Page 31 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Relyn

R elyn docked with Rutra’s ship with more than a bit of trepidation.

There was a good possibility that Rutra would just shoot them all on sight.

Relyn was banking on the fact that they had information, and Rutra was not going to do anything drastic until he had that information.

They all knew the plan. Whether they went by that plan or not was yet to be seen.

Relyn walked through the hatch tunnel with Grom by his side. Relyn was relying on Grom’s special affinity for Wendy to keep him from turning on them.

“Rel! You are back sooner than expected!” Rutra shouted. Relyn surveyed the circle of pirates. There were about twenty crew members, including Ketle in the hangar. That was way more than needed for a friendly visit.

“We found a motherload of information,” Relyn said. “We might have even found Alana’s location.”

“Might?” Rutra asked.

“Space travel does make one mighty thirsty,” Relyn said. It was a cue that he wanted to talk business, away from so many eyes and ears. Whether Rutra knew or not, he still had a number of crew members that were still loyal to Alana.

“Where’s that female of yours?” Rutra asked.

Relyn shrugged. “I dumped her at a space station. She didn’t have much imagination, and there’s only so much begging a man can take,” he said. A Mahdfel would never abandon his mate, but a Sangrin would.

“Too bad. I bet she would have fetched a good price,” Rutra said.

“Oh, I got a good price for her,” Relyn said with a sly smile.

“What about Gale?”

“Gale’s got a lot of imagination, but I don’t trust her as far as I can fuckin’ throw her. She’s locked up onboard, until I get, well, an itch.”

Rutra seemed to take that comment as truth. “Come, let’s go talk some business,” he said, completely ignoring Grom.

The crew dispersed and Rutra and Relyn headed to the captain’s quarters with Grom tagging along.

“So you have some information?” Rutra prodded before they entered.

“Yes. We found a Melian information dealer that tried to shake us down, except he got more than he bargained for,” Relyn said as he watched Rutra type in the code.

It was the same code he’d used on the force fence that kept Wendy and Bright contained.

Did he really use the same passcode for everything?

“We stuffed him in a suitcase,” Grom said.

“Melians might be tall but they condense down pretty well,” Relyn said as they entered Rutra’s quarters. The crate was still sitting just inside the door, as if waiting for someone to move it. It was bait. The question was, where was the trap?

“We got a list of contacts and dealers,” Relyn began as they sat down at the table which seemed perpetually spread with food and liquor. “And we think Alana might be using them to continue her trading operations.”

“What is she trading in?” Rutra asked.

Relyn smiled, not wanting to seem too eager or too knowledgeable. “A little bit of this, and a little bit of that, but what I found curious was some of the aliases that were floating around on the list.”

“Nobody uses their real name. You don’t use yours,” Rutra said, echoing back their previous conversation.

“No, but there were some communications with these aliases that, well, revealed that you’ve got a problem.”

“It was a clear account of my fight with Ketle, and who went on the mission and killed the Adrastians. Unfortunately, I don’t think it was Ketle, because, well, certain facts of the mission didn’t quite happen as reported, and he would have known the difference between what was reported and what actually happened.

And he definitely wouldn’t have given Grom the credit for those kills. ”

“What are you saying?” Rutra asked.

“You’ve got spies, traitors on board that are reporting everything you do to Alana. Now you can see why I didn’t want to send you this information on a channel, because it’s clear that’s how she’s stayed ahead of you at every turn.”

Rutra stared at Relyn in silence for a long moment and then poured himself a drink.

“So you expect me to turn my crew inside out, just based on your word?” Rutra said.

“No. You can do what the hell you want with your crew. I just thought that this information would be valuable to you, perhaps even more valuable than the list of safehouses I found. Because the minute you start trying to track them down, your traitor is going to start singing like a bird, and you’ll never get close enough.

She’ll find out you got a list and burn through everything and still stay hidden. ”

“You don’t know who the traitor is?”

“If I did, then I would be selling that to you, but like I said, it was all in code, and I don’t know them well enough to know who is who around here,” Relyn said.

“What do you propose I do?”

“Well, I’ll give you the list of safehouses, for a small fee, of course,” Relyn said.

“Of course,” Rutra said.

“But it won’t do you any good until you clean house.”

“I thought I got rid of all those who were loyal to Alana.”

All the females, Relyn thought. That’s why there were no females on the ship. He thought that only they would be traitorous.

“Did you break up any relationships when you purged the ship? Anyone who might hold a grudge from sending their... friend away?” Relyn asked.

“No, I sent anyone like that out an airlock months ago. I have picked up a few new crew since, though. You being one for example,” Rutra said.

“Well, I’d never heard of Alana before you mentioned her, so...” Relyn said with a shrug.

“That’s exactly what the traitor would say.”

‘“If he were a traitor, he would have flushed me out the airlock the minute we left, and then blamed my death on some accident,” Grom said. “Instead, he’s been training me up, teaching me how to get better at, you know, stuffing Melians in suitcases,” Grom said.

“If he were teaching you well, he would have killed the Melian,” Rutra said.

“Well, we did flush the suitcase out an airlock. We’re not stupid,” Grom said. It was such a convincing lie that even Relyn was impressed.

“I’ll have to think about it,” Rutra said.

“Don’t think too long,” Relyn said. “This information is only good fresh, and I might have a few other interested buyers in line. I came to you as a courtesy, and well, to show good faith, but if you’re not interested, I’ll move along. Are my quarters as I left them?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I’ll let you sleep on it. I’ll leave you two to family matters,” Relyn said, standing up and grabbing a full bottle of the good stuff. Rutra didn’t object and he sauntered out towards the bar.

It was time to “celebrate” his good fortune, so Relyn made his way into Thred’s favorite crew lounge where sure enough, they had a game going.

Xeron was definitely eager to see him and his money, especially with a bottle in tow.

That signaled he was willing to be sloppy, and had money burning in his pocket.

They welcomed him into the game and waited until the second hand before beginning the casual conversation.

“Business with the captain?” Xeron asked.

“Business with the captain,” Relyn said confirming, but then matched the bet without raising.

“Quick trip?” Thred asked.

“Quick trip.” Relyn said.

“So you just repeat every question we ask?” Thred asked.

“Every dumb question.”

Relyn was pretty sure that Xeron actually kicked Thred under the table.

They continued to play in silence, but it was clear Thred really wanted more answers and was just trying to figure out how to ask without getting his feet smashed again.

Relyn took steady swigs of the booze and went into his slightly inebriated act, even though the drink might as well have been water for all the true effect it was having on him.

He started to play a bit sloppier, intentionally overbidding a hand and folding early.

Xeron kept playing, and even started cheating as the game went on. There were five crew members and a growing circle as word had gotten around that Relyn and Grom had returned. They all were curious to know what the pair had found out about their captain’s former love interest.

Relyn spent through the credit stick he’d been playing on, dropping nearly ten thousand credits. After he lost the last hand, he got up unsteady.

“S’alright. I’ll get it all back tomorrow when he- never mind.”

“When he what?” Thred asked.

“None of your business,” Xeron answered, a warning in his tone.

“Right. It’s none of your business. But you might want to, you know, pack some shit,” Relyn said.

“Why would we want to do that?”

Relyn took a swig of the bottle that was near empty.

“Cuz the captain, he knows. He knows everything,” Relyn stood up and swung his arm wildly, nearly hitting two crew members that had been standing behind him.

“Everything, and he said something about airlocks, but I’m not supposed to talk about it, so shhhh,” Relyn said as he staggered off in the direction of his quarters.

No one followed him, or even tried to make sure he got back to his quarters unharmed.

They were all too worried about saving their own asses.

Now it would be only a matter of hours before the whole crew broke out into chaos, trying to find the traitor, or prove that they were not suspicious.

If the rumors were true, Rutra was more likely to shove people out the airlock first and ask questions later.

Grom met him at his quarters. “This was not easy to get,” he said as he handed over the requested vial. “But I don’t think he suspects anything. He might have gotten a little drunk after you left. What do you want it for?”

Relyn shook his head, not willing to completely trust Grom with all parts of the plan, just in case he had a shred of loyalty left in his body toward his uncle.

“It’s the easiest way for him not to get killed during all of this.

Now go back to the ship and lie low until I tell you.

Make sure no one tries to board and mess with Wendy and Bright.