here?”
The official turned toward the nearby alleyway and pointed. “Witnesses say the assassins went through here before they entered a rest facility on the other street. We are preparing for entry.”
“Assassins?”
“Yes. Apparently there are two of them.”
“Do you have an identification as to their race?”
“None at this time. Everything happened so fast that the witnesses did not observe properly.” The official motioned him forward. “We are about to act. You may observe if you wish.”
They moved through the alley and out onto the adjoining street. The rest facility building was flanked by a line of heavily-shielded police, who as Ransin watched, began to move quickly into the building. There had to be fifteen to twenty of them, easily enough to contain two killers — including one shuttle thief. It seemed as though Ransin’s current assignment would be over nearly before it began…
Chapter Fifteen
The two Humans spent more time than normal in the grooming station, showering and attempting to clean themselves up for the other. However, both were at a loss for the proper tools, such razors, makeup and shampoo. But after awhile, they met up again in the main room, Adam sitting in the room’s only chair and Sherri propped up on pillows on the bed.
While in the grooming station, Adam had been trying to come to grips with his situation. His main benefactor had been killed — by the only Human female he’d met out here — and now he was essentially on his own. But fortune had smiled on him. Besides the twenty-thousand credits he’d been paid for the Bundnet hit, he had also acquired almost 140,000 additional credits from the safe. That was a lot of money; he should be set for awhile as he sought other contracts. On the other hand, with what he already had saved, he had around a quarter of a million credits total, still far short of the five million or so he would need to purchase a class-five starship if, and when, he ever learned the location of Earth.
And now here was another Human. She had a compelling story, and as he’d listened, a plan — and a question — was growing in his mind.
“So why didn’t you ever try to find out where you were taken by the Klin?” he asked from the chair. “There are other Humans there, a lot of them, apparently.”
Sherri just shrugged. “I guess I never got around to it. After spending time in the prison, and then in the Games, I really had to figure out a way of making a living first.”
“But you may have been able to find the way back home.”
She shook her head. “The Humans running that place didn’t seem very anxious to help. Even if I’d shown back up there, I think I would have just been thrown into their breeding program, or worse.”
Adam could understand her trepidation. But here was a place with more Humans — and more Klin. She had been to the central processing center for Humans in The Fringe, and he knew at the depth of his being that the answers were there. It may be difficult to get into the facility, and then back out again with the information he needed, but at least he had to try.
“Listen, Sherri,” he began, desperation in his voice, “you have to help me find that place. You won’t even have to go back in, I promise. Just help me find it, and I’ll do all the fighting-”
She sat up straighter on the bed. “If I ever do find the location, I’m not going to chicken out. I can carry my own load.”
Adam smiled. “I love your spirit, and I didn’t mean to suggest that you wouldn’t go back because you’re scared. It’s just that I have more training in this area than you do.”
“So one macho ex-SEAL is going to lead an assault on the main base for the Klin in The Fringe? And while you’re there, you expect to find that one-in-a-million alien who just happens to know the location of Earth? And of course, just because you ask nicely, he’ll just hand over it over to you. Let me ask you this: What if the Juireans caught you tomorrow and said they’d kill you if you didn’t give up the location of Earth? You know what would happen? You’d die, that’s what.”
“I have to try, Sherri. I know you’re probably going to be shocked to hear this, but I have a wife and kid back home-”
“Hey, what does that have to do with anything?” Sherri interrupted. “What we just did here has nothing to do with love, or affection or anything else like that. This was all about pure animal instinct. I have — had — a fiance myself back on Earth.”
“I agree,” Adam said. “But this is not my home — or yours either! We can’t stay here, not if we have even the slightest possibility of getting back home.”
“Adam, sweetheart, you’re cute and everything, but I really think I’ll do better if I go it alone.”
Adam was shocked by what he heard. He had not imagined that the two of them would not pair up somehow, as Human-to-Human, either professionally or personally. There just weren’t enough Humans out here to go around. But here he was, light years from Earth, and the only woman he’d met was saying she just wasn’t ready for a commitment. Was he losing his touch?
“I’m not giving up,” he said finally. “You may have, but I haven’t. And now you tell me there’s a place here in The Fringe where there are hundreds, if not thousands of other Humans, and you won’t even help me try to find it!”
Sherri was silent for what felt like minutes, just staring off at the opposite wall. Finally she nodded. “All right, I’ll help,” she said There was a noise in the hallway outside the room. Both Humans got up quickly and began to collect their weapons. “And I’ll go in with you. What the fuck? What do I have to lose?”
Adam moved to the room’s environmental control panel as Sherri opened the inner airlock door. “I know the answer is there,” Adam said as he increased the air pressure in the room to four times its present setting. “So what’s our next move?”
Sherri pulled out her MK-17 and checked the charge pack, then pressed herself against the wall next to the open airlock door. “We have to track down the surviving crewmember on the ship that I stowed away on, and then get her to tell us what planet she picked me up at.”
Adam moved to the other wall next to the airlock and checked his own weapon. “Where do we start?”
“Silea. That’s where her ship landed. I know someone there who might help.”
Then she and Adam placed the respirators over their noses, lowered their full-face masks and pressed their hands hard against their ears.
Then they waited…
Moments later, the lock on the outer airlock door clicked, and the door began to open. Instantly, the increased air pressure inside the room blew out the door with the force of an explosion, sending the thick metal panel into the hallway, crushing half a dozen Castorian police as it did so. The concussion blew out every window in the lobby, as well as the door to the emergency exit at the end of the hallway to the right.
Adam and Sherri moved into the corridor, weapons drawn. The police near the door were all dead; ones further away on both sides of the room were lying on the floor, writhing in pain. The two assassins stepped over and around the Castorians and moved down the hall to the right, and to the open emergency exit.
After checking the alley for any police, they sprinted left between the buildings, away from the main street, and then turned right in another alley behind the buildings. In the lighter gravity, the two Humans ran with lightning speed for about a kilometer, before entering a pedestrian elevator and going up nine floors. They exited and boarded a train for the rest of the journey to Adam’s entry point into the city, just below the Krune spaceport.
Twenty minutes after leaving the rest facility, Adam was punching in the code to open the hatch to the Cassie 1.
“Nice ship,” Sherri complimented. “Where’d you get it?”
“Off a dead Juirean.” He smiled back at her as the door slid open.
Ransin and the police commander watched as the police squad moved into the building. The Juirean agent was just about to pull out his communicator and relay the message that the shuttle thief was dead and that the shuttle had been recovered, when suddenly every window on the first floor of the building exploded outward. Even
