Star Cat: Killer Instinct

by Andrew Mackay

  Mastazita released the dead wolf from his clutches. It spattered against the mud as he, and the wolves, headed for Space Opera Charlie.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  USARIC Headquarters

  Cape Claudius, South Texas, USA

  Rana drove the van off the freeway and joined a slip road.

  The giant complex hung in the distance

  She peered into her rearview mirror, “Okay, guys. We’re on the approach. Get ready.”

  Sierra and Grace stepped into their USARIC suits and zipped them up.

  “God bless Alex Hughes,” Sierra held her arms out and turned to Grace. “How do I look?”

  “Like a nasty mercenary,” Grace turned to Sierra and palmed the last goop of Black Gold to her cheek, “How do I look?”

  “Like one of them,” Sierra lifted her machine gun and watched Finbow inspect the empty cages in each corner of the van, “Are the cages locked and ready?”

  “Ready,” Finbow unlatched both of them and unhooked his firearm from his belt. He pointed to his face and turned his cheek to Sierra, “Am I fully covered?”

  “Let me have a look,” Sierra stepped up to him and noticed a dry spot on his chin. She scraped some Black Gold from her brow and plastered it under his lip, “Missed a spot.”

  “Damn it.”

  Rana yelled over her shoulder as the van approached the security gate, “Guys, get out of sight. We’re on.”

  Grace knew Finbow struggled with his nerves. His hands were shaking.

  “Hey, stop that. Look at me,” she said. “Do it, look at me.”

  The look in his eyes told Sierra everything she needed to know. He was deathly afraid of what they were about to do.

  “Finbow, listen. We’re in, and we’re out. No one has to die, you know—”

  “—I know, but—”

  “—No buts, my friend,” Sierra squeezed his shoulder. “When we’re in, you just have to unlock the doors and usher them into the cages.”

  “Okay.”

  “I don’t get it,” Sierra said. “You were perfectly fine with kidnapping Dreenagh?”

  “I didn’t need a gun for that, though,” Finbow muttered.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Grace squeezed her shotgun and licked her lips, “Leave the big boy stuff to us.”

  A USARIC mercenary stepped out of the security kiosk. He waved his circular drone over to the giant sliding gate, just behind the yellow prevention bar.

  “Stop, please.”

  Rana rolled down the window and brought the van to a gentle halt, “Hi.”

  The security guard peered through her window with suspicion. There wasn’t much to see save for the facade of tins of food behind her shoulders.

  “Clearance papers, please.”

  “Sure,” Rana reached onto the passenger seat and presented him with her ID and a single sheet of paper.

  The security guard checked over the image on the card and tilted his visor to her face. She couldn’t see his eyes on account of the reflective black glass covering his face.

  Rana closed her mouth and kept an eye on the drone as it buzzed down and threw a red light over the front of the van.

  TRING.

  “Vehicle authorization. Four-four-niner,” announced the drone.

  The gate slid along its ground rails as the yellow bar lifted into the air.

  The security guard passed the documents to Rana and stood back, “Have a good day, citizen.”

  “You too.”

  She threw the stick shift into first gear and rolled on through the gate.

  A quick sigh of relief expended her nerves, “We’re in.”

  “About damn time,” Sierra said. “Back up to the west quarter.”

  Rana pressed her finger to her ear, “Okay, we’re in. Siyam, do you read me?”

  Interstate I-608

  Ten miles north of Cape Claudius

  Siyam reversed the Mack Truck onto side verge of the freeway. Dozens of MagCycles zipped along both magnetic strips on either side of the road.

  “Yes, I read you. In position, now.”

  “Good. Will advise when we’re out, standby.”

  Siyam scanned his surroundings. The I-608 underpass loomed in the distance, and the traffic had begun to build up.

  “Be quick, Rana. We don’t have all day.”

  Rana spun the steering wheel and drove along the airstrip, “Animal compound dead ahead.”

  “Good, back the hell up and let us out.”

  “On it.”

  Sierra knocked Grace’s arm and threw her a sly wink, “Here we go, get the doors ready.”

  Grace moved to the double doors at the back of the van and gripped the handle, “Standby.”

  Finbow couldn’t help but clock all the various USARIC employees milling around outside the hangars. It didn’t help to allay his fear of the mission.

  “Jesus Christ, there’s hundreds of them.”

  A giant mega-vehicle with USARIC written on the side rolled past them. It looked like a huge tank designed to kill.

  “My God. What’s that?”

  Sierra pulled him away from the window, “Damn it. Stop freaking out and concentrate, you dummy.”

  Finbow’s sweat threatened to clear away the Black Gold from his face. “But. But—”

  “—Extra security measures. That’s why we left as soon as we did, before they all get here.”

  A roar from a fighter jet screeching across the sky made Finbow jump in his shoes, “Oh, God. They know. They’re going to trap us—”

  WHUMP.

  Sierra pushed him against the van’s wall and lost her patience, “Listen to me, dickhead. You start growing a conscience and getting all freaked out, you’ll compromise the mission.”

  “S-Sorry.”

  Grace couldn’t help but smirk to herself. The funny sight of a woman accosting a grown man quaking in his boots.

  “Can you two stop flirting and return to the task at hand, please?”

  “Sorry isn’t good enough,” Sierra rammed him against the wall once again, “Are you a killer?”

  “Wh-what?”

  “I said, are you a killer?”

  “What? No.”

  “That’s right,” Sierra flung Finbow’s shoulder from her grasp and tapped him on the chin, “So act like one.”

  Rana moved the van around the corner of the animal compound and pointed at two armed USARIC security officials protecting the side door.

  “There they are,” she said. “Incapacitate them quickly and get in.”

  “No kidding,” Sierra pushed Finbow to the back of the van, “Move. And don’t point your gun at people you don’t want dead, big boy.”

  He inhaled and gripped his firearm with both hands.

  BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

  Rana reversed the van towards the side of the wall and spoke into her headgear, “Noyin? Come in?”

  “Yes, we read you,” Noyin’s voice came through everyone’s headgear, “Rana, keep the van central between the door and the edge of the building. Keep the engine running.”

  “Coordinates, oh, one, five, five, six. Noyin do you read that?”

  “Confirmed,” he said.

  “Good.”

  Rana adjusted her binocles and peered into the rear view mirror. Her field of vision fell jet black. The contours formed together as white lines. The wall on the building turned into a series of revolving numbers as she reversed the van.

  “One, five,” Rana muttered, angling the back wheels perpendicular to the wall. Finally, the last two numbers rolled up in her binocles: five and six.

  “Okay, I’m lined-up. Get out.”

  The two security officials approached the van as its back doors flung open.

  Grace jumped to the ground and walked over to them, “Hey, how’s it going?”

  The first guard lifted his gun, confused as to why a female USARIC official had exited a delivery van.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “You’re in the
wrong section. Deliveries are at the north quarter,” the second guard added.

  Grace pointed at Sierra and Finbow as they made their way over, “We need you to do something for us.”

  “What’s that?”

  She pointed her shotgun at them and slipped her finger over the trigger, “Drop your weapons and get down on your knees.”

  “Huh?”

  “Do it,” Sierra aimed her machine gun at the second guard, “Get on the floor. Now.”

  The guards obeyed the instruction immediately. They slipped their firearms off their shoulders and threw them to the floor.

  “You’ll never get away with this,” the first guard as he and his colleague dropped to their knees with their hands behind their heads.

  “Shut up,” Grace kicked their weapons away and unclipped a black device from underneath the barrel.

  “Do ‘em,” Sierra nodded at the first guard.

  “Do what?” he asked.

  Grace placed the two metal connectors at the end of the device against his neck.

  ZAAAAPP.

  The guard slumped face-first to the ground, unconscious, leaving his colleague in a state of terror.

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “You can shut up, too,” Grace turned to Finbow. “Get him in the van. Now.”

  “Okay,” Finbow grabbed the first guard under the shoulders and dragged him along the ground towards the van.

  The second guard trembled in his boots, “You’re k-kidnapping us?”

  Sierra kept an eye out for any prying eyes. No one was around. She turned to the second guard and noticed his ID card attached to his lapel.

  “Give me that,” she ripped it away from his suit and stood back, “Okay, do him.”

  “My pleasure,” Grace said.

  She thrust the stun device into his neck and squeezed the button.

  SCHWIPP.

  “Gaah.”

  The stun gun hadn’t worked. “Huh?” Grace jabbed him again.

  SCHWIPP-PP-PP.

  “Damn it.”

  The second guard’s howls of pain threatened to draw attention to the scene.

  “Ugh, ugh,” Grace zapped him again, “It’s not working.”

  Sierra wasted no time in moving up to the guard, “For God’s sake.”

  THWOCK.

  She kicked him across the face, knocking him out cold in Grace’s arms.

  “There. Old school.”

  Sierra turned to Finbow as he bundled the first guard in the back of the van, “Hey, over here. Get the second one.”

  Finbow came running over and gasped at the second guard’s bloodied nose, “What did you do to him?”

  “We got our ticket,” Sierra kissed the ID card and ran to the side door, “Don’t fondle the man. Just throw him in the van with the other one.”

  Finbow took the second guard’s arms.

  Grace took his ankles.

  Together, they carried him over to the back of the van and threw him on top of his colleague.

  Rana peered over the driver’s seat and smiled, “Aww, look at them. Sound asleep.”

  “Yeah, and keep the van as quiet as they are until we give you the signal.”

  Rana blew her a kiss, “You get it. Good luck in there. Set our little kitties free.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Grace gripped the door handles and forced them shut, “The bastards won’t know what hit them.”

  SCHWUMP-SCHWUMP.

  The doors slammed shut.

  Sierra waved the other two over as she placed the ID card against the panel on the side door to the animal compound.

  “Shh,” she said as Grace and Finbow joined her. She nodded at their USARIC suits and grinned, “Remember who you are.”

  “We got it,” Grace said, ready to kill anything that got in her way.

  Sierra pushed the ID card against the plate, “Keep it stealthy.”

  SCHTUNK.

  The door unbolted and swept inward, allowing the three of them inside the dimly lit corridor.

  Sierra led the way down the lengthy, dark tunnel, “We’re in,” she whispered to anyone listening through the headgear connection.

  “Good, keep the sit-rep up at all times,” Rana said through their headgear, “Grace?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Keep your finger off that damn trigger until you absolutely need it. We don’t want anyone spooked until the very last moment.”

  “Leave the shooting to me and I’ll leave the driving to you,” Sierra whispered.

  Finbow squeezed his firearm in an attempt to stop his arms from shaking, “It’s quiet in here. Too quiet.”

  Sierra stopped walking and held the other two back, “Wait, wait.”

  “What is it?” Finbow asked.

  “The door at the end of the tunnel. Leads right into the animal compound.”

  She ran up to the door as light-footed as possible and pressed the side of her face against it, “Shhh.”

  “What are you doing?” Grace asked.

  “Trying to listen,” she said. “There’s a chance that the compound could be empty.”

  A brief moment of respite enabled the trio to calm their nerves as Sierra listened for any sign of life on the other side of the door.

  “No, no, I can’t hear anything.”

  Grace smiled and lowered her gun, “We came at the right time, then?”

  “Seems so,” Sierra passed the security ID to Finbow. “Here, take this.”

  He took the ID card from her palm and inspected it.

  “Bays Two and Three.”

  “Yeah.”

  Sierra gripped the door handle, “Not the first one. It’s where the carcasses are being kept. No use to us.”

  “I got it, I got it.”

  “I really hope you do, Finbow,” Sierra said. “Because if you don’t, we’re screwed. Ready?”

  Grace squeezed the grip on her gun and cleared her throat, “Let’s do it.”

  Sierra pressed her finger to her ear, “Rana, come in.”

  Static blew through the trio’s headgear, followed by Rana’s voice, “This is Rana. What’s the update?”

  “We’re about to breach the compound. Are you set?”

  “Yeah, in position,” Rana whispered. “But those two security guards won’t stay asleep forever. Be quick.”

  “Understood.”

  Sierra yanked the door handle down and pushed the door open.

  USARIC Animal Compound

  Dozens of workers sat at the computer workstations. The central data console was unmanned.

  In the far right corner, a series of metal cages housed dozens of excited chimpanzees.

  It was the first thing Sierra saw when she stepped into the compound.

  OOO-OOO-OOOH.

  “My God,” she stopped, briefly overwhelmed by its magnificence and size, “Look at this place.”

  Grace rode up behind her, “This is where the guys were murdered?”

  “Yeah,” Sierra whispered. “Look at them.”

  The workers looked up from their computers and squinted at the trio. To them, three USARIC mercenaries had decided to visit the compound on their lunch break.

  Grace pushed Finbow forward and pointed at the far wall, “Get on it. Open them up.”

  Finbow jogged along the compound and politely smiled at the workers, “Good afternoon. Sorry.”

  One of them smiled at him, completely fooled by his USARIC get-up, “Hello.”

  Grace grabbed the barrel of her shotgun in her left hand and marched up to the central console.

  She fired a shot into the ceiling.

  BAMMMM!

  The workers jumped in their seats and held up their hands as the chimpanzees hopped around in a frenzy.

  “Citizens, can I have your attention, please?”

  Sierra ran up to the console and smashed the screen on the surface with the butt of her machine gun, “Finbow, do it.”

  Grace aimed her shotgun at the workers, “Everyone down
on the ground. Now.”

  Finbow reached the second bay and slammed the ID card against the glass panel, “Opening.”

  WHUMP.

  The door opened up and Finbow ran inside. He looked around the bay to find dozens of cages imprisoning scores of angry cats.

  SNARRRL-SNASSSHH.

  “Okay, I’m in,” Finbow ran back to the door and hollered at Sierra. “They’re here. They’re all here.”

  “Bay Three,” Sierra shouted back and fired a round of shots at the screen hanging from the ceiling.

  The glass in the ceiling burst down around her shoulders.

  “Nobody move,” Grace threatened the workers as they lowered themselves to the floor, “If I see anyone reach for the alarm, I’ll blast your goddamn paws off.”

  Finbow ran over to the third bay door and pressed the ID card against the wall.

  SCHWUNT.

  The door flung open, allowing Finbow inside. More and more cages lined the walls containing dozens of frightened cats.

  “Jesus,” he muttered. “How many of you are there?”

  Sierra twisted her machine gun upright and prepared to smash the emergency panel on the central console.

  “Are we ready yet?” she hollered at him. “Come on, come on.”

  “Yeah, man. They’re all here. Do it.”

  Sierra turned to Grace and nodded, “This is it. Moment of truth.”

  Grace swung her gun along the sea of frightened employees in front of her, “Everyone move to the wall behind me. We have a visitor coming.”

  “Wh-what?” one of the employees stammered in terror.

  “I said move to the back wall by the monkeys where you belong, assholes.”

  No one moved. They were too terrified to blink, let alone defy a previous instruction to stay still.

  “I said move—”

  BLAMMMMM-SMAASSSHHH.

  Sierra blasted the ceiling once again. A plume of metal and dust coughed around her head and shoulders, “Move it. Now.”

  The workers did as instructed and shuffled on their hands and knees like cats to the far wall.

  Sierra hopped up to the console and pinched her mouthpiece, “Okay, Rana. Do it.”