DJ's Mission (25 page)

“Showtime.”

Jax drew out one of his guns and placed the other
hand on DJ’s shoulder. With a slight shove, he guided him toward the same
entrance. No one even questioned them as they moved through the outer perimeter
of guards. They hung back several hundred meters from the pirates and Jax did a
great job acting like he knew where he was going. Only once did a guard try and
question them.

“Why?” Jax’s voice took on a cold tone made even
colder by the properties of the helmet. “Do you pay the bounties around here?”

The guard stammered.

“No? Then get out of my way, you piss ant.” Jax
shoved DJ forward and the two continued deeper into the factory. Once they were
out of sight, Jax looked over at his partner and asked, “Too much?”

DJ shrugged. “It seemed to work, so I guess not.”

Turning a corner in the hallway, the bounty
hunters came to a stop when they saw the bow of the Horus right in front of
them. It was impressive. Wrenching their eyes from the massive dreadnaught,
that they were in fact on a balcony overlooking the shipyard and that they
weren’t alone.

DJ smiled when they spied the lone occupant. An
SIS officer had obviously snuck out here to catch a quick smoke break. DJ
signaled the ex-pirate turned bounty hunter.

Jax called up the electroshock emitter on the Red
Falcon helmet HUD, pointed his gauntlet and fired. A fair sized lightning bolt
shot out of his raised gauntlet to strike the unsuspecting SIS officer.

“Wow! That was cool!”

DJ grinned as he slipped off the fake handcuffs.
“Yes, it is.”

“This armor is amazing.”

“Yes it is but if you like this, you should see
Iaido’s ARC armor.”

“Iaido? As in Iaido Spartan?”

DJ nodded.

“I remember him. He rescued me on from that awful
mine on Mercury.”

“You were pretty out of it when we pulled you out,
I didn’t think you remembered that.”

“You were there?”

DJ nodded. “Yep, but I was wearing my HAVOC
armor.”

“The big guy in the back with the Gatling gun, I
remember you. Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Didn’t seem relevant.”

Jax shrugged. “True but now, I owe you double.”

“Nope. After this, for better or worse, we’re
even.”

They stopped talking as DJ stripped the SIS
officer down to his skivvies and donned the liberated uniform. He took a deep
breath in order to fully zip it up. “It’s a bit snug but it’ll work.”

Jax grinned. “No offense but this idiot wasn’t
anywhere near your size. I’m amazed it even fit you.”

“No kidding.” DJ grabbed the fallen cigar and took
a drag on it. “Holy shit.”

“What?”

“If I didn’t know better, I would say that this is
an actual Cuban.”

Jax whistled. “Damn. Those are rare even on the
Black Market. Trust me, I know. I would get a box every six months or so and it
would cost me a small fortune.”

DJ checked the magazine on the liberated pistol.
It was a Ŝkorpion Vz99, a small semi-automatic gauss pistol that used
electromagnetic coils to accelerate a magnetic projectile at extremely high
velocities. The magazine seemed full, which meant about 250 rounds but he also
had two full magazines in the mag pouch. All in all, it was a decent weapon and
very deadly.

However, the biggest surprise came when he put on
the sunglasses that the SIS officer had been wearing. DJ thought they were just
part of the look the SIS had cultivated but once the glasses were settled into
place, up popped a HUD display. “Nice.”

“What’s that?” asked Jax.

“These glasses must interface with the circuitry
of the suit.” DJ fiddled with a small control box on the belt. “I have a detailed
layout of the entire factory.” He scrolled through the entire map. “There are
only three areas that marked off limits and no detailed information is
available about them.”

Jax nodded. “Sounds like a good place to start.”

“The Conference Room is one floor up and the
Control Room is two floors down but the one marked Interrogation is just around
the corner.”

“Lead on MacDuff.”

DJ laughed. “And damn ye who first cries,
hold…enough!”

Jax slapped his partner on the back. “Well I’ll be
dammed. You’re the first person who’s ever completed that quote.”

DJ took a long drag on the cigar and blew out a
smoke ring before responding. “MacBeth. Shakespeare was never one of my
favorites but my drill Sergeant back in the Corps used to be an English Lit
professor before he was activated. He used to throw out random quotes during
calisthenics. If you got the name of the play right, less time doing reps. If
you got it wrong…”

Jax nodded. “So, you became a fan out of
necessity.”

“Yeppers. Come on, let’s roll.” And the two bounty
hunters made their way back into the factory.

*   *   *   *   *

When Spike woke up, he knew he was in trouble. He
had a pounding headache, cotton mouth, had been stripped nearly naked and
strapped to a chair. Worse, he had dropped his guard and the High Councilwoman
that was his duty to protect had been captured. It was not one of his best
moments.

The slightly metallic smell of fresh blood
assaulted his nose even before he opened his eyes. Once they were open, he
found that he was in a large dark room with six identical chairs surrounding a
large metal table. An assortment of knives and other sharp tools could be seen
on the table, some of them were still covered in blood. The only light in the
room was a high spotlight beaming down on the table, reflecting its light off
the tools of torture.

Slowly turning his head to the left, he saw that
he wasn’t alone. His longtime partner and friend, Sponge Bob, was strapped down
in a similar situation although his left eye was swollen shut from a terrible
bruise. To his right was an empty chair. On the other side of the table were
three more people although only the good looking blonde was awake. She had also
been stripped down to her undergarments but outside of that, she didn’t look
injured. She wasn’t looking at him at the moment, so Spike continued to scan
the area.

To her left was a tall, lanky fellow with pasty
white skin with dozens of bruises all up and down his body. It looked as if
someone had used him for a punching bag. But he wasn’t in the worst shape in
the room, the young black man to the blonde’s right was. Spike counted at least
two dozen cuts all over his body. None seemed deep or super fresh but many
still oozed blood. Large areas of his torso were also covered in white
granules. If Spike had to guess, it was salt. Rubbing ordinary salt into a
bloody wound had been used as a torture and an interrogation device for
centuries since it caused an intense burning sensation.

Spike looked back at the blonde and noticed that
she was looking at him. “Psst. Who did this?”

“I did,” came a deep voice from behind.

Spike craned his neck around to find Sheriff
Kassinger dragging the bloody form of Teana Carpenter back into the room and
unceremoniously dumped her at the foot of the empty chair. Spike struggled against
the restraints but they wouldn’t budge. From his vantage point he couldn’t tell
if she was still breathing so he had to ask, “Is she?”

Kassinger wiped his bloody hands on a white towel
from the table. “Dead? Not yet but she will be soon. I just finished having a
very enlightening conversation with her.”

“You bastard. When I get loose…”

Kassinger threw his head back and laughed. “You’ll
what? Kill me? I don’t think so.”

He picked up a large knife from the table. The
faint overhead light reflected off its mirror-like finish as the sadistic
sheriff limped his way over to the bound SWAT officer. Placing the razor sharp
point on his chest, Kassinger slowly pulled the blade across his skin.

“Let me tell you something. You’re gonna do
nothing except scream. You have no value to me except the pleasure you’ll bring
when I cut you up in little pieces, all while you’re still alive.”

Spike’s body was afire with pain as the blood
began to flow down his chest. He clenched down on his jaw to keep from
screaming. He’d be damned if he gave this bastard the pleasure of his
screams…at least not yet. He knew that barring a miracle, he would break. That
was a certainty. It wasn’t a matter of if but a matter of when. The
interrogator always had the power not the prisoner. He was alive at the moment
only by the sheriff’s whim and he knew it. Before Kassinger could do more
damage or ask another question, his pet dwarf came walking into the light.

“Sorry about the delay boss, Mörder and his crew
just landed. I showed them to the Conference Room before retrieving the
package.” Pridgen gestured with the large black bag with two feet sticking out
of it. “Where does he want her?”

“Give her to me. I will swing by the Control Room
before heading up to entertain our guests.”

Pridgen nodded and passed over his bundle.

Kassinger nodded toward the bleeding black man.
“I’ll let you finish playing with Mocha.”

Spike found the grin on the Jovian’s face
sickening.

“Thanks boss.”

Kassinger limped out of sight but his voice came
back through the darkness. “Have fun. Just remember that we have one hour until
the Admiral needs us.”

Pridgen rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“Plenty of time.”

When the door slammed and Kassinger was gone,
Pridgen pulled out a long knife and moved alongside of the man the Sheriff had
called Mocha. He leaned in and whispered something into the black man’s ear
before that first cut. Mocha’s eyes flew open and his screams filled the room.
The demented dwarf just laughed and cut him again and again and again. It was
one of those awful moments in life when you want to look away in order to
shield your soul from the evil of the world but at the same time, it is so
horrifying that it captures your attention and holds you captive. That was
where Spike and Virginia found themselves, powerless to act and yet, unable to
look away.

Finally Spike was able to rip his eyes away from
the gruesome sight only to witness one of such heroic proportions that he knew
he’d never forget it either. It was obvious from the gaping hole in her back
and the blood oozing out that she was mortally wounded. But somewhere inside
she found enough strength and tenacity to pull herself across the floor until
she reached the table. Pulling herself upright with bloody hands, she was shaky
but she was standing. Grabbing the knife off the table, she unsteadily crossed
the ten feet until she was behind Pridgen. He was so intent on his torture that
he didn’t notice the danger lurking behind him until it was too late.

Teana wanted to make sure her first attack
counted. She tested the edge of the blade before reversing it, where the blade
was pointing down. Judging from her weakened state, she realized that she would
only have one shot. Leaping onto Pridgen’s back, she plunged the knife all the
way to the hilt in his stomach. She’d been aiming for his heart but she didn’t
take into consideration how much smaller his body was compared to a normal
human. Either way, she was committed to her path now. Teana wrapped her legs
around the dwarf’s midsection and her arms around his throat and held on for
dear life.

The next few minutes of their struggle was epic.
It was the age old battle of an irresistible force, Pridgen, meeting an
unmoving object, Teana. The dwarf backed into the tables time and time again,
trying to knock her off but Teana held on. He tried cutting her leg with his
knife but when that didn’t work; he stabbed her deep in the leg and left it
there. Pridgen next tried just to reach up and pull her off. He even managed to
get a handful of hair but even when he pulled the whole clump out, all he got
from Teana was a scream of pain and the tightening of her grip.

Finally, the Jovian must’ve realized that he was
running out of time and options. Reaching across his own body, he managed to
get ahold of her with one hand and grabbed her leg with the other. With a
grunt, he gave a mighty yank. She screamed and he howled but after a moment of
resistance, Teana was slowly being pulled around to the dwarf’s front. With one
last heave, the Jovian pulled with all his might. A loud popping noise filled
the interrogation room and they both fell to the floor.

“Councilor,” screamed Spike.

Spike struggled against his bonds once again, not
to escape but to move enough so he could see the two combatants. Finally he found
an angle where they were visible under the table. Even from this angle, Spike
could tell that his neck was broken since Pridgen’s head was facing the wrong
way. There was no movement from the councilor. He couldn’t even tell if she was
breathing.

However after several minutes, she rolled over and
began to crawl once again. This time to the trail of blood wasn’t a trickle, it
was a torrent. With each pause in her trek she left a pool of blood. Spike was
unsure if anyone would have enough strength to make it anywhere after losing
that much blood.

Several agonizing minutes, Teana reached Virginia’s
table and somewhere deep inside herself found the strength to pull the knife
from her leg and pushed its handle into the blonde’s hand. With her last breath
she whispered, “Save them,” before collapsing into a bloody heap.

*   *   *   *   *

Virginia had never seen so much strength of
character and willpower in anyone before.  The older black woman must’ve known
the whole time that she was going to die and had latched onto the Jovian in
such a way that once he applied his superior strength, that he would end up
breaking his own neck. It had been incredible to watch. She could only imagine
the pain she must’ve felt. Hell, Virginia didn’t even know the name of the woman
who’d sacrificed herself for them but the vaguely Latino bodybuilder guy had
called her councilor and seemed to know her.