Jason King: Agent to the Stars 1: The Enclaves of Sylox (17 page)

I suppose I could tell the clerk downstairs that it was just some kind of Human mating ritual. After all, how would she know the difference?

But getting out of the office, now that was another matter.

And then I had an idea.

Chapter 24

I cupped my hand over my mouth and raised the tenor of my voice as high as I could. My voice is naturally low, so trying to imitate Miranda’s was a chore. I was hoping the aliens outside wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Although painful on my vocal chords, my little experiment produced somewhat satisfactory results.

I moved to the door and careful opened it a couple of inches. And then taking in a deep breath, I said in my highest falsetto voice: “One of you come in here and help me?”

I had to cover a cough as I quickly closed the door and moved to the side, out of view. A moment later the door swung open again, and one of the aliens stepped in. I shoved the door shut while crashing my right hand down on the creature’s right wrist, dislodging his weapon.

What happened next came as a complete surprise.

As I lifted my own weapon, I noticed a blur out of the corner of my eye, and where the alien had once been, he was no more. Instead, he was beside me and planting a powerful left cross to my jaw. I stumbled sideways from the blow, dropping my handgun while shaking my head in a futile attempt to clear the cobwebs from my brain.

And I thought I was fast! This thing was Spiderman-quick.

My eyesight refocused again on the massive alien, who now stood in the center of the room with a silly grin on his face. He made no attempt to raise the alarm; rather he shifted his stance as I moved around him toward the door. My own weapon had gone flying somewhere, but I didn’t risk taking my eyes from the alien to look for it, he was just too quick.

I feinted with my left fist, and managed to land a solid blow to the block-like head of the brown creature with my right. For a moment I thought my fist had missed the alien altogether and impacted one of the stone walls of the office. But no, it had found its mark. I sincerely hoped I hadn’t broken any bones in my hand.

The beast’s grin only grew wider now, as the bastard was just toying with me. He dropped his guard altogether, taunting me to hit him again, knowing now that even my strongest blows would do him little harm.

So this creature was not only incredibly swift, but also built like one of Hyben’s stone structures. I shifted to one side, only to have the alien cut me off with a fluid move of his own. I racked my brain trying to find a way of gaining the advantage. Our little dance could only go on for so long before the alien would grow bored and called for re-enforcements.

It was obvious that the lighter gravity of Hyben was aiding his speed – as it was mine – for what good it was doing me. And then a thought occurred to me. Even though the creature was about my height, he was easily three times my bulk. So could he lift his incredible mass as high as I could in this gravity? I was about to find out.

The ceiling of the office was a good twenty feet high, not only to accommodate the seven-foot tall stature of the natives, but also possibly as a design element in the construction; personally, I always favored vaulted ceilings….

And so I jumped, soaring a good six feet into the air in the light Hyben gravity. I had guessed right. The alien was quick with his lateral movements, but not so much in the vertical. I landed on one of his thick shoulders and quickly wrapped my arms around his huge head before he could shake me off. We spun around a few of times before my thumbs managed to find his eye sockets.

It’s common knowledge that no matter how tough and strong a creature may be, no one likes having their eyes gouged out, and Miranda’s soldier was no exception. He struggled to pull me off as I felt fluid squirt from the openings under my thumbs. I couldn’t see around the thick head to witness the damage I was causing, but the guttural roar of the alien led me to believe I was making an impression.

Eventually, the beast gained a grip on my right arm, and yanked me off his shoulders, throwing me on the top of the hard, stone desk. Expecting a follow up strike from the alien, I covered my head with my arms and bent into a fetal position on the desktop.

After a moment – and no hit – I opened my eyes. The creature was wobbling in the center of the room, covering his eyes with bloody hands. He was blind and in pain – my attack having done its job, at least for now.

And then as I slipped off the desk, my left hand found the cloth-covered Unity Stone. My hand closed around the object, and then I swung it like a club at the alien’s thick head. The huge beast spun to my right and fell face first onto the stone floor, landing with a prominent thud – and a fart. That’s right, the alien expelled gas as he went unconscious, and damn did it stink.

As I now stood over the supine beast, wrinkling my nose against the god-awful smell, I suddenly looked down at the statue I still held in my left hand, and I suddenly went weak-kneed.

What the hell was I thinking? I know diamond is the hardest natural substance in the universe, but what if it broke? It can break, right? After all, people cut and shape these stones all the time.

And what if it had? Then all my efforts up to this point would have been for naught.

I set the statue on the desk and felt through the cloth. I breathed a sigh of relief as the Unity Stone appeared to still be in one piece. I now took the time to carefully lower the statue back into its padded carrying case and secure the lid, thankful that I had just dodged a major bullet – and one I’d fired myself.

By now, the air conditioning system in the office was doing a half-ass job of clearing out the stubborn alien stink from the room, and my head was still throbbing from the blow I’d taken earlier. I’d survived that round. Unfortunately, there were another five rounds to go.

I took the alien’s flash rifle and recovered the Glock. There were five alien guards left, and even if I managed to neutralize them all, I still had an hour-long trek back to the
Enterprise.
I was sure that within that time the local Hyben authorities would be notified, at which point they might have a few questions for me and Miranda. Like what happened to four of their own in the hallway outside the office? They were all dead – I was sure – and it would be a little hard to prove that they were the aggressors, and not me. Besides, I didn’t have time to spend screwing around with the local Hyben police. My deadline was fast approaching; and here I was six hundred light-years from Sylox, and trapped in a room with an unconscious master-thief and five of her armed guards waiting outside.

**********

I heard Miranda moan; she was coming to. Regrettably, that was a complication I couldn’t deal with right now. So a strategically placed chokehold – a product of my Ranger training from years ago – helped to render her unconscious again, allowing me more time now to scour my memory to see if I could recall any more of Miranda’s thugs being of the same species as the hulk on the floor. I was almost positive he was the only one.

I knew I couldn’t call each of them into the office individually without someone growing suspicious, so there was no doubt that I would have to shoot my way out. Taking out five statically stationed targets in a burst attack wouldn’t have been too difficult for me back in the day. But I’d been out of practice for ten years or more. And besides, I remembered the guards as being spread along the perimeter of the vast room outside, watching the employees. Making five quick and accurate shots, at widely-spaced targets, would be a miracle, even when I was at the top of my game.

What I had to do was bring them all together in one place.

I moved to the door once again and cracked it open. It had worked once before, so let’s try it again.

“All of you get over here – we’re leaving.” My voice was really strained this time. I closed the door and gripped the Glock firmly in my hand. The flash rifle probably would have done the job, yet I felt more confident and familiar with the .45 caliber, 13-round, semi-automatic. I would come out blasting and see where the dust settled.

A moment later, I swung the door open and peered out. The guards had indeed clustered near the office exit, and when they saw me at the door they hesitated, thinking I was simply leading the parade out of the office. I don’t believe any of them noticed the weapon in my hand before I opened fire.

The sound of a Glock 21 going off in a confined space with solid stone walls was even more deafening than I had imagined – hell, the blasts even startled
me
! Fortunately, it only lasted a few seconds, but when it was over, my ears were ringing and a sharp pain was focused in the space between my eyes. I stepped over the bodies of the five guards on the stone floor and found one was still alive. I hesitated shooting him because I didn’t think my head could take another echoing blast from the Glock.

I did it anyway.

**********

Now I turned to face the huddled mass of Ionin Design employees, all staring at me with terror on their faces.

“Who’s in charge here?” I asked.

When no one answered, I began to get pissed. “C’mon, I’m not going to hurt you. I just saved all of you from these creeps.”

“I am not familiar with the species
creeps
,” an elderly Hyben said to my right. He stepped forward. “Is that what they were? I thought they were a variety of species, and that their leader was a Human?”

“She is.
Creeps
is just a general classification for creatures like these, the ones who were causing you harm. I’m here to rescue you – and the Unity Stone. I’m one of the good guys.”

“Is that a unit of the Union Enforcement Corps –
The Good Guys
?”

“You could say that. But now I need to ask you a favor.”

“A favor?” The head of Ionin Design looked down at the pile of dead aliens and the ever-widening pool of red blood spreading out over the polished stone flooring. “You have caused quite a mess, and now you ask a favor. What is it?”

“I need to get off the planet without the local authorities stopping me. Do you think you could hold off calling them for a couple hours? I think you owe me that much for saving your lives.”

“I believe I can accommodate your request—”

“Morick, pardon me,” said a voice along the front line of employees.

“What is it, Cruss?”

“I am extremely sorry, but I overheard your discussion with this alien, and I must inform you that I have just now called the Suforairee.”

“
The Suforairee
?” I had to ask, even though I already knew the answer.

“They are our local Enforcers,” said Morick. “I’m afraid there can be no granting of your favor now.”

I shrugged. “Oh well, you tried. Can you point me to a back entrance to the building, somewhere I can exit without being seen?”

“Yes, I can do that.”

“Good. I’ll be right back.” I went into the office and came out a few moments later with Miranda draped over my shoulder and the Unity Stone carrying case in my right hand. “Lead on, my friend.”

In the light gravity of Hyben – and from her own slight build – carrying Miranda was like having a sack of potatoes on my shoulder – even though I’ve never once in my life had a sack of potatoes on my shoulder. Morick took me down to the basement level using the elevator and then had us move quickly across the parking garage to another exit facing the back street to the building. He stopped next to a black transport with a too-shiny surface for the harsh conditions of Hyben.

“This is my personal conveyance. Please take it and make your departure. I will attempt to lead the Suforairee to another of the spaceports. For which are you destined?”

“The one to the north.”

“I will send them to the south. That should allow you time to acquire your spaceship.”

“There’s a cabbie – a public transport – waiting for me out in front. Can you tell him to leave?”

Morick looked past me to a flat-screen monitor on the wall of the garage. It was a security monitor, and one of the split screen images showed the front of the building.

“We deal with many an expensive artifact, so the building is monitored closely. There does not appear to be a transport waiting in front.”