“The crazy one,” Matt said. “Ben already told me. I asked him if she was attractive, and all he said was she’s okay.” He mimicked my voice for the last part.

  “She’s smokin’ hot,” Druck said. “And smokin’ something else, if you know what I mean.”

  “I get it,” Matt said. “Just checking.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “She’s probably dead. I can’t believe she went off on her own like that.”

  “We don’t need her,” Druck said. “The Team Hondo reunion is in effect. So what's next?”

  “We need Coil so we can get out of here.”

  “Yeah, you mentioned that before. What I mean is how are we going to do this? All our guns are out of ammo, and the colonel’s no pushover.”

  “We know he’s at the command center in the middle of the city. We just need to go there. If anyone tries to stop us, I’ll stop them first.”

  “You make it sound like we can just waltz right in.”

  “Like you just said. Team Hondo is back together. We’ve got a job to do, and my best friend is blind. I’m feeling pretty motivated to get us out of here right now.”

  Druck laughed. “That’s the spirit, Boss.”

  “Shaq, are you ready to go?” I asked.

  “Born ready,” he replied.

  “Ixy?”

  “Yesss.”

  “You know I am,” Druck said. “You don’t need to ask.”

  “I’m with you, Ben,” Quasar said.

  “Me too,” Matt added. “Always.”

  I was about to give the order to move out when the world around us shifted, the ghostly image of Keep’s quarters suddenly surrounding us. Keep stood just in front of me, facing the wrong direction.

  “What the hell?” Druck said.

  Keep spun around in reaction to his voice, obviously able to hear us. His eyes landed on me, clearly able to see us too. “Bennie?” he said.

  I had spent too much time on the way back trying to figure out why Keep had grabbed the collator from the armory. Nothing I could come up with made him look anything less than a traitor. It took a lot of effort not to rip into him with harsh accusations and give him a chance to defend himself. “Were you expecting someone else?” I replied. “Succaath, maybe?”

  The shift in Keep’s eyes was barely noticeable. “Funny you should mention that name.”

  My jaw gaped open in response to the statement. “Keep. What did you do?”

  “Is that Sherlock with you?” Keep said, looking past me. “Hey Mattie. And Shaq too!”

  “Mmmhmm,” Shaq buzzed.

  “Don’t forget about us,” Druck said, motioning between himself and Quasar.

  “Cro Magnon and Galaxy Girl. How could I ever forget? I guess it’s good to see you. Looks to me like you did it, eh, kid? So why are you there instead of back here?”

  “Why did you just change the subject?” I asked. “Tell me you haven’t spoken to Succaath.”

  “I haven’t spoken to Succaath.”

  “You’re lying,” I said.

  He shrugged. “You said it, not me. Why are you there instead of here?” he pressed, again refusing to give me anything.

  “The Mustang got wrecked on the ingress,” I admitted. “We’re stranded here.”

  “You aren’t stranded.”

  “Yes, we are. You told me it would be dangerous. Besides, my batteries are too low.”

  “So go find a burger, or eat one of the killers. No judgment. Badabing badaboom!”

  “Come on, Keep. I’m serious. Do you know who Succaath is? Do you know what Succaath is?”

  “I’m serious too. Just give it a whirl. Worst case, you get sucked into a vortex between time and space.”

  “I don’t want to be sucked into a vortex,” Druck said.

  “That’s not a risk I’m willing to take right now,” I said. “Besides, we have a plan.”

  “We do?” Druck asked.

  “Well, we have a plan to get a plan from someone else.”

  “No offense, Bennie,” Keep said. “But that doesn’t sound too good.”

  “Neither does the idea of you communicating with the enemy. Unless he’s not actually your enemy.”

  “Are you implying that I can’t be trusted?”

  “I’d rather not be. But your attitude right now isn’t making it any easier. Why did you contact Succaath?”

  “I never said I did.”

  “Come on,” I growled. “The collator was in the armory. You have it in your room. Why else would you have it? Why else would you use it?”

  “Did it occur to you that the ship’s log showed that you voice activated an emergency alert in my quarters?” Keep asked. “That it took some time for Pixie to find that entry and for me to put two and two together. Since you aren’t here, but the rock is, I figured maybe you had found one and used it.” He paused, expression hardening. “But then you called it a collator. How do you know its proper name? Not many people do. Where’d you get the rock, kid?”

  I stared at him, tongue tied in knots. He had somehow turned my accusation against me. Worse, he was right. Had I been wrong?

  “Succaath gave it to me,” I admitted. “Sedaya sent Matt to Kill Spree. Succaath knew he would be here because he manipulated Sanguine into picking this planet. He grabbed Matt last night and brought him to a ship to wait for me to come.”

  “And you went,” Keep said flatly.

  “What was I supposed to do, leave Matt behind?”

  “Did you kill him?”

  “Who, Succaath?”

  “I don’t know anyone else in this story you might kill.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Are you kidding? He owned me as soon as I stepped foot inside his ship.”

  “So he’s powerful.”

  “You could say that. There’s more, but I don’t really feel like going into it right now.” I paused. “Wait a second. You had the collator in your room before I tried to use it to talk to you. Why?”

  “Desperate times, kid. Consider it a red button. I was thinking about pressing it.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  He sighed. “Can’t we talk about this later? In private?”

  “Why, Keep?” I growled.

  He couldn’t have looked more embarrassed if he’d tried. “I figured maybe if I offered myself to Succaath in trade, he might help me get you out of there.”

  The statement was like a shot to the heart. Here I was, giving him shit about talking to Succaath when I had already done it, and he had been thinking about giving up his life to save mine. I couldn’t have felt like more of an asscrab if I’d tried.

  “Keep, I…”

  “The way I see it, if Succaath and Nobukku were in league with Sedaya, and Sedaya killed Nobukku, then odds are he either killed Succaath if he could, or double-crossed him if he couldn’t.”

  “Bingo bango boingo,” I said without Keep’s enthusiasm for the words. I was still ready to blubber from Keep’s willingness to sacrifice himself for me. “Give the man a prize.”

  “What did it cost you to get out of there?”

  “I have to capture Sedaya instead of killing him, and bring him to Succaath.”

  “Capture him?” Druck said. “Are you kidding?”

  “Question,” Keep said. “If Succaath is so powerful, why doesn’t he capture Sedaya himself?”

  “Because he isn’t actually in the Spiral,” I replied. “His simulacrum is powerful inside his ship or ships. He gave me the impression he’s got a large vessel floating around somewhere. In the outside world, not so tough.”

  “What do you mean he’s not in the Spiral?” Quasar asked.

  “It’s a long story, and I really think we should worry about all of that after we get off this rock.”

  “You know what to do, kid,” Keep repeated.

  “I told you, I don’t have enough juice. And you told me it’s too dangerous. So why the change of heart?”

  “I just want you out of there.”

  “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “Dominator showed up in Kirillia’s orbit a few hours ago. looking for us, but don’t worry. Leo found us a nice hiding spot. Depending on how things go, they might decide to come to you.”

  “That would be just wonderful,” I deadpanned. “I can see why you wanted a red button. I do appreciate that.”

  His face had already gone red. His blush deepened. “Yeah, well…should I tell Leo to get us into hyperspace so we can come to you?”

  “No. Not yet. If things get really bad I’ll try to transit. I can’t do that if you’re in hyperspace.”

  "Exactamundo. Okey dokey, kid. I’ll carry the collator with me. You need anything from our end, just give me a ring-a-ding.”

  “I will.”

  “Adios.” Keep took his hand off the collator and faded away.

  “That was creepy,” Druck said. “Not as creepy as Ixy, but close.”

  “Come on,” I said. “We’re getting off this planet. Tonight.”

  CHAPTER 40

  We only had one gun, Kat’s rifle, and it was out of ammunition, useful only for its bayonet. We thought loading up might be fairly easy considering the number of dead killers we had come across as we slowly made our way back into the city. It wasn’t. No matter the state of the corpses we came across, they had all been stripped clean of any weapon they might have been carrying, presumably by Coil’s gang.

  We took a wide berth around our original entry point and the building where we believed the sniper probably still waited. Unfortunately, it took an extra two hours to approach the inner settlement from a completely different direction. Gunfire still echoed sporadically as darkness began to settle in, though I had to imagine the number of remaining killers had gone down to double digits.

  With night coming, I was certain the gorathi would come too.

  I wanted to think Succaath would control the creatures enough to prevent them from killing us, but he had already said that if I couldn’t survive them, then I wasn’t worthy, so I didn’t plan on it. Instead, we tried to pick up the pace, navigating through the streets by sticking to as many alleyways and dark corners as we could. We needed to hide from potential threats on the ground as well as the drones still winding through the city.

  While the viewers around the Spiral could see where we were through the eye cameras, we didn’t need the production team continuing to give away our position. To that end, I'd stripped a black scarf from one of the dead killers and wrapped it around my neck and the scruff of my growing beard, covering almost half my face. Another dead body provided me with a pair of fingerless gloves, all of it effectively hiding the glow of my blood. With Ixitat’s ability to see in the dark, we were able to navigate areas that would have otherwise been difficult to thread our way through.

  We made it to within a few blocks of the city center before we encountered our first contestant still standing upright, three of them actually, walking together along one of the streets, rifles in hand. One of the guns had a light like Kat’s on it, and we watched as the woman who had it used the light to signal back the way they had come. I spotted a responding flash from what had to be a sniper hidden in a lookout position on one of the buildings further away. Another series of flashing lights followed it, the message passed on to a second group of sentries circling the perimeter.

  “I’m not sure what Coil’s play is,” Quasar whispered in response to the signals. “The lights are pretty obvious that high up. Only the dumbest killer would be drawn to it.”

  “Like us?” Druck said.

  “We’re different. He’s basically telling the rest of the contestants to stay away. But he’ll never win that way.”

  “They might not be keeping a lookout for other players,” Matt suggested.

  “You mean gorathi?”

  “I think it’s a given they’ll be back. Coil will want to know when they arrive.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. The contact signal goes out, his killers retreat to the safety of the command bunker and the lookouts go dark.”

  “After last night, I don’t think any of the surviving players will be rushing into the settlement after dark. If they’re still alive and stupid enough to have stayed in the city and not joined Coil, they’ll lay low and hope the monsters don’t notice them. If they’re out in the wilderness, they’ll stay there for the long haul. Coil will have to send units out to hunt them down.”

  “He's probably started already,” Druck said.

  “Or finished already,” I suggested.

  “Possibly,” Quasar agreed. “But if he was sure he had gotten everyone who wasn’t part of his group he would have started culling his own.”

  “Not until he takes us out,” Druck said. “He can’t win as long as we’re alive, and he needs a robust gang to stand against Ben.”

  “Then the question is, does he send them looking for us or does he wait for us to come to him?” Matt said.

  “We’re going to him regardless of what he wants,” I pointed out.

  “He may be more ready for us than we think.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m getting us out of here.” I glanced at the sentries, who had nearly faded into the darkness. “We need guns. They have guns. Shaq, Ixy, do you think you can take them out without giving them a chance to make a fuss?”

  “Mmmhmm,” Shaq said.

  “Coil will know something’s up when they don’t signal back,” Matt said.

  “He’ll probably get excited about it,” I replied. “Anyway, we could try to sneak directly to the bunker, but then what? Without guns, I’d have to do all the work. I will if I have to, but I think our odds are better if we can back each other up.”

  “If we go for the bunker, Coil will call them back as reinforcements anyway,” Quasar said. “Better to deal with them now than have them at our backs.”

  “And every contestant we take out is one less he needs to kill later,” Druck added. “So in that sense we’re doing him a favor.”

  “The game doesn’t matter anymore,” I said. “Either we all leave, or none of us do. Shaq, Ixy, do it.”

  Shaq hopped off my shoulder and onto Ixitat’s back. She easily leaped from the alley we were in to scale the side of the building, vanishing through a broken window. I could imagine her making her way to the three killers from overhead, Shaq dropping down on them first, biting one and jumping to another by the time she's landing on the third. Quick and easy.

  Of course, I couldn’t see them. For the moment, all we had to do was wait for their return. I settled back in the darkness, keeping my eyes peeled for evidence of more members of Coil’s gang or any gorathi.

  A minute passed. Another. They still hadn’t returned when I heard the first echo of a hiss from somewhere in the city, followed by a scream.

  “They’re heeeerrreee,” Matt said softly, in his best Poltergeist impression.

  “You can’t even see anything,” Druck whispered. “How are you not shitting yourself right now?”

  “Because I have total faith and trust in Ben to give a hundred percent to protect me,” he replied, squeezing my shoulder.

  “I’ll give a hundred percent to protect all of you,” I added. “Even you, Emil.”

  Druck laughed. “Thanks, Boss.”

  I didn’t hear Ixy coming until the last second, flinching in fear when her face appeared out of the darkness directly over mine.

  “Ixy, seriously?” I hissed as she clacked softly in laughter and lowered a webbed bundle to me.

  “Gunsss.”

  “Nice work,” I said as Shaq landed on my shoulder. Druck ripped the bundle open with his knife, revealing three rifles, a pair of blasters, and a couple of extra magazines. Quasar, Druck, and I each took a rifle and I let the others have the blasters. Since none of the sentries weapons were plasma, I discarded Kat’s rifle to keep things manageable.

  “Yeah, this is better,” Druck said, leveling his rifle. “Locked and loaded, Boss.”

  I glanced toward the lookout when he flashed his light toward our position. A few seconds later, he repeated the signal, and then a third time. When he moved to the other corner and signaled the second team, the light pattern had changed.

  “Jig is up,” Quasar said.

  A louder hiss drew my attention the other direction as a handful of gorathi moved out into the street.

  “Maybe not yet. Let them take the blame for the missing sentries.”

  “We need to reach the bunker before they hole up.”

  “Agreed. Let’s—”

  The claws on the asphalt behind us drew all of our attention at once. Even Matt turned his head toward gorathi moving into the alley. Druck’s finger slipped to the trigger.

  “Wait,” I whispered. “Too loud.” I activated my construct, using dampen to freeze the inner-workings of the creatures. They were so delicate, it only took a couple of seconds before they collapsed, still alive but unable to give chase. “Come on.”

  Turning back toward the city center, we broke from the alley and into the street, making our move.

  CHAPTER 41

  The gorathi influx started as a trickle, but didn’t take long to grow into a full-on flood. We ran through the city, racing for the building in the center while the demons increased in numbers behind us, their long legs and light frames allowing them to quickly gain on us.

  “Zar, take Matt,” I said.

  “Copy,” she replied as we slowed a little so she could take hold of his wrist and move his hand from my shoulder to hers. “I’ve got you, Matt. Just don’t let go.”

  “I won’t,” he said.

  I fell back from the others slightly, turning my upper body back toward the onrushing demons and putting up a wall of reflect that rose fifteen feet off the ground. The first line of gorathi slammed into it and bounced off. The next wave tried to leap over it, not making it high enough and suffering the same result. With the barrier falling further behind us, it took an increasing amount of chaos energy to keep it intact. When the gorathi started climbing the buildings on either side to get over it, I dropped the wall, hoping they wouldn’t know right away that it was gone.