by Lynne Murray
“Can you at least let go of my arms. There’s nowhere to escape to.”
“Not likely. I have insulated my skin against your electrical attack, but I’m not going to let you try. That much help General Eel provided.”
“Where did you intend to take me?” I asked.
“There’s no harm in telling you, since neither of us will survive this excursion. I meant to take you back to Eel’s Headquarters to offer your blood and tissue for repairs to your grandfather.”
“My grandfather is dead.”
“Your Seeker grandfather is dead. Your father’s father yet lives. General Eel of the Red Horde descends from a similar rare mix of Seeker and Death Dealer genes as you do. He also has a fatal disease. We have been looking for healthy hybrids with powers similar to yours and you came to our attention when your abilities surfaced. You happen to be a rare genetic match for every factor.”
I couldn’t help thinking, “I wish I could record this.”
Recording this, the Medallion informed me.
Send map to Angel Island Station if you can, I told it. If I died, at least there might be evidence of where and how.
Seeking link. Not found. Searching, the Medallion responded.
“You could have made yourself useful saving General Eel’s life. Now both of us will die because of your unprovoked attack at the instant between portals.”
I took a deep breath and managed not to argue how to define unprovoked attacks. “How did you get into the Station?” I really wanted to know. The Station was supposed to be secure. “I thought they were blocking you after last time?”
Another snort of disgust from Vole. “They thought they could block entry, but it was child’s play. Your station was built in a hurry when the Treaty was put in place. They used the standard plans for small, remote outposts. We have long had access to those plans. The air vents are vulnerable. We can open a portal wherever there is air to breathe. Enough. I prefer not to spend my last moments in a futile effort to educate a mere tissue donor.”
“Did you sustain brain damage when I killed you?” Trading insults with someone who could crush me on pure impulse was risky, but I was coming out of shock and into anger. “It sounds like you tried to kidnap me without planning a return route.”
Vole snorted. “Of course I did.” Vole gripped my arms tighter, I gasped in pain. Maybe I was going about this the wrong way, but he couldn’t have been angrier than I was. On a scale of one to ten, I was hitting about a hundred now.
I struggled to keep my voice calm. “Was your route near any landmarks?”
“Your ignorance is astonishing. The major reliable ports in folded space in this solar system are clustered around the convention center. That’s why it was built there.”
I remembered Star’s video feed of the Convention Center.
“Thank you, Vole,” I said with a meekness I didn’t feel.
“Now shut up.”
Portal routes near the convention center, I instructed the Medallion.
Some of the green lines on the map were instantly overlaid with purple. It threw the black lines that intersected them into relief and
Current location of Medallion, I queried.
A dot that pulsed red appeared magnified just past the intersection of the green and purple line and a black spur that trailed away to nothing. The map didn’t have to shout “You are here” for me to get it.
“If we’re going to die, you might as well let go of my arms, you’re really hurting me, Vole.”
“Hurting you?” Another scornful laugh. “I’d kill you if I didn’t have a glimmer of hope that my cadre got a distress signal and can rescue us and allow you to fulfill the only purpose in your pathetic existence and save the general.”
Is the Death Dealer cadre near our location? I queried the Medallion.
Negative. Near Convention Center. Not near this spur.
“Vole!” I barked out loudly. “Let go of my arms now.” I sent a burst of energy down my arms. Both of us gasped. His gloves shielded his hands but our bodies were touching in several places. The electrical shock bounced back from him and hurt me almost more than his hands clutching me.
I managed to send two more pulses of energy aimed at his midsection.
“No! Not possible,” he thundered, but his grip weakened slightly.
I took a deep breath and sent three longer pulses. Exquisitely painful, but I gritted my teeth and repeated it. Setting up a rhythm helped. Three short pulses again, followed by three longer pulses.
Vole snarled at me in a language I didn’t know.
The Medallion translated in my mind, Earth spawn was the nicest word he used.
Vole’s hands still clutched me. I kept sending out pulses of energy aimed at every place where Vole touched me. The rest of my body now hurt more than where he gripped me which had gone numb.
Then light flooded in and I saw Wade, clambering through what looked like a hole ripped in the darkness.
Chapter 27
Wade grabbed Vole by the shoulder and dragged him off me. Sariel appeared behind him in the opening. Guardian pulled the six-foot-tall Death Dealer away from Wade as if he were a piece of tissue paper.
As Vole’s weakened hands fell away, I stumbled forward. Wade caught me before I could fall. He lifted me into his arms.
He ducked back through the hole to emerge in a domed space with lights so brilliant that I was momentarily blinded. I blinked. My eyes hurt. “Angie, are you okay?” Wade’s face was so close, I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I thought we lost you,” his voice was full of emotion,
“But you found me.” I felt as if I was falling again. I couldn’t look away from his amber eyes. The tenderness in his face swept away some of my pain.
“We tracked your medallion. The map you sent showed up on the Armory system. Every time you sent a burst of power we got closer.”
Wade stood still. For a breathless moment, I was sure he would kiss me. “I didn’t know you knew Morse Code,” he said instead. You were sending an SOS signal.”
“That’s as much Morse Code as I know. I was afraid I was signaling OSO,” I still felt breathless.
“That would have worked too, we could reverse engineer it.” Wade smiled. “Marvin just needed the energy pulses to zero in on you. Also, every word Vole said to the central computer system was broadcast over the main PA system. Everyone on the station heard every word.”
Sariel’s hawk-beaked face appeared above Wade’s shoulder. “Good. You got out without killing anyone. Now we have to go.”
Further down the walkway, another Guardian had set Vole on his feet. A second Guardian brought up a floating chair with restraints built into it. A third Guardian stepped in to help strap Vole into it. They pushed him along the platform, floating a few feet off the walkway into a doorway and out of sight.
Wade set me down but kept an arm around my shoulder, keeping me steady as we followed the Sariel into the vast space.
We walked past outsized service bays that looked like they could accommodate jumbo jets.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“We’re in the Convention Center Complex,” Sariel said. “This is the interior docking area and repair shop for tourist interplanetary vehicles. Small civilian vehicles. Nothing military in here. It’s rarely used since no tourist vessels have been permitted for decades. Only diplomats and those attending official government conferences use the center, but we maintain it at full readiness for emergencies.”
“Like the ships docked orbiting the lavender planet that Joel says he’s not allowed to pilot?”
The Guardian’s glance flicked over me briefly and something like a smile hovered for a moment on his lips. “We allow the staff at the Armory to inspect the ships with us. Technically Earth shares ownership in the confiscated property. Joel is qualified to pilot several of them in case they need to be moved. The Armory staff inventories the tech on the ships. Some of it can be released to Earth.
We have to be cautious. Any very advanced technology would endanger the secrecy of the Forbidden Zone. Keeping that secret is a major part of our assignment.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I shrugged. “Vole said he got in through the ventilation system.”
“So I heard. So we all heard.” Sariel favored me with an eloquent glance. “The recording you sent will be most useful in deciding the fate of the talkative Commander Vole.” He led the way out of the hanger and we passed through a string of smaller offices and open spaces. We finally reached a door labeled “Secondary Conference Room.” He paused outside.
“The Death Dealer leadership is denying any knowledge of your existence, Angie. We don’t know the name of your father. Death Dealers are not given names until they have earned them.”
He paused.
I asked the Medallion. Do you know my father’s name?
Raptor it replied.
It says ‘Raptor’,” I said.
Sariel considered that. “Raptor is a title as well as an individual name. Any Raptor level Death Dealer who married a Seeker woman would be removed from the rolls of honor just as a defeated warrior is removed from their formal records. Such a person is considering deceased whether he or she actually is dead.”
“Does that mean my father could be alive? I asked the Medallion earlier and it said he wasn’t.”
“Your Medallion knows more than we do. I don’t know any group that keeps track of discontinued Death Dealers.” His eyes were kind. “Now, Vole has an implanted comm device programmed to a private connection with General Eel. We’re going to call that number and have a little chat. You’re both welcome to sit in. It’s your decision.”
“I want to sit in,” I said.
Wade nodded, “I do too.”
He led the way into the room. It was stunning, a spacious elegant conference room with dizzying views of each planet in the solar system arrayed on the wall screens on all sides. A communication screen was set up facing an oblong conference table that could have seated two dozen. Wade and I sat several seats away from the screen.
Vole’s confinement chair and two of the Guardians who had secured him sat near the screen on the side of the table across from us.
Sariel stood at the head of the table near the comm screen. He activated it with a flick of his armored hand. The wall screens blinked out and all eyes turned to the tall white-haired man in simple, black outfit appeared, sitting in a high-backed chair and staring out at us. His weather-beaten face was the color of rawhide. His expression was blank, but his eyes narrowed with desperate intensity and I felt him focus on me. He took a deep breath and revealed a slight shiver as his chest moved.
“Greetings, General. We’re holding an associate of yours, Commander Vole,” the Guardian said.
Eel ran his eyes over Vole, noting the restraints on him. He returned to make eye contact with the Guardian again. “Vole was a vital asset for many years,” Eel said. “He is not currently part of any cadre. He has been decommissioned and his title retired. We have removed them from our rolls.” Eel’s dark eyes fell on me like a weight, “and who would you be?”
I said nothing but returned his stare with an equally hostile one.
Sariel cut the connection to the call and the screen went blank.
“Angie, we couldn’t have you speaking to the General.”
I blushed. It had been a long day, and the fact that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing was becoming more and more clear to everyone—even myself.
Vole snickered. “She demonstrates all the intelligence necessary to be a tissue donor. Never fear. General Eel knows where to find you, thanks to her stupidity and your arrogance. If I have failed in my mission to secure you as a tissue donor, others will succeed.”
“So are you going to be a good Death Dealer and kill yourself according to the general’s orders?” I asked.
Vole sneered at me. “You have no idea what the general’s orders were. Straightforward speech is hardly the only way to communicate.”
Sariel held the door for Wade and me to go. He followed us out but Vole and the two Guardians watching him stayed.
I was glad to leave the room and even happier that Vole stayed behind with the Guardians. I was certain now that we just gave the general the information he wanted and it was mostly my fault for going into that conference room.
Suddenly, the corridor was filled with black-clad men and women.
“Damn, that was quick.” Wade cursed under his breath. He pulled a long knife from a sheath that must have been hidden in his jacket.
Sariel stepped up behind us. His wings unfurled with a tremendous snap and curved around us, propelling us forward and shielding us on the sides. Sariel’s wing grip around my shoulder was gentle but so firm that the Guardian clearly could have done great damage if he had wanted to. Close-up, the armor looked like the tines of a feather. Flexible but sheltering. each segment coated in something metallic and protective
“Battle wings,” Wade said. “Guardian armor.”
Several other Guardians came running to form a knot around Wade and me and the group began to shoulder through the attackers.
"Can't use projectile weapons in here." Wade held his sword in front of us, watching for attackers. “If you get a clear shot, stop their hearts.” He slashed at an approaching black-clad figure, who dodged right into Sariel’s wing,slid off and was impaled on another Guardian’s sword.
An approaching Death Dealer appeared to me, the Medallion covered him with a diagram showing the reinforced areas. One glaring exception—the blinking area around the eyes where his faceguard opened to let him see. I hesitated then threw a ball of energy and at the eyes of the nearest Death Dealer. I flinched to see[DP12] an instant explosion of blood and tissue, spattering down his faceguard. He stumbled and fell.
Guardians around us waded through the throng of Death Dealers
I focused on another Death Dealer leaping toward us, a curved, sharp sword in hand. I blasted his eyes. Another man stepped over his body and I repeated it on the next man in line and the one after that. Then we were at the door to the portal. The Death Dealers between us and the door were all on the floor clutching their eyes or totally limp.
The Guardians swept us the last few yards to the portal door and we jumped into the giant domed space with all the service bays.
Everyone stopped for a moment and stared at me. I looked down and saw my Medallion had fallen out of my blouse. It was glowing slightly.
“That is the Medallion of Jacob Faust,” Sariel rumbled in his deep voice. “I did not know he was dead.”
“He died two years ago,” I said.
“You are a direct descendant.” It wasn’t a question.
“He was my grandfather.”
“Why did you wait two years to claim it?”
“It was hidden I didn’t even know it existed.”
“The Medallion of Jacob Faust is a heavy gift. To take on this burden with no training is dangerous indeed. It’s a priceless artifact that passed to the genetic descendent of the original owner. There are other ways to acquire it, but anyone who tries to do so will find it useless. Unless—” He sighed. “They have attacked you twice in a few days. Do you still live in your grandfather’s abode?” The Guardian asked.
It felt weird looking him in the eye, but I managed. “Yes.”
“Go there now. Our forces are spread thin defending the station. You will be safer behind the shields of your grandfather’s home.” The Guardian examined me again. “Your medallion communicates with you. You have no training or instruction. Learn how to ask it what you need and you may survive.”
We emerged into the Angel Island main portal entrance to find the floor to ceiling windows blacked out. Emergency lighting flared and cast long shadows.
Joel sailed past us. “We were just attacked. The people under protective custody are in a panic room for now.”
"Vole was right," Wade said. "He did plan to take Angie, but a
lso to lock down the station.”
Kirby walked up to us, his face tense. He pulled Sariel away and they spoke in hushed voices. Finally, Sariel left and Kirby came over to where I stood with Wade. "We managed to defend the station." He said. "We're removing people to fall back positions. The immediate threat is over. Vole is under close guard. But we’ve got to tighten up the security even more.” He shook his head. “Ventilation systems! Wade, why don't you go now and take Angie home via public transportation. The Death Dealer group has plans and we’re still trying to find out what they are, but they don’t include public attacks in the middle of a major human urban area. Hide in plain sight for now.”
It was late afternoon over the San Francisco Bay. We took the Angel Island Ferry to the Embarcadero with the tourists returning from their sightseeing trip. Then we rode a Muni bus to my place.
Chapter 28
Wade and I walked through the strands of Grandmother’s protective field, into my apartment and into the front room. Without a word spoken, we gravitated to the sofa and sat together.
“Sorry I called hybrids monsters,” I said.
Wade laughed softly. “I forget. When did you do that?”
“Yesterday at Feeney’s I think I was mad at my aunt for deserting me to take care of another needy kid.”
Wade shook his head. “Seems like a million years ago. Believe me, I’ve gone through all kinds of anger over my mom’s chasing aliens. Chad did too. She kept going away, sometimes she was hospitalized for delusions. Other times she said she was taken away in a space ship. We had no idea who our fathers were. Or if we decided to believe our mom, we didn’t know what our fathers were.
“How did you find out what was really happening?”
“I still haven’t. I joined ETSP to look for answers, but the details are still mysterious. Kirby’s people found our mom’s posts online. He tried to contact her but she wouldn’t speak to him. He was the enemy in her eyes. So Kirby met us. It was an eye-opener. He explained that unscrupulous aliens still exploit humans and we can’t always know what their real intentions were. Our mom told anyone who would listen we were part of an alien-human breeding program, but no alien daddies ever showed up to claim us.”