Wolf hadn't bothered to grab his coat before leaving the ghetto-apartments, and was silently cursing his oversight. The wind bit at his arms and made him shiver. He wondered if Sloan was cold, too.
A small movement behind him called his attention. He had only been vaguely aware of someone behind him for a good 20 minutes. Originally he had assumed that it had just been an Outlander coming home from the night-shift, but after he had made a few turns and the person was still behind him, he began to grow suspicious. He stopped and glared into the darkness, frustrated by his blindness. Since he had taken off his cybernetic eye-patch for the undercover mission a few nights past and left it at the ship, he had been cut off from that piece of equipment for nearly a week. The shadow stopped when he did.
"Can I help you?" he hissed warningly. The dark outline of a body studied him for a moment, as if it could see more clearly than he, then it took a few steps forward, into Wolf's realm of vision. He relaxed slightly. The stalker turned out to be Nicola. She looked worn down, like a rabbit that had been chased for miles by a pack of hungry wolves. In their eyes a spark of hatred also glowed brightly. It had not been there before Sloan's disappearance, and Wolf knew that it was for him. "Shouldn't you be back at the warehouse?" Wolf asked irritably. She cocked her head in thought for a moment.
"Yes, probably."
"Then why are you out here following me?" Wolf asked, turning his back on her and walking away again. Nikki quickened her pace, and Wolf soon found her at his elbow.
Where Sloan always was. A pang went through his heart. What he would've given to feel that burst of annoyance he so often felt when she magically appeared at his side without him noticing, a feat that was supposedly impossible to complete.
"Lady Xannon wants us to give up on Sloan," she told him, "but I can't do that, and neither can you. I can see it in your face that you would never leave her." She fell into silence, her eyes flipping around wildly, hunting for the right words. "I will do anything to save her from King."
Wolf cringed. Everyone had known that Regis King had to be Sloan's abductor, but no one had been able to bring themselves to say it until now.
"What makes you think it's King?" Wolf croaked hoarsely.
"He pulled off her bandana. He knows it's yours, he took it off her to spite you. If a slaver had grabbed her, they would have kept it on because space pirates are worth big Calrii on the block. And besides…" Nikki looked up into the few bright stars that had broken through a hole in the smog layer. "If the slavers got her, we'll have no chance."
"Xannon seems to think that we won't find her either way," Wolf reminded her. Nikki rolled her eyes.
"Xannon doesn't think the way I do. There is always a way to achive the goal, honourable or otherwise."
They stepped from behind a building into the bright of the spotlights that surrounded the docks. Nikki seemed to tense under the light, but she continued to follow Wolf as he walked on.
The heat and the buzz met them as soon as they walked in the door. The usual characters of merchants and pirates walked around the wooden staging area, and for a moment Wolf was content to enjoy the energy. Then he remembered the desperate circumstances that had returned him to his ship.
"I'm hoping that Nicell will be able to locate the Punch Dot microchip that is buried in Sloan's wrist."
"A Punch Dot? How did you manage to get a chip in her? The implantation at Sector Y is extremely painful," Nikki questioned sceptically, unconsciously rubbing her wrist.
"It wasn't hard." He held up the wrist that donned his Wolfen control bracelet. "It planted itself in her as soon as she snapped this on. The bracelet records heart-rate and things of that nature, and the dot is what gathers the information for it. It's in every member of Star Wolf. I don't think she knows about it, though."
"And Nicell can track the chip anywhere?"
"Anywhere within a certain radius. If Sloan's on this planet, we'll find her." Wolf found the cargo bay doors of The Nicell wide open when he reached the ship. He could she the slim figure of Sabre, fixing something near the open hatch. A much smaller, scrawnier figure that Wolf pegged as Fennec was watching her with intense curiosity.
Wolf found himself pausing when he caught sight of her. He wanted to turn back, to not have to speak to her about Sloan's disappearance. Guilt stabbed once again at his heart.
More blood on my hands.
"Wolf?" Nikki prompted gently, unsure why they had stopped. His head jerked in her direction a little, so she knew he had heard. With only a few more seconds of hesitation, he stared towards them again. Fennec glanced up and saw them. Wolf grimaced as he saw the little boy reach up and pull on Sabre's overalls, pointing at Wolf and Nicola when he got her attention.
"Any news on Sloan?" she asked as soon as they were near. Wolf simply shook his head and continued on to the lift that would take them to Astrometrics. Sabre was about to press, but then noticed the troubled look on Wolf's face. She let them go without further questioning.
Panther was waiting in Astrometrics, nursing an injured hand. After the warehouse explosion, he had run into a group of Imperial soldiers on his way back to Xannon's safehouse. There had been few of them, and he had fought them off with his hand being the only injury. From what Wolf gathered, neither Panther nor anyone else from the raid had run into as much trouble as he and Nikki. He could understand why. Nikki had not been expected, But Panther wasn't surprised to see Wolf. He too question the team lead about the status of the investigation, but Wolf ignored him, calling on the ship's A.I. instead.
"Nicell!"
The complete hologram appeared on the Projection Podium. Her face was etched with worry. Just like Sabre to build in emotion and attachment algorithms.
"Yes, sir?"
"I need you to perform a search of the planet…"
"A progressive scan for Sloan's Punch Dot code? I've already started, but I haven't got anywhere yet. This planet's air is so dense with smog particles, the scan is having a hard time coming through. It's been hours and I've barely gotten outside of this dock."
"That's not good enough. Pump up the signal power."
"It's already at full, there's nothing…"
"Nothing isn't good enough!" Wolf roared. "Find a way! Sloan doesn't have days or weeks, I needed to know where she is yesterday!" at that he turned on his heels and marched back out to the lift. Nikki drifted after him, saying nothing. They both stood silently, side by side. Wolf could not bring himself to look at her.
"This is my fault," he said quietly.
"Yes," Nikki replied, "yes it is." Her simple replied cut more deeply than if she had screamed at him. Really, that was what he had been expecting when Sloan went missing. The fact that she had stayed unusually calm had begun to unzip his reality. Either she was holding back her emotions about her kidnapped 'sister', or the frightening lack of sentiment was because Red Generation had sapped it out of her, and she just couldn't find it in herself to be upset. This bothered Wolf even more, because he knew that was the road Sloan was destined for if King got his way.
"Maybe I should go back the safehouse. Maybe if I look around, I'll find something they missed."
"Maybe something the others missed, but not me. There looked to be some signs of an altercation in the dirt not to far away from the warehouse, but the victim didn't put up much of a fight. Seemed as if she started in a prone position. Other than that, there's nothing."
"Dammit!" Wolf hissed, fist slamming sideways into the lift wall. "There has to be something we can do!" Nikki glanced away.
"Unless some kind of clue falls into our lap, we're done for."
"Yeah, we're done for, and so is she."
XXX
She tried to move something, anything, but her body refused to listen to her requests. Her mind was a sharp as ever, snapped out of her illness by severe trauma, but she might as well have been brain dead for all the good it did her. Her whole body shivered. She felt like she was in a deep freeze thanks to the numbing film that had been applied to her entire naked body. Blood poured from her nose and mouth due to being dropped as they were loading her into the back of an imperially marked military van. Her face had smashed into the back fender, sending wracks of pain coursing through her, yet she could say nothing, do nothing, to ease it. Blood pooled in the back of her throat and choked her, but she couldn't cough and dislodge it, she could barely even manage to keep up a decent rhythm of breath, relying on her most deep-seated reflexes to keep her alive. Other than that, she was at the mercy of the two burly fennecs in the cab of the van, driving to what she was sure was a Red Generation training camp.
As terrifying a thought as her destination was, her mind gave precedence of her fear to the man she was staring at. Her eyes were the only thing left unfrozen -numbing film on eyes caused blindness, and they couldn't risk damaging such important cargo- and she had both them locked securely on a powerfully built, grey wolf who sat against the closed and bolted van doors.
Even though he was sitting on the van's dirty floor, he still managed to look refined, gentlemanly. A slight smile sat perpetually on his lips. Still, there was that air about him, the sense of evil in solid form, with a beating heart and a black soul. Regis King watched as intently as Sloan watched him, but with a more curious interest, while hers came from pure fear. He was studying her as if he had never seen her before, as if she had changed to the point that he almost didn't recognize her, even though it had only been six months since she had run away from the orphanage. Six glorious months, but eventually King had tracked down his prey, just as he always did. She could only wonder in terror at what waited for her at his hands. She was sure that every abuse she had suffered in Sector Y would pale in comparison to what was waiting for her.
"You're afraid," King said suddenly. It caught her off guard. She had never heard him speak so softly before. Still, she held her guard, it could be –would be- just another King trick. She waited for him to continue.
"You're afraid now, but you won't be soon. By the time your destiny has been realized, and your bio-programs have been brought online, you won't be afraid of anything ever again. But others, oh, others will be afraid of you." A light came into his eye that reminded Sloan of Wolf's nostalgic gaze when he had told her the story of his mother's books. That had been little more than a week ago. It felt like eons.
"You don't know what power feels like until you walk into a room of total strangers and they tremble at the very sight of you, at the thought of the awesome power you wield. Maybe I should dull down the emotion inhibitor program, so you can feel the satisfaction in the fear." King's eyes had floated away, as if trapped in a powerful memory. The yellow irises flicked back to look at Sloan. "You know, Wolf did us an incredible favour, taking you in. 14 years under constant assault and living in terrible conditions, and all that time your bio-programs never broke the surface, not even for an instant. Then, as soon as you reached Wolf's side and experience war first hand, they kicked right in. It was almost as if Wolf was the missing link, that fatherly connection spurring on your programs via your desire to please him." He chuckled to himself. "To think, my superiors were beginning to grumble about you being a failure. Had you not run away when you did, the entire operation would have been scrapped."
A look of terrible realization widened Sloan's eyes. If she hadn't run away, if she had just waited until her 18th birthday, none of this would be happening. King noticed the look in her eyes, and chuckled.
"Now don't look like that. Had the program been a failure, I'm afraid you would have had to succumb to an unfortunate accident around the station, one that would have regrettably claimed your life. Come now, do you really think that Red Generation would let a little time-bomb like you float around unchecked, carrying our most advanced and dangerous programs where anyone with a degree in Cognitive Engineering could get at them? No, no, for you it's either positive test results or termination. Either way you wouldn't have made it to 18 without us picking you up. You're just too dangerous for that."
The van had been slowing as he spoke, and was now at a stop. There were two hard bangs on the door as someone pounded their fist against it. King leaned forward. The sound of complaining metal filled the van's box as the rusted bolt was wrenched back. The doors were opened to a view of a low sky filled with dirt coloured clouds, and a thrashing yellow-grey ocean. Off in the distance, at the very edge of Sloan's realm of vision, was something protruding from the ocean, like an island of some kind. Sloan's heart jumped into her throat. This was where Sloan Dykstra would die and a new, soulless beast would rise from her ashes.
King took a deep breath of the salty sea air. He turned back to her with his usual pleasant manner. It was enough to make Sloan want to vomit.
"Oh, and don't go thinking that Wolf is going to swoop in and save you like he always has. No one is going to come for you, and if they do, they will be killed. If you still love Wolf as much as you thought he loved you, you'll pray that he stays far away from here." His eyes became very cold, making his smile seem even more dangerous. "You died the second you became my prisoner. The sooner you accept this, the easier your transition to Huntress will be." He leaned down until his lips were right next to her ear. She felt his hand on her raven hair. His touch was… gentle. What should have been a shudder could not manifest in her dead muscles. "Let go of your fear and your love, because soon you will shed those worthless feelings forever, and rise to be the superior being you were born to be."
And then he was gone. She didn't feel his hand slip away from her hair, or the slight wind of his head moving away, he simply ceased to exist next to her. He was replaced by the two guards that had waited patiently to take her away. They reached in, lifting easily her small, prone body. Sloan could do nothing to protest, could do nothing at all except silently pray that King was wrong, and Wolf was coming for her.
