Chapter 17

Tyr looked to the door when he heard the footsteps out in the corridor of the Nightsider and his cronies. There were two other pairs of lighter footsteps with them, which could only be Harper and Beka. This time he was ready. Tyr stole over to the door and pressed himself against the wall beside it, thinking to ambush them when the door opened. The swoosh of the door opening was his cue, and he jumped out to tackle whoever was in his way. There was instant confusion, with Tyr clawing his way through the bodies, trying to inflict as much pain as possible on his captors. Some of the thugs on the outside of the action had a good view of what was going on, and were shooting frantically at the escapee. There was a cry of pain from within the crowd, and the thugs stopped shooting, satisfied that they had done their job. The doors closed and the confusion soon ceased. It was now clear that the prisoners had been forced back into the room and no one on the outside had been hurt much. The Neitszchean was certainly very powerful.

Gerentex came out from the crowd, angrily.

"Just what do you think you were doing back here??" he demanded to the gun- shooters "The noise probably reached all the way around the ship and now they know we're here!! We'll have to move quickly now that our element of surprise has been ruined!" he stormed off down the hallway, followed by his dismayed cohorts. If the noise of the fight hadn't notified the ship of their presence, then Gerentex's ravings certainly had.

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Beka found herself suddenly inside the room with no chronological recollection of how she got there. She remembered a glimpse of Tyr, the sound of gunshots, and then she was here. Luckily, those gunshots had not hit her. She looked over to see if Tyr had escaped when she saw a white- faced Harper sitting on the ground clutching his shoulder. Rommie was lying on the ground beside him and Tyr was standing by the door with someone else's blood on his hands. She rushed over to Harper, briefly wondering what was wrong with Rommie but more concerned about the health of her young employee and friend.

"It's not my lucky day, is it?" Harper tried to laugh, but the pain made him wince.

If only Trance were here, she might be able to help Harper. Right now he didn't look very good. Beka tore a piece off of her own clothing and wrapped it tightly around the gunshot wound. That was the extent of her medical knowledge, unfortunately. But hopefully it would be enough to stop him from dying until they were rescued.

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