by Rachel Clark
Jordan rounded another corner and found two tired-looking guards leaning casually against the wall. One seemed to be sleeping while the other moved restlessly. He stunned the moving guy and expected the other to raise the alarm, but when he failed to stir, Jordan shot him, as well.
He almost laughed out loud as he went looking for yet another guard, wondering whether he would be able to find anyone competent enough to do their job. As he approached the next corner of the square building, he glanced around the edge only to see the guard slump as a stun blast hit him from the corner near the front of the building.
Jordan stepped back into the shadows and held his breath as he strained to hear any sounds of an approaching assailant. In a strange moment of clarity, he realized that the unknown person heading this way was most likely Sarah and if that was true, he was in a whole lot of trouble. She’d probably stun him first and then ask questions later. He was supposed to be creating a diversion on the other side of the building, not taking out guards as he wondered around.
“Sarah,” he hissed quietly. He figured that if the person approaching him wasn’t her, he’d at least cause the distraction she’d asked for, albeit on the wrong side of the building. He waited, listened carefully, and then slowly released the breath he’d been holding when he heard her surprised sound. He stepped from the shadows a moment later.
“Sit-rep,” she whispered as she pushed him back into the shadows.
“Three guards. All stunned. You?”
“Same here. That means we have one missing.” She spoke so quietly that he had to lower his head to her face and couldn't help but breathe deeply as he smelled her unique scent. He wanted to haul her into his arms, but he held fast as he tried to concentrate on where the seventh guard could be. “Maybe he’s inside.” She shook her head, a movement he felt more than saw in the dark. “I don’t like it, but we need to get in now, find Oberon, get back out, and hope that guard number seven called in sick today.”
She moved towards the back door where the guards were slumped against the ground. She grabbed one and maneuvered him into a sitting position so that he looked asleep, not stunned. Jordan followed her lead and pushed the other guard into the same position. They needed as much time as they could get now that the distraction idea had failed. She glanced up at the window on the second floor.
“Up there.” She pointed to a partially-open window. “Give me a boost,” she said as she grabbed his shoulders.
“Okay. I’ll stay out here and make sure our exit is clear,” he said as he realized that she had no intention of letting him follow her. Every protective male instinct roared against the idea, but she had already proven she was more than capable and there was no way he was going to disrespect that or underestimate her again. Besides, he wasn’t going to fit through that tiny space, even if he had a way to get up there, and going through the door was probably the more dangerous option. Chances were, guard number seven was inside and probably guarding both the front and back doors from somewhere in the middle of the building. She was the more experienced of the two of them when it came to this sort of thing, and he would probably just slow her down anyway.
Unfortunately, no amount of calm reasoning stopped his gut from tightening as he watched her slide through the narrow opening. He held his breath as he waited for some kind of sound or alarm to go off, but nothing happened. He slipped into the shadow of the doorway as he nervously waited for something to happen.
Chapter Eight
Sarah dropped lightly onto the carpeted floor. She’d stepped into what looked to be an administrative office where several computer terminals blinked in their stand-by state. She touched the nearest screen and the computer powered up quickly, so she searched the database for some kind of floor plan or indication of what was waiting downstairs. Bingo, she thought triumphantly as she opened a prisoner list that showed a floor plan of the cells below with each prisoner’s name overlaid on their cell.
Gerald Oberon was being held in cell B7. Sarah quickly scrolled through the other names, but none stood out among the many. It was a fairly safe bet that most were political prisoners, captured and jailed for their beliefs rather than any actual crime they’d committed.
She skipped through several more files before she ran across a reference to the medication her ship had been supposed to deliver. She opened the file, curiosity momentarily overriding her need for haste. What she found almost made her vomit. The medication had been pre-sold to another world even though the file contained documents and images outlining the desperate needs of this planet’s own people. Images of sick and dying children filled her screen and a sudden flood of anger filled her. Those kids would get the medication. No way was she going to stand by as governments did this to their own people.
She was headed out the door and into the hallway when she heard voices, so she carefully crept towards the staircase in the middle of the building.
* * * *
Jordan moved around the building, re-stunning the guards before they could fully wake. Moments ago he’d followed a young man, barely more than a boy, around the building, not sure who he was or what he was doing and had watched him check the physical status of each of the guards. He’d been unarmed and not dressed in a uniform, so Jordan had begun to think he was just some kid with too much curiosity and not enough brains. Jordan swore a silent blue streak when he’d watched him use an electronic key to open the front door and quickly enter the building.
Shit! Five more minutes and then he was going in after her—even if he had to knock on the damn door.
* * * *
Sarah crept closer so that she could hear the conversation more clearly.
“All six of them, sir,” a nervous voice said.
“Where are the intruders now?”
“There’s no sign of them, s…s…sir,” the nervous voice stuttered.
“Is the alarm still working?” The anxious guy must’ve nodded because the other voice spoke again.
“Good. At least one thing is going right tonight. Call for reinforcements while I check on the prisoners.”
Slipping down the steps quietly, Sarah chanced a quick glance around the edge of the wall. Both men stood in the middle of a long, narrow corridor with their backs to her, so she watched them as they moved down the hall. She figured that the older man was the one in charge and she watched him turn right at the end of the hallway and the younger man step through the last door on the left.
Sarah moved quickly as she ran down the hall, careful to keep her footsteps light so that she could get to the younger man before he had a chance to call for reinforcements. She slipped into the room just as the young man glanced up and his expression turned to panic. He crumpled at the knees as her stun shot hit him and she moved forward to catch him so that he fell to the ground quietly. He was barely more than a kid and, Sarah admitted silently to herself, she really didn’t want to hurt him.
Sarah stepped back into the hallway as she turned to follow the direction the other man had taken. She moved carefully through the corridor, noting the numbers on each of the doors all began with G. It didn’t take a genius to realize that the numbering system meant that the cell she was looking for, B7, was in the basement. She could see the steps ahead of her and could hear faint noises coming from the bottom of the stairwell.
She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the doorbell ring. Shit! Who the fuck would be knocking on the front door in the middle of the night? Reinforcements? Unlikely. They’d have an access card. Government officials? Probably not. Space Scout Girls selling cookies? Hey, at this point anything was possible.
She stepped into what looked to be a supply closet and pulled the door almost closed so that she could watch the man who came up the stairs.
“David,” he called, his voice tight. “Stay where you are, son. I’ll find out who it is.”
Okay, now she felt a little less stupid about catching the kid as she stunned him. It sounded like he was this man’s son and n
ot even part of the operation. Didn’t mean she couldn’t shoot his daddy, though.
He fell to the ground as soon as her shot hit. He crumpled first to his knees, then his waist, and slid gracefully to the floor. It looked like daddy wasn’t going to have any bruises either.
Moving quickly to the stairs, Sarah paused a moment and listened for sounds of other guards, but heard none. Stun gun at the ready, she moved carefully down the steps, watching the light and shadows for any signs of movement. The smell in the basement was very unpleasant and reeked of a mixture of urine, sweat, and decay. Carefully, Sarah stepped into the hallway, noting blank walls at both ends of the long corridor with a dozen solid metal doors on either side. She followed the numbers and quickly located B7, but kept moving down the hall to make sure that none of the rooms were administrative or duty stations for guards.
Satisfied that the only people here were the prisoners, Sarah made her way back to the door marked B7. As electronic locks went, this one was fairly simple, and it took her only moments to pry off the cover to the panel, hack into the computer, and override its codes. The door swung open with a soft pop.
Inside, a man lay curled up on the cot, both eyes swollen and bruised, clearly in a lot of pain. He moved as she approached him, but gasped as his pain increased.
“Oberon?” she asked. Jordan had given her a physical description and shown her an image of the man’s face, but as banged up as this guy was, she wasn’t sure his own mother would be able to identify him.
“Oberon?” she asked again.
“Go away,” he mumbled. “I won’t tell you anything, so you may as well just kill me.”
Well, that was good enough for her. Even if he wasn’t Oberon, there was no way she was leaving this guy behind.
“Oberon, my name’s Sarah. Jordan sent me to find you.”
“Jordan?” he asked, trying to open his swollen eyes. “Where is he?”
“Outside,” she said. “Though I doubt he’ll stay there much longer. He wasn’t really keen to let me come in by myself. Is there anyone else being held here that we need to rescue?”
He nodded. “Two others were arrested with me. I’m fairly certain they are on either side of me. I could hear the sounds of them both being beaten and asked the same questions as they asked me. I don’t know if either is still alive, or even if either of them talked.”
“Can you walk?” she asked, concerned at the pain she could hear in his voice.
“I’ll bloody well walk out of here.” He groaned quietly as he sat up, but the color bleached from his face as he fought the pain. She nodded once, turned from the room, and set about releasing the locks on cell doors B6 and B8
Minutes later she crept through the halls with two injured men and a badly-beaten woman following clumsily behind her. The going was slow, but she managed to get all three up the steps from the basement and onto the ground floor. The doorbell had rung several times while she’d been down here, but so far, no-one had come through the door or opened it from the inside. She re-stunned the older man she’d left lying face first in the hallway and moved quickly forward to the room where she’d left his son.
The boy lay curled on his side, his deep snoring filling the room. She considered stunning him again but decided against it, unwilling to put someone so young at risk—regardless of who his father was. Too many hits from a stun gun could cause permanent, even fatal, injury regardless of how safe the technology claimed to be. Sarah had seen it too many times in her black-ops days. She never wanted to see it again.
She decided that the back door was probably their best chance, so she led her little group through the long corridor as she stayed alert for movement. She heard none. She just hoped Jordan had been able to keep all the guards out cold. She’d been inside almost twenty minutes, and she figured her pirate lover was probably about ready to tear the walls down to get her out.
* * * *
He’d spent the last ten minutes playing ring-and-run and he was beginning to feel really stupid. Jordan had been trying to get the attention of anyone inside so that they’d open the door and then he’d stun them and storm his way inside.
Well, since no one wanted to oblige him, it was probably time for plan B.
He glanced around the yard and noticed for the first time a small vehicle parked beside a shed. If he could get it started and override the safety mechanism, plan B just might work.
* * * *
The ragged little group finally reached the back door. Sarah pried off the cover to the control panel and quickly set to work overriding the code. She glanced up to check that her escapees were still lucid and capable of following her instructions, and then stepped through the doorway, expecting to see Jordan. What she saw instead was the missing guard, just before he shot her.
Chapter Nine
Jordan watched the whole scene as it unfolded in front of him. The seventh guard had appeared out of nowhere and had been shaking the two stunned guards in an effort to wake them. Jordan circled around the perimeter, trying to get a better angle so that he could stun the guy before he could raise the alarm, but the door had opened unexpectedly and the guard had lifted his gun and fired.
Time stood still as Jordan’s throat clogged and his veins flowed with dread. He jumped from his position and ran full pelt, shooting several times before he finally hit the man with a stun shot. His breath jammed in his lungs as the woman he loved fell to her knees, holding her side. He barely noticed the people behind her. If she died, his life was worth squat, so his own safety meant little.
“I'm okay,” she said as he fell to his knees beside her. “We have to get out of here.”
His eyes searched her face as he sought the truth to her claim, but he could see only pain. A hand touched his shoulder and a familiar voice spoke from behind him.
“Jordan, carry her to safety. We’ll follow you.”
Noticing Oberon for the first time, Jordan nodded and lifted his woman into his arms. He cradled her slight body against his chest as his heart pounded in fear.
“Vehicle.” He indicated with his chin, pointing at the car he'd just stolen.
They all squashed into the tiny vehicle. Jordan handed over Sarah’s care to Oberon when he realized he was the only one fit enough to drive. He hated it, but it was his only chance to get her out of here.
“Drive.” She growled breathlessly when he hesitated to leave her, so he kissed her quickly on the forehead, took one last look at the blood seeping through the fingers that held her side, and then slid into the driver’s seat.
It had been years since he’d driven such an old vehicle, but he managed to get it moving. He’d disabled the safety features earlier so he would able to maneuver the vehicle off-road if that became necessary.
“Oberon, tell me where to go. She needs medical help. You all do. Who is the closest?”
“Turn left at the next junction and head south for several miles. One of our contacts is a surgeon. We’ll find him there.”
Jordan nodded his understanding, careful to keep the vehicle on the road. He didn't want to attract attention or alert any authorities that the vehicle’s safety features had been switched off. Even on this backwater little planet, driving without safeties was a big no-no.
Jordan noticed that they were driving away from the built-up areas of the city and they were now headed into a region with a more rural feel. His body relaxed fractionally when he realized that on this deserted road, there would be less chance of being followed without their knowledge.
“Turn at the next street. It’s the last house on the right before the road dead ends.”
Jordan followed his instructions as he glanced over at Sarah’s pale face, relieved to see her eyes watching him. “I’m okay,” she said again quietly, her voice still breathless. Finally, they reached the house Oberon had indicated and Jordan stopped the car out front.
“Wait here,” Oberon said as he pressed the release for his door. “I’ll get him to open the barn so that
we can hide the vehicle. His surgery is in a hidden room off the back, so when you see the door open, drive in, and we’ll be right behind you.”
Jordan nodded again in understanding and watched Sarah’s face pale further as Oberon slid out from under her and settled her slim form carefully against the seat. He reached for her arm, needing the connection, needing her. Her hand was cold, but she squeezed him back and her eyes opened tiredly as a smile ghosted across her face. She opened her mouth to say something and he laughed quietly.
“I know you’re okay,” he said softly. “I’ll just feel a whole lot better when the doctor agrees with you.” He saw the barn door open and the door roll up mechanically, so he moved the car towards it. He stopped the vehicle inside the large area and glanced up at the two men who entered through the smaller door from the left.
Oberon pulled Sarah’s door open, squatting down to talk to her.
“Sarah, this is Dr. Foster.” An older man bent at the waist so that she could see his face. “He’s going to help you. Okay?”
Sarah nodded carefully, but she ground her teeth so loudly against the pain that everyone in the vehicle heard her. Oberon stepped back to let the doctor get closer.
“Just relax, Sarah. I need to see where the bullet hit you before we start moving you around.”
“Lower right side. Just above my pelvic bone. The bullet went right through, which is why I can’t stop the damn bleeding. I don’t think it hit anything other than muscle, but I can’t see the blood properly in the dark, so I’m not sure.”
The doctor chuckled reassuringly.
“Sounds like you’ve done this a time or two before. Can you move?”
“Yes,” she hissed as she moved her leg to lever herself out of the vehicle. The doctor helped her, wrapping an arm around her waist and lifting her up and out and into Jordan’s arms. Doctor Foster pressed a wad of cloth against her back, pushing hard enough to make her grunt as Jordan held her close.
