Desolate Tides (Earth Exiles Book 5)

by Mark Harritt

  Rich pointed at Mike’s arm, “First, we need to find something we can use to set that.”

  Mike’s arm was throbbing with pain, but he shook his head, “Not my primary concern right now. Maybe we find something, maybe we don’t. I’ll deal with the pain for now.”

  Rich pointed at the room he was standing next to, “There’s a shower in every room. The Turinzoni had knives in their rooms, and they all had shock batons, but that was it. No guns whatsoever.”

  Mike didn’t like that, “We need guns.”

  Craig moved away from his door so the Contai could come out. They came out with knives in hand, fresh blood dripping from the blades. Mike knew them from training, Gersh and Taloi from Althus’ village. Mike held out his hand, but they just stared at it. Their gaze wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t friendly either. Mike dropped his hand and looked at Rich, “We need to bring Brett here.”

  Rich nodded. He turned to Gersh, “Can you help me?”

  Gersh’s eyes narrowed and he looked at Taloi, who nodded. Rich motioned for Gersh to follow and turned to go get Brett. Gersh padded after him.

  Mike turned to Craig, “Did you see Ken?”

  Craig shook his head, “We didn’t find anything.”

  Mike frowned, “I guess we need to check the other levels.”

  Craig nodded, “We decided to head up, hoping we’d find a way out. Then we found this area and figured we needed to make sure that nobody would get between us and you.”

  Mike nodded, “Good call. I’d hate to be caught between two groups. Let’s get cleaned up and find some clothes that fit, and then we’ll look downstairs. If we find him, or we confirm he’s not here, we can start up the stairs and try to get the hell out of here.”

  Craig pointed at the door behind Mike, “Okay, you first. I’ll scrounge and try to find some clothes for you. I’ll bring you one of the guard’s belts also, with a shock baton and knife.”

  Mike started to argue, but Craig held up a hand, “Get your ass in there. The quicker you’re in and out, the quicker we get a shower also.”

  Mike looked at Taloi, who nodded.

  Mike turned around and walked into the room. Behind him, he heard Craig ask Taloi to guard the hallway so that he could find clothes for everybody. Mike looked around the room. There was a door in the back. Mike crossed the room and opened the door. Rich had been right, there was a bathroom in the room.

  Mike stepped into what he could only assume was the shower. There was a bottle there that looked like soap. Mike pushed the shower nozzle away from him and turned on the water. Mike put his hand in the water to judge the temperature. He jerked his hand back out. Whoever lived in this room liked the water damn close to freezing. Mike spent the next five minutes trying to figure out how to turn the water temperature up. Finally, the water was close to perfection, and he stepped into the flow.

  It was magnificent. He grabbed the bottle and squeezed a large dollop onto the palm of his hand. He washed the filth from his body. He took large mouthfuls of water, swirled it around and spit it back out. He rubbed his scalp with the soap. He wished he could stay in longer, but they had to get the hell out of here.

  He stepped out of the shower, but he couldn’t find any towels. He walked into the other room looking for something to dry himself off with. He looked at the bed and walked over to pull the blanket off. It was a thick comforter, so he used it awkwardly with one hand to dry himself of.

  He looked around the room. Craig had found some clothes for him. There was the guard’s belt that Craig had promised, with a t-shirt, pants, and footwear that looked like it slipped on and then tied around the ankle. He grabbed the shirt and gingerly pulled it on, trying to keep from inadvertently causing more pain to the broken arm. It didn’t work. He accidently hit the chair with his bad arm and it sent a strong jolt of pain through him. He damn near passed out

  He finally got the shirt on without any more major mishaps. He didn’t see any underwear, so he scrounged in the room until he found some. It was tight, but it would do. The pants were hard to put on with one arm, but he solved that problem by alternately sitting and standing to get them on and buttoned up.

  There was no way in hell he was getting the shoes or the belt on. He stepped over to the door, opened it up, and stepped into a world of pain. Rich was stretched out on the floor. He looked dead. Mike looked up to see twenty grey men in the hallway, with weapons that he hadn’t seen before. One of the grey men closest to him yelled something at his team and then raised his rifle to shoot.

  Mike ducked back into the room, but he didn’t move fast enough to escape the full effect of the gun that the Turinzoni was using. His left arm flopped to his side. Whatever that weapon was, it caused the nerves in his arm to go dead. He couldn’t use the arm, but the pain was gone. He reeled away from the door and tried to get to the knife. There was no way in hell that he was going to let them take him.

  As soon as he reached the knife, he heard men coming in the door behind him. He turned with the knife in his hand, stared at the men in the door with their weapons raised, and realized that he couldn’t win, not with a broken arm and in poor health. The Turinzoni weren’t pushovers. The only reason that Mike’s team had been able to take them was because they’d had the element of surprise on their side, and they’d overwhelmed the grey men with numbers.

  Mike twisted the knife to stab himself, but all three of the grey men shot at the same time. Mike’s body went completely limp. He dropped the knife and toppled forward. His body hit the floor and his head bounced as it hit the floor. He didn’t feel any pain, though. His body was completely numb. Rough hands grabbed him and dragged him out of the room. They laid him in the hall next to the wall, face up toward the ceiling.

  The worse thing about it was that he could still see and hear. He watched as they carried more bodies past him. His team had been taken out quickly and professionally. He watched as the grey men paced back and forth around him and the others, wondering what they were waiting for. It didn’t take too long for him to find out. The monkey faced man walked into Mike’s field of vision and stared down at him. He pulled out an instrument that Mike was unfamiliar with, and then knelt beside him. He reached over to Mike’s neck and pushed the instrument into Mike’s skin, and Mike heard a hissing noise. Mike’s world narrowed slowly. Time stretched as Mike watched monkey man stand and walk away, and then his world turned black.

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  Mike felt someone slap his cheek. He was groggy and didn’t know where he was. The only thing he knew was that he seemed to be strapped to a table, he was naked, and his left arm hurt like hell. Whatever that gun done to him had worn off, and his would had turned back into one of pain. He tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn’t focus, and he shut them again, nauseous. He felt pressure against his neck and heard a hiss. He tried to talk, but gibberish came out. He was messed up. He could think, but his body wasn’t responding.

  The pain in his left arm flared and he screamed. He turned his head and his vision returned. The most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life was gripping his arm tightly, causing the bone to grind together. She was stunning, blond hair, red skin, tall, fit, wearing a see-through dress that hid nothing from him.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” He screamed at her.

  She let go of his arm, staring at someone on the other side of him, “See, I told you that would work.” She was speaking the common trade language, so Mike could understand her.

  Spittle flew out of Mike’s mouth when he yelled at her again in the same language, “Who the hell are you, you bitch?”

  Her face contorted in fury. She grabbed his arm again, and this time added torque. Mike screamed again as the pain almost made him black out.

  “You would do well to remember to speak to your Dostori Rev with a civil tongue, otherwise I will have Sebius remove it.”

  Mike’s head dropped back against the table he was strapped to. He remembere
d the name. This was the bitch that had been trying to kill his people damn near since they arrived on this planet. He had certainly fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire.

  Mike glared at her, “What do you want?”

  She slapped him, hard, “Avert your eyes, slave.”

  “I’m not your slave,” he growled.

  Her head tilted slightly, “I think you’ll reconsider that position soon. Perhaps if I torture your friends in front of you, you’ll change your mind.”

  She sneered at him. She looked down at his, once again, naked body. She put her hand on his chest. She started exploring him. He hated her, but he was suddenly very aware of how close she was to him. Her diaphanous gown certainly didn’t hide anything. He stared at the curve of her breasts under the gown. Suddenly, he was filled with desire for her, wanting to grab her and pin her to the table. He didn’t know where the hell this feeling suddenly came from, but he shook his head to dispel it. It didn’t work. His body inadvertently flexed, and he could feel himself growing tumescent. He growled as he realized that his body was betraying him.

  Her laugh tinkled through the air as she realized the effect she was having on him. Her hand strayed further down his body, and then he howled as she gripped him tightly enough to cause extreme pain, her fingernails cutting into the skin. He screamed again. He called her every name that he could think of in English, Spanish, Arabic, Contai and trade lingo.

  She laughed again, enjoying his obvious reaction to her. Her hand moved to his cheek and stroked his face, “I’d love to break you in my bed, but I think you are too dangerous to take as a lover.” The caress disappeared as she grimaced, gripping his neck, choking him and pushing his head to the side in a murderous rage, “I’m surprised that a naked savage like you was able to overpower all the guards and kill all of my techs here. You made one mistake, though. You didn’t know why they were pulling you out of that cage, did you? I’d scheduled time to come down and look at you and your men. Had you not murdered all of my techs and guards, things could have been much more pleasant than they currently are.” She glanced down at his crotch.

  He shuddered thinking about what she was intimating. Still, his body had no problem with it considering he was still erect.

  “Had it not been for that one thing, you and your men may have escaped. Sadly, now, you and your men will die slowly. But, if you cooperate, you can save your life, and the lives of your men.”

  He was certain that no matter what he did, whether he was cooperative or not, that neither he or the others would leave this place alive.

  Suddenly she stopped choking him and started stroking his cheek again. He tried to bite her hand, but she moved quicker than he, and slapped him again.

  “Now, you’re going to tell me everything. Who are you?”

  Mike didn’t say anything, staring at her.

  Fingernails arced over his eyes. “Are you going to tell me, or shall I take that venomous stare away from you.”

  He didn’t say a word.

  She leaned back, “Okay, have it your way. Eventually, when your body is completely broken, you’ll beg me to let you tell all your secrets. You’re going to tell me who you are, where you come from, who hired you to be here, and what you’ve done with your people.

  Mike stared at her after the last admission. The only thing that he could think, being a trained interrogator, was that the Dostori Rev was giving away more information than she was getting. Hope surged through Mike. The best he’d hoped for was a clean death for everybody back in the canyons. Now it seemed that some of them had gotten away.

  “Why do you want to know?” he asked.

  Dostori Rev tilted her head, pleased that she’d convinced him to speak, “That’s none of your concern. I do what I want to do. You will give me your information, and then I will decide whether you live or die. If you please me, you won’t die, and you will be my slave forever.” She leaned forward to stroke his chest, “Displease me, and I will torture and kill all of your friends before I break you.” She paused to let that sink in, “Now, tell me what I want to know.”

  Mike stared at her. She stared back, not blinking. Mike decided to change the dynamic a little bit, “You understand, from my perspective, it might be preferably to die instead of living as your slave forever.” His insult didn’t change anything. She still stared at him, waiting.

  “My name is Mike Duggins. I’m an American soldier.”

  She frowned, “Who are these, Emurecuns?”

  Mike decided to play a game, “They are the greatest civilization this galaxy has ever seen.”

  She slapped him so quickly that he didn’t have time to prepare himself. His head snapped to the side. His jaw ached from the hit.

  “Damn she’s strong,” he thought.

  “Don’t tell me your lies! My father is much stronger than any planet or confederation of planets you come from!”

  “Uh, oh, daddy issues,” Mike thought.

  “Now, where do you come from?” She asked again.

  “Here, on this planet.”

  She slapped him again, but he was prepared for it. That didn’t make it any more pleasant, but at least his head didn’t bounce off the table.

  “I’m getting tired of your lies. Tell me how you trapped and killed the Sh’raithe commander.”

  Mike laughed out loud. This was getting better and better. He didn’t know what Mickey had done, but evidently all their efforts weren’t completely in vain. The Sh’raithe, whoever they were, must have been the green men that attacked Mike’s people in the canyons.

  Dostori Rev’s eyes narrowed and it wasn’t a slap that Mike had to contend with. She punched him hard enough that he saw stars. Then she grabbed his arm again. Mike’s breath sounded as a hiss through the pain. This time, though, she didn’t twist his arm.

  “Why are you laughing?”

  Mike glared at her and spoke through clenched teeth, “Let go of my arm, and I’ll tell you.”

  She let go, and Mike explained, “I didn’t even know that your leader had been killed. When I left, we were preparing to run away. Had you not had anti-aircraft weapons in place, I and my men might have been able to carry out our mission. As it was, I left one of the other soldiers in charge. He must have been the one to kill your Sh’raithe leader.”

  She stared at him while she evaluated what he’d told her. She must have been satisfied, because she asked him another question, “Where did you get the robots? Who built them for you?”

  He smiled, “I told you, but you didn’t believe me. The Americans built the robots.”

  Her eyes narrowed again, and Mike expected another punch, but one wasn’t forth coming. She continued with her questioning, “Where are the Emurecuns from?”

  Mike glanced at her, “I told you already. The Americans are from here.”

  The Dostori Rev made a grand gesture with her arms, encompassing the room, “What, from this room? Maybe from my city? This continent?”

  Mike decided to try an information campaign against her, “Look lady, you can mock me all you want, but I’m telling you what I know. The Americans are from this planet. They’re going to take this planet back from you, and then they’re going after the rest of your family. You think I just showed up here out of the blue for no reason? My guys have taken out a lot of your soldiers. And you know what? We did it with only five men.

  “We took down your entire Turinzoni complex with a handful of American soldiers and the Contai soldiers that we’d trained. We were the first ones in, but we’ve been so successful at killing your guys that they’ve decided to ramp up the invasion. They’re putting in another nine teams to train the locals to fight you. The Americans are throwing a lot of money into this campaign. You can kill me, you can kill my team, but this isn’t going to stop. They’ll just send more soldiers after you.”

  The Dostori Rev didn’t look quite as fierce as she had before. If one team of five men could do this, what the hell could nine more teams do.
/>   The Dostori Rev looked back at Mike, “Where did your people go?”

  Mike shook his head, “I have no idea. Once the shuttle went down, I have no idea what the rest of them did.”

  “Can you find them?”

  Mike didn’t answer the question.

  Dostori Rev smiled, “I think you can find them. That is why you didn’t answer my question.”

  Mike stared at her, not saying a word.

  “Can you contact these Emurecuns?” She asked, staring at his face intently.

  Mike asked a question of his own, “Why do you want to contact the Americans?”

  The Dostori Rev shrugged, but continued to study Mike’s face, “It is as you said. Your soldiers are more . . . efficient than the other soldiers that I’ve sent against you. If I can pay the Americans, perhaps we can come to an accommodation. Then, if they allow it, you will work for me.”

  It took a moment for Mike to digest this information. It would certainly change the dynamic for his people. But then he thought about Matki’s family and what the other Contai had to endure. Somehow, he didn’t think he could trust the woman that had condemned an entire race to die. His mind retreated to the necropolis that they’d found on that fateful day when all of this had started, the first time they’d run into the Cree robots. He remembered the shattered bones of the children that died there.

  Mike looked at her and nodded, “Sure, the Americans could probably come to an accommodation with you. We could work for you.”

  A wry smile crossed the Dostori Rev’s lips as she studied Mike’s face, and she shook her head, almost regretfully, “No, I don’t think so. Your face betrays you. I think you are stalling for time. Stall all you want, there is no one coming to rescue you. I also think that any bargain struck with you and these Emurecuns that you talk about would end with my betrayal. I think you are a man that cannot be trusted when it comes to my interests.”