Sabin, A Seven Novel

by A. M. Hargrove

  Edge taps my arm. I was so enmeshed in my thoughts I didn’t sense his approach. “The explorer’s back. She’s not with the Shaurok in the Andromeda system.”

  “Fuck. That means the Mastermind has her.” I march into the sec center. All eyes focus on me.

  Verus says, “Edge told you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Now what?”

  “We establish our next move. The Mastermind must have taken her. Sent his minions to get her,” I say. “I want all heads together on this to come up with the best plan, and that includes Touhurandrun, Druh’ahan, and Hrennuan.”

  As we wait for all the men to gather, Verus, who stands at one of the complinks, yells, “Sabin, take a look at this. We have something coming in.”

  “Put it up on all links.”

  Verus’ voice is shaky when he says, “It’s not …”

  “I don’t have time for this, Verus,” I clip. I’m more interested in getting this plan to rescue Serena underway.

  “No, Sabin, I can’t do that.”

  It’s his voice that grabs my attention and takes me to the screen at which he stands.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Goddammit!” Serena is on the floor, naked, and filthy. Her hair is matted and splayed behind her. But that’s not what kills me. It’s her vacant eyes. She’s lost somewhere and as I look at her, I question if I’ll ever get her mind and spirit back.

  In a shaky voice, I say, “What are his demands?”

  “Paradox.”

  My hands fist in my hair. Edge and Verus pull me away from the complink and it’s only then I realize I’m screaming.

  ~~~~~

  “I’m going after her,” Rafe says. “It’s my fault he has her, therefore it’s my responsibility to bring her back.”

  All the men object at once. I command them to silence.

  “It’s a recipe for failure. One man cannot attempt a rescue alone.”

  “That’s exactly why it will work. They won’t expect it,” Rafe insists.

  “And you’ll be killed instantly,” I say. “While I’m not inclined to disagree that this is your fault, I will not have your blood on my hands. The answer is no. He wants me, because I have Paradox. He must’ve gained access to all of her mind with his infiltration of her brain, so let’s assume he knows everything Serena knows. That means he has a rudimentary knowledge of what’s happening with Paradox and where we are moving it. Keep in mind, however, that Serena doesn’t have the spatial knowledge of where my home is, nor does she know the true names of things. He may not really know everything … only bits and pieces.”

  Rafe rubs his chin, and then says, “You may not want to hear this and I hate to bring this up, but that may not work to our advantage. If he thinks he can use Serena as a pawn, but then find that she doesn’t have what he needs, he may call it quits and … well, you know the outcome to that.”

  “Then I need all of your best thoughts now. No fucking around here. We don’t have time to waste.”

  Edge says, “I took the liberty of launching an explorer already. I wanted to find out where she was. I tagged it with her DNA and put a tracer on it. We should hear something any time now.”

  “That’s good, but we now know where she is.” I turn to Rafe and say, “The last time we met with the Mastermind, it was ugly. We breached his security. What are the chances we do it again?”

  Rafe shakes his head, “Not like that. He’ll be ready. He’s ready now.”

  Edge jumps up. “What if we create a disturbance somewhere else?”

  “Like where?”

  “Where all the Shaurok are?”

  “How will that help?” I ask.

  Edge says, “Maybe it’ll draw him out.”

  “He never leaves. That’s why he has his minions,” I say. “And he has everything he needs so he has no reason to.”

  “He must have some kind of weakness,” Edge insists.

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t leave his domain, so we don’t know what it is.”

  Helios, always the quietest of the group, says in a firm voice, “We create a duplicate. A dummy. And take it to him.”

  Edge bounces on his toes. Always the youth. “Like we talked about for Judgment Day!”

  “He’s never seen Paradox, never laid eyes on it,” Rafe says. “He won’t know the difference until we’re gone.”

  “It’s a gamble.”

  Rafe looks at me and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Some gambles are worth taking. This is one of them, Sabin. I’m willing to lay my life down for it. Besides, it’s our only viable option.”

  “Pull up everything we have on Paradox and let’s make this happen,” I say.

  In less than twenty-four Earth hours, we have our Paradox reproduction. It passes every test we put it through. The only one it can’t possibly pass is the final one, that being the attachment of Judgment Day and the activation of it.

  All the men stand and look at it. It’s a damn good replica. But now what?

  “Ideas?” I ask.

  “We go in under cover, all except for you and one other. You two take in Paradox. While you’re handing it over, we get Serena.” Rafe suggests this.

  “That’s what he’ll expect. I think we need to negotiate right up front. No Serena, no Paradox.”

  “Don’t forget she needs to be suited up for intergalactic travel,” Helios says.

  “True. Or we could use the good, old fashioned way,” Drey says.

  “A suit?” Edge asks. “Do we even have any of those and wouldn’t it take just as long to put her in one?”

  “Can we refocus here? We need to get to her first,” I rein them in. “Verus, is there any way you can disable their security?”

  “Don’t know yet. The explorer may be able to tell me more.”

  “If it can’t be disabled, we can trick it,” Edge offers up.

  “How?”

  Edge face lights up in one of his boyish grins. “I can release a series of masked MSI invaders that can decode and then reestablish a new series of encryption before they know what hit them. They’ll think they’re running their own security, but it’ll be us behind the scenes.”

  I want to slap the shit out of him right now. “And how did I not know you could do this, too?” My teeth are about to crack between the pressure of my jaws.

  “It hasn’t been necessary up until now.”

  “The fuck it hasn’t!” I reach out to smack him, but then retract. I really need to stop this shit. Edge is a highly valued member of this team even though his actions are sometimes that of a young kid. He’s only trying to help and in his excitement, he acts silly at times. “Edge, don’t ever hold back any of your tech knowledge again. Am I clear on this? Even if you think it’s unnecessary?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He looks contrite. That’s not what I’m going for here. “Look, you are brilliant—so much so you blow my ass away. I need your head in the game at all times. I want your opinions, whether or not you think I need them. I just don’t want to miss anything. Sound good?”

  “Got it, boss!” he says with a huge grin. “You still gonna give me a hard time?”

  “You want me to?”

  “Yeah.” He laughs.

  Now I smack him. “Then get your ass to work on this.” The boy is back.

  Six hours later, Edge announces he has his MSIs in place and they’re making things happen. Fear grips me as I let myself think about failure. I’ve refused to go down that road until now, but my exhaustion is catching up with me.

  “Sabin, go and rest. We can handle the communication with him when we’re ready,” Rafe says.

  “No, I’ll do it now. Edge, how much more time will you need?”

  “Three to four hours and we should be set.”

  “I want to set up a transmission on the complink that we are preparing to retrieve Paradox and travel. We need a destination point. Our request needs to look credible,” I tell Verus.

  “Give me a second. Okay, I’m ready for you.”r />
  I hail the Mastermind and give him the information we decided upon. Moments later, a sequence of coordinates pops up on our complink.

  “Are those accurate, Verus?” I ask.

  Verus’ fingers fly over the glass screen and answer in the affirmative. “So far so good,” he says.

  “Then he’s buying it.”

  Verus nods, saying, “Appears so.”

  “Let’s work up our strategy.” Reluctantly, I look to Rafe. He’s one of the best when it comes to this. “Rafe?”

  With raised brows he says, “You and Helios go in as the front. Demand Serena for Paradox and don’t make the exchange until you have her. Let Helios prepare her for travel before you hand off Paradox. He won’t like it, but don’t budge on this. We’ll be inside by then, unhinging their security, because we control it. Maybe with your delay, we can locate Judgment Day, too. Even if you have to get out of there before we do, we can still try to locate it.”

  “No, absolutely not. As soon as we’re clear, you get the hell out. Once he finds out we duped him, he’ll send everything he’s got after us.”

  Edge starts laughing. Hard.

  “What’s so damn funny?” I ask.

  Edge wipes his eyes. “I’ll lock them down.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We control their security, yeah?”

  “Yes.”

  Edge laughs again and now Verus joins in. Either I’m a dumbass or I’m extremely tired.

  “If we control their security, we can prevent them from leaving. We lock them down. They can’t follow us because they won’t be able to,” Edge explains.

  For the first time in days, I smile. “I still want you to get the hell out— Judgment Day or no. Our goal on this mission is Serena and no other. Are we clear on this?”

  I hear a resounding, “Yes,” from all.

  “Good. So, what’s the final plan? Helios and I know our deal. What about the rest of you? And don’t forget the Mastermind is not stupid. He may not see you, but he will sense your presence.”

  “True,” Edge pipes in, “but he will probably figure we’ll be in the room, or near you. He’ll know you won’t travel with only one other.”

  “Fair point, Edge.”

  We finalize everything. Serena’s guards will stay close to me and assist with her rescue. As soon as she’s back in our custody, they’ll prevent anything from getting close to her or us. Helios is responsible for getting her prepared for travel and I will probably be useless as fuck.

  The others will invade the Mastermind’s domain in an effort to locate Judgment Day. If they can’t find it in the time we have, they abandon the operation.

  We rest one day before we leave. Rafe and Verus insist I program my MSI for a sleeping aid. It’s an all out battle but they win. Their logic is sound. And what if they’re right? What if I do fuck up and ruin everything? Serena could die because of it. That day I sleep twelve hours without interruption. While I sleep, the men begin the evacuation of the headquarters. We cannot return here, as this place has been compromised.

  The next day, we sit and eat together before we go. “I want to thank each of you for your hard work and participation in this. I know if Serena were sitting here, she would be honored and humbled by all of this.” And it’s true. “My hope is that she can personally thank each of you in the next day or so.”

  All the men murmur and look a bit shy. I don’t care. I’m not sure how I would get her back without them.

  At this time, Rafe stands and says, “I would like to offer my formal apology to each of you. You’re putting your lives on the line because of me and for that, I’m terribly sorry. I intend to apologize to Serena as soon as she’s back here, as well.”

  The men nod and continue eating. When we’re finished, I say, “I guess it’s time to finish with our packing up here and then we suit up. We all have our jobs to do so let’s get to it. Keep in mind, when we get within their scanners, we go dark and silent, except for Helios and me.”

  We’re walking through the sec center when Verus announces another transmission is coming through.

  “From where?”

  “Not sure. Let me put it on the main system.”

  When it comes up, I squint as I watch. It’s a woman, small in stature, human, blonde, and like Serena, dirty and naked on the floor of a room.

  “Who is it?” I ask.

  “Don’t know.”

  “Open up the line to him.”

  Verus does as I request and we discover who the woman is. It’s Melody Hampton, a friend of Serena’s from Beaufort. The bastard plucked her from Earth as collateral to make sure we stuck to our end of the bargain. This just added a huge kink to our plans.

  “What do we do?” Rafe asks.

  My brain spins with this piece of news. “Edge. Quick. We need the schematics of that fucker’s hide out. We need to know exactly where this room is.”

  Edge runs over to one of the complinks and his fingers slide over the glass so fast even I can’t follow. Immediately, images pop up on the screen. He moves them around until he finds what he seeks. “Here. This is where the human is.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” he answers. “You see this? Check out the image. It’s a match. And the MSI on the explorer verifies it. I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t absolutely sure.”

  “Okay. I need someone to get in and grab her. Leaving her behind is not an option. Drey, you’re on this. Let’s make our final preparations and get out of here. I’m going to make sure Zatere is up to date on everything. The rest of you, get ready to leave.”

  While they make the preparations for all our equipment to be returned home, I talk with Zatere. He needs to be prepared for the fallout.

  “There is a leak somewhere. I am sure of it. Whatever you do, keep this information tight, but I want protection halfway between the Mastermind and Nyan’trua.”

  “You’ll have it. Good luck.”

  I sign off and join the men as we ready ourselves for the journey.

  “Okay, we all have our duties. Does anyone have any questions?”

  All are silent.

  “Then let’s do this.”

  Our ETA is two point five Earth hours. Usually when we travel, the men talk. This time we are silent. I suppose they are worried about the success of this mission. I am worried about Serena’s sanity. The Mastermind has the ability to do that.

  “Rafe, do you think MSI will be able to save her?”

  “I don’t know, Sabin. We’ve never dealt with his aftermath before in a human.”

  I ask Verus the same thing. “It’s my belief it can. MSI can do a whole lot, Sabin. The little buggers can get in there and knock out all kinds of invaders.”

  “I know that, but what about the damage that’s already incurred?”

  Verus looks away and that’s enough of an answer for me. I’m not sure what I will do if Serena won’t come back to me … if I have a shell of her without her true self. My heart clangs against my ribs to the point that it reverberates in my ears. Pushing those thoughts away, I concentrate on the mission. I must focus on this and not the other, because I will crumble if I do.

  Edge moves next to me and says, “We’ll get her back. And I’ll stop at nothing until she is the old Serena, Sabin. I promise.”

  Our journey is uneventful, and when we near our destination, my trepidation spikes. Again, I push it down. The Mastermind cannot know he has the upper hand here.

  “Remember to keep all mind blocks in place. This is one powerful motherfucker. Make sure your MSI is on full load everyone. And in about two minutes, only Helios and I will converse. The rest of you go silent and transparent. Good luck everyone.”

  I hear murmuring and they fade into the blackness of space.

  Helios and I arrive at our destination and are escorted to the bastard himself. I’ve only seen him one other time, and it was under less than ideal circumstances. It was when we invaded his little empire and two of my
men died. That will not happen this time. I act like I’m a newbie here, because we were transparent and he doesn’t know for sure it was us. He suspects, but I’m not giving up that information, now or ever.

  “Welcome.”

  Welcome, my ass.

  “I have what you want. Bring me what I want.” My voice cracks like a whip.

  His head twists at an odd angle and those fucking eyes of his look at me as though to say, I have the power here, dude. Like I don’t know that. But I’m no pussy and I’m not bowing down to him.

  “Show me.”

  His voice stings my ears and I want to cover them. But I don’t. I refuse to let him see his effect on me.

  “Not until you bring me the girl. A fair trade, wouldn’t you say?”

  Our eyes gouge each other’s, painfully. Again, I want to cringe, but I don’t. Two Shaurok flank him and he finally flicks his head. One of them scrambles away. My eyes don’t leave his for one second. I sense motion and Helios moves away from me. At least he does until that bastard tells him to stop.

  “Your man. Tell him to stay away. You can look, but you cannot touch her.”

  Now I take my eyes off him and what a relief I feel. But it’s only for a second, because when I see Serena, I want to die. The Shaurok drag her by her arms. She is lifeless. Filthy, with matted hair, she appears dead. At least the bastard dressed her.

  “She is not alive, as you promised,” I seethe. “This deal is off.”

  “Serena Callahan lives. See for yourself.” He snaps his fingers and she lifts her head and then crawls toward him. It sickens me to see what he’s done to her.

  “As you see, she lives.”

  “Release her from your spell.”

  “Show me Paradox.”

  “Helios, get Serena.”

  He holds out his hand. “Not so quickly,” the Mastermind says. “It appears we are at a standoff.”

  “It seems we are.” I cross my arms over my chest. I won’t back down. If I give him what he wants before we have Serena, we may all die. “Give the girl to my man here, I’ll give you Paradox, and we’ll be on our way.”