by T. R. Harris
Riyad’s dark eyes focused on the guard. “I am Riyad Tarazi, leader of The Fringe Pirates, here on a very important matter of The Menormor’s concern.” He leaned in close to the guard, as the others around him gripped their weapons tighter. “You will be risking not only your job, but also your life, if you do not relay the message.” Riyad’s unblinking eyes burned into those of the guard’s.
Momentarily stunned by Riyad’s intensity, the Silean soon recovered his composure. “I will relay the message,” he said defiantly. “But if Kroekus will not see you, then we will have our way with you, pirate, if that is what you really are.”
Satisfied, Riyad relaxed and stood stoically as the call was made. He did not want his nervousness to show. He wasn’t even sure Kroekus was in the building. At any moment, he may have to fight his way out of the building.
The guard spoke for a moment on the comm unit, and then turned to Riyad. “He asks where would your pirates be located today, if you are indeed the pirate leader.”
Riyad had nothing to lose revealing the location now, not after the Juirean attack. So without hesitation, he said, “Dimloe.”
The guard spoke on the unit again, then suddenly become very nervous. He kept nodding to the person on the other end of the link, and then finally turned to Riyad. “Please follow me. I will escort you to the office.”
Riyad said nothing, except to display a disgusted sigh as the guard led him down a long corridor, through four secure doors, past numerous other guards, and then finally through a set of wide, ornate double doors.
The big Silean did not rise from his seat behind the massive desk, but motioned for the guard to leave them in private and for Riyad to have a seat in front of the desk.
“So, are you really Riyad Tarazi?” Kroekus bellowed out. He seemed almost jovial with his comment.
“Of course I am. You would not have let me in here if you had your doubts.”
Kroekus laughed out loud and slapped the desk. “You are correct, Tarazi. It’s just with the events of the past few days, I was sure you were dead.”
“So you’ve heard?”
Kroekus grinned, displaying some of his teeth in a show of strength. “I hear everything. It seems you underestimated the strength and determination of the Juireans. Now what are you to do? Your pirate fleet is no more.”
“There are still remnants. I will rebuild. And that is one of the reasons I came here. I need my credits.”
“Yes, of course,” Kroekus said, pressing a button on his desk which caused a small monitor to rotate out of its surface. “You have a sizeable deposit with us, but hardly enough to rebuild a fleet of lost pirate ships.”
Riyad leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs. “Let me worry about how I do it. My core is still intact,” he lied.
“Yes, that was a devastating blow to your organization. And you know the Juireans are sending in even more reinforcements. I doubt if they will let your pirates achieve their previous status.”
Riyad tried to look as nonchalant as possible, even though he did not like the direction the conversation was taking. Kroekus seemed to be toying with him, taunting him.
“Like I said, I will worry about that.”
“But we have worked together – at a distance – for a long while now. Many of my operations rely on your pirate organization. I see that the current state of your organization could cause me to suffer financially.” He paused for affect before continuing. “How do you propose we remedy this situation?”
Riyad was afraid this was coming. He had exploited weakness before himself, when he sensed he had the advantage, and Kroekus was sensing the same weakness in him. After all, who could a criminal complain to if he were ripped off?
“I understand that it may be a while before I can be of assistance to you again, so in the interim, let’s say we increase your fee to twenty-five percent of the deposit.”
Kroekus grimaced. “An extra five percent hardly seems like fair compensation. I believe it should be a little higher than that.”
Riyad was growing madder by the minute, but he held his composure. “Then by all means, let’s agree on a number, say forty percent. That seems more than fair simply for holding my money.”
Just then a buzzer sounded on Kroekus’ comm. He flashed anger and smashed his hand down on the control. “I am in a negotiation! Do not disturb me.”
“Sorry, Menormor, but you asked to be told when the two beings from earlier arrived back to see you.” The voice on the comm was trembling.
Kroekus pressed a button and the monitor on his desk switched from the readout of Riyad’s account to a view of the waiting area outside his office. Standing in the middle of the room were the two assassins, Sherri Valentine and Adam Cain.
Looking at the monitor, Kroekus suddenly experienced an epiphany. He had never met the pirate leader before; they had communicated quite often, but always at arm’s length as to keep their association secret. Before now he had never even questioned the pirate’s race. Now looking at Riyad – and seeing two of the deadliest assassins in The Fringe standing in his waiting room – he suddenly felt a chill course through his body.
He pressed another button under the rim of his desk, and then spoke to Riyad. “I think that in light of the demise of your pirate force, that a more equitable division of your credits would be closer to one-hundred percent!”
Riyad stood up. “Bullshit, Kroekus! That’s my money.”
“Maybe you should have been more subtle then, rather than bring in your two cohorts to back you up!”
“What are you talking about?”
A side door suddenly slid open and three armed guards rushed into the room. They leveled their MK’s at Riyad. Without hesitation, Riyad rushed them, and before the targeting computers could lock onto his position, crashed into the three of them with the force a bull. Like bowling pins, the guards fell hard against the wall, as Riyad rolled over them, grabbing a weapon from one of them as he did so. He came up firing, blasting two of the guards in the chest before turning the weapon on Kroekus.
But he was already gone. His chair was gone, too, having spirited the crime lord away through an emergency exit in the wall behind his desk.
Then Riyad heard what sounded like hooves on a tile floor, growing ever louder. Suddenly, the doorway that the guards had emerged through exploded into the room, as two four-legged beasts crashed through it. The animals were huge, with two stubby horns on their thick heads. Resembling large dogs, they also had bear-like snouts displaying four-inch long teeth.
The two creatures butted their heads into Riyad’s chest, sending him flying across the room. Luckily, he held onto the weapon, but before he could bring it up to aim, one of the beasts rammed him again, sending him flying once more, this time crashing through the wall of the office and into the waiting area.
Chapter Twenty-One
Adam and Sherri had heard the commotion through the thick door to Kroekus office and had moved closer to listen. Their weapons had already been confiscated, and so they were shocked to see the guards draw their own MK’s and point them at the two Humans.
Adam and Sherri turned to face the guards. Adam opened his mouth and said, “What the fuck—” just as the wall behind them exploded at their backs. Part of wall and doors cascaded down upon them, along with a heavy lump of something that landed directly on Adam’s back.
Adam rolled over, carrying the lump with him. When the dust settled, Adam was staring into the face of Riyad Tarazi.
Riyad’s eyes widened with surprise, and then he shoved Adam to his left, firing his weapon past Adam’s left ear.
A squeal of pain emanated from behind Adam, and then an even greater weight fell on his back, as the foul, hot breath of a bear-faced creature exhaled on him. The thing was dead, but coming right behind it was his very-much-alive twin.
Adam and Riyad rolled away in opposite directions as the beast plowed a channel into the floor with its horned head right between them. The creature conti
nued headlong into the room, crashing into the two stunned guards and pinning their now-crushed bodies against the far wall. Then the thing turned, focused in on Adam and Riyad again, snorted and charged once more.
Riyad’s weapon was pinned under him, so he rolled over more and tried to free the MK. It wouldn’t be in time, the creature was only a few meters away and coming fast—
Pop! A flash of a bolt launcher struck the charging creature in the side of the head, burning a clean hole into its skull, the force of the blast diverting its attack. The beast missed Riyad by millimeters. Then it fell to the tile floor and slid, dead, into what remained of the wall leading to Kroekus office.
Adam and Riyad looked up from the floor and through the ruble that covered them, to see Sherri holding one of the now-dead guard’s MK’s, a satisfied look on her face.
“Stop playing with the puppies, boys. I think we’ve got bigger problems now,” she said. She recovered the other guard’s weapon and tossed it to Adam.
She was right. They could hear yelling in the main hallway leading to Kroekus’ office, and the sound of dozens of guards filling the chamber.
The three Humans fanned out and took up a spread formation covering the door. They crouched down on one knee and aimed the weapons, sighting along the barrels of the weapons with both eyes open.
“I thought you were dead!” Adam yelled over at Riyad, not taking his eyes off the door.
“The same about you,” Riyad growled. “How did you get off the ship?”
“Does that really matter now? What did you do to Kroekus?”
“Nothing. He was going to rip me off, and then he sicced his two dogs on me.”
Sherri yelled from the other side of the room: “Whatever you did, you’ve got his whole army coming down on us. Who are you anyway?”
Adam answered, “He’s Riyad Tarazi, a slimy bastard who I wouldn’t trust to take out my trash.”
“I thought you said he was dead?”
“I was wrong!”
The door to the office slid open, and a force of guards wearing body armor flooded into the room. The three Humans let loose with accurate shots at their unshielded heads, dropping five of them before the others began to move back.
At the left side of the door, Sherri rushed in and grabbed three of the guards’ flash rifles, tossing two of them to Adam and Riyad and keeping one for herself.
The second wave of alien guards rushed forward, seemingly not to have learned from the demise of their comrades. Now armed with the more powerful and rapidly-firing flash rifles, the Humans were able to dispatch twelve of the guards before they retreated.
“We’ve got to find another exit point,” Adam cried out. “Back into Kroekus’ office! There has to be another exit.”
Sherri moved first, then Riyad, while Adam covered them. When Adam entered the office, he found the remains of the three guards Riyad had killed, plus the gaping opening where the “dogs” had crashed into the room. They entered the opening, and found themselves in another long hallway with several doors lining it. Two of the doors opened, as curious Sileans looked out to see what all the commotion was about. Riyad, who was in the lead, blasted them without hesitation.
“Save your bolts!” Adam commanded. “Manage your targets.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” Riyad replied sarcastically.
“Fuck you!”
“Knock it off you two!” Sherri cried out from her position in the middle. “Concentrate.”
At the end of the hallway was a large room with numerous tables and a food station lining one wall. As they entered, a force of guards entered from the other side.
The Humans slid on the smooth floor and overturned three tables to crouch behind, just as bolts began to splash around them, with some striking the tables they now hid behind.
Adam fired into the ceiling above the guards, raining debris down upon them. As the guards covered their heads, the three Humans rose from behind their tables and sent a dozen bolts slamming to the front row of guards. Then they ducked back under cover as more bolts came their way.
Adam still had the MK Sherri had tossed him. He pulled it out of his holster and bent the barrel with his bare hands. Then he set the level to three and pressed the trigger. When the weapon began to heat up, he flung the MK over the table and into the crowd of guards. As the lower-setting charge built up, the weapon finally discharged, yet with the barrel bent, the electric charge compressed even more and exploded with the force of grenade.
The explosion sent the bloody parts of a dozen more guards raining down on the room.
“That was pretty cool,” Sherri said. “You’ve got to teach how to do that sometime.”
Adam just smiled and nodded back.
The doorway was clearing, so they set off for it one at a time, the other two covering while the forward person took shelter behind more overturned tables. Down this hallway were stationed several more guards. Riyad and Adam blasted three more before the rest retreated.
Adam knew they were getting close to the side of the building, and because of the Silean habit of putting the most important facilities on the ground floor of their buildings, he knew they could be out on the street once they found any exit.
Just then the entire building shook to its core, a deep rumbling sensation, and smoke began to billow down the hallway toward them. They retreated back into the cafeteria as the very ground continued to tremble. Taking shelter under some of the tables that had not been overturned, they managed to gain cover just as a section of the ceiling came crashing down on them. There were deep-base booms from heavy weapons, as more smoke, dust and debris filled the air. Then intermittent pops from flash rifles, answered quickly by a chorus of much heavier booms, followed then by a deathly silence.
There was movement in the hallway outside the cafeteria, and Adam chanced a glance in that direction. He saw a squad of massive creatures enter the room, each decked out in dark, full-body armor and carrying double barrel blast rifles which Adam had only heard about but never seen. The troops rushed in and circled the tables where the three Humans hid, leveling their weapons at them.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“You there! Stand up and surrender your weapons,” one of the invaders said.
Adam held the flash rifle above his head with both hands and then tossed it aside. The others followed suit. Then they all slowly rose to their feet, their hands above their heads. They were covered with white dust and pieces of wallboard and ceiling tiles; Sherri coughed.
The armored troops all had clear masks over their long heads, with great manes of light green hair cascading down their backs. Adam had only seen these creatures in videos, but he knew they were Juirean Guards. And there were nine of them standing in the room. He was not even aware that there were nine Juirean Guards total in the entire Fringe.
“Jaoger, your squad take these three to the staging area. The rest of you scan for others,” their leader commanded. Then three of the Juireans stepped forward and began to prod the Humans toward the hallway.
They were led outside the building, past considerable debris and damage and placed in a holding area surrounded by more Juirean Guards, as well as least a hundred Rigorians. Troops came forward and placed handcuffs on them and told them to get in line. There were easily two to three hundred other creatures in the holding area, some looking perfectly clean, just confused and scared, while others were bloody and barely able to walk.
Looking up at the building, Adam saw that nearly half if it was gone, having collapsed in on itself. If it had been any taller than four stories, Adam was sure they would have been crushed in the collapse.
The three Humans stayed as close to each other as they could as they were herded forward toward a tall Juirean standing next to a much shorter creature with a smooth, featureless face, yet with a strange shimmer to his skin. When they came forward, the featureless being held up his hand.
“You are not Silean,” he stated, glancing down at a datapad. “What race are y
ou?”
Riyad was in the lead, so he answered, “Humans. We’re Humans.”
“What was your business in the building at this hour?
Sherri spoke up. “We were just there on a trade mission when all of a sudden everyone started shooting.” She batted her eyes at the alien and hoped he could comprehend the sincerity in her voice.
“You were armed,” the alien stated.
“We were just trying to defend ourselves.”
The alien tapped on the datapad, then turned to the Juirean. “Have these three segregated from the Sileans until we can verify their story.”
The Juirean nodded, and then called for another squad of Juireans and Rigorians to load them into a transport.
The Humans didn’t say a word to each other during the ride into the city center and to the government facilities, but their eyes communicated a lot; they would lay low and keep up the façade Sherri had begun until they saw a chance to escape.
At the central prison building, the three were taken into a formidable looking building with thick stone walls and thin-slit windows. Their handcuffs were removed as they were placed in a cell with a single secure metal door and a small window set in it – no metal bars in this cell. The door slammed shut and they heard a sold metal bar slide across the outside. The Silean’s are much more serious about their jails than were the Nimorians, Adam thought.
“Oh no! Not you!”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The voice cried out from a corner of the cell, and Adam instantly recognized it. He turned from the cell door and stared open-mouthed at the two beings seated on a cot at the far end of the room. It was Kaylor and Jym!
Then Riyad stepped out from behind Adam. The effect was instantaneous. Kaylor shot to his feet, while Jym literally tried to climb the back wall to get away.
“Calm down!” Adam called out to them. He stepped up to the cot and placed a hand on Jym’s shoulder. “Everything’s going to be alright. Don’t worry about him,” he said nodding back at Riyad. “He’s not going to hurt you.”