Part 22
Harper was past screaming as they brought his head down hard against the wooden table, before leaving him to collapse to the floor in a bloodied and dazed heap. Groaning slightly, Harper felt a hand on his arm and instinctively shirked it away as he wallowed in his own pain.
"Harper," Lucas's voice spoke up. "Drink this, it'll take the pain away, come on."
Reluctantly, and despite the pain, Harper rolled onto his back before Lucas helped him to sit up. Taking the beer bottle, Harper took a large gulp and then spat it out, seeing the liquid on the ground mixed with blood. Lucas silently offered him a clean damp cloth, and Harper began to wipe his sore face.
"They beat you pretty bad this time; did they have good reason to?" Lucas asked stepping back.
"Do they ever?" Harper sneered, as he put the cloth down and began to drink the beer, this time swallowing.
"Did you sneak away and talk to Dylan?" Lucas asked accusingly.
"Does it matter?" Harper dismissed angrily, avoiding eye contact with Lucas but suddenly felt his shirt being grabbed and before Harper could react Lucas had him pinned to the ground, his hands around the engineer's throat.
"It matters!" Lucas sneered with rage. "My sister, my wife and my kids are going to be killed because of you!"
Harper closed his eyes, unable to face Lucas as he tried to recover his composure, with Lucas's weight on him restricting his movement. "Trust me," Harper simply said before his head snapped to the side, as Lucas struck him.
"Just don't forget what's at stake here," Lucas stressed. "I need you to do what they ask, or so help me, I will kill you myself like I should have done the moment I took you from Marika!"
"What?" Harper caught and looked at Lucas. "You rescued me."
Lucas just sneered. "I took you to kill you myself, for Marika; I didn't want the tech police taking away my right to do the job myself!"
Harper was suddenly afraid, Kalika had been cagey about Lucas's reasons for rescuing him and now it was clear why. "Lucas, I'm helping you, you have to trust me!"
"I only trust you to mess things up, like you did for Marika, but I swear you will not claim my families lives this time, Marika's death is enough for your skills in messing things up!" Lucas pushed down on Harper before returning to the bar, leaving the human sprawled on the floor still dazed and confused.
Dylan walked onto the Maru with a sombre expression, and beside him Trance and Doyle seemed equally sad. Beka looked over at them and watched as Doyle disappeared towards the crew quarters, before Dylan with Trance moved to join her at the server and Beka knew things were not going well.
"Nothing," Dylan declared. "We covered a lot of ground today, and we're no closer to finding out anything on where Kalika and the others are being held."
"Same here, scans showed nothing," Beka frowned. "I'm beginning to suspect they're not on Seefra one."
"And if that's the case, they could be on a planet that is about to burn," Trance offered with concern.
"Harper's not holding up well, Trance and I briefly went into the bar and he looked rough, they are just using him as a punch bag," Dylan added with concern.
"He didn't even notice us," Trance frowned. "Some patrons were pushing him around, and no one was helping him, he's all alone and we're not helping him," she feared.
"So what do we do?" Beka asked. "We can't just hope we find Kalika and Lucas's family, and expect Harper to take that kind of treatment."
"I was hoping you would say that, but that leaves us with just one option, one I fear will meet objections from some," Dylan offered and on cue Rhade walked into the serving area.
"We go to the bar, and we play into those psychos hands," Rhade stated, surprising everyone. "Look, I hate wasting time and right now that's what we're doing and from all accounts it seems there's happy hour at the bar now, where you get to beat Harper, so let's go," Rhade decided.
"No beating Harper," Beka made clear as she got to her feet. "We're the good guys, remember?"
"Ruin all my fun," Rhade complained.
"Everyone is ok with this?" Dylan checked and saw no objections. "Where's Doyle, we need her too."
"I'm here," Doyle stated, appearing at the doorway. "You said these goons threatening Harper do not realise I am not human?"
"Yes," Dylan answered a little unsure.
"Then, I will use this to my advantage," Doyle declared with a secret smile.
"To help Harper?" Beka checked.
"To help us all," Doyle corrected, and moved past them all to be the first to leave the Maru.
"What is she planning?" Dylan asked, a little doubtful.
"I don't know, but you can be sure I'll be keeping a close eye on her," Beka decided and checked her gun was holstered before heading after Doyle, and the rest of them followed, knowing they were all about to walk into a trap that could be deadly.
Harper held his ribs tightly as he tried to stop himself coughing, but it was no use and he knew his old condition was coming back with a vengeance. The situation he found himself in was dire, and he hoped for some form of breakthrough soon but since he'd told Dylan, he'd heard nothing from any of his old friends. He was hurting, and Harper knew he was sick, not just with a chest infection but the rash was slowly spreading up his arm again, and his concentration was suffering. He wasn't sure if it was the illness taking him again, or just the countless blows to the head he had received in the past week, but he knew he was suffering.
"Hey, Harper," Lucas entered the room. "Need your help out here."
Harper couldn't stifle the coughing fit any longer and despite the pain, he started coughing and felt himself fall to his knees with the pain, as he struggled to stop the coughs.
"Come on," Lucas was now by his side. "Don't die on me now, I need your help, we have customers, expected customers, the ones we've been waiting for, it's nearly over," Lucas stated.
"Who?" Harper gasped wearily.
"Your friends, a little late but you did it, and they're here now," Lucas informed him.
"What?" Harper showed his confusion before dragging himself up. Before he could reach the bar to see for himself the two goons appeared, and they were carrying something that he knew were the explosives, disguised as two innocent bottles of wine, he knew this because he had designed and built them under their watchful eye.
"Lucas, discreetly warn our valued customers to vacate the premises," the goon holding the bomb advised before turning to Harper. "And you keep your friends busy, make sure they don't leave."
"What?" Harper eyed the bomb, racking his brains to try and figure a better plan but nothing was coming forward, he felt tired and was not ready for this.
"Give them this, compliments of you, the owner," the goon spoke knowingly, as he handed Harper the bottle. The second goon then produced a fire arm and pointed it at Harper.
"No funny business," the second goon warned, and reluctantly Harper moved away with the bottle in his hands, and entered the bar.
Seeing his friends, Harper headed towards their table feeling weak and useless as he approached. The illness and his situation catching up with him, as he continued to draw a blank, it was as if his mind had shut down and there were no more ideas to be found.
"Harper!" Doyle exclaimed on seeing him, taking Harper by surprise as she rushed up to him and embraced him tightly.
"Doyle," Harper acknowledged and returned the hug, knowing he was being watched. "I've erm, missed you a lot," he offered, as she pulled away.
"Is this for me?" Doyle asked excitedly, as she took the bottle from him.
"For all of you," Harper gestured as he stepped forward and acknowledge the others sat at the table.
"Bomb right," Doyle spoke under her breath, having analysed the bottle quickly, and Harper briefly nodded. "Leave it with me."
"Harper, are you ok, you're not looking too good," Beka stood up next and took a good look at her friend.
"I'm ok," Harper lied, and then accepted her brief embrace. "Have you found," he paused and took a moment, as his memory failed him. "Crap, you know," he prompted and slightly panicked before it came back to him. "Kalika?" he finally asked.
"No, sorry," Beka whispered before tensing up. "Did you forget her name? Oh god, Harper," Beka made the realisation and then grabbed his arm for the confirmation.
Harper's face fell on hearing the news that they had failed and he barely registered Beka's fresh concern for him, instead he stared at Dylan with confusion who in turn was looking around noticing the emptying bar.
"There's a festival going on, for the locals," Harper hastily explained out loud. "Don't worry, they'll be back."
"Rhade take the ally, block any attempts to escape, Beka, Doyle with me, Harper, Trance is outside across the street, go!" Dylan then quickly ordered and they all got to their feet.
"What? No, what's going on?" Harper asked with panic, this wasn't good and he started to fear for the conclusion.
Doyle waited for Beka and Dylan to go ahead and then took hold of Harper, and showed him the bottle.
"I knew you'd figure it out," Harper offered, seeing the bomb had been deactivated.
"Change of plan, you're coming with me, Harper," Doyle simply said. "Come on."
"No, we have to stay," Harper demanded knowing what was at risk if he left, before suddenly finding himself swung around as Doyle intercepted a bullet intended for him, fired by the goons just as Beka and Dylan fired back.
"Come," Doyle insisted.
"Kalika, what about her?" Harper pleaded.
"Someone else is on that, don't worry," Doyle assured him. "Least I hope so," she said under her breath, that Harper didn't catch it. "Don't worry, they're safe, they always have been," Doyle assured him. "Right now, we have to leave."
She grabbed his arm and headed for the door but on leaving a volley of small rocks and stones bombarded them from the locals outside, one caught Harper high on the head and he immediately slumped with a groan into Doyle's arms. With no guarantee of safety leaving through the front door, Doyle headed back inside and saw they were now alone. The others had been led to the back rooms where they could hear the goons were still fighting back. She wondered what to do, with Harper semi-conscious in her hold and knew the only option was to continue the fight, with her escape effectively blocked by mad locals.
"Doyle," Harper murmured after a moment, as he begun to come around and Doyle helped him find his balance as he regained his senses. "I knew I forgot something, something important, there's a second device," he spoke with sudden shock, just before the whole bar shook and an explosion ripped through the room, and Doyle was knocked from her feet to the ground as the building collapsed around them.
Dust still hung in the air as Dylan wearily recovered consciousness, his mood brightened on seeing that the two goons they had been fighting were still out cold from the blast that had ripped through the building. Shakily getting to his feet, Dylan retrieved some rope from around some crates and tied the two guys up that had been using Harper as a punch bag for the past couple of weeks.
"Dylan?" Beka opened her eyes and then groaned.
"I'm right here," Dylan spoke as he moved to her side and he checked for injuries. "Are you ok to stand?"
"Yeah, just a little dazed," Beka offered as she moved to a sitting position. "I take it that blast was intended for us?"
"I would assume so," Dylan agreed and then sighed. "And I guess Doyle had different plans."
"Yeah, what was with that?" Beka shook her head to try and clear the fog. "I swear if she does anything to Harper, I just hope she kept to the plan and she just ensured Harper met up with Trance."
"Right now I don't know what to think," Dylan admitted.
"Dylan, Beka?"
"We're here, Rhade," Dylan called out as Rhade and Trance entered the back room.
"Wow, lucky escape, this is the only part of the building still standing, the bar has collapsed," Rhade offered, looking around.
"Where's Harper and Doyle?" Trance looked around with concern.
"Didn't they meet with you guys?" Beka was suddenly alert.
"They tried but there was this group outside the bar, as soon as they tried to leave they bombarded them with rocks, I couldn't do anything to help," Trance feared.
"We never saw them come through here," Beka paused.
"Meaning they were in the bar," Dylan realised, and he got to his feet helping Beka the rest of the way.
"No," Beka was shaking her head.
"There was a secondary device, and Harper knew that," Another voice spoke up and they recognised it as Lucas, who was lying in the corner looking dazed. "He should have come through here, why didn't he?"
"He forgot," Beka spoke in barely a whisper. "The virus, it's come back and he must have forgot, why else didn't we see him?"
"There was a good thirty seconds between me seeing them return the to bar and it exploding, if they had run they should have made it back here with no problem," Trance supported.
"What about my family?" Lucas now offered, sounding in despair.
Trance moved to Lucas's side, seeing he had a large gash to his head. "We will find your family, don't worry," she inspected the wound. "I should take Lucas back to the Maru and fix this," she motioned and as she helped Lucas to his feet with no protests from the others, she stopped and froze for a moment. "You still have time," she announced.
"What?" Rhade asked, not getting the last part.
"Harper, there's still time," Trance stated with uncertainty. "Don't ask me why, but I feel it."
"Good enough for me," Dylan declared. "Let's at least try to recover him and Doyle, if nothing else."
"Right behind you," Beka agreed and Rhade followed them outside to begin their rescue bid.
TBC