by T. R. Harris
Yessir. We’ve been hauling loads of the stuff to the Rutledge for several hours. It’s turned into a real job. We’re working in shifts now.
Adam was angry. His backup force on the planet was so engrossed in collecting their money that they’d forgotten all about him.
“Listen, Mister Pettit, I need you to get Colonel Nolan now. Bring him back to the ship so I can talk to him.”
Yessir. Give me ten minutes.
Seven minutes later, Petty Officer Pettit was back on the line.
Colonel Nolan is presently unavailable, Captain Cain. Pettit’s voice was shaking. He will contact you when he can. I’m sorry.
Adam reassured the young sailor that it wasn’t his fault. He told him to relax and that it was okay. Then after breaking contact with the Rutledge, Adam got up from the cot and walked to the door of his room.
One thing he’d noticed from his ATD probe of the surrounding set of buildings and equipment: they were not of Nuorean origin. All the pre-fab buildings and other systems were from the worlds they’d conquered, and even these planets used Formilian technology. This included the lock on his door.
It was simply a matter of Adam scanning the controls and activating the release switch and he was able to slowly open the door and look into the outer corridor. The hallway was empty, not even a single guard standing outside his door. This was a major weakness of the Nuoreans; they were overconfident in their own abilities and often underestimated those of their opponents.
Adam left his cell and made his way to the main exit door for the building without being seen. There were only a hundred Third Cadre sponsoring the bounty, and some of them were in starships, patrolling the system or in orbit above the planet. That left a relatively few in the compound. It was also night time on the planet, and the Nuoreans had already adapted to the local conditions. Most of them were asleep, figuring their prized captive was safely and securely locked away.
So Adam simply strolled into the dimly lit compound and toward the one source of abundant light—the huge building Adam concluded had to be the warehouse Petty Officer Pettit had mentioned.
He could see a steady stream of sailors and Marines ferrying loads of storage containers toward the Rutledge, which was located on the other side of the chain of buildings. The Humans enlisted the use of four-wheeled forklift-like haulers the Nuoreans had brought with them to help construct the settlement. There was a frantic nature to their actions, as loaded vehicles raced from the warehouse, and empty ones returned with the same urgency.
A departing vehicle nearly collided with one returning when the driver noticed Adam approach the building. Both forklifts came to a stop, followed by another pair. Soon the entire working party had come to a complete halt, with the crew staring at Adam as he entered the building.
LtCol. Joshua Nolan stood next to a series of mounds made up of thin plastic credit chips. They were of various colors, signifying denomination, and included both Juirean and Union chips. The Marine officer had a datapad in his hand, frantically making entries. He was shaking his head.
“A problem, Colonel?” Adam said from behind the officer.
Nolan nearly jumped out of his clothes. He turned at the sound, instantly recognizing the voice.
“Captain…what are you doing here?” he stammered. He looked past Adam toward the door, to see if any Nuoreans had escorted him to the warehouse.
Adam looked at the still huge pile of confiscated items filling the center of the large room. “I was getting lonely sitting in my cell and thought I’d come looking for some company. I thought we could grab some dinner, maybe take in a movie.”
Nolan’s shocked expression was priceless—and infuriating.
“I’m sorry, Captain, but the Nuoreans only gave us twenty hours to sort and load the money. As you can see, it’s not an easy task.”
“I thought your task was to help me defeat the Third Cadre.”
“We are. If we can move most of this stuff out of here, they won’t have the money to pay the other bounties.”
“And how’s that coming?” Adam’s voice was as cutting as a razor’s edge.
Nolan gave up the pretense. “Honestly, really slow. We’ve been sticking all the credits we find in every crack and crevasse aboard the Rutledge and it looks like the most we’ll be able to get out in time is around ten billion dollars’ worth. And then we’ll have a weight problem.”
Adam took Nolan by the arm and led him to a corner of the warehouse, out of earshot of the others, who by now were standing like statues, waiting to see what was going to happen.
“Riyad’s going to be here in less than four hours,” Adam said barely above a whisper. “Are your men going to help in the coming fight or not?”
Nolan’s delayed response spoke volumes. He looked at the anxious faces of his crew. “You have to realize; these men are beyond the point of simply obeying orders. They see themselves as fabulously wealthy, and I doubt they’d be willing to risk their lives…for such a narrow cause.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. Damn, that was harsh. “I realize there are only sixteen of you, but without your men—and the Rutledge—the odds of us defeating the Cadre go way up.”
“I understand you’re capable of taking out fifty of them all by yourself,” Nolan snapped back. “What do you need us for anyway? And look, you just waltzed out of your holding cell without even batting an eye.” The Marine waved a hand toward his men. “You can’t blame them. They’ve never seen so much wealth before.”
“And neither have you.”
A vein pulsed in Nolan’s neck. “No, I haven’t. But it’s beyond that now. I couldn’t get these men to stop what they’re doing even if I wanted to, and at this point, I don’t.”
Adam smiled, which made Nolan even more nervous.
“You’re forgetting one thing, Mister Nolan.”
“What’s that?”
“I can control the Rutledge with my mind. It’s of Human design, which means most of the systems have Formilian technology. And my ghost program gives me even more control. If I want to, I can ground your crew here, and when the fighting starts, whose side do you think the Nuoreans will place you on? Your mutinous crew won’t have a choice but to fight.”
Nolan’s mouth fell open. “You…you wouldn’t.”
“What…force your men to do their job?”
“They’re only people, Cain. If you weren’t some kind of mutant freak you’d be doing the same thing!”
Adam considered smashing the Marine’s head into a million pieces, but he held back…at least for the moment. He thought of his next move. He could still use Nolan’s mutinous crew.
“Fuck it, Nolan. You can keep your damn money. Just do me one little favor.”
Nolan was both shocked and angered by Adam’s statement. “What?”
“When you lift off with all your well-earned booty, lay a couple of cannon bolts into this building. At least that will help put a wrinkle into the Nuorean’s plans.”
Adam was expecting the Marine officer to enthusiastically agree, a compromise for his treasonous act. Instead, he hesitated.
“What’s wrong?” Adam asked.
“If we do that, then the Nuoreans will come after us. With an overloaded ship, we might not get away.”
Adam was getting better at summoning his mutant powers on demand; he felt the surge of strength course through his body. A moment later, he had Nolan by the neck and lifted a foot off the floor. He didn’t squeeze hard enough to kill the man, just to suspend him in air.
Nolan’s crew was unarmed—they also didn’t know about Adam’s superpowers. They raced to their commander’s rescue, only to have the first couple of them laid out on the floor of the warehouse, unconscious from lightning quick hits from Adam’s free left hand. The rest backed off.
“You spineless piece of shit,” Adam growled as Nolan. He let him go. “Fine, take your money and go. I don’t need help from people like you. You disgust me.”
Nolan’s me
n helped him to his feet. “We’re not as bad as you think,” he said, rubbing his bruised neck. “We’re just doing what any normal Human would do.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
As Adam turned to leave, Nolan spoke again. “We’ll see what we can do about destroying the rest of the treasure,” he offered. “It will depend on how many Nuorean ships are in the area.”
“I suppose you want me to thank you?”
“No…I just want you to understand.”
“Don’t hold your breath, Mister Nolan. Besides, I’m not the one who’s going to have to live with the knowledge of my back-stabbing bullshit for the rest of my miserable life.”
“Don’t worry about that, Captain Cain. We’ll have ten billion ways to deal with the guilt.”
Adam left the warehouse and returned to his cell. It took another hour before his body returned to normal. His mutant brain cells wanted to hold onto the anger for as long as they could.
He contacted Arieel and filled her in. Riyad would need to know about the loss of Nolan’s men and ship to modify his plans. He wasn’t only losing sixteen skilled combat fighters, but also the use of the Rutledge. Adam was tempted to disable the ship, but he wouldn’t know at that point which side the crew would fight for. It was bad enough facing a hundred of the Nuorean’s best fighters, but to add sixteen deadly Humans into the mix could be tragic.
If Nolan’s timetable was correct, he would leave the planet two hours before the Riyad arrived. Whether the warehouse was destroyed at that point—and the Nuoreans in a fit from the attack—was another unknown in the planning. Adam was almost to the point of taking Nolan’s advice and simply set out to kill every Nuorean in sight. After all, the whole reason for allowing himself to be captured was to place this deadly hornet within their camp.
He was also glad to see how easily he’d summoned his super strength in the warehouse, without even having a high-intensity physical confrontation taking place. Anger seemed to be a trigger as well, and at this point, Adam was angry all the time, frustrated that Nolan had taken most of the fun out of the coming battle.
130
Eventually a pair of Nuoreans came to the warehouse and told Nolan to stop his activities. At that point, he and his second-in-command, Major Duncan Turner, went to meet with the main Third Cadre officer. Josh had met him a couple of times over the past day, once when he came to the warehouse to view the sorting process, and another in the field between the buildings.
It was early morning and the Nuoreans were stirring. A few were in the field practicing with swords, while other groups of three or four jogged around the buildings, getting their juices flowing for the day. It was two hours before Riyad Tarazi and the rest of the backup force would arrive, so Nolan knew the Nuorean’s day was about to get a lot more complicated. A dark foreboding filled his heart as he entered the building and was granted a meeting with the Nuorean leadership.
Janvis—followed by some numbers Nolan couldn’t remember—was seated at a bare table, flanked by the other three-striper from his ship. His name was Damnic, or something like that. Nolan didn’t care. He just wanted to do what he had to do and leave.
There were another three Nuoreans in the room, seated along a side wall. The one in the middle wore a gold cape and an amused smile, like he knew something Nolan didn’t. Josh didn’t question the alien’s attitude. He probably did know something the Human didn’t.
“We’re ready to leave,” Nolan began, as he and Turner stood before the table.
“Was your recovery efforts satisfactory?” Janvis asked.
“Enough. We were not able to recover the full amount, but enough.”
“And why not all?”
“Time…and space limitations on my ship. But I’m not complaining,” he quickly added.
“That is good that you are not complaining.”
Nolan took a deep breath and looked over at Turner before returning his attention to Janvis. The two Marines had discussed this and were in agreement. “There is one other thing I need to tell you.”
Janvis frowned. He said nothing.
“Adam Cain is planning an attack on this facility. In a couple of hours a support force will arrive led by Riyad Tarazi and other members of Cain’s main team. There are also Human Marines and sailors with him.”
Janvis pursed his lips and looked to the Third Cadre officer next to him. “And how is Cain planning to carry out such an attack? He is locked within an adjoining building, quite secure.”
“He has certain…abilities, which are beyond normal,” Nolan said, much to the surprise—or amusement—of the Nuoreans.
“Yes, we have heard rumors of these abilities. So you confirm they are real?”
“Yes, yet I don’t have any details about what they are. It’s just that I’d be very careful around him.”
Now Janvis looked to the Nuorean seated along the wall. “Mister Nolan—I believe that is how I address Human males—I appreciate this information. It is quite fortunate that you have made this disclosure, for it may alter the plan we have for not allowing your ship to leave the surface.”
The words hit both Nolan and Turner like bricks to the face. They weren’t going to be allowed to leave? Josh tried to understand why he was so impacted, and concluded it had to be the money. He was a Marine officer; mission failure was always a possibility, but his distress was beyond that. He had so much to lose—as did all the others. Could that be it?
“You’re not going to let us leave?” he whispered.
“I said that was our original plan. You must understand, Colonel Nolan, we have suspected such a plan from the beginning. It was too much of a coincidence that Adam Cain would be captured and turned over to us by members of his own race, and obviously members of your military, based on your bearing and habits. And you should know we have been tracking Tarazi’s approach for several days. The simple ruse of alternating directions does not change the configuration of the ships repeatedly detected. We estimated the timetable for the attack based on the arrival of these ships. We also figured you and your ship would play a part in the attack. That is why you would not to be allowed to leave.”
Josh and Turner glared at the Nuorean. All their efforts over the past twenty hours had been wasted. And now his admission of an impending attack was nothing more that the rantings of a traitor.
Janvis held up his hand. “Do not look so distraught. Your revelation of Cain’s plans has bought your freedom.”
Nolan’s jaw fell open. He didn’t speak.
“That’s right. It is now obvious that you are not part of Cain’s loyal team or even a true warrior of the Human race. At one time you may have considered yourself as such, but not anymore. Your obsession with the wealth of your culture has proven stronger than loyalty and duty. We Nuoreans find such action reprehensible, yet useful in this situation. So go, take your wealth and flee. I find it unimaginable that you can live in peace from this day forward; a Nuorean never could. But you are a Human. I’m sure you will find no difficulty living with your betrayal.”
He waved his hand and two guards hustled Nolan and Turner from the room.
In the growing heat of early morning on this unnamed world, Josh felt like throwing up. Duncan rushed off toward the ship; Josh followed, his movements numb and rote as he entered the ship and took his position on the bridge.
When he just sat there, staring into his lap, Turner took over and ordered the lift-off. He wanted to get off the planet and out of the system before the Nuoreans could change their minds.
Exhaust smoke billowed up to obscure the forward viewport, causing the ship to rumble and shudder. It took twice as long for the sensation of movement to come to those on the bridge. The ship was incredibly heavy, and they had to reach twenty miles into the sky before activating the gravity drive.
Nolan tried to relate the slower-than-normal lift-off to the fact that they had nine-point-six billion dollars’ worth of various galactic currencies aboard. The thought was s
upposed to lift his spirits. It didn’t.
First Cain and now the damn Nuoreans. Did everyone see him as the rotten, soulless creature he now envisioned for himself? He firmed his jaw, letting anger replace the feelings of guilt and shame. Screw them! Screw them all! They’re just pissed because they aren’t billionaires—like me and my crew. That’s right…screw them all.
131
Adam felt the ground rumble as the Rutledge lifted off. He still had control of the ship—if he wanted. The next few minutes would tell the tale of whether Nolan would do at least his small part in the coming battle. Would he destroy the warehouse…or not?
Fifteen minutes passed before Adam’s anger had fully manifested itself. A starship of the Geoffrey Rutledge class would be nearing the orbit of Jupiter by that time if they were in the Solar System and just left Earth. And still no explosion, no demolished warehouse full of life-stealing bounty treasure.
Moments before he lost contact with the Rutledge, Adam contacted Arieel. His report: No explosion, no disruption on the surface. I’ll soften the target. T-minus ninety-minutes and counting.
Luckily there weren’t a lot of loose objects in the pilothouse of the luxury starship A.C. Tobias, otherwise Riyad would have broken even more than the few he did. As he scrambled around the small space, looking for more things to throw, his anger only grew stronger. Why the hell aren’t there more things to break in this goddamn place!
Sherri and Copernicus sat on a plush observation couch placed at the rear of the compartment, hoping none of the objects were sent in their direction. They were just as mad and frustrated at Nolan’s betrayal, and at the moment, were living vicariously through Riyad’s manic actions.
For their part, Kaylor and Jym were hiding away in the galley. They knew how volatile Humans could get—and also how their frail bodies wouldn’t stand a chance against an out-of-control Earthling.
