“Come on, big fella. Up you go,” said a voice.
But I couldn’t open my eyes to see who it was.
Rough hands sat me up and put my two arms around their shoulders. I tried to get some more sleep, but it was difficult as they dragged me down the hall.
I repeated the mantra in my head.
Don’t tell them anything! Don’t tell them anything!
I hope my team will get here soon. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.
#
Ron tested the rope harness as he descended the tunnel in the tent. Down he went fifty feet. As he exhaled each breath, he could see the fog it created.
At the bottom, he said, “Looks good. Let’s get moving.”
Using the equipment they ferried from the van, they dug a tunnel just wide enough to lay two rails of track over cross-boards. It wouldn’t hold much weight but it only had to carry three hundred and fifty pounds at most. After a hundred yards or so, they created a small rest area and dug another tunnel at a right angle to the first. The plan called for this diversion in case they were discovered.
The tunnel was only wide enough for one person to pass at a time. Fans blew fresh air from the tent down a tube and into the tunnel. It would come out at the far end to push any stale air out to the tent. Every twenty feet or so they placed a light bulb. Since they would use this tunnel only once, each bulb glowed naked.
Ron pushed them to work harder.
“If you think this is hard, try to imagine what pain, relentless pain, Jake must be going through right now.”
#
The technician at Fairport Base shook his head. It was getting harder to tell what came from natural vibrations versus a Rossaquake. The needles on the seismograph jiggled. Something was going on under the mountains. He looked up at his bookshelf as he watched the needles show a Richter-scale five point two. The books did not vibrate. Nor did the light bulbs sway.
No quake yet. Wonder what could cause this?
Chapter 42
After another fifty yards of tunnel, Ron’s measurements showed they must be about ten feet outside the building where Jake was held. And inside the double fence.
“Let’s go up now,” he said with water vapor showing as he spoke.
Gerhi worked the tunnel machine. As he filled a bin, it would move along the rail to the tent and another bin would take its place.
When the tunnel showed daylight coming in, Gerhi said in his Z helmet, used to protect his face from falling dirt, “I see daylight.”
Ron waited just behind Gerhi and passed the periscope up.
Using it, Gerhi scanned the ground outside in all directions.
“Nothing. We are close to a building, though.”
#
Loud noises woke me from a short nap. That was about the most I could get in and I was grateful for the break. I couldn’t tell if it was day out.
But one thing was clear. That was gunfire.
“Jake! Stand back from the door!”
My name? Who knew my name? Did I tell the Little Man?
All I wanted to do was get more sleep so I closed my eyes and turned my head as best I could from the blinding overhead light.
An explosion woke me.
Smoke poured into my small cell. I coughed and felt rough hands under my armpits.
Here we go again.
But this time, the hands belonged to two men with helmets on. I couldn’t see their faces but who was I to resist their lifting me off my hard cot? It was all I could do to stay awake.
They carried me through the smashed door of my cell and down the short hallway. My thighs screamed with pain.
When they got to the torture room and turned to go through a hole in the wall, it dawned on me that the two men were rescuing me.
“Stop!” I said.
My carriers stood still. I tried to get my feet under me but failed. So I pointed.
“Kill anyone in there.”
One helmeted man spoke but all I heard was a mumble. One man bore most of my weight while the first man entered the room with that damn chair. He came back seconds later and grabbed one of my shoulders. They carried me through a door to the outside. It was dark. The first thing I experienced was intense cold all over my naked body. I heard gunshots. Or thought they were gunshots. Couldn’t be sure.
#
Ron turned his head at the sound of a groan from Gerhi. His partner was on the floor with a widening circle of dark red expanding under his head.
He dared not let go of Jake though.
“Get outta here!” yelled the voice of Gerhi in his helmet. “I’m hit bad and will die soon. Get Jake outta here. I’ll explode myself after you leave.”
What a dilemma!
Carry Jake or help Gerhi? If he let Jake go, all might be lost. But wait, there was one more option.
“Gancha!” he said in his Z helmet. “Where are you? Gerhi’s down and I have Jake. We’re on the surface.”
He decided that carrying Jake would be easier since he could barely walk and was dead weight. So he propped his boss up against the wall and put his left arm under the man’s knees. Jake’s eyes squinted shut. Blood seeped from his thighs. Ron decided he didn’t have time to put StopIt on Jake’s thighs.
The voice of Gerhi came through loud in his helmet.
“Get outta here! I’m fading fast and must activate the bomb.”
Ron entered the cold air of the outside and the glare of snow on the ground. He carried the naked body of Jake several feet from the closed door when he heard the explosion behind him.
Pressure came to his backside and he fell down with Jake in his arms. Ron stood up at once, lifted Jake’s limp body, and carried him to the triangle of wood holding the sling over the tunnel exit.
Gancha rose from the canvas chair. She brushed snow off Jake’s legs and winced when she saw the cuts. She took Jake from Ron.
Ron turned around to see if he could help Gerhi, but thought better of it. Gerhi was gone in the explosion.
He turned again to see Gancha sitting in the small chair under the tripod they had erected over the hole. He kneeled and stood guard over the hoist as Gancha and Jake descended. Two guys came around the edge of the building from which they had taken Jake. Ron aimed and fired at both men, who went down in the snow.
Must not have had time to put on armor.
Fortunately, no one came out of the nearby buildings. Surely they heard the explosion. Any second now he could expect dozens of armed men to appear.
Ron crouched alone at the exit of the tunnel for what seemed like forever. Finally, the canvas chair came up. He climbed into the seat and aimed his rifle up as he went down, ready to shoot anyone who stuck his head over the small circle of light which grew smaller as he descended. Pieces of dirt hit the faceplate of his helmet and he swiped his gloved hand to get a better view.
When he arrived at the bottom of the pit, Gancha was not in sight. Jake lay unconscious on the ground. Gancha must have fled on the flat bed of the railcar and slid herself into the escape tunnel.
Was she trying to protect herself?
Ron kept his rifle pointed upward as he stood guard over the inert body of Jake as he thought of his options.
#
I shuddered from the cold as a guy in white carried me to a triangle of wooden struts and a canvas seat suspended just below the top of the triangle. I tried to stay awake and was glad of the cold. It helped.
One man, dressed in white, placed himself and me in the canvas seat. I watched as he pulled on a rope and lowered us into the dark space of the tunnel. I couldn’t see the other two men.
“Ron?”
I heard a noise but couldn’t make it out.
Soon I descended inside the walls of a tunnel while I hung on with my remaining strength to the straps holding the chair. The air was frickin’ cold on my naked skin.
I heard more gunshots above me. The night air carried the sounds as I descended in darkness.
When I
got to the bottom, someone lifted me and placed me on the freezing cold ground before picking me up again and laying me on a flat bed. Soon I disappeared into a tunnel.
I lay there shivering while the canvas chair ascended up the dark shaft.
Damn, it’s cold!
Soon another man in white came down the same shaft. He lifted me and placed me on a canvas bed on rails. Soon I passed out of his sight. Only the occasional light bulb passed overhead as I shivered. The hard bed beneath me jarred as I moved along the rail.
What a helluva way to die.
After a long time, I came to a stop.
I looked up to see Gancha smiling down.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” she said
“So are you,” I squeaked out between shivers.
She placed something on both my thighs. She covered me with a heavy blanket over my shivering body as the pain diminished.
Felt damned good. At least the blanket kept off the freezing air.
Was I dreaming of seeing her? I couldn’t tell. It wouldn’t surprise me.
I closed my eyes and slept some more. It was all I could do. Sleep felt good.
#
When I woke again, I opened my eyes and wondered where I was. I was certainly not in my cell. The only thing above me there was that damned frickin’ light.
Instead, I saw a ceiling not less than three feet above me. Vibrations told me I was traveling.
“He’s awake,” said a voice.
I turned my head to see who said it. The face of Zetto stared back at me.
“Zee?”
He smiled. “That’s right.”
“Where are we?”
He looked to his left. “Just outside the town of Fairport, I’d say.”
“I’m hungry as hell.”
He nodded and reached to his right. He held up something.
It looked like food and I bit into it. A sandwich. Don’t know what was in it but it sure felt good going down.
Ron said above my head, “Hey, buddy. We got you out of there. Did you tell them anything?”
I tried to shake my head but that required too much energy. So I swallowed and said, “Don’t ‘member much. Maybe I did. Don’t ‘member. My mind was in a fog. Still is.”
#
“What!” yelled Getner into his comm. He listened as his agent-in-charge of Fairport Base told him the rest of Jake’s escape.
When he heard the whole story, he added, “See if you can find where the tunnel came out.”
He disconnected as he wondered if Coocher’s network had a leak. Didn’t matter much. Dani was gone and Coocher might be the next PM. Maybe. As long as Dani was loose, that was a question.
He tapped his fingers on his desk as he pondered what to say to Coocher. He had to be careful to not offend the man who might become his boss.
But Dani’s escape could wreak havoc to both their plans.
#
I slept a lot on the way back from Fairport but when I was awake, I listened to Ron’s explanation. Gerhi had come all the way from Earth and was one of the two guys in white who took me out of my cell. Gerhi was also the one who followed my orders to kill the Little Man.
Gerhi had been fatally wounded outside the building where I had been kept. He had fallen on the ground and blown himself up to prevent his being captured, and to scatter his DNA. He was a very good spy and had followed his training. But he would be missed.
I felt responsible for the man’s death and wondered how I was going to break the news to Acorn.
I remembered how he had been wounded helping me escape when I was a slave. Back then, too, he had offered to blow himself up.
Ron said he had exploded several charges in the tunnel after they drove away from the tent, including one at the tent itself.
#
They took a secondary dirt road on the way back from Fairport. The main paved road would be too obvious. As Gancha drove, she stopped just before a mass appeared on the road ten feet ahead.
Gancha asked Ron, “What’s next, boss?”
He looked on both sides.
“The road seems hacked right through trees. There is no way around either side. Everybody stay alert! It could be an ambush.”
Ron put on a Z helmet and left the van.
On the greeper, flies busied themselves crawling in every crevice, the eyes, the open jaws, and the snout. But not on the fur.
Ron used the zoom of his helmet to scan the surrounding forest while he kept his face on the body. He didn’t want anyone who might be watching to see him scanning. They might duck out of sight.
He said, “Gancha, I could use your help on this one. Bring two machetes.”
That would leave only Zetto to guard Jake but that couldn’t be helped.
He glanced at the van to see Gancha put on her Z helmet and pull a scope rifle from overhead. Then she checked both her Snaps.
Ron said, “Zetto, be alert as you can. Wake Jake and let him know. Take the driver’s seat.”
He watched as Gancha opened the driver’s side door and left, carrying her rifle in her right hand and the two long knives under her left arm in their protective sheaths.
Seconds later, Zetto climbed over the space between the front seats.
Before she left the side of the van, Gancha scanned the nearby trees.
He said, “I checked with zoom and we are alone. The greeper seems to have died a day or two ago. So it’s probably not an ambush.”
Gancha walked up to Ron and stared at the body of the animal.
“What do we do with this?”
Ron replied, “Let’s cut it in half and drag both halves off the road. Chima, be alert. Scan the entire area around us and you.”
“I did already,” came a voice in his helmet. “We are alone out here.”
Ron laid down his rifle when Gancha handed him one machete. He took it out of its protective sheath.
“Hope this is sharp.”
It was and cutting the huge carcass in half took ten minutes with both of them hacking away. The spine of the beast took several whacks.
But grabbing the fur and dragging each half off the dirt road took another ten minutes.
Gancha said as she strained, “This sucker is heavy!”
“Just pull,” he said between his teeth.
When the body of the greeper was off the road enough to drive by, he fixed his gaze in the direction of the van.
“Zetto, can you drive through?”
The van crept past them. When it was five feet past the dead greeper, Ron and Gancha sheathed their machetes, picked up their rifles, opened the back doors, and climbed in. Jake lay motionless under a blanket.
Was he still alive?
Chapter 43
I opened my eyes in a bed but still felt woozy in my head. The ceiling didn’t look familiar and I turned my head to see a tray. That brought a headache.
Gotta stop doin’ that.
Next to my bed was an array of electrical equipment I recognized. At first I wondered if I was in a hospital. Again.
“He’s awake,” said a male voice from the foot of my bed and I looked to see Ron. On his left stood Vincent. The big surprise next to Vincent’s left was Gancha.
Then I recognized the setting. I was in the planning room of the ops center.
Gancha came up to the right side of my bed, leaned over, and planted a nice kiss on my lips.
Ron raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Someone new in your life?”
He winked and I knew he meant did I have a new love life.
Vincent grinned as Gancha straightened up.
Ron asked, “What do you remember about your capture?”
Despite the cloud in my head, I replied, “Some thugs took baseball bats to my body.”
Ron asked, “Did you recognize them?”
I didn’t dare shake my head, since it might bring a massive headache.
“No.”
Vincent turned to the sound of a buzzer and left.
�
��Where’s Zetto?” I asked.
“Gone to get a doctor,” replied Ron.
I lowered my eyelids and might have slept a few seconds, or minutes, I couldn’t tell which, when I heard a voice.
Dr. Oberson stood by the left side of my bed. He pressed his DetectIt on my chest.
That sucker was cold on my skin.
He said, “Don’t talk,” while he studied the readout.
I waited in silence. Couldn’t do much else. I remembered my thighs but no pain came from them. Maybe the fog in my head meant a painkiller floated in my veins.
“Blood pressure is down a little. Pulse is elevated,” said the doctor. He looked in my eyes. “What’s it this time?”
Before I could answer through my dry lips, Gancha added, “He was tortured. There are cuts on his two thighs. I put StopIt on both.”
Dr. Oberson pulled the sheet down from my torso. He peeked under the dressings on both thighs and looked up at her.
“Good job. What pain killer is he on?”
Ron replied, “Synthetic morphine.”
The doctor asked, “Anything else I should know about?”
“Headaches,” I added.
“Have you lost weight?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised. They didn’t feed me.”
He loaded an injector and pressed it on my tummy.
“What’s that?”
“I figured you might be malnourished. That was vitamins.”
He turned to the others and mumbled something.
I couldn’t figure it out as their voices faded. I dozed off.
#
Ron watched the passenger outside mirror of Jake’s car. Behind them, an old gray Tesla electric sedan followed as Gancha turned to the right and made a loop.
On their third day of Gancha’s training, she had become a stellar student.
“Third car behind,” she said from the driver’s seat. “Old model gray sedan. Two people.”
Ron tapped his nostril to open the connection on his comm. “She spotted you. Change cars.” He tapped again to disconnect.
“Still think I need training in this?” she asked. “I was checking for a tail before you were born.”
Oh cripe. Here we go again.
“You must have been pretty young.”
“I learned before I was ten,” she replied.
Humans Only: A Jake Dani Novel (Jake Dani/Mike Shapeck Book 2) Page 25
