by S. E. Smith
Dark blood stained Weston’s shoulder. Markham raised his own gun, aiming for the back of the guard’s exposed upper thigh. A bullet in the right spot would cut through the main artery, not killing the man immediately, but allowing him to bleed to death in a matter of minutes. Pulling the trigger, he watched as the guard dropped. Stepping up to the fallen man, he kicked the gun further down the hallway.
“What the fuck happened? I thought you had someone on the inside,” Weston muttered, clutching his shoulder.
“Markham, help me!” Rockman cried out, twisting awkwardly in an effort to sit up. “We have to get out of here!”
“I’m afraid there is no we, Margaret,” Markham replied, pointing his gun at her head and pulling the trigger.
“Shit! You could have let her patch me up before you shot her,” Weston cursed.
“She was a liability,” Markham replied. “How bad is it?”
“Clean shot,” Weston hissed in pain. “We need to get the fuck out of here. I don’t know how the hell they got into the building.”
“I don’t either, but I plan to find out. Where is the alien?” Markham asked, checking his gun.
“Knocked out downstairs,” Weston replied. “I was in the security office when I noticed the feed was off. I shut it down and pulled the hard drives and destroyed them. I was on my way upstairs when I heard gunfire.”
“Where is the woman?” Markham asked, nodding toward a door at the far end of the hallway.
“I don’t know,” Weston grunted in a voice filled with pain. “Rockman wanted to test her after the bitch had sex with your newest target.”
“The alien had sex with the girl?” Markham asked with interest.
“Yeah, it was hot as hell,” Weston admitted. “Fucking made me want to have a bit of fun with her.”
Markham thoughts turned to the pretty blonde as he and Weston walked further down the hallway toward the back. Perhaps, there might still be a chance to salvage his plans. It would depend on what happened to the girl. He would have to make sure he knew where she was, once they made it out of the building.
There was an unrecorded exit not in any of the blueprints. He made sure that all the facilities he chose had similar undocumented exits. This building had been refurbished two years ago by one of his clients who was paranoid about being trapped after a kidnapping when he was younger that cost him one of his ears.
Opening the door, he stepped inside and turned, waiting for Weston. With a nod, he pressed the hidden panel and stepped inside the narrow lift. Pressing the button, he looked at Weston’s pale face.
“Do you need a doctor?” He asked.
“No, you can stitch me up,” Weston replied. “It isn’t like you’ve never had to do it before.”
“True,” Markham replied with a shrug. “It is a good thing our mother insisted we learn.”
Weston nodded in agreement. As much as he had hated their mother, she had made sure they learned how to take care of each other. It was probably the only thing that had kept them both alive when they were younger. They sure as hell hadn’t survived because of her motherly love for them.
*.*.*
Addie jerked awake when the door next to her opened. She blinked in confusion, expecting to see the guard from earlier. Instead, it was a different man. Fear threatened to choke her until she saw the badge on his vest. He said something, but once again, she couldn’t understand as he had his face turned away from her.
She brushed her hair away from her face and tentatively reached for Merrick. Disappointment and worry filled her when she felt the unfamiliar emptiness. Glancing up as another grim faced man in uniform stepped into the doorway, she nodded when he motioned for her to stand.
Rolling to the side, she used the chair she had moved earlier to help her get up. The man at the door asked her something, but it was too much for her foggy brain to decipher. Signing that she didn’t understand him, she touched her ear and shook her head.
“I’m totally deaf,” she explained in a husky voice. “You will have to speak slowly and look at me so I can understand you.”
“Are you hurt?” The man asked.
Addie shook her head. “No,” she responded. “Where is Merrick? Have you found him?”
The two men looked at each other for a moment before the one who had spoken to her gave her a brief nod. Addie wanted to scream in frustration when the man didn’t continue. Touching his arm when he started to turn, she motioned with her hand.
“Is he okay?” She insisted.
“Yes, he has been taken to a secure location where he can be evaluated. We need to get you out of here,” the man insisted.
Addie knew when he turned away that she would get no more out of him. Stepping out into the corridor, she glanced down to where Rockman had been lying. Shock and horror froze her limbs when she saw the woman lying on her side, a pool of blood around her head.
Turning to the guard who had spoken to her, her eyes flashed past him to the body of the guard that was supposed to keep her safe. He was lying on his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling. Another pool of blood, this time around his lower limbs stained the white tile.
A low cry of distress escaped Addie and she swayed. She knew this time that the dark edges crowding her vision wouldn’t be denied. The guard standing slightly behind her must have realized it too. His arms reached out to grab her as her knees buckled and she slowly began to fall.
*.*.*
Core nodded to the two men assigned to the President’s special task force that were across from him. Glancing briefly over his shoulder at Avery, his lips tightened when he saw that she stood at least two feet behind him with her weapon drawn. He had wanted her to remain behind, but Cosmos had sent a message through RITA2 that his security chief was in charge of the mission and would go.
He would have ignored the human if not for the fact that RITA2 had disabled the Gateway devices. Brock, the Prime engineer who had discovered Cosmos’ portable devices, had been stunned to learn that RITA2 had rewritten the programming in it and locked them out with a stern warning, either they cooperated with Cosmos, or they lost the ability to use the portal. Core had to admit, while he understood that RITA2 was just an AI program, she reminded him a lot of the human women with her stubbornness and wicked sense of humor.
“Sorry, darling,” RITA2 had chuckled when Brock tried to bypass her security systems. “All’s fair in love and war, and Cosmos will always come first. What he says, goes. The man is simply brilliant.”
Pausing, Core tilted his head and listened. He could hear at least four different voices. Raising his fingers, he indicated the number to the men across from them. Both men nodded, pointing to indicate they would take them out.
Core watched as they carefully stepped out of the narrow recess in the wall. On silent feet, they moved down the hallway. Turning into the doorway of the room the men were sitting in, the muffled thud of bullets sounded. Core and Avery stepped around the corner and walked over to the entrance.
One of the task force members was searching the bodies of the men, while the other covered him. On the third body, he pulled out a set of keys and tossed them to Core who caught them in his left hand. Core turned in time to see Avery release a volley of bullets as another guard suddenly appeared around the corner.
A low snarl escaped him when Avery moved cautiously toward the man who was writhing on the floor. She kicked the guard’s gun down toward him before she bent over the man and pulled him over onto his back.
“Where is the man that is being held here?” She demanded, holding the weapon in her hand to the man’s forehead.
“Down… down… a level,” the man muttered, clutching his side.
“How many guards?” She asked.
“Two… Just two,” he moaned in a hoarse voice. “I… was sent up here to get the other guys in case…”
“In case what?” Avery asked, a sharp bite in her tone that warned the man he had better be telling her the truth. “In case o
f what, damn it?”
“In case… the bastard… wakes up,” the man choked out. “Please… I need a doctor.”
“Stay with him,” Core ordered. “The men and I will go after Merrick.”
He could tell Avery was about to argue and was surprised when she nodded her head instead. Suspicion darkened his gaze as he stared down at her for several seconds. He finally turned when she raised her eyebrow at him.
“Let’s go,” Core growled to the two men to follow him.
Core followed the direction that the man Avery had shot came. There was a set of stairs at the far end of the second corridor. Pushing open the door, he stepped cautiously through it. Nodding to the two men, they began to carefully descend downward to the lower floor. Once at the bottom level, Core cast a glance through the small square glass in the door. They wouldn’t be able to enter without being seen. He turned to the man on his left side.
“Open the door,” he instructed under his breath. “I’ll take the right, you two take the left.”
Both men nodded in agreement. Raising his hand, he counted down. The officer quickly pulled the door open. Core took the right side, aiming at the two men standing outside of a door at the far in of the hall. The other two men took the left, but it was clear.
Moving cautiously, Core released a satisfied grunt when he discovered the man upstairs had been telling the truth, there had only been the two guards. He pulled the keys out that the task member had thrown him and glanced through the window in the door. Relief and rage mixed together when he saw Merrick’s unconscious body chained to a long, narrow bed.
Cursing, he inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. Hurrying forward, he knelt next to the bed and placed his fingers on Merrick’s neck. Concern darkened his features and he turned to the two men who stood guard at the door.
“I have to get him back to my world,” Core stated. “I do not know what they gave him. Whatever it was, it is affecting his heart. Go back to Avery. Let her know that I have Merrick and have returned to Baade.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer standing closest to him replied. “We’ll notify the rest of the Teams to move in.”
Core didn’t reply. He inserted another key from the set into the lock in the chain. Soon, he had Merrick free. Pulling his cousin up by his arms, he slung him over his shoulder, grunting at the weight. Balancing himself, he activated the Gateway. Within seconds, he and Merrick had disappeared.
Chapter 18
Addie blinked, looking around at the sterile white walls and dark green curtain. She knew she had fainted earlier. A shudder escaped her when she remembered why. Seeing not one, but two dead bodies up close and personal was more than she could handle, especially with all the blood mixed in with it. It was one thing to see it in a movie or on television, it was an entirely different level to see it in real life.
She grimaced as she sat up. The officers who helped her had called for an ambulance. She had come to as they were depositing her on the stretcher. The paramedics insisted that she be transported to the local hospital after seeing the bruises on her face. Too tired to argue with them, Addie had laid back, closed her eyes, and focused on trying to see if she could feel the strange connection between her and Merrick.
There had been nothing, just as there was nothing now. If anything, the silence was even greater, almost suffocating, in its intensity. Rubbing her left hand on the leg of her jeans, Addie released a tired sigh. It would appear that now that he had been rescued, he didn’t need to be in her head any more.
Well, that is just fine, she thought in aggravation. Who needs him anyway?
Addie looked up as a nurse came into the narrow room. The nurse smiled cheerfully at her and handed her a piece of paper. Looking down at it, Addie realized it was a prescription for a mild sedative with instructions on how to take it if she had problems sleeping.
Folding it, she started to slide it into her back pocket when her fingers bumped into soft, folded leather. A relieved sigh escaped her when she realized that her bifold wallet, that she carried while working, hadn’t been discovered when she was first captured. Pulling it out, she flicked it open. She had her driver’s license, her debit card, and twenty-five dollars in cash.
She nodded absently, not bothering to tell the nurse she couldn’t hear a thing the woman was rattling on about. Slipping off the bed, she followed the woman as she stepped out of the small room. Her eyes swept over the busy Emergency room searching for an Exit sign. Signing her thanks, she headed for the bright red sign and freedom.
It took several minutes before she found her way around to the front of the hospital. Stepping out into the late afternoon sun, she waved her hand at a Taxi parked further along the curved drive. Opening the door, she asked the driver to take her to the nearest car rental company.
The driver nodded, looking sympathetically at Addie’s bruised and tired face. She sat back and glanced out the window as he drove away from the hospital. A part of her wondered if she was supposed to stick around and give some kind of statement, but the other part of her was too depressed and tired to care. If anyone needed a damn statement, they could come find her.
An hour later, Addie was on the road, heading back to Portland. She had picked up a rental car, stopped at a local bank and dipped into her precious savings account, and headed north. There was no way she would make it all the way home tonight, but she could at least get halfway there.
At midnight, she pulled into a small, mom-and-pop motel, and got a room for the night. She barely remembered staggering down the long, concrete corridor to the end. Using the key with the bright, red plastic tag with the room number on it, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.
She was so tired, that she leaned against the door as she turned the knob to lock it and placed the swinging bar as an added precaution. Turning, she pushed off the door and dropped the key on the small table in front of the air conditioner. She debated whether to get a shower or just crawl into the closest queen size bed.
The bed won when she stumbled as she slipped the soft shoes one of the nurses gave off and found herself sitting on the end of it. Twisting, she crawled up the bed, pulled the covers back far enough to slid underneath them, before pulling the spare pillow into her arms and hugging it to her chest.
Merrick? She thought, focusing and pushing her thoughts out as hard as she could. Merrick, please, if you can hear me, let me know that you are alright.
Addie waited several long minutes, hoping and praying for some type of response, some feeling that he might have heard her. A lone tear escaped and ran down over the bridge of her nose when silence continued to plague her. Burying her face in the pillow, she sniffed, and sniffed, and sniffed, but it was no use. The tears that hadn’t fallen throughout her ordeal suddenly decided to burst the dam they were behind and flood the pillow she was holding with a torrential wave of salty liquid. It was close to one o’clock in the morning before she finally fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.
*.*.*
Merrick shot upright, snarling loudly as he came awake. His heart thundered in his chest as his eyes whipped around the room. It took a moment for his brain to registered the familiar walls and structure of a healing unit on his world.
Jerking his head toward the window, he breathed in deeply when he saw Core rise out of the chair in front of it. He watched as his cousin and second in command stretched and rubbed the back of his neck. Pulling his gaze away, he searched the room for another body, this one with soft curves and hair the color of the sun.
“Where is she?” He demanded in a voice hoarse with dryness.
“Where is who?” Core asked, stepping over to the small table near the bed and pouring a cup of water. He held it out to Merrick. “Welcome back.”
Merrick nodded and reached for the cup. He grimaced when his hand trembled as he took the cool, clear liquid. Drinking deeply, he held it out for more.
“Where is Addie? She was being held with me,” Merrick demanded, taking
the cup again. “Rockman and the guards took her from me.”
“There was a human female, I don’t know what happened to her after I came for you,” Core stated, taking the cup from Merrick after he drained it again. Setting it down, he looked back at Merrick’s pale, drawn face. “We almost didn’t get to you in time.”
Merrick grimaced as he pulled the pillows up behind him so he could lean back. He felt as weak as a newborn babe. Rubbing his chest, he frowned when he felt the pull of several tubes. Scowling, he looked at the machine next to the bed.
“What happened?” He demanded, waving his hand at the machine. “Why wasn’t I placed into a regen bed?”
“You were,” Core replied with a raised eyebrow. “It took two days in it just to keep you alive. The damn thing had to practically rebuild your heart. Whatever in the hell the humans shot you with, you had a reaction to it. Five minutes more and you would have been too far gone for even the regen to save you.”
“How long have I been unconscious?” Merrick asked grimly, his thoughts turning to Addie.
“Six moon cycles,” Core answered, glancing out the window at the darkening sky. “Almost seven.”
“The humans?” Merrick asked, leaning his head back and watching Core through half-closed eyes. “What happened to them?”
“The woman we captured was killed,” Core responded. “From the security feed RITA was able to get, there was one other male that we know of.”
“There are two,” Merrick bit out. “One of the males is called Weston. The other is called Markham. Who killed the female? Was it Doctor Rockman?”
“Yes,” a cheerful, feminine voice suddenly stated. “I’m not sure who did the actual killing, unfortunately. It would appear Weston realized that something was going on with the security feed and shut everything down. I’ll have to talk to RITA to figure out how he knew.”
