Your Truth is Out There (Find Your Truth Book 1) (40 page)

Henry’s observations were interrupted by the confrontation taking place just a few yards in front of him. Ricnor was there, holding Janice Alcorn tightly around the chest with one arm, and a spike to her throat with another. He’d seen Ricnor and that spike on the vidcon, but the screen had not done either of them justice. Henry had never seen anything more terrifying in his life.

Ricnor wasn’t the only one doing the threatening. Alcorn, Theo, Gsefx, and Lhvunsa had their annihilators trained on Ricnor’s head. It was a standoff and Janny’s life depended on who blinked first. If Alcorn hadn’t prepared them for what he was planning, Henry would most certainly have thought that the General had lost his mind. As it was, he still wasn’t certain.

Henry looked back at Ricnor and then at Janny for the first time, and immediately took comfort in the look of resolve on her face. If she was scared, she wasn’t giving Ricnor the satisfaction of showing it. Apparently, after being married to the General for all these years, Janice Alcorn was more than a match for anything this scary-looking space bastard could throw at her.

“If you want your wife to die,” said Ricnor, breaking the silence first, “by all means, continue to point those weapons at me. If you care about her, I’d suggest dropping them on the ground. Now!”

“You should know by now that’s simply not going to happen, Ricnor,” said Alcorn, his voice firm, but calm. “Here is what is going to happen, though. We’re going to hold up our end of the bargain. Qilzar and Henry are going to take the paintings out of the cargo hold of our ship and load them into your cargo hold. While they’re doing that, you’re going to hold onto Janny, and we’re going to keep our annihilators pointed straight at your ugly little head.”

Ricnor smiled.

“Is that so?” he said, maintaining eye contact with Alcorn.

“It is,” said Alcorn, matching Ricnor’s eye contact without flinching, “and I swear, if I see even the tiniest hint of a scratch on her neck, I will blow your head into the next galaxy.”

“That would be … inadvisable, General,” said Ricnor. “But enough of this tiresome banter. If Qilzar and, whoever else it was you mentioned, are going to move the paintings, let them get to it.”

“Qilzar! Henry!” said the General. “You heard the man … or whatever the hell he is. Let’s get this over with.”

Qilzar, who was standing right in front of Henry, turned around.

“Shall we?” he said, making no effort to hide his rapidly fraying nerves.

“Lead the way,” said Henry, who felt more numb than anything.

Henry followed as Qilzar led him to the cargo bay’s outer access panel. Qilzar opened it and began handing Henry’s own paintings to him. It took them three trips each to transfer the paintings, and thoughts of Lucy kept returning to Henry’s mind. What was it about her that he couldn’t shake?

Henry looked at the last painting Qilzar handed him and saw that it was the one he’d called ‘Sunset Over An Empty Life.’ He’d given it to Gsefx the day he’d landed on Earth, the day he’d almost killed himself, and probably would have if Gsefx hadn’t literally crashed his party. So much had happened since then that the events of that day no longer seemed real. None of this seemed real. As he looked at the canvas in his hands, the one thing he knew for certain was that he wasn’t the same person who painted this painting.

“Henry, what’s wrong with you?” asked Qilzar. “Come on, let’s go.”

Henry looked up at Qilzar, who was clearly terrified.

“What seems to be the hold up?” asked Ricnor. “You aren’t trying to pull a fast one, are you, Qilzar, my old friend?”

“No!” said Qilzar, his voice wavering nervously. “No, of course not. It seems our artist friend here is having a hard time letting go of one of his works. But, all is well. We’re bringing the last of the paintings over now.”

“That’s good,” said Ricnor. “Everything has gone well this far, I’d hate for things to turn badly for you now.”

“Henry, come on!” growled Qilzar.

Henry nodded and began walking behind Qilzar toward Ricnor’s ship. As he walked, Henry looked at the painting again, then looked over at the blue-skinned alien who had befriended him when he had no one else. Gsefx had understood him when no one else did. Then he turned to Alcorn, the overbearing and intimidating General, who turned out to be the most fair-minded and honest man Henry had ever met. He then looked at Theo, Lhvunsa, and Qilzar, and it suddenly made sense. Henry knew why Lucy kept popping up in his thoughts. He also knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath to steel his nerves, turned, and walked directly toward Ricnor.

He stopped just out of arms reach of the galaxy’s most wanted criminal.

“No,” he said in a voice that was neither loud nor soft, but was strong with a confidence Henry had never felt before. “You can have all of the other paintings, but not this one. This one is non-negotiable.”

Ricnor smiled, being sure to show all of his razor sharp teeth, but never breaking his eye contact with the General.

“Ahhh, the painter,” said Ricnor, his voice sickly sweet with condescension. “You clearly don’t understand the first thing about negotiating. When someone like me has a spike to the throat of someone like her, everything is negotiable. Now, be a good little boy and put the painting on my ship, or the General may just shoot you before I have the pleasure of doing you in myself.”

Henry held fast. He’d been ready to kill himself over much less not that long ago. Now, he was ready to die and even risk the life of another over much more.

“You know, Ricnor,” he said, never taking his eyes off his adversary, “for someone who used to be known as the most notorious criminal in the galaxy, you’re not very bright, are you? I mean, you tell me that I don’t understand anything about negotiating with someone like you, and perhaps there is some truth to that. But what is clear to me is that you don’t have the slightest idea who you’re dealing with. Have you even looked at your captive—I mean really looked into her eyes? I don’t think you have, because if you had, you’d have realized she lacks the one thing you need, the one thing you depend on for your very survival.”

“And what is that, painter?” snarled Ricnor.

“Fear,” said Henry. “Look at her, Ricnor. She’s not afraid of you.”

Ricnor flinched at that. It was slight, almost imperceptible, but it was there and Henry saw it. He took the opportunity to push harder.

“That’s right,” he said, “for all the shiny, sharp, and scary objects you carry around with you, designed to inspire fear in your victims, this woman, this primitive Earth creature, isn’t scared of you. And neither are the rest of us.”

“I’m not sure what your game is, painter,” said Ricnor, trying to maintain his facade of confidence, “but I grow weary of it. General, tell this creature to put the painting on my ship or I will end her life in a most unpleasant way, regardless of whether or not she is scared of me.”

“I don’t think so,” said Alcorn. “Henry is leading our negotiations now. He speaks for me. He speaks for all of us.”

“You’re making a deadly mistake, General,” said Ricnor.

“No, he’s not,” said Henry, noticing the sweat now trickling down the side of Ricnor’s face. “As the good General pointed out earlier, at the first sign of a scratch on his wife’s neck, he will kill you. You may succeed in killing her, but you will die as well, and how will you profit from that? You’re much better off taking what you have now and leaving for good. There are thirty paintings on board your ship, which, judging from your desire to have them, ought to be more than enough to compensate you for your troubles. Simply leave now and everyone wins.”

Ricnor smiled, baring all of his teeth once again, but it was a smile that lacked the swagger it once carried.

“Perhaps you’re a better negotiator than I gave you credit for, painter. But it won’t work. We had a deal and you will hold up your end, or she will die. Even if it means I die with her.”

Ricnor broke his visual connection with Alcorn to look at Henry.

“You say she’s not scared to die, well neither am I. It’s not about the money, painter, it’s about winning.”

In that instant, Henry knew the truth, not just that Ricnor was lying about being scared, he was, in fact, terrified, but he knew his own truth as well; about Lucy, about his art, and about himself. It felt good. It felt right.

“Good,” he said. “I’m glad to hear you’re not scared. It will make your transition from this life into the next that much easier.”

Henry briefly caught the look of confusion on Ricnor’s face as he turned his back on the criminal and walked away. He didn’t flinch when he heard the sound of Alcorn’s annihilator fire once, nor did he slow when he heard Ricnor’s body hit the ground just milliseconds later. Though he longed to turn and watch when he heard the joyful sounds of the Alcorn family reunion, Henry Backus kept walking until he was face-to-face with his best friend in the entire galaxy.

“I think this belongs to you,” he said as he handed the painting to Gsefx. “Try to hang on to it a little better this time, will ya?”

“By the Gods, Henry,” said Gsefx, taking the painting and immediately setting it down on the ground in order to embrace his friend. “You scared us nearly out of our minds. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that, as the artist, I have the option of changing the title of my work, right?” said Henry, pointing to the painting. “Instead of ‘Sunset Over an Empty Life’ I’d like to call it ‘Dawn of Endless Beginnings.’”

Gsefx smiled. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant, but yes, I like that title much better.”

Henry smiled back at his friend.

“When Qilzar handed me that painting,” he said, “I looked at it and then I looked at all of you, and realized the sacrifices all of you were willing to make for each other, including me. I remembered back to the day you and I met and I gave you that painting. I’m not the same person I was then, and it’s because of you. It’s because of all of you.”

By now the others had gathered around and were listening.

“When things ended with Lucy, I was a mess. I was totally lost. When Gsefx landed on Earth the first time, I was within seconds of ending my own life. I look back on that time and I don’t even know that person anymore. I have all of you to thank for that. General Alcorn, I’ve been hounding you to ‘find your truth’ yet I didn’t even know my own.”

“And what is your truth, Henry?” asked Alcorn, one arm around his wife, the other around his son, and an ear-to-ear grin on his face.

“Well, for one thing, I need to make things right with Lucy … not that we’re getting back together, but to fix the way we left things; give it proper closure. She deserves that much. When I get back …”

“Gsefx! Lhvunsa!” Qilzar was shouting from over near Ricnor’s hold. Apparently he hadn’t come over with the others. “Come here, everyone! Come quickly! You need to see this.”

“This was lodged in between two of Henry’s paintings,” said the Dremin quietly, as they all gathered around to see what he’d found. Henry saw that he was holding up a small gray box. “It’s addressed to Gsefx.”

“What is it?” Asked Henry.

“It’s a message box,” said Gsefx, taking it from Qilzar. He pushed a button on the top and set it on the ground. “Let’s see who wants to talk to me.”

Light began streaming up from the box until it formed into the shape of a being so life-like, if Henry hadn’t watched it spring from the box with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have been able to tell it wasn’t real.

“Congratulations, my friends,” said the being, looking around at them, with eyes that seemed to actually see them. “Defeating Ricnor was no easy task, but I had every confidence you would succeed.”

“Who the hell is this?” Asked Alcorn, echoing Henry’s thoughts.

“You’re probably wondering who I am,” said the being, as if in response to Alcorn’s question. “For lack of any better explanation, call me Gruleg for now. And, in answer to your next question, I’ve been watching you for some time and believed you had at least a reasonable chance of beating him. If you had failed, I would have simply killed Ricnor myself, and wrote you off as not being worth my time.”

Gruleg smiled a wicked smile.

“Can you pause that thing?” Asked Alcorn.

Gsefx bent down and pressed a button on the box. Gruleg’s image froze.

“What are you thinking, General?”

“I recognize him from somewhere,” said Alcorn. “Theo, did we …”

“He works, or worked for Ricnor,” said Lhvunsa, interrupting the General. “He’s the one who helped Ricnor get away. I remember seeing him after he broke through the wall in that scout ship … as Ricnor was getting in.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Alcorn, clearly trying to piece something together in his mind. “Why would he help Ricnor escape, only for us to kill him later? We could have killed or had him arrested right then. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe he didn’t want to see him arrested,” said Lhvunsa. “Maybe he wanted to make sure we killed Ricnor.”

“Perhaps we should play the rest of the message and see if we can find out,” said Gsefx. He pressed the button on the box and Gruleg began again.

“But since you did beat Ricnor,” said Gruleg’s image, continuing on, as if it had never been paused, “it shows me you are capable of so much—even more than you realize. Gsefx, for example, you are far more than the simple accountant you once thought you were, as I’m sure you’ve come to realize by now. And my friends from Earth, a world virtually unknown, filled with beings like Henry and the Alcorns, with natural talents and abilities that are only just beginning to be revealed. I have a feeling this planet, this Earth, might be worth further investigation. A time will soon come when I will need each of you and your abilities, but not just yet.”

Gruleg paused and looked around, eerily meeting each one of them eye-to-eye. Henry felt a surge of something when Gruleg’s eyes met his. It felt like amusement.

“In the meantime, it’s important for you to know that I’ll be watching,” said Gruleg, his gaze fixed on Henry.

The image disappeared.

“He’s here,” said Henry, looking around. “He’s somewhere close by, I can feel him.”