In Enemy Territory - Shannon West Page 0,38

teeth to talk to the man.

“They killed a Gatifreyan and six members of their family unit. The same family unit the commandant belongs to.”

“What? Seven of them?”

“That’s what I heard. The Gatifreyans don’t have a death penalty, or they’d have used it on them. But going to Zargoff is the same thing. I hear nobody has an easy life over there. And it’s always a short life. Before long, their bodies will be thrown in the ocean and fed to the big fish they call raffin.”

“Shit.”

He nodded. “They’ll wash up out of the sea, and the word will be that they died trying to escape. And there will be no bodies with incriminating evidence.”

“Incriminating? What do you mean?”

“Even the Axis has laws against murdering your prisoners.”

“Murdering? Shit. I need to get them out of there. As soon as possible.”

“Good luck with that. There’s no way off or on that island unless the Gatifreyans make it happen.”

“Then we’ll get them to. The question is, are you in? For a full pardon and a real chance to get out of here?”

He gave Rasc a long, measured look and then shrugged. “Why not? I suppose I have nothing left to lose.”

“How long do you think we have to get the boys off that island?”

“Maybe a few weeks. Nothing usually happens right away. I guess the commandant thinks it would look too suspicious for prisoners to die right away. And he knows the Tygerian king is aware they’re in his custody and wants them back. Still, I wouldn’t let it go on for too long. It’s a dangerous island, and they try to work the prisoners to death if they can.”

Rasc nodded. He needed to send another message back to Larz and Bonnett. And he was pretty sure he didn’t have any time to lose. “I’ll get a message out tonight.”

Chapter Eight

Meanwhile, on Tygeria…

“My battlecruiser is being readied now, Father, and I leave for the Manifree Galaxy and Gatifrey within the hour. I wanted to go sooner, but this was as fast as I could get away.”

“I still wonder if this is the wisest course of action, though, son. The starcruiser will be ready in another few days, and we can all go together.”

“But the starcruiser will take twice as long to get to Gatifrey, and we’ve already been delayed. With a smaller ship, I can go in and make contact with this commandant of the Gatifreyans. Perhaps even secure this person’s cooperation when they learn of the Assassins’ Order operating right under their noses. Then by the time you arrive with the cruiser, perhaps we’ll have tracked down the Assassins’ Order’s stronghold and be ready to attack. We might even have them in custody.” He gave an evil grin. “Or maybe they’ll decide to fight it out.”

In the last few weeks since the assassination attempt on his mate and his child, Mikos had been working tirelessly to trace the movements of the assassin who had died during the interrogation of the Justice’s death. It was learned that the killer had ingested a poison that he had somehow secreted on his body, in the eventuality he was caught. That implied a dedication none of them had previously expected—that they were willing to die for their cause.

Two more arrests were made in the next weeks when one potential assassination was thwarted by the intended victim’s bodyguard. The culprit behind the explosion of Ryan’s hovercraft had been discovered to be a mechanic who had worked on the craft. He’d hidden himself away in one of the storage compartments and then hijacked the craft when he thought Ryan and Mikol had boarded. He had died when the craft exploded.

When their movements were traced, however, it was found that the killers had either visited Gatifrey in the recent past or had some strong connection to the planet. It had reconfirmed Mikos’s belief that he needed to go there personally to investigate. Since the situation in that galaxy was precarious at best, Davos had decided to bring in his own starcruiser and was scheduled to arrive not too long after Mikos.

Davos nodded thoughtfully at Mikos’s words, but he still looked troubled. “I don’t know that I admire this idea of yours to take your nobyo along with you, though. I think it’s unseemly.”

“Ryan feels responsible for what happened to the Gatifreyan ambassador’s mate and child. I’ve told him over and over that he’s not to blame, but he still feels guilty over it. I think that to be able