The Blackstar Gambit

by Jan Domagala

  Suddenly a flurry of action on deck caught his attention.

  Three figures emerged from an opening in the aft section of the lower deck sliding into the water and were heading towards the shore.

  All three figures sat astride water scooters and were speeding his way.

  “About time,” he muttered with a smile.

  He had known that if he stayed long enough staring at them through his monocular, curiosity would get the better of them and they’d have to investigate.

  He waited and carried on watching the three vehicles approach him across the water. He let it be known it didn’t bother him. He appeared unfazed by their approach, just continued to watch, recording everything through the monocular.

  The three water scooters pulled up on the shore and the three riders quickly dismounted and ran up the beach to where Matt was standing.

  Dressed in short-sleeved, shirts, trousers and boots, all in black, they cut a terrifying figure as they neared him.

  “Hi there, is there anything I can help you guys with?” Matt asked calmly.

  “You’re coming with us,” one of them replied in a tone that brooked no argument.

  Matt looked at each of them individually, slowly taking in as much detail as he could. They were all fine specimens, muscular and broad with hard expressions that seemed permanently fixed to their faces. All of them had dark hair and all seemed to be from the same region of whatever rock they had crawled out from under.

  “What’s the magic word?” Matt asked finally.

  “Now!” the leader growled. He placed a hand on Matt’s shoulder to enforce his command.

  Matt took a step away and spread his arms wide, shrugging free from the man’s grip. “We’re in the middle of a busy promenade. People have come here to enjoy themselves. Do you want to start trouble right here in front of all these witnesses?” he asked.

  The leader hesitated, glanced around at the people going about their leisure activities as expected at a holiday resort. He glanced at his two comrades then back at Matt, clearly unsure of what to do.

  “I thought not,” Matt said stepping closer to keep the conversation more private. “Whatever you’re up to, you’re not ready to go public just yet are you? No you want to keep this quiet for just a little longer I suspect.”

  He backed away once more before they could grab him or do anything else as foolish.

  “Run along, your master’s waiting. Tell him I’ll catch him later,” Matt instructed them as he started to stroll casually away from them. He kept an eye on them as he moved off. He saw them look around hoping that no one had noticed the little altercation before going down the beach to their jet skis. They quickly had them back in the water and on the way back to the yacht.

  Matt breathed a soft sigh as he realised how lucky he was. At least he had got to see some of the players close up, even if they were just the hired help. He now knew they had something planned but were not ready to show their hand.

  These people, whoever they were, were definitely involved in this. He would have to watch them closely. For now though he would go and find a room for the night to upload the images to the computer on the Silver Dart, he doubted they were moving anywhere just yet.

  0715 s.e.t.

  The three water scooter riders returned to the yacht and reported to Visjic.

  “Did you plant the sub-dermal tracker?” he asked when they came onto the foredeck.

  The leader gave a curt nod of his head, “As planned, sir,” he confirmed.

  “Good, we can pick him up later when he’s alone and suspects nothing,” Visjic assured them.

  07.20 s.e.t.

  Kurt was sitting anxiously in the passenger section of the Silver Dart as it approached Jacksonville Spaceport.

  He had tried to get some sleep during the journey but it had eluded him. To say he was worried for the safety of Zara would be a massive understatement. He knew they couldn’t kill her but they certainly could hurt her. Their abilities only negated the possibility of death; they still felt pain, so every injury was still felt in all its agonising glory. In that regard, they could cause her endless pain if they decided to torture her.

  Images of her being ravaged, tortured to the point of death then brought back to continue the cycle over and over until the pain drove her mad, would not leave his mind.

  He had to do something, but until he landed at the spaceport he was powerless.

  As the shuttle touched down, he accessed a secure comm channel via his NI and called Matt.

  “I’ll be with you shortly,” he announced.

  “Good to hear your voice again my friend,” Matt replied.

  “Have you still got Visjic’s yacht under surveillance?”

  “No, I’m just heading back to the hotel to review some footage of three of his crew members to see if we have them on record.”

  “Get back there immediately, they’re bringing Zara to him. They should have arrived before me and we need eyes on them to see what happens next,” Kurt growled at him urgently.

  “I’m on it my friend,” Matt told him.

  Kurt was furious that Matt had left just at the crucial moment. He thought about it for a second as he regained his composure and began to wonder if he had been right. If Matt had just left he should have seen something. He checked with Flight Control to see when the freighter arrived. It had arrived fifteen minutes before him.

  What was going on, where was Zara?

  As the shuttle landed Kurt was out of his seat in a flash. He was through the hatch before the Flight Attendant had time to say anything.

  He knew he had a vehicle at his disposal placed at the spaceport for his use so he sprinted over to it.

  Climbing behind the wheel Kurt accessed the fuel cell and switched on the bright red CIV Roadster. He gunned the engine and in a tyre-shredding burst of acceleration he drove out of the parking lot.

  He was intimately familiar with the roads thereabouts having grown up in the area, so when he left the spaceport he knew exactly where he was going.

  16

  07.21 s.e.t.

  Zara and her escorts had left the spaceport behind and were approaching the bay area near Haven.

  They had transferred from the shuttle into another ATV they had waiting at the landing pad and drove through the streets towards Visjic’s yacht. Zara now knew where she was and had to keep a smile from spreading across her full lips.

  “Why are we here?” she asked from the back seat of the vehicle. Her minder was facing her from the front passenger seat aiming a pistol at her at all times. His deadpan expression gave nothing away when he replied, “You’ll soon see.”

  With a shrug she settled back to enjoy the ride.

  They were soon at the promenade overlooking the bay at Haven. The driver of the ATV pulled up into a spot near the front and switched off the engine.

  “Okay, out you get,” Zara’s minder ordered with a sideways move of the pistol in his hand.

  The two men seated either side of her got out of the vehicle on their respective sides, leaving the door open for her to follow.

  As she got out she looked out across the bay out into the distance. Her enhanced eyesight picked out a yacht in the distance with the figure of a small, yet broad, man standing on the foredeck watching them.

  Somehow she knew that was their destination.

  The minder with the pistol came to stand next to her, real close so that he could dig the muzzle into her ribs unseen by anyone close by.

  “Don’t try anything foolish or these nice people will get hurt,” he indicated the passers-by who seemed ignorant of what was happening right in their midst.

  Zara glanced down at the pistol and weighed her chances of taking it from him and thereby turning the tables. She desperately needed to know what was on that yacht though, so she chose to do nothing except nod consent of his instructions.

  Down beyond the promenade wall on the beach a launch was waiting for them.

  “Thi
s way,” the gun-wielding minder urged her with a poke in the ribs.

  “I’m going along with what you want at the moment because I want to see what this is about, but I swear to you, poke me once more with that gun and I’ll ram it so far up your ass you’ll be shitting plasma bolts for a month,” she growled standing her ground.

  “Right!” the minder grunted with a sarcastic sneer.

  Moving faster than he could see Zara grabbed the muzzle, twisted it away from her body so violently she heard his wrist snap. Before he could cry out in pain she had the gun aimed at his right temple.

  The other minders crowded around each with their pistols drawn and aimed at her face.

  “Now boys, I bet this was not how you saw this going down, eh?” Zara smirked confidently. As she pressed the muzzle harder against the man’s head she saw the fear in his eyes. “I warned you. Did I not tell you what I’d do if you poked me once more? You just had to push it though didn’t you, now look where we are?” she whispered in his face.

  She watched as the man glanced at one of his men then nodded. The other man turned away from Zara and fired his pistol.

  Zara heard a scream as the crowd around them, already spooked by the show of guns in their midst, reacted to the shooting of one among them. Cries of horror and fear sprung up around them as the crowd ran for cover.

  “If you don’t want them to kill anyone else give me back my gun,” the minder grunted through the pain.

  Zara let him go and handed him back his pistol.

  He took the gun off her with his good hand then struck her across the face with the butt. A stream of blood sprayed out from a cut the blow opened in her cheek as she rolled with the strike. The minder gasped as he saw the cut heal in seconds.

  “Now I know why you two are so valuable,” he smiled.

  “Get in the launch. Our boss is waiting for you,” he added, indicating the boat on the beach. By this time the promenade had cleared of bystanders and as they left to get in the launch they were the only ones left.

  When they climbed aboard the launch, they were a lot more cautious of their captive. The leader remained as far from her as he could, staying at the opposite end of the small boat holding on with his one good hand while he cradled his broken wrist in his lap. The rest had their pistols aimed at Zara the whole time.

  The launch came in towards the rear of the yacht where a boarding ramp was lowered for them to climb aboard whilst the launch was stowed in a hold at the water line.

  Zara looked around at her new opulent surroundings. The trappings of wealth were everywhere, from the door furniture right down to the seat coverings; there was quality in everything.

  “Here you are, sir. Be careful she’s a handful to say the least,” the minder instructed Visjic. They had herded Zara towards the foredeck where he was waiting.

  Visjic noticed the pain the man was trying to hide and the way he held his right arm firmly against his side.

  “You’d better get that wrist attended to,” he instructed. With a curt nod, the man left the deck and went below to the infirmary.

  “Welcome aboard. Zara Hardy isn’t it?”

  “You have me at a loss, sir,” she replied.

  Visjic simply smiled. He turned to his First Officer and asked, “Where is he?”

  “Roughly three minutes out, sir.”

  Zara was perplexed by this interchange and who this man was. Who were they talking about? Was it Kurt? Had she been used as bait to capture him, again? No, that wasn’t it, she was sure of it, especially after the comment her minder made after seeing her regenerate. There was more to this than she knew at the moment but she was determined to find out what before stopping them for good.

  “Get ready, I want to move the moment he appears,” Visjic said.

  “Copy that,” the First Officer confirmed.

  Visjic returned his attention to Zara and smiled once more. “You look confused. Don’t worry, all will be made clear soon enough. For now I must ask you to go below decks, for your own safety of course,” he encouraged.

  Zara glanced around assessing her chances of escape should she choose to. The minders were all close by; they were not a problem. She knew she could overpower all of them if the need arose, but the man standing before her was who troubled her the most. He was a complete unknown quantity. The air of self-confidence he exuded was unnerving; there was an animal magnetism about him that was almost primal. She could sense a power within that was waiting to be unleashed.

  “If you’re wondering if you could escape, assessing your chances, then let me tell you the answer is ‘no’. Yes, you could probably overpower my men, it would take some effort on your part, but I have no doubt you have the ability. Me on the other hand, I doubt it,” Visjic told her.

  Zara’s eyes went wide as she realised she had not been as surreptitious as she thought. Was she that transparent or was he that good?

  “You have an extremely high opinion of yourself...?”

  “I know and let me assure you it does not stem from any narcissistic self-indulgence,” he replied again avoiding giving his name.

  Zara tensed and squared her feet ready to move.

  “Please, let’s keep this civil,” he advised noticing the change in her stance.

  She sensed the tension rise around her as the minders aimed their pistols at her head, closer this time ready for any sudden moves on her part.

  She relaxed and said, “Okay, for now we’ll keep it civil.”

  “Good, you’ll live longer that way,” Visjic threatened with no trace of sarcasm.

  With an air of dismissal, he turned his back on her and told the guards “Take our guest below.”

  Zara didn’t know whether to be insulted or furious at the casual way he treated her. Instead, she held her emotions under control and did as ordered.

  Her time would come and when it did she would make the arrogant stranger pay.

  17

  07.30 s.e.t.

  Kurt arrived at the bay area to find it deserted.

  What the hell had happened here, he wondered.

  There were CCTV cameras located on poles all around the promenade and he accessed the camera feed using his NI.

  Quickly he replayed the last ten or so minutes, the feed going directly to his NI where it was decoded and assimilated into signals his brain could understand.

  Within seconds of his arrival at the promenade he understood what had taken place there.

  These people were extremely ruthless with no regard for the lives of innocent bystanders. They had to be stopped. There was no telling what they might do next and Zara was in their clutches.

  He knew what she could do, what she was capable of, which made him wonder. What was she doing? Had she some plan to learn more about her captors or was she subdued and unable to act?

  He had no idea which of these was the case but he leant toward the latter seeing as how he had been unable to contact her through a direct channel via his NI.

  He looked out across the bay, out at sea among the smaller boats was a large yacht.

  That was where they were keeping Zara. He didn’t know how he knew, he just did. It was one of the abilities the changes in him had produced and one he was having a great deal of trouble understanding or controlling.

  As he got out of the roadster, he took a closer, more detailed look at the yacht. There was a man standing on the foredeck staring back towards the shore. Kurt felt it too much of a coincidence for it not to be connected. It only reinforced his belief that Zara was on board that craft.

  Suddenly the man turned and walked away towards the bridge, disappearing inside leaving Kurt to wonder if he was mistaken about the whole situation.

  Another vehicle pulled up alongside Kurt’s roadster. He glanced at it as Matt got out and came to stand by him.

  “That’s the yacht I was watching. Three thugs came and tried to grab me before I left,” he said as he saw where Kurt was looking.

  “We have to get on bo
ard her,” Kurt said looking at his friend.

  “Look, we’re too late,” Matt informed him.

  Kurt turned as instructed. He saw a plume of water from the engines at the rear of the boat as it turned and headed away from the shoreline.

  “Shit!” Kurt muttered, as he knew Matt was right.

  He quickly looked around for a means to follow, any means. He spotted a few speedboats down near the shoreline.

  “Come on, we might just catch them in one of those,” he said pointing at the row of small boats.

  “Okay, but how do we get on board if we do catch ’em?” Matt asked as the two of them jumped over the promenade wall down to the beach.

  “I have no idea, I’m making this up as I go,” Kurt informed him sadly.

  Kurt was the first to reach the nearest speedboat to the water. He was about to jump into it when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

  “Well we won’t catch them now then,” Matt said as he saw it too.

  07.32 s.e.t.

  The yacht had moved off and was powering towards the horizon but then panels in the side opened and huge round engine pods emerged from inside the hull of the craft. The pods were on struts that held them away from the hull.

  The pods began to rotate forty-five degrees so that the rear was now pointed towards the water.

  The engines were turned on and the thrust from them was visible in the churning water below.

  Slowly the yacht began to rise out of the water and was soon hovering several feet above the churning waves beneath. As the engines delivered more thrust the yacht rose higher into the air until it was well above all the other boats in the sea. All areas above deck were sealed off and covered and then the engines rotated once more so that they were pointing towards the bow. The lateral thrust began to push the yacht through the air and it started its ascent.

  Kurt turned to Matt and said, “Well that’s not something you see every day.”

  “What do we do now?” Matt asked.

  “We follow,” Kurt told him.