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Consciousness didn't return quickly. Tristan had to fight his way through grogginess to be able to open his eyes. Then it was an act of pure defiance that had him on his feet. He wouldn't give the universe the satisfaction of killing him so easily.

Four walls, a ceiling, floor and a door. This was a cell. It hadn't been intended as one, but any room could be made into a cell if the door had a solid lock on it.

How he'd gotten here was fuzzy, but since he had to fight to regain consciousness, he'd been drugged. He'd woken up on the floor of a bare room, so his capture hadn't been something planned for. Or at least this wasn't one of the bounty hunters after him.

Alex was on the floor, still unconscious. He'd get to him later.

A sink and toilet meant this had been a space intended to have people in it. There had been a bed, he could see where it had been bolted to the wall. Something else had been removed, a dresser by the shape and size of what had been secured.

This ship didn't have cells. And no plans to hold prisoners, right, the people who'd caught him worked for the person he was after.

He knelt next to the human. He checked his neck and felt a pulse, strong and steady. Tristan felt better.

"Alex," he said softly, "it's time to wake up." He hated having to be gentle, but this was the price he paid for honing such a sharp weapon. Normally he didn't mind the ensuing fight, when he forced Alex awake, but this time neither of them had the time for it.

He placed a hand on Alex's shoulder and squeezed. "Alex, you need to fight the drug."

A groan answered him.

"That's it." Tristan pulled him to a wall and sat him there.

"I'm going to kill them," Alex' words were slurred. His eyes still closed.

"I hope so. Can you stand?"

"Sure." He tried to get his body to move, but would have flopped to the side if Tristan hadn't caught him. "I'm okay. You don't have to worry about me."

"I never do," Tristan said, making his voice harsh to bury the concern that he'd been feeling.

"Good. I'm not important."

"Get up." Tristan grabbed him by the arms and pulled. "I need you conscious and able to fight." He began walking, forcing Alex to do the same. In no time, the human was able to support his own weight, then walk unassisted.

The sink didn't have cups, so they had to drink at the faucet. Something easier for Alex than Tristan. Even with his muzzle giving him a longer reach, the sink was small.

"That was a powerful stunner," Alex commented. "But it wouldn't account for how tough it was to wake up. Drugs?"

Tristan nodded before getting back to lapping water. If the sink had a stopper he could fill it and lap the water out that way, but he had to contend with getting it while it ran.

"Not the law, so you think Baran's people brought us here?"

With a growl Tristan straightened. He'd get a decent drink once they were out. "Yes. We're on a ship."

Alex raised an eyebrow. Then looked around. "The furniture was bolted in place."

Tristan nodded. He could also feel the faint vibration through the sole of his feet. He searched his pocket and found he had nothing. All he I'd been left with was the clothing he wore.

Alex cursed. "Oh, I am definitely killing them. They took all my knives. You didn't happen to take some of that enzyme before all this did you?" Alex's fingers' moved like they were itching. "I really could use something sharp to hold."

Tristan snorted.

"I don't have your claws, okay? And I can throw knives."

"You'll get them quickly enough, in the meantime, there are more important things to do." He grinned as he took off his belt.

Alex rolled his eyes. "You do know we've been together long enough I can tell what you have in mind, right?" He took off his own belt.

"If you couldn't after all this time, I'd have to kill you." He slipped a claw under the belt's clasp and forced it open. Alex unhooked the clasp off his belt, pocketed that and pulled the leather apart, revealing wires sandwich between both sides.

The tools Tristan pulled out of his clasp looked minuscule in his fingers, but he used them deftly to undo the panel next to the door.

"Any computers you can talk to?" Bedrooms like this would have something controlling most of the amenities, and the door. He knew what Alex's answer would be.

"No, they have a jammer going on. I was unconscious, so the implant would have attempted to connect automatically to send you a message. They must have detected that."

"Didn't I tell you not to bother with that?" the panel came off easily and he looked through the wires.

"You told me that you wouldn't come rescue me. The message was just to let you know I was caught and not wait for me. It's also a warning in case someone tries to impersonate me to get to you. You know I've been caught, you're not going to believe them."

"You think anyone can fool me?" He found the wires he needed. "Hand me the conductive putty."

"No, but why take a chance? I happen to know there are machines out there that can pluck information out of my brain."

"I never did find anything about that." He used the putty to reattach the wires as he needed them, and in short order the smell of burnt flesh and fur drifted out of the panel.

"It was at Luminex, probably an underground research project. I don't expect they'd want to publicize those. What would you do with one of those anyway?"

"I'd find out your deepest secret," Tristan answered, more focused on what he was doing than saying. There wasn't that much space in there and if he accidentally pulled an intended wire out he might let the guards know what he was doing.

"You already know all of them. You were most of them."

"The universe always holds something back." He closed the cover.

"I'm not the universe. I couldn't hold anything back from you. That's how you turned me into this after all." Alex stepped in front of the door and gave a nod.

Tristan entered a code and the door opened. Alex was through and already fighting. Tristan followed him in time to see one guard on the ground hands around his neck, gasping for breath, another one trying to back away enough he could pull a weapon, but Alex was pressing him, striking at vital points.

The third guard was taking her gun out to shoot Alex. Tristan broke her neck before she knew she was there and took the Edeku out of her hand as she fell. He didn't like these guns, they were inefficient and inaccurate. They looked fancy but anyone who used them was more interested in looking impressive.

He aimed it at the man on the ground as a knife lodged itself in the human's throat. Alex was already dragging his opponent to the room. The man had the hilt of a knife protruding from under his jaw. Alex looked at the weapon Tristan was holding and pulled the Kentric from the holster and handed him that. At least one of them had a decent weapon.

Tristan grabbed the other two by their legs and pulled them in.

Alex wiped the knives clean of blood and took their sheath for himself. He got four knives out of them and looked more relaxed. The holster for the Kentric went under his arm. The Brazely went at his hip.

"We need the layout of the ship."

Alex pulled a datapad from one of the corpses' pocket and searched through it.

"I thought your implant was blocked?"

"I don't need it for this thing. It barely has any encryption. Got it." He held the datapad flat and a ship's worth of corridors and rooms floated above it. A green dot was on the third level from the bottom. "This is a lot bigger than I expected. Didn't she say Baran had left with a yacht?"

"He changed ship." He studied the layout. This could be a Gentry model, or a Century. Both were used by leisure companies, and there were enough finding an older model on the market would be easy.

"Engineering is there." Alex indicated a level below them, closer to the stern of the ship.

"Unless you have a way to bypass the jamming, there isn't much you can do there." Tristan wished he could get the schematics of the ship, that would tell him exactly which model this was. "The bridge will have fewer people. So long as we don't advertise we're coming we'll be able to take it over without trouble.

"Quick and silent death." Alex took out a knife. "I can do that."

Tristan studied the map, memorizing where the maintenance accesses were. They might not be able to make the ten levels they had to climb through them, but it would be more discreet than using the lifts and having to always kill people. Eventually their target would notice his people were missing.

Tristan noted the blood in the corridor by their door. Nothing to be done about it now. He led Alex to the closest access and sent him ahead as he looked at the narrow space. These hadn't been designed for someone like him. He pushed the discomfort down. It had to be done to gain control of the ship. He followed Alex and tried not to think about getting stuck each time he felt the walls scrape his shoulders.

They made it two levels up and towards the bow when they had to exit. Tristan didn't give himself the time to catch his breath. He wouldn't let this slow him down. They encountered two people on their way to the next access. Alex killed one before the surprise even registered on her face, and pulled her into the closest cabin. Tristan had his arms around the man's neck, choking him as he was groping for his gun, another Kentric. Alex got two knives out of this, Tristan added the Kentric.

At the next access Tristan went first, he wasn't scared of narrow conduits. They made it up three levels. It took two more change of access until they were on the top level, and had to kill three more people. Based on that Tristan estimated Baran had less than twenty people on the ship. The minimum to run it, and the one team that had captured them. Thirty people, forty at the most.

They made it to the bridge without encountering anyone. The panel next to the door showed it was unlocked. He stood in front of the door with Alex, gun in both hands and tapped the panel.

He raised his gun as the door opened and took a step, only to stop in the doorway. Twelve armored and armed mercs faced them, standing shoulder to shoulder from one side of the bridge to the other. Beyond them were four crewmen at the ship's control and a man in a central chair.

"You took your sweet time getting here," the man said.

Alex glanced at him. Tristan gave a small shake of the head. It would be suicide to start something now.

"Did you really think you could move on my ship without me knowing about it?"

"Baran."

"Oh, so you know my name?"

The man got out of the chair and two of the mercs moved just enough to let him through. The target didn't look like he had in the picture their employer had shown them. He'd been lean and muscular before, the mark of a man who paid good money to stay healthy, but there had been the layer of comfortable fat the rich always accumulated, no matter how much money they spent.

Now, he was thinner, almost gaunt. He was dressed in a white suit with gold accent at the shoulders and cuffs of the jacket and pants. The buttons were a deep red.

"And who might you be? That you know me?"

"Your sister hired me to bring you back home."

"Really? Dalia wants me to come home? Funny, I don't remember her calling me to tell me that. Why don't you try again? What were you doing at that lab? Why were you after my biochemist?"

"As a way to get to you."

"Really? Get to me? Right, to bring me home. I mean have you tried calling?"

"My job isn't to ask you to go there. It's to take you there, regardless of what other plans you have."

"So you know I have plans. And you're here to keep me from achieving them, of course. Out of curiosity, why haven't you killed me?"

Tristan sighed. "Because your sister paid to have you brought back alive."

"So she knew you might kill me?"

Tristan smiled. "She hired me because I have a reputation for not leaving anyone alive who gets in my way. Yes, she knew I'd kill you."

"But you said she wanted me to come home."

"That's why she paid." A door opened in the distance behind him, and steps were approaching. At a glance he saw twenty mercs, guns in hand, coming. His estimate was off. This man had known they were coming and had kept people out of their way. Maybe those they encountered had been sent so he wouldn't get suspicious, or they hadn't received the orders, but he was dealing with more than forty people on this ship. If Baran had gotten the ship based on how many mercs he was planning on hiring, he was dealing with a lot more than that.

"Somehow I don't believe you. You're not a very good liar, are you?"

Alex snickered.

The man looked at him, then dismissed him.

"I'm going to tell you why you're here. Oh I have no doubt you spoke with dear Dalia. Ever since she found out what I know she's been obsessed with getting it from me. She hired you to steal it. She was always jealous of me and my family, and now that they're gone she wants to take away the only thing I have left."

"You mean killing the mercenaries who killed your family?"

"Yes." The anger in the man's voice stretched the word.

"You can do that once you're back. I don't care. You're just not doing it now."

"You will not stop me! You will tell me the truth of why you are here."

"I already told--"

"Not you. I have no doubt you can withstand an interrogation, but him? He's going to tell me everything I want to know. I am certain of it.

Fear froze Tristan and he couldn't react as four of the men detached themselves from the group to surround Alex. The human waited for a signal, but Tristan couldn't give it. This was beyond not having the advantage.

He didn't say it out loud, but mentally he ordered Alex to survive this. If he didn't, Tristan was going to kill him himself.