Bzt. He was back in plain view. Why did this keep happening? The infrared scanner directly overhead—it must be the cause.
Miko ducked out of range. Too late.
Out in the hall, he stumbled upon two Special Forces men who managed to survive the Jakru blast.
“There’s that wacko outlander!” cried one. “Neutralize him!”
They aimed their stun guns at Miko. Miko’s heart pounded. As the stress rose, he felt the energy wind around his body, felt his body crackling around the edges.
The men pushed forward, training their weapons. Their eyes widened as they saw him blinking out of existence. “What the hell—? A mutant!” The corporal opened up his weapon.
The enemy fire passed right through Miko, searing the wall.
“A freak—likely one of those bloody locust deviants!”
Miko glided right past the two, fury burning his heart and bringing on another electrical crackle. Sneaking behind the foremost, he pulled the truncheon from the man’s belt and smashed him on the back of the skull.
The other whirled and fired in dismay. His grunt of surprise did nothing, and he looked every which way for an intruder, finding none. Miko bent the weapon out of his grasp and pistol-whipped him across the skull. The soldier fell with a dull crunch.
Miko grimaced at his handiwork. He was loath to kill them, but he couldn’t risk them shooting him down in cold blood if he suddenly turned back to bodily form.
He took one’s knife and was about to seize the stun weapons to add to his arsenal, when a sound alerted him. He cursed inwardly. He left the weapons where they were. Too much of a liability should they be seen floating in midair. The keyring and knife were enough of a risk. Stealthily, he glided down the hall, the bowie knife in his astral hand moving magically with him through the air. If anyone appeared, he would drop it on the ground.
He floated down a side corridor, the same where he had seen the corporal move to check on the prisoners. A series of metal doors with reinforced plates gazed back at him. He knew that Fenli and Usk were somewhere behind those doors.
He lay down his knife and passed through the wall. Slumped behind a table, head in his hands, was Fenli, shackled and unguarded. The Jakru stun wave did not seem to have penetrated the heavy metal that guarded the cells. Miko did not want to alert the cargo man to his astral condition so decided to wait until his invisibility wore off. Hopefully, that would not be too long.
He passed through the nearby wall and glimpsed Usk, pacing back and forth like a dog on a short leash, hissing through his teeth. Miko stirred uncomfortably. He could free the locust but what then? His being invisible would not allow them to coordinate their efforts.
He swiped the key ring across the panel to open the door from the inside, Then he fetched the knife in the hall with its long sharp edge. He returned to the room and swiped the door shut. The faint whirring had alerted the locust who watched in horrified fascination—a gleaming bowie knife gliding through the air toward him. Miko noticed he was referring to Usk as ‘him’ now, not ‘it’.
Usk jerked back, voicing several menacing chitters, clawing the air with his pincers.
The ghost of Miko moved harmlessly through the creature’s claw swipes and quickly sawed through the nylon binding Usk’s leg to the table.
When the locust saw he was free, his terror subsided. He blinked and gnashed, searching about for the source of his magical release. A moment of amusement for Miko, who drifted at arm’s length watching the locust’s stunned reaction. Usk snatched up the knife in a trembling pincer and waved it about like a madman woken from a psychotic dream.
Now a waiting game. Miko debated returning to the fallen soldiers and fetching their stun weapons, but he realized the risks outweighed the gains should he turn visible again. He observed Usk move restlessly about, analyzing every square inch of his prison. He sniffed about the air, pawing pincers at the walls, looking for any means of escape. The locust’s twin antennae twitched with suspicion and the tiny green hairs on the back of his neck rose on end. Miko had never noticed them before, nor those that laced down his hard-shelled back like a down of fur. The locust’s triangular-shaped head made him look like an aphid, with beady eyes gleaming redly like an alligator’s in the dark. Miko could open the door and let the locust walk free, but if he ran, he would never catch up with him. Better that they stick together. Yes...he needed Usk, and Fenli. Nor did he want to alert Fenli to his phantom power, so he had to wait until his invisibility wore off. If pattern was to repeat itself that would not be long in coming. He continued to study Usk. As repulsive as the creature was, he had saved his skin more than once.
Bzt. Miko came back into his body.
The locust almost jumped out of his carapace. Miko motioned him to silence and swiped the key card so they could sneak out in the hall.
The locust drifted at his heels, sniffing around as suspiciously as ever, eyeing the ghost man in distrust. Without proper weapons, they were nothing more than sitting ducks to the Jakru. If the Jakru should come through that door...
No sooner had he voiced the thought than the tramp of boots came echoing from the corridor. Miko cursed and ducked back. He crouched by the door. Usk joined him on the other side. Miko rued that it had taken so long to return to visibility. If he had escaped and taken his chances alone... He smashed down on the arm of the figure that
