Page 131 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

He didn’t say more, just scuttled along and headed for the final door.

It slid open, and he continued through into the dark space beyond.

The panel slid shut behind him with a definitive snick.

Thorin was facing the door we’d come through, then turned to look at the bed-thing.

“Those men looked like bounty hunters. We better run.” He kicked the bed out of the way, revealing a ladder down into a maintenance shaft.

At his gesture, I walked to the edge, estimated the drop down, and jumped, landing with a thud on the metal grate floor at the bottom.

Thorin used the ladder, ensuring that he could slide the hatch closed behind him, and then we were hurrying off into the dark.

My EV suit had a built-in lamp, so I flicked that on, leading us down several convoluted corridors, gangways, and shafts deeper into the core interior of the Yengar space station.

“Damn it! We were so close to getting this done!” I cursed.

The timing of those bounty hunters really sucked.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Thorin drawled from behind me, his breath still smooth and even as he easily kept up with my fast jog. “I’m guessing they’re after me. Drameil is very desperate to get his best gladiator stock back.”

The arrogance in that tone indicated that he definitely counted himself among the best. I rolled my eyes at him. “Sure, I bet they’re just after Ziame. Wasn’t he undefeated? Chloe went on and on about it.”

He made a growling noise and a snapping sound with his teeth. “Sassy girl.” But we said nothing further, because we both heard the sound of running footsteps echoing along the walkway behind us. Those bounty hunters had found a way in and were hot on our tail.

We didn’t know exactly where we were going either, blindly picking an option at each turn.

We needed to get above this service level, find our way to a more crowded spot, and blend in.

I spotted a hatch with a ladder at the same time Thorin did, and we increased our pace, full-out sprinting toward it.

Then light suddenly shot down the manhole as it opened from above.

I braked, my EV suit made that far harder than it should have been—and I nearly went tumbling head over heels, saved only by turning it into a timely roll that brought me up against the corner of a corridor branching off.

Thorin had no issue; he halted almost instantly, then leaped for cover at my side.

“How good are you with that rifle?” he demanded, eyes fierce as he leaned over me and peeked around the corner.

“If you cover me, I’ll take out the welcome party.

Just hold off those guys on our ass, okay?

” He briefly met my eyes, not giving me any time at all before he was leaping out of cover and flat-out running for that manhole.

This time, he was going so fast I could barely track him, he’d been holding back, making sure I kept up.

I slung my rifle from my back, flicked the safety off in a practiced move, and lifted the weapon to my shoulder.

Then I fired twice in rapid succession over Thorin’s head at the manhole, spun around, and peered through the scope at the guys coming up on our tails.

I spotted three shapes, but at the report of my weapon, they had ducked for cover in corridors branching off from this one.

It was pretty gloomy down here—difficult circumstances for my eyes—but that didn’t matter. I was a marksman for a reason.

One of the shapes moved from where I’d seen him duck into cover, likely leaning around the corner to take a look. I squeezed the trigger lightly, and an arc burst from my rifle. There was a satisfying grunt of pain and some cursing, which told me I’d hit my target.

Taking a chance, I darted a look over my shoulder to see if Thorin needed help.

There was no one in the corridor; light was filtering down from the open manhole.

Flickering shadows danced, and I could hear the thud of flesh on flesh, some hand-to-hand was going on up there.

I hoped he was all right and that the run hadn’t messed up his leg too much.

Doc had taken plenty of samples, but he’d still gotten no closer to a cure for him.

I heard them move behind me, but I was quick enough to get my rifle back up and take a shot at the blatant target a big male was presenting as he rushed for my position.

The shot hit him square in the chest, and he dropped like a ton of bricks.

I didn’t wait, I left my spot of cover and booked it to the ladder.

My EV suit’s rocket boost, meant for maneuvering out in space, gave me just the lift I needed to soar up that ladder and out through the manhole.

I landed in a crouch, rolled to make myself an unpredictable target, and then tried to orient myself in a split second, looking for Thorin, adversaries, and cover.

I found a low wall first, which I leaped over agilely—coincidentally landing right on top of a male already crouching there.

He was one of those street thugs from before, bleeding from several knife slashes across his thick, gray-leathery skin.

My body crashed down on top of him, my boots hitting him in the side of the face.

The guy screamed in shock, collapsed—out cold—and, thankfully, ceded this nice spot without further incident.

Leaning around the edge, I saw at least three bodies lying at Thorin’s feet.

He was grappling with a final opponent. This one not dressed like the street thugs, but kitted out in sleek black combat gear.

A black helmet covering his head obscured most of his features.

I slung my rifle forward, balancing it on the edge of the low wall, and took aim.

This took a little more patience, my urge was to hurry, skin crawling with the knowledge that more opponents could come crawling out of that manhole at any moment.

Forcing those thoughts from my mind, I breathed out, centered myself, and squeezed the trigger.

A hole blasted straight through the black-clad thigh of Thorin’s opponent, and he crumpled with a shout.

Thorin was holding two shiny silver blades, which he slid back beneath his leather jacket at his back.

I hadn’t even known he had those. “Let’s go, this way,” he said, grabbing me by the arm and urging me away from the scene.

It was already gathering quite a crowd of onlookers, and we managed to disappear between them.