“Hey, I’m Roy,” I said, “Do you know where there’s a bathroom around here?”
“You get smart with me, boy, and I’ll splatter your brains all over the ground,” the man said, “Now, who are you with?”
“God damnit, Roy, I don’t have time to play around,” Liz said.
She appeared in front of me like a golden goddess. The hot New Mexico sunlight gleamed off her shining skin, like she was born of the sun itself.
“Shit,” the soldier said.
He threw me to the ground and fired at her. The gunshot thundered, almost deafening me. The bullet zinged off Liz’s head.
“Idiot,” she said.
She picked him up by the front of his shirt and threw him. He sailed over the upside down truck. His scream dopplered away. I don’t know where he landed. For all I know, he might still be in orbit around the earth.
“Come on, I don’t have all day,” Liz said.
I scrambled to my feet and got myself as close to her as I dared. We approached the hanger.
“Don’t let her in there!” General Mattany shouted, “Shoot her with everything! That’s an order!”
Liz dropped him and spun around, both arms raised. “Get down and cover your ears,” she said.
I obeyed. An instant later the pulse of whatever it was erupted from her palms. Only stronger this time. The wave distorted the air as it passed. The men it touched, armored or not, were knocked off their feet. They lay there, some still, some twitching.
Mattany was trying to crawl away. Liz reached down and plucked him off the concrete.
“Not yet, you little rodent,” she said.
“You won’t get away with this,” he said.
“Shut up before I roll you into a ball and drop kick you to Florida,” she said.
She grabbed the edge of the towering double doors in front of the hanger. She peeled it away like it was aluminum foil. We went inside.
I don’t know why I was shocked at what I saw.
Thirty-One
Inside the hanger was a space ship. More than one, actually. Three. One was a long, cylinder shaped thing that looked a lot like the Stickman ship I had rode in. The one next to it was gray and somewhat squat and ugly. It looked like something built by bored factory workers in old Soviet Russia. I guessed it was a Blinky ship.
The third vessel was nicer to look at. It was white and smooth with tapering edges. The vessel was vaguely saucer shaped, but had a glass covered nose sticking out of the front of it. It had a vague Don feel to it, but somehow I got the impression this was a Terran made ship, though with Don influences.
Next to the third ship was an empty spot where it seemed a fourth ship should have been.
It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. This was where Mattany’s lost ship had been. And I had sinking feeling I knew who took it.
Liz ignored the ships. She stalked across the concrete floor, still dragging the cursing and whimpering Mattany. At the far side of the hanger was a solid wall of concrete with a big steel vault door. A camera sat above the door. Liz turned her face up to it.
“Kincaid, you better open this door right now,” she said.
Whoever Kincaid was, he chose not to answer. A bad choice. Personally, I would have answered. Liz wasn’t anyone to be trifled with.
“I’m going to count to three,” she said, “And I’m doing that because I don’t feel like killing you. Yet.”
She dropped Mattany. He skittered away from her. She turned her golden face to me.
“Watch him,” she said.
Which had to be a joke. I was in pajamas and she wanted me to stand guard over a military general? Sure, I’d watch him. I’d watch him run out the door.
Where he’d tell his people to blow up the building.
Okay, I got it. I tackled him as he got to his feet. We went down in a tangle, Mattany cursing a blue streak hot enough to melt metal.
“One,” Liz said.
“Let me go!” Mattany said. He elbowed me in the gut, but I held on to him. I wasn’t some sissy city boy. I was raised in Montana where it wasn’t much of Saturday night if there wasn’t a fight at your favorite bar. I got an arm around his neck. He wasn’t going to fight much without any air.
“Two,” Liz said.
There wasn’t a three. Liz drew her arm back and punched through the door. All the way through it. She put it in all the way up to her shoulder. Then she yanked back. Metal groaned. Then it screamed as it tore.
The entire door came away from the concrete wall in a shower of sparks and dust. Liz took a couple steps back and held it over her head.
God damn it was a big door. It had to be two feet thick of steel. My mouth went dry trying to contemplate the power it took to rip that door off and hold it up like that.
I took a silent vow to never, ever, ever piss that woman off.
Liz spun around and launched the door. It smashed through the roof on its way to outer space and points beyond. I slapped Mattany upside the head.
“Why would you piss her off?” I asked.
“Grk,” Mattany said.
“Come on,” Liz said, “We need to get going.”
She went through the opening that used to be a doorway and I followed lickety split. I dragged the general with me, because, well, she hadn’t told me not to. If she hadn’t already been spoken for, I would have thrown myself at her feet and professed my undying love.
I loosened my grip on Mattany a little. “You behave yourself, hear?” I said, “I don’t think she likes you much, so watch your mouth.”
“Fug goo,” Mattany said.
Man had a serious attitude problem.
There was a second, flimsier door beyond were the first had been. Liz just walked through it. Beyond that was some kind of huge lab area. There were stainless steel tables, and computer machines that all looked very sciencey. The place had a dry, chemical smell to it, like the air had been run through a bucket of disinfectant.
Cowering behind the tables was some people in white suits that covered them from head to toe. Clean room suits, I seemed to recall that was what they called them. Room wasn’t so clean any more. The should have listened to Liz. Then their laboratory might still be clean.
“Kincaid!” Liz said, “Get your scrawny ass over here.”
She was looking directly at one of the lab people who was hiding under a table. Could she see through the suits?
The person crawled out from under the table. He took off his face mask and pushed the hood back on his suit. The guy gave Liz a grin. He looked to be in his sixties, with saggy jowls and thinning brown hair.
“Hey, Liz, how the fuck goes it?” He asked. His voice was raspy like someone who’d done some hard drinking in his lifetime.
“You know how it goes, shithead,” she said, “Now where’s that Don armor?”
Shock slapped the crap out the guy’s face. He went pale. “The Don armor? What Don armor? What the fuck you talking about?”
She went over to him. Grabbed a handful of his white body suit.
“Kincaid, I am in a shoving heads up asses mood,” she said, “I ask a question, you don’t answer with another question. I know you guys retrieved the armor I ripped off Julie. So go get me that armor. Now.”
If I’d been that Kincaid guy, I would done what she said right smart. But apparently Kincaid wasn’t too bright, despite being some scientist and all.
“Hey, Liz, come on,” he said, “This stuff is property of the U.S. government now and–”
The rest of was he said was basically a high pitched scream as Liz spun him around, ripped open his suit, grabbed his shorts and gave him a nuclear wedgie to end all wedgies. She held him high in the air by his underwear as his eyeballs threatened to explode from his head.
Liz dropped him. He fell to a whimpering heap on the floor. She turned to another one of the hiding lab workers. She pointed a golden finger at the person.
“You. You know what I’m talking about?” she s
aid.
The person stood up from behind the table, hands up, body shaking the suit like a maraca player on speed.
“The D-d-d-don arm-m-m-or? Y-yes m-ma’am,” the guy said.
“Get it. Now.”
Unlike the wedgied Kincaid, this guy sprang into motion like there was hungry tiger on his tail. He dashed over to a big, glass enclosed cabinet. His fingers shook as he tried to work the lock. Liz went over to the cabinet and punched through the glass. Which I noticed was at least a foot thick. She grabbed a small, black object from the center of the cabinet.
The lab worker cringed and dove behind another table. Liz examined the thing in her hand. It was a black triangle with the ends chopped off. She flipped it like a coin. It spun through the air with the dull metallic ring.
“That’s government property!” Mattany said.
I jerked my arm tighter on his neck before he got any more stupid. Didn’t he just see the mega wedgie inflicted on the Kincaid dude?
“You have no right to take that!” Mattany said, further proving there was no such thing as military intelligence.
Liz grabbed the black object out of the air and stalked over to us. She put her blank, golden face to Mattany. A distorted image of him moved over her shiny armor.
“I have every right to it,” she said, “I ripped it off your treasonous whore of a daughter. Without me and Chris, this whole planet would have been overrun by the Dons years ago. So don’t tell me what I can or cannot have.”
She moved in so close that Mattany’s breath fogged the shiny metal of her armor.
“And you better pray that Chris is okay,” she said, “Because I’m going to be very upset if he’s not.”
Mattany didn’t speak. Maybe the guy had a few brain cells left after all. Liz straightened up and turned her head to me.
“Okay Roy, drop that piece of crap and take off all your clothes,” she said.
“Excuse me?” I said, forgetting my vow to forever obey and never contradict her.
“Don’t make me tell you twice, Roy,” she said. She flipped the black object in the air again. It spun, ringing through the smokey, dusty air in the former clean room.
“But–”
“Yes, butt naked. Now,” she said.
I looked down at the general. His eyes were bugging out. His face so red I expected blood to start shooting from his pores any second.
“Um, what about the general here?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about him. If he tries to get away, I’ll burn his legs off at his ass,” Liz said, “Now hurry up and get your clothes off. I want to get going.”
Slowly, I let go of Mattany. He must have taken her threat serious, because he sat there glaring at us and rubbing his neck. I stood up and brushed off my palms on my pajamas.
“So, all my clothes?” I said.
“Doesn’t work any other way,” Liz said. She took the black triangle thing an pressed it to her palm. “I wish Chris was here. He could reprogram this thing better than I can.”
“What is that thing?” I asked.
Liz turned her expressionless face to me. “Why aren’t you naked?” she said. The flat tone she said those words with implied she wasn’t going to ask the question again. I had the feeling she was going to rip the clothes off me and wouldn’t be too troubled if some of my skin came with them.
I started unbuttoning the pajama top. Liz turned her armored face back to the black object in her hand.
“So what is that thing?” I asked again.
“Your new wardrobe,” she said, “Hurry up.”
“You won’t get away with this,” Mattany said, “We had an agreement.”
“Your agreement isn’t worth shit without Chris,” Liz said, “He’s the only thing holding the line on the aliens. If I was you, I’d shut the fuck up and start praying for his safe return.”
Mattany snorted. “I don’t know what you’re worried about,” he said, “He can’t be killed. We’ve tried.”
“You should worry about more than that,” Liz said, “You should worry what the Dons will do if they think he’s not around.”
Mattany didn’t have anything to say. He stared at the floor like a sulky schoolboy. I shucked off the pajama top, then kicked off the too tight combat boots. My toes sighed in relief. I ran my thumbs along the waistband of the pajama bottoms.
“So, my pants, too?” I asked.
Liz gave a growling sigh and stepped over to me. Before I could do more than blink, she grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to her. Her armor was warm like skin, but hard as steel. There was a faint odor of ozone around her, like the air right before a lightning storm.
She pressed the black triangle thing to my chest.
A jolt ran through me like I’d stuck all ten fingers into light sockets. I felt something race outward from the triangle. Something like ice and fire at the same time. It electrified every nerve ending in a sudden, brief burst of pain. I gasped as my body went rigid. For a moment my body shivered uncontrollably, my skin jerking and twitching. Then it passed and a tingling coolness spread over me.
Liz let go of me and stepped back. For a second I thought I was going to topple over. But my legs held, somehow. I reached up and touched the stunted black triangle.
It didn’t move. I tried to dig my nails under it and pull it off. I was rewarded with a dull pain and a flash of lights behind my eyes. I let of it.
“What the hell is this?” I said. My voice shook. This thing was alien. And I felt like it was somehow inside of me. It knew me. Every cell, every nerve ending. It infected me.
But I felt something else, too. I felt stronger. More powerful. Like a big V-8 engine at idle, just waiting for that foot to stomp the gas and make me roar.
It scared the crap out of me.
“Drop your pants and you’ll find out, idiot,” Liz said.
I glanced around. White hooded heads popped up over stainless steel lab tables. General Mattany glared at me from his spot on the floor. The guy Liz called Kincaid had recovered slightly from his mega wedgie and was giving me a look like he was curious to see what happened. Liz put her hands on her hips. They clanged like two broadswords clashing.
I put my thumbs back in the pajama waistband. My nether regions contracted upon themselves. They wasn’t used to public viewings.
“Uh…” I said.
“Oh for pity’s sakes,” Liz said.
She took a step forward. Before I could do anything, she grabbed the front and back of my pajama bottoms and ripped them apart. The tattered pieces flew from her hands.
Suddenly I was standing there all natural in my pot bellied, skinny legged glory. Lucky for my ego, nobody started laughing.
“Touch the black thing,” Liz said.
I raised a hand and put my fingers to it.
Nothing happened.
Liz put a finger to her armored chin. “Hmmm,” she said. Then she snapped her fingers. They rang like a clear bell. “Okay, that one isn’t as sophisticated as mine. It must need an air gap. Jump up in the air and touch it.”
That was when I realized Liz had to be bonkers.
“Seriously?” I said.
Apparently out of patience with me, Liz hooked me under my armpits and launched me into the air.
“Touch it!” she shouted.
I flailed like the world’s most ungraceful nudist high diver. Somewhere in my flailing I must have touched the black object on my chest. Because everything changed.
In an instant blackness flowed out over me. I yelped as it covered my face and everything went dark.
Somehow I twisted in air and landed on my feet. Light flared in front of me. I could see Liz and Mattany and the lab. Only all of a sudden I could see all around me. Three hundred and sixty degrees. Like I literally had eyes in the back of my head.
Even weirder, I started getting information about what I saw fed to me. Lines and circles formed around objects and people. Voices in my head were telling me about weapon systems, target acquisi
tions, power and ammunition levels.
“How do you feel?” Liz asked.
When I looked at her, all sorts of alarms went off in my head. A red outline formed around her and the voices gave me a listing of Liz’s known weapons systems and potential counter attacks I could use. Another voice recommended I avoid engaging any attack on the Dendon suit. 99.99999% probably of attack failure, the voice told me.
I held my hands up in front of my face. They were covered in black armor. It wasn’t smooth and seamless like Liz’s. There were lines and joints and when I flexed my fingers. There was tiny whines and hisses as whatever powered the armor did its thing.
But I felt powerful.
I felt like I could punch a hole in a steel door. Or out run a sports car. I went over to one of the steel lab tables. Lab workers skittered from behind it like mice. I put my armored hand on the table. I clenched my fist and the stainless steel surface crumpled like aluminum foil.
Holy crapadoodle.
A hand fell on my shoulder. Before I could think, the suit spun me around and threw a punch at whoever it was.
I caught a flash of gold, then a freight train hit my chest and sent me flying across the room. I smashed into a concrete wall. Bits of concrete rained down on me. Didn’t hurt though. The voices in my head were telling me that systems were nominal, that there was minimal damage to forward plates six and seven, and that repairs were already underway.
I didn’t find any of that reassuring.
Liz walked up to me. She put her hands on her hips.
“You should tell the suit to disengage the auto defense around me,” she said, “Might cause us problems otherwise.”
“What have you done to me?” I asked.
“I put a hard shell around your creamy nougat center,” she said, “Now get off your ass. We have places to be.”
Thirty-Two
Places to be apparently required a space ship. Of the three ships left in Hanger 12, Liz commandeered the sleek hot rod looking one. General Mattany followed us out to the ship, screaming and cursing in a manner that seemed more whiny than commanding. I was glad I wasn’t a soldier under him.
Eclipsing Vengeance Page 16