“To have Tander check out the weapons cache,” Dah grimaced as he said it.
“And they didn’t find anything?” Khai asked, trying to grasp what he was getting at.
“No, Tander found it, and most of the system was devastated by something catastrophic.”
“Dack,” Khai said angrily, getting annoyed with his friend’s lack of getting to the point. “Stop beating around bush and just tell me.”
“We purposefully didn’t tell you or Sibrex to see if any ships would show up,” Dack explained. “And none did.”
“Meaning?” Khai’s anger was rising.
“Meaning that the leak isn’t in Puar’s administration, but somewhere with you-”
“I’m not standing here and listening to this anymore!” Khai interrupted, nearly shouting. “You go ahead and jump on the bandwagon with the rest of them! Sibrex is not a traitor and there is no amount of ‘evidence’ to change my mind on that!”
“Khai!” Dah shouted. “Shut up for second and let me finish!” Khai remained silent, but was still fuming. “I don’t think it’s Sibrex either, but somehow someone caught wind of your discovery.”
“There could be so many explanations for this,” Khai countered calmly. “It could still be someone in Puar’s administration who’s not acting as to not draw attention to himself. Hell, it could be this Warthol guy everyone keeps talking about, maybe he has his claws in everything. It could even be your brother, it’s convenient that he went out there and nothing happened.” Dah’s face contorted with barely-controlled rage and Khai instantly regretted saying that and yet, at the same time, felt justified.
“You want to leave this room right now…” Dah said in a soft, yet intense voice.
“You’re damn right, I do,” Khai grumbled as he stormed out.
Khai stormed out of the hospital, almost completely missing the fact that the protesters had completely cleared out. Khai hadn’t been in there for very long, less than ten minutes. But every single picketer was gone! As strange as that was, Khai’s mind was elsewhere. How could Dah possibly say Sibrex betrayed them? He highly doubted that Tander was to blame, he had mostly just said that out of anger, and he really did regret it.
He simmered the whole way back to his house where his beautiful wife was waiting, but half way there started feeling woozy.
Instantly, she could tell that something was wrong. “What’s bothering you?”
“It’s just Dack. He’s buying into this whole nonsense about Sibrex betraying us.”
“I meant physically,” she corrected, “You look pale.”
“Just stress and lack of sleep,” Khai waved it off. “I’ve been fighting those Reapers for three days now.”
“You need to relax,” Brindee said soothingly, rubbing his muscular back. “And don’t worry about Dack; he’s only acting upon the information that he has. He doesn’t know Sibrex like you do. He doesn’t know Sibrex as a warrior, or as a brother.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Khai relaxed a bit. “But… what if he’s right?”
“Do you even for a minute believe that?”
“No!” Khai said all too quickly. “No. But I don’t know that I would believe it even if the evidence was waved in my face.”
“Well that’s about as honest as you can be,” Brindee said.
Khai heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Let’s pretend, for the next couple of hours, that the whole world isn’t falling apart.”
Aside from feeling sick and lightheaded, their remaining time together was amazing. As they walked together to the pickup spot and the sun had already set low painting brilliant colors across the night sky, Khai’s condition worsened.
“Khai, I’m worried about you,” Brindee voiced. “I think I should stay.”
“No,” Khai said adamantly. “You’re not safe here… from the Reapers or from the Seryysans. You need to board that ship. Here’s a dedicated com unit. With this, you can reach me anywhere in Seryys Space without being tracked. I have military-grade encryption on it. Besides, I’m probably just exhausted from everything that’s been going on.”
“Okay,” Brindee relented, folding her arms and sticking out her bottom lip, “but I’m doing this under extreme protest.”
“Duly noted, now get on that ship before it leaves without you,” Khai chided as his head began to swim.
“I love you,” she said before a lasting kiss.
“I love you, too,” he responded after the kiss. “Call me as soon as you touch down.”
“I will.”
With a final glance, she walked up the ramp. Khai’s vision began to narrow as the ship lifted off its landing skids and headed for the sky. Before the ship could reach the rooftops of the houses surrounding the area, a very familiar sound filled Khai’s ears. The sound was that of a rocket screaming toward the ship. The next sequence of events happened almost like a slow-motion slideshow as Khai came in and out of consciousness.
The rocket impacted on one of the engines.
The ship listed.
“No, no, NO!” Khai cried out.
The next thing Khai knew, he was crawling on his belly toward the crash site.
“Brindee!” he cried out, though his own voice sounded distant.
A man, the man from the hospital, was standing over him grinning. Then blackness took him.
Chapter Fourteen
Seryyk stalked his prey through a long corridor of buildings on either side. The cool wind howled down the alley in which his target had been living. Given that the alleyway was completely covered the whole distance from the street to where the alley dead-ended at an abandoned building, it was the perfect place for his prey to call it quits for the day. For his prey was Vyysarri, a Seryysan lover, the worst kind of traitor. It’s fitting, Seryyk seethed, that this scum calls Lower Seryys, the slums, home, because he belongs amongst the garbage and refuse and needy.
Seryyk noted that the Reaper infestation that he started had not made its way this far yet, but it would soon. His ultimate goal was to get the Reapers to the Corporate Sector where they could do the most damage. So far, they had done a wondrous job mucking things up. However, the efforts of certain people such as Sibrex, Captain Dah and General Khail were significantly slowing the process. So, Stiprox had sent him to take out his target. Yet another opportunity had come his way to prove his worth. Another step closer to meeting the great man that was Stiprox!
He hid in the shadows of twilight and watched as the traitor known as Sibrex climbed through a window and disappeared into the umbra of the vacant structure. Seryyk scoffed in disgust as he climbed in after him. After a few turns and a few floors up, he followed Sibrex to his dwelling. A small dirty mattress sat in the far left corner with a shipping crate next to it holding a small lantern. Along the same wall as the mattress, but on the opposite side of the room was a boarded-up window. Other than that, there was nothing in the room. Seryyk stayed just out of sight while Sibrex readied himself for bed.
He quieted his pounding heart as he heard the rustling of a blanket against a mattress and the small light winked out. Seryyk, being a patient killer, waited another hour to ensure that Sibrex was asleep. When he was ready, he made his move. Seryyk deftly, soundlessly rushed to the bed and without hesitation, drove a wicked-looking knife down through the blanket, through the bed and into the wooden planks of the floor. Within seconds, he realized that he’d been had, as his keen night vision detected no blood pooling around the floor or on the covers.
He removed his knife from the bed and spun 180 degrees, crouching down in a defensive position and instantly stared into the belly of his target. Sibrex, his aged features looking down at him, smiled a predatory smile, an all-knowing smile.
“Silly boy,” Sibrex chided. “I have been aware of your presence since I left the fight. You really must work on your stealth techniques.”
“And yet you were too weak of will to exploit it and kill me!” Seryyk hissed. “Your ti
me amongst this filth has softened your heart of rock.”
“Quite the contrary my young, ignorant friend,” Sibrex said, pity filling his voice which only served to fuel the fire of Seryyk’s rage. “They have shown me that compassion and mercy are greater sources of strength.”
Seryyk stood and took a step back readying himself for a fight.
“You may have gotten the drop on me once, but it won’t happen again,” Seryyk boasted. “You are old and feeble. You cannot withstand a fight against a skilled warrior such as I!”
“As my friend Khai frequently says about me,” Sibrex said drawing a Suult’Ra—a ceremonial blade much like that of its cousin used by the Kil’Jah Assassins, the Kit’Ra—seemingly from nowhere, “I’m ‘full of surprises!’ Come, child, and I will show you more.”
“Gladly,” Seryyk said, moving forward.
Seryyk made a move forward, which was answered by an equal step back from Sibrex. Suddenly, faster than a decrepit, old man should be able to move, Sibrex thrust forward with his blade. Seryyk batted the blade away with his knife as he danced out of the way. They switched spots. Seryyk knew the etiquette of swordplay, but was in no mood for useless ceremonial nonsense. He quickly pulled his gun and went for the kill. The gun, a 92-30:11-1, flashed, and yet again, Sibrex surprised Seryyk with his speed as he juked to the left, letting the bullet graze his midsection. To Seryyk’s satisfaction, Sibrex grunted. But Seryyk’s victory was short-lived as Sibrex danced away from the attack—he spun and swiped the gun from his hand with the Suult’Ra.
Though Seryyk respected Sibrex’s combat prowess, he still had a mission to complete. He pushed forward with a barrage of attacks, which, to Seryyk’s frustration, Sibrex blocked with ease. At that moment, Seryyk realized that he might be outmatched. The overconfident smirk on his enemy’s face sent him into another rage-fueled barrage of attacks. This particular barrage ended with Seryyk being clobbered across the face with the pommel of Sibrex’s blade.
“You cannot win, young one,” Sibrex said in a lecturing tone. “Lay down your weapon, and I will spare you.”
“If you can so easily defeat me, then give me a warrior’s death and be done with it!” Seryyk spat, anger boiling up from his heart.
“I cannot,” Sibrex said in an infuriatingly calm voice, “It is not my way any longer.”
“Then you are no longer Vyysarri!” Seryyk cried as he attacked again.
As Sibrex blocked the attacks, he boomed, “Stop this at once, young one! I don’t want to kill you!” You will have to, Seryyk thought as he pushed the attack.
Finally, Sibrex made his mistake. Seryyk went for a killing strike, a stab straightforward. Sibrex blocked the attack, batting the knife away by slapping the side of blade with the palm his of left hand. Seryyk almost grinned as he allowed himself to be wide open for a counter attack. Sibrex followed up with a quick lunging strike, pushing the blade all the way through Seryyk’s stomach.
Seryyk widened his eyes feigning shock that he was bested. He dropped his knife and fell to his knees, cradling the wound. He is no longer a Vyysarri, Seryyk seethed; knowing he’d won the battle. Though the wound was real and might yet kill him, he knew that Sibrex thought he’d won, and his “compassion” would be his undoing.
Sibrex took a step closer.
Seryyk pulled another knife from his boot.
“Silly child, I still won’t kill you,” Sibrex said pityingly, cradling Seryyk’s chin in his massive hand. “Maybe, by seeing what mercy is like, you-”
Quickly, like a stiprox reptile, Seryyk jabbed the knife all the way to the hilt into Sibrex’s chest. The look of shock on Sibrex’s face was enough to make Seryyk grin and gave him the strength to stand and face his enemy as an equal on the battlefield.
“Your ‘compassion’ is what undoes you at this moment, the moment of your death. You needn’t worry, however. I have given you a warrior’s death, a good death.”
Sibrex stumbled backward and slumped against the boarded-up window, gasping and coughing up blood as the blade had found its way through the ribs and into his left lung. Not a fatal attack by any stretch of the imagination, but still a stunning and distracting one.
“Good-bye, Sibrex. May the afterlife see you fit for admittance.”
With a spinning back kick, Seryyk kicked the pommel of the knife forcing the knife all the way through by breaking the prongs off of the hilt. The force of the kick sent Sibrex crashing through the boarded-up window and seven floors down to his death.
Yet another mission complete, Seryyk retreated to his dwelling to nurse his grave wound. If this didn’t grant him an audience with Stiprox, nothing will. Despite his pain, he smiled. He retrieved his knife, lined up one shot at the body seven stories down, pulled the trigger, then leaved the scraped-up gun and escaped into the darkness.
Chapter Fifteen
Khai’Xander Khail awoke to find himself shackled to a chair.
“Brindee!” he cried as his last memory returned to him.
Looking around, he was in a dark room with a single light directly above him. Just outside the light’s range, a tall, slender man wearing a Fleet Uniform with the rank insignia of a Captain stood with his hands folded behind his back. It was definitely an interrogation room. And whoever this man was, he meant business, as there wasn’t even a table in the room between him and the captain, making Khai feel even more vulnerable. But whatever the case was, Khai wouldn’t crack.
“Imagine my surprise,” the man’s melodic voice cut through the silence, “when, not only do I find you, General, but I find you at a murder scene.”
That wasn’t me, you stupid son of a bitch! I didn’t fire that fucking rocket! My wife was on that ship! “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he growled.
“Of course not,” the captain said, smiling and stepping into the light. He was young, maybe thirty years old. “You have no idea, do you?” Khai sat in silence; he wasn’t going to play the young captain’s game. “Then answer me this.” He produced a gun; the gun had scrapes all over it where notches used to be. “Is this your gun?” Khai said nothing. “A 92-30:11-1, a very, very rare gun. Don’t even make them like this anymore.” The captain tested the weight of the gun and grinned. “I suppose a man could get used to a weapon like this. But, the problem with a gun like this is that it’s very easily identified by ballistics and this particular gun is even more-easily identified by its… decorations. Found it next to your body at the crime scene.”
Now Khai was a little confused. He didn’t shoot anybody. He wanted to shoot that man from the protest going on outside the hospital, the same man who mysteriously appeared when Brindee’s ship went down, but he didn’t even have his gun on him at that point. “Let me go. I have to find the person who shot my wife’s ship down.”
Ignoring Khai’s request, the captain continued. “If the bullets at the crime scene match the bullets in this gun, not only are you going to jail for a long time, you’ll be disgraced. If you confess now to the murder, you can at least save some face.”
Khai said nothing.
“Look, General Khail. I want to help you. You’re a legend, a hero. I want nothing more than to give you a somewhat-honorable outcome to this, but I need your help.”
Though Khai was very, very confused about this whole situation, he remained stoic.
“We know everything; it was painted all over the crime scene. We found you unconscious there. We have a timeline, we have a motive, we even have the murder weapon… the ‘smoking gun,’ as it were.”
This guy was starting to get under Khai’s skin. Or was it that Khai really had no idea what this young captain was talking about? Either way, Khai was getting angry.
“Just tell me you did it, I’ll do whatever I can to make it as easy as possible.” The captain was good, but Khai was better. As a soldier, he was trained to resist all kinds of interrogation. That seemed to do the trick, the young captain lost his temper. “Damn it, Khail! We know you killed Sibrex! We know
you sought revenge for Sibrex shooting down the ship that had your wife onboard! Just fucking admit it!” he shouted, putting his clenched fists on Khai’s legs and leaning down right into his face.
For the first time, Khai’s emotions betrayed him. He squirmed ever so slightly.
“Ah-ha!” the captain relished, taking a step back. “So…”
Whatever he said after that was lost to Khai’s own thoughts. Sibrex was dead? Brindee was dead? How was that possible? Sibrex was a superior warrior! Nobody could have bested him. It was only when a sharp pain jumped across his face that he came back to the here and now.
“Just say it! You wanted revenge for your wife’s death! You killed Sibrex!” the captain shouted, grabbing Khai’s wrists and squeezing.
Finally, Khai lost his cool. “No!” he shouted, spitting in the captain’s face. “I didn’t kill anyone! My wife is dead, my best friend is dead and you have the gall to accuse me?” Khai leaned forward, struggling against the restraints. “I didn’t even know where Sibrex was staying while I was with Brindee!”
Getting at least something from Khai, the young captain relaxed a bit. “How about we start from the beginning?”
“The beginning of what?” Khai growled. “I already told you, you dumbass son-of-a-bitch! I didn’t kill anyone. The last thing I remember was watching my wife die as her ship crashed into a building after getting hit with a rocket.”
“A rocket that Sibrex fired,” the captain added without skipping a beat. “His prints were all over the weapon.”
“Impossible!” Khai spat. “He would never hurt his own kind. He has more honor than that.”
“So you don’t remember following Sibrex home?”
“No. Because I didn’t.”
The captain spun on his heel and paced to the back of the room, folding his hands behind his back again. “We have a witness who helped you up after the crash. He said you pushed him off and started running after Sibrex.”
“I remember the man, I also saw him at the hospital earlier that day. He was with a bunch of other picketers protesting the Vyysarri/Seryysan reunification.”
The Seryys Chronicles: Of Nightmares Page 10
