Chapter 26

One of the guards looked quizzically down the hall before turning to his partner. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. That's why I asked you."

Just then it sounded again. They both exchanged unknowing looks. It sounded like footsteps coming toward them from down the long hall. They both raised their guns. The first one took several steps down the hall before stopping. The sound of footsteps continued to come toward them.

"Who's there?" he called.

Suddenly the image of a face appeared halfway down the hall for only an instant. Both soldiers fired their weapons at the face which immediately disappeared. But the footsteps didn't. They continued to walk down the hall toward them. A couple moments later the face appeared again much closer. Once more they both fired their weapons at the face. This time, however, the face didn't disappear. The laser fire passed straight through the eerily smiling face. As it approached, the rest of the body slowly came into view. No matter how many times they fired their guns, the body kept coming toward them. Sudden recognition hit both soldiers at the same time.

"Bettino?" they screamed in unison.

The transparent figure reached out his two hands and placed them on either side of the two now paralyzed with fear soldiers' heads. With amazing speed and strength, he slammed the two men's heads together. They collapsed to the floor, unconscious. He then turned to the right and easily stepped through the wall.

The door opened and Barrett Caputi stepped into the hall. "What the devil is going on out here?"

He noticed the two guards lying on the floor. He quickly returned inside and slammed the door. He went to the communications console on the nightstand and tapped a button. The image of a woman's face appeared on the screen.

"Are you monitoring the cameras outside my hallway?"

"Yes, Sir."

"What do you see?"

"Nothing unusual, Sir. Everything appears… wait a minute… what the?..."

"What?"

"Your guards banged their heads together and fell to the floor."

"How is that possible? I saw them lying on the floor twenty seconds before I called you?"

"I don't know, Sir."

"Did you see anything else? Why did they bang heads?"

"I didn't see anything else, Sir."

Caputi shook his head. "Send me two more guards immediately."

"Yes, Sir."

It took a few minutes before Caputi heard someone outside his door. He went into the hall to see the new soldiers. They saluted and Caputi simply nodded in return. He slammed the door and went back to his bed. He had barely laid his head on the pillow when he heard one of the soldiers screaming and the unmistakable sound of a gun firing. He leaped to his feet and ran out the door. Once again both soldiers were lying unconscious on the floor. He rushed back to the nightstand.

"Did you see anything this time?" he asked.

The woman hesitated for a few seconds. She appeared to be watching another monitor. When she turned back to face Caputi, her eyes were widened beyond normal proportion. "The same thing, Sir. They seemed to bang heads together and then they collapsed."

"What the devil is going on?" he nearly screamed.

"I don't know, Sir."

He shook his head. He noticed that his hands were trembling. "Why am I seeing them on the floor before you are?" he wondered almost to himself. "Send me two more guards immediately."

"Yes, Sir."

This time Caputi went to the hallway to wait for the guards. In a minute, two more soldiers came running down the hall. When they saw the four unconscious guards, they slowed.

"What happened?" one asked.

"I don't know. Don't worry about them. Guard this door."

"Yes, Sir."

Caputi returned to his room. As soon as the door shut, he counted to ten and then stepped back toward the door. As soon as he touched the button to open the door, he heard both soldiers scream. The door opened wide and Caputi started out but instantly stopped in his tracks. He saw the image of Bettino slamming the two guards' heads together. Bettino turned to stare deeply into Caputi's eyes. The image of Bettino smiled. Caputi jumped back into the room and quickly slammed the door shut. He rushed back to the nightstand and grabbed the pistol beside the communications monitor. He turned back just in time to see Bettino walking through the closed door.

"Hello, Mister Caputi," he said. "Remember me?"

Caputi raised the weapon and fired. The laser passed straight through the ethereal form and imbedded into the door. He fired again with the same result. Bettino began to advance toward the nightstand.

"What are you doing here?" Caputi asked.

"What do you mean? I'm here to get my revenge. You killed me, remember?"

"I didn't kill you! I had nothing to do with that!"

The image laughed loudly. "Right," he said, unconvinced. "You are the man in charge here. Nothing happens without your knowledge or consent. You ordered my death. You are as guilty as if you had pulled the trigger yourself."

Caputi quickly looked around the room. "Who are you? I don't believe in ghosts! What's going on here? How'd you get in here?"

"You don't have to believe in ghosts. And as for how I got here? Well, if you remember, I was killed here. Maybe not in this particular room, but I was killed in this mansion. I tried to get even with you by sending my ship into your house, but your people were too quick. So now I've had to take matters into my own hands."

Caputi's eyes widened. "You sent your ship into my house?"

"I tried to. Well, actually I had Sharese and Captain Rogers try to send it into your house, but who do you think helped them find the ship?"

"What? Sharese? Sharese tried to kill me?"

The image smirked with pleasure. "Yes. I found out why she was trying to kill me. Apparently I inadvertently killed her parents during one of my prototype presentations. When you killed me, I appeared to her in a dream and told her that it was really your idea to destroy that city on Ballista Prime. That's when I told her about my ship. I tried to distract your technicians from seeing the ship that night, but they were too dedicated. I had hidden enough weapons on the ship that would have utterly destroyed the whole house. Unfortunately your people were too quick and destroyed the ship before it could get close enough."

"But I had that ship searched for weapons! That ship was stripped of everything!"

"That's what I let them think."

"But we went through the entire ship with sensors and everything!"

Bettino laughed again. He stepped toward Caputi who backed up until he ran into a wall. Bettino raised his hand.

"Go ahead and hit me," he said defiantly. "I have a personal shield."

Bettino impacted his right backhand squarely onto Caputi's cheek. Caputi staggered slightly as he surprisedly looked up at the figure. "How'd you do that?"

"Do you think a shield means anything to me?"

Quickly he punched him again on the jaw. Caputi's head slammed against the wall. He ducked underneath another punch and quickly moved back into the center of the room. "Get away from me!"
Bettino shook his head. "I'm going to kill you. You can't get away from me."

Caputi rapidly backed his way toward the door. He raised his gun and fired again. Once more the laser simply passed through the body. He opened the door and backed out into the hallway.

"Where do you think you can hide from me?" the figure asked.

"I know who you are!" Caputi screamed. "You're Sharese's partner! You won't get away with this! Leave me alone or I'll kill her!"

"You'd better hurry. I have to tell you that she's in her room right now plotting how to kill you… but she's not alone. She has Captain Rogers down there. It would appear that they've grown rather fond of each other since I handcuffed them together. I must admit that I did not foresee that when I handcuffed them. I figured she would end up killing him in his sleep. I guess I was wrong."

"You're lying! Buck Rogers is locked up in the basement!"

Bettino shook his head. "Not anymore, he isn't. In fact, none of them are."

"You're crazy!"

Bettino laughed. "No, I'm dead! And you will be soon too!"

Caputi rushed out the door and down the hall. Before he could reach the end of the hall, though, the figure had caught up with him and punched him in the back of the head. Caputi reached the stairs and ran down three at a time. Half way down the stairs, he felt someone push him in the back. He went flying face first and tumbled down the rest of the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he fired his gun up the stairs. He scrambled to his feet and rand down another hall. Just before he reached the door to Sharese's room, Varek appeared several feet away further down the hall. Caputi skidded to a stop. He looked fearfully at Varek for only a moment, and then turned around and looked down the hall from which he had just come. He turned back to Varek.

"How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Get in front of me! You just pushed me down the stairs! How'd you get in front of me?" he screamed.

Varek narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about? I wasn't upstairs."

Caputi chuckled unsurely. "Right. And I suppose now you're going to tell me that Sharese isn't in there with Buck Rogers trying to figure out how to kill me!"

"She is in there with Captain Rogers, but they're not plotting your death. They are engaged in… something else," Varek said, allowing his voice to trail off.

"Right," Caputi said sarcastically.

He stepped toward the door control. "I wouldn't go in there," Varek said.

Caputi raised his keycard and slid it into the door control. The door opened. He took one more look at Varek before entering the room. He took several steps into the room and then suddenly stopped. Buck and Sharese were lying topless in the bed, kissing passionately with Sharese on top. At the sound of the door opening, they both turned their heads to face him. Sharese quickly ducked underneath the covers and rolled behind Buck who already had a pistol in his right hand. He fired at Caputi who instinctively jumped back. The laser fire impacted the personal shield and harmlessly dissipated before it could reach Caputi's body. Caputi raised his weapon and aimed it at Buck. Before he could fire, however, Bettino's image stepped in front of him and knocked the gun to the floor with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. Caputi backed out the door and looked down the hall. His heart stopped when he saw Varek standing there exactly as he had before he had entered the room.

"What the? How'd you do that?"

"Do what?" Varek asked.

"You just punched the gun out of my hand!"

Varek shook his head. "I didn't do anything. I was standing here the whole time," he replied sincerely.

Varek took one step toward Caputi. In an instant Caputi turned and ran down the hall. Varek stepped into the doorway and looked inside. Buck gave him a thumb up and smiled. "You've got him on the run, Varek! Go after him! We're right behind you!"

Varek disappeared down the hall as the door closed. Buck started to get up, but Sharese pulled him back down onto the bed.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.

"Shouldn't we go after Caputi?"
She climbed back on top of him and pulled the sheets over their heads. "Not yet. We're going to finish what you started," she said seductively.

"What I started?" he asked incredulously.

She grinned slyly. "Yeah… what you started."

He started to say something else, but quickly forgot what he was going to say.

Caputi ran into his office and saw Wilma sitting behind the desk and working on his computer. "What are you doing?" he screamed.

"I'm looking at your records," she replied matter of factly. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Like hell you are!"

He reached for his gun before remembering that he had lost it a few minutes ago. He broke into a run toward the desk, but before he could get there, Bettino's imaged appeared and punched him in the face again. Caputi fell to the floor. "Stop doing that!" he screamed.

Bettino smiled. "What's wrong, Mister Caputi? Getting frustrated? What would you say if I told you that your factory was about to be blown up?"

"You're full of it! We already found all the bombs they planted!"

Bettino's image pretended to look at a watch on his wrist. "Okay. Keep believing that. Oh, wait a minute… three… two… one..."

He pointed at Caputi who still sat on the floor. Suddenly the whole mansion seemed to shake as a loud explosion sounded outside. "That would be your factory blowing up," the image said.

"How?"

Bettino smiled as he kicked Caputi in the ribs. "Don't worry. Your house is safe and so is the spaceport. I can't say the same for your factory, though. Your shield kept all the damage inside. Except for the ground shocks, though."

Caputi scrambled to his feet. "I'll kill you!" he hissed.

Bettino laughed loudly. "You already did, remember? Can I give you a little piece of advice?"

"What?"

"Run! Run for your life! If you're fast enough, you might reach the spaceport before I do. In fact, I'll even give you a thirty second head start."

"And do what?"

"This is your one and only chance to escape me." He looked down at his nonexistent watch. "Twenty-five seconds."

Caputi turned on his heels and ran out the door. Wilma giggled as she looked at the form of Bettino. "Nice touch!"

He turned and grinned at Wilma before disappearing. Seconds later Varek entered the room. "Was Caputi in here?" he asked, huffing.

Wilma's grin disappeared. "Of course he was. You just sent him to the spaceport with a thirty second head start!"

Varek shook his head. "No I didn't."

"Varek, if you're trying to scare me, stop it!"

He held up his hands. "I swear to you I just got here."

"Are you telling me that you didn't punch him in the face and send him to the spaceport?"

"I am. The aftershock of the explosion sent a ripple effect through my body. I am currently incapable of changing my molecules. I am as human as you are."

He tried to put his hand through the nearest wall but failed. Wilma slowly stood. "Then who did I see?"