by Randy Noble
Inside Roy’s jacket, there was a distinct splat! sound.
George looked over at Michael, who, without a word, walked over to Roy, reached inside his jacket, and pulled out a gun. The gun was black, and had two barrels and two magazines. One magazine was in the handle, and the other magazine in front of the trigger. Roy did not fight back at all, and could look no one in the eye.
“This is a SOAD weapon,” Michael said. Michael furrowed his eyes at Roy and looked over at Regina. “You’re a SOAD?”
“Yes, I am,” Regina said. She didn’t want everyone to know, but there was no denying it. Anonymity was her friend, her savior. On the plus side, it revealed Roy as a liar.
Michael walked over and handed the weapon to Regina. She held it for a second, staring at it, and then put it inside her coat, back home, in its holster.
Brett gawked at her. She returned the favor, and he turned away.
“What’s a SOAD doing on a commercial cruise vessel?” Mary asked.
“As it happens, ma’am, I’m on vacation, after several of my associates --”
“Associates,” Brett said. “That’s a laugh. Killer.”
Mary stared Brett quiet.
Regina smirked at Brett. “After several of my associates were murdered by the people Roy works for.”
Roy glanced around the room. “What? What people?”
“After that,” she continued, “I was forced into vacation until things got sorted, but it didn’t change the fact that all SOADs have been targeted for termination by this band of idiots. Their only advantage is working in numbers. So what happened to your crew, moron?”
Roy visibly swallowed. “What crew?”
Regina very quickly drew her 45, and shot twice, once in each of Roy’s kneecaps. Luckily for Roy, Regina changed the clip out earlier from shock bullets to regular bullets.
Roy screamed, collapsing to the floor. Blood soaked his tanned pants.
Brett, and then Paula and Cindy, pointed their weapons at Regina.
“Stand down!” George roared. “Stand down. We have no authority over a SOAD and have no jurisdiction to interfere.”
Paula and Cindy immediately dropped their weapons. Brett hesitated.
“Brett!” Mary said.
He dropped his weapon.
Regina walked over to Roy who was groaning in pain. Through clenched teeth, he said, “You fucking cunt!” Spittle flew through his teeth, bubbling on his lips.
“By authority bestowed upon me by my superior at the office of Major Criminal Offense Elimination, I have exercised my right as a Search Out and Destroy officer in front of these witnesses.” Regina knelt down beside Roy. “Now, what would you like to tell me?”
“I’ve nothing to tell you! Nothing!” Roy reeled with pain.
“I beg to differ, Roy. How many were in your crew?”
“What crew?”
Regina pulled a knife out of her jacket pocket, flicked the blade out, and jabbed it into Roy’s left knee in the bullet’s point of entry. Roy’s pain echoed throughout the room. “Tell me what happened last night, Roy! Something went wrong, or I wouldn’t be here right now.”
Roy slapped his hand, hard, on the floor a few times. “Alright! Alright! I drugged you, okay?”
“I know that. What happened after?”
“When you started to lull, after I spiked your beer, I came over, took your gun, and was about to escort you . . . back to my suite, but the bartender interfered. I think he suspected something was up. He got a friend of his to watch me, and he must have taken you back to your suite. I had no idea where you went.”
“God bless him then, Roy. See, there are decent people in this world. Do you think you’re a decent person?”
“I’m doing what’s right, what’s necessary.”
“Don’t tell me you worked alone. I know you had help. If you lie to me again, I’ll kill you. There was a distraction, just before you spiked my drink. How many of you are on this ship?”
Roy didn’t answer right away, Regina figured because he was weighing his options. Realizing he didn’t have any, he said, “Four of us, including me. I don’t know where the others are. Please, it hurts!”
“Not much longer, Roy, and I’ll help you.” She nodded. “I sincerely mean that.” Regina looked over at the others watching intently, a look of contempt on Brett’s face, and Dave looking more nervous than usual. “Do you, or any of your crew, have anything to do with what is going on, on this ship right now?”
Roy groaned at even the slightest movement he made. “No. No, I swear to God we had nothing to do with it. I’m in the dark as much as you.”
“One more thing, Roy, and then I’ll leave you alone. You’re the first of your group to ever get caught, and my people suspect -- let me rephrase that -- know you all have a small device surgically implanted under the skin. Tell me where you all have it implanted, and you’re free to go. You’ve been very cooperative, and I really appreciate it.”
Roy rolled over onto his back, and winced when he did, tears coming out of his eyes at the fresh pain. The knife in his knee wobbled. “The back of my left calf. We all had one installed there.”
“Thank you, Roy.” Regina stood up and shot Roy in the head. His body twitched violently, twice, and then lay still. Blood pooled around his head.
“You fucking murderer!” Brett said.
Regina didn’t look at Brett, or anyone. She had killed before in front of others and the look was always the same: shock, disgust, and anger all wrapped up in one contemptuous judgment. Only rarely did she get a “thank you.” It used to bother her, but she grew to understand how others perceived what she found an absolute necessity. Some people claim an eye for an eye, but almost never follow through. What people didn’t get was that Regina had to follow through or it would eat her alive. To not act would mess with her mind and send her through round after round with a psychologist for the rest of her life. But nobody would understand that, not these people.
“This man has been marked for death. I exercised my right as a SOAD officer. If you disagree, it is your right to file a grievance with the office of Major Criminal Offense Elimination.”
Brett shook his head. “You should be locked up.”
“That’s enough,” George said.
An orange flash filled the room, all of them consumed inside it. Regina got the same horrible feeling she had before and her vision blurred momentarily. The same strange, burning-like smell permeated her nostrils. She could see it in all their faces as she looked around.
“It’s here,” Blair said. His eyes looked sad, sorrowful, like he just found out his family had been killed. Regina figured the fear overwhelmed him.
“What?” Mary said. “What’s here?”
“What the hell was that?” Brett said.
Before Blair had a chance to speak again, his body went rigid, and Regina knew he was dead. Before his corpse hit the ground, she could see a gray, rubbery-looking substance oozing from every visible orifice.
Blair’s body hit the ground hard.
Everyone backed away, but not before Dave’s body also went rigid, the same substance pouring from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, hardening instantly. Dave’s body fell, his head bashing the side of a console desk, and then he crashed to the ground, all without a sound from him, death instant.
The SPARS raised their double-barreled rifles, one barrel above the other, on the ready.
John and Paula were both trying to open each hatch, but the wheels would not turn. “The doors will not open, sir,” John said to George. “I think something might be holding them on the other side.”
Regina followed George’s gaze to the video screen and saw nothing, which was not a surprise. “Lipstick,” George said. “Both doors. Now. Get us out of here.”
George pointed at Regina and Rachel. “You two, in the door alcove.” Rachel moved behind George and the others inched towards John. Regina didn’t budge. “Mary and Brett, watch them. Everybody else swee
p the room. Go to infrared.”
All the SPARS uttered a voice command to go to infrared, and all their glasses transformed from clear to a dark, red color.
Before George, Travis, Michael, and Cindy started to move, Blair’s body began to dissolve. There was no sound, just flesh, muscle, blood, bone, everything but his clothing, dissolved into the floor, leaving no trace he existed, other than his clothing. It took four seconds.
“Anybody see anything?” George asked. Everybody shook their heads.
Regina moved towards Dave’s body.
Michael moved towards her, probably an attempt to intercept her, likely to protect. But she couldn’t be distracted by chivalry. Before Regina got to Dave, Michael bumped into something and fell back.
Both Paula and John ran a silver tube, like a lipstick tube, around the inside of the door. They drew a large rectangular shape with a black, waxy substance.
As Michael fell back, Regina drew her weapon and pressed two buttons along the rear handle and fired. Both barrels fired, almost simultaneously. First, a purplish, gooey splat hit some unseen thing by Dave’s body, and a fraction of a second later, a charged, pin-like bullet hit the goo. Tiny little, spherical explosives inside the goo discharged, sending an echoing boom through the room. Regina emptied her clips into it, throwing it backward, and it finally fell, the explosions on its body the only clue anything was there.
The thud of something falling was distinct, and they all heard it. Michael got up quickly and waved Regina off, which she did, but not because he wanted her to.
*****
Michael did not understand Regina. She seemed so undisciplined, out of control, and set off so easily. But she finally backed off.
He slowly approached the fallen, invisible enemy, which his infrared did not pick up. What the hell was this thing? He could see purple splotches on top of it, where Regina hit it, some deeper than others where the explosives went off. He was well aware a SOAD never messed around, and this was why their weapons were nothing short of overkill. It had to be dead. Didn’t it?
Looking to his left, Michael saw Regina pull her knife out of Roy’s knee, flip him over, and then carved into his left calf, knowing she was looking for some device he probably did not want to know about.
It was a quick glance, but all he needed to see. She always seemed to have purpose, reason for what she said and did. Michael bent down by the invisible intruder.
Cindy, George, and Travis were right behind him, and he gestured for them to come around. “Get ready to fire,” Michael said, knowing all three of them would unload their weapons into the creature if anything out of the ordinary happened. It occurred to him that none of them would see it move even if it did. Best to be quick.
Michael looked back at John and Paula, saw they finished drawing new doors on the metal ones, flipped the lipstick over, popped the switch, and sent a charge into the lipstick on the door. It sizzled, like a sparkler, and spread in both directions, covering the entire rectangle.
“Thirty seconds,” John said.
Michael turned back and reached a hand out to feel what they were up against. The purple splotches covered a large area. Whatever it was, it was as big as a man. Bigger. He put his hand on one of the wounds, a crevice really, and he felt it healing as soon as he did. The hole was filling in. It didn’t feel like flesh, but more like a spongy, rubbery shell. Maybe a suit of some kind. He wasn’t sure.
Michael stood up. “It’s regenerating.” And then he opened fire, and the others followed. He only fired one barrel, the one with the armor piercing, explosive tipped bullets. Not as powerful as Regina’s weapon, not even close, but with four people firing on it, he hoped it would stay down, hopefully long enough for them to get out.
Both doors continued to sizzle, the metal melting away where the lipstick was drawn.
“Ten seconds,” John said.
*****
George stopped firing and looked over at Michael, but Michael did not notice. “Mike,” George said. “Mike!”
Michael looked up, taking his finger off the trigger, the others stopping as well, but only because they were out of ammunition. They reloaded.
“I want you to set a charge on the main cockpit window,” George said. “We’ll remote detonate once we’re out.” The explosion had to be enough to let them escape, and hopefully suck whatever was in the room out into space. The glass would be reinforced, meant to take some punishment, probably nine or ten layers thick. The explosion might not work.
They had all done their training through the same methods, and all had explosives training, but it was minimal and none of them had used explosives outside of training. None that was except George. His youth was not a proud time in his life, but it did involve some valuable lessons he’d never forget. That included playing with explosives and always in excess. They used them many a time to blow a hole in something: a doorway, a window, and reinforced glass. With the kind of charges the SPARS use, he knew three would be plenty, but the unknown was the kind of reinforced glass on Pyramid One. It was a dilemma for him. Too little and nothing would happen, and too much and they all might be in trouble. What to do?
Michael was already on his way. “Mike,” George said, and Michael stopped and looked at George. “Do four and stagger them.” Michael nodded.
“If you don’t see anything when the doors drop,” Mary said to John and Paula, “unload your weapons. Bullets only.”
George was glad she made the command. If there were any more creatures, the path needed to be cleared, and fast. No time to spare. What was he missing? There had to be something, some variable he was missing. He wanted no casualties -- well, no more after Regina’s call to duty.
He had mixed feelings about Regina. Back in his day, the things he did and the people he hung around, he would have been a marked target, just like Roy. But that didn’t bother him, because he hated who he used to be, an undisciplined punk, angry, hateful, spiteful, and murderous without regard or remorse. He hated his parents back then, but he loved them now and respected them very much for not giving up on him and forcing him into military school. It saved his life. So, it wasn’t the fact that Regina just killed a man in front of him that bothered him, because he respected the reason, but her methods came from some deep-seated anger that reminded him how he used to be. Most SOAD officers have that same anger, and he concluded that it must be some necessary emotion to do the things they needed to do. He felt sad for her and what seemed to him to be a very lonely life.
Everyone was backing away from the doors, Mary and Brett guarding Rachel. Paula and John kneeled, aiming their weapons at the doorway.
BOOM! BOOM!
The doors fell inward where John and Paula were standing previously, crashing to the floor. They opened fire, stood up, still firing, and then moved forward. The bullets were hitting some unseen thing on both sides. Little explosions were occurring just outside the door, and no bullets made it to the wall.
The explosions started moving backward, the creatures moving backward, and then they were on the floor, as the creatures must have fallen down. The fact the creatures didn’t turn and run worried George, but, at the same time, at least they knew where two of them were. He thought of them as creatures because they were an unknown. But it occurred to him that they could just be men in some special kind of suit, some technology none of them knew about. Maybe even aliens, but why so brutal, so determined to wipe out everyone? Even as an angry, young man, the things they did had purpose, not one many would agree with, but purpose nonetheless. What was the purpose of these things? That was the question, other than what the hell were they?
George turned to see Michael had laid the charges and was on his way back. Four disc-shaped charges, four inches in diameter and half an inch thick, were spread across the large window, horizontally, seven feet between each. Hopefully, it would be enough. They would have to get off the level quickly, even though there was probably some sort of emergency compression stabilizer to block wh
at would hopefully be a large hole in the ship very soon. And then he saw it, a slit in the floor and ceiling, along the front of the ship. The hole might get sealed before their enemy got sucked out. No matter, time to go.
John and Paula were through the doors, Mary following Paula, and Brett behind John. “Meet in the hallway,” Mary said.
George and Travis brought up the rear, with Michael and Cindy in front of them, each pair splitting at the doors, Regina in the middle on John’s side, and Rachel in the middle on Paula’s side.
As the SPARS members came through the control room doors, they each opened fire at wherever the SPARS member in front of them was last firing, keeping the creatures down. Everyone moved very quickly.
*****
Regina looked at the kicked in Pyramid Staff Only door as they came out into the hallway, the plate twisted from the force of whatever kicked it in, the keypad smashed.
The lights emanating from the hallway walls seemed dimmer than before, like they were turned down to a romantic mood, but it had the opposite effect and made the ship look more ominous.
John led them to the right, toward where the others were coming. He put his hand up in the air to stop them; Regina heard a voice come through on Michael’s glasses -- behind her -- telling them to stay away from the door.
John stared forward, towards the door, and then talked on the still open channel on his glasses. “This is John, Paula. You’re good to go.”
Bullets pelted through the door and into the wall in front of it, the shots focusing on the keypad. Regina assumed the leader, Paula, was firing, and she cut a nice perimeter around the keypad. It plopped out and onto the floor, and then the door was kicked open. The door, although metal and heavy, slammed around into the wall. Paula, Mary, Rachel, Travis, and Cindy came through the opening.
George looked at Michael. “Against the wall, everyone,” Michael said, and everyone did as asked, bracing themselves against the wall, keeping away from the doors.