Shalia's Diary (24 page)

With the lockdown over and the last of the gangs rounded back up, I had no problem leaving the Academy grounds.  Nobeks on watch at the main entrance warned me of the dangers, and I smiled and thanked them for their concern.  One shook his shaggy head at me and insisted I take his knife to protect myself with...the damned thing was as long as my forearm.  He wouldn’t let me leave without it though, going as far as to strap its sheath on my waist himself with a cord he had on his utility belt.  He told me how much he’d gotten out of my presentation. 

As the Nobek put the knife on me he said, “I realize this kind of personal contact is exactly what you warned us against, but you’re not going out there without a weapon.  I offer my apologies for the familiarity, Matara.” 

I almost hugged the big lug for being such a sweetheart of a macho pig, but I kept my gratitude at a thank-you.  I’ve been up close and personal with too many of these men as it is.  Then off I jogged, leaving the site behind.

It took about 40 minutes for me to get close enough to spy the mall.  During my run (and I am still sore two days later from it; I am so out of shape), I was shocked anew at how demolished everything is.  The looted stores, graffiti-covered houses, burnt hulks of cars and hover shuttles – after being in the ordered environs of the Academy for so long, I’d forgotten the carnage outside.  Even out here in the middle of Small Town, North American Bloc, the lawless frenzy that followed Armageddon was blatant.  I was suddenly very grateful to that Nobek for giving me a knife.  I had every intention on not only hugging him when I returned the weapon, but giving him a big kiss as well.  Propriety could kiss my ass.

Once the mall was in view, I slowed down.  I approached carefully, using abandoned vehicles and foliage and buildings for cover.  I remembered all too well nearly being eaten by a Tragoom, and I knew for a fact there were hostile Earthers out here.  And where were the Kalquorians?  Perhaps they’d already invaded the mall and had everyone in custody.  Nang had been pretty sure they’d wrap stuff up in minutes, yet there had been no traffic returning to the Academy yet.

I skulked closer and closer to the single-level sprawling building of what had been a sad remnant of free-market economy.  Malls had been playgrounds for people with money, lots of money.  My admittedly substantial pay had not been enough to allow me to shop in such places with their designer shops, hair salons, jewelry makers, and gourmet foods.  People like me bought stuff via online distributors.  Those who were poorer haunted the government-run markets where the shelves were more empty than not.  Deadly riots over a transport full of bread or milk were fairly common.  Mike used to say it was a good way to weed out the undesirables.  But Mike was an asshole.  I’m glad Armageddon weeded his sorry self out.

I neared the mall, crouched behind a bush only a few feet away from the wide-open expanse of parking lot when someone threw me to the ground.  I opened my mouth to yell and a big, dark hand slapped over it, muffling my cry.

“Shalia!  What the fuck are you doing here?”

Holy crap, it was Esak with his knee in my back.  I stopped fighting immediately and he let me sit up.  He looked really pissed off to see me there.

“You stupid Earther girl!  Are you trying to get killed?”  His voice managed to be fierce despite whispering.

“No, I’m trying to make sure Mom doesn’t get killed,” I whispered back.  “Have you got her out yet?”

“No.  The situation is complicated.”  He looked away, as if hiding something from me.

“What do you mean, complicated?  What the hell is going on?  Nang said it wasn’t going to take but a few minutes.”

Esak scowled in the direction of the mall.  He seemed to struggle with his thoughts.  Finally he grabbed my hand.  “Come with me, and don’t make a sound.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to Commander Nang.  He’ll know what to do with you.”

That didn’t sound exactly promising, but I had no choice but to hurry along behind Esak, cutting and dodging behind any object that could keep us hidden from the mall.

We went almost to the other side of it when I saw what seemed to be a command post.  Dozens of Kalquorian shuttles were parked next to what had once been an upscale restaurant.  The eatery was in a separate building from the mall, with a small bit of parking lot and a strip of landscaping between them. 

A bunch of Kalquorians crowded in an area behind the shuttles.  As Esak brought me closer, I could see Nang at the center of the group.  They were looking at several free-floating vids and talking fast and loud in their staccato language.

One big, mean-looking Nobek caught sight of Esak hauling me in that direction.  “Nobek Esak!  What is she doing here?”

That got Nang’s attention.  If Esak had looked pissed at my arrival, Nang was absolutely livid.  He waded through his men to get to me.  Next came more of his patented shake-Shalia-until-her-eyes-roll move.

“Are you insane?  I told you to stay at the Academy!”

“Stop shaking me or I’ll puke all over you,” I said between clicking teeth.  I swear, that man doesn’t know his strength.

Fortunately, he quit.  Before he could light into me anymore in front of all his very grumpy looking men, I said, “What the hell, Nang?  You said you’d have Mom out with no problem!”

“That was before those people learned we were out here.  Now they are using her as a hostage.  She’s still alive and unhurt, but that could change if we don’t handle this carefully, Shalia.”  Nang said this all between gritted teeth.  I could tell he was dying to shake me some more.

“Are you sure she’s okay?  They haven’t done anything to her?”

“She was crying and obviously frightened when they brought her out to show us they meant business, but there was no sign of physical trauma.”  Nang took a deep breath.  “We’re working on a way to get to her, but we can’t just charge in there.  They might kill her if we attempt such a thing.”

Oh God.  I can’t write anymore right now.  If I do, I’ll start crying, and that will upset Mom.  She’s so fragile right now. 

Okay, I’m ready to pick this back up.  Tears averted.

As I stood there talking to Nang I got yet another terrible idea, so of course I was ready to act on it.  I told him, “Let me be a distraction.  While I hold their attention, you go in there after Mom.”

Someone behind me growled.  I had the suspicion it might have been Esak, but I didn’t turn around to be sure.

Nang considered me.  “We want to use a shockwave on them, but we need to get inside for it to be effective.  You might be the best chance we have of getting past their guards.” 

He turned to his men who had crowded around us.  He snarled away in his own language for a few moments.  I waited while a discussion raged, shifting impatiently from foot to foot.  Finally Nang nodded, and several men started yelling at the younger Nobeks who were waiting for their orders.  After a few moments of that, the younger guys began to peel off, running in that crazy blurred way they do.  Before he joined the exodus, Esak moved close to me.

“Be careful, Shalia.  Please.”

Then he was gone, leaving me to wonder what the hell was going on.  Nang cleared that up in a hurry.

“All right, Shalia, we have a plan.  Its success will depend greatly on you.”

My heart thumped fast to hear that, but I gave him a firm nod.  “Tell me what I need to do.”

He did, and only five minutes later we were ready to put the plan in action.  At least I didn’t have time to stew in my nervousness, though I shook like a leaf as I walked with Nang and two of his officers towards the mall parking lot.

Where the Kalquorians had set up their command post was the closest you could get to the mall without crossing the broad asphalt wasteland.  The restaurant had been built to be easily accessible to the shopping center, so at this point, we were only about 50 yards from the main entrance.

Nang and his men stopped while we were still several feet beyond the ornamental Japanese maples that shielded us from the mall entrance’s view.  “Go on ahead,” he told me.  “And if they point a blaster or anything at you, get down fast.”  His hand gripped my shoulder.  “Shalia, be alert.  If you are hurt—”

He didn’t finish the sentence.  There was an instant of anguish on his expression, then he pushed me towards the landscape border.

I walked away from him, feeling the sun heating the top of my head as I went.  I unsheathed the knife the Nobek back at the Academy had given me and held it tightly in my sweating palm.  A moment later, I broke through the young trees.

“Hey!” I screamed at the glass panes of the mall doors.  “Hey!  Somebody get your ass out here and talk to me!”

One of the two sets of doors opened, and a man in camouflage stepped out to glare at me.  He pointed a long-range percussion blaster rifle in my direction.  “What do you want?”

“I want my mother, asshole!”  I put all the mad I could in my voice, which wasn’t that difficult.  “You cowardly shits kidnapped an old woman with dementia.  Let her go and you can have me!”

Something prim and blond slipped out of the mall to converse with the man.  It was that fucking bitch Patty of the P.T.  I could have torn all her perfectly coiffed hair out of her scalp at that moment.

After their consultation, the man shouted, “You want us to let her go?”

“No, stupid, I want you to put on a tutu and dance the watusi.  Swap us out!”

I saw a lot of motion behind the other doors, though the sun glare kept me from seeing inside too well.  I had the feeling plenty of people were jostling for a view though.  Good.  That was exactly what we’d hoped for.

The man, a greasy, broadshouldered dude with a lot of scraggly beard, grinned at me.  “Come on then.  Give yourself up and we’ll let your mother go.  We’d much rather talk to you about what you’ve been doing in the Academy anyway.”

I swallowed and found my mouth and throat were absolutely dry.  All my fears about being judged and executed as a whore had been well-founded.  Here was hoping he didn’t decide to shoot me right here and now.

I started walking across the pavement, heading straight for the man with the big, scary rifle.  Suddenly there was a shout behind me.  “No!”

I turned to see Nang barreling at me, his face dark with intent, fangs exposed.  Damn he looked scary, every bit as monstrous as my films had portrayed Kalquorians to be.  His two officers ran right behind him.  I wasn’t acting when I brought that giant knife that was more like a fucking sword up in defense.  I swung it wildly as they neared.  Behind me, I could hear exclamations and shouts from the crowd in the mall.

Nang leapt at me.  I screamed, dropped the knife, and ran for the mall as if my fellow Earthers would save me.

It turned out the instinct to protect one of their own was stronger than any contempt they held for me.  About half a dozen men jumped out of the entrance, their blasters and rifles aimed.  “Get down!” one of them screamed at me.  “Get down so we can get a clear shot!”

Then there was a big, echoing boom inside the building.  The men outside the doors turned around.  The next second, great blurred bodies flew past me and at the Earthers, taking them all down in less time than it takes to tell about it.

I kept running for the mall.  I’d made it halfway to the entrance when a muscled arm circled my waist and picked me up off the ground.  “Stop, Shalia!  We set off the shockwave.  Everyone in the complex is unconscious.”

I jerked in Nang’s arms, fighting to get away from him.  “Mom!” I yelled.

“Hold on, woman!  Let my men clear the building before you go rushing in.  Be patient, damn it.”

“Be patient?” I yelled in his face.  “Would you be patient if it was your mother?”

His grip tightened, but Nang’s expression was kind.  “No, I wouldn’t.  But you’re not going in until I know it’s safe for you to.”