Mason picked up the processor. “I’ll carry this back.”
Marching down the corridor to the mess, he grunted with the weight of the unit. Jade followed behind, still plying him with questions.
“So how did you find him?” she asked.
“I didn’t. A friend of mine picked up traffic between two bounty hunters giving away Krul’s location.” He swung the unit into the cavity in the wall and stepped back.
Jade began to reconnect the wires to the control panel. “Bounty hunters? Doesn’t that mean you’ve got competition?” It worried her and she wished Mason had a backup team, but he insisted on working alone.
“They’ve paired up. I’m hoping rivalry will also tear them apart. Bounty hunters are too greedy to share.” He perched on a table, watching her work.
“Krul, you haven’t said much about him.” She’d assumed he was a thug, like Curtis.
Mason didn’t say anything as she plugged the last lead into the back of the processor unit. She pressed him for more information. “Is he a drug runner?”
“No,” Mason sighed. “Okay, I’ll tell you. He’s a lizard man.”
She dropped her tool and rose to her feet, eyes widening. “A lizard man? I thought the lizard people had been wiped out, or gone into hiding.”
“Most of them live quietly on swamp planets. However, he committed an atrocity.”
She pressed a button and the processor began to churn. A lizard man looked humanoid, except they had scales for their skin, flat noses, and razor-sharp teeth. Instead of brittle fingernails, they grew short claws and their eyes could move independently of each other. She’d never seen one and had read about them at school.
“What atrocity?” There had been many, as far as she was concerned, including the one that killed her cousin.
Mason cleared his throat. “You’d have been a kid. Do you remember the explosion at the military hospital—”
She did, everyone did. “That killed hundreds of soldiers and medics!”
She’d been a child when the news reached Malimor that a hospital base on Novador had been targeted. Even those who hated the Federation considered killing wounded soldiers and unarmed civilians atrocious. The bomb was the turning point. After that, believing their regime to be under threat, the Federal authorities cancelled planned elections and imposed martial law. It had yet to be rescinded.
“It did,” said Mason bitterly. “It led to uprisings for and against the Federation, and the fallout continues to this day.”
“Krul was responsible?”
“He’s a terrorist and part of the group that organized it. Many have been captured, but he remains at large. He’s a fanatic and disowned by his own people. He’s been hiding on Kathamu for years, unable to go home.”
Jade could appreciate why Mason didn’t want her to join him. But, now she didn’t want him to go at all, not if Krul was that dangerous. “Lizard men are slower,” she said. “They need a warm sun to survive. He’ll have to find somewhere by water and in the sun to survive.”
“He’s highly intelligent. Crafty,” he mused, drumming his fingers on his arms.
“Please let me come,” she pleaded.
Mason gathered her into arms and she rested her head on his shoulder. The request was futile; he didn’t even bother to answer it.
“If, and this is just an if. If I don’t come back—” he pressed his finger to her lips, preventing her from crying out in alarm, “—then take this ship to the nearest Federation-controlled port and hand it over. You’re registered as my crew. Tell the authorities I’m likely to be on Kathamu. They’ll send out a rescue party, although, let’s be honest, there might not be anything left to rescue.” He grinned, but she couldn’t find a jot of humor in what he was saying.
“Please,” she murmured.
“Shush. I’m going to be careful, this is just a precaution. So,” he continued, “make sure Callo and Curtis are detained, then go wherever you have to go. Don’t hang around for questions.”
Jade brushed away the unshed tears and nodded. “I’ll go home to my parents. Hand myself in and take the consequences. I can’t go on the run or hide on strange planets.”
“You said you were estranged from them because of your plans to leave Malimor?”
“I’m their daughter. Love is forever,” she reminded him.
He lowered his lips, nudging them gently against her mouth, and peppered it with sweet kisses. She opened up her heart to him and felt the familiar tingle of anticipation flutter across her breasts as they embraced.