Page 372 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Jenny

I hated that we couldn’t linger in this intimate moment; intimate because I felt like I’d just laid a bit of myself bare to him. We had to keep going; the longer we stayed in here, the higher the chance became that someone would discover us.

Without the need to hide from cameras, we made good time in the hallways.

Akri had a little feed open on a datapad he’d pulled from his bag of tricks.

On it, he had the blueprints of the base, and little dots showed the life signs of the workers inside.

Maybe when he said he was downloading the blueprints, he’d meant to his datapad, not his brain.

We avoided any places with people, steadily making our way to the secure elevator shaft we needed to reach the third basement level.

“There’s going to be a guard at the elevators.

My map indicates it will be a single one,” Akri warned me as we got closer.

So far, the place just looked like offices and, sometimes, tech labs.

Most of the time, the doors were closed, and we couldn’t see inside unless there was a window.

We’d passed at least three different little seating areas for employees to share lunch and take a break.

These people had to live here on this base for extended periods of time, so I imagined that a good section of this base was also simply housing.

The really interesting stuff was probably all in the basement levels.

“I do not wish to hurt this guard. He is only doing his job,” Akri said, sounding worried about this part, which surprised me.

He was such a skilled fighter; couldn’t he take down a single guard in a non-lethal way?

A little chokehold to put the guy to sleep or something?

No, Akri had, more than once, expressed his worry over his inability to control himself when he fought; he probably didn’t think he could disable someone without harming them.

“It’s okay,” I heard myself say. “I’ll handle the guard.

Just give me that taser thingy you have in your bag.

” I jabbed a finger at the leather satchel he wore.

I just needed to walk up to the male, distract him, and then hit him with the low setting so he’d get knocked out.

Akri could tie him up after that—easy-peasy.

I felt my pulse spike in anticipation. I could do this.

Akri gingerly pulled the stunning device out of his bag, holding it out to me with an expression of distaste on his face.

He didn’t even like holding a weapon, poor guy.

“Okay, just be careful?” I smiled at him to reassure him, warmed by his concern and happy that he didn’t suffer from ego in this sense.

He had no issue letting me handle what most would probably consider a more male-oriented task.

When we reached the hallway with the elevator, we paused at the corner, just out of sight of the guard.

“Wait here,” I whispered, shrugging out of my backpack and handing it to him.

The backpack would look extremely out of place inside a facility like this, but I hoped that, in my pants and sweater, I looked casual enough to make the guard hesitate.

With how many people worked here, he might not know every face.

Rising on tiptoe, I pressed my mouth to Akri’s and whispered, “For luck.” He responded with a soft groan, arms and tentacles grabbing hold of me.

I realized I was stuck immediately; he didn’t want to let me draw back to leave.

What I’d meant to be just a quick peck was turning into a steamy kiss.

His taste filled my senses, the soft, eager sounds he made filling my heart.

Soon, I didn’t want to break up this kiss either, but one of us had to be sensible here.

“Let me go, Akri. I’ve got a job to do.” My soft words, against his lips, made his eyes open, the little dots of light in them bright and warm yellow. His face contorted in concentration, his arms sliding away from me to grab at his head appendages so he could wrestle them into submission.

I had to step away as soon as I was free, aware that his rapid breathing was not from our make-out session, but from the control he was struggling for.

Akri looked pained, and maybe even a little scared.

“Go, we have to hurry,” he urged me. I didn’t think he understood that it didn’t make him a bad person for wanting to hold on to me.

Running my fingers through my long hair, I straightened out my ponytail and then, for good measure, my clothing as well.

With the cuffs of my sweater pulled down over my wrists, it wasn’t that noticeable that I had no com device.

I didn’t let myself hesitate, and I didn’t want to draw things out for my poor Akri, either, so I stepped around the corner without a word.

Striding confidently along the hallway, I made eye contact with the guard standing at the doors to a single elevator.

He was an Ovt male, kitted out in what was clearly Ov’Korad military gear of some kind: desert-colored fatigues, heavy boots on his slender feet, and a laser rifle slung from a strap over his left shoulder.

His bulbous head and huge black eyes were fixed on me with obvious suspicion.

His face was far more alien than Akri’s.

Only my year of experience dealing with his kind allowed me to read his expressions.

“Hi!” I said brightly when I saw his gloved fist clench on the strap.

“I’m so lost. Can you please help me? I had a tour on orientation day when I got here, but…

I’m just so terrible with directions.” My word vomit stopped him in his tracks, his expression smoothing out.

I had no idea if what I said made any kind of sense, but I figured a place had to function in a similar way to how places like this functioned on Earth.

He was no longer expecting a threat, and it helped that he was on the bigger side for his kind, giving him half a head on me and some extra width in the shoulders.

He probably thought he was a tough soldier, and a little human like me posed no risk at all.

“Where do you need to go?” he asked, his voice carrying that typical Ovt warble that took a lot of getting used to if you wanted to understand it even a little.

I had no clue how to answer that, so I started blabbing about the heat and how grateful I was for the environmental system that made things bearable inside.

“I swear, I almost declined this assignment because of the location. I’m a city girl through and through, you know!

” I was almost on him now, and he wore a kind of barely polite expression, tolerating my babbling but hoping I’d just move on.

With the taser tucked against my hip so he couldn’t see it, I gestured with my other hand as I spoke, hoping to keep his attention there.

“Hey, what’s your name? Maybe we can grab lunch sometime.

I still don’t know anyone here, but you look like you’ve got the lay of the land.

” He looked startled now, not surprising, since Ovt rarely dated outside their species; it was rather frowned on in their society.

They had strict sanitary laws in place, more Puritan than any I’d heard of among the other alien species I’d encountered.

This proposal was bound to make him feel dirty, which made me grin.

“Oh shucks, I forgot. You guys are really strict about that stuff, aren’t you?

Forget I said anything.” His shoulders lowered, relief evident in every line of his body as he stammered something about how he could still give me another tour to help me work more efficiently after his shift was over.

Too cute. This dude was actually polite; I almost felt bad for what I was about to do.

“Yeah, that would be nice! Thank you,” I said, and I leaned in a little closer.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I’m still so new to Ov’Korad.

” That made his eyes narrow again, letting me know that I’d said something suspicious, but it didn’t matter.

I was close enough. The taser landed on an exposed strip of his neck just above his collar; with a press of the button, he jolted, eyes rolling back in his head.

He would have thudded to the floor in a painful heap, but Akri was suddenly there, catching the male and gently lowering him to the ground.

“Nice job,” he said. Heck yeah, that had been a lot of fun.

I wasn’t too bad at this spy thing. Hooking his hands beneath the Ovt male’s armpits, he dragged him to a door a little way over and opened it with his palm print, now that he’d keyed us into the system.

It was just a janitor-bot cubbyhole; the Ovt was a tight fit inside, propped up on his feet.

That would be uncomfortable when he woke up, but at least he’d be alive.

When we returned to the elevator, Akri assured me that he would be fine.

“I took his com, so he can’t call for help.

The door is locked on a timer, it should open for him in a couple of hours.

Long enough for us to get out of here.” That was thoughtful; imagine being locked inside and not being found for days…

On the ride down the elevator, Akri stood as far away from me as he could, his hands clutching his tentacles to his chest, where they writhed angrily.

“Getting harder to control them, is it?” I asked gently.

For his sanity, I pressed my back against the far wall to make it easier on him.

He needed his wits about him right now; I didn’t want to make things harder for him.