“Stay down,” Jakes said to her, turning to fire at the advancing creatures.
A dozen guards had entered the outer office. Jakes tried to spot Holcombe through the destroyed door, but there was no sign of the man. Bric backed up to the door, pushing Bonnie behind him. The woman pressed the boy aside and stepped out to face her end on her own. She smiled at the gray alien, giving him some confidence and small thanks for the attempt to protect her. Connor held the weapon up again and fired, slamming the energy into a hissing reptile, throwing him back into the other office.
The other guards raised their weapons, hissing at the trespassers. Connor stepped back again, hoping to shield Melaina from the worst of the pain.
A blast of fire and air blew in from the wide window behind the ruined desk. Jakes and Bonnie shielded their eyes as glass fragments peppered the backs of the guards. Through the destroyed window, Connor could see Parker standing on the deck of a hovering transport. The ship was small, not much more than a loader from the spaceport, but it floated steadily in the thin air of the penthouse. The small man held up his explosive projector and smiled, waving to the team.
At the sound of the explosion, Tuxor lifted all four arms and roared. Twisting his body, he grabbed the two reptiles nearest him and pulled. The creatures yelped as they were yanked to the ground by the iron grip of the amphibian. As he braced himself on his lower arms, he stood and tossed the guards out the window. Connor could hear their screeches as they fell.
“Go!” Jakes shouted. Bonnie took Bric’s hand and ran. The ship was hovering a meter away from the window, Rene trying to keep it steady. Releasing the boy’s hand, Bonnie leapt to the deck. Bric followed, narrowly missing falling the seventy plus stories to the ground. Both scrambled past Parker as the man fired his micro-explosive discs into the office.
Jakes had turned and was holding Melaina to the ground as the fiery bolts blasted reptiloid flesh. Screeches of pain and fury were nearly deafening as the creatures tried to find cover from the destruction. Tuxor was grabbing any guards he could reach, intact or not, and flinging them out the window.
“Tuxor, get over here,” Jakes cried over the sound of destruction.
The big man continued to defenestrate reptiloids unlucky enough to be caught. Jakes had seen the amphibian angry before, but never like this. One reptiloid was tossed directly into the path of Parker’s gun. The resultant explosion spread blood and gore over the office.
“Captain,” Tuxor said, breathing heavy. “It’s time to go. I can help Melaina to the craft.”
“Go. Take her,” Jakes replied, taking the energy weapon out and holding it up.
Tuxor took Melaina. The woman reached out and grabbed Jakes’ arm, holding him tight.
“Connor,” she said. “Come on. I can’t go without you.”
“I’m right behind you, darlin’,” Jakes replied, looking into her eyes.
“We need to go, Melaina,” Tuxor said, reaching around and prying her fingers from Jakes’.
The big man took the woman away. Connor stepped further into the room and fired. Electric arcs caromed around the room, spreading the new fires further. Jakes felt a few bolts brush past him, tingling his arms as they burst against the lift doors. He fired back in the direction of the shots, not seeing his targets. Tuxor reached the edge of the window frame. Rene was struggling to hold the craft still in the high winds. Melaina looked up at Tuxor, who nodded to her. She stepped back a few feet and then ran, leaping the meter to the deck. Bonnie was waiting, grabbing her hand and helping her back to the cabin. Tuxor took a single, standing leap, landing just as a shot from one of the surviving reptiloids struck the ship.
Rene cried out as the electric current sent sparks through the control panel. The ship spun away from the window, out into the sky. Tuxor slid sideways as the craft bucked under him. Parker reached out and grabbed the amphibian’s hand, stopping the creature from sliding off. The smaller man was strapped to a gaffing hook on the deck and he struggled to hold on to the large alien. Bonnie jumped into the cabin, holding Melaina back as the woman tried to get back out.
“Connor!” she cried as the ship began to buck.
“Merde,” Rene cried, trying to regain control. “I can’t hold her steady.”
Connor stepped closer to the window, trying to get a running start but realizing it was too far. He fired another shot into the room as he watched the ship wobble as it lost altitude.
“Go!” Connor cried to Rene. “Get back to Liberty! I’ll make it out my way.”
“Connor, no!” Melaina shouted as Bonnie held her back.
“Go,” Jakes said. “That’s an order!”
Rene nodded and turned the ship away. Melaina tried to claw at the man as the ship flew away from the skyscraper. Jakes watched as Tuxor climbed onto the deck. Parker fired two more shots into the building, missing Jakes but blowing out windows two floors down for sport. He continued to watch until the ship disappeared into an approaching cloud.
Pain lanced up from his legs as an electric arc slammed into his knees. Connor felt the floor rise up as he staggered. A second bolt crackled along his back, ripping away the suit and scorching the skin underneath. Jakes’ back arched involuntarily as the muscles were electrified. A third bolt slammed into his side and he screamed. As his head hit the floor, glass slicing into his face, Connor Jakes saw a neatly-booted foot step close. Velvet robes settled into place over the boots.
“And now, Agent Sandoval,” Albert Holcombe said. “I think you should feel what we do to pirates in the civilized world.”
9
“I may not have liked the guy very much, but I never wanted to hear what happened to him. Nobody deserves to go through that more than once.”
Henry Moore
Alliance Military Lecture Series
“Go back! We have to go back,” Melaina pleaded with Rene.
The ship was bucking hard under the care of the former special forces man. He had shed the bulky tail and head armor of his disguise, but still wore the thick leather padding. There was a sharp tilt to the left as another power relay burnt out. Rene swore in French as he pulled the stabilizer controls and tried to right the ship.
“Melaina, we can’t,” Bonnie cried, trying to hold the other woman in place as she struggled to get free. “You heard him. He wanted us to get free.”
“I don’t care what he said, Bonnie. We have to go back. They’ll kill him.”
“I don’t think so, Doctor Petros,” Bric said quietly. “My father wants him to—”
“Your father!” Melaina screamed, suddenly pulling away from Bonnie and reaching out with claw-like fingers. “You and your father caused this. Holcombe planned this from the beginning. You wanted Connor to come to that building so your father could kill him, didn’t you?”
Bric scuttled further to the side of the cabin as Melaina tried to swipe at him. The boy’s face was deeply creased. He seemed in pain as the ship finally came level in the sky. Tuxor moved into the cabin and laid a hand on Melaina, trying to calm the woman. Melaina swatted the hand away and tried again to get at the boy. A low hum began to drift through the cabin.
“I’m sorry, Doctor Petros,” Bric said, a strange tone in his voice. “I am really sorry. I didn’t know. My father never let me draw from him before. I thought he was telling you the truth.”
“You wouldn’t know the truth, would you?” Melaina said, finally pushed back into her seat by Bonnie. “Your so-called father was a miserable son-of-a-bitch who lied to all of us. Why did he do it? Why?”
“I’m not sure. I swear I really don’t know. It doesn’t work that way. I need a long time to draw much more than memories. I know he hates Captain Jakes and that’s all,” Bric explained.
“Connor rescued your father from that station when you two were under attack,” Melaina spat. “You had no reason to hate him. He only wanted to help you and you ordered him killed.”
“Melaina stop!” Bonnie said, rounding on her and looking straig
ht into her eyes. “He didn’t order anything. Can’t you see it? He’s just a boy and he’s scared. His father ordered his death too. Listen. That sound. I think he’s crying.”
“We should have let his father kill him,” Melaina said, pushing Bonnie away. “It’s my fault. I looked at him and saw a child. I thought he needed protecting from Connor. All along they were planning on killing us all.”
“Look, I don’t mean to interrupt this love-fest, but if we can’t get outta the air, it ain’t gonna matter who kills who.”
All eyes turned to Parker, who sat in the co-pilot’s chair next to Rene. The man had clambered back into the cabin after they had left the cloudbank. He had taken an electric hit from one of the weapons and was whining from the stinging burn across his face.
“We’re bein’ tailed,” Parker explained. “I don’t know if it’s more of them snakes, or maybe spaceport police, but they’re a lot faster than us and closin’ fast.”
“Everyone strap in,” Rene called back. “I’m going to have to get creative.”
On the screen in front of Parker, two small dots, signal unknown by their yellow color, were closing in on the blue center. Rene tried to gain altitude, but the small craft’s systems were too badly damaged. Instead, he turned sharply to the left, pressing the team into the thick padding of the chairs. The ship, mostly used for loading passengers and cargo on freighters, was not designed for sharp turns, and the stabilizers began to squeal. There was a fine vibration under their feet, which was growing into a rumbling jolt which threatened to loosen teeth.
“It’s not workin’,” Parker shouted over the rumbling. “You should try turnin’ right next time. That’ll lose’em.”
“Shut the hell up,” Rene said, leveling off and dropping altitude as fast as he could. The dots continued to close, not fazed by the sudden turn. Rene tried a series of sudden swerving movements, trying to find a path into a thick storm front approaching ahead. One of the ships veered off, taking a wide arc around the nearest cloudbank to cut them off. Rene nosedived the ship, causing the other ship to overshoot and pass by. As the ship emerged from the cloud, its counterpart fired a short burst. There was no damage, but the confusion allowed Rene to veer away and find another route to the storm.
“Get out of the way,” Bonnie shouted, unlocking her belt and stepping up to the cockpit. “I’m flying this heap.”
Rene only paused a moment before stepping away from the cockpit chair and back to the cabin. He sat next to Melaina, hoping the woman wouldn’t try to attack Bric again. She seemed calm at the moment, but he could see her fingernails digging into the seat below her.
Bonnie pulled the ship into a low curve, taking them straight into the storm. The loader bucked as it entered the high pressure zone. On the slightly higher gravity world, storms were more intense as the static friction produced much higher powered lightning. The ship was struck a few times but held together. Parker pointed at the screen.
“They’re back,” the little man said. “I’ll bet they’re not too happy about that last bit either.”
Parker, get me a heading on any other spaceport,” Bonnie asked, flipping switches and trying to compensate for the ship’s damaged systems. “We need to get orbital fast before these guys catch up and finish the job.”
Another lightning strike slammed into the cabin’s roof, dropping the ship nearly a hundred meters in seconds. Sparks burst from the control panel, peppering Bonnie’s exposed legs with hot metal. She slammed a hand down on the panel and activated a backup. The instruments flickered and came back on weakly. She pulled the ship out of the fall and leveled the flight. Another blast struck the ship, but this time on the port side.
“That wasn’t lightnin’ guys,” Parker said, tapping the screen with a finger to try to halt a flicker. “Our friends decided to come with us in the shower.”
“Parker, get out there and hold them off,” Bonnie said, flipping a switch to unlock the door. “I need a minute.”
“It’s rainin’ and lightnin’ out there,” the man protested. “Besides which, we’re facin’ the wrong way. This thing ain’t got a rear deck.”
“Leave that to me.”
“I knew she’d say somethin’ like that,” replied Parker, unlatching his belt and grabbing the explosive gun.
“Remember to strap yourself down good,” Bonnie reminded him. “It might get a little bumpy out there.”
Parker muttered something vulgar as he pushed the door open and latched his safety harness to the nearest cleat. After crawling out to the deck, the man closed the door and tried to find a target. Lances of plasma flashed by on both sides, illuminating the thick clouds with red-orange fire. In the heavy rain, the water felt like bullets pounding against his skin. He held on to the gun tight and waited.
Inside the ship, Bonnie reduced power to the internal systems. She pressed the stabilizers to maximum and grabbed one of the consoles.
“Hold on tight,” she told the passengers. “I learned this from an old friend.”
Bonnie twisted the control yoke hard, spinning the loader around backwards. She dropped rear thrusters to zero and anti-grav power to max, shooting the loader above the pursuing ships. The loader flew backwards through the storm at velocity. As the clouds parted, the ships were revealed to their screens.
Parker reset the proximity detectors and let the gun fire. Streams of discs fell away from the loader as they moved away from the ships. Bonnie nosed the ship down to give the man a clear field of fire and he took advantage of it. The first micro-explosives began to detonate near the lead ship. The vessel, now revealed as a spaceport police cruiser, wobbled in flight and fell back. The second ship flew straight into the path of the next batch of ordinance. Micro-capsules burst in concussive force as they struck the ship, tearing holes in the hull and buffeting the engines. The police ship veered off, trailing thick smoke. A quick lightning strike finished the job, cracking the ship’s hull and spilling the passengers into the storm.
Bonnie kicked the thruster back to full, launching the loader towards their remaining pursuer. She dropped the nose even further, taking the ship under the police cruiser. Parker fired wildly at the ship as they passed beneath it, watching as the blue and red lights on the undercarriage burst under his barrage. The ship’s engine pods were struck by the micro-explosives, taking the ship down into the clouds and out of sight. Parker retreated back to the door and climbed back in, slamming the door behind him as he settled back to the co-pilot’s chair.
“That was the most fun I never want to go through again,” said Parker.
“We have to get out of this storm, fast. We’re losing the stabilizers and I can’t compensate,” Bonnie replied, searching the screen for a break in the clouds.
The ship continued lower in the atmosphere, trying to avoid the high level winds that would likely tear them apart. As the clouds thinned and the rain began to let up, the group let out long-held breaths. Melaina was bone white and staring hard at Bric. Rene looked close, trying to determine if the woman was going to unlatch her belt and attack the boy again. Instead, he saw faint lines of moisture on her face. She was softly sobbing to herself, the sound masked by the chase and the storm outside.
“Oh crap,” Parker said, checking his screen. “We got more company.”
The ship broke from the cloudbank to see a line of dark ships, sleek black fighter ships with the Veles logo emblazoned in deep red on the side. The ships were stationary, facing their loader. Bonnie brought the ship to a sudden stop, throwing the passengers forward into their straps. The comm crackled to life as the fighter ships hailed.
“Stolen vehicle,” the voice said on the speaker. “You are ordered to land immediately or be shot down. You have ten seconds to comply.”
Bonnie looked to Parker. Both were out of ideas. The countdown continued as they looked around the cabin, hoping for some solution to appear. Finally Melaina spoke.
“Like hell.”
“Three … two … one…”
The sentiment was simple and instantly agreed upon by everyone.
Bonnie moved to press the accelerator to full as the count ended. Expecting a barrage of fire, she was surprised to see the lead fighter explode in a plasma ball. A second ship was burst by a series of bolts hurled from the sky. Instead of pushing the throttle forward, Bonnie pulled back. She moved to just outside the storm front, watching the sky for an answer. From above, a single ship appeared, burning from atmospheric fire but firing forward weapons through the fighter line, tearing holes in ships and scattering the rest.
“Bonnie? Is that you?”
The voice of Eli Mendel had never sounded so sweet. Liberty plunged through the clouds, automatic fire targeting the fighters and blasting them from the sky. It took seconds to decimate the line of ships. Sweet Liberty came to a halt just under the loader. The ship turned around so Bonnie could get a look into the cockpit. Mendel waved a beefy hand at the little ship.
“Eli, stop clowning around,” Bonnie called over the comm. “They got the captain. We need to get on board and get out fast.”
“They got the captain?” Eli asked. “We gotta go back.”
“No.”
Melaina Petros had unhooked her belt and now stood in the cabin, looking out at the ship. The tears were gone and a new look of resolve had altered her face into someone else.
“We leave now and come back later,” she said, her voice an order. “He’s not alone down there, and if he’s alive we’ll find him.”
“What if he’s dead?” Parker asked, breaking the tense mood. “I mean, I’m just sayin’…”
“If Connor Jakes, or Agent Sandoval or whoever he is, is dead,” she said, looking at Bric. “I will personally level this entire planet to get to Albert Wilhelm Holcombe and I will kill anyone who tries to stop me.”
The Adventures of Connor Jakes: Masks (The War for Terra Book 1) Page 16
