Page 76 of The Last Hunt

“Get the fuck off of me!” she snarls, spinning and grabbing for her necklace. But he flings the necklace and oxygen unit behind him. Maeve’s stomach sinks as she watches her necklace disappear under the feet of the crowd. She doesn’t have time to go and find it.

“Think twice before you -” he starts.

“Fuck off!” she growls. She elbows the man in the stomach and he doubles over in pain. Maeve is gone before he or any of his friends can retaliate. Their cries are quickly lost in the bustle of the starbase.

While she runs for the stairs, she scans the crowd for Daik. The last time she saw him in person was on Alpha Starbase when he had almost killed her. She allows the rage she feels at that incident to boil up in her stomach. Daik is thin and weasley, a head shorter than her, and six months ago, he had stringy brown hair that fell to his shoulders. His features are small, and he likes to wear disguises. Beards, wigs, eye patches, and occasionally a more expensive mod like a set of sharp teeth, false tattoos, or a skin texture modifier. But Maeve knows she’ll recognize him no matter what he’s wearing. He has a distinctive way of moving, scuttling like a spider.

Maeve reaches the stairs and begins the climb, each flight of stairs longer and narrower than she would prefer. The stairs are jammed with people climbing slowly, as if they have nowhere of importance to be, which Maeve is sure they don’t.

“Can you hear me, Bladesy?” Aethon’s voice comes through her earpiece. She shoves past a group of women standing still on a landing and looking out the window at the food court seating area below before replying.

“I hear you.”

“I’m almost up here,” he says. “My stairs weren’t crowded, but I can see that yours are.”

Maeve looks through the glass at the floor two levels above her and sees Aethon’s tall form sprinting for the entrance of the Lightway.

“I’m coming,” Maeve says. “Move!” she shouts at the group of people taking their time on the stairs. They look back at her with wide eyes and skirt to the side of the stairs.

“I’m going to get them to shut down the Lightway so Daik can’t escape,” Aethon says.

“Good,” Maeve huffs. “Now we just need him to show his fucking face -”

Maeve shoves the doors at the top of the stairs open and skids to a stop.

Daik Montrose is standing ten feet from her.

Ice and heat fight for dominance in Maeve’s chest and her hand is inside her jacket, her fingers around her pulse gun before she can take a breath.

Daik is wearing that same red jacket from his bounty picture, but his face is beardless. He looks exactly how he did on Alpha Starbase. But he’s smiling at her. Maeve gets no sense that he feels trapped, no sense that he’s panicking. People flood out of the stairway and walk around her, talking and laughing, oblivious to the two people frozen, staring at each other.

“Maeve Bladesbearer,” he says, cocking his head to the side. He raises one brow, and smirks at her, his eyes traveling over her body. “The last time I saw you, I thought you were missing an arm?” His voice is slimy, like his throat is coated in whatever grease he uses to slick back his hair.

“He’s here,” Maeve says quietly through clenched teeth to Aethon.

“He’s there?!” Aethon replies, his voice breathless. “Keep him busy! I’m coming! They won’t let him on the Lightway. We got him, Maeve.”

“You thought you’d take me on by yourself again, Bladesbearer?” Daik says with a sneer. “Didn’t go so well for you last time.”

His taunting means nothing to her. “You’re done, Daik,” she says, her voice low and venomous. Maeve takes a step toward him and starts to pull her pulse gun out, but Daik holds up a hand.

“I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you,” he says. He reaches for his jacket and Maeve tenses, her fingers tight on her pulse gun. But Daik just pulls back his jacket revealing his chest.

He’s wearing a bomb.

Maeve doesn’t know exactly what kind of bomb it is, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a black vest loaded with cylinders of explosives taped onto it. Wires connect the cylinders, and a tab rests in the center of Daik’s chest. Probably the detonator. Her eyes flick to the people packed around them. The people milling around in the food court below. The children on the playground. How powerful is that bomb? Maeve has no idea. Could it take out the floor? The whole food court? Could it blast a hole in the starbase? If she shoots Daik in the head, will the bomb still go off? It could be connected to his vitals.

She hears her heart pounding in her ears and sweat beads on her neck. She can’t let him detonate it. There’s no time to evacuate everyone. People will die if he sets off the bomb. Fear is alive in Maeve’s chest, tangling through her like the roots of a tree, strangling her.

“You didn’t really think you could catch me alone?” Daik says. He drops the edge of his jacket, concealing the bomb. “After your last epic failure? I thought you were smarter than that.” He shrugs and Maeve tenses. “I guess I was wrong.”

“He’s got a bomb,” Maeve says. “TAI are you hearing this?”

“Shit - a bomb?” Aethon says.

“Trying to contact starbase security!” TAI replies. The AI’s voice is strained.

Daik raises his brows. “Who are you talking to, Bladesbearer? You have backup after all? Not sure who would ally themselves with you -”