“Time for you to answer some questions,” Paul said. “Specifically about that map you claimed to have. I want it now.”
“Paulie? I will…” Brinley started.
Paul pushed her aside and said, “Sorry Brinley, not this time. Klara I want the map now!”
“Map?” Klara responded. “A map to what? There has been so much happening lately, and I had to relocate my business here, just to survive. I am not sure what you are talking about.”
Klara tried to step around Paul and head for the door, but Gretchen stopped her by grabbing her again. This time, Gretchen held on very firmly to her arms. “I am sure you remember what we are talking about. The map you threatened to sell to Governor Larissa.”
At the name Larissa, the tavern owner, Delaine-Moe’s face grew very white. She touched the back of the silver automacube, and it ceased to move. She then also slipped out the door and departed her own tavern.
“I am not sure…” Klara muttered.
“Oh I am sure. You wanted to get immunity from the infection. You wanted us to supply you with protection against becoming a Roe. You said we had only a couple of days, or you would give the information to Larissa. Do you remember now?” Gretchen shook her a bit.
“I well… yes, now I do remember… I have it right here, if you will release me. I will give it to you… if you can still give me protection and make me immune to the infection,” Klara tried to move her arms.
“Sure,” Paul said. “You give me the map right now.” He nodded to Gretchen who released Klara’s arms.
Extremely quickly, Klara reached into her shirt pocket and withdrew a small device. She pressed a button on it and a shrill whine happened. Gretchen threw her arm out and slapped into Klara’s elbow so when the energy blast shot out it missed them, barely. A table absorbed the weapon’s effects; the table shook for a moment and then crumbled into a multitude of tiny disjointed pieces of the wood it had once been.
Brinley grabbed Klara’s arm and pushed the hand holding the weapon down. It discharged again, with the same shrill whine and the same shaking effect on a half meter sized area of the wooden floor. That section crumbled and fell away revealing the floor joists and the dirt beneath.
Paul was about to punch Klara, when Gretchen grabbed her other arm and yanked her down to the floor. Brinley wrestled the weapon out of Klara’s hand.
“An organic disruptor?” Brinley said in surprise as she looked at the weapon. “I have never seen one so small.”
“There are lots of things you have never seen before,” Klara said as she spit at Brinley. “But just wait. You will see them all.”
Klara fought back up to her knees, but with Brinley and Gretchen holding her she succumbed and they tossed her onto her back.
“Hold her for a moment,” Paul said in an oddly calm voice. “I think we can still make a deal with her.”
“You are an idiot!” Klara spat as she tried to get up.
Gretchen slammed her down to the floor again.
Paul rummaged around inside his backpack. His hands moved about as she searched its contents. He pulled out a bit of something dark and sealed in a small box. “Oh, good, I did keep it.”
“I am not interested in anything you have!” Klara said. “Release me now!”
“Well, when Brinley was a Roe, I was able to take a sample from her. You know I am immune so it does not threaten me at all.” Paul opened the small box.
Klara’s eyes grew wide.
“Yes, you told me about that,” Brinley said playing along.
“Well, I kept this so that I could examine the progress of the infection and use it as a baseline to treat anyone else who may suffer from the infection. To do that, well, I needed a live tissue specimen which still had the active infection. This flesh is from Brinley when she was infected and has never been treated.” Paul withdrew a small black chunk of material. There was a distinct odor around it.
“Pungent!” Paul said as he sniffed at it. “I am certainly glad I am immune. Can you smell the infection, Gretchen?”
Paul waved the black chunk at Gretchen who was still busy holding the struggling Klara. “I hate that smell,” Gretchen commented. “But I am immune as well.”
“Those children hated the smell also,” Paul stated. “The boy with that monkey’s paw, he actually thought that monkey’s paw could protect him from things. But when I gave them some of this, well, shall we just say, the Roe came to play, rather than some pirates.”
Klara’s eyes were enormous. She kicked with her legs, but Brinley had hold of her as well. Gretchen again slammed Klara’s back to the wooden floor.
“Oh yes, those children, they came to my island, and well, I just could not stand it anymore. Meddling children are not welcome, not at all. I am tired of people prying into my business. So I infected them. It was an unpleasant sight, to be sure, but it was required. I then watched as they tore each other to pieces. This infection is rather potent, as you can tell from the smell.”
“I will give you the map!” Klara yelled. “Just keep that away from me!”
“Indeed, yes, you will give me the map. You will give it to me very quickly, because you will only have a short time before you become a Roe,” Paul said.
“What?” Klara screamed.
Paul rammed the black chunk into her mouth and then held his hand over her mouth and nose.
Klara tried to spit it out, but Paul held her firmly. She tried to thrash her head around, but Paul kept his grip. His fingers pushed down hard enough to block off Klara’s nose.
“When you swallow that, I will let you breathe again,” Paul said. “It is your choice how long you wait.”
Klara flailed her head back and forth and tried to fight, but was overpowered. Finally, she made a horrible face of anguish and swallowed.
“Now I believe it only takes a short while for the victim to turn to a Roe. Let her up,” Paul commanded.
Gretchen and Brinley stood up and stepped away. Brinley made sure she had the organic disruptor.
Klara was trying to vomit and spit and gag all at the same time. She was kneeling on the floor.
“You cruel, cruel man. What have you done?” Klara sputtered.
“I have given you an incentive, an infection incentive. I have ensured that you will give me the map, immediately. When you give me the map, then I will cure you from the infection you just ingested. Refuse, or play some trick, and you will be a Roe. I wonder what the fine people of Kimry would do to a Roe in their midst?” Paul chuckled a bit.
“How long to I have?” Klara asked in anguish.
“Not long enough to ask stupid questions,” Paul calmly answered.
“I hate you!” Klara said.
“Be that as it may. Perhaps we will just leave right now. I guess it could be you never did have a map. In that case, good bye, and good luck.”
Paul turned and walked toward the door of the tavern.
“No! I have it!”
“Give it to me now, and you get the antidote,” Paul said.
“It is not here on me,” Klara said. She stumbled to her feet.
“Are you feeling a bit ill at ease? Perhaps sore and light headed?” Paul asked. “Those are the first signs. If it gets too far along, I may not have time for the treatment.”
“It is at my residence. I will take you there,” Klara coughed out.
“Lead on, but remember, if we get hurt, you will turn and become a Roe. Only we know how to cure the infection.”
Klara led them out and into the now darkness of the night. There were a few lights scattered about the alleyway, but it was mostly darkness and shadows.
A few houses away, Klara took out a small card and slid it into a slot on the nondescript side of an abandoned house. A powered door slid open, revealing a lit area behind it.
“I will get the map. It is not paper, like those children had, but on a minicomputer.” Klara led them inside. “I cannot believe… you are so evil.”
The inside
of the house was far different than outside. From the outside the place was a rundown and ramshackle ruin. Inside, there was power, and several clean, tidy, and well furnished rooms. Klara had many stockpiled items: a large supply of food, tanks of drinking water, materials, commodities, and several automacubes. None were red automacubes, but there were two yellows, a blue, and a green.
Klara walked toward a shelf where there were stacks of small mechanical items and other things.
“Brinley, make sure what she touches is not a weapon,” Paul commanded. “If she even touches a weapon there will be no healing.”
Klara glared at Paul in malice. She then took down a minicomputer, which was about the size of her palm. “I can put this into the automacube, if you want. Or you can use the plotter on the display to search out the destination. I truly hate you.”
Paul looked at Brinley, who took the minicomputer.
“Paul, it does look like something is programmed into it. A route of some kind. Not full deck plans, but it does lead somewhere,” Brinley responded. “From what I can tell it is genuine. We do not need an automacube, this will suffice.”
“Is it radioactive?” Paul asked.
Klara looked stricken.
“It was you!” Gretchen said. “You put those radioactive materials on us.”
“So did you give a copy of this map to Larissa?” Paul asked. “It does not really matter, for we will deal with her next. We searched for you and found you easily enough.”
“Just cure me now. You have the map,” Klara begged.
“But how will we know if it is real?” Paul asked. “And you still have not told me if Larissa was given a copy.”
“I tell you it is real!” Klara squealed. “Larissa did not care anymore after you were reported dead. She did not want to pay me.”
“Well that may or may not be true. I just do not trust you.” Paul dug into his backpack and pulled out the fusion pack. He knew that Dome 17 technology was not well known to the people of the Vanguard.
“Stick out your arm,” Paul ordered. “Let me use my medical kit on you.”
Klara did so, but eyed the fusion pack with concern. Brinley and Gretchen watched closely and there was no hint from them of Paul’s deception.
Paul connected two of the wires from the fusion pack to Klara’s arm. He then adjusted the energy flow so that a spark shot out.
“Youch!” Klara yelled. “What did you do?”
“I just injected you with the treatment. You will be covered for about eighteen hours during this first phase of treatment.”
“What do you mean, ‘first phase’?” Klara asked.
“Oh, you do not think I am stupid enough to just fully cure you her and now do you? This first phase is the only painful one, but as I said, it will only last about eighteen hours. I will remotely activate the next treatments which are now sitting inert in your body. Without the next phases the cure will fail. I will activate them over the next few days. By then I should know if your map is real or phony. If it is phony, then I will not activate the full treatment regime, and you will slowly succumb to the infection. Also, if I die or either of my friends die or if we get injured in anyway, I will be unable to activate the final steps of the cure.” Paul looked intently at Klara. “Is there anything else you want to share with me?”
“No. The map is real. How will I know if you fulfill your side of this deal?” Klara was angry and frustrated, and fearful. “You might just leave me to die of this. Or worse, I may turn and become a Roe.”
“If the map is real, and we are unmolested, then you will not become a Roe, and that will prove I honored my side. But if this map is bogus, or we get attacked, you will not escape the infection. I am sure you can feel it working in you. Do I can see a hint of orange in your eyes? It is very subtle at first. That infection will get you if you have lied.”
“I told you. It is a real map! Larissa did not want it. Now get out!” Klara yelled. “Get out and I hope to never see your miserable faces ever again. Go!”
“Brinley, please weld shut her door as we leave. She will need her rest to recover, and we do not want anyone pursuing us, do we?”
Paul and Gretchen exited. Brinley turned around and put several quick welds across the powered door as well as melting the card slot.
As they walked away, they got several blocks away. Then Gretchen pulled Paul into a hug. “That was amazing. I was not sure what you were doing at first. Pretending the fusion pack was the medical kit was ingenious.”
Brinley then asked with a huge smile, “I did not remember you taking any samples from me. What was it that you made her eat?”
“One of my dried fish chunks,” Paul laughed.
“So, Paulie, it really was torture,” Brinley said.
10 the search continues
“The plotter on the minicomputer shows directions and very basic layouts, but no clear details. I have checked it over and I doubt Klara can track us with this. It is just a simple storage module, she did not have time to trap it or set trackers inside of it. It looks clean to me. But the route is complicated and long,” Brinley said.
“I imagine it starts with us getting out of this habitat,” Gretchen said. “Do we go all the way back to Inaccessible Island?”
“Across that water in the dark? No thank you,” Paul said. “Maybe we should hide out in one of these abandoned houses?”
“I do not think so. That tavern owner probably went right to the Governor’s office and sought the guards. She was angry with us and she probably heard the terms Free Rangers, and well, that probably spooked her and we have made enemies,” Brinley said. “Also, we do not know what Klara will end up doing. She is scared now, but how long will that last?”
“So how do we get out of here?” Paul asked.
They were standing between several abandoned houses at the wall edge of the town of Kimry. It was dark, with just the faintest glow from the nighttime sky tube far overhead. The small light from the display on the minicomputer was casting a dim glow over their faces. There were occasional lights in some of the occupied homes, but they were few and far between.
“The side of the habitat is close. There are no doors which can keep me in or keep me out. So we get out of the biological habitat then seal the door again. No pursuit will happen from the guards past the wall. If Governor Svoboda reports this it will take some time for Constable Herric to get here, and by then we will be gone.” Brinley shut down the minicomputer.
“But will there be a door out of the habitat?” Gretchen asked.
“Yes. I am nearly certain there will be. Nearly every town in every habitat I have visited was built with passageways in and out. I have no doubt it will be sealed and perhaps even welded shut. The quarantine is in effect, but we can get around that.” Brinley patted her backpack. “I would guess that the transport tube system is on one of the levels beneath that building called the Okrug. Best to not go there. So we search along the wall here until we find it.”
“So if we go back across the sea we face that thing in the water while in the dark. If we leave the habitat there are the Roe. Stay here and the guards come after us? Wonderful choices. Just wonderful,” Paul said.
“If I put on the fusion pack’s light everyone around will see us,” Gretchen stated. “But it is so dark, I am not sure if I would recognize a door or passageway if I saw one.”
They started to walk along the alleyway near the wall. They went the opposite way from where the Purple Mugger was located. Its outside display panel did cast a purplish glow over the area where the tavern was located.
They were just about to the end of the town, when they saw a tall and slender building. It was silhouetted in the dim light.
“That is a mill,” Brinley said. “I wondered if this town would have one.”
“What does it do? Is it the exit?” Paul asked.
“There is equipment in there for grinding of grains. It is probably powered by animals, or by the light from the sky tube, or ev
en hooked to the ship’s power system.”
“So it is a food preparation plant?” Paul asked.
“Yes.”
“So would the door be near here?” Gretchen asked. “I mean, if there was not a quarantine, would the ship’s designers have placed an exit near that mill?”
“It is probable, and we have not seen anything else to point us in a different way. If I could see this alleyway better, I could tell by the patterns on the surface where things, people, and machines have moved, but it is too dark now.”
“What about irregularities in the wall. It seems to me that the shadows are deeper over there,” Gretchen pointed.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 75