Zeta Hack: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 3)

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “I’ll think about it,” she said.

  “You better think fast. I’m your only ally here.”

  “Awww. I knew you had a thing for me. You are my type also.”

  “Ha.” I shook my head and then reached for Persephone’s transponder. I pulled it out as we turned onto Royal Avenue, and hit the button on the side to open up communications.

  “Z, Juliette and I are running toward her station. What do you have for us?”

  “Not that much,” the blonde hacker’s voice came over the small speaker. “Looks like someone put a security firewall in place between all the districts. It’s a safety thing in case one of them gets infected with a virus. It’s not very elegant, but effective. I’m chipping away at it like a hand pick against a brick wall.”

  Juliette heard what the hacker said, and she motioned for us to slow our running so that she could speak into the transponder.

  “It’s built into the data connections across the station. There is a manual release in District H’s old security headquarters.”

  “You mean the abandoned spooky ghost district with no lights? Yeah. Have fun. I’m going to try pulling it apart from the safety of my nice leather chair here.”

  “Where are you?” the redhead asked.

  “I’m on Persephone. I connected a cable link to the port terminal at the door and--”

  “It will be faster for you to try from my office,” Juliette said.

  “Where the bombs are? No thanks. I was thinking that Adam gets Eve out, and then we all hang out on the bridge while I try to break down the--”

  “We are going to take care of the explosives at this station. You’ll be safe here,” I said.

  “Alright. Let me know. I’m going to keep hacking at this wall. Oh, and I can’t access the station’s auto defense protocols. I figure that is because I’m plugging in from the harbor, but you might want to make sure it's still online so the guns will shoot at Nebula Gammon when they show up.”

  “Ahhh. That’s a good point. Thanks,” Juliette said.

  “Did you just thank me?” Z laughed.

  “Don’t get used to it, Blondie.”

  “We’ll let you know when we have dealt with the bombs,” I said.

  “Copy that,” she said, and the transponder made a beeping noise.

  Juliette and I began to run again. She was in better shape than I guessed, and was able to keep up with my jog easily. I expected to run into more of Huyan Kar’s men, or more of Byron’s men, or anyone who would know what we were up to and try to kill us, but we didn’t encounter anyone on the roads.

  Then we made it to the security station, and we slowed at the outer gate.

  “We need to get Eve out,” I said.

  “I don’t see how your friend is going to help us, but fine. We’ll walk in and then I’ll take you to her. If you try anything, I won’t hesitate to--”

  “Stop,” I interrupted her. “I don’t know what happened to you in your past. I don’t know what baggage you are carrying around, but it isn’t you against the world. You aren’t the only person fighting to protect people. Clinging onto the belief that I’m your enemy isn’t going to help you get through this alive.”

  “What if I don’t really give a shit about getting through this alive? You’ve got me all wrong,” she spat.

  “No. I don’t,” I growled at her. “Let’s go.”

  She frowned at me, but then nodded before we walked past the main gate and toward the front door of the building. There were only four cops loitering in the front, and they gave Juliette a salute before she returned the motion.

  “What time is this visit tomorrow morning?” I asked.

  “Seven,” she said as we walked through the front doors. There was a big clock on the wall of the entrance, and the red numbers were a bit depressing.

  4:14AM.

  Where had the night and morning gone? I didn’t know how we were going to be able to find all these bombs, tell the other stations, and then prepare for Nebula Gammon to attack in less than three hours.

  “Commander Larns, Ma’am!” one of the security officers at the front desk saluted. Unlike the last time I was here, the lobby was now deserted of civilians. There was just the man at the desk, and two other officers at the entrance to the hallway that led to the innards of the station.

  “Good morning, Sergeant Tallhee,” Juliette said as she returned the salute.

  “Ma’am, are you bleeding?” he asked, and the other two cops turned from their whispered conversation to look at their boss.

  “No,” she replied as she stepped toward the door that the other two cops guarded.

  “Oh, well, we are going to have to fix that. Sorry boss.” Before the man finished speaking, I was pulling my pistols, but the other three guards were also drawing their own firearms.

  And I was just a few hairs of a second too slow.

  Chapter 16

  The crooked cop behind the desk fired first. He aimed at Juliette, but I pushed the woman out of the way with my right shoulder as my own guns pointed at him. His bullet tore open that same shoulder as I squeezed the triggers. My right pistol twisted from the impact of his bullet, but my left’s ripped his throat open, and the man’s eyes widened with horror as he brought his other hand up to clutch the wound.

  I ignored the pain in my shoulder and pivoted around Juliette to aim my left pistol at the other two cops. I felt their bullets brush by my left cheek with a whispered promise before I aimed the pistol at the one on the left. She tried to duck under my shot, but she couldn’t dodge quick enough, and the hunk of lead made a clean hole in her skull above her left eye.

  The last asshole shot again, and the air fled my lungs as if someone kicked me in the chest. His bullet shredded my right lung, but my next bullet shredded his heart, and the man died before he could put another bullet in me.

  “Shit!” Juliette cursed as I started to topple over. Her hands grabbed under my right armpit, and I let out a growl of hot agony as she pulled me upright.

  “You hit?” I hissed as I turned my pistols toward the entrance. The men out front had to have heard the gunshots, but they weren’t running inside. I guessed that they were on the take also, and they must have figured the gunshots were their friends putting an end to Juliette and me.

  “No. You jumped in the way of every bullet. Do you have a death wish?”

  “I heal fast,” I wheezed. I could already feel the injury in my shoulder itching like crazy and the bullet in my chest squirm against my reforming lungs. I’d heal faster if I were in my shifted form, and I considered changing as soon as we got Eve out of prison.

  Juliette was still supporting me, and she grunted as she pulled me toward the door.

  “I don’t see anyone,” she said as she cracked open the door.

  “Front door!” I shouted as one of the cops poked his head through. I didn’t know for sure if he was on the take, but he looked at the dead bodies of the other three crooked cops, looked at Juliette, and then reached for his pistol.

  My bullet hit him in the chest and sent him spinning out of the front lobby. I half expected the other three of them to come rushing in, but Juliette had finished opening the thick door, and she yanked me into the hallway. Then she pushed the hunk of metal closed and threw the lock.

  “We need to get you to the medical--” she began to say.

  “No. I’ll be fine. We need Eve,” I growled as I pointed down the hallway.

  “Fine. I get it, she’s very beautiful.”

  “Not the time to be jealous,” I said as we stumbled down the empty hallway together. It was getting easier to breathe, and I didn’t think the wound in my shoulder could possibly itch more.

  The monster in my DNA was screaming for release.

  “My bitterness overflows when I haven’t smoked,” she grunted.

  “How long has it--” I started to ask, but one of the doors a meter or so ahead of us opened, and a security officer stepped out.

  The
man carried a stack of small vials that were all wired together with copper cables and clear tubes. The man’s eyes opened wide when he saw us, but they closed when my pistol bullet took him in the skull. His brains splattered across the wall next to us, and the man’s corpse stumbled backward in a death spasm.

  “A couple of hours,” Juliette said as she let go of my arm and picked up the explosive device. It had a digital dial on the front of it, and she twisted the top part. It made a loud beep that made my heart jump into my chest, but then the display darkened.

  “Shit!” I gasped when she shot me a shit eating grin.

  “I know. I normally smoke every half an hour. I am extra bitter,” Juliette said as she put the deactivated explosive under her right arm.

  “I was talking about the bomb,” I said.

  “I’ve seen these plenty of times. Easy enough to disarm if we can find them.” Juliette pointed down the hallway where we were walking. “I think it’s safe to assume that most of my men are traitorous fucks. Maybe I should have been nicer to them? Whatever. There is too much at stake now. Shoot to kill.” She began to walk again, and I was able to follow her now without her support.

  “Where is Eve?” I asked.

  “Two floors down. Stairs are at the end of the hall,” Juliette answered. We passed a few more closed doors, and the woman tested each one to make sure they were locked.

  “We’ll have to evacuate,” she said. “There is just too much to search.”

  “No. We can figure it out. I believe you have direct interface to the stations’ external security cannons?”

  “They want to take these places out so their ships can dock without getting attacked.”

  “The auto targeting measures are one aspect. There are also manual cannons. They haven’t been used in thirty years.”

  “Where are those?” I asked as we reached the door marked stairs.

  “Bottom floor of each security station,” she said, and her face grimaced. “We’ll be really fucked if they take out each of the stations.”

  “Yeah. They have a good plan. They just didn’t count on us,” I said as we pushed open the door to the stairwell. The area smelled of cold concrete and fresh paint, but as we descended the stairs, I began to taste another scent on the air.

  It smelled like blood.

  “How are you still walking? What the fuck are you?” Juliette asked after we descended one level.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said. “One more floor?”

  “Yes,” she said. Then we heard a door open below and we each swung our pistols down the center of the stairwell so that we could get a shot off.

  “No! No! Noooooo!” a man screamed. He was wearing the standard security uniform, but he was covered with blood and held his hand against his throat. His other hand carried a taser, and he pointed it into the hallway.

  “What the--” Juliette hissed, but then the man screamed again, pushed the taser under his chin, and then electrocuted himself into unconsciousness.

  I felt you return to the station, my Adam.

  I heard Eve’s voice in my mind half a moment before she stepped into the stairwell and looked up at us. She was still dressed in the flight suit she wore when we left Persephone two days ago, but she was covered with blood. It almost looked like she had jumped into a pool full of the liquid and just stepped out. It dripped from her hair, her chin, and her fingertips onto the concrete floor like a macabre rainfall.

  “Are you hurt?” I gasped.

  “No. These men intend to blow up the station and kill many innocents,” she said. “It is their blood.”

  “How the fuck did you get out of your cell?” Juliette demanded.

  “Put away your gun,” I told the redhead. Her hands were shaking, and the fear on her pretty face was real.

  “No. She’s--”

  “I left one of them alive down here. We can question him and find the locations of the explosives they planted in the station. I’ve found three already and disarmed them.” Eve pointed through the doorway where she came from and then took a step out of the stairwell.

  “Wait!” Juliette shouted down to the lower floor, but Eve was already gone. The security officer turned to me, and her eyes narrowed. “Who is she? Who are you? What the fuck is going on?”

  “You want to interrogate us or save Queen’s Hat?” I asked. She didn’t answer immediately, so I walked around her and descended the stairs.

  Juliette followed me.

  The hallway of the jail area looked similar to Eve. The smooth concrete walls on the left were splattered with blood, the first sets of bars on the right were also covered with crimson, and it looked like someone glued dripping guts to the ceiling.

  The bodies of five cops were flung throughout the hallway like forgotten dolls. Eve was at the far end of the hall kneeling next to one of the men, and I walked around the corpses to stand by her side.

  “How many bombs?” the bloody woman asked the man. He had a bullet wound in his gut, and his ashen face was twisted with agony.

  “Fuck. Youuuuu,” he growled.

  “There are sixteen. Eight on the lower levels where the security interface is, four in this level where the prisoners are kept, and four more on the top floor to kill the Parliamentary auditors.”

  “How did you--” Juliette began to ask when she stood beside us, but Eve raised a hand to silence her.

  “There is one more on this floor. We should find it, then the eight down below, and then the three remaining on the main level.”

  “Does he know where the one is on this floor?” I asked as I gestured to him with my pistol.

  “Yes. That way.” She pointed in the opposite direction of the stairs. “There is an electrical panel about forty-five meters down near the showers.”

  “I’ll go get it,” Juliette said as she stepped away.

  “We will wait here,” I said. The redhead nodded at me, and then she ran toward the next set of double doors that broke up the jail hallways.

  “I missed you,” Eve and I both said in unison as soon as Juliette was out of earshot. The vampire woman smiled at me and then stood.

  “I’m covered with blood, but I wish to hug you.” she frowned and looked down at her body.

  “I am too. I keep getting shot.” I pulled her to my chest and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

  “I knew you would come back,” she whispered.

  “I’ll never leave you.”

  “I know. Do not be angry at Juliette. She has had a rough life. She does not understand we are kindred spirits, and I did not have an opportunity to explain it to her.”

  “If you can forgive her then I will,” I said as I squeezed Eve a bit tighter to my chest. It was still difficult to breathe, and my chest ached terribly, but my shoulder was feeling much better.

  “We have much to do, but then we will talk about Z,” Eve said, and I felt my heart miss a beat.

  “Yeah. I don’t know what happened, but you--”

  “I know your thoughts and emotions.” She reached up to touch my cheek with her bloody fingers. “I do not feel betrayed. If anything, I am happy.”

  “Uhhh. Why are you happy? Most women would be--”

  “I am not most women. I am all women, and you are all men.” She pulled away from me a bit, and I stared into her red eyes.

  “I don’t understand--”

  “I got it!” Juliette ran through the double doors with the deactivated bomb in her hand. She still held the other one under her right arm, and she looked at Eve with a bewildered expression on her face. “How did you know?”

  “I can read minds,” Eve answered with a shrug.

  “No. really. How did you know?”

  “Adam reminds you of your father and brother,” Eve said as she pointed to me. “You lost them in the Yitarni War when insurgents tried to take possession of your family’s farmstead. Your mother and two sisters were sold into slavery, but you escaped and tried to rescue them. Your first attempt failed, and you l
ost the team you hired, the second attempt was successful, but they’d been given hitaron drugs to ensure their loyalty. You couldn’t get any of it in time, and they all died from withdrawals. Then you--”

  “Stop,” the redhead growled, and she dropped the two clusters of tubes as she raised her pistol toward Eve. The bombs bounced off the concrete with a sickening crack, and my stomach lurched.

  “You will not find the explosives if you shoot me,” Eve said. “I am on your side.”

  “Put the gun down,” I growled at Juliette as my beast screamed to be released.

  “How do you know that? How the fuck do you know that?” Juliette blinked rapidly as she spoke, and I could see that her gun arm was shaking.

  “As I said, I read minds. You have trouble pushing your painful memories away. You re-live them every day. You blame yourself. It was not your fault that--”

  “Shut up,” Juliette hissed. “Who told you? Is there a file somewhere on me? Was it--”

  “There are fourteen more bombs,” Eve said as she raised her hand to stop me from moving toward Juliette. “I will tell you more after we disarm them and stop Nebula Gammon. You want to save Queen’s Hat. So do Adam, Z, and I.”

  A few tense seconds passed as Juliette and Eve stared at each other. Both women were tall, not as tall as Z, but about the same one hundred and eighty centimeters, so neither had to look down at the other. It was taking all of my willpower to keep from changing, and I didn’t know if I could hold back for much longer.

  Then Juliette lowered her gun.

  “You’ll tell me after this?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Eve answered with a slight smile. Her expression looked horrific because of all the blood on her face, but the other woman didn’t seem put off by it.

  “Let’s find the bombs,” Juliette said with a sigh. “Where did you stash the other three you said you disarmed?”

  “There are lockers in the room there,” Eve said as she pointed to a door down the hallway a bit.

  “Got it,” Juliette ran to the door, opened it, walked inside, and then returned ten seconds later without the bombs.

  “Adam,” Eve said as soon as Juliette returned. “There are five men down below placing the explosives.”