Children of Junk (Rogue Star Book 3) Read online

  The waitress sauntered over and handed them a pair of honest to god laminated menus. Solomon shook his head. How retro could you get? She turned her disconcerting triple gaze on him. “Start you with a drink, hon?”

  “Ooh, I’ll have a chocolate shake.” Emily said.

  Solomon nodded. “Me too.”

  “Comin’ right up.”

  “Isn’t this awesome?” Emily looked almost giddy.

  Solomon didn’t want to crap on her excitement, but he couldn’t help but ask, “Where do you suppose they get the milk?”

  Emily shrugged. “I imagine a big farm somewhere on this planet with thousands of happy cows. What do you think?”

  “I think that sounds way better than my idea. What about food?”

  “Cheeseburger and onion rings. You?”

  “That sounds good. Rough day for the happy cows.”

  She smiled and laughed a high, musical sound that set Solomon’s heart racing. He feared he might be falling in love. The food arrived, and they ate in amiable silence. When they finished Emily leaned back and sighed. “Awesome.”

  Solomon nodded; relieved the meal had turned out well. He left a twenty credit coin on the table and led the way out. When they’d moved a little ways away he said, “So what do you want to do now?”

  Emily sighed. “I've got to call my parents and run a few errands. How about we meet for breakfast tomorrow?”

  “That sounds good. Where do you want to meet?”

  “I hear good things about the restaurant at your hotel. 9 o’clock Earth standard time sound good to you?”

  He nodded; perfectly willing to agree to anything she suggested. Emily leaned in and kissed him, not a quick peck this time, but a long, lingering kiss that took his breath away. When she finally broke away he stared at her, another big, stupid grin on his face.

  She smiled. “See you in the morning.”

  He nodded. Maybe he really was falling in love.

  * * *

  Solomon tossed and turned all night, too excited sleep. All he thought about was seeing Emily in the morning. He felt giddy, out of control, and he loved it. He knew Marcus would laugh at him, but he didn't care. Solomon hadn’t been this happy in…ever.

  When it was almost time to meet Emily, he rushed down to the hotel restaurant to wait. In the lobby stood a fifteen foot tall fountain in the shape of a naked woman of uncertain species carved of glittering crystal. Water shot out of her raised hand and cascaded down her body to splash into the pool at her feet. Half a dozen benches carved of the same crystal sat around the pool so people could rest and enjoy the fountain. Emily sat on one of the benches, her legs tucked up under her blue sundress.

  “I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” Solomon said.

  She smiled, though it looked a little sad. “I got here early. I was eager to see you again.”

  “You should have called my room; I’ve been up for hours. Truth is I couldn’t stop thinking about you.” She didn’t reply. “Is everything all right?”

  She gave a little shiver then nodded and smiled. “Fine. Come on, I’m starving.”

  The hotel restaurant waited a few steps from the fountain. The automatic doors hissed open as they approached. Inside, the dining room had forty tables covered with crisp, white linens, polished silverware sparkled in the light from a bank of windows overlooking the pool. They were late enough that only three tables had parties and the staff had free time to stand around chatting near the kitchen door. Solomon recognized a four armed waiter as being the same species as the councilor that tried to betray them to the Void. A different waiter, a reptilian male with rough, brown scales and a short tail, noticed them and came over. “Two for breakfast?”

  Solomon nodded and Emily said, “Something by the window.”

  The waiter motioned them to follow him and led them to an empty table overlooking the pool. Even at this hour people splashed in the pool and walked around. Was Marcus out there yet? He doubted it. Marcus and Iaka seldom rolled out of bed before noon. They ordered drinks and the waiter left to fetch them.

  “What’s on your mind?” Emily asked.

  Solomon smiled. “I was thinking my friend is missing a beautiful day.”

  “What’s he doing?”

  Solomon’s cheeks burned when he thought about what Marcus was probably doing. “He’s sleeping in.”

  The waiter approached, their drinks balanced on a small tray, saving him from having to elaborate. He set Solomon’s orange juice in front if him. A moment later the doors exploded in, showering them with safety glass. Solomon spun around in time to see six men in black body armor carrying heavy blasters rush through the shattered door. They wore masks and goggles so he had no idea what species they were. The other patrons screamed and a couple got out of their chairs. One soldier fired a rapid burst over their heads, blowing chunks out of the ceiling tile.

  “Everyone on the floor, now!” The lead invader turned his way and rushed towards their table. “Not you two.”

  “Hey! What’s going on here?” A thick built near-human with dark hair and wearing a grease spattered apron emerged from the kitchen, interrupting the masked man.

  One of the others spun and blasted a hole through his chest big enough for a fist to pass through. He, that was just a guess on Solomon’s part based on a flat chest, spun back to face them. He held his blaster rock steady after shooting the unfortunate cook. These men must be hardened killers if they could shoot a complete stranger without a twitch.

  “You two are coming with us.” The man Solomon considered the leader motioned with the barrel of his blaster. “Get up.”

  Solomon scrambled to his feet, wracking his brain, trying to figure out who these people were and what they wanted with him. He came up blank. He and Marcus had made plenty of enemies over the years and they might work for any of them.

  Emily grabbed his arm. “I’m scared.”

  One of the others pointed his blaster at her head. “Shut up and move.”

  Solomon raised his hands over his head and looked at the floor, trying his best to appear nonthreatening. He almost laughed. He wasn’t a threat to one man without a blaster to say nothing of six with them. Emily followed his lead and put her hands up.

  The strangers hustled them out the shattered doors and through the lobby. It was silent save for their feet on the tile and the tinkle of the fountain. No one tried to stop the masked men, which was bad for Solomon and Emily, but good for everyone else. At the base of the short flight of steps leading up to the hotel an unmarked, gray hovervan waited. Two of their captors ran ahead and opened the back doors.

  When they reached the back of the van the leader said, “Stop.”

  Someone grabbed his wrists and yanked them behind his back, wrenching his shoulder and drawing a wince. Restraints of some sort, Solomon guessed stun cuffs, snapped around his wrists. Emily squeaked in pain when they repeated the procedure with her. One of the kidnappers shoved him in the back and he stumbled into the van. A moment later Emily landed on top of him.

  * * *

  Pounding on the door dragged Marcus out of a delightful post sex haze. Iaka groaned beside him. “Tell them to go away.”

  “You read my mind.” He tossed aside the warm, heavy blanket, grabbed a robe from the back of the comfort form chair next to the bed, and shrugged it on. Barefoot and annoyed he shuffled over to the door. Marcus flipped on the security vid and found a human male in a blue and black uniform standing outside. He frowned. In his experience nothing good ever came from a person in uniform waking you up. He glanced at the clock on the wall, even if it was ten o’clock.

  He opened the door, more curious than alarmed. “What can I do for you, officer?”

  “Marcus Drake?” The security officer, he had to be a security officer, no matter the planet every security man he’d ever encountered spoke in that same dull voice.

  “Yes, sir. Is there a problem?”

  “You could call it that.” The officer pulled a data
pad out of his pocket and studied it for a moment. “This morning a little after nine six men blasted their way into the hotel and kidnapped two human guests, one Solomon Keys, listed as a member of your party, and an Emily Smart, not registered at this hotel.”

  Marcus’s mind raced. Someone had kidnapped Solomon and his girlfriend? He ran through a list of potential suspects and found it a long one. Who had they been after, Solomon or the girl?

  “Mr. Drake?” The officer cocked his head and stared at him. “I said we have security camera footage if you’d like to take a look.”

  “Yeah, sure, let me get dressed and I’ll meet you downstairs, and call me Marcus officer…”

  “Smith.” The security man raised his hands and smiled. “I know, I know, and believe it or not my first name is John. I’ll meet you at the elevators.”

  Marcus nodded and closed the door. Maybe Smith wouldn’t turn out to be too big an asshole. He turned and found Iaka out of bed and searching for her cloths. “You heard?”

  “Yeah.” She wrestled on a snug pair of black slacks. “Void you think?”

  Marcus shook his head and tossed his robe on the bed. “I doubt it. If black masked men with weapons for arms showed up and started disintegrating people Smith would have mentioned it. Besides, whoever took Solomon wants him alive. I can’t imagine why the Void would spare him.”

  Iaka finished getting dressed a minute ahead of him. “Earth Force?”

  Marcus secured the last button of his favorite blue shirt then pulled on heavy black boots. Somehow he doubted this would turn out to be a flip flop kind of day. He dearly wished for his control gauntlet and a couple blasters. “Earth Force has more pressing problems than kidnapping. Besides, if not for Solomon they’d have ended up in worse shape than they’re in now. I’m afraid we’re dealing with something unrelated to the Void invasion of earth.”

  Marcus held the door for her and they walked together down the unremarkable beige hall toward the elevators. “If that’s true,” Iaka said. “It’ll make it a lot harder to figure out who’s responsible.”

  They reached the shiny, metal elevator doors and Marcus hit the call button. “It certainly will, but it won’t stop me from finding them, and when I do they’ll regret hurting my friend.”

  The elevator chimed and the doors slid open. Smith stood with his back to them, hands in his pockets. Down passed the statue fountain more individuals in uniforms worked around the crime scene, taking 3D images, scanning for DNA, and generally processing the scene.

  “Officer Smith?”

  He turned at the sound of Marcus’s voice. “Ah, Captain Drake, forgive me for not using your proper title upstairs. Miss Kazumi, a pleasure to meet you. This way please.”

  They followed him away from the crime scene and through a plain, unmarked door. They entered the security office; dozens of video screens covered the wall. A slim, twitchy, alien with ten eyes across his forehead stared at them, unblinking. A long tongue shot out and licked the eyes before snaking back into its mouth. Marcus suppressed a shudder. He’d seen worse over the course of his travels.

  “Chief Vix, would you play the recording for us?” Officer Smith asked.

  The alien didn’t speak, but just turned around and typed commands into his console. All but one screen went blank, plunging the room into near total darkness. On the active screen Solomon sat beside the girl near the fountain. She was kind of cute in a computer geek sort of way. There was no sound while they talked and soon they left the bench and went toward the restaurant. The viewpoint shifted and they were inside sitting at a table talking some more. A second monitor came to life. On it a gray van pulled up outside the hotel and six men in combat armor and masks piled out, heavy blasters in their hands. All around them people went running.

  The kidnappers blasted the restaurant door to smithereens, no doubt hoping to intimidate the patrons into behaving. They moved through the wreckage two by two, one group covering the next while the last group watched the lobby. Whoever they were they knew their business. After they shot the cook they took Solomon and the girl out to the van, put stun cuffs on them, and threw them in the back. The van sped off a moment later. The video stopped and the other monitors came to life, brightening the room back up.

  “Any thoughts?” Smith asked.

  “They’re pros, that’s for sure,” Marcus said. “It looked like they came specifically for Solomon and the girl. They could have been any of a dozen species under that armor. I don’t know what to make of it. Does this happen often here?”

  Smith shook his head. “I’ve been working here ten years and nothing like this has ever happened. We don’t have much of a criminal element here. All the vice stuff is legal, so there isn’t much for the syndicates to do for income. We have a few murders every year, lovers’ quarrels, that sort of thing. Some theft of course, but this, professional thugs blasting their way into a luxury hotel and kidnapping a guest? No, nothing of the sort.”

  Marcus frowned and tapped his chin. “Just because there’s little illegal for criminals to make money with here doesn’t mean they aren’t here. Plenty of legit businesses have friends in low places. That’s where I’d start looking.”

  Smith’s frown matched Marcus’s. “If I go poking around where you suggest I’ll be out of a job in a hurry. I did a little digging about you two before I came up to your suite. You’ve been mixed up in some crazy stuff. Is there any way I can convince you to help me out with this, kind of quiet like? I can provide you access and whatever official cover you need.”

  Marcus had no intention of letting Smith handle this on his own so when the officer offered to bring him in officially he said, “Sounds like a good idea. We’d be glad to help.”

  3

  “So what do you want to do first?” Smith asked. He seemed eager to get going and Marcus suspected the powers that be didn’t like the sort of publicity two of their guests getting kidnapped brought down.

  “I’ll need screen captures of those masked men so I can send them to my contacts. I assume you’re tracking the van?”

  Smith shook his head. “We have little hope for that. It’s either stolen and they’ll dump it somewhere or they’ll plasma bomb it so nothing’s left.”

  “Do you have satellites for tracking?” Iaka asked.

  “No, just the weather control units. Management discovered people don’t like getting tracked on vacation. When they ditched the security satellites bookings went up forty percent.”

  “I’ll bet.” Cheating husbands on business trips and criminals making illicit deals most likely. “Do you know where the girl was staying?”

  Smith consulted his data pad. “A small hotel called the Glittering Star. It’s one of the lower end establishments, about two miles North. I sent a unit to check it out. When I hear something I’ll let you know.”

  The ten eyed alien held out a data chip. “Screen captures.” It spoke with a sibilant, drawn out s at the beginning and end of the sentence.

  Marcus pocketed the chip and nodded his thanks. It seemed they’d done about all they could here. He exchanged contact information with Smith then he and Iaka headed out. Security officers blocked the front entrance so they went out the back and swung around to a little cul-de-sac where the security people had sent the taxis that arrived that morning looking to pick up fares. Marcus flagged down a yellow taxi, even out here they painted them yellow, to take them the twenty miles to the spaceport.

  He climbed in beside Iaka and slammed the door. The taxi sped away and Iaka asked, “What now?”

  “If you’re willing I’d like you to dig up as much as you can on Solomon’s girlfriend. I’ll contact Vlad and send him the pictures. If he doesn’t know who the heavy hitters on this planet are he’ll know who to ask.”

  “I’ll do what I can, but I assumed Solomon would have checked up on Emily as soon as he met her. If he found nothing what are the chances I will?”

  “Excellent. You know how well men’s brains work when a woma
n’s involved. Solomon probably did a cursory background check, found nothing incriminating, and left it at that. He didn’t want to find anything bad about her so he didn’t.”

  Iaka shook her head. “I see your trust issues remain unresolved.”

  They reached the spaceport in time to see a massive star cruiser, easily twenty times the size of the Star, take off. Marcus paid the driver, a blue skinned near human with a bionic left eye, who took off in search of his next fare. The drop off point was right in front of a five story terminal made of shinning steel and darkened glass. Thousands of tourists from dozens of species came and went, lugging their suitcases behind them on antigravity sleds. Out on the landing field a second huge commercial transport capable of carrying over a thousand individuals hovered near the loading bays. They hurried away from the crowded terminal and toward the private hangers. The Star waited in hanger forty seven. The hanger resembled a giant pipe someone cut in half and hammered into the ground before adding doors on either end. Simple and ugly compared to the terminal, but secure, even more so since Gruesome was on guard duty.

  Marcus typed his six digit access code in and the hanger doors slid open. His beautiful ship, a fresh coat of gray paint on her smooth hull rested on hydraulic landing gear, the cargo bay doors sealed tight. No one had tried to get in. “Voice recognition activate, Marcus Drake.” The computer hummed and a moment later beeped. “Open cargo bay doors.”

  After a clunk and creak the hydraulics activated and the doors opened. Iaka glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. “I thought you got the ship fixed up.”

  “I did, everything works perfect, she just a little stiff after sitting for a while.” The door thudded on the concrete and Marcus led the way up. At the top a pair of red lights flared to life ten feet off the floor. “Hi, Gruesome, I’m back.”