The Scientist's Price (Warriors Book 1) Read online

  Keral gripped him around the throat. ‘The only thing I want from you are your records of the auction,’ he said.

  An ugly smile spread across Tolomus’s face. ‘I destroyed them,’ he hissed.

  Kadian felt bile rise in his throat. He was lying; he had to be. There was no way Olivia could be lost to him.

  ‘For your sake, you better hope that’s not the case,’ Keral hissed back.

  ‘It is. I destroyed them. They’re gone. Lost forever.’

  Keral growled, his grip tightening around the Fedhith’s throat until he was opening and closing his mouth, his face darkening.

  ‘Leave him alone,’ the Ualhan cried, stepping to rush towards him.

  Kadian grabbed the Ualhan and threw him to the floor. The male cried out and Kadian stepped forward to help, to apologise.

  ‘Wait!’ Keral said.

  Kadian looked up. There was fear in the Fedhith’s eyes now, but it wasn’t for him. He was staring at the Ualhan on the floor.

  Keral relaxed his grip. ‘Well. Who would have thought Tolomus cared for a slave like this?’

  Kadian looked down at the Ualhan, who was looking up at Tolomus, confusion in his eyes. ‘He doesn’t care—’

  ‘Yes, he does,’ Keral said, grinning.

  Tolomus looked from the Ualhan to Keral and back again.

  ‘Tolomus?’ the pale figure on the ground whispered. Tolomus’s eyes flicked back and forth.

  ‘Kadian, I think it’s time to get ugly with the Ualhan,’ Keral said.

  ‘He won’t touch him,’ Tolomus spat.

  ‘Do you really believe that?’ Keral said. ‘Kadian, tell me the name of the human again.’

  ‘Olivia,’ Kadian answered, feeling anger and hatred fill him. He let Tolomus see it. Let him feel it rolling from Kadian in waves.

  ‘You see, my friend back there loves this Olivia. Cares about her the way you care about the Ualhan. Do you really think he won’t do everything in his power to find her? Rescue her?’

  Forcing himself forward, Kadian turned his sights on the Ualhan. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

  ‘Evanin,’ the male whispered, pushing himself away from Kadian on his hands.

  Kadian crouched and caught Evanin’s ankle in an intractable grip.

  Anything for her. Anything.

  Evanin closed his eyes, fear stinking up the room as he lay there.

  ‘Leave him alone,’ Tolomus hissed. ‘He’s not a part of this.’

  ‘You made him a part of this when you took the human ship,’ Keral growled.

  Kadian looked up and let a slow, cruel smile twist his lips. The Ualhan was so frightened, he whimpered at the slightest touch. Kadian closed his grip, and Evanin cried out in pure fear.

  ‘Fine,’ Tolomus shouted. ‘I need to contact my ship.’

  ‘Kadian, if Tolomus betrays us, snap the Ualhan’s neck.’

  ‘With pleasure,’ Kadian said, pulling Evanin closer until he was able to reach his hair. He wrapped the Ualhan’s long hair around his fist, then enclosed his neck with one large hand.

  ‘It is essential, Evanin, that you say nothing to warn Tolomus’s crew while he’s on the call. Because if you do, we won’t have any need for either of you anymore. Do you understand?’

  Evanin nodded, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hate.

  Kadian swallowed the bile rising in his throat at the ruse. Evanin obviously loved Tolomus the way Kadian loved Olivia. He’d never hurt the male, but he needed him to believe he would.

  Keeping his hand around the male’s throat, Kadian watched as Keral oversaw the transfer of information. He checked it against the partial records they already had from the auctioneers' office.

  ‘This is it. Which one is your female?’ Keral tossed the data packet to Kadian. He activated the holoscreen and scrolled through the faces.

  Olivia’s eyes were wide, and tears streaked down her face. For a moment, Kadian wanted to rip the station apart.

  ‘That her?’

  ‘That’s her,’ he said, his throat tight. He took out his pad and transferred the information. Myardahl. She’d been bought by a Myardahl. Kadian’s stomach flipped at the revelation. Myardahl only had one use for slaves. Servants cleaned and cooked. Slaves were for vrokking.

  I’m coming for you, Olivia.

  They tied Tolomus and Evanin up and walked out, Keral winking at the receptionist as they passed.

  ‘I’m going,’ Kadian said as soon as they were out the door.

  ‘I know.’ Keral put a hand on Kadian’s shoulder. ‘Good luck, and if you have any issues, you know where to find us.’

  When Kadian got back to his ship, he called Tanir for the second time.

  The beep of the machine and the sound of Kadian’s breath, deep and even, were the only things stopping Olivia from losing her mind. He’d been unconscious for over a day. She closed her eyes. Her body hadn’t stopped shaking, not since she saw the champagne magnum being hefted into the air in the noise and light of Frixx-eon.

  A cup of coffee was going cold beside her. One of the nurses had brought it, but Olivia couldn’t bring herself to drink it. She’d managed some water earlier, from the jug beside Kadian’s bed. She’d been drinking the night before in the club and was dehydrated now, but still, her stomach wouldn’t accept anything over her anxiety.

  She loved him.

  Olivia had known for a while she was attracted to Kadian. Since she saw him on the screen that first day, really. Oddly attracted, at first. But Kadian was sweet, intelligent. He pushed her, challenged her and made her a better scientist. When he touched her, her skin came alive.

  Olivia grimaced, trying to push the tears back. Sleep was impossible. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the champagne magnum. She saw him, the attacker, searching the dance floor for a piece of glass large enough to drag across Kadian’s throat!

  The shaking started anew, and Olivia wrapped her arms around herself, clutching tight to keep her insides on the inside.

  She loved him.

  ‘Olivia Trent?’

  Olivia shot out of the chair, expecting to see a doctor standing there. Instead, a man and woman stood in the doorway to Kadian’s private hospital suite. They wore black suits and moved stiffly.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I understand there was an incident last night?’ It was the woman who was speaking. The man stood behind her, his hands clasped in front of him.

  Police?

  ‘Yes. The man. Have you got the tapes from the club? He came out of nowhere. He’d tried to start trouble a few minutes before, but one of the doormen—’

  ‘We didn’t come to talk about the assault, Miss Trent. We came to talk about the events leading up to it.’

  The woman walked farther into the room. The other agent stepped inside and closed the door, standing in front of it.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Olivia shook her head. Her brain was cloudy from shock and dehydration. ‘What events? I don’t understand.’

  ‘I believe there was some,’ the woman looked at Kadian in the bed, then turned back to Olivia, ‘cavorting.’ There was a sneer of disgust on her face.

  ‘Cavorting?’ It took a few moments for Olivia to realise what the woman was talking about. ‘That is none of your business,’ she snapped. ‘How dare you!’

  ‘It is very much the governments business, Miss Trent. You’re an Earth citizen and this… thing is an alien.’ Her disgust twisted, taking on aspects of anger. ‘What you did last night will not be allowed to go any further. Do you understand?’

  A cold shiver ran down Olivia’s spine. She looked from the woman to the man, who had an identical look of anger and disgust on his face.

  ‘Whatever your relationship has been up until this point, it will not be allowed to continue. If you’ve let the… filth, touch you, if you should become pregnant by it—’

  ‘Disgusting!’ the man spat.

  ‘That child would be aborted for experimentation.’

  The
woman stepped forward, eliminating most of the space between them, until her face was in Olivia’s. ‘And that thing,’ she pointed at Kadian, ‘would meet with a terrible, painful accident.’

  ‘You’re a psychopath!’ Olivia whispered.

  ‘You’re a filthy whore,’ the woman hissed. ‘A traitor and a whore.’

  The woman turned and walked away.

  ‘If anything—anything—happens to Kadian, I’ll never work in engineering again. Have luck finding another experienced radiant engineer.’

  The woman turned around and grinned. It was like the opening of a sharks mouth before it takes a bite. ‘If we have to terminate that creature, the public will be told you were with him. Remains will be provided that resemble you, but they won’t be you. You,’ the woman’s voice went cold. ‘You will be locked in a government facility where you’ll be… convinced to continue working for your government. Your family. Your dad, James, your brother, Colin, they won’t be nearly so lucky.’

  ‘What… what is wrong with you? What kind of person says something like that to another person?’

  The woman slipped something out of her pocket and finally showed her credentials. It was an Earth Intelligence Services badge. The EIS was the highest government agency outside of elected officials.

  ‘I trust your relationship with… that will be strictly professional from now on,’ the woman said. With that, the two agents left.

  Olivia stood there long after they left, trying to absorb what had just happened. They would kill him. They would kill her father and brother. She couldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t believe…

  Kadian opened his mouth and took a deep breath. For the first time, there was movement. Olivia wanted to run over to him, wait for his beautiful eyes to open and tell him everything.

  But she couldn’t.

  What would confessing do but put Kadian in danger? Not to mention her father and brother!

  What could two scientists do against the might of Earth’s most powerful agency?

  Grabbing her coat and bag, Olivia ran for the door. She had to leave. Had to put distance between them before she confessed it all. She had to!

  Waking with a start, Olivia took a deep breath. She looked around the abandoned room she was in, desperately trying to orient herself. She was leaning against the stone wall of an abandoned building in the spaceport. Several other escaped slaves stared through windows across the room, watching for shift swaps, sympathetic workers, or just sheer negligence. They watched the place night and day in the hopes that one, maybe two of them could sneak aboard an alien ship and get away from this world.

  Once she was sure she was safe, or as close to it as she could get here, Olivia relaxed and sat back, trying to banish the lingering effects of her dream. Not that she had dreams anymore. Dreams were pleasant or neutral. Olivia hadn’t had a dream in over three years. Now, she had nightmares. Four, to be specific. The first was a magnum of champagne flying through the air and Kadian lying on the floor of Frixx-eon bleeding. The second was that day at the hospital. More recently, she dreamt of aliens invading engineering. Sometimes they were armed with guns, sometimes they were armed with magnums of champagne and she was in Kadian’s arms watching them get closer. Other times, she awakened in a coffin-like transport pod with Falmon standing over her. He’d show her the room, and sometimes her mind would leave her there, in that room, being hurt by him.

  Shoving the memory of that day, the two agents, the hospital, even Kadian, out of her mind, Olivia looked around the room.

  Even though the building they were in was abandoned, they were still careful not to leave any trace of their presence in case someone should check. Even when they got food, a rarity on this planet, they went down into the tunnels to eat.

  Eating with the smell of waste in her nose was no longer a new experience for Olivia, but it was one she never thought she’d have to live through. Had someone told her she would be able to ignore that smell as she ate just a month ago, she’d have been disgusted at the thought, but she knew what hunger was like now and desperation. The truth was if her food fell into the waste, Olivia wasn’t a hundred per cent sure she wouldn’t pick it up again.

  None of the humans she’d met since arriving was from Endurance. There were aliens from different races; some she recognised from the officially recognised slave races, and some she didn’t recognise at all. The Myardahl liked slaves. They enjoyed a variety of slaves, and they had only one purpose for them. She’d even met a Todaali female in her time here. Though Adal was caught out on the tarmac trying to sneak aboard an Amaran ship a day or two after Olivia arrived.

  They weren’t really friends. Not the slaves who were here. They were allies, temporary allies at that. Should a ship’s open cargo ramp be left unattended, it was every person for themself.

  Myardahl and Todaal were both signatories to the IGC, the Todaali’s presence as a slave meant one of two things. Either she was a convicted criminal, or she’d been sold illegally. According to Adal, she’d never committed a crime in her life.

  One by one, the aliens around her re-entered the sewer, giving up on the port.

  ‘Anything?’ she asked, feeling slightly panicked as she turned to Carim.

  ‘Not worth the risk this rote,’ Carim, an Mvari male, said. ‘Dalgut’s just come on shift. We’ll never get by him.’

  Olivia felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Dalgut was the Myardahl who caught Adal. He’d raped her behind some crates after placing a call to collect the reward for her retrieval.

  Olivia closed her eyes to force the memory from her mind. It wasn’t difficult, she was ashamed to admit. It was hard to concentrate with the hunger pains. It was almost three days since she’d last eaten, and that was half of something Carim had managed to scrounge up.

  ‘We need to go back to the town,’ Carim said. ‘Volunteer for some work so we can get some food.’

  ‘But that means we can’t come here tomorrow,’ Olivia pointed out, hating the whiney quality to her voice. Carim was right, though. She was so hungry, and no one was allowed to take food from the secret town that Olivia had dubbed ‘Slaveville’ unless they were volunteering for work.

  Still, Olivia closed her eyes in despair. She just wanted to go home!

  ‘Olivia.’ Carim’s voice was getting closer. Olivia looked up at him. His face was soft, concerned, as he leaned over her, reaching down to give her a hand up. ‘Come, human. Let’s get you something to eat. You are in great need.’

  She nodded and allowed him to help her up. ‘Nice day?’

  ‘Beautiful. The sky is pink, and the star shines brightly,’ Carim answered.

  ‘Let me have a look,’ she said, breaking from his grasp and moving over to the window.

  The heat of the white sun shone down on her. Olivia closed her eyes and let it warm her face. Vitamin D deficiency would be a real problem soon; they spent most of every day in the sewers and never went outside.

  The port was nice. From this building, Olivia could see the sky, the sun. There were even trees, thin, twisted and strange, but trees nonetheless. Everything else Olivia had seen of the planet was a dirty, gritty city of sin. A lust and greed-fuelled nightmare.

  Opening her eyes, she scanned the people moving across the port. When she saw someone limping, Olivia felt her heart break all over again. It was hard to believe there was anything left of it to break, but somehow, it happened again and again. Each time, it left her a little more scarred, a little more fragile than before.

  She imagined it was her Todaal. Imagined Kadian had come here and was looking for her. She imagined his strong arms around her. Protecting her. Caring for her. But Kadian was just a scientist. What could a scientist do to save her from this place?

  Sighing, she turned to leave when the limping figure stopped and looked up, allowing her a view of his face.

  ‘Kadian!’ she gasped. She moved closer to the glass. It was! It was really Kadian.

  ‘Olivia.’ Arms grabbed her, p
ulling her from the window. ‘Before someone sees you!’

  She glanced at Carim, then looked back out of the window in time to see Kadian take a taxi out of the port.

  ‘Kadian!’

  ‘Who is Kadian?’

  ‘My friend,’ she said. ‘He’s Todaal!’

  ‘He’s here?’

  Olivia looked at Carim, and for the first time since aliens had invaded engineering on board Endurance, she felt hopeful. ‘He’s here for me.’ She smiled.

  ‘Where would he go?’ Carim asked.

  As soon as he asked, Olivia knew. ‘Falmon’s,’ she said. ‘The Myardahl Tassian rescued me from. We need to find Tassian!’

  They moved quickly through sewers towards Slaveville, where Tassian and his crew lived.

  They knew they’d reached his territory when Orrin, an Anadar, stepped out of a shadow to greet them.

  ‘Orrin, I need to see Tassian.’

  The male nodded and turned, leading the way through the maze of tunnels. Olivia had tried to memorise the route, but it was next to impossible and she had since given up. She had no idea how Orrin and the other guides stationed around the perimeter managed it.

  By the time they reached the great hall inside of which most escaped slaves had found refuge, they were several miles away from the port and under the centre of the city.

  The cavernous room was home to a small shantytown. As it came into view, Orrin left them, having never uttered a word.

  Olivia led the way, feeling the urgency of having Kadian so, so close, yet nowhere near her.

  Kadian!

  She felt her heart speed up at the memory of him close to her. Touching her. She remembered the look on his face as he came grinding up against her. The feel of his lips on hers was hard and unyielding like his anger, which seared her. Anger she accepted, needed almost, to fuel her in their separation. Even now, whenever she thought about him, her hands trembled with the need to see him. That feeling was spurred by anticipation.

  Carim following, they slipped into the small walkways between makeshift tents and structures. Some were made of mud, others from packing crates or rocks dug from the soil. Passing aliens of all kinds, they made their way to the only semi-permanent structure in the cavern.