Blue Maneuver-Urban SciFi/Fantasy (Extraterrestrial security program)

by Linda Andrews

  Silver winked in Ulla's hand before a blade emerged like an evil extra finger. She slashed it from right to left then back again. Liquid sprayed her face and crimson glistened on the formerly pristine knife.

  Layla clutched her neck. She swayed for a moment before dropping to her knees then pitching face forward onto the concrete landing.

  Oh no. Oh no. I twisted each knob of the air conditioning controls then the radio dials. Nothing responded. "Please. Please. Please. Work. Something work."

  The dash remained dark.

  Fighting back the frustration, I glanced up.

  Ulla ran her index finger along the flat side of her knife before pressing her bloody finger to her full lips. Smiling, she turned to Hunky Minions One and Two then pointed at the truck.

  Fudge. I'd just been outed.

  The men headed my way while Ulla bent down and cut Layla's finger off and removed the key fob.

  I scrambled across the bench seat toward the far door. My sweaty hands slipped once on the door handle before I managed to shove it open. I hit the asphalt running.

  Footfalls pounded behind me.

  Faster. I urged my pumping legs. Run faster. A ball of heat hit me square in the back. Fire raced up my spine and exploded inside my skull. I blinked and the next thing I knew I was facedown on the pavement. Aches and pain suffused my body then they faded in the background.

  "Well that's no fun." Ulla pouted from behind me. "She didn't even scream."

  Black boots with gold tassels appeared in my peripheral vision. Hands reach under my arms, manacled my skin in a punishing grip, and then I was lifted partially off the ground.

  My head lolled to the side as I hung between the two minions like a fresh wishbone-too soft to break from their tug-of-war.

  My personal Sherpas turned about then dragged me, legs tailing on the black top, toward the door.

  Ulla slammed the key fob onto the cement then crushed it under her booted heel. "At least the UED's toys don't kill outright."

  Her smile sent a chill down my spine.

  Ulla summoned her minions with a wave of her long fingernails. "Bring her to my room. I wish to play with my new toy."

  My head drooped forward. That was my exit cue. The asphalt gave way to the white concrete walk. Okay CeeBees, set yourself to overload on my mark.

  Chapter Twenty

  I closed my eyes and waited for the CeeBees to explode, ripping me apart from the inside out. My feet smacked the curb. And waited. Chilled air washed over my face. And waited. Son of a monkey's butt!

  The CeeBees had reneged on our deal.

  Fine. I'd find my own way out of this mess. I opened my eyes and lifted my head. Surprise, surprise, I was in a hallway. It seemed to be all these alien humans built.

  Ulla pranced ahead of me. Her three-inch heels played Taps on the shiny floor. Here and there, tan piles of rags appeared along the long corridor.

  Whoa. That didn't seem right. I zeroed in on the closest one. Not a pile of rags at all, but a person cowering behind lumps of matted hair. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched the person sag in relief.

  She glanced up. Age didn't mark her oval face so much as abuse and some of the red slashes still bled. Tattered sleeves slipped up her bony arms to reveal ghostly white marks on her flesh. Pity flashed in her brown eyes before she focused on scrubbing the floor with a brush the size of a toothbrush.

  My lungs labored for breath. Right. I was going to endure much worse than she had. I only hoped the traitorous CeeBees numbed me. If I could, I'd love to deprive Ulla the pleasure of my pain.

  Turning through an archway, she led us into an open room. Banks of electronic equipment striped the white floors and glommed onto the walls. Here and there raggedy clothed people vacuumed the surface of the shiny black computers, monitors and servers. Every three feet, a person stood at attention. Sickly green, yellow and red LCD lights played over their waxy skin.

  I blinked. No, not skin. Each wore a clear mask, smearing their features into indistinguishable blobs. I didn't see any air holes near the flat noses. How could they breathe in them?

  Each exhale clouded the mask then faded slowly away. On the left side of the room, a woman with a swollen belly swayed slightly.

  "29Zed9," Ulla snapped, stopping at the base of the curving staircase in the center of the room.

  The pregnant woman straightened, waddled over to Ulla and prostrated herself at the despot's feet.

  No one else moved or even twitched.

  My fingers spasmed. Oh God, what was Ulla up to?

  Ulla set her boot on the woman's head. "You will remain on duty for the next twenty-four hours without food or water."

  "Thank you mistress." The woman enunciated each word slowly.

  From fatigue or something else I didn't know. Anger roiled through me and my fingers curled into fists. No one deserved to be treated like that. If the CeeBees ever got around to turning me into an incendiary device, I hope Ulla stood right next to me when I exploded.

  Ulla smirked then turned and clomped up the stairs.

  My personal Sherpas hauled me up after her, shins banging on every riser. I winced at the rhythmic thump even though I didn't feel any pain. At least part of the CeeBees functioned. Concentrating, I managed to get my feet under me every other step. Upon reaching the landing, my muscles dissolved into unset gelatin and my head bobbed on my neck. If I didn't know better than I'd think the CeeBees could turn me on and off as they choose.

  I stared at the blood red and bone white floral design of the Oriental runner unrolling from a carved walnut door on the right. My head drooped to the right as the minion on my right leapt over the rug to land on the bare tile. My left shoe plopped onto the carpet with a hollow thunk.

  Pausing by the carved door, Ulla turned. Her full lips turned down in an unpleasant pout. "Pick her up you dolts. We don't allow trash on the carpet."

  Bitch! She knew what human garbage looked like every time she glanced in the mirror. I clamped my lips shut. And I wasn't going to pay my swear jar a red penny for my thoughts.

  As one, the minions hoisted me higher.

  My bare toes brushed the carpet then all I felt was cold air.

  "That's better." Ulla smirked then threw open the wooden door and sashayed inside.

  From under the fringe of my bangs, I watched the door grow larger and larger. My stomach clenched and sweat stung my eyes. God only knew what the chamber of horrors looked like. Or what I'd experience once inside.

  I closed my eyes as they carried me over the threshold. The sickening sweet stench of blood hit me first, followed quickly by the caustic odor of bleach and ammonia. Opening my eyes, I surveyed the place of my impending death.

  Aside from a metal human form in the center, the square room was strangely empty. Pristine white walls, floor and ceiling boxed us in. Where were the grisly stains and primitive dental equipment?

  "Place it on the table then you may leave." Ulla waved her hands toward the gun-metal gray bed.

  "My name is Rae and I'm not an it." I raised my head to stare at the evil woman. "I am a human being."

  "You are what I say you are." Ulla strolled to the wall behind her and pressed on it. A cabinet sighed as it opened fully. She ran her fingers lovingly over the shiny pliers, knives and picks before selecting a scalpel. "I wonder if you can still scream without your tongue."

  The minions tossed me face first onto the table before flopping me onto my back.

  "Careful." Ulla tsked. "I'm the only one allowed to play with my new toy."

  The metal oozed between my fingers and seemed to shrink wrap around my body. I tried to turn my head and wiggle my toes. Nothing doing. Great, escaping just got a tad bit harder. Too bad the CeeBees couldn't interact with the bed and reverse its quicksand attraction. "I am a person, not a thing or a toy."

  At least my mouth still worked. Unfortunately, I think that's because Ulla wanted it that way. That and the full view of my body and what she did to it.

&n
bsp; The door snicked shut as the minions backed out of the room.

  A low rumble shook my form-fitting coffin.

  Moments later, Ulla appeared followed by the rolling torture kit.

  "You should feel flattered." She stroked the flat side of the scalpel down my cheek.

  Try as I might, I couldn't turn my head away from the knife. There had to be a way out of this.

  "You'll be the only double in my collection." Ulla carefully returned the scalpel to its slot on the cabinet. Her tapered fingers stripped off my sock then danced over my bare foot and caressed my arch.

  I didn't feel a thing. Still. What were the CeeBees up to? Was the numbness a side effect of rigging me to explode? "What collection?"

  Ulla stroked the bright pink flesh of my baby toe.

  But I knew and my belly quivered from the knowledge.

  Light blazed in her wide blue eyes. "I'll show you."

  Not interested. But if it bought me time, I'd gawk at her fanaticism.

  Ulla skipped to the opposite wall. This time when she pressed the whiteness, a drawer slid open. She reached inside and pulled out a long strand of pearls. They clacked together as she toyed with them. "This is my collection."

  I watched it sway back and forth. The beads didn't seem as shiny as pearls and some where more oblong than others. And what exactly was that black dot on most of them? Ulla didn't seem the type to put up with imperfection. Oh, no. It couldn't be. Even she couldn't be that depraved.

  Cupping her hand under the necklace, Ulla scooped up the pearls then sorted through them. She grasped two between her thumb and forefinger and held them up for me to see. "These are yours."

  "Mine." My mind blanked for a moment before I faced the ugly truth. "That's what you did with my toe."

  "Yes." Ulla rubbed the 'pearls' against her cheek and smiled. "I take them out to remember." She blinked. "Oh yes, I need to record our time together. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do that the first time, but the Creator gave us both a second chance."

  What higher power would really provide an opportunity for more of Her creations to suffer for the entertainment of others?

  "You're sick." I jerked on my arm. It didn't budge. Crap on a cracker! I wanted out of here. Instead, a strange lethargy invaded my limbs and I relaxed into the form.

  Ulla sniffed and cradled her beads. "Only those truly evolved humans can appreciate my art."

  "It's not art; it's torture." I fought off the fatigue sweeping through me. Ulla couldn't be responsible for it. Sadists don't want their victims to be comfortable. It could only be the work of the CeeBees. But why? And when I was going to explode? "Only devolved Homo suckus do that crap."

  Frowning, Ulla returned her necklace to the drawer. "There was a reason we left your ancestors behind." Returning to my side, she leaned down and whispered into my ear. "Your kind weren't fit to scrub our toilets."

  I'd like to shove her head in a toilet and keep flushing it until she drowned.

  Ulla straightened, sauntered to the torture cart and pulled a cell phone from its place on a velvet shelf. "But thanks to such advances at Guantanamo Bay, we see some potential in the detritus on this planet."

  Keep quiet, Rae. Don't give her the satisfaction of a reaction. "Not everyone supports what went on there. Most people on the planet strongly object to it."

  "Yes, but enough people agree with the tactics that we can control the rest." She tapped the screen of her cell. "And most of those people are in power." Part of the wall slid open and three metal sphere's shot out. The cannon balls hovered in the air above me then a sliver in the center retracted and dime-sized lens pointed down at me. She smiled down at her cell's screen. "Good everything is working properly. Shall we begin?"

  Fear soured my mouth when she picked up the scalpel. Gotta keep her talking until the CeeBees get ready to explode. "You're not going to bore me with the details on your plans to take over the world are you?"

  Ulla's forehead wrinkled. Absently, she twirled the blade in her fingers.

  "Actually, it's your husband Rudd's plan, not yours at all." I licked my dry lips. "Although I'm sure you'll try to take credit, but enough people know the truth that it won't work and you'll end up looking like a fool."

  She bared her teeth at me then lowered the knife to my pinky toe. "What do you know of Exposure?"

  Nothing, but I filed away the name for later to look up when I was rescued. I'd be rescued. I had to be rescued. Positive thinking. "Enough to know I don't want to listen to all the details again. You have a most annoying voice." I wrinkled my nose. "Too nasally. You might want to get that checked."

  Rage frosted her eyes and white dotted her knuckles from her grip on the scalpel. "I'm going to enjoy killing you very slowly." She drew the knife across my toe. "I might even beat my old record of sixty-two hours."

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. Blood wept from the gash and ran in rivulets down my foot. Mercifully I didn't feel a thing. At least not physically, emotionally I wanted to scream. Okay, CeeBees do your thing. Make me go boom.

  Nothing. Little blue bastards. I settled for a yawn then stared at the ceiling. Unfortunately with my head locked in place, I could still see the sadistic bitch in my peripheral vision. "Let me know when you're ready for a break."

  Ulla bared her teeth and plunged the scalpel in my chest. The blade bent like a sapling in a gale.

  I looked down. Now that was interesting. Guess the CeeBees hadn't deserted me after all.

  Growling, Ulla chucked the bent scalpel across the room. "You won't be laughing once I deactivate your CeeBees."

  "I'm afraid you won't have time for that." Victor leaned against the wooden door until it shut. A soft smile played with his lips as he spun a square key fob on his index finger. "Rae." He winked playfully but anger flared in his sapphire eyes when he spied my toe. "It's nice to see your death was only temporary."

  "Victor." I whispered, half afraid I was hallucinating, I blinked. When I opened my eyes, he was still there smiling. Such a gorgeous man. My hero.

  Ulla yanked a white box from her cabinet of tricks. "Don't get too chummy, Victor. She'll only be alive for a few more days, then who knows." Pivoting, she faced him then pressed the button on the side of the box. An electrical current sparked across the tip. "Maybe I'll get to play with you."

  In one smooth motion, Victor caught his key fob, aimed it at Ulla and pressed the opal in the center. A ball of blue light hit her squarely in the chest.

  The tazer in her hand clattered to the ground.

  "What insolence is this?" Only Ulla's mouth moved.

  Oh boy. I would have clapped had I been able to move my hands. This was my kind of rescue.

  Ulla's left eye twitched. "You will be executed for using a confinement ray on your betters."

  "Actually, you are to be executed." Victor stuck his hands in his pockets and walked closer. The hovering cannon balls swooped lower to surround the flesh statue. "Ulla Torunn, for crimes against Earth's Fourth Empire and the Astral Presidium Guarda, you are hereby sentenced to death. Execution is to be carried out immediately."

  Ha! 'Bout time. Holy Toledo! I didn't remember being this blood thirsty. Those CeeBees must have rewired me wrong.

  "Crimes!" Ulla bared her teeth. "What crimes?"

  Victor cleared his throat. "You have illegally stolen confidential documents that could harm the Realm's assets and territory with the sole purpose of handing them over to APres Guarda's enemies."

  "That's a lie. Rudd did that." Ulla's eye twitched again. "He forced me to get onto that UED flight. He downloaded the files. Check their signature; they clearly indicate his computer traces. I killed my husband to protect APres Guarda and I stayed to make sure my husband's treachery didn't harm Operation Exposure. And look at this thing, this UED steward. She's proof Rudd gave away our secrets."

  "That's a lie." I shot her a dirty look before focusing on the cameras pointed in my direction. "Layla brought me to Ulla. I didn't discover this place on my
own or through any documentation. Ulla ordered me brought here in trade."

  Take that you fat cow! With a satisfied smile on my face, I settled back against the table.

  Victor bared his eye teeth. "You ordered a known UED steward brought to an APres Guarda safe house?" He shook his head slowly and ran his thumb over the opal in his key fob until it glowed red. "She's infected with CeeBees."

  Ulla pressed her lips together for a moment. "You don't know that."

  "You do." I crowed. The victim had become the witness for the prosecution. "Layla even offered to help study the CeeBees in exchange for her son."

  "Lies." Ulla flinched. "You can't believe anything she says. And the turncoat's son was executed upon discovery he was treating property without the owner's authorization."

  My mouth dropped open. Layla's son had been dead all along? Ulla was the worst possible monster.

  "Regardless, she is infected-a fact evident in the toe she regrew. A fact you ignored." Victor raised his hand. "Sentence will be carried out."

  Ulla narrowed her eyes. "If you do that, you'll die too. I've hooked this safe house's self-destruct switch to my vitals."

  Oh, no, she didn't. I tried to lift my head but remained glued to the table.

  "She'll die too." Ulla smirked. "Are you prepared to sacrifice her? Again."

  Bitch! Of course she'd rigged the building to blow.

  "I am a faithful officer of the APres Guarda." Whistling, Victor sauntered closer and pressed the opal.

  A red burst slammed into Ulla's chest. Her face contorted in a mask of agony then the muscles liquefied and drained from her face. For a moment, she just stood there. Slowly, her knees buckled and she collapsed. Flesh slapped the linoleum and a faint gurgle filled the silence.

  I shuddered. Victor had used the Scrambler.

  Yellow lights bathed the white walls.

  "Ten minutes until self-destruct." Ulla's voice haunted us from the grave.

  Of course, she'd want to herald the end.

  "Let it be recorded that sentence was carried out." He spoke to the cannon balls. "Now return to your positions and relay Ulla's execution before this place blows."