by Elin Wyn
“I’m sorry, Teisha.” Throwing me a quick glance over his shoulder, he gave me an apologetic smile. “Time is of the essence. If the Puppet Master is in danger, we must act now.”
“What about the other teams?”
“We’ll call it in on the way,” he replied. “But if I remember the last schedule, they’re all too far away.” His jaw tightened. “We’ll get there before any of them do. But I’ll inform the general, all the same.” Punching the top button on the elevator panel in front of us, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other as we waited for the doors to slide back into their partitions.
Once they did, Sa'lok almost jumped inside.
He leaned against the wall and started fiddling with his comms unit once more. “Get me the general,” he growled once he found the frequency he had been looking for.
“Sa'lok?” A voice I didn’t recognize said. “What’s going on? It’s still early, the general is asleep.”
“Then wake him up. Right now.”
A couple of seconds later, the deep but sleepy voice of the general filled the cramped space of the elevator.
“This better be good, Sa'lok.”
“I have reason to believe the Puppet Master is under attack right now,” Sa'lok explained, not bothering with any small talk. “It’s also possible that he has been infected by the Gorgos.”
“Blast,” the general exclaimed, his voice tense. I found it strange that he was using an expression that only humans used, but that was probably normal—he had, after all, taken a human as his mate. “All the teams are deployed right now. I’ll try and redirect someone right away, but it might take them a while to get there. I think you might need to head there yourself. Take the best pilot you have with you.”
“She’s with me now, sir,” Sa'lok responded without a moment’s hesitation, and I felt my heart swelling with pride at that. “And we’re already on the way.”
“Good. Then keep me updated. And I don’t think I need to tell you this, but whatever you have to do to keep the Puppet Master safe...do it. More than just being an important asset, he’s this planet’s beating heart. We can’t afford to lose him.”
“Understood, sir.”
“What if it’s too late?” I asked Sa'lok once he put the comms unit away. “What happened in the lab wasn’t normal. If the Puppet Master has already been infected, then I don’t know what—”
“One thing at a time,” Sa'lok cut me short, hushing me by placing one of his fingers over my lips.
Then he smiled. Everything was spiraling out of control and he was actually smiling. “That’s what you always tell me, right? I’m used to telling people you’re a pro at keeping a level head, so don’t make me look like a fool, deal?”
“I’ll try.”
“It’ll be alright, Teisha, we just need to get there as fast as we can.”
“Then leave it to me.” As the elevator doors opened to reveal the spacious hangar, I took a deep breath.
My hovercraft was still on the landing pad, which meant I wouldn’t need more than ten seconds to get us out of here.
“Fast is my middle name.”
Sa'lok
“Are you sure this is safe?” Clutching the armrests of my seat, I looked out the window as the fuselage covering the twin engines started turning red from the heat.
The trepidation was almost as intense as when you cut through the atmosphere of a planet and every bolt seemed to be rattling in place.
Outside, the scenery was flying past us so fast I had to stop looking out the window.
“Are you afraid?” Teisha laughed, her voice brimming with excitement. Whatever anxiety she had been feeling had now given way to an adrenaline rush.
“I’m not afraid,” I protested. “But don’t you think you’re going a bit too fast? I’d like to get to the Puppet Master in one piece, if possible.”
“One very timely piece,” she added and, flicking some switches on her control panel, directed whatever energy the hovercraft still held in reserve toward the engines.
A whining sound started making itself heard, one that made my eardrums hurt, and I was pushed back against my seat so hard that all the air left my lungs.
We cut through the pre-dawn skies like a bullet, and I actually had to close my eyes to control how nauseous I was feeling.
I had never become nauseous before—at least not when it came to flying—and I was just thankful I hadn’t eaten breakfast. If I had, it would probably be lining the floor around my feet already.
“Alright, you can breathe out now,” Teisha added, and I felt the ship slowing down. The whining sound stopped, the clattering of metal on metal became almost inaudible, and the world outside my window became more than a simple blur. “We’re two minutes away from the tunnel entrance.”
“Already?” The trip from Glymna to the Puppet Master’s lair should’ve taken at least two hours, but if Teisha was right, it had taken us less than an hour. “How’s that even possible?”
“Why do you think the general wanted me as one of his pilots?” Looking back at me over her shoulder, she patted the control panel and grinned.
“I guess I’ve found something you didn’t know about me.” She stroked the panel again, and for a moment I felt a wave of… jealousy? Impossible. “More than being a good pilot, I’m also a good mechanic. I’ve fitted two dozen state-of-the-art injectors around the engines, and tweaked their cores so that they’d be able to process the extra fuel.”
“Impressive.”
“Thanks,” she smiled, looking proud about her handiwork. She had every right to be—when it came to it, Teisha was probably even more talented than some of the mechanics and pilots we had in our old Vengeance crew.
“Look, down there.” Pointing toward a wide crater about two hundred feet below us, I gritted my teeth as I saw half a dozen aerial units and hovercrafts idling around its rim. I didn’t need a closer look to know that those weren’t governmental units.
The general had installed proximity sensors around the crater, but whoever was here had somehow managed to deactivate them.
“Do you recognize any of those ships?” Teisha asked me, already dipping the hovercraft’s nose and starting our descent.
“Unfortunately, I do,” I replied. “A number of them were reported as stolen in Nyheim over the last few weeks.” I stretched out my shoulders. “It seems we were right. Someone’s trying to get to the Puppet Master. Land behind that dune over there,” I continued, pointing toward a spot that I hoped would conceal our ship. “We don’t know if there are more of them coming.”
Three minutes later, my boots hit the rocky ground. Grabbing my rifle from the cargo hold, I ensured the batteries were fully loaded and that I had all the ammo I needed.
“You’re expecting a fight?”
“It’s likely,” I admitted, feeling the weight of the rifle in my hands. It had been a while since I’d had the chance to use it, and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. “According to the last communication I received from HQ, the general has already sent a team our way. They’ll be here in an hour and a half.”
“We can’t wait for them,” she said, and for once I agreed with her impatience.
Still, I didn’t want to risk Teisha’s life, and we were clearly outnumbered. The logical thing for us to do would be wait for backup, but if we simply hung back and waited…
“You’re right,” I nodded. “We can’t afford to lose the Puppet Master. You stay here and I’ll go ahead to—”
“Yeah, no,” she cut me short, rummaging through the boxes in the cargo hold and grabbing a small handgun from inside one. “If you think I’m gonna sit here while you go into the tunnels, then you’re in for a surprise. I’m coming with you.”
“Fine,” I sighed. There was no use arguing with her. Whenever she set her mind on something, not even the general himself would’ve been able to stop her. “Just be careful.”
“Always am,” she smiled, tucking her handgun into her belt.
&n
bsp; Removing her lab coat, she threw it into the cargo hold and then locked the doors.
Underneath her coat she had a simple black tank-top, one that immediately drew my attention to the way her breasts strained against the fabric.
Get a grip, I chided myself. We were about to step into a life-risking situation and here I was admiring the shape of her body.
Why was it so hard to focus whenever she was around me? Clearing my throat, I gave myself a little encouraging nod.
“Follow me,” I told her as I started going up the dune, my boots sinking into the sand. As we reached the top, I lay flat on my stomach and peeked over the edge.
There was no one else in the crater, which meant whoever was inside the tunnels hadn’t bothered with a lookout. Instead of going straight toward the crater, though, I led Teisha away from it.
The intruders probably weren’t aware of it, but a hidden set of stairs had been built in an ancillary crater, allowing the general’s men to get to the bottom caverns faster.
We made our way down the narrow stairs that had been carved into the slope of the crater, doing it as quietly as we could so we could pay attention to any noises ahead. As the stairs finally sunk underground, cutting a straight path through the maze of tunnels, a deep silence enveloped us.
It seemed I had been right, and that whoever was trying to get to the Puppet Master hadn’t known about this access point.
“Is that normal?” Teisha whispered once we got to the bottom caverns, the sound of dripping water the only thing keeping us company.
The flashlight attached to my rifle was lighting the path ahead, but it seemed like the usual way to the Puppet Master’s heart had been blocked.
Thick vines, some of them thicker than my forearm, had been woven together into a massive wall.
“No,” I replied, carefully reaching for the vines with one hand. I brushed my fingertips against them, hoping to feel that familiar presence, but there was nothing. “He’s trying to keep us out.”
“Maybe it’s to protect us.”
“Maybe.”
Pointing the flashlight at the vine blockade in front of us, I tried to find a weak point in the structure.
Noticing the way the two thickest vines were interwoven, I handed Teisha the rifle, then grabbed one of them with both hands.
I placed one foot against the wall for leverage and, holding my breath, started pushing the vine back with as much strength as I could muster.
It wasn’t easy, and my muscles readily started complaining from the effort, but I eventually managed to create a small opening we could use to squeeze through.
I wanted to go first and check the path ahead, but Teisha handed me the rifle and immediately went through the gap in the vines.
“Path’s clear,” she said, and then grabbed my hand and helped me through. I was far larger than she was, and I struggled not to get stuck.
Eventually, though, I got to the other side.
“We’re close now,” I whispered, careful to keep my voice low. If the Puppet Master had put up a barrier to keep us out, then that probably meant whoever had stolen the aerial units were already down here as well.
I slung my rifle over one shoulder, letting my vision shift over to add more infrared to account for the darkness.
Leading Teisha, we started making our way through the tunnel, but we had only gone a few yards when I heard the shuffling of heavy boots up ahead.
“Skrell,” I muttered, immediately pointing my rifle toward the sound.
A faint yellow light came from a few feet ahead of us, right where the tunnel bent left, and I could see human shadows being cast against the wall.
“Who’s there?” I heard a man’s voice asking, and I immediately dropped to one knee, waiting for someone to step into my line of fire.
Teisha followed my lead, crouching next to me while holding her handgun with both hands. “Come out right now!”
I said nothing.
I just held my breath and waited.
When the first man stepped into sight, I pointed toward his leg and fired, the sound of it echoing like thunder through the tunnel. Hurt and disoriented, he crashed against the wall with a deep groan, then doubled over and collapsed on the ground.
Behind him came six more men, but they were wiser than the one leading them. Instead of charging ahead, one of them grabbed a grenade from his belt pouch and rolled it toward us.
Knowing there was no chance we’d be able to get past the vines before the grenade exploded, I reacted on instinct and threw myself on top of Teisha, covering her small body with mine.
This is it, I thought, the end of the line for me. Except, it wasn’t. Instead of exploding, the grenade went off with a loud pop and filled the entire tunnel with clouds of smoke.
“Zet,” I growled, taking aim once more. “I should’ve known.”
It was too late. The six men were already on us, the muzzles of their rifles pointing straight toward us. I reacted fast and, grabbing one of the muzzles, rammed the butt of the rifle against its owner’s chest.
At the same time, I spun around and kicked one in the groin while elbowing another, the nauseating sound of a nose being broken echoing throughout the tunnel.
“Put that mechanical bastard down,” one of them cried out, and someone yanked the rifle out of my hands.
Two of them directed their attention toward Teisha, punching her in the stomach and knocking her down, while the rest of them descended upon me like a pack of aramirion.
They punched and kicked like men possessed, and I only stopped offering any kind of resistance when one of the bastards pointed his rifle at Teisha.
“Alright, you alien sicko,” he spat, his yellowed teeth showing in his tired grin. “You’re coming with us right now, or I’m going to put a bullet in your girlfriend’s head.”
“I’ll kill you,” I growled, a cocktail of anger and adrenaline coursing through me. Still, I did as I was told and lowered my arms.
As one of the men started binding my wrists, I couldn’t resist issuing them one final warning.
“You touch one hair on her head and I’ll kill the lot of you. That’s a promise.”
Teisha
“Walk,” one of the men said, prodding me with his blaster. A lanky guy with an overgrown stubble, he had dead eyes that didn’t seem to care much about the world around him. He kept one hand on my shoulder to guide me, the other keeping the muzzle of his weapon pressed against my lower back.
“I’m walking,” I threw right back at him, doing my best not to stumble as we advanced through the dimly-lit tunnels.
My wrists had been bound with rope, and it had been tightened so much that I could feel the restricted blood pounding.
Sa'lok walked a couple of feet ahead of me, but instead of having one man guiding him, he had four of them. No one was taking any risks around him, it seemed, especially after he had shot one in the leg and broken another’s nose.
“Faster,” the man behind me said, poking my lower back once more.
“I’m going as fast as I can.” Looking back at him over my shoulder, I gave him my death-stare. “Just who the hell are you, anyway, and what are you doing here?”
“Mind your own business, you alien-loving bitch,” he snapped, clearly enjoying the fact that he was in control. Even though he didn’t strike me as the smartest one in the whole bunch, it seemed like he was actually capable of some conversation.
The fact that whatever they were doing here had required some careful planning seemed to discredit the theory that these men were working under the Gorgos’ influence. They were assholes, but they weren’t rabid, infected assholes.
It took us a couple more minutes before we stepped into a large underground chamber, the Puppet Master’s beating heart right at the center. It looked like a large plant’s bulb, bigger than a regular human being, and it seemed like it was breathing...or beating, just like a heart.
Around it were at least two dozen humans—most of them we
re men, but there were a few women as well—and all of them were armed. They had a scraggly appearance, with most of the men having ragged beards, but they all looked alert.
“Anyone else roaming the tunnels?” a woman asked, stepping forward to face our captors. As for Sa'lok and me, she barely spared us a glance, although I noticed her upper lip trembling with disgust as her gaze flew over Sa'lok.
These assholes were part of an anti-alien faction, that much was clear.
“There’s no one else,” the man that had been guiding me replied. “Just these two.”
“Good,” the woman said, her tone even and controlled. Walking toward me, she offered me a thin-lipped smile. “The name’s Amenya. I’m sorry we had to bind you, but your pet here didn’t leave us much choice.”
“He’s not my pet.” I didn’t bother with returning her smile. I just glared at the bitch, wishing for her to take one step closer just so I could headbutt her. She wasn’t ugly, and aside from a scar that ran from underneath her left eye to her nose, she was actually pretty. Now, more than anything, I wanted to mess up those delicate features.
“No?” she continued, one of her eyebrows arching up in a mocking gesture. “That’s a shame. Are you his pet, then?”
“Shut up with that bullshit already.” I tried to take one step toward her, but two men immediately grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to remain in place. “Just what do you think you’re going to accomplish by coming down here? Can’t you see that you’re making everything worse?”
“Am I?” she scoffed. “So you’re telling me that when your friends came onto the planet, unleashing war and God knows what else upon all of us, that things were just peachy? Because that’s not how I remember it.”
“And do you think that by messing with the Puppet Master you’ll make things better somehow?”
“Puppet Master, right, that’s what you call it,” she laughed. “A rather silly name, don’t you think? Anyway, none of that matters. And you’re right—I’m going to make things better for everyone. You just watch. I’m going to usher in a new age.”