Scarlet Angel (29 page)

“
Uh... yeah. I’ll tell you what.
Go down to the street and knock on the window of the car there.” He
closed his eyes and sighed. He could not believe he was telling
Jules to do this.

“
To the Feds?”

“
You know about them?”

“
Yeah. Mickey told me.”

“
Oh.” Dax knew Mickey wouldn’t
just tell anyone about the Feds. “Well, go knock on their window
and ask for Agent Barnes. Tell them Mr. Lewis needs
help.”

There was a long pause. Dax wasn’t sure if she’d
left or not. “Hello? You still there?

“
Yes. So you want me to go get the
Feds? Isn’t there some way to get this open faster than
that?”

Pins and needles trickled down his back.
Oh
shit.
“Nope! No other way.”

“
Alright. I’ll be right
back.”

Dax ran to his desk. He kicked the chair out of the
way and climbed underneath. From the back underside of the desk, he
pulled a small pistol. He glanced back at the door.
If she’s not
who she says she is, I’m dead. Well, I’m not going out without a
fight. If Agent Barnes isn’t the first one through that
door…

Chapter 44
The Station

Our lives are little more than a struggle for
survival. In the end, death is inevitable.

* * *

The shuttle’s docking clamps locked on to the space
station with an echoing thud. Distant motors whirred, locking the
vessel in place. Scarlett’s ears popped as the cabin air
pressurized to match the station’s.
Here we go.

The passenger cabin lights flickered on. “Let’s go.”
Neil’s voice was cold.

Scarlett did a double-take. A small part of her
wanted to laugh. That same small part also refused to admit that
she was just another payday for Neil. But that part of her was
shrinking rapidly.

Scarlett tried to lean forward but was held in place
by restraints. Her hands flew up to the belt. A thick steel rod
with a blinking red light connected metal bands wrapped around each
wrist.

She cocked her head to the side and looked over at
Neil. “A little help?”

Neil responded by reaching over and pressing the
button to release the restraint straps holding her to the seat.

The sudden weightlessness washed over Scarlett. She
drifted up and out of her seat. A fresh wave of nausea fought
against her tenuous resistance to retching. She swallowed hard.

Neil grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her
into the aisle.

Inexperienced in zero gravity, her legs flailed
about. The nearest guard, Blondie, ducked just in time to avoid her
foot.

Neil grabbed her shirt with his other hand and
righted Scarlett so she was more or less standing. He shoved her
forward. Two of the guards pulled themselves out of the way as she
floated down the aisle. She collided with Mustache, sending them
both careening.

“
Keep her under control.” Neil
barked.

Scarlett twisted in the air. Another bout of nausea
threatened to make her throw up. A pair of hands seized her legs
and stopped her rotation.

Neil angled his chin to her. “But don’t get too
close or you’ll end up like the other three, either dead or in the
hospital.”

She looked down at Buzzcut holding her feet. The man
chuckled. Scarlett almost wanted to laugh at his confidence. As a
warning, she curled the corner of her mouth up and forced a smile.
Buzzcut shifted his grip to the back of her shirt and held her at
arm’s length.

A loud hiss came from the hatch into the research
station. A blast of cool air smelling of ozone hit her in the face.
The door shifted inward then slid to the side. Scarlett was shoved
forward, into the narrow airlock chamber beyond. Neil and the other
guards drifted in and closed the hatch.

A few seconds later, the inside door hissed and they
entered the station. Scarlett’s handler yanked her to the side,
positioning her in front of the rest of the escort party.

A long corridor stretched out in front of her.
Another shove pushed her further into the station until she was
yanked to a halt. She craned her neck to see what was going on
behind her.

Neil stood facing a small control panel with a flat
hand scanner when a woman’s voice echoed in the hall. “Welcome
aboard the Universal Dynamics Hazelton Orbital Research Station,
Mr. Smithson. Station Director Martins wants to see you and
Security has been notified of your guest. They are waiting at
O-Ring Security Holding.”

Neil placed his hand on a scanner. “Thank you.”

Buzzcut’s occasional shoves propelled her down the
corridor until they reached an alcove with an elevator-like hatch.
Handcuffed and under the eye of three guards and Neil, she was
clearly outmatched. There was no point in struggling.

“
Alright.” Neil grabbed onto a
handhold mounted to the wall. “Take her to Holding. I have to go
see the Station Director. Don’t let her say or do anything. Do
whatever you need to do to keep her under control, as long she’s
alive when the director sees her.”

“
Not a problem.” Blondie leered
with a sick pleasure.

Neil boarded as soon as the elevator doors opened
and he tapped a panel inside. He told the lift to take him to the
executive offices then pointed a finger at the guards. “And don’t
let her get too close.”

The door closed and she was alone with the guards. A
moment later it opened again to an empty elevator. Buzzcut shoved
her into the small space. Scarlett’s face bounced off the back
wall. “It’s too bad she resisted.”

The guards boarded the elevator. Buzzcut chuckled.
When the doors closed, Blondie braced his foot against them and
crushed her against the wall. She squeezed her eyes shut.

He held her there for a few seconds, jabbing his
elbows into her breast and stomach. Blondie let her go and smiled.
“Yeah... too bad she resisted. She had such a pretty face.”

He wrapped a hand around Scarlett’s throat.

She opened her eyes and stared directly into
his.

His smile disappeared. Anger flared in his gaze and
he slammed her against the wall. “You killed two of my friends. The
Director wants you alive. He didn’t say in what condition, but when
he’s done with you... you’re mine.”

Blondie’s grip tightened around her throat, cutting
off her air. Panic flared at the edges of her mind but she forced
it away. Now was her time to move.

Scarlett gurgled.

The guard holding her laughed and turned to his
friends. “Looks like the little princess wants to say something.”
His grip loosened just enough for her to get a breath.

Scarlett coughed and gasped for air. After a moment,
her gaze locked onto his. “Too close.”

She thrust her hands up and brought the bar holding
her wrists together into Blondie’s chin. His body went slack. She
kicked out, smashing her foot into Mustache’s chin and knocking him
out cold. The impact sent Mustache spinning into Buzzcut.

Blondie reached for a black, metal baton strapped to
his leg. Scarlett reached him before he could draw the weapon and
flung him across the small space.

She turned to see Buzzcut recovering from his
collision with Mustache. He shoved his unconscious friend out of
the way with his baton. Buzzcut braced against the wall and
launched himself at her.

Shit!
Scarlett kicked out again. The heel of
her foot shattered his nose and knocked him out. Buzzcut’s blood
splattered across the elevator walls. His unconscious body spun in
the air and bounced off the wall in slow motion. His blood began to
drift toward the floor of the cabin as the gravity began taking
hold.

“
You bitch!” Baton in hand,
Blondie turned and sneered at her. “Fuck the director. You’re not
worth the trouble.”

Blondie launched himself at her, his eyes blazing
with rage.

Scarlett kicked off the wall. She felt the snap of
bones cracking as Blondie’s baton slammed into her ribs. She turned
and found herself behind her opponent.

The guard tried to twist around to face her, but
Scarlett flung her arms over his head. She wedged her knee against
his back and yanked the bar on her cuffs back hard against his
throat.

Blondie’s trachea crunched. With his airway
destroyed, he began to suffocate. His arms flung about, beating
Scarlett’s leg mercilessly.

Scarlett screamed through clenched teeth each time
the baton struck her. Blondie’s throat made a short gurgle sound.
The blows to her legs grew weaker and weaker until they stopped all
together. Scarlett released the dead man and shoved him away.

Blondie’s lifeless body floated across the cabin and
bumped against the far wall. All three limp bodies lowered to the
floor as the gravity increased. Scarlett’s shoes touched the metal
surface and she hunched over. “Son-of-a-bitch. Screw this zero-g
shit.”

The control panel near the door indicated the
elevator was nearing the ring. Scarlett tapped the display. “Stop
elevator.”

An unnervingly calm woman’s voice replied. “I’m
sorry, once in transit, the system cannot stop unless there is an
emergency. Do you want to notify command of an emergency?”

Panic flashed through Scarlett’s mind. In a split
second, she saw the alarms going off and the dozens of guards
coming for her. She saw the docks being locked down, preventing any
escape. And she saw Neil, standing casually as the elevator door
opened, waiting for her.

“
No. No, there’s no emergency.
Just... Just keep going.”

Scarlett hoped there were not more guards waiting.
No matter what, she would have to wait and start the elevator back
as quickly as she could.

She turned and finally noticed the large window.
She’d been so busy dealing with the guards she hadn’t even looked
outside. The view astonished her. She stared at the deep black of
open space and the blanket of stars. More stars than she’d ever
thought possible dotted the void.

Cutting right through the black was the massive
outer ring of the station, curving from one side to the other.
Small windows dotted its surface. To one side, she could see
another spoke reach out from the central axis to the main body of
the station as well as elevators traveling its length. A white
sliver of the moon peeked in from the leading edge of the window as
the station rotated.

Finally, the lift slowed. Gravity was nearly
Earth-normal, easing her anxiety.
Beautiful, but I’ll be glad
when I get back on solid ground.

The elevator stopped and dinged. Scarlett’s eyes
stayed transfixed as the doors opened. She turned and reached over
to tap the control panel when her heart stopped. Any hope she had
of escaping evaporated.

Outside the elevator stood Neil. He looked down and
grimaced, shaking his head. “I warned them. Oh well.”

He looked back up at her. “Really?”

Scarlett flung herself at him. She watched as his
thumb twitched and pressed a button on a small object in his
hand.

The tingle started in her wrists and shot down her
arms. In mid-air, her muscles refused to budge. She felt herself
falling, and she hit the floor with a thud.

Electrical fire ripped through her body, replacing
the tingle with searing pain. Every muscle convulsed and spasmed.
Scarlett tried to scream, but the sounds were caught in her throat
as just a gurgle.

The drool sizzled on the side of her face. All sense
of panic disappeared. Her emotions faded. There was only the
pain.

Then everything went black.

Chapter 45
A Cell

Hope is dying a thousand deaths and believing you’ll
come back.

* * *

Images flashed through Scarlett’s mind as she
drifted in the black of unconsciousness. Neil’s stoic expression of
indifference... Derrick’s face twisted in anger...

A dozen voices jumbled together in the void, some
calling out for her, some laughing and others that were incoherent
mumblings. Neil’s voice rang out the loudest. His cold, flat tone
called her name over and over.

Scarlett awoke to a bright white light over her
face. The air reeked of stale urine and sweat. She turned her head
and her whole body ached. A groan escaped her lips as she rolled
onto her side. “What the hell?”

She squinted at the ceiling and the intense light
overhead. From the ceiling to the floor, the four walls of her
confines were a dark, gunmetal grey. Her cot, mounted to one wall,
sat opposite a stainless steel toilet. She gauged the space between
the two to be less than two feet. The entire room looked barely
wider than her arm span and only a little deeper.

“
Oh yeah. A holding
cell.”

Scarlett reached up to rub the bridge of her nose
between her eyes and found her hands still bound by the metal
shackles. “Nice.”

She turned around and scanned the rest of the cell.
A thick, metal door with a slit at eye-level barred the only exit.
Near the ceiling sat a small camera with a blinking red light.

She climbed to her feet and stumbled to the door.
Her cheek pressed against the cool surface, she yelled for the
guard.

A loud click filled the room followed by a tinny
voice. “What?”

The response startled Scarlett. She twisted around
and leaned against the wall. “Oh, um.” Her mind raced, trying to
come up with something to say back. “I, uh... Where’s Neil?”

The ceiling clicked again.

That’s interesting.
She shuffled over to the
cot and sat down. Her next words were quiet, like she was talking
to someone right in front of her. “Just how well can you hear
me?”

She raised her voice enough for someone outside to
hear. “How well can you hear me?”