Bounty Hunter

Chapter 29

Insulted, I chase after her with my thin shoes chaffing against the back of my feet. A squadron of guards greets us as soon as we turn the corner. Their enormous guns are trained on us and we have no way of running. Even if I could summon lightning it would do nothing to prevent us from being gunned down. Red throws the gun down in surrender and I stare at her in shock. I know it seems like surrender is our only option but I never expected her to give in this easily. Suddenly the square of ground beneath me caves in and I fall into a shockingly cold body of water. I look up to see a metal covering above my head. Looking down, I see Red swimming horizontally away from me. Kicking out my legs and extending my arms I begin to swim after her. My face is convulsing in a red tomato shade from the effort of holding my breath for too long. Red lays her hand against the metal wall in front of her and I struggle to keep my arms moving so that I don't hit my head on the metal above me. A concealed door open up and the water rushes out and into the door along with us. It is as if I am a limp piece of seaweed that has been tossed out onto dry land. My exhausted lungs cough up a pint of water onto the already wet floor. The door closes behind us preventing the water from flooding us any further.

"How did you do that?" I sputter.

"We don't have time to talk," she says swiping my hand to propel me along. "We need to get to the ships." I wasn't sure whether I could trust Red or not, but she could have let me die when we were cornered by the guards. If she wanted me dead I would have already stopped breathing. I run across the cold metal floor and struggle to keep up with Red's fast pace. "Hurry up!" she hisses. My short legs run at twice her pace along the seemingly infinite metal hallway. She grabs my hand and I feel a strange sensation run through me. When I look down my body seems to have disappeared along with Red. We skid down a sharp corner and Red slams her hand against a blank metal wall. My eyebrows jump up in response to the elevator doors that magically open in the wall. My nails which haven't been cut since Kai coerced me into space travel dig into Red's skin. She does not seem to notice though and I realize that her skin seems thicker than mine. It almost feels as if she wears an extra layer of armor like skin. The elevator shoots up like a shuttle hitting me with a wave of vertigo. The elevator is a cylindrical shape formed from glass that allows me to see the guards beneath us although they cannot see us.

"Why couldn't you just do this earlier when we were surrounded?" I ask Red.

"I didn't have the strength for it," she said. "I swiped an energy shot from one of the guards but it takes time to kick in. Turning myself invisible is easy. Turning another person invisible feels like getting hit by a space shuttle."

The glass slides away and I am immediately hit by a blast of polar temperature wind. The strangely close stars zoom into my face and when I reach out I can feel an odd tiny prick of warmth on my fingertip. Red's hand tightens on mine making me wince. Looking up, my heart stops. A tall figure in a black body suit stands in front of a small space ship for what I gauge to fit two. The figure's shoulders are adorned by a collection of sharp threatening mini stalagmites that glow blue against the black sky. The figure's head whips around looking directly at Red and I despite the fact that we are invisible. His mouth opens revealing sharp canines and his blue head growls at us like a hybrid animal and human. Then he throws his head back in easy laughter. "Looking for this?" he asks patting the ship's hull. "I decided to come home earlier. I heard that my favorite assassin had broken loose and I decided it was time to pay a visit. We didn't end on civil terms but I think we're both ready for a nice family dinner. What do you say? Me, you and the girl? And who knows maybe my son might even pop in for a surprise. It's been a long time since I've seen my family though and I would hate to have to punish you Shashira. You know daddy doesn't like being made to wait."