Just then a buzzer sounded on Kroekus’ comm. He flashed anger and smashed his hand down on the control. “I am in a negotiation! Do not disturb me.”
“Sorry, Menormor, but you asked to be told when the two beings from earlier arrived back to see you.” The voice on the comm was trembling.
Kroekus pressed a button and the monitor on his desk switched from the readout of Riyad’s account to a view of the waiting area outside his office. Standing in the middle of the room were the two assassins, Sherri Valentine and Adam Cain.
Looking at the monitor, Kroekus suddenly experienced an epiphany. He had never met the pirate leader before; they had communicated quite often, but always at arm’s length as to keep their association secret. Before now he had never even questioned the pirate’s race. Now looking at Riyad — and seeing two of the deadliest assassins in The Fringe standing in his waiting room — he suddenly felt a chill course through his body.
He pressed another button under the rim of his desk, and then spoke to Riyad. “I think that in light of the demise of your pirate force, that a more equitable division of your credits would be closer to one-hundred percent!”
Riyad stood up. “Bullshit, Kroekus! That’s my money.”
“Maybe you should have been more subtle then, rather than bring in your two cohorts to back you up!”
“What are you talking about?”
A side door suddenly slid open and three armed guards rushed into the room. They leveled their MK’s at Riyad. Without hesitation, Riyad rushed them, and before the targeting computers could lock onto his position, crashed into the three of them with the force a bull. Like bowling pins, the guards fell hard against the wall, as Riyad rolled over them, grabbing a weapon from one of them as he did so. He came up firing, blasting two of the guards in the chest before turning the weapon on Kroekus.
But he was already gone. His chair was gone, too, having spirited the crime lord away through an emergency exit in the wall behind his desk.
Then Riyad heard what sounded like hooves on a tile floor, growing ever louder. Suddenly, the doorway that the guards had emerged through exploded into the room, as two four-legged beasts crashed through it. The animals were huge, with two stubby horns on their thick heads. Resembling large dogs, they also had bear-like snouts displaying four-inch long teeth.
The two creatures butted their heads into Riyad’s chest, sending him flying across the room. Luckily, he held onto the weapon, but before he could bring it up to aim, one of the beasts rammed him again, sending him flying once more, this time crashing through the wall of the office and into the waiting area.
Chapter Twenty-One
Adam and Sherri had heard the commotion through the thick door to Kroekus office and had moved closer to listen. Their weapons had already been confiscated, and so they were shocked to see the guards draw their own MK’s and point them at the two Humans.
Adam and Sherri turned to face the guards. Adam opened his mouth and said, “What the fuck-” just as the wall behind them exploded at their backs. Part of wall and doors cascaded down upon them, along with a heavy lump of something that landed directly on Adam’s back.
Adam rolled over, carrying the lump with him. When the dust settled, Adam was staring into the face of Riyad Tarazi.
Riyad’s eyes widened with surprise, and then he shoved Adam to his left, firing his weapon past Adam’s left ear.
A squeal of pain emanated from behind Adam, and then an even greater weight fell on his back, as the foul, hot breath of a bear-faced creature exhaled on him. The thing was dead, but coming right behind it was his very- much-alive twin.
Adam and Riyad rolled away in opposite directions as the beast plowed a channel into the floor with its horned head right between them. The creature continued headlong into the room, crashing into the two stunned guards and pinning their now-crushed bodies against the far wall. Then the thing turned, focused in on Adam and Riyad again, snorted and charged once more.
Riyad’s weapon was pinned under him, so he rolled over more and tried to free the MK. It wouldn’t be in time, the creature was only a few meters away and coming fast Pop! A flash of a bolt launcher struck the charging creature in the side of the head, burning a clean hole into its skull, the force of the blast diverting its attack. The beast missed Riyad by millimeters. Then it fell to the tile floor and slid, dead, into what remained of the wall leading to Kroekus office.
Adam and Riyad looked up from the floor and through the ruble that covered them, to see Sherri holding one of the now-dead guard’s MK’s, a satisfied look on her face.
“Stop playing with the puppies, boys. I think we’ve got bigger problems now,” she said. She recovered the other guard’s weapon and tossed it to Adam.
She was right. They could hear yelling in the main hallway leading to Kroekus’ office, and the sound of dozens of guards filling the chamber.
The three Humans fanned out and took up a spread formation covering the door. They crouched down on one knee and aimed the weapons, sighting along the barrels of the weapons with both eyes open.
“I thought you were dead!” Adam yelled over at Riyad, not taking his eyes off the door.
“The same about you,” Riyad growled. “How did you get off the ship?”
“Does that really matter now? What did you do to Kroekus?”
“Nothing. He was going to rip me off, and then he sicced his two dogs on me.”
Sherri yelled from the other side of the room: “Whatever you did, you’ve got his whole army coming down on us. Who are you anyway?”
Adam answered, “He’s Riyad Tarazi, a slimy bastard who I wouldn’t trust to take out my trash.”
“I thought you said he was dead?”
“I was wrong!”
The door to the office slid open, and a force of guards wearing body armor flooded into the room. The three Humans let loose with accurate shots at their unshielded heads, dropping five of them before the others began to move back.
At the left side of the door, Sherri rushed in and grabbed three of the guards’ flash rifles, tossing two of them to Adam and Riyad and keeping one for herself.
The second wave of alien guards rushed forward, seemingly not to have learned from the demise of their comrades. Now armed with the more powerful and rapidly-firing flash rifles, the Humans were able to dispatch twelve of the guards before they retreated.
“We’ve got to find another exit point,” Adam cried out. “Back into Kroekus’ office! There has to be another exit.”
Sherri moved first, then Riyad, while Adam covered them. When Adam entered the office, he found the remains of the three guards Riyad had killed, plus the gaping opening where the “dogs” had crashed into the room. They entered the opening, and found themselves in another long hallway with several doors lining it. Two of the doors opened, as curious Sileans looked out to see what all the commotion was about. Riyad, who was in the lead, blasted them without hesitation.
“Save your bolts!” Adam commanded. “Manage your targets.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” Riyad replied sarcastically.
“Fuck you!”
“Knock it off you two!” Sherri cried out from her position in the middle. “Concentrate.”
At the end of the hallway was a large room with numerous tables and a food station lining one wall. As they entered, a force of guards entered from the other side.
The Humans slid on the smooth floor and overturned three tables to crouch behind, just as bolts began to splash around them, with some striking the tables they now hid behind.
Adam fired into the ceiling above the guards, raining debris down upon them. As the guards covered their
