For a long moment there was no response. “Give it up, Eric,” he said softly. “It’s pointless to die for nothing.”
“Major, we didn’t come here as a suicide squad, but you may not leave us much of an option. Suppose we do surrender. Then what?”
“You’ll be arrested, of course. But there’ll be no need for punishment. You’ll simply be implanted once more, and then you’ll not be any threat to us.”
“Come on, Major,” Eric said in disgust. “You said I wasn’t a fool. We both know you’d never dare let me go around with nothing more than just implantation.”
The Major sighed. “True, except for the fact that in your case—and I’ll be honest with you—in your case it would be a Stage Three implantation. It would be sufficient. It’s not very pleasant to contemplate, but certainly better than death.”
“Only in your mind, Major. I think we prefer the swiftness of high-powered explosives to any tender mercies you can promise. And at least that way, we would know that you hadn’t won either.”
“You’re bluffing again, Eric.” The Major spoke with arrogant confidence, but for the first time Travis saw his eyes cloud with worry.
“Am I? Two hundred thousand people out there are anxious to get their hands on you, Major. If I free them, it won’t matter whether we live or die. Your empire is finished.”
Travis grabbed the microphone. “If you care so much for those two hundred thousand people, you’d better not blow the central computers. It will automatically trigger Maximum Punishment Modes for everyone. And then, so much for freedom.”
“Sorry, Travis.” It was Rod Loopes’ voice. “You forget I’m here.”
Travis was unperturbed. “We’ve reprogrammed since you left, Rod, just in case something like this happened.”
For a long moment there was silence; then in a whisper they heard Eric’s voice. “Rod? Could that be true?”
The Major gave Travis a quick look of triumph, but it was instantly erased.
“No way!” Loopes said. “They couldn’t risk that. Suppose they had a power failure and the back-up generators didn’t work.”
“Nice try, Travis,” Eric called. “Major, we’ll blow the computers unless we get a better alternative than what you’re offering us now.”
The Major stared at the microphone. “All right, Eric, we seem to have a standoff. What do you want?”
“Freedom for all of us,” Eric said without hesitation. “Let us go, and we’ll not blow your little game here. We’ll leave the Alliance, and you’ll be free of us.”
“Now who is shamming who? But I think there’s one other thing for which we might bargain.”
“What?”
Very quietly the Major said one word. “Nicole.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eric demanded, as Nicole gripped his arm.
“Travis,” the Major’s voice said over the speaker, “why don’t you explain our little plan?” The flush of victory was so clearly evident in his voice that Eric felt his stomach drop. This was not just another bluff—the Major was pulling out his trump card. “Did Nicole happen to mention her little accident in the Monitoring Room the other day?”
Nicole’s fingernails dug into Eric’s arm as she visibly jumped, her face drained of color.
“It wasn’t an accident, Eric,” the Major broke in. “We put a little device in her back, which, like your explosives, is electronically controlled. We regret that you doubt our word and force us to provide a demonstration.” There was a pause, and then with sadness he added, “I’m truly sorry, Nicole.”
Before Eric could react, Nicole gasped, then screamed in agony as her back arched violently. She staggered against him, clutching wildly for his arm. He grabbed for her and held her as her body jerked in violent spasms, each wrenching shudder driving screams of agony out of her throat.
As suddenly as it started it left her, and she collapsed, nearly dragging Eric down with her, gasping in huge, desperate, hungry gulps of air. His face a twisted mass of shock and horror, Eric laid her down gently on the carpet. Chet and Dick leaped to help him. As Chet reached for her wrist to check her pulse, her eyes fluttered open.
“It causes us great sorrow to resort to that,” the Major said softly, “but you leave us no choice. We’d like to start some serious negotiations now.”
Eric leaped to his feet, his eyes wild. “You animal! What kind of monster are you?”
“My little kingdom, as you so condescendingly call it, happens to be very important to me,” the Major said triumphantly. “I will save it.”
“Though we could, we will not kill her,” Travis broke in evenly. “But we can produce that kind of pain at will and prolong it indefinitely.” Eric stared up at the speaker, his eyes wild. “Give it up, Eric. You’ve got one minute to surrender, or we turn it on again.”
“Eric.” Nicole’s voice was a hoarse whisper. He dropped to his knee and gently cradled her head against him. “You can’t surrender.”
“Shhhh,” he soothed, pulling her close against him.
“You can’t give up!” she cried, trying to raise up.
Eric looked up and stared into the faces of the men.
“There’s no choice,” Chet said, his voice barely above a whisper. Dick nodded in agreement. Eric turned to Clayne. He started to shake his head; then he looked at Nicole and turned away quickly.
“Thirty seconds,” Travis called.
“I’ve got to have more time,” Eric shouted, not looking up.
“Twenty-five seconds.”
“No, Eric,” Nicole whispered. “Don’t do it. Please! Not for me.”
“I can’t speak for my men,” he shouted, staring at her. “We need time to discuss it. Give us five minutes.”
Then the triumphant voice of the Major boomed over the speaker. “Talk. But you have exactly one more minute. Then we want your decision.”
“We need at least three minutes.”
“One minute!” the Major thundered.
Eric stood up and walked over toward the speaker in the ceiling. When he spoke, his voice was soft and menacing. “Major, I said we need three minutes. If anyone so much as pokes his nose in here before three minutes are up, or if Nicole twitches with even a flicker of pain, we’ll blow this whole place apart and us with it. You’ll hear from us in three minutes.”
Chapter 36
Eric jumped to one of the monitoring stations and grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil. The others gathered closer as he scribbled furiously. He turned and held it up. THEY CAN HEAR EVERYTHING WE SAY! ROD, MAKE NOISE. THE REST COME WITH ME. Then he spoke, “We can’t take a chance that they will move in on us while we debate. Block the doors with the furniture—anything you can move over there.” He picked up one of the vinyl chairs near the corner and hurled it toward the door.
As they stared at him for a moment, he turned to Rod and mouthed the words while he pointed, “Make noise! But don’t block the side door.”
Then he motioned to the others, and they went quickly into the room with the CPUs, leaving Nicole lying on the floor, watching them anxiously. As Eric shut the door, Loopes carefully set the blue box in a far corner, then grabbed a table and pushed it across the floor, banging it into the consoles along the wall.
“Is there a speaker in here?” Eric whispered.
Clayne peered up at the ceiling. “No.”
“All right,” Eric said grimly. “For now, let’s reject surrender as an option. Any ideas?”
Andreason spoke up first. “Nicole is the problem. If she was free, we could try and fight our way clear. But—”
“I could remove the implantation,” Chet said, “if I had something sharp and some time to work on her.”
“What if it won’t come out? What if you trigger it automatically or something?”
“I doubt it,” Chet replied. “They’re controlling it from out there, which means it must be an independent device. I’ll have to check once I see it, but my guess is it’s a simple receivi
ng device with electrodes implanted into her spinal column.”
“I’ve got a pocketknife in my tool kit,” Andreason said. “It’s probably not very sharp though.”
“It’ll do,” Abernathy said.
“She’ll have to be kept absolutely quiet.” Clayne sounded dubious. “If the Major hears her cry out, that will be it.”
“And I’ve got to have time,” Chet said. “I can’t just start hacking away like a wild man. Three minutes isn’t enough.” He shook his head. “Two now.”
“I’ll get you the time.” Eric’s voice was hopeful again. “How much do you need?”
“Four minutes minimum.”
“You know what you’re asking of Nicole?” Andreason asked.
Eric’s eyes flashed. “Is the alternative any better?” He turned. “Clayne, can you keep her quiet?”
“Yes, but how are you going to get us more time? The Major and Travis are through with any stalling.”
“I’m going out in the hallway to negotiate with them.”
“They’ll cut you down.”
“Not if I have the detonator button in my hand.”
Before Clayne could answer, Eric spun back around to Andreason. “Dick, can you fix that control box so that it’ll detonate when you release the button rather than when you push it?”
Andreason looked puzzled for a moment. “Yes, I guess I could. It should be fairly simple.”
“Good, do it! Get me the back-up box and the extra roll of wire. I’ll take that out into the hallway. You can fix the main one while Chet operates on Nicole.”
“What are you going to do?” Clayne demanded.
“I’ve got an idea, a way to get the time we need, and maybe a way to get us out too.”
“What?”
Eric shook his head. “Don’t push me for details. I’m still working it out. But remember, if we can get out of here, we’ll have an army of people waiting to help us.”
“Who won’t be able to do a thing for us unless we blow these computers,” Andreason interrupted.
“I’m working on that too. But time is critical. Let’s get moving.” He jerked the walkie-talkie off his belt. “Stan, can you hear me?”
The building was interfering with the reception, and the answer was faint and full of static. “I’ve got you, Eric. Can you speak up? What’s going on in there? We saw Guardians going inside after you.”
“They’ve got us trapped,” Eric said, jamming the mouthpiece against his lips so he didn’t have to speak too loudly. “But we’re going to try to break free. Stay down, but the minute we come busting out of that door, open fire on any Guardian you see out there.”
“Roger. We’re ready and waiting for you.”
He looked back to the others. “Let’s go.”
They reentered the Monitoring Room just as Rod Loopes crashed a secretarial chair solidly against the door. “All right,” Eric said clearly, “that should do it. It’s time to make a decision. Let’s hear how you all vote.” He motioned vigorously with his hands for them to start speaking, even as he pointed to Chet to get ready.
Clayne spoke first. “I say no. Let’s see it through. The Major will kill us, or at least turn us into vegetables like Cliff Cameron.”
Andreason chimed in even as he got the pocketknife out of his small tool box and handed it to Chet. Eric tuned out the conversation, grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil from one of the monitoring stations, and wrote for almost thirty seconds. He dropped to his knee beside Nicole and gently raised her head so she could read it.
WE ARE STALLING. CHET WILL TAKE OUT THE IMPLANT. CLAYNE WILL COVER YOUR MOUTH. YOU CAN’T MAKE ANY SOUND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
Her eyes widened as she read and then looked up at him, seeing the anguish in his eyes. Finally she nodded.
He wrote again, I WON’T GIVE YOU UP, held it for her to see, then kissed her quickly. “Turn over,” he whispered into her ear.
With an effort Nicole rolled over onto her stomach. Chet knelt down and raised the back of her blouse, exposing the red scar just above the small of her back. Eric stood up and motioned to Clayne.
“Don’t be stupid, Clayne,” Chet said loudly, as he opened the blade of the pocketknife, wiped it on his pants, then ran the blade along his finger and shook his head. “We’ve lost. We have to face that.”
“We’ve got to surrender,” Rod Loopes was saying hotly, understanding what they were up to. “Otherwise what will they do to Nicole?”
“They’ll do it anyway!” Clayne shouted as he knelt down next to Nicole. His fingers gently touched Nicole’s cheek; then he clamped his hand over her mouth.
As Andreason finished connecting the roll of wire to the second control box and handed it to Eric, the loudspeaker over their heads blared.
“Eric, your three minutes are up. What’s your decision?”
Eric looked around at the four men. “Do you trust me to make our decision for us?”
“Yes.” It was spoken as one.
He pulled Andreason next to his mouth and whispered, “Dick, take the end of the wire into the computer room. Connect it to anything; then come out and shut the door. It’s got to look authentic. Then get the real button switched over as soon as possible.”
As Andreason jumped to obey, Eric looked up at the ceiling. “Major?”
“Yes, I’m still here, Eric. What is your decision?”
“The detonator button for the explosives goes off if it’s released. I’m holding it down at the moment. I’m coming out into the hallway.”
“No, Eric!” the Major said loudly. “Your time is up.”
“If I let go of the button,” Eric continued calmly, “it’ll close the circuits, and the whole place will go. If any of your men get jumpy and shoot me, it’s all over.”
“What is your decision, Eric?” the Major snapped. “No more talk!”
“I’m ready to negotiate,” Eric answered, turning his head away as he saw Nicole’s arms and legs stiffen and then start to tremble violently. “But I’m coming out to do it. Tell your men to hold their fire. If my thumb is knocked off this button, all negotiations will be over. There’s no way to reverse that then.”
Almost instantly, loudspeakers all over the building screamed out, “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!”
“Rod, clear me a way through to the door,” Eric called, concentrating on uncoiling the wire carefully so as not to look in Nicole’s direction.
“There’s nothing to talk about!” Travis screamed. “Surrender or we’ll terminate Nicole. We’re not playing anymore, Eric.”
“You’re a real sweetheart, Travis. Major, I’m coming out.” He stepped out of the door and into the hallway, tensing for the unseen blow. But the hallway was empty, and then a moment later, Travis and the Major stepped into view about thirty feet away.
Eric held up the box and uncoiled another foot or two of wire. “It’s rather a bitter irony, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?” the Major said, searching Eric’s face for any sign of surrender.
“You have a destructive device planted at the spine of something I treasure very much—” he paused long enough to note Travis’s look of fury—”and I have a destructive device planted at the heart of something you treasure very much.”
The Major’s nod was barely perceptible.
“I have a suggestion. Why don’t we trade boxes?”
The Major gave a short, humorless laugh. “I must admit, Eric, you don’t give up easily.”
Travis held up a black panel with a dial on the face of it for Eric to see. “Tell your men to throw down their weapons and come out now, Eric.” His hand went up to the dial. “Now, or Nicole begins screaming again.”
Eric’s eyes remained riveted to the Major’s face. “You see, Major, I am willing to trade victory for Nicole, but you haven’t offered me that yet.”
“That’s exactly what I am offering you.”
“No. If we surrender, she will either be executed or at least put through a r
epeat of Cliff Cameron’s ordeal. I’d just as soon see her dead.”
The Major’s eyes narrowed, and Eric knew he believed him.
“Suppose I promise you I won’t do either.”
“Sorry, Major. Trust is not the going commodity today.”
“Suppose I promise nothing more than implantation. You know I’m a man of my word, just as you are.”
“Death is preferable to implantation,” Eric roared, suddenly angry.
“He’s bluffing!” Travis’s fingers flicked up and rested on the dial. “Tell them to come out, Eric. Now!”
Eric’s own hand came up slowly so the box and his thumb on the button were clearly evident, but again he refused to even glance at Travis. “Major, if I hear so much as a whimper from Nicole, that is it. Do you understand?”
The Major’s hand darted out and grabbed Travis’s arm. “Give the controls to me, Travis.”
Travis turned around in shock. “He won’t do it! Not with Nicole in there!”
“Give me the controls, Travis!” The two men stared at each other, eyes locked in anger, and then Travis finally lifted his fingers. The Major took the transmitter and turned away. He relaxed visibly, then turned to face Eric. “What is your proposal?”
“It’s simple. I have about two hundred to two hundred fifty feet of wire tied to this box.”
“Yes, go on.”
“Clear the side hallway of all your men. We’ll leave the Monitoring Room, unreeling the wire as we go. You and Travis can come around the corner into that side hallway and watch as I do it. One wrong move, one trigger-happy Guardian, and I let go of the button. But once I can see that my people are clear, I’ll walk back down the hall to you. I hand you my box, and you hand me the transmitting controls. You save your computers, I save Nicole.”
Both Travis and the Major considered for a moment. Finally the Major nodded. “Travis and I will confer on this for a moment to see if it’s acceptable.”
Eric shrugged. “Take whatever time you need. I’ll be inside.” Without a second glance, he went back in the room.
The Major turned and looked at Travis. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. It sounds too pat.” His mind raced over the possibilities. “On the other hand, we’ve got a couple of surprises for him.”
Gerald N. Lund 4-In-1 Fiction eBook Bundle Page 56
