When I coded that door open, I looked in at a jumble of parts and equipment, most of which had been piled on the floor. Yani’s head popped up from behind it.
She was wearing a welding helmet, and now she flipped up the visor. “Send Sookie through again to the aft storage bay,” she said. “The sound is worse there, so I doubt the Tazier Drakes have stayed inside, but we need to be sure.”
I nodded and withdrew. The air duct cover had just been pushed into place, so I stood on the counter and removed it, before placing Sookie inside.
“Aft bay,” I told her.
She twitched her nose and then scampered inside. I dropped back to the floor, picked up the datapad, and peered at the little screen.
The hedgegopher got to the first opening quite quickly. I only got a glimpse before she moved on, but it was enough to show me that the area around the cage was empty. The Tazier Drakes were not in the bay.
The three prisoners were in distinctly worse shape, though. I felt physically sick. And they were trying to shield their ears with their arms, which, as they were suspended by them, looked very painful to achieve.
Ripping my gaze away, I moved into the supply room. Bright light reflected from beyond the debris pile. Yani broke off with the laser cutter and looked up at me.
“We’re good,” I said, watching the screen. Sookie had just made it to opening number two.
Yani nodded and resumed cutting. The engineering bay’s supply room shared a wall with the aft storage bay. Which had meant nothing, so long as the Drakes could hear.
Between the shrieking noise Yani had caused in the slipstream engine, and the earplugs, the Drakes couldn’t hope to hear us cutting through. But that was a long way from success. The second part of our plan was even riskier.
The light cut off. I edged around the pile to see her attaching two suction handles to the cut section of the wall. Yani then heaved on the panel. With a crack, it gave way.
She froze. “We still good?” she asked.
Sookie had reached the third opening. Still no sign of the Taziers. I nodded.
The handles enabled Yani to guide the section quietly to the ground, rather than let it fall with a clang. She dug another, smaller, laser cutter off the shelf beside her, and handed it to me along with a pair of goggles, before pushing herself through the opening.
I followed her.
Three sets of intense Drake eyes tracked us. They widened in recognition as I straightened.
Two of them knew me. The third merely stared.
I met the emerald eyes of the middle one, and everything spun to a halt.
Stubby fingers snapped in front of my face. “Hey. I’ve told you never to match stares with a Drake.” Yani’s orange gaze scanned me.
How long had I been standing there? But now that they were right in front of me, the brutality of what had been inflicted on them wrung my heart.
Why did I have the urge to run to them? Yet I did, standing with my hands on the bars.
“We’re going to get you free,” I said.
All three of them kept staring at me and I had a very hard time not meeting their eyes. The massive, heavily tattooed Drake shook hishair—it flowed in every shade of red that existed—out of his eyes, and said in English, “I was correct about her tasty ass.”
“I see your point,” the middle one replied. The ship’s lights reflected gold with only hints of ruby in his long locks, and for an instant, I admired it as well as the planes of his handsome face…
Wait a minute.I stiffened. “What was that about my ass?”
“It is tasty,” the redhead repeated.
Mr. Golden-Movie-Hero rolled his eyes. “We are noteatingher. Her ass is lovely. Shapely. Luscious.Nottasty.”
Nothing about me had ever been called luscious before.
Mr. Redhead-Tatted-Action-Man grinned at me. “I meant what I said.” And then, he winked.
