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I squirmed some more when we entered a shorter hallway, one I recognized, one that would lead to a port where strato gliders waited. But all my efforts were in vain and I was pushed into a gleaming strato liner like a rolled-up carpet, where I hit the ground painfully. My head banged against the metallic floor and I saw stars for a few minutes.
Doors closed and we took off.
Bile rose in my throat. I forced myself to swallow it down, fearing I would suffocate on my own vomit if it came up with the gag firmly planted in my mouth. That wasn’t the way I wanted to die.
Not that I wanted to die, period.
The men didn’t speak as the strato liner moved us closer to wherever it was they were taking me.
On the ground, my field of vision was filled with boots—boots like the guards wore—and slowly I realized that all three men were wearing guard uniforms. Not the imperial uniforms, darker ones, ones I hadn’t seen before, but definitely uniforms with insignias whose meanings escaped me.
We stopped, and once again I was flung over a shoulder and carried out of the strato glider. It was hard making things out, hanging upside down, facing the Pandraxian’s back, but at least my mind had time to work through my abduction and come to grips with it as best as I could under the circumstances.
Whoever was behind abducting me, whatever was about to happen to me, I realized I was on my own. I needed to stay as clearheaded as possible if I wanted to find a chance to escape or figure out why this was happening to me.
Part of that was trying to figure out where I was.
The cobbled street underneath my abductor’s feet didn’t give me any clues though, neither did the canal we crossed. The smell of sewage and garbage assaulted my nose, made me gag again. It took a hard effort to keep the bile at bay as I hung upside down. The image of bile coming out of my nose because my mouth was gagged and me suffocating on it was incentive enough for me to work hard on keeping it in my stomach, but I worried I was fighting a losing battle.
I lifted my head to stare around. It was still night. I had no idea if it was eleven o’clock or three in the morning. It was dark, that was all I knew.
Decrepit buildings stood on both sides of the road, looking ominous in the shadows. Some appeared to be businesses of some sort, some were open even at this hour. I made out a few shady restaurants but most buildings housed bars and… the braying laughter of a woman caused a shudder to run through my body as I realized that some of these establishments were brothels or bordellos, or whatever the Pandraxians called them—my abductors had taken me to the red-light district of Pandrax.
My imagination went wild at the realization that some of these Pandraxians might pay a hefty sum to fuck a human woman since we were still a relatively unknown species.
Oh God, no, I prayed. No.
But if those were their intentions they could have easily found a less high-profile victim than me. Not that I wished this kind of fate on anybody, but logic dictated that abducting me was a lot riskier than some of the other women just coming from Earth.
One of the college classes I took had been about terrorism, kidnappings, and torture, and the knowledge I gained during the course now came back to haunt me.
Panic tried to seize me once again, but I fought it just like I fought the constant bile—down, down, down. The course had been informative as well as frightening. The premise had been that every time someone was abducted it was because the captors wanted something. From simple money to freeing political prisoners or making a statement. If I could puzzle out why I was taken, I might be able to figure out a way to get out of this.
Money would be the easiest if that was what they wanted. I was sure Daryus would pay handsomely for my release.
Daryus!
How I wished I had never left his suite. I should have stayed the night like he had offered, or at least allowed him to take me home like he wanted to. No, that wouldn’t have helped either, these people had taken me right out of my bed.
The woman laughed shrilly again, sending more shivers down my spine. A male voice yelled something unintelligible and she brayed some more.
We walked down a narrow alleyway, so narrow the man carrying me had to turn sideways, and still the back of my head scraped along the rough wall.
We stopped, and he knocked on a door. He stood and we waited until the door was opened with a screech. No sliding doors here, I noticed.
“What do you want?”
“Someone is calling in a favor,” one of the other men said.
“Oh yeah?”
I heard some rustling like one of the men digging for something in his pant pockets. Whatever he produced must have convinced the other man to allow us into a stinking, filthy kitchen.
“She is not to be harmed or touched. Otherwise, you can do with her as you please.” The man who had spoken before informed the other, while the one carrying me deposited me on one of the battered-looking chairs.
“What is that?” the renter or owner of the house asked, eyeing me up and down.
I tried to ignore his stare, because now that I was right side up again and sat down, I could look around. The men who took me were indeed wearing uniforms, with blasters strapped to their thighs. The uniforms were a dark gray, and I didn’t recognize them.
