by CJ East
He lingered over the exposed hilt of the dagger under his sheet and turned to her, “Volkov had Sully and Curtis murdered. Hong Li forced Chang to conspire against me. Chang was to lead me to an ambush this morning at the transport depot.”
Grace shook her head in disbelief as the color drained from her face.
Kinch raised his hand to his right temple and pressed hard, “Hong Li would not have brought Chang to the infirmary if it wasn’t an accident. If Hong Li had a problem, he would have finished Chang.”
Sashenka turned toward the door, a tremble in her voice, “Chang couldn’t live with the decision he was forced to make.”
“I don’t understand? What is happening?” asked Grace.
“The takeover has begun,” he answered grabbing her shaking hand. “You know who they’re coming for next and who you can trust.” He led her toward Sashenka, who was turned away now, lower lip quivering. “Sashenka,” he said, “unlock the door.”
Grace pulled Kinch to a stop, concern welling up in her eyes, “Hong Li is in the room. He’s with Viktor and Arjun. It isn’t safe for you.”
“It is the safest place for me right now, they can’t make any open moves - not yet. Hong Li has no reason to believe I know the plan, Chang reinforced their ignorance. Being close to them and playing the role of a punk kid is my best shot. If I don’t go, they’ll know Chang tipped me off and punish him for treason instead of cowardice.”
“But he isn’t a coward!” Grace almost shouted.
“I didn’t say he was. I know he isn’t.” He met her dark eyes. “Hong Li broke him, Grace, it was ugly. Chang sacrificed me to protect you.”
Grace pulled back and lowered her head. Her reaction confirmed her fear of Hong Li. She had experienced his ruthlessness since communication was lost with Earth.
She stood silently until her shoulders started to shake. She placed her hand over her mouth and began a muffled cry. Sashenka wrapped her arms around her as Grace broke down.
Sashenka stroked her hair with gentle words, “Oh, sweet baby. He is going to be fine.” Grace leaned into her, trembling between each heavy breath.
Sashenka brushed a loose strand of hair over Grace’s ear. “These are evil men. They used his love for you as a weapon to force him to do something he didn’t want to do. Chang did nothing wrong, Grace. He’s safe now as long as you stay calm.”
Kinch felt his back tense, his sadness twisting into a tight, powerful rage. He hated them for bringing this war and filling him with vengeance for Sully, Jeff and Chang - for these fresh tears from Grace.
He met Sashenka’s harsh stare with surprise. She continued stroking Grace’s hair, her disapproving eyes locked on him, “He will be fine, and everything is going to be fine now, my solnyshko. There will be no more violence. Your love will live on.”
She pulled Grace from her and smiled, wiping her tears with her hand. “You will be brave,” she said in a confident tone.
Grace wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, “Yes, we need to go before they think something is wrong.”
Sashenka opened the door and peered down the Google team hallway. There was no noise coming from the commons. They filed out quickly, Kinch bring up the rear with his stiff legs.
They jogged through the commons hub and across to the medical hallway spoke. Kinch couldn’t run, but his stiffness was retreating enough for an awkward jog. Down the hall a figure was standing by the closed door. Kinch sensed a calming presence as they slowed and walked towards the thin, dark figure.
“Venkat!” Kinch exclaimed, “What happened?”
“Oh, my friends!” he said with a start, his hands over his heart. “It is horrible. Chang has tried to end his life. I do not understand why. He can speak only strained words, and his neck is injured from the rope. Hong Li said he found him hanging in his cell. I am so glad you all are here.”
Sashenka hugged Venkat, and he forced a full, toothy smile, ill-fitted with his concerned expression. Sashenka pulled Venkat away and said, “Why are you out here? Who is in inside with Chang.”
“Pushpa is treating him. She says no bones are broken. It is unclear if the paralysis is temporary or something more.” He stopped and gave a worried from Kinch to Grace.
Grace returned Venkat’s gaze with an affirmative and decisive nod, “He is going to be fine. Bruises and inflammation.”
“Yes, but of course.” Venkat continued, “Tai ran into the Indian quarters to get Arjun, stating Chang was injured and to come without delay. I followed. When we arrived, Volkov and his Russians were there. They made me stay outside.” A wounded expression appeared on his gentle face.
Kinch gave a reassuring smile to Venkat and put his hand on his shoulder. “Chang is strong, he will surprise us all.” He nudged Venkat back and opened the door.
On the far side of the infirmary, Pushpa was bent over Chang and examining his neck. Arjun, Hong Li and Volkov stood near the foot of the bed watching. Tai and the Russians stood further back, turning with interest when he opened the door.
Kinch passed the leaders on aching legs as he circled to the opposite side of Pushpa. Hong Li was surprised by his entrance, “You are not allowed to be here, Mr. McGrath.” Hong Li turned to see Sashenka and Grace by the door, followed by a sheepish Venkat.
Kinch made a slow turn and focused his attention on Hong Li. He squared his shoulders and took a long, purposeful survey of the man’s physical stature. “Where’s Dr. Mrazik?” Kinch asked. He looked from Hong Li to Arjun, landing on Volkov.
“Ah, Tai could not locate him.” Hong Li stammered.
Kinch flashed to Hong Li, “Then why is Tai here? Does Tai believe he has done the minimal amount of effort to accomplish a task or perhaps you believe the task too difficult for Tai to accomplish? Where is the failure in finding one man in a closed colony?”
Hong Li breathed in a deep and angry breath, burning at the notion of a child presuming to give him direction. He shouted terse instructions in Mandarin to Tai, who sprinted out of the room.
Kinch turned and continued towards Chang, with the heat of Volkov’s glare on the back of his head. He walked with a forced smoothness, concentrating on the natural fluid movements his body should be making. Chang saw him coming and followed him with eager eyes.
Pushpa turned from her patient to meet her former patient. “You left your recovery bed this evening without my permission, Mr. McGrath. I know you won’t listen, but you should be resting.”
He gave her a big smile, “you are right on both points, Doc. I’ll be fine. Thanks for all you’ve done.” Kinch searched her face. It was weighted with concern, concern for more than his recovery. She had to understand how recent events would call for desperate measures, they had played chess many times.
She frowned at him and continued, “Do not allow Chang to talk. His larynx and muscles are damaged. It is very painful and possibly dangerous for him to speak.”
“You hear that buddy?” Kinch winked to Chang. “You no talkie. You nod and agree,” he joked in a chopped cadence.
Chang’s neck was a brilliant purple with a bright red line circling the middle. The white of his right eye had been transformed into disturbing sea of red by the bursting of blood vessels - a deep red background for Chang’s dark, sad pupils.
Pushpa turned and picked up a tablet and began typing notes as she walked away. She stole a rebellious glance at the three leaders watching her movements.
Kinch found Chang’s hand and picked it up as he stood next to the bed. He saw Chang’s portal soon after closing his eyes. Chang would try to talk so Kinch created a link. He entered Chang’s mind and said, “Chang, don’t try to speak. We can communicate safely this way, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Kinch,” Chang’s awareness pressed into his mind, in the manner of the telepath Amica’s voice. “I’m so sorry to have betrayed you, my friend.”
“Chang, you didn’t have a choice. You had to pick me, I was the strongest and had the best chance of survival. I unders
tand.”
“I could not go through with it, after you knew my shame and dishonor. I have let everyone down. I am sorry, Kinch. Say you forgive me.” Chang had been staring at Kinch’s hand, but his eyes were now closed as his face twisted in tortured, wincing pain.
“Listen buddy, there is nothing to forgive. I saw what Hong Li did to you. I would have done the same thing in your place. Come on, to protect a pretty girl like Grace?” A smile appeared on Chang’s lips.
Kinch held his friend’s gaze. “Now listen up, we don’t have much time. This nest of vipers behind my back is planning their next move, and I’m going to shake things up when Mrazik gets here. I need you to lay low, don’t draw any attention to yourself when things go down. I’ll want you to keep everyone here. This is to protect you, Grace, Sashenka and Venkat. Keep them here with you until you get better, you got it? Say you are scared, act crazy, whatever you have to do to keep them here with you.”
“But Kinch, what will you do? You can’t take on all these grown men by yourself.” Chang searched Kinch’s face for answers.
“I need you to get strong. They need you to be strong,” he said turning to the group of teenagers staring back at them.
The moment was shattered when Tai burst through the infirmary door, turning to hold the door wide as missing team lead hurried in. Mrazik took a quick look at Chang, turned to the group of leaders and merged into their number.
Kinch looked back to Chang, “That’s my cue pal, I’m counting on you to protect our friends. They need you now. You can sort all this honor and shame crap out later.”
Chang gave a soft, inner laugh, “It sounds pretty stupid the way you say it.”
“Yep, that’s what best friends are for, so man-up, cupcake, you have a job to do.” Kinch stood to his feet, still holding Chang’s hand.
Chang squeezed his hand, “Tai will come for you first. You offended Hong Li greatly just now. The act will not go unpunished.”
“If by ‘punishment’ you mean Tai takes a Martian dirt nap, then I agree,” he joked, a full smirk lifting the right side of his face.
Kinch turned to the group of leaders talking in a semi-circle behind him. They were contemptible gaggle he thought as he ran a threat assessment on each man.
Viktor was the true leader calling the shots. Viktor was a killer, the most dangerous kind. A professional who has faced death so many times it had become his friend. Kinch knew he couldn’t defeat him.
Hong Li was intimidated by Viktor, his uneasy body language betrayed him. Hong Li lowered his eyes when he addressed Viktor, his shoulders folded in, making him smaller. A savage, angry man humiliated by his own limitations. His arrogance was his weakness.
Arjun was such an overt suck-up it was embarrassing. He laughed a little too loud, and compliments were too freely given, except to those beneath him. He reserved tyranny for those who could do nothing for him. He would only fight in the open if the odds of victory were overwhelming. Watch for the cowardly blade.
Then there was Doug. Kinch new a dozen guys at his Grandfather’s university that were just like him. Lords of Order. He had no chance of survival in the coming chaos. He would demand order and reason, appealing to a moral sense of fairness. He was already dead and didn’t know it.
Kinch decided to trigger the plan he had been forming since Sully and Jeff’s murder. He tapped into the suppressed rage and grief he had boxed away. It flooded into his soul with an inky sadness blackening into dark hatred and seeped into every tissue, anesthetizing his body to the outside world. It swelled from his chest and rose to inflame his neck and scalp. A tingling sensation drifted down his scalp, over his forehead and down over his eyes, like the lowering of a visor.
His heart pounded stronger and the room fell away. Nothing existed save the four men and he. The sound of their conversation became isolated with his focus, clearer and grew louder. He listened to the empty words full of lies, prattle. “Wait for the invitation,” he thought.
Viktor stiffened under Kinch’s glare. “You have seen your friend, Mr. McGrath. You and your young colonists are now dismissed to quarters.”
Kinch ignored the statement, locked eyes with Hong Li and walked forward as the line of leaders transformed into a semi-circle of controlled tension.
He locked eyes with Hong Li as he advanced, “This is an official notification to Colony leadership to request the removal of Hong Li from the position of Security Director of the International Mars Colony. His gross negligence and incompetence has put the safety of all members of the IMC at risk. I petition for immediate removal from his post until a thorough investigation is concluded on the series of events leading to the death of two colonists and bodily harm to myself and the young man behind me.”
Hong Li’s mouth hung wide in stunned silence.
Kinch waited for a response. None came. All were stunned he had broken the constraints of protocol.
“Well thought through rebuttal, Hong Li,” he continued. “In section 6 of article 2, if an officer is suspected to be unfit, unable or unwilling to do perform his duties, leadership will review evidence to determine the ability of the officer to occupy his post. I request an investigation to determine if this man is complicit in these events or merely a fool.”
Kinch remained locked at the wide-eyed Hong Li, shell shocked, unable to make a move.
Doug broke the heavy silence, “Mr. McGrath! Such intolerable behavior!”
Kinch kicked his right foot behind his left, launching the ultimate insult, spinning 180 degrees turning his back to Hong Li, a Chinese military man, without permission to do so. “I’ve made my notification, you guys figure it out.”
Hong Li lurched at Kinch’s back, grabbing his shoulders and spinning him another 180 degrees to face him, a tight hand on each of Kinch’s shoulders. His face burned with rage as he began to shout at Kinch, “You impudent child!”
Kinch looked down at his right shoulder buried under the intense and hurtful grip of Hong Li. He slowly turned his head to his left. Lifting his head to meet Hong Li’s hateful glare, Kinch announced, “I did not give you permission to touch me.”
Hong Li started to say something, but Kinch didn’t need any more dialog. The trap had been sprung and the next events had to be executed in sequenced, fluid motions if he were to survive. He inhaled a deep breath and felt the world around him slow as he exploded into action.
Kinch drove both fists up hard in the space between Hong Li’s straining arms, knocking the man’s arms up and exposing his torso. He struck Hong Li’s abdomen with a hard right, then a left upper cut, causing the surprised Hong Li to cough air from his lungs in a loud groan. Hong Li’s head thrust down, doubling over from the stomach shots. Kinch grabbed the cropped hair on back of Hong Li’s head, pivoted his right leg back for momentum, and brought his knee up with blinding speed while slamming Hong Li’s head downward with a merciless grip.
The sound produced when his knee met Hong Li’s face was a sickening crunch of severed bone sliding over bone and through tissue. The savage impact of Kinch’s upward traveling knee threw Hong Li’s body backward in a relaxed, acrobatic arc. Kinch rode the momentum of his knee kick, spinning in midair, landing again with his back to the men.
When Kinch’s feet touched the floor, they were staggered like the starting position of a sprinter, his right hand on the ground. He was half way out of the room when he heard Hong Li hit the floor with a heavy thud.
Waiting
Kinch hid in the best strategic position he could find inside the closed system of the Colony. It was in the unfinished alcove, off the tunnel connecting the Colony in a large loop. The excavators were working nonstop on burrowing through the stone and removing rubble. Dark unfinished halls hid cells and chambers in various stages of completion.
In the tunnel he had broken all the lights as he walked from the maintenance area to the alcove and stowed his gear. He finished the other end of the unpolished halls connecting to the bio lab, destroying lights, still
seeing no one. A very bad sign indeed.
He sat in complete darkness against the rough-hewn, cold wall of an unfinished alcove. His head hung as he fought a losing war against the persecution assaulting his mind, disrupting the disciplined plan B trying to form.
The chances of survival were much lower after his savage attack on Hong Li. His plan was to hurt and humiliate Hong Li, pressing a hastily unorganized, poorly executed search. His enemies were to send the three Russians and Tai to scour the base - separately. The plan was for Kinch to pick them off one by one.
Kinch struggled to shake off his grave error as the familiar self-doubt gathered around the periphery of his mind. Hong Li was dead or critically injured. He had meant to draw blood and insult, but the anger had been too severe. When Kinch had sprinted to his cell to grab his dagger and bug-out pack, he hesitated behind a corner to observe. No one had followed. He pushed on through the maintenance storage area and had slowed to a purposed walk, picking up some C-9 explosives and wire, almost hoping to see his pursuers, but none came.
Viktor would be organizing a detailed sweep, slow and meticulous, time now his advantage. Each team led by a thug, pulling together like a noose when they have a sighting. This meant Viktor would be in a team. Kinch had to confront his fear and embrace it. He knew he couldn’t defeat Viktor in a fair fight - as if Viktor shared the same concept of a fair fight.
Tai was the strongest adversary he would be able to defeat in a one-on-one fight. He would need to start with Tai while he was strong and unwounded. He had spared with the older, stronger Tai once. Tai was too aggressive, but good. They came to a draw with the excuse of time, the unspoken assessment of equal combat skills. Kinch would need the first debilitating strike to tip the scales in a death match with Tai. It would have to be an ambush with a mortal wound.
He was less worried about Volkov’s team. Brzezinski was regular Russian army, minimally trained in weapons and tactics. He was selected for more specialized Cosmonaut skills - propulsion, exploration and closed facilities operations systems. Zhukov was less of a threat - Russia’s teenage propaganda contribution.
