Jason King: Agent to the Stars 1: The Enclaves of Sylox (41 page)

Chapter 16

T
he moment the cell door was closed and locked, Adam was already planning his escape. He was desperate now, determined to do anything necessary to avoid accompanying the yellow-hair Juirean to yet another alien planet and more banal questioning about something he knew nothing about. But he would need Kaylor and Jym’s help, and at the moment he didn’t have any idea how much help they would be.

Kaylor had fallen back on one of the cots in his cell and was just lying there, staring at the ceiling. Jym was on the other cot, but he balled up in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and giving off soft whimpering sounds.

Adam moved to the bars separating the two cells. “Listen up you two,” he hissed. “We’ve gotta get out of here. There’s no way I’m going with that son-of-a-bitch.”

Kaylor continued to stare at the ceiling.

“Snap out of it! I need the two of you to pay attention.”

Kaylor cocked his head slightly in Adam’s direction. “It’s no use, Adam. There’s nothing we can do at this point.”

“Bullshit! What was he talking about in there … about some sort of a cleansing?”

“A
brain
cleansing,” Kaylor said. “They are going to erase our memories. It is supposed to be selective, but I’ve never heard of a perfect cleansing. We will probably lose a couple years of memories, if not more, and then beings who have had it done are never the same again.”

“Then we have to get out of here while we have a chance.”

Kaylor looked at him as if he was crazy. “Do you not see where we are?”

“I can get us out of here. But then we’re going to have to get off this planet, and that’s where you come in.”

Kaylor sat up and Jym stopped his whimpering. “How … how can you get us out of here?”

Rather than tell him, Adam moved to the front of his cell, braced his back against the left side bars, and pushed against a front bar with his right leg. After a few grunts, the bar began to move. He then shifted sides and pushed on another bar until he had a separation wide enough to squeeze through.

Jym and Kaylor stood near the bars of their cell, staring in shocked disbelief. “What
are
you?” Jym asked.

“Never mind,” Adam said as he moved over to the bars between the two cells. Bracing himself against the cell wall as he had done earlier, he bent the bars wide enough for the two aliens to slip through and into his cell.

Soon the three of them were all outside of the cells and in the corridor. Adam knew that the processing room was located to the left, so they hurried down the corridor in the opposite direction. Adam had no idea what was beyond the door at the other end of the cell block, but he was willing to take his chances. The only
plan
he had was to make it back to Kaylor’s ship and get off the planet. With so few options available, doing
something
was better than just sitting in cell and waiting.

At the door, Adam motioned for the two aliens to remain silent while he tested the handle. It was unlocked. He opened the door a crack, just enough so he could see two Nimorians sitting at a desk, one gnawing on some food, the other typing on a keyboard.

After taking a deep breath and firming his resolve, Adam suddenly burst through the door, and before the two Nimorians could react, he was upon them. He caught the typist with a vicious right cross to the alien’s chin – and in a cascade of blood and shattering bone felt his entire fist sink deep into the alien’s skull.
Jesus Christ – I just ripped off half of his face!

Next he brought his left elbow across his body, striking the other Nimorian on the back of the head. Again the cracking of bone and the spray of blood, and soon both aliens lay on the floor, dead beyond doubt. With his right hand covered in alien blood and brain matter, Adam quickly removed the sidearms from the guards and strapped one around his waist. He tossed the other holster to Kaylor – who promptly had it fall through his hands and onto the floor.

“Pick it up, damn it, and put it on!”

Kaylor bent over and obeyed, his mouth hanging open as he surveyed the carnage Adam had just caused. Adam shrugged it off; casualties of war….

They were in a large foyer area, with a flight of stairs leading up and a long, deserted hallway leading away from the desk. At the far end of the hallway was a set of double glass doors with what looked to be a large room beyond and natural light streaming in. With an MK-17 in hand, Adam hurried down the hall toward the exit. Kaylor and Jym followed close behind.

Almost immediately, three burly, black-haired Nimorians appeared through a side door and nearly collided with Adam. As they panicked and went for their weapons, Adam calmly placed three quick bolts of blue fire into them as he sped past while hardly breaking stride. In this case, the weapon’s targeting computer never did vibrate, as it found nothing to lock on to.
What a worthless piece of shit,
Adam thought.

Suddenly, the entire building was rocked by a violent explosion. The double doors at the end of the hallway shattered inward as clouds of black smoke billowed into the hall and toward the trio. Screams and yelling could be heard all around, interlaced with a cacophony of electric popping sounds.

Cut off from his original exit point, Adam lowered his shoulder and crashed through a door on his right, trailing Kaylor and Jym behind him. They entered what was a large stock room, occupied by a solitary Nimorian, who alerted by the explosion, was running toward the same door Adam had just shattered. Adam continued barreling forward and crashed into the alien with enough force to send him flying backwards a good twenty feet. The unfortunate alien slammed into a stack of crates and fell limp to the floor.

Adam quickly scanned the room, looking for another exit. There was metal shelving easily thirty feet high lining the outer walls and stacked with boxes and other items, while the interior floor space was filled with several multi-level rows of stacked crates. At the far end of the room Adam spotted a second door. “Follow me,” he called out to the two panting aliens behind him.

More explosions rocked the building, along with deeper sounds of electric popping, apparently coming from larger flash weapons.
The whole damn building is under siege. What the fuc—

Just then, four Nimorians – along with a trio of Rigorians – burst through the far door. They spotted the escapees immediately, and not knowing whether they were friend or foe, brought their long-barrel weapons up to firing position.

Proclaiming to be a foe, Adam chose to get off the first shots, yet before he could the seven aliens opened up with their more-powerful flash rifles. The air in the room erupted with a barrage of recklessly-aimed electric bolts in Adam’s general direction. He dove behind a stack of crates just as the first balls whizzed past. Even though the shots were high and wide, they continued to arrive in rapid succession.

Kaylor and Jym piled on top of him as they, too, dove for cover. Adam shoved them off and crawled to the edge of the crate he was behind. A quick glance verified that the guards were spreading out, moving towards them. He spotted one of the lizards about thirty feet away and in plain sight. He let loose with a bolt, striking the Rigorian in the gut. Another came right behind him and Adam fired again. This time he missed slightly to the right, but when he corrected his aim and depressed the trigger, nothing happened.

“Your charge is dry!” Kaylor yelled. Adam twisted a lever on the handle of the MK, dropping the spent charge pack to the floor. He pulled another from the holster belt and snapped it in. There no more packs on his belt, so he reached over and pulled two from Kaylor’s belt; it was obvious Kaylor wouldn’t be using them.

Performing a quick pop-up recon, Adam could see where a stacked row of crates to his right would provide a path on its second level and shielded from the view of the aliens.

“Stay here,” he said to Kaylor and Jym, then he slid off to his right, and in a single bound in the light gravity, jumped to the top of the first layer of crates, about six feet high. Moving quickly along this level, hidden by the upper layer of crates, Adam managed to get behind the two remaining Rigorians. Grimacing at the reckless act he was about to commit, Adam vaulted into the air and landed on the floor about ten feet behind the aliens. As they turned, Adam let off two precise shots, killing them both instantly.

The Rigorians carried long-barrel rifles of some kind, so Adam snatched one up – and dropped for cover just as the four Nimorians opened up on his position, with shattered pieces of wooden crating raining down around him.

Adam picked up a thick piece of the packing material near him, and after testing its weight, tossed the piece of wood high and to his right. As it landed, the Nimorians shifted their fire toward the sound. Adam stood – rifle stock pressed securely into his right shoulder – and found he was looking straight down a line of aliens, all in a row and looking to his right. Taking aim at the first one in line, he fingered the trigger.

A bright bolt of electric blue light escaped from the barrel of the weapon and struck the first alien in line along the front of his chest; the bolt then continued onto the second alien and penetrated the creature’s neck. Both went down.
Two with one shot, not bad.
A quick second bolt dropped the third Nimorian in line. As the fourth alien turned to watch his comrades collapse to the floor, the last thing he ever saw in this lifetime was an ever-growing ball of blue energy … heading straight for his face.

With the resistance neutralized, Adam darted between crates and back to where he’d left Kaylor and Jym. As he rounded the box and slid in beside them, Jym let out a high-pitched scream, while Kaylor’s eyes rolled back in his head and he nearly fainted.

“Don’t surprise us like that!” Kaylor scolded, his face now whiter than normal.

“Let’s go.” Adam commanded, ignoring him. Yet just as they stood, five more Nimorians entered the room through the far door. Seeing the bodies spread across the floor, they cut loose with new barrage of blue bolts in their direction. Once again, the trio dove for cover again behind the crate.

Now desperate for an alternative exit, Adam noticed a break in the metal shelving units lining the wall. He had an idea.

“Follow me, and stay low.”

Adam took off in a crouch, with the other two following close behind. They reached the break in the shelving and crowded in for cover, as splashes of blue bolts danced around them. With his back pressed against the wall, Adam struck the surface with his left elbow … and was relieved to feel the wallboard break. He had been hoping that this was an interior wall; the outer walls of the building were made of brick and he wasn’t sure he could break through those. But these thin, inner walls were a breeze. He smashed his elbow into the wall several more times until he had created an opening about three-feet wide. Next he pressed his full weight against hole … and suddenly fell through the wall and into another room. He landed on his back with his legs still in the hole, the flash rifle lying across his chest.

To his shock, two Nimorians had just sped past his position, heading toward the battle at the other end of the building, with weapons held firmly in the grip. They stopped and turned at the sound of the breaking wall behind them and immediately brought their weapons to bear on the creature lying on the floor, covered in white dust. Adam quickly rolled onto his right shoulder and fired his rifle twice. One of the aliens fell, but the other bolt missed its target. Adam fingered the trigger again, sending out another deadly ball of energy. Yet the other alien had already triggered his weapon releasing the bolt in Adam’s direction. Rolling onto his back, the bolt ripped across the front of Adam’s tunic, burning through it and exposing his chest and the angry red burn from where Kaylor had shot him two days before. His own shot found its mark, striking the guard in the forehead.