Chapter 16
It was when he started losing hope that he saw something small dart up into the sky. Using his hyper-binoculars, he quickly ascertained what it was.
“Klutzo,” he said victoriously as he pulled the binoculars from his eyes. Casting them aside and hearing them tumble to the floor of his slider, he leaned over the rails and gunned the engine.
His slider shot over the desert, churning up great clouds of sand that lifted high into the sky.
He’d been traveling all night. Dawn was on the horizon, and thankfully it calmed the frenzied wind of the night.
Nothing would calm his mood.
“She better be okay,” he muttered, leaning even further over the rails until his shoulders tightened with tension.
He kept an eye on Klutzo and watched him dart back out of sight under the lip of a tall dune.
If Klutzo was fine, that was a good sign Mimi would be too.
….
Actually, no it wasn’t. Josh was kidding himself. Klutzo could have wandered off, malfunctioned, or been left behind by her kidnappers. So as Josh’s slider mounted the dune, he didn’t stop. He shot down the side of it so fast he practically caused an avalanche.
He could see a sand slider parked with its nose toward him.
He parked alongside it. If parking can include yanking on the brake and swinging in alongside the vehicle with a screech of inertia drives and a great cloud of sand.
Josh didn’t stop. He jumped onto the sand. He sunk in up to his knees, but pulled himself free and stalked forward.
Klutzo was hovering off to the side, doing a good impression of looking sprung.
As for Mimi….
Before Josh could fear she wasn’t here, he heard her whimper.
She was on the slider.
He rounded the back of it and vaulted onto the vehicle. His move was so strong he made the thing shake.
Then, then he finally saw her.
She was hiding under the dash with her hands over her head.
He growled.
She looked up. He watched recognition widen her startlingly blue eyes. “Josh.”
“That’s right, Princess,” he spat as he marched forward, leaned down, and pulled her up by the arm. “I’m surprised you remember me. You did abandon me, after all.”
Though he was furious, he couldn’t deny his relief. It lapped at him like waves, washing away the past days’ worth of fear.
Mimi was fine. Surprised at his sudden appearance, sure, but okay.
“I… I didn’t abandon you,” she tried, not bothering to pull her arm free as he yanked her forward and off the back of the slider.
“What do you call it then?” He let her arm go but didn’t take a step back to reinstate his personal space. Instead, he stared right into her eyes, despite the fact she was close enough that his breath buffeted her fringe.
“I… I….”
“You ran off, put yourself in danger, and wasted my time.”
She shrunk back from him. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Then what exactly was it like, Mimi? What the hell were you thinking? That you were better off without me—” he began, barely getting started on his tirade. He had a lot to get off his chest. A day of thinking she was either dead or kidnapped, to be precise.
“Yes,” she interrupted, her surprise abating as her brow crumpled, “Yes, I thought I was better off without you.”
“Excuse me?” He stuttered, shocked at her honesty.
Before, she had been shrinking away from him, clearly scared. Now she stood her ground. “I thought I was better off without you,” she repeated bluntly.
Josh’s jaw dropped open.
“Surprised?” She crossed her arms. She had the tenacity to cross her arms despite the fact she had wandered off into the desert on her own, leaving him to track her down.
Briefly, he couldn’t say anything, then the anger came thundering back. “I knew you were arrogant, but this is insane.”
“Arrogant? You want to talk about being arrogant? Why don’t you look at yourself first? You have the emotional understanding of a meteor.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’re the rudest, meanest, coldest person I have ever met. Now leave me alone.” With that, she attempted to walk back to her sand slider.
Josh got there first, leaning in and grabbing her arm. She didn’t let him hold it long, as she shoved him off. To be honest, he could easily have kept his grip, but he stumbled back nonetheless.
“What’s wrong with you?” He asked.
She stopped and turned very slowly, sand scattering over her boots. “What’s wrong with me? Seriously? Can you honestly be that obtuse? You accused me of killing someone,” she choked through her words.
“What? When?”
She made an exasperated noise, threw her hands in the air, and walked back to her slider.
“Do you have any idea what you put me through by walking off on your own?” Josh tried to maneuver in front of her, but she kept ducking around his arms. “I thought you’d been kidnapped. You may not have much experience with planets like this, Princess, but trust me, I do. You would have roused the attention of every criminal and two-bit scavenger. You’re lucky you made it this far. Speaking of which, what the hell were you thinking going off into the desert on your own? This place is dangerous.” Throughout his entire tirade, he didn’t take a single breath. He let the anger push his words out in rapid-fire, like pulses from a gun.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t been kidnapped. Also,” she spread her arms wide, indicating her body, “I’m fine. The desert hasn’t killed me.”
“Yet.”
“You know, I don’t need someone like you looking out for me.”
He snorted. “I’m not sure if you remember, but if it weren’t for me, you would have been impaled back on that transport. You would also have been kidnapped by that scavenger. I don’t know how it works in that rich brat world of yours, but in my world, I’m owed a thank you, not an ear-bashing.”
“You want to know how it works in my world, Josh? It’s funny, because it actually works the same as in your world,” she said in a singsong sarcastic voice, “If you do nothing but insult and belittle someone, they leave you. You might have protected me in the past, and I’ve already thanked you for that, but the benefit of traveling with you is not worth the price.”
He snorted. “I can’t believe this,” he said, pressing his dirty fingers into his brow and letting the nails dig hard into his flesh until half-moon circles appeared over the sweat and grit. “I drop everything, purchase a sand slider from a shifty alien, and stay up the whole night tracking you down. You are the most ungrateful brat in the universe.”
“And you’re an idiot.”
“Right, I’ve had enough of this. You are coming back with me whether you like it or not. I have a duty as an officer of the Coalition. If I let the daughter of Theodore Chester die in the desert, my career is done for. And I will not let you destroy my career, Princess,” his voice became dark and edgy.
Her expression paled somewhat, but she didn’t lose the defiant edge to her gaze. “I am not going anywhere with you.”
He gave an exasperated laugh, pushing both hands through his hair and dislodging the scarf he’d used to protect himself from the sand. As the fabric fell down his neck, a whole pile of sand cascaded down his collar. It itched his back and reminded him exquisitely how much he hated the desert.
“I will tie you up if I have to. But you will not ruin what I’ve been working for for the past five damn years. You got that, Princess?”
“Stop calling me Princess. And I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Josh brought his hands up and dug his fingers into his palms as hard as he could. Rebuilders he could deal with. Barbarians were a walk in the park. Mimi Chester was murder.
He took a step toward her, and immediately she turned and ran for his sand slider.
> Throughout the entire altercation, her recording orb drifted overhead, looking mildly curious, or as curious as an electronic ball could. It didn’t interrupt, and nor, thankfully, did it zip around banging into every object, including his head.
If Josh had been paying keen attention, though, he would have noticed that Klutzo was maintaining a specific distance from them. And if not from them, from an object Josh had not yet noticed. But one that was about to change his world.