Rick Carter's First Big Adventure (Pete's Barbecue Book 1) (18 page)

      “It off now,” He said a little louder.  “Dey motion sensitive but not so much on one side if you move really slow.  Dat a safety feature.  Green means armed, red means fire and blue means off.”

      “How many of these things are there?” Rick asked.

       “One at each end of da hallways.  But, dat not de real problem.  We got to watch for the roving sentries.  De gonna be around ‘fore long. We don’t have much time.  Dey got a badge dat lets ‘em pass by dese tings.”  Pete informed him.

      “Okay.”  Rick looked a little worried. “How many hallways do we have to go down to get to Rog?”

     Pete thought for a moment, remembering his visit from six years ago.  “Two…no!  Wait, three.  Three hallways.”

     Rick rolled his eyes.  “You’re sure?”

     “Yup, three hallways.”  Pete reaffirmed.

     “And all we have to do is move slow and quiet, disarm these things and watch out for this roving patrols?”  Rick sounded hopeful.

      Pete smiled.  “Yup…oh, wait I forgot to mention, de patrols are androids, bra, and dey tied into the defense system.  Dey go offline de alarms get tripped.  So, be careful of dat.”

       Rick shook his head in disbelief.   “Is there anything else I need to know?”

       “Nope.”  Pete thought.  “Wait!  ‘Cept de patrols de got guns.  Bad guns.”  He added.

       Rick sighed heavily.  “And we didn’t bring any guns did we?”

      Pete looked insulted.  “We don’t need no guns for dese guys.  Field agents use der heads, Rick.  We smarter.”

       Rick looked at him doubtful again.

    “Unless we get in trouble.  Den agents use guns.”  Pete added, not realizing the futility of his statement to Rick’s anxiety.  “Come on.  Les’ keep movin’.”

      The next hallway went the same as the first, and they managed to silently and stealthily disarm the next two dart guns.  But as Pete edged quietly up to the corner of the next hallway and peaked around the corner he saw what he had feared most.  An android sentry was standing six feet away with its back to them.  The android had a humanoid torso but a canister like lower body with treads on each side for movement.  It was silent and motionless, staring at its companion who was facing toward him at the other end of the hallway.  In their cold metal hands, they held very powerful stun guns, but they looked to be in sleep mode.  He could also clearly see two android guards standing behind a desk that was further down and past the second sentry.  They, too, looked like they were in sleep mode, not moving, but they stood directly in front of Roger’s room.  He knew that only the slightest movement would awaken them.  Pete quickly drew back and looked at Rick concerned. 

      “What?’  Rick whispered.

        Pete shushed him again and pointed to around the corner.  Rick edged around and took a look for himself.  When he was satisfied he, too, pulled back and emulated Pete’s troubled look.  “What are we going to do?”  Rick asked so quietly it was barely audible.   He could tell Pete was trying to work out the next move, trying to use his finely tuned agent’s skills to outsmart the four androids.  He waited silently for a few moments before frustration took over and he prepared to solve the problem his way.

     “Oh, screw it,” he whispered harshly and in a move that was far quicker than Pete would have thought a man his size could make he rushed around the corner at full speed.  The sudden movement was instantly registered by the first droid and the lights of its eyes turned on along with the sound of motors and gears coming to life.  He began to turn in a very mechanical way, but Rick had already crossed the distance between them before it could make a quarter of a turn.  He slammed into its back at full speed and despite the considerable weight of the machine, his momentum drove him into it hard as he tackled it at the midsection and its treads yielded.  The sentry’s processors tried to determine the nature of the threat against it, but it was too confused and taken by surprise to respond.  Rick continued forward, pushing the machine with him.  The second sentry also came to life with the sudden movement, but Rick didn’t stop.  He plowed ahead with all his strength and energy pushing the sentry in his grasp even as it tried to reverse the direction it was going by squealing it’s treads backward.  But, it didn’t stand a chance of stopping Rick.  Both of them plowed hard into the second sentry that reacted by firing its weapon into the metal chest of its fellow guard.  Then they all three made contact and the metal arm of the second sentry sheared off, sending a last minute stun ray into the ceiling where it fried the circuits of the dart gun machine located just overhead in a shower of electrical sparks.  But, the carnage didn’t end there.  Now, all three of them were propelled by Rick’s momentum into the desk of the last two guards who stood watch over the locked door of Roger’s room.  The flimsy desk broke and pieces of particle board flew in all directions as the three objects fell upon the two guards in a mass of man and machines.  The sound of the crash was horrendous, and the sparks from shorting wires filled the half-lit hallway in a glorious display of color and light.  When it was over all that remained was a few metallic clangs, darkness and the sound of wires hissing and gears grinding against the air.  The desk, the guards, and Rick were all entangled in amass of broken wood, metal parts and falling ceiling tiles. 

     Pete stepped out in the hallway stunned.  He had never expected such a bold and direct move from a novice Company man.  He had never seen anything quite like it.  Even Mel hadn’t shown that much aptitude his first go around.  He walked slowly up to the distorted mass, avoiding the live wires hanging from the ceiling that were still sparking.  The hallway was mostly dark now but a faint glow illuminated enough to see what destruction Rick had unleashed.  When Pete neared the mass Rick sat upright groaning, a metal arm with a stun gun still gripped in its hand in his left hand and a detached android head in the other.  He was covered in bits of ceiling tile and particle board, and he was staring blankly at Pete as he walked up, his hair flecked with small white bits.

      He looked over at Pete; his face contorted in pain. “I think I hurt myself.”  He sputtered and spit out bits of debris.

      Pete was almost speechless.  “Dat pretty good, oh boy.  Not bad.  How come you tink a dat move?”

      Rick stared back at him. “I dunno.  Sorta came to me is all.”  He threw down the metal parts in his hands and they clanged on the tile floor.   Pete reached over and helped him up, both of them grunting and heaving with the effort.

       “You gonna make some kinda field agent someday, Rick,” Pete said, the closest thing to a compliment he could manage.  “Come on, les open dis door and get Rog out.”

       Rick grunted a painful reply and tried to follow, limping somewhat, behind Pete as he crept over toward the doorway directly in front of them.   Above the doorway was the numbers 168.

     “Hey, Pete I thought Mel said this place was built just for Roger?”  Rick asked, noticing the number.

      Pete stopped short of the electronic keypad on the wall next to the door.  “It is, bra.”

      “Then why is the room numbered?  Are there more rooms than this?”  Rick asked.

        Pete thought about his question.  “I guess so.  Don’t know why do.  But dis Rog’s room.”  He started back trying to unlock the door on the keypad.  “Dat not got me worried do,” He added.

      Rick was surprised.  “What’s got you worried?”  He asked as a bit of a ceiling tile fell out of his hair and into his eye.  He rubbed quickly trying to dislodge it.

      Pete kept punching numbers.  “How come de alarm not going off after dat move you just pulled?”  He asked.

     Rick looked around expectantly as if something or someone might come at them quickly out of the darkness.  But, nothing moved, aside from them.

     Pete had entered several combinations of numbers before he stood back in frustration.  “Dey change de lock!”  He hissed.  Finally, he reared back and with a powerful kick he slammed his foot into the keypad with only his flip flop for protection.  The keypad sheared off the wall, and sparks flew out from behind it.  He locked at Rick and smiled as the door hummed and then clicked open.  “Dat’s de Chamorro locksmith move dare.”  He pushed the door open all the way, and they both looked inside at the same time.     

     Roger sat on the floor in the nude.  He was sitting with his back towards them, reading a magazine.  When the door opened, he turned to look at them, “Oh, hey guys.  I forgot you were coming.  Hey, Rick, how ya been?”

     Pete chuckled and shook his head. “Rog, where you clothes, bra?”

     The first thing about the situation that struck Rick in a shocking way was not Roger’s thin and gnarled nude body but how strikingly similar he was to Mel.  Had he looked like this all along and he just never noticed it when they were kids?  He was the spitting image of Mel.  It was the same long thin features and the same pronounced forehead.  Only his hair was slightly different.  There was more of it, and it was parted on the side and longer.   But, closer examination yielded smaller differences like a strange, otherworldly look in his eyes and a very unnerving spacey grin.

     Pete grabbed the white blanket off Roger’s bed and wrapped him in it.  “Come on Rog we gotta go.”

      Roger stood up. ”You don’t mind if my pet cockroach Rufus comes along?”

      Pete grabbed his arm, “You can bring you pet giraffe but we got to go, bra.”

      Rick helped Pete with guiding Roger as they made their way back toward the utility closet.  Roger looked at Pete, “Be careful of the hall walkers, Pete.  They’re everywhere like rabbits.  Hey, can I say goodbye to 178 before I go?”

     “Okay, Rog, you de only one here do.  You been de only one here since dey built the place for you.”  Pete shook his head.

     “No, that doesn’t sound right.” Roger looked very concerned.  “There’s all sorts of people here.  Stick around for lunch and I’ll introduce you to Mel Brooks.  Speaking of Mel where is my brother?  He didn’t come with you did he?  Of course not, now I remember why.”  He prattled on.  “Hey, Rick!  How’s your car? Hey, has anyone seen my family…?”  Pete ignored him and pulled a small device from his pocket.  He pressed several buttons and the port light opened around them and then they were gone, leaving the dark, the broken desk, the mangled robots and the deafening sound of silence.  Someone had shut off the alarm.

CHAPTER SIX

Is that a Giant Spider in Your Pocket?

    
Rick wasn’t allowed the same of time to prepare for the return port as he had when they ported in.  It took him a little more by surprise and unfortunately resulted in a reversal of his adaptation process.    He felt like he was being twisted around a point in space, stretched long and thin and then, just for fun, shot like a rubber band across the room.  When he felt sand beneath his feet again he collapsed onto the sand and began puking his stomach up.   Mel was nearby laughing to himself.  Pete was the only one that seemed concerned.  He reached down and put his hand on Rick’s shoulder. “Sorry, bra, I shoulda warned you.  Two quick trips like dat back to back and you might get a little sick.”  Rick found this late advice immensely ill-timed and unhelpful. He tried to say something pithy in response but could only manage a grunt and a pitiful wave of his hand.

      Roger, still wrapped in his blanket, was looking about bleary eyed.  “Oh, the beach. I love the beach.  Will there be volleyball or just running from cannibals on the roster today?  Maybe some shuffleboard?  No, wait.  That’s on a cruise isn’t it?  Pete, you need to make this place a cruise liner.”  He said incoherently.  “Pete, do you suppose I could see my wife and children?”

     Pete turned as he helped Rick up from the sand.  “Roger you don’t have a wife and children, bra.  You had a girlfriend, but she left you, bra for dat Marine, remember?  ‘Fore you went crazy.” Pete tried to keep him grounded as Mel came rushing up from the controls and put a quick arm around Roger.

     “No, I don’t think that’s right.  I remember a family.  Really I do.  Unless that was a dream.  I get dreams confused sometimes.  Hello, Mel!”  He suddenly said cheerfully as Mel looked him over.  “I knew you were coming today, brother.  I saw the numbers 1, 6, and 8.  Do I have a wife and children, Mel?”  Roger said.

     Mel smiled.  “Hello, Roger. No, you don’t.  It must have been a dream.  But, I thought you might know we were coming for you.”

     Pete let Roger go as Mel took over duty holding onto him.  Rick was on his feet again, unsteadily.  The spinning of the room and the churning of Rick’s stomach had stopped.  He was starting to get a handle on the sensory overload.

      “Okay, Mel,” Rick said, brushing the sand off of his pants.  “He’s here.  Now, what?”  He coughed a bit and tried to spit out the foul taste in his mouth.