The Virtual Man [The Virtual Reality 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)
Page 20
“Very good,” Tom sarcastically complemented her. “You’re not as stupid as you look.”
“Tom, I am appalled! What possessed you to betray your own people and become part of this plot?”
“As far as betrayal, I didn’t betray anybody. What the Terrilians do on their planet is their business and Earth should stay out of it. As for my motivation, it was wealth!”
“That’s it? Money? No cause or passion? Just money?”
“I’m afraid not. Just the money I’m being paid and, well,” he smiled at Tiana, “your money. I shouldn’t have too hard of a time convincing the courts that I’m your closest relative with regards to your estate. That’s why I went off planet during our court date.”
“My money? My estate? I am comfortable, but I am not rich. In case you haven’t noticed, I still have to work for a living.”
“True, but you are about to inherit a small fortune.”
“My father wasn’t wealthy either.”
“On the contrary, yes, he was, he just never told you. I intercepted and edited the communication from his Legal-Bot to you regarding the terms of his will. You thought he had left you a pittance. In reality, he left you a fortune.”
“That’s impossible. He was a university professor, a researcher. He didn’t have that much money.”
“You don’t know much about your father’s research do you? Oops, I forgot, that information is classified. Your father was the Alliance’s top weapons expert. That’s why the Terrilians needed him dead. Through you I found out his private yacht’s itinerary and flight plan and frankly, made quite a hefty sum from selling the information to the Terrilians.”
Tiana felt a wave of nausea overcome her.
“My father died because I leaked his itinerary to you and you sold it,” she said, looking horrified. “You son of a bitch!” She started for him in full fury.
Derek grabbed her shoulder and stopped her attack before it happened. “Tiana, darlin’, it wasn’t your fault,” Derek stated adamantly. “You had no idea this slime was selling your father and our planet out to the enemy. It is reasonable for you to have trusted your husband. Let’s just quiet down and sort this out.” Derek stroked her back, effectively communicating to her to reserve an offensive attack for the right moment. Patience and cunning was the key to getting out of this scrape and outwitting the self-absorbed buffoon she was once married to.
“Just because something is reasonable does not mean it is also smart,” Tom gloated. “Now, after you and hubby here are dead, I will be your sole heir by virtue of the fact that even though you are no longer my wife, intergalactic law says that I am still your husband since I never divorced you. Don’t you just love legal technicalities?”
“Mr. Houser,” they heard an annoyed, uniformed soldier yell from the shuttle, “please complete your mission and let’s get a move on.”
Tom recognized him as the flight engineer who had questioned his authority earlier.
“Damn Terrilians are always in such a hurry,” Tom stated quietly to Tiana and Derek, making sure he was not overheard by the soldier. “They never take the time to enjoy their work. With them, it’s always about efficiency.
“I’m not ready to go yet,” he yelled back to the soldier.
“The Cerberus has requested our immediate return. Finish them off or we will and you will be left behind!”
Anger surging through his body, Tom took his eyes off Derek and Tiana and looked over his shoulder toward the impatient soldier.
* * * *
“Who the hell do you think — ” was as far as his demand got.
Knowing this was the one second he needed, Derek took advantage of the momentary distraction and jumped forward, knocking Tom on his back. Grabbing the disruptor with Tom’s hand still on it, he aimed it at the soldier standing at the shuttle’s door and fired, cleanly piercing the Terrilian’s genetically superior heart. He then twisted the disruptor out of Tom’s hand and brought it down hard upon the side of his head, knocking him unconscious.
As he and Tiana ran back into the forest, disruptor fire from the shuttle exploded around them. Turning around as he ran, just long enough to aim and fire, Derek squeezed the trigger and watched as absolutely nothing happened. As he had feared, the disruptor was keyed to its owner’s DNA. It would not work for anyone else. Tossing the weapon aside, Derek and Tiana vanished into the woods with the remaining two Terrilians on their trail.
Chapter 28
The Fight for Survival
The two soldiers came to a fork on the game trail.
“You take the left branch and I’ll take the right,” the pilot ordered as they split up.
Shortly after splitting up from the gunner, the pilot stopped to see if he could see footprints or some sign of which way Derek and Tiana had gone. He found and followed some relatively new prints that led down the trail —until they abruptly disappeared.
Confused, the Terrilian looked around and searched the area, but to no avail.
People don’t just disappear into thin air, he thought. They have to be here somewhere, unless, they backtracked over their own tracks.
Coming to this realization, he started following the footprints back. Unbeknownst to him, predatory eyes were stalking him. Eyes that were taking in his every move, waiting for the perfect time to pounce on its prey.
* * * *
Derek had hunted and survived out here for weeks. He was not going to let the most careless prey in the universe, a humanoid, get the best of him. He waited patiently until the unsuspecting Terrilian was directly under the branch he and Tiana were comfortably perched on. Allowing himself to simply drop down onto his prey, knife in hand, Derek wrapped his left arm around the man’s neck while he casually, as he had done many times before to much more keen, rapid and strong prey, plunged his knife into the man’s heart, killing him before he had a chance to hit the ground.
“Freeze!” He heard the other Terrilian soldier yell as he stood up and off the pilot’s corpse.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” he demanded of Derek as he slowly approached him.
Taking a few steps back, Derek responded, “She’s my wife not my girlfriend.”
“I don’t care if she’s your great-grandmother. Where the hell is she? You and I both know that I am going to kill you. If you tell me where she is I’ll kill you both quickly. If you don’t, I’ll kill the two of you by frying individual body parts with my disruptor until you die. I don’t have much time, so be smart and make it easy on yourself. Where is she?”
Derek backed up a little more. He was trapped in the middle of the game trail with foliage too thick to escape into on both sides. He didn’t mind facing death, but what would become of Tiana? He couldn’t leave her at the mercy of this mutant fanatic.
“We split up, I took this side of the fork and she took the other one.”
He watched the Terrilian make an adjustment to the disruptor and fire it. He felt the flesh on his upper left arm sear as if it had been set on fire.
The Terrilian took a few more steps forward and Derek took a few more steps back. Tree branches hung relatively low over the trail. If I can just position this guy where Tiana can distract him long enough …
“Where is she?”
“We split up. I don’t know where she is.”
Once more the disruptor hummed, this time searing a patch of flesh on his upper thigh. Derek was in sheer agony as he dropped to the ground, writhing in pain.
“Where is she?” he repeated the question, this time pointing the disruptor at Derek’s groin.
Derek was quickly trying to craft a believable lie that might save his favorite organ, when Tiana, as silent as the angel of death, dropped down on the unsuspecting gunner’s back and, wrapping both arms around his neck and head, broke the man’s neck with one swift twist. As the genetically superior soldier dropped to the ground at her feet, Derek looked at her with pride and reverence.
“Where did you learn that move?”
“My arm and leg hurt like there’s no tomorrow, but I’m okay and still alive, thanks to you. What do you say we commandeer the shuttle and go have dinner somewhere civilized?”
* * * *
Tiana’s personal Eden was slipping away. She felt tightness in her chest and a longing to return to the tree house, but Derek was hurt and Tom was out there somewhere. They needed to get to the shuttle before Tom did and get Derek’s wounds treated.
Taking the well-worn path, Tiana helped a limping and bleeding Derek along. As they stepped around a bend on the forest floor, an unfamiliar noise in the brush startled the lovers.
“Well, if it isn’t the happy couple that just won’t die,” Tom calmly stated, slithering out from the cover of the jungle like a serpent in Tiana’s and Derek’s private Eden.
Turning around, they saw him, bloody from the wound Derek had inflicted, aiming his weapon directly at them. The anger and hatred in his eyes glowed like the very fires of hell.
Seething at the humiliation and pain he had experienced, Tom ordered, “Tiana, come here.”
“Tiana, stop. He’s insane.” Derek placed himself in front of her.
Tom’s response was a single shot that blew off a piece of Derek’s already burnt and aching upper thigh. The leg, no longer able to support his weight, collapsed, sending him sprawling to the ground.
“Tiana, darling,” Tom, in an eerily caressing voice, directed his attention at her. “Please come here or I may feel compelled to put another hole into him.”
Hesitating to put herself anywhere in close proximity to the foul, manipulative bastard, Tiana searched for an escape.
Tom roared, “Come here, you bitch,” as he aimed his disruptor and shook it at Derek.
Seeing no other choice, Tiana complied. Grabbing her by the hair, Tom pulled her closer to him, sticking the barrel of his disruptor underneath her chin and holding her head back.
“Derek, I’m going to give you the privilege of dying second. I want you to savor my destruction of your beloved, inch by bloody inch.”
Derek struggled to stand up and come to Tiana’s aid, but all he got for his efforts was another carefully placed shot just a little under where the first one had gone, burning off another patch of flesh. The agonizing pain sent him back down to the ground.
“Stay down and watch!” Tom yelled at Derek. Still dragging Tiana by the hair, he viciously kicked the fallen man in the ribs. The feral look in Tom’s eyes was now one of insanity mixed with hatred, as he turned it on Tiana.
“You bitch! You gloated over your career and rubbed it in my face for our entire marriage. I could have done all that you did and better. They just wouldn’t give me a chance! Why you and why not me? Huh? Can you answer that one question? Daddy’s little girl, favored from birth. Did you spread your legs to open up doors, huh? I even got you pregnant to give you the baby you always whined about, hoping you would stay home like a good little mother, but you couldn’t even do that right, and what happened? You got a bloody promotion.”
“Tom.” Trying to calm him down, Tiana slipped her elbow through his open arms. “Let’s be objective about this. Perhaps we can help each other. Derek and I don’t love each other. Our marriage is a business transaction, nothing more. He needed to marry me in order to stay out of prison. It’s got to do with some silly frontier planet law. Being the insipid female sucker that you know I am, I agreed to help him.”
“I’ll make you a deal. How about I have the marriage to Derek annulled when we return to civilization, you and I remarry, and we collect my father’s inheritance. If you’ll agree to get me pregnant, giving me the baby that I long for, you can keep all of the inheritance. I don’t need any of it anyway. Derek will go to prison as he was meant to all along, getting him out of the way, you wouldn’t have to wait on the courts to probate my father’s will before you get your money and I’ll finally get the child I want. Besides, I’d rather you be the father of my child than Derek. You seem to have a little more common sense than Derek does. Knowing when to throw your lot in with the Terrilians was pure genius. It’s a win-win all the way around. Except for Derek of course.”
“I must admit, your proposal intrigues me. We could kill Derek and do the same thing. Why does he have to live?”
“Think about it. If you kill him and we deliver the body to the authorities, the laser burns would be a clear indication of foul play and you and I would be the primary suspects. If we don’t deliver the body to the authorities, then you and I would have to wait to remarry until he is officially declared dead. That could take longer than probate court.”
“Shut up, you stupid slut. What kind of an idiot do you take me for?” Tom screamed.
Gee, are there different kinds to pick from?
“I’ll take my chances and wait,” he continued. “I want you dead, your poor excuse for a husband eliminated, my money and Katia in my bed.”
Finally calming, Tom laughed sarcastically. “Once you’ve had a Terrilian woman I’m afraid there is just no going back.”
Tiana looked at Derek. Her eyes were burning with anger and jealousy. Was that true? Were Terrilian women better in bed than Earth women? She saw his look change from one of despair to calm resignation.
Why was he so calm? Did he know something she didn’t? Wasn’t he going to contradict Tom’s statement and defend her abilities in the bedroom?
What did it matter? She knew her life was about to end. Her only comfort was that she wouldn’t have to see Derek die.
But why did he look so damn calm? Obviously the thought of watching her die wasn’t as disturbing to him as the reverse was to her.
Her question was quickly answered by a sharp crunching sound directly behind her followed by a guttural growl. She felt her ex-husband’s arms relax around her as the disruptor dropped to the ground, followed by Tom himself. As she turned around and looked, the horror of what had taken place in just a fraction of a second sank in. Most of Tom’s head was gone. Bitten off. Severed. As her gaze wandered back up she saw the fiercest and deadliest face she had ever seen in her life with blood, Tom’s blood, dripping from its mouth. The animal stepped up to her as she prepared to be mutilated in the same way, and gently licked her.
“Bob! You’re not dead!” she exclaimed as she hugged the giant animal’s neck and scratched him lovingly behind the ears as tears flowed down her cheeks. “I am so glad you’re okay.”
“At the risk of making this all about me,” Derek said, “I have been shot four times, have had two chunks of flesh blasted off, probably have a couple of broken ribs and I’m bleeding to death. Could I have a little help here? A little skin regeneration would probably be a good idea right about now.”
“Derek, I am so sorry! I was just so happy to see Bob. He must have been knocked out when the disruptor blast hit the rocks. Here, let me help you up.”
Helping him to his feet, Tiana placed one arm around Derek’s waist and draped one of his arms over her shoulders for support. Together, with Bob following, they made it to the shuttle. As they stepped inside, Tiana turned to look at Bob. For a short few seconds their eyes locked. During these few precious moments, the gap between human and beast was closed. There was a wealth of understanding and feelings shared between the two of them. It was time to part, but it was okay. They understood one another. As if saying goodbye, Bob howled once at her, turned around and headed back into the woods, his debt to Derek and Tiana paid in full.
* * * *
“Derek, can you fly this thing?”
“I think so. Unless it has some kind of DNA recognition security device attached like Tom’s disruptor.”
Tiana settled Derek into the pilot’s seat and buckled him in.
“I’ll start the engines and try to figure out where we are, so that we can then, hopefully, figure out where we want to go.”
Tiana looked do
wn at Derek’s leg. It looked bad. The charred skin was still oozing blood.
“Derek, you get things figured out while I go find a medical kit.”
Derek grimaced in pain as he familiarized himself with the controls.
Tiana quickly found the kit. Taking it up front and opening it, much to her relief, she found a skin regenerator inside. She had not been looking forward to sewing scout stitches.
Taking out some scissors, she finished removing what remained of the left leg of his pants, and proceeded to treat his wounds.
“Okay … that really, really, hurts,” Derek complained as Tiana poured disinfectant into both of his leg wounds.
“Not as much as it’s going to hurt in a minute. I’ve got to cut off the charred edges of skin before I can start regenerating healthy skin over the wound.” Realizing that appealing to Derek’s protective nature was key to keeping his mind otherwise occupied, she said, “Derek, why don’t you reconfigure the ship’s transponder so Katia can’t locate us? I fear that once the engines are powered up she’ll know it and will be looking for the shuttle. If she hails us we won’t be able to fake our way out of it.”
Setting to her task, Tiana prayed that she could patch Derek up without fainting.
After the dead skin had been removed, she cycled the skin regenerator on and began the process of stimulating the skin around the edges of the wounds to a high rate of cellular reproduction. Within minutes, new healthy skin had formed over the wounds, making the leg whole. He’d be a little sore for a while, but he would at least have full mobility.
Derek focused his amazing abilities on the Terrilian craft and had the engines powering up in no time.
Turning her attention to the two burns he had suffered earlier, Tiana had Derek as good as new before the shuttle’s liftoff.
“Make sure you are securely strapped in,” Derek warned.