by Susan Kelley
“I think I could’ve changed your view if we had more time. But we have some packing to do. At least your father’s creature showed us something lacking in my beauties’ training. It’s so difficult teaching them how to fight when everyone is inferior to them. Today was just a beginning. Mak makes perfect prey for our war games.”
“More like today? I’m ready.” Though Mak’s ribs hurt with the effort to talk. A few more days like today in the woods, if it was the same day, and all her men would be gone.
“I’m sure you think you’ll have the chance to kill more of my men.” Shear nodded at one of her men.
The man pulled out a set of metal cuffs. He snapped one around Molly’s wrist and then the men holding her dragged her close to Mak. Two of the giants held Mak’s arm while they forced the other bracelet around his wrist. A metal rope linked the cuffs. The guards backed off after testing the locks.
Molly moved close to Mak and jostled against his ribs. “What are you about, Helen?”
“Mak displayed an impressive success against my men in the forest. It’s only fair that I handicap him in some way.” Shear smiled. “But I’m not cruel. I’ll let the two of you rest for a few hours before we resume this training. We’ll get in one more hunt before we go off world. I expect our transport in less than twenty-four hours.”
Twenty-four hours. If Pender and Box had escaped they needed to return within a day. And Mak had to keep Molly alive until then.
Chapter Eighteen
Molly helped Mak take off his shirt, sliding it down his left arm to hang between them on the chain. The good thing about the chain linking them was they had to be in the same cell. Not even her experience as a physician stifled her gasp when she saw the damage to his body.
Dark bruises covered most of his ribs on his right side. Nothing could cause that much subdermal bleeding without breaking some bones.
“Turn around,” she ordered him.
Mak complied. His back looked nearly as bad. One particularly dark bruise, a deep crimson red, colored his right scapula. Another that looked swollen ran around the deltoid ball of muscles around his upper right arm.
“At least you had the sense to get your worst injuries all on the same side,” she snapped, hiding her dismay with anger. The small cell had one narrow cot and bathing facilities. She’d already washed the blood from her face in the little sink and they’d both drank handfuls of water. “Come over to the bed.”
Mak resisted when she tried to lead him the few steps to the cot. “You know they’re watching us and listening? We really shouldn’t….”
She would have hit him if she could have found a spot where he wasn’t already bruised. “That’s not why I want you to….”
He raised his eyebrow.
She slapped him on his left forearm. Lightly. He followed her to the cot. Between them they tore the thin sheets into wide strips. Molly fashioned bandages to brace his ribs though Mak stopped her from making them as tight as they should be.
“I have to be able to move.”
She nodded and tied off the bandages. It took their coordinated efforts to slide his shirt back up his arm and over his head. “Those nonlethal bullets did a lot of damage.”
“They can be lethal if used by someone who understands weapons and knows kill spots.”
“Well, then I’ll glad they don’t understand them as well as you do.” Molly sat on the stripped cot. “Let’s rest while we can.”
The effects of the nerve disrupter lingered in her muscles with an aching fatigue. She wondered how Mak remained on his feet after the stun and all his other injuries.
He sat beside her and eased back to lean against the wall. His lips tightened in the only sign of his discomfort. But he took her right hand and pulled her against his left side. Though his body didn’t relax he closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. How sensitive were the listening devices?
“What for?” he whispered back.
“For being here so they could use me as your ball and chain.”
He lifted their joined wrists. “There’s only a chain. What is this ball you talk about?” He wasn’t teasing her with his raised eyebrow.
“It’s an old saying. It means I’m hindering you by being here.”
“Without your help I couldn’t have defeated them in the forest.”
She wasn’t sure of that. “They would never have caught you if you hadn’t tried to lead them away from me.”
“Yes they would have. They would have used the advanced heat detectors they used to find us under the trees.”
Could Mak possibly be lying to appease her guilt? She didn’t think he was capable of that but if he was, she loved him for it. She wanted to ask him if he believed help would come but she didn’t want those listening to hear. “What do you think they plan to do to us?”
“Hunt us for practice.”
“In the woodlands again?” Molly’s mind raced, thinking of what they might find to help them fight another battle with all the odds stacked against them. All except the brains and the experience.
“It doesn’t matter.” Mak laced his fingers through hers, his calluses rubbing against her softer skin. He didn’t sound worried and no longer whispered. “We’ll prepare ourselves for them to cheat again. Shear knows her men can’t beat us in a fair fight.”
Molly squeezed his fingers, understanding he’d issued a challenge to Helen. It might work. Her ego might accept the dare to not give her men superior weapons.
Mak’s body relaxed against her, his breathing settling into sleep. She’d seen soldiers able to do that, fall asleep anywhere and immediately. But she wasn’t a solder and no sleep came to her. Despite Mak’s boast to the hidden listeners Molly knew he couldn’t defeat the giant men if they got their hands on him. They would tear him apart.
****
“We’ll give you a one hour head start.” Shear looked down on Molly and Mak from her hovercraft. Her armed guards made a wide circle around them. “Run if you’d like.”
“Are your men going to hunt us using hovercraft?” Mak asked. He lifted his left arm still chained to Molly’s right hand. “You must be frightened of what I’ll do this time. How many are you down to now?”
“Enough healthy men will join this exercise. They’ll use whatever resources I decide.” Shear tossed a handgun to the ground halfway between her craft and Mak’s feet. “You’ll have the same weapon as them, but you’ll remain linked to your lady love. But the time this training bit is finished, our ride to the next base will be here. We heard from them just an hour ago. They’ll make atmosphere within three hours.”
Mak heard Molly’s sharp intake of breath though he hid his disappointment. He’d believed Pender and Box would have made it through. If Shear took him and Molly off this world, they’d be dead before General Drant could track them down if he ever could. “Do you think your men will need three hours to capture a man and a woman chained together?”
“Let us go, Helen,” Molly said. “You’re a physician. How can you be so cruel to us and those poor men you’ve destroyed?”
Shear laughed. “You’re so naïve, Molly. The only reason you’re still alive is because I know I can get Mak to do what I want with you as a hostage to his actions. As far as being cruel, I’ve treated you kindly. I could have let my men have their fun with you. I don’t care for that kind of activity but we are at the ends of the universe here. After the fiasco at the last base where one of the subjects overpowered a female technician, I staffed the facility with males only. It does make it a bit lonely for my security squadron.”
“What about the men whose minds you’ve destroyed? They’ll never be the same people again.” Molly took a step toward Shear.
“Why would they want to be the same person? They volunteered for this program to be better men, better soldiers.”
Mak pulled Molly back to his side. “They’re nothing but killers. There’s nothing about soldiering left in them.”
; Shear narrowed her eyes. “I won’t argue with something like you. My men are of human origin. All of them have a real mother and father. None of them were borne of a series of lab procedures resulting in unnaturally designed life forms.”
Molly started forward again but Mak held her back. If Shear’s reinforcements were on the way, he couldn’t afford to waste time. Stalling had been to his and Molly’s advantage when they expected General Drant would come to their rescue. Now that they were on their own, they didn’t need to buy time. They needed to kill Shear’s men. Killing all of them was their only chance.
“Tell your men to prepare, doctor. We’ll be waiting for them.” Mak held her stare, the stare of a woman of true evil.
Shear curled her lip. “They’ll take you alive. I’m nearly done with the studies of your blood but we can learn from you yet. Molly, you can join me in my research or serve only as our means to keep your marine cooperative.”
The hovercrafts returned to the hangar, leaving Mak and Molly not far from the spot where they’d first captured him. Mak waited until the enemy moved out of sight before leading Molly at a jog toward the spot where he’d left her hidden beneath the sod. “Is my backpack where I left it?”
“Yes. I didn’t see the need for it since it had no weapons.”
Each step jarred Mak’s injured ribs and bruised body though Molly’s bandages helped somewhat. He spotted the disturbed ground. Molly had settled the flap of sod over the pack though the men on the hovers should have spotted it. After they’d discovered Molly on the planet, they should have searched for her hiding place. Very incompetent security.
Mak gritted his teeth against the pain as he threw back the heavy turf and then pulled out his pack. His AI device wasn’t exactly as he’d left it. Not surprising since Molly had searched it. It powered up at his touch. A few taps later and he’d set the beacon signal he’d told Box to expect.
Molly looked around his shoulder. “Won’t Shear’s men pick that up?”
“It’s on a channel not normally used by the military, and they have no reason to believe we have the capabilities to send a signal.”
“Who do you expect to hear it?” She sounded defeated.
Mak wouldn’t lie to her. “Whoever comes looking for us will eventually come to this planet. We’ll leave them everything we know.” He handed the tablet to her. “Put in everything you have time to record. Then we’ll hide the AI and hope someone finds it before the power runs dead.”
She took the AI and then stretched up on her toes. Pulling his head down so their lips met, she gave him a quick kiss. But he didn’t let her back away. She felt so good and right against his body though it hurt all his bruises. His lips found her again, kissing her as if it would be their last. “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you better, Molly.”
“Mak.” She framed his face with her hands. “All of this is my fault. I should have recognized Helen’s duplicity. I’d started to think of her as a second mother, and all the while she was spying on me. I was duped and landed us in this trouble. And staying behind to help you has only hindered you.”
“No.” He couldn’t let her take on that guilt. “If not for your ideas, I wouldn’t have been so successful against them in the forest. We’ve cut their numbers down. Our only chance it to take out the rest of them. So, my genius doctor lover, start working on a plan.”
“Are we going to face them here?” Molly stepped out of his arms and tapped information into the AI. “I’ll just tell them we could be still alive and being used as prey in their training games at their next base.”
“We’ll move toward the stream and keep their attention away from the AI.” Mak scraped away some of the soil hanging on the roots of the sod flap. He placed it over the emitting AI when Molly finished with it. Hopefully the few inches of dirt wouldn’t inhibit the range of the device. Mak tucked and smoothed the edges. They shouldn’t see it, not with their level of competence.
Mak dug deeper into the pack. He found the soft explosives still in the bottom. Despite the consistency of the clay, the material was quite safe without a charge to set it off. “Let’s head to the stream.”
He figured they’d used about twelve minutes of their hour. He slung the pack over his shoulder so he could use both hands. Molly handed him the gun and then let her right arm go slack so he could move his with ease as hers flopped around. He needed both hands for his next task.
The pistol magazine held fifteen rounds. He ejected the shells from the gun and then he handed it back to Molly. The next part was delicate as he dabbed a small amount of the soft explosive onto each shell. Too little and it wouldn’t do the job. Too much and the gun could explode in his hand. It was delicate work to do while walking, but they needed distance from the AI.
It took another ten minutes to reload the pistol with its remodeled ammunition. Fifteen shots and every one had to count.
“What did you just do?” Molly asked.
“Made our nonlethal bullets deadly.”
“Good. I have some ideas of my own.”
Mak stopped and looked at her. She grinned at him. Even in the simple black uniform she wore, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Smart, brave and so very human. Her compassion should be a weakness but somehow it made her strong. “I love you.”
Her mouth dropped open. To Mak’s horror, her eyes filled with tears. “You shouldn’t. You should hate every doctor in my field.”
It wasn’t the reaction he’d expected though he hadn’t meant to blurt out the words that had sprang to the front of his thoughts. “Why should I hate you?”
“Because of what was done to you?”
“I don’t understand. What was done to me?”
Molly blinked away the tears, and a smile curved her lips making him want to kiss her again. “What was done to you? A group of scientists and doctors got together and designed the most wonderful, terrific man in the world.”
Mak sorted through her words, not quite sure of the meaning.
She laughed and tugged him onward. “Come on. No sense in being chained to a genius if she doesn’t come up with a great plan to save your life.”
****
Molly squatted down by the stream and tugged loose one of the fibrous vines. “I saw this near the stream where it cuts through the forest. It’s a vine that invades waterways in some galaxies. Its stems are so hard that it can’t be cut by anything less than a high-powered laser.”
Mak touched the plant and ran the strip through his fingers. He pulled on it, freeing a ten-foot long strand from the muck of the stream bank. He stood up and walked along the stream pulling up more of the vine growth.
Molly had to trail along beside him, the short chain swaying between their wrists. “Do you think you could use some of that explosive to sever the links in these shackles?” She feared her weight on the other end of that chain would get him killed.
He shook his head. “It’s too risky. Even if I judged the amount of explosive correctly enough to not blow off our hands, the shrapnel created could cause serious injury.”
“I’ll slow you down, Mak.”
“We won’t be running from them.” Mak pulled up the vine until a hundred foot section lay on the bank. He then took out a small piece of the rubbery explosive and a short matchstick from his pack. After striking the match on a nearby rock, he stuck the unlit end into the explosive. He jumped up and pulled Molly back from it.
A small, soft pop created a breath of smoke, the only evidence of the charge going off. He led her to the other end and severed it the same way. Then he wound the organic cable into loops and slung it over his shoulder.
“Do we have time to do anything with it?” Molly asked as Mak helped her across the stream.
“We have twenty three minutes left,” Mak said. “If Shear sticks to her word.”
“No reason to think she will since all she’s done is lie to us for this entire mission and for all the years I’ve known her.”
“She might.
” Mak threw the vine to the ground. “This exercise is about training her giants so I think she’ll follow the rules she set up.” He used more explosives to cut the vine into three equal lengths. His strong hands twisted the wiry plant sections to form a loop at one end.
The open plains offered little in the way of cover, but Mak used the last of his explosives to blow a hole in the ground. They settled into the shallow depression, hunkered down so their attackers would need to close in to fire upon them. Just in case they brought long-range firearms along.
Mak took the gun in his free hand, acting as if none of his injuries bothered him. Molly knew every breath would cause discomfort for his ribs. He lifted his eyebrow when he noticed her staring at him.
“We’re ready.”
Molly swept her gaze over his serious face. The bright sun turned the dark blue in his eyes to a deep violet. She dared not imagine them failing and something happening to this perfect man. She was glad he hadn’t broken the chains binding them together. At least they would die together. At least she’d had the chance to know him and love him.
Mak looked away toward the distant hangar. “They’re coming.”
Chapter Nineteen
Mak set the lassoes within easy reach. If he could swing them they might take out a few hovers. If he could make every shot count. Fifteen bullets against an unknown number of giants. And then Shear’s regular guards. He expected the enemy would wear body armor, especially after their losses in the forest. This time he had to kill instead of only disabling the big men. The only way he could save Molly was to take the lives of the entire nest of traitors, criminal and monsters.
The seven hovers approached in a spread pattern. As he’d feared Shear and her mercenary guards accompanied them on their own crafts. The doctor stayed a few hundred yards behind with her half a dozen guards on individual hovers. Mak didn’t doubt the regular guards had something more powerful in their guns than the soft ammunition of his gun.
