“Old fool,” a voice whispered from behind him, alerting Yen to the danger moments before a pair of open palms struck him in his lower back.
An explosion of pain rocked Yen’s body as he was lifted effortlessly into the air. Suspended and paralyzed, Yen was turned slowly around until he faced the darkly smiling Achilles, who stood hovering above the lake’s surface, his hand upraised as he lazily spun Yen in circles.
“I had thought to keep you around, so that we might learn from one another,” Achilles said angrily. “But I realize now that there is nothing that I could possibly learn from you that I do not already know. You have no intrinsic value to me. You’re nothing more than my puppet. But like all toys, I’vve grown weary of playing with you. I’m no longer a child, so I must discard my childish things. Goodbye, Yen Xiao.”
Achilles’ outstretched hand closed into a fist and Yen felt his throat constrict. Though he struggled for air, Yen was helpless to stop the Terran from choking the life from his body. Instead, Yen could only glare in rage as he struggled to draw breath.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Through the hole in the wall, Keryn and Adam slipped into the cool desert night. They slid along the buildings, trying to leave as little a silhouette as possible in the bright moonlight. Aside from the occasional gunfire, the town had taken on an eerie silence. Taking a deep breath, Keryn hoped that the tentative ceasefire that had existed when Adam was guarding the window to their building would hold for a while longer. As long as the townsfolk continued to believe that a deadly gunman was waiting just inside the room, they would be hesitant to approach the building. Keryn hoped that diversion would buy them enough time to make it out of the town’s limits before they realized the dupe. The thought of running like a madwoman toward the landing field with an entire armed town in pursuit did not appeal to her.
Staying low, the pair moved from box to barrel, constantly scanning the area ahead as they moved from one cover to another. Passing alleyways that led back to the main thoroughfare through town, they paused and peered toward the lamp lit main street. Unlike the shadowy darkness through which they moved, the setting sun had automatically activated the flickering lanterns that illuminated the two main roads through town. As Keryn’s eyes moved up the cliff face behind town, she could see similar lanterns lighting the length of the switchback trail. Craning her neck, the pinpricks of lantern light stretched the entire height of the plateau’s face before disappearing at the crest of the plateau’s top.
From within the glowing pools of light, Keryn could see townsfolk moving. They moved with an air of caution, though their awkward graces as they tried to slip stealthily within the shadows made it apparent that they learned their techniques more from console videos and less from actual soldier training. Frowning, Keryn felt pity for the simple citizens of the town. Their vision clouded by the large sums of money that Cardax had poured into their meager lives, they were willing to toss aside their morals and self-respect just to protect their new way of life. They were willing to die for a smuggler about which they knew next to nothing. Would they be so willing to die for him if they knew that Cardax had sold out the Alliance? Keryn wondered if they would so willingly accept the Oterian’s money if they knew just how much he had soaked it in blood beforehand.
With a nudge from Adam, she slipped from behind her crate and passed the exposed alleyway. Though the town was relatively long, the end quickly approached. From the end of town, the desert opened up, leaving little protective concealment. The pair would have to move quickly but carefully to avoid detection. Looking up, Keryn both admired the myriad of stars while simultaneously feeling disappointed that there weren’t any clouds hanging in the sky. The large disk of the moon stole away many of the shadows that they could have used to move undetected. Instead, the silvery illumination would leave them exposed while they ran away. Still, she had seen the unimpressive marksmanship of the townsfolk. Once they made their break from the town, she doubted any of the pursuing gunfire would even come close to them.
Lost in her bemusing, Keryn nearly ran into a figure as he detached himself from an upcoming alleyway. She started bringing her pistol to bear on the new target before she caught the moonlight glistening off the cool metal of the figure’s pistol, trained on her chest. Deep in thought, she had let a civilian get the drop on her. Keryn scowled at her own ineptitude. Her frown deepened as she realized that she knew the figure.
A confident smile spread across the Uligart’s face as he looked back and forth between Keryn and Adam. “I warned you that you should have just left town. We don’t like when people threaten our source of income.”
“The storekeeper,” Adam grumbled. “From Yako…”
“Yuchurio’s Imports,” the Uligart hastily corrected. “You two just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You had to stick your nose where it didn’t belong. Now your friends are dead and you’re about to be turned over to the person that killed them. I’d be surprised if you saw tomorrow’s sunrise!”
“You don’t have to turn us in,” Keryn offered.
The Uligart turned sharply on her. “Of course I do!” he hissed. “Do you have any idea how much money Cardax will pay me for capturing you both?”
“It seems like you’ve got your mind set on it,” Adam interrupted, his voice getting a little louder than the whisper they had all been using. “You might as well call out and let the rest of the town know where we are.”
“Keep it down!” the Uligart ordered. “You think I’m going to get other people involved and share my fortune? No, you’re mine and mine alone.”
Keryn looked down and noticed the gun wavering slightly in his hand. His grip was awkward, as though he didn’t usually carry a pistol. She didn’t notice the traditional calluses that would mark a steady gunman. The Uligart’s hands seemed smooth, the hands of a storeowner and not a gunfighter.
She took a step forward, smiling broadly. “First of all,” Keryn said condescendingly, “this isn’t the first time I’ve had a pistol pointed at me, nor will it be the last. Go ahead and put that thing away before someone gets hurt.”
The Uligart took a step back, his eyes locking intently on the Wyndgaart woman. “Stay back,” he stuttered.
“And secondly…” Adam rumbled as he stepped forward. His hand shot out in a blur, catching the pistol near the trigger well and smashing the Uligart’s fingers between Adam’s fist and the pistol’s grip. With a grunt of pain, the pistol went flying from the storekeeper’s hand and was lost in the desert beyond.
“…you really should have called for help,” Keryn finished as she stepped forward.
The Uligart’s eyes opened in surprise as Keryn’s knife slid smoothly into his abdomen. The sharp blade slashed through organs as she turned the knife upward until the tip of the blade entered the Uligart’s right lung. He opened his mouth to scream, but only a gurgle escaped. He leaned forward, he weight falling on Keryn’s shoulder. Slowly, as she supported his weight, she lowered the storekeeper down to the hard, desert clay as his blood soaked his shirt and pants. Once he was firmly on the ground, Keryn leaned back and looked at the Uligart, who looked surprised but peaceful on the ground. With a sharp twist, she pulled her knife free, splashing her own arms with the Uligart’s dark blood. She angrily realized how much she wanted to do the same thing to Cardax. Looking up with a renewed determination, Keryn led Adam out of the town and into the desert separating the mining community from their landing field.
The gunfire Keryn expected never came. Whether their distraction worked better than she had anticipated or the townsfolk had lost their heart once Cardax was gone, she didn’t know. However, she counted her blessings as she and Adam sprinted through the tough shrubs that littered the desert floor. As they rounded the edge of the plateau and the landing field came into view, flames leapt from the bottoms of two of the ships as they ignited their burners and began lifting off from the planet’s surface. The two ships seemed fairly nondescript, but Keryn knew that
one of the two carried the traitorous Cardax. Increasing her speed, she sprinted the rest of the distance to the cleared landing zone. By the time she arrived, however, the air was thick with traces of burning plasma exhaust. The smell burned her lungs and caused her eyes to water. More importantly to her, though, was the fact that both ships were little more than distant specks on the horizon by the time she reached the nearest of the still parked ships. Cardax was getting away and she had yet to even reach the Cair Ilmun.
As they hurried through the smoky haze, the exhaust from the departing ships became thicker. The once distinct figures of parked ships became nondescript, amorphous shapes all around Keryn. She staggered forward, supported only by Adam’s comforting touch on her back. Keryn’s eyes burned and she coughed roughly as she searched for the telltale lines of the Cair Ilmun. With tears streaking from her eyes, she didn’t notice the limp shape lying on the ground before her. Keryn’s foot caught on the figure and she fell to her knees before the body.
“Stop!” Keryn yelled moments before Adam would have tripped over the body as well.
Adam stopped and pulled free his rifle. His soldier instincts took control as he turned, scanning for any nearby threat. “Is it one of ours or one of theirs?”
The body was face down before her and, in the darkness, it was hard to make out any details. Frowning, she slipped her hands underneath the body in order to roll it over. As her hands slid between the body and the sand, she felt them sink into a thick, tacky fluid. In surprise, she immediately pulled her hands away. Dripping from her fingers, a mixture of sand and blood fell from her fingers in congealed droplets.
Though she felt her stomach turn, she slid her hands back beneath the body and rolled it over. The face was badly torn and bloodied, but evidently Uligart. Keryn let out a sigh of relief and sat down heavily in the sand.
“It’s not one of ours.”
“There are more over here,” Adam said coldly.
Keryn didn’t bother looking at the other torn figures that were strewn around them. She already knew how they would appear. The Uligart’s stomach had been torn open and the exposed entrails were coated in sand. The man’s throat had also been torn away, leaving a ragged wound from ear to ear. Keryn felt bile rise in her throat at the sight. While she hoped that this was the work of one of her teammates, she feared that they had met a similar fate.
From behind her, sand crunched beneath a heavily booted foot. Keryn leapt to her feet and pulled free her pistol, as Adam turned toward the sound as well, his rifle at the ready. From out of the smoke, a humanoid shape emerged. The pink, fleshy skin and straw-like hair showed predominantly Pilgrim features, though most of his skin was covered in blood. His arms were held defensively before him, his palms outward, in a sign of peace. Despite the reassurances that the Pilgrim was unarmed, Keryn and Adam didn’t lower their weapons.
As they watched, the fleshy skin began to peel away from the Pilgrim’s hands and face. It sank beneath the surface, revealing the cold, smooth Lithid exterior. The clothes themselves melted as well, all part of the illusion created by Penchant as he walked unnoticed through the landing field.
With a sigh of relief, Keryn lowered her weapon. “Penchant. Where is Cardax?”
The featureless face motioned toward the stars above. “He left on one of the two ships.”
“Which one?” Keryn asked impatiently.
Penchant looked toward the distant horizon for a moment before turning back and shrugging. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Keryn asked indignantly. “How can you not know? This was your one responsibility!”
“I was a little busy!” Penchant yelled back, his voice sounding like boulders crashing together. The Lithid motioned toward the bodies strewn about. “Cardax left us a present while you were gone.”
“McLaughlin,” Adam interrupted. Keryn, too, remembered the radio transmission saying that the Pilgrim had been injured. “Where is he?”
“Cerise already took him into the Cair Ilmun, but he has been hurt pretty bad. He was standing close to a grenade when it exploded.”
“Rombard and Keeling?” Adam asked, though he lacked the conviction in his voice.
Penchant shook his head. Keryn felt her heart sink. She had no doubt that Rombard and Keeling were already dead. Now, with McLaughlin injured as well, that nearly reduced her team in half, and they were no closer to capturing Cardax. Grimacing, Keryn realized that she no longer wanted to capture Cardax. To hell with the High Council and their directives. Keryn had every intention of making the Oterian pay for what he did to her team on Pteraxis.
“Get in the ship,” Keryn said sternly. “We have a smuggler to kill.”
“You mean catch?” Adam asked.
“I didn’t say catch.”
Without another word, the trio, led by Penchant, found the Cair Ilmun and climbed aboard. A part of Keryn wanted to go to the medical bay and check on McLaughlin. The more sensible side, however, knew that the more she delayed, the better the chance that Cardax would escape. Instead, she turned toward the cockpit and strapped herself into the pilot’s chair. Bypassing the majority of ignition protocols, Keryn cold started the engine and, within moments, the Cair Ilmun was lifting off the planet’s surface.
She didn’t give a warning when she began a heavy acceleration within the planet’s atmosphere. The conflicting gravities between the planet and the inhibitors on the ship made her feel even queasier then before, but she knew that Cardax had a head start. She no longer had the luxury of patience. When they hit the atmosphere, Keryn was nearly tossed from her seat by the impact. At first, the Cair Ilmun skipped like a stone against the protective layer around the planet. Finally, the ship eased through and rocketed into space.
As telemetries came online, the console before her showed two distinct engine signatures. Though they passed through the atmosphere at the same time, they immediately branched off. One began a slow arc away, heading toward the back side of the sun. The second hurtled away from the planet on a trajectory that would take it far outside the system. Keryn immediately read through Cardax’s strategy. The smuggler would burn at a high acceleration out of the system in order to save himself while his support craft would hide behind the sun and launch a surprise attack once she began pursuit. In a normal scenario, Keryn would have been impressed by his tactics. In fact, she would intentionally destroy the guarding craft first before pursuing Cardax. This, unfortunately, was a far from normal situation. Aside from her desire to kill Cardax, the Cair Ilmun had been heavily outfitted with state of the art armor and weapons. Even if Cardax’s support craft ambushed them, Keryn stood a strong chance of destroying both ships with minimal damage to the Cair Ilmun. Confident that she was making the right choice, Keryn accelerated toward Cardax’s ship.
Though she watched the radar to ensure the guardian ship was still traveling toward the sun, Keryn’s focus was on the plasma engine burning brightly before her. With the modified engines, the Cair Ilmun was quickly catching the fleeing craft. Reaching forward, she entered a series of commands into the console and brought her weapons online. A compliment of plasma rockets activated in the launch tubes beneath each wing. Machine guns whirred in preparation for the pending assault. Within the cockpit, Keryn’s violet eyes burned with rage and revenge. Though Cardax was fleeing at maximum speed, he would soon be within targeting range.
On the console, the targeting array turned from green to red, indicating that she was finally within range to fire her first volley. Keryn snarled as her hands fell to the console and she uploaded the final data to her missile launchers. With all preparations completed and Cardax’s ship within her sights, Keryn’s finger hovered over the firing mechanism.
With a pang of remorse, Keryn remembered the training her team had gone through together on the Revolution. Rombard’s stern leadership, McLaughlin’s carefree attitude, and even Keeling’s overbearing confidence; all the memories burned in Keryn’s chest and brought stinging tears to her
eyes.
“This is for all of them,” she whispered into the quiet cockpit. “Burn in hell, you bastard!”
Pushing the firing button, four plasma rockets launched from underneath the wings of the Cair Ilmun. Streaking through the empty space, the smoky trails locked on to the fleeing ship. Though it tried to dodge the missiles, it was futile. The rockets struck the back of the ship nearly in unison. The small transport, laden with extra fuel cells, erupted into flames which consumed the entire ship. As the flames died away, scorched sections of the ship drifted free, filling the view before the Cair Ilmun with a sea of debris. Sobbing with relief, Keryn sagged in the pilot’s chair.
The silence in the cockpit seemed stifling as Keryn laid back in her chair. Aches that she had ignored all day suddenly assaulted her senses. Her neck tightened to where she wasn’t sure she would be able to turn her neck from side to side. Along her shoulders and arms, Keryn felt a tight burning from overuse. Exhaustion seemed to infuse every cell of her body. At the same time, she began to feel immediate regret. Their team had been sent on a specific mission: to capture Cardax and learn anything they could about Deplitoxide. Instead, she had let her emotions overwhelm her common sense. In an act of retribution, she had destroyed the one lead the Alliance had on stopping the latest threat. Resolved to her fate, Keryn reminded herself that with Cardax gone, there was a slim chance that the Terran Empire would ever find a resupply of the dangerous chemical. Though Deplitoxide would be a threat in the immediate future, the Terran stores would eventually run dry. Satisfied in her attempt at justification, Keryn allowed herself a thin smile.
Opening her eyes, she noticed a blinking light on the console. She had an incoming transmission, though the source was unknown. Could the High Council already know that she had failed her mission? Keryn had heard of the seemingly omnipotent power of the Council, but doubted that even they could have learned that she killed the smuggler instead of capturing him as she had been ordered. Still, her hand shook as she reached out and pressed the blinking button.
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