It was the fourth night since Youri and Six had started working for Barnaby. This time they were moving product in the night district, behind Saliente, where people drifted in and out of the shadows and the deals happened quickly and without words.
As Youri waited, a familiar figure came toward him, and it took a moment for recognition to settle in, but as the man drew closer, Youri's chest tightened. It was Mikey — one of the three young men he and Six had robbed in the abandoned building before they fled to Talion. Mikey gave the signal without the slightest hesitation and held out his hand with a folded five-hundred-zell note tucked between his fingers.
Youri laid a bag in his palm, but he didn't take the money.
The hesitation confused Mikey, but he said nothing. He only closed his hand around the package and walked away. Youri watched him disappear into the crowd with guilt sitting heavily in his stomach. Leaving those three stranded and stripped on that cold floor had never stopped haunting him, and this was the only way he could think of to repay even a fragment of that debt — though as the man vanished into the crowd, he couldn't help wondering what sort of repayment it was, handing him the very thing that had left him lying on that floor in the first place.
When the last of the product was gone, he met up with Six again, and as they walked through the narrow backstreets, he spoke quietly. "I just sold to one of the guys we stole from. Remember them?"
Six let out a low roar and nodded.
"I gave him a bag for free," Youri went on. "Hopefully that pays back at least some of what we owe."
They slipped into the hidden alleys with their footsteps echoing softly off the wet stone — and suddenly a hand clamped down on Youri's arm.
Six spun around at once, but before he could do anything, two figures slammed him to the ground. Something drove Youri face-first into the pavement, and cold metal cuffs snapped shut around both their wrists.
The Terrian Order.
"We've got the suspects," one of the officers said into his comm. "Requesting escort."
Pinned to the ground, Youri caught sight of the Terrian uniforms, and his heart sank. They were truly finished now — caught just one job short of having enough to leave Volar for good.
They were shoved into the back of an armored Order truck, where a guard studied them with poorly hidden amusement. "To think a pip-squeak like you managed to move drugs and dodge us this long," he said, shaking his head. "You're a real criminal, aren't you?"
Youri stared at the floor with his head bowed, and Six did the same. They both knew what this meant. Once again, they were prisoners.
The drive to the Order's headquarters was short. It lay north of Talion, at the end of a long, straight road lit by evenly spaced lamps that led straight to the gates of the compound. The building loomed over it massive and unforgiving, built of pale concrete that seemed cold even from a distance. It was perfectly symmetrical, spreading outward from a central tower in a rigid formation, its heavy flat walls broken only by deep vertical grooves and narrow slits of windows, so that it looked more like a fortress than anything else. In front of it lay a wide stone plaza slick with rain, reflecting the building like a dark mirror, with short blocky pillars standing in precise rows across it. There were no curves anywhere, no softness — only hard angles and deliberate restraint.
The truck went in through a rear garage door, and a guard marched them down a dark corridor lit only by small lights in the ceiling. The walk was short, and yet it felt endless. He stopped in front of a massive black door. As he reached for the handle, he leaned down and whispered, "Good luck. Though I doubt you'll need it."
The door opened onto a narrow, sealed room made almost entirely of metal. Perforated steel panels covered the walls in endless rows of tiny holes. Thin vertical strips of white light ran up every corner and flooded the space with a glow that left no shadows to hide in. In the middle stood a plain rectangular table surrounded by rigid metal chairs; a small security camera watched from above, and at the far end a utility stand held a glass of water and a few cups. Everything about the room had been built to intimidate.
And Barnaby was already there, seated casually in one of the chairs and watching them come in.
"Have a seat," he said, gesturing at the two empty chairs.
They sat down, with contempt and betrayal written plainly on their faces. Barnaby leaned back a little. "Let's start with something simple. Your names."
Silence.
He let out a single unimpressed breath. "Fine. I'll go first. Barnaby Fanrat. Commanding officer for the eastern side of the Pulsar Nebula."
He got up and perched on the edge of the utility stand, studying them. Still neither of them spoke. Then he straightened, turned to the wall on his left and tapped it twice. A hidden door slid open, and he stepped through it. The red light on the camera flickered, and went out.
A few moments later, Barnaby came back with a smile etched across his face. "Well done," he said. "That's exactly how you do it, if you ever get caught." He sat down again and laid his hands flat on the table. "Now listen carefully, boys. I run this side of the nebula. The police, the Order — who do you think they work for?"
Youri and Six sat frozen, staring at him.
Barnaby stood and walked to the door. "I decide when you're finished," he said coldly. "So get this into your skulls: wherever you go and whenever you move, I will know." He paused with his hand on the door. "And next time, it won't be this easy."
The boys were driven out of the compound and dropped back in the same alley where they had been arrested. The armored truck pulled away and left them standing in that damp, narrow passage as though nothing had happened at all — except that everything had. Standing there among the flickering lights and the stained walls, they were more determined than ever to leave. Hesitation was no longer an option. They had to move fast, before they were pulled any deeper, and before the very idea of escape vanished altogether.