The sun was just beginning to set as Scar neared the collection of buildings, situated at the bottom of a wide dustbowl. He stopped in the goldenlit shadow of a small outcrop of rock. It was still too bright to approach them directly, even in this failing sunlight. The heat haze and the swirling dust clouds would give him some cover, but he'd still be too visible for proper concealment. "No point rushing in," He thought "Better to wait until after dark."
He flicked his masks vision to EMI frequency for a moment and did a quick scan of the structure. The main part was a large three-sided formation like an angular horseshoe, surrounded by sprawling collection of smaller buildings and ringed by a high perimeter fence – obviously electrified. It was bigger than it looked on the surface as some of it seemed to extend for quite a way underground. His jaws twitched with irritation. He had hoped it would all be on the surface, much easier for a smash and grab, but the signal was in one of the underground chambers. He could see it pulsing strongly now. He just had to hope she was actually still wearing the device or he'd have to waste time searching the rest of the complex. Things could get messy. He didn't even want to consider what he'd do if she wasn't here at all.
He shrugged – nothing would be achieved by complaining. He settled down to wait for the sunset.
He watched a few vehicles come and go through what he guessed to be the main gate. He considered going in that way briefly but dismissed the idea; too many humans around that entrance. He'd most likely be spotted and he didn't want to draw attention to himself before he knew she was actually here.
He flipped back to thermal imaging. There seemed to be quite a few patrols walking the perimeter. There were more humans here than he'd first thought.
It began to dawn on him that that this complex was too heavily guarded for an ordinary settlement. It might be more complicated than he'd first thought. He wondered what Lex was even doing here. The suspicion was also beginning to form that perhaps she wasn't here of her own free will. "She told me she was what? A climber of mountains? Not a warrior like most of these humans." His gaze scanned the horizon; the mountains seemed to be some distance from here.
Stealth would be essential and even with his camouflage… it might still be tricky to avoid detection. Humans couldn't see so well in the dark, but inside they'd have artificial lighting. What he needed was a diversion.
He flipped back to EMI again, and eventually found what he was looking for – the complex's power source. Unhappily for him, it was located in the main body of the building but not underground and it was near an outer wall, which was something at least. Far away from where the wrist-com signal was too, which was all to the good for what he was planning.
The night was drawing in, hot and sticky. He raised his head. The clear blue skies were filling up with dirty looking clouds. The wind was still blowing the dust into the air in little flurries that stung his skin. Outdoor lights starting blinking on, illuminating the complex as the sunlight died away. When it was fully dark he stood up and began walking down the slope, away from the main entrance looking for the furthest point in the perimeter fence and stopped just outside the circle of light. The fence was not a problem – it was only about eight foot. He could clear that easily, he thought. At least the lights were further apart here than they were near the entrance.
About thirty feet away he could see the red heat signature of a figure standing sentry on a tower along the line of the fence. Slightly further away he could see another. He slunk along the fence. When he was about equidistant between the two, he made his jump, arching his body to clear the wire without touching it. He landed as lightly as he could but the impact caused a slight crunch of gravel underfoot and raised a small cloud of dust. The red outlines of the sentries moved and twin beams of light swung in his direction – searching for the source of the noise. He slipped back silently into the darkness.
The noise must have alerted someone because he could now see two humans coming around the corner on his side of the fence, walking next to them was a smaller creature, presumably some kind of hunting animal with a heightened sense of smell. He knew some yautja used lesser beasts in this way, but his clan always considered them unnecessary. Their own sense of smell was good enough to need no augmentation. He moved back further into the shadows, hoping they would just pass him by. He knew he could easily kill them but he didn't want the whole place in uproar, not yet.
The smaller creature raced towards him making a noise, but as it approached it became suddenly uncertain. It stopped, dancing from foot to foot and whining. Its nostrils flared at the unfamiliar scent and it was reluctant to come nearer. He bent his head down to its level and gave a low growl, loud enough for the creature to hear but not the humans. When it didn't move he lashed out with one arm and belted it across the muzzle. The beast gave a yelp and turned tail, running back towards its masters where it stood, cowering and whimpering.
By the time they'd come over to see what had frightened it, he was gone.
Agent Coulter stood in one of the briefing rooms, surveying the special unit
"Agent Coulter?" a broad-shouldered man with short black hair who was apparently the leader stepped forward. He wasn't very tall but he was built like a tank – all muscle. He held out a hand "Major Stan Ostrowski, let me introduce you to my unit." He waved a hand to indicate a grinning giant who sported a tattoo of a scorpion on the back of his shaved head "This is Lieutenant Cesar Sanchez."
Ostrowski waved a hand across the room, "The rest of these jerks are Haines, Johnson, Rheinhardt, Verney, Carravino, Halloran and this ugly fuck here, is Galton."
"They look like mercs," Thought Coulter "Or pirates." Not surprising really, these nine men were an oddly assorted bunch – drawn from various walks of life. Some of them were ex-mercs, or former marines, or Navy Seals, FBI or gangland cops. Now though, they comprised a small, but highly specialised combat unit – probably one of the most deadly at the disposal of the US government.
Despite the fact that they were all dressed in Kevlar vests and black fatigues from the neck down, there was quite a lot of scar tissue visible on most of them. They all had in common a certain grimness of expression that came with being far too accustomed to killing people. He'd seen it enough times – too many times of those times when he glanced in a mirror.
In fact what they mostly had in common was a record of active service in some of the most dangerous fields of combat in the world. In all cases, he knew, they'd had actual experience of contact with the species of hostile alien he'd spent the last ten years pursuing – either before they joined the military or as part of this unit. He'd been instrumental in recruiting some of them.
"Major Ostrowski, I trust your men have all had a chance to read the brief we provided."
"Yessir, we've all read it." Ostrowski nodded.
Coulter nodded "Then I'll keep this as short as possible – I know you all know what we're dealing with. I only want to go over the main points. In the past the main objective of your team has been to suppress and if possible try to capture our alien invaders. That is not the case here. We have in custody at this base a particular subject, Ms Alexa Woods. You've all familiarised yourselves with her profile and photographs?"
A few nods, one or two smirks "Pirates!" he thought.
"We also have certain artefacts that were taken from Ms Woods at the time she came into our custody. I requested your presence here because Woods and these items are of untold value to our government. Both hold information which might give us the key to actually getting the edge on these bastards. I want you to protect them at all costs. As you will know, we do have quite a large on-base staff, but as you will also know, that isn't going to make much difference if we are attacked by hostiles."
The Major cleared his throat "Are you saying, Sir, that you figure there's a very good chance that those ugly bastards might show up here?"
"I'm saying I'm not willing to take a chance on it." Agent Coulter leaned on the table and folded his arms "It's a possibility. Now if that does happen, your orders are to prevent them gaining access to the lab where the artefacts are or, most importantly, to the prisoner. Her protection is your primary objective! Numero uno. Do you understand? If you happen to incapacitate a hostile enough to trap it, then that's a bonus – but it's entirely secondary."
"Agent Coulter" Ostrowski said "My men and I have spent years tracking and fighting your 'hostiles' everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. You'll be glad to know we came prepared." He lifted up the huge pulse rifle that he was carrying on a strap round his neck "We bought some heavy-duty firepower: armour piercing rounds, tasers and incendiaries. And I know you say you're not interested in capture but these babies (he patted the gun) also fire tranq darts with enough juice in 'em to floor a goddamn elephant."
Coulter grunted "What do you have in the line of detection?"
"Thermal imaging" Ostrowski grinned, tapping the goggles on top of his head "Play the sneaky fucks at their own game, the tech boys say it might give us an edge."
"OK," Coulter nodded "Sounds impressive. One thing I'm gonna make totally clear now: I don't want the prisoner harmed. In any circumstances. I'm repeating myself but I want to make sure you all understand: maintaining custody of her is your number one objective. Is that clear?"
"Crystal. Sir."
"Good." He nodded "Now if you'd like to come with me gentlemen, I'll show you the control room."
Twenty-five year old Private Carey Armstrong hated guard duty at night, when the long, boring hours seemed to drag on forever. "Like most things out in this dusty shithole." he thought. The only thing worse than being on guard duty was being on guard duty with Private Cassidy – which he currently was. Cassidy, in his opinion, was a weapons-grade asshole. He'd rather have been on his own than have to listen to the man's stupid jokes and unconvincing sexual anecdotes all night.
At first Armstrong had been excited being stationed here, one of the most secret government facilities on domestic soil. He knew only the top personnel were picked to man this facility and he'd seen it as his gateway to a promotion and envisioned a glittering career opening up for him. Now he was beginning to wonder if it was worth all these mind-numbing hours.
His radio crackled into life: "Armstrong, Cassidy – are you down on corridor ten?"
He sighed "Yessir. On my way."
"There's a fault with the cameras in the generator room, they've gone dead. Go check it out."
He looked at Cassidy, who shrugged and began to make his way down the corridor. He swiped his ID on the panel by the door. The glowing electric eye blinked from red to green, the thick metal door swung open and he stepped inside. As the door swung shut and locked behind him he heard the whirring of the generator and the cold air of the room rose up to meet him.
He looked up at the rooms two security cameras, both were a mess of fizzing wires. Immediately his hindbrain was prompting him that something was seriously wrong.
"Hey, Armstrong. Come and look at this shit." Cassidy beckoned him over and pointed up at one off the large vents in the ceiling. One of the metal vent covers had fallen off and was lying on the floor. He walked over and crouched down to inspect it.
As he got closer he saw that it was damaged and bent out of shape, as if by an impact from inside the vent. Behind him he heard a metallic scrape and a fleshy noise, followed by a gasp from Cassidy.
Goosebumps standing up on the back of his neck he spun round just in time to see the man staring in horror at three huge barbed spikes that protruded from his ruined chest. His skin looked like paper and his lips moved soundlessly. Behind him the wall looked strange, as if seen through a wavering heat haze. As he stared stupidly, some unseen force lifted the other man up bodily. He blinked, unable to make sense of what his eyes were telling him. When it moved he could make out the shape of a figure, but it was transparent, the wall behind it seeming refracted as if seen through a rippling column of water. With terrifying ease, it ripped the spikes out of Cassidy in a shower of gore, tossing his body across the room like a toy.
He stumbled backwards and turned to run. As he moved he fumbled desperately for his radio – but his fingers didn't seem to want to obey him. He bolted for the door, but not fast enough. He felt something strike his head from behind. His vision winked out into nothingness.
Scar indifferently let the unconscious body drop. There were a lot of males here. Every human he'd encountered smelled male and he didn't like that at all. He shook his head in irritation. He didn't need pointless jealousy muddying his thinking like this. "Anyway," he told himself "I need not worry about competition from humans. I could break them in half without even sweating!"
A brief inspection of the door reassured him it was locked. He imagined someone else would soon be along to check what had happened to these guards. Hopefully that gave him long enough to do what he needed to.
There were two power sources in this room. A mains connection and a back-up generator. The first power source he should be able to put out of commission with a few rounds of plasma fire. The noise and the resulting blackout would bring a lot of humans running. With any luck.
He pulled out his cache of incendiary grenades and with the other hand a coil of wire and a couple of two pronged throwing blades and looked at the door thoughtfully.
Lex lay in the darkness. Under the sheet she gripped the knife. Holding the fabric of her sweatpants out of the way, she drew the blade slowly down the inside of her thigh, making a shallow cut. Not deep enough to be serious but deep enough to bleed. She winced slightly as she pressed on the flesh to make the blood flow a little more. Quickly she spread as much of it onto her hands as she could. Only when they were slick with redness did she press the alarm button.
Immediately a couple of guards rushed into the room to find her curled up in a ball. Both looked in horror as, between her legs, a dark crimson stain spread slowly through the white cotton sheets. The face she turned to them was a rictus of agony.
"Get… Iversson" she whispered at them through clenched teeth and held out a gorey hand in supplication. They looked at each other for a moment in panic before one of them left the room at a dead run.
The remaining guard moved towards her with the caution of one who knows that one mistake would mean his head on a platter "Ms Woods, what's –"
"Don't touch me!" she curled herself up even tighter and hissed "Oh Jesus!"
He made towards her again but at that moment Iversson skidded through the door. "Ms Woods, Alexa, what's wrong?" her voice taut with worry.
"It… hurts – I think… something's.. wrong," she whispered "Help me… I have to tell you…"
"Tell me what?" Iversson came to the bedside, Lex could see the anxiety in her eyes.
She shook her head against the pillow, as if the pain was too much to bear, and beckoned feebly. Then, as the other woman leaned forward, Lex's fist shot out and smacked into Iversson's jaw. As the Professor's head jerked to one side, Lex grabbed her. Spinning her round, she pressed the blade against the woman's jugular and twisted her arm violently up behind her back until she heard a crack. Iversson screamed. It all happened so quickly that there was a long moment of stunned silence as the three other people in the room tried to get a handle on how the situation had changed.
Lex looked at the aghast faces of the two guards, goggling at her like fish. "Open that door and let me out of here," she said in a low voice "Or I will slit her throat."
"Alexa wait!" Iversson's face had turned bone white, her voice shook and her breathing was unsteady "You don't want to do this, just think about – "
"I've had plenty of time," Lex said by her ear "And I've done enough thinking."
She put a little pressure on the blade, just enough to draw a thin red trickle and then jerked her arm up a little farther, causing the woman to wail in agony.
"Open the door – right now!" She yelled at them.
They rushed to obey. "Now get down! Right down on the floor – over there, faces to the wall!" she said.
She shoved Iversson forward out into the room beyond, kicking the door shut behind her. It slammed shut and locked automatically.
She opened the door to the corridor and shoved the professor out into the hallway in front of her, still holding the knife to her throat. The two guards stood outside turned in surprise – hands going for their nightsticks.
"Get back meatheads," she spat "Or she dies."
"Do as she says!" Iversson's voice was shrill with shock, tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes "Back off for God's sake!"
They put their hands in the air, watching her intently.
"Give me your passes and get in there" she jerked her head towards the observation room they'd just come from. Moving slowly they obeyed and she slammed the door shut on them, the automatic lock clicked.
"Now Professor" Lex hissed in Iversson's ear "Those things you took from me – where are they?"
"The lab," Iversson gulped, Lex could feel her throat moving under the blade "On the lower floor."
"They'll be monitoring this in the control room, you know," the older woman gasped as they began to move down the corridor "And there are guards everywhere."
"Good job we've got each other then, isn't it?" Lex smiled humourlessly.
As Agent Coulter and the Unit made their way towards the control room, the fluorescent strip lighting flickered and went out. All around them silence fell as the drone of the air-conditioning died too.
They all stopped, some of the men colliding with the backs of the others, unable to see even a few feet in front of them in the windowless corridor. They stood for a moment in the pitch dark.
"What the fuck!" He heard Ostrowski cursing next to him in the blackness. Then the lights blinked slowly back into life. Coulter was already reaching for his radio "Control!" he barked "What the hell happened? Some kind of power surge?"
"Negative, sir" came the crackly reply "Something's happened in the generator room. The cameras are dead. I sent some people down there to check it out – from the corridor camera feeds it sounds like there were shots fired in there."
"Get some patrols down there right now." He looked at Ostrowski and both could see what the other was thinking.
"Tell them not to go in until someone from the special unit gets down there." Coulter turned to Ostrowski. "You and five of your men get down to the generator room." He nodded at the two staff guards who were with them "You show them. Lieutenant Sanchez, you and the rest of your men get to the infirmary. Guard the prisoner. We have to make sure nothing gets in there."
"Yessir!" they both nodded.
As Ostrowski and the other men turned to leave, Coulter's radio crackled again "Agent Coulter? We've got a situation down at the infirmary."
"Roger that, what's going on?"
"Woods has escaped, and she's holding Professor Iversson hostage."
"Jesus-God-Almighty!" He burst out, unable to believe his ears "Where are they now?"
"Cams got them moving down corridor five, towards the lab, sir."
Behind him he heard Sanchez snort "Feisty little thing ain't she?"
"Well send some fucking people down there now!" he yelled.
"I've already alerted the nearest patrols, Sir."
He shook his head again "I'm on my way." He'd already started to run down towards the lab, with Sanchez right behind him.
Lex dragged the trembling woman down the hall, looking around all the time to see if any more guards were going to appear. Dr Iversson directed her to an elevator. Using the Professor's pass, they got in and the woman pressed the button for the right floor. The lab wasn't far away from the lift – just along the corridor. When they reached the door Lex pulled the Professor up sharp next to the identification panel.
"Unlock it." she hissed "I know you have a pass."
"I can't," the woman whimpered "It's fingerprint ID and you broke my arm!"
Lex yanked her injured arm round by the wrist causing Iversson to scream and start sobbing again. Ignoring her, she pressed the woman's palm to the ID plate. "Now put the code in." she said.
When Iversson just slumped against her, shaking like a leaf, she pressed the knife harder into her throat "Do it. I mean it when I say I'll kill you. It won't be the first time I've killed someone."
The flatness of her tone removed all doubt in the Professor's mind that she was serious. Still whimpering and shaking, Iversson punched in a code and the door clicked.
Lex bundled her into the room and pushed it shut behind them. Spinning Iversson round she brandished the knife in front of her face "Where are they?" she demanded. Terrified eyes flickered to one side and Lex followed their gaze to a large safe on the wall. She dragged the woman over to the door and held her at knife point while she fumblingly punched in another code and swiped an access keycard. The heavy door swung open.
Throwing the woman to the floor she used a strip of Iverssons lab coat to tie her hands together and left her lying there.
Her spear and her wrist blades were sat inside the safe, in separate glass casings. Sticking the knife into the waistband of the trousers she strode over and, picking up a metal stool, brought it smashing down onto the case. Glittering diamond shards of glass cascaded over the floor.
As she picked up the blades and the spear, something else caught her eye – her wrist-com. It was lying in a little glass compartment set into the wall. She didn't really know how to use it very well, but it was hers. She was damned if she was going to leave it behind for them to tinker around with. Carefully avoiding the broken shards on the floor, she used the butt of the combistick to smash the glass and snatched it up, brushing the sparkling fragments off and snapping it closed around her wrist.
As she stood over the Professor, buckling on the harness that held the spear in place on her back, the woman looked up at her beseechingly, her blue eyes tearing up with pain "Please Alexa, Lex…" She said, her voice quavered "Don't hurt me. This isn't you – I've read your profile. You're a good person, an intelligent woman! You co-founded an environmental charity for God's sake!"
"There's no point in appealing to the person I was before." Lex glanced down, grim-faced "You, the Weyland Corporation, the hunters, you all had a part in killing her and now she's gone. You know nothing about who I am now. You can read my files if you like. You can test me and scan me ..."
Here voice tailed off as she finished strapping on the wristblades and tested the palm catch. Straight away, the blades shot out. She raised her arms, testing the weight of them. They felt right, like natural extensions of her limbs. She took a deep breath. All the time she'd been in here she'd felt helpless, frustrated – now she felt calm, powerful and in control.
She looked down at herself, wishing she could get hold of some boots. Apart from the weapons all she was wearing were the bloodstained sweats, white vest, the underwear they'd given her. Her feet were bare, that wasn't good. She looked at Iversson's footwear – high-heeled pumps. Not toweringly high but not very practical either.
She debated for a moment over whether to put on the mask, but decided against it. She was still going to have to get out of here and that might mean talking to people, negotiating, so much easier when you could look them in the eye. Besides who was to say they wouldn't shoot her on sight if she emerged wearing that – assuming she was one of their 'hostiles'. She used the mask's hanging clip to attach it to her waistband. It was still hers.
All the time Iversson was talking, pleading with her "Alexa, listen to me: You're confused – angry, you're not thinking straight! I know you've been through hell, I know you don't trust me! But I swear all I want to do is help you and your baby!"
"Help us?!" She almost smiled, as if it was funny. She knelt down next to Iversson and lifted the stricken woman's chin with the flat of a blade "I begged you to help me – remember? I asked you to let me go. You have no idea Professor. No idea of what I've been through. I was on that ship for months – nearly a year! Can you even imagine that? Being trapped with those bloodthirsty, brutal fuckheads and I was desperate to get back here - "
The Professor snatched at her words like a lifeline "Then help us! Tell us what you know about them! Help us to find a way to fight them! That's all we want to do!"
Lex laughed. "I'll see you all in hell first!"
"Lex you've got to think of the baby," Iversson tried a different tack, talking fast, her voice shaking "I know you think you're doing what's best but even if you do manage to carry it to term and it lives, it'll almost certainly have chronic illnesses, deformities, serious things wrong with it!"
"Even if I believed you," Lex's eyes narrowed "I could still give it better than a life in a cage."
"If you leave here it'll never survive without extensive medical care," Iversson said desperately "Lex, it was a million to one shot conception ever happened in the first place; it shouldn't be possible! He or she is going to need all the best care money can buy and who's going to give that to you except me? Let me help you! You don't have to watch your baby die!"
"How generous," Lex growled "If I'm a good girl and go back to my cell you won't let my baby die. What makes you think I'd ever trust you?"
Her eyes lit on a packet of cigarettes that lay on the counter. Resting on top of them was a lighter. Casting around amongst the various bottles of chemicals that lined the counters, Lex seized a bottle of ethanol and wrenched the lid off. She began sloshing it around violently, pouring it all over every surface. The penetrating stink of it filled the room.
The Professor let out a low moan "Please, stop! Please! Do you want us both to burn to death!?"
Lex ignored her, when she'd emptied it she found another and splashed that around too. As she did, she said, almost conversationally "You want information? I'll tell you something: as bad as that ship was, this is worse! They may have seen me as a lower species but they didn't keep me locked up like an animal. They didn't stick needles in me like some fucking lab rat – but my own kind didn't hesitate!"
The Professor stared at her, mouth working noiselessly – finally she managed to stammer "Lex… they … they attacked you, don't you remember? I know you don't want to think about it! That you've suppressed it but – "
"What are you talking about?" Lex spun round, the lighter ready in her hand.
"Think about what you're doing – you don't want to burn us both alive! Try to remember. It was one of them that raped you, not us!"
Lex put her head on one side with an odd little smile "Wrong on both counts." She said and flicked the lighter, igniting the blue flames raced along the counter, and began to lick up the wall. Iversson looked at her totally aghast, her mouth a perfect 'O' of horror, as the flickering, blueish light made strange shadows on her face.
Lex yanked the woman to her feet, slamming her against the wall "You are going to help me Professor." She hissed "We are leaving now and we're going in your car – you do have a car?"
Iversson nodded weakly "A Dodge, outside on the staff lot."
"Give me the keys." She touched the palm catches that drew in the dah'kte on one hand and took them. Yanking Iversson's passcard off her neck, she threaded the lanyard that held it through the keys and looped it round her own. Bottles on the counter started shattering as the fire reached them.
She pulled Iversson to the door. Outside she could hear hushed voices. More guards would be here by now. She pressed the release button and the door unlocked.
"We're coming out," She called through the crack in the door "Back off! Away from the door."
She pushed Iversson through first – holding the blades to her throat. She heard a shuffling of feet as the guards moved back.
She glanced over the woman's shoulder. The corridor was full of uniformed men. She held Iversson in front of her like a shield, the wrist knives pressed to her throat. Advancing slowly, her eyes flicked from one man to the next.
As she calculated her next move, the lights suddenly died and they were plunged into darkness for a few moments. In the gloom she felt someone approaching cautiously on her right side and hands outstretched. Without hesitation she struck out with the blades. She felt them connect with something solid and was rewarded with a piercing shriek that went on and on. She heard frantic scuffling noises as the other men fought to get out of the way.
Within moments the lights came back on – harshly illuminating everything. She could smell burning from the lab behind her and suddenly the sprinkler system spluttered into life – drenching everyone.
One man lay at her feet – clutching his ruined arm and shrieking horribly in a spreading red pool, already beginning to wash away in the hissing downpour from the ceiling. Professor Iversson screamed and struggled, trying to break away from her, but Lex held her tightly by the arm.
"Next one of you comes near me," she breathed "I'll aim lower."
Ostrowski and Haines, Johnson and Rheinhardt followed the staff guards down to the generator room. As he got nearer he picked up the smell of burning plastic. There was a small group of men already standing around the door, waiting.
Haines nodded at him "What you wanna do Major?"
Ostrowski looked at one of the soldiers standing at the door "Anyone been through that door yet?"
"No sir," the man looked worried "Private Armstrong and Private Cassidy were sent down to check it out earlier when the cameras stopped working, they haven't come out."
At that moment, they heard a groan followed by a voice calling faintly on the other side of the door "Oh God, help me…."
Ostrowski and Haines looked at each other. Both knew what the other one was thinking. Haines lip curled back in a sneer "They need to learn some new tricks, bullshit voice mimicking software." He said in a low voice.
Ostrowski nodded and turned back to the soldier "Ok, give me your door pass." The man handed it over "Now you and the rest of your men get out of the way. Johnson, Rheinhardt you get either side of that door. Halloran you're with me. Remember, if it is a hostile life-form our orders are to terminate on sight."
They took up station, weapons held ready – he turned to Haines, handing him the keycard. "On my signal get it open. We'll cover you."
In the quiet they heard the voice again "Please… help me."
Looking at Ostrowski, Haines got the key card ready in his hand. He breathed in tensely, and they looked at each other for a moment. Then he nodded. Haines swiped the key card and kicked the door hard.
As it swung open, Ostrowski saw the main power source casing was busted open, scorched and melted. On the floor, tied to the generator was a soldier, hands secured behind his back. He also saw, attached to the back up generator nearest the door, a collection of small metal objects. They were round and silver coloured – and on each one a little red light was blinking.
His eyes widened in horror as he realised they'd just walked into a trap. He just had time to yell a warning to Haines and throw himself down and to one side before the grenades exploded, painting the whole world white.
Even on the other side of the quad, Lex felt the explosion rock the building. The lights went out again as the back-up generator died. As she stood in the blackness, wondering what the hell was going on, momentarily distracted, Iversson made a break for it. She brought the point of her high heel down on Lex's bare foot, making her yelp in surprise and pain. For a moment her grip on Iversson's arm loosened and the woman staggered away from her in the dark.
Red emergency lighting flickered on, bathing everything in a strange bloody glow. The sprinkler system stopped as everything except emergency power went off. Lex looked round, trying to get a handle on the situation. Ivresson seemed to have disappeared. "Probably run back into the lab," she thought bitterly "Trying to salvage some of her precious research."
The guards were cautiously advancing on her now they could see she no longer had a hostage. She noticed they were keeping their guns holstered "They'll have been ordered to take me alive," she thought "I'm far too valuable for them to just cap me!"
She glanced up the hall behind her and saw more guards there too. She did a quick headcount. Eight of them against one of her. She was totally outnumbered but she also knew that if she gave herself up, she wouldn't get another chance to escape. Something clicked inside her "I'm not going back in that cell." She thought "I'd rather die!" Her jaw set hard and she raised the wristblades in a fighting stance. She thought back to the time she'd fought those bugs in the desert. Then she'd been terrified. Now she felt calm, calm and certain of her own power. They only wanted to catch her, not kill her – she had no such qualms about hurting them.
They crowded round her, trying to box her in, pull her down. As the first guard made a grab for her she swung one blade at him, and he lost his arm just above the elbow. As he shrieked and tried to get out of the way she wheeled round, slicing across the gut of the man who was creeping up behind her. He spluttered, spitting out a mouthful of blood and collapsed clutching his stomach. The man next to him fell backwards as the blades raked across his face in a violent upswing.
The other guards fell back in horror, almost climbing over each other in their haste to get away from the flashing knives as she pressed forward towards them. She swung again catching one man across the arm and another a deep slicing blow to the inner thigh. She must have struck an artery, because warm redness fountained up all over her in a huge, shocking spurt – soaking the front of her vest, crimson on white.
She darted back out of reach, knowing she couldn't stand still for long. If one of them managed to get a grip on her, pull her down so they could all pile onto her, she was finished. Speed was everything. She smiled at them nastily; she'd had plenty of practise at this game.
She lunged forward again, trying to hack a path through them, force them to get out of her way. One man was foolish enough to try and get hold of her arm. One blade came slicing round, severing his hand at the wrist. She stepped round his thrashing body, her back against the wall. Six men writhed on the wet floor, their blood looked black in the red light as it mingled and dissipated in the puddles of sprinkler water. Blades held out in front of her, she faced the two remaining guards. They watched her warily, obviously unnerved by the screams of their fallen colleagues but still one of them was already trying to edge round behind her and grab her arms – were they crazy? To her surprise they presented little challenge, almost seeming to move in slow motion before her eyes.
She lashed out and kicked the first one hard in the stomach, turning on the ball of her foot as he bent double. The second man took a swiping blow across the chest and she felt the blades rattle along his ribcage. The first man was still retching, trying to get his breath back enough to swing at her. As she spun again she drove the blades hard right into his shoulder. He screamed, unnaturally high-pitched. As she yanked them free he collapsed, spraying blood across the wall.
She straightened up and looked around her, suddenly the only one still standing up in a sea of gore and dead or dying men. She glanced down the corridor – it seemed clear enough. If more people were coming they weren't here yet. She looked around at the men lying at her feet, wondering if any of them had boots that would fit her, but decided she didn't have time to find out.
With a final backward glance she turned and ran down the hallway, feet slithering on the swimming floor. She didn't know where she was running to, but she was starting to hear the sounds of pursuit behind her.
As she rounded a corner she almost collided with a pair of guards running her way.
She barely broke her stride but darted quickly to one side, dodging around them and at the same time flicking out the blades so that she caught the nearest one in the midriff. He cried out and doubled up right in front of his partner's astonished face. She didn't stop but leapt towards the second man and sliced him right across his cheek.
Not looking back to see them fall – she sprinted on down the corridor until she reached a big pair of double doors. Panting, she grasped Iversson's pass and swiped it, slipping through the door as quickly as she could.
A dark shape loomed up on her right and flung out two arms to grab her. Only her reflexes saved her as she ducked under his grasp and leapt out of the way – slashing out blindly in his direction. She felt blood splash her face, heard an agonised cry and quickly swung round to check the corridor she'd walked into.
One man was crouched on the floor by the door, holding his arm. That left two other men in combat fatigues. Big, unsympathetic-looking men – tooled up, armed to the teeth and covered in what looked liked body armour everywhere except their faces. She squared her shoulders – she'd faced bigger and uglier adversaries than these.
She raised the blades aggressively and stood facing them, her eyes pitch black and glinting in her blood-stained face "Get out of my way," she said in a low voice "Or I'll kill you."
The tallest, a dark eyed man with a shaven head, grinned "So you're Alexa Woods," he said "I like a broad who knows how to handle herself."
"That's a shame," She raised an eyebrow "Because I hate sleazy, loudmouth pricks."
His leer got wider "But you do like running around with monsters. Well, I'm the fucking wolf-man baby."
She said nothing but watched him carefully, eyes unnaturally wide and bright with adrenalin as she listened for movement behind her.
The other man held out a conciliatory hand "Please calm down Ms Woods, I'm Private Galton and this is Lieutenant Sanchez. Please just give it up. We don't want to hurt you."
"Well I'm sorry to tell you this boys," She said "But that's your problem."
She heard the door creak and stepped to one side so she could see behind her. A fourth man, dressed the same as the others, had slipped into the hallway through the door she'd used.
Again she noticed that none of them had pulled a weapon, despite being spoiled for choice. She guessed they must have been told to take her alive. Well that was all good.
She sheathed dah'kte and pulled out the combispear, twisting it so that the blades shot out from either end. She noticed the two men in front of her exchange a glance and start moving forward, trying to get round her. These weren't like the other guards, she could tell by the way they moved. They could fight and if she wasn't careful they would pull her down. She needed to take them out of the game as quickly as possible.
She darted towards the two that blocked her way and swiped the spear at them. They moved back, evading her easily, but she watched their eyes. Seeing them focus on something behind her back she guessed that the third man was moving up on her. She took a gamble and thrust the spear backwards as hard as she could, hoping it would at least wind him. To her satisfaction she felt it pierce something and heard a hiss of surprised breath. Keeping her eyes fixed on the two other men she pulled it free and risked a quick look to one side so she could see what she'd hit. The man behind her was looking down in a dazed way at the spreading damp patch in his side. Without hesitating she thrust one hand at him, touching the catch to bring the blades out mid-swing, and dealt him a savage blow to the head, knocking him down.
Before she had a chance to turn back Sanchez was on her, gripping her by the arm that held the spear. She turned and plunged the blades on her free hand into his leg as deep as they would go. There was a wet noise, like skewering a raw cabbage. He bellowed in pain and struck out wildly, punching her in the face. The blow caught her on the cheekbone but didn't stun her. She wrenched the blades free and twisted violently out of his grasp, bolting desperately for the door as she saw Galton lunging towards her. Bringing the spear up, she hit him in the nose with the shaft, causing him to stagger backwards with a spluttering noise.
She already had the pass card in her hand as she reached the door, swiped it and burst through. Gasping for breath as she ran, she was surprised and disorientated to find herself outside. It was night time, dark and sultry, the stifling heat rising up to meet her as she ran across the dusty ground. Thunder rolled ominously in the distance. Her gaze darted all around to see if there were any more guards out here but she saw none. She could smell smoke and see an orangey glow flickering on the other side of the quad. Obviously the explosion – or whatever that had been – had caused another fire. As she ran, she wondered if the lab was still burning or if the sprinklers had put the blaze out.
The door crashed open again behind her as the remaining men came through. She was a fast runner but Galton was catching her up with his longer stride and he tackled her from behind, taking her legs out from under her. She went down awkwardly, striking her hip on the ground. One arm was trapped underneath her by their combined weight, but she was so awash with adrenalin she felt no pain, just anger "Get the fuck off me!" she screamed, furiously slashing at him. He caught her wrist so she couldn't use the blades.
Then Sanchez caught up with them, limping because of the wound on his leg, and dragged her upright by her hair. She realised that her other arm was now free but, before she could do anything, he backhanded her in the face. She struck at him with the blades and managed to score shallow track-lines across his front, but the blow struck him at a difficult angle and she didn't pierce his body-armour deep enough to do any real damage.
Before she could take a second swipe he caught her arm and punched her again, harder. This time her head rolled backwards – her vision went red and black for a moment. The other man had grabbed hold of her wrists and was trying to drag her out of the Lieutenant's grasp.
Through the ringing in her ears she heard Galton yelling "Sanchez, calm the fuck down!"
"This crazy bitch killed Verney and Johnson!" Sanchez almost screamed.
"She's pregnant, man!" Galton's voice carried a note of hysteria "She's down – stop hitting her! Our primary objective is to protect her!"
She struggled to make her eyes focus on them, vision swimming "I've got to fight back!" She thought frantically "Or he's going to beat me to a pulp!"
"She fucking stabbed me!" Sanchez pulled back a huge fist "I'm gonna teach this cunt a lesson!"
Above their heads there was a crack of lightening followed by an ear splitting boom as the heavens opened.
Scar pulled himself out of the vent on the roof and perched on the ledge overlooking the quad at the centre of the complex. The atmosphere had changed, now the air was hot and crackling with electricity. He looked up and saw the night sky was clouding over, towering thunderheads piling up on all sides. He checked his wrist-com, scanning to see where the signal was coming from. It looked like it was on the ground floor of the building – he was only four stories up so not far to go. He planned to wait until he heard the explosion so that he could start searching whilst the humans were panicked. He was just about to climb down the outside wall. In the dark he thought it unlikely they would see him.
Then he heard a noise behind him and turned to see two men staring in puzzlement at the damaged vent cover that lay on the roof.
He stood undecided for a moment. On the one hand he didn't want to give himself away but on the other, the damage was already done. If he let them live, soon the whole place would know there was an intruder in the building. Making up his mind in a split second, he pulled a throwing blade and put it right between the first man's eyes. As the body crumpled to the floor, he'd already reached the second guard, tearing out his throat with a single blow.
It was at that moment that he heard the explosion and felt the building tremble under his feet. He grinned to himself and went to his vantage point on the edge of the roof, gleefully watching the humans run everywhere like frantic insects.
He was about to start climbing down again, but the two men must have alerted someone because now more soldiers were emerging cautiously from the stairwell. He frowned – why weren't they all running towards the noise?
Well he'd have to deal with them sooner or later anyway, and fight always came much more naturally than flight. He launched himself into the group hacking and slashing with his blades – still trying to avoid using the plasma cannon to cut down on the noise.
The humans were thrown into a panic. They couldn't see him, only the damage he was inflicting. They fired their weapons blindly, often hitting each other. Scar barely needed to exert himself at all except to take the time to dodge the occasional bullet. One man with a particularly nasty automatic weapon was picked up by the head and pitched off the roof. Another he ripped open from groin to throat. The air became sticky with gore and his brain became empty of everything except the intoxicating joy of killing. He was so absorbed in what he was doing that he temporarily forgot why he was even here.
When finally he stood alone amidst the carnage, it was a second or two before he came back to himself. The rooftop was a slaughter house. Mangled human bodies lay at his feet everywhere he looked. He suddenly remembered that he'd come here for Lex.
He opened the wristcom again, wiping his bloody hand on his thigh. The signal had moved – it wasn't in the building anymore. He went quickly to the edge of the roof just in time to see a figure, the first female he'd seen here, running across the quad. He thought he recognised the shape of her and the way she moved. He used the mask's zoom function to look more closely – it was her! He felt his stomach muscles knot up. After weeks of thinking about nothing else, he could scarcely fail to recognise her.
As he watched, two larger humans ran after her. One of them knocked her to the floor. Then the other, bigger one began laying into her.
His blood boiled. All his thoughts of caution and restraint ignited and burned, blackening to ashes in an instant to be replaced by one thought: "I am going to tear them APART!"
The sky lit up and thunder rolled, so loud it made the floor judder. The clouds burst, showering down hot, hissing rain. He engaged the targeting system on his laser cannon and leapt off the roof.
All three humans turned as one of the quickly expanding puddles exploded, spraying up into the air. Sanchez's grip loosed on Lex's hair and she dropped to her hands and knees, retching.
All three of them turned. Rain sizzled off the huge and familiar shape that straightened up out of a crouch, becoming visible as the water caused its cloaking device to crackle and short out. In the strobing, white illumination from the lightening, its metal facemask seemed to glower menacingly. The thing gave a deafening roar, as loud as an express train. Sanchez watched as if mesmerised as three red dots appeared on his stomach. He made a grab for his gun but he never reached it. The plasma fire knocked him to the floor in a cloud of red vapour. As he lay, writhing and shrieking on the ground, Galton was hit in the shoulder.
Lex watched the apparition prowl towards them through the hammering rain. As soon as she'd realised that the thing was yautja her heart leaped into her mouth. She pushed herself to her feet and tried to focus. Still disorientated from being hit, she couldn't tell if it was a new threat or if she recognised him.
"Is it… Scar?" She thought, squinting through swimming eyes. Many times she'd wished him here so that she could see him destroy all these people that she loathed. She'd fantasised about it but she certainly had never really expected to see him again. Now, she wondered if she was hallucinating.
As her vision began to clear she realised it was him, she knew it. Blood rushed to her head and for a second she thought she might pass out, from shock or from relief she didn't know which.
As if in a dream, she watched him advance on the Lieutenant. Sanchez was hysterical with fear, alternately shouting obscenities and begging for help. She knew instinctively that what followed would not be pleasant – if he'd wanted to kill the men quickly he would have gone for a head shot – but she didn't look away. A year ago, even months ago, she'd have felt something for him; pity, sorrow, empathy. As she massaged her jaw she felt nothing but the pain from where he'd hit her and satisfaction, that he couldn't do it again.
She watched as Scar picked the Lieutenant up, ignoring the screaming and pleading, and drove his wrist-blades into the man's throat. With a grunt of effort he ripped the soldier's head from his shoulders. It came away and the screaming morphed into the grotesque tearing of gristle and flesh. He tossed the grisly object aside and it bounced on the floor with a hollow noise like a coconut.
He walked over to Galton, who was struggling to drag himself away. Lifting him up by the hair, Scar decapitated him with a single stroke.
"I've never seen him kill another human being up close like this. I should be appalled. Why aren't I?" She thought, her mind oddly tranquil "I don't care that they're dead. They were just …enemies I needed out of my way."
Scar heard her say his name. He turned, still clutching Galton's severed head in one hand and all the murderous intent of the past few seconds drained away immediately. Dishevelled, dripping wet and bloody, she was more desirable even than he remembered. He was about to say something but as his gaze travelled further down her body he froze. The skull slipped from his fingers and rolled away.
He hadn't noticed from a distance but looking at her now through the mask's thermal vision he could see the pulsing foetus inside her, hear the tiny heart beat fluttering "How in the name of the soul-eating bitch goddess…?" He thought "She is pregnant!"
He was thunderstruck. How could this be?
For a few seconds he couldn't do anything except stare at her in stunned silence. He felt as if his brain was going to burst. For him – as with all males of his species – pregnancy inspired an almost religious awe. Not surprising considering that they lived in a completely masculine environment.
The possibility that it could be anyone's other than his never even crossed his mind. As far as he was concerned she was his female, therefore it was his offspring. "All this time, she has been pregnant and I did not know!"
Lex waited for him to make a move, doubt creeping along her backbone like a trickle of icey water. He looked terrifying and he was covered in blood. If only he wasn't wearing the mask. She couldn't tell if he even recognised her. His muscles were still tense, as if he was about to attack.
"Why doesn't he speak?" She thought desperately "Doesn't he know it's me? It hasn't been that long for Chrissakes, he can't have forgotten already. And if he has, what the hell is he doing here? Am I going to have to fight him?"
She said his name again, looking for any sign of a reaction.
Then he seemed to break out of whatever trance he was in. He retracted his blades and crossed the distance between them in three strides, until he was standing only a few inches away. He stood looking down into her face, the rain clattering on his metal visor and pouring in rivulets from the ends of his mane. He made that rumbling, clicking noise in his throat that always reminded her of the of some enormous jungle cat.
He put out one hand and brushed her stomach with the tips of his talons and growled again, a raw, guttural sound. Her jaw dropped as she realised what he meant.
"He knows," she thought "He knows! He can see it through that damned mask!" Tears sprang into her eyes and mingled with the raindrops pouring down her face. In a way it hadn't seemed real to her until this moment. Then suddenly she felt a flash of rage as she remembered the last time she'd seen him. This… bastard had fucked her and then slipped out to fight D'Kand whilst she was asleep, but D'Kand had come to kill her instead. That was how she'd ended up a prisoner here.
Her temper flared as she thought of all the weeks of miserable incarceration and she lashed out with one fist catching him on the side of the head, the blades making a metallic clang as the flat hit the side of his mask. "You stupid, stubborn, son-of-a-bitch!" She yelled, hitting him again "Do you realise I've been locked up here all this time? Because of you!"
She almost expected him to retaliate but he didn't even flinch. Instead he reached out one long arm and wrapped it round her, pinning her arms to her sides so that she couldn't hit him again. With a clicking, chittering growl he leaned down until his face was level with hers and with his free hand undid the screws that held his mask in place, pulling it off. His yellow eyes were wide and almost glowing, the pupils enormous. She squinted, her own eyes stinging with rain and prickling with tears, her lips twisting as she fought for control.
"You are … not pleased?" He said finally, eyes searching her face. He sounded puzzled and almost… hurt.
She was disarmed. Sometimes his self-assurance made her forget just how immature he was. She squeezed her eyelids shut for a moment and tried to pull her fragmented thoughts together.
"Did you come here to take me back to the Shadow?" she asked after a moment "Because I am not going back."
"No. I just wanted to find you. And in any case…" His eyes flicked down to her stomach "I do not think I can take you back there like this!." She frowned up at him dubiously.
"Besides" He continued "I do not think I can go back myself. I killed some guards and stole a shuttle." His jaws spread in an enormous grin, rainwater dripping off his spikey, ridged brows "I have probably earned at least three death sentences just to get here!"
"Ha!" He might have messed up her life, but she'd messed up his life – what a ridiculous fucking mess. She suddenly found herself grinning for the first time in weeks. "Is this evidence of your continuing stupidity supposed to make me happy?"
He shook his head, shrugging "Take it any way that pleases you – as you usually do. But I came here to get you and when I leave I am taking you with me. Do not argue."
She was about to tell him that he'd get no argument on that score when her eye was drawn to a movement, over his shoulder and she realised they were not alone.
Agent Coulter had gathered the surviving members of the unit after he'd been alerted that the prisoner was in the courtyard of the quad. Haines and Halloran were both dead, they'd taken the full force of the explosion. Ostrowski was scorched and wounded but still able to walk – just. A lot of the men in the corridor had been hit by pieces of flying debris. They'd brought those that were not too badly injured with them. The only ones who'd escaped relatively unscathed were Carravino and Rheinhardt who'd been directly on either side of the doorway. They'd been unable to make contact with Sanchez or Galton or any of the rest of the men and Ostrowski feared the worst.
When they managed to pick themselves up and got outside the whole place was like a warzone. With no electricity to power the sprinkler system the fire was spreading steadily through the complex. The rain had damped the flames down slightly but it was still burning and choking black smoke billowed up into the sky.
They made their way carefully to the quad. Ostrowski peered round a corner and seeing the huge shape standing in the rain-swept courtyard, signalled to the rest of them to get down.
Flinging himself down behind a small wall he crawled forward, trying to ignore the pain as various parts of him protested even more vociferously. He raised his head just enough to peer over the top and squinted through the rain running into his eyes.
Beside him, Coulter raised his head over the wall. Together they stared at the enormous, nightmarish figure in the middle of the rainswept courtyard. "It's one of them." Ostrowski nodded and slowly began to raise his pulse rifle.
Coulter peered over the wall again. "Why is it just standing there?" He thought, puzzled. Then he saw her, the prisoner, standing right up close to it. He quickly laid a hand on Ostrowski's arm "Don't fire for God's sake! Put your guns down." he hissed at the other men.
"What the hell is that crazy bitch doing?" Ostrowski craned his neck, and pulled down his thermal goggles but the rain was messing up his vision too much to make anything out. He pushed them back onto his head "What – is she gonna fight it on her own? It'll to take her fucking head off!" He started to raise the rifle again.
"Put the gun down – that's a direct order!" Coulter was trying not to raise his voice "If you hit her that represents billions of dollars worth of research and bio-weapons – up in smoke!"
Ostrowski grimaced "Sir, you don't know these bastards like I do," He hissed "If I don't shoot it, she's dead anyway. Her best chance of survival is if we can kill it. If we don't bring it down now, we may not get another chance - "
"It's not going to kill her or it'd have done it by now." Coulter saw Ostrowski's dubious expression "We can still recapture her and nail this fucker. We just need to get closer. But only use those tranquilliser darts. I don't want you accidentally blowing her brains out – she's far too valuable! The rest of you," he nodded at the men "Fan out, surround them. Darts only, no live rounds. That's an order! And give me one of those dart guns."
They crawled closer. As Coulter took up position and waited for the other men to get round behind them, he strained his eyes for a glimpse of the woman, trying to work out what the hell was going on. She didn't seem at all frightened or even nervous. As he watched in disbelief she hit the thing, smacked it twice right in the head. He could hear her shouting but couldn't make out the words. He felt a reluctant twinge of admiration – she was fearless! Abruptly it grabbed hold of her but she didn't flinch or struggle, didn't even try to fight back though he noticed now the metallic flash of the blades on her hands.
His brows drew together as he saw her mouth moving, was she… talking to it? He crawled closer, trying to get a better look, knuckles whitening as they tightened on the slippery surface of the dart gun.
Now he was close enough to see the oval of her face, beautiful despite the blood and the bruises, shiny with rain. Even from this distance it was obvious that she was smiling. It was the first time he'd ever seen her show any kind of warmth to anyone. Now – against all probability – she looked happy.
"I fucking knew it!" He thought "This isn't any kind of coincidence – she knows this motherfucker. He's come here to bust her out!"
Then abruptly her face changed, the smile dying on her lips as she locked eyes with him. In his eagerness to see, he realised that he'd blown their cover.
"There are soldiers behind you." Lex murmured next to Scar's ear.
Immediately he turned, standing protectively in front of her. "Let me stand in front of you idiot!" She said, trying to push him out of the way "They do not want to kill me, they might blow your head off!"
"If you think I am going to cower behind a pregnant female you are out of your tiny soft-meat brain." He growled, pushing his mask back onto his face so he could at least see where the threat was coming from.
"Oh for God's sake!"She rolled her eyes to the heavens in frustration, but she knew it would be a waste of time to argue with him – it was more crucial for them to get out before they got captured. "Where is the shuttle?" she asked.
"In the desert. I could not land it here."
She shook her head "Then we have to get to the vehicles."
He nodded as he did a quick scan of the quad. He could see eleven …twelve …thirteen red shapes circled around them, creeping closer. He growled and pressed the control pad on his wrist, engaging the multiple targeting function. It fizzled. He reached up and smacked the plasma cannon a few times but it was no use. The targeting system had obviously been damaged somehow, perhaps by the earlier fight or the rain.
She heard him utter a few filthy-sounding curses that she didn't entirely understand the meaning of. A thought struck her as her eyes lit on Galton's body which lay only a few feet away. She just had time to prise the big pulse rifle from the corpse's stiffening fingers before Scar snatched hold of her arm and started to run, dragging her with him. As he ran he wrenched the plasma gun from his shoulder and opened fire manually. The blast illuminated the quad, echoed quickly by another burst of lightening as two men dropped.
He heard the high-pitched whine of projectiles zipping past them and ran faster, almost lifting her off her feet as he pulled her along behind him. He shot one soldier who got too close, the impact threw the man to the floor. Another wasn't quick enough getting out of the way and was pistol-whipped to the ground hard enough to break his jaw. There were still men following them but they were keeping their distance.
As they rounded the corner of the quad, Lex saw the small lot, mainly filled with jeeps and a few cars. Nearby there was also a landing pad and a helicopter. "Look!" She slapped his shoulder "Over there!"
He followed her as she ran towards the cars, running sideways so he could still shoot at the men behind them. She spotted the Dodge immediately and couldn't help an amused smirk – it was a big, gleaming-red convertible. She'd have put Iversson down for something silver, understated and businesslike to match her WASP-ish personality, not this sexy sports car that looked like a midlife crisis on wheels. She'd even left the top down, obviously not expecting rain in the desert heat.
She already had the keys in her hand as she flung herself into the driver's seat, putting the gun across her lap. Scar reached the passenger side and stopped, still watching behind them, covering their escape with the plasma gun. Their pursuers were almost on them and she could hear shouting. She reversed out onto the road quickly without any thought for the car's suspension and stopped, gunning the engine.
"What the hell are you waiting for? Get in!"She yelled at him.
He ignored her and fired a few bursts of plasma at the jeeps parked nearby. The nearest few burst into flames. He fired again a few more times at the remaining undamaged vehicles and one of the petrol tanks burst open showering the other cars with burning petrol, the fire spreading quickly along the line. Grinning to himself he turned and opened fire on the copter, shattering the rotor blades and turning the cockpit into one giant fireball.
Finally turning to look at the Dodge he reached down with one arm and ripped out the tan, leather-lined seat, tossing it out onto the wet concrete. Lex winced, imagining what Iversson's expression would have been if she'd seen the punishment being meted out to her beautiful sports car. He vaulted into the gap left by the passenger seat folding himself uncomfortably into the space between the back and the passenger seat, the suspension groaning and squealing under this further abuse. As the first soldiers reached them she put her foot down and accelerated towards them, causing them to leap out of the way all except for one who hit the bumper and rolled over the bonnet. She jammed her bare foot on the gas, driving as fast as the car would go. Men scattered out of her path and the wheels squealed on the wet tarmac as she followed the road down to the main entrance. She could see the gates were too heavy and solid to just bust through. If she tried they'd both end up laminated across them. Two guards were running out of the little security checkpoint to bar the way, pulling out their guns and shouting at her to stop.
As she brought the Dodge screeching to a halt beside them, Scar exploded out of the car, causing the vehicle to rock alarmingly. He landed on the nearest soldier and punched him in the jaw, knocking his head to one side with a snapping noise. As he turned to the second guard, the terrified man raised his gun. The hunter thrust out one vast, clawed hand and knocked the pistol out of his grasp but not before the guard managed to squeeze off a shot, hitting him in the side. Without even slowing down Scar brought the other arm swinging round, wrist-blades shooting out, and impaled him through the sternum.
Emerald, green blood dripping down his torso and mingling with the rain, he smashed the window of the checkpoint booth and reached through the hole to press the button that opened the gates. As they slid open he turned and saw more soldiers coming up behind them, these ones were armed with larger guns. One hand pressed against his injured side he shot two of them with the plasma cannnon and threw himself into the ridiculously small human vehicle, blood-slick hands slithering on polished metal. As the car screeched through the gates into the darkness he heard a zipping noise and felt a stinging sensation. When he looked round, there were two large, black darts sticking out of his shoulder.
Agent Coulter reached the main gate in time to see the car being swallowed up by the blackness. Ostrowski was there already. As Coulter came alongside him he lowered his gun. "I'm pretty sure I darted the hostile." He said staring after them.
"Major!" Coulter yelled at him in frustration "Get the chopper, we have to get her back!"
"Chopper's wasted sir. It's just a heap of scrap." Ostrowski told him "Son-of-a-bitch took out most of the jeeps too. Main complex is still on fire, power's still out. Between 'em, they virtually levelled this whole place."
"Come on," Coulter growled "We must have at least one vehicle that's not a burnt out wreck."
The Dodge came to a halt a few feet away from the gully where the shuttle was hidden. Lex couldn't get it any closer – the suspension was already shot and the wheels were having difficulty with the terrain. The rain had churned the dust of the desert up into mud. She jumped out and went round to the other door. Scar was sprawled across the gap left by the passenger seat and backseat. He was barely awake, head lolling backwards and he'd been bleeding. The luxurious tan leather interior was smeared with his bright green blood.
She hadn't even realised he'd been hit with the darts until he'd started to get woozy about ten minutes ago and now he was having trouble staying conscious She leaned across and shook him desperately by the shoulder. "Get up S'Kia!" she said loudly in his language, knowing it was the best way to get a response "We are near the shuttle but you are going to have to walk. Get up!"
With an enormous effort he managed to drag himself out of the vehicle and stagger towards the gully, Lex doing her best to hold him up with one of his arms around her shoulders. Vivid, green blood oozed between his fingers where he held them pressed against the gunshot wound and green droplets spattered down onto the muddy floor. "I've got to keep him awake somehow or we'll never get out of here" She thought desperately "I don't even know how to fly that thing!"
"Does this remind you of anything?" She asked, struggling to keep him upright and walk at the same time.
He raised his head "You mean… the poison flowersssss?" His voice was slurring, drunk-sounding. She could tell he was finding it difficult to speak.
"Yes," She spoke through gritted teeth "Although you were not …quite so heavy back then!"
"Allowing myself… to be hit… careless." He mumbled indistinctly "You should…leave me here."
"Concentrate on walking. We are nearly there." They were now inside the gully, but he weighed a ton. Every step felt like she was wading through tar and every muscle in her body was aching.
He lifted his wrist-com and with difficulty focussing on the LED display punched the controls that uncloaked the ship. The shuttle rippled into view like an optical illusion and he pressed the controls to make the hatch open in its belly.
As they began to make their painstaking way towards it, she heard the noise of an engine at the top of the gully and her heart sank. "Please not now. We're almost there!" She still had the pulse rifle on its strap slung round her neck and she turned, her finger on the trigger, Scar still leaning heavily against her shoulder.
She saw the lights of another car in the darkness and two figures appeared at the top of the rise. Raising the gun she fired a burst in their direction and noted with satisfaction that they fell back – either retreated or shot down. She didn't care as long as they stayed away.
As she dragged him closer to the shuttle she heard a voice behind her and her skin crawled with loathing as she recognised it.
"Woods?" Agent Coulter shouted from over the lip of the gully "We've got you surrounded. Why don't you just make it easy on yourself and give it up?"
"Why don't you come and get me, motherfucker?" She yelled back, doggedly struggling towards the gangway "I'll shoot you, I swear to God!"
"I'll keep her talking," Coulter whispered to Ostrowski, Carravino and Rheinhardt "You get round behind them."
"Come on Lex," He called as the three surviving members of the unit crept into the darkness, "Don't be stupid! Where are you going to escape to?"
She said nothing, they were almost at the ship. "Just a few more steps." She thought. As they reached the gangway, Scar's legs gave way underneath him and he finally lost consciousness. He collapsed, nearly taking her down with him. She cursed and pulled at his arm in dismay but he was a total dead weight, she couldn't budge him. As she tried frantically to get him to wake up, a man in the same black fatigues as the four who'd attacked her in the complex appeared from the other end of the gully – gun trained on her.
"Put your hands in the air sweetheart." he said "End of the line."
She raised her hands as if she was about to co-operate. As he came forward she quickly darted behind the steps up to the ship, hearing projectiles smacking into the metal where she'd been standing moments before. Grabbing the pulse rifle, she shot him – hitting him in the shoulder. The impact spun him round. His kevlar vest must have protected him, because he recovered his balance and raised the gun but the wobble had given her the moment she needed and she shot him again – this time hitting him in the head.
She heard darts ricochet off the ship and saw two more figures in black coming down the gully. She crouched behind the walkway, panting for breath. They were wearing body armour too, bullets would only do limited damage – time for a change of strategy. Reaching behind her to where Scar was lying, she grabbed his plasma cannon out of his hand. Uttering a very brief prayer she popped her head up and shot a burst of plasma in their direction. She saw one man go down as the white, hot light scythed through his leg and fired again, knocking the other man off his feet as she hit him in the chest. She shot them both again, without waiting to see if they'd get up.
Suddenly she felt a muzzle pressed against the small of her back "Drop your weapons." said Coulter's voice behind her. There was nothing she could do but comply. Cursing silently, she let both guns fall, splashing into the mud.
"Turn around," he prodded her in the back "Slowly. Keep your hands where I can see them."
She turned, boiling with impotent fury "Don't get cute." He said, seeing her expression "Back-up will be here in a few minutes so you and me are just going to sit tight until they arrive."
"I knew there was plenty you were keeping back," He said after a moment, looking her up and down slowly and deliberately "But it didn't have to be this way Lex, still doesn't. If you'd just co-operate – "
"Then what?" She spat, holding herself back only with difficulty "You'll let me go? After you've taken my baby, cut it up and run tests on it? Or turned it into some kind of living weapon?"
His crooked grin became a disbelieving chuckle as he heard the anger in her voice "You can't seriously want to keep that thing you've got in there!"
"Even if I were the kind of woman who'd give up her child to save herself, do you think I'm an idiot?" She continued with a disbelieving laugh "Do you honestly think I'd trust you? I'd be left to rot in a cell or locked up in some legal black hole for the rest of my life. Because you can't have me telling people all this classified information, now can you? Or perhaps you were planning to give me a nice, quick bullet in the back of the head and a shallow grave somewhere under the desert?"
"Well your future sure ain't looking too rosy right now!" He admitted "You're a wanted felon and a multiple murderess – I think most folks would consider putting you down a service to society. Believe me things can get a lot worse for you than a shallow grave in the desert! But you can take comfort in knowing that despite all the men you've killed and the damage you've caused, you've actually delivered the biggest windfall we ever had. Now we've got you back and we'll soon have all the information in that messed-up head of yours; we'll have your hostile-hybrid baby, we've got this ship and we've even managed to bag us a live specimen. The Professor's eyes are gonna just bug out when we drag Daddy here back to the lab."
When she remained silent, he went on "I'm right aren't I? This ugly, mutant-lizard is the father – that's why he's here?"
She didn't answer him but scowled and looked away. He laughed "Sweet Jesus, I love being right! And you're prepared to kill for this thing?"
"To kill you? In a heartbeat."
He smiled with satisfaction "I knew your little amnesia act was bullshit! You're not some innocent victim. You're a stone cold killer. I can see it in your eyes. They've turned you into one of them."
"No." She shook her head, eyes glittering "You did that. Months on a ship full of monsters but it took coming back to humanity to really do the job." She was almost smiling.
"You keep on telling yourself that sweetheart,'" He shook his head, keeping the gun pointed at her abdomen "I saw how much you enjoyed it, all that violence and killing. Can't blame me for that!"
"And I've seen the way you look at me you sleazy sadist." She said evenly "You said yourself, the only reason you haven't tortured me already is because you want our baby."
"So it's 'our' baby now, not just 'yours'?" He raised his eyebrows at her and grinned, "Very sweet. Tell me, was it love at first sight or were you just scratching an itch when you let him stick it to you?"
Her lips curled back in revulsion "You're disgusting!"
"I'm disgusting?!" He laughed "I'm just trying to work out what it is you saw in the creature-from-the-black-lagoon here. What is he, the galaxy's smoothest talker? Cos I'm taking a guess it sure ain't his looks!" He gestured to the body of the unconscious hunter. Who was no longer there…..
"Guess again insect!" Growled a low, guttural, voice right by his ear. His eyes widened and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up in primal fear. Before he could move, two jagged blades erupted through his ribcage, spattering her with a shock of red blood and bone fragments right in front of his aghast eyes. He tried to turn his head, unable to make sense of what had happened for a moment, the agony almost too much to bear. With a snarl the blades were yanked free and he was thrown to the floor. Scar stood behind him, still swaying but on his feet and conscious.
Gazing up at the starry sky, Coulter saw the woman come to stand looking down at him, the creature loomed next to her, leaning over her shoulder. Through the haze of pain, he wasn't sure which was more terrifying – the blank metal mask of the hostile or her black eyes, seeming unnaturally large in her crimson-stained face.
"He talks too much… disrespectful," The thing slurred in her ear in grating English, seeming almost drunk from the effects of the tranquillisers "Do you want me to… pull out his backbone?"
"We don't have time for that." She smiled mirthlessly into Coulter's eyes, pointed the gun at his forehead "You see? He'd like to give you a really painful death. Aren't you lucky I'm so merciful?" She said, and fired.
At least now Scar was semi-conscious again he could half-walk, half-crawl up onto the shuttle but it still took Lex what seemed like an age to get him inside.
"You should .. not ...carry me," He mumbled "You will … injure yourself…"
"Stop your whining." She told him firmly as they reached the top "And start the engines."
He half fell onto the floor of the cockpit and flipped open the wrist-com. Squinting at the figures that swirled in front of his eyes, he tapped the controls. The door slid shut and then his head dropped forward onto the deck with a metallic thunk. She heard a roar as the engine turbines fired up and the craft shuddered.
He was out cold again, so she slid him along the smooth, metal floor to one of the chairs. Manhandling him into it as best she could, she strapped him in. That left her just enough time to fasten herself to the co-pilot seat before the shuttle blasted off.
Take-offs and landings always made her feel sick in these things. As the g-forces pinned her to the chair, she choked back the bile, not wanting to vomit. She was exhausted, tired to the bone. Sleep was pressing down on her as inexorably as gravity. She stopped resisting.
She woke up with a start when the baby moved inside her. Something seemed to have stirred it up and her stomach was churning, making her feel nauseous again. She wondered if that was normal – to feel it moving this early on "What the hell do I know about normal?" She thought, with a slight shudder.
The ship had stopped shaking. Looking through the viewing window she saw it had broken through the atmosphere and as far as she could make out, they were drifting in space.
Scar was still where she'd left him, sprawled across the chair. She had no way of knowing how long he'd been out, or if she should be worried about that. With a stab of panic she noticed that the bullet wound continued to bleed and his leopard-like markings were showing up sharply against his pallid skin. She'd been so worried about escaping she'd forgotten about the gunshot wound.
He was so still that, for one horrible moment, she thought he might be dead. Quickly, she put two fingers to his throat. To her immense relief there was a pulse there.
She rummaged frantically for the medikit she knew must be on board somewhere. It took her about an hour to work out how to use the weirdly-shaped equipment. She'd never managed to totally get the hang of their version of first aid. To her it always seemed to cause more pain than was strictly necessary, but at last she managed to finally stop the bleeding. She hoped the bullet wasn't still in there. "Hopefully gone straight through." she thought.
"I hope you plan to wake up soon," She said to him aloud, wiping her hands on her already-filthy clothes "Because I don't want to be drifting out here for ever."
She looked at her wrist-com in frustration. She knew by now what one or two of the characters meant, but she still had only the vaguest idea of how to use it. Giving up she closed it, casting a despairing glance at the bank of controls "I'll have to make you teach me to pilot this thing." She sighed.
She reached down and unfastened his mask, pulled it off. Resting her arms on his knees, she leaned forward to get a better look at him. His skin was covered with dried gore. She patted the side of his face a few times to see if he'd wake up but there was no reaction.
She felt a sudden wave of affection for him. He had come all this way just to find her, so he must feel some kind of loyalty or allegience to her. She hadn't thought him capable of any feelings like that.
"I can't believe you came after me." She said quietly, one corner of her mouth curving up in a smile "It's lucky you can take a licking and keep right on ticking. Why is it whenever you help me, you end up unconscious or bleeding?"
As she leaned over him, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. The yellow lynx-eyes opened and the slitted pupils expanded for a moment before focussing on her.
"I have often wondered the same thing." He said, still slightly lethargic from the sedatives "I have come to the conclusion that you are some sort of demon of mortification, sent to torment me for my transgressions against the gods."
"Then why are you here, if I am so terrible?" She cocked an eyebrow.
"Because, infernal female, I am prepared to shed blood – sometimes even my own – to keep what is mine."
"What?" She gave an incredulous laugh.
"Of course," He seemed deadly serious "I have taken you and you are carrying my offspring. You must realise that means you belong to me now."
"You are the one who travelled across miles of space just to break me out of prison," She glanced down at the gunshot wound "That is very loyal. Has it not occurred to you that maybe you are my pet?"
He closed his eyes and gave a rumble of laughter that evidently hurt him because it ended in a fit of coughing "You are just as thick-headed as I am…" He pulled at her wrist, bringing her nearer.
"Those darts must have scrambled your brains. No-one is as bone-headed as you are!" She said, but she was still smiling.
"Do you mean you were only "scratching an itch" when you let me – what was the human phrase again – "stick it to you"?"
"Of course! It was not your looks. You are unbelievably ugly, you know!"
He laughed again, louder this time, causing his whole body to shake "Uglier than that human germ, very amusing."
"Careful!" She put a hand on his chest, trying to make him stop "Or you are going to start bleeding on me again and I spent a long time patching you up."
"You have blood all over you already. A little more will not make any difference." He gripped her chin in one hand, turning her face first to one side, then the other so he could look at her properly "Hrrrrrrrm. And you killed D'Kand, finally. You cannot know how much that makes me desire you, even if you are pregnant. Really I should not even touch you, it is – "
"Forbidden?"She finished for him in English with a comic lift of her eyebrows "That word again! And here I thought you were an outlaw already. Anyway, what is a little deviancy between friends?"
Shameless!" He grinned wickedly "And you ask why I came to get you back?"