“So you are the new boss of the southern compound. I am The Highman, all bosses work for me. You took out Chin, not an easy thing to do.”
“Yeah, I found that out. He hit like a train.” I looked down at my bruised covered chest and abdomen.
“I see that,” Highman said.
“Where are my clothes?” I asked.
“I have questions. I have found over the years that it helps in questioning if there are no clothes. People don’t lie well this way.” He indicated my mode of dress. “No clothes.” He smiled.
“What questions?” I asked, thinking I could lie dressed, naked, or standing on my head if I had to.
The guard, on my right, kneed me in the thigh just above the knee. It hurt and I would have dropped to the floor had the guards not been holding me.
“I also find that this goes better if I am the only one asking questions.”
The guard kneed me again, only this time it did not hurt as much because it still hurt from the first strike.
“First question.” Highman picked up the Taser from the desk and walked toward me.
“A Taser,” I replied not understanding how a prisoner on a prison planet did not know what a Taser was.
“Where did you get it?”
“Big Chin’s quarters after I took over. I found it there.”
“All right, I haven’t seen one of these before.” Highman stood taller than me and was younger. His long, brown hair needed washed from the looks of it. He did not worry about things being clean like Big Chin. That cleaning issue included Highman’s body odor. He needed a bath even more than a demo team member did after a full day’s work. What he did have was youth and physical size. He was close now and bulged with muscles. “How does it work?”
“Like any other Taser. How long have you been here?” I asked.
The second guard kneed me high on the thigh, almost in the groin.
“How does it work?” Highman asked me again. This time his voice had lowered just a bit. He punched me in the chest. It hurt, but not like the knees had.
“Do you see that yellow tip?” I took a deep breath, held it, and released it slowly. “You push it against a person and squeeze the body of the unit. When you do that, it jolts the person the tip is against.”
“Deadly?” Highman asked.
“It can be, but most times no.”
Highman pushed it against my chest and stared me in the eyes. He smiled and squeezed the unit.
I screamed, as did his guards, as all three of us got electrocuted. Shared this way, I got less of a shock than if it was just on me.
His guards released me as fast as they could, and I collapsed to my knees.
“You didn’t mention that little contact problem,” Highman said. He leaned forward and jolted me a second time.
I fell backward and lay there. “You didn’t ask?” I laughed a mean, painful laugh.
The guards moved forward and began to punch and kick me. One guard kicked me, stayed close to kick me again, and I grabbed the ankle of the foot he was standing on. I threw my weight against his knee as I pulled his foot to me. The knee snapped and he fell to the ground next to me screaming and clutching his broken leg. More guards ran forward and pummeled me before they dragged me to my feet in front of Highman.
“There is some fight in you, too much I think. Guards, soften Boss Danbeu, then we’ll talk.”
The guards in the room surrounded me, held my arms, and took turns with body shots to my already battered gut. I do not know how long I got beat, but it seemed like years. Afterwards, I was dragged back over in front of Highman again.
He smiled. “You look more cooperative now.”
I gritted my teeth, forced my shoulders straight as much as the two guards holding me allowed, and stared straight back at him. “Funny thing about that, you look pretty much the same. How did you do that? I mean, manage to watch your men do what you couldn’t do yourself. How is it you still look as angry as you did before?” I asked. “Two questions, I just asked you two questions, what no answer? You, The Highman, you know all, see all, but didn’t know how that Taser worked, did you?”
Highman hit me across the jaw. Rage consumed him in a flash. I had taken his beating, questioned his manhood and right to lead, and now had broken his no questions rule. He drew back and hit me again.
It was my turn to grin which enraged him even more. “Put him back in the cell!” he screamed.
“Hey, Highman, can I come back later. Maybe we can do lunch, buddy,” I called out as I was taken back to the cell, pushed through the little doorway, and it was locked behind me. I crawled to the middle of the concrete floor and stretched out, so I could get as much of my body as possible against the cold stone.
It might reduce my pain, and I was hurting. I passed out on the cold floor.
***
I had no way of knowing how long I slept, but it was not restful. Between the pain and dreams of my life before prison, BBQ’s at Marty’s house, I did not wake feeling refreshed. I did wake up cold and wet. I sat up in ice water. Someone had shoved a metal pipe in through the now open cell door, and the cell was filling up with water. I crawled to the open door and out into the arms of two waiting guards. They grabbed me, twisted my arms behind me, and pulled me to my feet. I was again escorted to Highman.
“I trust you slept well?” he asked.
“Did my snoring keep you awake, you look tired?” I said to him.
Highman’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. He stood up from his chair and approached me.
I figured another good thrashing was coming.
“I don’t like you. I don’t think many people could, so that makes you valuable to me. You can’t be the boss of one of my compounds and be the workers friend. They are not your friends, trust me on this.”
“How about you send me back to my compound and I’ll ask them. I’ll put your theory to the test?”
He punched me in the face.
“Maybe you want to take a minute and think about it. I’ll wait here.” I spit a mouthful of blood on the clothes of the guard holding my right arm.
The guard kneed me.
Highman hit me again.
“I take it that’s a no,” I said and this time spit the blood on Highman’s shirt.
“Chin was pleading for me to stop long before this. Why are you here? What were you sent to Tirus for?” He walked over to his desk, sat down against the edge, and looked at me.
“I think I’m here to kill you,” I answered with a straight face which he did not expect from the expression on his face. I expected more pain for the answer. One thing agents learned with some prisoners, is that at some point the threat of pain is useless.
“You are not doing your job well,” Highman commented.
“There have been some obstacles. How’s the guy with the broken knee doing?” I asked.
“He’s off of his feet for a while.”
I flexed my pinned arms. “And I’m still standing.”
The guards tightened their grips, and I relaxed my muscles.
Highman stood up from leaning against the desk. “I’m going to have to promote someone as your replacement, Danbeu. The resulting challenges and fights for that position should prove entertaining for some time.” Highman folded his arms and faced me. He looked to his guards. “It’s dark, take him to the dead city and dump him there for the scavs to find.”
I flexed my arms again, and the guards gripped even tighter. With them for support, I lifted my feet and kicked Highman square in the face. I felt his nose break under my right foot, even as he flew backward away from me. The other guards in the room ran over and beat me unconscious.
***
I awoke cold and in pain from the last beating. The ground was different, rough to lie on, and there was no light just absolute darkness. I could smell decay and realized I was outside.
Looking up gave me no help. There was nothing but the dark shapes of dead buildings and a starless night sky.
What I did know was that sitting stark naked out in the open, especially at night, had to be a bad idea. I moved across the rough, debris-covered ground to the closest of the dark buildings and followed the wall around until I found an entry into the building. Inside, I worked my way to a corner and put the solid wall to my back.
I hurt, I was hungry, and needed to sleep, but in here that meant with one eye open. There would not be any light to see by before morning, so I rested and watched the dark around me.
I drifted in-and-out of sleep, but by the first rays of dawn I was up looking out over the old city. I found a stairway, figuring to get my bearings from higher elevation for the location to my compound.
I lucked out. When the city was alive, the floor I picked had been some kind of a gym with an old locker room. It had one large window that probably gave the members a good view of their city, a view of a now dead city.
Staring out at the ruins, I located my compound which lay east. It would be a walk, but at least the aching body and muscles would have no real chance to freeze up from pain. What caught my interest was that far off in the distance stood more buildings. They did not appear as damaged as these, and a large compound stood close to those structures. It had to be larger than mine for me to see the area it covered. I noted its direction, then returned to busting open lockers for whatever supplies I could find.
The piece of pipe I had pulled out of the rubble downstairs made short work of opening the gym lockers. Most of the clothing I found was in bad shape, rotted and coming apart, but I found enough that I was not walking around naked. From the windows, I managed to get a good idea of my compound’s location. I needed to get back to my compound before Highman found out I was not dead.
I still had to find Jane Garrett.
***
On the first floor lobby, I walked into my next problem, and Highman’s intended end of me. Three scavs had entered my building. They were thin and malnourished, but whether they had come looking for me, or just looking around, did not matter. I had a new problem; the scavs were between me and the door out to the street. They fanned out a little. Two of the scavs had a length of wood, using them as clubs.
“I’ll tell you this once. I’m not looking for trouble, you can have the building and I’ll be on my way.” I held my piece of pipe along the side of my right leg, mostly, out of sight. “Just move away from the door, and we all leave here healthy.” I was not feeling tough. I was hurting, hungry and feeling mean, very, very mean.
“We eat good tonight,” one man said to his companions.
I did not like the sound of that which forced me to shift my weight and tighten my grip on the pipe. “You don’t want to do this, just walk away,” I urged.
The closest one with a club ran forward, the club rose to strike. I waited until the last second and brought my pipe around to block his club. I smashed the piece of wood aside and clocked the scav in the head. He hit the ground before his friends could close the distance to join the fight. I stood ready to fight them off, but they did not advance. I moved back from them, angling toward the door.
They watched me and looked down at the stunned man on the floor. The unarmed man collected the club from where it had dropped and hit the stunned man. His friend with the second club then took a turn and in a second they were beating the third scav to death. I moved out of the building and made a beeline toward my compound, with the pipe secure in my fist the entire way.
I walked fast for a time, but did not have the energy to keep it up, so I reached the compound a little before dusk. I had no idea what Highman might have told the others, or if it was still my compound. The gates were alerted to my approach, and watchful until they saw who the dirty man in rages was that carried a length of pipe. Once they knew it was me, they opened the gate without comment, and I entered.
I walked into my quarters to find Jenkins, Bikes, Bender, and Roberts. “Get out,” I ordered. Maybe it was the metal pipe over my shoulder, or the tone of my voice, I could not tell, but they all jumped to their feet and approached me. As they reached me at the door, I barred it with the pipe. “Did you find my other men in red section?”
“Yes, sir, we have your men Nelson, Price, and Damian. They are safe and locked up in a parts storage area, so they can be left alone to rest,” Bender informed me.
I moved the pipe out of the door’s path. “The three of you return here in one hour and bring them with you,” I ordered.
“Three hours.” Roberts countermanded my order.
“Three hours.” I left the group and headed further into the room. I heard Roberts close the door and whisper to the group as she did.
She came up beside me, stood there, and stared at my battered face. “What happened, you’ve been there over a day?” She reached for the pipe, but I was reluctant to release the last weapon I had. She touched my fingers and lifted them off the pipe which she then placed on the nearby table.
I stood there not wanting to move, or think. I exhaled, then drew in a slow deep breath. “I need a shower and fresh clothes. Can you find me some fresh clothes?”
“Sure, let’s get you in the shower first.” She walked with me to the shower and helped me out of my clothes.
“My god!” She gasped at the welts and bruises that covered my body.
I climbed into the shower.
“Would you like me in there?” Roberts asked and pointed at her ear.
“No, it doesn’t matter about the water to cover our conversations. Highman is an ape, a caveman without a clue about modern spyware. He doesn’t have this place bugged.”
She nodded. “We have four days to find Jane Garrett and escape. We still don’t have any clue as to her whereabouts other than the off schedule drop.”
“I know and I’ve worn out my welcome. The next time Highman sees me, he’ll kill me on sight.” I rubbed at the sore muscles in my shoulders; first one shoulder, then the other, and winced at the pain. But everywhere hurt, so I focused on washing, not massaging the pain. I noticed Roberts watching me, and for the first time in a very long time I cared what someone thought of me. I cared and I was damaged and weak. I had to get her mind off of my injuries. “Can we get off world without her if we have to?”
“The way it works …” Roberts started.
I raised my hand. “Don’t tell me. Don’t tell anyone.” I stepped closer. “Does Price know? Did you tell him?”
“Nelson knows, but Price no. And Nelson doesn’t know everything, just the very basics.”
“Keep it that way. Let him think he knows it all, but keep him out of the loop from this point on.” I reached to the shower curtain. “I need a couple of minutes, stay in here though.” I closed the curtain, bent over my knees, and vomited, which revealed a small amount of blood with the rest of the bile. I knew this was not good, but I did not want Roberts to know. I had been beaten up several times in only a few days. Something had to give, and in this case it would appear to be me. I stayed bent over with my hands on my knees, head forward, and under the spray of water. I just stood there for a few minutes, trying not to think about the world, my current problems, or how hurt I might be. I spit more blood into the stream of water running down the drain.
“Harry, are you okay, tell me you’re okay?”
I turned off the water and started to reach for the curtain, but Roberts opened it first.
She handed me a towel. “What are we going to do?”
I toweled off and explained.
***
“Settle down, everybody calm yourselves.”
At the table, there was Bender, Jenkins, Bikes, Nelson, Price, and the only guard of our rescue team we could find. Nelson looked better than I did, but not by much. I heard from Roberts that the first night here, Nelson had tried to sneak around looking for the team, and the area guards beat the hell out of him.
Price was just the skinny timid type that needed someone bigger and stronger to protect him. In red section, he did not have that. He had been picked on, push
ed around, and bullied.
The guard, Daiman, was the one on the ship that had wanted to kill me; the one Roberts had promised to help. He still did not look happy to see me, especially with me in charge. I sat at the head of the table. Roberts stood behind my chair.
“So you’re going to leave,” Bikes said.
“Yes, Bikes, you, me, and Little Boss. Everyone here plus one more that we have to go find,” I told him. “My team members are agents, and we have a priority code to collect this girl and extract her. We can’t do that without help from all of you. I am authorized to use whoever I need to complete this task. All who help will be extracted with us.”
“Of course, all who help us will be pardoned by the President,” Nelson added. “Free to return to the network if you help us.”
“Free to return to the network,” Jenkins said. He looked at me. “What do you need?”
“We need a vehicle, enabling us to find the drop zone package from a couple of days ago,” Roberts told him.
“We need it now, so we can go tonight,” I added.
“We can’t tonight, the scavs have an advantage. They know the ins-and-outs of the old buildings and will see us before we get where we’re going. We can’t go until first light,” Bender informed the group.
“Scavs?” Price questioned. He did not look a lot healthier than Nelson did.
“Scavengers,” I explained. “They are people living outside the compounds. Some are in packs like animals, and they would see all of us as a tasty meal.”
“You’ve seen them?” Price asked.
“I ran across three of them. Escaping, I injured one, and his friends killed and ate him. Yeah, I’ve come across them.”
“So, at first light, you want this group to go out there, find this girl, and bring her back here. Then we’ll all get off this planet and be free men again.” Jenkins recited the plan as he understood it.
“No. We’re all going, and no one is coming back here. We all go, we find her, and we all get out. Just this group, no one else.” I reiterated my point.
“What about weapons?” Daiman asked. “Maybe something more than clubs?”
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