Charlie hesitated again. He knew the answer but he was loath to admit his people were capable of such callousness.
“Cole was overloaded to stop him from being able to talk to us. And he was in better shape. Probably why he was chosen to hunt rather than to guard like these. And we saw how fast Abshrd killed him when it suited his purpose.”
Terry thought for a moment then blurted out,
“What about these guys? Is he boosting them up the same way?”
Decker, still privy to the conversation, said, “Sure looks like it to me!”
Charlie agreed.
“You are correct, Mr. Decker. That is why they all seem to be in distress. Their systems are on overload.”
Not hard to figure out why. The way Terry saw it, Abshrd wanted them all caught before they could get away and bring others. Maybe he still even had designs on Mir, Charlie and him. In any case, he definitely wanted them caught. And from the look of things, he had no problem killing all his charges to do it.
The two men closed quickly.
Decker fired one round into the wall over their heads as a warning, but it fell on deaf ears. Either they didn’t care about their own safety or they were too far under Abshrd’s control for it to matter as neither of the pair even broke stride.
Still enhanced, Terry leaped between the two, dangerously turning his back on their first attacker, trusting Decker to deal with her. There was no need to worry. As soon as she finally made it to her feet, the woman grabbed her head and pitched forward, convulsing even before she hit the floor. A second and third tremor swept through her ample frame, then she was still.
Neither Terry nor Decker needed Charlie to tell them she was dead. A death rattle from deep inside her accompanied the final twitch. A trickle of blood slid out of her nose and ear, giving grim note of the terrible things that had happened inside her skull.
Terry felt a sudden rush of fresh adrenalin, this one powered by a sudden rush of his own anger at Abshrd for so cruelly misusing these people, at the people themselves for allowing it, even at himself for not being able to stop it. It was almost too much for him, and he attacked the two men savagely. As he landed between the pair, he drove a fist into both their midsections hard enough to knock the air out of both men. As soon as both his feet hit the floor, he spun his leg in a sweep that took both men off the ground, dropping the pair of them on the back of their heads.
The crunch was loud enough to make Decker flinch as the pair landed awkwardly on the floor.
Both of them rolled over and jumped back to their feet, still looking for a fight. And both still clutching their swords.
Terry rose from the floor in one quick motion, moving between the two men almost too fast to follow. He feinted forward as the one on the left swung the blade at his legs. The other went for his upper body. Together they figured to take away any avenue of escape. Then, with Terry down, they could concentrate on dealing with the larger Decker at their leisure.
The only problem was that they forget to tell Terry.
Seeing the plan, Terry simply stepped back out of the range of both men’s swings, letting the blades pass harmlessly in front of him. As soon as they did, he grabbed both men by the back of their heads and slammed them, face first, into the corner of the doorjamb. This time, the pair sagged with a more permanent air.
Even as the last man fell, another pair came around the corner, both still in the same staggered gait as the first two. Still roiling with anger, Terry waded into the pair, punching the both of them in their chests so quickly, the blows sounded like a drum roll. With his enhanced sense of time, Terry was outside the realm of the normal. He could see the one he had yet to attack drawing back his sword to slash at him as if in slow motion, while he still moved at normal speed.
Decker moved, but the pain in his arm slowed him enough that by the time he had approached the battle, Terry had turned to the second man and hit him in the face three times.
Decker, instead, decided to turn his attention to the pair that had attacked first. To his horror, the duo was trying to get to their feet to help their comrades. Decker was resigned to the fact that he would more than likely have to kill the pair if they attacked Terry again, since his injury slowed him down to the point of being a hindrance. The swords had fallen off to the side and Decker leaped to kick them away, hoping that the loss of their weapons might convince them that they were fighting a losing battle.
Even as he did, he heard the larger of the two men groan in pain, the other joining in a second later. The sound increased as it became apparent that the men were in obvious and extreme pain. And it was growing worse rapidly. A few seconds later, they were screaming and holding their heads, much like the woman earlier. And like the woman, in seconds, they, too, were dead.
For a moment, Decker stopped to stare at Terry, who stared at the two dead men on the floor. His mouth worked, but he couldn’t find anything to say. Terry was also at a loss for a moment, but only that as he finally said in a very small voice, “Charlie, are they all gonna die like this?”
Before Charlie could say anything, Decker found his voice, even if it, like Terry’s, almost sounded childlike and even tinier, given his size.
“Can we do...I mean, can you do anything for them, Charlie?” His tone held a pleading note. “We can’t just watch ‘em all die like this!”
Charlie said in a voice that held more emotion than Terry thought he had as he answered in an equally adolescent tones,
“Mr. Decker, they are dead already.”
Terry turned to the two he had just dealt with to find them trying to get to their feet, their eyes still glazed as they began to move apart to attack both men. Terry crouched and asked, “Charlie, what if I knock them out?”
Charlie answered, dejection rampant in his voice,
“It makes no difference. Abshrd will simply boost them until they wake up. Or until they can’t. All they are is...”
Charlie suddenly perked up.
“They are a distraction! A ruse! He doesn’t care if they die or if they succeed as long as they hold us up long enough! He plans an escape and he uses them to delay us. Their deaths mean nothing to him!”
Several words that had to be Charlie’s language flitted through Terry’s mind, none understood, but nonetheless, the emotion that rang through them was not easily dismissed.
The two men now circled Terry and Decker. Even without his enhanced senses, it was easy to see that the pair of them were suffering, as sweat poured down their faces and soaked through their clothes. Whatever method Abshrd was using to enhance them was effective but ruthless.
The pair feinted and retreated several times, trying to draw one of the two in. Terry smiled, realizing neither of them knew that, to him, it looked as if they were doing the hokey pokey. Both finally decided the moment was right and charged in.
Decker had had enough. According to Charlie, they were dead anyway. The worst this would be was a mercy killing. He popped off a pair of rounds with unerring accuracy, coring both men’s brains with the rounds and dropping both men almost at the same time.
For a moment, Terry was stunned by the abruptness of Decker’s decision, but he quickly resigned himself to it. He had more important things to worry about.
Charlie had scanned the area as best he could. There were several others under Abshrd’s control closing on their position but none close enough to be an immediate threat. Still, there wasn’t a lot of time.
Decker led them to the door in question.
Terry, meanwhile, had picked up a machete from next to the nearest fallen man. Again, as he walked to the door, he noted the strange feel of it. Charlie also noticed it through his nervous system. He scanned the blade and made another startling discovery.
“This machete has been altered by our technology. The blade has been bonded to a thread of collapsed metal little more than molecular in size. The collapsed metal is incredibly heavy, hence the odd balance of the blade. The advantage to it is that the blade can cut through anything given enough force.”
Terry smiled broadly. “Okay, so let’s test that out.”
The door to the infirmary was designed to keep in, or out, anyone. Heavy oak reinforced with steel rods, as well as a real lock with a deadbolt. Terry could probably boost up enough to smash through it, but with the blade, why bother? A pair of quick slashes and the lock was suddenly no longer connected to the door. A quick kick and the door flew inward. Just as quickly, Terry and Decker were through it.
And just as quickly, both men froze.
The room wasn’t brightly lit, but it was still easy to see the occupants. The two standing there dressed in lab coats and wearing terrified looks, were obviously the ones that worked here. The one that froze them though was on the table behind them.
Even though neither man could see much of her, it was easy for Terry to see it was Traci. She looked to be unconscious, whether from drugs or something worse, he couldn’t tell and Charlie found no evidence to indicate Abshrd was integrated with her in any way. She was clad only in a bra and her trademark panties.
The two men stared at Decker and Terry. Clearly, they were not under the same type of influence as the others under Abshrd’s control.
Even so, Charlie could sense his manipulation of their fields. He guessed theirs was less intrusive, because they needed to be functional on a different level to perform whatever it was Abshrd had them doing. Their enhancements probably leaned toward mental acuity more than physical attributes. Hence, from the look of them, neither would be a problem. This, however, did not stop the smaller of the two from trying.
Terry was in front and still under the influence of Charlie’s manipulations, so he saw it first. The smaller man brought his hand out from behind him, slinging the contents of the beaker he was holding at Terry. In his heightened condition, Terry watched the fluid elongate into an aerial stream, hissing and bubbling as it did. It was easy for him to see it was acid, probably heated almost to boiling to increase its potency. Terry stepped back, crossing his right leg behind his left and spinning to his left. The move was ballerina graceful, but to the other men in the room, it seemed he had vanished and reappeared five feet to the left of where he was.
Both men stood open mouthed at the display. Clearly, they were impressed. Only in this case, that meant that since these men were not working for Abshrd, that impression meant fear.
Taking advantage of their momentary awe, Terry stepped around the stream, after making sure it wasn’t targeting Decker, and slammed his fist into the smaller man’s face. Not used to open physical conflict, or someone as strong as Terry was, he staggered backward, searching for something to use as a weapon. Seeing another beaker, he made a grab for it.
Terry was too fast, though, grabbing his collar and pulling him back to stare directly into his eyes, letting the fear build behind them.
His partner behind him reared up to take advantage of Terry’s distraction while Decker was still out of position. He soon realized that was a mistake as Decker doubled him over with a punch to the stomach. Off balance and in pain from the wound in his arm, it was not a telling blow, but the larger man was not in prime condition and dropped to his knees, huffing like an asthmatic freight train.
Terry shot a glance over his shoulder, took in the scene. Satisfied that Decker had everything under control, he turned his attention back to the trembling man in front of him.
Teeth clenched in rage, he growled, “What are you doing to her?”
The man snapped his eyes over at the unconscious woman then back to the man holding him. He licked his lips as he tried to figure out how to answer the madman in his face.
Finally, he stammered, “S-s-she is being
interpreted
as they call it! Her bio-fields are being interfaced with the computers so they can be duplicated.” After a second, he added quickly, “She is in no pain! Any interference would skew the results, so we take great care to ensure that she feels nothing.”
Terry was anything but satisfied, but he let the matter ride for the moment. “How’d you get her here? How was she knocked out, I mean? I heard something about a nerve agent or something, what about aftereffects?”
The man frowned. This guy was smarter than he would have thought.
Where the hell did he come from?
“It was a curare derivative Abshrd got from the doctor. It was based on some kind of powder Shamans used in her country to subdue people for whatever. He showed us how to make it and told us to use it on her. After the initial paralysis, it fades in a few hours, but we gave her a second dose to make sure she didn’t come to too soon. The last one should wear off in a couple of hours or so.”
Terry was so mad, he didn’t need Charlie to boost him as he switched his grip to the man’s throat, his thumb pressing on his carotid artery, threatening to cut off the flow of blood to his brain. In response to the pressure, the man’s vision wavered. Just before he blacked out, Terry eased up enough to let blood reach his oxygen-starved brain and let his eyes focus.
Once he could see him clearly again, he pulled him closer, hissing, “If anything happens to her, it’s gonna take you a week to die!”
The man had no doubt that he was in the most dire situation he had ever faced. And his actions now could be either his salvation or his demise.
With a small voice, he asked, “What do you want me to do?”
Terry shoved him toward the console in front of Traci. “Wake her up!”
By now, his partner had risen from the floor and grudgingly moved up beside him, eying Decker balefully.
Decker, in turn, trembled some from the effort that had knocked the larger man down, but he stared back with a
just you try it
look that held the larger man in check just by its presence.
As Decker covered both men as they began the process of reviving Traci, Terry asked Charlie, “
Can they hear us?
”
“No. Abshrd must have deadened their receptiveness to allow him privacy for some reason. In any case, they do not seem to be any more capable of hearing us than a normal human would be outside this place.”