“We changed our minds,” she said. “But I’ll give you a ten-piece note if you tell me what business that is about two blocks up.” She pointed at the neon-encased building that Cardax had entered.
He started to respond rudely, but thought better when he noticed the dangerous look he was receiving from Adam. “It’s the Black Void. It’s a bar.”
Keryn looked across the street to where a bearded Terran still examined the local fabrics. “Penchant,” she yelled, getting his attention. “Find us a place to stay while we’re here.”
Adam and Keryn exchanged glances. “So what now?” he asked.
“Now, I think it’s about time you bought me a drink, honey,” she said with a sickly sweetness. They stepped away from the booth and began heading up the street.
“What about my money?” the merchant yelled behind them.
Adam glanced over his shoulder. “We changed our minds about that too!”
CHAPTER 5:
Keryn and Adam slipped into the Black Void, allowing the door to stay open only briefly in order to minimize the amount of bright light that flooded into the dark bar. Their silhouettes were gone from the doorway before most patrons registered that the door had been opened.
Thick, acrid smoke hung like curtains within the Black Void and a mixture of voices and languages overwhelmed the senses. The center of the room housed an assortment of tables and stools, some crafted to support the physiology of the more rare races. A large crescent bar dominated the back wall, with an assortment of alcoholic beverages as wide-ranging as the clientele of the Void. Keryn and Adam, however, pushed their way through the crowd and found seats in the booths that lined both side walls. The tall backs of the benches and taller dividing walls allowed privacy while also minimizing background noise enough that they could hold a conversation. The benches were as much a statement of life in Miller’s Glen as the armed bodyguards that lined the street. The tall backs had been built to allow privacy from prying eyes and probing intrusions during immoral practices and illegal transactions, allowing dark dealings to take place in so public an arena.
Keryn felt uncomfortable as she took her seat. Adam had taken the seat facing the bar itself, while she had been forced to sit across from him with a view only of the front door. While both observation views were necessary for their mission, Keryn felt exposed and vulnerable without being able to see who was approaching the table from behind her. Reaching beneath the table, she unlatched the locking mechanism that held her sidearm in its holster. She felt a momentary relief knowing that she could now easily draw her pistol, should the need arise.
“Do you see him?” Keryn asked, cursing herself again for placing herself with no observation of the bar. Judging from Adam’s narrowed eyes, he had already spotted Cardax among the crowd.
“He’s at the bar, along with a couple of his crew,” Adam replied.
Cardax’s large Oterian body dominated the area around the bar. His size was eclipsed only by the amount of noise he made while barking orders to both his cohorts and the patrons of the bar who, unfortunately for them, sat too close. Even from where they sat, his loud voice carried through the thick air and din of conversations.
“What the hell are you looking at, dog?” Cardax yelled at one of the drunkards who only barely held himself steady on a stool at the bar. Swinging his massive arm, Cardax lifted the man from the barstool, watching as he crashed limply into one of the nearby tables. His guffaws carried across the room, accompanied by the prodded laughter of those in his proximity.
In the ensuing silence, a woman approached the table. Keryn tensed at her approach, unaware of her presence until she appeared suddenly at her side. Haggard and worn, the older woman, frocked in a dirty dress whose color matched the dark wood of the Void, exuded a sense of misery and apathy.
“What can I get you?” she asked brusquely, her thin patience already worn from the long day’s work.
“What do you have on tap?” Adam asked nonchalantly. The woman glowered at him with undisguised hatred.
“We’ll have two of whatever is on tap,” Keryn quickly interceded. The quicker the woman left, the less attention would be drawn to the booth in which they found themselves hiding.
“Coming right up.” Turning, the woman walked away in disgust.
“A friendly bunch, here,” Adam said drolly.
“Focus less on your drink,” Keryn warned, “and more on Cardax. Is he still up front?”
Adam glanced past her shoulder to the front of the bar. Cardax’s large frame still dominated the area as he broke into another story of his pirating adventures. He seemed at ease in the bar, as though he were a frequent customer. Even the bartender seemed to cater to the massive smuggler. His minions, however, responded robotically to the Oterian’s moods. When he laughed, they laughed in response. When he grew angry, they flashed steely eyes around the room and rested their hands on the butt of their pistols. They were clearly less his friends, and more his bodyguards.
“He’s still there, but I’m getting concerned about the growth of his following,” Adam remarked. “It seems that he has an ever expanding legion of peons and pissants. If we get spotted here, we may be in for more of a fight than what we bargained for.”
“Then keep your head down and try not to be seen,” she advised. She wanted to crane her head around the side of the booth and observe the action for herself. Instead, she began mentally marking her avenues of assault, in case a gunfight was unavoidable. With a limited view of the bar, however, she returned to her role of watching the door. After a few minutes of watching, one Avalon was all that entered, his wings ragged and his clothes dirty. He walked past all the tables and took a spot on the opposite end of the bar from Cardax. If this was to be her reconnaissance duty for the night, it would be a long night indeed.
“The waitress is coming back,” Adam warned, mere moments before the older woman reappeared with two metal mugs in her hand. She gracelessly dropped the mugs on the table, sloshing pungent brown liquor onto the table. Adam handed her a five-piece note and shooed her on her way.
Leaning forward, Adam sniffed his mug. “This smells awful!” he exclaimed, his nose twitching as though he were fighting off the urge to sneeze. “This is exactly why you should always give me a chance to find out our options before ordering a drink. I don’t know if this is Lithid Uapa or a Yulon home brew, though I believe that both of them are capable of melting through the hull of a ship,” he muttered to himself.
Keryn didn’t seem to hear his complaints. She looked into her own glass and immediately recoiled as something sinister surfaced in the liquid. “I’m not sure what this is,” she began, “but there is no way in the known universe that you are going to get me to drink this.”
Laughing, Adam shrugged. “We can always take it home with us and use it to clean our weapon parts.”
“My weapon hasn’t even done anything bad enough to deserve treatment like this,” she said, horrified. “I mean, there’s actually something floating in my drink.”
Adam raised his eyebrow in curiosity. He reached across, grabbing her glass and tilting it toward him, spilling a little more of the liquor onto the table. It quickly congealed into a sticky mess.
“I’m at a loss. I have no idea what this is,” he said as he let go of her glass and pulled his arm back across the table. As he did, his elbow nudged his own mug, which went spiraling off the side of the table and struck the ground, dumping out its contents onto the boot of a passing patron.
“Hey,” the patron yelled, “watch what the hell you’re doing! Do you know who I am?”
Adam reached down to pick up his mug. “I’m really sorry, it was an accident.” He looked up at the plump Terran as he retrieved his fallen glass. “Maybe I can give you some money for new…”
Both Adam and the Terran paused in mid sentence. Adam immediately recognized the Terran, though last time they had seen each other, the Terran had been firing a pistol at him while covering Cardax’s escape
from Pteraxis.
“You!” the Terran hissed, flinging back his coat and reaching for the pistol strapped to his leg.
Adam reached for the rifle under his coat, but couldn’t maneuver the long weapon while leaning over out of the booth. He lunged backward in an attempt to bring the rifle to bear, but found himself, instead, staring down the barrel of the Terran’s loaded handgun. Stuck in the narrow booth with no hope of getting to his rifle, Adam squeezed his eyes shut and awaiting the gunshot. The gunshot reverberated in the confines of the booth and Adam jerked involuntarily. Moments later, however, he realized that he hadn’t been shot and quickly opened one eye.
Keryn sat across the table from him, her pistol free from its holster and smoke rolling from its barrel. He turned his head, opening his other eye, and watched Cardax’s crewman stagger as red blood flowed freely from a bullet hole in his chest. He finally collapsed into a chair at a nearby table, which broke under his weight. His body floundering, he finally came to rest on the floor amid the wreckage of the wooden seat and lay still. Complete silence permeated the room as the patrons looked back and forth from the body to the two armed soldiers in the booth, Adam finally getting his rifle free from his coat. In unison, the bar erupted into chaos as patrons stampeded for the door as Cardax and his men drew their weapons.
“Get out of the booth, now!” Keryn screamed as gunfire erupted and the back of the booth above her head disappeared under a volley of bullets and shattering wood.
Keryn leapt from the bench, skidding across the dirty floor until she found herself partially concealed behind a table. Kicking the closest table legs, she flipped it down until it was able to provide some cover to the incoming volley of rounds. She had taken a quick inventory of the room as she was moving to better cover and knew that she and Adam were outnumbered nearly six to one. She didn’t like the odds, but she’d been in worse situations.
Adam leaned around the destroyed booth wall and fired his rifle. Flames jumped from the front of the barrel as its slugs tore into one of Cardax’s men who had jumped down from one of the stools. The force of the blast sent him tumbling over the bar, smashing through the discarded glasses and bottles. Adam quickly returned to what remained of the booth as they started firing again.
“What happened to stealth?” Adam yelled to Keryn as he fired a couple more rounds at the bar.
“Shut up and keep firing!” she yelled back as she reloaded her pistol. The table that she was behind was quickly being torn to pieces. She recoiled as a large hole appeared near her head and she was pelted with shards of destroyed wood. Someone at the bar had a large caliber rifle and was using it to demolish the poorly crafted furniture in the middle of the room.
“Shoot them,” Cardax screamed angrily as he flipped over a table of his own and took cover.
Keryn bolted from behind her table and ran for the booths on the far side of the room, firing wildly at the bar as she did. After the first couple crewmen had died, the others had wisely joined Cardax behind tables and the bar itself, using the furniture for cover. Most of her rounds went wide anyway as she ran, striking the wall and shattering liquor bottles, but it kept her enemies suppressed behind their tables while she was exposed. Diving into one of the booths, the gunfire quickly returned.
She could hear the roar of Adam’s modified rifle and knew that he was still fighting, though she knew that things were about to get worse for the two of them. Neither one had been in a good position to start a gunfight nor had their defensive positions improved after they became separated. If they didn’t find a way out of the bar soon, neither of them would walk out of the bar alive. To emphasize her concern, the large caliber rifle fired again, this time removing a significant section of the booth wall behind which she had taken cover.
Counting the bursts of gunfire, Keryn waited until the automatic rifles stopped firing as they reloaded, then leaned back around the booth. Her first round struck one of the riflemen as he reloaded, her shot hitting him in his shoulder and sending him spinning. Her second shot struck the same rifleman in the spine as he turned around, dropping him limply to the floor. As the other rifleman brought his machine gun to bear, she jerked back behind cover.
“Kill them both,” Cardax yelled through the din of gunfire. “If you want on my crew, you will bring me both their heads!”
Keryn dropped the magazine from her pistol and counted the bullets she had left. She grimaced as she realized she only had five shots left in this magazine and only one more full magazine on her belt. At the rate they were going, she would be out of ammo long before they were out of enemies. She glanced across the room at Adam. Through the haze of smoke and gunfire, she could see him huddled against what remained of the booth, crouched down under cover as he reloaded his rifle. His sneer reflected her feelings: they were in trouble.
Behind the bar, the bartender stood with his large caliber rifle; the other three men crouched near the liquor cabinet quietly cheered him on as they reloaded. He took aim at the rightmost booth, the one behind which the woman was hiding. Though the man with the rifle on the left had done more damage to the building, it was the accuracy of the woman’s pistol that had killed more of the men. He tucked the stock of the rifle firmly beneath his arm and took aim. Motion from the corner of his eye made him hesitate and he spun to the end of the bar. Standing there, looking worn and tired, stood an Avalon, his wings tattered and dingy. The bartender vaguely remembered the Avalon drinking at the bar before the gunfight began and was surprised that he hadn’t fled with the rest of the patrons.
“Get your ass down unless you want it shot off,” he growled at the Avalon, who looked up him with an emotionless face. “Are you deaf?” the bartender snarled, leaning toward the Avalon who stood rigid beside the bar. “I told you to get down!”
The Avalon’s hand shot out. The pale anemic fingers elongated as he struck, transforming into a jet black hand ending in razor sharp claws. His clawed fingers pierced through the bartender’s throat and severed the artery in the man’s neck. Blue blood poured from the bartender’s neck, spraying the bottles behind him and pooling on the floor at his feet. With a gurgle, he stumbled into the liquor cabinet behind him, pulling down bottles as he fell. Collapsing onto the floor, the three surprised gunmen behind the bar turned toward the new threat.
With his other hand, the Avalon pulled free his automatic pistol and began firing at the crewmen. The three crewmen who had chosen to hide with the bartender tried to run for cover, but the bullets tore through their surprised bodies and shredded through the wooden bar. Their bodies danced under the assault of rounds until the Avalon stopped firing and dropping for cover on the far side of the crescent bar.
Cardax turned as his men were executed behind the bar. Howling in rage, he turned and began firing at the hiding Avalon, his bullets gouging the top of the bar above the tips of the dingy wings. “They’re behind us, too,” Cardax yelled in frustration. “Kill that one too!”
Keryn watched from around the booth as Cardax’s men turned and began firing at the stooped Avalon who had taken cover once again. While the Avalon remained trapped by a hail of gunfire, two of Cardax’s men moved around the edge of the bar in order to trap the new assailant. The Avalon caught Keryn’s eye and he smiled wickedly.
“Now!” the Avalon yelled in a gravelly, familiar voice.
Keryn stepped out from behind the booth and opened fire on the two men moving toward Penchant. The first of the two men dropped, a round striking him firmly between the shoulder blades. Her second shot struck the other man in the small of the back, tearing through his body and leaving an exit wound the size of a fist in his stomach. He stared in horror as blood and organs began seeping from the gaping wound. The man tried taking a step forward, but slipped in his own blood and tumbled from his feet. He didn’t get back up.
Adam ran from behind his booth and launched himself over the closest overturned table, landing next to a surprised Uligart who had been using it for cover. He swung the barrel o
f his rifle down like a hammer, striking the Uligart’s face with the smoldering hot metal. The man dropped his pistol and collapsed to the floor, clutching his burned face. Adam continued the momentum of his swing until the barrel pointed ahead once more, aiming at a man who had leapt from behind a nearby booth. Pulling the trigger, the large caliber bullet tore into the side of the man’s head, spraying the wall behind him with blood and fragments of skull. The man dropped quickly to the ground and twitched violently; his motor controls destroyed by the explosive round.
With almost all of his men killed, Cardax leapt from his hiding place and ran between Keryn and Adam as he made a break for the door and freedom. Penchant, his skin now shedding the Avalon exterior and returning to its natural ebony exoskeleton, yelled a warning as he shot one of the remaining crewmen.
Keryn dropped her pistol, which was now dangerously close to being out of ammunition, and pulled a smaller weapon from her hip. Pulling the trigger, her projectile struck Cardax in the shoulder. Not slowing, the Oterian reached behind him and pulled loose the small dart. Staring in confusion, he tossed it to the side and continued running for the door.
The second dart struck Cardax in the small of the back. As soon as it broke through its skin, it began pumping a strong sedative into his bloodstream. Cardax knocked it free, but his movements became jerked and uncoordinated. Bumping into a table and knocking a couple bottles onto the ground, Cardax struggled toward the door.
Her third and final dart stuck firmly in the back of his thigh. Cardax’s body seized, his legs moving like dead weights. Gurgling in angry defiance, the Oterian smuggler pitched forward and smashed through a table, coming to rest unconscious on the bar floor.
Keryn sighed heavily and wiped the sweat from her brow. Looking over, she watched as Penchant killed the two crewmen who had been wounded in the battle. Adam walked over to her, choosing not to watch Penchant execute the men, and leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. His breath was haggard and he was bleeding from a wound on his left arm.
Purge of Prometheus Page 4
