Schmidt was about to do just that when a sudden thought hit Foxx.
‘You say that this thing can get inside us, inside anything, right?’
‘Yes,’ Schmidt replied.
‘And your team opened the capsules inside the quarantine unit?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did the team members walk out again?’
Schmidt stared at her for a long moment, and then he realized what she meant.
‘They could already be loose in the ship,’ Schmidt said to the admiral.
***
XXIX
‘Take him down!’
Nathan yelled the warning as the bulky looking inmate thumped down from the vent onto the deck of the watch tower.
Xavier leaped forward and without hesitation he rammed the tip of a crackling plasma baton into the inmate’s belly. The con cried out in pain and his limbs twitched and shuddered as he folded over the charge and collapsed onto the deck, quivering in jerking spasms as a second con plunged out of the duct and crashed down on top of the first.
Nathan rushed in and slammed his own baton down onto the man’s lower back, aiming for his kidney. The charge bolted through the inmate’s body and he let out a roar of pain and surprise as he jerked his left arm around.
‘Blade!’
Nathan heard Allen’s warning and stepped back as he blocked the con’s blow with his left arm, the jagged tip of a steel shank stopping an inch away from his flank. The inmate toppled as his body succumbed to the electrical charge forking through his limbs and he collapsed on top of his fellow con.
‘We’ve gotta get out of here!’ Xavier yelled.
Nathan could hear the scurrying of more cons through the duct above them, and then another fell through the open grill and landed on top of the first two but this time with cat–like agility and grace. He leaped off the two fallen cons and brandished a blade that he kept close to his thigh in a one–handed grip, the mark of a man who knew how to handle himself. His shaved head was lined with ragged scars, a patch over one eye where an illegal implant of some kind had been surgically removed.
Nathan gave ground as the con edged forward, his eye switching between Nathan and Xavier as he moved the blade out in front of him a little.
‘Only a matter of time, boys,’ he snarled.
The con stepped lightly forward and the blade flashed back handed at Nathan, the glittering tip seeking to unzip his throat. Nathan stepped to the left and then forward, the blade whispering through the air past his face as he jabbed the plasma baton up under the inmate’s armpit.
The man screamed as the charge roared through him, Nathan easily blocking the return blow as it flailed wildly. The knifeman tumbled to his knees and Nathan drove his boot down hard into the man’s crumpled legs, smashing down on his ankle to the sound of splintering bone and more cries of pain.
Nathan stepped back and caught Xavier’s surprised expression.
‘Rough childhood,’ he said by way of an explanation.
Two more cons dropped through the grill in quick succession, both of them armed. This time they stepped quickly forward, blocking Nathan’s and Xavier’s access to the duct and allowing two more cons to drop in behind and join them. Behind the growing wall of cons, those that Nathan and Xavier had hit first with the sticks began to drag themselves to their feet again, fury in their expressions as they grasped for their fallen weapons.
Nathan backed toward the locked watch tower exit, Xavier moving in alongside him while Allen moved to defend their left. They all had a second set of plasma batons tucked into their belts, but Nathan knew that with upwards of two hundred cons inside the block all eager to get into the watch tower and out of the prison, it was only a matter of time before they were completely overrun.
Two hulking men with biceps like footballs and barrel chests landed heavily in the control room and looked around before shoving their way to the front, like gorillas confronting intruders into their lair. Nathan could see that each of them carried a length of metal that looked as though it had once been a part of a cell door frame, levered free with bare hands, crude tools and brutal rage, the sheer power of undiluted madness. Both men’s prison clothes were stained with blood and sweat and he could smell the stench of their body odor from where he stood with Xavier and Allen.
Nathan moved forward. Both men watched him cautiously, neither of them having forgot how quickly Nathan had floored their insane leader.
‘I’d get back if I were you,’ Nathan growled, hoping that he could swing the little crowd of thugs to his favor. ‘Because the only way we’re getting through that door is together.’
The bearded enforcers looked at each other, and then one of them swung his length of jagged metal in a brutal back slash toward Nathan’s head. Nathan ducked under the blow, but at the same time he jerked the plasma baton up and let the tip touch the thug’s crude metal blade. The charge bolted down the length of metal and the big man growled in pain and staggered backwards, his right arm jerking spasmodically.
Nathan lunged in with a straight right and drove the baton into his guts. The thug’s growl rose in pitch to a howl and he lurched away from the pain and plowed into his fellow inmates.
‘Get down!’
Xavier’s cry sent Nathan plunging to his knees as the other thug swung his own weapon, the jagged edge swishing through Nathan’s hair and missing his scalp by a half inch. Xavier slammed his own baton into the man’s chest and the big bearded felon screamed as he tumbled backwards across his fallen companions.
Even as he crashed down so another con leaped down into the watch room and this one swung an instant punch that cracked across Xavier’s jaw and sent him reeling backwards. Nathan turned and saw Zak Volt’s demonic, bloodied face snarling like a wild animal as the insane convict lashed out with one boot. Nathan twisted aside from the blow and swung the baton at Ryan but the con was too quick and ducked beneath it, grabbing Nathan’s wrist and twisting hard.
Nathan felt bright pain lance up his forearm as he was twisted backwards in sympathy to the pain, but he turned the baton in his hand and jabbed it against Volt’s forearm. Current danced through the psychopath’s arm and bolted through Nathan’s at the same time and with a loud crack Nathan was thrown clear as Volt was propelled away from him by the charge.
Allen leaped forward to Nathan’s defense and struck Volt with a left hook that cracked across the con’s jaw and sent him floundering sideways, but almost immediately Allen was forced to confront two more cons trying to work their way around to flank his position. Nathan staggered, off balance as the plasma baton toppled from his useless hand and clattered to the deck. Volt lunged for the weapon, his hands closing around it as he swung the baton up at Nathan. Nathan twisted off balance, plunged into the wall as he avoided the baton and reached behind his back for his spare and whipped it out. Volt back handed the baton on the return sweep and Nathan blocked it with his forearm and jabbed the fresh baton up under Volt’s ribcage, holding it there as the plasma charge crackled and burned into the con’s flesh.
Volt roared in pain and launched himself away from Nathan, crashing onto the deck and writhing in agony as the stench of burning flesh stained the air around them. Nathan fell back to the locked door as Volt’s crew picked their leader up, coils of thin blue smoke wafting from the wound in his side as the unstable con mastered the pain and glared at Nathan. A cruel smile broke through as he pointed at Xavier.
‘You’re done,’ Volt seethed. ‘No matter what happens here, all three of you are dead men. Only thing is how you go, fast or slow.’ His maniac giggle rattled around the control room as he gestured with one thumb out of the windows. ‘Got me a hundred men, all of ‘em waiting to come through here. How long d’ya think you’ll last, sticks?’
Nathan held his ground near the exit, Xavier beside him, blood on his lips from Volt’s punch but the baton still in his hand.
‘As long as these batons will,’ Nathan snapped back. ‘Don’t think we’ll make it ea
sy for you. If I get my way, you’ll be burned alive before you reach either of us.’
Volt chortled in delight.
‘The man’s after ma own dear heart,’ he cackled to his lackeys. ‘I owe you two scores now, stick, and the only one of us gonna be burnin’ alive is you. Literally. Whaddya think boys, we oughta set alight another o’those mattresses with Ironside here tied to it?’
A ripple of grim chuckles of anticipation fluttered darkly through the gathered crowd of convicts.
‘Why the hell do you want Xavier dead so bad?’ Nathan asked. ‘What’s in it for you?’
‘The pleasure of killin’ a stick,’ Volt snapped back as though it were obvious. ‘There anything else better?’
‘No,’ Nathan shook his head, ‘that’s not it. This riot will see you sealed up in the hole for the rest of your sentence, which means the rest of your life. You wouldn’t have done any of this without a good reason, and even a man as utterly insane as you knows better than to sign your own death warrant.’
‘Why thank you fo’ the compliment, stick,’ Volt whispered back in mock delight, ‘and in answer to your question, seein’ as you’re both about to die, horribly, all I can say is that your nearest and dearest oughta be kept at arm’s length, know what I mean?’
Nathan shook his head.
‘You knew that Xavier was innocent the moment he walked in here, didn’t you,’ he accused. ‘You’ve targeted him since he arrived.’
Volt shrugged, and then from the vent duct above him a hand appeared and passed something large and black. Volt looked up and then took the object as a bright smile blossomed on his face. Nathan’s guts plunged in despair as he watched Volt stroke the barrel of the MM–15 plasma pistol.
‘Well, whaddya know?’ he whispered, cradling the weapon as though it were a newborn child. ‘We got us some guns.’
Nathan saw Allen and Reed close up either side of him, and suddenly the plasma batons looked useless in their hands.
‘You don’t need to do this,’ Reed said to Volt.
‘A man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do,’ Volt replied, ‘and right now I’ve got to kill you.’ Volt glanced at Nathan. ‘I like you, Ironside, if you can believe that. Even for a damned stick. So if you stand aside, I’ll promise you a quick death.’
‘Go to hell!’
Volt shrugged again and put his finger to his nose. ‘Suit yourself, stick!’
Volt waved his crew forward and shouted at the top of his lungs as he activated the plasma pistol to the sound of a magazine humming with deadly energy as he aimed in support of his men.
‘Take ‘em down boys, all together now!!’
Nathan saw Volt’s thugs suddenly rush toward them, heard their combined roars of murderous delight deafeningly loud in the control room as they charged, eyes wide and poisoned with malice, pink mouths agape, weapons raised.
Nathan backed up against the door alongside Xavier and Allen, their batons held out before them, and then suddenly the door plunged open and they all collapsed onto their backs in the corridor beyond as rough hands grabbed them and hauled them through the open doorway and a blaze of rifle fire lit up the corridor in a fearsome blue–white frenzy.
***
XXX
Nathan heard screams from within the control room as he was dragged backwards along the deck, saw brilliant pulses of plasma fire hit the nearest of Volt’s thugs and sear deep black wounds into their chests, burning through flesh and bone in an instant to agonized screams as the thugs tumbled and fell.
Two shots blasted back in return as Volt fired his pistol and then suddenly the security door was slammed shut as armed guards heaved their weight in behind it and rammed solid metal latches back into place.
Nathan lay on his back on the hard, cold deck and stared up toward the ceiling, his chest heaving and his hand still gripping the plasma baton as though it were his only link to reality. Against the stark ceiling lights of the corridor, the Arkon Stone’s cold eyes and flaming red beard appeared to look down at him.
‘You?’ Nathan gasped.
‘Afraid so,’ the warden growled in reply as he moved around Nathan and offered him one large, calloused hand.
Nathan hesitated, but then he saw the armed guards standing by as one of their number helped Xavier to his feet, another hauling Allen upright. Reluctantly, Nathan took the proffered hand and the warden pulled him up onto his feet.
‘Apologies for the late arrival,’ the warden rumbled.
‘Late arrival?’ Nathan echoed. ‘You left the prison to its inmates with us in there. We’re lucky to be alive.’
The warden peered down at him. ‘You’re welcome. Contrary to what you might have assumed, we’ve been trying to figure out how to get you out of there ever since the lockdown was enforced. We weren’t expecting Ryan and his gang of idiots to use the lockdown to provoke a riot.’
Nathan frowned in confusion.
‘Then why’d you put us in there in the first place?’
The warden sighed and checked his plasma pistol’s magazine.
‘Truth is I’ve known for some time that there had been doubts raised over Xavier Reed’s conviction. But without evidence of some kind my hands were tied by the system – I can’t just treat him differently without the San Diego DA’s office or the Prison Governors saying that I can.’
Reed stared in disbelief at Arkon Stone. ‘And you threw me in with Volt’s crew?’
Stone nodded.
‘The only way to give you the freedom and the retrial that we suspected you needed was for somebody on the inside to slip up. My men intercepted what we call a “kill note”, an order sent from the outside in coded form telling Volt to murder you.’
Nathan felt a twinge of excitement as he realized what had happened.
‘You set Volt up.’
The warden winked at him. ‘Maybe you’re not such a bad detective after all. Volt would never knowingly divulge his complicity in a murder, but like most cons he’s a narcissistic psychopath and likes to prolong the suffering of his victims. We figured he’d give Reed a beating first before setting him up for the final attack, so we let the note get through.’
‘Great,’ Xavier uttered. ‘I got myself a visit to the infirmary so you could play power games with Volt’s crew.’
‘Your injuries were healed within an hour of the attack,’ Stone replied. ‘That also got you a breathing space in the infirmary out of Volt’s reach, and it gave us the chance to bug Volt’s cell while we frisked it after the attack for contraband.’
Nathan smiled, suddenly impressed at how well the warden had fooled everybody.
‘You made the cons think you hated us, to make them over–confident.’
‘Didn’t say I liked you,’ the warden countered.
Nathan grinned. ‘Likewise.’
The warden smiled as he checked his plasma rifle.
‘Did it work?’ Xavier demanded. ‘Did you get anything?’
‘From the cell?’ the warden asked. ‘No, but from in that control room, yes. Volt as good as confessed to being involved in the plot to kill you once you got to Tethys, which means your claims of being set up by somebody and a third shooter now will hold water with the DA. Add to that the kill note, which we traced back to San Diego, and your appeal can be cleared. We were listening in, and your time here is done.’
Nathan looked at Xavier, and in the space of a few moments he saw the months of pain and tension and anxiety and fear spill from the former officer’s shoulders, as though a deep and festering boil had been finally lanced. Xavier slumped against the wall, his jaw trembling as he raised the fingers of one hand to his temples and covered his eyes.
Nobody said anything for a moment, and then Nathan turned to the warden again.
‘We’ve got something else for you,’ he said. ‘I know who set this whole thing up and I know why.’
The warden sucked in a lungful of air, and gestured to his men. The guards moved out, heading away from the block as the
warden replied.
‘Then we need to keep both of you safe and hope that reinforcements get to us before Volt and his crew do.’
Nathan frowned. ‘Why? What the hell is going on out there, anyway?’
‘You’re gonna have to see that to believe it,’ the warden replied. ‘Communications are down, all flights are blockaded, Titan’s exchanged shots with an alien spaceship and most of this prison’s security systems are malfunctioning. If we lose any more power, that security door won’t stay locked for long.’
As if in reply Nathan heard a deep thumping from the other side of the security gate as the prisoners began attempting to bludgeon their way out of the block.
‘Can we blockade them in?’
‘My men are already on it,’ the warden replied. ‘For now, we need to get to the landing bays and hunker down as long as we can. My men are hopelessly outnumbered now the blocks are in the hands of the inmates, and once they figure out how to trigger the fire safety mechanisms they’ll be out.’
‘They can escape the blocks?’ Allen asked.
‘This used to be a mining facility,’ the warden replied. ‘Fire was one of the greatest risks and so flames and smoke in certain areas will trigger an automated sequence that first allowed staff to escape and then sealed off the affected areas. I’ve been writing for funds to have the system altered now that Tethys is a prison, but it’s like getting blood out of a stone and nobody cares about the welfare of prisoners or prison staff back planet–side.’
‘Some things never change,’ Nathan uttered. ‘How long do we have?’
‘Volt’s no fool, he’ll be aware of the prison’s weaknesses. My guess is that his riot was supposed to overwhelm the prison and take officers hostages, then hold them to ransom in return for his release. His people have already got into the armory, and I know that three of my men were caught up in the riot. Did you see them? Are they alive?’
Detective Allen replied.
‘Two of them are. Volt killed one.’
Titan (Old Ironsides Book 2) Page 22