Target: Earth (Extinction Wars Book 5)

by Vaughn Heppner

  Jennifer spotted Ella, and a snarl curled her upper lip. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hello, Jennifer,” Ella said in a strained voice.

  “You’re Creed’s friend, not mine.”

  “I’m your friend, too,” Ella said.

  “Is that why you’re hiding a dart gun behind your back?” Jennifer sneered.

  Ella did not bring out her hidden hand, but waited.

  Abruptly, Jennifer sat up, coming out of the sleep-suit. She wore rumpled garments. She surveyed the cell.

  “Yes,” she said in a cold voice. “This is a prison.”

  “No, no,” the large nurse said. “We’re here to help—”

  “No!” Jennifer said, while drawing her long legs out of the sleep-suit. “Don’t you think I know a prison cell when I’m in one? Abaddon taught me many things. One of them was to see truly.”

  “Abaddon perverted you,” Ella blurted.

  The head nurse, the strong one, looked at Ella and shook her head.

  At that moment, Jennifer slid off the table and charged the head nurse. The strong woman tried to grapple with Jennifer. It was like a child trying to restrain an Olympic strongman. Jennifer swatted away the thick arms, grasped the woman by a shoulder and thigh and easily lofted her over her head.

  Ella aimed the dart gun, but she was too slow. Jennifer pivoted and heaved in one motion. A dart hissed from the gun, smacking into the nurse’s back. Then the large woman struck Ella, sending her flying against the wall.

  I’d seen enough. I charged for the cell door. It seemed to take forever. Finally, I unlocked it and stepped into the room.

  Jennifer laughed victoriously. All the others were prone on the floor, either unconscious or groaning painfully. In her hand, Jennifer held the dart gun.

  “Welcome, Creed,” she mocked. “It’s wonderful to see you again.”

  Jennifer fired as she spoke. I charged because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Thus, I took two darts in the chest. I would have taken more, but the gun was slow at chambering a new dart into the firing slot.

  The drugs were fast acting, but so was I. I reached my ex-lover and tore the gun from her grasp. She struck me a heavy blow on the face, causing me to stagger backward.

  “No foul Effectuator advantages now,” she said. “This time—” She swung again. I dodged, and she twirled like a top, connecting with her left foot. I’d barely twisted in time, so I took the powerful shot on my shoulder instead of my face.

  I staggered backward and slammed against the wall. As I slid down, my eyesight dimmed from the darts’ injected drugs. Jennifer charged. I raised the dart gun and faked firing. Jennifer twisted aside. I shot then, sinking a dart in her side.

  “Beast,” she hissed. “You’ll pay for that.”

  I heard another dart chamber, and fired again. The dart hit true, and Jennifer crashed headlong into the wall.

  She groaned and sank down beside me. I looked into her eyes. They glared with murderous hatred.

  “I only have to succeed once,” she whispered in a slurred voice. Then her head slumped as the knockout drugs took effect.

  I fell unconscious soon thereafter.

  -93-

  Jennifer was like some feral she-beast, raging at her captors, slavering to sink her fangs into them.

  Ella told me of the psychoanalysis sessions while Jennifer was strapped down to a chair. It was a joke, with Jennifer almost ripping free of the restraints.

  She devoured her food, paced endlessly in her cell and often stared like Saul used to do before he teleported to a place.

  What if Jennifer figured out how to do the First One trick? Was that why Ifness was waiting around Earth? Did he plan to kill her if she managed to escape? Could he kill her?

  Diana had declined his latest offer. The hitman had left her palace and was now touring the planet. I knew that he was cataloging many things in case he ever took a contract against us. Rather, in case he took another contract against us.

  The more I thought about Ifness, the less I liked that the interstellar hitman had free rein on Earth.

  I thought about Orcus and Holgotha, too. What if they had escaped destruction by not being in the pocket universe at the time? That would mean Emperor Daniel Lex Rex had two potent allies in the continuing war against us. Who was worse: Orcus or Holgotha?

  I couldn’t make up my mind on that one.

  Still, the Terran Confederation of Liberated Planets was in a much better position now. Plutonians—anyone, for that matter—could no longer just appear from the pocket universe and start attacking. The war had turned into a regular strategical conflict against the Lokhars.

  We were the little killers, the most effective soldiers in our galaxy. Did it matter that the Lokhar Empire was bigger and had more friends than we did? Maybe to a small degree. However, especially if I decided to stay a little longer, I put the odds with us.

  After a week of depressing reports regarding Jennifer, I asked to join one of the psych sessions.

  Several hours later, Ella guided me into a bright chamber with a view overlooking Lake Tahoe. The alpine lake was as blue as I remembered it from before The Day. There was even a large paddleboat like Mark Twain used to write about. I watched the boat from a large window.

  It was strange. What would Earth be like if the Lokhars had never nuked and sprayed us with a bio-terminator?

  What if, what if… I shook my head.

  “They’re ready,” Ella said, quietly. She paused. “Creed...”

  “You don’t need to warn me,” I said. “I understand it won’t be good.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up. Jennifer is like a devil. If she spots a weakness, she exploits it ruthlessly. She burns-out some staff in a matter of hours. The chief director is bringing in other mental health workers to continue the process.”

  “I’ve already heard all this.”

  “I just want you to be ready for it.”

  “Okay. I get it.”

  Ella opened the door, and we walked into the next chamber.

  “Creed,” Jennifer immediately sneered. She laughed in a loathsome way.

  Jennifer sat in a throne-like chair, her arms and legs secured by metal bands. She wore ordinary clothes but her eyes seethed with demonic power. It was painful to witness.

  Jennifer laughed again, mocking me.

  Around her sat several doctors and waiting nurses. There were also two large male orderlies with dart guns. They seemed nervous as they watched Jennifer like hawks.

  “Sit down, sit down,” Jennifer said. “Let’s probe the depths of your evil.”

  I walked toward her, my eyes focused on her face. I tried to remember the woman I’d known many years ago. I dredged up that memory and tried to overlay it onto this fury.

  Jennifer snarled.

  I refused to let go of the memory. I moved closer until I could have reached out and touched one of her hands.

  “I hate you,” she whispered. “I will destroy you.”

  “No,” I said, softly. “This time, I’m staying.”

  “Is that your guilt talking?” she sneered.

  “That,” I said, “and my love for you.”

  “Love?” she shrieked. “You don’t know the meaning of the word.”

  I smiled, but it felt false.

  “You left me, Creed. You left me in the hands of the most evil being in any space-time continuum. Do you have any idea what he did to me?”

  I tried to speak, but my throat had closed up.

  Jennifer squealed with evil laughter. “Cat got your tongue?” she said.

  “I’m sorry, Jennifer.”

  “You’re sorry. You’re sorry. How did you think I felt? You deserted me, Creed. You were the great savior and you left me as if it was nothing.”

  “It was the hardest choice of my life.”

  “No. It was to save your precious skin.”

  I shook my head. “I had to save the galaxy.”

  “Oh-ho, the ga
laxy,” she sneered. “How noble you are, Creed. Was it worth it?”

  I stared into her eyes. “It was worth it because we’d be dead or under Abaddon’s rule now if I hadn’t done what I’d done. That would be hideously worse. You would likely have faced the same end, or you could already be dead.”

  “I wanted to die a thousand times.”

  I nodded. “I failed you, then.”

  “You are a failure.”

  “But I’m not going to fail you this time. This time, your healing is my quest.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I was being sarcastic.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  “Leave, Creed. You no longer amuse me.”

  “Jennifer…”

  She stared into my eyes. She stared, and in a moment, she teleported out of her restraints and stood before me.

  I acted instantly. Maybe I’d sensed this was going to happen. She stood there, and she attacked with raking fingernails. But I was too strong and too fast for her, catching her wrists, spinning her around and shouting at the two orderlies.

  Finally, as Jennifer thrashed, one of them fired a dart. It hit, and soon Jennifer’s head slumped. Just before she went unconscious, I heard, “Next time…”

  -94-

  I took a walk along the shores of Lake Tahoe. I remembered life on Earth before The Day. I missed those days. I also missed my old Jennifer.

  Maybe her healing was beyond me. How could I beat the great and gloriously evil Abaddon? I wasn’t smarter than he was. I hadn’t been stronger, better looking—

  He’d defeated me up and down the line. I’d helped kill him, though. Maybe that’s all I was good at. I could kill things.

  I picked up a flat rock and skipped it seven times across the lake’s still waters. Maybe Ifness was wrong. Maybe I was perfect hitman material.

  I frowned as the stone sank. Someday, the momentum of my life would be over. I would die.

  My scowl grew. I had beaten Abaddon in the end. How had I done it?

  I put my hands inside my jacket pockets and quickened my pace. How had I beaten Abaddon? What had been the secret?

  It struck me suddenly. I stopped, staring out over the pristine lake. How had I beaten Abaddon? By cheating. I’d brought in stronger forces.

  I couldn’t defeat Abaddon’s process of twisting Jennifer, not the way I’d been going about this. I had to cheat. What did I have to cheat with that could possibly give me victory?

  I snapped my fingers. I knew what I had to do.

  ***

  “No,” Ella said. “I refuse to do it. That’s tampering with things we don’t understand.”

  “It helped with Dr. Sant,” I said.

  We were eating lunch at an eatery overlooking the lake.

  “Things were different back then,” Ella said. “Besides, Sant was a Lokhar.”

  “Jennifer is turning into a First One. You saw what she did. She teleported like an Abaddon clone. In time…we have to save her before she becomes fully like the clones.”

  “But Creed, what you want me to do, it’s wrong.”

  “Not if it saves her life,” I said.

  Ella looked away. She shook her head, continuing to do so. “Have someone else do it. I want no part in it.”

  “N7?” I asked, quietly.

  “Are you insane? Now, don’t get me wrong. I love N7. But he’s an android. He won’t have the right feel for it.”

  “Ella,” I said, finding the words hard to say. “I’m—I’m begging you to do this. If not for me, do it for Jennifer.”

  Ella looked at me with stricken eyes. “Creed…” she whispered.

  “This is the last time I’ll ever ask you to do this,” I said.

  Ella kept staring at me. Finally, in the quietest voice I’d ever heard, she said, “Yes. I’ll do it.”

  ***

  We brought Jennifer upstairs to my GEV. The sanatorium people were glad to see her go. I’d learned that thirteen people had quit since Jennifer had started the therapy there.

  Jennifer was in the sleep-suit again. She did not look peaceful, she looked tormented.

  My chest hurt. This was hard to do. I fought against Abaddon’s cunning and evil, an Abaddon that fought even from the grave. I had my wits, and I had a Jelk mind machine.

  I’d taken it from Earth and installed it in the stealth ship. I also had Earth’s best practitioner with it: Ella Timoshenko.

  We carried a sleeping Jennifer to the Jelk mind machine and strapped her into it. Afterward, we woke her.

  Ella began the grim task. Jennifer proved to be her most difficult mind-machine subject yet.

  Ella had driven many Lokhars insane using the Jelk mind machine. She had not done it on purpose but because it was a delicate procedure that could easily go awry. Often, she’d failed. As I’ve said before, Dr. Sant, who became Emperor Sant later, had been her greatest success.

  Emperor Sant of Orange Tamika had brought peace between the tigers and humans, for a time, at least.

  Ella worked long hours. She twisted dials, made adjustments and whispered endlessly in Jennifer’s ear.

  I was the Russian scientist’s assistant in this. I found the ordeal horrifying. Jennifer screamed, raved, arched her back, wept, cursed foully and chomped her teeth like a madwoman. I’d never seen anything like it.

  Ella endured. As long as she could do this, I would assist in any way possible.

  The various monitors seemed to contradict each other. Ella’s hair became tangled and she spoke as if she was creating the Frankenstein monster. The scientist did not falter, but strove, adding mental safeguards and breaking down others inside Jennifer’s mind.

  Jennifer glared at us at one point. She spoke in a hideous voice as if Abaddon had reappeared inside her.

  “You will die, Creed,” Jennifer said in an impossibly deep voice.

  I could not speak.

  Ella worked with haste, manipulating the board. “We’re going to damn her forever, Creed, or—I don’t know what will happen.”

  What happened in the end was the most soul-terrifying scream I had ever heard in my life. Jennifer went on like that for far too long.

  Ella’s shoulders slumped. “I’ve failed,” she said wearily as Jennifer drew a long, shuddering breath, beginning another wretched howl of despair.

  Finally, at the end, Jennifer screamed yet again, stopping suddenly and slumping over as if she was dead.

  I raced to her.

  “No,” Ella said. “Beware. It’s a trick.”

  I didn’t believe that. I reached for Jennifer, but something inside me warned me off. Instead of taking her chin, I grabbed a handful of her long hair and raised her head.

  For a dreadful instant, I feared that I would see her staring eyes glaring for my death, and an evil smile of purified hatred. No. Instead, Jennifer slept. And it seemed, for the first time, that a glimmer of sweaty peacefulness had descended upon her.

  I prayed to God that it was true.

  All we could do after that was wait.

  -95-

  I slept, exhausted. Upon waking, I remembered the horrible night. With leaden feet, I rose, went to the galley and made a pot of strong coffee.

  I sat at a table for over an hour. At the end of the time, Ella dragged herself in. She looked terrible, poor woman, with circles under her eyes and slack skin.

  She drank coffee and nibbled on toast. “I’m afraid,” Ella told me. “I don’t know what we’re going to find.”

  “Let me go first,” I said.

  “But Creed…”

  “I’m all out of ideas,” I said. “Let me deal with her.”

  Ella studied me, and she paled. “Are you going to kill her if she’s not better?”

  “What?” I asked. “Never! I’m going to put her in stasis if everything is the same. Then, I’m going to take her back to the Curator. It will be up to him, then.”

  “Oh,” Ella said. “Oh. This could be it. You migh
t be leaving soon, maybe forever.”

  I nodded glumly.

  After that, we sat silently for a time. Finally, I stood. Ella wished me luck. I nodded, and left for what could be a horrible interview.

  ***

  Jennifer lay sleeping on a cot with straps holding her down. Before bringing her here last night, Ella had put a bright nightgown on her.

  I quietly removed the straps. Then, I picked up a stool I’d brought into the cell and set it beside her bed. I sat down, picked up one of her limp hands and gently stroked it.

  “I’m sorry, Jennifer. I never should have taken you on that mission to the Karg universe. I made a mistake. I never should have risked you. You have no idea how seeing you hanging from your wrists…”

  I stopped speaking because I no longer could.

  I had told Jennifer the same thing a hundred times before, maybe even three hundred times. How I’d longed to see her open her eyes and tell me that she forgave me. I wanted to make the world bright and soft for her again. I wanted to hear the woman I loved laugh and then feel her hug me. I wanted to heal the evils done to her.

  “Oh, Jennifer,” I said. “I’ve missed you. You have no idea what it’s like—”

  I stopped because I saw her eyelids twitch. I almost snatched my hand away, but I did not. I wanted to hold onto her hand and hope for as long as I could. I didn’t think I would have any hope left if this didn’t work. And what a longshot it was. Jennifer wasn’t a Lokhar. She was a—

  Her eyes snapped open. She looked up at me. “Creed?” she asked, speaking my name as she used to long ago.

  “Yes,” I said, in a voice I hardly recognized.

  She stared into my eyes. “I’ve had a terrible nightmare, darling.”

  The words hit. They actually hurt. I did not deserve sweet words from her. I deserved curses.

  My mouth was dry as I whispered, “The nightmares are true, my love.”

  Fear entered her eyes. Then her eyes widened with astonishment as if she remembered something hideous. She jerked her hand out of mine. She sat up and brought up her knees, hugging them. All the while, she kept staring at me.

  “You left me,” she said in a small voice.