Boone looked at the scar on the table the laser had made, somewhat in disbelief that he wasn’t currently being cut in two. When Heckubus reappeared, the remote switch in his hand was now set to the ‘off’ position.
“Well, Mr. Boone,” the robot said, “this is your lucky day. It would appear my plans have changed.”
“They have?” asked Boone, still somewhat in shock, his heart thumping so hard it felt like it was about to burst through his chest.
“Yes, it would seem I have to abandon my plans for universal domination in lieu of one for sweet, ultimate revenge,” the robot said. “It’s a shame, really. I was so looking forward to seeing you cut in half.”
“So… you’re not going to kill me?” Boone ventured, carefully.
“Not at this time. According to some people,” the robot said, looking off into the shadows, sounding as though he himself didn’t believe what he was saying, “you apparently have an important role to play in things to come.”
“I… what?” asked Boone, beyond confused.
“Yes, I don’t fully understand it either just yet,” Heckubus said. “I mean, after all, you are… well… a moron. But then again, so are most people, I suppose. Regardless, things have changed and I fear there are other morons that require my immediate assistance. I’d like to say it was nice meeting you, but… you really did nothing but waste my time. So good riddance!”
“Wait!” Boone cried out as Heckubus turned and began walking away. “You’re just going to leave me here?”
“Well, I can’t kill you,” Heckubus replied snidely, “and I can’t have you interfering in what I have to do. So yes, I’m going to simply leave you here.”
“No one’s going to find me in this enormous generator room!” Boone argued. “If you leave me strapped to this blasted table, you might as well be killing me!”
Heckubus tapped his chin with his finger thoughtfully. “Hmmm. I neglected to look at it in that way. This fate is both agonizing AND exceptionally slow! It’s perfect! Win-win yet again!”
“But you said you couldn’t kill me!”
“Look at it this way,” Heckubus replied. “You now have plenty of time to figure out a way to escape my exceptionally slow and agonizing death trap. A luxury few ever receive. Use your secret agent training – or whatever nonsense they teach you at Imperial Intelligence School – and figure out how to live so you can die another day. Sound good?”
“No.”
“Excellent,” replied Heckubus as he turned and walked away. “Best of luck!”
When the robot was gone, Boone looked around the empty generator room. He was all alone, strapped to a table, in a supertower sub-level no one ever visited, with no means of escape, and a robotic evil genius just spared his life for some mysterious reason, so he could leave to do something which, presumably, was even more important than his initial evil plan to take over the universe.
“What in the world is going on?” Boone wondered aloud, to no one in particular.
Chapter 51
Scallywag and Banjax stepped into the stink of Boozskeller Winchester, which somehow had gotten even trashier since Scallywag’s last visit. Xao was up on stage singing a horrible karaoke rendition of “Can’t Buy This For A Digicredit,” the sound of his shrill voice carrying throughout the boozskeller like a shrieking animal and setting Scallywag’s teeth on edge.
“Mate, do me a solid,” he said to Banjax. “Put this room out o’ its misery.”
“With pleasure,” grunted Banjax as he took out his blaster and shot out the speakers around the stage. Xao squealed as the speakers blew up around him. Immediately, the thugs in the room all pulled their weapons, turning toward Scallywag and Banjax, ready for a fight. Scallywag stepped forward, unfazed by the pistols trained on him, his thumbs cockily hooked in his belt.
“Oy, all you with blasters in yer hands, listen up!” he said loudly. “I’m lookin’ ta hire some right proper brutes fer some right proper work. One day. High pay. Who’s interested?”
The thugs all exchanged curious looks with one another, but before they could respond, Xao came charging up toward Scallywag. “Oh, no you don’t!” he shrieked. “These Xao’s brutes! They be loyal to Xao! Nobody steal them away! You go find your own muscle, muggahugger!”
Scallywag rolled his eyes. “Did I mention I’ll be payin’ three times what Xao pays ya?”
“I’m in,” said one of the brutes.
“Me too.”
“Sounds good.”
Xao looked around as his three ‘trusted and loyal’ thugs stepped up to join Scallywag. He scowled. “That it. No more Mr. Nice Xao!” Xao then whipped out a tiny blaster pistol and held it right in Scallywag’s face. It was so small, it almost looked like a toy. “That right, playboi,” Xao sneered. “Xao learn from his mistakes! Let’s see you knock this out of Xao’s hand! Nyah, nyah, nyah!”
Scallywag abruptly grabbed Xao’s wrist and twisted it backward, causing the Izard to drop the pistol and squeal pathetically. “Jeez, why so mean? Xao just playin’,” Xao whined as he rubbed his wrist.
“Pick it up,” Scallywag said, nodding toward Xao’s tiny gun on the ground.
Xao eyed Scallywag suspiciously. “Why?”
“’Cause yer comin’ with us, and yer prolly gonna need it,” Scallywag said.
Xao’s eyes widened. “Scally want Xao to come on job with him?”
“Not really, but yer comin’ anyway. Now let’s get movin’, yer Thugnificience.” Scallywag turned and began to head out the door. Xao quickly grabbed his gun and followed the others out.
“So what’s the job?” asked one of the brutes as they all made their way down the street.
“We’re gonna break inta a secret Maguffyn Corporation lab,” replied Scallywag.
“What we stealin’?” asked another brute.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” said another.
“All we’re gonna do is take a little peek inside, that’s all,” Scallywag said.
“What’s the catch?” asked the first brute. “There’s always a catch.”
“It’s down on stratum one,” Scallywag said. “And there’s prolly gonna be some unpleasant stuff inside.”
“So you’re paying us all this money to tag along while you break into a place not to steal anything?” said Banjax. “When did you become such a charity case?”
“What can I say?” Scallywag replied. “’Tis always better ta give than to receive.”
“Uh, huh,” Banjax said. “Knowing you, something tells me you stand to receive something mighty big at the end of all this.”
Scallywag smiled. “What can I say? It’s preferable when others do tha givin’.”
As the group made their way down the rough-and-tumble streets of stratum 12 toward the public teleporter platform, Scallywag glanced back at Xao, who had his datapad out in his hands and was quickly typing away on it.
“Oy,” Scallywag said to Banjax. “Keep on ta the teleporter. I’ll catch up.” Banjax nodded and continued leading the group as Scallywag put his hand against Xao’s chest, stopping him. “What do ya think yer doin’?” Scallywag asked.
“Xao have business,” Xao replied, going back to typing on his datapad. “Xao busy Izard, you know. Not everything stops because Scallywag the Red has a job, m’kayyyyyy?” Scallywag snatched the datapad from Xao’s hands and promptly threw it down an alley, the device disappearing amongst a pile of garbage. “NO!” whined Xao. “Xao still had a gig left on dataplan! Why you do that?”
“Because I don’t trust ya,” Scallywag sneered. “I may be letting ya tag along, but that’s only so I can keep an eye on ya, ya little sewer- ferragut. I know how ya operate. The minute we left with yer men, ya would have had us followed and sold us out first chance ya got. So don’t think fer one second I don’t know yer up ta somethin’. Savvy?”
Xao frowned. “Jeez. So suspicious. You no fun, Scally. No fun.”
“I be plenty fun,” Scallywag replied. �
��I’m just not a complete idiot. Now get movin’.”
Scallywag grabbed Xao by the collar and ushered him along to catch up with the rest of the group. The teleportation platform closest to their destination must have been on the fritz, because they were unable to travel directly to it. Instead, the group teleported to a working platform further away and began walking through the streets of stratum one.
Scallywag took out a handkerchief and covered his mouth. The air was thick and hazy, not to mention pungent with a foul stink. The forgotten denizens of the city – the homeless, the sick, and the destitute – wandered about the cracked and crumbling streets. The group traveled from one pool of light to another, traversing great swaths of darkness where the stratum’s lighting had long ago failed. The sounds of sick and dying people seemed to ring even louder in the shadows.
“Ew, this nasty,” commented Xao as he skidded aside to avoid a massive cockroach that crossed his path. “Why there even people down here? Low class. So low class.”
Scallywag checked the map on his datapad and stopped when they came to an alleyway. “This be tha place,” he said. The group shuffled inside the dark alley. Banjax’s cybernetic arm opened at the shoulder to produce a small spotlight he used to shine around the area. Eventually, they noticed a metal door in one of the decaying walls. Scallywag approached it and took a closer look. “This door looks good as new,” he commented. “We must be in tha right place. Banjax, do me tha honors, if ya please.”
Banjax approached the door’s keypad. He pried its top off and connected his arm to the circuit board underneath. It didn’t take long for him to hack into the lock and open the door. Scallywag glanced inside to see a poorly lit stairwell leading downward. He began descending the stairs, the rest of his group following.
At the bottom of the stairs, the lights above were flickering, as though struggling to stay operational. The corridor to which the stairwell led was lined with different size pipes and cables, both overhead and along the sides of the walls. Some of the pipes appeared to be corroded, with steam escaping from parts, giving the corridor a hazy aura.
“I thought you said this was supposed to be a lab of some kind,” Banjax muttered. “It just looks like a utility tunnel.”
“Aye, it might very well be just that,” Scallywag said, something about the place putting him on edge. “But we’re gonna go ahead and make sure everything is as it appears ta be.” Which, I’m pretty certain, it ain’t, thought Scallywag as he continued to lead his crew further into the underground structure.
The corridor curved as the group continued to follow it. The lighting in the passageway wasn’t that good to begin with, and the occasional flickering bulb lent an ominous air to the pools of shadow between the fixtures. Before long, it felt as though the corridor were getting darker even with the lights, until Scallywag noticed that it wasn’t shadows causing the darkness. Rather, the floor, walls, and ceiling appeared to have some type of black material covering it, making it seem darker around them than it really was.
Finally, the group turned a corner, and whatever it was that was covering the walls now fully took over. The corridor appeared more like the dark, ominous maw of a cave, stretching off into the distance. The black covering was thick and rock-like, with green and purple veins running through it, which glowed slightly. The entire group stopped in their tracks, looking at their surroundings with unease.
“Xao no like this,” whined Xao, nervously. “This creepy!”
“What the kitten is this place?” asked Banjax, looking equally disturbed.
Scallywag ran his hand over the veined black rock, a sinking feeling taking root in his gut. “I’ve seen this type o’ thing before,” he muttered. “This is Deathlord tech.”
“Deathlords?” said Banjax, as though he didn’t want to believe it.
Scallywag could feel the word send a sense of unease through the group. “It’s not possible,” one of the brutes chimed in. “We’re in the capitol. Ain’t no Deathlord could get within thousands of light-years of here.”
And yet, it feels like I’m back in tha bloody Pit all over again, Scallywag thought, as he pulled a blaster from his belt. He gripped his pistol tightly and looked down the dark hallway before him, the steam escaping from the corroded pipes obscuring his view. His instincts were telling him to run back the way he’d come in, but another part of him wanted to find out what the Deathlords were doing in the heart of the Empire.
“Weapons ready, gents,” he grumbled. “Stay close.”
“You not seriously going in there!” whined Xao as the others did as instructed and followed Scallywag. “No one said anything about Deathlords! You all a bunch of crazy muggahuggers! Xao not going anywhere near scary tunnel of death!” The group ignored him and kept walking, leaving Xao uncomfortably alone. Xao glanced around him, looking unnerved by his surroundings, before rushing to catch up with the others. “Don’t leave Xao all by Xao’s self! Wait for Xao! Xao go with you!”
Scallywag felt his shoulders hunch as he walked slightly crouched, as though his muscle memory from the weeks he spent scouting the Pit had suddenly returned to him. What the bloody squip is wrong with me? he thought as he made his way further into the darkness. I should be movin’ in the opposite direction!
But he didn’t. Scallywag continued to lead his little group further and further down the corridor until it opened up into a large room. Numerous, massive metal pillars rose high into the air, so high they disappeared into the darkness above. Black rock was growing everywhere, covering almost every surface within the room. Those in the group looked around, frightened and confused by what they’d stumbled into.
“What is this place?” asked one of the thugs.
“If I had to venture a guess, I’d say we’re inside one of the stratum support columns,” Banjax replied, his cybernetic eye refocusing as he gazed upward into the distance. “There are millions of these structures supporting the stratums above them throughout the city.”
“I take it not a lot of people visit these support columns?” Scallywag guessed.
“I doubt even maintenance-bots come in here,” Banjax said.
Which means there could be millions of hiding spots for the Deathlords in the city, and no one would bloody know about ‘em, thought Scallywag. “Kill tha lights,” he ordered. “We’re goin’ in quiet.” Scallywag began making his way into the room, the group huddled close by him. The glow from the veins in the rock was all the light they had to go on as they crept through the area. Scallywag squinted, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness. There didn’t seem to be any movement. No sounds. It was as though he and his group were walking through a giant, empty void. And strangely enough, the lack of anything was more disturbing than if there had been something there.
This was supposed ta be a lab, thought Scallywag. But there ain’t nothin’ here. The Pit was there ta rob people of their souls ta power the Deathlord ship. What is the bloody purpose of this place?
Scallywag stopped, the others halting with him. “What is it?” Banjax whispered. “What’s wrong?”
“Somethin’ ain’t right,” Scallywag replied.
“Ya think?” Xao squeaked.
“Tha Deathlords use this black rock fer a reason,” Scallywag said quietly. “It wouldn’t just be growing here in a big empty room fer no purpose…” Scallywag’s eyes darted around. He looked at the glowing veins in the rock, and noticed how some of them appeared to form odd patterns, as though they were formed around something underneath the rock. “Banjax,” he said. “Give us some light.”
“You sure that’s wise?” Banjax replied.
“Not in the least,” Scallywag grumbled. “Do it.”
Banjax activated his shoulder-mounted light, and no sooner had its beam illuminated the wall before them than the group recoiled, startled by what they saw. There were bodies embedded in the rock. Some were drawn and emaciated looking. Some were rotting and decaying corpses. Some were nothing more than skeletons, hanging l
imply from their black rock-encrusted tombs. Banjax shone his spotlight around, revealing bodies attached to every wall and pillar, everywhere, climbing all the way up into the dark void above.
“What – what is this???” cried one of the brutes.
“Great Observer, watch over me,” another muttered, looking petrified with fear.
“Xao think he just browned his paaaaants!” whined Xao, on the brink of hyperventilating.
“Blast it, get yer stones in hand!” barked Scallywag to his group. “Now is not tha time ta be panicked!”
“And when exactly would that time be?” growled Banjax.
“You’ll know it when it bloody well happens,” Scallywag replied. “Until then, get a grip! Preferably on yer bloody blasters.”
The group didn’t need to be told twice. They all held their blasters out, ready to shoot anything that moved. Scallywag approached a nearby body that was in the wall, the veined black rock binding its arms, legs, and torso. It looked to be that of a Regal, wasted away to almost nothing, his face so thin and drawn it was practically a skull. He was pale, his sunken eyes closed, his skin so translucent Scallywag could almost see through it.
Is this Project Locutus? wondered Scallywag as he studied the body. Is the Maguffyn Corporation experimenting with Deathlord tech on Imperial citizens? Or worse, are they in league with the Deathlords? How do dead bodies encased in black rock relate to a bunch o’ assassins? What the bloody squick is going on here???
Suddenly, the corpse’s eyes opened. Scallywag gasped, stumbling back from the body, startled. The group all turned at Scallywag’s reaction, focusing their blasters on the man, and gasping as well when it became horrifyingly obvious…
“He’s… he’s still alive!” Banjax said in disbelief.
The man’s head bobbed as he made pained noises, struggling to speak. “P… ple… pleeeaaaaasse…” he managed to say, his voice raw with suffering.
Earthman Jack vs. The Secret Army (Earthman Jack Space Saga Book 2) Page 57
