Extensis vitae, p.9
Extensis Vitae, page 9
It was a good throw and would have struck the swordswoman in the head if she hadn’t sensed it. She turned and snapped the katana up and around in a quick arc, catching the book in mid-flight and cleaving it in half. She used her momentum to spin around and slash at Reznik again.
But Reznik anticipated the move and stepped inside her guard, catching her wrist in his hand. He squeezed and twisted, expecting her wrist to break, but it didn’t. She grimaced as he bent her wrist at an impossible angle. With his other hand he chopped down against the flat of the blade, finally knocking it free from her grasp.
The woman kicked Reznik in the knee, momentarily causing it to buckle, and drove a fist into his ribs. He grunted as his nanites absorbed some of the damage, but she delivered a surprisingly powerful strike for her diminutive size. She almost managed to knock him off-balance, but he recovered.
All right, I’m tired of playing around, he decided. Still holding on to her wrist, he grabbed her belt with his other hand. He lifted her off the ground, pivoted, and threw her hard against the wall.
Reznik could only gape in surprise as she twirled in mid-air and met the wall feet first. She kicked off the wall with her powerful legs, and then it was Reznik’s turn to go flying as her foot connected with his jaw in a spinning kick.
He stumbled and fell on his ass, stunned more by her athleticism than he was by the kick itself. Their eyes locked for a moment, and he thought he saw a hint of amusement on her face from his shock. Is she actually enjoying this? he wondered.
The moment passed and they both exploded into motion. Reznik yanked the immobilizer from his belt as the swordswoman dove into a somersault. He tracked her motion and fired the immobilizer a split-second before she came out of her roll with her katana once again in hand.
A blast of liquid metal shot out of the immobilizer and spread into the form of a net in mid-air. The woman brought up her katana and hacked at it, but she was too late. The metal netting ensnared her and began to cinch up as Reznik keyed another button on the device. It tightened around her, pinning her arms to her sides, the filaments digging into her skin until she was securely entangled, still in a kneeling position.
With a sound like the snapping of a guitar string, her katana severed one of the filaments. She growled and her muscled arms corded, and then in succession, several more of the metallic threads began to snap from the sharp blade.
Reznik would have been impressed by the feat of strength if he hadn’t been so annoyed. “I’ve had about enough of you,” he growled under his breath. He slipped the shotgun off his shoulder and put the muzzle to her temple.
“Stop resisting, or I pull the trigger,” he threatened. She finally yielded, allowing the katana to slip from her hands. Reznik pulled the sword free of the net.
He let out a deep breath and looked around the room. The others were watching him warily. Looking down, he took in the shredded, bloody ruin of his uniform. A dozen or so cuts with varying degrees of blood trickling from them lined his torso, arms, and thighs. I was damn lucky…she almost had me there, he thought.
Reznik looked over the captives. The older man was pale and gaunt with dark circles under his eyes, but other than that, he appeared to be in reasonably good health. The women, on the other hand, appeared to be in rough shape. The three of them were beaten and bruised, their clothing torn and disheveled.
He looked over at the young woman who had intervened and most likely saved his ass. “Thanks for the help.”
The woman nodded. “Who are you?” she asked.
Before he could answer, the old man spoke up. “I believe you are Mr. Reznik, are you not? I recognize you, you know. Or at least, I recognize the cloned body you are using as a host.”
Reznik smiled. “I’d imagine so. Dr. Kane, I take it? I’ve met your daughter.”
“My dear Myrna,” Kane replied. “What a clever girl, finishing my work like that.” He beamed.
“These two were the last of them, weren’t they?” Reznik asked, again surveying the room.
The young woman spoke up. “Yes. There were six of them that went down to the tunnel when the alarm went off, but it looks like you took care of them already. I’m June Wagner, by the way. I’m with the Colony 12 security team.” She appeared to be in her early twenties, and was tall and athletic-looking, with dark hair and eyes. A purple bruise on one cheek marred her attractive face. Recognition flickered in Reznik’s mind—she seemed to bear a strong resemblance to someone he had known, but he couldn’t remember who.
“Ah, that’s good—your parents asked me to look for you.”
“I wish the rest of our group could be brought back, but the other members of the security team were killed, except for Dr. Kane and me.” She frowned. The other woman had gone over to assist the rape victim.
“What about all the colonists that were here? What happened to them?”
“These two are all that are left here.” June gestured to the other two women. Her mouth twisted in disgust. “They’ve both been abused for weeks by those monsters. I guess there were a couple more women they kept, but they were killed when they tried to escape. From what Carmen said, maybe twenty or thirty colonists were killed by those freaks. The rest were taken away to some place called Skin City.”
The skin traders, Reznik thought grimly. He didn’t like the sound of that, but maybe the colonists would fare better out there than these women had fared in here. Especially the one who had been strung up in the portal room.
He looked over at the two women. The young blonde woman was trying to wipe all of the blood and gore off of herself with the assistance of the older woman. The woman helping her had Latina features and a deep cut on her cheek. They had obviously been singled out due to their attractiveness. “What are their names?” he asked June.
“Carmen is the brunette and Sara is the blonde.”
“Why were these thugs still here? Why aren’t they out enjoying all the booze and drugs they could buy from the profit they would make from the skin traders?”
Dr. Kane replied, “They were trying to see if they could lure a rescue party out from Colony 12. You were much more than they bargained for, obviously. In the meantime, they were enjoying the colony stores of food and drink. I imagine this is the best they’ve eaten in quite some time.”
Reznik looked over at the entangled swordswoman. She had managed to get into a more comfortable sitting position. “What should we do with this hellcat?”
“Bring her back for questioning?” June suggested. “She’s called Rin. She doesn’t speak much, but she will know where the others were taken to.”
“I believe this one here has the keys.” Dr. Kane gestured to the outlaw whose head had been blown off. Reznik recovered the key to the shackles and freed the hostages.
“June, would you give me a hand with her?” He didn’t want to take any chances with Rin, but the immobilizer net looked extremely uncomfortable, if not downright painful. He held the shotgun on Rin as he keyed the immobilizer and the net slid off her, again becoming a fountain of liquid metal as it reversed itself and flowed back into the cylinder.
June moved in and adeptly shackled Rin’s hands and feet in the chains she had been wearing. They made sure Rin didn’t have any more weapons. He removed a brace of throwing knives strapped around her thigh, but those were all the weapons she carried.
Dr. Kane was trying to massage circulation back into his legs. Reznik helped him to his feet. The doctor’s knees cracked loudly, but he waved off any more assistance.
“Don’t worry about me—I’ll be fine. Just haven’t moved enough, and it’s not good for these old bones.”
“How did they breach this colony?” Reznik asked. “From everything I’ve seen, these places are like vaults.”
“They used a mining machine to drill through the wall,” Carmen spoke up. “The walls are a lot thinner than the vault doors. The whole facility was vibrating and shaking from the horrendous clamor of the drill. Everyone was so scared; nobody knew what was going on. The security team was gunned down like animals when they tried to prevent them from entering. The administrator barricaded himself in his office, leaving the rest of us at the mercy of those freaks.” She spat in disgust.
“Was the administrator taken with the others?”
“No. They broke down the door of his office and tortured and killed him. But first they made him watch as they killed his wife and children in front of him.”
Reznik could only shake his head in anger. Good riddance to these bastards, he thought.
Chapter 10
Rin listened to the prisoners talking with the stranger. She wondered who the man was. He obviously had a considerable amount of fighting experience to have bested her and, she assumed, taken out Haze and the rest of his band. He looked like he’d been through hell, his face covered with dried blood, along with numerous sword wounds and shredded, bloodstained clothes. Regardless of all that, he didn’t seem to have sustained any major damage.
He’s like me, she thought. Maybe an older combat model, but obviously still quite formidable, especially with his fighting skills.
She contemplated what her chances were going to be as a prisoner, and decided she didn’t like them. The people at the other Colony would want to exact some measure of revenge, she knew. And it appeared that she had the dubious distinction of being the only member of Haze’s band to be taken alive. No, things wouldn’t turn out well for her, she decided, even though she had been an unwilling participant.
Rin had no taste for the slaughter, beatings, and rapes the others had inflicted upon the colonists. If it hadn’t been for her directives, she might have even put a stop to it. But as it was, she could do nothing but watch in distaste and keep to herself, as she usually did.
I wonder if he took the token from Haze? I need to find it before he does, she thought. She didn’t know if the man would know what it was or how to use it. But she did know that she needed to try to make a break for it before she was imprisoned, because then her odds would be a whole lot worse.
***
Reznik searched the dead thug, but found nothing more useful than a couple of knives. He was debating whether or not he should explore the facility any more to see if he could find any more clues about where they had taken the prisoners, but decided against it. She will know, he thought, looking at Rin.
Dr. Kane approached Reznik when they were out of earshot of the others. “If you don’t mind, I think we should be heading back to Colony 12 as soon as possible. While I’m not much worse for wear, I can’t say the same about the women. These three have been treated very harshly. You saw what was happening when you arrived.” He glanced over at Sara, who was sitting on the sofa now, her eyes vacant and staring. “Besides that, everyone is malnourished and dehydrated. Our captors saw fit to only feed us infrequently.”
“Of course—I’m so sorry,” Reznik apologized. He had been so caught up in worrying about the danger that he had neglected to check on the well being of the captives other than giving them a cursory glance to make sure they weren’t wounded. No major physical wounds, but the emotional ones are bound to be the worst, he thought. He took out some energy bars from his pack and distributed them to the group. He also passed around some extra water bottles.
After they finished their snack, Reznik gathered up the scavenged weapons and his pack. “I saw a cart down there inside the vault bay. If it’s still running, we can use that to ride back in.”
Everyone got to their feet, eager to be anywhere else. Dr. Kane picked up his case of medical supplies. June offered to help carry something since Reznik would have his hands full with the prisoner. He nodded gratefully and passed his equipment to her.
Reznik approached Rin, wondering if she would cooperate. The woman surprised him and gracefully rose to her feet, despite the shackles. She coolly met his gaze. Reznik gestured toward the door with the shotgun and she started moving, shuffling slightly in the leg irons, but she held her head high and kept her back straight. If it weren’t for the unnaturally short steps she was forced to take, it wouldn’t have been obvious that she was shackled hand and foot.
They made their way down to the vault bay without incident. As they entered the portal room, the colonists gasped when they saw the corpse hanging from the ceiling.
“Oh my God, is that Emily?” Sara cried.
Reznik wasn’t sure what to say and was grateful when Dr. Kane spoke up. “There’s nothing we can do for her right now, ladies. When we get back to 12, we will send a detail over to round up the dead and give them a proper send-off.” Reznik thought about climbing up and cutting the woman down, but decided against it. There would be time for that later—right now, he had to get the colonists and prisoner back safely.
June led the way down the ramp toward the electric cart parked below the loading dock, followed by the two other women and Dr. Kane. Rin followed with Reznik close behind her.
As June turned her back to stow the equipment into the back of the cart, Rin suddenly exploded into motion. Reznik reflexively made a grab for her, but was rewarded with only empty air.
Rin leapt forward, placing her hands on the metal railing and vaulting down below the loading dock. She was on June before the woman could react, slipping the chain from the manacles around her neck and pulling it tight.
Reznik was again surprised by the woman’s speed. He yelled for the others to get down and leveled the shotgun, but by that time, Rin had turned back toward him, pulling June around in front of her. Rin was barely visible behind the taller woman. Reznik knew it was an impossible shot for an inaccurate weapon like the sawed-off shotgun, even with his targeting display. The revolver would be a better bet, but he couldn’t rely on it to not misfire again. If it did, he knew Rin could crush June’s windpipe before he’d get another shot.
“Stop right there, Rin!” he shouted. “There’s nowhere for you to go. Release the girl.” June’s eyes were wide as she clutched at the chain around her throat.
“Let me go free and I won’t harm this woman.” Rin spoke for the first time. She had a low, almost throaty voice. “I have no quarrel with you.”
“I can’t let you do that. You’re going to have to answer for your crimes,” he replied, shotgun steady as his mind raced for a solution to the standoff.
“I was held against my will as much as these others were,” she said. “I never harmed any of them. Allow me get my belongings and I will return to the surface. You won’t see me ever again.”
“Held against your will? You tried to take my head off in there!”
“I was defending myself after you tried to shoot me,” she snapped.
Reznik realized she had a point. She had the jump on me, and as quick as she is, she probably could have taken me down before I could have gotten off a shot. “You are obviously a woman of some skill—why did you take orders from scum like Haze?”
“I didn’t take orders from him by choice. He has something of mine.”
Reznik looked at Dr. Kane and the other women. “Is what she says true? Did she harm any of the colonists?”
Dr. Kane shook his head. “I never saw her harm anyone. In fact, she was usually the one that gave us food and water when the others neglected to. But she certainly never did anything to resist them or put a halt to what they were doing, either.”
“That bitch was with them the whole time,” Carmen said with some heat. She glared at Rin. “You disgust me! Just sitting there and doing nothing while those animals raped and beat us. It’s as bad as if you were joining in. It’s especially disgusting that another woman would tolerate such behavior!”
Rin had pulled June to the side a bit so she could face them. Her eyes were cold as she glanced at the others, but kept her focus on Reznik.
He thought he could probably hit her in the throat or eye with one of the throwing knives he had tucked into his belt, but with her speed, it would be risky. He found himself reluctant to attack her, and not just because of the possibility of June getting hurt or killed. What if what she said was true? What if she was a hostage to Haze and his gang? In a way, he kind of respected this fierce woman. She didn’t seem the type to lie to save her own skin.
***
Rin realized this wasn’t going as planned. She feared it would turn violent, and she didn’t want to have to hurt any of the civilians. Talking her way out of the situation didn’t appear to be working, either. When she chose to speak, she was blunt and to the point. She had never been gifted with a persuasive tongue.
She knew if she couldn’t bargain with them for her freedom that it would be pointless to try to flee. She had to find the token first, and it would be a loss to have to leave her katana behind, as well.
The stranger spoke up again. “Haze is dead now; you don’t have to fear him any longer. If you surrender, I will see to it that you are treated fairly when we get back.” He turned to the doctor. “Will she be put on trial? I don’t know how the justice system works in these colonies.”
The doctor scratched at his beard. “I’m not sure what will happen, honestly, Mr. Reznik. Administrator Swanson always decides what happens if any rules are broken and what type of punishment will be handed out. We don’t have a legal system like what you are thinking of.”
The man they called Reznik was silent for a moment. “What is it that Haze took from you?” he asked Rin.
“It’s a token. A small device with three intertwined triangles marked on it.”
“Is this what you want?” He stuck a hand in his cargo pocket and pulled out her token.
***
Reznik could see some of the tension drain out of Rin’s face even before she nodded. He knew he had her outmaneuvered now that he had a bargaining chip. “All right, Rin, here’s the deal I’m going to make you: surrender peacefully and come back with us without making any more trouble. In return, I will give you back your token, provided I am satisfied that it won’t prove a threat to anyone. I also give you my word that I will do whatever is in my power to see that you are treated fairly and judged according to your crimes. Maybe I can help you, maybe not; however, you will still have to face the justice of the administrator no matter what. That’s the best deal you are going to get, so I suggest you take it.”
