THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION (25 page)

“Sergeant Keton.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Take this pile… this excuse for a man to the entrance portal and set him free.” Keton grinned, as hope flared in Bainbridge’s eyes. Keton frog marched Bainbridge across the base and to the gold and red portal and pushed him through the doorway.

“Please… can I have some clothes at least?”

“Clothes? You won’t need any clothes where you are going. You’ll find everything you need inside.” Bainbridge looked over his shoulder down the darkened passageway and shivered.

“What’s… what’s down there?”

“Freedom, Mr. Bainbridge, freedom.” Gunny chucked. The ex-senator turned and stumbled blindly down the passageway.

Pen watched him go, half-wishing he’d beat the crap out of him before he left. Maybe in another life he would have, but what he would face inside the pyramid would be ten times worse than anything Penn could do.

“I hope you die more than once in there, asshole but even then it wouldn’t be enough to pay for all the people you condemned to death and worse.”

Sadly, he now knew the person he’d seen in the spy vid wasn’t Ellis, it had only looked like her. So, the question remained, where was she, and what had happened to her?

Bainbridge did confirm what he’d always suspected, that his mother and father were his true biological parents. They’d used their own genome, but it puzzled him for a moment why they would genetically re-engineer it. Ego maybe that they could do it? That didn’t feel right from what he knew about them. What they did had been out of love, not hubris. In all of this, all the modifications they’d done to his genetic code had given him something he could use to survive. Could it be they’d seen what was coming and knew he’d need something extra in this brave new world? It made sense in a way, telling him to learn as much as he could from the soldiers guarding the base and the others that came for jungle warfare training. One day, very soon he was going to return to that base and give everyone a proper burial, and honor his parents for their sacrifice.

Chapter Fourteen

Slave Ship

Penn woke with a pounding headache, again, but not surprised seeing how it had taken three stun bolts to take him down. As expected, he was naked except for his underwear and the shackles around his ankles and wrists. Blinking his eyes to clear his vision, he had to squeeze them down to see, as there was very little in the way of light in the first place. Again, as expected he was in a steel box with twenty or so other unfortunate prisoners, all in a similar state as himself. So far, his plan was working perfectly, but then again it didn’t take a genius to let himself be captured by slavers and dumped in the hold of a ship along with the other unfortunate people that had gotten captured. His interrogation of the slaves and prisoners from the underground complex had proved futile. They either knew nothing, or so little it hadn’t helped him find out where Ellis had gone. Not that he had expected it to. It was only when he concentrated on Ellis that he realized that he couldn’t detect her smell, and he should have. There was something very similar in one of the bedrooms, but not exactly Ellis. If that was the case, what had they missed? The video of the woman by the outdoor pool certainly looked like her, at least from a distance, but it wasn’t, nor could any of the prisoners tell him where the imperial courier ship had blasted off to. Telluria Prime would be his guess, and it brought back the impression he had that some of the people at Emperor Cytec’s birthday party had been human. At the time, he and Ellis had dismissed it as imagination as he couldn’t think of any reason, or way anyone on Earth could have made contact with the Imperials before the invasion, or what they would have to offer that the Empire couldn’t take by force. After seeing the underground complex and the imperial shuttle lifting off, he began to have second thoughts. Either way, he needed to get back to Telluria Prime and find out, and find Ellis. By backtracking her movements when she’d gone missing, they had discovered their mistake. Ellis and Jenny had gone looking for a slaver band that had come through the small town of Gillett in Wyoming, North West of Lebanon Nebraska a week before. It was only by expanding the aerial search for her that they’d stumbled across the underground complex in what had once been the Big Horn National Forest. Ellis’ trail had actually ended at the old airfield at Hartford just outside the town of Bar Nunn. By the time Penn and the troops had arrived, the place was abandoned but showed signs of having been used as a slave holding station. Even slavers had to use the imperial Nav beacons to navigate back and forth between the Empire and Earth, and with his virus program running, none were coming back. By this time, the slavers would be getting desperate to find out why no ships were returning, and would be loading the last of their ships with as many slaves as they could capture and getting the hell out of here. Somehow, with the Imperials gone, they knew their time was running out, and it wouldn’t be long before people started hunting them down and executing them on sight. Without the dubious, indirect protection of the Imperials who had suddenly vanished, they must have known their days were numbered. Furthermore, that no slave ships were returning meant that party time was over.

The moment Penn stepped out of the shuttle he had detected her scent and paused a moment to draw it in. Walking through the slave pens, he could smell her fear, her anger, imagining someone putting their hands on her body. All the anger he’d once felt before Ellis came back, seated deep in his soul and he knew what he had to do. The moment he voiced it, a hundred people had tried to dissuade him, arguing for a commando raid or similar action to get her back. They’d reminded him he had a responsibility to all the human race now, his was the vision that would put the planet back together, but they might as well have shouted at a mirror, at least it looked back at you. Penn had ignored all the voices and went about preparing his plan to get her back. He discounted using Michael’s inter-dimensional ship, as he didn’t know where in the Empire the slave stations were. That meant he’d have to use a slave ship to start his search, but rather than forcing the information out of any he could find, it would be better to be captured by a slaver and taken there by them. It hadn’t taken long to locate another slave center with a hidden ship, and changing into used work clothes, he’d had Michael drop him off a mile or so outside the center in the path of a capture group.

So now, here he was, shackled along with twenty or so other captives in the hold of a slave ship going somewhere. It didn’t matter where as long as it was within the Empire. Once there he could escape and start asking question about other auction sites where the females were sold. With that thought in mind, he made himself as comfortable as possible and drifted off to sleep, and dreamed of her calling out to him. He told her to hold on as if there were a connection between them. He was coming to get her and take her home to their children.

* * * * * *

Ellis came awake with a splitting headache, cursing herself for her stupidity. The moment the spider web shock net had dropped over them, she should have reacted faster as Penn had taught her. Act don’t react. She hadn’t, she’d hesitated a fraction of a second, and that was all the time the slavers had needed to hit the button and send the knockout shock that had dropped her and Jenny to the ground, unconscious. It didn’t take a miracle to know where she was, the stench told her that. Urine, feces, and fear were an unforgettable combination, and something she’d come across in other slave stations she’d raided. As expected, she was stripped down to her underwear with her hands shackled together by a short chain with her head in Jenny’s lap. She looked up to see Jenny’s sad face looking down at her.

“You okay, Mom?” She gave her a wan smile. Ellis sat up and stroked her hair.

“I’m okay. Just a splitting headache is all. How about you?”

“I woke up about half an hour ago, also with a headache, but it’s gone now.”

“You know where we are.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, I know where we are. In the hold of a slave ship.” Ellis growled. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She muttered.

“What, Mom?”

“Me. I was stupid. I should have reacted like Penn… Dad taught me. Instead I…”

“Mom, there was nothing you could have done. Please don’t blame yourself.” Ellis stroked the side of her face and gave her a lopsided smile.

“Your Dad is going to kick my butt when he gets here.”

“Dad wouldn’t do that… would he?” Jenny looked alarmed.

“Oh yes he would. He’s going to rip a strip off my hide for being so stupid. I should have known better than to walk into an ambush, but I let my temper get away from me.”

“There was no way you could have known…”

“Yes there was. You think Dad… Penn would have walked into it? He would have detected those suckers hiding in ambush a mile away.”

“He’s not superman.” Jenny mumbled.

Ellis chuckled despite the headache. “Jenny my girl. You’ve only seen the good side of that man of mine. You’ve never seen him angry.”

“Dad, angry? I’ve never even heard him raise his voice to any of us… well he did when Billy mouthed off to you that one time.”

“Yes, I remember, and he took him out behind the house.”

“He was very polite when he came back I remember.”

“Getting his butt tanned had that effect on him.” Jenny’s mouth made a big ‘O’.

“We wondered what Dad had said to him.” Ellis nodded.

“Before this is over, you are going to see a side of your Dad you aren’t going to like.”

“You think he’ll come after us?”

“I don’t think. I know he will. Knowing Penn the way I do, there’s going to be a lot of dead bodies before this is over.”

“Dad?” Ellis remembered that none of their children had ever seen the other side of the man they called Dad.

“I won’t tell you everything as I don’t want to scare you to death, or for you to think less of him, but before all this, back when I was still in the imperial military, Richard Penn was a different man.” She could see Jenny trying to visualize that other person.

“You know what the Thrakee are like?”

“Sure, we have all seen vids of them and heard what they do to people.”

“To give you some idea of what your Dad is capable of. I once saw him leap into the middle of twelve of them, killing all but one in less than three minutes. He then killed the leader in hand to hand combat.”

“Oh my god! Why would Dad to something as crazy as that?”

Ellis smiled and stroked the side of her face again. “To rescue me, silly.” Jenny’s eyes opened wide. “And he’s going to come and rescue us unless I… we can’t do something about it.”

“He’ll really come?”

“Oh yes. My guess is he’s already on his way.”

“What can we do about it?”

“Get organized to start with and see what we have to work with.”

“I don’t know what I can do, Mom.”

“Your Dad showed you all how to fight dirty, didn’t he?”

“Well, yes, but this is different.”

“How so? These assho… men think they have the upper hand. We just have to wait for the right moment to do something about that.”

“I don’t see how.”

“They think they just have a bunch of scared females to deal with. That means they won’t be as ready as they think.”

“Oh, that’s right. Most men think they are so superior to females.”

“Right, especially in a situation like this. They are banking on our own fear keeping us submissive and controllable.” Jenny looked at the grim mask Ellis’ face had become and shivered.

“Mom, you’re scaring me.” She’d never seen that look on Ellis’ face before. Not on the face of the kind, gentle woman she’d come to think of as her Mom. There was nothing soft or kind now and she swallowed carefully as she put her arms around Ellis’ shoulders and hugged her.

“Rest easy Jenny. When I tell you, you remember all the things Dad taught you and don’t hold back.” With her head buried against Ellis’ neck, she nodded, shivering slightly. She remembered another time and place where she’d been a helpless slave, swearing to herself she’d never go back to being one again. Love, understanding, and some hard knocks on the training mat from the two people she loved most in this world had taught her what she could do. Win or lose, she’d never go back to being a slave to anyone.

Shaking off the last of the headache, Ellis made her way round the hold, murmuring a few words to each of the fifty females locked in here with her. Most were young, in their teens or early twenties and about half were sobbing wrecks and scared out of their wits. The other half was angry, smoldering wildcats just waiting to hurt someone the first chance they got. That was something Ellis could use if she could somehow control it. Acting one at the time on their own would only get them stunned and beaten, but if they all acted together at the same time? That was a different story. It was just a question of waiting and picking the right moment. An hour later, food packs and water bottles dropped from a chute, and as expected, there was a mad scramble to get them. Ellis punched and kicked her way to the head of the line, standing defiantly over the mound of packets.

“Stop acting like animals!” She yelled, smacking one girl who’d rushed her into a sobbing heap on the deck. “Now line up and behave yourselves.” Reluctantly they did, giving her evil looks. The moment she started handing out the packs and water, she knew there wasn’t enough. The slavers were betting on them fighting over the food and water, thereby keeping them divided.

“Don’t start eating until I tell you, or you’ll go without.”

“Why the hell should we! Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?”

“Because I’m the meanest bitch in here. You want to try and take me on. Go for it!” The young woman backed down in the face of Ellis’ threat.

“There isn’t enough food and water for everyone, so that means we share so everyone can get something to eat, clear?” Her eyes swung around the group, daring anyone to disagree. None did.

The food packs contained flavored protein bars, and Ellis smiled slightly as she read the lettering on the packs. These were imperial military ration packs, so someone was selling them on the black market to the slavers. Ellis had everyone with a pack divide them in half and pass them out to those who didn’t have any. The remainder she gave to the weakest ones, much to the displeasure of several of the females. Not that Ellis cared. She’d have to get them marching to her orders or any escape plan was doomed to failure. She did the same with the water, making sure everyone got the same amount. She gave most of hers to Jenny, over her protests.