Dual Abduction (3 page)

“You took the Lord’s name in vain,” Sade said in the sudden silence, her cheeks turning bright red as all eyes turned to her.

“I hate to break it to you darling, but the Lord isn’t here to hear it. Now, the good news is we weren’t taken by white slavers looking to sell you into the sex trade.”

“So what’s the bad news?”

“It was alien pirates and they intend to sell you into some kind of galactic sex trade.”

“Let’s say for a minute, we believe the whole alien thing, how is that any better?”

“It’s not, but at least now you have the facts straight. The question is what are we going to do about it?”

Jasmine raised her hand and waved it.

“Yes?”

“What do the aliens look like?”

“Short, green and ugly.”

“Like that?”

All eyes followed Jasmine’s pointing finger and they stared with dropped jaws at the hulking goblin in the doorway. It brandished a metallic looking baton and grinned with jagged teeth when it realized it caught their attention.

Louisa held in a smug I-told-you-so. She also moved forward to stand in front of the girls. Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared at the alien.

“What do you want?”

“The captain says you are too noisy.”

“And? What are you going to do about it?”

Her answer flummoxed him, until he recalled he held a weapon. He waved it at her.

“Is that all you got?” She smirked, unable to resist the taunt. She’d taken down bigger thugs than the little green guy before. The situation reminded her of the time she took the baseball bat off Betty’s boyfriend when he came around not happy with a break up. Louisa taught him what bats were for—playing ball. Needless to say, once he managed to limp away, crying for his mama, he didn’t return.

“I will harm you if you do not behave,” it threatened when its evil grin and wave of its bat didn’t have the desired effect.

A chuckle slipped from her, probably partially caused by hysteria, and the ugly green face took on a perplexed expression.

Go big or go home, her dad’s motto flashed through her mind as she let her gut guide her. “I’d like to see you try.” She took a step forward and lunged, roaring like she did when the raccoons thought to attack the garbage cans. To her surprise, the green dude recoiled, dropping his baton which hit the floor with a clang and rolled toward Louisa. She dove on the weapon, and wrapped a fist around it. She immediately popped to her feet, only to see the alien exit the room, the door sliding shut behind him.
What do you know, even evil Martians are pussies if confronted by a strong woman.

Turning back around, tapping her victory against her palm, she faced her stunned students. “Told you we were kidnapped by aliens.” The smug announcement matched her smirk.

“And you totally psyched him out!”

A true smile broke free as the girls high fived her.

Breaking into excited chatter, her students huddled, throwing the occasional suspicious glance over their shoulder to see if anyone spied. They came up with a few plans. Most unfeasible, but at least it gave them focus. And best of all, hope, which no matter how dire the situation, Louisa wouldn’t take from them.

Chapter Four

Ducking the laser shots, aimed to kill rather than incapacitate, Xarn cursed his stupidity in daring Murphy. As usual, the deity chose to frukx with them, and quite spectacularly, too. “How much farther to the ship?”

“Not far, but our chances of making it with all our body parts intact are looking pretty slim,” Brax replied before turning to shoot. A scream echoed behind them.

“I can’t believe the nerve of that bastard, freezing our credits like that and framing us for something we didn’t do.” Xarn complained for the thousandth time since they’d gotten the news of the warrant out for their arrest. While their apparent murder of the governor’s mistress would enhance their reputation, it peeved him off. He preferred to get credit for things they’d actually done and while he or Brax would have
done
her in a heartbeat, they had this tiny moral code that didn’t allow them to kill females in cold blood.

“Are you sure you didn’t accidentally screw her to death when you were drunk the other night?”

“I’m sure.” What he didn’t admit was he’d woken in a pile of vomit on the floor of his favorite whore’s room. Despite his lack of prowess, due to over imbibing, she’d still pocketed his credits.

I have got cut back on the alcohol consumption.
More fun in his youth, the glamour of going on drinking binges that lasted several galactic cycles didn’t appeal as much. Now, after one night of it, he felt like reheated Jisu shit and it took forever to recover.
I’m getting old.

The idea depressed him and made him careless. A burning pain sliced across his arm. One of their attackers—also known as the police for this particular city—got lucky and scored a hit.

Xarn took careful aim and fired. At least the pig, literally with a pair of hairy snouts, wouldn’t live to brag he’d damaged one of the famous purple friends. Known as the Dual Terrors, he and Brax maintained their reputation by daring deeds, devastating prowess and impeccable charm. Oh, and laughter, because despite their violent intentions, for some reason, beings found it hard to take them seriously. That worked in their favor quite often.

His cousin, Tren, claimed their mothers had shoved some kind of lucky charm up their anuses when they were babes, while Jaro opined they’d sold their souls to some kind of galactic deity. Truthfully, he and Brax were just awesome and his cousins—who treated Brax like the brother he’d always wanted—were jealous. And that went double for the rest of the universe who had not yet recognized them as the most wonderful mercenaries and acquisitions specialists ever.

Despite their impressive track record, the distinction of ‘Best’ kept bypassing them, although it did remain in the family. It recently belonged to Tren, who thankfully retired when he kidnapped a human, and then it passed on to Jaro, who got abducted and claimed by some female Zonian warrior. Their departure from the scene should have meant he and Brax finally got to bask in the attention they’d always deserved. Instead, there was talk of a new mercenary stepping in to take the spotlight, another cousin or uncle from his mother’s side of the family. Frukxing jerk.
That spotlight belongs to us! We earned it.

Murphy must have eavesdropped again, this time on his thoughts, because suddenly Xarn got his blasted spotlight. Literally. It shone from the sky while a loud speaker crackled, “Halt you murdering thieves and allow yourselves to be arrested. Or even better, keep running so we can shoot your scurvy hides.”

Neither scenario appealed so Xarn took aim and shot the glaring white light. Blackness fell over them again and Brax cursed as he bumped into a wall, the sudden lack of illumination rendering them blind while they adjusted to the gloom. They got moving, hoping against the odds they’d somehow make it off the planet alive. It was one bet Xarn wouldn’t take. He preferred sure wins.

“Psst! Purple warriors. Over here.” A voice called to them from the shadowy recess of an alley.

Xarn halted and Brax plowed into him, sending them both stumbling. Good thing too, considering the number of laser bolts that flew past where they stood just moments before.

Scrambling on all fours, they darted across the street into the crevice between the buildings where a short, cloaked figure beckoned them with a claw tipped hand. Since no better offers seemed in the making, they followed, only making a moue of distaste when their guide dropped through a grate in the ground, right into the sewer system below.

“This is not how Tren would escape,” Brax grumbled as they slogged through the rancid mire.

“Got a better plan, genius?” Xarn snarled, his stomach roiling at the stench. “Hey, you, guide person, where are you taking us?”

“I know a way to your ship.”

“And just why are you helping us?” Brax asked, halting.

The cloaked figure also stopped and pivoted as it pulled back its hood. One ugly green female with familiar red eyes greeted them. “It came to my attention that you might need assistance escaping and perhaps even a job?” Her pointed grin seemed entirely too satisfied.

“We’re not that desperate.” A rumble shook the ground around them and the agitated muck slopped over his boots.

“Fine. See if you can find your way.” The irritating female turned and began to walk away.

Brax glared at him and hissed. “Smooth move. Do you know your way out of here?”

As much as it galled, Xarn sighed and called their guide back. “We accept the mission but we not only get twice our rate, we keep the treasure too.”

“And you will guide us to our ship and ensure we can get away,” Brax added.

“Done.” She answered quickly, too quickly in his mind.

It occurred to Xarn to ask how the vengeful female would accomplish that, but, his stomach chose that moment to revolt from the stench and with more important things to occupy his thoughts, such as vomiting away from himself, he quickly followed as the cloaked figure led them through a maze of tunnels, which thankfully turned dry at one point.

It took several galactic units to reach a ladder leading up to a grate.

“Climb to the top and wait for the diversion.”

“How will we know it?” Xarn asked.

Their employer snorted. “And to think I chose you over the new purple champion.”

“Hey, who are you talking about?” he asked, but the squat form of the female had already scurried off into the shadows.

“I’m first,” Brax announced, clambering up the ladder, leaving Xarn to follow, the not-so-delightful view of his friend’s buttocks his penalty for not moving quicker.

They hung on to the metal rungs, waiting. Even so, when the surprise arrived, it almost shook them from their perch.

“Psycho frukxing female,” Brax whistled as flames lit up their narrow space and the stench of smoke immediately invaded. Pushing on the grate, they tumbled it aside and emerged into a blazing nightmare. Fires dotted the spacecraft docking area, and while beings rushed around with chemical hoses to spray the area, they couldn’t keep up with the burning.

But amidst all the smoke and blazes, their ship stood unblemished, and it took them only a moment to dispatch the four guards left to stand over it, an insult really, given their reputation.

Once on board, they didn’t delay, firing up their thrusters, neglecting their usual preflight check in favor of a rapid departure. They didn’t leave completely unnoticed. Their view screen lit up with the face of the governor, his usual red mien now a peeved yellow.

“You do not have permission to depart,” he yelled. “Shut those engines off and turn yourselves in to face justice.”

“Sorry, but we aren’t standing trial for something we didn’t do,” Brax replied, not even pausing in his key strokes to get them free of the atmosphere.

“Let us know when you catch the culprit though,” Xarn added. “We’d love to come back for a visit someday.”

Apparently, the governor didn’t feel the same way because a shudder went through the ship as something impacted their shields.

Before they could retaliate, the biggest explosion yet went off, the force of it rocking their craft.

“Certifiably insane,” Brax muttered, again referring to their employer.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Xarn asked.

“Ditch the ugly witch?”

“You took the words out of my mouth, sword brother.” However, it seemed their desire to abort their mission with the green female wasn’t about to happen. They broke free from the atmosphere and sped away from the planet, locked on a set of coordinates they didn’t recognize, and nothing they did changed it. It seemed, whether they liked it or not, they were about to kill a captain and his crew, and all because of a female scorned at cards. It was actually kind of embarrassing. Then again, it couldn’t be any worse than the time he killed a whole trio of beings for pronouncing his name wrong. And besides, this time there was treasure.

It took several galactic revolutions before they caught up to their target, time during which they read with scorn the various inaccurate reports of their supposed crime and spectacular escape. Despite the falseness of the accusation, they did benefit with orders coming in for more jobs, a good thing too given their credit account was frozen pending the investigation.

The vessel they tracked proved easy to find coming as it was out of the forbidden quadrant. Knowing their targets were pirates eased any remaining doubt he had about the job. He’d grown up on stories of his fathers—because his mother just couldn’t settle down with one—chasing down the dishonorable thieves and blowing them to pieces—after they acquired the treasure first, of course.

A simple EMP—an electromagnetic pulse that frukxed with electronic controls— directed at the other craft, whose pilots foolishly didn’t have their shields at full strength, made coming alongside and docking easy. They setup an external space tube that linked the vessels, did a little bit of laser work to create a hole, and they were on board their victim’s vessel doing what they did best; causing havoc.

The green goblin crew, who were half their size, and the single tentacled fellow they had manning the engines, didn’t stand a chance, not against two warriors of their caliber. So to make it sporting, Brax and Xarn, holstered their knives and took the pirate crew on with their fists.

By the galaxies, both known and not, how he enjoyed the thrill he got from smacking someone around. It would have been nicer to face someone more his size, but he placated himself with the knowledge that his smaller attackers made up for it by diving on him in groups of three and four.

Eventually, with only minimal bruises—mostly on their shins because the pirates were so short—they vanquished the lot, except for the captain who appeared to have gone missing.

Xarn shook the last moaning crew member and when he saw the reds of his eyes, said, “Where’s the idiot in charge of the ship?”

“Left.”