by T. R. Harris
“I repeat, the natives may have a different opinion,” Sherri said.
“The point is, Ms. Valentine,” said Ambassador Hale, “the galaxy cannot risk another flare up of the conflict with the Nuoreans.”
“They only have a couple of thousand ships….” Copernicus pointed out.
“That is still a considerable force, and any action taken against the main force would result in thousands of more dead….” His voice trailed off.
“More than the six of us,” Adam finished the sentence.
“That is not what I was going to say.”
“But it’s what you were thinking,” Sherri said.
Hales face turned red. “You seem to be missing the point of this meaning.”
“What is the point of this meeting?” Adam asked. “To show us the door and say thanks for everything, but now you’re on your own?”
“No,” said Hale with emotion. “You have not allowed us to get to the point.”
He paused, expecting Adam or one of his team to say something. When they just stared at him, he continued. “We are willing to help…help you find the Third Cadre unit sponsoring the bounty.”
Adam looked at the Nuorean. “You too?”
“Yes, Captain Cain. Even before word of the offer got out, we have been searching for Master Janvis (784) and his Cadre.”
“No luck, right?”
“We have not located him as of yet.”
“Keep trying.”
“He will, Captain Cain,” Hale said, “as will we all. In the meantime, I implore you and your team to remain here on Formil under the protection of Speaker Bol and her people. Once the Cadre is located, we will then discuss within this advisory council an appropriate response.”
“And you still can’t say you’ll send in a fleet to destroy them?” Copernicus asked.
“There are only a hundred Third Cadre,” the Nuorean said. “You would hardly need a fleet to defeat them. And sending in such a large force would give my leadership cause for concern.”
“I don’t give a damn how big a force it will take, just so one is sent,” Coop growled back at the gray alien.
“First things first,” Hale said. “We must first find the Cadre, and I can assure we are doing everything in our power to make that happen.”
Adam continued to stare at the Nuorean. “I’m sure you are.”
120
After the meeting, Ambassador Hale escorted Adam and his entourage to the palatial room in the royal bank of suites where Adam had been assigned. Arieel came with them.
“Again, I implore you to remain here,” Hale said to the group. “There is plenty of security and you’ll be safe here.”
“For how long…how long do we have to stay here?” Jym asked.
Hale looked down at the tiny bear-like creature. “Until we locate the Third Cadre.”
“And destroy them.” Copernicus added.
Hale hesitated.
“You’re going to call the Nuorean first, aren’t you?”
“We’ve discussed giving them a chance to resolve this crisis internally, at least at the outset. Then if a force is to be assembled to attack the Cadre we would prefer it to be a joint effort.”
“And while all this politicking is going on, we’re stuck here,” Sherri said, waving her hand around the room, “in this gaudy prison.”
“You could do worse, Ms. Valentine. Now please, do as I ask. Speaker Bol will have each of you assigned to equally opulent quarters for your stay. Until then, relax. You’re safe now.”
Hale made a quick exit before anyone could offer the next sarcastic comment. Although he was gone, that didn’t stop the remarks from coming.
“Safe?” Riyad said. “It’s more like sitting ducks. By now the whole galaxy knows where we are and the longer we stay here, the better the chance someone is going to make a move on us.”
Adam barely heard Riyad’s statement. Instead, he was concentrating on locating the visual and audio surveillance devices throughout the huge room. And there were plenty. He hadn’t been concerned with them over the past couple of days, but now he was. Through his ATD, he severed connections, keeping the conversation secret…at least for the time being.
“Riyad’s right,” he said, getting everyone’s attention. “The writing on the wall is pretty clear: we’re a problem that the politicians would prefer to go away.”
“That’s right,” said Sherri. “That two-faced ambassador almost came out and said it. It’s better to have six people die than thousands in another war with the Nuoreans. We regret to inform you, but you’re expendable.”
“Then we have to leave and take our chances in space,” Kaylor offered. He was an aging space merchant who never felt comfortable on a planet. He preferred the wide open space of space.
“I agree, my friend,” Adam said to the alien. He turned to Arieel. “What do you think? Is there a way out of the building without being seen?”
There was worry on the Formilian’s gorgeous face. “I am not sure, but I doubt it. We are on the twenty-fifth floor. There are only elevators and stairwells, both of which are traveled frequently.”
Sherri, Copernicus and the aliens were still dressed in battle armor, precautions for the trip from the starship to the O’lac Building. They were also armed, with both energy and projectile weapons. Colonel Nolan was armed to the teeth as well
Adam and Riyad had arrived two days before and came with their own small arsenal of weapons and armor. If need be, the team could make a break for the spaceport. That wasn’t something Adam had planned. He expected the allies to call up a huge fleet to crush the damn Nuoreans once and for all. Turns out he was naïve not to have factored political maneuverings into the equation. The Nuoreans were master game players, and Adam was learning this also meant in the political arena as well. Hale and his people were being played, and they were so blinded by the quest of a false peace that they would do anything to keep the illusion alive.
Copernicus had migrated to a large dining table laid out with food designed specifically to meet the culinary palettes of the four separate species in room. He picked up a piece of Human-style meat and smelled it before putting it back on the plate.
“Well there’s one thing for sure,” he began. “I’ll starve to death if I don’t get to starship where I can control the food prep. There’s no way I’m going to trust any of this stuff not to be poisoned.”
“I have been assured it is safe,” Arieel said in defense of her people. “Yet caution is the prudent path,” she conceded.
Adam’s communicator chimed.
“This is Ambassador Hale,” said the voice on the link.
“Yeah, I know. I recognize your voice. You just left here ten minutes ago.”
“I got a report your security cameras are down. Are you all right?”
“Yeah, must be some technical glitch. We’re fine. Thanks for asking.”
“Captain Cain, you have to understand I’m on your side,” the politician snapped back.
“It didn’t sound like that—”
“Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!” Adam was taken aback by Hale’s sudden outburst. “I didn’t call just to see how you are. I’ve just gotten word that a team of professional killers have entered the building.”
Adam sat up on the bed. The rest of the team sensed his change in mood. “How did they get in?”
“Someone opened the door for them.”
“So much for being safe and snug. Who are they?”
“I’ve never heard of them, but Overlord Penasor seems confident in their abilities, even going up against Humans.”
“Why are the Juireans helping others collect on the bounty?”
There was pause on the line. “They’re not coming because of the bounty” Hale admitted. “They’re here as part of a plan to bring this crisis to a close.”
“Are you part of this plan?”
“Not officially. I have recused myself from any—”
“Recused! Mea
ning you’re just going to sit back and let this happen.”
“I am warning you of the killers, you ungrateful bastard!”
“Well thank you very much, you backstabbing sonofabitch!”
Sherri pulled the communicator from Adam’s hand. “This is Sherri Valentine. What’s going on?”
She listened for a moment as Hale repeated his warning to her.
“We’re going to be leaving now,” she stated firmly. “Is there anything you can do to help us, or are you part of the problem?”
“I’ll do what I can, but sooner or later I’ll be cut out of the loop. I can tell you the assassins are coming through the western elevators.”
“That’s a start. Give us all the updates you can.” She cut the link. “Gear up!” she ordered. No one questioned her orders.
Adam retrieved his MK-47 and charge packs, along with a trusty Colt 1911 .45 caliber. Everyone in the room had gotten the message. Steely faces met determined resolve. Besides the four Humans on Adam’s team, they also had Nolan, Kaylor and Jym. Arieel watched in silence.
“If we can get to the sub-basement, there may be a way to reach the spaceport without traversing open streets.”
“What do you mean we?” Adam asked.
“I am coming with you.”
“Are you crazy? Half the galaxy’s trying to kill us. Besides, you’re the leader of the Formilians. You can’t just run off with us.”
“I have done it before,” she said with a smile. “I will be fine. If we make it to the spaceport, I will decide whether to go any further.”
“Okay; how do we get to the spaceport?”
“Through the catacombs.”
Sherri stepped up next to Arieel. “A little more detail, please.”
“There is a vast system of ancient tunnels, a thousand years old, that run under the Temple Complex. One such tunnel connects to the O’lac Building through an ancillary corridor. It is used for clandestine movement between the Temple and this building.”
“And these catacombs go all the way to the spaceport?” Sherri asked.
“They run parallel, not actually under the landing field. But that will be close enough. We will go unseen.”
Adam moved toward the door. “That’s the plan then. We take the stairs down to the basement and then through the catacombs to the spaceport. Everybody ready?” He scanned the stern faces of the eight people in the room. “Okay, let’s roll.”
They were in the luxurious guest quarters near the top of the skyscraper, where the corridors were exceedingly wide with carpets like sponge. The elevators were placed at the ends of the long hallway, along the outer walls of the building.
Adam wasn’t exactly sure which way was east or west, but he did know where the Formilian sun was, its setting brilliance revealed by large picture windows at the end of corridor to their right. Adam led the team left out of the room. The corridor was empty…until the door to the elevator they were heading for slid open…the eastern bank of elevators.
As the doors opened, four huge creatures emerged, barely able to move through the portal because of their massive size. Each was covered in thick black plates of armor and topped by helmets with bronze lenses hiding the faces of the assassins.
In one hand they carried round-barrel flash rifles with bulbous stocks, and in the other, two-foot long laser-enhanced swords.
Both Arieel and Adam locked onto the firing controls of the flash rifles with their brain-interface devices and severed the controls. The aliens barely hesitated after learning their weapons were inoperable before they took the four-foot long weapons in their gloved hands and positioning the inert weapons as clubs. The four killers were upon Adam and his people a moment later.
Flash weapons flared and Human-style ballistic guns fired from Adam’s team; both had no effect on the heavy armor. Bolts splashed and dissipated, as lead bullets ricocheted, tearing into the walls on either side of the corridor. Adam was the first to come in physical contact with one of the assassins.
The heavy flash rifle blurred through the air and hit Adam on his left shoulder. He was thrown to the side, crashing against the wall. He slumped over, appearing to collapse into near-unconsciousness. The huge armored alien bent over him.
Adam stood up, using the mutant strength surging throughout his body to lift the creature off the floor. He fell back, body-slamming the alien to the floor before dropping onto his chest and sending an elbow into the side of the killer’s helmet. The metal deformed, creating a reverse relief of Adam’s elbow.
The alien screamed as the helmet crushed the side of his head. Huge hands fought to release latches on the neck so the helmet could be removed, yet it wouldn’t budge, the metal embedded in the skull locking the helmet in place. Blood oozed from the opening.
Adam scrambled on top of the alien’s chest. He bunched his fists and brought them down on the dark lens of the helmet. Glass shattered, planting shards in the black skin of the creature’s face. Solid black eyes glared at Adam, while basketball-size hands tried to slap him away. Adam remained where he was. The mortally injured alien gasped for breath, spitting out blood. The head wound would prove fatal a few seconds later.
Meanwhile, the rest of Adam’s team was engaged with the other three assassins.
Sherri and Copernicus had managed to dodge the flash weapon clubs, but now they were confronted with a nine-foot tall robot-looking thing with a four-foot long sword. Laser swords were long and thin triangular-shaped weapons that went from a six-inch-wide cross guard to a sharp point with an infused anode at the tip. Along each edge of the sword, a star-hot laser beam, the width of a hair, connected the tip with the hilt. The pair of glowing beams could cut through anything, which made them an extremely effective hand weapon, but also dangerous to the wielder.
Fortunately, the electronics within the swords were controlled by Formilian-built devices, so Adam and Arieel had disabled the laser beams. This left the laser sword as only a sword. In the massive hands of the assassin, it was still a lethal weapon.
Coop and Sherri separated across the hallway, splitting the alien’s attention. He swung the sword with one hand and the dead flash rifle in the other, appearing ambidextrous as he did. It was all the two Humans could do to stay out of range.
Then the alien decided to concentrate on Coop, figuring to take out the stronger male first, followed by the supposedly weaker female. That was a mistake.
As the huge beast turned sideways to Sherri, she pulled out her own version of the laser sword. This was an eight-inch long stiletto dagger. She activated the controls and the twin lines of glowing light appeared. With Human swiftness in the light gravity of Formil, Sherri slipped in behind the towering bulk of the armored alien and placed the dagger between his legs. She began to move the blade upwards, through melting metal and searing flesh.
This immediately got the alien’s attention. He spun around, but it was too late. Sherri’s blade was already in the process of splitting him open from behind, cutting through groin—she assumed, not knowing the alien’s physiology—and into his back. The creature went into shock from the pain and fell forward to the floor. Sherri didn’t stop slicing until she was halfway up the long back and the alien was still.
In the meantime, Nolan and Riyad were squared off with their own alien assassin. Realizing the futility of firing their M-101 at the creature, they were now engaged in a series of rolls and spins to avoid the dual threats from the alien’s flash rifle and sword. At one point, Riyad fell to the floor and rolled, taking out the legs of his assailant. The creature fell to the carpet, but it was still very much a danger.
The alien twisted to get a better angle on Riyad, and as he did, Nolan saw his opening. It literally was an opening, between two of the thick plates of armor the alien wore. Nolan thrust the long barrel of the M-101 between the plates and pulled the trigger. A dozen rounds entered the torso of the alien before ripping through the flesh and exiting out the other side, only to ricochet back into the body off the
armor on the other side. The hot metal slugs splintered and spread even more throughout the body. It was like a meat-grinder inside the armor shell.
Three of the four assassins had themselves been killed by the Humans. The forth was lined up against the aliens in Adam’s entourage—Arieel, Kaylor and Jym.
The tiny bear-like Jym may be small, but he was quick and possessed of jumping abilities gained from his species evolution within the forests of Fulqin. He sprang to the top of the nine-foot tall alien, wrapping his short arms around the alien’s helmet and blocking his view through the blacked out lens.
The assassin slammed his head into a nearby wall, trying to dislodge the pesky alien, but Jym held on. The armor-clad creature continued to wave his sword and flash weapon in a wild attempt to keep his assailants away until he could regain his sight. In a desperate attempt, the creature began to use the sword to chase Jym away, scrapping the metal edge along the helmet. Jym eventually jumped to the floor.
And that’s when Arieel used her brain-interface Gift to reactivate the laser beams on the sword.
The huge alien killer sliced his own head off with his sword.
All four assassins were dead, and now the team stood in the quiet aftermath, panting and counting their blessings. The entire battle had taken less than two minutes.
Adam clasped Sherri and Riyad by the shoulders. “Good job everyone. That’s what I call teamwork.” He smiled. “After this, the rest of the trip to the spaceport should be a piece of cake.”
He was wrong.
121
They were twenty-five stories up in the tall O’lac Building, a structure recently renamed for Adam’s fallen friend Trimen O’lac, the former First Corusant of the Formilian and officially Arieel’s late husband. He died fighting Aris robots a year before, during Adam’s attempt to locate and rescue his daughter, Lila, from the three-billion-year-old aliens. At the elevators doors, Adam contemplated his next move to escape the building.
He had an aversion to elevators, believing them to be small metal prisons should the enemy decide to stop them in mid travel. He preferred stairwells. In the light gravity of Formil, the five Human could almost fly down the stairs, but Kaylor, Jym and Arieel were another matter. So Jym jumped on Sherri’s back and Kaylor on Riyad’s, while Arieel wrapped her long, slender arms around Adam’s neck and snuggled her voluptuous body against his back and her legs around his waist. Her scent was intoxicating, even as her potent pheromones attacked his senses.