Espero (The Silver Ships Book 6)
Page 32
“The security office is just around the next corner,” Oslo said to placate Toyo.
It would have been better for Oslo to have kept quiet, because his statement put Toyo and his people on alert. As Oslo rounded the corner, he spotted Mr. Kadmir and a large group of security people standing at the green lift. “Attackers behind me,” he yelled, and ran toward them, managing three steps before Toyo shot him in the back of the head, killing him.
A flurry of shots immediately erupted between the two forces, dropping several people on each side, as Toyo and his people scrambled to gain the cover of the corner they had just turned. The fighting was furious, but Kadmir’s forces outnumbered Toyo’s people three to one.
Peto Toyo kept his head down, even as his guards attempted to return fire. In quick succession, his people either dropped their guns from numbed hands or were stunned and dropped to the floor. Left with only two guards, Toyo yelled to break off.
The man and woman ended up on the opposite corner from Toyo, and the pair looked at each other and took off running down their side of the corridor. Toyo grinned to himself and headed the opposite way, intending to hide until he could make his escape.
Toyo’s two guards made several turns and ran straight into Alex’s force. The guards were stunned before they could raise their weapons.
Alain replied, his thought warm and embracing.
Toyo ran into one of Kadmir’s service personnel, and he raised his stunner to silence her, but it failed to fire. As the employee ran for her life, Toyo glanced down, disgusted to see the charge indicator on empty. Out of alternate power supplies, he holstered his stunner and searched for a place to hide, finally choosing a utility room.
Advancing slowly, the Harakens took firing positions at the sound of running feet and watched a group of brown-uniformed security personnel burst around the corner led by a man in civilian dress. As Kadmir’s people brought their weapons up, Alex yelled “hold” at the top of his command voice, and both groups froze.
“Weapons down,” Kadmir shouted to his people, turning around to ensure everyone obeyed. Turning back to face the Harakens, he said, “President Racine, I thought you were returning to your ship to await our next meeting.”
“And I thought you had a small technical problem with the dome’s structure. Who knew you had a rat infestation?”
“We can argue this later,” Kadmir said. “You came by the blue lift?” When Alex gestured questioningly back the way they had come, Kadmir said, “Apologies, Mr. President … yes, that’s the blue lift.”
“Yes, we hold that lift at the main concourse. All of Toyo’s people up there are under our control. We understand only a single load of his people, including Toyo himself, came down your blue lift to this level.”
“Excellent news,” Kadmir enthused. “We’ve just engaged Toyo and his people near the green lift. He and two of his people got away from us. That’s who we were just chasing.”
“You were chasing two of his guards,” Tatia said. “We just stunned them 50 meters that way,” she added, pointing to a side corridor.
Kadmir assigned two of his security people, who took off running. “Speaking of infestations, Mr. President, the lead rat remains unaccounted for. If you will agree to leave the search to us and return to the surface, we will find him.”
A broad smile crossed Alex’s face, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Kadmir took in the president’s expression and the carnivore’s grin on the admiral’s face and knew he had overplayed his hand. The Harakens were as advertised — people you never fooled with.
Alex walked up to Kadmir, his people following closely beside and behind him, until Alex was nose to nose with the man. “You get one opportunity, Kadmir, and only one opportunity to get this right. So, think carefully before you answer. Where are my sister and her friends?”
Several ideas crossed Kadmir’s mind as to what he should say, but far in his hind brain a part of him was yelling, Don’t be a fool. Tell him the truth! The president’s eyes bored into his, and Kadmir could see blood pulsing in the Haraken’s neck. “We lost them,” Kadmir finally managed to say. He expected an outburst of rage or to be slammed to the floor, but the huge Haraken just leaned in a little closer to focus on his eyes.
“Priorities, Kadmir,” Alex said quietly, never moving or blinking. “We find the big rat and neutralize him. You signal your people topside to dismantle the barricade and cooperate with my people in a search for the girls. If one of your people harms one of mine, I will space the lot of you. Do we understand each other?”
“Perfectly, Sir,” Kadmir said. When the president backed up, he thought furiously about how to mitigate his circumstances. That’s when he noticed the admiral staring intently at him, and he realized he had made another mistake.
“Let’s go rat hunting,” Alex said. “Harakens pair up and take one of Kadmir’s people with you to section up this level. Kadmir, can Toyo get off this level?”
“Only if he takes a hostage and gets to one of the two lifts. My people hold the green lift. You two,” Kadmir said pointing to two more guards, “see that Toyo doesn’t get access to the blue lift.”
Alex signaled two troopers to follow Kadmir’s people, and the dome owner nodded approval.
Kadmir’s people led each search team, and, at a door, they provided the access, while the Harakens took low positions opposite the corridor, in case Toyo was waiting on the other side. With only a few teams, the search dragged on for an hour with teams communicating by ear comm or implant as to the sections searched and where they were proceeding next.
Tatia and a trooper readied themselves as Kadmir’s security officer touched a door actuator. The admiral could feel the air change on the back of her neck, and she heard the distinctive click of a firing stud pressed. She spun around and Toyo stood beyond the doorway, which had opened at her back. He was laughing, his weapon dangling by the trigger guard from one finger.
“It was worth it to see the expression on your face, Haraken,” Toyo said, chuckling. “No charge,” he added, dropping the weapon to the floor.
“Who would have thought that Peto Toyo could be taken by a fem?” Toyo said, disgusted by the idea.
“You don’t think a woman can put your ugly butt on the deck?’ Tatia growled over her weapon’s sight, which was trained on Toyo’s chest.
“No fem I’ve ever met, but maybe you think you’re different. Then again, we’ll never know, will we … what with you holding a charged stunner and me on empty?”
“Step out into the corridor, Mr. I’m-such-a-bad-man,” Tatia commanded, backing up to keep her distance from the criminal boss. She signaled the trooper with her to cover Toyo, while she lowered and holstered her weapon, which made Toyo grin.
Tatia’s implant location app signaled the arrival of her fellow Harakens. She unstrapped her holster from her thigh, handing it behind her without looking, and Alain took it from her.
“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Tatia said, motioning Toyo forward. Faster than Tatia could believe Toyo’s hand shot out to slap her face, testing her. She barely managed to block the strike with her forearm, which stung from the impact. The man was not only fast, but his muscles felt like metal alloy, and she shook her arm to ease the sting.
“Aw, fem, did I hurt you?” Toyo taunted.
Several times more, Toyo tested Tatia, delivering rock-hard blows to her extremities. She was able to protect her core, but Toyo had been a street fighter all his life, and h
e enjoyed the prospect of whittling down an opponent foolish enough to take him on one-to-one.
Watching Tatia fighting with standard TSF defense techniques, Alain sent,
The reminder couldn’t have come at a better time. The beating Tatia was taking, without landing more than a few cursory blows on Toyo, told her that she would soon lose the fight. Anger simmered inside, but she fought to keep control of it.
Embracing Alain’s cue, Tatia shifted from her TSF self-defense stance to the relaxed and upright posture the twins had drilled into her.
Tatia’s change in stance signaled to Toyo that he was winning, and he threw a right-handed roundhouse punch at the admiral’s temple, hoping to end the fight. Tatia eased back on her left foot and spun clockwise. Toyo’s fist sailed past her, throwing the man off balance, and, as Tatia came around, the knuckles of her balled fist caught Toyo in the temple, staggering him.
“Lucky,” Toyo said, shaking his head to clear it.
“Think so? Want to try again, bad man?” Tatia replied.
Toyo pretended to laugh and relax, but Tatia saw his weight shift to the balls of his feet, and she was ready for his charge. She could never effectively copy the Méridiens’ technique of dropping to the deck, spinning on one leg, and chopping the opponent’s legs out from under them with her other leg. Her build worked against her. So Tatia added a twist to a traditional throw.
Dropping his wide shoulders, Toyo charged, intending to bowl the admiral over and pin her to the floor, where he could deliver disabling blows to her head. Tatia grabbed Toyo’s arms and rolled onto her back. Toyo, detecting her intention, sought to halt his charge and drop on top of the admiral, but the boot she planted in his crotch short wired his every thought. The admiral followed through with her second boot, which caught him in the abdomen, and Toyo went flying over the admiral’s head. Her powerful legs gave an extra shove that added rotation and launched him even farther, landing Toyo flat on his back. He struck the deck meters from the admiral, forcing the onlookers to jump back when he nearly sailed into their midst.
Toyo struggled to stand, and he considered making a quick escape, but two things convinced him otherwise. The number of stun guns trained on him was one thing; and Alex Racine, standing there with crossed arms, was number two. The Haraken president was even bigger in person.
“Only a fem would use that maneuver and try to cripple a man,” Toyo said, circling back. He was considering the admiral’s new fighting style, and he was no longer convinced of a win. She wasn’t adopting the traditional fighter’s crouch. Instead, she stood casually, balanced on her feet, hands at her side, waiting.
Figuring this might be his last fight, which Toyo wanted desperately to win, especially against a fem, he pulled a slender blade from inside his sleeve and waved it at her.
“Talking with that thing in your head, huh?” said Toyo, noticing the Harakens backed off without a word from the admiral. “You’re supposed to be New Terran, but you’re nothing but a freak lover.”
“Useless piece of human trash,” Tatia said quietly. “So what’s your choice of poison, Toyo?” she asked, nodding at his blade.
“Poison’s for assassins and fems,” Toyo said, brandishing his knife closer and closer. “I like my blade clean and sharp. The metal does the talking for me.”
“Well, bad man, since you can’t take me with your fists, I’ll let you try it with a weapon. Must be crushing your ego to get beaten by a fem.”
Toyo growled and lunged to attack Tatia’s left side, but it was a fake. At the last moment, he swung his knife down, intending to cut into Tatia’s inner thigh and cripple her. But Toyo sliced only air as Tatia danced backward, moving easily out of attack range.
A small smile lit Alain’s face. Worried before, he now felt the outcome was assured. It was only a matter of time before Toyo would succumb.
Toyo heard the chuckles from the Harakens at his failure to connect, and his temper boiled. In quick succession, he attacked with all the feints and tricks learned on the street. Known as a formidable knife fighter even as a teenager, it was his lack of fear that enabled him to take on bigger and stronger opponents. Toyo would rather have died than fail to win a fight, whereas his opponents were more often concerned with living.
But try as Toyo might, his knife couldn’t score a strike on the big blonde. She didn’t fight like anyone he had ever met. Even when he got close, she slapped or punched his hand aside. His right forearm and the back of his hand had taken so many hits that he switched the knife to his left hand before he lost his grip.
Eventually, Toyo tired, sucking in huge gasps of breath. A glance revealed the admiral sweating like him, but she stood calmly eyeing him. She still had the energy and breath to dance clear of his every attempt to cut her.
“That all you have, bad man?” Tatia taunted. “You’re only good at abducting young girls? Can’t deal with a full-grown woman?”
“Fine, I give,” Toyo said, placing his hands on his knees while he regained his breath. He straightened up, reversed the knife in his hand, holding it by the blade, and extended the handle to Tatia, as he closed the gap between them. In a blur, Toyo flipped the knife over, and the two New Terran bodies slammed together.
Fear shot through Alain’s mind, nearly paralyzing his brother, whose implant was constantly in tune with his crèche-mate.
Tatia took a step back, and the handle of Toyo’s knife protruded from under his jaw. It had been driven up and into his brain. Toyo’s eyes blinked twice in shocked amazement before he toppled to the deck.
Walking back to her people, Tatia caught Alex’s nod to her, before she stopped and kissed Alain lightly.
“Well done, Admiral,” Kadmir called out. “We will dispose of this piece of trash for you.”
“Not so fast, Ser,” Tatia replied, strapping her stun gun back on her thigh. “The body of Peto Toyo will remain in our custody until it’s handed over to the proper authorities.”
“That’s an unnecessary burden for you, Admiral,” Kadmir said, as politely as he could.
“Were my admiral’s instructions not clear to you?” asked Alex, the menace evident in his voice, which caused the Harakens to flow around him to face Kadmir and his people. With both sides frozen, Alex sent a flurry of signals to the two troopers carrying the plasma rifles.
Kadmir watched in awe as two Harakens unslung their plasma rifles in unison and marched to stand on either side of Toyo’s body, holding their weapons at the ready. The movements appeared to have been choreographed and practiced until they could achieve the perfect synchronicity of motion.
“As you wish, Mr. President,” Kadmir said, his thoughts of burying all that had happened in his domes dissipating into thin air. “Perhaps we should go look for your girls now,” he added.
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Kadmir knew every meter of dome four, level six had been searched, which left the remainder of the four extensive domes to search. “We can’t tell where your women went, Mr. President,” Kadmir explained, “but we think they must have used the green lift to access another level. The problem is that a patron or dome personnel could have entered any level in the keypad.
On hearing that, Alex chuckled to himself. Put it to these three inventive young minds to find a way to escape and hide in plain sight, he thought.
While Kadmir, Alex, and their combined support searched the lower domes, Kadmir commed his security chief, Omi Yakiro, who commanded the forces holding the green lift and the bar
ricade on the main concourse.
“Chief, good news: Toyo is dead, and all his people are down. Locate every one of them up there and secure them, if the Harakens haven’t already done so. Stress to our security personnel that they are to be on their best behavior with President Racine’s people. I want no incidents with the Harakens or that person will find themselves floating in vacuum. Take down the barricade and team your people up with Racine’s and start searching for the girls. The women will probably reveal themselves when they see the Haraken blue.”
“Two questions, Sir. How did Toyo get killed, and did you witness it?”
“I caught the end of the fight between Racine’s admiral and Toyo. She ended up sticking Craze’s own knife in his brain.”
“Isn’t the admiral a woman?”
“Yes and a formidable one. Find those girls, Chief, before Racine unleashes his admiral on you or me.”
* * *
Chief Yakiro ordered the concourse barricade torn down, and he went to personally communicate with the Harakens. Remembering Kadmir’s warning, he left his weapons behind. Walking next to the concourse’s outer curve, Yakiro held his hands in front of him. When he spotted a glimpse of Haraken blue, he called out. “Hello, there. I need to speak to someone in charge.” Yakiro had to wait a few moments before he received a reply, and although his arms were tiring he kept them out and visible.
“Commander Franz Cohen here, Ser. What can I do for you?”
“I’m Security Chief Omi Yakiro. I have a message from Mr. Kadmir. The fighting is over. Toyo is dead. Your admiral killed him. We’re to ensure that Toyo’s people are adequately detained and assist you in a search for your girls.”
“Step forward, Chief Yakiro,” Franz said, invitingly. He wanted to know how much faith Yakiro was willing to put into his message.
As Yakiro approached the two men, a New Terran and one with a unique build and decorated with face paint and bird feathers, he said, “May I rest my arms?”