Mindguard (33 page)

View everyone in
your life as though they were already deceased, and treat them as you wish you
had treated your dearly departed.

Isabel Mensah

Tamisa was
overcome by a great feeling of satisfaction at the sight of Maclaine Ross,
helpless and bound to his bed in the isolation chamber. She knew it was
dangerous to relish in Ross’ defeat - it could cloud her judgment - but she
couldn’t help it.

A few hours ago,
the powerful bodyguard had regained consciousness. The fact that he was still
alive, was unbelievable. His strength and resiliency exceeded her wildest
expectations. Tamisa knew that what she
should
be feeling was respect.
Perhaps if it were any other person. But this was Maclaine Ross; his
stubbornness to live only made her hate him more.

From his bed he
was looking at her, studying her. He was weak and that made her strong. When
she spoke, she tried to gather in her voice all the venom she could conjure
up. 

“Sheldon and the
girl landed on Carthan less than thirty minutes ago.”

“We’re on
Carthan?” Ross’ voice sounded even weaker than he looked. Tamisa walked closer
to his bed, but she made sure to keep a safe distance. She had been assured
that the restraints were impenetrable. If Ross tried to make any sudden
movements, the web of neurostunners would send the shock of eight such devices
through his body. That was more than any man could withstand. However, she
still had the suspicion that many of his physical abilities remained a mystery.
She preferred not to take the risk.

“Yes we are,
Mac,” she said.  She deliberately used the shortened version of his name,
just like all his friends.

“You’ll never
catch Sheldon,” the bound bodyguard said. “He’s twice as smart as all of you
toy soldiers combined.”

“We’ll catch
him,” she said calmly. “You see, we know that the portable gateway generators
your company uses - the Terradho Model 778 – take exactly ninety-eight minutes
to recharge. That gives us plenty of time. And thanks to your buddy Alex Lea,
we know where they’re going to be in these ninety-eight minutes. We have them
cornered.”

“Alex…” he said,
looking like he was about to start crying. Tamisa fought off the temptation to
smile. She wasn’t lying. Alex had indeed come through for her. The point of
departure had been selected in advance by Ross. However, other locations had
been chosen as backup plans, just in case their mission data got compromised in
exactly the way it did.

The security
protocol at Ayers-Ross stated that any information which was part of a backup
plan would not be stored in their computers. It would instead be memorized by
each member of the mission. It was an added touch of paranoia, probably
designed by Sheldon Ayers. Alex had not been privy to the information, but
together with Timekeeper Kernis, he had been able to determine four possible
departure locations for Ayers and Gaumont, based on various parameters that
Tamisa did not have the patience to hear.

All of those
points were located inside enormous caves, from which the energy of the
Muench-Henriksen gateway could not be recorded with enough precision to be
analyzed. After the initial gateway activity announced their arrival on the
planet, Tamisa was ready to form four teams and send one to each location. She
had no reason to hurry. It would take them at least three hours to reach the
nearest places on foot. However, ninety-eight minutes after the first gateway
activity was detected, their computers picked up another one.

That surprised
everyone. Kernis theorized that their arrival point had been too far from their
intended departure point and that they used the gateway to instantly travel to
that location. This left them completely exposed. The enforcers could detect
the gateway activity and observe its proximity to one of the four possible
departure points. Sheldon Ayers had basically pointed them in the right
direction. According to Kernis, the only possible explanation for this grave
error, was that one of them was injured and couldn’t travel over long distances
on foot. From that moment, they had exactly ninety-eight minutes before the
girl could leave the planet.  

“They’ll escape
you somehow,” Ross said. “They have once before.”

“Oh, I don’t
think they will, Mac. We’re sure one of them is hurt.”

Ross tried to
remain calm, but his fear was obvious. He closed his eyes and seemed to be
struggling not to break down in front of her. Had it been any other man, Tamisa
would have almost felt sorry for him. Without even noticing, she took another
step towards his bed.

“What are you
doing, Mac? Are you praying again? You’re praying that it isn’t Sheldon, right?
Please, God, let it be the girl! Is that it?” Tamisa laughed out loud. She
enjoyed torturing him. She had given express orders to be left completely alone
with Ross. She wanted to take her time with him, to crush his spirit, while his
body was fighting to stay alive. Her second-in-command, Dieter Muench, was not
happy, but he obeyed.  There were no guards outside the door, the holocams
were turned off. She wanted him all to herself.

“You hate us,”
Ross said. “You hate
me
. It’s not something I would expect from a member
of the Enforcement Unit.”

“Don’t try to
understand us, Mac. You never will. We are soldiers. You, however, are and
always have been, nothing but a mercenary. The only thing people like you
understand is money.”

She could see
Ross’ hands balling up into fists and she took another step forward.

“Aren’t you the
great mind-reader then,” he said. Suddenly, he sounded confident. “I wouldn’t
have thought the Enforcement Unit employed mind-readers.”

Tamisa refused
to let herself be provoked. He measured her from head to toe. She imagined it
was the same way he would size up a prostitute in a brothel.

“Then again,” he
said, “I didn’t think they had much need for housemaids either.”

Another step and
Tamisa was almost at the side of his bed. “This housemaid could take you down
in seconds, big man.”

“Is that why I’m
all tied up?”

“Strictly
protocol.”

“Yeah, you’re
all about protocol, aren’t you?”

“Not always,” she
sneered. “For example, I’ve ordered my men to turn off the holocam and leave
the doors unguarded, so it could be just you and me.”

“You’ve ordered
them? Since when do maids give orders?”

“I don’t believe
I’ve officially introduced myself: Tamisa Faber, Field Unit Commander.”

She noticed a
fleeting look of surprise. Then a smirk. “Field Unit Commander? I’ll be
damned!” He laughed.  “The enforcers have really gone soft.”

“Soft enough to
take down your whole team in a matter of minutes.”

“Cheap shots
were something I failed to foresee. You see, I committed the grave tactical
error of assuming that the greatest military in the world would fight with
honor, instead of acting like a bunch of hired guns.”

Another step
closer. She was now by the side of his bed. If she stretched out her arm she
could touch him. ”I will bring you the head of Sheldon Ayers,” she said with
malice. “Right here in this room. I’ll put it on a stick and plant it in front
of your bed so you can look at it all day long. And once in a while I’ll come
in, stick my hand in it and use it as a puppet.”

Ross let out a
hearty laugh. To Tamisa’s surprise, he seemed genuinely amused. “That I’d pay
to see. Sheldon’s head as a hand puppet, ha! But you see, girl, what I can’t
seem to figure out is… why all this hate for me and my team?”

“You
killed
one of us.”

“I have, but it
was self defense. He attacked me and he killed three of my men. Many enforcers
have died in battle, I don’t understand what’s so special about Villo Kantil.”

When he spoke
Villo’s name, Tamisa had to fight the urge to do the same thing to his face
that she had done to Isabel Mensah’s. She was surprised to discover how easily
she had come to terms with what she had done to the mindguard. How little she
regretted it. Instinctively, she touched the small pouch on her belt, where she
had placed four of Villo’s trademark spikes. She had retrieved them from him
after they had taken his corpse to the ship’s isolation chamber. The closeness
of the objects had a calming effect.    

“Why is his
death so important to you?” Ross said slowly. “Could it be that you and Kantil
were sleeping together?”

Tamisa tried not
to betray any emotions, but she must have failed, because the fallen giant
grinned once again. “I guess that’s what the enforcers get for letting a woman
in their ranks.”

Barely
containing her anger, Tamisa bent over the bed, to better look into his eyes.
Her face was now inches from his. “I hope that you will always remember, it was
a woman who took down the famous Ayers-Ross agency.”

His gaze matched
hers in fierceness. “And
I hope
that you know, Kantil’s death doesn’t
have to hurt your career. There are plenty other prominent enforcers you can
sleep with.” 

Quicker than
Ross’ eyes could even register, she jumped on the bed on top of him and wrapped
her hands around his neck. She was choking him with all her strength. She had
tried to control herself, to slowly torment Ross, but she couldn’t.

She choked him
as hard as she could, but he wouldn’t die. Any other man would have already
been dead, but not Ross. She told herself that he wouldn’t be able to resist
forever. He’d be dead in seconds. And then what? She will have killed a
defenseless prisoner. The repercussions for this will be immense. She couldn’t
think about that. She couldn’t think about anything. All she knew at that
moment, was that Maclaine Ross’ heart was still beating and she wanted it to
stop. Meanwhile, he never took his eyes off hers. She was so caught up in
choking him, that she didn’t have time to react when his right hand suddenly –
impossibly –  sprang up and grabbed her neck. It was check-mate.

With eight
neurostunners sending charges to his body - charges that should have killed any
man, no matter how strong - Ross got up. He used his free left hand to remove
the neurorestraints, as the stunners sent shock after shock.
Impossible
,
Tamisa thought as she uselessly fought to break free. Strength was quickly
leaving her. After he freed himself from the powerful weapons, he placed his
left arm under her left armpit and then around her neck, holding her in front
of him like a shield. Her feet were left dangling a few inches above the
floor.  He took her weapon from its holster with his right hand and
started heading for the exit. 

“Cancel the
containment protocol,” he ordered and she obeyed. She figured he could just as
easily kill her and punch a hole through the wall. As the heavy door opened,
Ross stepped out on the hallway with his prisoner. No one was guarding the
containment chamber, just like Tamisa had ordered.

“Where’s the
bridge?” he asked. Tamisa managed to say ‘right’, while struggling to gasp for
air.

They headed in
that direction. As they turned the corner they ran into Akio Tahara, who was
coming their way. The brief moment of surprise, when the young enforcer saw
Tamisa hanging from Ross’ arm, was enough for the giant to fire two energy
blasts. Tahara fell to the ground and, in an instant, Ross was right next to
him. As he tried to jump to his feet, Ross hit him in the side of the head with
the butt of the gun. The force of the strike was so great that the man’s neck
broke on impact. Tamisa didn’t have the strength to even yell ‘no!’

When Tahara
died, his neural insertions disconnected from the ship’s main computer, sending
a silent alarm to every enforcer on board. Somewhere in front of them, on the
left side, a door opened and two other men appeared: Winston Calladan and C.J.
Hemmers. They hesitated to shoot, because of Tamisa. Taking advantage of their
hesitation, Ross quickly fired four blasts.

The vessel had
not been designed to withstand an attack from inside. On the narrow hallways,
the enforcers’ speed was useless. They couldn’t get out of the way in time.
They were hit by all the blasts and sent to the ground. The older, more
resilient Hemmers was quickly back to his feet, but not before Ross could drop
the gun, grab his head and smash it against the wall, shattering his skull.
Calladan was still lying on the floor, when Ross brutally drove his foot into
his head, killing him too. He picked up the weapon and continued towards the
door at the end of the hallway. It led them to the small ship’s bridge. Inside,
surrounded by holomaps, were Alex Lea and Timekeeper Kernis.

“Mac… what… what
the hell? You’re alive!” screamed the young mindguard. Kernis had programmed
the vessel’s holocomputer to scramble and encode Ross’ thought timbre, so that
it would be unrecognizable to Alex. Tamisa wondered how Ross interpreted Alex’
shock. The giant ignored his former employee and turned to Kernis, who had remained
motionless in front of his workstation.

“I want a map of
the ship,” he yelled. When the timekeeper didn’t react, he pointed his weapon
at him. “Now!”

“Mac, you don’t
understand -” Alex said, but he was met with a shot to the chest. The blast
stopped his heart and he fell to the ground, dead, under the horrified gaze of
Tamisa and the timekeeper. Kernis proceeded to produce the map, which Ross
immediately memorized. He left the bridge without killing the timekeeper.

He headed for
the engine room and ordered Tamisa to open the doors, which she did. At this
point, she wasn’t even struggling anymore. She focused all her energy on not
losing consciousness. Once inside, Ross told her to give the vocal order to
open every single door on the ship. The second she did, he fired his weapon at
the ship’s energy module, completely deactivating power in the entire
spacecraft. For a brief instant, when all the lights went out and darkness
surrounded them, Tamisa thought that she had passed out. She was terrified that
she would once again wake up in the infirmary, to find that Ross had escaped
with Sheldon and the girl. Then her retinal insertions switched to thermal
vision.