They move as a tight group, back towards the craft. The only problem with that is; when they get back to where it should be; it isn’t there anymore. There is no sign of it. Surely it can’t have disappeared. A search on foot tells them that that is exactly what has happened. Their craft is not where they have left it. Just as they think that things can’t possibly be any worse, they are being fired on. The problem with that is; that they can’t see who or what is doing the firing.
Posdon decides that they should go back into the village and make their stand from there. The fighting follows them in, but not so intensely as when they had been out where the craft was. They get to the buildings and form a tight group by one of them. They then start firing systematically thru the mist at their attackers.
It is hard to fight like this, when you can’t see who you are fighting. It becomes obvious that their efforts are being rewarded. The main strength of the people here is the mist. Their weapons aren’t really capable of much. Posdon feels though that his weapons should have had this battle well and truly won before this. Something has changed, but he doesn’t know what. His weapons don’t appear to be as powerful as they were earlier, when they destroyed the trees at the dip. Maybe it is the mist that is lessening the power of his weapons. If the communications are being stopped by the mist, then maybe the weapons are unable to penetrate it in the same way as normal too.
The firing carries on for a couple of hours, albeit at a lower level. The firing is definitely less from the inhabitants, but they are keeping up some sort of attack on them. It is hard to fight an enemy that you can’t see. Posdon has one target in mind. Keep up the firing and keep going, until such time as the mist lifts again. After all, it is going to lift again sometime.
Grillech can see the message too. It would have been better for him if the message had waited just a few more minutes, for him to do what he is planning to. Who knows how the Cotons are going to react to this bit of news. They have only just found out that they have a problem with the power of the engines. They are going to think that this has all been planned, and planned against them at that. Now that isn’t the case, but Grillech is fairly certain they won’t believe anything different.
He puts his things into the craft and closes the hatch. This is not the ideal craft to try to fly across the universe in, but it is very likely the better option, than what he thinks is the alternative. That is to stay here and try to fight their way down to a planet; a planet that is so obviously more advanced than it was made out to be. He briefly wonders why GM3 might have misled them, but there is a chance the planet has made advances that he wasn’t aware of. It doesn’t matter now anyway, as it is what it is. They are well prepared and well-armed. They appear to be more than capable of defending themselves, against people like him calling. He returns his focus to the matter in hand. He needs to get going, before they become embroiled in a fight against the six craft.
He is a little bit surprised to see them retreat to a distance, but then that is probably just to make it harder for them to be attacked, after they have given the bad news of landing being denied. The only benefit to Grillech is that it is unlikely they will try to chase after him when he leaves. They are more likely to concentrate on the Cotons attack. He knows that is what they are going to do.
He is ready to eject from the craft. He can do that from where he is, but first he has something to do in the transport bay. It is possibly not the wisest thing he has done, but something in the circumstances that he feels will be a good move for the future. He sets his weapons on less than maximum. He wants to destroy the other small craft in here, but not do such extensive damage, as to make it impossible for him to get off the craft. He decides to open the launch hatch first. At least it won’t get jammed, or fail to open then. With that done, he starts the engines and lifts off. He then turns and destroys the other craft in the transport bay. He is just about finished doing that, when some of the Cotons appear in the room attached to the transport bay. They can’t come in, because the hatch is open, but they might be able to close the hatch from there. Grillech doesn’t waste any time, making the decision that enough is enough and he needs to get out of there. He does that, just as they find a way to start to close the hatch, but they are too late. He shoots out into space and starts his journey back to Monsh. That is where he has decided he needs to make for. He would dearly like to see what is happening behind him. He would dearly love to stop and watch, but that doesn’t appeal as the ideal thing to do. They might think he is waiting to attack Nitll.
Back on his craft, the Cotons shut the launch hatch and prepare to land on Nitll.
Valpar keeps a good lookout. Although there are not many creatures out there as far as he can see, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be any who are going to attack him. The oceans here are vast. The planet has much more water than land. If the people here want to remain out of sight, then he is pretty sure that they will be able to. He supposes the big question is whether he actually needs to find the people, or whether they can plunder the wealth without them. The stage they are up to at the moment; is that it will be so much easier if they have some of the knowledge they need. He hasn’t set a time limit, on how long he is going to look for. There is also the fact that he has a long rope trailing behind him. That might not be such a good idea. It might get caught up in things.
He makes back towards the land. They are there waiting for him. Even though he has made it back unscathed, they are not keen to accompany him back out into the water. With the rope untied, he goes back in. He has no idea where he should be looking. What he is hoping for is to find some sign of where the survivors, always assuming he is right, will have gone. He is sure that they have somewhere where they always go, when the need arises.
He is about an hour into his search, before he comes across anything that leads him to believe he has been right. He hasn’t gone that much further out from the shore, maybe only a quarter of a mile maximum. What he has been doing, is to stay close to the shore and move up and down the coast. If they have gone into the sea, it will have been from close to here.
It isn’t much when he finds it, but it is enough to set him on the right track. There is a track that appears on the sea bed. In the middle of the track is a metal rail. He has no idea what that might be for, but he knows it has been put there for a purpose. He follows the track for maybe a mile, as it leads further out to sea. There, at that point, there is a cliff at the bottom of the sea and the track goes over it and straight down. His craft isn’t really designed for this and there must be a good reason why they have a metal rail. He descends away from the cliff and is glad he has done so, when he reaches the bottom. The rail reaches the seabed and then loops round and disappears into the cliff face. Just as he is trying to decide what he should do next, a small door opens and a very small craft exits the cliff face. It comes right up to his craft, until it is right there in front of him. There is someone inside the craft and they are making signs at him. He can’t get the message that is being put across. The person in the craft gets this and moves away, starting to climb the cliff face. Valpar follows him. When they reach the top, the craft makes for the land. It is not using the metal bar on the track as it goes. Soon they land on the beach. The small craft stops. Valpar comes to a stop beside it. He can see in the distance where his men are, but he tells them not to come close, unless he says it is alright to do so. Even on land there is no radio communication from the craft. Valpar watches as the top lifts off and the person inside stands up, but does not get out.
Chapter 34 Ricardo
Ricardo drives away from the town. He decides a change in direction is not a bad idea too. He sets off on a south-westerly course on the 81. He leaves Hagerstown and sets out on the road. He has no idea where he will stop for the night, but he is not going to try to drive too far. Maybe forty or fifty miles, if he can get away with not going much further than that.
He does not drive fast at all, in fact if anything, he is driv
ing on the slow side. He makes it to Winchester in a little over an hour. It seems like a nice place and he starts hunting for somewhere suitable to stay the night. He stops off before he finds somewhere, to make sure that he has everything hidden away that he needs to. It is not the easiest of tasks, moving around with the money and weapons he has in his possession. He really wants to try to avoid confrontation at this point, if that is possible.
The night goes smoothly for a change and the refreshed Ricardo sets out again in the morning, still on the 81. He passes thru numerous towns and places smaller than that. He has no intention of stopping, other than for fuel. He isn’t even going into eateries, just in case he starts something that he doesn’t really want to, well at this stage that is. He has decided that he wants to be well away from where they might expect him to be, before he starts anything again. On the map he has, he knows that the next bigger place that he is going to be coming into is Knoxville, Tennessee. That is the earliest place that he will consider getting back onto the task in hand, if he feels like it.
This is different country that he is passing thru now. He is a world away from the big cities that he was going to cause havoc in. These places are much smaller than the cities in England, where he had started this crusade. He knows he will get back to it; he is just not quite ready yet. It needs a reasonably sized town, or he will be too noticeable. That is why he has decided, not to start anything in these small places he is passing thru today. It is a longer day than he would have ideally liked to have driven, but it is what it is. He hasn’t exactly been speeding along either. The last thing he needs to do is to attract attention by speeding along. It is early evening by the time he pulls into Knoxville. Well he doesn’t exactly pull in to Knoxville. He has had to join the 40, north of the city and he takes the road round the city. There are plenty of possible stops that he could use, but he doesn’t want to use a hotel or a motel for this night. He drives back into the city from the southern end, knowing he is looking for something, but not sure what. He is hoping he will know what it is when he sees it. He needs somewhere he can park up, but without attracting any more attention than if he was just anybody. He soon finds what he needs, well it is as close as he is going to get. He sees the signs for a college and follows them. Soon he is there and parked up. It is quiet and leafy. More importantly, he is not somewhere where there are cameras that might pick him up; well that is what he is hoping. There are cars parked in the lot and there are residences all around, but at a distance.
He parks up and goes for a walk. He finds somewhere where he can get something to eat. It is not mainstream, just a small eatery. He then makes it back to his car, just before it gets dark. He settles down on the back seat for the night. Hopefully he will not be disturbed overnight.
The morning arrives almost too soon. He has slept well and feels ready for what the day brings. He leaves the lot where he parked overnight and makes his way to the mall. It is early and is quiet. He parks up in the corner of the lot, not too far from the entrance, but far enough away that he won’t get too many cars parking near him. He doesn’t want to go into the mall, but just watch and see how many people come and go. After an hour, he knows this isn’t a good place to start anything. It is not the mall, but rather the exit of the mall. It is not designed for a quick getaway.
He moves on and back out of the city, going southwards. He sees the sign for another shopping center and goes to take a look. Now this one has better road links. He drives in and out a couple of times and to the interchange. This is where the 162 and 140 interchange with the 40 he was on. It is a great interchange, in that it gives him so many options and all within a couple of miles of the mall. He is happy with everything he needs to know about. All he has to do now; is to decide exactly what he is going to do. It would be good if he could get into the back of somewhere, rather than make his assault in public. He wants to have the highest possible chance of getting away from here as possible. He drives round a little more, to see if there are any possibilities. He is careful not to make it too obvious though. He sees a couple of possibilities, the best of which looks to be the DIY store. There is a back entrance and he can park quite close. Now is the time to start his offensive strike once more.
He parks up. He has already brought his weapon of choice for this attack into the front of the car with him. It is going to be nothing too heavy, so he has left the Kalashnikov in its hiding place. For this attack, he is going to use the handgun. It would have been better if he could have acquired one with a silencer. He could maybe get more done with that.
He leaves the car and wanders over to the gateway that leads into the loading area. There is nobody around at all. He wanders closer to the building. The back doors are wide open and there is no one there either. He walks right in. There is a bit of noise in here. There is a truck that is being unloaded, or rather it has been unloaded and the stock is on pallets, waiting to be put in the right place. A pallet truck zips past him and connects to a pallet. The driver pulls back and drives off to store the pallet. Ricardo decides to follow him. He doesn’t go far, just an aisle or two. The driver pulls in and Ricardo is not far behind him.
Ricardo walks up to the driver. He is concentrating on putting the pallet of goods away. He doesn’t hear Ricardo approach. He might have heard the shot as Ricardo fires his gun, but he doesn’t hear any more. Ricardo is surprised how quiet the gun has been. He moves swiftly out of the aisle, but no one has come running anyway. He moves further into the storage area. There isn’t another soul in sight, which is probably why no one has come running. He turns a corner and all that changes in an instant. It is too late by the time he has turned the corner, to quickly turn round and walk away. There are four men, standing talking about something. He is noticed the second he walks around the corner.
‘You’re not allowed in here, sir’
‘I was just following the guy who came to get something for me.’
‘Well he didn’t come here’ the man is now becoming suspicious. Ricardo has just said the first words to come into his head. They may not have been that well-chosen.
‘He must be in the next aisle’ Ricardo says quickly, but knows he is not going to get away with that.
‘I’ll take you back thru to the store and you can wait for him there’ the man says and starts to walk towards him.
Ricardo has not really got a plan in his head. He has now though, and he knows that he is going to take down four people here. The man has only taken a couple of steps towards him, when Ricardo brandishes the gun and fires. The other three had turned their attention back to each other, so the shot is the first indication they have, that anything is seriously wrong. Ricardo is way ahead of them. His gun has already fired the second shot, before the men have turned back towards him. The third shot is fired as they complete the turn and the fourth shot flies on its way as the last man tries to dive to his side. Good try, but a little bit late. With three men definitely dead and the fourth one seriously injured, Ricardo debates putting another bullet in him, before making his escape. Two things decided against that for him. First is the fact that he only has one more bullet left in the gun. Second is that it would take up time, where people might respond to the gunshots.
Rather than go out the end of the aisle again, Ricardo runs past the stricken men and clambers thru to the next aisle, over the shelving. He does the next one the same way and does that some more, until he reaches the doorway. The coast, amazingly enough is still clear, although he can hear shouts, from back where he shot the men. He casually walks out of the warehouse and across to the gate. He keeps to the edge, rather than be out in the open. In less than a minute he is out of there and into the car. He would dearly love to secret the weapon in its hiding place before he leaves, but that would take another minute. In that minute he could almost be at the interchange and so that is what he does. He gets caught at the lights, but he is now just another vehicle, on the road to the interchange. The lights soon change and in another minute he is
taking his choice of direction on to southbound 40 again. The temptation is to stick his foot to the floor, but of all times, this is the wrong one to do that. He doesn’t want anyone to remember a vehicle speeding away from the area.
A few miles down the road, there is a fork where the 40 goes right and the 75 goes to the left. He sticks with the 40. That is the general direction he wants to go in for now. When he is a good distance down the road, he stops off for a break. He reloads his handgun and then hides it away in its hiding place. He has a drink and relieves himself in the bushes, before carrying on with his journey. There is no rush to what he is doing now. In the beginning it had felt as if he had to do things and do them now. Now that pressure has gone. He is more in control of what he does and when he does it. He knows, from where he read the map earlier, that there isn’t much before he reaches the next city on his target list; that is the city of Nashville. He will certainly do something there.
Chapter 35 The Watcher
They all embark their new craft. It is very different from the old one, but then that had just been an adapted craft. This one is made for purpose. This one has been made, so that they have the greatest fighting ship in the Universe. This ship has been manufactured to make a difference. Once they have all made themselves familiar with the layout of the new craft, they get to their stations, ready for action.
The Watcher Page 16