The Primal Connection (34 page)

Stunned by the sudden interest in him, he stammered, “My name is Winston. Cyrus Winston.” Then as an afterthought he added, “He’s Hardy. Trevor Hardy. We—”

“Don’t give a shit!” Decker shot at him. “All I want to know is do you know what kind of shape Dr. Broche is in? I mean... how much crap has this Abshrd done to her? And more importantly, can it be reversed? Can she make it back?”

Both men looked at him and then at Traci. Hardy wet his lips then began haltingly, “She’s been under his control for months. In the beginning, when he was just making suggestions to her and it was just him, there was no problem. Since he added the others, though, the demands on her body have grown to the point where he has to supplement her fields artificially. That has been the cause of her deterioration. As to whether or not she can be helped...well, we’re not doctors. I don’t know what her internal condition is. I work on computers and follow the instructions Abshrd gave us on how to get the information he wanted. Neither of us can tell you anything other than he has done all he could to keep her going.”

Traci listened as well and shook her head. “Which could just mean he doesn’t have anyone else to do what she does.”

Or at least, he didn’t up to now. Now, with the data he had gotten off Traci and whatever he might have learned off Bridger, who knew what he could come up with? And this time, it wouldn’t be limited to just one. If it worked, he could make a superman for each of his friends. Decker shuddered at the thought. No, Bridger was right. This had to end now. But dammit, he wanted in.

His eyes played over the shelves behind the men as he thought. Say what you will about Abshrd, he did make sure they had everything they thought they wanted for whatever they wanted it for. The chemical stores were impressive. Suddenly, a thought ran through Decker’s mind. Maybe it wasn’t the part he wanted to play, but he did have a sudden idea of how to help.

He turned to Traci.

“Get those extension cords and help me tie these two clowns up. We got a date!”

Hardy protested loudly. “Those things out there are too far gone to care if we were on the same side! They break in here, they’ll kill us!”

Decker was not impressed. To him, they had made their bed, now they could die in it for all he cared. Still, he wasn’t heartless. And besides, he had another idea.

He turned to Traci. “Can you handle a gun?”

“I can point and shoot.” Then, she smiled evilly. “And from the back, I’ll have plenty of time.”

“Fine. They give you anything
like
a reason, you put one through wherever you like. Got it?”

The grin widened. “Not a problem!”

As they all turned to follow Decker out, both Winston and Hardy wondered if they should have taken their chances with the zombies.

Terry moved through the hall silently, heading in the direction of the sound from the copter. He felt wasted. Ordinarily, Charlie would only keep him on boost for few seconds at a time, but here, he had been on high to full boost, off and on, for nearly an hour. His bodily stores were depleting and his hormones were running out. He had only a few minutes of boost left before he would begin to suffer damage even Charlie might not be able to repair. He doubted it would be fatal, but it was still a damned inconvenience.

“Charlie, how long have I got?” Terry asked, already knowing the answer wouldn’t be one he wanted to hear.

“You can sustain three more minutes of boost without extensive damage. Nothing more! I will not hold it any longer than that. You will have eighty percent of your maximum but that is still less than what these have been amplified to. Your advantage is the time distortion I give you but that is no more than half of its full potential now. I dare not risk any more than that. In your present condition, it could burn out the neural pathways. I could possibly repair it, but the damage would be extensive, and you could very well never recover completely.”

“Knew I didn’t wanna hear this! Best make the best of what we got then. Any idea on what’s between us and Abshrd?”

“I cannot be sure. Abshrd has learned how to block my senses enough that I cannot detect him, but his method has a flaw. In the affected area, I can detect nothing. Like a hole in space. I can detect nothing for a radius of twenty feet approximately. The fact that it is there gives away his position if not his intention.”

“All right. Can you pick him up now?”

Charlie went silent with concentration. After a few seconds, he almost shouted in Terry’s mind,
“I have a blank spot to the left behind the door at the end of the hall. It has to be one of his shields.”

Terry moved to the door quickly, intent on getting in and finishing this once and for all. But at the door, he froze. Abshrd was no fool. He had to know that Charlie would notice the flaw and use that to figure out where he was if nothing else. That knowledge made it the perfect bait for a trap.

“Charlie, listen closely and see if you can pick up anything in there.”

Again, Charlie concentrated, this time trying to focus on auditory input, trying to detect anything that could verify the theory that Abshrd was indeed there on the other side of the door. At first, like before, there was nothing. Then, suddenly, came a sound of breathing. Faint, as if hushed either mechanically or by concentration, yet there nonetheless.

The cleverness of the trap dawned on Charlie then, followed by a rush of consternation at his gullibility. He would have fallen for it had it not been for Terry.

Only now, once it was clear, it also became apparent that there was another level to this. If they did not fall directly into the trap itself, retreat left them open to attack from the rear by whatever the forces in that room were. And if he knew Abshrd, this late in the game, those forces would be formidable.

“Terry, there are at least two of what appears to be Abshrd’s guards on the other side of that door. I cannot detect Abshrd, but they are definitely there.”

“Great,”
Terry thought back.
“These clowns are looking for a fight, and I’m not feeling it at all. If Abshrd is there, there’s no choice but to go in. If he’s not, we waste time while he heads out.”
Then, another thought
. “Charlie, can you detect another of those holes in space you were talking about?”

Charlie spread his senses again, but it was no use.
“I can’t find any. That increases the chances that Abshrd is in there.”
With an undisguised air of resignation, he added,
“Looks like we start here.”

Terry agreed. Moving next to the door, he listened as best he could to see if there was any other sound from the room. Charlie didn’t enhance his hearing for the same reason as his time distortion abilities were halved. At this point, it could burn out neurons beyond even Charlie’s ability to repair, but he did what he could to aid him. Even so, Terry still heard nothing from inside. He leaped across the door, turning the handle as he did and pushing the door to open it while slipping off to the side in case one of the men inside was armed. He wished he had the nine millimeter that Decker had given him, but he had used the bullets up and tossed the gun. He’d have settled for one of the swords or machetes the zombies had used, but he had opted out on them thanks to the weird feel of them.

So, his only weapon was his hands and feet. Ordinarily, that would be more than enough with Charlie’s backing, but now, fading as he was, he was not as sure as he would have been normally.

None of which changed anything. As he had said earlier, Abshrd had to be stopped. At any cost.

The door swung in unchallenged. Whoever they were, they didn’t bait easily.

“
Charlie, anything?”

“Still nothing, but I can still hear them breathing.”

“I’m going in. Stay sharp!”

With that, Terry plunged into the darkness. Immediately, Charlie enhanced Terry’s vision somewhat to take advantage of whatever ambient light was available. Even before it could take effect though, a fist slammed into Terry’s jaw. The blow was fearsome. Terry’s head snapped back both from the blow and from his enhanced reflexes, the later staving off the full effects of the punch. Terry rolled with the force of it and tumbled into the wall. He dropped to the floor, using it and the wall to orient himself. Then, he spun his foot out in an arc to see if his opponent was moving in. He was rewarded by a thud as his heel made contact with an ankle, along with a corresponding grunt of pain.

Satisfied that he now knew the location of at least one of his foes, he threw a second kick, but the man had already retreated.

Rising, his back against the wall, Terry’s hand found a light switch. He flipped it. And suddenly, he was able to see the men that were attacking him. And what a sight!

Both were easily six and a half feet tall and right around three hundred pounds, evenly distributed to make them look even more massive. Even more shocking was their attire. Both were wearing tank tops and knee-length shorts, along with headbands and weightlifters gloves. The pair looked as if they had just escaped from a gym. All that is but the eyes. They had the same blank, dead predatory look that the others under Abshrd’s spell had. It was clear they were his all right. And if Abshrd had boosted
their
strength, this could be real trouble.

Charlie’s reaction was primal.
“Terry, run! I can’t boost you long enough to face those monsters!”

Terry growled back out loud, “I doubt I could outrun ‘em either. So let’s try this.”

Terry took a step and leaped into the air. The two men tried to grab at him, but he slithered between them. Both men’s backs faced him, and he decided both were viable targets.

Making a fist with both hands, he extended the middle knuckle on both of them. Both men began to turn, but even without Charlie, Terry was too fast. He drove both fists into the region of both men’s kidneys and jumped back. The effect was instantaneous. Both men stifled screams as the pain shot through them. They tried to turn to rush him, but Terry was ready now, leaping off to the right to put one in front of the other to keep them both from attacking him at once. The first one tried to get a grip on him, or perhaps, he was trying to throw a punch or something. His fighting skill was minimal, having spent most of his life relying on his size. It did him no good against Terry. He finally threw another punch, but he was slow enough that Terry didn’t need Charlie’s enhancement. Terry blocked the blow to the side and stepped in, splitting his fingers to form a V. The man drew back his arm to throw another punch when Terry drove the spear he had formed into both his eyes. The strike was designed to paralyze with pain, but Terry drove his fingertips forward hard, piercing the eyeballs with a final twist.

The man threw his hands up and covered his eyes, screaming at the top of his lungs. Seeing his unprotected groin, Terry drove his foot into his nuts hard enough to push the man off his feet and into his partner.

If they were friends, it didn’t show. Either that or Abshrd’s control left no room for camaraderie. In any case, the second man simply shoved his screaming teammate to the floor and launched his own attack, now growling like a bear intent on charging a hapless prey. His intent was clear. Like the other, he was used to using his size and weight to take out his opponents and figured his much smaller adversary would be no trouble, no matter how fast he had taken out the first guy.

Terry sidestepped and pushed the larger man, throwing him of balance. He countered with a back fist that surprised Terry with it speed. And its force, as the blow drove Terry back toward the wall. Terry rolled along the wall and lashed out with his foot, driving the heel into his hipbone.

The massive bone was designed to withstand enormous forces, but it was also full of nerves. The pain stunned the man for a moment. Terry fired a palm strike aimed at the man’s nose, but the man shifted his head just enough to make the blow glance off the side of his head.

Now, the man launched his own kick at Terry’s midsection. The blow was enough to knock the wind out of him for a second, but he rolled with it and used the force to push himself away from the man. But by now, the man was enraged enough that even without Abshrd’s manipulations, he would have been more than willing to kill him.

The next punch was a roundhouse right that literally picked Terry up and slammed him into the wall yet again. Terry’s head was spinning, but he held onto consciousness despite the beating and his condition of the moment. Had he not been so depleted by his earlier exploits, Terry could have handled the man easily. In his present condition though, the man’s size was rapidly becoming a telling factor. It was time to end this.

“Charlie,
” he mentally shouted,
“boost me! Now!”

Instantly, Terry felt the surge of strength flow through him, but he could tell it wasn’t the same. Charlie still refused to boost Terry to the insane levels that Abshrd regularly sent his minions to. And now, given his condition, he was reluctant to boost him anywhere near as much as usual. As a result, he had boosted Terry but not to the level he would normally.

Charlie was apologetic but unrepentant.
“Any more and you run the risk of permanent damage. You can outrun him now if you try! Abshrd is not here. He is what’s imp
—”

Terry cut him off.
“Can’t leave this bastard to dog our trail! I just hope he’s the last one.”

Now boosted somewhat, Terry blocked his next blow, but his timing was off, giving the man a chance to spin and slam a back fist into his jaw, driving him back against the wall a second time. In one motion, he drove a knee into Terry’s midsection, and Terry spit the wind out of his lungs in one burst. Terry dropped down the wall again; only this time, he had a plan.

The man towered over him and drew back a ham-sized fist, ready to drop a killing blow. Terry knew he had the power for it, but he also knew he had made a mistake. Now, it was time to capitalize on it.

As his hand came down, he grinned sardonically, obviously enjoying himself. Terry waited until he could make out the hairs on his hand then struck.