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The old man wasn't worse for wear. The patch was keeping him healthy, his pulse was steady, if weak. Tristan stood. "Well?" he asked Alex.

The human moved away from the wall and looked down the shaft. "I can't see much, but all I hear is falling rocks. I'd say they're all dead."

Tristan turned and looked at him. His back was covered with burns and blood. "And?"

Alex turned and gave him a quizzical look. "And what?"

"How do you feel about it?"

"What does it matter?" his tone was controlled, but Tristan could see the emotions in his eyes. Regret, annoyance, some anger, but they were restrained, controlled.

He was human, and lacked the training at controlling himself Tristan had grown up with. This was probably the best he could hope for. Still he'd done what he had to. He'd survived, that was the important thing.

He looked around the room, at the bodies, the blood. Most had died from a blade, Alex's preferred weapon. When Alex had first forced himself into his life, and Tristan had decided not to just kill him outright, he'd planned on breaking him of that habit.

Knives had their use, but it shouldn't be the first weapon he went for. He should be killing his enemies at a distance. Getting them before they even knew he was there. But Alex's skill with knives was...impressive. Not only that, but he had a talent for avoiding being hit and enduring the pain when he couldn't.

If Tristan believed in the gods of his world, he'd think this human was protected by them.

"What?" the human asked.

"I don't like your face." It was a lie. He didn't care one way or another, but it was credible, and it meant he didn't have to mention how seeing him among the carnage he'd wrought, covered in his enemy's blood made Tristan feel.

"How's the cleaning?"

"I managed to access the database, as archaic as it is. You're not in it. I'm guessing that they really didn't believe you are who I said you are."

Tristan smiled. "Like a young bounty hunter could ever capture me. Even experienced ones end up dead when they come after me."

Alex shrugged. "Once I spray everything with DNA dissolver, there won't be any evidence either of us has been here." He looked at the bodies. "Won't be much of these left either."

"Good. When you're done, join me in our ship. I'm going to make sure our passenger is comfortable."

"I already put the medical kit by the cryo bed, in case he needs anything."

Tristan looked at him.

Alex shrugged. "When I went back in while we waited for them to show up, that's why. I thought there might be a chance his health would be critical and I didn't want you to have to spend time getting it."

Tristan nodded. He'd been angry when Alex had just left. If the guards had shown up while he was away the ruse would have been dead, then they would have had to kill everyone and risk some sort of failsafe. They couldn't take that chance until Tristan had their target and was by the lift, ready to use it as cover against explosives.

If not for the fact he had to play captive, he would have told Alex what he thought of abandoning him like that, but now that he knew why, he didn't feel the need to punish him. Alex did have a way of thinking about their quarry's well being. Tristan rarely considered that.

He picked up the old man, and carried him through the long tunnel that led to the landing bay. It was dark, carved out of the rock itself, and other than supports to ensure it didn't collapse, nothing had been done to make it look like anything more than a mine. It was old enough people had done the mining, instead of machines.

The landing bay was another cavern, this one natural. The only reshaping done to it was to level the floor. Three ships were parked on it. Two smaller ones, and Tristan's ship. This one was larger, a converted leisure yacht that could house five people. It had belonged to one of those bounty hunters that had hunted Tristan, and he'd kept it for those times he had to put on a mask of someone wealthy. He'd pulled it out of storage since having more space made sense now that Alex was with him.

He put the old man down at the foot of the ramp and he did his usual check of the ship, making sure no one had added anything to its hull, tampered with the sensors, or did anything else stupid that would require him to teach the perpetrator a lesson.

He didn't think anyone had had time to do anything, they'd all escorted him and Alex to the control room, but there had been the twenty minutes or so he'd been in the prison. Alex hadn't mentioned anyone leaving, but that didn't mean he hadn't missed something.

The circuit complete he took the cover off the access panel and checked the wires and circuits. This was more habit than anything else. He hadn't been in a position to fully lock down his ship, so there wasn't anything for him to undo before unlocking the ramp. He put the cover back in place an entered the code.

With the old man back in his arms he entered his ship, passing the lockers holding the EVA suits, the emergency oxy tanks, the lounge and kitchen to reach the first of the five bedrooms. It was the only unused one, the one Alex had suggested they keep for when they had passengers. He hadn't argued. He didn't have a use for it.

He laid down the old man on the bed and took the portable scanner out of the pack at the foot of the bed. The man was in bad shape. He wouldn't have lasted for much longer in that prison. The patch had stabilized him. He could do with more, but he was going under full field cryo so time wouldn't pass for him. And he would be their client's responsibility once he was delivered.

He activated the cryo unit. Rods raised from the four corners, and then flicked on with a flash of bluish light. He put the scanner back in the pack, and that back in its locker.

Taking what he needed from another locker, he went around the other ships and placed the explosives in strategic places on their hulls, by the engines, the main sensors, cockpit. He didn't want anyone who might have survived the grenades to make it off this place and spread tales of what had happened.

When he came back to his ship, Alex had returned. He could hear the shower going in his room. The yacht was luxurious enough to have a water system, and Alex enjoyed it.

Tristan entered the room, got out of his pants and entered the shower. Alex startled, but before he could strike, Tristan was holding his arms. He didn't say anything, only pressed himself against his back, letting him feel his intention and Alex relaxed.

Tristan used him.

That was all he did, even if he wasn't as rough as he had been at the start. Whenever his desires for the human overrode his control, he used him. He got it out of his system and then went back to what he had to do.

Usually he could go months without needing this, and he'd done it only a few weeks ago, but seeing the human covered in his enemies' blood had done something to him.

Yes, that was the reason for this. The last time had been a particularly intense training session. The one before that had been because they'd barely escaped from a trap.

Tristan considered it was time to go back home again, all those adrenaline-inducing events made him need this more often.

He held Alex, but that was just to keep him in place while he used him. He didn't see to the human's pleasure, although his hands did wander over the tone chest and abs. Worrying about his pleasure was the mark of someone who cared, and Tristan didn't care about Alex. He was a tool, a weapon, and Tristan used him as he saw fit.

The human's moans and groans did something to him, making him go faster and harder. Alex enjoyed it this way, Tristan knew, and this knowledge made it more pleasurable, for him. He didn't care how much, or little, Alex enjoyed it.

When his climax came, Tristan held onto the human tightly. He continued to hold him as it passed, and control came back to him, then he left the human in the shower to go dry, put his pants back on and get back to work.

He sat in the cockpit and started the checks. He was almost done when Alex joined him and sat in his own seat. He spoke in a low voice to the computer, doing his side of the checks.

Tristan no longer double checked what Alex did with his computer. Tristan had made his trust in him clear when he'd insisted he replaced those earpieces he could, and had, lost at times, with an implant. Now his ability to coerce computers couldn't be taken away from him. Not even by Tristan.

"The system's clear," Alex said. "No one contacted it to insert their own programs."

Tristan nodded. "Will the door open, or do I need to blow it up too?"

"It's on its own system. Old, but modern enough to be on the network. It'll open."

Tristan sent the command and they left, a ball of fire exploding out of the landing bay a moment later. They flew over the desolate surface, leaving the mountain where the prison was housed, and then went up until the ball of rock was shrinking behind them. He sent a message to a hidden node that would inform their client the job was completed and set course for the prearranged rendezvous.