Intrepid Bond: Mated to the Alien Universe (Detyen Warrior Outcasts Book 2) by Kate Rudolph

Author:Kate Rudolph [Rudolph, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-07T18:30:00+00:00

16

NOELLE

Night hadn't completely fallen. We wouldn't have been able to follow if it had. The two men weren't making any effort to hide their trail, but after a few minutes, their voices disappeared completely. I heard the sound of an engine firing up, and Ryklin took off running with me right behind him.

We made it to a spot farther down the beach just in time to see a small craft launch itself into the air and break for the sky.

We weren't the only ones on Nebula. At least, we hadn't been.

"What's going on?" I asked, as if Ryklin might have any more answers than I did.

"I don't know." Once the ship was high enough in the sky that there was no way they could spot us on the ground, he moved forward to examine the launch area.

There were three large, empty pallets sitting near an indentation in the mud that might have been from the ship's ramp. There was also a flashlight laying on the ground. I scooped it up and pressed the power button, letting out a whoop of joy when it shined bright. The sun had nearly set, and it was getting hard to see.

"Any ideas?" I wasn't a sleuth; I was a tech. I fixed things that were broken. I hated puzzles, and this had all the makings of something bad.

"Do you know why they never reopened the mine?" Ryklin asked. "Or why whatever company owns it never used the planet for anything else?"

"Something about contamination, maybe?" I'd asked the same question not long after arriving on Nebula Outpost and had been given a similarly vague answer.

"Then why keep the Outpost running?" He held out his hand, and I handed over the flashlight. He ran it over deep ruts in the ground that I realized came from wheels. I didn't see a vehicle, so either it had been driven away or the two men in the woods had taken it with them.

"What are you thinking?" I asked. I remembered the drug dealers up on the station, the crime that seemed to get worse by the day. Nebula Outpost was no paradise, but it couldn't be that much worse than any other place. "They don't need a whole planet just to run drugs." Sure, there were incredibly expensive, exotic substances that were only produced in certain corners of the galaxy, but those drugs tended to stay there. You couldn't charge enough to move Lux or Benit in quantity. Small shipments came from specialty couriers and only for the insanely rich.

Solar Flare and other drugs like it could be made anywhere. No need for an empty planet or complex shipping.

"Not drugs." Ryklin followed the tracks for a few steps before stopping and flashing his light into the dark woods. "This could be a way station for smugglers, a convenient place to repair without taxes or questions. Or perhaps there's some illegal mining going on. We won't know if we stay here." The beam from his flashlight still shone into the darkness, telling me exactly where he wanted to go.

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