“She’s ruined my boots, Kavat,” Urgoth complained. “It’s disgusting. She should have more self-control.”
“Trans-mat affects different people differently,” Kavat replied. He waved a silver device shaped like a mouse over me. “You have space-sickness. I can give you a nanobot for it.” He pressed a metal tube against my arm. I didn’t feel a thing. “That will make you feel better. It will last about seventy-two hours, then you’ll need another one if you want to continue to trans-mat.”
“Thanks. Why didn’t it happen the first time I came up here?”
Kavat snorted, which was weird because I’d never seen him amused before. He didn’t seem like the type to have a sense of humor. “Probably all the drugs in your system.”
“What about my boots?” Urgoth demanded.
“I suggest you clean them with some water.” With a cold glare at Urgoth, Kavat swept back out again.
The meeting wasn’t off to a good start.
“Here, sir.” The alpha held a container. When he squeezed it, water came out. It reminded me of the time I’d set off a fire extinguisher at school. The dirt on Urgoth’s boots was washed away and disappeared down some sluice drains. I guessed this room was designed to handle all sorts of messes that had been brought up from the planet surface.
“My office.” Urgoth walked out without checking if I was following. I exchanged a glance with the other alpha, who was obviously as unimpressed with Urgoth’s attitude as I was.
In a small room with only two chairs and a desk, Urgoth sat back and folded his arms. I stood awkwardly, not sure if I should sit down or not.
“What progress have you made?” he asked, as if he were prompting a five-year-old to practice their reading.
“I’ve got the trust of the gang, and tonight I have to go to a party in sector one and deliver a weapon to someone.”
Urgoth raised a brow. “What weapon?”
I thought back to the demonstration, where the cabinet had disappeared, leaving only a disgusting stink.
“Ghil said it was called a vaporizer.”
Urgoth’s jaw clenched. “The betas have a vaporizer?”
“They stole it last night from a posh house.”
He tapped something into a tablet before he spoke again.
“It can do unbelievable damage. Make people disappear. Or anything else. Only forensic gas collection could prove a vaporization happened, and the enforcers would need to know exactly where it had taken place to prove anything.”
I wondered if following through with this assignment was the best idea. “Shouldn’t we keep the weapon, if it’s that dangerous?”
Urgoth shook his head. “If you don’t complete your mission from the gang, they will know something is amiss. It could jeopardize more assignments than just yours. No. You must carry on.”
I didn’t like this. Embroiled in a serious web of crime in the hope of catching someone high up. It didn’t sit right at all.
“You have no choice,” Urgoth insisted, taking my silence as dissent. “Imperial command won’t release you from your obligation until you have assisted them satisfactorily.”
I pressed my lips together while I gathered my thoughts. “Imperial command don’t own me. They’re not even paying me. There’s nothing to stop me walking out on this right now and I don’t want to be responsible for people’s deaths.”
“The doctor implanted something in your uterus when you first arrived. If you don’t do this, you will never be able to breed. What alpha will want to rut with a feral, infertile omega who doesn’t even look like one?”
His words were a punch in the gut. They’d done something to fuck up my insides? Was that why Ryon hadn’t made a move on me, yet?
Urgoth grinned. “I thought you’d see reason. Now be a good girl and get back down there, finish your assignment, bring us the name of the leader of Beta Liberation and I’ll think about recommending you to be released from my control. Oh, and see you’re dressed more appropriately at our next meeting. I don’t want to look at you semi-naked.”
I wished I’d done more than vomited on his boots. I was fuming. Raging, even.
They returned me to Ryon’s flat. I was relieved that I wasn’t nauseous, this time. At least something had worked today. Pulling his watch off my wrist, I handed it to him.
“You can keep your bloody watch and your trans-mat shit and your fuckin’ twatbag of a boss.” I went into the kitchen and started brewing some tea.