by Jean Kilczer
“They're forcing us to keep our heads down,” I said. “It's no use, Chance.”
He took a deep breath and looked at the sky. “I'll see you in the next lifebind.”
“I hope so.”
“Throw out your weapons,” a merc called, “and come out. We won't harm you.”
“Eat shit,” Chancey yelled, “and die, mother fucker!”
If there weren't so many of them, I could've tried a tel probe. But I guess they knew that, and that's why there were so many of them.
Chancey pointed his stingler at me. “C'mon, man,” his voice shook, “on the count of three. I'll do you…and you do me.”
I raised my weapon. I was shaking so badly, I was afraid I'd drop it.
Chancey smiled his crooked smile. “Don't miss.”
I forced a smile. “OK.”
“One,” Chancey said.
I heard the high whine of the lifeboat as it rolled out from under the ridge and approached us.
“Huff!” I cried. “I didn't know he could drive it.”
The boat ran an erratic path, bouncing off rocks and skinning trees.
“C'mon, Chance.” I got up and ran for the boat, staying low.
The hatch swung open, the boat stayed between me and the hovair.
“Wait, Jules!” Chancey called.
I grabbed the hatch, swung inside and rolled onto the deck. “Huff!” I cried.
“Not exactly, Rammis.” Big Mack kicked the stingler from my hand. “You bastard!”
I tried to cover my head as he swung his stingler at me. But not in time. My head exploded with pain. I heard myself moan as I rolled and tried to get up.
“We got the crotefucker,” Mack said as I fell back, into a void that was a small death
Chapter Eleven
“The way I see it,” Big Mack chewed a wet cigar, “you've got two choices, Rammis. Behind door one, join my band of merry men, tell us where those filthy orangutans are holed up and convince them that we got disgusted and left, and they can come out of hiding.” He inhaled and blew smoke. His black speckled beard was encrusted with tobacco juice. “We all walk away with our pockets jingling, so to speak.” He tapped ashes on the bunk I lay on in the Sword of Terror starship.
I glanced around and was relieved. Six mercs lounged in the main deck with us, but Chancey and Huff weren't among them.
I touched my left temple. It was swollen and sticky with blood. A knife of pain kept slicing through my head. I didn't know if I could sit up without falling over.
“Or,” Big Mack said and wiped a hand through his mass of tangled black hair, “you could choose door two.” He shrugged. “Refuse to help your fellow Terrans and side with that pack of smelly animals.” He glanced at his scruffy men. “We've got a job to do, right, tags?”
They nodded and grunted.
Speaking of animals, I thought.
Mack leaned over the bunk. “And we know how to deal with traitors.”
I held my breath as the full strength of tobacco assaulted my nostrils. He flicked hot ashes on my jacket. I quickly brushed them off.
“Quirrel,” he called to the tall, curly-haired tag I had met in the cafeteria, “a cup of earthbrew.”
“Yes, boss.” Quirrel hurried to the sous chef and pressed a heating button. Soon, the aroma of freshly-brewed coffee filled the room.
“You see, Rammis,” Mack said, “if you were with us, you'd join us in a cup of brew, or something stronger, if you preferred.”
Quirrel smiled at me and nodded encouragingly. His chin receded into his neck.
I looked around. There, on one wall, was the SPS unit. Its red light was on. It was functional and ready to receive and send.
I felt the ship lower and touch down. It taxied, stopped, and the engines died.
“Think about it, Rammis.” Mack extended the cup to me.
I pulled myself to a sitting position and took it. He grabbed my wrist and crushed out his cigar in the coffee.
“But not for too long,” he said. “Thing is, I'm just a little pissed at the creds I paid Tryst for your tel services.” He sat on the edge of the bunk, so close I had to move over. “I almost wish you'd choose door two so I could personally squeeze the information out of you. I told you once before, we could have you screaming for death.”
“I told you,” I said, “I could use the death probe on you, and then myself, before your scuds could take a step. We'd hold hands, big guy, on our way to Hell.”
He leaned away from me. “You figure you're holding a strong hand? I'll see your bet, and raise you. Tempest!” he called to one of his crew, “bring in those two blue chips.”
“You got it, boss.” A beefy bald tag with tattoos and a torn left earlobe went into the pilot's cabin.
“Oh no,” I whispered as he returned gripping Chancey's arm in one hand and a leash from a collar around Huff's neck in the other. Chancey's left eye was swollen shut and his lip was cut. His hands were tied behind him and he staggered as he walked. Huff's snout was muzzled, his legs shackled, forcing him to walk on all fours.
Mack leaned against the wall. “I'd call this a full house. Can you beat my hand, Rammis?”
A deep anger began in me as I stared at Chancey and Huff.
“About that death probe.” Mack lit another cigar and puffed it to life. “If we cash in our chips, I'm afraid they do too. Get up, Rammis,” Mack ordered as one of the crew sprang the main hatch. “We're back at the base.” He stood up. “I'll give you some time to consider your hand. Let me know which cards you decide to play.” He strolled to the hatch. “But don't take too long, or your house of cards might fall on your head.” He waved his cigar and chuckled. “I like that.”
His men glanced at each other and smiled tightly.
* * *
We were taken to a cell. Chancey and Huff were unshackled, and we were left alone.
I gingerly washed my face in the small bathroom and used a wet towel to wipe the blood off Chancey's forehead. “How you feeling, Chance?”
“Like shit. You?”
I nodded.
“Huff.” I sat on the lower bunk and extended my hand.
He shuffled over and sat beside me.
I stroked his shoulder. “They got you, too, buddy.”
“I swam to the surface,” he said, “to help you if I could. There they were, waiting for me.”
“I'm sorry,” I said.
He laid his head on my knee. “We stand on the brink of The Pit, my Terran cub. I have prayed to the Ten Gods of Land and Sea to take our paws in their love and hold us. But the souls in the Nether call to us, and even the gods have no power over the Death Call.” He whined, lifted his head and howled a long sad peal.
“Huff,” I said, “this cell is bugged. There might be cameras, too. Don't say anything about the Orghe people, OK?”
“My snout is muzzled.”
Chancey and I dared not talk about possible escape plans, and there was nothing to write with, short of opening a vein.
I heard footsteps approach from down the hall and glanced at Chancey and Huff. “Maybe they're bringing supper.”
Chancey nodded. “Maybe.”
We stood up as six mercs stopped at the barred door of our cell.
“Big Mack wants to see you,” Tempest said to me and unlocked the door. It creaked open.
Huff reared up to his full seven feet. “I am also coming too with my cub,” he told Tempest.
I patted his arm. “No, Huff. Stay here.”
“Take this.” Chancey handed me my jacket and I put it on. We stared at each other for a moment. Then I turned and walked out, surrounded by the mercs. I tried to put on a good act, but the butterflies in my stomach grew steel wings and battered at my heart.
Big Mack lounged behind a desk on a platform, with a halo of cigar smoke around his head. The bare window behind him streamed rays of light where dust particles danced, and kept his face in shadow. An odor of wet cement permeated the stark, cinder-block walls of
a room so tomb-like, it felt as though all warmth had been sucked out. Boots echoed on the concrete floor as the mercs led me inside.
Tempest nodded to a chair set in the middle of the room. I zipped my jacket and went to it. The mercs lined up so close behind me I could smell their sweaty uniforms.
It was a scene calculated to scare the living hell out of me. And it was succeeding nicely.
“Have you thought about the hand you want to play?” Mack asked me.
“I need more time.”
“You haven't got it.” He blew smoke. “Now it's time to lay down your cards.”
“This is a big decision. I need time to think.” I lowered my head, closed my eyes and formed a red coil in my mind. Perhaps I could influence just his mind to comply and give me more time. Time to come up with an escape plan. Time for the Orghes to find another hideout.
Something jabbed my back and a bolt of electricity burned through me. I screamed and would have fallen but someone gripped my arms.
“Enough time to use your tel power, Rammis?” Mack said.
I was held in the chair, trembling and feeling weak. I closed my eyes and pictured the community of Orghes. If they were smart, and heeded Joe's advice, they would leave those sandstone cliffs and take refuge far from there. But could I be certain? It had only been a few hours since our capture. They might still be on the road, traveling to a distant sanctuary.
“Please don't do that again,” I whispered.
“Why not?” Mack said.
“I'll help you…but I, I feel sick. I need a day.”
He leaned forward on the desk. “Do you take me for a fool? What you want,” he jabbed his cigar toward me, “is to give your furry friends time to escape to somewhere else on the island.”
“The island isn't that big,” I said. “Where would they go?”
“Someplace where me and my tags would have to pry them loose.” He sat back. “I'm being paid a fixed amount by the colonists. Time is creds, Rammis. Goddammit! I already spent too much of it on you.” He kicked back his chair, came around the desk and stood close to me. He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back. “I'm getting tired of your fucking games.” He flicked ashes off his cigar till it glowed red hot. “Hold him.”
“No, wait!” I gasped as I was pinned to the chair.
“Wait for what?” Mack unzipped my jacket and tore buttons off the top of my shirt. “We know where they are, somewhere inside the caves. But the bastards have spears, and they're probably just waiting for us to go in after them.”
He held the cigar close to my chest. I pressed back against the chair and dragged in breaths. My stomach was in such knots I was afraid I'd throw up.
“Only you can persuade them that it's safe to come out into the open.” He held the cigar near my skin. I could feel the heat.
“Please don't,” I squeezed out.
“You will persuade them to come out, you bastard!” He ground the cigar into my chest and held it there.
I screamed as pain burst through my body, and fought to break free. “Oh, God,” I moaned and let my head hang. Great mind. Help me.
We felt your pain, Spirit sent, Silva and I. We are sorry, Jules.
Big Mack took another cigar from a pack in his pocket, lit it, and puffed it to life.
I began to tremble again and couldn't stop. I formed a coil, spun it faster, threw my remaining strength into the power of a death probe, though it tore at my brain with heat, and clenched my teeth as I prepared to throw it at Big Mack, to slice his brainstem like cutting through butter. Then the chips could fall where they may.
Not yet, Jules! Spirit sent.
I'm going to kill the bastard!
We can force him to give you the time you need.
I watched the cigar glow red. OK … how? Quick!
I felt Spirit probe inside my head and opened myself to his link. He blocked the nerves to my brain and suddenly there was no pain. I sighed with relief. He went deeper and drained energy from my body. If they hadn't been holding me, I would have fallen.
Now they must give you time, Jules. That was Silva. By tomorrow, your strength will return. Use this gift of time wisely.
I will. Thank you. I will.
“Stand him up,” Mack said.
The mercs lifted me to my feet, but I couldn't stand by myself.
“Let him go,” Big Mack said disgustedly. “He's bullshitting us!”
They let me go and I fell. My arms, my legs, were lead. There was no use trying to get up.
Someone drew back my eyelid. I tried to brush his hand away.
“He's not fooling,” I heard. “Shock.”
“Son of a bitch!” Big Mack kicked my thigh.
I was lifted and slung over somebody's shoulder. There was pressure on my stomach as I was carried back to the cell. I heard the metal door creak open.
Huff howled.
“Stay there, Huff!” Chancey said.
I was dumped onto a bunk. The door clanged shut.
“Jesus and Vishnu,” Chancey murmured and pulled aside my shirt, “what the hell did they do to you?”
“Don't touch it,” I whispered. “I'm OK.”
“Oh, sure you are, man.”
Huff whimpered and laid his head across my legs.
“I need to sleep.” I closed my eyes and sighed. “I just need to sleep.”
Chapter Twelve
Night.
“I wonder where they're holding our guys, Joe?” Bat asked me as we crouched behind the mercs' base fence. “You got any ideas, boss?”
“Let's hope they're still being held,” I told him.
We waited for Oldore to shake a high branch as a signal that his fighters had climbed to their positions in trees and were all in place. Female Orghes and children held the draks beyond the perimeters. The Sword of Terror sat on her pad, lit only by the ruddy moon.
“Our primary mission, Bat, is still to get a message out to my contacts at WCIA and ask for help. The Orghes' mission is to confiscate as many weapons as possible. If we both succeed,” I scratched my bristly beard, “we go looking for the rest of our team.”
I stared at the lit tents on the other side of the fence. Jules was my granddaughter's biological father. Every time I looked at him, I saw Lisa's face. He was like a son to me, but too damn reckless for his own good.
Bat and I had watched from a sandstone cave with the Orghes as Jules jumped into the taxiing lifeboat. Did he think Huff was driving? Did he ever think?
Then Chancey was taken by mercs and brought to Sword, and Jules was carried there.
I shifted position as my right knee began to ache. Huff was dragged, wet, thrashing, and whining, from the pond. They could all be dead by now. I rubbed my eyes. My back ached and I was already weary from the day. I pictured my wife Abby's smiling face, and wished I were home with her, sitting in our den before a warm fire, sipping hot toddies, though I preferred gin and tonic.
Dammit! I should have been there when she was recovering in the hospital. I made a fist, then let it open. But I'd been a prisoner of the pirates on planet Charis. I hated them almost as much as I hated these ruthless scuds, hired to wipe out an entire race of aliens. I shouldn't have been taken so easily from my own home, and dragged off into a spaceship, while Abby was beaten down to the floor! Twenty years ago I would've put up a better fight. “We'll give these bastards a run for their money!” I whispered.
“What, Joe?” Bat asked.
I shook my head.
“Look!” he whispered.
A tall branch of a towering conifer was shaking.
“That's the signal,” I said and felt my right knee creak as I stood up. "Let's go.
Chapter Thirteen
“Jules!” Chancey pulled on my arm. “Wake up.”
“Is it morning?” My stomach was growling. “I think I missed supper.”
The barred window showed night.
“C'mon, get up. Joe and Bat are here.”
“They were captured too?
”
“They've come to rescue us.”
“OK. But later, Chance. I'm too tired.”
He put his hand behind my neck, pulled me up and dragged me to my feet. “Get up, damn you.”
I slid into a chair by the small table and rested my head on my arms.
Huff put a forearm around my chest and pulled me to the barred door. “You must wait here. We are not safe under the roof.”
“What's wrong with the roof?” I watched Chancey run a heavy cable through the window bars and back out again.
“Got it, Joe?” he asked.
Huff propped me against the door bars. “It might fall when we are rescued.”
“I'm so tired, Huff.” I leaned against him. “Can't we let the roof fall later?”
“I have prayed for rescue, my Terran cub. You should not resist a gift of the gods.”
“OK.” I started to slump. Huff held me up.
Terran Jules.
That you, Spirit?
It is I, and Silva.
You know, I like her. You made a nice wife for yourself. I felt his probe in my mind. What're you looking for? Maybe I can help.
The switch, in your high-tech terms.
Oh… Don't shut off my brain! I need it.
Sometimes I wonder for what.
I felt a rush of energy wash through me. My muscles strengthened. My back straightened. Suddenly, I could focus, and my hearing sharpened.
There were shouts and flashes of blue light from outside.
“Get back!” That was Joe's voice.
“Cover your heads!” Chancey ran to the barred wall. “Go, boss!”
The whine of a land vehicle. The window bars creaked, then burst outward. I covered my head as the roof crashed down with a roar that left my ears ringing. Huff threw me to the floor and covered my body with his. He moaned as chunks of concrete bounced off his back.
I squinted up through rising dust. Where there had been the glare of a bare bulb on a dark ceiling, now there was a pale moon and stars. That's an improvement, I thought.
I stood up. So did Huff and Chancey. Beyond a pile of rubble, two dark figures waited in a jeep. I recognized Joe and Bat. “C'mon, Huff,” I said, “we're being rescued.”
He followed me and Chancey, slipping and sliding on all fours through the rubble. “That is what I tried to say, but you do not always listen. You make my liver ache!”
