There was nothing in the local environment to maintain Kyle’s attention for long and he too had the urge to close his eyes but fought it off by trying to remember the maintenance procedure for a United Technologies shuttle craft. Using his imagination he pictured removing and inspecting components but this also took his mind off the need to keep watch. Kyle hadn’t noticed the monkey dog skip over the brow of the dune and keeping flat to the ground it kept the tree trunk between itself and its prey.
Too late, Kyle detected motion behind him and to the right, he turned quickly to face the danger just in time to see the beast leaping towards him, its muzzle open and fangs bared. There was no time to reach for a weapon and the only thought he had was to keep those fangs away by grabbing the animal around the throat. It was a desperate struggle, the beast wasn’t bigger than him but it was full of hate and its brute strength threatened to overwhelm him.
A surge from the animal knocked Kyle off balance and he fell backwards with the snarling beast on top of him and its snapping jaws getting closer and closer to Kyle’s throat. Desperately he tried to hold off the beast but felt his strength draining and matters were made worse when from the corner of his eye he spotted Pixie wrestling with two of the human pursuers. He had to do something and with a superhuman effort he used the force of the beast against it, by relaxing his grip and directing the creature’s strength down and to his side. Kyle now with his hands free had just a split second to pull the knife from his belt, his first grab met the rubberized handle of the knife as intended. Then without pause he brought the knife up to face the returning beast and with a squeeze on its trigger it’s blade began vibrating at ultra-high speed.
The wild beast leapt again, a blur of flying hair and gnashing teeth but its intended target was now ready and Kyle continued the upward arc of his knife thrust. He braced himself for the knife impact knowing this animal was heavy and as the blade of the knife cut through the creature’s throat it became a dead weight knocking him off his feet.
It was only as Kyle was falling backwards that he saw three of Kurko’s men were surrounding him. He hit the ground hard but with the monkey dog’s body pinning him down he was in no position to fight off his human attackers and did not remember receiving the blow to his head which took his consciousness.
He came around at the sound of Pixie screaming and as his senses gradually returned he could see two men clawing at his young companions clothes. Her head covering had been torn off and large areas of her body were becoming visible as the men tormented and exposed the young woman. She had fought her attackers until her strength was gone sobbing in waves quietly anticipating the final humiliation and dishonour. Kyle had to try something but he found that his arms and legs had been bound. Through cracked lips he spoke as loudly as he could.
“I wouldn’t do that Boys.”
Pixie’s attackers stopped their molestation and turned to glare at Kyle.
“What’s it got to do with you ‘dog meat’?
We’ll deal with you after we’ve had some pleasure with your girlfriend.”
“I’m trying to get you to understand, that your Boss is not going to be too pleased with you if you take the girl’s honour. She is unknown to men and her value will be very high but not if you damage her.”
“Liar, she is your bitch!”
“Fraid not she is a travelling prophetess and I was trying to get her off this planet.”
“If she is a prophetess why could she not warn you that you would be caught?”
“She did but I wouldn’t listen.”
Though Kurko’s men did not trust Kyle’s reply, there was just a little doubt in their minds. The men stood up and Pixie covered herself the best she could though her clothes had been severely torn.
“If you two think you are in the clear, think again, I’d like to beat the truth outa ya but then you might become accidentally dead. You’ve got much worse lying ahead when you meet ‘Cutter’, he’ll get the truth from you,” the shorter of the pair grunted.
The taller of the pirates sauntered over and gave him a kick in the ribs, “That was for stopping our fun.”
He was about to launch into a second kick, when his attention was drawn to the approaching flying disc which had gone back to pick up other members of the pirates search party. Once the craft had glided down Kyle and Pixie were manhandled in and attached to the guide rail with slave shackles, to prevent further escape attempts. Eight of the ten pirates on board squatted down on the floor during the flight back to Walendia city, the other two were the pilots sitting on the oversize seats.
After the pirates’ initial interest in the prisoners waned, the captives were largely left alone and tried to get as comfortable as they could but were unable to either sit nor stand due to the short chains on their wrist manacles. Kyle found the most comfortable position was to kneel, then lean against the side rail of the disc and Pixie soon joined him. He looked down at Pixie and realised that he had never taken in how good looking his young companion was, with her loosened raven black hair flowing in the wind, teak coloured skin shining in the sun and opal eyes this girl was a true beauty. It was a surprise and quite a nice experience when she cuddled up close and slid her small hands under his.
“Getaway, that is Lieutenant Cassidy, I’m sorry that I got us captured, if I wasn’t so weak you would have outrun them.”
“Don’t blame yourself Pixie, I was a lousy lookout and just call me Getaway or Kyle.”
“What do you think they’ll do to us?”
“As your friends said, we are to be introduced to somebody called ‘Cutter’ and I guess that he’ll try to get the truth of our mission out of us.”
“Thanks for stopping them ………..well just thanks, I couldn’t go on living if they had broken my vow.” She nuzzled in close again but this time Kyle was even more surprised when a thin metal object was pushed into his palm, then realized it was the brooch from Pixie’s tattered scarf.
One of the pirates crawled over slapping them both hard, then with a flurry of curses started to pull them apart and ensured that they could not get back together by sitting between them.
Kyle pondered his recent gift, which he kept in his palm, he knew what Pixie was thinking, that the pin could be used on the manacles. The pirate logic was not to put trust in the high tech digi-lock cuffs and instead they preferred the ancient lock and key variety, which might just work in Kyle’s favour but not now….too many witnesses.
The disc sped over the dunes with only the endless sand to be seen below them. Above there was the occasional vapour trail from sub-space military craft but nothing else indicated a war was going on. This changed when they came in sight of Walendia city and the sky was criss-crossed with trails of plasma and ionic discharges.
On the city outskirts Government forces were bombarding positions within the city wall with small arms and mobile artillery, a pair of government planes provided support. With not enough troops or sufficient weaponry to allow for a frontal assault, it appeared to be a stand-off situation.
Taking advantage of a lull in the fighting the captive’s disc flew in skimming the ground carefully avoiding the government troop concentrations and managed to cross into the city between two defensive gun towers on the perimeter.
The pilot of the disc flew down the empty main street and past a number of burning buildings then landed outside Kurko’s citadel, quickly the prisoners were freed from the rail but still wearing their manacles they were unceremoniously bundled out and filed through the gates.
Once inside the citadel Kyle and Pixie were marched towards the jail and thrown into separate holding cells waiting for General Kurko’s pleasure. As they were separated she gave him a forlorn look and the best Kyle could do was to smile back at her and tell her that it would be alright but he didn’t know how.
Chapter 12
Finding the Prince
Alone in his cell Kyle could find nothing to use as a weapon, there was no furniture or windows and the
only lighting was a dim radiant panel in the ceiling. He retrieved the brooch Pixie had passed him, which he had hidden up his sleeve and began to work the key hole in his restraint using the clip. In his youth Kyle enjoyed puzzles like this but gaining his freedom now might just be a matter of life and death.
Eventually there was a click from inside the mechanism and the two halves of the manacle separated at his left wrist. Once one wrist was free he worked on the other until that too became loose. He had no idea what would happen from here but at least his hands would be free if he needed them, to maintain the element of surprise he joined the manacles back together but not so far as to lock the mechanism and to the casual viewer it would seem that he was still secure. Examining the cell door he found the locks and tumblers were hidden looking like the remote controlled type, so without explosives he would have to wait for it to open.
There was nothing to keep Kyle occupied and he strained to hear the occasional hiss of hot plasma being launched from the citadel and the howl as one of the government fighters sped over the city. He tried using his comms chip to contact Pixie but received only static in response.
He spent a very restless night expecting to be dragged from his cell at any time, then just as he was starting to dose off three members of the WLA burst into the dimly lit surroundings. He was roughly gripped by two of the unwelcome arrivals but he thought it more important to maintain the appearance of being fully manacled rather than to try to fight back.
There followed another trek through a labyrinth of corridors, during which time Kyle received a number of punches and kicks which he knew were designed to weaken him for what might come later.
After the darkness of his cell and passageway there was suddenly blinding light ahead and the guard party walked into Kurko’s control centre. The group stood waiting in the corner and whilst stationery Kyle took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. It was the large digitized Situation Map in the centre of the room which grabbed his attention, not the many comms people busy about their business. Clearly discernible was the outline of Walendia city which had a broken green line around its perimeter, then looking further out clusters of blue dots surrounded the city outline and more dots were added whilst he watched. It was also clear that the blue dots were getting closer to the city and the green WLA line was starting to fragment.
At one of the consoles a man taller was shouting at a viewing screen and the sorry individual was receiving the wrath of the speaker.
“Kinsella, why aren’t you and your fighter planes attacking the government filth surrounding the city?”
“General Kurko we have attacked and I have lost most of my men and planes already. At the last count I have only four fighters left including mine, which has been substantially damaged. I thought you might want us to hold off, if we need to cover your retreat.”
“How can you be down to only four planes already?”
“The government pilots are more professional and their anti-aircraft gunners are not boozed up druggies like ours.”
The man who Kyle now took to be the pirate leader Kurko turned purple with rage, “Stand by for further orders Kinsella and make sure your ‘squadron’ is ready for when I need it. He waved his hand at the screen and it blacked out.
Things did not seem to be going too well for the WLA and Kyle did not fancy his chances against an obviously annoyed Kurko, who for the moment seemed oblivious to his presence.
Kurko was now looking at the Situation Map and no doubt realized that the noose was tightening about him. The floor shook from a pressure wave of a nearby plasma discharge, which evidenced how close the government troops now were.
Out of the corner of his eye he must have seen the waiting group and strode over with a couple of tough looking bodyguards in tow.
“Who is this outsider?” he barked at the guards.
“Another spy we have captured General.”
“Does he know anything?”
“We don’t think so, we caught him and his partner in the desert miles from here.”
Taking just a cursory look at Kyle, Kurko gave his orders. “We haven’t got time for an interrogation now, take him down to Cutter. He can have this government scumbag to play with as well as his royal highness.”
Obviously he’s not impressed with me, Kyle thought to himself before his guards pulled him away dragging him backwards through the corridors again.
The group moved ever downwards and through several blast doors, before they came out in the cell block area. Kyle immediately noticed something was wrong. There was no noise and many of the cell doors were open, he tried to peer inside as he was dragged past and although he could not see clearly, the trails of fresh blood leading inwards was not a good sign.
Everything smelled bad, the guys dragging him along, the stench from the cells and the very air made Kyle retch but things were about to become worse.
The lead member of his minders punched a code in a panel by the door at the end of the corridor and it noisily eased back to reveal a red glow from the room beyond. Kyle was roughly pushed through and after his eyes adjusted to the light he saw the rows of figures chained to the walls. He could see that many were already dead but some were writhing from bloody holes in their bare torso’s or from the end of severed limbs. Most of those present were male but there were a few women there too and he noticed that apart from dying a violent death, they were all middle aged or over.
Kyle’s opportunity to study the surroundings came to a sudden end with a gloved fist being smashed into his face. It stung and he noticed a trickle of blood coming from his nose, “Bastard,” he spat but all this did was to provoke another punch, this time it came to his guts and made him slump to the floor.
The jailor who delivered the blows was slightly shorter than Kyle but very squat in build, his Walendian uniform was almost unrecognisable being covered in sweat, blood, grime and other substances that he did not want to even think about. The assailant snarled at Kyle’s guards, “Who is this dead meat?”
“He hasn’t given his name yet Cutter, we’ve logged him as, “Probable government agent 17.”
“Can’t talk or won’t talk it’s all the same to me, put him with the new batch over there, he will be in some good company.”
Kyle was attempting to stand when he received a kick in the groin knocking him down again and from there he was dragged to his allotted position, it took his last reserves of strength to hang on to the manacle clasps maintaining the illusion of still being shackled.
Once in place the guards hoisted their prisoner to his feet and lifted the heavy chain over a hook in the ceiling to leave the captive on the balls of his feet, neither dangling nor able to stand flat footed or so they thought.
Before they left, one of the guards gave him a last kick in the groin adding, “I hope you had a good life Spy, because if you are lucky it will be ending in this room very soon.”
All the guards had now left this charnel house and Kyle was temporarily left to lick his wounds but whilst he was trying to gather his senses a dim resonating voice echoed around his skull, “We’re coming hang on,” then it was gone, it sounded like Bambi but perhaps he was dreaming, trying to find some vain hope that rescue was on its way. It was no solace to Kyle either way, he had failed in the mission and had failed Pixie and he probably would not live to see Bambi again.
The captive next to him was also chained to the ceiling and tried to attract him in a hoarse but refined voice, “Are you ok citizen?”
“Never better my friend, what do you know?”
“One of the living corpses told me there is an urgent program to get rid of deserters, dissenters and anybody that could be a spy, it seems that people are being executed or butchered in other unspeakable ways in batches of six, so I guess we await one more arrival and it will be our turn.”
“No good news then but wait aren’t you Prince Morgan, sadly I was sent here to rescue you but why are you for the chop?”
Thanks
for trying citizen, I am afraid my father failed to pay the ransom Kurko demanded and why should he, I have four other brothers to pass the crown on to.”
“Call me Getaway your highness, it’s my preferred name just at the moment.”
Just then there was a buzzing in Kyle’s head again and his comms chip sparked to life and this time there was no mistake, although still faint it was Bambi’s voice echoing around his head, “Hang on Kyle we are coming, please, please give me a signal,” her voice was pleading more than insistent.
As no guards were in the neighbourhood Kyle risked a response, which was activated by him resting his chin onto his chest and talking steadily, “Good to hear you SOM but situation desperate. I am with the prince in cells way down in the citadel and we are to be executed shortly so all speed welcome.”
There was no time to talk further as the door to the torture chamber opened and a group of three pirates dragged another poor unfortunate already unconscious behind them. The new ‘guest’ was shackled to the wall next to Kyle and for a moment he thought he recognised this newcomer but that could not be likely.
His thoughts were quickly disturbed as a huge rumble was heard above and seconds later a shockwave shook the walls of the chamber causing everyone inside to bounce around. Again Kyle had to be really careful that his open manacle wasn’t spotted. This latest blast must have been something like a ‘PAM’, a plasmoid anti matter device, much more powerful than standard plasma but neither was it a full anti-matter device, which would have flattened the city. It could mean that the cavalry had arrived but would it be too late, the guards had been unnerved by the recent blast but soon regained their purpose when Cutter came into the chamber.
The chief jailor was a mean man in a very angry mood and rounded on his men, “You two take the first three into the next room and dispose of them and don’t waste your plasma on them. You ‘Tuncil, come with me, we might not have long and I want to give these three a special send-off,” to emphasis the point he drew his knife from its blood stained sheath and turned the power on so that the weapon hummed as the blade moved forward and backward at a furious speed.
Seeker of Moons (Cassidy's Command Book 1) Page 22