by G J Ogden
Cad turned to the faceless automaton and sucked in a deep breath. His plan had been set in motion, and now there was no turning back.
18
Damien Doyle’s personal protection bot stepped aside, though its featureless cranial unit still peered down at Cad Rikkard. He almost preferred the sinister vee-shaped eye of the alien warbot he’d fought on the rogue world to this anonymous-looking machine.
“Come in, Mr. Rikkard,” said the voice of Damien Doyle, played out through a speaker concealed somewhere inside the bot’s head or body. Doyle’s tone conveyed the usual faux congeniality that the magnate often began conversations with. “Just follow the bot and it will lead you inside.”
Alexis entered first, pushing the prisoner ahead of her, while Cad followed, noting that the sergeant had also entered and closed the door behind him. He was still cradling an SMG, tapping his finger impatiently on the frame above the trigger guard. Cad continued through a wide, marble-floored corridor and into an enormous open-plan living space, while the sergeant shadowed him a few meters behind.
Doyle’s suite occupied the uppermost five stories of his Governors Island tower, and was as opulent as Cad had come to expect from any of the tycoon’s properties. What was contained on the other four floors, Cad had no idea, considering that the floor he’d entered could comfortably accommodate the entire Crimson Lynx squad.
Cad saw Damien Doyle standing in front of a plush leather sofa on a garden terrace, just beyond a wall of thirty-foot-tall floor-to-ceiling glass windows. There was an open champagne bottle in an ice bucket on a table with two glasses beside it. Doyle was drinking from a third. The magnate smiled as he saw the hooded figure being marched toward him. The personal protection bot, meanwhile, ensured that it kept itself directly between Cad and its master.
“Well, I believe this calls for a celebration,” said Doyle, pouring champagne into the two other glasses. Then he gestured to the prisoner. “Please, the hood is no longer required. Dr. Rand is my guest.”
Cad glanced across to Alexis, but she shook her head, again so subtly that it was almost imperceptible.
“First, why don’t you tell me why the entire Crimson Lynx squad is outside,” said Cad, realizing he still needed to stall for time. Then he hooked a thumb at the sergeant. “Apart from our brave babysitter here.”
The personal protection bot stepped closer to Cad, turning its featureless face toward him. He had seen the bot react in a similar manner on other occasions, responding to certain kinds of voice stress or elevated heart rates that could signify aggressive intent.
“Merely precautionary,” replied Doyle, shrugging off the comment. “Sergeant Miller is attending to a variety of security matters, including the future security and wellbeing of Dr. Rand.”
Sergeant Miller moved to the opposite side of the bot, next to Alexis and the hooded prisoner. “What’s the matter, Mr. Rikkard?” he said with a goading smile. “Do I make you nervous?”
Sergeant Millar’s comment appeared to amuse Doyle, who also smiled, revealing his pristine white teeth. “Remove Dr. Rand’s hood, sergeant,” Doyle said to the Crimson Lynx Enforcer. He then took a sip of champagne, as if anticipating the reveal of a long-lost master work of art.
The enforcer did as he was ordered, yanking off the hood in one swift movement, like a magician performing a tablecloth trick. The gagged face of the CSF Commander from Tellus was then revealed, and Doyle’s self-righteous smile fell away.
“Who is this?” said Doyle, pointing to the woman, whose terrified eyes now flicked from person to person in the room.
“That’s Dr. Rand, of course,” said Cad, shooting Alexis another quick glance. Alexis stroked her cheek gently with one finger, denoting sixty more seconds to wait. She then turned her full attention to Sergeant Miller. “She’s had a little plastic surgery to disguise her appearance, as you might expect,” Cad continued, inventing a convenient lie on the spot. “A DNA test will confirm her identity.”
Doyle placed the champagne glass down onto the table, his face twisted in disgust, as if someone had just broken wind. “A DNA test?” he said, sounding insulted by the excuse, though Cad had to admit it wasn’t one of his better fabrications. “Do you take me for a fool, Rikkard?” Doyle then barked, causing the protection bot to bristle and edge ever so slightly closer to Cad. “Who is this person? Explain yourself!”
When Cad didn’t answer, Doyle shot forward and pulled the gag out of the woman’s mouth.
“Please, help me!” the commander blurted out. “They kidnapped me on Tellus. I have no idea what’s going on here!”
Doyle’s hands clenched into fists, then he glared at Sergeant Miller. “Kill them!” he yelled, his face turning bright red with rage.
Miller raised his SMG, but Alexis Black had already sprung into action, deflecting the barrel away and striking the enforcer with two brutal knife hands to the throat. She followed with a crushing punch to the enforcer’s ribs between the gap in his tactical vest. There was the crack of bone, but Miller barely had time to utter an agonized croak before Alexis had thrust a side-pushing kick into his gut, sending him crashing through the glass table in front of Doyle. The champagne glasses and open bottle fell on top of Miller’s unconscious body, spilling their contents onto the terrace floor.
“Very impressive, Miss Black,” said Damien Doyle, quickly backing away behind his protection bot. “But that will be the last time you two fail me.”
The bot advanced with eye-watering speed, first knocking the still bound CSF commander to the floor with a whirling strike of its arm. In almost the same fluid movement, it managed to catch Cad unawares, hurling him across the terrace and into the floor-to-ceiling windows of the main suite.
“Alexis, any time now would be good…” groaned Cad, pushing himself up. The bot then rounded on Alexis. However, she merely stood her ground. “Alexis!” Cad cried, watching with wide eyes as the bot drew back its hammer-like fist, ready to smash it through Alexis’ face. Then the machine suddenly froze.
“What are you doing? Kill them!” Doyle growled, but the machine remained stationary.
Cad dusted himself down and moved up beside the protection bot, tapping his knuckles against its cranial unit. It made a hollow sound, like an iron cooking pot.
“I think it’s broken,” said Cad, smiling over at Doyle. “That’s a shame, isn’t it?”
Doyle’s panicky eyes saw the sub-machine gun lying next to the body of Sergeant Miller, and he rushed for it, but the older man lacked Cad Rikkard’s fleetness of foot. Cad pushed Doyle back onto the sofa and retrieved the weapon first, casually aiming it at him with one hand.
“You won’t get away with this!” Doyle barked. “I have a whole squad of elite Crimson Lynx enforcers on the roof. You won’t leave here alive!”
Cad stood in front of Doyle, while Alexis began to work on the personal protection bot, levering open a panel in the rear of its cranial unit with a knife she’d taken from Miller’s body.
“I’m not here to kill you,” lied Cad, switching his hold on the SMG to one that was a little less threatening. He needed Doyle to believe the magnate was going to escape with his life, to make sure Cad got what he wanted.
“Then what do you want?” Doyle replied, his leathery brow scrunched up even more tightly than before. “More money?”
“Money would be a start,” said Cad, spotting a tablet computer on another table, further along the grand terrace. “But what I actually want is for you to give me full access to your systems. I want everything you know about Rand, alien planets, the Darkspace Renegades… everything,” he added, nodding toward the computer.
Doyle looked over at the device, then met Cad’s eyes again. “Why, what good is it to you?” he replied, the fear and panic in his voice now much more under control.
“Merely precautionary,” said Cad, shrugging and mimicking Doyle’s earlier gesture. “A safeguard against you trying anything stupid against me again.”
Doyle’s fr
own remained, but he stood up and cautiously moved over to collect the computer. “But you could just kill me,” the magnate said, surprising Cad by even highlighting this as an option he might have overlooked. Doyle then returned with the device, patting it against his free hand. “Killing me means you don’t need a safeguard. So I think you actually want something else. Something a man in my position can perhaps give you?”
Cad smiled back at Doyle, admiring his audacity and unshakable self-confidence. He was disarmed and entirely at Cad’s mercy, yet the tycoon still believed he had a superior hand. Cad Rikkard, a mere mercenary, must want something that the great Damien Doyle possessed. Cad wanted to take the tablet computer and force it down Doyle’s throat, but he still needed to pander to his ego to get what he wanted.
“Chasing Shelby Rand around the galaxy for you cost me one of my crew,” said Cad, fighting to suppress the anger that surfaced as he was reminded of Draga’s death. “You cannot give her back to me, so I am done with your little quest.” Doyle looked ready to interrupt, but Cad pointed the barrel of the SMG skyward, as if raising a finger to shush the man. Doyle took the hint and remained silent. “However, if all the bridges collapse, then I’m out of a job. So, as much as it pains me to admit it, you are no good to me dead. I need you to fix this mess. You’re just going to have to find someone else to do your dirty work for you.”
Doyle’s scowl was now so intense, it was almost giving Cad a headache just to look at the magnate’s face.
“You want insurance that I won’t try to kill you or tarnish your name, is that it?” asked Doyle.
Cad nodded, though from the way Doyle had asked the question, he knew the man had bought into his story. It suited Doyle’s ego to believe that Cad was just a lowlife scoundrel, reneging on a deal. Doyle then activated the computer, unlocked it with hand, voice, and iris-print identification, and held it out to Cad.
“There, now you have everything you need to safeguard your reputation, such as it is,” sneered Doyle, “I trust that this concludes our business?”
As Doyle said this, the personal protection bot sparked back into life, causing the magnate to jolt backwards. Alexis closed the thick metal panel on the back of its head and stepped away, smiling at Cad.
Once the multi-trillionaire had overcome the shock of the machine’s sudden reactivation, Doyle did what Cad expected, and immediately defaulted on the agreement they’d made seconds earlier. The tycoon dove behind his giant sofa, shouting, “Kill them! Kill them both!”
However, the bot did not respond to Doyle’s command, and instead turned its faceless cranium toward Cad. Doyle peeked out from behind the sofa and barked the command again, but still the bot ignored him.
“I’m afraid your mechanical servant has a new master,” said Cad, handing the SMG to Alexis.
The bot marched toward Doyle, picking up the sofa and tossing it aside like it weighed nothing. It then grabbed Doyle by the throat and lifted him off the ground, leaving his feet dangling several inches above the terrace floor. Cad moved alongside the bot as it marched the choking and spluttering body of Doyle to the edge of the terrace. The magnate struggled in vain to release the bot’s hold on him, but his strength was quickly beginning to ebb. With its free hand, the bot then smashed through the protective wall of glass that surrounded the terrace area. Cold air whistled through the opening.
Damien Doyle’s flailing legs and feet drew Cad’s attention to the magnate’s one-of-a-kind animal-skin shoes, fashioned from a now-extinct creature. He remembered how he once coveted them, as a symbol of Doyle’s unique high status. However, his feelings had changed. He had beaten the mighty leader of the Consortium and proved himself superior. Now there was only one thing he wanted to take from Damien Doyle. His life.
“If it helps you to rest easier, I will still find and kill Rand and her band of renegades,” Cad said, staring up into Doyle’s frantic, fading eyes. “In a way, this is a mercy,” Cad added, feeling invigorated by the cold air rushing past his face. “Now you won’t to live to see your empire crumble to dust.”
Doyle let out a muffled cry, like the frightened screech of a strangled cat. Cad then nodded at the faceless cranial unit of the bot, and the machine tossed Doyle through the opening, sending him sailing out into the night sky. Cad heard the magnate’s cries quickly fade to nothing as the galaxy’s richest and most powerful man plummeted over a kilometer and a half to his death.
“Did you know that it will take a little over thirty seconds for him to hit the ground from this height?” said Alexis, draping herself over Cad’s shoulder. “I wonder what’ll be running through his mind during those final, fleeting moments?”
Cad turned to her and smiled. “He’ll probably be wondering where you stashed that hacking device,” he said, looking Alexis over, but still not seeing it.
Alexis then unzipped her shirt to the navel and plucked the device out from her cleavage before wafting it under Cad’s nose. “No one would find it here. Not without losing a hand anyway…”
Cad grunted and smiled. “That would have been the first place I looked.”
“Promises, promises,” replied Alexis, zipping her shirt up again.
Cad then quickly scanned through the contents of the tablet computer, discovering that he had full access to everything he needed. There was all of the live and historical intelligence on Dr. Shelby Rand, Cad Rikkard’s own personal file, which he promptly deleted, all of Doyle’s numerous accounts, and even Doyle’s personal access codes to the Centrum. It was like a skeleton key that unlocked the entire galaxy. Cad tapped his watch and began transferring the data to his ship, conscious that his access to Doyle’s databases would likely not last for long. He was then interrupted by the squawk of Sergeant Miller’s comm system.
“One of the sergeant’s squad is trying to contact him,” said Alexis, holding Miller’s earpiece beside her own ear. “They’ll come looking for him soon.”
Cad peered down at the enforcer’s body, then noticed that the CSF commander they’d taken hostage from Tellus was slowly coming around. Cad had assumed the bot’s strike had killed her. He knelt beside the sergeant and stripped the man’s tactical vest from his body, along with his sidearm. He handed the vest and the SMG he taken earlier to Alexis and stuffed the sidearm down the back of his pants.
“You need this just as much as I do,” said Alexis, holding up the vest, eyebrows raised.
“I’ll be fine. My heart is made of stone, remember?” said Cad, though Alexis continued to glower at him. “Don’t give me a hard time and just put it on. We still have the rest of the enforcer squad to deal with,” Cad added more forcefully. He wouldn’t normally have insisted. Alexis could take care of herself. However, he didn’t want to take unnecessary risks, and he also couldn’t face the prospect of losing Alexis now. Not after their victory over Doyle had brought them a step closer to defeating the Darkspace Renegades.
Alexis sighed and donned the armored vest without further complaint. “Your heart may be stone, but your head is full of cotton wool,” she hit back. “Just stay close to Metal Mickey over there, and let it do the work.”
“I know the plan, Alexis,” said Cad, straightening up and grabbing the pistol out of his waistband. “After all, it was my plan.”
The personal protection bot then moved up beside Cad, its heavy feet thudding into the terrace and cracking the tiles.
“What do we do with these two?” said Alexis, gesturing to the pair of semi-conscious bodies.
“I think a couple more test flights are in order,” said Cad, nodding to the protection bot. The machine plucked Sergeant Miller off the deck and hurled him over the top of the glass barrier, like it was tossing a caber. It then advanced on the CSF commander, who begged and pleaded with it to stop. However, her cries fell on deaf electronic ears, and she too was launched over the barrier, fifteen hundred meters above New York City.
19
Cad and Alexis followed Damien Doyle’s former personal protection bot
into the hall outside the now deceased magnate’s opulent penthouse suite. As instructed, the combat machine was marching steadily toward the staircase leading to the roof level, with Cad and Alexis moving stealthily in its shadow. Two Crimson Lynx enforcers were heading in the opposite direction, urgently calling for Sergeant Miller over their comms system, unaware that their commander was now just a splat on the pavement. The two enforcers stopped dead as they saw the bot advancing toward them, and raised their weapons.
“Hey, hold it there!” one of the two enforcers yelled, but the machine ignored the command and continued on course for the stairwell. “Crap, the thing has a screw loose. Shoot it,” the enforcer added, nudging his comrade. However, before either enforcer could get a shot off, Alexis moved out from behind the machine’s enormous frame and opened fire. Both enforcers dropped to the floor, each shot cleanly in the head.
“That should get their attention,” said Cad, rushing ahead with his pistol raised to recover one of the fallen SMGs. He was met with the thud of heavy bootsteps reverberating down the stairwell, and he cursed. He hadn’t expected the other Crimson Lynx Enforcers to respond quite so swiftly. Cad opened fire into the stairwell, forcing the two advancing enforcers to retreat, barking updates into their comms systems as they did so. He tossed the pistol, grabbed the closest SMG, and sprinted back to the bot. Gunfire crackled behind him and bullets skipped off the marble floor inches from Cad’s feet. He pulled in behind the protective shield of the machine, somehow managing to escape being shot. “Go!” Cad yelled, thumping the bot on the back. “Go! Take them down!”
The bot raced ahead, switching from its plodding, robotic-looking march to an agile sprint that took the two Crimson Lynx Enforcers completely by surprise. The machine ploughed into the enforcers as they unloaded their rifles into its metal body. Grabbing both by the throat, the bot then drove them into the far wall. There was a nauseating, organic crack as the men’s necks snapped from the impact. The bot let the broken bodies of the enforcers drop, then charged up the stairwell to face down the rest of the squad.