Battling Rapture Read Free

feet and handcuffed before she
could throw her first punch. Her knife was stuck in the Trogo’s belly. She
leaned back against the Trogo holding her upper arms, lifted both of her feet,
and kicked the one before her with all her strength. He fell back against his
comrades. They went down as though they were bowling pins.
    The one holding her jerked her forward and to the rear of
the hovercraft. She spit on the pile of Trogo attempting to stand on the way
past.
    “It took twenty of you to subdue one girl. You suck and your
friends are dead.” For once having the last word didn’t make her feel better.
    * * * * *
    He wouldn’t tell Venn he had brought his younger sister to
an almost lawless casino. Rhine looked around the B’wor’s Luck. It had all the
prerequisites of a place to lose your money or your life. The walls were dark
enough to hide anything which might splatter on them. The lights stayed dim.
The haze of tryzu smoke created an artificial fog which secluded pockets
of tables.
    The old, sturdy tables were dented, watermarked tiont wood. The chairs looked comfortable, black, ergonomic and obviously designed to
keep players in their seats for long hours. The scantily clad barmaids who
pushed subpar liquor were the hallmark of any low rent establishment on a
casino moon.
    In the front room, hawkers enticed players to play at their
game tables and try computer games. As Rhine scanned the room, he occasionally
caught the hawkers’ eyes. He made sure his teeth were bared. The longer,
sharper and harder teeth of a hypersensitive were common knowledge. The hawkers
looked away quickly.
    Play-for-credit machines lined the walls and randomly
whirled and buzzed with sounds and flashing lights. They hurt his
hypersensitive eyes and ears. The mood was boisterous.
    They passed from the larger room to a smaller room in the
back. The noise and lights fell away as if it were a waterfall. Each sound was
measured, used or discarded here by patrons, based on whether or not it moved
them closer to more credits. The United Universe’s common currency was only
half of the motivation here. The other was the lure of the winning hand. All
the serious card players congregated here in the back room.
    Somewhere on this casino moon was the Huntu’s newest first
lady’s kinswoman. His cousin Venn’s wife, Camryn, was an Earth woman, the love
of his cousin’s life and a former slave. Venn had hired the crew of the Dovian
Heart , a group of anti-slavery mercenaries, to search for the woman. Rhine
had been dubious in the extreme about the likelihood she would be found. Niki
Sawyer could have been on the beleaguered Earth or on one of the hundreds of
thousands of inhabited planets scattered throughout the United Universe. She’d
been identified quickly, surprising him more than he wanted to admit.
    The information sent to Venn from the crew of the Dovian
Heart indicated Isor Ja, an itinerant gambler and lackey for the region’s
number two press gang boss, had purchased his new cousin’s kinswoman. Rhine had
been waiting in space, ready for the message that the Dovian Heart had
found Niki. He’d changed course immediately and set out with his cousins Tor,
Gunter and Olaf. Unfortunately, he also had an extra crew member. Bronwyn.
    She was untried on a mission like this one. If Isor Ja
wouldn’t allow Rhine to purchase Niki Sawyer, Rhine fully intended to kill him
and take her. They tried to give Camryn what she wanted. She wanted her
kinswoman. She was nearly sick with wanting her.
    The desire to give Camryn what she wanted was why, when the
small Earth woman asked if Bronwyn could continue her coming of age trip
instead of being returned to Ordan, both Venn and Rhine had folded. They had
pretended to be swayed by Camryn’s argument that Bronwyn would be with family.
He knew the truth. They were fools for her every request. Outside of her
brothers, who would protect the girl more fiercely than her cousins and the
ruling cabinet of her