And get rid of this bloody stiffie! he thought with embarrassment, using the most moronic over-the-top English accent he knew to emphasize the humor and deaden the passion.
The scurrying of feet and a dim glow emanating from behind them caused Malcolm to stop humming. Tal grabbed Cea's arm. She, in turn, nudged Malcolm then pulled him along.
With as little sound as possible, Tal moved around the passage to the right, hoping he made the right choice.
He still had the stiffie.
Chapter Thirty One
“I tole ya. They busted into that evil bitch's pain room, and I been in there too many times to go again and...” Ferret's whining voice echoed off the passageway walls.
“Okay, okay. Now shut up and lead me to them,” Penny said, shoving the little man in the back while holding a tiny flashlight between them. “We need to hurry. Crowe's got this whole place looking for us, and we don't have much time.”
“Are ya shure ya don't want just a little diddle before we find ’em? I'm willin’ enough,” Ferret cackled, trying to grope Penny's breasts behind his back as he scurried along.
She shoved him again. “Believe me, ratface, I'd love to give you the same business I gave Crowe's crew, but we don't have time right now. Now, get going. Faster!” she barked.
“Okay, okay, I'm movin’ as fast as I can, but I'll take ya up on the offer later. I ain't had no pussy in a long time. No siree, I ain't.” He snickered again. He slowed at a connecting passage, hesitated then moved down the left passage.
Penny scrambled after him, shielding the light to keep it from giving them away to any others who may be searching the passages.
Soon, they found the gaping hole of Raven's lair.
Ferret froze and refused to go any closer to the opening. He shook his head and dug his heels in when Penny tried to push him closer. She held onto his arm and sidled past him, leaning close to the hole in order to peer inside. The room was empty and a shambles.
“They're gone,” she whispered, dragging the man past the hole like a dog that needed obedience training. “Where to now? Which way would they go?”
“The main entrance is a piece up yonder. I reckon they'd go that way.” He pointed ahead. “If they make the right turns, that is,” he added in a muffled voice.
“Wait a minute here. You brought them here first and you just brought me here. What happened in between? Didn't you show them the way?” Penny's eyes narrowed into suspicious slits as she stared down at the little man.
Ferret bowed over and he raised both arms to protect his head. “I ran. I admit it. I ran away and left them. I heard Crowe's men comin’ and I ran and hid in the storage room where you found me.” He flinched as if her hand was going to connect with his head any minute.
Penny reached out and shook his arm. “Oh, forget about it you fool! We have to find them!” She peered around at the maze of connecting tunnels. “You mean they may be lost in here?”
“Hey lady! This whole damned place is a rat's nest of tunnels. They could be anywhere, for all I know! So don't be blamin’ me for it if they're lost!” he huffed in feigned outrage, now that he was sure she wouldn't hit him.
She gripped his arm even harder until his attitude evaporated. He whimpered. “You little shit; you left them so you are to blame. Now show me the way out. If you're lucky, they got out. If you're not...” she paused, letting the threat sink in.
“Whatcha going to do to me, huh? Kill me? Hell, Crowe'll do that if he finds me, and he won't be none too fast or gentle about it, neither. And he will find me, ‘cause I can't git off this hell hole without you people. So, leave me be. I want to find them, too!” He glared up at her with as close to dignified outrage as he could muster.
She pulled him ahead of her and shoved him down the passage. “Okay, message received. Now, go! We're running out of time.”
Ferret moved away at something that resembled a shambling, zombie trot with Penny close behind. Their labored breathing bounced off the rough cut stone walls as they swiftly moved down one passage after another. Ferret made the turns like a bloodhound on the scent.
At last they approached a passage that reeked of an odor that threw Penny's stomach into a roiling mass of squeamish oatmeal. She threw a hand over her nose. “What the hell is that horrible smell?” she asked, bumping into Ferret's back.
His head reared back, nose in the air as if taking in the fragrant aroma of flowers and fresh mown grass. “It's that rotting ugly monster of Crowe's, the one English killed. We're by the great hall. Not far now,” he replied before turning to the left at the next passage and quickening his pace. “The way out is after the next turn,” he whispered as he moved along.
After several long minutes of bent-over, back-breaking, fast-paced shambling, Penny finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel. A misty beam that started out as pinprick and soon became larger and bigger until she had to raise a hand to shield her eyes from the glare. Partially blocked by fake foliage, the tunnel opened onto the side of the hill where they'd initially climbed to reconnoiter the base entrance.
Ferret stopped and peered through the plastic ferns and down into the valley where they'd hidden the ship. He held up a hand, alerting Penny to a problem.
“There's a guard,” he whispered over his shoulder. “Looks like there's only one, though, and I know him. Stupid bugger. Probably wishin’ he was strokin’ one o’ those servin’ women of Crowe's instead of a curve that's harder than he'll ever get.” He cackled under his breath.
Penny sidled closer and craned her neck in order to see past him. She spotted a gangly young man sitting on the boarding ramp, smoking a black cheroot and rubbing the smooth hull with a restless finger. The man looked bored. His small, close set eyes were drooping with a total lack of interest, focused on nothing in particular as he slowly drew on the stogie and let his restless finger have its way with the smooth metal.
“You know, Ferret, sometimes you actually act like you have a brain,” she murmured. “You think you can fool him into thinking you're here to take over for him?”
Ferret shot her an irritated glance then slid out of the opening like an undersized baby out of its mother's vagina. He scampered up the hill a bit, scrambled behind an outcropping of rocks. then popped up like a jack-in-the-box. “Hey! Bayborn! Ya getting’ tired of starin’ at the phony grass and humpin’ the rocks yet?” he screeched as he skittered down the hill toward the ship.
The young man barely lifted his gaze to take in Ferret's advance into the gulley. “What the hell you doin’ here, Ferret? Thought you was gone back to that nasty machine place again for Crowe.” His voice, high, raspy and unpleasantly guttural, was as lazy as his body.
Ferret reached the ship and sat down on the ramp slightly up from Bayborn. “Well, ya can see I'm back, mate. They sent me to spell ya.” He slapped the man on the back. “Bad news for you, though. Dirk wants ya to go yonder, down the ravine, and search for the prisoners on foot. Says the fighter ships can't see that far down into it. He needs men to do it, and you're it.” He cackled when the man spit and swore.
“I'm not goin’ anywhere that bag of shit says I should go. I answer only to Crowe,” Bayborn spat. He turned to glare at Ferret. “Besides, who the fuck are you to tell me anything, either?”
Ferret sighed, smiled then slapped the man on the back. “Well, I delivered the message. It's on yer head what happens now, mate.”
Almost instantly, Bayborn's body convulsed. His face registered shock, pain then anger just before he crumpled and collapsed onto the boarding ramp.
Ferret leapt up and kicked the man's body over the side, jumped down, and began covering it with brush, dirt, and rocks. With the quick movements of a dog burying a special bone, Ferret's hands soon had the man covered.
Penny loped to the ship and stood watching him. “What did you do to him?” she asked with wonder.
He raised his hand and showed her a ring that looked like twisted barbed wire perched on his finger. “Poison,”
he answered. He grinned up at her while piling dirt, leaves and sticks on the body. “Sometimes it comes in handy-like.”
“Not bad, Ferret. Not bad at all,” she said, smiling down at the little man. “Okay, here's what we'll do. I'm gonna get the ship ready while you go find the others and get them back here. Can you do that?” she asked, noticing his small eyes trying to peer down the front of her coveralls as she stooped over to help him throw dirt over the guard.
Ferret stopped scooping and froze in place, a look of horror on his face. “No way, lady! I ain't goin’ back into that place. Anyone of those guys spot me and I'm dead meat. I'm stayin’ right here and lockin’ myself inside this ship until we leave,” he sputtered, crossing both arms across his skinny chest and pulling his round head up in an exaggerated gesture of defiance.
Penny stood and glared down at him. “Very well you weasel of a coward. I'll go. How do I find Crowe's lab?”
“Easy. Just go back in the way we came out and keep goin’ straight instead of turning right at the first junction. Piece of cake,” Ferret replied with a smirk on his face.
Penny reached down, grabbed the little man by the neck and lifted him off his feet. She growled into his startled face, “I'm warning you now. If you try to double-cross us, I'll make you sorry. Very sorry. You close this hatch and be ready to lower it when you see us coming. No tricks. You understand me?”
Ferret's eyes almost popped out of his head. “Yeah, sure. No problem. I'll be ready. No tricks. I can't fly the ship, so why would I even try, heh?” He tried to laugh, but it came out a startled gurgle. He reached up and patted her arm. “I'm your friend, ain't I? I proved it, didn't I?”
She dropped him to the ground and moved toward the hill. “Just remember what I said,” she muttered as she made her way back toward the tunnel.
He admired her ass as she walked away, but he did muffle the cackles.
Chapter Thirty Two
In the tunnel, Tal, Malcolm and Cea stood next to a ventilation grate embedded into a stone wall. The grate sat opposite Crowe's lab, giving the trio a direct line of sight into the room. The dim light from the lab showed Crowe fondling the alien artifact with a thoughtful look on his face after Scorpion and Dirk had taken their leave.
“Well? Any bright ideas?” Cea whispered. “They've got my ship and that alien thing. How are we going to blast Crowe's machine, get our transporter from him, and get my ship back while still keeping our skins in one piece?”
“Oh, I might have an idea or two,” a husky whisper answered from behind them.
The trio spun around, ready to fight until it sunk in that Penny stood behind them. A barely suppressed smile on her face.
“Penny! Where did you go? How did you find us?” Cea whispered, forgetting herself and grabbing the woman in a sisterly hug.
Tal grinned. Malcolm ran a scan of Penny's new clothing and general state of disarray. “Nice to see you, Agent,” Tal quipped, while Malcolm said, “You've been to some interesting places, I see.”
Penny held up both hands and smiled. “Long story. Suffice it to say, I've been through a bunch, got away, found you and now we gotta get out of this place. Crowe's men are crawling all over, looking for us. And they don't mean to invite us to dinner, either.”
“We know, but we can't leave until we destroy that thing. It's the reason we came here, remember?” Tal replied, nodding toward the grate.
Penny stepped past Cea and Malcolm and leaned close to the grate, peering hard across the hall and into Crowe's lab. “So, that's what the damned thing looks like, huh? What the hell is it?”
At that moment, the dome inside Crowe's lab split in two and the two halves disappeared inside the floor, revealing the oversized portal. The machine began to hum. The vibration went through the floor, traveled across the hall and into the tunnel where the four observers felt it travel up their bodies.
“Damn! It's just like our little one!” Penny gasped. “Do you realize what he can do with such a thing if he figures out how to use it?” She turned to glance at Tal.
“Yep, I sure do. He could move this damned fake moon of his like a ship and invade any system he wants, hit hard and be gone before anyone could even mount a defense. There's no way we'd be able to stop him,” Tal replied with a grim tone as he watched the giant portal begin to mist over and form.
“We've got to figure some way to destroy that machine,” Cea whispered, peering over Penny's shoulder, enthralled by the swirling colors inside the portal's center.
“Don't worry about that part,” Penny replied. “Let's just figure some way to get in there before Crowe has a chance to call the guards down on us. We need time to get away.”
“You have a plan?” Malcolm asked, peering at Penny with interest.
She nodded, still staring at the portal as the center began to clear and an image began to form. “No time to explain.”
Suddenly Crowe dropped their small transporter and grabbed both sides of his head as if he wanted to crush his skull. Then, his scream reached their hiding place.
“Holy shit! What the hell is wrong with him?” Cea blurted, watching Crowe cringe as he clutched his head and stared with utter terror at the emerging image inside the large portal.
“No time to worry about Crowe. This is our chance,” Malcolm remarked as he placed his hands against the mesh of the grate and used all his robotic strength to push the grate out. Metal ground against stone until it finally gave and crashed to the floor inside the hall.
“Hurry, before whatever it is that's locked onto him lets him go!” Tal barked as he slipped out the opening behind Malcolm, passed him and rushed for the lab door. Malcolm followed with Penny and Cea close behind.
When they went through the door, they found Crowe crouched on the floor in front of the portal, his hands still clutching his head and his screams echoing around the room. The central part of the portal still swirled with colors, but the giant three-dimensional image of a golden monster hung out of it like some ghastly horror movie come alive. The creature's elongated arms reached for the small, still-melded portal at Crowe's feet. Its eyes glimmered with red flashes as it struggled to reach the object.
“Tal! Malcolm! Our transporter! Don't let that thing get it!” Cea screamed just before the impact of the creature's mind-ripping energy hit her. She fought to keep it out of her mind as she struggled toward the small object at Crowe's feet. Her feet felt as if they were melded to the floor and her body, as if it was made of plastic left too long in the sun. She wanted to add her screams to Crowe's, but her mouth wouldn't open.
Malcolm took it all in, analyzing the situation. The first order to his positronic brain was to shield itself. The second was to figure out how to protect the humans and Penny while disabling or destroying the portal before its power seeped into his defense circuits and destroyed him. He decided he could only do all three by stopping the machine. He moved.
Tal had made it closer to Crowe, but he too had stopped as if rooted to the spot, unable to move any further. His face contorted in agony as the creature used whatever energy he had to stop them. Yet, Tal's hands, twisted into claws, still managed to move inch-by-inch toward the transporter on the floor, fighting the beast's energy.
Penny lay on the floor, struggling to extract a box from her pocket, her hand frozen around it in a death grip. Her human form began to slide away and her normal body began to form around her. She, too, looked as if she fought the alien presence in her mind.
Crowe's body began to twitch and blood flowed from his nose, eyes and ears. He lay unconscious in a fetal position.
Malcolm pushed Crowe's body away from the console until it ended up against a side wall then he began to scan the controls and gauges, analyzing and computing what needed to be done to stop the machine.
“The thing is locked,” Malcolm shouted after he hit the shutdown button on the control console and nothing happened. “I'll try to find the main power switch.” He searched the console for anything that would l
ead him to the place where he could shut the power off, but found nothing. “This thing is sealed.”
The creature's long arm crept past Malcolm, reaching for the transporter on the floor. Malcolm quickly shot his hand out, grabbed the device and slid it over toward Penny, who was closest to the door. His eyes widened when his gaze finally focused on her.
Her body had elongated, shaping itself into something that took Malcolm a moment to absorb. Her neck was longer and much slimmer, giving her head a more rounded look. Her long mane of red hair now covered most of her face, leaving only two large turquoise eyes and an oversized mouth with full lips. The mane ran down her neck and disappeared under the coverall. The seams of the fabric was stretched to near bursting around her chest, the buttons barely containing the mass underneath, making the fabric around her waist and hips seem empty by comparison. Her arms reached well past the cuffs of the coverall, ending in hands with too many fingers with large pads at the ends and each of them with too many joints. Her legs were also longer than the pant legs, ending in feet that matched her hands. Her skin was a beautiful shade of lilac tinged with pale green and blue. Her large eyes blinked with lids that closed from the side instead of from the top.
When she caught Malcolm's look of rapt wonder, her wide mouth smiled at him. She used her free hand to point a finger at the bulge in her pocket. She tried to mouth words at him.
Malcolm nodded and moved quickly to her side then dropped to his good knee. He dipped his hand into her pocket and pulled her hand out, still clutching the small metal box. He pried her fingers away and opened the box. He smiled at her and nodded.
She smiled back.
He tucked the box into his shirt, put the transporter in her pocket, lifted her gently then moved her out the door into the hall. He then carried her back to the tunnel, laying her gently down on the rock floor. “I'll be right back,” he whispered.
Malcolm rushed back to the lab, grabbed Cea and moved her to the tunnel, placing her next to Penny. Then, he returned for Tal, who was now unconscious. After placing Tal in the tunnel, Malcolm returned to the lab. He noticed Crowe's body was missing, but quickly blocked the puzzle from his mind. He stepped up to the console, eyed the creature and pulled the box from his shirt. “I don't know what game you're playing with Crowe, but you won't win now,” he shouted over the increased hum of the machine.
Portal Page 16
