He had a gun! He aimed and fired and his quarry fell with a hoarse groan. Usk tackled the other to the ground, stabbing out a claw. With a clacking pincer dripping in blood, he scooped up the weapon at the fallen Jakru’s waist.
Miko and Usk scrambled through the door and sprinted down the hall. No enemy in sight. Miko swiped the tags on the black pad, as he had watched the corporal do when he had come out of Usk’s holding cell.
The door slid open. They burst into Fenli’s chamber, panting.
Fenli jerked back in wonder, almost rolling off his chair. The muscles knotted on his pale face and he gasped in complete bafflement. “How did you get in here?”
Miko motioned to Usk, and the locust drew his knife. “The Jakru attacked and stunned the complex.” Fenli watched as Usk busied himself cutting his bonds.
“How did you get free?”
Usk chittered in wild tones. Miko shook his head as if the locust were somewhat unhinged.
Fenli shook his head in disgust. Flexing his raw limbs, he snatched at the weapon Miko gave him. “This could come in handy.” He poked his head out in the hall. They retraced their steps, Miko leading the way down the hall where he remembered the hub lay.
The fluorescent lights dimmed and flickered. Sounds of alien jabber echoed down the hall. Then thud of approaching footsteps, and blaster fire.
Miko ducked back behind a crumbling corner. “Wait here!”
The sounds faded; Miko chanced a look. He crouched on one knee. The reek of explosives and chemical vapours wisped down the hallway. They struck out cautiously, gripping their weapons. The coast was clear.
They came to the junction where the troopers had parachuted from the skies. The Jakru ship was nowhere in sight, perhaps moved elsewhere to avoid enemy fire. Broken glass lay on the concrete; the smell of discharged weapons hung thick in the air, but no Jakru enemies walked the hall.
The Sergeant lay up ahead in a dazed sprawl. His eyes were open, a sinister sight, with a ghastly curl to his lip. Fenli stooped to regard him with distaste. He searched him and held up the blue disc that Salhan had used to produce the Jakru woman. “Well, well, I spy with my little eye...”
Fenli felt for a pulse. “Not dead yet. Well, too bad. This will be painless for him.” With callous disregard, he snatched at the long bowie knife at Miko’s side and proceeded to saw off the Sergeant’s forefinger, perhaps remembering the bruises delivered upon his face. He wiped his blade on the Sergeant’s pant leg, strapped the knife at his side, and plunged the disc into his pocket.
“You crazy idiot!” cried Miko. “You’re going to let him bleed out here?”
“He would have tortured us anyways, thrown us to the dogs. I don’t owe him anything.”
“You surely don’t.” As much as he had resented the Sergeant’s bullying, he could not condone this punishment and tore a strip off his uniform and fastened it around the stump.
The hub radiated to a dozen hallways branching in different directions. Miko’s eyes flitted from one to the next, wondering which one they should take.
It seemed the blast was widespread and had taken out security. Military personnel lay slumped everywhere. This would make it easy to pass unhindered by checkpoints at least. But the Jakru were another matter entirely.
Fenli sized up the situation. “There’s no time to lose. We have to get out of here.”
“Sure, but how?”
“Down this hall. Look, those signs. The tube-tram.”
They clambered down one of the main halls, paying no heed to stealth, jumping over limp, fallen bodies and searching every cross-corridor for enemies.
Shouts echoed down the hall. Red beams of death rained at their backs, tearing out streaks of fibreglass from the walls. One beam singed Usk, and he loosed a chitter, stumbling along after Miko as smoke filled the hall and smoke curled from his blackened ribs. He struggled to keep up with Miko.
Angry footfall pounded behind them. The hallway ended in a fan of smashed up lights where blasters had levelled the exit. Fallen debris, metal and plaster littered the floor. Miko snatched a look back. Vengeful Jakru with horned skull caps, black boots and violet anti-laser vests, came charging after them, weapons lifted. Ahead, the foyer opened up into a large depot. Frantically, they stumbled through, Miko helping Usk. Unconscious bodies lay slumped everywhere. At the far end loomed a long, low, black capsule of four tram-cars, humming, waiting, parked by the station. It did not help that they had a locust-mutant in their midst. Glowing lights flickered on the top front of the foremost car. A private conveyance?
They raced in and piled past the open door and Fenli and Miko pushed aside limp passengers and took seats. Usk stood painfully, gazing suspiciously at the inert forms.
The capsule’s doors closed before Jakru blasters could ruin it. Off they whisked through the tunnels somewhere toward Skullrox, the rage of enemy fire fading to dull hums as the magno-rail retreated from the complex.
“Been a long time since I’ve been in these parts,” mused Fenli.
Miko turned toward him with a sneer. “Don’t you think it’s better to head away from the city, rather than toward it?”
Fenli smiled sweetly. “We’ve got to keep moving. Plus, we’ve got this.” He flaunted the blue disc. “The Jakru don’t know where the woman is cached. We’ve got surprise on our side, and speed.”
“If you think they’re going to let us walk out of here—”
The tram halted with a whoosh of pressurized air. The door popped open.
“This is our stop.” Fenli jumped out; on impulse, he beetled toward a sign of flashing lights to the left. Miko signalled Usk and they were hard on his heels, gaining the street and a wash
