Echo of Tomorrow: Book Two (The Drake Chronicles)

by Rob Buckman

  “What in the name of Muhammad’s hairy balls is going on here?” he demanded. This one was of a higher rank by the look of the silver bars on his shoulders, but Scott wasn’t familiar with the rank system to tell what it was. The man looked around the cabin, taking in the silent, still figures in black.

  “We’re on official government business,” Scott said, “so if you have a complaint, send it to President Westwood or the World Council, now get off my ship!”

  “See here, who the hell do you think you are talking to! You think you can talk to me that way and get away with it?” The man let out a nasty laugh. In answer, one of the black figures took a step forward.

  “The admiral said leave. Which way do you want to go, vertical, or horizontal?” a distinctly female voice asked.

  Both men did a double take, then grinned at each other. “Oh I get it,” silver bars said. “You’re one of the slit-tail bitches that’s whoring on that island down south?” the younger one asked. Scott winced. That was the wrong thing to say to Janet, even as a joke, but she didn’t move.

  “Do you have such a thing as life insurance, or a dental plan where you work?” Scott asked in a soft voice. He lounged back against the cushions, hands behind his head, and placed his feet on the other end, secretly enjoying the coming confrontation.

  “I don’t know what life insurance is, but we do have a great dental plan, why do you ask mister?” silver bars answered in a belligerent tone.

  “Because, if you don’t apologize for that remark, you’re going to find out just how good the plan is.”

  “Don’t give me any of the polepucky, we’ve heard how tough you think you are and don’t buy it for one second,” he sneered. “If it wasn’t for that … that thing the slit-tail is holding, she would be in the rehab center right now for a beating for talking to me like that.”

  “Janet,” Scott said, without having to specify what.

  Janet clicked the safety on and snapped her rifle into the rack before removing her helmet, shaking her dark hair out as she placed the helmet on the jump seat. Silver bars grinned, whipping out his baton.

  “So you want to try me, slit-tail, do you? Well, come on bitch!” he snapped, and jabbed with the business end. Janet grabbed it and held on, seeing the man’s smile broaden as he flipped the control to full power.

  “Silly cunt!” He chuckled maliciously. The baton hummed, but Janet’s hand only shook a little as her body took the charge. The man’s smile slipped. There was sufficient current running through the end of the baton to knock a normal man or woman unconscious in a second. With a jerk, Janet pulled the baton out of his hand and bent it in two, hearing the snap-crackle of electrical discharge as she did. After that, it went into the corner with a thud.

  “Anything else?” she asked.

  “You slit-tailed crackslut!” he yelled, and swung his fist, catching Janet full force on the chin. He looked at her in shock while she casually shook her head, and looked at him again.

  “As I said, anything else?”

  “Tony, apologies to the bitc— female, and let’s get out of here!” the junior man said, tugging at his partner’s sleeve.

  “Good advice, Tony,” Scott commented. “I suggest you take it.”

  Tony was still looking at his fist, shaking it to relieve the pain, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened. With a soft moan, he charged straight at Janet. She stepped to one side, grabbed him by the collar, and slammed him headfirst into the cabin’s steel bulkhead. He dropped like a poleaxed steer, without a sound.

  “Would you be so kind as to pick up your partner and take him to the nearest hospital. I think he’s in need of immediate medical attention,” Scott commented, examining his nails.

  The other man looked at him, then at Janet as she picked up the unconscious man and held him out like a sack of potatoes. Walking over, he got his shoulder under the load of his partner, grunting when she let go, and staggered out of the cabin. The moment he was clear she sealed the hatch, and Scott signaled Kat to take off, this time staying in the traffic pattern and observing the speed limit.

  “Thank you for your restraint, Janet. I thought for a moment you were going to rip his head off and hand it to him.”

  “The thought did cross my mind, sir, but I decided against it. It would’ve made a mess all over the cabin, and some poor sucker, probably me, would’ve had to clean up the mess.”

  “Good thinking, Marine,” Scott said, joining in the general laughter.

  Kat landed the shuttle in the community parking lot near the address, and the moment it touched down Scott exited with two of his security team, walked up the dirty road to the house, and checked the number before he knocked. Unlike the squalor of that city street, the street here looked normal, a little seedy perhaps, with kids playing on the sidewalk and people carrying bags of something as they walked past. Here, people passed by on bicycles or electric scooters, all looking at them curiously, some with fear in their eyes. He knocked again, but there was still no answer.

  “She’s not in, sir!” a muffled female voice called. Looking around, Scott saw what had to be the source: a lump in the shape of a person stood in the next doorway.

  “Do you know when she will be back?” he asked.

  “I do not know, honored sir, they came and beat her again last night, and this morning they took her to the medical center.”

  “Who beat her, and who took her to the medical center?”

  “I can’t say who beat her, I just heard the screams, but the gray men took her to the medical center this morning,” she answered. It sounded as if she knew who’d beat the woman, but was afraid to say. “The gray men took her to the med center, is all I know,” she added, and vanished into the house.

  Scott tapped his wrist comm. “Kat, is there any information in that traffic computer where the local med center is?”

  “Yes, Scott. It’s only a mile from here, and it has a roof pad, but it’s restricted.”

  “To hell with that, land there,” he said, striding down the road back to the shuttle.

  Kat punched in her destination and asked for the most direct route, getting a warning message in return. She punched in a medical emergency alert and the screen cleared, giving her the most direct free lane to get there. In less than three minutes they landed, much to the displeasure of the roof medical team who’d been alerted of an incoming emergency.

  “You can’t land here unless you have a valid medical emergency!” the doctor explained indignantly when they stepped out without any injured people.

  “Out of the way shithead, this is an emergency,” Janet said, prodding the man in the stomach with the business end of her rifle. Stepping out, Scott grabbed the doctor’s wrist and punched up central receiving, tapping the control to skip through the list of patients as the doctor tried in vain to retrieve his arm.

  “You can’t do that!” the doctor protested, but a quick squeeze convinced him he was wrong. Blanching in pain, his knees buckled.

  “Fourteenth floor, room 208, move it,” Scott snapped, finding the woman’s name. “She’s listed as critical.” He let the doctor fall to the ground and took off running.

  Leaving one guard behind to secure the shuttle, and with Janet in the lead, they ran for the gravlift and dove inside as a plate descended past them. All five leaped onto the plate and landed with bent knees, one floor down as they caught up with the descending plate, feeling it wobble slightly from the impact. Like elevators the world over, this one seemed to take forever to get to the floor they wanted and in their hurry, and this one also had some sort of horrible music playing in the background. At length they arrived, jumping off the moment the plate cleared the ceiling and frightening the four people waiting for it.

  “This way, Admiral,” Janet called, spotting the number plate and a directional arrow.

  They didn’t run, just kept a fast walk along the hallways since Scott didn’t want to scare anyone to death. As they turned a corner, two gray-u
niformed security men stepped toward them, batons at the ready.

  “And just where do you think you’re going, citizen?” one asked Scott, who was in the lead just then. He found out when two of the black-clad people following stepped around Scott and took him out. A quick jab to the belly and a reverse butt stroke and they both dropped, helmets shattered.

  One of Scott’s escorts held the door open while another two moved inside, covering the room as Scott came in. Three men jumped up as they entered, one in a gray uniform with gold bars on his shoulder, the other two in business suits. One gray-uniformed man reached for something in his pocket, but he never completed the move before he took a rifle butt to the chin.

  “What is going on here!” one of the suits demanded, eyes going wide when he saw the security man drop.

  “I’ll like to ask you that question,” Scott said, coming to a halt.

  “This is none of your business, and I suggest you leave at once, or else!”

  “Or else what?”

  “You will be in a great deal of trouble.”

  “Mister, you have no idea the amount of trouble I’m already in, so a little more in my life right now won’t make much difference,” Scott said, seeing the man who’d spoken slip an object into his jacket pocket. “But first, I would like you to give me whatever it is you just placed in your pocket.”

  Scott held out his hand. The man started to say something, but before he could Janet and Mary shot over and grabbed him, spun him around, slammed him against the wall, and ripped his jacket down his back, breaking the man’s nose in the process.

  “Here it is, sir,” Mary announced, fishing something out of the inner pocket of the jacket and handing to Scott.

  Scott examined the item while Kat was seeing to the old woman on the bed. The device looked like an old-fashioned pen, but definitely electronic in nature; it had a calibrated ring around it and a tiny slide switch that probably turned it off and on.

  “Scott!” Kat called, and he saw her hold up a coin-sized recording device that must have been on the bed.

  “How is the old lady, Kat?”

  “Alive, but she’s had one hell of a beating.”

  “We were just getting started on her statement, that’s all, we’re from the local security station—”

  “If he speaks again without being spoken to, hurt him,” Scott snapped, looking at the man.

  “Yes, sir!” Mary answered with relish. Scott walked over to the other man, and stood looking at him.

  “Do you want to tell me what this is?” he said, seeing the man swallow.

  “I … I don’t …” Scott touched him on the back of the hand with the device, and held it there. The man went rigid, locked in an agonized spasm, unable to speak or move. Scott waited five seconds, then pulled the device away and switched it off.

  “Well, I guess that answered that question,” he said, walking over to the second man. “Now, then, would you like to tell me why you were asking this poor woman questions with this?”

  He held the device up and gently twisted the knurled ring, hearing a faint clicking as he did. The more he twisted it, the more uncomfortable the man became, sweat popping out on his forehead. Scott moved the slide control to on, and moved it slowly toward the man’s face. Blood ran from his broken nose, dripping off his chin onto his shirtfront, spreading a bright red stain.

  “I was ordered to!” he said quickly as the end came within inches of his face.

  “And what was it that you wanted to know?”

  “I … we … we wanted to know what her husband has done with the specifications of a certain device he made.”

  “And who do you work for?”

  “Solar … Solar Power Systems,” he stammered as the tip moved closer.

  “And they say we’re violent people,” Scott muttered. “God, you people make me sick!” He switched the device off and looked at Mary. “Put this piece of dog shit in the corner for now.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, prodding the man in the ribs with the business end of her rifle.

  “Kneel in the corner, facing it,” she ordered. Reluctantly the man complied, clearly upset at having to take orders from a woman.

  “Now interlace your fingers and place your hands behind your head.” The man did as he was told.

  “Good boy. Now open your legs and cross your ankles, and lean forward until your nose is against the wall.” He did, wincing as the weight of his body pushed his swollen nose against the wall.

  “If you move from that position, or speak, I’m simply going to kill you, do you understand, nod if you do.” With some difficulty and pain, the man nodded.

  “Now the other one, Mary.”

  “With pleasure, Admiral.” She then proceeded to slam the other man in the opposite corner and forced him into the same condition. While this was going on, Kat talked softly to the old woman, carefully brushing the gray hair out of her eyes. Slowly, the woman opened her eyes and looked at Scott.

  “You are so kind, thank you.”

  “You are welcome.”

  “Why are you doing this for me?” she asked. “Do you want the secret as well?”

  “In a way, but my helping you has nothing to do with whether you tell us anything.”

  “I find that hard to believe at my age, especially after so many years,” she said from behind the edge of the sheet she was holding up to cover the lower half of her face.

  “I can see why, but you will learn to trust us.”

  Marjorie Ellis sobbed softly. “I can tell you nothing, I can’t even tell you where my husband is.”

  “We do, and if all goes well, you should be seeing him soon.”

  “Where is he?” The old lady made a half-hearted attempt to sit up, but Kat carefully pushed her back down, talking softly to her.

  “We found out they’re holding him in a rehab center near San Diego, or whatever they call it now, and at this time, a rescue team has gone there to get him.”

  “A rescue team?” A puzzled frown crossed her lined face. “Then where will you take him?”

  “The same place we’re going to take you, to a place called New Zealand, and safety,” he whispered, but the old lady just shook her head.

  “I’m dying child, I know that, but what you said makes me feel there is hope for this world.” Scott came over then, and knelt beside the bed. She looked at him for a moment, then said, “You have a kind face, young man, is he yours? She asked, looking at Kat.

  “Yes, he is.” Kat blushed slightly and the old lady smiled.

  “That’s good. Be happy together and love each other, and don’t believe all the nonsense they try to teach you nowadays.”

  “Oh, we won’t, believe me.”

  “Do you want to live, Mother?” Scott asked. “Do you want to live and run in the sunshine again?”

  “Oh, that would be lovely,” she whispered.

  “If you really want to do that, all you have to do is hold on a little while longer, can you do that?”

  “Yes, I think so.”

  “Kat, go and crank up your bird, we’re getting out of here, now. Janet, Mary, clear the hallway to the gravlift.” Scott slipped his arms beneath the old woman and lifted her, covers and all, cradling her in his arms like a child. He turned toward the door, seeing the two men look around at him.

  “I’ll give you one bit of advice. Follow us, or try to stop us in any way, and I will kill you.”

  With that, he was out the door, walking fast down the hallway, brushing startled patients and doctors out of the way, the last two members of the security team bringing up the rear. He wanted to run, but thought the jarring might be too much for the old lady so he took it easy. Fifty feet ahead of him, Janet and Mary cleared the hallway—being none too gentle about it.

  At last they came to the gravlift, and found two more gray men, as the other woman had called them, unconscious on the floor. They must have tried to take Kat, learning the lesson the hard way. Scott waited for the up-plate to
arrive, and all four stepped aboard as it came level with their floor. Again the agonizing wait for it to reach the top, and stepping off down the short hallway and across the roof to the shuttle. Exiting to the roof, they found that four security police vehicles circled overhead, lights flashing and sirens wailing, blaring inaudible instructions impossible to hear over the noise. Not that Scott cared what they were saying.

  About halfway across the roof, Mary stumbled as something struck her in the back, blood spraying out of her chest. If she hadn’t been wearing body armor she’d be dead, but even so, she was in a bad way.