Chapter 54

“Yoo-hoo, is anyone home?” a voice called from down the hall.

“Keep coming and turn right, Kilos,” Zeke called out.

Zeke got up and met with Kilos. He grabbed Kilos’ head in both hands and turned it to see a purple bruise near his left temple.

“I’d kiss it better, but it might not be a good idea for it to disappear too soon.”

He dropped a gentle kiss on Kilos’ forehead. Kilos had to hug him tight. Zeke returned the hug and rubbed Kilos’ back for a few seconds. He gently pulled away and smiled at his friend. He then turned to face Nikau. Nikau had a bigger bruise on his left cheek.

Zeke cradled Nikau’s head and rubbed the bruise softly with his thumb as he examined it. He slid a hand to the back of Nikau’s head. His fingers found a rather large bump. This time, Zeke did do a small, local healing spell.

He watched as the pain left Nikau’s eyes. Tears filled them instead, and he stepped in to hug Zeke fiercely. Zeke cradled his head and let Nikau hug him as he sniffed back the tears. Finally, Zeke stood back, slipping his hands onto Nikau’s shoulders.

He smiled, “You are a brave man. But I’m just as sad to see you hurt as I am to see Kilos hurt. You are my friend too, Nikau. You are one of my people now.”

“I had to protect him,” Nikau explained.

Zeke smiled, “I would expect nothing less from you, Nikau. I’m sorry I interfered for as long as I did.”

Nikau shook his head, “No, now was the right time for both of us.”

“Good, let’s eat,” Zeke grinned.

While Tean felt a little outnumbered, she did enjoy meeting Kilos and Nikau.

It didn’t take her or Lindsay long to realise the relationship been Kilos and even Nikau to Zeke was a bit more complicated than them being just friends or employees of Zeke’s.

Lindsay was surprised that he felt a little jealous. However, it soon became apparent that Kilos and Nikau were both lovers and a couple. Kilos explained in the discussion that their magical rings were bonded.

He joked, “Our Lord married us this morning. It was a shame our honeymoon was disrupted by those goons. I should have realised that Finlay was a mole. I felt sorry for him and gave him work.”

“I didn’t think he was still working with Muhammad. I’d thought Muhammad had left Morpheus after his brother had been arrested. I knew the authorities were looking for him.”

“He’d hid his ship in the shipyard,” Nikau added.

“Finlay saw us three talking in the office, and he went and called Muhammad. There is an old docking port at the back of the new secure storeroom, where Zeke’s containers were. We only started leasing that section six months ago.”

“We were told that the doors going to space side airlock had been sealed up years ago. When we checked, there was an old lock over the controls. That’s why I never bothered to tell Zeke about it.”

“They forced the inner doors open and waited for us to come inside from the front. We were distracted, and they jumped me before I could defend myself. Nikau did manage to knock one of them down before he was bludgeoned. Then they zapped us.”

“Next thing we knew, the MPs were waking us up, and we found Zeke’s containers missing. They had even left the space side doors of the airlock open. None of the sensors worked, so there were no alarms. Thank goodness the inner station doors held.”

Nikau grinned, “Colonel Howe chucked a wobbly when I told him the Council had refused to fix the outer doors. Apparently, some of the cameras and proximity sensors in that area of Morpheus don’t work either. Control didn’t even know the ship had arrived or left until it got into trouble.”

Kilos shrugged, “I should have realised it was an old smuggler’s port. The Council Admin assured us they had found them all back in 2093. I guess it was easier to just put a lock on them than fix them or permanently seal them. They are always bleating about costs.”

“Locks only stop honest people,” Manny said as he finished making his second sandwich.

Kilos nodded, “True. They stopped us from making damn sure the doors were sealed tight. Our Insurance company isn’t happy because we were robbed through no fault of our own.”

“Well, I have one of the containers,” Zeke said. “Freya, any news on the arrest?”

“Would you like to see it, Captain?”

“Why not, Freya. Nikau, you may wish to move around next to Kilos so you can see the back wall.”

Nikau obliged, and he and Kilos moved their chairs back a bit so Tean could see, too.

The vid started by showing a set of personnel airlock doors with big blue numbers painted on them.

It then changed to show a squad of MPs dressed in black and covered in riot-protected spacesuits. Their helmets were sealed, and they carried a weapon with laser sights.

“The new THPG25-12 riot and ship boarding weapons. Nasty,” commented Lindsay.

“Why?” Tean asked as she watched the team surround the doors and take aim.

“Glue guns,” Lindsay said. “They spit out twenty-five, twelve-millimetre balls of glue at high pressure. They really hurt when they hit you, and then the thin skin breaks and splatters the glue.”

“The super strong glue sets extremely fast when exposed to air or vacuum. It sticks everything to everything. It’s nasty to get off, as they have to use a strong solvent to dissolve it.”

“We were taught to aim for where body parts are close together. But not the face unless deadly force was required. If it gets in your eyes, you can be blinded. Getting it in your mouth or up your nose is awful, too.”