He didn't bother searching the drawers of the desk or the wall compartments for the items. He hadn't put them there, and he couldn't think of a reason anyone else would have in his absence. They were gone.
Did someone find me? Missing crew member from Night Hawk? No, they were dead.
Then he remembered the hand scan Caine administered while in the authority station.
IPAC agents! His chest flared with heat and from it, he focused.
Chase eased his gun from its holster and stealthily crept out of his quarters. He went straight for the mess hall, figuring that any invaders might have gathered there. As he closed in, he listened for any strange sounds.
He heard her. Paira. Not talking, but huffing and grunting, like she was struggling. He then heard someone else's muffled voice. Someone had been gagged.
Halak.
Paira struggled harder and then shrieked. Someone was hurting her.
Chase stopped next to the door of the mess hall, gun gripped tight in his hand.
Halak yelled under his gag. Something was happening that he did not like.
And that's what finally spurred Chase into action.
He took two quiet steps back. Then he ran for and jumped at an angle to the doorway bulkhead leading into the mess hall. His chest flared a deep orange under his shirt, adrenaline pumped through him as he leapt in the air feet first at the door's edge, planting his feet waist high, body parallel to the ground. He used the leverage to leap off the edge of the doorway into the mess hall, springing toward Paira and her assailant.
There were two strange men in the room.
One stood behind Halak, with a gun at his head. Halak's mouth was taped shut.
The other man had Paira pinned up against the wall, her hands already tied behind her back. He was whispering into her ear, and she was grimacing in disgust.
Chase's rebounding angle was off, but good enough to hook his arm around the assailant's neck. They both tumbled to the ground and Chase slammed the man's head against the steel floor. Unfortunately, he still had a handful of Paira's hair, and he pulled her down along with them.
Chase rolled off the man, raised his gun, and pointed at the other intruder, who was now using Halak as a human shield. Dom, unconscious but breathing, was lying on the grating in the corridor out the opening opposite of where Chase came in. Where are Scout and Cyrus?
"Cool it!" the guy yelled. "Dang, boy, slow down now."
"You cool it!" Chase snapped back. "What the hell are you doing on my ship?"
"Your ship?" The man smiled. "Boy, this ain't your ship, and we all know it. This here's my ship now. Under control given me by the Interplanetary Alliance Command."
No!
Chase glanced quickly around the room. His pack, the box, and sphere were on the table near the man behind Halak.
"Where's the map, Chase?" the man asked. "You and the map are coming with us. Do that without fuss, and your friends survive this."
Chase took a step forward to test Braider. This drew Braider's gun from Halak's head to Chase's. So he took another step.
"Don't..." said Braider, but he didn't pull the trigger.
And Chase realized that Braider knew enough of what Chase was up to; therefore, he knew Braider needed him alive. No Chase, no working map. No Chase, no disk. Braider couldn't kill him, couldn't even risk it.
Chase adjusted his grip on his own gun and stepped even closer.
"Lendar!" Braider yelled.
Chase's intense look peeled away from Braider as a third man came out of nowhere, and...
...it was the outlaw from Chase's dreams.
He stepped in front of Chase and swung a heavy right hook at his head. Chase ducked out of sheer reflex and tried to retaliate, but his own blow was swiftly swatted away by Lendar's huge arm locked in a blocking formation. Lendar then moved into an offensive boxer's position.
Before Chase could reset himself, Lendar caught him with a jab and a cross. Chase dodged the jab but took the cross full force. The blow knocked Chase backwards. He tripped over Tommy's downed body on the floor, nose spurting blood. Paira was seated on the floor against the wall.
Braider stepped out from behind Halak and walked to Paira, placing his gun at her head.
Chase froze, still on his knees; nose, and chest, on fire.
"Don't anyone move," Braider said as the man on the floor blearily came to. "And Tommy, get up and stop muckin' about."
Tommy rose and shook his head to clear it before slowly pointing his own gun at Chase.
"Gimme your gun, boy," he said, as if to take credit for beating him. He took Chase's gun and slid it into the back of his pants. "Now get up."
Chase stood.
Braider spoke again, getting everyone's attention. "Now, Chase. Where is your map?"
"The map only works for me," Chase said confidently. "And we don't have the disk. It's on Arboria."
After the first crew deceived him, who could he really trust anyway, so what did it matter which crew took him to Arboria? Going without Paira's crew was best in Chase's mind. He certainly didn't want anyone else killed because of what he had to do. "Leave this crew here," Chase said, then thought for a moment. "Alive. And I'll freely go with you. Hurt them, and I'll refuse to help."
It was an empty threat. Chase would have to go no matter what. This outlaw, Lendar, clearly had the upper hand on him. His only goal was to return the disk to the box. That was his only plan, and to do that he needed to get off this planet as fast as he could and so far, it looked like Dom's crew was no longer an option. Time was against him, and for the first time he summoned energy from the marking on his chest when he attacked Tommy; maybe he'd get better along the way and find a way to separate from this crew too.
"Well, that was easy," Braider said.
"A little too easy. I was hoping to hurt someone," said Tommy. "Or at least get a little fight." He winked at Paira.
"Too easy?" Paira said to Tommy. "You got your ass kicked!"
Tommy started at her.
"Enough!" Braider yelled. "Chase, it's your lucky day. I'll give you partially what you want. Scrat!"
Scrat slipped in from the hallway leading to the cockpit.
"Tie his hands and sit them at the table," Braider instructed.
Scrat bound Chase's hands behind his back as Tommy had done with Paira's and sat them both at the table.
"Lendar, pack all this up." He motioned to the collection of Chase's valuables on the table.
Braider holstered his gun at his side and looked to Tommy. "Take Halak and Dom here and put them on our ship."
"No. I'll--" Chase started, but Braider cut him off.
"Shut it! We"--he made a circling motion with this free hand that pointed at everyone but Halak and Dom.--"are all leaving on this ship. They"--he pointed at Halak and Dom--"are staying here. She's coming with us as an incentive for you. Is that all right with you?"
Chase looked at Paira, and she nodded in agreement; it was the best option Chase could get, though he would rather Paira's crew be spared the trouble. If Scout and Cyrus returned, leaving Halak and Dom here might turn out to be useful, if they found them on Braider's ship. And Paira going with Chase would definitely help his chances of slipping out of Braider's grasp.
Lendar stepped forward to collect the things on the table. Chase paid close attention to what the man was doing. More attention than anyone else in the room. Which was why Chase was the only one who really saw what Lendar did.
Lendar started with the map, which he dug from Chase's pocket. He was careful only to touch the outsides of it as it was folded twice. Chase wouldn't have noticed the careful behavior if it weren't for Lendar's forefinger slipping inside the folds of it. When it did, Chase saw a faint glow for just a moment before Lendar handed the map over to Braider. He shot an unfriendly look at Chase that gave him chills.
Then, Lendar did something else that alarmed Chase. With a slick sleight of hand, Lendar palmed the sphere before closing the box and placed the sphere in an inside pocket of his dark trench coat. No one but Chase saw it happen.
Chase knew immediately that Lendar knew things no one else did--no one besides Chase. Lendar must have been playing Braider somehow, using him to get what he wanted. Chase didn't know whether to fear this man or try to befriend him. Was he trying to help the situation, or make it worse? Right now, fearing him seemed the most obvious option, but Chase couldn't be sure...
Lendar relieved Chase of his gun holster and plucked Chase's gun from Tommy's pants. He neatly wrapped them up and tucked that inside Chase's pack, along with the box and handed the map to Braider. Lendar then walked out of the mess hall with all of Chase's things. Scrat took Halak and Tommy hefted Dom over his shoulder, and they both left heading aft of the ship. They were to be bound inside Braider's ship. Locked away like that, they could die of dehydration and starvation if they weren't freed.
With Braider posing as Dominic in his call to the launch master, Foxhole cleared launch protocol. For the first time, Chase was absolutely confident that he was on his way to Arboria. Not in the fashion he had intended, but it was better than nothing.
Things had also taken an interesting turn. He'd been the only person who could use the map up until now, but he'd seen the glow. Lendar could use it too.
Which meant Braider definitely knew nothing about Lendar. If he'd known Lendar had the power to use the map, Chase would have been killed on the spot.
Lendar was up to something.
But what?