The Koda Files Boxed Set - Books 1 & 2

by Ivan Bridgewater

  Koda nodded her acknowledgment. I focused on Mr. Robert Hetrus. Payback time was near! We folded space.

  I found myself in a dimly lit room. The shadow next to me was Koda. I could sense her mind. The sound of the Klaxon was much louder here. Right then, the door swung open, and in stepped Hetrus. He took one look at me, raised his semi-automatic handgun, and put four rounds into my chest.

  The impact drove me back into a wall. I was vested, but he was using military rounds, and they ripped through the Kevlar. Blood went everywhere. The three of us seemed to freeze there, as if time had stopped. Then a really funny thing happened.

  The wounds just closed back up!

  Hetrus's face went white, and he started backing out the door, his hand, still holding the gun out, shook violently. Koda just stood there with a look of shocked amazement on her face. I suppose that was my reaction as well, since I hesitated to follow Hetrus out the cabin door instantly, as I should have.

  The shock didn't last long. I could hear shouts, and the sounds of people headed our way. At that point, I dropped into killer mode.

  That's what I've come to call it. It's the point where I just start killing everything that I don't recognize as friendly. Elsewhere on the ship, I could hear automatic gunfire erupting. The team was at work. Ignoring the pain in my chest from being shot, I took off after Hetrus.

  All this happened in ten seconds or less. Despite that, a very frightened Mr. Hetrus was well out of sight as I went out the cabin door. He had run the fifty feet down the companionway, and was running up some stairs, when a foot appeared at the top, kicking him in the face.

  He crumpled and fell, landing in a twisted mass at the bottom of the stairs. I watched as Koda climbed down the steps, and stopped, standing right over him. She had folded space to intercept him. I hadn't thought of that, and felt a little foolish for not doing so.

  In that instant, I saw into his mind! He had ordered Nancy's death, the killing of Koda's parents, and her assassin mentors, and as I stood there, I realized he wasn't dead, or even unconscious. He had a hidden blade, and he lunged up towards Koda's stomach violently from the crouch he was in.

  Again, the feeling of slow motion, or of time slowing down. As he swung the blade up, Koda vanished. She folded space, reappearing right behind him, and drove her sword down hard, straight into his back, almost pinning him to the deck. He screamed, and Koda yelled, "That's for my parents!" She leveraged her blade up out of him. With a deft twist, she lopped off his right hand, yelling, "That's for my teachers!" Then took his left hand with a single cut. Lowering her voice, she growled, "That was for Nancy!"

  Spinning around, she laid the blade across his neck, neatly decapitated him. In a now hushed voice, she quietly added, "And that's for Mike!" I could see Koda's mind. Her emotions were running wild.

  Right then, I heard Shooter's voice in my head. He said, "Mike, I need to see you right away!" A visual image came with the words. I could see people trapped, locked in a huge cargo box in the ship's hold. Mr. Hetrus's legacy lived on, as slaves locked in the depths of this ship.

  Gunfire was picking up all over the ship. I looked at my watch. We had three minutes to get out, and our primary target was eliminated. Any other time, I’d have ordered a withdrawal, and we would have gotten the hell out of Dodge. For some reason I hesitated. The people in the hold weren't our problem. Yet something Dona said made me pause. She had told me that I had come to behave like a Guardian.

  If there was any doubt in my mind, it disappeared at that point. I folded space to where Shooter was standing on top of the cargo container. Hands jutted up through bars welded over a twelve inch window cut in the top of the container. Multiple voices begging for help screamed out from the box. The thing was wedged in with dozens of other boxes. I saw no way to get the people out.

  I couldn't use explosives, it would kill the people inside. This place would be overrun in minutes, and I figured that they would sink the ship, destroying the evidence, before they got caught.

  I glanced around desperately, trying to see a way out of this. Inside a few seconds, our entire group was there. We all stood there debating what to do. I heard a banging noise at the hatch for the hold. They would be here soon.

  I looked around, and yelled, "Get off the box!" Everyone close, stepped away. I dropped to my knees, and shoved my hand down through the bars. Screaming, "Grab my hand!" over and over, I waited at I felt countless hands grip hold. Then I folded space, returning to Kathy's.

  I remember how black the night sky was, and how cold the ground felt. Dona was leaning over me, and I heard her say, "Well, that was a stupid thing to do!" Then I passed out.

  Chapter 15

  Visiting Madias

  I climbed back up through the fog of unconsciousness. I woke up hurting really bad. My chest was on fire. Amidst the pain, I heard Lisa say, "Mike! Can you hear me?"

  "Yeah! I frickin hear ya!" I growled. My head felt like it was ready to explode. Working as hard as I could, I managed to open my eyes enough to peek out. I was back in the Medical Bay.

  "You're a hard man to kill," observed Dona. I couldn't see her, but I knew her voice at once. "Who told you it was okay to pull over twenty people along with you when you fold space?" she asked.

  "That's bad?" I responded.

  "I would have believed impossible, but you did it!" she quietly told me. "I've been asking around. I get the feeling nobody believes what you did. I saw you arrive, but even the trained Guardians with me said you can't do that. I helped the people you brought out. They were slaves Mike! Do you realize what you risked, bringing them out?"

  "Like a Guardian," I whispered.

  "Yes! Like a guardian," she agreed.

  A male voice I had never heard before said, "We've been looking for you Mike!" I couldn't see the man through my closed eyelids. I could tell by his voice that he was standing close by. He continued, asking, "Why did you risk so much to help total strangers? You must have known you were taking a terrible risk! Don't deny it! I can see it when I scan your mind!"

  "Had to," I whispered without thinking. "It was the right thing to do!"

  "The right thing to do," repeated the man. "An amazing concept!"

  I don't know why, but his comment irritated me. "Don't knock it," I growled.

  "I'm not," the voice said. "As a matter of fact, I have a healthy respect for doing the right thing!"

  "I'm feeling kind of tired right now," I observed. "What do you want?"

  The man snickered, and said, "To the point, eh. Very well. My name is Madias. I’ve been receiving reports about you from Dona, and after your little rescue, I had to come see for myself."

  "I wasn't on a rescue mission," I noted. "We were there to take out the trash!"

  "Yes! So Dona told me," said Madias. "Yet all those people are alive because of you! Funny how things sometimes work out in unexpected ways!"

  "I’d like to sleep!" I said bluntly. "I feel like crap!"

  "I'm sure you would!" said the voice. "You were shot four times at point blank range just about an hour ago, and you don't have a mark on you."

  The memories started to return. I could remember getting shot. I was still in a lot of pain. I suddenly heard Lisa say, "You've got a pistol slug embedded in your body, but no entrance wound. It appears the other three rounds went right through you, but one got lodged, and didn't make it all the way through. It looks like you healed over instantly, trapping the round in your body!"

  "Koda saw you get shot four times," Madias said. "She told me you healed over instantly. I can see it when I scan her. How did you do it?"

  "I don't know," I mumbled. "It just happened." I could sense my body, and the location of the bullet. It was as if I had control of myself on the molecular level. The spot where the bullet was, started to burn. I really focused on the round.

  Abruptly, Lisa's voice asked, "What are you doing Mike?" I could tell from the way she spoke, that something was wrong. The beeping of the medical equipment see
med to be speeding up.

  Then I heard Koda exclaim, "Look at his shoulder!"

  My eyes were swollen shut. But Koda could see, and I locked onto her mind, seeing what she was seeing.

  A red mark appeared on my shoulder. As I watched, the sore opened, and the spent slug popped out. Lisa loudly gasped, "Jesus!" and grabbed a metal tray off the table next to the bed. She shoved it under the wound in time to catch the round. It fell into the tray with a loud clang.

  "How did you do that?" asked Madias.

  All I could say, was, "Let me sleep!"

  I must have passed out. I woke up the second time, and my eyes opened a little easier. The bright overhead light had been turned down, but I could see around the room a lot better now. Lisa was standing at a counter, typing on a laptop computer's keyboard. I managed to softly ask, "Are you okay?"

  She spun around, and quickly stepped over closer to the bed. She looked down at me with a big grin on her face. Then she said, "Hey there! How ya doin hero?"

  "I'm no hero," I grumbled.

  "That's not what Dona says," Lisa responded, snickering slightly to herself. "She talks like you're some kind of white knight in shining armor. They really want to know how you're doing the things that you do."

  "Them and me both!" I strongly asserted.

  "They say you need to rest," she observed. "I'm kinda new at this stuff, but I’d tend to agree. Your aura was visibly dimmed when they brought you in. It was like your batteries were really running low."

  I tried to sit up, and failed. "Help me get up!" I ordered.

  "Shut up, and stay down," she responded. "Or I can tranquilize you, and let you sleep it off that way!" I let myself relax. There was no point in struggling, even if I could have gotten up on my own. After a second she told me, "Go back to sleep! You'll feel better in the morning."

  It sounded like good advice, and I took it.

  Time passed. This time as the fog cleared, I could tell at once that I felt better. As I opened my eyes, I realized Bugs was standing next to the bed. In a quiet voice he said, "I've started the conversion myself. I want in on what I see happening here."

  "It's not all it's cracked up to be," I muttered.

  "I'll risk it," he joked, smiling down at me. "After what I've seen the last couple of weeks, I'll take my chances."

  "Probably a decision we'll both come to regret," I said quietly.

  He just nodded his agreement, and walked away. I started to sit up, and managed to struggle to an upright position. Just as I got seated upright, Lisa stepped into the room. She smiled at me, and asked, "Feeling better today are we?"

  "I feel like crap," I responded. "But at least I'm feeling a little better."

  "You've been in bed a couple of days. Do you feel like trying to get up?" she asked. My legs felt like lead as I swung them over the side of the bed. Getting up sounded exhausting. But getting to the toilet sounded very important. I struggled to my feet, and staggered the few steps to the restroom with Lisa standing next to me every step of the way.

  As I stumbled along, I could feel my strength returning. Lisa left me my privacy, and when I stepped back out, she had left the room. Stumbling back over to the bed, I was glad to sit back down for a moment. That was when Kathy walked in.

  She looked over at me, saying, "Good to see you up and moving!"

  "Great," I said. "Talk to the doctors, and get me out of here!"

  "Lisa told me you could leave whenever you want," she noted. "Are you up to walking out?"

  "Just don't get in my way," I mumbled. I put one foot in front of the other till I found myself looking down at my own bed. That was the full extent of my travels for the morning. I laid in bed, trying to recuperate. Several hours passed, and in short order, I started to feel a whole lot better. I got up, got a shower, and went out. I could tell my strength was rapidly returning. Stepping out the side door, into the fresh air, it was a pleasure to feel the warmth of the sun beating down on my face.

  Frankly, it just felt awesome to be alive!

  Tim stepped out of the door, and walked over. He smiled, and said, "Good to see you up and moving around!"

  I just nodded agreement, and asked, "How's the team doing? Bring me up to speed."

  "We're all A-Okay," he responded in clipped military fashion. "No sign of hostile activity since the strike! All team personnel are accounted for, and we have resumed training while you were resting! You'll find us ready when you call on us!"

  I looked over at him, and said, "This isn't your fight Tim! You need to get off this bus while you still can!"

  "You already know none of us will walk away and leave you to fight this alone," he stated calmly. "Don't even try to let us off, or Kathy will tell me to kill you, and it will come out sounding like a good idea!"

  I smiled, and said, "You two always spoil my fun!"

  He stood looking at me, seemingly deep in thought. After a second or two, he told me, "I watched you pull those people out of that damn box! I'd follow you through the gates of Hell if you told me to! This is worth all of us fighting for! I don't want out Mike!"

  "Just remember," I said softly. "I warned you."

  He simply nodded. After a few seconds, he quietly said, "The whole world has changed for all of us. We're trying to find something solid to latch onto! You're it old buddy! We need your steady hand in charge. We need you here!"

  I understood his remark. I wasn't sure how much more I could stand myself. It seemed each passing minute brought new tribulations to deal with. It felt as if it hadn't let up in weeks. "Thanks!" I said. "It's good to be back with all of you! I'd hate to try to deal with all this, alone!"

  Tim was quiet for a few seconds. Then he asked, "Do you remember much after you pulled those people off the boat?"

  "Barely a damned thing," I replied. "Why? Should I remember something?"

  "Not really," said Tim. He was hesitating.

  "What happened, Tim?" I growled. "Don't start down this road, and then tell me to never mind!"

  "Fine," said Tim. "It was after you came back! Dona saw what you'd done and freaked out! I scanned her mind in those first seconds after you returned. There's a game afoot here! More than we're being told!"

  "I'm getting that feeling myself," I agreed. "Anything else?"

  "In the first hours after you came back, an old man was here!" Tim looked up at the sky, as if he was trying to see something in the distance. "There was something odd about him! Dona told us his name was Madias! Do you remember him being there?"

  "Vaguely," I replied. "I was pretty wrung out, but the name sounds familiar. Fill me in! What happened?"

  Thinking back, Tim said, "The guy showed up about an hour after you got back. Dona and the Guardians all stood back, and deferred to him like he was in charge of the whole show. He reminded me more of somebody's great grandfather than a military commander." Tim paused, collecting his thoughts. Then went on, saying, "I scanned the guy when he was talking to you. He's definitely not human. I saw images in his head that have freaked me out ever since."

  Tim finally looked right at me. He seemed to look me up and down. Then he said, "He was like you! He looked like he was on fire in the scan. His aura burns like yours." Looking down at his own hands, he told me, "The rest of us just have a soft glow! But you two, you're on fire!" He looked back up at me, and said, "If Madias is a sample of what we're getting into, we haven't seen anything yet!"

  I stood there, debating how to respond, finally saying, "I'm not kidding Tim! I get a bad feeling from this! I wish you'd all consider standing down!"

  He just smiled, patted me on the back, and told me, "Not going to happen, old buddy!" Then he turned, and walked back in the house.

  I'm a very lucky guy!

  Standing there. I started to run all the data back that I had absorbed in the last few weeks. In the last few months, my entire life had been turned upside down. When I followed all the events back, Madias seemed to always be tied in. Tim's description, along with what I had s
een in his memories, told me Madias was one of the major players here. If I wanted real answers, I needed to see him!

  I walked back into the house, put on my new uniform, and started to arm up.

  "Where ya going?" asked Koda from my bedroom door as I slid my pistols into the suit's holsters.

  "Just thought I'd take a walk," I explained haltingly. Tim, Harold, Shooter, and the whole crew stepped out, one after another. Each was dressed for combat, even Lisa.

  She looked at me, and said, "I'm going along this time! Don't even think that you can talk me out of it!"

  "The thought never crossed my mind," I said. It had never occurred to me she would want to go with us. Why would I think about talking her out of it?

  "We're ready when you are," said Kathy.

  They weren't giving me much choice. I shrugged, focused on the images I had seen of Madias, and folded space.

  I was back in a spaceship again, and the rest of the group appeared right behind me. It was their first time in space, and I could see at once that they were mesmerized by the viewport. One by one, they each wandered over, and stood staring out the window.

  Unlike the last time I was in a room like this, I could now sense a presence. An old man stepped from the shadows, and I knew at once this was the man called Madias. He looked at me with eyes that cut right through me like laser beams. Everyone else seemed fixated on the view port. It was as if I was the only person aware of the old man.

  His mouth never moved, but I distinctly heard him say, "So! You’ve finally arrived! I’ve anxiously awaited your recovery! You are looking much better than the last time I saw you!"

  "We need to talk," I said aloud. Everyone at the window turned to see what was occurring.

  Speaking aloud now, Madias said, "Please! Everyone pull up a seat! We might as well all be comfortable as we talk."

  There was a large circular table in the room. On Earth, we would have called it a conference table. We all pulled up chairs, and sat looking at Madias. After a few seconds, I said, "We have some questions for you!"