“I’m going in. Stay sharp!”
With that, Terry plunged into the darkness. Immediately, Charlie enhanced Terry’s vision somewhat to take advantage of whatever ambient light was available. Even before it could take effect though, a fist slammed into Terry’s jaw. The blow was fearsome. Terry’s head snapped back both from the blow and from his enhanced reflexes, the later staving off the full effects of the punch. Terry rolled with the force of it and tumbled into the wall. He dropped to the floor, using it and the wall to orient himself. Then, he spun his foot out in an arc to see if his opponent was moving in. He was rewarded by a thud as his heel made contact with an ankle, along with a corresponding grunt of pain.
Satisfied that he now knew the location of at least one of his foes, he threw a second kick, but the man had already retreated.
Rising, his back against the wall, Terry’s hand found a light switch. He flipped it. And suddenly, he was able to see the men that were attacking him. And what a sight!
Both were easily six and a half feet tall and right around three hundred pounds, evenly distributed to make them look even more massive. Even more shocking was their attire. Both were wearing tank tops and knee-length shorts, along with headbands and weightlifters gloves. The pair looked as if they had just escaped from a gym. All that is but the eyes. They had the same blank, dead predatory look that the others under Abshrd’s spell had. It was clear they were his all right. And if Abshrd had boosted their strength, this could be real trouble.
Charlie’s reaction was primal. “Terry, run! I can’t boost you long enough to face those monsters!”
Terry growled back out loud, “I doubt I could outrun ‘em either. So let’s try this.”
Terry took a step and leaped into the air. The two men tried to grab at him, but he slithered between them. Both men’s backs faced him, and he decided both were viable targets.
Making a fist with both hands, he extended the middle knuckle on both of them. Both men began to turn, but even without Charlie, Terry was too fast. He drove both fists into the region of both men’s kidneys and jumped back. The effect was instantaneous. Both men stifled screams as the pain shot through them. They tried to turn to rush him, but Terry was ready now, leaping off to the right to put one in front of the other to keep them both from attacking him at once. The first one tried to get a grip on him, or perhaps, he was trying to throw a punch or something. His fighting skill was minimal, having spent most of his life relying on his size. It did him no good against Terry. He finally threw another punch, but he was slow enough that Terry didn’t need Charlie’s enhancement. Terry blocked the blow to the side and stepped in, splitting his fingers to form a V. The man drew back his arm to throw another punch when Terry drove the spear he had formed into both his eyes. The strike was designed to paralyze with pain, but Terry drove his fingertips forward hard, piercing the eyeballs with a final twist.
The man threw his hands up and covered his eyes, screaming at the top of his lungs. Seeing his unprotected groin, Terry drove his foot into his nuts hard enough to push the man off his feet and into his partner.
If they were friends, it didn’t show. Either that or Abshrd’s control left no room for camaraderie. In any case, the second man simply shoved his screaming teammate to the floor and launched his own attack, now growling like a bear intent on charging a hapless prey. His intent was clear. Like the other, he was used to using his size and weight to take out his opponents and figured his much smaller adversary would be no trouble, no matter how fast he had taken out the first guy.
Terry sidestepped and pushed the larger man, throwing him of balance. He countered with a back fist that surprised Terry with it speed. And its force, as the blow drove Terry back toward the wall. Terry rolled along the wall and lashed out with his foot, driving the heel into his hipbone.
The massive bone was designed to withstand enormous forces, but it was also full of nerves. The pain stunned the man for a moment. Terry fired a palm strike aimed at the man’s nose, but the man shifted his head just enough to make the blow glance off the side of his head.
Now, the man launched his own kick at Terry’s midsection. The blow was enough to knock the wind out of him for a second, but he rolled with it and used the force to push himself away from the man. But by now, the man was enraged enough that even without Abshrd’s manipulations, he would have been more than willing to kill him.
The next punch was a roundhouse right that literally picked Terry up and slammed him into the wall yet again. Terry’s head was spinning, but he held onto consciousness despite the beating and his condition of the moment. Had he not been so depleted by his earlier exploits, Terry could have handled the man easily. In his present condition though, the man’s size was rapidly becoming a telling factor. It was time to end this.
“Charlie,” he mentally shouted, “boost me! Now!”
Instantly, Terry felt the surge of strength flow through him, but he could tell it wasn’t the same. Charlie still refused to boost Terry to the insane levels that Abshrd regularly sent his minions to. And now, given his condition, he was reluctant to boost him anywhere near as much as usual. As a result, he had boosted Terry but not to the level he would normally.
Charlie was apologetic but unrepentant. “Any more and you run the risk of permanent damage. You can outrun him now if you try! Abshrd is not here. He is what’s imp—”
Terry cut him off. “Can’t leave this bastard to dog our trail! I just hope he’s the last one.”
Now boosted somewhat, Terry blocked his next blow, but his timing was off, giving the man a chance to spin and slam a back fist into his jaw, driving him back against the wall a second time. In one motion, he drove a knee into Terry’s midsection, and Terry spit the wind out of his lungs in one burst. Terry dropped down the wall again; only this time, he had a plan.
The man towered over him and drew back a ham-sized fist, ready to drop a killing blow. Terry knew he had the power for it, but he also knew he had made a mistake. Now, it was time to capitalize on it.
As his hand came down, he grinned sardonically, obviously enjoying himself. Terry waited until he could make out the hairs on his hand then struck.
He rolled his head to the side, reaching up and pulling the hand over his head to let it smash into the wall. Seeing the move, the man checked the swing. Not enough to keep from hitting the wall but at least enough to keep from doing any real damage to himself.
That was going to be Terry’s job.
Terry leaned forward, shifting his weight to one knee. Situated, he drove his elbow into the bigger man’s knee. The sound was like tearing a paper towel as the ligaments ripped apart. His size and strength saved him somewhat as his ligaments were several times the normal resiliency. Even so, the blow, though, was more than adequate to separate the joint. What surprised Terry was that the man screamed. Apparently, either Abshrd forgot to deaden his nervous system or he didn’t give a damn. In either case, the shock stopped the man in his tracks.
Leaping upward, he drove a punch into his solar plexus. On a normal man, or even an augmented one, the combination would have more than likely been enough to put him down for a count. This one was proving obstinate. Terry spun his forearm upward in an arc and let it slam into the man’s face. He felt his nose break on contact. Again, a roar of pain and the man tried another move, spinning away and trying a kick this time, but Terry was ready now. He spun in the opposite direction and drove his elbow into his kidney then drove his foot between his legs. As the man froze, Terry grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, then drove his open palm into his already-broken nose.
The shattered cartilage in his face pushed back and upward through the sinuses, finally stabbing into the man’s brain. As neurons shorted out around the injury, arteries slashed open by the shards, blood pumped out inside the man’s skull. His hands flew to his head as the pain mounted quickly. Terry smashed another elbow into his stomach as he slid down the wall this time, ending up dropping on his partner, a
lready out and still.
Terry was ready to smile at his success but found the effort a bit much as suddenly the room began to spin. It was clear that whatever Charlie had done had run its course. Whatever else might happen, Terry would be facing it as a regular human. And from the way he felt, not a very good one.
Charlie was not at all happy. “I warned you that there was little more I could do! Your body now has serious depletion issues. You need to replenish yourself soon or this will only get worse.”
Terry could barely hear him over the blood pounding in his ears. He answered him loudly so he could focus on the sound. “So I do this the hard way, the fucker still dies. If he hits us with another of those brain blasts of his, can you still handle it?”
Charlie thought for a second. “I believe so. Your fields are still unaffected at the level I use. Unless, of course, you should expire from let’s say...stupidity! You are in no shape for any kind of confrontation with any of Abshrd’s slaves. If you—”
“Charlie, listen!”
At the command, Charlie went silent and let his mind seek any external stimuli. In a second, he heard the sound of insects, night birds, any of a thousand different sounds that had been absent since their arrival. And that meant only one thing. There were no more of Abshrd’s zombies prowling around, which meant that, in all likelihood, they were all dead.
Suddenly, a screech filled the air. Terry grimaced at the sound, a voice clearly identified as Abshrd quickly replaced it, but this one was amplified electronically. Only this time, there was more. This voice was also feminine. He was openly controlling Dr. Broche now.
“Well done, Mr. Bridger. I must admit I expected my latest creations to do a bit better, but then, I am not really surprised. Despite their muscles, they were a bit on the stupid side, even for a human.”
Terry tried to speak, but a wave of nausea kept his mouth closed. Let this bastard rave. The longer he did, the longer he stayed somewhere close. At least Terry hoped it was close.
“To tell the truth, I did find the whole thing interesting, strictly from an academic standpoint. Whenever we meet again, it will be on my terms, and I can assure you of a very different outcome.”
Terry could hear the sneer in his/her voice. His confidence was sincerely annoying, but he was right about one thing. If he did get his shit to work, he could produce as many of these conglomerates of his as he wanted. And if everything he has works the way he wants, he can do it to anyone he wants. Terry shuddered as the thought coalesced. Politicians, princes, kings, no one was safe. He could conceivably run the whole world. And if Terry didn’t find a way to stop him, there was no one else.
Terry blinked his eyes and concentrated. He let his mind narrow down to a point and focused on it as hard as he could. He let it stay there until he could feel his body returning to normal. He knew it was an illusion, but at the moment, it was enough.
“Charlie, can you figure out where this clown is?”
“Terry, are you out of your mind? I told you—”
“You said you can’t boost me anymore. I didn’t ask you to. I just asked you where the fucker was. Do you know?”
Charlie contemplated this for a moment. Finally, he said, “There is a blank spot near the rear of this building. I can detect it now that your playmates have been silenced. Again, this is the only one. I didn’t detect a second one before either, though, so this could be another trap.”
Terry stood up straight and took stock of himself. The dizziness was fading. His eyes came into focus and his heartbeat slowed. He was only human again and barely that, but he was upright and mobile for the moment and that would have to be enough.
Through teeth clenched in an anger he hated all by itself, he said, “Where is this son of a bitch?”
* * * *
Abshrd turned his mobile platform to the computer terminal and began downloading the data on it. The computer was operating as well as ever, but it had never been built for anything like this. He wished he had built it for more speed, but he had never had a need for it here in his headquarters. It would soon all be worth it though. Soon, he would establish new headquarters and a new host, one with a far better bio-field and able to withstand a lot more than this human sow.
She had been so easy to manipulate. Her despair over the loss of her prodigy and her treatment at the hands of the ones that did it left her an easy target. And her gift as it were, of being able to accept multiple Chrliti, made her a genuine find, that had led to the discovery of how to create such effects in others of their kind.
Now, with the data he had collected off of her and the others, he could move on to the next part of his plan. Once he was away, it would all come together. And then, he would begin the new order again. But this time, in this place, he would do it right.
Still, he wasn’t worried. Even if he didn’t get to kill Bridger or the others, he could afford to wait. He knew that Tanoak could boost him to a level at least close to the one he put his slaves at, but he also knew there would be no way he could maintain that level. Not long enough to face down all the operatives he could put into play once he had everything up and running. That he made it as far as he did was a tribute to his condition and Tanoak’s skill at manipulating his bio-fields. That he had taken out the pair of oafs he had as a final deterrent was further proof of the power of this new data.
All that remained was a quick exit and a fast trip to his secondary compound and it was done. But there seemed to be something in his way.
Chapter Forty
Terry walked through the corridor slowly, both to conserve energy and for stealth. He was sure that there were no more of Abshrd’s zombies left, but in his present condition, he didn’t want to take the chance.
Charlie extended his senses and scanned the area as best he could, all the while guiding Terry to the blank spot he could still detect.
It had taken Terry just five minutes or so to take down the two henchmen and another five to find his way to the back of the building. Now, he shuffled along almost feebly as his body tried to recover from the beating it had taken, both from the monsters he’d faced and what he had to do to face them. His only advantage was the fact that Charlie could still function optimally, although neither of them knew if he was up to the challenge Abshrd could present.
He came across several of the ones that had been under Abshrd’s control. All dead, and none of them carrying so much as a penknife. Terry resigned himself to the fact that his only weapon would be the Taser in his hand.
Suddenly, a whirring noise reached him over the still-prevalent sound of the copter in the distance. The sound of a motor straining to reach speed it was never made to achieve. Terry didn’t need Charlie to tell him he had found his target.
He slipped up to the door and peered in, kneeling to provide a smaller target.
Though Charlie couldn’t detect him with his own senses, once Terry could see him, so could he. Still, he was afraid to even speak to Terry in mind speak for fear Abshrd could still detect the communication.
Terry didn’t need to be told what Charlie was thinking. Or what to do. He gripped the Taser and slid quietly into the room, circling around to get between Abshrd and the other exit that led to the courtyard and the helicopter warming up there.
Abshrd was so engrossed in whatever it was he was doing, Terry felt as if he could have strolled into the room and hit him with the Taser, but he realized, nothing was ever that easy. Almost as proof of that, Abshrd/Dr. Broche suddenly turned and began to accelerate toward the door. He could see Dr. Broche’s face contort slightly as he commanded her to push the joystick. Clearly, he took no precautions to keep her from feeling the discomfort of her situation. Hell, with this bastard, he probably enjoyed it.
Terry was determined that he would make him regret that as well.
He reared up and faced Abshrd as he slammed on the brakes of his makeshift transport and stared at Terry through Dr. Broche’s eyes. Then, he spoke, again using her voice in a dreadful
combination with his own.
“Well, this is a surprise. Actually, several surprises. The biggest being that you can still function after being amplified for so long. Although, from the tremors in your hand...”
Terry cursed the weakness that made them shake.
“...it would seem it was not without cost. And that must be the Taser you developed to stop my people, no doubt with the aid of that traitorous Tanoak.”
Terry couldn’t help the look of surprise that slid across his face. To his surprise, the woman in the chair smiled, at least with her mouth. Her eyes still held the almost-dead look they had had since he had first seen her. From behind that sardonic grin, the voice continued.
“Do not be surprised. I told you I have followed your exploits for quite some time. I know everything about you. It was your association with the whore that brought her to my attention. Or rather Tanoak’s association with her. Oh and by the way, Tanoak, you were wrong about being invisible to our people. At least to the ones that worked for me. You were my original target. Good fortune gave me both. Along with the whore and your large friend, Decker. Once I have my organization up and running, perhaps I will take him as a host. His size would be fitting, wouldn’t you say?”
Terry’s answer was to raise the Taser. It was a bluff. The range of the Taser was only twenty feet. The extra thick wires had minimized it. Abshrd must have known, because he stayed just out of range while he talked. Terry had tried to slip in closer, but Abshrd had backed away as he did. They had been fencing like that all through the conversation, and now, he was running out of patience.
With no break between the talk and the next moment, Abshrd launched an attack like the one he had originally tried on them earlier. The psychic energy, for lack of a better term, slammed into Terry alone this time, forcing him to take a step backward. Charlie was ready, though, and launched a shielding blast that turned aside the main force of the burst. But in his weakened condition, Terry lost his footing, slipping into a table he lost track of. Pulling it over, he rolled over and tried to get a shot at Dr. Broche. He had no idea if the woman could even survive a shot from this thing, but like he told Decker, this was all or nothing.
The Primal Connection Page 27
