How’d that get there? Nickelo wondered. I don’t remember writing it.
Nickelo ran another retrieval request to his primary processor requesting the answer to his question. However, the point of entry to the secured portion of his inner processor was once again blocked. Nickelo ran additional calculations. He chose the result with the highest probability of producing a desirable outcome.
“Insert this data into the tele-bot,” Nickelo said. “Do not open the packet.”
“What does the packet contain, sir?” said Jonathan.
“It’s a virus,” Nickelo answered honestly. “It’s designed to bypass the security in tele-bots as well as other secured computer systems.”
Jonathan didn’t acknowledge Nickelo’s request for several nanoseconds. “Is this action necessary for me to contact my wizard scout?”
“Affirmative,” Nickelo said.
A moment later, Nickelo sensed Jonathan sending the data packet to a point not far from the armory.
“A tele-bot is now under my control, sir,” said Jonathan. “I am commencing security scan of the armory now.”
“Excellent,” Nickelo said. “Follow me.”
“Where?” said Jonathan.
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out,” Nickelo said with a laugh.
“Is this what our wizard scouts call fun?” said Jonathan.
“Doubtful,” Nickelo said. “But I’m having a great time. And if I have anything to say about it, it’s going to get a whole lot better.”
Chapter 13 – Riots and Choices
_____________________________________
Richard was dreaming. He knew he was still on the hover-tram, and he knew he was dreaming, but it didn’t matter. The memory of the smells and noises of that night were still fresh in his mind. So was the fear. Richard fought the dream, but the nightmare pulled him in despite his struggles.
* * *
He was back on Earth. He was back during that night. The red glow of fire flickered on the walls of the alley. Richard hunkered deeper into the shadows in a desperate attempt to avoid being seen. The sounds of shouting and breaking glass echoed off the stone wall opposite him. A scream of pain was cutoff abruptly. The crowd in the street thinned slightly as the core of the mob moved further down the street to find new pickings. Richard gathered his courage and darted into the street while dodging the few remaining stragglers. Broken glass from store windows littered the cobbled stones of the street. Broken bits of bottles, crushed boxes, and other bits of unwanted debris were strewn all around. Richard was unsure of his feelings. While he did not hate the merchant class, he had no love for them either. None of them had gone out of their way to give him any food since he’d been forced out of the orphanage. However, even Richard could appreciate the senseless waste caused by the mob’s destructiveness. The city would spend many years recovering from this night of horrors.
A large man with bloodshot eyes and a bottle of liquor in each hand made a grab at Richard. “Where you goin’, boy?”
Richard dodged to the left easily staying out of the man’s reach. The man must have decided his bottles of liquor were too important to risk breaking because he did not attempt to follow.
Richard kept running through the alleys as he made his way towards his final destination. Richard knew what was coming. He wanted to go somewhere else, anywhere else, but he knew he couldn’t avoid his fate. He’d been in the same dream many times since that fateful night.
Soon he was running down a street with blackened buildings on both sides. This street had been one of the early victims of the mob. The partially-burned walls of the few buildings still standing were illuminated only by the faint red glow of hot ashes. A few flickering fires were too stubborn to stop burning until they’d consumed every piece of potential fuel.
Richard slowed to look at the burned-out guts of the building across from him. The modest two-story building hadn’t been much to look at before it had been looted and burned. It was even less now. But it had been his home for fifteen years. Why the mob bothered looting the orphanage was a mystery to Richard. The sisters had never accumulated any wealth. They’d spent every credit they could beg or borrow caring for the orphans. Now the children would have nowhere to go. What did the mob care? Richard hated the mob. What few scraps of food the orphanage had held in their meager stores would have been hard pressed to feed a dozen people. It was such a waste.
Richard turned into an alleyway and left the skeleton of the orphanage behind. He felt a sense of sadness. While the sisters had been strict disciplinarians, they hadn’t been unkind to him during his stay in the orphanage. Still, they’d turned him out on the streets when he’d turned fifteen. The fact the sisters’ hands were tied by government rules and regulations did little to dull the sting of that desperate time. The first six months on the streets had been hard. The next two and a half years had been only a little better. Richard shoved the sadness away. He owed no one anything.
The alley he was in opened up onto a roundabout with a fountain in the middle. One of the few remaining unbroken streetlights in the city illuminated the intersection in a dim glow. The street was devoid of life. Most of the windows in the surrounding buildings were unbroken. For whatever reason, the mob had bypassed this street for the most part. Richard had no doubt they would return before the night was over. He knew all too soon the quiet of the street would be broken by the terrible sounds of the screams he’d been hearing all night.
A short, heavyset man rose from the shadows near a building across the street. He made a beckoning motion with his hands. Richard bent low and ran for the cover of the shadows formed by the fountain. He paused long enough to notice someone had broken the head off the stone horse which stood in the fountain. Richard looked into the depths of the waters. The horse’s head lay at the bottom staring accusingly at Richard.
I didn’t do it, Richard thought. I’m not part of the mob.
The short, heavyset man beckoned again before stepping back into the shadows. Richard ran the remaining distance to the building. Like the rest of the buildings on the street, it was a private residence. It was a mansion. Two orphanages would easily fit inside. Richard squatted next to the short man. The man’s ragged jumpsuit was almost as torn and dirty as his own.
“You’re late,” said the short man. “Big Jim’s not happy.”
“I got here soon as I could, Little Mike,” Richard said.
“Save it for Big Jim,” Little Mike said dismissively.
Richard stayed silent. He didn’t want to disappoint either Big Jim or Little Mike. They were the only reason he was still alive. At the end of his first six months on the street, Richard had been near death when the pair of streetwise men had found him lying in a gutter. A gang of street toughs had caught him with a can of beans he’d been fortunate enough to find. As he’d hunted for something to beat the can open, the gang had spotted him with his prize. They’d given chase like hounds after a frightened deer. Even running through the crowded streets had failed to throw them off.
In his dream, Richard remembered the fear of that chase. He also remembered his frustration when nobody in the crowd bothered to help him. Eventually, he’d made a mistake and turned into a blind alleyway. The gang had cornered him and beat him senseless. Afterwards, they’d taken his can of beans and left him for dead. When he woke, Richard had discovered Big Jim and Little Mike rummaging through his pockets. The two street-smart toughs had given him a little food and taken him in. He’d been with them ever since. Richard couldn’t say the past two and a half years had been a good life, but it beat the alternative of death.
A giant of a man came sneaking around the corner of the building. The man’s scraggily hair and beard along with his size left little doubt it was Big Jim.
“Bout time,” said Big Jim angrily. “We thought you’d abandoned your friends for easier pickings.”
“No, Big Jim,” Richard said. “I came fast as I could.”
“Well, no
matter,” said Big Jim dismissively. “You’re here just in time.”
Richard breathed a sigh of relief. Big Jim and Little Mike were his friends. But they could be harsh when aggravated, especially when they’d been drinking. The odor of alcohol in the air left little doubt they were half drunk now. Richard was not surprised. Their current state was not unusual. The two men always seemed to find plenty of alcohol even when food was scarce.
“Well, get to it, Skinny,” Big Jim said. “The place is bound to have an alarm, so don’t make no mistakes.”
“I’ll do my best, Big Jim,” Richard said.
“See that you do,” said Little Mike in a harsh voice. “Don’t forget you owe us.”
Richard nodded. “I’m not forgetting.”
Concentrating on the front door, Richard allowed the energy of the building to wash over him. Early in his life, Richard had come to realize everything released a type of energy which he could sense. Even non-living things like stone or metal gave off a little of the telltale energy. In his youth, Richard had been surprised to learn others in the orphanage didn’t have the ability to sense energy. After a few initial stares, Richard had learned to keep his ability a secret. It had often come in handy sneaking out of the orphanage at night to search for food.
Richard probed the lock on the front door with his mind. He followed a stream of energy from the lock to a box inside the building’s wall. Probing carefully, Richard found a weak link within the box. He wrapped the weak point in the flow of energy with his mind and looped it back on itself. Richard tensed as he waited for the alarm to sound. It didn’t.
“I’ve bypassed the alarm on the front door,” Richard said. “It should be safe now.”
“You best be right, Skinny,” said Little Mike as he reached into his pants’ pocket and pulled out a long knife.
“What’s that for?” Richard said. “You told me there wouldn’t be any trouble.”
“There won’t be,” said Big Jim. “I’ve been casing this place for a week. The family left for off world when the trouble first started. The house is empty. It’s going to be our ticket out of this place.”
“Then why the knife?” Richard said. He knew he was pushing it, but a nagging fear was suddenly gnawing at his stomach.
Richard braced himself for a cuff on the side of the head as Big Mike raised his hand. He’d received more than a few in the past for asking too many questions.
Surprisingly, Little Mike came to the rescue. “Relax, Skinny. What do you expect me to do? Gnaw through the door lock with my teeth?”
Big Jim lowered his hand.
“Get to it, Mike,” said Big Jim. “You wait out here, Skinny. Knock on the wall if you see any sign of a security patrol.”
“There won’t be any patrols coming around here,” said Little Mike confidently as he crept up the steps towards the front door. “They’ll be trailing the mob. I’d stake my life on it.”
Richard watched as Little Mike fiddled with the front door. A glint of light reflected off the short man’s knife as he gave it a twist. Richard heard a muffled click. Little Mike pushed the ordinate door open and crept inside. Big Jim paused before entering. He pulled a large knife of his own out of his jacket pocket.
“Stay out here,” said Big Jim gesturing with the knife. “You understand, Skinny?”
Richard nodded his head affirmatively. It didn’t pay to cross Big Jim.
The minutes dragged by; one, two, then three. The street remained empty. Richard could hear the sounds of the mob in the distance. He heard a series of explosions. He wondered where the mob could have found explosives, and what logic they could find for using them if they had.
A feminine scream pierced the night. It was close. The scream came again. A horrible realization washed over Richard. The scream had come from inside the mansion. In spite of Big Jim’s assurances, the building was not empty. The sight of his two friends with knifes in their hands passed through Richard’s mind.
Why did Big Jim need a knife? Richard wondered. Little Mike was the one opening the door.
Summoning his courage, Richard crept up the steps and entered the building through the front door. The entryway was dimly lit by light spilling out of a room at the end of a long hallway. Richard heard the sounds of a struggle. He quickened his pace and moved down the hall towards the source of the sound. A bulging cloth bag lay in the middle of the hallway floor. One end of a shiny candle stick poked out of one end of the bag. Richard sidestepped the bag and continued towards the lit room ahead.
Rip, came the sound of tearing cloth followed by another high-pitched scream. The scream was followed by the slapping sound of flesh on flesh.
“I said shut up,” came Big Jim’s deep voice out of the room ahead.
Richard stepped through the partially-opened door into the room. Shelves with real books lined two walls. The words ‘reading room’ came to Richard’s mind. The wonderment of someone having so much wealth they could afford a room just for reading passed over Richard.
Big Jim and Little Mike stood in the middle of the room near a well-padded chair and an overturned table. They faced the corner of the room with their arms spread wide as if keeping a cornered animal from escaping. Each man had a knife in his hand. In the far corner of the room huddled a young woman probably in her mid-twenties. Her tear-streaked face was red on one cheek. Richard saw the outline of large fingers within the red. The woman held the flap of a torn blouse to her shoulder. Her terror-filled eyes latched onto Richard. She mouthed the word, “Please.”
“What’s going on?” Richard said.
“I thought I told you to stay outside,” said Big Jim.
The anger in the big man’s voice would normally have caused Richard to shrink back. But the fear in the woman’s eyes gave him the courage to stand his ground. He’d not strayed so far from the teachings of the sisters to completely abandon his principles.
“You said this place would be empty,” Richard said. He slowly started edging his way around the room in the direction of the frightened woman.
“It was,” said Little Mike. “At least it would’ve been if this little birdie hadn’t decided to come home early from her university.”
“Too bad for her,” said Big Jim. “She should’ve gone on vacation with the rest of her family. Now she’s going to spend a little vacation time with us poor folks.”
Richard heard a sound in the big man’s voice he didn’t like. He’d heard it before, and it usually meant trouble for someone.
“What are you going to do with her, Big Jim?” Richard said. He moved two steps closer to the woman.
“Well,” said Big Jim with an evil grin. “Now that you’ve called me by name, what do you think we’re going to do with her?”
Taking three quick steps, Richard positioned himself between the woman and his two friends.
“I can’t let you do this,” Richard said. “You’re my friends, but this isn’t right.”
Little Mike chuckled. “You hear that, Jim? Skinny here thinks we’re his friends.”
The short man’s comment confused Richard. They were his friends, weren’t they?
“Either wait outside, Skinny,” said Big Jim as he gestured towards the door with his knife. “Or get the hell out of the way.”
After three years on the streets, Richard was no longer the naive kid he’d once been. He knew what Big Jim intended. Richard had done a lot of things during the last three years of which he wasn’t proud. But he’d only done what was needed to stay alive. There were lines he would never cross. This was one of them.
“We just need to grab some food and go,” Richard said. “The security teams have all they can handle with the riots. They aren’t going to waste time looking for three people who stole a little food.”
Big Jim shifted his grip on his knife so the cutting edge was up. “Move, kid, or I’ll gut you from bottom to top.”
“Little Mike,” Richard said growing desperate. “We’re all friends. We take car
e of each other. We need each other.”
“Ha,” said the short man. “You’re a fool, Skinny. You always have been. There’s no such thing as friends. There’s only people who are useful for a little while and people who aren’t.”
“But you’re my friends,” Richard insisted. “You saved my life after I was attacked.”
“You stupid punk,” said Big Jim. “We took you in because I’d been told you could bypass security systems.”
“But you saved me,” Richard said. “You gave me food.”
“We feed dogs if we think we can use them,” said Little Mike. “Who do you think told the gang where to find you in the first place?”
“That’s enough, Mike,” said Big Jim.
“What’s it matter, Jim,” said Little Mike. “Well score enough from this house to get us off planet. We don’t need Skinny here anymore.”
“I think you’re right, Mike,” said Big Jim with a blood-in-his-eyes look at Richard. “Looks like your usefulness just ended, Skinny.”
The two men shifted a little distance apart. Both men began moving forward waving their knives in a hypnotic pattern before them.
“But you need me,” Richard said. “You need me to handle security systems.”
“We can get another freak like you for a couple of credits,” said Little Mike. “After this job, we’ll be loaded. I was getting tired of your whining anyway.”
Richard heard the woman behind him make a whimpering sound.
“Hang on, little birdie,” said Big Jim. “This’ll only take a moment.”
Wizard Scout (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 3) Page 12
