by Rob Buckman
“Shush!” A soft voice whispered close to her ear, and she recognized it as Mike’s. She froze in place for a moment, her ears straining to catch the slightest sound. She heard footsteps padding slowly on rock, walking towards them, and the sound of someone talking in a low tone.
“You going to go all the way up there?”
“Yeah, why not, that overhang might be the place I saw the light coming from, and just the sort of place they’d hide.” Ann felt a shiver run down her back, she’d forgotten about that.
“Better you than me, there’s no telling what they are armed with.”
“Don’t matter, I’ve got enough here to handle them.”
“I say we should go back and get more men.”
“Nar, take too long. If they’re here, they might be gone by the time we got back, and we’d lose the reward.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“Don’t care if you do or don’t, I’m going up, come if you want, or stay here.” After that there were grumbling sound from the second man, but it sounded as if he was coming up as well.
Mike stood up carefully and moved to his left to touch the wall. A few feet to the side, he found a depression in the rock and on stocking feet, he moved into it, pulling his knife. Firing a blaster in here could have disastrous consequences if it didn’t hit anyone. The bolt would bounce off the rock in any direction, even back to the person who fired. Suddenly, despite the cold, sweat beaded his upper lip, and the knife felt slippery in his hand at the thought of trying to take both men. Light bounced off the walls and ceiling of the overhang, probing ahead. Looking back, Mike tried to see the Lady Ann, and as a stray beam fell on their makeshift bed, he found she had silently vanished.
‘Good for her’. He thought. ‘At least she out of the line of fire’.
Switching hands, he wiped his right hand on his leg to remove the sweat then switch the knife back. As he did, he tried to formulate some sort of attack plan, but there were so many unknowns it was impossible. In the end, he realized he'd have to go with his training and hope he could force an opportunity. His one advantage was surprise and the fact they didn’t really know if anyone was here. It might just be someone else from the search team in here. It was a slim chance. How many places had they checked before this and found nothing? If that was the case, then their mindset would be that this place was empty as well.
“I smell smoke!” One of the men muttered, and Mike cursed softly. The light grew stronger, sweeping back and forth, as the men walked closer. Then the overhang flooded with light, and it was inevitable that they’d see the makeshift beds and the fire pit.
“Hello, what's this?” A deep voice questioned.
His light centered on the bed and slowly drew abreast of him. Mike held his breath. As luck would have it, the man didn’t see him in the shadows and stepped slowly passed towards the fire. The light held by the second man was also focused on the same area, and as he came abreast Mike struck. His aim was for a killing blow to the neck, but misjudged the man’s height, his strike missing its mark and hit the man on the shoulder instead.
“OH SHIT!” The man screamed, stumbling back. He crashed to the floor, his light flying from his hand, blood spurting from a deep gash in his shoulder. Mike immediately spun round, flipping his knife to his other hand as he went for his sidearm.
“You ain’t going to make it, sailor!”
The man yelled, dancing to the side as he brought his weapon up. Then, much to Mike’s surprise, he staggered forward and dropped to the floor, out cold. Behind him, he could see the Lady Ann standing there with a large rock in her hand. Without waiting to see if the man recovered, Mike whipped round again, drawing his sidearm and covered the other man.
“Please! Don’t shoot!” The man called, holding up his good arm, blood covered palm out.
“Why not, you would have killed us.” Mike snapped, on the verge of touching the firing stud.
“No, no I wouldn’t, we was told to bring you in alive, especially her.”
“By who?”
“By Price Philip.” The man grimaced in pain.
“Who on Earth is Price Philip?”
“What do you mean?” The man asked, looking blank.
“I don’t know who he is or what he looks like.”
“He’s a tall skinny man with a monocle, and looks like a bit of a ponce.” He hissed between clenched teeth, his face screwed in pain.
“Oh, I know who you mean now, he the one staying at the Hacienda at the settlement, right?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” the man nodded eagerly, blood seeping through the fingers of his left hand, “he especially wants the bitch back for some reason, unharmed and untouched, if you know what I mean.”
“Yes, I do, not that it makes any sense.”
“Who are you calling a bitch you moron!” The Lady Ann demanded, storming over and kicked the man in the side for his trouble.
“Not me your ladyship,” he winced at the kick, “them was his words, not mine.” The man protested.
“I’ll just bet they were.” She pulled her leg back to kick him again, until Mike wrapped his arm around her waist to restrain her.
“Let not get carried away, Princess.” He said it jokingly, but she shot him a hard look and turned away.
“I think you and I had better have a little talk, but first I’ll take your weapons.”
Mike leveled his sidearm at the man, who immediately unbuckled his equipment belt and threw it across to him. “Any hidden knives or other lethal objects I should know about?” His look and tone told the man he wasn’t as green as he looked, and that he’d better not hold out. Reaching down, he lifted the hem of his pants and pulled out a boot knife. Just in case, Mike checked the other, but found nothing there.
“Good, now roll over onto your face and lay still.” Mike turned to go to his pack, but Ann anticipated him, and held out the cord he’d used on her the night before. Mike flushed a little and took it, binding the man hands behind him. That done, he checked the other man, and to his surprise found he was dead.
“Dead?” Ann gasped a shocked look on her face.
“As the proverbial door nail.”
“Oh my! I’ve never killed anyone before.” She wrapped her arms around her body, as if to hold herself together as she started to shiver.
“Except with your mouth Milady.” Mike regretted it that moment he said it, hearing her sob.
He immediately went over and put his arms around her, drawing her close. For a moment, she tried to pull away, but he held her tight, shivering like a leaf as shock set in, realizing what she’d done.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I apologize.” In answer, she sobbed on his shoulder, putting her arms around his back, holding on for dear life.
“I’ve never killed anyone.” She sobbed her voice sounding small and lost.
“I know, I know, it's hard.” He answered, knowing how he felt the first time.
“Oh god, I feel terrible, I only meant to knock him out and save you, that's all, I just wanted to save you so you wouldn’t get hurt, that’s all.” She blubbered.
“I know, I understand.” She shivered, and without thinking, he kissed her. He hadn’t intended to, it just happened.
One second she was crying on his shoulder, the next her lips were locked on his as she returned the kiss with fire. Her supple body pressed against his, molding itself to him. How long it might have gone on, or what might have happened next they never knew, as the injured man started moaning and complaining.
“Would one of you love birds come and have a look at my shoulder before I bleed to death here!” Even in his situation, the man let out a painful chuckle. For a split second Mike felt like going over and killing the man on the spot so he wouldn’t interrupt. As their lips broke, Ann gave a little growl and started towards the man, obviously with the same thought in mind. Mike grabbed her.
“It's alright. I’ll take care of him.” She pouted for a moment, t
hen stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him again. “That’s just in case you thought the first one wasn’t real.” She gave him a weak smile.
“Go build the fire back up.” Mike suddenly had the feeling he was floating. He had little doubt that the first kiss was real. He was just surprised that he’d kissed her at all, let alone that she’d responded.
Taking a small can from his emergency medical kit and shook it as he walked over to the man and knelt down. Pulling him into a sitting position he shone the light on the wound, wincing.
“Nasty huh?” The man muttered, turning his head to look.
“Yeah, but I’ve seen worse.”
“Hey, don’t sweat it, I’m just glad that I’m alive, another inch or two and I’d be like him, dead.” The man said, nodding his chin towards his late friend.
“That’s what I was trying to do. So don’t give me any excuse to finish the job.”
See the man nod, grimacing in pain as he did. Cutting away the clothing around the wound he wiped it clean, or tried to, but the moment he did fresh blood welled out. Holding the edges together, he quickly sprayed the contents of the can over the cut and waited a few seconds before letting go. The liquid foamed, cleaning the wound as it hardened to a thick gel and sealed the wound. When dry, it would form a clear flexible skin.
“DAMN! That stings!” The man winced, gritting his teeth.
Once it hardened, Mike removed his finger and sprayed a second coat over to cover the place where he’d held it. The man winced again for a moment until the local anesthetic took over. The spray also contained antibiotics as well as healing agents, and in a few days, the wound should have healed sufficiently that it wouldn’t matter if the new-skin bandage came off. It was originally developed for combat units, but had since come into widespread use everywhere. It was a god sent in these conditions where it might take days to reach a doctor, or medical facilities.
“That should hold you, just keep your arm as still as possible for a few days and let that cut heal.”
“Thanks, I’ll remember that.” Nodding his head. In the light from the dropped lantern, his face looked pale from blood loss.
“Are there any more in your party out there?” Mike pointed towards the jungle, as he held his canteen to the man’s lips. He took a long drink before answering, nodding his thanks after a second long swig.
“No, just us two.” Mike looked at him skeptically.
“No, it's true, you two have led us a merry chase.” He even smiled weakly as he said it. “His Lordship has us and the Black Guard of his running around in every fucking direction.”
“Black Guard?”
“Yeah, that’s what we call them. Nasty looking bunch of blond guys that runs around in black uniforms.”
“I think I know who you mean. The blond guys I saw.”
“They’re all blond kid.” He said it in a funny tone, and Mike looked at him.
“What?”
“Don’t you know?”
“Know what?” The wounded man sighed and shook his head.
“All the men in the Prince’s personal bodyguard and blond and blue eyes, all 6’-3” tall, built like a brick shit house and as mean as hell.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Kid, stay away from them, they are mean, vicious and will kill you as soon as look at you.”
“Umm, ran into them already, and I think killed a couple.” Mike murmured, thinking back to the fight in the Hacienda. The man gave him an odd look, as if to say he didn’t quite believe him and then shrugged.
“Good riddance’s, but it won’t do any good, he has plenty more where they came from.”
“Recruits a lot huh.”
“Recruit hell, they’re all clones!” He spat out the last part like he had something dirty in his mouth.
“Good god! That’s illegal!”
“Tell that to Prince Philip, or the King.” He snorted. This was getting beyond Mike.
“So he’s still out there looking for us with how many men?”
“Not sure, but enough. You are good at confusing your trail kid, that trip in the swamp has them really tearing their hair out.”
“Good.”
“Yeah, from your point of view, we lost a couple of good trackers in there.”
“Oh, how come?”
“Don’t you know,” He asked in surprise.
“There are some very nasty little buggers live in there.”
“We never saw any.” Mike kept a poker face, inwardly smiling.
“Jesus, you do have the luck.” He wiggled around until he was sitting in a more comfortable position.
“One of the little beasty looks like a cross between and snake and a six legged alligator, vicious thing and hard as hell to kill.”
“I’m glad we didn’t run into any then.” Mike just looked innocent.
“Well, a few of the men said you was dead in there and it wasn’t worth looking anymore,” he chuckled, “just shows them how wrong they were.” He was gritting his teeth in pain for a moment as Mike turned him over into a sitting position. He gave the man two quick action pain pills and a swallow of water to wash them down.
“The question is, what are we going to do with you?”
“Me, I’m no threat to you and your lady, kid.”
“She’d not my lady…” Mike looked over his shoulder a moment at the Lady Ann. From the way she’d kissed him, it might look that way from where this man was sitting.
“How do you figure that?”
“Hell, you take my radio and skimmer and leave me here. It’ll take me two, maybe three days to walk out of here to the settlement. By that time you’d be long gone to wherever it is you’re going.”
“And where do they think we are going?
“How the hell should I know, your ship most likely.” He grinned.
“Not that anyone can find a damn ship in this fucking jungle.”
“That hard, huh.”
“Hell, yes, too many hot spots down here to get any sort of worthwhile inferred reading.”
“I see.” It was something to think about, especially if the man was telling the truth.
“What no one can figure out is, what the hell are you doing here, and what so flagging important about catching you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Oh, his Lordship’s been having fits for the last three days about it. Screams and yells at everyone to keep looking and find you.”
“Sound like he’s a little upset.”
“Yeah, you could say that.” From the sound of it, there was something the man wasn’t telling him about the Prince. “No ships have lifted off this ball of mud, so he knows you are still here.” That wasn’t very encouraging.
It meant that the search hadn’t died down as he’d hoped, just intensified. By stopping here, he’d given the trackers time to fan out over a large area of countryside, and made it more likely for them to run into one of the parties. The man had given them one hope, his skimmer. With that, they’d look like one of the search groups, and give them a better chance to get to the ship. It also meant that they’d be easier to spot as well.
“Gather your things, Milady. We’re getting out of here now.” Mike said softly as he walked up to her.
He could see the light was gathering along the Eastern horizon, which meant dawn wasn’t far away. Without a word of protest, she did while Mike went and stripped the dead man of anything worthwhile. That was quite a bit, what with weapons, food ration, knives, radio, medical kit, and a few sundry items. He also checked the wounded man, relieving him of his radio and a few other items. Within a few minutes, they were ready to go. Mike stood there and looked down at the man for a moment.
“I’m going to leave your weapons where you parked your skimmer, as I don’t want you wandering around out there unarmed.”
“That’s good of you, weapons cost a fortune here, and I appreciate that. You’ll find the skimmer at the bottom of the hill, parked in some bushes.�
�� He said, as if thanking them for leaving his weapons. It would save time hunting for it.
“The skimmer yours?”
“Nar! His Lordship gave it to us for the search.”