Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

pack from her face. “Dean and I met with Doctor James Wong, the head of the tech department. He’s working on the problem now. Hopefully, we’ll have something soon that will allow us to track someone, even if they’re cloaked.”

“Very good,” Arun said. She placed both her white hands on the ledge, leaning into the one-way wall. It was clear she was studying her prisoner. “Iris, tell me more about this Trevor Bishop.”

“Outside of his affiliation with the Disciples, he’s somewhat of a ghost,” Iris said as the screen on her hand moved from a blurry image of Trevor to a list of known aliases, accomplices, and skills. “He’s a dangerous man trained in the arts of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, weapons, poisons, and, well, the list goes on and on. Shall I read it all?”

“I think we get the point,” Elon said.

We all stood there for a moment, staring at the unconscious man.

“So are we going to go and wake up Sleeping Beauty or what?” I asked, looking to the others for consensus.

“I’ll go in with Stacy,” Elon said, placing a calming hand on his sister’s shoulder. “We should try to handle this matter with words if we are able.”

“You think he’s going to willingly give you information?” Arun arched her eyebrow. “Maybe it will do him some good to experience the pain he put so many others through.”

I already knew Arun was the hothead of the two siblings, but this was downright intimidating. I wasn’t used to seeing the crazy gleam of vengeance in the eyes of an Eternal. Somehow it made it worse, since the bright blue of their eyes shone so fiercely.

“Give us a chance, and then if it doesn’t work our way, you can use yours,” Elon said, looking to Stacy and me for support.

“I agree,” Stacy chimed in.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” I said, pointing a thumb to Arun. “I’m with your sister here. I’ve come across plenty of guys like our assassin Disciple in there. Talking to that maniac isn’t going to get you anywhere. I’m down with putting a beating on him, but I don’t think that’s going to do any good either. He’s familiar with pain. He’ll block that out of his head like I would.”

“What would you suggest?” Arun asked with an upturned eyebrow.

“I mean, I’ve never used it myself, but some kind of drug or narcotic that will make him tell the truth,” I said, looking at the two Eternals in front of me along with Stacy. I threw a quick glance to Iris as well so she wouldn’t feel left out.

“Are you talking about injecting our prisoner with drugs to make him talk?” Elon said, shaking his head in surprise. “Mr. Slade, we don’t have a serum like that on board the Orion.”

“Well, have Iris alchemy a brew up for you,” I said, looking over at the Cognitive. “Iris, do you have all the ingredients onboard the Orion to create a truth serum if that’s what we need?”

“Indeed,” Iris said with a bright, cheery smile across her glowing blue face. “I could have a combination made for you in minutes.”

“See,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “Even the Cognitive thinks we should shoot our Disciple friend up with some happy juice.”

“Before we try anything, Stacy and I are just going to talk to him,” Elon said resolutely. “We haven’t regressed so far to start injecting one another with chemicals and torture.”

“He never said torture,” Arun reminded her brother. “That was all you. But if you need someone to say it for you to feel better, I would torture him if it meant getting information that would save the lives of a hundred thousand on this ship.”

Elon breathed heavily in exhaustion. He headed for the door with Stacy following, smirking behind him.

“You’re kinda dark,” I said, giving Arun an approving nod. “I like it.”

“I harbor no mercy for those who kill innocent men, women, and children,” Arun said with a shrug, as if it were just a rule of life like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. “When they come for anyone in my colony, I take it personally.”

I liked Arun the more and more I got to know her. Hell, I liked all these people, and it kind of worried me. I’d been on my own for so long with just Ricky as my only real friend, I forgot there were other people out there that shared a common outlook on life with me.

A moment later, they left our room and entered the holding chamber on the other side of the two-way wall. They made enough noise to wake Trevor if he was sleeping. Still, he didn’t move a muscle.

Stacy brought two chairs in for them from the hall outside of the room and placed them facing the terrorist. She made sure they were slightly apart and turned to the side, almost in a circle, to leave me and Arun plenty of room to see our prisoner.

“You think you can make a cage that will be strong enough to hold me?” Trevor said, not bothering to lift his head to look at them. “You will lose this war because you lack the conviction to do what is needed.”

“And what is that, Trevor?” Elon asked, sitting in one of the chairs. “May I call you Trevor?”

Trevor lifted his bald head. A look of pure disgust was written on his bruised face. He scowled at Elon as if he were going to answer, then turned to Stacy instead. “You’re a human like me. Why do you serve such a master?”

“We’re all human,” Stacy said, correcting the prisoner. “And he’s not my master. If you put those two truths to use, you’d be able to see past your hate.”

Trevor shook his head in disgust. He spat on the ground next to him.

“Trevor Bishop,” Elon tried again. “I hope you realize that this sit down is an act of...well, of hope that you would be willing