Stars Across Time (29 page)

“As you wish, Captain.”

The handcuffs gave a little more under his straining muscles, but Theron couldn’t quite break the hold. Vivienne turned toward him, spinning the weapon—the torture device?—in her hand the way he spun his knives. Theron let his shoulders droop.

Vivienne walked up and tapped him on the chest. The smooth black stick emitted a buzz, and a devastating chill struck him with such force that he stumbled back, his shoulders slamming against the wall. Gasping at the pain, he stared at the device. What the hell was it? It had only touched him for a second, but every muscle in his abdomen ached, and it felt like an inch of frost covered his chest, numbing him with cold. For the first time, a tendril of fear curled through his mind as he realized he could be seriously hurt here, maybe even killed. Who knew what extended exposure to that device did?

“I suggest you answer any questions that are asked,” Vivienne said coolly before turning back to the audience. “Let’s start the bidding at ten ounces of gold, shall we?”

Several women raised their hands.

“We have ten,” Vivienne said. “Twenty?”

Theron watched the torture device while Vivienne watched and interacted with the audience. He wanted to kick it out of her hand, but he made himself stay calm. This wasn’t the place to be aggressive. Once someone had paid for him and was trying to haul him to a boat, then he would find his opportunity. Or he would make one.

“Eighty?” Vivienne asked.

The number of hands waving in the air had diminished. A lady with gray, curly hair had the current high bid. Theron could hardly imagine knocking her down in an attempt to free himself, but unless she had a sadistic streak, he shouldn’t have to worry too much about dealing with her.

“Let’s just make it one-fifty and call it good, shall we?” the captain asked, standing up. He smoothed his suit and smiled at Theron, a smile that did nothing to brighten his hard, dark eyes.

Vivienne’s lashes fluttered a few times in surprise, but she recovered and asked, “If there are no other bids?”

A couple of the women who had been bidding glared at the captain, but nobody else was rich enough or interested enough to raise a hand to outbid him. Or perhaps, nobody else dared.

The captain wasn’t a young man, but he jumped onto the stage easily, never taking his eyes from Theron’s. He held out his hand toward Vivienne. She dropped the torture device into it. Theron tensed, his body telling him to run, that it did not want to receive another tap.

But he had no choice. The captain strode straight forward and planted it against his groin.

Even with the shackle around his ankle, Theron leaped three feet, twisting, trying to escape the icy bite of that thing. The iron ball didn’t leap with him, and he crashed back down, almost losing his footing. Even though the captain didn’t leave the device pressed to his flesh for long, it took him a long moment to find his breath, to stop gasping for air. Only then did he realize that the captain had clasped his shoulder and leaned in close.

“You’ve cost me ships in the past, Colonel,” the captain whispered, his fingers tightening, his nails digging into Theron’s shoulder. As if that pain was anything worth worrying about when that damned dildo was still two inches from his penis. The tendril of fear he’d felt before became a lasso, tightening about his mind, telling him that he might not walk off this ship alive. “Did you truly think you would come here and we would believe you were one of us? I intend to torture you, and then I intend to kill you. Also? I intend to enjoy both very, very much.”

• • • • •

Sweat dripped down the sides of Andie’s face. She didn’t know if it was a sign of nerves or if the air had grown hotter. Maybe she was close to the boiler room? Given the technology level here, everything probably ran on coal, so heat seemed likely. She hadn’t intentionally been searching for the boiler room, but it occurred to her that it could be a place for holding prisoners. Why not torment already beleaguered people by making them suffer hot, humid conditions? Besides, it should be a large space.

Andie followed a sign down a narrow corridor. She had narrowly escaped being captured twice since leaving the cargo hold, and she was antsy to find Min-ji. She had left two more men tied up, this time in storage cabinets, but with every passing moment, she worried someone would realize guards weren’t at their posts and that there was an intruder aboard. Then the alarm would go off, and everything would become that much harder. She crossed her fingers that she would also find Theron. If nothing else, he would have the strength to more easily drag men across the deck to stuff them into closets.

A boom shook the ship, tipping Andie into the closest bulkhead. She touched her waist, where she had stuffed the explosive into her pants, her first thought that she had dropped the package somewhere and someone had hurled it overboard to safely detonate it. But no, it was still snugged against her waist, all too close for comfort.

An alarm sounded, and she winced. While she hoped that it had to do with the explosion, she worried someone had found her tied guards and that squads of armed troops would be racing down the corridors to find her. So far, her luck had been good, but she couldn’t count on that lasting.

“Boiler room,” she muttered, reminded of her intent to check it by a plaque on the wall.

She followed the signs to a hatch. When she opened it and peeked down the steps directly on the other side, she jumped. There was a guard at the bottom, but he wasn’t standing at his post. He lay crumpled on the floor, not moving. If he’d had a rifle, it was gone now.

Though she suspected Theron was responsible, she proceeded through the hatchway cautiously. She jerked her six-shooter in the direction of the first face she spotted.

Min-ji flung her arms upward. “Don’t shoot. I’m naked.”

“Er.” Andie descended the steps slowly, taking in the iron bars of a pen—and that her friend and the other women were outside of it instead of inside it. “I think you’re supposed to say, ‘I’m unarmed.’”

“That too.” Soot smeared Min-ji’s face and arms, but she appeared uninjured. The guard and two workers farther back in the room were another matter.

Several of the naked women clenched shovel hafts, one had found an axe, and another one held the guard’s rifle.

Min-ji was unarmed, but from the way the others looked to her, she seemed to be in charge.

“I came to get you all out,” Andie said, “but it seems you have the situation in hand already.”

Min-ji ran forward and hugged her fiercely for a long minute before stepping back, her eyes gleaming with moisture. Andie returned the embrace. She had never doubted that her friend was alive—though she had worried how she was being treated—but Min-ji must have believed Andie was dead.

Min-ji stepped back, wiping her eyes. She took a deep breath and nodded firmly. “Your friend not-Mace was already here.”

“He let you go?” Andie looked around, half expecting Theron to jump out from behind the wood pile.

“Sort of. They captured him and brought him down here naked and chained. But he had squirreled away some devices. We got them out, and he left a couple when he was taken. We burned open the lock with one. I added some weight to turn the last one into a decent projectile and threw it into the furnace when those men opened it.”

Andie thought of the explosion she had felt.

“I was impressed by the detonation pressure of such a small device,” Min-ji added.

“I’ll expect some math problems based around it when we get home. You said they took Theron? And that he’s chained?” That had
not
been part of the plan.

“Yes, they’re auctioning him off first.”

Andie almost choked at the idea of him being paraded around in front of some rich, horny women. At least he shouldn’t be in horrible danger. “Min-ji? Do you think you could rig the boiler to explode? In a big sink-the-ship-to-the-bottom-of-the-sea way?”

“Sink the ship? Can’t we just leave?”

“The army wanted it utterly destroyed, and besides, the time machine is in the cargo hold. I’d like to make sure that it’s destroyed or at least on the bottom where nobody can get at it.” There were several islands not that far away and numerous lifeboats, so Andie figured any innocent workers could escape before the ship sank completely. She pulled the explosive out from her pants. “This should help.”

“Uh, yes. I’ll let you place that.” Min-ji waved toward the back of the boiler room. “Any spot should work.”

They chose to tuck the bomb away in the shadows. When the time came to set the clock, Andie debated with herself. How long would it take to find Theron? How long would it take the women to reach the lifeboats, assuming they would have to fight along the way? A half hour seemed too short. Was an hour too long? An alarm continued to blare from the upper decks. It wouldn’t be long before someone came down here to check on the women. Once they were discovered missing, a thorough ship-wide search would begin.

She decided on thirty minutes. If she had trouble getting to Theron, she
might
need the explosion to draw attention elsewhere.

“Down here,” came a male cry from the hatchway. Boots rang out on the steps.

Cursing, Andie started the countdown, then ran toward the stairs, her gun in hand. Stealth was no longer an option, so she would shoot if she had to.

But the women were quicker. Led by Min-ji, they surged up the stairs with their shovels, battering at the two men who had charged down without assessing the danger. Or maybe they hadn’t considered the naked women dangerous. Andie lowered her six-shooter. The men had already gone down, disappearing under the onslaught of women with a lot of frustrations to unleash.

“To the lifeboats,” Min-ji said, pointing toward the hatchway.

The mob of women followed her, two more weapons liberated for their cause, and left Andie to trot to the stairs on her own. Feeling somewhat useless, but also proud of her academic young friend, Andie stopped to tie the disarmed guards to the metal steps. They were groaning and too battered to fight her. She didn’t make the bonds tight, not wanting them stuck down here thirty minutes from now, but she made sure they wouldn’t be charging right after the women, either.

“Tell me which way to the auction, and I’ll tell you a secret,” Andie whispered in one’s ear.

He spat, an ineffective gesture since he lacked the strength to send the saliva flying. It dribbled down his chin instead.

“I won’t tell you then.” Andie stepped over the men and ran into the corridor again. It was probably best
not
to warn the guards to get off the ship as quickly as possible. They might start to wonder why.

Andie took off in the direction the women had gone, determined to be their rear guard because they would definitely meet resistance. But she peered down every corridor she passed, hoping to stumble across the auction room or wherever Theron had been dragged to. She wasn’t leaving without him.

T
heron walked after his new owner, his head down and his shoulders slumped, every appearance of a meek and cowed new slave. But he watched everything with his peripheral vision, such as the fact that there were only two guards behind him. The captain, walking ahead, carried that torture device, but if Theron could kick it away, the man didn’t appear to have any other weapons.

The iron ball weighed at Theron’s leg—no servant had come along to carry it—and he deliberately bashed it against walls at every opportunity. He also made a show of being slowed down by it. When they came to steps leading up to the main deck, the captain scowled back at him.

“I’ll carry it if you release my hands,” Theron said mildly.

In truth, he thought he might be able to sever the half-melted link between the cuffs with another great pull. But he wouldn’t let his captor know that.

The captain scowled but did wave to the guard behind Theron. “Carry that, will you? We’re going up to my cabin.”

Not if Theron could help it. He had no intention of taking another bite from that device. But he bided his time, following along, keeping up his meek and defeated facade. He didn’t know if the captain would believe it—the man clearly had some familiarity with Theron’s career and must know he didn’t give up easily. Still, the armed escort might be caught off guard, especially now that one was carrying his ball.

As they crossed the open deck, a salty breeze scraping over Theron’s bare skin, he looked to the dark island that hid the army vessels behind it. Striding nude across the deck wasn’t quite the signal he had been instructed to give, but maybe someone would be out there in a tree with binoculars. The deck was relatively empty, aside from a few guards stationed around the perimeter, so he ought to be easy to pick out.

A faint shudder ran through the ship, the deck vibrating beneath Theron’s feet. They had been heading toward another set of steps, these leading to the elevated area where the bridge, and presumably the captain’s cabin, lay. The wailing of an alarm erupted from speakers at the bow and stern of the ship.

The captain cursed and ran for the stairs. “Bring him,” he barked over his shoulder, already vaulting up the steps three at a time.

Whatever the reason for the alarm—Theron guessed Andie must be up to something—he had his distraction. He turned, nodded calmly past the guard’s shoulder, and said, “Looks like reinforcements are coming.”

The moment the man glanced backward, Theron strained at the cuffs, putting more effort into pulling them apart than he had dared when everyone was watching. They snapped, the clink not audible over the wailing siren.

The second guard, the one holding the ball, hadn’t fallen for Theron’s ruse and was dropping the weight to grab his gun. Taking a page from Andie’s book, Theron kicked the man’s hand before it wrapped around the handle, following up the attack with a punch to the gut. His other guard spun back around, whipping up his rifle, but with his hands free, Theron was a flurry of action. Having to endure the agony from that torture device had left his body tense with rage, and he uncoiled with the explosive power of a gun going off. In seconds, both guards lay at his feet, unmoving.