Rene felt his heart slide back out of his throat as Vitger slumped to the ground. He had already been in motion as Solae closed the gap on the would be kidnapper, cognizant that the moment of maximum risk was when the two combatants met, and he reached her side in a heartbeat. With mechanical reflex he kicked the stunner away, sending the little weapon skittering over the concrete and out of reach of a sudden lunge. Fortunately, such a lunge seemed beyond Vitger who was totally cowed by Solae and his sudden reversal of fortunes. Rene resisted the urge to kick Vitger in the stomach, he had a momentary flash back to Bowie giving him a little remedial hand to hand training, explaining that the first rule was to always kick a man when he was down. As the adrenaline of the the situation burned off, the background emotions of anger and embarrassment flooded up within him.  

“I’ll be happy to,” he growled, seizing Vitger by collar and belt. The merchant thrashed as Rene’s picked him up and pitched him bodily into the back of the container in which he had been imprisoned. Vitger wailed, his arms flailing before he hit the interior wall of the container with a crunch. Without ceremony he pulled the chain tight and snapped the lock closed. Turning, he swept Solae up in his arms crushing her to him and kissing her passionately.

“Thank the stars!” he breathed, “you are ok.”

Solae laughed incredulously at the statement, carefully slipping the pistol into a pocket on her garment.

“You were the one locked in a container,” she reminded him, her nose crinkling from the fluorine residue that coated his body. Rene waved the distinction away, although his face was on the wanted notice, he was small fish, of no value save as a stepping stone to her and although he would never say it, he would gladly sacrifice his life to save hers.

After a moment, he reluctantly let her go and knelt down over Tychon. The fisherman continued to twitch but his breathing was steady. Rene carefully began to pluck the metallic needles from the other man, feeling the last flickers of electricity as tingle between his fingers. Small spots of blood stained Tychon’s tunic where the needles had struck his chest, but he didn’t think the injuries were serious.

“He will be awake in a few minutes,” Rene reassured Solae.

“How did you find out we were here?” he asked as he straightened, wiping his palms on his pants, before reaching into the duffle bag and pulling a pistol from it. He checked the load by rote and tucked it into his waistband. Solae gave him a quick run down of her adventures this morning and Rene’s eyes widened both at her skill and her audacity. In spite of knowing better, it was easy to fall into the trap of imagining her to be helpless. Yet again she had given the lie to that assumption. Rene smiled and Solae cocked an interrogative eyebrow.

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” he said with a nod towards the shipping container. Thinking of Vitger made his face settle into a blank mask. Back on New Concordia, Rene had executed a slaver who had kidnapped and trafficked Syshin, and tried to do the same to Solae, but there he had a clear if technical legal authority. Vitger couldn’t be allowed to live, his existence constituted a threat both to Solae and to Tychon and his family, but in his own mind he had been obeying the law. Rene didn’t relish executing someone, even someone as apparently despicable as Vitger, in the name of security.

“Why are you only wearing one boot?” Solae asked, unexpectedly jolting him out of his grim reverie. Rene glanced down at his sock and snickered.

“Anything is a weapon if you're willing to make it one,” he replied, glad to have a moment to avoid thinking about the next move. Given the condition of the warehouse he was glad that he had been given the standard round of inoculations and shots. He wrapped Solae in his arms again.

“Thank you for saving me,” he told her, “you were amazing.”