Captured (The Prometheus Project Book 2) (8 page)

Dan’s arm jerked backward and his rifle fell to the floor once again as the merc prepared to take a third, and final, shot.

C
HAPTER
10
A Deadly Threat

“F
reeze!” shouted the merc, his finger pausing on the trigger.

Dan raised his hands in surrender and tilted his head, almost imperceptibly, toward the two siblings. He shook his head, so slightly as to be unnoticeable to anyone but Ryan and Regan, and his eyes burned fiercely, sending them a message they correctly interpreted as,
Don’t you dare help me and reveal yourselves
.

Dan kicked his rifle hard, sending it sliding toward the merc, and followed quickly behind it until he was in front of the man who had shot him.

Two other soldiers rushed to either side of the new opening in the orange wall and raised their rifles so they were pointing straight up. They signaled to each other as if trying to time a plunge through the hole.

Ryan and Regan, still hidden from view, realized in
horror that they were seconds from being discovered, but they also knew that if they moved their discovery would be just as certain.

“Stand down!” ordered Tezoc.

“It’s standard practice to clear an area after you’ve found an enemy combatant there,” protested one of the men.

“I said stand down. There’s no one else there. In fact, there are no other humans in this entire city. I guarantee it. There is no need to clear anything.”

The men relaxed their posture, lowered their weapons, and returned to their initial positions.

Inside the hallway, the siblings allowed themselves to breathe for the first time since the incident began. That had been close. Too close. And now Dan was a captive also. Things were looking hopeless.

Tezoc walked over to Dan and studied him as he stood bleeding in the middle of the floor. “Captain Walpus,” he said with satisfaction. “Welcome to the party.”

He bent down and picked up Dan’s assault rifle and handed it to one of his men. “Kicking your weapon, Captain? I thought the United States Special Forces trained their soldiers better than that. You guys are supposed to be the best in the world. I’m disappointed.”

Ryan, continuing to watch through the small hole near the bottom of the wall, knew exactly what Dan had done. If the mercenaries had bent over to pick up his
weapon where it had fallen, they almost surely would have seen where he and Regan were hiding. Dan had rushed from the hallway for the same reason—to protect them.

The soldiers allowed Dan to tear a thick strip from his shirt and use it as a makeshift bandage on his arm to staunch the flow of blood. The bullet had gone cleanly through the muscle of his upper arm. It was painful, but all things considered, he had been very lucky.

Dan studied the man who had shot him. In addition to his short stature he was quite thin, with a hard look on his face. While all of the other soldiers had long since removed their black knit ski-caps, he was still wearing a hat, except his was a heavy black baseball cap rather than the knit variety initially worn by all the others. The man was very slow and deliberate in his movements. Even so, there was something about him that radiated danger more so than any of the other soldiers. It would be wise to stay clear of this one, no matter how sleepy he appeared. “Your back was turned,” said Dan finally. “What gave me away?”

“
I
gave you away,” boasted Tezoc before the merc could reply. “I signaled your position to Major Manning here,” he said, gesturing to Dan’s attacker, “my second in command. He took care of the grunt work of shooting you.” He leaned forward. “You see, Captain Walpus, I could sense your brainwaves.”

Dan raised his eyebrows. “My brainwaves?”

“I’m sorry, Captain, did I forget to tell your Colonel Sharp that I can sense brainwaves? I’m a bit telepathic as a matter of fact. I would have sensed you earlier but I was preoccupied. That is how I know there are no other humans remaining in the city. If there were, I would sense their minds, no matter how far away.”

“How is he missing us?”
asked Regan telepathically.

“When the Teacher changed the frequency of our minds so we could communicate with it better, it must have put us on the wrong frequency for this guy to pick up.”

“So it wasn’t the Teacher we’ve been feeling against our minds,”
broadcast Regan in disappointment.
“It was Tezoc.”

“I guess so. That must be why we only felt it when we entered the building.”

While the siblings had been communicating, two of the mercs had bound and gagged Dan and had shoved him on the ground with the other prisoners.

“Now where was I?” said Tezoc, turning back to Carl. “Too many interruptions.” He paused in thought. “Oh yes, I was saying I suspected you were trying to stall me for some reason. Do you remember?”

Carl nodded. “Yes. And I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think you do,” said Tezoc. “Let me help you out. You’re waiting for the cavalry to storm in here and rescue you.”

Carl said nothing.

“Go on, admit it. As I told you, I know all there is to know about your security. Unless your men upstairs get the proper signal from down here every few hours, they’ll check up on things. When they find they can’t reach anyone in security down here, they’ll investigate further. In no time at all they’ll learn what happened and sound the alarm. Within hours they’ll have the entire military might of your nation converging on Pennsylvania to storm this city, secret or no secret. Is that about right?”

Rage flashed across Carl’s face, but only for an instant. While his eyes still burned like twin lasers, he forced the muscles in his face to relax. He would not let Tezoc know he was scoring points. Once again, Carl chose to remain silent.

“Well I hate to disappoint you,” continued Tezoc smugly, “but they won’t be coming. I’ve been planning this for a long time. I’ll admit, I had to adjust my plans recently when I discovered that humans had found a way into the city here, but that just made things more interesting. You see, Colonel Sharp, once my men were all inside this city, I closed down your entrance. I fried the equipment you were using to keep the doorway open with a timed, electronic pulse.”

Tezoc smiled, quite pleased with himself. “I think we both know what that means. No cavalry will be coming
to the rescue, Colonel. All the tanks and jet fighters in the world, even if you could get them this far underground, won’t even
scratch
that force-field. No military heroics will get you out of this. Which means that I can use this city as a base of operations for as long as I like. And unlike you, I know how to make use of the technology here.”

“Congratulations, Tezoc,” said Carl. “You’ve won yourself a base of operations. But consider this—you’ve just traded in your prison on Morca for a larger prison here. Even if you brought the technology to reopen the entrance, the military will be waiting for you in the cavern whenever you decide to leave.”

“Good point,” said Tezoc smoothly. “That’s why I’m not exiting through your cavern.”

“Where else?” said Carl.

“Since, as you say, all of your forces will be concentrated at the cavern, I plan to stay as far away from it as possible.”

Carl shook his head. “So you break through the force-field somewhere else. What good will
that
do you? This city’s buried. You’ll have nothing but granite and limestone and clay for a mile above you.”

“Come now, Colonel, you insult me. Haven’t I already demonstrated that I plan very carefully. I know how to use the technology in this city. These cities are all laid out exactly alike. There is equipment here that will
allow me to cut through your mile of rock in a single day and emerge far from where anyone would think of looking for me.”

Carl fought to stay calm and alert and not dwell on the horrible implications of Tezoc’s words. “Well, it appears you’ve thought of everything,” he finally said, grimly, deciding his only remaining hope was to try to get Tezoc to become overconfident and lower his guard.

Tezoc shook his head bitterly. “No, Colonel,” he said, frowning. “Not everything. I did make one miscalculation. After I destroyed your entrance, I found that the technology I brought with me to open a hole in the force-field somewhere else isn’t working. I’m still not sure why.”

“So you’re trapped in here, after all,” said Carl, brightening visibly.

Tezoc smiled. “Only for a short while, Colonel, only for a short while. It’s true that I’m now unable to get back through the force-field. But aren’t you forgetting something?”

Carl looked blank.

“Aren’t you forgetting that the only man on this planet, including me, who has proven he can get through the shield is in this very room.” He pushed the gag back into Carl’s mouth. “It’s been fun, Colonel, but there is someone else I need right now.”

Tezoc walked to the scientists and went straight for
Ben Resnick, pulling him abruptly up off the floor and removing the gag from his mouth.

“Dr. Resnick, how are you? I must say, when I was gathering intelligence for this mission, I was impressed to learn you had managed to get through the Qwervy force-field—and not much impresses me. I need you to do it again.”

Ben Resnick did not respond.

Tezoc put his hands in front of him, palms outward, in a gesture of apology. “I’m sorry, I should have said
Mister
Resnick. I forgot. Even though you’ve earned multiple doctorates in physics you prefer the simple title of Mister. How rude of me.”

“Look, ah … Tezoc,” said Ben Resnick. “Breaching the barrier is impossible. I don’t have the proper equipment.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” came the calm reply. “I’ll make sure you have all the computing power and equipment you need. I’m sure you can measure the frequencies of the force-field on the inside of the city and make any recalculations that are necessary.” His tone changed from pleasant to deadly serious. “You have six hours.”

“You can’t possibly get me to help you, and even if you could, it can’t be done in six hours anyway.”

Tezoc shrugged. “Well, I hope for their sakes,” he said, gesturing to the scientists, “that you’re wrong
about that. Because in six hours and every hour there-after, if there isn’t an opening in the force-field, one of these innocent people is going to die horribly.”

Tezoc smiled broadly and leaned in closer to Ben Resnick’s face. “Starting with your wife,” he whispered ominously.

C
HAPTER
11
Planning a Rescue

B
en Resnick shrank back in horror. “How do I know you won’t kill us all anyway, even if I succeed?”

“You don’t,” snapped Tezoc bluntly. “But you and your colleagues are among the most talented scientists on the planet. I might need one of you again someday. You’ll just have to take my word that I won’t harm any of you. Provided I get full cooperation, of course.”

Tezoc made a show of looking at his watch. “You’re down to five hours and fifty-nine minutes,” he said pointedly. “Ready to start work, or would you like to chat some more?”

The alien didn’t wait for a response. He selected three mercenaries. “The four of us will go with Mr. Resnick here to work on our escape,” he announced to his other soldiers. “The rest of you stay here and guard the prisoners. Major Manning will be in charge when
I’m not here. Follow his orders as you would mine. The three million dollars I guaranteed each of you is just the beginning. Prove your loyalty to me and the sky’s the limit.”

After a short telepathic discussion, the kids decided to follow Tezoc and their father. They already knew where the prisoners were being kept. But if they failed to learn where their father was being taken they might not be able to find him again.

Tezoc and his group set out in a green Hauler. The large electric truck was easy for the siblings to see from a great distance and allowed them to lag far behind and still follow in their golf-cart. Not that the soldiers were paying attention to the terrain behind them anyway. Tezoc’s mental abilities made them overconfident; certain that the towering alien would detect anyone following them, and just as certain that there was no one left to do so anyway. They surely would have paid far more attention had they known there were two kids in the city who didn’t register on their boss’s personal radar screen.

The mercenaries stopped against a seemingly random part of the city’s barrier and set up camp. Tezoc handed their father a small computer and an object that he could use to measure various forces in the wall and explained their use. He then sent his men, one at a time, on various errands, carefully describing the location and appearance of the equipment he wanted them to gather.

After only thirty minutes, a large table and full complement of chairs from a nearby building had been moved to the site. The table was made from a yellow-colored alien material that was cool to the touch and remarkably smooth. Ben Resnick sat at the table furiously studying data and formulating ever more complex equations for the computer to solve.

A considerable distance away, his two children were carefully peeking around the side of a building, watching.

“Tezoc never leaves Dad’s side,” whispered Regan. “And there are always at least two of the three soldiers guarding him.”

“I think we need to try to rescue him anyway,” whispered her brother. “Those men are watching Dad just to make sure he doesn’t try to get away. They can’t possibly be expecting a rescue attempt. I think we can surprise them.”

Regan shook her head. “It’s
suicide
Ryan. We wouldn’t stand a chance. Plus,” she added, “we don’t know anything about Tezoc. He could be stronger and faster than he looks.”

“We can’t just do
nothing
while time runs out,” protested Ryan.

“I agree. But if we’re going to try a suicidal rescue, let’s at least try one that makes sense. Let’s go back to the other building and try to rescue the prisoners there. If you count Tezoc, there are four people guarding Dad.
That leaves five soldiers at the other building—three inside and two guarding the entrance.”