by Jan Domagala
“We’re here to see what you’re made of, Kurt Stryder,” said the runt as he went and stood over by the bar which confirmed Kurt’s earlier supposition.
Sensing something was about to happen, the crowd in the room all turned to view the small group. Those seated at the tables all got up and moved over to the dance floor where they assumed they would be safer and could get a better view of the action to come.
Kurt glanced at them as they all left then over his shoulder at Tony and Bane whose expressions had suddenly become hard and very serious.
Kurt turned his attention to those facing him and prepared for what was to come.
“Okay boys, let’s get this over with,” Kurt said. He stood in a relaxed pose facing the three large men with the hard expressions, in front of him. He was ready for whatever happened, adrenalin began to flood his system and he felt the world around him fall into slow motion as his senses went into hyper drive.
The three men were spaced out facing Kurt in a straight line from left to right. Kurt was confident that he could handle all three at once if need be but he didn’t want to give too much away about what he was capable of. He wanted to learn what the purpose of this confrontation was and more importantly who sent them.
The middle intruder came forward first. He swung a straight right punch at Kurt’s face putting all his prodigious strength behind it.
Kurt saw the punch coming from the first twitch in the giants shoulder and simply moved his head to the side allowing the fist to travel harmlessly past. The giant pulled his arm back and threw another punch. Kurt caught this one in the palm of his right hand before his face then twisted it down to his waist height effectively locking the arm and lifting the giant onto his toes.
A grimace of pain crossed the giants face just before Kurt punched him knocking his head back in an explosion of teeth and blood.
The giant went down on one knee, his left hand on the floor to steady him and his right wiping blood from his face.
Kurt faced the other two who came at him one at a time, the one on his right swung a left cross at his ribs which Kurt stepped away from to his left right into the path of a right cross from the remaining attacker. Kurt blocked this punch by bringing his left arm up and taking it on his bicep. The force of the blow staggered him sideways a step or two making him cover up against a savage onslaught of blows from the other attacker.
Kurt dodged and weaved as the two attackers tried to hit him with everything they had. Most of the blows he took on his arms or blocked with his hands, the others missed completely.
The final attacker got off the floor and joined the fray. He picked up a nearby chair and smashed it across Kurt’s back which sent him sprawling forward into the path of the other two attacking him. This brought his guard down and they were able to rain more and more punches onto his unprotected face and body until he crumpled to the floor under the sheer weight of them.
His face was cut in several places and blood flowed freely down his cheeks and his forehead as he hit the floor.
The attackers stepped back and Kurt looked up at them and when he smiled his cobalt blue eyes were hard and cold. The cuts closed up as new skin formed miraculously as his body regenerated.
Kurt slowly stood up and his face was as good as new and the fourth member of his attackers smiled as he bore witness to the event. Kurt looked at each of the three men before him and said, “Okay, now it’s my turn.”
He stepped forward ducking beneath a huge right hand aimed at his head then brought his right hand up smashing his fist into the chin of his attacker in a thunderous uppercut that took him off his feet and sent him flying to land heavily on his back.
Kurt then stepped to his right and smashed a right cross into the ribs of the next thug which broke at least two ribs and doubled him over right into the path of a left cross that almost took his head off. The blow snapped his head around sending out a stream of blood from his smashed mouth.
The last attacker reacted with lightning fast reflexes at seeing his two companions downed in mere seconds and came at Kurt with a roundhouse kick. Kurt caught the leg against his side wrapping his arm around it them gripping it tightly he spun the man and threw him across the room to smash into the bar next to the fourth member of the team.
“Seen enough?” asked Kurt as the fourth team member looked down at his companion at his feet.
“It’s been most informative, I must congratulate and thank you for your co-operation,” he replied and with a wave of his hand he beckoned to the others who got to their feet and walked over to him.
Kurt started to follow them. He said, “Not so fast, you’ve got some questions to answer.”
The runt pulled out a pistol from beneath his jacket and aimed at Kurt who stopped in his tracks.
“Another time no doubt, but right now, we have to leave. We have what we came for and like I said, no doubt we’ll meet again soon,” the runt said with a confident air that Kurt did not like.
“I’ll look forward to it,” Kurt said as he watched them leave the club.
“What the hell was that all about?” Tony asked as he came to stand at Kurt’s side.
Kurt watched the four men exit the club, the smallest of the group backed out keeping his pistol trained on Kurt. The runt waved a hand to Kurt as he passed through the door to the outer porch and the street level.
“I’m damned if I know but I’m sure as hell going to find out,” Kurt said, his cobalt blue eyes dark with his fury. He turned to look at the man mountain beside him and smiled. “Now let’s go get that drink I came here for.”
*****
Pavel Norsky had left the area where he had been uncovered and headed straight for the nearest landing pad. His clothes were in tatters so he had swopped with one of the dead workers who had been of similar build to him. The coveralls were just a little tight across the chest and short in the arms and legs but he hoped no one would notice.
As he approached the landing pad there was a shuttle getting ready for departure. He had no idea where it was going but he knew he had to get aboard. The boarding ramp was lowered so he made his way up it. The ramp led into the belly of the shuttle where a row of seats were positioned against the sides of the craft. Several of them were occupied when he entered and he took one that was vacant on the port side of the craft.
A uniformed figure came through from the pilots section and the moment he laid eyes on Norsky he walked over to him. Placing his hand on the pistol holstered on his hip the guard said, “Excuse me sir, who are you?”
Norsky stood up as all eyes turned to look at him and he knew there was no way now of escaping without drawing attention to himself. He held his hands up to show the guard he was unarmed and edged out into the aisle. The guard had backed off a step or two not completely out of reach, not for someone who could move as fast as Norsky.
“I’ll ask you one more time sir, who are you?” the guard said this time in a more strident tone.
Norsky’s movements became a blur. He reached forward and grabbed hold of the guard’s hand on the pistol with one hand while the other gripped the unsuspecting mans throat. Before anyone could react, the pistol was free of the holster and aimed between the guards eyes with Norsky holding both it and the man’s throat. Norsky released his grip on the guard’s throat and used that hand to jack the slide on the pistol, a Sig P996 which had been the standard sidearm of Col Sec troops, to prime the battery clip.
The sound of the pistol going off in the enclosed space of the shuttle was both deafening and shocking in equal parts. The guard’s brains were sprayed down the aisle before he keeled over but before he hit the floor Norsky had turned the weapon on every other occupant inside the shuttle, shooting each one in similar fashion. In the space of fifteen seconds thirteen people were dead inside the shuttle and Norsky was stepping over the dead guard on his way to the pilot’s section.
Upon hearing the gunfire the pilot was out of his seat and heading back into the passenger section,
pistol drawn, to see what was happening. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the figure walking calmly toward him, a pistol at his side and the look of a devil on his face.
He brought up his pistol to fire but before he could complete the act, Norsky had brought up his own Sig and fired. The pulsed plasma bolt caught the pilot in the centre of his chest sending him staggering back into the pilot’s section to collide with the seats before sliding down the back of one, dead. His blood left a trail down the back of the seat he had recently vacated which Norsky ignored as he stepped around him to take the empty seat.
Casting his eyes over the controls Norsky was soon familiar with them. The engines had already been primed and a flight plan logged with Flight Control and the shuttles Nav-Com so all he had to do was take off.
Once off the ground another problem faced him. This shuttle would only take him so far as it did not have FTL capability so somehow; he had to find one that did. He used his NI to access the onboard computer, which was just a basic model but it did have the capability to connect to a nearby mainframe. Soon he was scrolling through reams of data trying to find out anything pertaining to the incident that took place on Toldax, concentrating on the destruction of the facility. He knew he was leaving a trail a blind man could follow both in the virtual world and the real one with the amount of dead bodies he was leaving in his wake but he was not bothered. He planned to use that to his advantage. He knew he could not do what he had to do alone so he hoped that those who would follow would help, if not he would destroy them too.
2
Col Sec HQ was situated deep underground at Area 15 in the Nevada desert, a few miles from the city of Las Vegas. The underground facility was buried beneath hundreds of tons of rock with the highest security imaginable. It had been relocated there after an attack by the terrorist group known only as OMEGA had destroyed the original HQ situated on the site of the old United Nations HQ in New York. General Sinclair was the head of Intelligence Division and his office was in the deepest part of the HQ on level ten.
The office was large yet austere. A thick carpet cushioned your step as you entered and a few paintings adorned the walls.
Sitting behind his large mahogany desk he was dressed in a dark blue suit. His dark brown hair was brushed straight back from a high forehead into a widow’s peak. Beneath that his deep brown eyes were unfathomable as was his normal stoic expression. He was still ram rod stiff from his years in Col Sec and even though he was in his fifties he was still amazingly fit.
Sitting in front of the desk were two men, both wearing street clothes. Kurt Stryder was sitting on the left; his cobalt blue eyes watched the General in front of them with a laser like intensity. He was wearing a thin blue cotton shirt and tan cargo pants. His favourite leatherine jacket had been destroyed back on Tartaran a few weeks earlier and he hadn’t had the time, or heart to find a replacement yet as Sinclair had kept him busy. Sitting next to him was Matt Hawk, the man who had led the rescue mission that brought Kurt back from Toldax and since their meeting once again on Tartaran, had become firm friends. Matt was a large man, he stood almost three inches taller than Kurt at six feet six inches and had a muscular physique that stemmed from him being born and raised on a planet with a slightly greater gravity than that of Earth. Matt also had short hair cut to a military length but his was slightly darker than Kurt’s. His ice blue eyes looked at the world with a mischievous quality that was sometimes mistaken for indifference which couldn’t be further from the truth, he cared deeply about things and threw himself into his work with an intensity that bordered upon obsession.
The two of them had been summoned to the office after Kurt had contacted Sinclair. He had told the General about the attack at the club and he had been ordered to return to Earth.
Once in his office Sinclair told them what he wanted them to do.
“You want us to go to the RandCorp HQ to check out how they’re doing with the upgrades sir?” Matt asked a little surprised.
“Isn’t that a bit routine for two Intelligence officers sir?” Kurt asked.
“Does it matter? Gentlemen, you both know the importance of the upgrades to our tec from RandCorp. After the OMEGA incident I think it must be one of our priorities in Col Sec to get the upgrades as soon as possible and ensure they actually work,” Sinclair said in his usual monotone voice. “That’s why I want my two best men on the job, this isn’t routine by any stretch of the imagination. This is our top priority now Kurt and it’ll give you the chance to get back into the swing of things once more. All your tests have come back clear, there are no ill effects from your time on Tartaran and the serum does not seem to have been anything but a benefit so I see no reason why you cannot accompany Matt on this. It’ll also give you the chance to meet the Rand’s. I’ve got a feeling they’re going to be working with us very closely in the future,” he added.
“I see sir, not as routine as I thought,” Kurt agreed.
“Quite. You’ll take the Silver Dart; it will get you there as fast as possible. I look forward to your report when you return.”
Matt looked at Kurt and said, “That’s our cue to get going Kurt,” and he got up to leave.
Kurt followed suit and they both left the office. The express elevator to the upper levels was not far from Sinclair’s office and they were soon riding up to the surface.
“I’ve read your report about the OMEGA incident. Tell me more about the Rover’s,” Kurt said as they exited the elevator.
“Well as you know the Rover’s were the clones that Jonas Wilde had made to populate his army in OMEGA. They were two different types, the basic model and the Rover 5’s who were the soldiers. These particular clones were built with more muscle mass than your average soldier and were all on the large side. I’m six six, and the one I fought was at least as big as me and freakishly strong,” Matt replied, his expression changed, became more serious as he remembered the fight in the mall when he rescued Tanya Wilde from the Rover 5.
Sensing that the recollection disturbed him, Kurt offered, “But you came out of it okay didn’t you, which proves they are not unstoppable.”
“I suppose so,” Matt said.
“What else is going on here Matt, what’s really bothering you?”
Matt looked at Kurt and saw in his cobalt blue eyes that he could trust him. He knew he could tell him something he had kept from Sinclair. “I couldn’t save her, Tanya, ultimately she was doomed. They did it though in a way that was sure to send us a message, a message that I got so clearly that it still bothers me to this day,” he said.
“What was the message?”
Matt’s eyes darkened as he remembered the last time he saw Tanya Wilde, “I had placed her in a safe house under guard. When I went to see her to tell her that her father was dead and she would be safe there was a clone waiting for me with a gun to her head. Somehow, even though we had destroyed the Nemesis and cut off the head of OMEGA they had still infiltrated Col Sec and placed one of their clones right beside her. The bastard waited for me to arrive, he knew I was coming and he waited and when I got there he told me and Tanya that her father was very angry with her and she would be punished. Then he shot her in the head, even though he knew his own life was forfeit he killed her right in front of me. The message was clear, look at what we can do, look at the lengths we will go to, to fulfil our needs. How are we supposed to combat an enemy with such resolve?”
“Simple.”
Matt waited for Kurt to continue.
“With equal or greater resolve,” Kurt said.
“You make it sound so easy.”
“Isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that we have to do what is needed to ensure they do not succeed. My father once told me that for evil to triumph; all that is required is for good men to do nothing. It’s what made me join Col Sec, and it’s why I came back after Tartaran, I realised that I was just sitting back and letting others do the work. I can no longer sit bac
k and watch and do nothing, I must get into the fight to make sure that evil will not triumph, and so must you Matt.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing, sitting back and letting others do the work?”
“I think you’re in danger of allowing the message to resonate inside your head too long. If you do that then they have won, you start to second guess your own ability and decisions and then you fight below par which is exactly what they want.”
“General Sinclair said something along the same lines when I voiced my doubts at the memorial service.”
“And have you wondered at all why you haven’t been on any solo missions since the OMEGA incident? The General is a very savvy man, he knows you have doubts and he won’t put you back in the firing line until he’s absolutely positive you are back to your best. I suspect this trip is just a warm up to see if you are okay.”
“Kurt, I’m fine, really.”
“Clearly you’re not. Now I don’t know you as well as others but even I can see that something has troubled you, knocked you off your game. What you have to do is take the positives from what happened and turn it against the enemy.”
“So you don’t believe that OMEGA is finished either then.”
“I believe you dealt them a wounding blow but anyone who had planned for as long as Jonas Wilde had, I doubt could be defeated as easily as that. I think we’ll see them again and we had better be ready for them.”
Matt realised the truth in Kurt’s words and smiled. For the first time since seeing Tanya Wilde killed before him he felt he could go on.
