Page 27 of In a Dangerous Orbit
She took a step backward, her heart hammering.
A patch in the center of door began to glow. It changed from gold to orange to scarlet red.
Another bang and this time, the heated portion of the door gave away.
Relda took a deep breath. She felt the energy flow around her, and she opened her hands and held her arms in front of her.
Between her palms, electricity sparked.
A small object flew through the hole in the door, bounced once, then rolled along the floor until it smacked against her bare feet.
A small black canister. With a quiet hiss, a green gas released from the ends of it.
What the hell?She stepped backward.Sync,she needed to get to her Sync. She scrambled away, but the gas was sprayingup, filling the room. She wrinkled her nose, but found it didn’t smell bad at all. The electricity between her hands died away and her vision blurred.
Her abilities…were gone.
Dizziness hit.
She stumbled, aiming for the bedroom. But someone grabbed her from behind, lifting her off her feet.
She caught a glimpse of Deputy Westin’s face before something was pulled over her eyes.
“You’re worth a lot of e-creds, Ms. Dela-Cruz,” the man said. “A real-life Vega-Lyran…that’s a lot of e-creds.”
She tried to kick and twist, but her limbs felt so incredibly heavy. Her head felt like it was plugged with glue.
The man stepped through the broken door and tossed something back into the apartment. She heard theclinkas it hit the floor.
As they exited the building, Relda heard the boom of an explosion followed by breaking glass.
Hunt.She tried to scream, but his name was just an echo in her head.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Hunt sat in his office, staring at his computer console. He was looking through the short list of starships sitting in port. Nothing was jumping out.
A freightership owned by a trader who frequented Souk regularly. A retrofitted runnership owned by Miro Enterprises. They did pleasure tours around the star system. He rubbed a hand over his face. Maybe his hunch to check out the ships was a bust.
The next image made him pause. A high-end, luxury cruiser called theOracle. Registered to a Timothy Li. Hunt ran a prelim search. Li was part of a minor telepathic race from the Ming system. Tapping his fingers against his desk, he executed a more detailed search on Timothy Li.
The man was a collector of ancient artifacts. Hunt’s instincts sprang to life, and they’d saved his ass too many times for him to ignore it.
Time to pay Timothy Li a visit for a random ship inspection.
Suddenly, an alarm blared from his Sync. Every muscle in his body tensed. The security alarm at his apartment!
“Marshal! Marshal!”
Hasan appeared in the doorway. The young deputy was panting from his sprint.
Hunt leaped to his feet. “What is it, Hasan?”
“Your apartment, sir?—”
“Spit it out!” Dread curdled in Hunt’s veins.
“There was an explosion…”
