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  “Hey, what’s going on back there?” Rick’s voice came over the intercom. “I heard a scream.”

  “Get Viktor,” Lochlann said, ignoring Rick. “Maybe he can take it apart.”

  “I’ll go.” Jackson left the cargo hold.

  The unit on her side dug itself deeper, and she bit back a moan as she felt it moving.

  “Captain?” Rick’s voice demanded.

  Harper took a deep breath, and said, “I don’t mean to be an ungrateful guest, but could we hurry this along? The guy who ordered this done isn’t going to be happy with me, or the people who took me. Before the Bevlon—”

  “Blast it all,” Rick insisted over her words. They all ignored him. “Captain? What’s happening?”

  “—suggests tossing me into the deep black, you should know that probably won’t keep Bucky’s men from tracking you. And I know what you’re thinking, but if you try to give me to him it won’t go well. He has a helluva temper. All those bionic juices have flowed to his brain.” Harper flinched and pressed her hand beneath the device as if that could stop the pain.

  “She will not be standing much longer,” Dev noted. “We should take her to Viktor.”

  Lochlann nodded. “Do it.”

  Dev came for her and Harper automatically stiffened in defense. His brow arched in warning before he dipped down and slipped his arms behind her knees and back. He lifted her easily. His body cast off so much heat that he bordered on fiery.

  Harper kept hold of the strap. She was too weak from pain to fight him properly, but her hand refused to let go. He took a few steps before being forced to stop. Her arm stretched wide as the strap became taut.

  “Drop it, or I drop you,” Dev warned.

  Harper unclenched her hand.

  Dev walked her toward the doorway. The strap unwound itself from her wrist and fell away. The jarring vibration of each footstep caused small gasps to exit her lungs. She closed her eyes tight, even as her brain told her she needed to pay attention to where they took her.

  Harper forced herself to concentrate. She looked at the passageway, eyed the metal doors, and noted the random scratches and marks in the surfaces. Each would serve as a landmark to help her find her way around.

  “If someone doesn’t answer me, I’m going to stop flying the ship,” Rick’s intercom voice blasted.

  “Rick, shut your black hole.” Lochlann’s voice followed them as he stayed behind to answer the pilot. His words did not blast over the intercom, indicating he used a private comm line. “No one is killing your drug peddler. We’re debugging her. Just fly the ship and watch our tail. Find my wife and tell her to meet me in the commons. I need to talk to her.”

  “Alexis, your husband is looking for you,” Rick’s voice announced. “Get to the commons.”

  “I can walk,” Harper protested, stiffening in Dev’s arms to get him to put her down. He kept going.

  “What has Rick got us into now?” Viktor appeared in the corridor. Jackson was behind him. His red-green eyes glanced over her before recognition dawned in his expression. “Oh, no, not her again.”

  “Captain needs you to disarm her,” Dev said.

  Jackson lifted a canvas bag. The contents clanked. “I have his tools.”

  Dev turned into a small room and dropped more than placed her on a cot. Looking at Viktor, he motioned for him to get started.

  “I’m not sure I want to,” Viktor muttered. “She scares me.”

  Jackson gave him a small shove into the room. “Stop goofing around. Can you deactivate it or not?”

  Harper gave Viktor a weak smile and winked. “Been a long time. It’s Viktor, right?”

  “Yeah.” Viktor looked her over. “So what exactly am I deactivating?”

  Harper reached for her shirt and lifted. “Side stitch.”

  “You ever heard of these?” Dev asked.

  Viktor flicked his finger against the device before pulling back fast. “Is it some kind of explosive?”

  “I hope not,” Harper said. “Tracker.”

  “The tech looks familiar.” Viktor ran his finger around the perimeter.

  “It’s from the factories on Ingeniare,” she said.

  Viktor instantly let go and lifted his hands up and back. “You’re telling me this is an Ingeniarian tracker?”

  Harper nodded. “Yeah, so if you don’t mind, would you get it out of me before it integrates further? I don’t think my dresses will fit right with this thing hiding underneath and I would like to date again.”

  “This is unsettling. Do you notice how she’s almost like she’s a female Rick?” Jackson muttered to Dev. It didn’t appear to be a compliment.

  “Ah…?” Viktor let loose a long sigh and did not sound confident. “Maybe we should ask Raisa? If she can sense—”

  “No,” Jackson stated flatly.

  “Why not Raisa?” Harper asked. “If she knows how to—”

  “She doesn’t,” Jackson said, his tone allowing no further discussion on the matter of his wife.

  Viktor reached his hand toward Jackson. “Laser.”

  Instead of digging in the canvas sack, Jackson set it on the floor and gently turned it over so the tools slid out into a pile. Harper’s eyes automatically went to a metal cutting blade.

  “This party is going to suck,” she muttered as she lowered onto the cot while keeping the side stitch exposed.

  “What are you going to do?” Jackson asked.

  “Does it look like it has explosives?” Dev added.

  “What range if—” Jackson tried.

  “I need you to step out and stop asking me questions,” Viktor commanded, his words a little shaky. “I’m not touching the body of the device. I’m going to try to cut the claws where it is attached.”

  Harper glanced toward the men in time to see them moving to stand in the corridor. They stayed within eyesight of her.

  “This is almost guaranteed to hurt,” he said. Then to the guys behind him, he added, “Did Alexis fix the handheld medic yet? We need painkillers, rum, anything.”

  Harper grabbed his hand. “We need to do this. I can feel it digging. I’ll be fine. Just don’t stop once you start.”

  With any luck, she’d pass out.

  “I’ll try not to burn you with the laser,” he whispered.

  Currently, that was the least of her worries.

  “Don’t stop,” she ordered, closing her eyes. She grabbed the edge of the cot and braced herself for the pain to come.

  The hum of the laser caught her full attention. Viktor placed a hand on her side. Heat radiated as it neared her flesh. She clenched her teeth in anticipation.

  Suddenly, the ship jerked and she rolled forward.

  “Blasted,” Viktor swore, his voice tinged with panic. “Tell Rick or Vi or whoever is flying to keep us steady.”

  Harper took a hard breath and stared into the man’s red-green gaze. “Can you do this or not?”

  He nodded.

  “Then do it,” she ordered. “Now.”

  Harper again braced herself. She concentrated on keeping her breathing even. The hum neared her. The heat hit her flesh. She gripped the cot as tight as she could, determined to hold still. Sweat beaded her brow.

  Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t blasting move.

  The laser hit metal, zzzz.

  Pain radiated from her side, and she opened her mouth wide in a silent cry. She knew it would only get worse.

  “Stop!” came a feminine cry.

  “Agh,” Viktor yelled, jumping back. “Don’t scare me like that. Alexis, what are you doing in here?”

  “Give me the laser, I’ll do it.” Harper pushed up from the cot in irritation. For space pirates, these were an indecisive lot.

  “Don’t do that,” Alexis answered. “The temperature of the laser isn’t hot enough to effectively cut the metal used by the Ingeniarians in their bionic factories.”

  Harper eyed the woman and frowned. Her face was all too familiar. It had been
broadcasted in every fueling dock. “Alexis? The captain’s wife?”

  Viktor nodded.

  “The captain is married to a robot?” Harper couldn’t help the slight exasperation in her voice. The Alexis model droid was a companion unit for lonely men who would rather sleep with silicone than make an effort with a woman who did not require programming. Harper would be less judgmental of it if they made as many male versions for the ladies.

  “Yes,” the three men answered in unison. Lochlann appeared in the doorway as if he’d been running.

  “Yes, I am the Alexis Companion model nine-point-seven. I prefer the term pleasure droid,” Alexis said. Her eyes slowly changed from brown to blue.

  “I’m sure you do, sweetheart,” Harper muttered. The ship vibrated, angering Harper’s already frayed nerves. “Can we usher the walking food simulator out of here and get on with this?”

  Alexis turned around and began to mumble to herself.

  Great. She’d hurt the robot’s feelings.

  “Dev, join Rick and your wife in the cockpit. Tell them what’s happening and make sure no one is following us. Be sure to scan all the frequencies,” Lochlann ordered.

  Dev nodded and left.

  “Jackson, go to Raisa and Lucien. Catch them up,” Lochlann added.

  Harper noted that the captain sent the men to be with their wives. She wondered if there was something they weren’t telling her, and then instantly assumed there would be a lot they wouldn’t tell her.

  “Give me the laser,” Harper insisted. This was taking too long. “I’ll do it myself.”

  Alexis turned back around. Her eyes were slightly glazed over but were clearing. “You have to remove the top of the disc and expose the insides to make the claw retract. Hand it to me. I have the steadiest hand.”

  Harper’s palm was still extended toward Viktor as he retrieved the laser from the floor. To her surprise, he handed it to the droid instead. Harper would have protested but her side throbbed and she just wanted the damned tracker out of her. As she lay back down, she mumbled, “You better not be programmed to be all emotional and squeamish.”

  “Trust me, sweetheart,” the robot said, mocking Harper’s earlier insulting tone, “I’m anything but squeamish.”

  Alexis placed her hand firmly on Harper’s side, and the hum of the laser sounded. The droid’s eyes had turned to a deep brown. Harper braced herself as Alexis drew the laser parallel to her skin to cut around the perimeter of the disc. The vibrations hurt insomuch as it jarred the side stitch, but not nearly as bad as Viktor’s plan. A tiny trail of smoke drifted from where the robot worked.

  Harper tried to look, but Alexis pushed down harder. “Don’t move. I don’t want to nick the power source.”

  The ship vibrated, but the motion didn’t faze the droid who stayed focused on her task.

  Harper took back all her previous thoughts about the bimbo units.

  Yay for pleasure droids!

  “Almost there,” Alexis muttered before the hum of the laser stopped. Her hold eased up, and she handed the laser to Viktor.

  “Well done, my love,” Lochlann said.

  Alexis pulled the lid from the side stitch and gave that to Viktor as well. She looked at the floor before finding a metal pick with a sharpened tip. Rust had begun to form at the base where the handle met metal.

  “I can promise this is going to sting,” Alexis said, not pausing to give Harper time to brace herself as she pushed the tip into the exposed side stitch.

  “Ow, holy space balls,” Harper cried out as the unit pressed down. She felt movement inside her body as if the tips of the claws broke off her rib. They pulled out.

  Alexis plucked the unit off her side.

  Harper moaned and covered the wound with her hand, thankful that the side stitch was gone. “Oh, thank you, Alexis model whatever you said. I promise never to make fun of your kind again.”

  “Let’s see what’s inside this thing,” Alexis mused as she tipped the bottom half of the tracker over into her palm. A glowing power unit slid onto her hand, and she instantly stiffened and fell back. Her eyes flashed wildly with colors, and she appeared as if she was having a seizure.

  “Alexis?” Lochlann called out in panic as he went to his robot wife.

  Harper sat up slowly, more curious about the robot that helped her than worried. It wasn’t alive, after all. Machines could be repaired.

  Alexis began to mutter even as the tremors continued. “Space travel holo-brochure. Planet of Ingeniare. Head of the Ingeniare Alliance consisting of three highly important technology factory planets. Ruled by a large royal family whose sole mission has been to give work to those under their command. Irrelevant to the situation. Reexamine.”

  “What in the black holes is wrong with her?” Harper asked, staring at the shaky droid spewing information.

  “Alexis, relevant,” Lochlann stated loudly, patting her face. “Relevant.”

  Viktor joined him on the ground and began trying to pry open her fist holding the power source.

  “Scientific opinion paper. Obscure. The unspoken dangers of the Ingeniarians bionic factories by E’on Trek. Deceased. Poor working conditions by an enslaved population on the third planet of the Ingeniare Trio are not worth the technological gain to the known universes. Relevant to the situation. Ingeniare Trio. Home to the power—”

  “Alexis, stop,” Lochlann ordered.

  The droid kept going. “—manufacturing plant. Off-limits to visitors. Life span of the Ingeniare Three population is halved from those on the other two planets.”

  Harper glanced at her side. Blood seeped through her fingers from the deep wound. The men kneeling on the floor hardly appeared concerned with her. She pulled her shirt tight around her waist, trying to put pressure on the wound as she tucked the edges. It helped some. A bandage would have been better. A handheld medical unit would have been better than that.

  “Petty criminals and political uprisers are often transported to the inhumane, in-alien-mane living conditions,” Alexis continued. “Work hours consist of three-quarters of every day.”

  “How does she know that?” Harper demanded. That information wasn’t public knowledge. The Ingeniarian royals worked hard to maintain a friendly image.

  “We need to get this thing out of her hand,” Viktor said. “I’ll have to break her fingers.”

  “Relevant to the situation. Classified file number 7890-8889. Ingeniarian top-secret protocol alpha four. Infiltration team to undermine the power of the royal family…”

  Lochlann took over, pulling at the droid’s pinky finger so hard it cracked. He shook her hand violently, forcing the power disc to fall to the floor.

  “…to undermine the—” Alexis gasped sharply and sat up. She took several deep breaths.

  Lochlann cradled the hand he’d injured. “I’m so sorry, my love.”

  The droid trembled. “The nanoids will repair it. Thank you for getting that thing off me.”

  Harper frowned. “How did she know that?

  They ignored her.

  “What happened?” Viktor asked. He picked the power source up from the floor and dropped it into the shell of the broken side stitch. He shook out the insides from the other half of the unit and pressed it to the top to form a protective case, which he then held pinched between two fingers.

  “It reactivated the…” Alexis glanced in her direction. “My connection.”

  “You mean…?” Lochlann helped Alexis to her feet.

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  Harper tried to decipher what they were not telling her. She swayed on the cot, feeling dizzy. She couldn’t be sure if it was the ship that rocked or her balance.

  “Put that power source in the safe,” Lochlann ordered. “Keep it away from Alexis.”

  Viktor nodded.

  “How did she…?” Harper’s words trailed off when Alexis’ gaze met hers.

  “I need to talk to you, now,” Alexis told Lochlann. “Viktor, go get Dev to kee
p an eye on her.”

  “Shouldn’t we do something about her side first?” Viktor asked. “She doesn’t look well.”

  “Get Dev,” Alexis said. Viktor hurried from the small room.

  Harper wondered why they would be taking orders from a droid. None of this made sense. Who were these pirates?

  Alexis pushed her husband toward the door. “We’ll bring you supplies for your side soon.” They passed through the threshold. “Until then…” She placed her hand on a sensor, and the door slid shut. Harper heard the telltale slide of industrial locks. She glanced up. There was no grate access to the ceiling. In her current state, she wouldn’t be escaping anytime soon.

  That blasted droid’s expression had been too knowing. The only question was, how much did she know, and how did she know it? Programming glitch? Surely Alexis couldn’t know the truth, even with the classified information she’d had access too. She probably thought Harper was an escaped criminal from Ingeniare Three.

  Yes. That had to be it. That was the most logical assumption.

  Harper lay down on the cot and took a deep breath. She turned so that she could keep an eye on the door and the wound side faced upward toward the ceiling. Rest sounded good about right now.

  6

  “Your girlfriend is HIA,” Alexis stated, her eyes focused on Rick.

  He’d thought they were taking him to see Harper, but instead they had tried to sit him down in the common area. The ship was on autopilot, but Violette was in the cockpit monitoring. So far there were no signs they were being followed.

  Rick gave a small laugh. There was no way Harper worked for the Human Intelligence Agency. He made a move to leave. “Yeah, right. Now tell me what’s going on with Harper. I want to see her. Dev said she had something stuck in her side. Is that what that screaming was about?”

  Rick knew no one on the crew would hurt a woman unless they were left with no choice.

  “Rick, we need to talk about this,” Lochlann stated firmly. He stood beside his wife as they blocked his path. “She’s a threat.”

  His expression fell. “Did she say she was HIA?”

  Alexis glanced at Lochlann.