We walked down a series of steps into the woods and followed a path. There were no other humans around, and Ussilla stripped naked. She handed her clothes to Zen to carry, then headed off in a run on all fours. We ran to keep up with her. Ussilla snatched up a chipmunk and broke its neck. Then she swallowed the whole twitching corpse. She ran again, and we chased after. We crisscrossed the entire preserve a few times. Ussilla ran and ran. The sun started to set, and I was getting pretty hungry.
Ussilla got dressed, and we returned to the palace. Zen and I grilled steaks for all of us, while Ussilla and Archangel prepared French fries, salad, and diced fruit. I hadn't gone that long without food in ages, and I pigged out.
Mathew rejoined us after dinner. Ussilla went for a swim in the evening time. I stood guard. She swam to the edge of the pool. "Today was wonderful," she said.
My Ussilla loved the woods. "I did it for you, so you would know there was some beauty in our world."
"You're beautiful," she said.
"Thank you."
"You know male Chor'Tan are stupid animals?"
I did know that from classes. Their brains were simply not as evolved as the female of their species. At best, they could hunt for themselves and breed, but most language skills were beyond them.
"I read about it," I said.
"And you know that's why we help mankind?"
"I never knew that."
"We hope to someday mix our two species into one sentient species."
Not my problem. "I thought offspring between Chor'Tan and human are mules? They can't procreate."
She tapped her fingers along the edge of the pool. "That's what the books say."
What did my heart say? Had Ussilla been lying to me? Were the books lying? I asked, "What's the truth?"
"There have only been three egg-families born of Chor'Tan and Human crossed. With only three, who knows?"
She wanted my seed. I could see it in her eyes and in her words, getting a boner. Why me though? Why not grab any old male off the street?
"What about Archangel? RedCat? Mathew?" I asked.
"Archangel is religious. He would expect rights to the children. Mathew is married. RedCat might as well be married."
"I might as well be married."
"To my sister, which makes you a prime candidate in Chor'Tan eyes."
This was all too much for me. I didn't want to be a Chor'Tan plaything. I wanted a normal relationship where I was sleeping with somebody I loved, not spreading my seed to who knows where across the galaxy. Although, a part of me did want to spread my seed far and wide.
A siren sounded, loud and clear. Mathew's voice sounded across the intercom. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"
Chapter Fifteen
"RedCat and Zen, cover the front entrance," Mathew shouted. "Archangel, cover the rear. Bear, you're with me. We need to get Ussilla to the safe room."
I grabbed Ussilla's left hand. She had her blast rifle in the right. We ran. The top floor was empty. Mathew pointed down a hallway. "In there."
Ussilla let out a strong hiss. "Chor'Tan don't like rooms with only one way out."
"Damn it all, woman!"
She slapped him across the mouth, hard enough that blood flowed.
"We're going to die," Mathew said.
I held my stunner tight and watched down the hallway.
"And if we're going to die, I've got something to tell you, Bear," Mathew said.
My ears perked up at what this piece of near death wisdom would be.
He pointed a rigid index finger at my chest. "You... Are… A… Pussy."
I stopped watching the hallway and looked him in the eyes.
"Yes, I trained a damn pussy," he said.
"I'm not a pussy!" I shouted.
"I don't know this word, pussy," Ussilla said.
Mathew turned to look at her. "It's the female sex organ, and I trained one."
"Oh yes, he is that."
"Hey!" I said.
Mathew spit on me as he said the next words. "You have a perfectly good piece of ass right there, and you said no. Chor'Tan bitches don't love you, Bear. They're incapable of loving anybody not in their hatchling group."
"Sor'Tan," Ussilla said.
"What?" I asked.
"Sor'Tan, our hatchling groups are called a Sor'Tan."
There was movement out of the corner of my eye, and my stunner was quick to cut them down. Mathew stunned a couple coming from the other direction. We secured their wrists with zip ties quickly. "I'm not a pussy!" I shouted.
"What are you then?" Mathew asked.
"It's not wrong of me to want to be in a relationship with just one person!"
"With a Chor'Tan, it is," Ussilla said.
"They keep their males in cages," Mathew said. "They're no smarter than an Earth crocodile or alligator."
"Of all the alien species, Humans are closest to us to allow us the possibility of truly evolving. Of creating a male of our species that it would be possible to love."
Movement, down the hallway, and I started blasting. A gunshot rang out. Ussilla fired off a few bolts from her rifle. I looked to Mathew. He held his hand on his neck and was falling down. I tried to apply pressure, but there was too much blood. I grabbed an emergency bandage out of my pocket and applied it. It held the blood in, but there was too much internal bleeding. His hand ended up in my hands, and he had me in a death grip. A massive groan escaped his lips as if he was trying to give it one last battle, then his hand went limp. I stood up. My hands were covered in blood. I tossed my stunner aside. I stole three magazines from Mathew.
I put a bullet in every one of Centurian's men in that hallway. "We've got to keep moving!" I ran down the hall, and Ussilla followed. We raced downstairs. At the landing, I looked, and three men with machine guns were facing the other way. I shot all three of them in the back. We descended two more flights of stairs. Heading for the front entrance, we ran into a pile of zip tied men. RedCat was crouched behind a fern. He saw us. "Where's your stunner?"
"It malfunctioned," I said.
He tossed his to the side and drew his pistol. "So did mine."
"We patrol. We keep moving."
"Zen's around here somewhere."
A security terminal sat in one corner of the room. I typed in the password and accessed all the cameras. Zen was putting zip ties on stunned people in a hallway on the second floor. Archangel was out back, and he had his rifle out, and not the kind that stuns. I hit broadcast on the security system, "Mathew is dead." Not before he called me a pussy though. "Meet up at the pool."
Some of Centurian's men overheard my broadcast, and we killed them on the way to the pool. We spent about an hour sweeping the grounds, then called in the meat wagons from the army base.
I grabbed Ussilla's hand and pulled her in close. She kissed me. I picked her up by the midsection and carried her to one of the bedrooms. Screwed the hell out of her. I'm not a damn pussy.
Chapter Sixteen
We were sitting around the pool after breakfast when the security monitor started beeping. It signified a secure message from Nancy. Mathew's replacement was on his way, and they were sending a car to pick up Bear. Wait, that's me. Why are they sending a car to pick me up? I reread the message. It didn't give any details.
I opened up a channel to Nancy. "Why are they picking me up?"
Nancy let out a little sigh. "You disobeyed orders. You executed seven of Centurian's men who were tied up and secure."
My mouth dropped open. We had to keep moving and couldn't watch over those men. A simple pocket knife would cut through those zip ties, and they'd have to be stunned again. I said all that to Nancy.
"Tell it to the inquisition," she said.
They were actually calling it an inquisition? What? Ussilla leaned into my ear and whispered, "We might have time."
I pushed her away. My brain wasn't functioning at full capacity, and the last thing on my mind was sex. I cried out, "AAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!"
&
nbsp; Everybody left me alone. I sat there in a recliner by the pool. My thoughts wandered to how much time did I have? I said screw it and stripped down to my boxers. Climbing in the whirlpool, I noticed a man from the Agency approaching. He was a teacher I had never met, but I knew his name was Thomas. He had jet black hair with hints of grey and broad shoulders. Definitely thin and fit for his age. Mathew's replacement for sure. Behind him were two guards wearing body armor. Those would be the men coming for me. I spent a moment in the pool then climbed out. No towel or nothing, and the look on the guards face was stern enough to make me think they didn't want to wait while I dried off in the sun.
"Get dressed," Thomas said.
I put my clothes back on. One of the guards said, "Let's go."
The thought crossed into my mind that I could draw on those three and gun them down. I didn't have to take their shit. "I'm coming," I said.
We marched to a vehicle and sped off. It was a two hour drive to the Agency. The guards escorted me to my room. Sitting down at the terminal, I wondered what my schedule would be like. Classes would be viewable from my room. Two hours a day of exercise would be allowed. No visitors. I could email Nancy or a Mister Minos, my lawyer, but nobody else.
My email to Nancy, "I didn't do anything wrong. How do these inquisitions work?"
To Minos, "What is going to happen to me? Worst case scenario?"
Nancy emailed me back. "The inquisition will meet for two hours a day indefinitely. If they need your opinion on something, they'll contact you in your room. You're restricted to quarters."
This was a raw deal. This was bullshit. They weren't treating me like an agent.
Minos emailed me back an hour later. "Worst case is you'll face a firing squad, but that's never happened on my watch. Hang tough."
Crap! I crawled into bed only to find I couldn't sleep. Had I murdered those men? Did I have a choice? If we had stayed in that hallway, we'd both be dead right now. My door buzzer rang. I looked at the security monitor. Ussilla was there with a six pack of Chor'Tan Ale. I knew I was dreaming, but I let her in. It dawned on me I didn't know which Ussilla this was? And I had to find out. "Are you the Ussilla I've been sleeping with for years, or the new Ussilla that I'm supposed to be protecting?"
"Does it matter?"
"How did you get past the guards outside my door?"
She smiled a big toothy grin. "A six pack of ale will go a long way among Agency guards."
That actually didn't make me feel any better. I got a taste of that ale, and I knew I wasn't dreaming. I stopped after one bottle and made love to Ussilla. Acquired some much needed sleep afterwards. The remaining ale and the alien were gone when I woke up. The guards were back outside my door. I looked on my terminal. Breakfast was on its way. Then the inquisition would be meeting. Then two hours of exercise were scheduled for me. That was followed by a couple of classes.
Breakfast was cold. The inquisition reviewed video for two hours straight. Video I had lived through, so it was pretty pointless for me. I burned myself out with jumping jacks, pushups, situps, and shadow boxing when the classes weren't playing. Four days passed. I was watching the inquisition when the judges and lawyers turned to look at me. The center judge said, "We'd like you to make a statement. Recorders are on."
"I made a very difficult decision. I said to myself, if we stay here, we're toast. Any fool with a knife could free up the men with zip ties on their wrists. I would be stunning the same people over and over, while vulnerable when zipping the ties on the ones I did stun. We were simply outnumbered too much to be taking prisoners." Yes, I had prepared for that moment.
One of the judges said, "You killed a number of men in cold blood."
"They were all MindBender addicts. They would have died within seventy-two hours without more of the drug no matter what."
"You don't know that."
I closed my eyes. "It was us or them."
The video shut off. I knew in my heart I was right. Dreamed about killing those men over and over. I was plagued by it. Remorse pumped its way through my veins. Pity for those men's loved ones that would be without. All of these emotions pulled me in every different direction. Wasn't that enough for the judges?
Chapter Seventeen
I tried to sleep. A new dream found me. Reliving Mathew's death, I clutched his hand in mine until it went slack. A cold sweat drenched my sheets.
My fingers shot off an email to Nancy, "How long will I be caged?"
"The computers are running their analysis," she replied. "Chin up. Anytime you disobey orders, you'll find yourself under house arrest. If we order you not to pee and you pee, it'll be house arrest."
My fate rested in the hands of computers? I studied, exercised, and dreamed. Each night it was something different. Sometimes it was a man I executed, more often it was just me clutching at a hand that goes slack. Spring break started in two days, and I began to wonder if I'd miss it. I wanted to nag at Mr. Minos, but he was a cold, hard, slate of a man. The day before spring break, I slept good for the first time in a long time. My door buzzer woke me, early. I looked at the security monitor.
Thomas with his hands behind his back. Zen and RedCat. Archangel, Ussilla, and Nancy were all there. I ripped that door open. They all smiled at me, and like an idiot, I smiled back at them. There were no guards outside my door. Thomas pulled a bottle of tomato juice and a bottle of vodka from behind his back. "Spring break," he said.
"What about my house arrest?" I asked.
Nancy stepped forward and pulled me out of my room. I was still in my boxers. She said, "The computer simulations gave you a 92.3% probability that your actions saved lives on our side, and that weighs far more heavily than casualties on their side. But you will follow orders in the future."
"And put some pants on," Zen said.
"I like him just how he is," Ussilla said. "Except he needs to be a good male and acquire an erection."
Thomas handed the bottles to Archangel and clapped his hands together. "Do they really keep males in cages on Chor'Tan?"
"Sometimes. It depends on the male, and how docile he is."
"I have an idea," I said. I leaned in to Ussilla's ear and whispered, "Let's ditch these assholes and go back to my room."
"I heard that, young man," Nancy said.
Ussilla kissed me on the cheek. "Go get dressed, I want breakfast."
"Wait," I said. "RedCat used his 9mm, too. Why wasn't he put under house arrest? What about Ussilla?"
RedCat grabbed me on the shoulder and squeezed. "They arrested me two hours after picking you up. They had us exercising at different times. I was right beside you the whole time, buddy."
Archangel pushed the bottle of vodka back into Thomas's hands. "Snipers are never under orders to take prisoners. Ussilla is safely on board a starship heading back to Chor'Tan."
Ussilla's hand somehow managed to find its way inside my boxers, and I was beginning to embarrass myself. Nancy growled more viciously than I'd expect from a woman clearly in her fifties. "Go get dressed. Who opens the door to their quarters wearing boxers!"
I abandoned them and went back for pants and a shirt. Ussilla didn't follow me, and I met up with the others in the chow hall. Thomas poured the Bloody Marys, mostly with vodka and very little tomato juice. He had a tiny bottle of hot sauce he put drops from into the glasses.
Nancy tapped her glass of alcohol on the table three times. "We've been questioning the MindBender addicts we were able to capture."
Everybody set their drinks down and turned their eyes and ears on Nancy.
"Centurian is planning something big. Some of them think he's planning an assault on a major prison in Central America. Others have said he is trying to expand distribution of MindBender to networks all across USA by offering free samples to heroin and cocaine dealers."
"What's the truth?" RedCat asked.
"He's never attacked a prison before, but our intel indicated he's stockpiling enough explosives to blast holes in walls. If
he can get just a few guards hooked on MindBender, they'll open the gates for him."
"If you try MindBender," I asked, "what are the odds you'll become a true addict?"
Nancy took a drink of Bloody Mary. "On the first dose, one in three. The more doses, the higher the attrition rate. After a hundred or so doses, you die without it. We're still analyzing the data on the computers you captured in your first mission. Everything was heavily encrypted."
I slammed my fist on the table, shaking all the drinks. "What about Henry? The first man I killed? How did he get hooked?"
"Every day, he stopped at a local coffee shop on his drive to work. They put the doses in his coffee, we think. All teachers are housed in our facility now. Nobody goes out. A few teachers retired over it, but the best stayed."
I downed the last of my drink, and pushed the empty glass towards Thomas. "More tomato juice this time."
"I gave you plenty of juice last time," he said.
"Damn it, Thomas, I plan to be drinking for the next seven days. I need tomato juice in my drink."
"So be it."
Chapter Eighteen
Swore off alcohol three days into spring break. Day five, RedCat convinced me to pick the habit back up. The entire process was just a blur at this point.
My electronics class was bright and fresh on a Monday morning. That night we gathered at the danger room. Thomas had a backpack in one hand. "Who wants the bag?"
We looked at him.
"It's got tools for disarming bombs in it," he said. "Whoever takes the bag will be our new explosives expert."
"Not me," I said.
"Yes, you, you bitched first," RedCat said.
"I didn't bitch."
"What do you call it?" Zen said with a sneer. "I vote Bear, too."
Archangel reached out, grabbed the bag out of Thomas's hands, and thrust it into my chest. I took it. Inside were bolt cutters, wire cutters, razorknife, sliding impact hammer, electronic screwdriver, and adjustable wrench. I wondered, this is all I get? No Volt Ohm meter? No stethoscope?
Codename: Bear: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 1) Page 6
