The Oracle Philon

by Gerald J Kubicki

  They pulled both captured men up and leaned them with their backs against the big rock. General Stone began scanning their brains for the information he needed. Kaley stood guard over the captured men.

  “Bigger problem coming,” Lisa said in their earpieces. “The other five guys have stopped and have grouped together. I think that they are suspecting foul play,” she said in a whisper.

  “If they start this way, let me know,” Kaley answered in a determined voice. “Simon is working on the two we’ve captured right now. If we get the answers we need, we’ll be gone before they get here.”

  “I’ll let you know if anything changes,” Lisa replied. “Meanwhile I’ll try to get into their heads.

  “I’m here with Lisa,” Malcolm suddenly broke into the conservation. “I’m heading over to you now Kaley.”

  “Don’t,” Kaley shot back. “I’m okay now and besides, you two need to capture the little man with the meteorites.”

  “Are you sure Kaley?” Malcolm asked urgently.

  “You can hug me later if you can catch me,” Kaley replied in a noncommittal voice.

  “They’re moving,” Lisa shouted into her earpiece. “They’ll be at the rock in five minutes and they are readying their guns to shoot.”

  “I’m going to help them,” Malcolm told Lisa.

  “But Kaley told you not to come,” she shot back.

  “Is Kaley your boss?” He asked.

  “Well, no,” She replied sheepishly.

  “She’s not mine either,” Malcolm told her as he began moving just below the ridge. “You grab the little guy with the meteorites,” he added.

  “How…am I going…to do that?” The college professor asked with a little fright and frustration in her reply.

  “Lisa,” Malcolm replied as he kept moving away. “You’ve got a lot of talent and something all men want. Use it, and make him come to you — just like you do in your classrooms.”

  “Oh!” she responded sharply. “Oh,” she repeated louder as her hand went to her mouth. Lisa thought about what Malcolm had said. She knew that she needed the man with the meteorites to come to her. But she needed to get his attention first. She decided to use her best weapon.

  She looked directly at the man and gave him a ping. He suddenly spoke to the Effort men around him.

  “You guys go ahead. I don’t have a gun,” he said to the other Effort men. “I’ll just stay here and mark the spot so we know where we took a break.”

  “I don’t like us splitting up,” one of the mercenaries complained. “We’re already missing two men.”

  “But where am I going to go?” Ralph Burns said as he flapped his arms indicating the moonscape around them. “We’re in the middle of a frickin’ desert you moron.”

  “He’s less annoying if we just leave him here,” the other mercenary reasoned. “Besides we don’t know where our two men went, they just disappeared. We might meet some trouble. Let’s just leave him, okay.”

  “Fine,” the other mercenary uttered and shrugged his shoulders in defeat. The four men turned and spread out as they headed for the big rock.

  Lisa waited until they were about twenty yards away and then sent another ping to Ralph Burns. He suddenly lifted his head and looked in her direction. She casually stood up and began stretching and assuming yoga poses like no one else was around. When their eyes met, she gave him a third ping and the come hither sign with her hand. He hesitated, but started towards her when she began to unbutton her blouse.

  She felt like she was a Greek siren summoning a wayward sailor to his death on a rocky shore. It felt good.

  As he moved closer she backed down behind the ridge forcing him to come to the very edge. As soon as he crested the ridge, he spotted the Jeep, the rope, and Lisa all at the same time. He opened his mouth to yell to the men, but Lisa fired a Taser into his chest. He stiffened and fell forward into the soft sand at the top of the escarpment. His weight pulled him down the steep slope like he was a toboggan.

  “I got one, I got one,” Lisa jumped up and down as she yelled excitedly into her earpiece. She was thrilled. It was her first combat victory.

  “Good job Lisa,” General Stone responded. “I think we have all the information I can get from these men. I’m going to call in the TACP unit immediately.”

  “What should I do now?” Lisa asked afraid that they would ask for her help with taking down the remaining Effort men.

  “Make sure you cuff up your captive, will you. And then take up a position up on the ridge again. We may need your eyes.”

  “Roger,” she said using a military term she had never used before.

  Meanwhile, General Stone handed the satellite phone to Kaley. “Make the call,” he told her to build her confidence.

  She hit a number on the phone like she was a teenager and then spoke. “Hey, why don’t you guys come up here on the ridge? We’re having a little party here and need some people who can actually dance,” Kaley said in an obnoxious voice. “If you hurry you might even get to see some action. The GPS coordinates are in your phone.” She hung up the phone just as Malcolm slipped over the ridge.

  He went to hug her, but she shrugged him off. “My mood has changed,” she said in a nasty tone. She then turned and sashayed away wiggling her bottom to tease him as she looked around the corner of the rock.

  “They’re coming,” Kaley said in everyone’s earpieces

  “Arm yourselves,” General Stone urgently cried out. “The Effort men have started heading this way. We need to hold them off until the TACP team arrives.”

  Malcolm, Kaley and General Stone drew their guns and peeked around the large rock. One of the Effort men noticed Kaley’s blond ponytail and all four Effort men went to the ground about thirty feet from the rock. They began firing immediately. It was four machine guns against three pistols.

  “We’re not going to last very long this way,” Malcolm speculated. “Especially considering that they can flank us. Once one of them comes even with the back side of this rock, we’ll not have any shelter. We’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “Don’t panic,” the general said soothingly. “I’m developing a plan.”

  “I’m ready,” Kaley said with a touch of annoyance. “Let’s hear it. I want to fight someone.”

  “Lisa, are you in position on the ridge?” the general asked over his earpiece.

  “Yeah, I’m back in position,” she responded.

  “I want you to ping the man farthest away from the rock. Make him feel like there is someone stalking him from behind. But do it on my mark, okay.”

  “Roger, Dodger,” Lisa replied nonchalantly.

  The general turned to Kaley and Malcolm. “You two need to understand that these people are shooting real bullets at us. It’s okay to shoot back. We may have to kill some of these men. Do you understand?”

  “It’s survival of the fittest,” Kaley quoted and tilted her blond head. She licked her lips at the thought of violence.

  “I’ll do my part,” Malcolm uttered unconvincingly through gritted teeth.

  “Good,” General Stone responded. “Now I’m going to disable the machine gun of the man closest to us. The man is within range of my power to do that, but he is the only one. Malcolm it’s your job to capture him. Can you do it?”

  “Yes, sir,” Malcolm responded without hesitation.

  “Very good,” the general responded. “As soon as I disable the machine gun, I’m also going to throw a storm of rocks at the two men on the right side. Those men are yours Kaley,” he said. “Just shoot them as soon as you can.”

  “I’ll handle them,” she stated without further comment.

  The general continued with his plan. “I’ll go after the distracted man in the middle, any questions?”

  “Why do you want the farthest man away from us?” Kaley asked.

  “Because I’m the most expendable and the most prepared member of the team,” he replied. “I’ve done this before.”

  “M
akes sense now,” Malcolm noted.

  “Now are you ready?”

  “Ready,” three voices confirmed.

  “Go,” he said.

  Malcolm came around the left side of the rock and saw one of the mercenaries trying to put his machine gun back together. It had just simply fallen apart in his hands as all the screws were inexplicably pulled from the gun. When he saw Malcolm, his eyes went wide and he dropped the useless machine gun. He went to draw his side arm.

  “Hands up or I’ll shoot,” Malcolm screamed. But the warning fell on deaf ears — the mercenary had no intention of surrendering. Malcolm pulled the trigger just as the man brought up his pistol to shoot him. The bullet hit the man in the right shoulder and he flopped to the ground screaming. Malcolm rushed to the downed man and saw blood flowing from the wound. He had no time to stop the bleeding, but he applied plastic cuffs to the man’s arms and legs. He then took off after General Stone.

  ***

  The Effort man that the general hunted was totally confused. He felt the anxiety of someone stalking him from behind, but also knew that he was being attacked from the front. He didn’t know that Lisa kept pinging him and increasing his terror. He kept turning in circles and finally dropped to the ground and took up a defensive position.

  He concentrated on the two men charging at him from the front. He took a shot at one of them. The bullet was accurate, but missed Malcolm by over twenty feet. Lisa had sent a ping at the man and made his brain think that the image of Malcolm was in a different place before he took the shot.

  The Effort man immediately turned to General Stone and sprayed a burst of bullets. Both Lisa and Malcolm watched in horror. It looked like the general would surely die in a hail of bullets. The man couldn’t miss at that range.

  Malcolm took a quick shot at the man and appeared to hit him. He went down. Malcolm rushed to capture him. Meanwhile Lisa sprang from her hidden spot and ran towards the general only to discover that he was still on his feet, just bent over and huffing badly.

  “How could so many bullets miss you?” she exclaimed as she pressed her hands all over his body to look for any bullet holes. “You are unbelievably lucky because I didn’t have time to disrupt his mind.”

  “It wasn’t luck at all,” the general said with a laugh between gasps of breath. “I just used my powers to bend the trajectory of the bullets back at him. I was never in any real danger.”

  “He’s dead,” Malcolm said over his earpiece. “But I don’t understand how this could happen, something is wrong. I only took one shot. He has several holes in him.

  ***

  Kaley had a more difficult time then she expected with her two targets. As she rounded the corner of the rock, she saw that the two men were trying to protect their eyes and faces from swirling rocks with their arms. There were thousands of small rocks whipping in a circle around each man. She could have easily shot both men and been done with it, but it didn’t feel right to her. She wanted more violence. She decided to subdue them the old fashion way, she would beat them into submission.

  “Simon, can you stop the rock bombardment on the man on the right,” she screamed into her earpiece as she sprinted at full-speed at him.

  The rocks abruptly dropped to the ground. The man uncovered his face by dropping his arms and looked up. He was greeted by the heel of Kaley’s left boot. She kicked him in the middle of his forehead. She followed up with a leg whip that caught the side of his head even though he was already falling over. She leaped onto the back of his much larger body and landed several devastating punches to his kidneys before admitting to herself that he was unconscious. It made her very angry. She wanted more fighting. It was the lust she craved.

  After cuffing the downed Effort man, Kaley got to her feet, dusted herself off and strutted towards the second man. He was huddled in a small ball to avoid further damage by the swirling rocks.

  She readied herself in a fighting position and then called out again for Simon to stop the rocks. This time, when the rocks precipitously dropped to the ground, she didn’t attack. Instead she waited for the Effort man to regain his senses. She wanted him to go on the offensive first. She wanted him to give her an excuse to commit wanton violence.

  He sprang to his feet a little faster than she anticipated and charged at her with his bare hands in fists. She stepped aside and relieved him of his pistol and knife as he rushed past. She threw them to the side. She didn’t want them to interfere with her fun.

  The only thing he was able to grab with one hand was the tail of her mesh vest as he flashed past her. He was much bigger and stronger than she was and he was able to literally yank her off her feet with his momentum. He used his second hand to grab the front of her blouse as she flew through the air. All the buttons immediately popped off and her bra ripped open.

  Kaley hit the ground and rolled away as she anticipated him leaping on to her body. She scrambled to her feet. She quickly discarded the garments so the Effort man would not have any loose ends to grab. There was a lopsided grin on her face. The scent of danger and violence gave her a new adrenaline rush. Her excitement rose, her body was flush with the stimulation. The lusty pleasure of fighting urged her on. She attacked.

  She was in the zone when she stepped inside his defenses. The only things she thought about were violence and winning. She anticipated the fake he attempted and punched him hard in the chest. But she didn’t realize, until just then, that he was so big and strong that her blows had little effect on him. His physical strength counterbalanced her ability to see his next moves. It didn’t matter to him. He would just keep attacking until she wore herself out. Then he would take her.

  A little touch of panic registered inside her brain. She had never lost a fight before, ever. But she now understood that if she made a bad move or a mistake, he would grab her and it would all be over. She wouldn’t stand a chance in his grasp. This made her more angry and malevolent. She wanted to wreak gratuitous savagery on the Effort man. She didn’t care about consequences or what anyone else thought. Winning was the only goal. No matter how it was achieved, she had to win.

  Kaley stepped back and quickly stripped off her safari shorts so he would have nothing to grab. “I’m thinking that you want a piece of this, don’t you baby?” she spat sarcastically at the man as she posed. She knew that the move would confuse him.

  “Damn, I’ve been out here in this godforsaken desert for a long time. What do you think, bitch?” the Effort man replied with lust in his voice. “I’m gonna like hurting you.”

  “Well, come and get it, big boy,” Kaley talked like it didn’t matter to her. She waved her body at him.

  He knew she was quick so he charged like a bull with his long arms outstretched hoping to grab any part of her exposed body. It was actually exactly what Kaley wanted him to do.

  She stepped aside and karate chopped him on the right shoulder blade as he went past. His arm immediately went numb and dropped dead-like by his side. She had dislocated his shoulder with a single blow.

  He roared in pain, turned around, and tried to backhand her with a wild swing from his good arm. But she was ready and with uncanny accuracy, chopped his bare fingers as they sped past. The big man went to his knees in further pain as several fingers were now broken at the knuckle.

  She then swiftly circled around behind him and smashed into the elbow of his left arm with the steel tip of her boot. It broke the elbow.

  All of a sudden, the Effort man couldn’t use either of his arms and pain soared throughout his body. Before he realized what she was doing, she bounced over to her shorts and pulled out a plastic cuff. She then tied his feet together. He couldn’t get up.

  He was still kneeling and woozy from the pain when a crazed Kaley appeared before his eyes — almost completely naked.

  “Please try to resist,” she said sweetly. “Now, we are going to see how much pain you can take.”

  Her first punch was aimed at his exposed throat. She did it before Malcolm
could reach her to make her stop.

  ***

  By the time that the TACP team crested the ridge, the fighting was over and the cleanup had begun. The final tally was: one dead, one wounded, two severely beaten, two other men had concussions and one man had a very sore chest from a Taser hit. All seven were spread around the desert. Most were cuffed.

  The MAD team was grouped around Kaley about fifty feet away. She was attempting to somehow repair the damage done to her blouse. There were no buttons to fasten it.

  Eventually, she just said “the hell with it” and tucked the shirt bottom into her recently reacquired shorts. She pulled the mesh vest over the top. Her breasts were mostly exposed, and she wound up looking like she was headed to a sexy costume party, but she was clothed. The TACP men tried not to stare once they discovered how much damage she had done to the Effort men.

  “The four of you did all this carnage?” Captain Kane asked as he scanned the area.

  “Each of us took down at least one of them I’m proud to say,” the general replied with a smile.

  “How are you able to defeat these bad men?”

  “Why, we’re aliens of course,” the general smugly replied and laughed.

  “Okay, so you’re not going to tell me, right?”

  “Right,” the old man said and nodded his head.

  “Well, what do you want us to do with these punks?” the captain inquired.

  “I believe you will find that each of these men have committed a variety of crimes. I’ll have a list for you by the time we reach your base in America. I’ll finish interrogating them on the plane. I want you to hold them there until we capture the rest of the Effort organization. Then they’re all going to a maximum security prison.”