Kingdoms Fall: Book One

by Joseph Pryce

  “I am sure. Go ahead and do it”.

  Kahina raised her rifle. She touched a black switch on its muzzle before firing another pulse ray. This time the ray was an ebony beam. When it struck Heiro and Massinissa, the beam rudely restarted their halted bio-functions. The bodies of the two men jerked around spasmodically for a few moments and they unleashed a few loud and ragged coughs before fully regaining their senses.

  “What the bloody hell, Kahina?!” Massinissa raged to the tavern’s proprietor.

  Before Kahina could retort the lot of them were startled by an urgent banging sound at the front door of the tavern.

  “Who the hell is that?!” Kahina said as she raised her shotgun. “I put the ‘Do not disturb” sign up this morning”.

  Trane’s sixth sense told him that trouble was at the door. He grabbed Kahina by the shoulder. “Where did you put our blasters?”

  Kahina jerked her thumb at the bar as she moved toward the front door.

  Trane raced behind the bar and snatched up all of the weapons that were back there. Kahina prohibited any gambler from holding onto their weapons while they sat at the gambling table. He tossed Herio, Yamila and everybody else their respective blasters. Kahina activated the front entrance holo-viewer that gave her a three hundred and sixty degree view of the entire boulevard outside of the tavern. The three dimensional viewer flashed an image of an entire cadre of armed law enforcement officers aiming their blaster rifles at her establishment.

  “Blimey!” She exclaimed. “It looks like a bloody army out there!”

  “This is District Inspector Darr Amin!” A strong voiced filtered through the doors.

  Viper Rex and Massinissa exchanged desperate glances. “What are the blodclot authorities doing here, Kahina?!” Massinissa shouted.

  “How the hell should I know?! My papers are all in order!” Kahina shouted back.

  Viper Rex testily fingered the trigger of his blaster. “I got three outstanding warrants on me. I’m not letting anybody take me in!”

  “I have five warrants on me!” Massinissa added and he checked the power supply on his two blasters.

  Kahina toggled the intercom switch on the tavern door that would project her voice out to the street outside. “This is Kahina Tarr. I am the the owner of this tavern. What can I do for you, District Inspector Amin?” She asked calmly and professionally.

  “I am looking for two men, Madam Tarr. I have reason to believe that they are inside your building. Please open the door”, came the inspector’s measured reply.

  “What two men, inspector? I am alone in here. My establishment is closed on every second day of the week”.

  There was a momentary pause and then Kahina heard Amin let loose a frustrated sigh. “I know that Trane Mudd and Heiro Thothe are inside there with you. Do not force me to kick down your doors!”

  Kahina pointed at the tattooed woman. “Sheebah, you take Trane and Heiro out through the side door!”

  Sheebah slid her rifle down into its holster strapped onto her back. “No problem, Kahina”, she replied quickly. “Come on, boys. Follow me”, she said to Trane and Heiro.

  Trane glanced at Kahina with hesitation. “Are you sure about this? If Amin wants us, there could be a lot of trouble for you for letting us go”.

  Kahina flashed Trane a crooked smile. “Trouble is my middle name. Now get your young asses out of here”.

  Sheebah led Trane and Heiro down a long hallway that led to a hidden door in the floor. She unlocked the door with a square passkey and opened it.

  There was a long staircase that led into darkness.

  ********************************************************************************************

  Meanwhile, Kahina stepped up to the darkened front doors and waved them open. She found herself staring down the muzzles of a dozen Assault Blasters. A short bulldog of a man with a thick handlebar moustache, heavy eyebrows and short greying hair stood impatiently at the tavern front with his arms crossed over his chest. At one point in his life D.I. Amin’s career was on the fast track for grand success. He had graduated at the top of his class from The Summerhill Law Enforcement University. He had been aggressively recruited by the Ebonskale Constabulary Serious Crime Unit and within a year in that department, Darr found himself promoted to the unit’s deputy leader. This opened the doors to the good life for the young naan and he began to move inside powerful social circles, which included dining on a regular basis with the capital’s mayor. But then Darr Amin became embroiled within what had since become known as The Nixxxon Scandal. The political scandal involved Mayor Patrice Nixxxon, implicating her in a narcotics trafficking ring and her sexual relationship with an underage boy. When the scandal broke publicly, Amin the ever faithful company man did his best efforts to keep his then friend the mayor out of the police reports. But when the capital city’s ravenous political machine demanded a scapegoat for the scandal, Mayor Nixxxon served up Detective Amin on a silver platter. His once burning star within the Serious Crime Unit was henceforth forever tarnished. Amin was charged with obstructing justice and also with a slew of immorality offences. He had been subsequently released from his high paid plum position in the Unit and banished from the capital city to Slum Village. His wife Candace, nagged him bitterly on a daily basis about how much she hated living in the rough and tumble city which made home life for Darr a living hell. The District Inspector was not what you would call a pleasant man to deal with these days in the best of times.

  “Are you sure that brought enough men with you, Inspector?” Kahina sneered at him sarcastically between puffs of swirling grey smoke from her gasper.

  Amin waved the gasper’s smoke away from his face. “The bio-images of the two suspects were captured on a nearby digi-cam and it was confirmed that they had entered your establishment. The two men are considered armed and dangerous”. He was extra grumpy this morning due to his wife again waking him up with fresh complaints about Slum Village. He wanted nothing more than to fly back to the pub and down a few stiff drinks. “Let us in, Kahina or I will order my men to blast their way inside”.

  Kahina did not like being told what to do and wanted nothing more than being able to tell the inspector to piss off but she wanted to buy Heiro and Trane a few more minutes to make their getaway.

  “Show me your warrant, Inspector Amin and I will have no problem letting you and your men inside”, and she held out her hand in expectation.

  Amin lets loose a drawn out exasperated sigh between tightly clenched teeth. I would love to shove that smoke down her throat! He snapped his fingers at First Constable Butana, the young officer standing closest to him.

  Butana produced a thin transparent holo-card that had the search warrant encrypted inside of it and dropped it into Kahina’s open palm. The wording of the one page warrant projected itself in mid-air for her to quickly scan through.

  “Thanks, Inspector.” she turned around and waved the grim officers through the tavern doors without another word.

  Darr rudely brushed by Kahina and lead his battalion of armed officers through the doors and into the Negril Tavern.

  ********************************************************************************************

  A half kilometre away in a winding underground tunnel. Sheebah lead Trane and Heiro away from the tavern and imminent incarceration at Inspector Amin’s hands.

  “Where does this tunnel lead to Sheebah?” Trane asked. He had heard about the many kilometres of underground tunnels that were buried under the city but had never been inside of them himself.

  The tall woman glanced over her shoulder at Trane. “This will put you two out onto Congo Boulevard”, she replied.

  “Perfect!” Heiro clapped his hands together. “It is only twenty minute walk to my parent’s home from there”.

  “Are you sure that Inspector Amin wont be waiting for us there?” Trane asked ever the cautious one.

  “I doubt it”, Heiro replied with a laugh. “Law enforce
ment officers are stupid and predictable. The inspector probably has two dozen coppers standing outside one of our hideout locations instead”.

  I wonder who built these tunnels? Trane mused to himself.

  The air in the tunnel was dank and musty. Trane recalled as a little boy growing up in his mother’s brothel, that there was one regular customer that paid a visit every second day of the week. He was an old man with a white beard and eyebrows, who had told him that the tunnels were built thousands of years ago by the Volgag witch-queen Sofiormenia and that she roamed them every night plotting her revenge on all outworlders.

  Sheebah halted at a very long ladder that had been carefully carved into the stone wall and lead straight upwards. “Here is where you go topside, boys”.

  Sheebah pecked Trane lightly on the cheek. “Take care of yourself, Trane. Stay out of jail”.

  Although Trane did not know it Sheebah was in love with him. Trane had rescued the half-Roxide woman from a gang of rapists that had taken her hostage one night and she was forever grateful to him for that.

  Trane flashed her one of his rare smiles. “I will do my best. Thank-you for helping us, Sheebah”.

  Heiro jumped onto the ladder. “We have to go”, he said to Trane and began the long ascent. “And we are going to have to make a stop for some headache meds. My head is pounding. Damn Kahina and her pulse rifle”.

  Trane smiled and followed his friend up the long ladder.

  ********************************************************************************************

  Back the tavern, Amin and his men were conducting a thorough search of the entire establishment including all of the back rooms.

  “So where are they, Madam Kahina?” Amin asked through gritted teeth. His headache raged on making his head feel as if caught in a vice.

  “You tell me, Inspector. You sad that your scanners saw them come in here”, Kahina sneered. She poured Massinissa and Viper Rex some cold black ale from a glass pitcher. The two men sat at the bar deliberately keeping their backs to Darr.

  The inspector moved in closed to them. He peered closed at Viper Rex and said, “You look familiar to me, mate. Don’t I know you from someplace?”

  Viper kept his eyes fixed squarely on his mug of ale and shook his head silently side to side.

  “I am quite certain that I have seen you before, sir”, Amin continued. “Show me your identification, please”.

  Kahina interrupted by slamming the empty glass pitcher onto the bar. “Your warrant gives you the right to search my premises, Inspector Amin. Not to harass my paying customers!”

  Amin shrugged his shoulders and smiled in a non-threatening manner at Kahina. “Harassing? I am only asking to see this man’s ident. I am not harassing anyone”. He rudely poked Viper in the shoulder. “Identification my friend…..right now”.

  Massinissa and Viper Rex exchange a quick pensive glance. “Sod this!” Massinissa reached under his long coat for his blaster and Viper reached under the bar stool for his own. Butuna standing a few feet away instantly picked up on their movements and yelled to Darr. “Get down, Inspector!” Butana fired his blaster without hesitation and the ruby red energy beam split open Viper’s chest killing him instantly. His body flew backwards over the bar and landed in a dead heap onto the tavern floor.

  “Blodclot bastard!” Kahina screamed. She whipped out a large ion blaster from behind her back and shot Butana dead in the head, which was the only part of him that was not protected by body armour. The blaster’s ion blast melted the flesh from Butana’s skull. He fell dead to the ground with burgundy blood and bone dripping from his neck.

  The rest of the officers immediately opened fire on Kahina and Massinissa prepared to kill them where they stood.

  Kahina managed to find protection behind a large plasti-steel pillar at the back of the tavern but Massinissa was not so fortunate. His big body was ripped to shreds by the officer’s multiple blaster beams and he died screaming bloody murder. Kahina returned fire from behind the pillar and managed to kill at least one another officer before Amin commanded his men to hold their fire.

  “Enough Kahina!” He shouted to the tavern owner. “You can still come out of this alive! Just throw down your weapon and step out with your hands in the air!”

  “Piss on that, Inspector! We both know I ain’t walking out here alive!” Was her angry reply. Kahina checked the charge on her pistol and saw that it was half empty already. “Dammit!” She cursed to herself.

  “I only came here for Heiro and Trane!” the inspector continued. “We did not want all of this!”

  Kahina pressed the blaster against her temple internally struggling with herself to decide. If she surrendered. She knew for certain that she would be facing a life sentence in prison for killing Butuna. But she was outmanned and outgunned and to fight would most definitely mean her certain death.

  I am an old woman….. Besides…..Who wants to live forever anyway? The uncompromising woman thought to herself. She rechecked the charge on the pistol once more before she stepped out from behind the large pillar and faced Amin and his men.

  “Who wants to live forever anyway, Inspector?” She said to him.

  Darr could read the woman’s eyes from across the room and knew in his head what she had planned. “Do not do this, Kahina! This is your last chance! Lay your weapon down on the floor and put your hands up in the air!” He ordered forcefully. Instead of doing that, Kahina charged at the officers and fired her blaster. All of the law enforcement officers did not hesitate to open fire and completely melted the flesh from her bones in a matter of seconds.

  Dammit! Darr cursed inwardly. I wanted that slag alive so she could tell me where those two parasites ran off to!

  He stared in disappointment as Kahina’s smoking skeleton dropped to the tavern floor.

  ********************************************************************************************

  Six kilometres away to the north of Negril Tavern was the area of town as Woolner Bottom. It was one of the roughest areas in Slum Village and it was where Heiro’s parents still lived. He had grown up there and still dropped in from time to time as his mother had kept his bedroom for him.

  Trane followed Heiro down the street. His best friend’s childhood home was the very last townhouse and it was located at the bottom of a steep hill beside an ancient barbed wired fence that was next to a park.

  The grey plasti-steel sidewalks were all cracked beyond repair and in every darkened doorway, Trane could spy restless drug addicts and prostitutes. The streets harlots were all different shapes, sizes and colours and they were dozens of them lined up on every street corner. Heiro recognized a tall orange haired Volgag wearing a transparent trench coat that did nothing to hide her thick curvy body underneath it. The handsome thief approached the prostitute and pecked her protectively on the cheek.

  “What are you doing out here, Fara? We talked about this, remember?” Heiro chastised her.

  It was clear to see that Fara Chrine had been a great beauty at one time in her life but the ravages of her rampant drug use and the years of working the streets had thinned out her once luxurious long hair, pitted the white skin of her face and yellowed her teeth.

  “How are you, Heiro?” She asked flirtatiously while patting him on the behind.

  “I told you that I did not want to see you out here anymore”, he said a little more sternly.

  Fara stumbled slightly as she reached around Heiro to give Trane a generous hug.

  “Good to see you again, Fara”, Trane told the faded beauty cordially. He watched her with some concern as the prostitute’s body swayed drunkenly. She leaned up against the light post to stop herself from falling over.

  Heiro took hold of Fara by the arm. “Look at you, Fara! You are gone out of your head again! I told you to stop taking those damn white pills!”

  He let go of the young woman and she slid down to the ground in a state of wistful bliss. “Why are you yelling at me,
Hiero?” She asked with a drunken crooked grin. “Everything in the world is so beautifullllll…. So beautifullllll…”, Fara passed out with a smile on her face right there in the doorway. Heiro removed his cape and gently covered Fara’s body up and paternally pecked her on the forehead. He glanced over his shoulder at Trane with a determined look on his face. “We have to make one stop before we go to my parent’s home”.

  Trane and Heiro cut across the street from where they were and headed down a filthy back alley filled with sleeping drug addicts and overflowing garbage receptacles. A pack of mangy wild dogs blocked their way as they approached the middle of the alley but the two young men dispersed them with a few solid kicks to the creature’s hind parts. Down at the very end of the alley was a tall gangly Degox man named, Sugar Hill Sammy Degox. Sugar Hill had on a long multicoloured leather trench coat, red leather pants, black knee high leather boots and colourful diamond encrusted rings on every finger. His long blonde hair was nattily parted down the middle and the ends had been dyed jet black. He was at the head of a long line of drug abusers who were there to purchase the White Pill from him. The pill had been introduced to the underground drug world of Slum Village six months ago and quickly become the city’s most popular narcotic. Once ingested the substance adhered itself to the drug taker’s pleasure centres and produced a constant state of orgasmic bliss for a full twenty-four hours. The drug heads all over the city proclaimed that taking the White Pill was even better than having sex. Trane and Heiro waded their way through the thick of the crowd and pushed up to the front of the line, where they saw Sugar Hill passing out a small clear capsule filled with square white pills to a thin purple-eyed teenaged Roxside boy with pale alabaster skin.