Part 9
"I would, honestly I would happily over look this in the name of medical science," Richter lowered his voice. "If there weren't five men outside this room with guns telling me they'll raise this building to the ground if I so much as administer eye drops on Mr Harper."
Beka paused as she considered the doctors words. "They are in the building?"
"Five of them," Richter offered.
"Does one of them resemble a rat?" Harper asked, sounding tired and down.
"He means a Nightsider, is one of them a Nightsider?" Beka corrected.
"The main one," Richter nodded his head.
Harper frowned. "Great the circus is in town," he remarked.
"Let me guess, the minute we leave this room they'll surround us and take us someplace we don't want to go," Beka crossed her arms.
"They are just outside the room," Richter agreed, then lowered his voice again. "I can help Mr Harper, if you can lose the unwelcome guests."
"If we lose them, you cut your price," Beka bargained.
"You take Yussuf's attention away from this place and I'll consider it," Richter stated.
"Look, the only way that will happen is taking me away from this place," Harper spoke up.
"Fine," Richter agreed. "Give me five minutes to get my stuff together; I trust you have a ship."
"Wait, you want to come with us?" Beka checked unsure. "Why would you want to do that?"
"I hate Yussuf, I hate his attentions on this establishment more," Richter stressed, and then looked at Harper. "By helping your friend I will defy Yussuf, by doing that away from this establishment, I protect it from attentions that will no doubt hinder our work here, whilst at the same time furthering our work by seeing if we can operate in the field so to speak."
"You want to use me as a guinea pig," Harper figured.
"So far all our work has taken place in this building, which is of no use to anyone that is not in this vicinity, in need of urgent care," Richter explained hurriedly, as he began to pack a case.
"How are we supposed to smuggle you, as well as ourselves out of this building?" Beka demanded.
"How's Mr Harper's head for heights?" Richter asked, moving now to the window with a packed case.
"What?" Harper panicked. "Can't see, remember?" he stressed.
Beka moved to the doctor's side to glance out of the window. "We're only three floors up, Seamus," Beka informed him. "The ledge is fairly wide, and there's a ladder running up the side of the building."
"No!" Harper argued.
"Gerentex is right outside, Harper, ready to finish the job he started on you," Beka now spoke with urgency, grabbing Harper's still healing wrists to further her point. "Do you really want to end up in Yussuf's clutches again?"
"So it's either slavery or risk falling from three storeys to my death?" Harper reasoned. "I'll risk the falling," Harper decided quickly, and with Beka's guidance he moved to the now open window.
"If we stay either side of him, he should be ok," Richter figured, as they climbed out onto the ledge, giving extra assistance to Harper.
"Keep close to the wall, Harper," Beka now encouraged, and then heard the door being kicked in from inside. "Move!" Beka ordered, and both Harper and Richter quickened their pace, as Beka retrieved her weapon and they shuffled along the ledge outside the building.
"Rebecca Valentine," Gerentex called out, leaning outside the window from the office they had just vacated.
"I'll kill the good doctor if you try to follow," Beka warned.
"And why would that bother me, it's the boy I want," Gerentex returned, as he climbed onto the ledge. "Or are you trying to get my share of the bounty?"
"You are not going to touch Harper, or claim any bounty on him," Beka warned.
"Too late, I already have half, now I just seek the rest," Gerentex smiled.
In that moment Harper stumbled with his footing and slipped downwards, it was only a combined effort of both Richter and Beka that stopped him from falling from the ledge, as he panicked now in their hold, frozen by his own error in judgement.
Beka looked over to Gerentex and saw the look of panic on the rat's face, confused for the moment she then figured it out. "You need Harper alive, not dead, right?" Beka called out, as she assisted the doctor in bringing Harper back to an upright position on the ledge.
"No, he said I had a bounty on me for my death," Harper spoke breathlessly, clinging to the wall now, remembering Gerentex's words.
"Things have changed," Gerentex confirmed, now on the ledge with them. "Why do people always ruin my fun, my plans, but now the boy is wanted alive."
"Why?" Beka demanded.
"I do not question why, I am simply the messenger," the Nightsider shrugged. "Now hand Mr Harper over, so I can fulfil my obligation."
"No way," Beka returned angrily. "I am taking this doctor, and Harper and we're going to get everything fixed and then you can tell your boss that we won't stop until it's his head on a plate, understand?"
"You were always a feisty one, Miss Valentine," Gerentex sounded almost impressed. "But you see in the time it's taken for me to have this little chat with you on this perilous ledge, my men are down there waiting for you."
Beka looked down and saw four men waiting for them, and then looked towards Harper still looking panicked.
"What now, boss?" Harper asked when he heard nothing from Beka to Gerentex's words.
"Well, it seems Gerentex has no back up now, all his men are down there," Beka slowly smiled and armed her weapon. "Three against one," she added, pointing her gun at Gerentex.
"The doctor and some crippled kludge do not scare me," Gerentex said, but still cautiously stepped back.
Beka fired off a shot and caused Gerentex to almost loose his footing from the ledge as he stumbled back in fear, only just recovering in time but now on his back and in no position to fight Beka, as she aimed her weapon at him.
"But I should scare you, and right now, I'm not in the best of moods," Beka stressed, turning back to the doctor. "You, bring him and follow me," she barked, allowing Gerentex to see her forcing the doctor to do something, as he took hold of Harper and hurriedly escorted him behind Beka.
Once back inside the office and having locked the window trapping Gerentex outside, Beka turned to the doctor. "Another exit?" she demanded.
"Follow me," Richter stated, and allowed Beka to take over guiding Harper.
They hurried through a number of corridors, until finally they found themselves outside on a walkway that connected to the next building. Beka didn't have to say a word, as the doctor gained them access to the adjourning building. Before they knew it they were standing on the street, looking back at Gerentex's men, who were none the wiser.
"One day Gerentex will hire muscle who actually give a damn about his missions," Beka partly smiled, seeing the hired hands idly in conversation unawares that their boss was trapped on the ledge above, not hearing or maybe ignoring his cries.
"How did Tyr ever get mixed up with that rat?" Harper questioned.
"Probably from the moment Gerentex mentioned something called the Andromeda Ascendant, bound to get any Nietzschean's attention," Beka offered. "Now follow me," Beka ordered, and the doctor took hold of Harper.
"Doc, you best give me back my sight because I'm growing tired of being the parcel in this 'pass the' game," Harper fumed, but knew he had little choice as they began to move briskly once again.
Reaching the Maru without incident, Beka wasted no time in powering it up and they all seemed to hold their breath until the moment the ship left the space port, and headed towards the first slip point.
It was some time after they exited the final slip point that Beka appeared, and she saw the doctor had been busy in the crew quarters, sorting out his few pieces of medical equipment so it now resembled a makeshift medical theatre.
"Where's Harper?" Beka asked, not seeing him in the same room.
"He went to engineering, he could hear something and wanted to check it out," Richter answered. "He's coping quite well with his blindness, I have to say, has some independence in the places he knows."
"It's hard to keep Harper down," Beka offered, with a little pride in her voice. "You can help him right, away from your centre?"
"I want to try," Richter offered. "You even convinced me that I was being taken against my will, so hopefully the centre won't get any heat from Yussuf for looking at your friend."
"I want to thank you for caring, I mean I would have understood if you just handed us over," Beka offered with a smile.
"In my spare time I am part of an organisation trying to bring down Yussuf's regime, a few months ago we were very close to overthrowing him but something went wrong, Yussuf's life was saved, but we'll keep trying and I will continue doing all I can to just spite the man, and all he stands for," Richter declared.
"Yussuf's life was saved," Beka repeated and suddenly looked a little unsure, she knew it was Harper that had foiled that plan, and wondered if that little point would make a difference to the doctor's willingness to help.
"We heard some slave saved him, but apparently things were poorly managed, and it wasn't the best of plans, but we keep working at it," Richter enthused, distracted as he arranged some medicines.
"I need to speak to Harper, would you excuse me?" Beka offered politely and quickly headed to engineering, knowing she had to share what she had just discovered.
TBC
