Sitting around in Rork’s compound was starting to make Jon feel anxious. Who knows how long they would have to stay here as guests before the Retuailian government took action. no doubt the Alliance would try to “handle the situation,” which meant that they would have to try—and fail—before the Retuailian government took action against the wishes of the Alliance.

As soon as a rescue mission was launched by the aliens, Rork would deliver Diplomat Kolivar to them peacefully so that he could gain their favor. It was a risky plan, but well worth the potential reward.

“Something is wrong, I think,” Kolivar said as she turned to pace the room again.

“Everything is fine,” Jon said. If the Retuailians launched a rescue mission and Diplomat Kolivar was not convinced that Rork had saved her, then this whole plan might fall flat on its face. “This planet is a harsh place, and Rork has not mistreated us or shown any other intentions besides wanting to help. I think we can trust him.”

Kolivar pursed her blue lips. Good. Jon was tired of looking at those sharp teeth anyway.

“These people have no way of sending or receiving a message from off planet,” he continued. “We just have to wait and be patient until they come to us. Rork will deliver us unharmed. He has given his word.”

“He wants something, yes?”

“If he does,” Jon said, “is that too much to ask for saving us? For taking care of us when we could have been with the others who were taken away by those… what were they calling themselves? Dust Dogs? Ridiculous…”

She didn’t say anything. Just looked at him.

“Trust me,” Jon said fervently. “I know people. He can be trusted.”

“Perhaps you are right.”

You don’t know the half of it, lizard’s spawn.

Rork gave them free reign of his base and the outer city, though he posted guards to accompany them whenever they left their quarters for “safety purposes.” The warlord obviously didn’t want them snooping around his base without having an eye on them. Jon agreed that that was a good idea. Retuailians were suspicious of humans, and rightly so.

“But why has he forbidden us to leave the compound?”

Rork had forbidden them to enter certain areas of the compound ever since the rescue mission was launched. If those operatives saw either of them, this plan was dead. “He thinks those Dust Dogs may attack the city,” Jon said. “He wants us to remain in the sheltered areas of the base in case they decide to shell the area.” That was a lie, of course, one Jon was privy to.

Kolivar frowned. “You spend too much time with this... Rork.”

Jon smiled. “He is our host. We must be good guests. Remember, this is his domain—he knows it best.”

Kolivar uncrossed her arms.

Letting her guard down? Jon wondered.

“I am going to get something to eat.” She said the words as if she found something in her mouth distasteful.

Retuailians didn’t like human food very much, and they certainly didn’t like the food here on Acheron. Despite their disposition toward meat, Retuailians ate quite a bit of plant food. Rork had indulged Kolivar, but he was hesitant to let her eat very many of his precious plants.

She believes me, Jon thought as they left their living quarters. What could be called “living quarters.”

* * *

Dan and Shane put on the Dust Dogs colors. Oranges and browns. Marcus was glad he didn’t have to go. His hands trembled when he got out of the ATV.

He was scared shitless, but actually, he felt excited.

“I forgot to mention,” Blake said. “Rork wants you to bring someone back with you.”

Dan frowned. “Who?”

“Her name is Susa Jaiban,” Blake said, reaching inside his pocket. He pulled out a physical picture.

“You guys actually have cameras in this place?” Marcus asked.

Blake didn’t respond to the question.

“We’re already getting your damn guidance system,” Shane said. “How much harder are you trying to make this for us?”

Marcus frowned. Who was Susa Jaiban?

“It may help you, actually. If you find her first, you will have leverage in case you get caught.”

Marcus walked around the ATV to join them as he shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight. The ground was almost too bright to look at. “Who is she? Why is she so important?”

“She’s the Dust Dogs princess, I suppose you could say,” Blake said, chuckling. He abruptly became serious.

Kidnap the leader’s daughter and make off with the guidance system, Marcus thought. It seemed like a good plan, if somewhat like dirty fighting. Blake Halls was a devious man.

“Fine,” Dan said, handing the photo to Shane.

* * *

Blake looked up at the sun and shielded his eyes. He shuffled his boots against the dirt and pebbles. “If you head in that direction,” he said, pointing over the dunes, “you’ll come up on a quarry the Dust Dogs use to make bricks.”

“Are there guards?” Dan asked.

Blake shook his head. “But there will be guards on the way back into Purgatory Valley at the end of the day’s work.”

“Shit,” Shane said. “Couldn’t you have driven us out here closer to sunset?”

Blake felt a tinge of annoyance. This Shan Threscher character was a prick just like his boss Silverman. “I figured a good day’s work would do you some good for that attitude of yours, Threscher.”

Shane looked pissed. Blake didn’t show it, but it felt good. The bastard wouldn’t do anything while Blake had guards with guns around him. He almost hoped Shane would get killed on this op.

Stop that, he told himself forcefully. He wasn’t that kind of man.

Just the kind that kidnaps innocent girls to use as leverage.

Those kinds of bluffs had to be carried out when the other side called them. Rork was willing to sacrifice Susa Jaiban if he had to. Blake wasn’t sure he could do something like that.

He felt like shit doing this. “What the hell are you waiting for,” he said, more harshly than he intended. “Go.”

The two operatives turned, making for the dunes in the direction he had told them to go. Blake watched them trudge up the slope. “You can’t miss the main road out of Purgatory Valley,” he called to them.

Dan turned, looked at him for a moment.

“If you need a quick exit, we’ll be in the valley. If not, we meet back here in the morning before sunrise.”

“Got it,” Dan said.

Marcus rubbed his hands together. “What the hell do I do?” Marcus asked.

Blake frowned. “Are you having fun, Mr. West?” he asked, slightly incredulous.

“I wouldn’t say I’m ‘having fun’ but this is exciting, isn’t it?”

Blake frowned. Was this man some kind of adrenaline junkie? “If you want fun, Join the marines when you get off this hellhole.”

Marcus chuckled.

* * *

After they had crested the second dune, Colonel Taver started speaking inside of Dan’s ear. “You two went dark for hours.” He was using his surly old man voice. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Inside a warlord’s base,” Dan said. “Apparently it’s an old mining station connected to a missile complex.”

“What’s your status?”

Dan was starting to breathe more heavily from the walking in sand up and down the dunes. When they crested the top of the dunes he could see the quarry which consisted of about two or three hundred workers, a few trucks and a lot of digging by hand.

“We can’t search Life City without becoming members in the Iron Kin of War,” Dan said.

“Life City? Iron Kin of War? What the hell are you two kids getting into down there?”

“Well,” Dan said, bemused. “Their leader wants us to retrieve a missile guidance system from the Dust Dogs before he’ll make us full members.”

“Where the hell did this warlord get a missile guidance system?”

“Is that a rhetorical question, sir, or are you really asking us?”

“Of course it’s a rhetorical question, dipshit.”

Dan smiled.

“He obviously has somebody on the outside making drops.”

They crested the last dune, reaching the quarry. “Gotta go,” Dan said. Then he wondered why Shane wasn’t taking part in the conversation. In fact, he’d been oddly quiet ever since he’d discovered the recorder.

Shit, Dan thought, He’s up to something.

They made their way onto a dirt road that spiraled into the quarry pit and headed over to a wooden elevator that worked by way of a pulley system that looked to be about two hundred years out of date. They stepped on to the lift, the wood planks on the bottom creaking. “Take us down,” Dan told the man operating the lift. He didn’t seem to wonder why they came in from beyond the Dunes. He never even asked them any questions.

The man nodded and the lift shook, then started to lower. Dan inspected the quarry. Currently there were four trucks being loaded with bricks by about thirty men. Another thirty or so men were bringing buckets of mud to molds, pouring what would become bricks into the squares to bake in the sun. Bricks that had already dried were being stacked and cooked inside of five different furnaces.

“I guess we start loading bricks,” Dan said, not wanting to get soaked in mud.

Shane mumbled something about this being the worst damn job he’d ever taken.

Dan picked up on the word usage. Job...

Men like Dan never used that word. They always said, “mission,” or “op,” not “job!” Shane had to be dirty.

…because that sounds damn mercenary.