“So reckless,” Undertaker sighed.
“Now now, be precise with your words,” Min chided. “What he means by that particular choice of words is that you ought to take greater care in your deeds.”
“You can take your time killing his ass later,” Jinto told the royal princess .
Lafier’s eyes widened with shock. “You are a cruel and brutal man — I don’t count ‘taking my time to kill people’ among my hobbies!”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Listen, you two,” said Bill from the driver’s seat, his voice weary and fed up. “I hate to butt in on your delightful little chat, but do you feel like closing the door for me? The Abh’s footsy’s stuck in it!”
“Feh! I suppose I must.” And with that, Lafier correct her posture in her seat. Then she looked at Jinto’s left shoulder, her expression turning concerned for the first time. “Are you okay, Jinto?”
“It’s just a scratch,” he said, acting tough, while at the same time chagrined she didn’t ask sooner.
“It’s not just a scratch,” said Marca, also glancing at the shoulder. “Your collarbone’s popped clean off. If we don’t treat it quickly, your whole left arm will need regenerating.”
“Please,” said Jinto, scowling once again. “I don’t need to hear the details. I feel like I could faint any second.”
“You can faint. Daswani, dress it for him,” said Marca, switching seats with the big lug.
Wordlessly, Daswani stopped the bleeding and applied local anesthesia to Jinto’s shoulder, then rubbed on some regeneration stimulant. Next, he wrapped his arm in bandages and sprayed it with a hardening agent, thereby holding it in place. Jinto endured.
“I feel like you’ve got something to say,” said Undertaker. “And if I had to guess, it’d maybe be words of thanks, or maybe words of thanks, or maybe even words of thanks.”
“I thank you a million fold,” said Lafier.
“Thanks for treating my wound.” Jinto rubbed his shoulder, whose pain had dulled. “But you’re still planning to hold us hostage, aren’t you?”
“Of course we are. We still want our spaceships,” said Marca, as though it’d been foolish to ask.
“Well I’m against it.” A shudder went down Undertaker’s frame. “I don’t need any more misfortune in my life.”
It was then Jinto realized their unfavorable position. No weapons left.
“I don’t get it. Why didn’t you run?”
“We did run. But the situation changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“A while after we left the caves and Bill picked us up, there started to be radio jamming,” she explained. “Seems the soldiers at the checkpoints withdrew to the city center, too.”
“Which’d mean...”
“Just look at that,” she said, pointing out the window.
Six points of light left complex traces in the night sky as they repeatedly assembled and separated.
“Only the Abh do those kinds of meaningless maneuvers.”
“They’re not meaningless,” said Lafier. “That’s the dance of victory . A show of force to send the message that they’ve taken over the skies. That’s how you learned of the Star Forces ’ return, is it not?”
“What an obnoxious custom. Very Abh-like,” Bill remarked.
“Then the Empire ’s retaken the planet!” Jinto rejoiced.
“Not yet on the surface, they haven’t. But they’ll be touching down any moment.”
“Everybody together! All officers, get in your rides. We’re going after them!” shouted Entryua.
Though much of the mist had cleared, they had to search for their vehicles by memory and blind fumbling. Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and the mist fluctuated.
“What now!?” Entryua was getting sick of this. “Is it them ? No one else it could be, huh? All right people, hurry up, unless you’re in for another headache.”
But the sound of their disciplined march came slightly quicker than the cops could manage to depart. “Stop right there,” rang a high-handed voice. “Move and we shoot.”
“You’re talking to the police!” Entryua barked right back. “We were about to tail the suspects. Don’t get in our way!”
“We’ll shoot, police or not.” Green-brown uniforms appeared from within the fog, eyeing the convoy of cars. “I hear you have an officer of ours?”
Kyte saluted. “Military Police Lieutenant Kyte speaking. And you are?”
“Lieutenant Sleet. Where’s the Abh? Didn’t she come to this area?”
“She escaped.” Kyte knitted his brows and frowned.
“Escaped? You mean to say she got the better of this place’s police?”
“They’re useless. Nothing more than the lapdog dupes of the slave democrats. I must say, though, that you let her slip away despite your regulation equipment.”
“This is not regulation equipment. Due to needing to give chase through the caverns by foot, we had no choice but to stow all heavy weapons behind.”
“So you say, but...” Then Kyte realized that the machine translator had been left on.
Afterward, both commissioned officers turned off their translation devices, so he couldn’t understand the conversation from there on out. Of course, he had no interest in their game of blame-shifting anyway. That said, he couldn’t shake his ominous feeling... which turned into reality in short order.
“Inspector,” said Kyte, flashing a superficial smile, “we must chase and catch the Abh.”
“We were about to until they stopped us!”
“No, WE will be chasing them. And commandeering your cars to do it.”
“You’ll WHAT!?”
“Our proud army has no means of transport,” added Sleet. “That is why we’re in need of you folk’s vehicles. We’ll take only the drivers among you, and have the rest stay here.”
“And we don’t get a say in this? By what authority do you—”
“By this authority.” Sleet pressed a handgun to the tip of Entryua’s nose. “We have no time. Make it snappy.”
“You tell him!” Kyte was overjoyed by this turnabout. “Don’t worry, we’ll take you, too, Inspector. You can give us directions. Oh, and I’d like to have you hand me my weapon back, while we’re at it.”
“But how’d you know we were going to be there?” wondered Jinto.
“The chances were fifty-fifty,” shrugged Min. “But it would have been tougher to find you if you ended up exiting through the main cave system. Too many possible exits. That’s why we put up a net for you on the Dream Park side. We knew we were right on the money when they started evacuating people from the park, and from there we could choose the perfect time to strike.”
“Would’ve loved it if you kidnapped us before I got shot.”
“Well aren’t we the little prince,” said Undertaker disgustedly. “I’ll have you know we tread on some damn dangerous ground ourselves.”
“Never mind that, there’s something we’d like to ask the little Abh lady.” Marca placed a hand on her forehead.
“What?” Lafier looked away from the glorious dance of victory unfolding in the night sky to face her.
“Earlier, before we entered the caves. I saw your ear. And it’s been bugging me ever since, but it wasn’t the right time to ask.”
Jinto’s heart raced.
“It only came back to mind after we’d gotten separated. I can be a big ditz sometimes. But I still can’t believe it. I just can’t.”
“What’s the question?” Lafier egged her on.
“Here goes: Are the Abliar ears allowed outside the imperial family ?”
“They are not,” she replied with clarity.