Planet Broker Book 2, page 29
The sting of her hand and her stern face actually made me smile. “Yes ma’am,” I said solemnly as I put two fingers to my forehead in a salute.
I approached Akela next. “Everything ready?” I asked my mechanic, who nodded in confirmation.
“Yup,” Akela replied as she lifted her chin. “Chief Kot’ep’s got the goods. I only supplied the delivery system.”
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the silver-haired woman’s forehead. “Have I ever told you that you’re amazing?” I muttered against her brow.
Akela chuckled thinly. “You might have mentioned it once or twice,” she mumbled in reply. We took a brief second to breathe each other in but then the mechanic pushed me away.
“Go on,” she said as she averted her eyes, but not before I saw the wet gleam in them. “Go save the princess and give Warrick a good kick in the nuts for me while you’re at it.”
“I’ll send your regards,” I joked with a half smile. I turned to speak to the chieftain of the Marsh Tribe next, but before I could, Akela reached out and snagged my hand.
“Be careful,” she cautioned as she lifted her eyes to mine. She bit her lip and seemed to struggle with her next words, so I helped her out.
“I love you, too,” I said, and Akela smiled thankfully at me. She gave my hand one last squeeze and then let me go.
The marshland chieftain held out his hand when I reached him. “I gave your machine-healer what you requested, and she created this,” Kot’ep explained as he slid a small metal vial into my grip. It was cool and light as I rolled it around my palm until Kot’ep reached out and stopped me.
“I would advise caution in handling this,” he warned me, “until it is time to use it.”
I nodded and carefully slipped the vial into my pocket. “Thank you,” I said sincerely to the chieftain.
Kot’ep shook his head. “Do not thank me until my niece is returned home safely,” his hissed.
I reached out and set my hand on his shoulder. “She will be,” I promised.
If it’s the last thing I do, I added to myself.
I met Chief U’eh at the truck. However, as we went to enter, Cy’lass stepped forward.
U’eh immediately put a hand on his son’s shoulder and shook his head. “No,” he hissed. “You must stay here.”
Cy’lass frowned fiercely, and his gills flared in indignation. “She is my sister,” he clicked sharply.
“And you are my heir,” U’eh shot back. He tightened his grip on his son’s shoulder and looked deep in his eyes. “If something were to happen to me and Sef’sla, you need to lead the Plains Tribe in my stead. They will need your strength in the future.”
“Father,” Cy’lass started to argue further, but U’eh cut him off.
“I cannot lose both of my children,” the chief of the Almort finally admitted quietly, and Cy’lass deflated like a popped balloon. Father and son stood silently for a moment before the Almort prince lowered his head in resignation.
Without further delay, the Almort chieftain and I loaded up into the truck and set off for our destination. The coordinates I had sent Warrick were for a location two kilometers away from the city and our ships.
We, of course, arrived before Warrick did. The asshole always liked to make a grand entrance. I had to clench my fists tight at my side when the other broker finally crested a sand dune in one of his trucks, knowing that he had Sef’sla with him. When he stepped out of the vehicle, I saw that he had a laser pistol in his right hand. He saw that I saw it and smirked at me as he opened the back door of the truck and yanked out Sef’sla, her hands bound and her mouth gagged. The Almort princess looked wide-eyed as Warrick prodded her forward with the pistol, but she didn’t seem to be otherwise injured. The only bruise I could see was the one on her temple that I had spotted during Warrick’s ransom call. Dark, vengeful thoughts churned in my mind at the sight of her discolored skin.
“Well, I’m surprised, Colby,” Warrick sneered as he came to a stop a handful of meters before the Almort chieftain and me. “It looks like you actually followed instructions, though you could have left the guns behind.” He motioned to the railguns U’eh and I still had strapped to our backs.
I ignored his goading. “You never said to come unarmed. Now, do you have the contract?” I asked stiffly. I did my best not to look at Sef’sla so I could keep my face placid and neutral.
“Always such a wet blanket.” Warrick sighed with a shake of his head. He didn’t even bother arguing further about the guns. He knew we couldn’t safely use them with Sef’sla in the way.
The other broker reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. Most Corporate deals, especially with lesser Corporations, were done digitally, and Terra-Nebula usually followed suit. However, for special occasions, for the really big clients and the era-defining deals, mega Corporations like T-N pulled out all the stops. Due to their wealth and high status, they still had the privilege of paper printed from Earth trees, a rare commodity. Warrick was really rubbing my face in his victory.
Just like I knew he would.
“It’s all there,” the other broker said as he took a step forward and held out the folded contract. He gave me a mocking smile. “I’d ask if you want to read it first, but we both know you have to say yes.”
As if to emphasize his point, he jerked Sef’sla back against him and ran his pistol down the side of her face.
“Stop it,” I gritted out as I snatched the contract out of his hand. “We’re complying. You don’t have to hurt her.”
I unfolded the contract and turned to U’eh. “Sign here,” I muttered as I handed him the pen Warrick had tucked into the paper.
As U’eh signed away Proxima V, I turned back to Warrick, my lip curled in a sneer. My heartbeat thundered loudly in my ear. When the chieftain was finished, I took the contract back from him to hand to Warrick, and as I did, I secretly slid the metal vial out of my pocket and into the hem of my sleeve. With my heart in my throat, I held out the paper to the blond broker, but when he reached for it, I tugged it back out of his reach.
“Release Sef’sla,” I commanded. “We had a deal.”
Warrick scowled and looked like he was going to argue, but then a sly grin slid onto his face. “You know I was quite surprised at first to find that you’d gone native,” he drawled as his eyes flickered over to the Almort princess. “I mean you really had your tongue down her throat on those docks by the sea.”
My spine stiffened at the realization that he had been watching us so closely. Behind me, I could almost feel U’eh’s eyes snap to the back of my neck and burn a hole of shocked outrage there. I pinched my lips shut and ignored both Warrick and the Almort chief.
When I didn’t respond, Warrick thought he had struck a nerve, and his grin grew crueler. “I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised,” he went on. “You always had a thing for freaks. How is Neka, by the way? I haven’t seen her sexy little body in a few days at least.”
“Let Sef’sla go,” I bit out through clenched teeth.
“Who would have thought Colby Tower, the best broker in the universe,” Warrick mocked with a sneer of contempt, “would be so broken by just a hot piece of alien ass?” He looked me up and down in disgust one last time and then shoved Sef’sla toward me. As she stumbled forward, Warrick snatched the contract out of my hand. I let it go without a struggle which the other broker didn’t expect.
However, the moment Sef’sla was out of Warrick’s reach, U’eh moved to intercept her. I, on the other hand, immediately slid the vial that I had up my sleeve into my palm. Warrick was still drawing the contract to him when I pressed a button on one side of the metal vial and a fine, odorless, and nearly imperceptible mist sprayed out of my hand and directly into Warrick’s face.
The other broker screamed as the liquified Pa’ke, the very thing that had killed the mites in his troops’ lungs, burned into his eyes. The medicinal herb cured parasites but, like the old, barbaric practice of chemotherapy, it was also toxic. Warrick coughed and gagged as he inhaled the poison and the contract fluttered out of his hand as he staggered.
“You son of a bitch,” he gasped as he floundered. He had dropped his laser pistol in the sand, too, and his face was slowly turning red, then purple, and the vein at his temple throbbed so violently I was certain it was going to burst right there. His eyes were blood red and watered profusely.
“I told you to leave, Arden,” I snarled. “I gave you the chance to leave in peace, but you refused, so now you and Terra-Nebula will leave in pieces.”
I kicked Warrick as hard as I could in the knee, and the bone gave way with a resounding crack. The broker let out a high-pitched scream as he fell. When he hit the sand, I kicked him again, this time in the ribs. They snapped beneath my boots like twigs.
“That was from me, for kidnapping Sef’sla,” I growled.
I kicked him again, this time between his legs, and the other broker rolled to the side as he vomited.
“That one was from my mechanic. She wanted to send her regards,” I said with a sharp smile as I leaned down and grabbed him by the collar.
“And this is from Neka,” I added as I cocked back my fist and punched him straight in the face. His nose caved beneath my knuckles and blood doused my hand.
I dropped Warrick back in the sand and straightened up. The other broker collapsed in a pitiful pile and whimpered. As I shook out my hand, Sef’sla caught my eye, and I immediately shifted my focus to the Almort princess.
“Are you alright?” I asked hurriedly as I strode to her side and reached out to cradle her face. Her restraints and gag were gone, and the blood had already dried on her cheek, but the bruise on her temple looked worse up close.
“I am fine,” she hissed, but her eyes were wild and bewildered as she looked at the broken man at my feet. “What did you attack him with?”
“An extra-strength dose of Pa’ke that was lying around the medical tent after the cure for the soldiers was made,” I replied. At the sight of her face, free of restraints and now safe from danger, I felt my face break out in a fierce grin. My chest no longer felt constricted or tight, either. I could breathe again.
Warrick suddenly blubbered incoherently again, and as I looked down at him, something trapped under his shoulder caught my eye. I bent down to tug at the yellowed triangle of material. The broker moaned as the motion jostled him, but then the contract slid free from under his body. The parchment was torn and crinkled from where it had been crushed by Warrick’s back.
I smirked as I grabbed each side of the contract. I had known Warrick wouldn’t make the contract digital. He meant it to insult me, but really, he had just handed me the final piece of my victory.
“Whoops,” I said as I ripped the contract in half and in half again. I shredded the paper until it was confetti and then I leaned down and dropped the dozens of pieces on Warrick’s face.
“Not like that’s valid anymore,” I smirked down at the other broker. “I’d kill you, but I kind of like the idea of you being in jail for the rest of your life better.”
Warrick could only whimper in response.
We drove back to Oe’huk not long after. The rest of the Almort host had returned to the desert city, and Buchanan had already withdrawn his defeated troops back to their ships and back into orbit. So, the Almort merely awaited our triumphant return. I wanted nothing more than to celebrate, but there was still one last thing to do.
An hour later, I stood on the outskirts of Oe’huk with my chin held high. Before me stretched the endless desert, and the sky was clear and dark indigo above my head.
At my back stood the assembled host of Almort, and they all stood proudly and imposingly as we watched the starship Emissary descend out of orbit and enter the planet’s atmosphere.
To my left stood the Almort chieftains, plus Cy’lass and Sef’sla. Akela stood directly to my right with her shoulder pressed tightly against mine, and Neka stood on her other side. The cat-girl was oddly twitchy. She had been fiddling with her Odrine coat ever since we marched out here to meet Nolan Buchanan and his Terra-Nebula delegation. Her eyes flicked back and forth from the Emissary to Warrick, slumped in front of her with his arms bound at the small of his back.
We had slapped some emergency aid on the other broker to keep him from bleeding out or dying from the poison I had sprayed in his face, but nothing that made him comfortable. He could barely stand on his own two feet, and he swayed slightly as we stood there silently and waited for his judge, jury, and executioner to land.
When the Emissary touched down, I prodded at Warrick’s back, and he limped forward, followed by me, the Almort chieftains, and my crew. Five figures exited the space cruiser and made their way toward us. As they drew closer, I saw Nolan Buchanan, Arron Severt, and Bennett Solari, three of Terra-Nebula’s highest officials. Behind them trailed two soldiers, and I smirked at the pair of handcuffs one of them carried. They looked just Warrick’s size.
Buchanan was the one to step forward when the rest of the delegation stopped ten meters away from us. He was a severe looking man with a long, pale face, sharp black eyes that matched the color of his thinning hair, and a crooked hook of a nose. When he met my gaze, his upper lip twitched with contempt.
“Mr. Tower,” he said flatly in lieu of a greeting. His eyes flickered over the blond prisoner beside me. “I see you weren’t exaggerating Mr. Warrick’s condition.”
“What can I say,” I replied with a smirk. “Proxima V is a dangerous planet. He really should have been more careful.”
Buchanan’s pinched his lips together tightly, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a data pad. “Here is the contract you requested,” the T-N executive bit out. It looked like the words were physically killing him, and I loved every second of this.
“Every last term was met,” he added as I took the data pad from him.
“Oh, I’m sure,” I replied with a sarcastic nod, “but you’ll forgive me if I find it hard to take you at your word, Nolan. You won’t mind if I double check, would you?”
I could practically hear his teeth furiously grind together, but the T-N executive merely waved for me to continue. I pulled a cord out of the sleeve of my flight suit and connected it to the screen.
“O, if you could me a favor, please?” I asked my AI.
“Got it, Colby,” Omni responded. Barely ten seconds passed before he added, “Everything looks in order. There are no loopholes or hidden clauses.”
There were a lot of perks to having a supercomputer as a member of my crew. As a broker, speed reading was definitely one of the top benefits.
“Excellent,” I said with a smile. I turned to Chief U’eh beside me and handed him the data pad. “Just sign on the dotted line there.”
“And this will make the starmen leave?” the Almort chieftain hissed as he looked from Buchanan to me. “For good?”
“Yes,” I said and then added with a grin, “and if any more starmen wish to come here in the future, they’ll have to pay you. It’s all right there in the contract.”
The Almort chieftain nodded, took the stylus that was attached to the side of the screen, signed the paperwork, and officially declared Proxima V a sovereign planet, out of the reach of Corporate control.
U’eh handed the data pad to me, and I turned to pass it back to Buchanan. “I think we’re done here.” I grinned. “A pleasure doing business with you, Nolan, as always.”
The T-N executive barely suppressed baring his teeth. “What of Mr. Warrick?” he asked as he glanced to the other broker. “And there’s also the matter of his ship, the Mercenary Star.”
“Oh, you can have him.” I laughed as I shoved Warrick forward. The broker stumbled but sadly didn’t fall. I looked back to Buchanan with a smile and added, “But I think we’ll be keeping the Mercenary Star. Let’s call it a spoil of war. Or the cost of doing business if you’d prefer.”
Buchanan scowled but didn’t argue. He gestured for his soldiers to take Warrick into custody but before they could, a voice split the air.
“Wait!” Neka shouted.
I turned to see my assistant bound forward, a serious and urgent expression on her face. Everyone froze as she skidded to my side.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I glanced to the Terra-Nebula delegation, always suspicious of a double-cross.
“I wanted to say something to Warrick before they left,” the cat-girl declared, her chin raised high and a defiant fire in her eyes.
I blinked in surprise. “O-okay?” I said hesitantly. I looked to Buchanan who merely rolled his eyes and made an impatient motion with his hand.
“Better make it quick,” I said to my assistant, who only smiled sweetly in return.
“It’ll only take a second,” she chirped happily.
She spun on a heel and skipped forward the few meters to where Warrick slouched pathetically. Her tail lashed back and forth in that excited way of hers. She came to a stop before the other broker who looked at her warily from behind a bruised and bloody face. His eyes were nearly swollen shut, and his nose still hung at a crooked angle. The injuries weren’t life-threatening, so I didn’t think it pertinent to fix them.
“Hi!” she bubbled as she gave Warrick the warmest smile I’d seen on her face all day. I tilted my head curiously. What was she doing?
“I only have one thing I want to say, and I want to say it to you myself,” she continued as she stood there with a grin. I saw her fiddle with the pocket of her coat then she took a step back and rocketed her fist into the side of Warrick’s jaw.
I heard the resounding crack from over five meters away. The blond broker was literally lifted off his feet as he pitched sideways and fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. A moment later he groaned, lifted his head, and spat out a mouthful of blood, plus a few teeth.
I looked back to Neka, my mouth agape in shock. The slight cat-girl skipped back to my side, and it was only then that I noticed the X’ebril gauntlet she wore on her right hand. It must have been what she had been fiddling with in her pocket.
