The Seryys Chronicles: Death Wish

by Joseph Nicholson

  “I’m the good guy,” Khai joked.

  “You’ll never get anything out of me!” he hissed at the soldier. “Especially with that in my presence.”

  “Oh, you mean ol’ Sibrex here?” Khai waved a dismissing hand. “Ah! He’s harmless.”

  “Consorting with the enemy is punishable by death!” Trall yelled.

  “Well, lucky for you, I already know the location of Prime Minister Puar. So I have nothing to ask you.”

  “Go to hell!” Trall spat.

  “I was hoping you were gonna say that,” Khai said with a diabolical grin. He picked Trall’s frail body up by the collar of his shirt. The sheer terror in his eyes was enough to fill Khai’s craving for revenge, but he was not nearly finished yet. “Not so tough without your guards, are you?”

  “I have nothing left to say to you, traitor! So do what you’re going to do!”

  “That’s fine. I’m not gonna kill you, you piece of shit,” Khai growled, putting the man down.

  Khai waiting just long enough for Trall to relax before grabbing him by the throat, lifting him off his feet. Trall had only two seconds to realize what had just happened and the fear in eyes was something Khai would remember with fondness for years to come. Snap! Khai broke his neck with a quick twist. Trall was dead and his reign with him. “Changed my mind.” He dropped Trall’s lifeless body and it flopped to the floor. Khai looked down at the body with an almost casual expression of boredom.

  Suddenly, the doors swung open and armed guards rushed in, yelling commands.

  Blasted Dack, where the hell are you?

  “Khai!” a familiar voice called out.

  Khai looked up and saw Dah leaning over the loading ramp of a ship. He had a rope knotted at increments dropping down to them at that moment. The guards, knowing the two were about to escape, advanced, guns drawn. Gunfire rained down on them from the ship above. Khai and Sibrex climbed as though their lives depended on it and reached the top in seconds. Before they could even climb up over the lip of the ramp, the pilot pulled away heading west.

  They climbed aboard and crawled up the ramp. Dah was waiting for them, his arms crossed and a grin on his face. When they both stood, gasps filled the main hold. Dah drew his gun and pointed it at the Vyysarri as a chorus of clicks filled the hold for a few seconds as everyone followed suit.

  “What the hell is this?” Dah shouted.

  “Easy, Dack,” Khai soothed. “His name is Sibrex. He’s the one who saved me.”

  “Bull shit!” Dah shouted, pulling the hammer back on his gun. “That’s a Vyysarri!”

  “He’s not going to hurt anyone here. He is my friend. I will personally vouch for him.”

  “What’re you talking about? You hate Vyysarri!” Dah spat, not hiding his disdain.

  “I have learned a lot while I was gone. Most of the Vyysarri are good people. Hell, even better than us. Here.” Khai handed him the disk. “Watch this, it’ll explain everything. Now, please. Lower your weapons, all of you.”

  “I’m sorry, Khai. But you’re looking a lot like a traitor right now. I’m going to put the both of you in the brig for the time being.”

  “Like hell you are!” Khai growled. “You think I’m stupid? You think I didn’t notice that you were rolling with Agents? Come on, Dack.”

  “They defected,” Dah said plainly. “I’ve saved their families and in return they were able to show me where to find Puar. What has he done for you?”

  “He mended my broken bones, fed, clothed and housed me while I recovered,” Khai growled, taking a menacing step forward. “Sibrex here has shown me nothing but kindness and friendship since we met. He had more than ten opportunities to kill me, but he didn’t.”

  “No!” Dah said sarcastically. “Why kill you when he could brainwash you and make you his puppet?”

  “It didn’t go down like that,” Khai said, taking another step closer.

  “Stop that!” Dah shouted, the gun in his hand beginning to tremble. “Don’t come any closer!”

  “Or what? Huh? You gonna shoot me, Dack? After I saved your life?”

  “I just saved your life down there in the office. As I count it, we’re even. Now, take them to the brig.”

  The Agents obeyed and one of them moved so fast, that Khai found himself disarmed before he even registered movement. Sibrex, however, was not taken by surprise. He moved just as fast as them and had two on their backs before they could disarm him. With the once-holstered gun of one of the Agents pointed at Dah, Khai intervened. He stepped in front of Sibrex.

  “Khai, this man has betrayed you. Do you not wish retribution?” Sibrex asked.

  “No,” Khai said. “Put the gun down. Please, don’t shoot my friend here.”

  “As you wish,” Sibrex said, dropping the Agent’s gun.

  “There,” Khai said, spinning to face Dah. “Are you satisfied?”

  Dah looked at Khai, then past Khai at the Vyysarri. “For now,” he said to Khai, then addressed Sibrex, “but if you slip even an inch, I’ll fill you with lead. Get me?”

  “It is a fair bargain,” Sibrex said.

  “Good. Now buckle up, we’re heading to the bunker right now. So if this Vyysarri shithead doesn’t fuck us on the way, or once we get there, then I’ll trust him… and you.”

  “Fair enough,” Khai agreed to his terms. “What’s the plan?”

  “Kay will explain it,” Dah said, leading them to the cockpit, sitting down at the controls and taking over for Kay.

  “We will be arriving at our destination within half an hour. Upon arrival, you will be dropped into the water. Several hundred feet down is where you will breach the facility. It won’t be easy. You will have to cut through the hinges on the main access hatch above the airlock. You won’t have to worry about pressure equalization as the entire shaft leading up to the facility is also filled with water. It will not be an easy ascent, either. There are depth charges attached to the shaft wall every twenty feet the whole way up. They are attached to pressure sensors that detect the water displacement of objects moving past them. What’s worse is that once one goes off, all the others will follow.”

  “Okay, that’s bad,” Khai said. “So, how do we avoid meeting our deaths down there?”

  “I have a suggestion,” Sibrex spoke up. “You said that the sensors detect an increase in water pressure based on displacement, correct?”

  “That’s what she said,” Dah retorted.

  “Does it detect a decrease?”

  “No,” Kay said. Because-”

  “Because the water drains out when the code is accepted,” Sibrex finished her statement.

  “Exactly,” Kay agreed.

  “I don’t understand how that’s helping us,” Dah hissed impatiently.

  “If we can find a way to drain the water from shaft, say… equal to our mass, we could enter and safely make our way to the top.”

  “Great!” Dah was being even less tolerant than ever. “So how do we get the water out of there?”

  Sibrex looked at Kay, then said, “Can the main hold of this vessel be sealed off from the rest of the ship?”

  “Yes,” Kay answered.

  “Does this vessel possess an umbilical?”

  “Yes! Yes it does! Off the port-side airlock,” Kay said, catching on to Sibrex’s plan. “And it can withstand water pressure beyond two hundred feet!”

  “What does this mean?” Dah asked, completely unimpressed with what they were devising.

  “Come on, Dack!” Khai snapped, finally losing his temper with him. “Think! One man goes down into the water. He cuts the hatch and then the ship goes down. We hook up the umbilical and pop the airlock and we not only displace enough water to keep the bombs from going off, we can enter straight from the ship. That also gives us two escape routes. We go back down the shaft and meet Kay there, or we can call her and have her meet us at the platform. It’s quicker than waiting for the airlock to let us in.”

  “That is not exactly how
it will work,” Sibrex said. “If the hatch is removed from the facility airlock, the water will flood in and set off the bombs. First, we must attach the umbilical, then remove the hatch. That will prevent reverse pressure. Be warned, Agent, the ship will be vulnerable. You cannot move while attached to the airlock.”

  “Understood,” Kay said.

  “Okay,” Dah said. “So he came up with a good plan. Doesn’t mean he’s one of us yet.”

  Sibrex seemed unaffected, but Khai saw his jaw muscles twitch. He put his hand on the Vyysarri’s shoulder and said, “But it’s a good start.”

  “Whatever,” Dah grumbled.

  “We need to make a detour,” Khai said.

  “For what?” Dah demanded.

  “What? Do you have breathing equipment for… oh, thirty people?”

  “No,” Dah growled.

  “Then we need equipment. Fortunately, I know a guy who can help us out. Hell, he probably has it in stock. Let me make a call.”

  Khai stepped out for a moment and disappeared into the engineering section. A few minutes later, he emerged, a grin on his face.

  “Can we make a quick trip up to Tanbarder? It shouldn’t be more than ten minutes. The guy owes me a favor.”

  “I don’t see a problem with that,” Kay said. “It should only take us about fifteen minutes out of the way.”

  “Exactly. And what we get from it far outweighs any setback.”

  “I agree. Where am I to land once we have arrived at Tanbarder?”

  “It’s just outside the city limits. A small shack, you can’t miss it.” Khai came up to the navigational console and punched a few keys. “Here’s the coordinates.”

  “Got them. I’m changing course. ETA in fifteen minutes.”

  “Thanks,” Khai said, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Oh, uh… and sorry for shooting you in the stomach and… leaving you for dead.”

  “Sorry for almost cutting your guts out,” she responded. “No hard feelings?”

  “None whatsoever.”

  “Good.”

  It was a little less than fifteen minutes when they landed the ship twenty feet from an old rundown shack.

  “We’re getting what we need from there?” Dah asked incredulously.

  “Yep. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  As many as could fit, they crammed into the cockpit to watch Khai. A stout man strolled out from the shack and gave Khai a hardy handshake. They spoke to each other for a few minutes and then they both walked into the shack. Suddenly, the ground began to shake and tremor. A small fissure opened in the ground. Small amounts of dirt fell in as the small fissure became two heavy slabs of metal sliding apart. The slabs stopped and the hole was perfect square five-by-five feet. Khai and the man walked down into the hole, stayed about five minutes and emerged with several duffle bags. He helped Khai carry the bags to the ship, gave Khai another healthy handshake and walked back to the shack.

  Sibrex came down the ramp to help him out and they brought all the bags up into the ship; the others just watched. Once they were all secured, Khai gave the order to take off. The ship hefted her bulk on her hoverpads and took off.

  “Who was that?” Dah asked.

  “Guy whose life I saved,” Khai answered his friend. “Like I said. Owed me a favor.”

  “Who was it, though? He looked familiar,” Dah insisted.

  After a heavy sigh, Khai told them. “Ken’Neth Kreer.”

  “You mean, the Ken’Neth Kreer?” Dah asked.

  “The same,” Khai said with a shrug.

  “How’d you save his life?”

  “That’s a story for another day. Let’s get everything ready.”

  They spent the remainder of the trip to the canyon securing the main hold of the ship. All doors leading away from the hold were sealed. Every door in the ship produced an airtight seal. It was designed to be able to function with multiple hull breaches. Before they dove into the water, they made sure every single door was sealed. There were three doors that lead directly from the hold to the cockpit. They decided that if they needed to displace more water, they could open another door and take on another hundred cubic feet of water. Kay warned though that taking on too much water may result in the ship being too heavy to leave the river; though unlikely, it was still a possibility.

  Chapter Twenty

  They geared up for storming the castle. Each sported an underwater oxygen extractor, or a UOE, that literally filtered oxygen out of the water for them to breathe. They were all one piece that covered the eyes, mouth and nose to clear pressure from the goggles and allow speech. Off of the mouthpiece was the filter; it was approximately three inches long and cylindrical and housed the radio transceiver for communication and the actual filter. They were small, portable and effective, but only could be used for up to twenty minutes before the filtration system became overtaxed and quit. It was perfect for a covert operation such as this.

  They were suited up and ready to ride. Aside from UOEs, Ken also supplied a high-power, ultra-fine cutting laser. All the officers who volunteered to go had their own weapons and armor, the Agents didn’t need armor and, Brix, Puar and Naad had their own gear, too.

  Kay, locked up in the cockpit, announced their arrival at the bunker. “Hang on, everyone. We’re going down.”

  “Copy that,” Khai said. “We’re ready.”

  The ship shuddered as it plunged into the deep river of Kal’Hoom Karr Canyon. The Bolt Bucket groaned in protest as the pressure mounted on the hull. The lights dimmed as the ship pitched one way then the next.

  “Brace yourselves, I’m turning on the artificial gravity.”

  “What for?” Dah asked.

  “I have to stand the ship up on her port side so the umbilical will extend over the hatch and make a seal.” Their stomachs turned as the AG kicked in and the ship rolled ninety degrees. A loud clank resonated through the hull of the ship. “We are engaged to the hatch. You may cut it now. When the water fills the ship, I’ll disengage the gravity so that you can move more easily. Just prepare for some disorientation.”

  “We’ll be fine, Kay. Just watch after the ship for us.”

  “Will do.”

  Khai walked to the airlock, the inner door rolled open and Khai stepped in with the cutting laser. With his UOE securely fastened to his face and his free hand anchoring him to the ship, he cut the hinges off the hatch and instantly, water rushed in.

  “Hold on!” Khai shouted as the water threatened to suck him back into the main hold.

  He heard grunting over the communication channel as the water filled more than fifty percent of the ship. The ship groaned and creaked again. Just hold together, Khai prayed. The AG was disengaged and Khai began to float freely.

  “Whoa,” Puar said. “That’s weird.”

  “You’ll get used to it,” Dah said. “Just give it a few seconds.”

  Once they were able to regain their bearings, they swam from the ship into the lift shaft. They worked their way up, passing red light banks every ten feet. The shaft was otherwise dark and no one wanted to stop long enough to take a look around.

  “How will we know if our plan worked?” Naad asked.

  “We won’t die,” Khai responded.

  “Oh, that’s reassuring,” Puar grumbled.

  “Quit your bellyaching,” Khai ordered. “And cut the chatter. It’s possible they’re monitoring our frequencies.”

  “Not likely, Colonel,” Kay interjected. “The frequencies you’re using are secured and reserved exclusively for Agents. In fact, they can’t even be accessed without a voice print identification and clearance code.”

  “Who is to say that there are no Agents in there right now,” Sibrex asked the obvious question.

  “I know where every Agent is located at this exact moment and have been monitoring their movements since we left Seryys Four.”

  “And how do you know you’re not being fed false data?” Dah asked.

  A legit question, Khai
thought as they worked their way up the water-filled shaft.

  “Not every Agent loyal to our cause is currently with us,” Kay let them in on a little secret. “There are a few operatives working on the inside.”

  “Can they be trusted?” Khai had to ask, though he hated questioning the loyal of very useful help.

  “Their families are in just as much danger as ours were. They will not betray us, because that would mean betraying their families as well.” Kay stated with absolute certainty. The confidence in her voice was enough to convince Khai.

  “Okay,” Khai said, “let’s get this over with. Kay, can you tell us how much further we need to go?”

  “Yes, Colonel. It’s-”

  “Just… call me Khai. I’m retired, now.”

  “And yet you still serve your people,” Sibrex pointed out. “Would that not constitute still being active?”

  “I’m doing what I feel is right,” Khai said. “This has nothing to do with my military actions. Especially since those actions were carried out for the wrong reasons.”

  “Okay, Khai. If that’s what you want…”

  “It is, Kay.”

  “As you wish,” Kay continued. “You have passed the point of detonation. You have approximately sixty feet of your ascent left.”

  “How much time has gone by?”

  “Ten minutes, fifteen seconds.”

  “Damn!” Khai snapped.

  “What’s wrong, Khai?” Dah asked.

  “Too much time has elapsed,” Sibrex filled in for Khai. “These devices will not last for our return.”

  “Meaning, there’s only one way out.”

  “The landing platform.” Brix finally said something. “Well, Kay. Go ahead and detach, then. We’re gonna need you topside.”

  “No!” Sibrex shouted.

  “Why not?” Dah Snapped.

  “If she disconnects the umbilical now, the shaft will flood with water. Kay, wait for my signal. When we are safely within the compound, then disconnect. We will signal you when it is time for us to make our escape.”

  “Got it.”

  “Wait!” Dah shouted. “You trust his judgment? Hell, for all we know, he could be setting us up for death.”