Chapter Nine

Eden chewed on the last of her pulled kobaru meat. It tasted like grilled chicken in a savory sauce. As she dabbed at her lips with a leaf-textured napkin, she touched a screen on the dashboard. It was the only instrument on the ship she felt comfortable using. She wasn't sure when Thiago and Hercules would return. For entertainment, she began reading about Thiago's former and future targets.

There was a profile of a sadistic rapist and murderer with a male call-boy fetish. A Leudanese named Kronka had evaded authorities with a decade-long killing spree before Thiago captured him. She shuddered at the moving mugshot of a two-headed creature with gouged-out eye sockets, clawing menacingly at the camera.

The scorned Dartian princess Briaisha went on a vigilante crusade against unfaithful husbands. She disemboweled her victims and left their entrails packaged in a gift-wrapped basket on their wives' doorsteps. Over 30 wives were graced with Briaisha's gifts before Thiago stopped her.

Galvantor, brother of the Noxx leader, Malatov, was a 'free-spirit' who started a personal doomsday cult. The Paradise Achievers saw twenty thousand misguided families perish in synchronized suicide after consuming drinks laced with lethal doses of poison. Somehow Galvantor did not imbibe his deadly concoction and remained on the run for over twenty-five years before Thiago hauled the emaciated and disgraced leader to the authorities.

She couldn't believe Thiago had singlehandedly taken these horrifying criminals out of space. It was no wonder he was cranky. He must have seen horrors that could not be imagined by the sickest minds.

She found herself filled with a sense of revulsion at the criminals and admiration for Thiago. His bounties weren't petty-thieving, substance-possessing jokes. They were a danger to the universe.

Eden glanced down at her watch. They had been gone for almost an hour now. Could this be normal? Her brows furrowed as she anxiously gnawed on her lip. What if this was the first mission he failed? What if they were hurt? Or worse? A hundred questions raced through her mind, each more erratic than the next.

She jumped up from her seat and ran to the windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of Thiago. She found every opening sealed with the shield's protective, steel-gray shell.

Eden turned back to the cockpit, seating herself on the pilot's seat. She began to play around with the controls, hoping to lower the shield. Every time Eden made a mistake, a noise sounded, signaling an access error and increasing her frustration. With an exasperated sigh, she pounded down her fists, striking the screen and knocking over a striped yellow lever to her right.

There was a sharp sound of alert as all the shields on the craft retracted. Eden bounced off her seat immediately. She gazed out of the windshield, squinting out at her surroundings. Night had fallen, and darkness covered the land. They were in a clearing bordered by stretches of land covered with tall trees. The gnarled branches were abundant with fern-like leaves in earthy, purplish tones. They rustled in the breeze like a puppeteer controlled them.

Wiping away the sweat snaking down her cheeks, she strode out of the cockpit toward the armory. She chose something that looked dangerous – a small, bazooka-shaped weapon that was heavier than it appeared. Grabbing a club for good measure, she moved toward the exit and stepped onto the pedal under the wall, revealing an opening in the spaceship. She moved through the egress before the doors of the craft clamped shut behind her.

Traces of her breath slipped past her lips and left clouds in the cold of the night. Gravel and dried leaves crunched under her boots as she walked along a path in the quiet glade. Eden spied muted light beyond a thicket of lopsided trees. She headed west from the craft toward the only illumination she could see.

Eden hid behind an unusually thick trunk, her hammering heart making it difficult to hear anything. The enormous double-story warehouse was hard to miss sitting in the middle of the woods. She narrowed her eyes to get a better look, counting four immobile figures sprawled out across the entryway. Her legs were the consistency of wobbly gelatin. Eden approached the bodies with the caution of a delinquent teenager sneaking past their snoozing parents in the living room. She lifted her legs cautiously, stepping over the unconscious figures of three Blazian guards and a Noxx official.

The warehouse lights were smashed and dangled from their fixtures. Twinkling pools of Xorxes crystals spilled out from large vats tipped onto their sides. Clouds of creamy smoke sputtered over the tables, emerging from cracks in complicated sets of glass tubes and beakers.

Eden's ears perked up at the sound of Hercules' distinctive distress squeals. They were coming from the second floor. Incapacitated bodies obstructed her path and she leaped over them like an Olympian jumping over hurdles. She clambered up the steps clumsily, clutching her weapons tightly against her chest. She froze when she reached the landing.

Hercules was staving off a horde of five Blazian cronies. He had seized one by the neck with his pincers. The creature swung the flailing Blazian toward his companions, sweeping them off their feet like a row of dominoes.

Krypt paced around the room as if he was hunting for something. He was instantly recognizable. He wore a velvet, maroon suit that made him look superior to his men. Eden spotted Thiago crouched under a table. He kept his head down as he reloaded one of his weapons. Her palms became slick with sweat. She watched in terror as Krypt closed in on Thiago. The creature's fingers curled around the edge of Thiago's table. He was about to flip it over.

"Oh no – Thiago!"

Eden shuffled forward, the club dropping onto the ground next to her. She raised her weapon and aimed at Krypt. One trembling hand closed around the grip while her finger curled around the trigger. Her heart fluttered when she fired.

A deafening boom erupted from the mouth of her weapon. A bolt of blue lightning narrowly missed Krypt's ear, striking and utterly shattering all the glass in the windowpanes behind him. The delayed kickback of Eden's weapon sent her hurtling backward and crashing onto the pillars behind her.

Her body was flat against the ground. Eden lifted her head sluggishly. She saw two copies of Krypt's blurry silhouette weave toward the stairs and exit the room.

"Thiago," she croaked, attempting to signal him with a limp wrist. "He's getting away."

A cloud of red filled Eden's vision. A warm trickle of blood started to flow out her ears, and she fell back to the ground.