That was the real death to fear.

  But I wasn’t dead at all.

  I came out of unconsciousness as if I had been sleeping. My eyes opened normally, leaving me looking up at a perforated metal ceiling. My ears kicked in next, registering two different sounds. One, a deep thrumming that matched a light vibration I sensed more than felt. The other, a much closer steady tone.

  Lifting and turning my head, I realized I was in a sickbay, but not the one on Head Case. A medibot, both sleeker and more advanced than ours, rested to the side of my bed, its scanner currently retracted, its screens displaying more vitals than I even knew I had. A door at the foot of my bed no doubt led out into the central intake area.

  I dropped my head back on my pillow, my heart beginning to race. Since I wasn’t on Head Case, there was only one other place I could be.

  The door opened. Instead of Nurse Alter, I got nurse Link. A Niflin, only as I’d never seen one before. Without a breathing tube. My hand absently went to my nose and mouth, searching for a tube on me instead. We couldn’t breathe the same mixture of air. It wasn’t compatible.

  And yet here we were.

  “Confused?” the Niflin asked, amused by my reaction. “You may not have known this. It’s easier to install a modification to the human trachea to allow them to breathe a higher level of nitrogen without complication than it is to do the reverse to a Niflin.”

  My hand shifted to my throat, fingers running along the skin. “I don’t feel anything.”

  “No, you wouldn’t. The procedure is fully automated and done without incision. The throat heals quickly, though if you tried to shout you would probably feel the strain.”

  “So much for consent,” I said, lowering my hand.

  “You should be grateful that’s all that was done to you.” He glanced at the medibot’s displays. “You’ve held up remarkably well, all things considered.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know your baseline, so it’s hard to make a full determination. Your tumor is pressing on your cerebellum, and yet you were able to fly rings around our pilots in your little purple starfighter.”

  “Flippy,” I said.

  “What?”

  “The starfighter. Its name is Flippy.”

  “Why does a starfighter need a name?”

  “Why do you need a name?”

  “It makes me identifiable and unique.”

  “You’re the only one who has your name?”

  He paused. “No.”

  “I bet my starfighter is the only one named Flippy.”

  He opened his mouth to respond, thinking better of it and closing it again. Only for a moment before changing the subject. “Lord Sedaya tasked me to ensure you were well enough to meet. I believe you are.”

  “Your pilots also aren’t very good,” I added. “Clearly, since I’m not even a professional pilot.”

  He glared at me before pointing to the other side of the bed. “A change of clothes is there. When you’re done, come outside. An escort is waiting for you.” He turned on his heel and left the room.

  I pulled back the sheet covering me. Naked again. Grimacing, I slid to the opposite side of the bed, finding a stack of clothing on a too-low side table. Black fatigues like the Daft Punks wore. I didn’t have anything else, so I put them on. At least they fit. The door to the room opened ahead of me as I walked toward it. A pair of armed, armored, and helmeted Niflin waited for me there. A pair of humans occupied the station in the center of the room, and they looked at me with disdain.

  “Earthian,” the one on the left growled. “Follow us.”

  I didn’t really want to go anywhere near Duke Sedaya, and I couldn’t help trembling a little as I trailed the two guards out of sickbay and into a long corridor that seemed to stretch the entire length of the space Porsche. A mix of Niflin and humans crewed the starship. Moving through the corridor, I felt their eyes boring into me as I passed. A curiosity, or public enemy number one? Me and my crew had done a lot of damage to the forces who attacked Birilli, not to mention the mercenaries who tried to prevent our escape.

  We left that corridor for another that extended across the ship, and then a third headed for the bow, finally stopping at a very ordinary looking hatch. The two guards stepped behind me and came to attention, leaving me staring at the door.

  It opened a moment later, and I found myself face to face with Duke Sedaya.

  Well, almost. He was at least half a head shorter than me, smaller and less physically threatening in person than he had appeared on the hypercom.

  That didn’t make him less intimidating. He had all the power here.

  And he hated me.

  I could see that hatred burning in his eyes as he looked up at me, a sick grin sliding across his face. “Benjamin Murdock,” he hissed. “A worthier adversary than I ever anticipated. Come in.”

  I didn’t really have an option not to enter, especially since the guards advanced on my rear, practically pushing me through the door as Sedaya retreated inside. I was in the same office I had seen in the hypercom, though now I got the visual of the entire room. On the wall that wasn’t visible from the camera hung about a hundred different weapons, from a plasma rifle to an Old West six-shooter, an exotic looking blade in the shape of an oriental fan to a very ordinary looking metal spike.

  “You like weapons,” I said.

  Sedaya moved beside me. “Not for the reason you might think. I don’t enjoy conflict, Ben. I’m trying to bring peace to the Spiral.”

  “By overthrowing the Empress?”

  Sedaya scoffed at that. “Avelus Keep told you that, didn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. I was tempted to add something about the Grimoire, but I decided I didn’t want him to know I had seen the contents of the slab. “Was he wrong?”

  “You’re a problem, Ben,” Sedaya said, ignoring the question. “A bigger problem than I ever imagined you would be. And here I thought Keep sold his ship to you solely to keep the Star away from me. But it’s more than that. Much more. He seems to believe you’re something special. As if there’s such a thing as destiny.”

  “I’m not special.”

  “I know. You have talent as a pilot, admittedly. And you seem to have a knack for enlisting well-qualified crew members. But that’s where it begins and ends.” He stepped forward to the wall. “Which of these appeals to you most?”

  “Wait. This isn’t like, I pick one and then you kill me with it, is it?”

  “Unfortunately, no. Which one?”

  I examined the weapons again. I didn’t like any of them or find any of them appealing. With that in mind, I picked out the one that looked the most harmless. It looked like a red silk scarf.

  Sedaya laughed. “The Ecosian Guillotine. An interesting choice.”

  “The what?” I said, swallowing nervously as he gently lifted it from the wall. “I thought it was a scarf.”

  Almost faster than I could follow, he turned and snapped the scarf out. It unraveled across the room, hitting the corner of his desk and smoothly slicing off the edge before he flicked his wrist, neatly returning it. It lost its rigidity and floated across his shoulders. “One of the sharpest materials in the galaxy. But its sharpness and tensile strength is relative to its velocity. It has a second use.”

  “Do I want to know what that is?”

  Before I could move, Sedaya slipped behind me, draping the scarf over my neck and pulling me to him with it. He tugged it tight against my neck, choking off my air supply.

  “It doesn’t need to be sharp to be dangerous,” he hissed into my ear. “Though all I need to do is yank it taut as I pull it back, and I could show you why they call it the Guillotine.”

  “I wouldn’t be able to see it,” I wheezed out. “I’d be dead.”

  “It can take up to a minute for the head to die without the body,” Sedaya said. “I’d make sure you see it before you left this universe.” He relaxed the grip some, letting me breathe. “But as I said, I still have a use for you.”

  “I know what it is,” I said. “You want me to call Alter back. To hand over the slab and the Star. That’s all you’ve ever wanted from me.”

  “That was all in the beginning. But you’ve destroyed too many of my resources since then. You owe me more.”

  “What’s so special about the slab, anyway?” I asked. “It doesn’t even turn on.”

  “I want it,” he answered. “That’s enough to make it special.” He pulled the scarf tight around my neck again, leaning close. “Understand this, Benjamin. If you refuse to help me, I’ll still track down your ship like I did before. I’ll kill your friend and everyone else on board, and I’ll bring you their heads so you know it’s done. Or, you can contact them and tell them that if they bring me the slab, I’ll let you go.”

  “You’ve done a bang up job catching them so far,” I said. “The only one of us you managed to capture is like the wounded wildebeest the rest of the herd leaves behind for the jackals.” It wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but I was done being afraid of the Duke. He couldn’t threaten me with death. I was already dying. “You have no leverage.”

  He let go of one side of the scarf and kicked me forward. My neck pushed the material as I stumbled to my knees, giving it enough velocity to nick my skin and draw blood.

  “I need that slab!” he screamed at me from behind. “You’re going to get it back for me.”

  “No, I don’t think I will,” I countered, wiping away the line of blood and holding it up to him. “I’m not afraid to die.”

  He paused, his visible fury retreating a little, a grin returning to his face. “No, you aren’t, are you? Most individuals I’ve needed to persuade value their life above all else. But how can you value your life when you already know you’re going to lose it, no matter what you do?”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have killed the one person who could have helped me,” I said. “He would have made a good bargaining chip.”

  “A short-sighted error in judgment,” Sedaya said. “You may be right.” He wrapped the scarf around my neck again, pulling it tight and choking me a second time. “Maybe you aren’t afraid to die. But how do you feel about wanting to die while you continue to live?” He held the scarf against my throat, leaving me unable to breathe. My chest started burning soon enough, and I grabbed at the scarf, trying to pull it away. Sedaya didn’t budge, holding the scarf against me while I struggled. “I can make the rest of your life a living hell, Benjamin,” he growled. “I’m not above torture to get what I want.”

  He let me go, shoving me forward again so I wound up on my stomach on the deck. I coughed and dry-hacked as I fought to get some air back into my lungs. “I’m not going to help you,” I wheezed.

  “You will, one way or another. If you don’t, I’ll still enjoy watching you suffer.” He whistled loudly and the door opened. The two guards rushed in, flanking me while I remained prone on my stomach. “Take him to a holding cell.”

  “Yes, Master Sedaya,” they said. Each one took an arm and lifted me to my feet, turning me around to face him.

  “You have two hours to think it over,” Sedaya said. “And then the punishment begins.”

  I stared at him defiantly, refusing to reply. The guards practically lifted me off the ground as they shoved me out the door. My neck burned as badly as my lungs, already leaving me in discomfort. I hadn’t signed up for torture.

  “I shouldn’t have picked the scarf,” I said, hoping for a response from the guards. They ignored me, leading me to an elevator that carried us down ten decks to a much darker, dingier portion of the ship. Like Persephon spaceport, different pipes and wires snaked along the narrower corridors on this level. We followed them to a guard station in front of a long row of barred doors.

  “Master Sedaya wants him locked up but otherwise unharmed,” one of the guards said to the jailer.

  The jailer glanced at me but didn’t say anything. He stepped forward, wrapping an impossibly strong hand around my arm. Looking down at it, I realized the appendage wasn’t organic. A mechanical replacement for the limb. A cyborg arm. It held me fast as the jailer pulled me past the station and down the row of cells. He stopped a quarter of the way down, opened one of the doors, and threw me inside. I landed on the dirty floor in a heap, my head spinning anew.

  The jailor said something in Niflin, slammed the door shut, and walked away, leaving me alone.

  I remained on the floor of the cell for a minute, contemplating my fate. It was one thing to die of cancer. Another to live with torture. But I wouldn’t do what he wanted. I couldn’t. Besides, not one part of me believed Sedaya would let me walk away once he had the slab. Even if the Grimoire was that important to him, he hated me too much to let me go.

  I slowly rose to my feet, glancing around the cell. A small box in the corner that looked sort of like a toilet was the only other thing in it. There was nowhere soft for me to sit. Sedaya hadn’t provided so much as a cot.

  “I hope this was worth it,” I said under my breath.

  It would be worth it if it gave time for Alter to get Matt somewhere safe. Hopefully back to Earth, despite what she had said about the challenges involved.

  Rattling bars drew my attention. In the darkness, I couldn’t see the prisoner in the cell next to mine very well.

  “What do you want?” I snapped.

  “Is that any way to treat an old friend?” I heard the click of a lighter, and then Keep’s face appeared on the other side of the bars. An about-to-be-lit cigarette dangled from his lips. “What’s a nice kid like you doing in a place like this?”

  Thank you so much for reading Head Case! For more information on Book Three, please visit mrforbes.com/starshipforsale3.

  OTHER BOOKS BY M.R FORBES

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