Slave Empire - Prophecy

Chapter Thirteen

  Tallyn glared at his second-in-command as he stood over Marcon’s console. “It’s moved? Now it’s moved? We’re a few light minutes from one of the Shrike’s fortified bases, and now you tell me the signal’s moved?”

  “Yes, sir,” Marcon said, unfazed by his commander’s ire.

  Tallyn swung away with a curse. “Follow it. Where’s it going now, anyway?”

  “It’s coming from the territory of a nearby slaver, a Rentarian called Urquat. The signal’s only a few light hours old.”

  “Good. At least that’s good news. Maybe it’s better this way. Urquat is a small slaver. He won’t be a problem. Now that we know where she is, how long until we get there?”

  “An hour, maybe a few minutes more.”

  “Make it a few minutes less.” Tallyn frowned at the main screen. “I want boarding crews ready in armoured spacesuits. We have to be ready for anything. And keep us linked, I want to use the Net to transfer the men, take Urquat by surprise.”

  “Shouldn’t we demand that she be returned first?” Rawn asked. “She might be hurt in the fighting, or they might use her as a hostage. We could use the threat of Vengeance to force him to hand her over.”

  Tallyn shook his head. “He mustn’t even know who we’re after. It’s better if he just thinks it’s a raid. If we tell him to hand her over, he’s more likely to dispose of her and deny he ever had her.”

  “But the beacon...”

  “He doesn’t know about the beacon. If he did, she wouldn’t be here.”

  Rawn stared at the Atlantean commander, realisation dawning. “She’d be dead.”

  “Exactly. The beacon can only be removed with delicate surgery, and only deactivated with Atlantean codes. The only other way to stop its signal is to destroy it, and believe me, you can’t do that without killing her, too. If he finds out what brought us here, she’s dead.”