Marathon: The Complete Series (Books 1-9) (Complete Series Box Sets), page 15
part #1 of Marathon Series
“You won’t be. You can come with us,” Eckhart replied. “It’s safe for you here—or as safe as anywhere is as likely to be. Either way, you won’t be any safer on the ship, so you might as well get out and stretch your legs.”
Bing clapped DeWalt on the shoulder hard enough to make all his weapons rattle. “Take a walk in the park and get an eyeful of all the alien freaks. It will expand your education.”
“Just don’t be surprised if they stare at you as hard as you’re staring at them,” Dallas chimed in. “Most of them have never seen an Earthling before.”
“What about Eckhart?” Clifton asked. “You must have been here before.”
“He doesn’t count,” Dallas replied.
“He’s an honorary alien,” Bing joked. “He’s a freak like the rest of us.”
“No one would dare to lift a finger against Eckhart on this planet,” Alice growled. “They’re all too afraid of Aistenz Trotaer.”
“Who’s that?” DeWalt asked.
“No one.” Eckhart left the weapons locker and went over to another equipment locker. He took down a beaten canvas backpack and started loading it with Halfanite grenades and as many primers. “Let’s stop taking a stroll down memory lane and concentrate on the job.”
“What is the job?” Clifton asked.
“Don’t get killed,” Bing replied.
Rixby waddled into the hold and halted at Eckhart’s heels. He bent down and opened the backpack in front of her. She climbed into it and wedged her short, stout body down so only her head suck out above the top zipper.
He strapped her in place and then slung the pack over his shoulder. The others followed him to the hatch.
DeWalt leaned close to Bing and half-whispered behind the others’ backs. “Who’s Aistenz Trotaer?”
“He’s an alien small enough to fit in the palm of your hand,” Bing replied. “He goes to sleep in an egg every night and the shell seals itself to keep him safe. Then he hatches every morning, and any injuries he gets during the day are healed by the membrane inside the shell.”
DeWalt’s eyes widened and he gasped. “Really? That’s amazing!”
“Knock it off, Bing, you lying shit!” Dallas cut between Bing and DeWalt. “Don’t believe a word he says.”
Bing burst out laughing. “You can’t blame me for having some fun with him. He makes it so easy.”
“I can’t wait to see how they handle it when we get down on the ground,” Rixby squeaked.
“I have an idea,” Alice interjected from her place behind Eckhart. “We should set up a ring in the square and charge the locals by the head to look at the Earthlings. We can charge extra if they want to touch them.”
“Great idea!” Bing cheered. “We’ll make a mint.”
“That’s enough,” Eckhart ordered. “Stay sharp, folks. We don’t know if any of our new friends are hunting for us here. They could have dodged the Aegeans and gotten onto the ground.”
That brought everyone back to their senses. They gathered around the hatch and stood attentive and silent while Eckhart opened it.
2
The hatch slammed on the Forsaken Pyramid’s hard steel roof. A puff of steam billowed through the night when the compressed life support air met the planet’s cool atmosphere.
Thousands of miles of sparkling lights covered Zuic. Towering skyscrapers surrounded the Forsaken Pyramid, each building covered in countless lighted windows.
Eckhart led the way outside. The crew filed between dozens of ships parked on the roof. “What is this place?” Clifton murmured to Dallas.
“The Forsaken Pyramid is the headquarters of the Bloody Blossoms, an all-female Mozari death cult. They hire themselves out as assassins, and this is their temple.”
DeWalt stopped dead in his tracks. “We aren’t going in there, are we? What if they try to kill us?”
Eckhart kept walking. “We aren’t going inside.”
He halted in front of an elevator at the edge of the roof. The friends stood around rubbing their arms for warmth in the chilly wind whipping across the city.
When the car doors opened, Eckhart had to duck to prevent Rixby’s head from banging on the doorsill. The friends crowded into the car. Dallas took up nearly half the space, and all of Bing’s and Alice’s weapons didn’t help.
“Are you going to contact Nessor?” Rixby asked in Eckhart’s ear.
He shrugged. “I might as well. We’ll need to resupply with Datrium and Celdian. He’s as good a contact as any.”
“Don’t forget you own him three chips,” she reminded him. “Make sure you have them in hand when you show up asking for more.”
“Thank you for reminding me,” he replied over his shoulder. “I can tell him I came back especially to repay him.”
“Good plan,” Alice added. “You might even pay him interest for taking so long.”
Eckhart bit back a grin, but Bing didn’t bother. He laughed out loud. “That’s Alice, our resident diplomat. Always thinking of the polite thing to do.”
She rounded on him and snarled through her mask. “Watch your step, Big Mouth. Just remember I can breathe this atmosphere.”
Bing’s cheery grin evaporated and his many eyes widened in genuine fear, but before Eckhart had to intervene, the elevator opened onto the street.
The crew emerged into a dense throng of aliens from countless species. They walked in all directions at once. They climbed stairs to enter doors higher up the buildings’ sides. They descended more stairs into underground levels of more rooms, buildings, and structures constructed beneath the street.
Hawkers sold their goods on corner sidewalks, and prostitutes serviced their customers in alleys without trying to hide what they were doing. Aliens brawled in the street while onlookers gambled on the outcome. Money changed hands all over the place, and aliens led other aliens on leashes.
Chirping insects the size of birds, giant monstrous lumbering beasts of burden, flying raptors with sharp beaks and claws—they all lived and worked and haggled and argued all over the place.
Eckhart had to shoulder his way through the mobs. Even Dallas had to turn sideways to get through. The locals paid no attention to him or any of the rest of the Marathon crew.
They did pay attention to Clifton and DeWalt, though. As Eckhart expected and Dallas predicted, the aliens took a decided interest in the two Earthlings.
The crew hadn’t gone more than a dozen yards before the surrounding aliens mysteriously forgot about whatever business they were doing. They crowded around to stare at Clifton and DeWalt and blocked the friends from going any further. Some of the onlookers even poked at the two men, touched their hair, and felt their skin.
“I’ve never seen an Earthling before.” A prostitute with three heads and six arms trailed her fingertips down DeWalt’s cheek. “Do they function the same as other men?”
“Don’t lie, Hanad,” someone yelled out of the crowd. “You’ve seen Eckhart a hundred times.”
The prostitute shot Eckhart a wicked grin with one head while the other continued to examine DeWalt at close range. “I’ve never seen the way he functions. Tell me, Eckhart. Do Earthlings all function the same?”
“Why don’t you take him home and find out?” another voice called from the other side of the circle.
Eckhart laughed, until Rixby whispered in his ear. “Across the street...under the Trophy Room sign.”
He whipped around, spotted the creature she meant, and immediately turned his attention back to the spectacle unfolding around Clifton and DeWalt. The assembled aliens were now feeling the two men’s clothes and prodding their bodies in ever-more compromising places.
Eckhart dove past Hanad and grabbed DeWalt’s arm. He towed the banker out of the mob. “Sorry, Hanad. You’ll have to finish your scientific inspection another time. Move out.”
Eckhart dragged DeWalt away, and Alice got hold of Clifton. They forced their way up the street and marched the two Earthlings away. Dallas brought up the rear to stop anyone from following them.
The aliens who’d gathered around to check out Clifton and DeWalt went back to what they were doing, but in no time, more locals stopped what they were doing and gathered to see.
Eckhart didn’t stop a second time. He rested his right hand on his sidearm and held onto DeWalt with the other. Bing brought one of his rocket launchers forward. He and Alice flanked Eckhart and smashed Clifton and DeWalt between them.
“Another three coming up behind us,” Rixby murmured in Eckhart’s ear. “They’re converging from all sides.”
“What’s going on?” DeWalt asked.
Eckhart didn’t turn around to check how close his enemies were. “We have to get off the street.”
“Will that be safe? What if the same thing happens and more people stop to check us out?”
“Forget that. We have bigger problems.”
Rixby cut Eckhart off before he could say more. “Titan Gulch—three blocks ahead.”
Eckhart nodded, but he didn’t answer. His nerves prickled and his eyes darted back and forth over all the faces around him. He recognized someone every now and then, but they couldn’t help him.
Alice pushed her way to Eckhart’s side. “We should stand and fight.”
“No.” He crossed the last block and veered into a doorway. The others hustled in after him until Dallas wedged himself under the lintel.
Dallas started to turn back. “Keep moving,” Eckhart growled. “Get into the back. Dallas...” He stopped. He had been about to tell his friend to make himself inconspicuous, but that wasn’t possible.
Alice propelled Clifton and DeWalt into another sea of aliens. Dozens stood four bodies thick around the bar, while others clustered around tables and counters throughout the establishment.
The two Earthlings wrinkled their noses at all the different species surrounding them, but that was nothing compared to how the aliens looked at them.
Eckhart finally carved a path to a booth in the very back. He pushed Clifton and DeWalt in first, and the rest packed the two Earthlings against the wall, where they would be least visible.
“What the hell is going on?” Clifton half-whispered. “What is this place?”
“It’s a mercenary hub,” Eckhart told him. “Mercenaries come here to pick up jobs. Anyone who wants to hire someone can come here and negotiate with any number of guns for hire.”
DeWalt made a face. “Let me guess. You come here a lot.”
Eckhart nodded. “All the time. Do you have a problem with that?”
Bing scanned the crowd. “You were right, Eckhart. They don’t dare to come inside.”
“That can only mean one thing,” Alice added.
“What does it mean?” DeWalt asked. “Who are you talking about, anyway?”
“Didn’t you see those people following us?” Clifton asked. “They weren’t interested in us because we’re Earthlings.”
DeWalt curled his lip. “We aren’t Earthlings. We’re human.”
“So am I,” Rixby told him.
“We can’t hide in here forever,” Alice pointed out. “They know where we are, so they’ll just wait for us to come out.”
“Who?” DeWalt asked.
“Someone who wants you,” Dallas told him.
“And the Oksite,” Rixby added.
DeWalt’s eyes popped. “But that means... Did they follow us from Drao?”
“These aren’t Helvall’s people,” Alice told him. “The Aegeans wouldn’t let them land here.”
“They might be Vuldak’s men,” Eckhart surmised. “He probably listened to Helvall’s radio chatter and found out where we were.”
“How do we get out of here, then?” Clifton asked. “If they can find us here, they can find us anywhere.”
“Oh, ye of little faith!” Bing chided. “Have we ever let you down before?”
“Several times,” Clifton replied. “You handed us over to the Regiment and—”
Eckhart tried not to listen and scanned the crowd. He knew almost everyone here, and the crew didn’t attract nearly as much attention. A few of the gathered mercenaries shot quizzical glances at Clifton and DeWalt, but they were all so used to seeing Eckhart in here that no one approached.
He was just making up his mind to take off Rixby’s backpack and go get himself a drink when someone pushed into the booth next to him. Or, to put it more accurately, she sat down on his lap. That was the only place available to sit with so many people already overflowing the booth.
A sinuous, boneless body of lithe, rippling muscle slithered over his left thigh. She wound powerful coils around his waist, and her lower limbs wrapped around his knee and cinched tight around his calf.
One arm encircled his waist and another draped around his neck. A beautiful female face with large, sloping black eyes, a too-small nose, and a curving rosebud mouth floated before his eyes. Her satin black hair swirled around her angular cheekbones in looping coils. Each lock undulated and adjusted its position like a live serpent.
“Good morning, Eckhart,” she purred. “You just couldn’t stay away, could you?”
He tensed when he first felt her wrapping herself around him, but as soon as he realized who it was, he willed himself to relax into her grip. Fighting her would only make her aggressive and deadly.
“I was just looking for you, Ilke.” Her beauty automatically locked his whole attention on her hypnotic face, but he didn’t want to look away, anyway. He didn’t want her to think he was trying to evade her.
Alice groaned and rolled her empty eye sockets to the ceiling. “Not this again!”
Bing leaned closer and grinned like an idiot. “I can’t wait to see this!”
“I need a drink.” Rixby scrambled out Eckhart’s backpack and sprang down to the floor. She waddled off into the crowd and vanished, but Eckhart didn’t see her. He didn’t see anyone but the magical creature in front of him.
“Were you really looking for me, Eckhart?” Ilke purred. A delicate blush colored her cheeks. “You aren’t just making that up?”
“Of course not. I was looking for you to ask you for your help.”
Her coils tightened around him and a thread of adrenaline burned through his guts. That grip seized him with equal measures of excitement and danger. He had to watch his step around her.
“What possible help could I give you, Eckhart?” She lowered her voice to a deadly whisper. Her crimson mouth drifted too close to his, and her intoxicating presence made his head spin.
“You probably know about the Oksite and...” He inclined his head toward Clifton and DeWalt without taking his eyes off her. “Them.”
“Everyone knows about them...and the Oksite, Eckhart. Everyone knows you destroyed the Regiment Station at Kukuri to free them.”
“Then you probably know about the guys outside who want to recapture them.” Of course she did.
Ilke broke eye contact with him and scanned the others at the table. Her muscular arm unwound from Eckhart’s neck, slithered across the table, and started crawling up the thick Crionuim of Dallas’s armored chest plate. “Hello, Dallas. Did you miss me?”
No one could read his expression through his helmet, but Dallas stiffened at her touch. “Of course I missed you, Ilke. You know I always miss you.”
Alice snarled something under her breath, and Ilke smiled at her. “I’ll tell you what, Eckhart. I’ll help you for old time’s sake...and for Dallas being such a gentleman.” She withdrew her arm from Dallas’s armor, but she didn’t wrap it around Eckhart’s neck again. She let it rest on the table, and her other limbs relaxed around Eckhart’s body.
Relief flooded him. “Thank you, Ilke. I won’t forget this.”
She smiled even more seductively, and Bing chimed in. “So how are you going to help us? Are you going to kill those guys out there?”
“If I did, Vuldak would only send more of them to find you.”
Alice slapped the tabletop. “So they did come from Vuldak! I thought so.”
Ilke only smiled at her, too, before she turned back to Eckhart. “Aistenz Trotaer is looking for you, Eckhart.”
Eckhart’s eyebrows shot up. “He is? Why?”
Ilke shrugged, that maddening smile playing on her rose-red lips. “I’m sure I don’t know. He doesn’t explain his reasons to me.”
Eckhart studied her even more closely. She’d cast her usual spell on him, but she no longer stopped him from thinking clearly now that her coils lay more lightly around his body. “So you spoke to him in person, did you? Is he here, on Zuic?”
“Of course. He has business here.”
“Business hiring you,” Alice grumbled.
“Me and my sisters,” Ilke replied.
“What sisters?” DeWalt blurted out, and immediately realized his mistake. He looked at the wall, but Ilke only smiled at him, too.
“She’s one of the Bloody Blossoms,” Dallas explained. “She’s Mozari.”
“So the Bloody Blossoms are working for Aistenz now,” Bing remarked. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Because we’re the best, Bing. Besides, we’re only working for him on this one job.” Ilke turned her gleaming black eyes back to Eckhart. “Unlike you, Eckhart.”
“What does that mean?” Clifton asked.
Eckhart ignored them and concentrated on Ilke. “So where is he? Where’s Aistenz Trotaer?”
She beamed at him and dipped her long eyelashes. “I can take you to him. That will ditch those guys out front.”
Eckhart tried to peer through the crowd. “We’ll have to find Rixby before we—”
“She’ll catch up. Don’t worry about her.”
“All right.” Eckhart took off his backpack and started to zip it closed.
“You aren’t going to leave without her, are you?” Clifton cut in. “You don’t really trust her, do you? She’s...a killer.”
Ilke burst into musical laughter. “The Mozari are incapable of lying,” Dallas explained. “She said she’d take us to Aistenz Trotaer, so she will.”
“And how do you know you can trust this Aistenz Trotaer?” Clifton asked. “How do you know he doesn’t want to cut our throats just like everyone else on this planet?”
