Page 6 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

“Hey, man, I signed up to sell Blue Cure,” Marco said.

“And you will, but you know, gotta build up the cash flow. Blue’s expensive. Not a lot of people can afford it. And once they use it, they don’t need it no more,” Tommy explained, sticking to his line. “But Polly they’ll come back to. The real money is in repeat business, not one time customers.”

“But selling Blue isn’t technically illegal,” Marco said.

Nora could hear the wavering in his voice.

He’d convinced himself that this was a way to turn some quick cash, perhaps get enough money to bring his dad home, but instead he’d been sucked into dealing street drugs, and he wasn’t sure how to get out of it.

Nora wasn’t sure how to get him out of it either.

“Funny you should say that, because one of the reasons I was delayed was that I got me an informant. He told me I got a spy in my organization. A big fat, pink pig. Or is it a blue pig,” Tommy said, actually pausing a moment to consider the color.

“Doesn’t matter. Thing is, we weren’t sure who it was. I mean, we got two new guys.”

Jacket smiled and pointed his gun, first at a tall lanky guy wearing an Eagles jersey and then at Marco.

Eagles guy must have been the one trying to bounce earlier.

He’d finally moved into view. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, and was eyeing the door.

He looked slightly older, but was dressed down like he was trying to fit into a slightly younger age group.

She’d seen male teachers do it, trying to be the cool one, to identify with students. It wasn’t always a winning strategy.

“And since we took your phones,” Tommy explained. “I had my guy take a look at them. He’s good. He’s real good. This one, he’s had the school calling him like 4 times.”

Marco shrugged. “I skipped school, and detention. What the fuck did you expect? I got a hard ass teacher tryna get me expelled.”

Everyone’s attention suddenly swiveled to Eagles. He took a few steps back, glancing around for possible escape routes.

“And this fucker’s phone’s got encryption up the ass.

But I only hire the best. Usually.” Without warning Tommy drew his gun and shot Eagles right through the eye.

The sound of the shot echoed and through the warehouse and Nora jumped back, nearly losing her balance on a bolt of plastic wrap. It toppled to the floor.

Suddenly all eyes swiveled in her direction. Tommy, gun still drawn, raised it and fired off rapid fire shots in her direction. A bullet whizzed by her head and Nora dropped to the ground, but not before fire burned on her side. She froze, and Tommy stopped firing.

Footsteps ran up to her, and suddenly she was being covered in the plastic that she had tripped over.

“You got her!” Marco said.

“You sure she’s dead?” Tommy called. “Why you covering the body?”

“I know what dead looks like. Don’t want her bleeding all over the floor. You need to be more concerned by the fact that you just shot a cop. Where you putting the body?”

“The Schuylkill?” Jacket suggested.

“The river?” Marco kept rolling the plastic around her, conveniently leaving enough room to breathe.

“Nah, for a cop, you need somewhere where they’ll never find the body.

Not a hint, a whisper.” Marco slit the plastic and handed the roll to Jacket.

“Here, go wrap up the cop before he bleeds everywhere.”

“I thought you weren’t in,” Tommy asked suspiciously.

“That was before I thought you couldn’t smell a popo a mile away. Fucker was tryin’ way too hard. But you dealt with the problem. So, I’m in.”

In, only long enough to save her ass, Nora hoped.

How he planned to smuggle her out before she bled out was still a mystery to her, but there seemed to be very little else to do but play dead.

Besides, she was wrapped in plastic, and couldn’t really do much with her side on fire.

Nora wished she could take a look. It seemed to be bleeding, but hopefully it was more of a graze than hitting a vital organ.

Tommy seemed to accept this excuse, and asked. “So not the river. Where would you dump them?”

“We’re right next to a lottery center, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s closed. Won’t be anyone around until tomorr-”

“Why would we leave them there? People will find them easy,” Jacket said, probably upset that his suggestion had been turned down.

“They got a port pad. We can dump it clear across the universe. You think some fuckin’ alien is gonna track down where a human dead body came from and report it?

Nah, they’re just gonna flush it out the nearest airlock.

And if they do report it, it’s not like they’re gonna send it back.

Plus, the only information they’ll have is that it came from Earth, not where on Earth.

They’ll never track it down. The trail will be so cold, they’ll never figure it out. ”

“Wrap him up,” Tommy said.

A few moments later and Nora found herself loaded on a pallet cart with a dead police officer.

She didn’t like this plan. It was a horrible plan.

It required her to be sent to bloody who knows where with a bullet in her side.

It was a fucking awful plan. Nora just didn’t have a say in the matter.

To speak up now would get both her and Marco dead.

The coast apparently clear, it was a simple matter to cross the street, into the back door of the center and load up the body onto the platform.

“What coordinates?” one of the goons asked.

“I dunno. Twelve, seventy-eight, thirty-two,” Tommy said, obviously guessing random numbers.

“Ready?” Tommy slammed his hand against the large button and the dead cop flew off to who knew where. “Hopefully that’s one of the space ports that don’t have a ship. Think he’ll explode?”

Marco and Jacket loaded her on the pad next.

“Wait!” Tommy shouted. Nora stopped breathing. “We should send them to different places.”

“I’ll pick!” Marco.

“A’ight,” Tommy said. At least Marco had earned his respect. “Hand him the jawn.”

“Done,” Marco announced.

“You wanna push the button?” Tommy asked.

“No, your kill, your honor.”

A moment later the whole world went, black, then fuzzy, then hot and wet.

Nora had the urge to throw up, but with so little clearance around her mouth, that would have been disastrous.

A few deep breaths, and it passed, but the pain in her side was raging.

She was suddenly hot, but not from a fever.

Wherever she’d landed felt like Philly in the August. Hot, humid and gross.

Being wrapped in plastic wasn’t helping any.

She told herself that she needed to hold onto consciousness.

That if she passed out, she might not wake again.

It didn’t help. The world faded to black as she cursed her decision to stick her nose in her student’s life.