Chapter 4

Liam checked the address on the global Augur had given him. He was at the right place. It looked deserted, but appearances could be deceiving. He would have to be cautious.

            Liam went round the side of the building, he didn't see any kind of security in place, but that didn't mean it wasn't there, just that it was well hidden. He looked closely at the door in front of him, but it looked safe enough to enter.

            He went in quietly, the hall ahead was dark. For a moment he wished he'd had the sense to bring some night vision goggles with him, but all of a sudden, they weren't necessary. The hallway was suddenly flood-lit. For a moment Liam was blinded it was so bright, he hadn't been expecting it.

            By the time he recovered it was too late, there were four armed men standing in front of him, very ready to shoot if he moved. Liam raised his hands, and the men came towards him. He thought of trying to fight, but the odds weren't good.

            They checked him for weapons and removed his gun and the global. They couldn't know about the chaqarava, but Liam knew they would kill any human, so if he were to use them, he would have to be desperate.

            The men bound his hands behind him, now it was impossible for him to use the chaqarava even if he wanted to.

            He was led down the hall, past several closed doors into a small room, where he was left alone. The door was locked as the men left. Never once had they asked who he was or what he was doing here. That was a bad a sign, it implied that maybe they knew who he was, and even why he was here. Actually, they hadn't spoken to him at all.

            He wasn't left alone for long, soon the door was unlocked and two men and a woman came in. Liam's hands were still bound behind him, so he just sat there, unsure what they would do now.

            "How many are with you?" They questioned him without introduction.

            "Excuse me?" Liam said, he was confused now, did they think some one was with him?

            "You heard me, how many people are waiting outside."

            "No one, I came alone." He said earnestly.

            "He's lying," said one of the men who had brought him here. "They're not brave enough or stupid enough to come alone, any of them."

            "I'm telling you the truth." Liam insisted.

            "Why would you come here without back-up?" Asked the woman.

            "What back-up? Who would help me?" Liam questioned.

            "We know you work for the Taelons." The other man said.

            "And thanks to you lot they think I killed one of them." Liam pointed out.

            "What?" The woman looked unsure. "They wouldn't turn on one of their own puppets that quickly." She stated with disgust in her voice.

            "Well I'm no-bodies puppet." Liam pointed out. "And they sure think it was me. Care to tell me why you set me up?"

            "We didn't set any one up." She said defensively now, she was confused. She turned to her companions. "What did you do?"

            "We did what you said, distort the local area with various bands of radiation, confuse their scanners when they show up, give us time to get out." He told her. It was the truth.

            She turned back to Liam and raised her eyebrow. "How would that implicate you?"

            "I don't know. Are you sure you didn't leave anything behind?" He admitted, but somehow, they must have got hold of one of the weapons from the Mother Ship, one that he had used before. Sandoval never left the Mother Ship, so his presence could be accounted for. As could the rest of the protectors, and they were sure it was an inside job. If only Liam hadn't turned off his global, they would have been able to verify his presence at the time of the murder.

            "It's a trap." One of the men said, "we help him and they arrest all of us."

            "I agree." The other man concurred, "we should kill him and be done with it."

            "No." Said the woman sharply, "that's something they would do, not us. We'll return him to them. If they really do want him dead, they won't want him back." She reasoned. "So we'll ransom him, it will be interesting to see what lengths they would go to get him back."

            They left then.

            A cold feeling settled over Liam. Zo'or would want him back. He would give him to the scientists to conduct experiments on, it wouldn't take them long to figure out he was different. Granted Liam wanted to know just exactly what he was, but dissection wasn't quite what he had in mind, certainly not while he was still alive! Maybe if he was lucky Zo'or would just kill him.

            However there was nothing he could right now, the binders were too tight for him to wriggle out of. He would have to wait and see if he got a chance. Besides, Lili and Augur knew where he was, they would come eventually wouldn't they?