Commandos (29 page)

“That’s how you introduce the New Order. Swiftly and efficiently. When I think of all those awkward systems, agencies and organisations created to counter the terrorist threat, I genuinely feel sorry for you. The only thing I could say I am mildly impressed with is your International Space Agency. That’s the only area in which you actually managed to accomplish anything. Still, soon it will all be mine anyway.”

He turned to his co-operator.
“Lock them up in the underground cells for a few hours, except this one.” He pointed at Levi. “He stays with me. There’s still a bit we need to talk about.”
As the guards lead them outside, another group passed them in the doorway leading a tied-up woman. Victor immediately recognised the commodore’s daughter, but there was no time to feel pity for her. He had to find a way to get out of this mess and kill Kaminsky. The sooner the better.
“Tried to escape again, did she?”
“Yes. Killed one of our men too. Shot him.”
“Leave her here. She can die along with her daddy.”
Laura looked at the man on the floor and once the caliph’s words had finally sunk in, she fainted and collapsed at his feet.
“What a weak family these Levis are,” Kaminsky said, shaking his head in discontent before sitting in his armchair, breathing heavily.

* * * *

Levi slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and saw the girl lying next to him. He clumsily crawled towards her.

“Laura, my baby,” he cried, pulling her closer and hugging her in his arms.
Kaminsky walked closer and poured a glass of cold water on her face to rouse her. She opened her eyes and saw the commodore crying, whispering her name.
“Dad?” she asked uncertainly and reached for his hand. “Is it really you?”
“He is your father, Laura,” Kaminsky said coldly. “Enjoy it while he’s still alive.”
Laura embraced the commodore even closer.
“You told me my parents were dead!” she cried plaintively. She rose to her feet and struggled to help Levi up as well. The commodore felt his power slowly returning, but didn’t want to show it to Kaminsky prematurely. Despite his weakened condition, his mind was working at full capacity. He recalled Kaminsky’s studies of
Grimoires
, books of magical spells, but it would surprise the caliph to know Levi had read through them as well in order to prepare for any trick his opponent might throw at him. During one of his searches, he came to believe that at one point, while reading Mao’s copy of
Goetia
, a book also known as the Lesser Key of Salomon, Kaminsky actually managed to summon demons from the four corners of the world. Four demon lords: Orient from the east, Pajmon from the west, Arizon from the north and Amajmon from the south, as well as a score of lesser apparitions.
Mao believed these demons to be nothing more than an embodiment of the unknown powers of the mind, powers discovered by Kaminsky in the early days of his studies.
To get into his adversary’s mind, Levi himself had been forced to study extensively. He had even moved a step further. In great secrecy, Mao passed the magical book of
The Necronomicon
to him, the only surviving copy of this mysterious tome. Its contents were as equally fascinating as they were terrifying, divinity blended with vileness, loftiness with hideousness, truth with lies, mixed and intertwined beyond all recognition. The book now remained safely hidden in Levi’s quarters onboard his ship, but the knowledge he had gained from it was not to be taken lightly. It had allowed him to counter the concoction’s effects much faster than Kaminsky could ever have predicted. The legendary volume had been searched for by entire generations of researchers, while all those years it had remained in the hands of Mao’s predecessors. He decided to pass it on to Levi as only with this knowledge he could ever hope to stand up to the dark side of Kaminsky’s mind.
Unaware of the commodore’s fast awaking powers, the caliph continued to taunt him.
“I bet you’d like to know how your daughter ended up in my care? Well, I first met this beautiful and defenceless child in the street. Of course, I didn’t know she was your daughter. She mentioned that her father was some sort of commodore, and since there were not many people with that title in those days, she got my attention. I hypnotised her, just a little, enough to learn a few facts from her family life.”
Levi clenched his fists in silent anger. He was still bleeding profusely and the cuts and bruises on his face concealed the furious flash in his eyes, from Kaminsky.
“After you divorced your wife, she made a show of leaving Atlantis to run back to England to her father. But after she had opposed him so openly to marry you, he wanted nothing to do with her. He never even let her inside his house and never saw his granddaughter again.” The caliph was now staring straight into Levi’s eyes. “Since your wife was such a well educated aristocrat, and we both know how little that matters nowadays, she refused to get her hands dirty in any odd job. She roamed all over Europe, migrating from one aunt’s house to another, then friends, then just distant acquaintances, until one summer she ended up in Turkey… on the street.”
“No!” Levi could not help the bitter cry. This was too terrible to believe.
“I’ve actually had a chance… to enjoy the services of Mrs. Catherine Levi…”
“You son of a bitch!” Levi roared through his tears, Laura clutched to his chest weeping uncontrollably.
“Was quite a ride, I must admit.” Kaminsky pondered for a moment. “When she was dying of cancer…”
“They told me she was killed in a terrorist attack!” he gasped helplessly.
“What do you expect? Think they’d tell the high and mighty commodore that his wife was a common whore?” the caliph festered. He grabbed his coat from the floor and put it on, brushing invisible specks of dust from the sleeves.
“If I had known…” Levi whimpered.
“Yeah, yeah, you’d have come to the rescue and saved the day, wouldn’t you? Somehow, in all those years, you never even bothered to try to find them. You didn’t give a damn about what was happening to them.” He smiled ironically. The words were clearly meant for Laura to hear.
“I loved you so much, Catherine…” the commodore whispered with tears beading down his cheeks.
“When Catherine died, I decided to take care of Laura. I took her in. She never lacked anything, had the best teachers, had me…” He stepped towards the girl and pulled her to him. “You should be kissing my feet in gratitude for not letting her rot in the streets,” he said as he embraced her ostentatiously and pressed his lips against hers. “She’s mine, Charles, all mine.” His white teeth sparkled in a satisfied grin.
Levi felt he’d had enough and he got ready to act. Only one thing mattered to him now. He had to save Laura.

* * * *

“I just hope Kaminsky doesn’t use his mind blast,” Victor said to Jo and David, pacing back and forth across the cell, or rather some readapted underground room. The good light and air conditioning proved it was originally intended for other purposes. The whole place felt sterile and dull, but the door was made of solid steel.

“Wonder how long they’ll make us wait,” Jo whispered. “I wouldn’t expect it to take long. He’ll want to torture us together…” She got up and joined Victor. “He’s going to try to impress us with his wisdom, his tricks. He won’t just kill us and be done with it.”

“I’m sure he won’t. Who would admire him then?” the tracker agreed.
“That’s right. He’s going to show off, not simply toss a mind blast at us.”
“What is that? I’ve never heard of it,” David asked, intrigued.
“A mind blast is a telepathic beam, sort of a mental ray, one that can destroy brain cells and instantly kill the target.” He frowned. “Us, in this case.”
“Sounds like some sort of voodoo to me.”
“It does.” Jo sighed. “Kaminsky’s greatest ambition is to shape reality at will, by any means.”
“Oh come on! Rituals and all that mystic crap won’t give him power over the world!” David protested.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Victor felt they were going in the right direction. “Kaminsky believes every sequence of events is interrelated, determined, more than just a coincidence.”
“Like meeting Laura,” Jo added. “It was just an amazing coincidence, but for him a ritual of necessity, something that gave him power over the commodore.”
“And if he continues along these lines… he’ll see the commodore as his link with the UN military.”
“Yes, and for Kaminsky, any apparent coincidence like this, is in fact the result of a special energetic model he’s created,” Jo went on.
“I see.” David turned to Victor. “You mentioned something about telepathy, mana and energy, right?”
“I did. Kaminsky believes that this energy controls every process in his world and he is a master of controlling this force’s flow. Just look how easy it was for him to get us all here.”
“But,” Jo cut in, “he doesn’t really need magic. All he has to do is properly programme his opponent’s mind and play on his mental balance. That’s much more lethal than any magic could ever be.”
“Then again, he may not be as good as he claims. Why would he have to drug Levi if he was?” David observed, dismayed.
“You’re right. Something’s amiss here…” Victor pondered. “That could only mean one thing,” he thought aloud. “Levi must be a cybermage.”
“What?” Jo and David cried in unison.
“He mastered storing and processing information, he has complete control of his brain, he is proficient in meditation and, thanks to his yoga experience, has a perfectly developed energy system. It all adds up.”
“Can’t argue with that.” Jo nodded after a moment’s thought. “Once I passed all my tests and was accepted to pilot his ship, he used to teach me of the power of sheer thought and desire.”
“I don’t follow.” David was clearly confused.
Jo and Victor jumped from one thought to another; their minds worked as one and did so at amazing speed.
“It’s like…” Victor smiled. “…When someone repeatedly tells you your computer is going to crash and you start to believe it, it is bound to crash once you switch it on. Your expectations make it so.”
“Are you saying thoughts can shape reality?”
“In Kaminsky’s opinion only thoughts. He forced the drug into Levi so that, at least for a moment, he could have the upper hand.”
“So Levi is safe?” Jo asked hopefully.
“If he is really stronger.” Victor sighed.
Suddenly, the massive door screeched open and two robots entered the room, clearly set on combat mode, ready to attack at once. Victor recognised the same machine that had searched him in front of Kaminsky’s door. It still had his commando knife attached to its chassis. The robots stopped in the middle of the room. The commandos watched them, puzzled. The machines were suddenly motionless, evidently waiting for some sort of a command. The guard robot was a humanoid model, fitted for communication with humans, less than a 150 centimetres tall. Its sensors were responsible for reading cinchonic cards. Both robots could speak. Victor watched them closely. He remembered that this type of robot was commonly used in Japan for almost any application, in shops, offices and malls. They could run, even dance when programmed properly.
Jo glanced at the second machine. It was also a humanoid, but looked more like a metallic block with claws protruding at its sides.
“It has digital eurothem drives in its arms,” David whispered in her ear. “Seven independent processors and three cameras serving as eyes. I’ve seen this type before. It can only function together with the guard unit. It’s not independent. I’ll take care of it.”
“What are going to do?” she whispered back.
“I have to break into its system and re-programme it. When they attack… you have to distract it.”
Jo looked at Victor who nodded in agreement. He would take care of the guard unit himself.
Lucky for them, neither robotics nor any cognitive research had ever managed to create an artificial being that could match human intelligence. The robots did, however, have a significant physical advantage. They were not cyborgs, military hybrids under top secret testing at the United Nations laboratories. These two were plain robots programmed for combat and defence.
The commandos stood motionless for another moment when the robots suddenly received their order. Apparently someone had just made up their mind. Jo and David distracted the second machine while Victor dashed towards the guard. They had to use all their speed and agility to dodge the laser fire. Victor spotted his combat knife still firmly held by the robot’s magnetic field. All he had to do was to reach for it and shove it into one of the processing units; the short circuit should immobilise the machine. Meanwhile Jo kept the attention of two cameras while David took off his shirt and tossed it over the third one. At the same time he leapt forward and landed on top of the robot, forcing it to stop. It took him only a moment to locate the switch and turn it off. Then he reached in and pulled out its programme disc. By then Victor had already managed to take care of the guard unit. All they had to do now was open the door.
“Damn it!” Jo cursed. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?”

* * * *

“Over my dead body!” the commodore hissed through clenched teeth. “My daughter has never been yours and she never will be!”

“Oh, but you’re so wrong. She has been mine, on many occasions.” The caliph did not stop grinning mockingly.
“You’ve only abused her body. That doesn’t mean you’ve enslaved her soul,” Levi said firmly, as much to Kaminsky as to his daughter. “You will never know what she really feels or what she thinks. She would never have opened her heart to a worthless, bloodthirsty bastard like you!” Kaminsky moved like lightning and plunged his fist into the commodore’s face. Levi collapsed to the floor again.
“You are the worthless bastard here, not me.” He spat the words out lifting his eyebrows. “You abandoned your family and handed your best captain straight into my hands.” He pondered for a second. “Indeed, you’ve really provided a treat for me with Joanna, locking her up with me on that island. That’s the only reason I kept her alive and, in the end, she managed to survive,” he went on, enjoying the sound of his own voice. “When you think about it, it’s not that surprising. After all, she was my student. Mine not yours! And Victor? First you pull him out of that prison.” Kaminsky’s knowledge was astonishing. “And then take him on a mission to kill his own stepfather. Tell me, Charles, who’s the real bastard here?” He straightened his back and inhaled loudly feeling a cold chill of anticipation running down his spine. “Oh well, enough talking. Your commandos are surely dead by now and I think it’s time for you to join them.”
He held out his hand and one of the guards handed him a pistol which was then pointed at the commodore’s head. He’d dreamt for years about this moment. Levi had been his greatest rival, the only man he thought capable of challenging him, and Kaminsky did not enjoy a fair fight. He wanted to dominate.
“No!” Laura collapsed to her knees in front of the caliph, begging for her father’s life.
“My poor, dear Laura.” He looked at her reluctantly. “How can you defend the man who abandoned you, sent you to the streets, who never even bothered to find you?” It was hard for him to comprehend this strange devotion, the energy that could only have stemmed from their blood ties. “He condemned your mother to the fate of prostitution, deprived you of your home…”
“Please…” She wept, clutching at his feet.
Kaminsky stroked her hair in hesitation. He could not understand why she was doing this. Hadn’t he done enough for her to win her loyalty? He discovered he was strangely attached to her. He planned to have a child with her, a descendant of a noble house. He suddenly felt confused, as if weakened.
Levi employed all the telepathic power he had in him. It was his turn to become an energy draining vampire. He would steal all the caliph’s mana. He thought of his commandos, hoping they had managed to survive.
Suddenly, another guard entered the room and bowed to the caliph.
“The robots are inside their cell. The command has been activated.”
“Well done.” Kaminsky nodded, putting his weapon aside for a moment. “They’re probably dead by now. Lock him up downstairs.” He pointed at Levi. “And… her too.”
He was visibly losing strength with every passing second. He began breathing heavily, gasping for air. A painful cramp clutched his chest, just like when he had found out about his son’s death. His eyes lost focus and his face went pale.
“Leave me,” he ordered and collapsed into his chair, completely exhausted.