by T. R. Harris
Humans in Woken gravity could run about forty miles per hour. The truck, on the other hand, could only manage about thirty in the tight confines of the city street. Adam ran ahead of Sherri. He detected the approaching truck through his ATD and timed his leap perfectly.
Adam planted himself on the cab of the truck, his body covering the left side window, his hand gripping the roof. He smashed a knee into the glass and then flung himself inside. The driver was sitting at a central control station with the joystick control held in both hands. There were three guards in seats behind him, each fumbling with their flash rifles, wondering why they weren’t working. Adam went after the guards first.
He threw his body into them, with a fist driving hard into the face of the first alien in the row. Next he placed a hand on the head of middle guard and shoved it into that of the one next to him. Both aliens slumped over, dead or unconscious, Adam didn’t care which. He turned his attention to the driver.
The alien panicked and steered the truck into a parked transport on the right. The truck lurched to a stop, throwing Adam forward and into the front windshield, shattering it. He was now on the hood with the driver hitting him with a metal club he found somewhere in the cab. It was having an impact, until Adam fell back into the cab and caught the driver with a solid right cross to the chin. The alien fell forward, and into Adam outstretched hands. A quick twist of the head and the driver’s neck broke.
A flash bolt shattered the right-side window, barely missing Adam as he ducked behind the door and scrunched down on the floor of the cab. More bolts filled the small compartment.
Adam reached out with his ATD and detected six active flash weapons, three on each side of the truck, being fired by the six aliens who had been riding in the back, guarding the money. He only got two disabled before he heard bolts being fired outside that weren’t reaching the cab. He cautiously poked his head over the threshold of the shattered window.
Sherri was there, armed with a Xan-fi rifle she’d taken off one of the guards. Coming up behind them as they concentrated on Adam in the cab, she was firing point-blank, eliminating the threat.
“Get in!” he yelled as the last guard fell. He opened the door, tossing dead aliens out to make room for Sherri. She slipped into the back seat while Adam took the controls. He put the truck in reverse and backed away from the crunched transport in front of them and, then steered to the left, continuing along the frontage road, moving past the set of four buildings where the other part of the operation was taking place—hopefully.
They had the money truck. Now all they needed was get the dark matter collector and then everything off the planet.
Copernicus! Adam called through his ATD. He was expecting the link.
Here.
We have the truck. Get airborne and move north by the pirate’s spaceport. Watch out for the MK ship; they’ll shoot at anything they think is part of the attack.
Were to?
Don’t know yet. There has to be some place you can land up ahead. Just be ready when we find one.
Roger. So, you got the money?
We got the money—
Adam suddenly went pale. He pulled back on the accelerator and brought the large truck to a stop.
“What are you doing?” Sherri asked in a panic. She knew MK forces were right behind them.
“Just making sure.”
He jumped out of the cab and ran to the back of the truck. He hopped onto the covered bed and ripped off the lid to one of the crates designed specifically to transport sensitive Juirean credits. The chips and their embedded electronics were susceptible to various kinds of radiation and had to be shielded. He was rewarded with the sight of tightly banded stacks of light green Juirean credits—the twenty-five thousand denomination chip. He placed the lid back on the box and reentered the cab.
“What if the crates didn’t contain credit chips?” he said to his confused companion as he engaged the transport and moved off down the road. “We’ve been assuming that was an MK ship, and not just a group of pirates with a cargo of expensive dresses stolen from a planet somewhere in the Frontier. That would have sucked.”
“So…do the crates contain credits?”
Adam looked over his shoulder and cast Sherri a shit-eating grin. “Yes, ma’am, they most certainly do.”
Riyad, we got the money, Adam called out through his ATD. How you doing?
You don’t want to know. Adam could literally sense the stress in his voice.
What’s going on?
75
What was going on was a major firefight in a hallway of the administration building. On one side were the forces of Angar; on the other the MK troops. Word had come through regarding the attack on the cash truck, and the MK executives, suspecting a double-cross, had ordered their forces to take out Angar’s and secure the dark matter collector.
Riyad and Kaylor had just moved into the hallway from the stairwell, silently moving up behind Angar’s pirates, when the shooting started. A couple of dozen MK troops in their tailored uniforms appeared from behind and opened fire. Not knowing whose side they were on, both sets of fighters targeted the pair, as well as anyone else not part of their tribe. Riyad pulled Kaylor into an alcove leading to a maintenance closet, where they were now huddled while flash bolts streaked past in both directions within the corridor only a foot away.
Riyad was busy locating and disarming flash weapons, but there were so many of them that it was going to take a while. But inexorably, the volume of bolts began to drop. There was shouting and confusion from both sides. Riyad targeted the MK shooters first since there were a lot more of them than the pirates. Angar’s troops would help take out the now defenseless menagerie of corporate aliens. When the pirate’s weapons fell silent from his efforts, he and Kaylor stepped from their hiding place and began to fire at those guarding a particular door off the corridor.
Alien eyes opened wide as they recognized Riyad. Many dropped their now-useless weapons and ran up the hallway, abandoning their guard duty. Others dropped to their knees and bent forward, surrendering to Riyad.
With his jaw firmly set with anger and determination, Riyad hurried past the penitent pirates and smashed through the door.
Two uniformed aliens were near a table across the room, fiddling with their inert handguns. Although neither was Angar, Riyad focused all his rage on the pair.
That’s when he caught a heavy metal rod across his nose and eyes. He was moving forward at the time, and his feet kept going as he head was forced backward. He fell hard on his back, his vision nothing but gray as he fought to remain conscious.
His eyesight cleared quickly, in time to see Angar appear from his right, holding a long pole with a colorful flag attached to one end. Beyond the pirate captain was a whole set of flag poles, all held like six-foot tall flowers in a pot against one of the walls of the room.
Angar flipped the pole around, until the sharp end of the pole was pointed at Riyad’s chest. The Nimorian growled, displaying a full-tooth snarl, which to this particular race of alien meant a death challenge. He lifted the pole, preparing to impel Riyad with his deadly spear—
A brilliant flash blinded Riyad momentarily. When his vision cleared, he saw a perfectly round black hole smoldering in the center of Angar’s chest, his eyes open and wide with shock. The pole toppled forward, with the pirate’s body right behind it, draping itself over Riyad’s.
He shoved the dead alien away and wobbled to his feet. Someone took his arm and steadied him. It was Kaylor.
“Damn…thanks!” he said.
“You are welcome. But hurry. The two pirates have fled, but the MK fighters are cautiously approaching.”
Riyad was still groggy and he believed his nose was broken—his once perfectly shaped nose, which was an integral part of his stunningly handsome face. He turned to Angar’s body and gave it a swift kick. “You asshole! This better heal up right.”
“Riyad!”
He returned his attention to Ka
ylor.
“It is not here!”
“What’s not here?”
“The collector…and Angar is dead.”
The words sank in. Riyad scanned the room in a panic. There were only a couple of chairs, two tables and the pot of flagpoles. But no dark matter collector. There were, however, two doorways set in the walls to the left and right on the other side of the room.
They each ran for a door. Riyad opened his and looked inside; just more furniture, but no dark matter collector.
“I have found it!” he heard Kaylor call out.
Riyad raced to the room. As Kaylor had said, the suitcase-size device with the encircling shielding screen was there, along with the bag holding the two cube cases. He took everything in his arms and moved them into the outer room, setting his load down on one of the tables.
He bent over and picked up the two flash weapons the pirates had discarded. He tossed one to Kaylor…who fumbled the device and then dropped it. Aliens didn’t have very good eye-to-hand coordination.
“These will work now. Take out the MK people when they come—”
His instructions were cut short when five sophistically dressed alien fighters pressed their way through the doorway. Two made it in, while the other three became stuck. Kaylor began to fire, spraying the room with flash bolts, killing three of the MK troops before draining the 10-shot battery pack in his weapons. More aliens were at the door.
Riyad pressed the other MK-17 into Kaylor’s hand, making sure he had a good grip before releasing it. The Belsonian grinned and then opened fire again. He aim was getting better, but not much. This time he still had two shots left when the aliens retreated.
“Do you know much about these dark matter cubes?” Riyad asked his alien friend.
“Only that they are dangerous if ruptured.”
“Adam said they can be broken.”
“That is what the Gracilians told us.”
“And the blast radius if one breaks?”
“I do not understand all these questions, Riyad. The MK troops are still outside.”
“We need to destroy the evidence to make it look like the pirates and MK fought it out and the DMC was destroyed in the process.”
“You intend to use a cube to set off a…an annihilation event, they called it?
“How big of a blast radius?” Riyad asked impatiently.
“The Gracilians indicated a half-mile impact,” Kaylor reluctantly answered.
“Great! That will take out these buildings and the south end of the spaceport. Wham bam and suddenly no witnesses and just a lot of guessing. Perfect.”
Kaylor wasn’t sold on the plan. “And how do you intend to break the cube and not kill us in the process?”
Riyad looked around the room. That was a good question. An explosion might be enough to break the containment material, but he would need a timer or a remote control.
Then it hit him.
He rushed to the doorway and picked up two of the inert flash weapons before tearing a strip of fabric from the uniform of a dead alien—there were plenty of them lying about. He returned to the table and took out one of the cases from the bag. He removed a cube and placed it between two MK-17s before wrapping them together with the piece of cloth. Rushing to the pot of flagpoles, he placed his contraption in the vase where it couldn’t be seen. Even if someone came into the room after they left, they would have no reason to be looking for a bomb.
“I do not understand,” said Kaylor.
“We block the power feed and then fire the weapons with our ATDs. Kaboom…a big explosion and instant black hole.”
“We have to be far enough away.”
“We’ll only set it off when we are. Don’t worry. Just hope the explosion is big enough to break the cube.” He loaded his arms up with the DMC and the satchel. “Take point; we’re leaving.”
“Point?”
“The lead, my friend. Lead us out of here.”
With his arms full of dark matter paraphernalia, Riyad followed Kaylor into the outside corridor. There weren’t too many aliens left; only three plus the two white-suited executives. Kaylor approached in their direction and they retreated a few steps.
“You will regret your actions,” said the tall, six-armed alien.
“That I doubt.” Riyad said. He turned to Kaylor and handed him the satchel of dark matter cubes. Now with a free hand, he reached down and picked up one of the many MK weapons littering the floor.
The five aliens stood defiant. “They will not work; somehow you have disabled the devices.”
Riyad smiled. “Yet these are quality MK bolt launchers, the best in the galaxy.”
He took aim and blasted the three guards, leaving only the startled executives staring in disbelief, their brilliant white suits now sprayed with blood.
“But…how?”
“Sorry, no time to explain, oh…and no witnesses, either.”
Riyad shot the pair point-blank, ruining their pretty white suits.
76
Adam we have the collector, Riyad announced through his ATD. Where are you?
North along the main road, still trying to find a place for Coop to land.
Understood. We’ll get out of the building and head your way. I’ll stay in touch.
With so much shooting going on within the building, the place was nearly deserted by the time Riyad and Kaylor made their way down the stairwell to ground level. Even the guards had left, not wanting any part of the battle taking place. The same was true on the street outside. If there was one thing the criminal element understood it was gunfights. And unless you had a stake in the outcome, you made yourself scarce for fear of catching a stray bullet—or bolt in this case.
The pair moved along the sidewalk. If anyone was around, they remained hidden. The Belsonian and Human were the only ones to come out of the building alive after the initial panicked exodus. As a result, no one outside was willing to take them on.
Adam finally came upon a small park on his right, sandwiched between a series of large tenement buildings. Any of the grass that had once covered the ground had died off and all that was left were large mud puddles from the near-constant drizzle.
Do you see it? Adam asked Coop.
Yeah…I got it. It’s going to be tight, and unfortunately, the buildings are going to need a shitload of new windows after we’re done.
Consider it a form of natural air conditioning. Drop the landing ramp as soon as you’re down.
Adam and Sherri were coughing and blinded by the clouds of landing exhaust, made thicker and hotter than normal by the confining nature of the surrounding buildings. Adam could barely see to drive the money truck into the landing bay, yet once inside, he shut the door with his ATD.
We’re in. Now let’s go look for Riyad and Kaylor.
The ship took off, jostling Adam and Sherri as they set the brake on the truck and climbed out. The inertia compensators were off while the ship was under the influence of planetside gravity, so the going was rough on the pair as Coop banked the ship to the right and headed back toward the spaceport. The huge truck slid into a side wall, spilling a crate of credits out the back. It was the one with the loose lid Adam had opened. The contents spilled out onto the deck.
Adam and Sherri reached the bridge just as the Gracilian ship came in view of the spaceport. The MK ship was still there, but it wouldn’t be for long. They would be lifting off soon to come after them.
Riyad, where are you? Adam asked through his brain-interface.
Hurrying along the frontage road, heading north.
Okay, we see you!
So how do we get aboard?
Give me a minute.
We don’t have a minute. The MK assholes will be after us before that.
Adam spotted an area of single-level tenement structures a couple of blocks over, made up mainly of lean-tos and aluminum boxes for housing.
“Copernicus, hover over that section for a moment. Let the residents get out before y
ou land.”
“You want me to land on their homes?”
“We’ll make it up to them.”
Riyad, go east two blocks. We’ll pick you up there.
Prodigious clouds of exhaust smoke poured down on the slum, causing those who lived there to run for their lives. A moment later, Copernicus set the spaceship down directly on top of their homes, crushing them to thin pieces of rubble. Adam ran to the loading bay and helped Riyad and Kaylor into the ship. Then he ran to the pile of twenty-five thousand Juirean credits littering the deck nearby. He scooped up a large armful and carried it to the rear of the bay before tossing it out.
Riyad, still holding the DMC and satchel in his arms, looked at his friend as if he’d lost his mind. “What the hell?”
“A little donation to the neighborhood revitalization program.”
“Do you realize how much money that is to these people?”
“Yeah, I do. Now secure the DMC. We have to go back to Angar’s building and shoot the place up a little to destroy any evidence.”
Riyad flashed one of his trademark brilliant smiles as his friend. “I’ve already taken care of that. Just get us about twenty miles up and I’ll tell you about it.”
“You’re going to blow up one of the dark matter cubes!” Adam said. “That’s crazy. How do you know twenty miles is far enough away?”
“Kaylor said they have a radius of half a mile.”
“That is what the Gracilians told us,” Kaylor spoke up in his defense. “I was only going by what they said.”
“And how do we even know your flash weapon bomb will set it off?” Sherri asked.
“If it doesn’t then we go back to Plan A. If it does, then it not only takes out the building but also the MK ship,” Riyad pointed out. “But we better hurry. The bad guys are going to be lifting off soon.”
“You have to block the battery feed at the same time you fire the weapons. Are you good enough with an ATD to do both?” Adam asked.