Shady entered the third of six main lobby areas in the galactic terminal. Like the previous two that he had thoroughly explored it was a throng of people. As he walked amongst them overhead speakers moaned with apologetic verse about the delay caused by the lockdown and trumpeted hollow promises about normal operations resuming soon.
Shady was oblivious to the loudspeakers concentrating solely on the multitude of other people’s thoughts that were running through his head. Each time he made eye contact a mind jumped in on top of his own.
"…can't believe how long this is taking…wow she looks good maybe I'll…hey watch it…boy I need to go to the loo…wish I had brought a book…"
Shady quickly started to feel dizzy and had to stop momentarily so he could shut his eyes and rest his brain. As soon as he did so Enosh's annoying voice drummed into his head through the small earpiece he was wearing.
"Did you sense something?" he asked with eager impatience.
"So far all I have is a headache and nausea. You sure this guy is really here? I haven't picked up so much as a mind ripple from this lot,” moaned Shady quietly into his collar microphone, as he rubbed his temples vigorously.
"For your sake let's hope he really is here. Now get back to it. After you have finished this lot you can have a rest in the adjoining lounge, looks like there are only about thirty people there."
"Thanks, you're all heart,” mumbled Shady under his breath.
By the time Shady had completed his search of the lobby area he was feeling downright bilious. He made a bee-line for the lounge which was indeed relatively sparsely populated by about thirty to forty people. He made a quick scan trying not to make eye contact until his stomach had settled. Its occupants sat dotted around the room on the large soft two seater sofas, some drinking, some talking, some reading, but everyone generally looking innocent and minding their own business. At the far end of the lounge were two counters, one selling alcohol and the other tea and coffee. Shady needed a stiff drink and figured a good shot of scotch would do the trick, so he headed towards the bar.
Herbal tea
Shady stopped abruptly, "What did you say?" he whispered into his collar.
"Nothing," came the sharp reply from Enosh. "Your rest time is over now get back to it.”
Shady ignored him and continued to the bar and sat down.
"One.." began Shady
Herbal tea
"…herbal tea please."
Shady froze, fear gripping him, he wasn’t standing at the bar…he was at the coffee counter. He sat on one of the stools at the counter as the woman behind it passed him the tea and took his money.
"What the hell are you doing?" snapped Enosh. "This is not the time to bullshit around!"
"Shut up Enosh. Enigma’s here somewhere in the lounge," whispered Shady as he tried to casually sip at the tea, "And he knows I’m here for him."
"You have an identification yet?" asked Enosh anxiously, sensing the fear in Shady’s voice.
"No and you better make bloody sure your guys are ready as soon as I do."
Shady finished off the herbal tea in one final gulp, surprisingly enough his stomach already felt much better. He turned around in his seat and scanned the lounge properly, ruling out several people in the process. Suddenly his gaze fell upon one man who caught his attention. The fellow was sitting on one of the sofas directly opposite a beautiful, slender woman in sunglasses, who also caught his attention.
There was nothing particularly suspicious about the man except that he was sitting head buried in a newspaper in such a way that Shady would have no chance of seeing his eyes unless he walked right up to him. There was a space still next to the woman so Shady decided to kill two birds with one stone. He casually made his was over, one eye never leaving the man with the paper, the other never leaving the lovely lady.
"Excuse me is this seat taken?" asked Shady politely. The woman smiled and gestured for him to sit.
"I can’t believe this delay, I mean what could possibly hold things up for so long?" said Shady to the woman, at the same time he watched out of his periphery for any type of movement or reaction that might give the fellow away. He got nothing except the flip of a newspaper page.
"I don’t know, a bomb scare perhaps?" replied the woman politely taking off her sunglasses and extending her hand. "But then I find these instances a good time to meet new people. My name is Teya by the way."
Shady shook her hand gently and stared straight into her eyes as soon as she took off her glasses. Strangely he couldn’t make out any clear thoughts, but what he saw was mesmerising. Teya’s eyes were a deep fluorescent blue-green and with her sunglasses off she was quite the most beautiful woman Shady had ever set eyes on.
"My name is…Shady," he stuttered embarrassed. "Wow, I have never met a Streyan in person before. It’s nice to meet you.”
Shady suddenly realised he was still holding her hand and let it go. Teya smiled at his embarrassment.
"Yes I am Streyan. I am also pleased to meet you Shady. Hmm…you are an interesting one. So, where are you headed once they resume services?"
"Me, nowhere unfortunately. I’m supposed to be…um...picking someone up and I’m having a little trouble finding them. And you? Are you off on holiday or work?"
"I’m just passing through. You look disappointed by that."
"Well I was hoping that we could go out for a drink sometime…"
"Shady!" Enosh’ sharp tone brought him back to the task at hand. "Behind you!"
Shady leap to his feet and spun around just in time to avoid the slashing arc of a laser-knife wielding man in a business suit.
Shady circled to his left, amongst the panicked screams and the scattering of the other patrons who were all scrambling for the exit. The man came at him again and Shady spun to the side grabbing the man’s arm to negate the knife only to have the fellows other fist come crashing into his jaw. Shady’s grip on the knife tightened in anger and he looked directly into his attacker’s eyes.
"Kill him!" screamed inside his head with frantic repetition. Shady silenced it with a quick "Sorry mate" and a rather heavy head butt right onto the bridge of the man’s nose followed by a sharp short-arm jab to the jaw.
As Shady stood over the crumpled heap that was his attacker Enosh’s voice crackled in his earpiece.
"We’ll be there in less than a minute!"
"No wait! This isn’t Enigma…"
"I know, he’s behind you," interrupted Enosh.
The distinctive low hum made by a disintegrating pistol made his freeze. With a deep breath he very slowly turned around to see his real attacker standing with the pistol pointed at Teya’s head. His eyes were covered by jet black sunglasses.
"Well, well I never thought I’d see a psychic working for PIG," he spat, pulling his arm more tightly around Teya’s neck. "I really was hoping that you wouldn’t sell me out."
"Sorry, I had no choice," replied Shady. He looked into Teya’s eyes trying to reassure her.
"Hurting someone is only going to make things worse for you."
At that moment Enosh burst into the lounge with five or six agents in tow. They quickly fanned out, they were all heavily armed and all their weapons were trained on Enigma.
"You really think they could do anything worse than what they already have planned," replied Enigma.
"Put the gun down or we will shoot you," ordered Enosh, his own gun pointed with determination directly at Enigma’s forehead.
Enigma turned with Teya to face Enosh directly.
"No pig, you listen and listen good. I want one of your nice fast scout ships ready and fuelled on the launch pad in ten minutes or I kill everyone here, starting with the girl."
"I said put the gun down," replied Enosh his finger rubbing gently on the trigger with cold anticipation.
"And I said that I would kill everybody and that includes you."
"I’d like to see you try," scoffed Enosh.
Enigma smiled, and insanely evil smile.
<
br /> "I'm sure you feel very safe with your officer's neural blocker. But did you know that those standard issue neural blockers your men have don’t work on me?"
"Bullshit!" replied Enosh.
"If I have to prove myself then I will," said Enigma coldly. At that moment Enosh caught movement in his periphery and looked quickly from side to side to see all of his men now pointing their weapons at him.
Shady looked from Enosh to Enigma in disbelief. Enosh had been right this guy was just too dangerous. He looked to Teya whose eyes were pleading with him to do something.
Help me, help me
Without warning Shady surged toward Enigma, he was compelled to help Teya. Enigma turned his gun on Shady, he never got a shot off however, Enosh made sure of that. Teya was flung to the ground and everything was over before Shady even reached her.
"Are you ok?" asked Shady
"Yes, I think so," she replied shakily.
Enosh lowered his gun a broad smile on his face and sweat dripping from his forehead. He turned to his men, who were all shamefully lowering their own weapons.
"Well don’t just stand there you idiots I want this guy drugged up to the eyeballs. I don’t want him getting even a sniff of consciousness until we get him to a containment facility."
Shady helped Teya to her feet then looked over at the Enigma who was now rapidly being injected with who knows what type of psychedelic concoction the purple suits had dreamed up.
“You mean he’s not dead?” asked Shady incredulously.
“Are you kidding, we have to verify a catch like this and work out exactly how he ticks.”
Shady shuddered at the thought and a sudden pang of guilt ran through him like a lance.
"Well, I’m done with this Enosh, for good. I’m going to take the lady here to the medical station and maybe they can give us both something to forget the last couple of hours. I will see you when you have that piece of paper for me and then never again."
"Hold it right there Shady, our deal is not done until we have him safely in containment. One of my men will escort your lady friend here to the medical station and you can talk to her after you both go through debriefing on this."
Shady mumbled a few expletives under his breath, it was so easy to remember why he hated Enosh so much. Shady looked around and saw that Teya was already being bundled out of the lounge by a pushy purple suit.
"Wait," shouted Shady as he ran to the exit. The suit allowed Teya to stop. "I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for getting you into the middle of that mess back there and was hoping that maybe we could talk some more later?"
Teya smiled, but he could see her hands were still shaking a little.
"I should thank you for helping me so much. I don’t think we will cross paths again for a while. You could always call me though. You are very interesting, I like that."
"But…", before he could get a word out Teya kissed him on the cheek and the impatient suit ushered her away, “But I don’t know your number!” he shouted.
She didn’t respond, and he waited eagerly for her to turn or wave or something. Instead she was briskly whisked away across the terminal, disappearing into the throng of people who were now finally able to go about their business. Shady was just about to dash after her when he was stopped cold in his tracks.
5292 5866654978
5292 5866654978
Shady raced back into the lounge to where Enigma still lay.
"Tell me that he’s not drugged yet!" said Shady urgently.
"Sorry Shady, but he’s going to be out for at least twelve hours," replied Enosh.
Shady’s head sank into his hands and his shoulders slumped.
"Son of a bitch!" he cursed.
"What’s wrong," asked Enosh.
"I just realised that we are going to be spending a lot more time together."
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Shady Hazy and the Subliminal Criminal Page 2