The Lost Destroyer (Lost Starship Series Book 3) (9 page)

-9-

Maddox hurried down a corridor. How close had Gorgon been to Villars? Maybe as important, how did the slarn hunters of Wolf Prime feel about vengeance?

Maddox pulled out his comm-unit. “Meta?” he said.

There was no response. Maddox increased his pace.

How much control did Ludendorff have over his group? It would seem the professor trusted his people. Evidence of that was that Ludendorff had given Gorgon precise details to relay to Per Lomax. Maybe the slarn hunter had even handed the New Man the precious key. That implied great trust. Would that mean the professor would give his people greater leeway than otherwise?

“Meta,” the captain said into his comm-unit. “Come in, please. It’s important.”

The device remained silent.

If Meta wasn’t answering, he would track her down. To his relief, the unit showed that she was in her room.

Pocketing the device, Maddox slowed his pace. It occurred to him that just because Meta’s comm-unit was in her quarters, it didn’t necessitate that Meta was there with it.

Maddox broke into a sprint. Apart from the New Men, he didn’t know anyone who could keep up with him when he ran at full speed. The captain fairly flew down the corridors. Would Ludendorff realize that Villars might want revenge for Gorgon’s death? If the slarn hunter had hurt Meta—

Maddox shook his head. Creating future fantasies didn’t help him in the moment. Cool concentration always helped him best in these matters. Yet, Maddox found that he lacked coolness this time. Heat built in his chest. He could feel it swell with throbbing force.

Maddox sprinted around a corner and barely saw a nearly invisible line stretched the width of the corridor. He recognized it as monofilament wire. If his ankles pushed against that line at this speed, the wire would neatly slice off his feet.

He couldn’t halt in time, but Maddox had catlike reflexes. He leaped, although in an awkward manner. The toe of his left boot touched the monofilament wire. It sliced off some of the leather. Then, he landed hard on his left shoulder. Fortunately, Maddox rolled, bleeding away what would have been an otherwise slamming blow.

“Damn,” a deep-voiced man said. “I wouldn’t have believed it unless I’d seen it with my own eye. You’re quicker than a wounded slarn.”

Maddox scrambled to his feet, confronting Cesar Villars.

The slarn hunter was blocky with a thick neck and an ugly scar running across his right eye and down his cheek. It must have come from a slarn’s claw. The eye-socket contained a smooth ball bearing. Likely, it doubled as a tech tool, giving the man radar vision. Villars wore leather garments, probably cured slarn skin. Everyone prized slarn fur. Only hunters used the toughened leather.

Villars had grizzled white hair and weather-beaten features. He gripped a long slarn knife in his right hand. It glittered in the hall-light. He waved a stun rod in his left fist.

“Does Ludendorff know what you’re doing?” Maddox asked.

Villars frowned for just a moment. Then, the white-haired hunter grinned nastily.

“You’re the fancy-pants boy who can save the universe, aren’t you? But look at you. The shine of a knife makes you sweat. You want the professor to gallop along and save you. What a mama’s boy.”

Maddox snorted, allowing his body to relax so he appeared bored. “Yes. You’ve nailed it. I’m positively frightened by an incompetent like you.”

“That’s right, boy. That’s why you sprinted to see if your little lover girl was still in one piece. I let your lieutenant see my intentions. She did exactly what I wanted. But here’s what I’m wondering about you. Aren’t you curious yet if I’ve already carved Meta up?”

Maddox shrugged as if indifferent. Inside, he seethed.

“Yeah,” Villars said. “That’s nice. Your balls are sweating. I know what you’re thinking. Are you ever going to nail her again? Maybe I have her hanging like a piece of beef, with blood dripping to the floor from the places where I carved her. She don’t deserve such a fast death, though, not after what she did to Gorgon. That was a hell of a way to die from one-punch Sally.”

“You’re a sadist,” Maddox said.

“We all got our problems, right? Yours is my knife. Of course, you’re not going to have that problem much longer, as I’m going to pull the lungs out of your chest. They’ll flap a few times before you die, boy. It’s called a blood eagle, and it’s what I done to the last mama’s boy who pissed me off.”

“Why does Ludendorff keep a sadist in his company?” Maddox asked.

Villars’s grin grew, which put crinkle lines at the corners of his eyes. “I’m the best at what I do, and the professor, he appreciates skill. I help keep his skinny butt alive. The old man thinks he needs you, but Gorgon’s death shows me this time the professor is wrong.”

“Meta killed Gorgon, not me.”

“Shifting the blame, are we? Nice job, punk, let your woman take the blame. And here I thought you wanted to leave this universe as a man.”

“Your logic escapes me,” Maddox said.

“Better and better,” Villars said. The hunter crouched, and he began to maneuver toward Maddox. The slide of his left thumb made the stun rod hum with power. It must have been set at maximum strength.

“You see, boy, I happen to know you’re the white knight type. You want to ride in on your horse and rescue your little lady. But she’s got several days of screaming ahead of her, see? So, first I take you out, and then I take my time with her and do it right.”

“And when Ludendorff discovers what you’ve done?”

Villars snarled as hatred flashed in his eye. Flat-footed, he charged Maddox.

The captain kept his smile within. With ease, Maddox dodged the knife thrust. The slarn hunter acted with passion instead of cool intellect. Maddox struck, and surprised filled him as his hand harmlessly passed the man’s neck. The next second, the stun rod slammed against the captain’s ribs, discharging with a heavy
zap
.

Maddox catapulted backward. His back slammed against the deck plates. Trying to move, he found himself frozen in place.

“Smart boys always fall for that little trick,” Villars said. “They think I’m a hotheaded bozo. I think my little scar does it. What do you think?”

Maddox squeezed his eyes shut. At least he could still do that much. The slarn hunter had tricked him. Villars hadn’t attacked with blind fury, but with guile. Maddox should have realized a slarn hunter didn’t survive a Wolf Prime trapping season without animal cunning. This man must have lasted many winters on the ice world.

“I’m going to make this quick, boy,” Villars said. “So, you don’t have to piss yourself just yet. That’ll come ten seconds from now.”

Maddox opened his eyes. The slarn hunter peered down at him. Could he get the trapper to kneel?

With an act of will, Maddox opened his mouth. He spoke in a slurry way, “One…last question.”

“What’s that, boy? I can’t hear you. You have to speak up.”

The slarn hunter enjoyed taunting him. Maddox would have to play on that. He pretended to have trouble speaking.

The hunter chuckled, lowering his head. “Better hurry, lover-boy. Your days of talking are almost at an end.”

“If…” Maddox managed to say.

“Yeah, if what?”

“I could…”

Villars snarled with impatience. “You know I ain’t got time to listen to you blubber. So, you’ve got one more chance. Then I’m stroking you with the rod and going to work cutting out your lungs. The next thing you’ll know, you’ll be trying to fly with a blood eagle.”

Maddox strove with all his considerable concentration. He raised his head. The slarn hunter actually cocked an eyebrow in surprise. The head motion was a distraction. While making his lips writhe and his eyeballs bulge outward with pleading—causing Villars to chuckle with nasty enjoyment—Maddox thrust his fingers in his pocket and felt for a mini-grenade. It was hardly bigger than his thumbnail with an equal thickness in all directions. He pressed his thumb against the correct side, withdrew his hand and counted, hoping he got this right.

“I’ve had enough to this,” Villars said. He raised the stun rod.

Maddox used his thumb, flicking the grenade upward.

Villars caught the motion. His head twisted that way. “What the—”

The grenade exploded, expelling knockout gas. A single whiff would be enough. Maddox held his breath as he waited.

Understanding filled Villars’s good eye. He swung the rod, but he was already falling. The rod missed Maddox, striking the floor and discharging. Then the hunter’s body slammed against the captain. Maddox had tried to ready himself for it. His numbed body couldn’t do it in time. The captain’s wind was knocked out of him, and he involuntarily sucked down air, inhaling knockout gas as well.

***

Maddox came to groggily. For several seconds, he didn’t understand the heavy weight on his chest. Why was breathing so difficult? His sandpaper-dry mouth tasted vile.

Lying across his torso, Villars groaned. Maddox could feel the slarn hunter stir.

That started a contest the captain wasn’t sure Villars even knew he was part of. Holding himself perfectly still, Maddox strove to wake up, and he tensed his body.

I have to make my muscles work.
Maddox knew he had to get up faster than the psycho lying on top of him did. Villars was a dangerous sadist. The professor must know that. So, why did Ludendorff keep the man with him?

Villars stirred, smacking his lips.

Maddox redoubled his efforts at concentration.

“What happened?” Villars muttered. “What—”

A waft of bad breath billowed into Maddox’s face, making him cough.

That caused Villars to stir with more effort. “Tricky bastard,” the hunter whispered. The man’s left hand dragged across the floor. The fingers didn’t hold anything yet. The hand shifted direction.

By straining, Maddox turned his head. Villars’s hand reached for the knife, his fingers nearing the handle. Maddox hissed between his teeth, and he wriggled, moving his body just enough so the knife remained out of Villars’s reach.

“Yeah,” the hunter said. “I get it now.” He put both palms on the floor and pushed upward.

Maddox convulsed with effort. He wriggled part way out from under Villars. The hunter woke up all the way then, and he dropped, clutching Maddox’s knees.

“No you don’t, boy,” Villars said.

Maddox forced himself to sit up. Villars looked at him. Three times, Maddox hit the man’s face with his fists. They were weak blows, probably helping Villars to wake up faster rather than doing him any harm.

The hunter shoved his face against Maddox’s legs. The fists drummed uselessly against Villars’s skull. Maddox stopped the attack, and Villars chuckled nastily. A second later, the hunter opened his mouth and bit the captain’s left thigh. The teeth tore through fabric and cut into flesh.

Maddox bellowed with pain. He drove his knees up, grabbed the slarn hunter’s head and twisted savagely. Villars rolled with it onto the floor.

Both men struggled to their feet, panting, glaring at each other from a few meters away.

“You’re an animal,” Maddox said.

“I always win,” Villars boasted, “because I’ll do what I have to. You’re making this a memorable event, boy. That makes it fun and exciting.”

“Are you a Methuselah Man that you keep calling me boy?”

Villars laughed. “You’re a freak, a hybrid. I’m going to crush you with my bare hands.”

Maddox jabbed three times, connecting the last time against the nose. The blow sent Villars reeling. The captain didn’t follow the attack. Instead, he picked up the fallen knife. It had a good heft, and he began to advance on Villars.

“No,” Professor Ludendorff said. “This is no good. I need both of you.”

Maddox didn’t pay any attention to Ludendorff. Instead, he accelerated the attack, wondering if he had enough time.

The web field caught Maddox as it had on the bridge. The only consolation was that Villars was also caught in a force field web.

Ludendorff stepped into Maddox’s view. The professor held the flat device. At the older man’s side walked Galyan. Ludendorff made
tsking
sounds.

“Cesar, you know we need the captain.”

The slarn hunter squirmed as his harsh features twisted with the intensity of his efforts to break free of the force web.

“You must stop that, or you’ll tear tendons,” Ludendorff said.

“Kill him,” Maddox said. “Villars is a madman.”

The professor pretended not to hear the comment.

Maddox repeated it, adding, “You know he’s emotionally unstable.”

Ludendorff finally regarded the captain. “You’re young and full of righteous judgments. Life does not always proceed as one might wish.”

“Meaning you keep a sadist in your company,” Maddox said.

“Cesar has proven invaluable several times,” Ludendorff said. “He doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. Without him, the New Men would have slain me on two different occasions on Wolf Prime.”

“He wants to torture Meta before he kills her,” Maddox said.