Hers To Cherish (Verdantia Book 3) (26 page)

So as not to draw unwanted questions, b
oth he and Tok had attended the banquet unarmed. They had cached their weapons in the next hallway, their meeting point. Ram eyed the door at the end of the corridor and weighed his chances if he ran for it.
Not good, and Steffania and Pansy are beyond those doors.
Tok couldn’t be too far behind him. Perhaps he could stall Kella until Tok made the odds more favorable. Whatever happened, Ram couldn’t afford to be incapacitated. He had to stay away from that whip. He cursed fluently under his breath, then stepped out from behind the pillar. “Looking for me?”

The blond Vxloncian smiled and opened his right arm, freeing the stim-whip to drape on the
ground at his feet. A small snap of his wrist and the whip’s lash could be air borne, and the asshole had activated the entire length of the lash. The pulsing hum echoed off the stone walls and floor – the promise of excruciating pain. “I am going to enjoy hurting you, Verdantian. And then I am going to enjoy killing you.”

The arrogant fool wanted to whip him first
? When Kella had a perfectly good side arm in his thigh holster? Ramsey couldn’t believe the man’s stupidity. Ramsey shrugged and opened his arms. “Knock yourself out.”

As the Vxloncian raised his whip hand, Tok rounded the corner. Kella took his eyes off Ramsey for a split second. It was all Ram needed. He launched himself at Kella’s ankles and upended the man. Ram watched in grim satisfaction as the Enforcer’s whip grazed his own wrist. Kella screamed in agony and flung the whip through the air
. It landed down the hallway, jumping and crackling with energy.

The stone floor vibrated as Tok thundered ponderously toward the prone men. Ramsey scrambled toward the stim whip while Kella fumbled awkwardly to free his handgun. Snatching the whip from the floor, Ramsey turned
and released its lash at the moment the Enforcer aimed his handgun at Tok’s chest. A blast of pulsar light sent the corner of a stone column crashing to the floor as Kella’s aim was disrupted by the pulsing stim-whip now wrapped in multiple coils around his bare neck. He fell backward onto the stone floor, jerking and twitching convulsively. Strangled grunts and squeals of agony spewed from his gaping mouth.

Ramsey walked over to the
spasming, writhing body of Strom Kella and kicked his gun toward Tok. The behemoth leaned down to pick it up and joined Ramsey. Both men stood and watched as Kella’s body tattooed the stone with herky-jerky slams and contortions. Tok dangled the handgun between two enormous fingers.

“I cannot use this, Verdantian. My fingers don’t fit through the trigger guard.”

Ram took the gun from Tok and gazed down at the Vxloncian enforcer. He dialed a lower intensity, took careful aim and a dark hole appeared in Kella’s temple. His breathing stopped and his eyes stared blankly at the ceiling and still his body continued with the odd twitch and flop as though some unseen puppet master jerked the strings of a ruined marionette. Both of them watched as Kella’s convulsive writhing slowed to occasional, reflexive spasms when the stim-whip activated his nerves.

Ram kept his eyes forward as he and
Tok turned and jogged down the hallway toward their rendezvous point. “I enjoyed that.”

Tok just grunted.

Steffania breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ramsey and Tok round the corner. As they assembled their weapons and donned their armor, she kept careful watch on the corridors. “Any problems?”

Ramsey replied in an offhanded manner.
“Kella tried to kill me.” He caught her sharp glance and shrugged. “He’s dead.”

It was all she could do not to fly to him and run her hands over
his tight body to make sure he was whole, unharmed. She ground her teeth together instead and tried to quell the sick fear that flooded her.

Tok produced a sound that passed for a chuckle. “Died with his own whip wrapped around his neck.”

Pansy spat a fervent, “Good. I am glad you killed him,
Dominus
.”

Ramsey looked at Steffania with a questioning arch of his eyebrow. “Ready?”

She nodded.

For the next forty-five minutes, Steffania worked feverishly to override Narr’s security system, corridor by corridor, in clear view of
whomever should glance down the hallway. With Pansy holding the
UniLinc 4.5
open, Ramsey and Tok stood, guns in hand, covering each approach. It wasn’t until the final level that they ran into trouble with Narr’s security forces.

A blast zinged by her and scorched the panel that hung open
. The hallway filled with smoke and the smell of singed metal. A second blast seared a blaze of white heat across her upper arm. She bit back a cry of pain. Ramsey swore and ran to the end of the hallway, sighted down his 88K and fired a continuous discharge of energy. A masculine gargle and a solid thump rewarded his efforts. A pair of boots slid into view, the toes pointing toward the ceiling.

“Now it begins, Verdantian.” Tok raised his over-sized weapon and gestured toward Steffania. “Your woman is bleeding.”

“I’m fine. I’m fine. It’s just a graze. Make sure they don’t hit Pansy and the
UniLinc
. Lose that and we’re screwed.” As Steffania spoke, the panel’s glow flipped abruptly from red to green and the beeping silenced. “Okay. We’re through. Next stop, ‘quiet room’. How are we doing for time?”

Tok turned
his wrist and checked his time-piece. “We are behind a few minutes. Kella died too slowly.”

“My life’s in your hands, boys.
Shoot straight.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

Steffania laughed grimly at Ram’s snarled
response. They had reached the narrow hallway outside the ‘quiet room’ and the exchange of small arms’ fire now seemed continuous. Tok and Ramsey responded with deadly accuracy, steady and unruffled. That didn’t surprise Steffania but Pansy shocked the socks off her. The little
slaaf
held Steffania’s
UniLinc
with a cool competence she had shown no evidence of until this moment.

“Pansy, what was your specialty as a medicus?” Steffania threw the question at Pansy as she frantically worked the holographic screen on the panel controlling the door to the ‘quiet room’.

“I worked in brain trauma,
neuro-critical care.”

“Steady nerves required?”

“Hmm, yes. But what you are seeing now is the result of a little self-hypnosis. Please do not misunderstand. I am terrified.”

“Well, whatever you’re doing to quiet your nerves, I’m impressed. Got it!” The door to the ‘quiet room’ opened with a subtle click. A few more flurries of her fingers and she disabled the intruder alarm. “DeKieran, you and Pansy have eight minutes. Go! Go! Go!”

Steffania took up a position beside Tok and
began a pattern of return fire.

Ramsey moved to the petite slaaf. “Ready? We don’t have much time.”

Taking a deep breath,
Pansy nodded. “I’m ready,
Dominus
.”

“Okay. Stay behind me.”

He cautiously pushed the door open. Nothing moved. Nothing challenged them. Shielding Pansy with his body, Ramsey entered the white-tiled room and scanned in a 360-degree sweep over the top of his 88K. Except for the soft chirp of monitors, silence blanketed the room. He turned to Pansy.

“Do you remember what Alessa DeAlbero looks like?”

The delicate woman nodded.

“All right. You start at that end and I’ll start at this end. Now what do I do?”

“Press and hold the square white button until you hear the clamshell unlock. Then you can raise the lid to identify her. Do nothing yourself. Call me. I will need to check and see where in the cerebral programming she is. That will determine how quickly we can remove her.”

“Will she be conscious? Will she be able to walk?”

“I doubt it. We will have to see.”

Ram
sey spared a glance at his timepiece. “Pray we find her quickly.”

Ram had worked through one-half of the first row when Pansy cried out. He ran to where she stood looking down at the
body occupying one of the CP beds. He took one glance and understood. Instead of a woman, this unit held a man.

Ram closed the top and patted her on the shoulder. “That may be Tok’s undercover agent, but we haven’t time to spare for two victims. Keep looking for Alessa. Four minutes.”

Her eyes flared wide with alarm and she hurried to the next clamshell. Ramsey returned to where he had left off. Two units later, he opened a lid and yelled for Pansy. “Get over here. I found her.”
Damn this was going to be close.
As Pansy’s hands flew to the monitors and began to disconnect the leads on Alessa’s body, Steffania stuck her head around the doorframe
.

“DeKieran, the LFP transport is here. I hear the ship’s Sig-38’s returning fire. We have less than fifteen minutes. It will take all of that to make it to the southwestern lawn.”

She disappeared again and Ram heard more shouting and the
zwing, zwing, zwing
of 88K’s from the hallway.
So much for having them all dead.

Finally, Pansy gave him the all clear to lift Alessa from the CP bed. “I’ve stopped the program,
Dominus
. I don’t think there has been any damage to her mind, but she will not regain consciousness for several hours.”

Ramsey hoisted the woman’s dead weight over his shoulder with a curse. It would have been nice if DeAlbero had been Pansy’s size instead of the tall, statuesque beauty more common on Verdantia. He could carry her, but he wouldn’t be able to fight. “You’ll have to cover me if we meet someone before we catch up with the others.”
Ram stepped into the hallway and immediately jerked back into the ‘quiet room’ as a bolt of laser fire screamed past. Steffania and Tok fell through the entry seconds later.

“Damn those sons of bitches!” Steffania leaned around the door and
fired several volleys toward the end of the hallway. “They have us pinned down unless I can open that far security door at the other end of the hall.” Her eyes held Ram’s.

“Three of those CP units would provide enough cover to buy a few minutes,” Ram said.

Tok grunted. “Little female, can you disconnect these machines? We don’t have time to take the women out.” He shrugged. “I hope they will be safe, but it can’t be helped.”

Pansy whirled around to disconnect the three closest units with rapid efficiency. Ram shouldered Alessa a little higher and addressed Tok as Steffania kept up a steady return fire. “I believe we found your operative.
Check the CP bed second to last on the furthest row.”

Tok lumbered over and hit the lid release.
“Yes. That’s him.” He slowly closed the top and rejoined them. “I want Narr, Verdantian.”

Ramsey nodded. “All yours. Make him suffer.”

Tok grinned and for once, he didn’t look friendly. “He will.”

“Steffania, as soon as I tell you ‘clear’, get your ass out here and go to work.” Ramsey waited for her to withdraw from the doorway and they wrestled the large units out into the hallway
.

To the accompaniment of constant fire, Steffania worked to disarm the access door as blasts scorched the walls inches from her. She heard grunts from Ramsey and Tok as they maneuvered the heavy units to provide better cover and once a sharp cry from Pansy. Miraculously, the panel lights changed from red to green and she slid the door open.

“It’s open, come on!” she screamed over the blasts filling the small hallway.

Pulling the gleaming metal shells with them, Ramsey, with Alessa draped over his shoulder, and then Tok and Pansy, scuttled crab-like toward the open door. Steffania whipped through after them and slammed the door. As soon as the door closed, Ram hoisted Alessa back over his shoulder and Tok slung Pansy onto his hip like a mother with a toddler amidst her protests of “I can walk,” and all three pounded toward their only remaining exit.

“Humph. I saw you stumble, little female. You can’t put any weight on your ankle.” Tok jogged along with Pansy clinging to him. His thunderous footsteps resounded against the walls and drowned out the rapid footfalls of Ramsey and Steffania.