Taarkhul Prime, Mokk City. No Place like Home.
Canessa took aim at the closest charging Ghoiite warrior, but Trek's voice cut her off.
"No! Down the hatch! NOW!"
Kern threw him a troubled look.
"Do it!" The K'tan dashed for the access chute.
Twenty warriors were only ten
meters away. Trek pointed his gun straight above his head and fired six
successive shots. The Ghoiites paused in
their charged, confused by such an inexplicable maneuver,
until they gazed up and saw the shells slam into the steel girders of the
ceiling one hundred
feet above them. An ear splitting explosion shook the
room. Trek jumped feet first down the hatch as three tons of steel fell
crashing down on them.
The Ghoiites hesitation cost them dearly. Half their
number were crushed under the falling debris.
The Kelshran Assassin glared with venomous eyes. The hatch way had been buried as well.
"Remove that rubble, you maggots." said his icy cold voice.
The Ghoiites still breathing on their feet did as he ordered.
ul'ek was formed into digging tools as body parts and steel were thrown
from the pile.
______________________________________________________________________
Trek fell into waist deep water
and dove forward as an avalanche of steel and stone crashed behind him.
He surfaced with a mouth full of brackish water,
but was none too worse. Canessa threw his arm over her
shoulder and helped him to his feet.
"You all right?" she asked
"Yeah, just bubbly," said the lawyer as he tried to knock the water out of his ears.
"What the hell did you do up there?" she asked looking up to the debris choked chute with incredulous eyes.
"I got lucky. Your Kelshran friend
up there underestimated us.
That won't happen again."
"He's not my friend!" said Kern with undisguised hate.
"If you've got a story to tell, I'm listening," said Trek. He emptied the water from his barrel then threw Canessa a look. She shook her head.
"No, not here."
Already they could hear the digging
noises from above. Trek stood up under his own power and for the first
time noticed his surroundings.
It was a narrow tunnel running slightly down hill in
front of him, and inclining steadily up behind. The odor was far from pleasant.
"This way," she said.
They marched down the tunnel
in silence for about fifteen minutes until they came to a wide chamber.
In the center was a man-made lagoon
of deeper water, with a steel mesh catwalk running around
its perimeter. Floating in the lagoon was a small, two person craft, a
rusted submersible.
Canessa hit another button on her palm device and the
side doors of the craft opened.
"Get in," she said
"Hold on," added the lawyer
Reaching behind his jacket to
the small of his back, Trek removed an Archaen puck charge. He placed the
explosive device on the underside of
the catwalk nearest the tunnel entrance they just came
through. Mounted to the steel on magnetic clamps, he set the motion-detector
detonator for
two meter radius, and then stepped back. The charge gave
him a five second delay before activating. He was satisfied.
"All right, let's go."
The two secured themselves inside the craft, and
within moments the small ship submerged below the brackish waters.
______________________________________________________________________
The sub dove deep into the open waters of the reservior. Trek looked around in the interior of the craft with doubtful eyes.
"This thing safe?" he asked. Canessa glanced over at him.
"It's better than swimming."
Accepting that, he folded his arms across his chest.
"So, where we going?"
"My safe house. It'll take a while."
"Care to spend it by telling me what the hell's goin' on, and why a Kelshran Assassin is after you?"
Canessa gave him another look, this one more measuring.
"What did Waf'fic tell you?"
"He said you had access to KRF
internal records, and that you knew
what Ghoiite faction the UAC
were selling weapons to."
"Ghoiite faction?..." she said in a skeptical voice.
"You... don't know anything about... a Ghoiite faction?" he said with fearful tones.
"No! What the hell are you..."
Both occupants suddenly froze.
Something large and darker than the murky waters outside swam past their
craft. Canessa cut her engines and
the craft slowly powered down. Trek could feel them sinking
into the deep. He threw her a look that spoke volumes.
"I don't know what they are. I've never got a good look at them."
"Them!" raised the lawyers voice. Canessa placed a finger to her lips.
"Keep it down. They hunt by sound."
The next ten minutes were spent in absolute paranoid silence. Finally, Canessa pointed through the canopy to a dull light just seen in the murky distance.
"My safe house," she whispered.
Slowly she brought the engines
to life again, and pushed the craft ahead. Trek made out the rocky cliffs
of the canyon wall, and a large cave lit by
three strong lights. Canessa maneuvered the ship through
the opening, and into a long tunnel. After a few twist and turns the K'tan
raised the small sub
to the surface of a subterranean cave whose rocky ceiling
loomed ten meters over head. She powered down the craft.
The two got out and Canessa lead
the way down a tunnel illuminated by floating glow lamps. A visible force
field was up ahead, blocking their way.
The K'tan disabled it with a voice command allowing the
two to pass through. They entered a wide chamber of machine-cut stone,
and a single throw carpet.
Laundry was thrown about the floor, along with books-pads,
computers board, tools and empty packs of food rations.
"No place like home, huh?" said Trek as he kicked aside an empty bottle of Fanjaki Fighting Cactus liquor.
Canessa sat down at a makeshift
computer terminal and initiated the Mainframe. Trek stepped closer and
looked over her shoulder. It didn't take long for
him to realize that she had all the necessary components
to hack into the T-Prime Informational Network, and from there into the
Omnet's as well. The Archaen
whistled at the set up, he was impressed. He looked back
at Canessa. Till now he had been patient, conversation in the sub didn't
seem like a good idea.
"All right, so you don't know
anything about the Ghoiite faction.
So why did Waf'fic arrange this
meeting?"
"He said you were someone looking
for the internal records of a
KRF weapons sale to the UAC.
Here..."
She handed the lawyer a data crystal. Trek accepted the rod, but her words placed him deeper in thought.
"Did the UAC specify a particular Q-dex for the weapons to work in?"
"Yes, off hand I don't remember
which, but It's in the record. I
can say though that they, oddly
enough, were 'not' for the RDD,
Thras Divas, or the Archaen
Empires."
Trek stroked his chin.
"That is odd."
"There's more." Canessa punched up another screen.
"Waf'fic said you'd be interested in this."
The Archaen's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the screen.
"Mother of Ishtar... When did this happen?"
"About a month ago."
Never before had the lawyer felt the need for a strong drink. He sat down and looked at Kern.
"This is why the Kelshran Assassin was after you."
"After us, now." she said with a heavy tone.
"Mrs. Kern, just... who the hell are you?"
The K'tan drew silent at that. It was several moments before she spoke.
"Once, I was someone very happy... "
She glanced up at the lawyer.
"My husband and I used to work
for the KRF as research analysts.
I'm from the K'tan Empire, and
Jarred, my husband, was Archaen.
Ex-patriots, both of us. Three...three
weeks ago we came across
that information through an
internal memo that was mis-sent tous."
She arced her chin at the screen.
"Jarred got curious, looked into
and obtained that
information in the crystal that
you're holding."
Trek tighten his grip.
"Where's your husband now, Mrs. Kern?"
"He's dead." And she looked at him with defiant eyes.
"The Kelshran?" he asked
"Yes," she whispered, and spat on the floor. Another uneasy silence settled in.
"I'm sorry Canessa." said Cameron. The K'tan nodded and looked away. Trek looked back to the monitor.
"What's up with your screen?"
"What?!" She snapped back and visibly gasped.
"Shit! NO! No! No!... "
Her fingers repeatedly stabbed the consoles 'Abort' button, but the on screen information began to corrupt into negative images and swirls of static.
"What's wrong?" asked Trek in a worried tone.
"It's the assassin, he's found my back door. Damn it, no!"
But no explanation was needed. Trek knew the result of
a Worm-virus when he saw one. The database was destroyed in seconds.
______________________________________________________________________