Page 12 of Solomon's Ransom
It sounded impossible even in his own head. He couldn’t see a way out of this one.
But he had to try.
Down he went, scrambling without nearly enough caution. On a wide ledge he stopped and shuffled along to peer around the edge of the outcrop. If he could take out even one or two of the Tozren, they’d be in better shape. But they spotted him right away and raised their guns, and he had to duck back to safety. So much for that plan.
Remma had done the smart thing and kept going. Sol plunged downward after him, his bleeding hands scraping against the rock and bleeding more. It didn’t matter until his grip started sliding, and then he had to stop and wipe his palms against his pants. Remma, with his tougher skin, went down and down, nearly to the ground now.
They couldn’t outrun a bunch of Tozren. Well, maybe Remma could, but Sol knew he didn’t have a chance. He didn’t have a plan. Run as far as he could, and then they would catch him, or maybe just shoot him.
He hadn’t expected everything would go to hell in quite this specific way.
He jumped down the final few feet and landed on the ground with a bone-jarring thud. Remma was waiting for him. Sol motioned to him urgently. They needed to go,go, not just stand here letting the Tozren get closer and closer.
But it was too late. The Tozren came at them around both sides of the outcrop, a pincer movement Sol probably should have anticipated. Guns raised, rocket launcher high, and there was nowhere for Sol and Remma to run.
The one with the rocket launcher grinned at them, then leaned over to spit on the ground. “Hello, Remmathulsen,” he said.
FIVE
Remma watched Sol’s face as he realized what was going on. His expression of betrayal was quickly replaced by disgust, which was even worse. “Youdoknow them,” Sol said, upper lip curled.
Remma didn’t answer. There was nothing he could say that would make this situation better.
“This your friend?” Nerri asked in Tozrai, gesturing with the fucking rocket launcher he’d brought along to—what? Further terrify one already-terrified human? As he spoke, a man Remma didn’t recognize came over to take Sol’s rifle and pat him down roughly, removing his belt knife in the process. Remma didn’t understand the need for this display, or why these assholes had come to find him in the first place when he’d explicitly told them he needed more time.
“Is there some reason you’re here,” Remma said instead of answering.
Nerri shrugged. “Boss wants you back. Told us to come fetch you. It’s taking you too long to find the—” He broke off with a glance at Sol. “You know. The thing.”
“He doesn’t understand what you’re saying,” Remma said, leaving theyou dumbassunspoken. “You don’t need to censor yourself.”
“Fine, then I won’t. You’ve been fucking around on this planet for more than a year, and boss wants you back on the ship. We’ve got word of a big haul out in Yesserchao system. Time sensitive, you understand. He seems to think your particular skillset will come in handy.”
All of Remma’s careful work, the year of scavenging and searching, the year of forming relationships with the colony—all wasted. For some rumored haul. “Is that it, then? We’re giving up on finding the tesseract core?”
“Not giving up, just setting it aside for now.”
“That’s the same as giving up. The colony won’t ever take me back now.” Remma gestured at Sol. “Look at his face. You think this is a man who’s going to forgive and forget? Sure, come on back and live with us again after it turns out you were working with pirates all along.”
“Take it up with the boss,” Nerri said. “He’ll have a plan.”
Would he, Remma thought. “Fine. Then let’s get the human back to his people and?—”
“Get himback?” Nerri snorted. “Who’s got time for that? We’ll kill him and dump him, just like we did with the other guy.”
Remma went cold. No surprise they had killed the scrapper he and Sol had found—he’d guessed as much—but he would be damned if he let them kill Sol in front of him. Not Sol, not—Remma wasn’t going to let it happen.
“There’s no need to kill him,” he said, trying to keep his expression bland, as if it didn’t really matter to him what happened to Sol when in fact it mattered more than anything else. “Just send him back to his colony. These scavengers aren’t going to cause us any trouble.”
“Faster and easier to dump him in the woods. Plus boss doesn’t want anyone knowing we were here. Best to keep business private, you know.” Nerri gestured to Camma, standing nearby, who stepped forward holding his gun. “We don’t want anyone running around telling tales.”
“His mother is the colony leader,” Remma said, truly grasping at straws but with no better ideas coming to mind. “I imagine she’d pay a good price to have him back safe.”
Money was a language they all knew. If anything stopped Nerri’s hand, that would be it.
And Nerri did pause and give Sol a considering look. “Him? He doesn’t look like much.”
He didn’t, and that was unfortunate: average height for a human male, leanly muscled instead of bulky, nondescript in every way. “He’s their best scavenger,” Remma said, trying not to sound too defensive. “And humans have strong parent-child attachments that last into adulthood. His mother would do almost anything to get him back.”