Page 192 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Noa

I wanted to do more than simply send Pato with the sedative up to Luka’s room, but it was as if the Dragon were watching my every move.

Or rather, she had people watching me, like Mikasul or the Dumb Duo.

They gave me the shivers, but at least they only watched from a distance and didn’t try anything.

On day three, I was ready to burst from my skin. It was as if my bones were aching and everything was heavy. My appetite was gone again—seemed like it went faster this time than last round—and I hated that. At least I hoped I wasn’t alone in feeling this shitty; Luka was probably feeling it too.

The only time I’d managed to sneak away to find a moment unobserved, I’d gotten into the medical clinic in the resort and nabbed that syringe.

All in all, I thought it was a great find.

If Luka could get out, we could get out of here.

Not that I knew what to do about the slave collar, but that was a problem for later.

As long as they didn’t find out until I was gone, they couldn’t use it to stop me.

They could only activate the collar from nearby.

At least Pato had been fantastic company.

He was quiet when he needed to be, but when I worked, he’d gambol around the rooms and make me laugh.

He knew how to stay hidden from Mikasul and how to get around the resort.

I was convinced that he’d sometimes go off on his own.

He’d returned to me twice with a wrapped ration bar and handed it over triumphantly, as if he were urging me to eat when I really didn’t feel like it.

He’d also shown up with another set of access cards from somewhere, but these just looked like the shiny gold member type, which made me conclude it was a stroke of luck more than genius that had resulted in the all-access pass that first time.

It, too, had a shiny gold edge. He’d returned several times with little pieces of jewelry, too, as if he were a magpie hoarding pretty things.

That was kinda cute, but I hoped they weren’t going to search our quarters and find the stolen items. Hopefully, the owners of the jewelry had so much that they wouldn’t miss these small pieces.

When I gave Pato the syringe and told him to get it to Luka, he disappeared immediately, and I watched him go with a pang of pain.

What if he got caught this time? Or what if he didn’t come back?

His company had kept me sane through the strange, delirious dreams that I couldn’t recall, and the soreness in my body.

Working through my floor of rooms today was harder than it had been the days before, mostly because Dumb had parked his ass on the sofa and was watching my every move.

He’d warned me that he knew I’d done something yesterday, that I was up to no good, but the fact that he only had suspicions eased me.

If he had any evidence, I wouldn’t be working—I’d be in the Dragon’s office being interrogated.

After I’d finished all my rooms, I’d spend the rest of the day shampooing carpet all over the hotel.

I was a soggy, strangely alien, lemon-scented mess.

All I wanted was to get my turn at a shower and then bed.

I was certain, though, that I wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight.

If Pato had gotten that syringe to Luka, I needed to be ready to meet him.

I’d tried to tell the monkey to guide Luka to the hotel exit nearest the port, but I wasn’t sure if that had come across.

That part of my plan was the vaguest. How was I going to know when to sneak off and get there myself?

I’d tried to scope out the location while shampooing the carpet, but it was a busy hallway full of guests coming and going.

Though there were potted plants, the hiding places were pretty limited, and I worried about security spotting me on their cameras.

So, the obstacle was cameras too. How could I fix that?

I’d have to if I wanted Luka to be able to free himself from his rooms and make his way to the spaceport.

We both needed to be invisible. As I trudged onto the basement floor from one of the many service elevators, I made a beeline for the showers, mulling over the problem.

I’d have to sabotage things. The security hub was down here too, but I wouldn’t have access with just my palm print, and this access card for the resort wouldn’t work either, it was a guest card.

So how would I get in? Who did have access?

My eyes landed on Dumb and Dumber, standing a little further down the bare corridor.

They were hassling the other housekeepers and kitchen staff as they went to get their ration bars in the spartan mess hall.

Aradne was the only one they left alone.

The tall, green-skinned female only had to bare her needle-sharp teeth at them for them to back off.

They were only there to make sure I was doing as I was told—checking that I was indeed packing away my cleaning supplies and meekly eating my meal like a good little slave.

I came to a decision rather impulsively, my plan not even remotely thought out.

It was more of a faint inclination of how to solve our biggest problem.

Making sure to act suspicious by looking over my shoulder and hurrying as I stepped into the room with our stored hovercarts, I was certain that Dumb and Dumber would follow me immediately.

Nope, of course not. I called them the Dumb Duo for a reason; that wasn’t obvious enough for them.

How had they managed to get this far in life?

It was a mystery. I nabbed the glue gun and stuck it in my apron pocket for easy access, striding out of the storage room the next moment with my chin held high.

My knees felt like jelly, my belly a churning mess, but I forced myself to stay calm as I acted out my impulsive plan.

Aradne gave me a distrustful look from the open door to the mess hall, her dark red eyes tracking my movements. She was more focused on what I was up to than Dumb and Dumber, who were still hassling one of the other girls—trying to cop a feel when she wanted to enter and get her well-deserved meal.

Okay, this could work. I scurried past the Dumb Duo and Aradne and purposefully tripped a little right next to them, ensuring their eyes snapped to me.

Then I ducked around the corner and prayed they would follow as I headed for the shower area.

It was probably empty, and with all the hard tile, the lack of cameras, and the ever-present trusty mop, it made for a good place to trap them.

If I were to trip them as they came in the door, they’d go down pretty hard.

Then I’d glue their faces shut! That sounded vicious, even in my own head.

Getting rid of Dumb and Dumber while also getting access to the security booth seemed worth it, though.

I’d only just planted my back to the wall next to the door, the rod of the floor mop tightly clutched in my hands.

The thudding boots of the two announced their approach well ahead of them, and my heartbeat was racing in my throat in response.

I only had one chance to get this right.

Two against one was a stupid risk to take, but these two… they might just even the odds for me.

Dumber came into the room first, a creepy feeling crawling over my skin a second before he stuck his head into the shower area.

I raised my mop, aimed for the back of his skull, and whacked that fucker as hard as I could.

He went down in an ungainly sprawl, and Dumb followed him in so closely that he stepped all over his downed brother.

I swung my mop again, but Dumb was smarter than his sibling, swinging around at the last moment and catching the hard thump of the rod in his palm.

He pulled his face into a rictus snarl, his eerie, all-black eyes glimmering with malice.

That look scared me so much that I backed up a step, losing my hold on my batting weapon.

I dug the glue gun out of my apron pocket and brought it up to aim at him, but he moved faster than I expected.

He slammed my hand out of the way, pinning my wrist with the improvised weapon against the tile, while his other hand came to wrap around my throat.

Instantly, my air was cut off, and he lifted me right off my feet, so all I could do was scramble with my nails at his hands, my heels thumping uselessly against the wall.

I saw black spots dancing in front of my eyes.

What now? How did I turn this around? I was not going to die here—I had shit to do.

Yanking my knee up on instinct, I nailed him in the crotch. He let go of me, and I dropped to the floor just like he did. The two of us sprawled side by side on the tile. I had a good dozen new bruises to contend with, but unlike Dumb, I wasn’t stuck moaning on the floor, holding my balls.

The glue gun was somehow still in my hand, my fingers cramped around the handle.

I struggled to aim it at Dumb’s face, my entire body shaking as I gulped air in panicked breaths.

When I rolled to my knees, I found the steadiness my hands needed.

I stuck that gun right at him just as he turned his eyes back on me.

Pressing the button, I sent a hot stream of expanding glue shooting from the tip.

Its range was short, but I’d stuck that sucker practically up his nose.

With a horrific scream, the heated stuff coated him, and he trembled and convulsed before going still. Oh, shit. Did I kill him? I got to my feet, panicked eyes scanning Dumb’s big, sprawled-out form, my gaze snagging instead on the oddly crumpled shape of Dumber—that wasn’t how I’d left him…