by Jean Kilczer
“And you were expecting a better welcome than you received,” Rowdinth stated.
“Something like that. Now can we either do business or will you let me leave, with a blindfold, this time?”
“Tell me in your words, Terran. In what way will I benefit from your services?”
“I thought I just told you.”
“Tell me again!” he shrieked and pounded the armrest. “Don't defy me.”
I was prepared for his sudden outbursts and I just sighed. “OK. I'll be able to relay information not only from W-CIA and government officials, but from the Worlds Alliance's military leaders on proposed counter-attacks on Fartherland. Suppose they discover the location of your hideout? They could – “
“That's Citadel.” He reclined into the chair's embrace.
I nodded. “The Alliance could launch A.I. missiles that would travel through space to hit your Citadel. I can influence the programmers' minds. The way I influenced the five tags you sent to capture me, and they'd direct the missiles at some other planet. That's just one of the possible ways I can help you.”
“Why didn't you accompany the five Terrans I sent to bring you here?”
“How did I know what those tags were up to? I figured they wanted me dead.”
The general scratched his muzzle pensively. I think he was deciding my fate. I bit my lip.
Huff, still standing beside me, stroked my arm. I pushed it away.
“I am also weary of the day,” Rowdinth said distractedly. “And night brings me no comfort from my pain.” He stood up slowly, as though a great weight lay on his shoulders. The four Guards jumped to their feet and supported him. “The burden of Providence gives me no rest.” He walked toward the iron door. “I am the slave of my mission, and it tortures my days and my nights.”
“Sorry,” I said. Too bad it doesn't fucking kill you! I thought.
He waved pathetically at Huff and Zorga. “Take him to a cell for tonight. I am too weary. Oh. And give him a tour of the museum. You know the displays I refer to. Tomorrow, Terran, I will give you my decision.” He shook his narrow head as he shuffled out. “My struggle.”
He took the blinking unit with him and I wondered again just what in hell it had to do with me.
Chapter Eight
The guided tour by Huff and Zorga through the museum's chosen displays gave new meaning to the word nightmare. Zorga took my arm and forced me to stand before five glass showcases with stuffed Terran bodies. If I'd had anything in my stomach, I would have lost it. And those are marbles that were his eyes. Three of the five naked corpses, with faces that stared out from death, were the tags in the restaurant who had chased us. The other two must be the ones who entered the tunnel from the far entrance. They stood side by side, a brotherhood of cadavers, all with burn holes in their chests. Their blue-gray wrinkled skin bulged where the stuffing had gathered beneath it, their lips were pulled back in grins that were more grimaces. An empty case with a pedestal stood waiting beside them. I began to shake and couldn't stop.
A burly arm suddenly rose from one body. A finger swung and pointed at me. I screamed and fell back. From somewhere came a chuckle.
Huff steadied me and I clung to him and kept my feet. “It's General Rowdinth,” he whispered. “He likes to make them move and speak. It's all right, Jules Terran. They are really dead.” He wagged his head. “Sometimes he makes them dance.”
It was then I saw the thin transparent lines attached to the bodies.
“Can we go now?” I said hoarsely. “I think I've had all the fun I can take for one day.”
Zorga nodded.
Huff steadied me as we left the House of Horrors.
* * *
A cell with a view. More a dungeon. I stood on the cot and looked through bars. A dark scape, with the blazing arms of the Milky Way overhead. Fartherland was above the galaxy's plane. A skeletal tree, its branches just bare winter bones, embraced a pale moon that bore the arms of the galaxy in a spectacular halo of star systems unexplored, and from what we knew, teeming with boundless life. The universe was more sublime and mysterious than we could have ever imagined.
But right now I needed landmarks. Landmarks for a missile strike. And where was the laboratory?
“Do you play checkers?” a voice behind me asked.
I almost fell off the cot.
Huff the Vegan stood on the other side of the barred door with a small wooden box, a folded board, and a covered tray.
I jumped down from the cot. “Sure, open the door, Huff. I'll play you a game.”
“Oh. I was hoping you could pull that small table and the chair up to the bars and we could play through them.” He grinned. “I know Terrans like to sit on chairs.” He sat back on his haunches.
Dammit! “Well, it would be easier if we sat together at the board.” I grinned back. “Where'd you learn to play Earth checkers, Huff?” I said it casually, to lower his guard, and dragged the table and chair up to the food slot in the bars.
He slid the tray, the board and the small box onto the table. “Oh. A traveling salesman from Earth visited my home planet many years ago with checker sets and beads. Our chief bought the checker sets with furs from our kills. It became our national game.
Lucky he didn't sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, I thought. “And the beads?”
“Oh, the beads were red, so the legend goes.”
“Aren't they supposed to be red?” I opened the box and studied the onyx and blue wooden pieces. They were beautiful, with swirls of cobalt and black. “What's wrong with traditional red?”
“It is the harbinger of death, Jules Terran, the blood color…among my people. Not yours.”
“Well, sometimes mine too. So your people didn't trade for them?”
“My people threw them into the sea, and threw in the salesman, the legend goes, to keep away Death.”
“They killed him?”
“Oh. One cannot kill Death!” He chuckled. “No. But he floated away between glaciers, the legend goes, and pretended to be dead.”
I sat back. “He must've been a good actor.”
“Death is the end of all acts,” my Terran friend.”
Yeah, I thought. Fade out. That's a wrap!
I looked down at my black turtleneck sweater and black pants. I discreetly lifted a pants leg to check my socks. Blue. My jacket, too, was blue. No red here. Guess I was safe from Fartherland's winter ocean.
I uncovered the tray. A strong pungent odor hit me and I gagged. I slammed the cover back down. “What the hell is that?”
“Uh, that hell is pig meat.”
“It's rotten!” I pushed the tray back through the slot.
“Yes. Good, and rotten. I went into Gorestail to buy you food, and the Cleocean in Alien Health: We Serve the Stars, said Terrans eat some pretty rotten food.
“So he sold you his rotten leftovers. And the Brooklyn Bridge, I thought again.
“No.”
“Oh. He gave it to you.”
“She.”
“She gave it to you.”
“No. She sold it to me.”
I began to feel sorry for his friend, Zorga. “Get it away from me, Huff. I can't stand the smell.”
“I'm sorry, Jules.” He got up, looking sheepish, and carried the tray to a corner.
I sighed and laid out the checker pieces. “Did the general send you here for a game and possibly whatever information you could garner?” I took the black checkers, to match my mood. Blue would've been good too.
Huff sat down and sighed. “I cannot blame you for your suspicions, considering what we did to you. I was hoping you might find it in your spleen to forgive me.”
I didn't correct his choice of body organs. “You want absolution from me?” I moved a black checker onto a diagonal square.
“I wish to return to my home and my people in Kresthaven. I do not relish this job.” He shook his snout. “But I am afraid it is too late.”
“Too late in the day for quitting?”
“I was thinking more like tomorrow morning.” He moved a piece deftly with a claw. “I thought General Rowdinth would just implore Interstel to give him this gold element that he covets. Just to add to his cache of gold from Fartherland's mines.” He shook his head and stared at the board. “But he has ordered frightening things done.” He flicked me a glance. “Things I have no power to reverse.”
“You mean that little thing you did to me in the parking lot?”
He nodded. “And now I fear that he truly intends to destroy Earth.” He scratched his furry cheek.
Gee, ya think? I thought. “I'll make you a deal, Huff. You unlock the cell door and show me where the laboratory is located, and all is forgiven.” I glanced around. The cell was probably bugged.
Huff furrowed his furry brow. “The laboratory?”
“The laboratory. I'm an astrophysicist by trade,” I lied. “I don't think the general is interested in hiring me as a telepath.” I slid a checker piece at an angle on the board, jumped one of his, and took it off the board. “In fact, I'm really afraid that he intends to have me executed tomorrow morning, you know?”
“That is possible, or sometime during the day. How do you feel about facing death?”
“How – “I rubbed my eyes and sighed. 'tis a consummation. Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep. “Of the two choices,” I said, “I'd prefer to go to the laboratory and work with the scientists on their dark-energy weapon.” I jumped another blue piece and scooped it off the board. “My last project at the Los Alamos National Lab was experimenting with dark energy,” I lied to Huff, and probably Rowdinth too, as I pictured him watching us from some rat hole. I was walking a tightrope. “General Rowdinth would benefit greatly from my knowledge and experience with dark energy. But I'm not certain he'd give me the opportunity to prove it to him.”
Even if I could locate the slimetroll's lab, could I report back to Joe Hatch on my hovair's star positioning system to tell him where the Alliance should aim its space missiles? Even if I escaped and made it back to the parking lot, would my hovair still be there, and would Rowdinth's rats be waiting for me?
Huff jumped two of my pieces and took them off the board. “You should have seen that move, my friend. It was apparent three moves back.”
“Yeah, I guess. I haven't played games in quite a while. So will you show me where the lab is located? You know, Huff, if the scientists are willing to take me on, the general would very probably agree, too.” I jumped one of his pieces, and tapped the table. “What do you say? Are you willing to save my life?”
He shook his head sadly. “I wish I could, my Jules Terran friend, but I have no control over whether you will live or die.”
“You give up pretty damn easily! All I'm asking you to do is unlock this cell and point me toward the lab.”
“I'm afraid that would not save your life.”
I stood up and leaned my hands on the board, spreading pieces, to distract him, while I imaged a red coil spinning behind my eyes. “Can't you do that much, considering that you helped to get me into this mess?”
I threw the coil at him. You want to save the Terran's life. You want to guide him toward the laboratory.
He looked around and rubbed his forehead. “The laboratory,” he said and scratched his head.
“The laboratory.” Unlock the cell door and take your Terran friend Jules to the laboratory.
“I would like to unlock the cell door and take you to the laboratory, my Terran friend, Jules, but the location of the laboratory is the general's well-kept secret. He does not share it with his employees. I-I am truly sorry, but it would make no difference as to whether you live or die.”
“Then why did you come here? For a fucking game of checkers?”
He lowered his head. “To ask for your forgiveness,” he purred.
“Rot in hell, Vegan!” I knocked the board aside and sent pieces flying into the bars.
He stood up and collected the scattered pieces on his side. He nodded toward the ones in my cell. “May I have those?”
“Sure.” I gathered them and threw them into the toilet, then I flushed it.
“That wasn't necessary.” He wiped tears from his eyes.
“Fuck you!” I went to the cot and laid down. “Now get out of here. Go kiss your general's hairy ass!”
I heard him shuffle away.
I stared at the food slot. It was pretty wide. The Vermakts were much thicker-bodied than I was. I sat up. It was worth a try. I went to the slot, pushed my jacket through, and checked my pants pockets. Empty. Well, we come into this life with nothing and I was about to be born again.
It was a difficult passage. But once I got my head through, minus my ears, it felt like, the rest of me was a bit collapsible. I squeezed through on my back, so that when I flopped onto the floor, I wouldn't arrive with two broken legs. When I reached my genitals, it was bite the bullet time. Well, cold-turkey castration was still better than death. I slid to the outside floor with all my parts intact, though some were a bit worse for wear.
Were the general's security guards already on their way? Could be! I grabbed my jacket and ran to the hall door.
An alarm sounded from somewhere. I threw open the door, thankful that it was unlocked, and ran up the tunnel that led to the outside. I passed the iron door to Rowdinth's great room and raced for the outside.
The scrape of claws. The shouts of guards.
Behind me!
I threw open the door. Darkness there.
The whoosh of wings as I ran toward a glow of lights like a dome below the galaxy's arms. Gorestail!
The Shayl swooped down and tried to rake me with outstretched talons. I swung my jacket at him, caught a claw and attempted to flip him. I almost brought him down but he managed to shake off the jacket and flap heavily back into the sky. He was an ambush predator, and I had blown his ambush.
A hovair bounced behind me through gritty sand. Its speaker blared: “Stop, Terran! No harm will come to you. General Rowdinth wants to negotiate on a position at the lab.” It was Zorga.
He wouldn't like my resume, I sent.
“Jules,” Huff's voice came through. “Please surrender and come back. The general is threatening to execute you if you don't come back.”
Execute me if I don't come back? I thought. That's a trick even the messiah of the Vermakt people couldn't bring off!
I raced across the dark beach on packed wet sand near the water's edge, and headed for the far lights of the town.
I came up short, though, breathing heavily. A rock jetty jutted into the sea like a jagged fence between me and the town. I threw on my jacket and quickly zippered it. Waves sloshed over my boots and hissed back through pebbles. The sand slowed me as in a bad dream where you can't run and some monster is breathing down your neck. Here there were monsters, all right, and it was my mind they were after. My calves burned with the effort of running through sand, and Fartherland's heavier gravity was slowing me.
I made it to the shadows of the jetty and crouched below the line of piled rocks. On the other side, the inlet to a harbor funneled the tidal flow between two jetties. I gasped as a small black shape darted past my boots. Just a rodent-like creature of the night. I felt like a creature of the night myself as I climbed the bare rocks to the jetty's flat surface and trotted toward the harbor in the light of pale moons. If I could make my way around the harbor, I might be able to lose myself in Gorestail.
I heard the hovair's doors slam open, then shut, and the shouts of voices.
“Watch the hovair in case he doubles back!” That was Zorga. My two pursuers ran across the beach, light beams waving as they searched for me. If they caught me in their light, I'd go into the water past the jetty and swim across the inlet toward the town. I doubted they would follow.
A dog barked.
“What is it, Amigo?” I heard a Terran woman call.
A Chihuahua scrambled up the rocks and barked as he chased me.
“Shut up
, damn you!” I whispered.
He continued to bark and to run after me.
Zorga and Huff's lights swung in my direction.
“He's over there!” I heard Zorga yell. I ducked as their lights swept the top of the jetty. I was grateful that they missed me. Until the woman snapped on a flashlight and pinned me in it.
“Shut it off!” I yelled.
“This is a private beach,” she called back. “You're trespassing!”
“Lady, those guys are killers! Get out of here.”
As though to confirm my words, a hot beam flashed off a rock near me and sent granite chips flying. Were they just trying to scare me into surrendering? Or had Rowdinth contacted them with an order that I wasn't worth the effort and he wanted me dead?
The woman screamed. “Amigo! Come!” She turned and ran.
Instead, the little shit grabbed my pants cuff and shook it like prey. I almost fell off the slippery rocks. I don't abuse animals. Not usually. I kicked him and he yelped and jumped down to the sand.
Too late to make it to the harbor, I thought as two lights flashed closer to me. The Shayl flitted across a moon like a giant bat. I heard the flap of his wings as he approached, targeting my location for Zorga and Huff.
“You son of a slimetroll!” the woman screamed as she waited for her limping dog to catch up. “Why'd you kick Amigo? He's limping!”
“Get off the beach,” I shouted back. “They're on their way!”
I climbed down the jetty on the inlet side, scraping my hands and ripping the knees of my pants on sharp barnacles, sliding on rotting kelp.
“What are you doing?” the woman called. “Don't go into the ocean, you damn fool. It's too cold!”
And hell's too hot. I threw myself into the water.
Cold was an understatement.
Liquid knives of ice describes that water better.
The tide was outgoing in flood. I gasped in breaths as I swam and rode the current out past the far jetty's rocky tip. The Shayl lifted high as he tracked me. He probably thought I had a weapon. Wish I did. I'd blast that crotefucker out of the sky.
My thoughts turned to hypothermia. I had perhaps fifteen minutes before my core temperature dropped below that critical ninety-five degrees when body functions begin to slow. I tried not to consider the conditions that follow with severe hypothermia.
