delilah in her arms, she turned to Add, shaking her head sadly. “Little brother is involved in the strangest courtship ritual I’ve ever seen, sister.”
Charlie strapped himself down in the acceleration seat in the shuttle. “It’s gonna be close,” the pilot shouted as he firewalled the grav drive and lifted them straight up