Mindguard

by Andrei Cherascu

  “We need to finish the mission,” he said. His voice no longer belonged to a weak and injured man but to Sheldon Ayers, the world’s greatest mindguard.

  “What?” Sophie shouted. “We can’t finish he mission, you’re… injured.” She had meant to say ‘dying’ but she managed to stop herself at the last moment. Niko looked at her with a sad smile. She understood the message: ‘He knows’.

  “No,” she said adamantly. “We need to get you off this island and to a hospital. Niko -”

  “There is no other option,” Sheldon said with no emotion. “A hospital will have records of my presence. The enforcers will quickly track us down. After the events of the last few days, I believe they will use deadly force. You can’t remain here. Your father will most likely send another assassin after Nikolaos, when this one fails to report back.” Nikolaos looked sad but peaceful, a man resigned to his fate.

  “If I could just talk to him…” Sophie said, but she knew as she spoke that it would be impossible.

  “There is also a strong possibility that the enforcers went after your father with the force with which they came after us. He might be in their custody right now. Or he might be dead.”

  The thought was unspeakably painful to Sophie. In spite of everything she had found out about him in the last hour, she still loved her father. She felt that if she could just see him, just talk to him, everything would be all right again, as if his physical presence could somehow undo everything that had happened.

  “Sophie…” Sheldon said. For the first time, she could sense emotion in his voice, though she couldn’t tell what it was. “There is no longer a place for you in this world. Your only alternative, is to finish the mission. Find the Opus Caine and stay with them.”

  “What about you?”

  Sheldon’s silence was the saddest thing she had ever heard.

  “Sheldon? What about you?” she repeated, tears flowing down her face. From the corner of her eye she saw that Niko was also crying.

  “I will guard you until the end.”

  She knew what that meant. Suddenly, she felt dizzy, like she was going to faint.

  “I won’t let it end like this,” Nikolaos said. “I will speak, I will tell the world. I will do what I have been too cowardly to do from the start. Go to them, Sophie! Only then can our cultures truly understand each other. You must become one of them and wait for me. I will come for you, and this time I will bring the world with me. And if I should lose my life, know that someone else will come for you. I promise you this, Sophie. And you too, Mr. Ayers.”

  Sheldon seemed indifferent to Nikolaos’ promise but Sophie trusted him. Like a father? she wondered, thinking of her own father’s betrayal. She looked out the window. It was a wonderful spring day on Kalhydon. Her love for spring would become just one of the many gifts she would bring Opus Caine.

  “We will need to take the same route you used to get here,” Sheldon said to Nikolaos. “Miller doesn’t know it. Can you retrace your steps and calculate the coordinates?”

  “Mr. Ayers, I haven’t always been a village doctor,” answered the man formerly known as Brother Torje. Sheldon nodded. “Then we must leave now.”

  “Niko,” Sophie said, “there is something I need to know before we leave.”

  “Of course.”

  “Why did you hide? Why didn’t you tell anyone? Surely you could have sought protection from my father. You could have gone to the authorities.”

  “Because, Sophie, in spite of everything… I still care about Horatio… maybe more than I should. I couldn’t hurt him. Telling the world about Opus Caine meant exposing your father’s crime. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. That was my weakness.”

  “But… you hid from him in order to escape death. Yet, you said yourself that you believe it’s a miracle you haven’t yet contacted Soixtet’s on Kalhydon. It seems to me like a choice between death and death. That’s not much of a choice at all.”

  Nikolaos smiled. It was a smile that contained nothing but love. It made him look much younger than he was. “I have come to terms with my death, Sophie. I understand that it’s inevitable and I thank the Lord every day that I am still alive and healthy. But I know my health won’t last much longer, nor will my life. I’m close to death and I have accepted that. It’s just… I don’t want it to be your father.”

  Sophie took a step forward and hugged him tightly, with all her remaining strength. His embrace took her back to childhood. It was a bittersweet memory. Her past was now forever lost to her. She prepared to face a future she did not even have the ability to imagine.

  “I love you Niko,” she said.

  “And I love you Sophie. I always have.” He looked into her eyes. “My daughter.”

  “We need to leave now,” Sheldon said. His voice sounded like a distant memory.

  Chapter 35

  View everyone in your life as though they were already deceased, and treat them as you wish you had treated your dearly departed.

  Isabel Mensah

  Tamisa was overcome by a great feeling of satisfaction at the sight of Maclaine Ross, helpless and bound to his bed in the isolation chamber. She knew it was dangerous to relish in Ross’ defeat - it could cloud her judgment - but she couldn’t help it.

  A few hours ago, the powerful bodyguard had regained consciousness. The fact that he was still alive, was unbelievable. His strength and resiliency exceeded her wildest expectations. Tamisa knew that what she should be feeling was respect. Perhaps if it were any other person. But this was Maclaine Ross; his stubbornness to live only made her hate him more.

  From his bed he was looking at her, studying her. He was weak and that made her strong. When she spoke, she tried to gather in her voice all the venom she could conjure up.

  “Sheldon and the girl landed on Carthan less than thirty minutes ago.”

  “We’re on Carthan?” Ross’ voice sounded even weaker than he looked. Tamisa walked closer to his bed, but she made sure to keep a safe distance. She had been assured that the restraints were impenetrable. If Ross tried to make any sudden movements, the web of neurostunners would send the shock of eight such devices through his body. That was more than any man could withstand. However, she still had the suspicion that many of his physical abilities remained a mystery. She preferred not to take the risk.

  “Yes we are, Mac,” she said. She deliberately used the shortened version of his name, just like all his friends.

  “You’ll never catch Sheldon,” the bound bodyguard said. “He’s twice as smart as all of you toy soldiers combined.”

  “We’ll catch him,” she said calmly. “You see, we know that the portable gateway generators your company uses - the Terradho Model 778 – take exactly ninety-eight minutes to recharge. That gives us plenty of time. And thanks to your buddy Alex Lea, we know where they’re going to be in these ninety-eight minutes. We have them cornered.”

  “Alex…” he said, looking like he was about to start crying. Tamisa fought off the temptation to smile. She wasn’t lying. Alex had indeed come through for her. The point of departure had been selected in advance by Ross. However, other locations had been chosen as backup plans, just in case their mission data got compromised in exactly the way it did.

  The security protocol at Ayers-Ross stated that any information which was part of a backup plan would not be stored in their computers. It would instead be memorized by each member of the mission. It was an added touch of paranoia, probably designed by Sheldon Ayers. Alex had not been privy to the information, but together with Timekeeper Kernis, he had been able to determine four possible departure locations for Ayers and Gaumont, based on various parameters that Tamisa did not have the patience to hear.

  All of those points were located inside enormous caves, from which the energy of the Muench-Henriksen gateway could not be recorded with enough precision to be analyzed. After the initial gateway activity announced their arrival on the planet, Tamisa was ready to form four team
s and send one to each location. She had no reason to hurry. It would take them at least three hours to reach the nearest places on foot. However, ninety-eight minutes after the first gateway activity was detected, their computers picked up another one.

  That surprised everyone. Kernis theorized that their arrival point had been too far from their intended departure point and that they used the gateway to instantly travel to that location. This left them completely exposed. The enforcers could detect the gateway activity and observe its proximity to one of the four possible departure points. Sheldon Ayers had basically pointed them in the right direction. According to Kernis, the only possible explanation for this grave error, was that one of them was injured and couldn’t travel over long distances on foot. From that moment, they had exactly ninety-eight minutes before the girl could leave the planet.

  “They’ll escape you somehow,” Ross said. “They have once before.”

  “Oh, I don’t think they will, Mac. We’re sure one of them is hurt.”

  Ross tried to remain calm, but his fear was obvious. He closed his eyes and seemed to be struggling not to break down in front of her. Had it been any other man, Tamisa would have almost felt sorry for him. Without even noticing, she took another step towards his bed.

  “What are you doing, Mac? Are you praying again? You’re praying that it isn’t Sheldon, right? Please, God, let it be the girl! Is that it?” Tamisa laughed out loud. She enjoyed torturing him. She had given express orders to be left completely alone with Ross. She wanted to take her time with him, to crush his spirit, while his body was fighting to stay alive. Her second-in-command, Dieter Muench, was not happy, but he obeyed. There were no guards outside the door, the holocams were turned off. She wanted him all to herself.

  “You hate us,” Ross said. “You hate me. It’s not something I would expect from a member of the Enforcement Unit.”

  “Don’t try to understand us, Mac. You never will. We are soldiers. You, however, are and always have been, nothing but a mercenary. The only thing people like you understand is money.”

  She could see Ross’ hands balling up into fists and she took another step forward.

  “Aren’t you the great mind-reader then,” he said. Suddenly, he sounded confident. “I wouldn’t have thought the Enforcement Unit employed mind-readers.”

  Tamisa refused to let herself be provoked. He measured her from head to toe. She imagined it was the same way he would size up a prostitute in a brothel.

  “Then again,” he said, “I didn’t think they had much need for housemaids either.”

  Another step and Tamisa was almost at the side of his bed. “This housemaid could take you down in seconds, big man.”

  “Is that why I’m all tied up?”

  “Strictly protocol.”

  “Yeah, you’re all about protocol, aren’t you?”

  “Not always,” she sneered. “For example, I’ve ordered my men to turn off the holocam and leave the doors unguarded, so it could be just you and me.”

  “You’ve ordered them? Since when do maids give orders?”

  “I don’t believe I’ve officially introduced myself: Tamisa Faber, Field Unit Commander.”

  She noticed a fleeting look of surprise. Then a smirk. “Field Unit Commander? I’ll be damned!” He laughed. “The enforcers have really gone soft.”

  “Soft enough to take down your whole team in a matter of minutes.”

  “Cheap shots were something I failed to foresee. You see, I committed the grave tactical error of assuming that the greatest military in the world would fight with honor, instead of acting like a bunch of hired guns.”

  Another step closer. She was now by the side of his bed. If she stretched out her arm she could touch him. ”I will bring you the head of Sheldon Ayers,” she said with malice. “Right here in this room. I’ll put it on a stick and plant it in front of your bed so you can look at it all day long. And once in a while I’ll come in, stick my hand in it and use it as a puppet.”

  Ross let out a hearty laugh. To Tamisa’s surprise, he seemed genuinely amused. “That I’d pay to see. Sheldon’s head as a hand puppet, ha! But you see, girl, what I can’t seem to figure out is… why all this hate for me and my team?”

  “You killed one of us.”

  “I have, but it was self defense. He attacked me and he killed three of my men. Many enforcers have died in battle, I don’t understand what’s so special about Villo Kantil.”

  When he spoke Villo’s name, Tamisa had to fight the urge to do the same thing to his face that she had done to Isabel Mensah’s. She was surprised to discover how easily she had come to terms with what she had done to the mindguard. How little she regretted it. Instinctively, she touched the small pouch on her belt, where she had placed four of Villo’s trademark spikes. She had retrieved them from him after they had taken his corpse to the ship’s isolation chamber. The closeness of the objects had a calming effect.

  “Why is his death so important to you?” Ross said slowly. “Could it be that you and Kantil were sleeping together?”

  Tamisa tried not to betray any emotions, but she must have failed, because the fallen giant grinned once again. “I guess that’s what the enforcers get for letting a woman in their ranks.”

  Barely containing her anger, Tamisa bent over the bed, to better look into his eyes. Her face was now inches from his. “I hope that you will always remember, it was a woman who took down the famous Ayers-Ross agency.”

  His gaze matched hers in fierceness. “And I hope that you know, Kantil’s death doesn’t have to hurt your career. There are plenty other prominent enforcers you can sleep with.”

  Quicker than Ross’ eyes could even register, she jumped on the bed on top of him and wrapped her hands around his neck. She was choking him with all her strength. She had tried to control herself, to slowly torment Ross, but she couldn’t.

  She choked him as hard as she could, but he wouldn’t die. Any other man would have already been dead, but not Ross. She told herself that he wouldn’t be able to resist forever. He’d be dead in seconds. And then what? She will have killed a defenseless prisoner. The repercussions for this will be immense. She couldn’t think about that. She couldn’t think about anything. All she knew at that moment, was that Maclaine Ross’ heart was still beating and she wanted it to stop. Meanwhile, he never took his eyes off hers. She was so caught up in choking him, that she didn’t have time to react when his right hand suddenly – impossibly – sprang up and grabbed her neck. It was check-mate.

  With eight neurostunners sending charges to his body - charges that should have killed any man, no matter how strong - Ross got up. He used his free left hand to remove the neurorestraints, as the stunners sent shock after shock. Impossible, Tamisa thought as she uselessly fought to break free. Strength was quickly leaving her. After he freed himself from the powerful weapons, he placed his left arm under her left armpit and then around her neck, holding her in front of him like a shield. Her feet were left dangling a few inches above the floor. He took her weapon from its holster with his right hand and started heading for the exit.

  “Cancel the containment protocol,” he ordered and she obeyed. She figured he could just as easily kill her and punch a hole through the wall. As the heavy door opened, Ross stepped out on the hallway with his prisoner. No one was guarding the containment chamber, just like Tamisa had ordered.

  “Where’s the bridge?” he asked. Tamisa managed to say ‘right’, while struggling to gasp for air.

  They headed in that direction. As they turned the corner they ran into Akio Tahara, who was coming their way. The brief moment of surprise, when the young enforcer saw Tamisa hanging from Ross’ arm, was enough for the giant to fire two energy blasts. Tahara fell to the ground and, in an instant, Ross was right next to him. As he tried to jump to his feet, Ross hit him in the side of the head with the butt of the gun. The force of the strike was so great that the man’s neck broke on impact. Tamisa didn’t have the strength to e
ven yell ‘no!’

  When Tahara died, his neural insertions disconnected from the ship’s main computer, sending a silent alarm to every enforcer on board. Somewhere in front of them, on the left side, a door opened and two other men appeared: Winston Calladan and C.J. Hemmers. They hesitated to shoot, because of Tamisa. Taking advantage of their hesitation, Ross quickly fired four blasts.

  The vessel had not been designed to withstand an attack from inside. On the narrow hallways, the enforcers’ speed was useless. They couldn’t get out of the way in time. They were hit by all the blasts and sent to the ground. The older, more resilient Hemmers was quickly back to his feet, but not before Ross could drop the gun, grab his head and smash it against the wall, shattering his skull. Calladan was still lying on the floor, when Ross brutally drove his foot into his head, killing him too. He picked up the weapon and continued towards the door at the end of the hallway. It led them to the small ship’s bridge. Inside, surrounded by holomaps, were Alex Lea and Timekeeper Kernis.

  “Mac… what… what the hell? You’re alive!” screamed the young mindguard. Kernis had programmed the vessel’s holocomputer to scramble and encode Ross’ thought timbre, so that it would be unrecognizable to Alex. Tamisa wondered how Ross interpreted Alex’ shock. The giant ignored his former employee and turned to Kernis, who had remained motionless in front of his workstation.

  “I want a map of the ship,” he yelled. When the timekeeper didn’t react, he pointed his weapon at him. “Now!”

  “Mac, you don’t understand -” Alex said, but he was met with a shot to the chest. The blast stopped his heart and he fell to the ground, dead, under the horrified gaze of Tamisa and the timekeeper. Kernis proceeded to produce the map, which Ross immediately memorized. He left the bridge without killing the timekeeper.

  He headed for the engine room and ordered Tamisa to open the doors, which she did. At this point, she wasn’t even struggling anymore. She focused all her energy on not losing consciousness. Once inside, Ross told her to give the vocal order to open every single door on the ship. The second she did, he fired his weapon at the ship’s energy module, completely deactivating power in the entire spacecraft. For a brief instant, when all the lights went out and darkness surrounded them, Tamisa thought that she had passed out. She was terrified that she would once again wake up in the infirmary, to find that Ross had escaped with Sheldon and the girl. Then her retinal insertions switched to thermal vision.