by Michael Rose
“You tell me all this now?”
Hammond chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’ve made three flights in this very ship without any problems.”
“Have any of Alexander’s tests had problems?”
“If they did, I wasn’t told about it. The people that worked on this project were broken up into teams. My team didn’t know anyone from the other teams. Each of our results would be reported back to the eggheads at HQ, and they’d process it then tell us what adjustments to make.”
“Alexander mentioned something about entities out here. Have you encountered any?”
“That was another team. We did hear about that because it’s what brought an end to the project.”
“What happened?”
“I didn’t get a fully detailed report, mind you, but from what I was able to gather, a pilot from one of the other teams had a three-hour-long conversation with his dead grandmother.”
“And he wasn’t… what was the term Alexander used… ‘space happy’?”
“Well, again, I didn’t see the footage, but I was told that there was definitely something else on that ship with him. He did have an actual encounter.”
“With his grandmother?”
“Or something pretending to be his grandmother. Something drawing on his thoughts and memories.”
“What do you think?”
Hammond took a deep breath and turned to look Allen in the eyes. “There’s something out here. That’s all I know. Is this where we go when we die? Maybe. After I started working on this project, I learned that nothing—and I mean nothing—is impossible. This is the first time I’ve been back into hyper-hyperspace since the project was shut down, and you damn well better know I’m keeping my eyes open. You should, too.”
Allen turned back toward the cockpit window. There was nothing to see outside the ship, but he studied the darkness all the same. If they were going to encounter something, he didn’t want to miss it. If they were going to encounter something, he hoped it would be Liz.
II:
RETRIBUTION
6
EUGENE BRAIN WAS now the de facto boss of Abilene. He’d taken down Orion Zednik and had been working tirelessly ever since to find out who his friends were. More importantly, he was finding out who his enemies were. Most didn’t care who was in charge as long as they got paid. As Brain took over the operations Zednik had once exclusively controlled, many fell in line, especially since Zednik had earned not a little animosity due to his cruelty. Not the cruelty that involves killing someone who’s crossed you; that’s just business. But Zednik practiced the kind of cruelty that saw the traitor’s family tortured and killed as well. Eugene Brain had another way to earn loyalty: through respect. From the beginning, Brain had made it clear that as long as his orders were followed, he would keep the money flowing. He would treat those who worked for him with respect and expected the same in return. Unlike Zednik, the reliability of Brain’s word did not fluctuate depending on his mood.
Even so, Eugene Brain had problems. Zednik was still alive, and as long as there was a chance he might return, a chance he might rally the support of his closest associates, many were holding back on giving Brain their full loyalty. There were even rumors that Zednik was already back on Abilene, that he was reorganizing. This rumor was being spread by a few of Zednik’s associates who hoped to wrest control from Brain.
Brain knew that, given time, Sullivan would kill Zednik. But he couldn’t wait for that to happen. Even if it happened soon, the rumors would persist. No, Brain had to act; he had to secure his position at the top of Abilene’s underworld. He would personally see Zednik killed. He would bring back the body and display it to as many people as necessary to end the rumors.
So Eugene Brain had gone to Damaris. He’d followed Sullivan’s hunch that Zednik had retreated to that planet and was pleased to find out that that hunch had been correct. He’d found Zednik’s hiding place a week after landing three freighters loaded with men and weapons. He had to admit that Zednik was smart. He’d used whatever credits, jewelry and influence he still had to take over the top of a hotel in the heart of Phoebe, the capital of Damaris. It would be difficult to attack him there, fifteen stories up and with all those civilians around. Damaris’s security forces were not as lax or corrupt as Abilene’s. They’d respond quickly to reports of dozens of armed men in the middle of the city.
Brain decided he’d have to run a stealth operation. He rented a room at the hotel, granting him access to the elevators. When he pressed the button for the fifteenth floor, however, a display screen on the elevator’s control panel informed him that the floor was locked. He rode up to the fourteenth floor instead, found the stairwell and climbed up to the top. He tried the door leading onto the floor. It was also locked. But it was an electronic lock, not a physical lock. Eugene Brain began formulating a plan.
HALF A DOZEN of his men had checked themselves into the hotel. Early the next evening, three of them entered the elevator while Brain and the other three climbed the stairs to the top floor. There was a reason electronic locks were not used where security was a serious concern: anyone with a few days’ training could be taught how to use a basic tablet to hack into and override them. Fortunately, stairwell doors and elevators were not considered points of high security for inexpensive hotels. The technology to trick keycard readers had long ago been developed, and as a result, most hotels had returned to a simple lock and key. At least getting past those would require manual manipulation and couldn’t be broken into by simply waving a device in front of them. Still, there was the old standby: break the door in.
Brain’s men in the elevator used a tablet to break the fifteenth floor lockout. At the same time, Brain and the others gained access via the stairwell. They stormed the hallway and began systematically knocking down doors. The men from the elevator started doing the same on their end.
After Brain and the men with him knocked in their third door, they heard gunfire from the other side of the hotel. His men had encountered resistance. Leaving one man to guard the stairwell, Brain and the two others rounded the corner toward the elevators. His other team had retreated back to the elevator and was taking pot shots from the open elevator doors.
Three of the hotel room doors were open. From these, men would peek out, fire toward the elevator then duck back in. Brain indicated to his men to each cover one of the doors. He leveled his gun at the door he had chosen for himself and waited for a head to poke out. Simultaneously, two heads poked out from two of the doors. Brain took down his target, but his man missed.
Knowing they were now trapped in a crossfire, Zednik’s men took cover inside the rooms. After waiting a tense moment to see if they’d go on the offensive, Brain silently gestured to his men to take positions on either side of the doors.
They stormed the remaining hotel rooms and took out Zednik’s men. One of Brain’s men was clipped in the process, but the injury was slight. Methodically, they searched the rest of the rooms on the floor.
Once they were finished, his men reported back to Brain.
“No one else in these rooms, boss.”
“Are you sure? You checked them all?”
“Yeah. They were all empty except for these three.”
Brain slammed his fist into a door. “All right, Zednik is holed up somewhere else. Let’s get out of here before the cavalry arrives.”
7
ORION ZEDNIK, ON the second floor, had received a call from one of his men up above. They were under attack. Zednik didn’t know who it was, but his precautions had just paid off. He gathered the two men in the room opposite his, had them get Kate and Abraham from their rooms and they all made their way down the stairs to the basement parking garage.
Kate and Abraham were put in the back of a cargo van with a guard while Zednik and his other man rode up front. They traveled for around half an hour before the vehicle came to a stop.
When the back of the van opened, Kate caug
ht a glimpse of woods before the garage door finished closing. They were out of the city. She and Abraham were taken to a room on the second floor of the house and locked in. She made her way to the window and looked out. More woods. There were no other houses in sight.
“Well,” said Kate, turning to Abraham, “it looks like Zednik has planned this well. He had a second location ready in case his first was found out.”
Abraham moved to join her by the window. “It’s a good drop, but we could risk it,” he said, looking down.
Kate studied the window frame. “It’s been bolted shut. And this glass looks pretty new. I’m guessing it’s unbreakable by any means we have here.”
“Do you think it was Rick Sullivan who attacked Zednik’s men at the hotel?”
“There’s no way to know. I hope so. I hope he’s near. If he is, he’ll find a way to rescue us.”
There was noise outside the door as the lock was disengaged. Kate and Abraham turned as it swung open and Orion Zednik stepped through. “Ah,” he said. “Settling in nicely?”
Abraham strode toward Zednik and pushed him back against the doorframe. “Go to hell!” he shouted, swinging for Zednik.
Kate ran to shut the door. She closed it just as Zednik’s men arrived and held it with one arm as she slid a small table in front of it with the other. She pushed all her weight against the table as the men struggled at the door and Abraham and Zednik continued to fight.
Abraham, despite his age, was a better fighter. He’d landed several blows on Zednik’s face and was winding up for another when Zednik charged him and grabbed him around the waist. Abraham fell backward and landed hard, striking his head against the bedframe. Within seconds, Zednik had his hands around Abraham’s neck. Kate abandoned her post and rushed to pull him off. As soon as she was away from the door, Zednik’s men burst in and grabbed her. She watched helplessly as Zednik tightened his grip and Abraham’s legs and arms began to flail. A sickening gurgle rose from Abraham’s throat, then he exhaled heavily and lay still.
Zednik removed his hands and looked at them. He turned to Kate, his eyes wild. He stepped swiftly past Kate and the guards and out of the room.
KATE HAD BEEN alone with Abraham’s body for close to an hour. She’d lifted him onto the bed, folded his arms across his chest and was sitting there, her hand on his, when a timid knock came at the door. A moment later, it opened slightly and Orion Zednik poked his head in. “Miss Alexander?”
Kate glared at him. “What?”
“Miss Alexander, I’d like to offer my deepest condolences.”
Kate stood and strode over to the door. “Your condolences? Where the hell do you get off, Zednik? You killed him!”
Zednik backed off and took refuge behind the half-closed door. “You have to know I never wanted it like this. I regret that I lost control in that way.”
Kate shook her head incredulously. “How many people have you had killed, Zednik?”
“Like this? None. I’ve had to have people made examples of, I’ve had to punish those who failed me. But in anger… no, none. I am not an angry man, Miss Alexander.”
Kate returned to the bedside. “You have killed a better man than you’ll ever be, Zednik.”
Zednik lowered his eyes. “Perhaps. But it cannot be helped. Caesar must protect his empire.”
“What empire?” Kate scoffed. “Two men and this rented house? You have nothing, Zednik. You are nothing.”
Zednik raised an eyebrow. “That’s where you’re wrong, Miss Alexander. I have you, and you’re worth a million credits right now. It’s not much, but it will be enough to rebuild. And even if I didn’t have you, I would find other ways to raise funds. You are not indispensable, so I would watch what you say to me. I have expressed my regret over Mr. Emerson, and I hope we can move on from this and spend our remaining time together in peace.”
Zednik departed, and a moment later his men came in and took Abraham’s body out. Zednik followed them down the stairs and to the garage. “It’ll be cool enough to leave the body in here tonight, but I want you to bury it in the morning,” he said to them. “And dig two holes. As soon as I have her father’s money in my hand, Miss Alexander will find out that it is not wise to provoke Caesar.”
8
FRANK ALLEN HAD kept a safe distance. He’d been watching the hotel from his rented car and had seen the van, with Zednik and one of his men in the front, leave in a hurry. The sound of approaching sirens probably meant that something had happened. Maybe Sullivan had made his move.
Allen had followed the van out of Phoebe and into the wooded hills east of the city. The van had turned onto a narrow road leading into the forest, and it was there that Allen stopped. He pulled up a satellite image on his tablet and looked at the surrounding area. There were seven cabins along the road, spaced about a third of a kilometer apart from one another. The road dead-ended at a lake with a jetty and a few small fishing boats tied to it. If Zednik took to the lake, he could get away.
Allen pulled his car from the side of the road and turned into the woods. He drove slowly as the asphalt gave way to tightly packed gravel. He slowed as he came to each of the houses and looked for signs of the van. Finding none, he proceeded to the lake and pulled up beside the jetty. The sun was beginning to set, and the contrast between the bright sky and the dark water made it difficult to see. He raised his tablet, activated the device’s thermal imaging function and scanned the lake. The black-blue expanse of the lake was uninterrupted by the red or orange that would indicate the presence of people on the water. He’d have to go back and search the houses more thoroughly.
Allen parked his car off the road, behind a copse of large trees. The silent-running electric engine wouldn’t make any noise as he approached each house, but the gravel beneath the tires would. He’d have to make his reconnaissance on foot.
Allen walked just inside the tree line, off the road. The soft soil muffled his footsteps, and the trees would give him some cover if he encountered anyone. He came to the first house and approached it from the side. The interior was dark, but he used his tablet’s thermal imager to peer through the window of the garage. It was empty. He completed his search of the perimeter and, finding no van, moved on to the next house.
This house’s lights were on. The garage didn’t have a side window, so Allen moved to the window that looked in on what appeared to be the living room. Two men were seated on the couch. On the table in front of them were two handguns.
Certain that this was Zednik’s new hideout, Allen backed away from the window. Watching the house in person would be too risky. He’d have to plant a remote camera in one of the trees and watch that way. As Allen turned away, he felt an arm around his neck. Before he could yell, a hand covered his mouth. He was pulled off of his feet and dragged away from the house.
Allen was thrown to the ground behind some bushes. A second later, a light was shone in his face.
“Damn it!” he heard a voice say from the darkness. “What the hell are you doing here, Allen?”
“Sullivan?”
“Yeah.” The light was removed, and as Allen’s eyes readjusted, he began to make out the figure in front of him.
“How did you get here, Rick?”
“I’ve been watching Zednik for a few days.”
“So you didn’t attack him at the hotel?”
“No. But I know who did.”
“Who?”
“Eugene Brain.”
Allen got to his feet and brushed himself off. “I thought I recognized one of his men in front of the hotel, but I wasn’t sure.”
“Well, as long as you’re here, are you going to help me get Zednik?”
“I can’t, Rick. I’m actually here to stop you from doing anything stupid.”
Sullivan drew his gun. “I can take them. Zednik has two men with him. I think Kate is being held upstairs.”
“You don’t understand. I went to see Kate’s father on Silvanus. He sent me to make sure that his man a
rrives with Kate’s ransom.”
“He sent you ahead?”
“Not exactly. I’ll explain later, but right now the most important thing is Kate’s safety. Do you agree?”
Sullivan holstered his gun. “Yes.”
“If we go in there with guns blazing, he might do something to her.”
“What do you suggest, then? Let Kate remain his prisoner until the ransom arrives? How long will that take?”
“Mr. Alexander’s man should be here in about a week.”
Sullivan nodded. “And what about Brain?”
“I think we should keep him out of the loop for now. Kate’s safety is paramount, and I don’t trust Brain to agree with us on that.”
Sullivan glanced at the house. “We’ll have to keep the house under constant surveillance to make sure Zednik doesn’t take her somewhere else.”
“Leave that to me,” said Allen. He took a small, button-sized object from his pocket. A sharp pin protruded from one side of the button. Allen stuck the pin into a nearby tree then looked down at his tablet and engaged the feed from the camera. The house could be seen in high relief against the dark woods.
Allen handed the tablet to Sullivan and reached up to adjust the camera to center the house on the screen. “It displays a thermal image at night. When it gets light enough, it’ll switch to standard mode so we’ll be able to see more detail of who’s coming and going. They could get out the back without us seeing them, but according to my map, there’s nothing but forest for several kilometers in that direction. I think it’s safe to say that if they move, they’ll take the van, and we’ll be able to see it pull out of the garage.”
Sullivan nodded. “And for the next week, one or both of us will monitor this day and night.”
“Right. I guess that means we’re going to get to know one another better.”
Sullivan stood up. “I parked my car near the main road. I’ll wait for you there, and we’ll rendezvous downtown. You know the central plaza?”
