Enigma: A Space Opera: Book Six of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

  It took a second or two for the guard to process Seb’s question. He nodded. “Sorry, you called him Buster.”

  In a different situation, Seb might have found that funny.

  It looked like it took him a great effort, but the mandulu forced his words out through stuttering sobs. “They knew I was hiding. They dragged me out and told me they’d come to collect and they’d let me live to tell the tale.”

  “Why did they want him?” Seb said.

  The mandulu shrugged. “I don’t know. They knocked me out soon after that.”

  When the mandulu looked up again, Seb saw he had nothing more to say. A nod at him, he reached over and squeezed his shoulder as he looked him in the eyes. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. But they’ve gone now. If they came for Buster and they’ve taken him, then they won’t be back for you.” He looked at the others. “We need to find Buster, wherever he is. If beings are prepared to do this to get to him, I’m guessing he can help us find our target.” He purposefully didn’t talk about the Countess in front of the mandulu. He didn’t need to know their mission.

  Although finding Buster seemed like an impossible task. Before Seb could ask the others for ideas, Sparks pulled her computer from her pocket. As always, her fingers turned into a blur while they danced across the screen. As much as Seb wanted to ask her what she was doing, he’d learned it paid off to wait and let her concentrate.

  A hiss of static, Moses’ voice then came through the small speakers on Sparks’ tablet. “What’s up?”

  “Do you have information on the ships that come and go from Aloo? Stuff like what cargo they’re carrying?”

  “No!” The indignation seemed forced. To see Sparks raise an eyebrow showed Seb that she thought exactly the same thing. She didn’t reply.

  It forced Moses to elaborate. “One of the most important things about Aloo is it’s a place that beings can pass through without fear of surveillance in any way.”

  Sparks still didn’t reply. Neither did anyone else.

  “Hello?” Moses said. “Are you still there?”

  With a heavy sigh, Sparks managed to remain calm. “If you have that information, I really need to know it.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Come on, Moses, I know you have the information. I’ve hacked into your systems and looked at it. Several times.”

  “What?!”

  “I wanted to be polite and ask for it, but I can take it for myself if I need to. It’ll just be a lot quicker if you help us out.”

  Another slight pause in the conversation, Seb forgot his surroundings and smiled at how Sparks had just played the Shadow Order shark. Moses finally said, “Who’s with you?”

  “Just tell us.”

  “Fine. Yes, I have it. Happy?”

  A glaze covered her purple eyes as she looked around the place. “No. Far from it.” Before Moses could respond, she said, “Do you have information on how many personnel the ships have when they arrive and then when they leave? So if they picked anyone up, you’d know?”

  Another begrudging, “Yes.”

  Seb couldn’t help looking at SA at that moment. The death, the loss, the suffering. It all added to the weight he already carried in his heart. She watched Sparks for a second before she turned to him. He quickly looked away.

  “I need you to find all the ships that left with more crew than they came with,” Sparks said. “Especially those ones that didn’t pick up any cargo other than that. We’re going to head over to the square now.”

  Another cagey response, Moses said, “Why the square?”

  “You have a surveillance hut there.”

  “Is there anything you don’t know about?”

  “This is why you hired me, Moses.”

  Seb stood up, leaving the mandulu hunched over on the ground. He walked over to Sparks and rubbed her back. “We’d be lost without you.”

  “Yes, you would.”

  He then said, “Moses?”

  The sound of Moses’ breathing came out of the speakers. Nothing more.

  “There’s been a massacre down here. We need a team to come and help with the clean-up. Make sure they have strong stomachs.”

  Again, Moses didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. “Come on then,” Seb said to the others, “let’s go to the square and find out who’s taken Buster from us.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Seb heard the flimsy chain-link gate crashing home again as they got closer to it. He led the way, holding it open so the others could walk through.

  Reyes, Sparks, Bruke, then SA marched past him. Seb and SA looked at one another. A glance, nothing more.

  As Seb tried to follow the others, the mandulu also moved forward. Seb stopped and looked up at the tall guard. “I know Moses didn’t answer my request, but he’ll be sending you some Shadow Order recruits to help clear up. Just wait here and they’ll show up soon.”

  Not giving him a chance to respond, Seb then stepped out into the larger space beyond.

  The mandulu followed him.

  Thinking he must be in shock, Seb was about to repeat the instructions when the tall creature said, “I can’t wait in there on my own.”

  What Seb had seen in the aftermath would haunt his nightmares forever. What must it have been like for the poor creature to actually watch it happen?

  “Can I just come to the walkway with you and meet the guards there?”

  It made sense, so Seb shrugged. “Sure. I don’t blame you for not wanting to wait in the warehouse. Moses’ guards will sort out the clean-up for you. You shouldn’t be dealing with that after what you’ve been through.”

  None of the group spoke as they walked across the open expanse of concrete. The wind crashed into Seb, who’d taken the lead again. Not that it bothered him to bear the brunt of it. He’d grown up on Danu. He might have forgotten what it had been like before he returned, but with the place still fresh in his memory, this felt like no more than a heavy breeze by comparison.

  The mandulu stammered when it caught up to Seb and said, “Th-thank you for helping me sort this out. I know we haven’t seen eye to eye, but you’re a stand-up guy.”

  “It’s okay.” Something had seemed slightly amiss about the situation, and as much as Seb didn’t want to question it, if he didn’t now, he never would. Also, he’d asked for Moses to send a crew over, he needed to know they weren’t in danger of being hurt. “I have to say though, something’s been on my mind since we’ve come here.”

  “Oh?”

  Seb stopped, and everyone stopped with him. A look at the others showed him their slightly tense stances. They’d spent so much time together, they shared a sixth sense. They knew when things had the potential to turn sour. “Why would the creatures who took Buster want to leave a survivor?”

  The mandulu’s broad shoulders lifted as his entire frame tensed. His breathing quickened, and he scratched the side of his face with a shaking hand. He looked everywhere but at Seb when he said, “What do you mean?”

  Seb raised his gun to his shoulder and addressed the creature down the barrel of it. “Step back.”

  The others followed his lead, all of them pointing their weapons at the mandulu.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the mandulu said, backing away whilst he looked from one Shadow Order member to the other.

  Seb continued to watch the creature down the barrel of his blaster. “What do they gain from leaving a survivor? They wanted Buster and they got Buster. I don’t get it. It makes more sense to kill everyone so they’re harder to follow. We’ve already seen they weren’t afraid to take lives.”

  Sweat beaded the mandulu’s brow. “I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

  “What’s happened?” Seb said, his pulse pounding that little bit harder. The mandulu stopped, so he said, “Keep walking.”

  Tears filled the mandulu’s eyes. “I don’t know what they’ve done to me. I know it’s not good. I wanted to come with you, to the hut you’re talking
about. I want to see a doctor. Maybe they can help me.” The creature started to back away quicker, its hands raised in front of it as it urged them to calm down. “They said they couldn’t afford to be followed. They felt bad for what they had to do, but they had to do it. It would be more than their lives were worth to pick up a tail. I’ll just go back to the warehouse. Can you please send someone to check me out?”

  When he’d gone about fifteen metres away from them, the mandulu’s eyes turned transparent. They then glowed.

  “What the—?” Reyes said.

  But before Seb could answer her, the mandulu’s eyes and mouth flared bright orange. It then screamed so loud, it sounded like it tore its throat. It clamped its large hands to the side of its head moments before an almighty boom shook the air around them. Its head exploded, a fireball forcing its way out and rising into the sky amidst a red cloud.

  The wind tossed blood and flesh at Seb and the others, but Seb barely noticed. Instead, he watched as the mandulu’s headless body remained on its feet. Its skin crawled as if something lived inside it.

  The tall mandulu then fell towards them, showing Seb the hole where his head had been. Inside, he saw a crawling, churning mess of something. It looked like scores of small insects writhing inside it.

  Now they’d been liberated, they sloughed off the dead creature’s skin as they rushed forward.

  CHAPTER 17

  Now in slow motion, Seb watched the creatures. About six inches long, each one looked to have the body of a snake and the spindly legs of a spider. They hissed as they came forward in a wave. Forked tongues and fangs, their hard little feet clicked against the concrete ground. A green spray of what must have been poison squirted from the mouth of one of the little beasts at the front.

  As always, a knife passed Seb first, SA’s attack cutting three of them in two. Blasts then crashed into the ground, bursting the creatures like they were water balloons. Each one released a large milky-yellow splash, but it did nothing to slow the progress of the others.

  The five of them stepped back as they lay down heavy fire against the things. Maybe thirty dead, there were at least three times that amount left.

  Blades, blasts, and yells, they took the things out. But they moved back slower than the plague advanced.

  One of the streams of laser fire died down. Seb looked to his left to see Bruke staring at the top of his gun. When Reyes stopped firing too, he shouted, “Remember, the guns overheat.” His own blaster turned from green to orange at that moment. He released his pressure on the trigger. The carpet of hissing chaos didn’t let up.

  Bruke’s gun came to life again, driving the little things back. Reyes started shooting too.

  Although they’d gotten closer, the shots were landing, and as they thinned the numbers, the little beasts’ forward momentum slowed.

  They’d travelled about another two metres back by the time Seb’s blaster worked again. As he fired, he watched between the heat indicator on his weapon and the now thinned pack of bugs. “Keep it up and they won’t get to us.”

  About ten seconds later, Seb stopped firing. He looked at the others, who then stopped too. SA held onto her knives. The mess of limbs, bodies, and milky-yellow sludge stretched from them all the way back to the mandulu’s corpse. It looked like they’d gotten all of them. “Well done, everyone.” Seb panted as he wiped his brow. “Well done.”

  The other four stared at Seb, all of them fighting to catch their breath.

  “Sparks,” Seb said, “I need you to tell Moses there’s more of a clean-up than we first anticipated.”

  Sparks nodded and then pulled her computer from her pocket. She tapped at the screen.

  Before Seb could speak again, Bruke rushed at him and shoved him aside.

  Seb stumbled and fell. Back in slow motion as he hit the ground, he saw the creature Bruke had shoved him away from. It ran past him and headed straight for Reyes.

  As Seb watched it, he tried to call out, but he was too late. The bug leapt up—mouth open wide—and clamped its fangs in to the back of Reyes’ hand. A knife cut the thing in two, but even SA moved too slowly. It had already bitten Reyes.

  Time froze. Seb looked at Reyes and then the wide mouths of the others as they all stared at her too. Instead of screaming, Reyes fell to the ground. Her eyes rolled back. Foam then burst from her mouth in an explosive cough. A second later she fell into a violent fit.

  “They have a medi-port at the hut in the square,” Sparks said as she watched their friend. “If we can get her there, we can plug her into it.”

  It took a second for Seb to process what she’d said. He then ran over to Reyes and lifted her waist. SA charged over and took her head and shoulders. Bruke grabbed her legs.

  Seb shouted at Sparks, “Lead the way.”

  CHAPTER 18

  SA in front of him, Sparks even farther ahead, Seb ran with Reyes’ waist in his grip. Every second that passed presented another moment where he nearly dropped her, the thrashing Marine still taken over with a violent fit. She twisted and kicked, twitched and spat.

  “You okay, Bruke?” Seb called back as he looked at the white foam on Reyes’ lips. Her eyes rolled again before regaining clarity. It was the cycle he’d witnessed in the short time since she’d been poisoned. If Bruke responded, he didn’t hear him.

  When Sparks reached the end of the walkway between the two ships, she stopped to wait for them to catch up.

  As they got closer, Seb watched her look back at them, her face gripped with impatient anxiety. She then turned to the crowd while holding her computer out in front of her. A second later, a buzz sounded out. A blue bolt of electricity shot from her device, and several beings jumped away from her. The initial shock over, those beings turned on the small Thrystian, their hackles raised, their teeth bared.

  Despite the hisses and growls, Sparks wouldn’t be intimidated. She shot another bolt at them. The creatures backed away.

  By the time they burst from the alley with Reyes, Sparks had already made a pathway for them.

  Another buzz cleared more of the crowd. The beings ahead of that seemed to get the idea and moved before they felt Sparks’ wrath.

  His world in slow motion again, Seb looked from the fitting Reyes to where they needed to go. Their route to the square now clear, every being on either side of them stared as they ran through.

  When they made it to the square, the path seemed less obvious. Many beings could see they’d get a shock if they stood in Sparks’ way, but they clearly couldn’t predict where her way was. A couple of angry buzzes later helped her make it perfectly clear.

  They headed for what appeared to be an abandoned shipping container. Although Seb didn’t want to look over his shoulder at Bruke in case he tripped and fell, he called back to his hulking friend, “Well done, we’re nearly there.”

  Sparks reached the shipping container first and banged her fist against it. The bass drum boom called through the square, but nothing happened.

  Another hard rap against the metal doors.

  Still nothing.

  By the time they’d caught up to her, the container remained shut. The run had winded Seb, so he had to fight for breath when he spoke to Sparks, Reyes still twisting and fitting as he tried to hold onto her. “What’s happening?”

  Sparks banged against the door again before throwing a sharp shrug. “I don’t know.”

  “This is the place?”

  “Yes!”

  When Seb banged against the door, Reyes nearly slipped from his grip. He quickly grabbed her again and waited. No one answered.

  “I don’t know why they’re not opening it,” Sparks said.

  This time Bruke spoke. “I do.” He put Reyes’ legs down, so Seb and SA lowered her to the ground too. SA kept a hold of her thrashing head to prevent her from banging it.

  “Please help us,” Bruke said as he stepped towards the busy crowd, his thick arms spread wide. “We have a human here with a rare disease. We’re hoping to put
her in this empty container so she doesn’t infect anyone else. It’s too late for us; we’ve already picked up the black death. Can someone help us get her away from here? We need to make sure this entire planet doesn’t fall to the plague.”

  It took for Bruke to say that before Seb saw just how many beings watched them. And why wouldn’t they? With the fuss they’d just made running into the square, of course they’d have an audience.

  When Bruke stepped forward another pace and said, “Please! Help us, somebody,” the crowd stepped back.

  A usually shy creature, Bruke put on the performance of a lifetime, hacking up a deep booming cough as he stumbled and lurched towards the crowd. “Please, we’re all going to die!”

  Much like when Sparks had electrocuted them, the crowd hissed and shrieked. They backed away, tripping over one another to avoid the infected Bruke.

  A glance at the exit to the square, Seb watched them pour out of it, a bottleneck building up as all the beings tried to get through the narrow path at once. A scuffle broke out. Then another one. But neither of them stopped the mass exodus.

  Bruke continued to lurch and stumble towards them, calling out, “Help me. Please! Help me; I’m dying. We’re all dying. We need to get the human away from here. Help!”

  Every being in the crowd had turned its back on Bruke as they fought to get away from him. When Seb heard a click, he looked at the shipping container’s door to see the slightest gap from where it had been opened from the inside. Despite his stress levels being sky-high, he couldn’t help but smile.

  CHAPTER 19

  The second Seb stepped through the slight gap in the large metal door, his jaw fell open. The outside had looked like an old abandoned shipping container; battered through years of wear. But inside it looked like the future by comparison. They had screens on nearly every surface. Lights flashed while CCTV footage of Aloo played out. Dull bulbs lined the ceiling, but most of the light came from the monitors on the walls surrounding them.