"If my memory serve me well, we need be going down dis corridor 'bout a hundred metres," Jimmy told them as they got out of the lift.
***
By now Trillo wasn't the only one who had noticed the missing guards and other guards went looking for them. Trillo himself was making his way out of the building to get to the hanger as our heroes were gathering up their belongings.
Pray for Rain
Part 1
The Casinos of Haffir
CHAPTER 1
"This has to be your worst idea yet," Rainsford Tsyrker shouted into her comms.
"Worse than Tornin?" Stephen Regrette asked.
"It's OK for you, you're not out here."
The 'out here' she referred to was crawling along the roof of the high speed train between the cities of Rachain and Faloo. It hovered over a rail that was held high above the ground by boosters and she could only be thankful that the entrance hatch was on the roof and not between the train and the rail. She was on the roof of the cargo carriage and though she was close to the loading hatch the wind was making it hard to get anywhere.
She unlocked one of her grip magnets and pushed it forward before locking it again. Then she did the same with the other hand. How had she gotten this job? Grant was in the train somewhere comfortably while Regrette was in high altitude ready to swoop in once the package was secured.
It was her own fault, back on Lancow II, the last job they'd done, she'd poked fun at them for nearly failing because they weren't fit enough to cope. They hadn't said that, but she knew that was why it was her stuck on the roof. Though to be fair, she smiled to herself, either of them would have been sucked under the train by now.
"I'm at the hatch," she said.
"Nicely done," Ben Grant replied.
"How're the cocktails?"
"A little sweet for my liking, but I'm surviving."
"Poor you."
"I know, but taking one for the team."
He sounded smug, she knew he was baiting her and she wouldn't let him.
"How's it look in there?"
"Hard to get too close, but the guards seem bored, but alert."
"OK, well attaching the breaker now. Gulch?"
"I've got the signal," Gulch said from the ship. "Breaking the alarm now."
The breaker made a helpful ping and a little light went from red to green.
"Now for the lock," Gulch said as the light went back to red.
The hatch was big, used for cranes to lower large cargo in and she was going to have to use the slipstream from the train's velocity to fling it open. That would alert the guards and then they had a very small window of opportunity to grab and escape.
"Ahh," said Regrette.
"Ahh, what?" Tsyrker said angrily as she was trying to manoeuvre into position.
"Readings on the long range scan. Moving in fast."
"Company?" Grant asked
"Looks like Durden Raiders."
"Shabbus. Come to steal what we're stealing," Grant swore.
"We're not stealing it," Rainsford reminded him.
"Retrieving didn't have the same ring to it."
"Either way, you need to move," Regrette urged.
"Gulch?"
"There, lock is open."
Rainsford had left one of her grip magnets down by her leg and held onto the other as she pulled a crowbar from her suit and pried open the hatch. She let go of the grip and skidded back before grabbing the other, just far enough away not to get smashed by the hatch as the wind got under and yanked it open. She then threw herself forward, grabbing the closer grip and swung herself inside.
***
As she was doing this Ben Grant was sauntering up to the guards at the door to the cargo carriage. They were bored enough not to notice him until he got nice and close.
"Stop there."
"About that," he said when there was a loud crash from the roof of the cargo carriage.
The two guards pulled guns and as they did so Grant fired an electrode at each. Hitting them in the neck it sent through enough electricity to knock them out.
He ran up and attached a breaker.
"Gulch?"
"Easy this one," Gulch replied and then the breaker beeped and the light went green.
Grant pulled open the door to find Rainsford already in.
"Where?" she shouted over the din of the wind.
He looked around.
"There."
He turned around as she went for the case.
"Trouble coming," he shouted.
Guards were coming down the train. Heavily armed guards.
"Get us out of here," Rainsford shouted.
"Here we come."
Above them their ship, The Wraith, dropped through the sky and thrust forward until it was keeping track of the train. A rope with harnesses fell through the open hatch and they both strapped in.
"Up," Grant commanded as the guards closed in.
The rope retracted and they were pulled through the hatch. As they did so Tsyrker dropped a smoke grenade through.
"Definitely Raiders," Grant said and she looked behind her.
There was one larger ship with three fighters and they were closing fast.
"How'd they know?" she asked.
"Let's worry about that later, shall we? Can you hurry this up a bit?"
"The winch winches as the winch winches," Gulch philosophised.
"Nice," Grant replied.
"Worse than Tornin," Rainsford said to herself.
She swung around and managed to pull her machinegun off of her back as the Raider ships got ever closer.
"You'll make us a target," Grant shouted over the wind.
"You don't think we already are?" she shouted back.
"What? Little old innocent us?"
Rainsford humphed and tried to get aim on one of the fighters. She opened fire just before their ship did and the Durden Raiders split up to avoid the laser fire.
Grant looked down to see guards in the now smoke free cargo carriage aiming up at them. He pulled Tsyrker's pistol and fired down at them. He tried his best not to actually hit them as they swung wildly on the rope.
One of the fighters was coming around behind them and Grant twisted his body so that they swung around on the rope and Rainsford blasted at it. Not that her laser fire would dent the ship's hull, but they couldn't just dangle there. It would look unprofessional and a little lazy.
The ship peeled off as it got blasted by Regrette from The Wraith, but that left the larger ship to try and swoop in.
"4 o'clock," Grant shouted and watched as Regrette re-aimed.
They were finally reaching the ship as the Durden ship tried again to get close enough to snatch them off of the rope. Or at least the case they had taken from the train. A door was opening in the Durden ship as Regrette focussed his firepower on the two fighters. Rainsford could see a man with a long range rifle in the doorway and she sprayed at him with her laser. The man ducked inside and then reappeared, but it was too late, they were finally being taken up into The Wraith.
"We're in, let's go," Grant shouted as they stripped off the harnesses.
The hatch slid shut below them and they ran to the bridge.
"Take the guns," Regrette ordered as they entered.
He was vacating the gunner's chair and taking the helm. Rainsford took the gunner's chair and pulled down the screen. From here she could control all the guns, front, roof and hull, using a joystick on each of the chair arms. There was a second gunner's chair to make the whole thing a lot easier, but she could cope on her own using a three-way split screen.
The ship pulled up and away and she spun the hull guns to blast at the larger Durden ship as it wheeled around to give chase.
"Be ready for more in space," Grant warned.
"Long range scanners aren't picking anything up," Gulch said from the navigator's seat.
Gulch was a Petruthsian, a race of large slug-like creatures who could raise up on their stu
bby tails to use a number of tentacles.
"Probably keeping back for exactly that reason. Didn't want to tip their hand," Grant said leaning over to look at the scanner.
"Well, game's up now, they'll be moving in."
"Not just them," Regrette said. "InterG ships inbound."
"Great," Grant sighed. "Don't shoot them."
"What am I, a criminal?" Tsyrker shot back.
"They seem to think so," Grant shrugged and walked out of the bridge.
The Wraith shot through the atmosphere and into space. The Durden Raider ships followed with the InterGalactic Police ships behind them. Neither were giving up the chase.
"What's so damned important about this thing?" Regrette said angrily.
"One of the Stones of Tampala," Gulch said. "Very rare, very expensive. Stolen from our client. Very interesting, the Stones, go way back in the mythology of the Kadinar people. You see?"
"Mssh, time and place, Gulch," Regrette said tersely as he jinked the ship left to dodge laser fire. "Coordinates plotted?."
"Right, yes, well, another time perhaps. Plotting now."
"Look forward to it," Regrette ironicalised as he dodged more laser fire from the Durdens. "Can't you do something about them?"
"Surprisingly, they're being evasive," Rainsford sarcasticised.
The arrival of the InterG was to her advantage though. The larger Durden ship had held back as the faster fighters dived in and out trying to cripple The Wraith. With the InterG ships coming up behind them, the Durden ship was forced closer and the fighters were forced to hang back and protect it from front and rear. She got a good shot at the Durden ship as it dodged fire from the InterG.
"Here we are. Durden cruiser on the long range, closing in," Gulch said.
"They won't get involved, just rescue their ships from this mess," Regrette said.
"Agreed," agreed Gulch.
"We still here?" Grant asked from the door.
"Just about to leave," Regrette said spinning left to avoid laser fire. "Coordinates?"
"In," Gulch told him.
"Then let's get out of here," he said and hit the lightspeed boosters.
***
They slowed down in the black void of deep space. Except it wasn't completely void. There was a ship there. Much larger than The Wraith which came and docked in it's hanger.
"Not using the secret hanger?" Grant asked.
"I'm not sticking around," Regrette replied.
"Busy busy."
"I actually think I need a holiday; I only get shot at when I work with you."
"Hey, now, that's because you hide in the shadows normally," Grant said.
"Use, not hide. We've been through this," Regrette chided. "Sort of the point about assassinations, y'know?"
"What about you, Rain?" Grant asked.
"I also don't get shot at. Unless I'm with you," she added as they walked down the ramp.
"What about my money?" Regrette asked.
"I've made contact, you'll have it in a few days."
"Good," Regrette nodded to himself and then turned and walked back up the ramp and into his ship.
It took off as they reached the end of the hanger bay.
"Doesn't it bother you?" Rainsford asked.
"What?"
"What he does."
"You thinking calling it Naval Special Forces is better?"
"Yes," she replied angrily. "I work to protect the UTN and it's people."
"Different packaging, same product," Grant shrugged.
"Oh, get off your high horse, Ben."
She strode off.
"You're mouth moves faster than your brain, Ben," Gulch said.
"Yeah," Grant sighed and ran a hand through his short mop of curls. "Valkswagon."
"I'll get us moving, go and apologise before making contact. I do think we should return the package before it kills us," Gulch said and slithered off.
The Book of Five Worlds
Book I
The Foreshadow of Balance
CHAPTER I
It was a horrible day, not because it was cold, but because Brandon had taken his money again. He still had his secret money so that was OK, but Brandon hadn't left it there. He had been teased through English for answering too many questions and then they had ruined his science experiment and he had been sent out by the teacher. By the time he came home he was miserable and went straight out into the garden. His Dad had some big talk coming up and was still busy in his study and that suited Dylan just fine. The evening was cold; his Dad had taught him that heat goes up from the ground and gets trapped by clouds keeping it warm when the Sun goes down. But there were no clouds this evening and it was still light outside though not for much longer.
He was playing with his plastic knights plus an evil wizard and a big stuffed toy dragon. He had gone through the portal in the shed and the red dragon was a lot bigger than him and his fellow knight and there was no way they were going to beat it unless they could convince the evil wizard to help.
He looked again at the shed; he hated school and studying and those stupid bullies. They thought he was stupid, but he wasn't, he was smart and they didn't like him for that. He wished he really could go through a portal; he wished he could find the magic on Earth and use it to go away. Take him and his Dad somewhere, bring his Mum back.
But she couldn't come back, not even with magic. He didn't really understand it, but his Dad said she had gone to a better place. If he could learn magic, maybe he could take him and his Dad to that better place to be with Mum.
And then the shed door exploded out and a great big grey pig ran out into the garden squealing, steam coming out of its nose, its snout, in great clouds and then it stopped suddenly. It looked left and then right and then straight at Dylan. He wanted to scream, but nothing would come out and then a huge man ran out of the shed.
He wore thick fur instead of a coat and Dylan could only think that he looked dirty. The man stopped just like the pig and looked around. He looked at Dylan and moved towards him and then stopped and looked at the pig which was looking between them. They both looked surprised.
And then Dylan screamed for his Dad.
The pig turned in a circle looking for somewhere to run, and the man moved again toward Dylan, who could now see he had long thick hair and a beard to match with some kind of dirty green trousers on and a metal shirt under the big fur coat thing. And on his back a big two bladed battle axe.
"Dad! Help!"
And then Dylan's Dad ran into the garden with a cricket bat in his hand and stopped as suddenly as the pig and the man had.
"Who are you?" Dad demanded.
"How do we go?" the man asked back in a deep voice.
"Get out of my garden now."
"Your garden?"
"Get out now or I'll use this," he held up the bat, but the man unslung the axe.
"And then I would have to use this. But I don't want to," at the sight of the axe the pig finally made up its mind and ran back to the shed and disappeared inside.
"Now I've lost my dinner," the man said and seemed sad.
"Sorry," said Dylan.
"It wasn't your fault, I should have grabbed it. But where am I?"
"I'm going to call the police now," Dylan's Dad said.
"The what?"
"What's wrong?" Dylan asked the man.
"Dylan, come here," his Dad said. "This man has been drinking."
Dylan understood this. When you drink something called booze you got funny in the head and did stupid things. Sometimes Dad drank booze and got sad about Mum and cried. He didn't like that.
"I haven't had a drop all day," the big man argued. "I wish I had some now for this is greatly vexing."
"Dad has some booze."
"Dylan, stop talking and come here," and Dylan walked past the man, as far away as he could, and Dad relaxed a little when he was next to him. "OK, put the axe away, man."
"Once you put down your? what is this strange we
apon you carry?"
"It's a cricket bat, it's for a game," Dylan told him because the man didn't seem dangerous, just confused.
And then the man threw back his head and laughed.
"You threaten me with a bat from a game?" and he laughed again and Dad lowered the bat.
"Where did you come from?" he asked.
"From the shed," Dylan answered.
"The shed?" the man asked. "No, I come from the forest town of Capel in Collyshire."
"Right," Dylan's Dad said.
"And where am I now? Is this Shed?"
"No, that's the shed," Dylan said and pointed. The man looked at it and then slowly looked back at them.
"What world am I on?" he asked slowly.
"That's enough," Dad started.
"What world am I on?" the man asked more angrily.
"Earth," Dylan said and the man seemed to go white through the dirt and suntan.
"No."
"Yes."
"The Fifth World."
"What did you say?" Dad asked.
"The Fifth World."
"You better come inside."
"What's going on Dad?"
"What's your name?" he asked the man, but he didn't answer, just looked around. "What's your name?"
"What? Lucas."
"You better come inside, Lucas, we need that booze."
{+}
They sat in the study, it wasn't very big and it was stuffed with books, a desk and two comfy chairs. It seemed even smaller with Lucas in there. He stood and just looked around while Dad poured him a glass of something which he took in his big hands. Everything seemed small compared to Lucas, Dylan thought.
"Sit down, Lucas, let me find something," Dad said and started looking through his books. Lucas took off his axe and squeezed into a chair and Dylan stood next to him.
"Why do you need such a big axe?"
He looked down at Dylan. "I don't if I think about it, I just like it."
"Do you kill people?"
"Sometimes, if needs must."
"Right, here it is," Dylan's Dad said holding a big old book.
"What is this?"
"It's a collection; most people thought the writer was an idiot. He put together all the ancient references to the Five Worlds. Look," he flipped open a few pages and showed them to Lucas while Dylan craned to see.
"This can't be true," Lucas shook his head.
"But it is, isn't it? You come from a different world."
"No, this is some magic cast upon me," Lucas shouted and stood up. Dylan staggered backwards and trod on the remote control switching the TV on to the news.
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