Moon Base One: Tyr4nt: A Prequel Story

by Patrick Rivers

  “Alright, man, seriously, you’re gonna kill us, take it easy, Zeek!” Nos snapped.

  “Can’t slow down. They took Ash, they’re holding her at Amber’s place.”

  “They? Whose they?”

  “The fuckin’ Chinese, that’s who!”

  “Chinese? Dude, what are you on? Wait, never mind, I know the answer to that.”

  “It’s that Chinese hacker from the tournament, he’s good, a lot better than I thought. He’s behind all this, the police, Ash’s disappearance. Fuck, we gotta get there.” Zeek accelerated the hovercar.

  “Chinese hacker? You lost me,” Nos said with a suspicious expression on his face, he thought Zeek had lost his mind. He’d seen this happen to guys hooked on Blue Drillamine.

  “Tyr4nt,” Zeek said.

  “Tyr4nt?”

  “That’s the hacker’s alias, Tyr4nt.”

  “How do you know this isn’t a trap?” Nos asked. Zeek slowed down the car and pushed up his glasses, pulling over he parked next to the curb behind a big truck.

  “I hadn’t thought of that, why would he message me, though? Why not just let me get arrested? It doesn’t make sense,” Zeek said into the steering wheel. “But actually, he didn’t message me until I escaped the cops…” His mouth twisted as he trailed off.

  “Either way, we’re burned. We need to get out of Boston, let’s head to Canada, right now. We’ll make a stop on the way. I’ll get us IDs for the border,” Nos said and turned to stare at Zeek’s blue eyes. “We can’t save her—man, we have to go.”

  Zeek shook his head. “I can’t leave her. She’s the only one who’s been there for me. Everyone else has abandoned me. I can’t let this fucker take her away from me.”

  Nos sighed. “Let’s go…I guess, I hope you’re prepared to go to prison for this chick, or worse, get killed by some hacker you’ve never even met in real life.” Nos placed his hand on Zeek’s shoulder. “I can’t believe you dragged me into this. You really gotta get your shit together.”

  “I know, I know,” Zeek said and pulled back into traffic. He looked in the rearview mirror. “Five-oh on our tail.”

  “Play it cool, just keep cruisin’ nice and easy, turn up here,” Nos replied.

  Zeek did as instructed and checked his mirror again. The police hover car flowed through the intersection and kept going. Zeek exhaled. “Whew, okay, we’re good, now time to go save Ash.”

  Nos shook his head and lit a cigarette. Zeek smiled and held out his hand; Nos passed him the cigarette and lit another.

  They pulled up to Amber’s apartment building and sat in the car.

  “Okay, there’s the entrance. Everything looks clear, I don’t see any cops, do you?” Zeek said and looked around, checking his rearview mirror.

  “I think we’re safe, let’s go kick some ass. Bring your piece with you.”

  Zeek reached under his seat and pulled out his blaster pistol, sticking it into his waistband as he spilled out of the car. They inspected the front door of the brick building. There was a locking mechanism with a call box. Zeek pulled out his phone.

  “I can hack it, I just have to get into the network,” Zeek said, and Nos tilted his head sideways to look down an alley next to the building. “I’m in the network, now I just need to create a back door…”

  Nos saw a maintenance person in a blue uniform come out of a side door into the alley and light a cigarette. Nos walked down the alley.

  “Then I just…” Zeek kept talking and pressing keys on his phone. “Almost—”

  “ZEEK!” Nos called.

  Zeek peered down the alley, Nos was holding the side door open and smiling. Zeek went through the door, huge washing machines and dryers surrounded them churning and spinning.

  “How’d you get him to let us in?” Zeek asked.

  “I just told him we forgot our key in our apartment.” Nos smiled, and they ascended in an elevator to the twelfth floor. In front of Amber’s loft apartment door, Zeek examined the electronic keycard lock. He pulled out his phone again and started to tap the screen. “I think I can hack into the locking mechanism, good thing I already infiltrated the network—”

  Nos reached over and turned the handle and the door opened. Zeek squinted in annoyance. Nos smiled and gestured for him to go in. “After you, brilliant hack extraordinaire.”

  He entered the apartment and felt something gnawing at him in the pit of his stomach. “Ash! Ash!” he called. The first thing he saw was an open kitchen with an island counter at its center. The walls were made of red brick, and the windows were old factory windows large in size. He rounded the corner to the living room and came to a stop. His mouth fell open.

  Nos shut the door behind them, locked it and walked towards him. “What? What’s—” Nos stopped and said, “My God, what the hell is this?” He ran over to the kitchen sink and vomited.

  Zeek closed his eyes for a second, he was trying to regain his balance; his world seemed to be spinning out of control. He whispered, “Amber…”

  There in the living room, strung up like a carcass in a butcher’s shop, Amber hung from a meat hook attached to the ceiling. He noticed the curves of her cheeks. Her brown eyes were open wide, her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her mouth agape as if in a permanent scream. The once beautiful woman’s chest had been cut open, and the rib cage pulled apart like two claws waiting to snap closed. Her entrails dangled to the ground, the smell was vile, and blood and guts painted the room.

  Zeek hadn’t witnessed something so gruesome before. He was shell shocked. There were words written in blood above the corpse that he didn’t understand, at the moment his brain had shut down. The Church of Yin, the blood spelled.

  Nos touched his shoulder, and it was as if he had awakened from a dream. “What’s ‘The Church of Yin’?” Nos asked, “This is beyond fucked up, Zeek. We’ve gotta go now!”

  They heard someone banging on the door. “Amber! It’s Dennis. I got a message that you were hurt, let me in. Jackson’s with me,” the voice shouted.

  “Dennis?” Nos asked Zeek in a low voice.

  “That’s Amber’s boyfriend. What do we do?”

  “Is there a fire escape?”

  “No, just the stairs in the hall.”

  “I can hear someone in there, open up!” the voice shouted from behind the door. “Or I’m callin’ the cops.” The person started to bang on the door.

  “Great, he’s trying to break the door in,” Nos said. “You’re the genius MIT grad, think of something.”

  Zeek walked over to the door. “Hey, Dennis, it’s Zeek, uhh…Ashley’s boyfriend. Ash and Amber went out, and I’m just hangin’ here till they get back,” he said and looked over at Nos and shrugged, “no need to worry, everything’s cool, false alarm.” Nos shook his head.

  “Zeek? The Drillamine junkie? Open up, man, or I’m gonna get Jackson to break down the fuckin’ door,” Dennis said.

  Zeek turned to Nos and put his hand on his blaster pistol. “Shit,” he whispered. “Seriously, Dennis, they should be back soon. I’ll tell her to call you when they come back.”

  “Nah, Zeek, I’ll wait inside, just open the door,” Dennis said, and a loud bang on the door continued until finally, the door locking mechanism broke, two dark-skinned men entered that were the size of grizzly bears.

  Dennis pushed Zeek out of the way and shouted, “Amber, Amber! You here?”

  Nos walked around the corner, he started to say, “Listen, it’s not what it looks like, there’s this Chinese hacker—”

  “Out of the way!” Dennis said and pushed Nos to the side. “Watch the geek in the glasses, Jackson. I’m gonna check the bed—” Dennis rounded the corner and came to a dead stop. “What in the name of God…Church of Yin? You guys in some kind of Satanic cult?” he said and started to gag.

  Jackson walked over to Dennis, asking, “What is it?” He came in view of the body. “Christ, what kind of sick shit…I was in the Galactic War and never saw…” he trailed of
f.

  Dennis’s blood started to boil, he turned to Nos with hate burning in his eyes like coals. Nos started to back up with his hands up. “Seriously, this isn’t what it looks like,” he said.

  Dennis turned to Jackson, who was a large mass of muscles, twice the size of Zeek and Nos. “Fuck ’em up. I got the nerd,” he said.

  “It was this guy, Tyr4nt, he’s part of some Chinese hacker group, tell ’em, Zeek,” Nos blurted out, but it fell on deaf ears.

  Jackson rushed Nos and wrapped his large hands around his throat, Nos gagged, and he lifted him into the air, his powerful muscles bulged under his brown skin. Nos’ eyes began to close, and Jackson slammed him hard into the oak wooden floor, there was a cracking sound, and Zeek wasn’t sure if it was the wood or Nos’ bones.

  Jackson stood over him, one leg on each side of him, and started to punch him in the face, blood spilled onto the floor. “Tyr4nt,” Nos said in between blows, holding his hands up in a feeble attempt to block the massive hands that were bludgeoning his face.

  Dennis started to walk over to Zeek, and he knew what was coming next. Zeek whipped out the blaster pistol and pointed it square at Dennis’s chest. “Stop, right there,” he said. “Move next to him.” He motioned with the gun toward Jackson. “And you, get off him!”

  Dennis threw up his hands and stepped backward. He said, “Alright, Zeek, stay cool.”

  Jackson stopped mid-punch and stood up straight. He stepped over Nos and joined Dennis.

  Nos weakly crawled over to Zeek and said, “You couldn’t pull that out like two minutes ago?” And spit blood and a tooth onto the floor.

  “Guys,” Zeek said and Jackson raised his hands. “We didn’t do this, we got a message to come here, and then we found her this way, it’s a setup. And if I’m right, the police are probably on their way, in which case we’re all going—”

  Dennis interrupted, “What the hell are you talkin’ about, white boy? Who’s setting us up? You on that blue stuff, ain’t ya? You jacked up? You and this vampire lookin’ guy.”

  Nos scowled and rubbed his jaw. “He’s not lying, he’s probably jacked up, but that doesn’t change the fact that this hacker is trying to get us all killed or thrown in—”

  A laser bolt shattered a window and struck Dennis in the side of the head. His head exploded like a watermelon. Blood sprayed all over Jackson’s face and clothing. Jackson dropped to the floor, his military training kicking in. He crawled on his belly toward Nos and Zeek, who were crouched behind the counter in the center of the kitchen.

  Jackson wiped the blood from his face with his shirt, and another shot rang over their heads, hitting glass and shattering it, the shards rained down on the floor. Jackson said, “Okay, I’m convinced. You guys wanna live, follow me. I’ve got a hover SUV in the garage, that’s our best chance.” Zeek and Nos exchanged a look. “I’m ex-military, air force, I can get you two out of here. Come on.” He crouch-ran to the door.

  “I guess we’re following the guy who just tried to beat me to death?” Nos asked and another shot shattered a bowl, and they both made a break for the door.

  Once through the door, in the hall, Jackson stood near the door to the stairwell.

  “This way,” he said. Zeek and Nos ran down the hall, and all three of them ran down the stairs.

  In the garage, they followed Jackson. “You’re Zeek? And you?” Jackson asked as he pointed.

  “Nos.”

  “Nos, I’m Jackson, but call me Bulldozer, that’s what they called me in the service.” He held out his hand as they walked and shook their hands. Bulldozer pulled out his keys and they jumped into a large Cadillac SUV.

  “So, what’s going on, you said this was a Chinese hacker…Tyranny?” Bulldozer asked.

  They quickly explained everything, and how they came to Amber’s apartment looking for Ash.

  “Ah, yeah, I know Ash. She’s cool. That was no amateur sniper back there, by the way,” Bulldozer said as they pulled out of the garage.

  “Yeah, hitman?” Nos asked.

  They stopped at a light, and Bulldozer turned to face him in the backseat. “That shot was from a building that was at least a hundred yards away. Hitmen don’t take shots like that for multiple targets, too much of a risk. And the way the sniper pinned us down. I’d say that was someone who was in the war. Sniper division if I had to guess.” He turned back around and drove through the light.

  Ch. 15: Bulldozer’s Apartment

  “I’m gonna take a shower,” Bulldozer said as they stood in his living room. “Make yourself comfortable. There’s some weed in that box on the table. After some shit like that, I think we all need a little relaxation. I’ll be right back.” Bulldozer walked off to the back of the apartment. They heard a door close and a shower turn on.

  Zeek looked at Nos. Nos could see he was starting to sweat profusely.

  They sat down on Bulldozer’s black leather couch, where a wooden box lay on a brown wooden coffee table. Nos reached for the box, picking it up he sat it on his lap.

  “What are we going to do?” Zeek asked.

  Nos opened the box with a smile, the smell hit them in the face like they had been slapped with a skunk. “Whew, this is some good shit.” Nos started to break up the marijuana.

  “Hey.” Zeek caught his eye. Nos turned his head to the right. “What’s the plan?”

  “Get high?” Nos replied and went back to the box. “This will help us think of something. Just relax for a second, we almost just got our heads blown off by a plasma rifle.”

  Zeek sighed.

  “Alright…hey.”

  “What now?”

  “Are you holdin’?”

  Nos shook his head. “Man…”

  “Come on, Nos, we both work for Cordoné,” Zeek pleaded. “We’re, we’re co-workers…I just need a little bit to get me through. Otherwise…I’m going to start getting flu-like symptoms, and I won’t be able to save Ash.”

  “Uh-huh…fine, but I’ll just sprinkle a little into this joint. Gotta ration you, I know you’ll need more later. Damn junkie,” Nos replied.

  “That’ll work.” Zeek laughed.

  Bulldozer came back into the living room rubbing his bald head with a towel and wiping inside his left ear.

  Nos put the weed in a cigarette paper and looked up at Bulldozer as he sat in a chair opposite them. “You mind if I sprinkle some Blue in this? Our little hacker over here needs his fix before he starts vomiting on your carpet.”

  “Shit,” Bulldozer said with a smile. “I guess so, after what we just went through…”

  Nos lit the marijuana cigarette and passed it to Zeek who took it greedily with big eyes and a smile. He inhaled deeply and started to feel that familiar feeling of floating, he exhaled and said he felt better.

  “I bet you do, now pass it to our esteemed host,” Nos said and nodded toward Bulldozer.

  He hit the joint and his pupils contracted, his eyes got large like they were going to pop out of his head. “Damn!” he exclaimed. Zeek and Nos laughed. “So you’re a hacker?” he asked Zeek.

  “He’s the best,” Nos said. “Can hack anything, he went to MIT. Probably could have invented some AI or tech that would have saved humanity, but instead he gets high on Blue Drillamine, and, well…”

  “From what you guys have told me, it sounds like you’re letting this guy run the show. He messages where to go and you go there. You’re playing defense. You ever play chess?” Bulldozer asked and passed the joint to Nos. The smoke billowed into the air out of his lungs in a long exhale, a cloud began to form over them.

  “No,” Nos said.

  “Of course,” Zeek said, pushing up his glasses over his glossy eyes.

  “Well, the way I see it, you need to go on the offense,” Bulldozer said. “You need to hack this guy, find out more about him. Figure out where he’s keeping Ash.” Zeek nodded. “Then we need to get this guy before he gets us. This hacker is a sociopath, he’s playing some sick game with you two. You
need to beat him at his own game.”

  It was so simple Zeek was kicking himself that he hadn’t thought of it. But he’d been so wrapped up in trying to save Ash.

  “Yeah, he’s right, we need to get this guy. No one shoots at me and walks away,” Nos said and passed the now tiny joint to Zeek.

  Zeek inhaled and said, “You have a laptop or tablet?”

  Bulldozer smiled. “I’ve got something better.” He led them to a small office with a monitor on a desk with a built-in computer and wireless mouse and keyboard.

  “Look at that thing! Old school, I like it,” Zeek said, he sat down in the office chair and fired up the desktop computer.

  “I still have access to military personnel files from the war. We can get to know our Tyr4nt a little better. I had pretty high-security clearance, so we should have access to the Chinese military. We just need to find out his name, unless you think he used his hacking alias during the Galactic War?” Bulldozer said.

  Zeek raised an eyebrow.

  Ch. 16: Final Test

  Zeek took off his dark-rimmed glasses and wiped them with his shirt. “Are you guys seeing this?” he said, gesturing at the computer screen.

  “Yeah, it’s fucked up, I’m gonna go roll another joint. This is too much,” Nos said and turned to walk out of the office, Zeek grabbed his elbow.

  “No,” Zeek said. “We don’t have time for that. We need to figure out his next move and get going. I have a bad feeling.”

  “Sniper division, just like I said, torturer…I can’t believe he would use the same alias that he used in the war. This guy is a highly trained psychopath. This looks more like the rap sheet of a serial killer than someone trained in warfare,” Bulldozer said as he stared at the screen. “You see this, here, Zeek?” Bulldozer pointed at the screen.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Says he’s a contractor for pirates on Earth as a hacker. I think everything is starting to make sense. You’ve gotten yourself into deep shit. You messed with the wrong man.”