Challenging Saber (13 page)

“I can do this,” she whispered, eyeing the northern window.

She backed up and played out how many moves she would have to make to reach it. Fortunately, the inside of the room was not as finished as the rest of the fortress.

“Thank goodness they got tired of polishing walls by the time they built this stupid part,” she muttered, shaking out her legs and arms. “Just remember what Kali said; use the formation of the building to help you get up to where you want to go.”

Drawing in a deep breath, she sprinted forward. Jumping, she used the uneven walls to give her hands and feet something to hold onto. She pushed off, using her leg muscles to give her the added boost. Her fingers scraped the ledge of the window before she felt gravity working against her, pulling her back down to the floor.

She twisted and landed with her knees bent, rolling on her left shoulder and coming back up onto her feet in a crouching position. Shaking out the trembling in her limbs, she rose to her feet and focused again. This was just like when she was in gymnastics and learning a new routine.

She cleared her mind of everything but the move until she could see was each step of it. Breathing deeply, she rocked back and forth until she could feel the timing was right. Sprinting, she jumped again. She ignored the pain in her fingers as the rough rock cut into them.

Her fingers gripped the edge. She gritted her teeth as she held herself for a brief second before she pushed up with her toes. She was panting by the time she finally got up far enough to look out the narrow opening. She kicked her feet until she could wiggle enough to sit on the sill.

She looked out over the landscape. The moon lit the area with just enough light to give her a pretty good view of the terrain below. The lower areas were dark. She’d discovered there wasn’t any electricity installed in the fortress when she was being moved from one part of the building to another. All lighting had to be done using either generators or the good old fashion torch method. All she knew was that it would work in her favor when escaping.

She glanced down at her hands with a grimace before leaning far enough out the window to see what was below her. Her eyes widened when she saw a flat roof with a hatch a little over ten feet down from the tower window. There were also long pieces of timber sticking out from where the tower was built.

“Awesome!” She whispered, glancing at the door and giving it a one finger salute. “Hasta la vista, jerk wads.”

Scooting up until she was standing, she carefully turned in the opening and lowered herself down until she was on her stomach with her legs hanging over the side. Holding on to the lip, she felt around with her right foot until she felt wood.

She slid her foot back and forth until she felt confident she could put both feet down without losing her balance. Shifting her weight, she slowly lowered her body onto the narrow beam sticking out of the wall. Holding onto the wall as best she could, she glanced over her shoulder and swallowed.

“Just think of it as a balance beam,” she whispered. “You can do this, Taylor. You kicked ass at the National Championship.”

She glanced down over her right shoulder. Six feet. She could do this. The roof was only about six feet down. Turning carefully, she drew in a deep breath and focused. Counting to three, she lowered herself down onto the two foot section of wood, balancing herself as she squatted down, placing her hands between her legs until she could sit on the wood.

Blowing out her breath, she placed her left hand on the outside of her thigh and twisted, centering her weight, and awkwardly lowered herself down. She worked her body around until she was lying across the wood. Scooting backwards again, she felt for the next piece of wood with the toe of her boot.

“One more, then you can jump,” she told herself, trying to boost her confidence.

She lowered her weight onto it, and gasped when the edge of the wood gave way. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out and alerting someone. Her hands instinctively reached up to grab the section she had just been on while her feet frantically scrambled to find a section of the wood that wasn’t rotten.

It took several times before she finally found a small foothold. It wouldn’t be enough to hold her. Glancing over her shoulder, she let go, twisting as she fell. Her arms swung out to try to keep her upright. She bent her legs and rolled when she hit the wooden planksroof of the small lookout. Within seconds of landing, she knew why no one was there when the roof made a cracking noise before it disintegrated underneath her weight.

Taylor covered her head with her arms as she fell through the opening. She landed on her back amid the dust created by the rotted wood made from centuries of neglect. She moaned and rolled, trying to cover her nose and mouth at the same time as she drew in gasping breaths to replenish the air knocked out of her. Smothering a cough, she finally rolled onto her back again and gaze up at the dark sky.

She waited to see if the noise had attracted any attention. The only sounds she heard came from the occasional piece of wood that still fell and the wind. Breathing a sigh of relief, she winced as she sat up. Rubbing her left hip, she rose shakily to her feet and stared up at the tower window that she had just escaped from.

It sure did look a lot higher from down here than it did from up there,
she thought as she stiffly straightened.

Glancing down, she carefully picked her way over the collapsed roof to the stairs. A look of doubt crossed her face as she stared down at them. They didn’t look like they were in much better shape than the roof.

“Oh well,” she whispered, straightening her shoulders. “It isn’t like you have a lot of choice in the matter.”

Bracing her hand against the wall, she slowly began her descent, testing each step before she actually put all her weight on it. At the rate she was going, she should reach the bottom by her ninetieth birthday, she thought with disgust as the darkness closed in around her.

*.*.*

Saber leaned forward on the skid, pushing it to the limit. The vehicle silently sped across the desert floor, reaching speeds of close to six hundred kilometers per hour. The actual travel time to reach the bottom of the mountain would only be an hour and a half. The additional time would be scaling the sides undetected and breaching the interior walls through the three separate drainage tunnels.

An hour and twenty minutes later, Thunder and Sword turned to the northeast as the mountain came into view. Ten minutes later, Hunter and Razor turned in the opposite direction. Saber, Dagger, and Trig remained fixed on their heading, slowing to a crawl five minutes afterward as the rocky base of the mountain prevented them from traveling any faster.

“The entrance to the drainage tunnel should be just ahead,” Dagger informed him.

“I see it,” Saber replied, pulling back on the throttle and bringing the skid to a stop. “Nine meters up and to your left.”

Saber climbed off the skid and walked over to a series of rocks that had fallen over the years. Reaching up, he gripped a protruding section and began climbing. Under his uniform he could feel the brace activate. The pulsation caused the muscles to contract and release, stabilizing his leg.

“You good?” Trig asked, joining him.

Saber shot Trig a heated glance. “Does it look like I’m having trouble?” He snapped in annoyance.

Trig grinned and shook his head. “No. I might need to look into that brace,” he said, pulling himself up. “I swear I’m getting too old for this shit. Why can’t the bad guys hide out in easier locations?”

“Because they wouldn’t make very good bad guys,” Dagger retorted, climbing ahead of his brother.

All three men moved like silent ghosts up the rock face to the entrance. An old iron-ore gate covered the opening. Saber pulled a laser cutter out of the equipment pouch at his waist and sliced through it. Dagger and Trig grabbed the piece, holding it steady for a moment before they lowered it to the ground.

“That’s a heavy piece of shit,” Dagger muttered as he let go and stood up.

Saber nodded. “That is why the Drethulans want it. The weapons are heavy, but they’ll survive just about anything,” he replied under his breath.

“Great! Just what we need, those weird worm-shifters with armor,” Trig grumbled with a shudder. “Be thankful you missed that fight, Dagger.”

Dagger shook his head. “I fought just about everything else,” he reminded Trig before moving to the side so Saber could go ahead of them.

“Sometimes you need to learn when to shut up,” Saber informed Trig under his breath before he stepped around him.

Saber adjusted the MMOS, or Multi-mode-optical Scanner, goggles he had worn during the trip to help him see in the increased darkness. Touching the side, he scanned for any alarms. The scan came up negative.

“They must not have done their homework as well as the Kassisan did,” Dagger murmured, stepping in behind him and letting Trig take the rear.

“It makes me wonder what else the Kassisan knows and hasn’t told us,” Saber retorted as he stepped over some debris that had washed down from the drainage above.

Taylor remained frozen against the wall. She hoped the guard didn’t turn and come down the small hallway where she had hidden the moment she heard him coming. She shivered, also hoping there were no creepy crawlies hiding in the narrow passage with her.

She was exhausted, but fear was giving her the strength to continue. It had taken her a good hour or more to get out of the lower tower. So far, none of her captors appeared to be aware that she had escaped. One look at the roof of the shorter tower and they probably assumed that she had fallen to her death!

More power to them if they try to go find my body,
she thought nastily.
If I had weighed an ounce more, the whole damn stairwell would have come down on me.

She had difficulties coming down the rickety stairs and had slightly sore ankles to prove it! Her feet had gone through at least three rotten steps. The others had just been missing. That wouldn’t have been a problem if she could have seen where in the heck she was putting her feet.

Sighing as the guard disappeared down the hallway, Taylor rose and slid along the wall to peek around the corner. She silently retraced her steps from this morning. After what happened to those poor men and women at the arena in the dome, she knew she couldn’t leave the other prisoners behind.

She paused and carefully removed an old torch from the wall. It had a foot-long piece of metal at the bottom. She felt along the wood and was relieved when she felt that it was nice and strong.

Turning it so that the metal end was facing away from her, she held it like a bat. Once again, she sent a word of thanks to the great unknown for giving her a chance to participate in a wide variety of sports. She leaned forward to peek around the corner once more before slipping out from her hiding spot.

Prymorus Achler, the Waxian, had been totally full of himself when he ordered the guards to escort her and the others to a small arena that they had built in the lower courtyard. It had been a huge, metal domed area. Six people, one Trivator warrior that she’d learned was called Ember, two women, and three other men had been pushed into the cage.

Nausea rose in Taylor’s throat as she remembered the slaughter. Two of the men had grabbed one of the women and held her between them. Ember and the other man had tried to help the woman while the other cried pitifully against the bars, holding out her arms and pleading for mercy.

That was when the gate had opened and two mammoth creatures her Waxians captors had called Gartaians, had been released into the cage. Taylor and the others watched in hopeless horror as the creatures ripped the woman held between the two men apart as they fought over her.

It had been a hopeless battle. None of the captives had been given a weapon. They had no way of defending themselves against the two creatures that stood almost four meters high and weighed in at over ten thousand kilograms.

The first two men attacked the other woman, ripping her away from the bars as she screamed and fought in an effort to shove her in front of them and keep the creature from attacking them. One of the beasts swung his massive head, piercing the screaming woman with one of the three tusks protruding from its mouth. The other Gartaian’s tongue swept out and dragged the impaled woman off the tusk and into its mouth. The sickening sound of bone being crushed had been too much for Taylor. She couldn’t watch any more.

Instead, she’d focused on how she was going to escape. She wouldn’t die in that cage, being eaten by some alien monster. She would rather take her chances of being killed while trying to escape, than end up being torn apart. Still, she couldn’t escape without trying to free the others. As far as she was concerned, the only one who deserved to die that way was Achler. She’d love to see how he liked being put in a cage with a Gartaian or two.

Rubbing her damp cheek on her shoulder, she winced when she swiped the bruise again. An angry scowl replaced her grief. She’d also like to hit the bastard upside the jaw with the end of a baseball bat. If she ever got a chance to kick him in the balls again, she was going to make sure they ended up in his throat! She hoped that the marble size jewels choked him, but not before the Gartaian ripped him apart.

She paused at the end of the corridor. Her eyes narrowed on the guard. He was taking a leak in the corner. The strong smell of urine filled the hallway. Gripping the torch, she silently stepped up behind him. She swung the end of the torch just as he was closing the front of his pants.

Taylor watched as the man spun around as if in slow motion before collapsing to the cold stone floor. Squatting down, she quickly searched him for the keys. She wiggled her nose at the offensive smell coming off the man, but continued to pat him down until she felt a bulky, metal object just under his left side. She set the torch down next to her and shifted him just far enough to pull the ring of keys out from under him. Grabbing the torch, she glanced at the man once more before rolling her eyes.