by Susan Kelley
Then she remembered Vin’s AI device. If he really was trying to come after her, he would have it with him. Emma put her head in her hands, pulling an image of the device’s welcome screen up from her foggy thoughts. Recon Two. She entered her name and a dialogue box came up. What could she tell him? She had no idea where in space she was or what kind of ship carried her.
“What the hell?” First cursed behind her.
Emma typed one word and sent it. The doctor grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the chair. She crashed to the floor while First shouted for assistance. He slapped at the computer screen and wiped it clean. Had the message gone out?
* * * *
Vin flew toward the nearest Hadrason Mining operation. He didn’t know what else to do. He’d searched the operation three months ago in his hunt for the admiral’s hiding place.
Vannie had less knowledge of Emma’s stepfather than Vin did. An hour earlier, Vannie set his seat back in the sleep position. But his breathing patterns indicated he didn’t sleep or even rest.
The AI unit, connected to the star cruiser’s dashboard, lit with an incoming message. It identified no sender but was directed to Recon Two. Not many people would know to contact him with that moniker.
Vannie sat up when he heard the message alert. He looked at Vin.
Vin’s heart dove and then soared. She lived. Emma had managed to send a message so she had some of her wits about her. But the brevity of the message also meant she remained in imminent danger.
“Is that from our girl?” Vannie asked, half rising from his seat.
“Yes.” Vin punched in the command to identify the sending ship. The interstellar ID came up along with the current location of the ship. It traveled on a course nearly parallel to theirs though nearly an hour ahead of them. He programmed in an intercept course. Now that he had identified the ship, they couldn’t escape. Had they caught Emma in the act? Worry eroded the thrill of locating her.
“Can we find her?”
Vin pulled up the ship’s track and their own. He pointed. “We already found her. It’s just a matter of catching up.”
“Will we be able to catch up?”
“Their ship is faster, but we’ll know where they stop. We’re about fifty-seven minutes behind.”
“Go faster.”
Vin had the cruiser running at overload levels already. “We’ll get there as quick as we can.”
The next four hours passed in tense anticipation as the ship carrying Emma drew further away. It finally slowed as it neared a giant, gaseous planet. The only human habitation huddled on a moon orbiting the planet.
Vin had never visited the solar system they entered over an hour behind Lester’s ship. The cruiser’s data base only gave a numerical identification for the system, meaning no governing planet nor the military, had thought it worth claiming. The moon fit the parameters of common pirate bases, a barely livable space no one cared about. He circled around and approached the moon from the opposite side of where the other ship had landed.
Keeping the cruiser close to the barren surface, Vin found a good place to park that would keep them off the enemy scanners. Rocky ledges had pushed their way to the surface and would provide some cover.
Vin loaded what he needed on the hover. Wishing he had armor for Vannie, Vin gave his … friend more weapons this time. Sensory shock grenades and a spread stunner that could knock down a roomful of men all at one time.
The hover was stealthy mostly in that it was small and could fly low, hugging the arid, rocky terrain. They spotted some lizard-like wildlife including a few that could fly. Vin slowed to the speed of the flying creatures, hoping to further mask their approach.
Half an hour into their flight a military installation came into sight. Dark walls rose nearly one hundred feet into the air with only a few lights giving away occupation. Night had fallen on the little moon but starlight lit the landscape to what might pass as dusk on most planets.
Vin settled the hover near a cluster of rocks about two hundred yards from one side of the square structure. He checked Vannie’s weaponry before they moved out. The gravity felt lighter than some planets and the air thin. Vannie panted heavily before they’d traveled half the distance. Vin slowed down though it added a precious minute to their destination. Six doors were spaced along the facility’s side facing them.
The first door was locked with no external means to open it. Vin put his shoulder to it but he couldn’t force it. The next two doors were the same but the fourth door had a handle and a lock. Vin cut out the lock with his laser pistol and the door swung inward. Putting away his pistol, Vin unslung his rifle from his shoulder. Low level red lighting led them down a narrow hallway and to another door, this one unlocked.
Vin cracked the door open and then entered cautiously. The admiral’s luxury ship filled up more than half of a four story parking bay. A spiraling staircase climbed each corner of the massive room. An elevator flanked the nearest set of steps. Vin listened to Vannie’s breathing for a moment before making a plan.
“I’ll go up the steps and if it’s clear, I’ll send the elevator down for you.” Vin ran up the steps, taking them two at a time to the fourth level. Unlocked. He burst through, using surprise to gain advantage over numbers but only an empty room greeted him. He sent the elevator for Vannie. “We have to climb from here, Vannie.”
Six more stories waited over their heads. The next two floors proved empty also, not even furniture or walls in the wide open spaces. But Vin heard voices before he opened the door to the seventh floor.
Crouching by the door, Vin gave Vannie a signal for silence. He edged the door open the width of a bullet and could hear the voices clearly.
* * * *
Emma jangled the metal bracelet holding her wrists locked to the arms of the steel chair. Ben and Dr. First spoke in low voices in the corner of the room. They’d knocked her out with more drugs after the doctor had caught her trying to send a message.
First had tackled her to the floor so she hadn’t been able to check and see if her message had been received. And maybe it was the additional drugs, but her doubts had grown about seeing Vin and Vannie. Her desperate imagination had conjured the saviors.
The nondescript room gave no clue to her whereabouts but it didn’t seem like her stepfather’s type of place. Too drab and Spartan. Four of the stern guards stood around the room, at ease. A door opened behind her. Four more men came into view, three military types and a civilian. One of the soldiers was the massive man who had dragged her out of her surgery on Merris Five. He looked bigger in the confines of the room. Tall, nearly seven feet, with thick slabs of muscle across his shoulders and chest. His thighs looked bigger than her waist. He glanced at Emma with reptilian eyes, cold and devoid of feeling.
Visceral fear tightened Emma’s stomach. For the first time since her abduction terror overwhelmed the anger that had protected her like a shield. She looked away from his animalistic gaze.
The civilian joined her stepfather and the doctor, pulling out papers. Paper! Few people used it anymore but legal documents often needed signed papers to formalize them on the outlying planets. The man had to be an attorney, a crooked one if he worked for Ben.
The monstrous man spoke to the other guards around the room and they straightened to more alert postures. Then he took up station out of her sight. If he attempted to intimidate her with his presence over her shoulder, it worked. Shivers of dread wracked her body so she could feel her knees knocking together.
The thought of the drugs had worried her, but she’d known her stepfather needed her alive. The killer at her back brought home the realization that her time of usefulness had nearly expired. Once she set her signature on the documents Ben would think he didn’t need her anymore. She concentrated on the conversation in the corner to take her mind off her perilous situation.
The attorney didn’t attempt to speak quietly. “We have to do this right. Papers are challenged unless the court is a witness. T
hey’ll use electro-scopic examination to test the validity of her writing against samples. With a fortune this large, they’ll test and retest.”
“She will be signing it,” Ben said, giving Emma a dark look.
The attorney made a sound of impatience. “And what I’m saying is they’ll be able to tell if she signed it under duress or when drugged.”
“We won’t let them look at it that close,” Ben said.
“They can hold this up in the courts and demand her presence. Certainly you have enough enemies to put pressure on the judicial services, Admiral.”
“Gentlemen.” Dr. First held up one of his evil vials. “This is why you’re paying me. Spoiled rich girls often use chemical means to find their next thrill. And a physician like poor Emma has such easy access to the temptation. Perhaps the death of her mother a year ago sent her into an abyss of despair where she could only find peace through her chemical use.”
“If she’s dead and the signature is questioned, they’ll never let it leave the courts,” the attorney snapped.
First’s lip curled into a smile as cruel as the big guard’s eyes. “She won’t be dead, merely brain damaged and unable to make decisions for herself.”
The attorney’s mouth turned down in a sour expression. “It might work if you can prove she’s a drug addict who went too far. But you’ll need witnesses other than yourself, Admiral, to testify that she was abusing heavily.”
Emma’s heart rate sped up despite her determination to remain calm if only in outward appearance. The three men walked over to her and she sensed the big guy edging closer to her from behind. So the plan wasn’t to kill her, only permanently damage her cognitive abilities. Even with all the advances in modern medicine, nothing could repair brain damage.
Though her intellect warned her there was no escape, her survival instinct demanded she try. She jerked against the cuffs and tried to get her feet under her. Her butt barely left the seat before a heavy hand fell on her shoulders. The monster pressed her into the seat and clamped her wrist tight to the chair arm with his other massive paw. Her fingers tingled as his tight hold cut off the blood to her hand. She whimpered as her bones felt like they were being crushed.
Too frightened to even beg she watched the doctor jerk her sleeve higher on her arm. Tears fogged her vision but she refused to look away from the thing that would destroy her mind. Better if it killed her.
* * * *
Vin pushed the door a bit wider as all the attention in the room focused on the admiral’s conversation in the corner beyond Vin’s limited slice of sight into the room. What he could see was Emma.
They had chained her to a metal chair. A huge guard stood behind Emma. Something about his massive muscles and think neck looked wrong to Vin. Unnatural, even more so than Vin himself.
Against the wall that Vin could see, four men stood. They stared at the big guard, alert to the point of edgy. Was it fear or merely men in awe of their leader? Vin had seen regular military men look at the Recon Marines in a similar manner and hadn’t been able to decipher it then either.
Vannie leaned forward, nearly pressing against Vin’s back. Vin wished he had taught Vannie hand signals. He held one finger to indicate wait. Then he swept his finger in an arc toward the right and pointed to Vannie, hoping the man understood to take on any enemy behind the door. Vin would take the big guy standing so close to Emma. Dangerously close.
The two men conversing with Admiral Lester argued about the best way to force Emma’s agreement to something, a signing of documents. Something to do with money or power as nothing else drove men like the admiral. They planned to drug her into compliance without regard to her well-being.
The doctor and the other man finally agreed on a plan with the admiral’s approval. Vin heard their steps and then the three men stepped into view, partially blocking his sight of Emma. But not the terrified look on Emma’s face as she struggled against her chains.
The big bastard moved in behind her and restrained her, her delicate wrist disappearing inside the wide expanse of his hand. He clamped her arm hard to the chair, and the doctor pushed up his sleeve. Time.
Vin slung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled his stunner. He thrust the door open. It slammed against a body behind it, and someone shouted out a curse. His stunner took two men alongside the wall to his left down before Vannie followed him in the room. Next he targeted the men around Emma, hitting the big man and the guy holding the drug vial. The admiral proved his training by diving behind the chair holding Emma.
A round slapped into Vin’s armored chest, taking his breath for a second even as the suit flattened the metal round and dissipated the blow across his torso. Luckily the guards carried only pistols and not more powerful rifles.
Vin shot at the guards across from him but his peripheral vision caught the big man rising. No one stood back up after taking a full hit from the nerve overloading weapon! Vin ducked and dodged as another man fired at him.
“Don’t hit the girl!” the admiral shouted from his hiding place.
Vin targeted the guard shooting at him and then swung his weapon back toward the big guy. The giant charged him. A round hit Vin in the back, warning him that things weren’t going well for Vannie. The big man tackled Vin before he could stun him again.
They smashed to the floor. Only Vin’s armor prevented his ribs from cracking from the collision. But nothing protected his head from hitting the metal floor. He fought to remain conscious, his body acting on training more than his commands. The large hands that had held Emma so still now locked around Vin’s neck. Vin had retained his hold on the stun gun and lifted it toward his attacker’s head. A contact stun to the side of the head would kill a man, even one of this size.
But the shock of hitting the floor had slowed Vin’s reactions, and his arm moved too slow as he lifted the stunner. His attacker let go of Vin’s throat long enough to slap the gun away. As Vin’s head cleared he realized the man on top of him was as unnaturally strong as he was big. Vin didn’t try to tug away the thick fingers that had returned to squeeze the life out of him. Instead he dug his thumbs into the mass of nerves, ligaments and blood vessels on the soft interior of the man’s lower arms.
Vin could crush bones with his grip also. Even as he struggled for his life, he heard Vannie fighting for his. Bodies hits the floor but he couldn’t see who it was. The hold on his neck loosened as the guard’s hands grew numb.
The big bastard howled like an animal and let go of Vin’s neck, but he still sat on top of him. Vin locked his hands together and slammed them into his attacker’s side. Even through layers of muscle he felt ribs give way. The force of the blow threw the massive guard against the wall near the door Vin had entered through only seconds ago.
Vin rolled and sprang to his feet, sucking air in through his aching throat. Vannie sprawled against the right hand wall, blood darkening his shirt. A double tap of slugs hit Vin in the chest as he drew his pistol. No more stunning now that he had a clear line of fire without endangering Emma. His stunner lay out of reach anyway. He shot two men in the head, taking no chances that they wore armor similar to his.
The big man got up again, and Vin heard more men coming in through a rear door. He had needed more time to properly scout the area and get an accurate count of the enemy numbers. Emma screamed something over the curses and cries of men. Vin knew he was going to lose. Losing meant Vannie would die, and Emma would be destroyed.
He kept shooting, but then the admiral rose from hiding and set a gun to Emma’s temple. He crouched in the cover of her body.
“Stop or I’ll shoot her!” Lester shouted.
Vin didn’t think Lester would shoot Emma. He still needed her for something. But even a greedy man like the admiral might throw away his wealth to save his life. More shots hit Vin, this time in his back, bruising ribs or breaking them. Rounds hit him up and down his body.
“Don’t kill him!” Emma screamed. “I’ll sign it! I’ll sign it! Please
don’t kill him.”
The big man leaped toward Vin again, moving faster than possible with the injuries he should have. Vin dodged but it gave the other men time to move in on him.
“Take him alive,” Lester ordered at the same time a mass of bodies slammed into Vin.
They twisted Vin’s gun from his hand. Fists struck him along his body. They could do him little harm through his armor but the strikes against his head could. The sheer weight of the men wrestling him soon immobilized him. His peripheral vision saw the boot coming toward his head but he could neither avoid it nor fight off the darkness that followed the pain of impact.
* * * *
They secured Vin with chains and thick straps. Another of the guards wrapped a bandage around Vannie’s bleeding shoulder. Vannie cursed Ben and the guards until her stepfather threatened to slap Emma if he didn’t cease.
The monster man lifted Vin and threw him against the wall like he was a sack of flour.
Ben used his foot to shove Dr. First out of the way. Blood pooled around First’s body and still seeped from a hole his chest. Dead, with his evil vial smashed on the floor. Her stepfather moved on to his attorney. The man lived though he’d been stunned. Blood spatter had ruined his precious, lying papers where they’d scattered beyond his out flung hands.
“These will have to be completely redone.” Ben glared at the unconscious Vin. “I don’t know how he followed us here, but it doesn’t matter now.”
Emma exchanged a look with Vannie, her friend nodding his head as if to assure her of his health. She didn’t think Vin had fared as well. Though he wore some kind of body armor that stopped bullets, it had been horrifying to watch him get shot. One could have found his head at any moment. The hand to hand battle between him and the giant had miraculously gone in Vin’s favor though his lean form had appeared like a lad fighting a grown man. Though the kick the monster had delivered to Vin’s head hadn’t killed him outright, it might have injured him enough that he never woke up.
Ben issued orders to his mercenaries, directing them to clear out the dead and drag the stunned men out of the room. The giant grabbed a downed man in each arm and carried them out the rear door.
