by S. J. Higbee
Riona was standing beside an opening in the panelled backing, frantically gesticulating for me to follow her into the passage yawning at the back of the closet like a dark mouth. Feeling like I’d been tipped into some mad holodrama and to buy myself some thinking time, I scooped up the bear and set him across the huge bedroom floor. “Hallo there, General Bear. C’mon. Let’s have a song.”
As the toy plodded across the expanse of pale grey carpet, growling ‘The Teddy Bear’s Picnic’, I leaned against the half-open door on the edge of hysterical laughter.
Five guards are standing outside my door and Riona just wanders into my room via a secret passageway…
“…go out in the woods today,
You'd better go in disguise...”
She hissed, “Elizabeth! We’re getting you out of here before you’re murdered.”
I was so relieved at the prospect of being rescued, my knees almost buckled.
“Will gather there for certain because,
Today's the day…”
I peered into the cupboard, and announced for the benefit of the monitors, “Holed heavens, what a dregging mess. I’d better have a tidy.” Then stepped inside.
To be blasted by the most disgusting smell coming from her. A sharp animal stench made worse by an additional perfume of overripe fruit, presumably to try and mask the original unpleasantness. I breathed through my mouth as my supper was considering a return journey.
Her hand was hot on my arm. “Quick! We got to get you out. Word is, Norman’s going to kill you.”
Hearing the words aloud, finally, stopped the hurt, fear and anger from overwhelming me. “That’s what I figured.”
“We got to get going.” She increased the pressure on my arm, pulling me towards the passage, while the dreadful stench intensified.
Careful, Lizzy…
I didn’t need Jessica’s warning. If the Shadows guarding my door catch the merest whiff of this business, Riona’ll be in a world of woe. Why is she taking such a planet-sized risk? She doesn’t even like me… “Who else is helping with this escape? How do you know about these secret tunnels?”
A flicker of contempt slid across her face before she slipped back into friend mode. “Diana. Axil. Everyone’s behind you. We all know the General’s gonna be wearing your gizzards as a new medal if we don’t get you outta here, stat.”
If Axil is part of this, why hasn’t he found a way to warn me? Desperate though I was to get away, I didn’t want to race from a sunspot straight into a supernova. “Where’s Axil now?”
“Waiting for you! With a flyer. He’s getting us outta here.” She gestured to the tunnel, pulling me towards it.
It’s a trap. Get back into your room. Now.
Dizzy from the stink, I jerked my arm free and moved towards the half-open door. “Nah. You’re lying.”
“It's lovely out in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home…” growled General Bear.
Riona scampered after me. “Right. He didn’t want me to say, but it’s your brother helping to free you.”
“Eddy?”
“Yeah. I know you two got history, but he’s Family, right? Come on!”
Into a complex of secret passages, with Eddy waiting for you? Only if you’re tired of life! A fact I didn’t need Jessica to tell me.
“How long have you known Eddy, then?”
“A while.” She grabbed my arm again. “C’mon, Liz! Norman is guzzling his dinner right now. But when he finishes…”
“Where’d you meet?”
“What? Why all the questions? We met in The Happy Grape, if you must know. He bought me dinner.”
George’s assurance that Eddy is confined to the lower quarters of the complex is pure dross. He wanders around Restormel just as freely as I do. And knows all the secret passages… That decided me. Riona was still hanging onto my arm, which made it easier than breathing. I grabbed her hand and twisted it high behind her back, yanking her out of the passageway, through the closet and into my bedroom, while she flapped around, completely unskilled in any defensive moves.
“Eddy! Now – come now!” she howled.
Evidently the guards were awake, because the door immediately slid open and Shadows and Red-Sashes rushed into the room. Including Axil.
“Thank Mother Earth! I tried to stop her. Elizabeth was trying to escape. Through the secret passage in the back of her closet,” Riona babbled.
What! I opened my mouth to protest at her godless lies.
When another voice behind me added, “She’d be long gone by now if it weren’t for Riona and me.”
I spun round to face Eddy, my psychotic brother. A hot wave of hatred engulfed me and I tensed, longing to smash that gloating leer off his fat face.
Eeezee. You could be wading up to your neck in trouble if you’re not smart about this.
I unclenched my hands, needing to see exactly where Eddy was going, which wouldn’t take long. He didn’t do subtle.
I let Riona go as the guards surrounded us. It was a comfort when Axil stationed himself by my side as Eddy waddled towards me, a malicious sneer pasted across his face. “She needs taking down to the Prison Wing, where we can keep her properly secure.”
“That’s a pile’ve offal an—ˮ breaking off, Axil sniffed hard and under his wind-reddened complexion, his face paled as he swung his weapon up and aimed at Eddy’s head. “Yer backup supplies. Now!”
Some of the Shadows were fumbling with small bottles, all set to squirt themselves.
Axil glared at Eddy as he snapped, “Nah, don’t bother. Stuff’s useless. Some pox-faced zilcher’s gone an’ changed the recipe. We need what they doused theyselves with.” He jerked his head towards them both, as Riona hung onto Eddy’s arm.
Like she’s used to touching him. Like they’re… “All that panting over Rick – you didn’t really care about him. You just wanted to get close, so you could spy on him. Bet it was you than turned the rest of Procurement against Bernal, too.” The words fell out of my mouth as the realisation hit me.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” The look on her face told me I was right.
Think you need to focus on what’s going down this minute, rather than scrolling through her slimy double-dealing down in Procurement.
“Haven’t got any, you prodding wet-brain,” Eddy’s voice oozed smugness. “Don’t need it.”
“You.” Axil’s weapon swung round to Riona’s head. “I’m betting you got yerself more Stink Juice.”
“There’s no need for all’ve this.” Eddy raised his hands, trying for placating, but instead sounding like the holo-hoaxer he was. “Just let us take her. Move her to a secure location. After all, if it wasn’t for us, she’d be loose by now.”
“Don’t know how. Till Riona started thumping about in the closet, I didn’t know those passages existed. Cos if I had – I’d have been long gone by now.”
Oh, smoothly done, Lizzy. You carry on in this mode, you’ll talk yourself into a cell down in his little corner of this place all by your sorry self.
Meantime, Axil advanced on Riona. “Give! Now! Yer don’t – I’m goin’ to search yer.”
What’s going on? Axil is frightened.
“Alright, alright!” She rootled around in both pockets and sulkily produced two handfuls of the small bottles.
“You prodding waste’ve air!” howled Eddy, making a grab for them. “I told you that you wouldn’t need any more – you all but showered in the stuff!”
Several of the bottles slid out of Riona’s grasp, bouncing on the moss-thick carpet. I scrabbled for them, because whatever was going on here, they were majorly important.
Axil jabbed the slimer in the solar plexus with the butt of his weapon. “Go on. Make ʼnother move like that. I know where yer work an’ what yer do. An’ I’m pantin’ fer a reason to plant yer sorry carcass inna ground.”
Eddy sank to his knees, holding onto his fat guts.
Hopefully Axil has rupt
ured something major and the zilcher will die in slow agony.
Riona fluttered around him. “Oh, Killer! Baby… you hurt?”
“Spray yerself. Quick!” Axil yanked the top off one of the bottles and squirted the vile-smelling stuff all over himself. The other guards were following suit, including the Shadows.
C’mon Lizzy!
D’you have a sense of smell, Jessica?
Hallo… didn’t you get the tabnote? I have no body. Let alone a nose. How could I possibly smell anything?
I sighed. Didn’t think so.
I’d half hoped that once I’d covered myself with the disgusting stink, it would somehow not smell so bad. No such luck.
“For today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic…” General Bear was still marching around the room.
I recall watching the vivi-bear, thinking he put the lid on the weirdity of the whole business. Which was when five huge tan and black monsters sprang from the closet. Wearing spiked armour across their chests and backs, vicious snarls bubbled from behind impossibly long, pointed teeth.
“Kill dogs!” yelled Axil. “Don’t move!”
Not a problem. I was rooted to the spot by sheer terror. I’m not particularly comfortable around normal, knee-high dogs. These beasts could nearly look me in the eye.
“If you go down—ˮ General Bear’s growl turned into a dying squeak as all five dogs leapt on the vivi-toy still marching across the carpet. As luck would have it, he was in the far corner of the room by my bed, which bought us a couple of precious secs.
One of the Shadows had pressed the door open and we sidled towards it, hoping not to draw their attention.
Until Eddy, now on his feet and grinning, whistled to his unspeakable pets. They all raised their heads and hurtled towards us, howling and slavering. No time for finesse. We turned and ran for the door – except Axil, who fired point blank at the snarling creature about to leap on him. Splashes of hot blood spattered my face as Axil caught me up, pushed me through the door and jabbed desperately at the door button, trying to keep these terrible beasts caged in the room.
But the door didn’t close quickly enough and the pack surged after us into the corridor.
“Freeze!” snapped Axil. “You gotta stay still while they’re close.”
But his red-sashed companion started running. In an instant, the dogs turned and gave chase, their snarls ramping up into blood-freezing howls as he went down with a despairing scream, while they boiled about him, snapping at each other when they couldn’t get at their fallen prey.
Meantime, as soon as the door finally slid shut, I activated the lock, ensuring that Riona and Eddy were unable to follow their horrible pets out into the corridor.
The Shadows managed to injure one of the beasts and kill another, though the other two remained standing despite being repeatedly shot at. That spiked armour was clearly more than just a bit of fancy metalwork. The dogs broke off their gore-fest. Blood dripping from their jaws and baying as they closed the distance between us, I couldn’t believe they would just pass by. I tensed, my instincts screaming at me to run. That just standing here, doing nothing would get me killed.
As if he sensed my rising panic, Axil gripped my arm, “Easy! Stay solid. Yer break for it – they’ll rip us both apart. Steady… That’s it… Nice an’ still…”
Listen to him, Lizzy.
I shut my eyes, not wanting to see their blood-stained teeth ripping chunks out’ve me.
The snarling threat abruptly switched into whines and when I dared to look again, they were milling around, sniffing us and licking the blood of their packmate off the floor. For a long sec, I locked looks with one of them and saw a swirl of confused anger and hate staring back. These creatures had been turned into weapons by Eddy.
Must’ve thought he’d died and gone to heaven when Norman let him loose to refine his torturing skills on these animals. “Does this stuff on us keep them from attacking?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Axil murmured through still lips. “Though their packmaster not bein’ here, discipline’ll be chancy. Is why we gotta make like statues.”
After a long light year, they turned away from us and loped up the corridor, snarling and attacking some, ignoring others. A couple of the Shadows immediately unlocked the door to my room and rushed in, evidently looking for Eddy.
The next half an hour was a blur. A bunch of us who were unhurt started performing emergency first aid. The lacklucked bloke who’d run was beyond saving. His stomach had been ripped out. But we found a series of shocked mercs further up the corridor nursing bitten hands and arms. Several were missing fingers. One hysterical woman had lost her ear and most of her cheek. Everyone raised a loud cheer when it was announced that the last two animals had been killed.
Axil did a good job of staunching the bleeding wounds, while I administered ShockEase, raided from the First Aid canisters hanging at regular intervals on the walls. Although skin-weld was also available, Axil decided that sloshing it on over such deep, jagged puncture wounds would probably do more harm than good.
The medics had just arrived when a skirling note on the com system warned us that there was about to be an announcement. “My comrades-in-arms—” Norman’s rich baritone was all but drowned out by a rising chorus of jeers, booing and whistling.
“I am sorrier than I can say that Eddy Wright – the brother of my daughter, Elizabeth – received Intel that she was escaping, so in a criminal act of insubordination, he let loose the kill dogs.”
So that was the plan. Riona was to lure me into the secret tunnels, where Eddy’s pets would be waiting to rip me to pieces. Then he was to take the fall for the whole business. Typical Norman neatness. I shivered. Wonder what his next scheme to kill me will be, now this one has failed?
My murdering father was still speaking, “We will, of course, do everything in our power to compensate those of you who have been injured and all treatment will be paid for by
Command—”
“What about Mark?” a red-faced chap howled at the com. “He’s in pieces on the flooding floor!” Another fusillade of hooting and cursing followed this comment. And this point, Red-Face ripped the com out of its housing.
“That was a stimming move,” grumbled his companion. “How’re we gonna know what’s going down now, genius?”
“If I had to listen to his prodding voice finessing this crud one more nanosec, I’d’ve heaved my supper up,” answered Red-Face.
“Yeah, I’ll give you that one,” answered the other.
And I realised – whether he knew it or not – Norman’s stint as General of the Peace and Prosperity Corps was coming to an end.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
In an ideal world, General Norman would have graciously resigned with a dignified speech admitting his unpardonable error. However, nothing about this sorry tale approaches ideal, so that’s not what happened.
“If you were Norman, what would you do now?” I asked Axil while the medics scooped up the casualties. It was a relief not being monitored.
“Snag you, of course,” said a voice behind me.
I spun round to face George. “Sir.” I didn’t bother to sound welcoming.
His expression was haunted. “Didn’t have the faintest notion he was about to pull this stunt. On our own people!”
“You’re telling me you knew nothing about this, then?” I demanded. “And what about Eddy? Did you know that Riona was spying on Rick? It’s probably the pair of them on that vile tab the General made. And those dogs! You must’ve known Eddy was in charge of those poor creatures.” I was shaking with fury. “He brained a kitten with a wooden brick when still a baby, so I don’t want to think what those animals endured!”
George’s shrug was weary. “War is an ugly business. Always. We can dress it up in shiny uniforms and provide top notch medi-suites. But in the end, it comes down to blood and pain.”
Red-Face’s eyes bulged. “We get that, you prodder! It’s not s’posed
to come down to our own being turned into dog food inside our own HQ!”
“You’re right. He’s crossed a line. I’m not standing by and letting him destroy the P’s.” George took a breath. “One thing’s for sure. He’s not going to just walk away. We’ll have to organise and fight to get rid of him.”
“You been watching his back all this time. Doing his dirty work. How’d we know you’re not just setting us up for a Norman hot dog?” Red-Face wasn’t cutting George any free air.
“I’m asking you to trust me on this. I’ve got a plan.” His gaze flicked across to me. “I reckon we need to take him out as quickly and cleanly as possible. We haven’t much time. Sector Two depends on us to hold things together since Philbycorp scuttled back to Homespace.” He looked around at the listening men and women. Maybe hoping for some support. But their faces were closed. Hostile.
“Miss?” Vera, one of the Red-Sashes turned to me. “What d’you reckon?”
Why are you asking me? This is still your Second-in-Command.
As if she’d heard my thoughts, she looked back at George. “No offence. Sir.” Vera’s glare burned holes in him. “But you’ve left it waaay too late to scramble out’ve the General’s pocket like you’re all squeaky clean. Seems to be me if you’d told it like it was a while back, a bunch’ve good people would be still upright and breathing.”
The mutter rippling around the crowd clearly agreed with her.
George raised his hands in a gesture of defeat. “I can’t argue with that one, soldier. Kept thinking Norman’d pull out’ve the black hole he tumbled into after his family died – and he did. But he came out a whole different bod to the man that used to lead the P’s.”
Oh, really?
I shared Jessica’s scepticism, but George at least deserved to say his piece.
I cleared my throat. “Let’s hear what Number Two has to say. We don’t like his plan, we can flush it out the airlock.”
Along with him, if he tries to go crawling back to Daddy Bear.
George spoke to me as if the rest of them weren’t there. “I’ll warn you now, Elizabeth, you won’t like it. But I can’t think of any other way to bring him down without losing a lot of good people.” And he went on to give a full briefing on his plan. I was to approach Norman and ask for a meeting. And while I was busy being the penitent daughter asking for forgiveness, the Red-Sashes would get into position around the banqueting room and ambush him and his Shadows when they left.