In the Shadow of the Starships

Chapter 10 Trapped

I groaned and raised a hand to my forehead. I had a splitting headache. Whatever I was lying on was far too hard, and my mind was much too clear for having just woken up.

"Jennisa! Are you okay?" Toby's voice was very faint, but it was still too loud for the way my head pounded. His voice was even quieter as he asked, "Sorry, is this better?"

"Not really," I grumbled, wincing at the pain in my head.

Had this been a movie, my kidnappers would have barged in and started demanding answers, but they were clearly realists who must have known they wouldn't get anywhere when even trying to form coherent thoughts was painful.

Keeping my eyes closed against the lights, I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to find the impacted nerves and massage away what was pretty much the king of tension headaches. The nerve blaster was bad enough, but I was lucky the earlier stun blast had only caught the edge of my leg. A full blast to the chest was something I probably wouldn't wake up from.

I winced as my fingers found the sore nerves. After a lot of painful massaging, my headache dulled to something tolerable. I didn't bother sitting up or opening my eyes just yet.

"What's around me?"

"No cameras, or at least no remote ones I can access. You're somewhere in Bay D. The camera on your bracelet just shows a wall. A rather dirty wall. I'm not sure when the last time they cleaned it was."

The wall was the least of my concerns. Carefully prying an eye open—the aged lights weren't as bright as I'd feared—I let my head roll to the side to check my surroundings. I was lying on a rumpled painting cloth on the floor, and the dull grey walls were liberally dotted with grime and oil spots. Several clean rectangles on the floor marked where stands of shelving had likely once stood. No visible cameras, which I found interesting. Other than myself and the cloth, there was nothing in this room.

"This was probably a small storage room. Did my attackers leave the area?"

"Nope. At least four are in there somewhere."

"That explains the lack of a lock. Have you put in a call for help? Enforcement might not care about men standing outside an apartment in a slum, but a kidnapping near the space port should get a pretty quick response."

"Yep! They have a special forces unit on the way!"

I must not have been out for long. I sat up for a better look around. Other than the painting sheet, there was definitely nothing else in the room—and more importantly, nothing to block the door or keep people out until help arrived.

I heard muffled footsteps running closer before someone shout-whispered, "We have black coats surrounding the building! Grab the girl and get her out of here."

"Uh, the spaceweb just went out. I think there's some sort of blocker in the area."

That was not what I wanted to hear. I clambered to my feet as the door was yanked open. I came face-to-face with not just one, but three rather illegal stun guns. Two hands roughly grabbed my arms and dragged me out of the small room.

My eyes remained fixed on the guns as I was pulled across a room. If I screamed for help, would anyone hear me? Anyone who'd actually try to intervene, that is? Or would my captors stun me, which would prevent any later escape attempts? With my medical condition, a stun blast would almost certainly be lethal.

Were they possibly motivated by money? "Are you looking for a ransom? I can pay."

"Shut up." The command was echoed by a hard shove between my shoulders.