by Melody Adams
"I hadn't had one for a long time," I said.
"I am sorry if I was the trigger for it. I wouldn’t have ..."
"It's okay," I swayed. "Let me show you what I found."
Strike
I pressed the speed dial on Ice's cell phone and waited.
"Go ahead," I heard Ice's impatient voice.
"We have an address," I informed him. "Do you have anything to write?"
"Fuck," cursed Ice. "Wait, I'll get something quick. Wait!"
I waited. Ice reported back after a short time. I gave him the address.
"Okay! I got it! It’s best if we meet there! That way we save time."
"Yes. Good. I’ll do ..."
Suddenly there was a bang and the door blew open. Screams sounded and I tried hectically to grasp the situation.
"What the hell ...? Fuck! Alex! Who ...?" I shouted.
Armed men came in. I could see that the two men who had stood guard outside the door lay dead on the floor. They must have died quickly, that they hadn't been able to make a sound. Alex screamed, and I pulled her hastily behind me to protect her with my body. I cursed the fact that I had no weapons. My cell phone fell to the ground, but that was my smallest problem at the moment. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see how Alex opened a drawer. The men who had stormed the room also saw it and two of them raised their weapons.
"ALEX," I shouted and threw myself in front of her.
The bullet hit me in the shoulder. It probably would have hit Alex in the head, because she was much smaller than me. I cursed. All hell broke loose around us.
"Strike!" Screamed Alex and our eyes met. "Oh my God. You are hurt!"
"It's not so bad," I tried to calm her down.
She sobbed and I took her into my arms. I turned us so that my body still shielded her from the men, but I turned my head towards them. All wore storm masks, all except one man in his forties who now entered the room. In contrast to the black combat clothes of the other men, he wore a suit. His black hair was cut short, his face shaved smooth. An aura of dominance and intelligence surrounded the man. I knew immediately that he was an extremely dangerous and unscrupulous opponent.
"What is this?" I asked him. "What is going on here?"
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Well, if this isn't Alien Breed," he said with a slightly French accent. He let his gaze glide further over Alex, who was crouching behind me, and then he turned to his men. "Take care of everyone except the girl and the Alien Breed!"
"No," Alex screamed and wanted to rush towards the man, but I held her back by the arm and tore her hard against me. She defended herself, but my arms enclosed her like a vice.
"Quiet," I hissed into her ear. "It is no use to us if you sacrifice your life. They are already as good as dead."
Tumult arose, as the people in the next room begged for their lives. Alex sobbed when the first shots were fired. People screamed and I held Alex still more firmly.
"Sorry, baby," I whispered at her ear. "I'm so sorry!"
Alex
I couldn't get the screams out of my head. Everyone was dead. Everyone, except the Alien Breed and me. We had been chased out of the room. Darkly, I remembered that Strike had lifted me up and carried me, after my legs had given way under me. We were sitting in the back of a SUV. It was dark. My fingers were clawed into the Alien Breed’s shirt. He held me firmly on his lap. I found his closeness reassuring. Without him I would have probably screamed and raged now. But I just sat there, pressed firmly to Strike's warm hard body, my face buried at his shoulder. It was the uninjured shoulder, but I could smell the blood on him that came from the gunshot wound. A bad conscience overcame me. He had been shot because of me. He had courageously thrown himself in front of me when the gunshot went off. He was hurt and yet he was the one who had carried me, who now held me and gave me comfort. It should be the other way around. I was ashamed of my weakness.
"You are hurt," I mumbled.
"It's not so bad," he replied harshly. "Don't worry about me. I am tough."
"What do they want to do with us? Where are they taking us?"
"I have no idea. We'll just have to wait and see."
"Are you ... not afraid at all?" I whispered.
"No," he replied firmly and I believed him. He was calm and also his heartbeat went calmly and regularly.
"I ... I am afraid," I admitted.
"I won't let anything happen to you," he said reassuringly. "I'll get us out of here. Trust me! We'll get out of here safe and sound. That is a promise. Nobody will hurt you!"
For a while we sat in silence until the car suddenly stopped. The slamming of car doors could be heard.
"Stay calm," Strike whispered in my ear. "Whatever happens! Stay calm! Let me handle everything! Okay?"
"Okay," I replied quietly.
My heart was beating like crazy. A door was opened and light broke through the darkness that had just enveloped us. Strangely enough, I had felt safer in the darkness. The two guys with machine guns in their hands who climbed into the car to us, made me freeze with fear. Strike must have felt my tension, because he stroked my back calmingly. A growl rose from his chest.
"Come on, you two love birds," said one of the two men. "Out with you!"
Strike rose with me in his arms and carried me out of the car. Outside it was bright, we must have been on the road for an eternity. I had lost all sense of time in the darkness. Judging by the position of the sun it seemed to be still in the morning. Maybe about ten o'clock or so. Where were we? I didn’t dare to look around. I only saw what appeared in my field of vision. A gravel path, bushes at the edge, then a staircase. Strike carried me up the stairs and through a door. We were in an entrance hall with light grey tiles and expensive carpets. Carefully I raised my eyes a little to see more of my surroundings. It was a big hall, so I suspected that it had to be a big house. It wasn’t an old building, so much was certain. Everything was modern and straight. A modern wide wooden staircase led upstairs. A woman came down the stairs with two small children. The children, both girls, seemed to be about four and eight years old. The man in the suit, who had entered my refuge and had ordered the murder of my friends, entered the hall after us and walked towards the stairs.
"Go back upstairs immediately, Cara! I told you we were going to have a guest!"
The woman took a worried look at Strike and me, probably more because of the Alien Breed than me, and then turned to the two little girls.
"Come on, both of you. We'll greet Daddy later!"
After one last look at us, she disappeared up the stairs again.
"Come on," said one of our guards, nudging Strike with the barrel of his machine gun. "Move! Always follow Stan!"
Stan, a young guy of maybe nineteen or twenty, with short red hair and freckles, led us through a long hallway to a door. He opened it and told Strike to enter.
"Unfortunately we only have one room for you," said the man who had walked behind us. He was about forty, had a bald head and a slightly reddened face. He smiled at Strike. "Since you've been so committed to the little one, I'm sure you won't mind sharing the room with her."
Strike didn’t reply. He walked silently towards the bed and gently laid me down. I heard the door click and knew we had been locked up. Strike went to the only window.
"Barred," he said, and then turned to me. "How are you feeling? Better?"
"Yes," I replied truthfully.
In fact, I felt relieved that we had finally arrived. Even though we had been locked up and we still didn't know what these guys wanted from us. Did it have something to do with the mysterious caller who had asked me for an appointment a few days ago? I hadn't gone to the meeting he requested and hadn't heard from him. But it seemed to me to be the most logical explanation at the moment.
Chapter 3
Strike
My eyes fell on the sleeping figure on the bed. She looked so young and vulnerable and I felt a strong urge to protect her.
I had promised her that I would get us out of here, that nobody would hurt her. I hoped I could keep that promise. At the moment it didn't look very good. I had thoroughly examined the room. The window was barred, in front of the door I had heard at least two guards and there was nothing in the whole room that could be used as a weapon. We would probably have the best chance if we were taken out of this room. Or not. I sighed. We had to be here for about six hours and so far nobody had cared any more about us. I had held Alex in my arms until she had fallen asleep, then I had started my exploration.
A rumbling in my stomach reminded me that I hadn't eaten anything since last night. Alex probably also hadn’t. It was good that she was asleep. My gaze slid from her to the door and I stared at the damn thing as if my will alone could open it. If something didn't happen soon, I would go crazy. This waiting was unnerving. Why had we been brought here when nobody seemed to have any urgent interest in us?
Alex murmured something and my gaze slipped back to her. She had turned to the other side and murmured something. She began to become restless and I stepped to the bed.
"No! Please don't," she suddenly cried out. "Please, Cole. N0000!"
I sat down next to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. She had started throwing herself back and forth on the bed.
"Alex! Wake up, Alex! It's just a dream!"
She opened her eyes with a scream on her lips. Her gaze fell on me, confused, panic-stricken, full of fear. Then she seemed to recognize me, and relief showed on her face, although I could still smell her fear.
"It was only a dream, Alex!" I said calming, and pulled her into my arms.
"No," she said quietly. "It wasn’t."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked, confused.
"I have experienced all of it," she replied in a trembling voice.
"I know, sometimes dreams seem terribly real, but ..."
"No," she interrupted me a little harder. "I really experienced it. Since then I sometimes dream of it. Especially when I'm under stress."
"Do you want ...? I asked gently, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"It ... it's about my ex." She took a deep breath and I suspected that it would cost her a great deal to talk about it.
"What happened?" I asked, knowing already that I wouldn’t like what I was about to hear.
"His name was Cole. He was charming, handsome, and wealthy. He was twelve years older than me. I met him when I was working in an art gallery. I was seventeen, terribly naive and completely overwhelmed by the attention this fascinating man gave me. It was like a fairy tale. I was the Cinderella, he was my prince."
She sighed and I felt a sting of jealousy. She had loved that guy very much, but something must have happened and it was obviously not good!
"What happened then?"
"We went out a few times. He gave me lots of presents and I felt like I was in a dream. Then he asked me to move in with him, which I did. I loved him and he seemed to love me. That he was so much older didn't bother me. I had pink unicorn glasses on and floated above the clouds.
So I moved in with him and the first few months were wonderful. He was the first man with whom ... I had slept. It wasn’t particularly great, but apart from the sex, Cole was so wonderful to me that I didn’t mind. Then he changed. He became more brutal. When he slept with me, it wasn't just unpleasant anymore. It was painful. I always wore bruises and bite marks after."
I felt anger rising in me. I would find out who he was and where I could find him and then he would atone for everything he had done to Alex!
"His torments became worse and worse," Alex continued. "It wasn't just when we had sex now. Even in everyday life he became more and more mean and vicious to me. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house without him and I lived in constant fear. When I lived about a year with him, I tried to flee. Since I had always subordinated myself to him out of fear, he had begun not to guard me so closely anymore. I was in the garden while he was on the phone inside the house. I had nothing with me, neither ID nor money, but I didn't care. I just wanted to leave. So I ran away.
I didn't get far. One of his men saw me and chased the dogs after me. They bit me in the calves, brought me down. I was scared to death. When Cole called the dogs back, I wasn't even relieved because I knew, what he would do to me, would be worse than the dogs' bites. And I ... was right. Cole tied me to the bed and tortured me for three days before he let me go. I never tried to escape again. I knew there was no way out for me."
"How did you get out then?" I asked, trying hard to make my voice sound calm.
A hurricane raged inside me. I wouldn't kill that bastard quickly. For the first time in my life I would do what Player did. I would play with my victim and I would enjoy every plea from him, every cry, every drop of blood.
"Cole was involved in dark business. One day the FBI stormed the house. Everyone was arrested. Me too. I was in custody for two days until they were convinced that I had nothing to do with Cole's crimes. Later I had to testify as a witness in court, although I couldn't say much. I had never noticed anything, Cole and his men were up to. It was about drugs and human trafficking. I think there were weapons involved, too."
"So Cole's in prison?" I wanted to know. That would make my chances of getting my hands on that son of a bitch near impossible.
"He ... he's dead," Alex said after a short break. "He hanged himself in his cell. Apparently he had been raped and tortured by several other inmates."
At least that gave me some satisfaction. I really hoped that the bastard had suffered properly.
"What happened to you then?"
"That's nothing I'm particularly proud of," she replied quietly.
"You can tell me. I won’t judge you. Promise!"
She sighed and nestled herself closer to me before she began to speak.
"I had no idea where to go or what I could do. I was destitute and had no contact with my family. Not that they would’ve helped me!" She snorted disparagingly. "I hung around on the street, started stealing, every now and then I would go with a guy for money so I could buy some weed. I smoked a lot of weed, it numbed me and that was exactly what I needed.
Then Tamtam found me. He wanted to help me, but I didn't trust him. After my experiences with Cole I was afraid of men. I slept with them for money, but I didn't want to get closer to them for fear of getting involved with a sadistic ass again. But Tamtam wasn't interested in doing anything with me and he didn't want me to move in with him either. He got me food, some money every now and then and finally a place in a shared flat. There I came into contact with hackers. I learned quickly and soon became better than them. Tamtam became a friend and brother to me. He ..."
"Was he one of those who were shot tonight?" I asked gently.
"No. Fortunately not. He wasn’t there. We had an argument and he has been scarce ever since. It had saddened me, but now I am happy about it, because otherwise he wouldn’t be alive anymore."
"I am really sorry for what happened," I said and gave her a kiss on the temple. "I will do everything I can to get us out of here. And I will defend you with my last breath. Nobody can get to you without going over my dead body."
"I'm so tired of getting into shit," Alex said bitterly. "Tamtam was right. Do you want to know what our fight was about?"
"Yes," I replied.
"He wanted me to stop. He wanted me to retire. But I didn’t listen to him, and now so many people are dead just because I made the wrong decision. People who believed in me, who meant something to me."
"It's not your fault, Alex!" I said, stroking her back with comfort. "That other people are evil and unscrupulous is not your fault. I don't think any of your friends would want you to torture yourself like that."
"I know I can't help it if other people are evil, but if I had listened to Tamtam, everyone would still be alive. That’s a fact. That has nothing to do with whether I reproach myself. Fact remains fact!"
"Hmmm."
"And what is your story? How is
it that you are not with your people?"
"My people?" I asked, confused. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, the other Alien Breeds!"
"That name again. What are Alien Breeds?
"Don't you know anything about it?" She asked incredulously.
I shook my head.
And she began to tell me an adventurous story about creatures that had been artificially created. Human donor DNA had been crossed with alien DNA. The Alien Breeds had been created to be used for experiments and to try to breed them into fighting machines. Ten years ago they had been liberated and now lived on another planet and I was supposed to be one of them? I had known that I had been artificially conceived, but with alien DNA?
I didn't know what to say to her. Then the door was opened and two armed men came in. One had short blonde hair with blue tips, the other was bald.
"How sweet," the baldhead mocked and looked at us contemptuously.
"Get up," ordered the blonde. "Come on! Get moving!"
"Don't be afraid," I whispered into Alex's ear and gently pushed her away from me so that I could get up.
I looked at the two men coldly, and at least in the eyes of the blonde I saw a slight nervousness. The guy liked to be armed, but he recognized in me an opponent to be taken seriously.
"You!" Said the baldhead and pointed at me. "Turn around, hands behind your back. My buddy will tie you up and you will be very good, otherwise I'll blow your little one's brains out!"
"You won't kill her," I said coldly. "You need her for something, so you won't kill her!"
The baldhead grinned nastily.
"Yes, you are a smart guy, Alienboy! But we only need her alive, not in the best of health. I could shoot her in the knee. That's supposed to be quite painful, I've heard. So! Do what I said and no stupid moves!"
I cursed inwardly. I didn't like to be tied up because I couldn't defend Alex with my hands tied. But it was true. He could hurt Alex and she would still be of use to them anyway. With a quiet growl, I turned around and crossed my hands behind my back. I looked deep into Alex's eyes. She was afraid, but she held herself bravely. She stood upright in front of the bed and appeared calm.