Disclaimer: Anyone here not know the deal by now? Check the prologue!
With exceptionally grateful thanks to Gamine, beta-reader extraordinaire (not to mention all round wonderful person). Also with thanks to Chris and Irina who've both read and offered me feedback that shaped the writing of this chapter. Lastly, thanks to Ekat who took a quick look over this after I decided (at 7pm the night before posting) to do a couple of majorish re-writes... I am not worthy!
This chapter does come with a minor content warning -- yep, it's another one that earned this story its R rating.
Please offer feedback, it tells me how I'm doing.
~*~
Chapter 10 -- Dealing with the Past
The weight of the Silver Guardian equipment harness would have been a constant reminder of what she was going to do even if the mission had somehow managed to slip Kimberly's mind. Not much danger of that, she mused. The very fact that she was lying, flat, just on the brow of a small hill, looking down over a disused ore processing plant tended to prevent forgetting the mission.
When they'd reached the rendezvous point with the recon. team, Peterson had spoken with the four-man team before devising the final plan. He had paired everyone off and positioned them at various points around the ore processing plant. Kimberly had found herself partnered by Hines.
"Nervous?" Hines asked softly.
"A bit," Kimberly admitted.
"Me too," Hines replied.
Kimberly looked at Hines. "You're a Marine!"
"And?" Hines shook her head a little. "Doesn't mean I stop getting nervous."
Kimberly realised the stupidity of her own statement and ducked her head in embarrassment. "Sorry."
Hines grinned. "It's OK."
Kimberly sighed. "Think the ten of us can take this place?"
Hines nodded. "It's not going to be easy, but we have the element of surprise on our side. Smaller teams have accomplished bigger tasks."
That was something Kimberly couldn't dispute. In some ways, given her past, she was a little surprised by just how nervous she was about this. But back then, we had backup on an amazing scale. What do we have now?
~*~
"Well?" snapped Lemont, entering the control room.
"Well what?" bel Abis retorted. "Did you enjoy your little chat with Mr Myers?"
Lemont snorted. "Son of a bitch."
"I'll take that as a no."
Lemont grabbed him by the shirtfront again. "I want to know what you're going to do about Cawdron and his little minions."
"We," bel Abis said pointedly, detaching Lemont's fist from his shirt, "are going to do nothing. My men, on the other hand, are going to spring a trap."
Lemont stared. "A trap?"
bel Abis smirked. "Whilst you were venting your fury on my guest, my aide, Ishmal was putting the finishing touches to the ambush."
"Ambush? What ambush?" Lemont grabbed him again. "Stop talking in fucking riddles and get to the point."
"Colonel Peterson is, even as you stand her ruining a perfectly good shirt," bel Abis responded, again detaching Lemont's hands, "is preparing to storm this compound."
Lemont paled. "This?!" he exclaimed. "This was your plan? Lead the bastard here?!"
"So quick to judge." bel Abis shook his head in mock sorrow. "Ishmal Mushtaq is one of Peterson's sources. He is also my aide -- and completely loyal. It is amazing what you can get for the right price," he mused.
"Get. To. The. Point," gritted Lemont.
bel Abis smiled displaying a full set of teeth. "The point, sir, is that I have had Ishmal feed Peterson certain pieces of...regrettably false details. They will be arriving shortly, if they are not already here, expecting this compound to be barely defended. They will be in for an extremely rude awakening."
Lemont glared. "This had better work."
"Or what?" retorted bel Abis. "You'll kill me? I hardly feel threatened by that -- if this fails to work we will both be dead. So it is in my own best interests that it shouldn't fail. And it won't."
~*~
In the darkness of the void, Lemont's words echoed through Eric's mind.
You might not know dear ol' dad, but I do.
There was absolutely no reason for him to believe Lemont's comments and yet... And yet they wouldn't leave him alone. Largely, he realised, because bel Abis had been making similar insinuations.
The hallucination he'd had of his father returned to him. That was his idea of what his father was like. Unlike all the other hallucinations, that one hadn't been much of an exaggeration. Long years of not knowing the slightest thing about his father had left him with only a vilified, shadowy being. Yet here were bel Abis and Lemont -- men that clearly wanted to do him harm -- suggesting his father might actually care.
Eric shook his head.
It didn't make sense, unless bel Abis and Lemont were trying to unbalance him. Which on past form, was highly likely.
Eric frowned. No, it didn't make sense.
And then the light came on again. Hard on the heels of that came a loud klaxon.
~*~
The first stage of the assault had gone well, Kimberly judged. The guards -- or at least, she amended, all the visible guards -- were taken out swiftly by Ben, Rocky and the four members of the recon. team, leaving the way clear for herself, Hines, Cawdron and Peterson to head into the buildings. Unfortunately, there, the luck ran out.
"I thought this place didn't have much in the way of security," Kimberly muttered.
"What?" Hines replied, yelling to make herself heard over the sound of the klaxon.
"Find Myers!" Peterson ordered, pointing down the hallway. "We'll deal with bel Abis and Lemont!" He gestured up the stairs towards what would have been the control room of the processing plant.
When he puts it like that, it sounds so simple! Kimberly found herself thinking.
Without further ado, Peterson and Cawdron departed up the stairs.
"This way!" Hines yelled.
"Do you know what we're looking for?" Kimberly asked.
"It's a small cell-like room," Hines answered, "and it's somewhere on ground level."
"Oh great." What I wouldn't do for one of Billy's gizmos right now...
"Keep sharp," Hines added. "Who knows what else is lurking in this place."
They progressed crab-wise along the corridor, Hines covering the rear with Kimberly leading, looking for any signs of the cell but there was nothing but blank walls. No doorways, no windows, no crossing passages.
"Get the feeling we're being herded towards something?" Kimberly mused, making sure her words were loud enough that Hines would catch them over the still droning alarm.
"Yeah," Hines agreed. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"Don't," Kimberly retorted. "That's what Eric said on Tuesday night right before this all blew up."
"Copy that," Hines answered.
Suddenly, the klaxon cut. Kimberly wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. As if cued, the double doors at the end of the corridor swung open.
"Holy. SHIT!"
~*~
Eric wasn't entirely surprised when the door of his cell slammed open -- the noise reverberating even over the deafening noise of the klaxon.
"Looks like you're screwed," he observed.
"Do not bet on that, Mr Myers," bel Abis snarled. "Your friends have just walked into my trap. Do not imagine for one second I will let you go as easily now as I did in Kosovo. You are mine."
"You're a sick fuck," Eric retorted.
"And you're dead one." Eric felt the business end of the cattle prod jammed against his spine.
"I don't think so."
Before bel Abis had a chance to think about those words, Eric hauled on the manacles, wrapping his hands around the chains and pulling himself up. Starbursts of pain exploded in already abused shoulders. Eric gritted his teeth and continued, pulling himself up and over in an ungainly somersault as bel Abis stabbed forward with the cattle prod.
Off balance, thanks to missing his intended target, bel Abis staggered forwards as Eric completed the somersault. As he came down, he kicked out at the stumbling man, sending him crashing to the ground. The cattle prod was jarred from bel Abis' grip and sent skittering across the floor.
"You will pay," bel Abis hissed, climbing to his feet.
"Guess I must have left my wallet in my other pants," Eric retorted, hauling on the chains again as bel Abis stepped closer. "Night-night."
bel Abis had one moment to look puzzled, then Eric managed to hook his left leg around bel Abis' neck and trap it against his right leg. The surge of pain the action brought was incredible -- and grew worse as bel Abis clawed and struggled against the restraint -- but Eric gritted his teeth and refused to let go. The simple knowledge that if he didn't put bel Abis out now the other man would kill him leant him the strength and determination.
bel Abis' struggles gradually weakened and eventually died away. The other man's dead weight pulled at Eric's shoulders and the burning, tearing pain forced him to relinquish the hold sooner than he'd have liked, but any worries he might have had about bel Abis' condition were settled by the boneless heap the other man dropped into.
Then a wave of pain and nausea over took him and the world faded out.
~*~
Kimberly stared in horror at the five guards who had come through the double doors.
"Oh fuck!" Hines exclaimed.
Kimberly glanced over her shoulder and saw what Hines was looking at. More guards.
"Well, we've got two options here," Kimberly rationalised. "Either we stand here and get killed or..."
"Or we kick some butt," Hines finished. "Are you up for that?"
Kimberly snorted. "Like big and ugly are going to give me that choice."
"Right."
"That's if they've got the guts to take on li'l ol' women," Kimberly drawled.
"Well just..."
But whatever Hines had been about to say was lost as the nearest guards reached them. Reacting instinctively, Kimberly ducked beneath her attacker's flailing arms and drove her shoulder into his stomach. He reeled away, retching.
"What do you know -- he does have guts."
The quip drew a bark of laughter from Hines who was already dealing with her first attacker. "Not any more."
Then there was no time for talking. The guards pressed their advantage of numbers and Kimberly found herself falling back on moves she thought she'd long forgotten. At one stage she found herself facing off against two guys at once. Grabbing one of them by the arm, she used him for balance while she donkey kicked the guy behind her. As he reeled away, she pulled the guy she had hold of towards her and twisted, throwing him into the guy she'd just kicked.
"I pity Eric if he ever pisses you off," Hines breathlessly observed.
"He's got more sense," Kimberly answered, ducking beneath another wild lunge and driving her shoulder into another stomach.
"Need a hand?" Rocky asked as he and Ben joined the fray.
"Man -- I thought there were supposed to be less than twenty of these guys..." Hines muttered.
"Well now we know what bel Abis has been doing in his spare time," Rocky quipped.
"We do?" said Ben, puzzled.
"Yeah -- cloning goons."
"Save it and hit them," Hines advised. "Kim -- you've gotta find Eric. We'll take care of these guys."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" The response came in triplicate.
Kimberly didn't bother wasting breath replying. Instead she made for the double doors. A thug stepped into her path.
"Ugly -- either get outta my way, or...oh to hell with this!" Kimberly pulled her so far unused blaster and stunned him. He hit the ground in an insensate heap as she raced passed and through the double doors.
Beyond the double doors, Kimberly found herself on the factory floor of the main ore processing facility. The machinery had all been stripped out, leaving a cavernous, echoing room...with hundreds of side doors.
"Damn it!"
Hurrying, she started to investigate each room in turn. Most of them were padlocked with locks so rusty that it was clear no-one had been near them in years, which sped up the process a little, but all the same, Kimberly began to feel a creeping sense of panic. This is going to take forever!
Her eyes were drawn to a door towards the far end of the room. Unlike the rest, that one was open and, in the gathering gloom of dusk, light was streaming through it.
Can I risk skipping ahead to check that one?
A barely audible groan settled her mind. At the worst, it was some other unfortunate who needed help. She ran towards the lighted doorway, blaster in hand should it be needed. Another groan reached her ears as she neared it, making her pick up her pace even more. Regardless of who it was, they needed help and quickly.
She skidded to a halt in the doorway, frozen to the spot by the scene that greeted her. From the basic shape and height, she knew this had to be Eric but... Kimberly shuddered. All she could see from her position in the doorway was a view of his back but that was almost more than enough.
She wasn't sure what shocked her more. The fact that he'd been chained, naked, just high enough that he couldn't properly support his weight on his legs or the fact that there was an obviously new and oozing burn mark at the base of his spine that stood out, livid, even amid the existing scars.
"Holy shit..."
~*~
Lemont watched the close circuit television view of the hallway. What had looked like a hopeless cause for Peterson's two women was rapidly turning into a rout for bel Abis' lackeys.
A glance at another screen told him that bel Abis wasn't going to live to regret this.
I think it's time I got out of here, Lemont decided, turning for the door...
...Just as the door imploded.
Instinctively, he took a step backwards as Peterson and Cawdron entered.
"Well, well, well," said Peterson. "If it isn't my good buddy Aaron."
"Going somewhere?" queried Cawdron in a deceptively mild tone of voice.
Lemont started to back away from them. "I can explain!"
"Oh, I'm sure you can," retorted Cawdron.
Lemont backed away another step only to find himself suddenly pinned against the wall by Peterson. "Where is bel Abis?"
He managed to free a hand and point at the bank of monitors. "He's down there."
"Frank -- you might want to get down there," Cawdron commented looking at the monitors.
Peterson didn't turn round. "What is it?"
"Eric."
For a millisecond, Lemont thought Peterson was going to just let go of him and this would be his chance to escape. Then his head clashed heavily against the wall as Peterson rammed him against the brickwork and everything faded into darkness.
~*~
Kimberly forced herself to walk into the room. That was when she spotted the body, sprawled out on the floor at Eric's feet. She wasn't sure, but she figured it was probably bel Abis. That was born out as she got closer and realised whoever it was had been an Arab of some description. Guess you finally got him, she found herself thinking.
As she got nearer, she saw other things that made her stomach heave. Blood and other bodily fluids had pooled at his feet in a sickly smelling mess. More blood had run down his arms from where the sharp edges of the manacles had cut into his wrists. Beneath the general grime, darkening bruises were starting to be visible.
She finally moved round to stand in front of him and saw the full horror of the gunshot wound to his thigh. It was open and raw and crusted with dried blood. Fresh blood was seeping out over the crust, slowly adding to the congealing puddle.
"Oh my..." Kimberly bit her lip trying to hold back the tide of nausea.
"Kim?"
The hoarse, incredulous query finally tore her gaze away from the wound. Looking up at his face she could see a haze of pain and confusion written large on his face, between the dried tracks of tears and more bruising.
"I'm going to get you out of here," Kimberly stated, hoping that what little food she'd eaten that day would remain put.
"How?"
Kimberly eyed the height of Eric's hands. "No point in looking for keys..." she mumbled. She eyed the brackets the chains were fastened to. "That's a possibility..." Decision made, she thumbed the blaster power setting from stun to kill. She glanced at Eric's face again. He was all but unconscious. Not good. "Eric...hon, please -- stay with me. I can't do this on my own."
"'M trying..." he whispered.
"I'm gonna slag the left bracket first," she informed him. "Think you can catch yourself when it goes?"
She watched him swallow and put a literally visible effort into staving off unconsciousness. "Go for it."
Kimberly didn't like this. There was a huge risk that it would hurt Eric all the more but it wasn't as if she had an alternative. She took careful aim at the bracket and fired a steady pulse of energy at the metal fitting, slowly turning it into so much slag. The second the chain came free, she stopped firing and dived forward, helping to steady him.
"OK?" she asked.
There was a long, endless second before Eric finally, weakly, nodded.
"OK," she said, looping his now freed arm around her shoulders. "I'm gonna do the same for the other bracket now. Lean on me," she directed. "I've got you."
"I trust you," he mumbled.
Despite the situation, Kimberly found herself smiling. "It's going to be OK," she promised.
Wrapping her left arm around his chest and turning sideways, so that her left shoulder was virtually into his armpit, Kimberly took a second careful aim. This one was the difficult one. If she didn't catch him as the chain came free he'd land on his injured leg. On any other occasion, under any other circumstances, she'd back him to be able to catch himself. But not here. Not now.
"It's OK," she murmured. "I've got you." She fired again.
The bracket turned malleable. The chain came free. Eric started to drop, unbalanced. Kimberly tightened her grip, pulling him to her. He gave a huff of pain as his right arm dropped but nothing more.
But now he was free...now what?
"C'mon," she murmured. "We've gotta get you out of here."
"'Sno good...I can't..."
Kimberly felt Eric go limp and she suddenly found herself supporting two hundred pounds of unconscious man. Even though she'd been half expecting it, she staggered and would have fallen, taking Eric with her, but for someone catching her.
Kimberly yelped in panic. She hadn't been aware of anyone having joined her.
"It's OK," said the someone. "I've got him now."
Kimberly's head whipped round. Peterson. She wanted to still be angry with him, but the relief of having help -- even his help -- overrode most of her residual anger and what was left over was killed off by the flat out worry visible in every line of Peterson's face.
"You can let go, I'm not going to drop him," Peterson promised.
Reluctantly, Kimberly released her hold on Eric and watched as Peterson picked up Eric's unconscious body as though it weighed nothing. Relieved of her task, Kimberly found reaction setting in. She realised, somewhat to her shock, that she was shaking.
Everything seemed to get confused after that realisation, as if she was seeing things in snatches. One minute she was still in that abominable room, the next she was in Rocky's arms, then she was in the back of the SUV. None of it seemed connected. The only continuous thread was worry over where Eric was.
"He's fine," Rocky tried to assure her.
"But he's not...so much blood...so much...so..." and Kimberly found herself bursting into tears.
"It's no good, she'll have to go with him."
"She has more right than I do."
"But..."
"She has more right than I do, John. You know that."
The words floated through Kimberly's mind and then she found herself being lifted once more. There was another 'blink' and she found herself lying on a gurney in the back of an ambulance. It would have been disconcerting but for someone saying,
"Eric's right here. He's going to be OK."
She managed to focus her gaze in the direction the speaker had indicated and sure enough, Eric was there. Still unconscious but somehow looking better all the same. He is going to be OK...
The relief of that realisation finished what the crying jag had started and as the ambulance started rolling, Kimberly felt herself drifting off into sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED...