Inside was a small clear crystal.
“What is that?” I asked.
Ivy reached for it, and Zenos waited, her much smaller fingers lifting the pea size crystal from a lined bed of some kind. “Data.”
Isaak frowned. “What’s on it? What could Bertok possibly send to Cerberus?”
Zenos crossed his arms and all traces of the teddy bear were long gone. In the corner, the Cerberus male had begun to move his legs. He was coming around, and I really didn’t want to be here when he woke up. “Can we go? That Cerberus guy is moving.”
Isaak rested a hand on my shoulder. “No one will harm you, gara. You have my word.”
Ivy glanced back over her shoulder, watched the moaning, groaning alien try to roll over, and turned back to face me. “Zara is right. We should get out of here. Even if he didn’t already alert Cerberus to your presence here, he will now.”
Zenos agreed. “We will take this data crystal back to Rogue 5 and find out what information it contains.”
Ivy looked at Isaak. “What about you? They’ll have every bounty hunter and scavenger out here looking for you. It won’t be safe. Won’t matter where you go.”
Isaak looked at me, our gazes locking and the look in his eyes dark. Intense. Impossible to read. “Zara and I will transport to my home on Trion. Bertok will not be expecting us. Zara has only been away from his side for two days. On Trion, that will be less than an hour. He will not even be looking. We will go to my home and wait to hear from you. Zara will be safe there.”
“Uhm-hmmm.” Ivy made the odd noise, and I tore my gaze from Isaak to look at her. She winked at me. “Not yours, Isaak. You sure about that?”
“Ivy!” I protested. No, Isaak was not mine. And he didn’t want to be mine. End of story.
She lifted her hands, stepped forward and gave me a hug. I squeezed back. Hard. “Welcome to space, Zara.”
“Thanks.”
She took Zenos’ hand like they were young lovers out for a Sunday stroll, walked out of the canteen while the Cerberus male was still incoherent. Isaak’s hand was in mine seconds later. “Let’s go, Zara. It’s time for me to go home.”
10
Isaak
It had been four years since I’d been in this house. Mansion. Four years for me but just over one month for my family. Too soon to expect anything to have changed. The thick marble of the place still gleamed like a beacon. Built to withstand the blistering desert sun and constant heat, it was built with thick stone quarried from the region’s vast mines. It held in the coolness while large windows in every room offered views. While I liked things simple and kept furnishings to a minimum, it lacked for nothing. Just like any household that was part of High Councilor Henrick’s family. While nothing had changed, not a piece of furniture moved, it looked different. I was different. I’d had a staff, a full contingency of servants befitting a rich son of a High Councilor, but when I’d left, I’d paid them handsomely and relocated them to work a cousin’s estate. Since there wasn’t a layer of dust on every surface, it seemed someone had defied my orders and remained behind. Perhaps it was my mother’s doing, maintaining a constant vigil that I might someday return.
Well, that time had come. All because of the female beside me.
While that was true, it was also because of Bertok. He was up to something. Something bad. So bad that he’d murdered an innocent man for his bride, sold her to a known trader in the outer reaches to pass on to the leader of the most ruthless legion on Rogue 5. He’d received credit for Zara, but there was more. He could have earned that from selling her to anyone. No, Bertok and Cerberus had made a deal, and it all had to do with that necklace I’d ridiculously thought was a human decoration, just like her navel ring.
While I’d left so long ago, I was still bitter. Still angry at my family. Yet Trion was my home, and I couldn’t let Bertok live knowing what he’d done to Zara. What he intended to do with Cerberus. I didn’t need to have the details of their plan to assume it was very, very bad. Cerberus’ depths of evil had yet to be plumbed… and I knew more stories than most because of Zenos and Ivy.
Based on Zenos’ drive to learn the truth about the other legion’s leader, he, too, was rightfully concerned.
I dropped my bag on the tile floor by the entry, looked to Zara. I was exhausted. I didn’t transport often, preferring to travel by my ship. That wasn’t possible coming to Trion, and I’d forgotten how it sucked the energy from my body.
We’d come from Zenith directly here. It wasn’t the time for sightseeing. The transport center was large, and I hoped my return was not noticed by anyone familiar to me. I would have to visit my parents eventually, but by the way Zara was swaying on her feet, I didn’t want it to happen right away. I wasn’t ready to deal with them on top of everything else.
I wondered how she saw the place. It was vast. Elegant. Larger than any bachelor could ever want or need. Fark, even larger than any Trion family could ever use. This being my home, it was representative of me or at least of the life I’d left behind. I didn’t usually care what others thought of me. Hell, I’d left the planet for just such a reason. I cared what Zara thought, though.
“You’re rich,” she said finally.
“My family is,” I replied, clarifying the difference.
“If you have all this, why are you selling Hive tech for your cannon thing? Just write a check or something.”
I sighed. Zara had said she’d grown up poor, and I was sure such opulence was new to her, just as much as being on a new planet.
“It’s family money that built this place. Not mine. My parents’ home is larger still. My dead brother, Malik’s, equally so. I haven’t touched a credit of it since I left. Come on, let’s get some rest.” I took her elbow to guide her toward the stairs and the second floor that housed the seven bedrooms.