Dean quickly gathered his things and headed out the door. He had an appointment with a commando to keep.
Part III
Chapter 32
Two months had passed since Dean had begun his martial arts and weapons training. The martial arts was going well, although painful. His teacher would show him two new moves each day, and would make him practice those moves until he fell from exhaustion. After three weeks, he had been informed that he knew all the moves of the art and now just needed to learn how to perform them without thinking. He practiced with his teacher for several hours each evening. His skill was improving rapidly with each lesson.
He had had an awkward moment during the first week when he had returned from his class to find Meriyl waiting for him at his door. He had completely forgotten the weekly tutoring session he had arranged to have with her. Sweaty and exhausted, he had tried to apologize for being late, but she merely shook her head and followed him into his room once he entered.
From that point on, he made sure he got home with enough time to shower and have dinner delivered before she arrived. His weekly sessions with Meriyl were always the highlight of his week. Once she became more comfortable around him, he found she had a great sense of humor. He couldn’t believe she could actually smile and laugh so readily after everything that had happened to her. Tonight was to be their next tutoring session, and he was looking forward to it with great anticipation. He planned to try to convince her to let him pay for more sessions so she could pay back her debt sooner.
The business was going great, even without his input, and he had more money than he knew what to do with. That was even after spending a couple million on two hand held pistols that used magnetic rings to propel slugs to insane velocities. The pistols were similar to those found on Earth, but each one had an extra thick barrel more than twice the length of any Dean had seen at home. He had been hoping for some type of ray gun, but his weapons instructor had shown him that it was too easy to disrupt the electronics and disable those types of weapons. While his new guns did use electricity, they were specifically designed to contain few actual electronic components; only a battery and a capacitor. A mechanical block was moved when the trigger was depressed and the capacitor would dump its power into the magnetic rings. He was told it was next to impossible to disable this weapon. Best of all, he could use just about any metal that was close to the right size as a bullet.
He had only wanted to purchase one, but his instructor had insisted he needed two and should learn to shoot with both hands. After two months of practice, four times a week, Dean could now hit a three centimeter target at twenty meters with just his eyes and the pistol sights. His instructor told him he was a natural and many professionals couldn’t shoot as well as him. With his heads up display, he could hit the same target at one hundred meters. His instructor, completely impressed when Dean had shown him his armor, explained that the armor could track his eye movements to determine his target. Once the target was set, the armor linked to his guns and only allowed them to fire when the trigger was pulled and the aim was right where it needed to be. The armor would help bring his arm to the correct orientation, but this usually took a second. This meant that there was a small delay between when Dean squeezed the trigger and the weapon actually fired. He figured it was a small price for pinpoint accuracy.
Dean had just finished showering and putting on his armor. Now that he carried a pistol on each hip, he had had some special jumpsuits fabricated. Each one had a seam that ran down the arms and sides. All he had to do was grab his collar and pull, and the entire jumpsuit would split into two pieces and fall away.
As he was reaching for one of his new jumpsuits, he heard an alarm sound come from the computer embedded in his forearm. He brought his arm up to look and was completely taken aback when his gloves and helmet deployed. Once the clear screen lowered from his helmet, additional material flowed up his neck. He soon found his head and face completely enclosed with cool air flowing across his face. He didn’t even know his armor could do that.
He brought his arm up once again to read the small computer display. The display was flashing an angry red with the words “Chemical Agent Detected” showing prominently. Confused, Dean looked around his small room, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. He reached out to push the button that would retract his helmet. As soon as he pushed it, his computer beeped at him. He looked at his display again and it read “Outside Environment Contaminated – Recommend Maintain Suit Integrity”.
Ok, he thought to himself, that was probably a bad idea. Turning, he quickly moved to his door and touched the control to open it. Nothing happened. He hit the control again, and again nothing happened. Thinking furiously he said aloud, “Computer, open the door.” Silence was his only response. Thinking perhaps he couldn’t be heard outside his armor, he brought his arm back up and began to rapidly scrolling through the various menus. After a couple minutes he found a menu item labeled “External Speaker”. He pressed the activate command and repeated his earlier instruction to the room’s computer. Again he got no response.
Completely frustrated, and with fear beginning to well up inside him, Dean began hammering his fists against the door. Normally he would not have been able to even scuff the heavy metal door, but with the augmented strength his armor provided, he began to put some impressive dents in the door. Unfortunately, he didn’t think it was going to be enough to break through the door.
Nearing panic, he turned and looked about trying to find something he could use to escape. A flashing icon on his heads up display informed him that he had about five minutes of internal air left. He had no idea how much he had started with. Trying as hard as he could to figure out what he could do, he was completely startled when he heard the door swish open. Turning back to the door, he was shocked beyond words when he saw Meriyl standing just outside his door wearing some type of mask.
“Are you just going to stand there staring at me, or would you like to leave this deathtrap?”
Chapter 33
Dean stared dumbly at her for a moment before asking, “What is going on?”
“See; and I thought you were smart,” Meriyl replied sarcastically. “Someone is trying to kill you genius. If you don’t want them to succeed, I suggest you follow me.”
Without another word, she turned and ran down the hallway. With little thought, Dean ran out the door and followed her. As he passed the door, he noticed the control panel hanging from the wall by its wires. So that’s how she opened the door, he thought. He heard running footsteps coming from behind him, so he picked up his pace, and with the help of his armor, he quickly caught up with Meriyl.
As they ran, he noticed Meriyl pull the mask from her face and toss it aside. He assumed her doing so meant the air out here was okay, so he quickly hit the button on his arm to retract his helmet. Much to his relief, the helmet immediately retracted, along with the extra material that had covered his neck and chin. They turned left at the next intersection and continued running past door after door leading to other residences. When they reached the end of the hall, Dean could see it was a dead end, with no other hallways leading away. He was just about to ask what they were going to do now, when Meriyl reached down and grabbed hold of a ventilation grate. She twisted it sideways and he could see that all but one of the fasteners had been removed. Once the grate was away from the opening, she turned to Dean and said, “Inside spaceboy.”
Dean cringed. She had taken to calling him that after their first meeting when he had explained how he had come to be on Gorrosh. He knew she continued to do it only because it never failed to elicit a reaction from him. If he were to be honest with himself, it was the boy part that stung.
The sound of running feet continued to get closer, so he decided not to argue. He bent down and climbed into the open duct. Moving forward, he heard Meriyl climb in behind him and slide the grate back into place. He heard her turn around and whisper urgently, “Keep going.”
/> Dean continued to crawl down the narrow tunnel. This would have been much easier if he was not wearing his armor, but he was pretty sure the armor had just saved his life, so he wasn’t going to complain. After crawling for about a hundred and fifty meters, they came to a much larger, vertical shaft with a ladder bolted onto one wall. Dean was puzzled for a moment as he considered how a Gorroshtic could climb a ladder, then quickly decided it really didn’t matter at this moment.
“Up or down?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Down,” Meriyl replied.
Reaching out, Dean took hold of the ladder and then swung his legs out of the duct he had been climbing through. Catching his feet on a rung, he immediately began to climb down. Looking up, he could see Meriyl on the ladder above him. It took a long time to reach the bottom. Dean assumed they had climbed down the entire ten stories, from the level his room was on, to the ground floor.
Meriyl opened a panel in one of the walls and stepped out. Following, Dean found that they were in some kind of maintenance room. Led by Meriyl, the pair wove their way around various pieces of machinery. Arriving at an outer wall of the large space, Meriyl moved up the wall until she came to a door. She opened the door and led Dean inside. He saw a small room with a single table set in the center.
“This is a break area for maintenance workers,” she explained. “But, since all the machinery is automated, they rarely come down here. We are safe to stay here for long enough to plan out what we are going to do next.”
“Next?” Dean asked in confusion. “I don’t even know what’s going on here.”
“Have a seat spaceboy, “Meriyl said. “You are in for one heck of a story.”
Chapter 34
“First,” she began, once Dean had slid down to the floor with his back to the wall, “You need to know who I really am.” Seeing Dean about to speak, she held up her hand to cut him off. “Yes, my name is really Meriyl, and yes, I am really a slave. What you don’t know is why. Everything I told you about my home world is true. It was really attacked and cut off from The Path. When I figured out that I couldn’t go home, I was in real trouble. I had no money and nowhere to go. Even more unfortunate, the world I was on had a crime boss named Bex. He figured out pretty quickly that any of my race still on the planet would become desperate pretty fast. He began to actively search us out. By the time he found me, I was homeless, starving, and willing to do just about anything to change that. He took me in, gave me clothes, food, and a place to sleep. I didn’t realize at the time what he wanted in return.”
“But, what does that have to do with you becoming a slave?” Dean interrupted.
“I’m getting there,” she replied testily. “For several weeks, Bex treated me like his own daughter. He spoke of paying for me to finish my education and then helping me get started with a life of my own. I was extremely happy given what I had recently endured. Then one day he asked me to come along with him and his associates. I agreed readily. He had me drive a large vehicle to an office building in the city. He and his ‘friends’ were in the back. Once there, he told me to wait, so I did. He, and what I later found out were his primary group of criminals, went into the building wearing masks. They came out a short time later carrying handfuls of files. They told me to drive back home. I was informed later that they had stolen files on a secret research project that they planned to sell to the highest bidder. I was also informed that a camera on the front of the building had captured my image. I wasn’t given a mask to wear, so I was now a wanted criminal.”
“I still don’t under…”
“Please,” she interjected. ”Let me get this out and you will understand. After he informed me that I was a wanted criminal, he told me he could clear my name if I did a job for him. Having very little choice, I agreed. I was escorted to another world by one of his thugs. Once there I was informed that I was not wanted on this world. I was told to steal a specific set of items from a specific stand. I was also told to make certain I was caught. The thug explained that I would be arrested and turned over to the owner of the stand to serve as a slave until I had paid back my debt.”
“Why would they want you to become a slave?” Dean asked.
“Because they needed a spy,” she answered. “You see, Quinsil and Quillitonoxic are business partners. It is a very well hidden secret, but everything Quinsil owns, Quillitonoxic owns part of, and vice versa. Also, a great deal of what they own isn’t exactly legal. In fact, some of their business ventures compete directly with Bex. Needless to say, he doesn’t much care for competition. My job was to get close to Quinsil so I could find any information Bex could use to bring them down.”
“Okay,” Dean said. “I understand how you became a slave, and I’m very sorry you were put into such a situation, but what does any of this have to do with me?”
“Well, because Quinsil eventually tended to forget I was there, he developed a bad habit of using his communicator within earshot. I learned a great deal about his criminal wrongdoings. I had learned so much in fact, I was going to take you up on your offer to help me pay my debt sooner. By the way, this is why I rejected your help to begin with. I needed to stay long enough to find the information Bex wanted.”
“I see,” Dean said sadly.
“This morning, I overheard Quinsil speaking with Quillitonoxic. I heard them talk about a failed attempt to kill you on a bridge. Then I heard Quillitonoxic say that everything was taken care of. He said he had arranged to have poison pumped into your room. Apparently, once the poison dissipated, it was supposed to appear as if your heart had simply stopped. I had just enough time to find that old filter mask and get to your door. I heard you banging on the door, so I rigged the controls.”
“But Meriyl, why would they want to kill me?”
“That part is simple spaceboy. Your business is a huge success. They want your half. With no known heirs, Quillitonoxic automatically gets your half of the business when you die. And since Quinsil secretly owns part of everything Quillitonoxic does, he gets part of your half too.”
Dean quietly thought this through for a moment. He was devastated that he could be betrayed so profoundly by someone he had considered a friend. As he continued to process this new information, a sudden revelation struck him. “Why?” he asked in a near whisper.
“Why what?”
“Why did you come to save me? Won’t that make both Quinsil and Bex want to harm you?
“Probably,” she replied almost nonchalantly. “But after everything you have tried to do for me, I couldn’t just let them kill you. You are the only friend I’ve got.”
As bad as the current situation was, Dean couldn’t keep himself from smiling.
Chapter 35
“So what do we do now?” Dean asked.
“All I know is that we need to get off world, or they will kill us both,” Meriyl replied.
“So we just head for The Path and get out of here?”
“Not going to be that simple. I’m sure Quillitonoxic has paid some guards to prevent us from going through The Path. Besides, even if we do get through, we’ll be arrested as soon as we arrive on a new world. That fancy suit you’re wearing looks military. They’ll think they are being invaded. We have to find something to cover you up.”
“I have some jumpsuits in my room.”
“You mean the one with the poison gas and probably crawling with guards?”
Dean hung his head. He had no idea what they should do. Despair began to pull him into its clutches. He didn’t understand why bad things kept happening to him. He looked up at Meriyl. Seeing the distraught expression on her face, similar to the one he was now wearing, instantly hardened his resolve. He absolutely would not let her come to harm.
He began to carefully review his options. They hadn’t killed him yet, so he still had money. They didn’t know about his armor, or the training he had been taking. They also didn’t know how far he was willing to go to save Meriyl. Slowly, a course of action began to form in hi
s mind.
After a few more minutes of silence, he looked up and said, “I have a plan.”
Meriyl looked at him with doubt splashed across her face. “Okay Dean, what’s your genius idea?”
Dean smiled warmly and said, “Trust me, I’ve got this.”
With doubt and hope obviously warring for control of her face, she said, “Alright, but if you get me killed, I will never forgive you.”
“Deal,” he replied with a smile.
*****
After receiving directions to the shopping area, Dean left Meriyl in the maintenance breakroom while he made his way back to the public areas. Coming to a door, he opened it just enough to see out. He was right where he needed to be. He was relatively close to the clothing shop he normally purchased his jumpsuits from. Looking around carefully, he saw nothing other than the regular shoppers normally found in this area. He quickly stepped out from the door. He had left a small wooden block on the floor between the door and the jamb, preventing it from closing all the way. He would need to be able to get back to Meriyl. He just hoped nobody discovered the slightly open door. If it closed, he wouldn’t be able to go back through it.
He rapidly crossed the distance from the door to the shop, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible as he did so. As he entered the shop, the shop’s owner looked up and began to smile. The smile faltered as he took noticed of the menacing armor Dean was wearing; along with the two pistols attached to his hips. Regaining his composure, the shop owner walked over and asked, “How may I help you?”
Dean smiled politely and replied, “I need a new jumpsuit. I need this one as fast as you can make it, and I’m willing to pay triple.”