Vortex of Evil (30 page)

Katelyn swung the door open as Doug approached.  He dropped his gun and grabbed her by both shoulders.  “Are you ok?”  She nodded and turned to Rin who ran up and hugged her.  “I had to shoot that man, Mom.  He was going to kill Tom.”

“You did the right thing.  If it wasn’t for you and Ying, we might have had a much different result.  You are both heroes.”

“Right now I just feel scared.  But I am really happy everyone on our side is ok.”  She hugged Rin tightly.

Doug was right back to the business at hand.   “We have to get the three missiles we have left and get ready.  The future people are back and we have to be prepared this time.”

Katelyn felt a shudder go through her at the thought of these strangers with their high tech brand of evil.  They took her mother once and she didn’t want to go through that again.  Rin patted her on the shoulder and then went out to check on Tom.

Katelyn wasn’t interested in more fighting.  “Can we hide from them, Doug?  From what you said happened last time, I am afraid if we try to fight them we will just end up dead.”

“I have to fight them Katy, but I want the rest of you to find a safe spot and stay out of harm’s way.  Your mom was lucky they let her go once and we can’t count on that happening again.”

“But I don’t want to lose you, either.”  Katelyn was getting used to having this younger version of her father around since he made them all feel a bit safer.

“Yes, Doug.  You should be careful.  However much you want to fight, can you win?”  Ying was standing at the mouth of the cave.  She was always the level-headed scientist with the voice of reason.

“Ladies, I can’t help myself this time.  They took Erin and I want her back.  And that may mean taking some risks.”  He saw the pleading look on the faces of the two women as he headed for the entrance carrying two of the small missiles.  He left one behind to defend the camp if it came to that.    “I’ll try to be careful.  For now you stay here and keep watch for bad guys.”

Doug emerged from the shelter and found Tom talking with Rin in an animated fashion as they both scanned the sky to the north.  She turned to Doug immediately.  “Alannah and Megan are in one of the caves by the beach.  They went there to hide while Tom came to help us and there was an exchange of gunfire with a passing warship.  Apparently Megan won the exchange, but the future people blew the ship out of the water.”

Doug turned to Tom.  “Did they see Megan and Alannah?  Are they after them?”

“I don’t think so.  They should have been in the cave before the hover vehicle showed up.  But of course we don’t know what kind of sensors they may have.  I suspect their searching is more than just visual but I don’t know.  I think we should head down there now.”

Rin looked at the two nearly identical men.  “Why can’t we all hide and hope they go away?  It is unlikely we can defeat them.”

“I just had this discussion with Ying and Katelyn.  I have to go after them and try to get Erin back.  But I want you to stay here and look after the two of them.  I would leave Tom here with one of the missiles, but I think our best chance is if Tom and I fight them together.  They can’t stop both of us, so we might be able to get off a shot that hits them.”

Rin tried to contemplate the possible arguments that she could use to convince these two men that in this case their desire for taking action was probably going to get them both killed.  She knew that there was nothing she could say that would change Doug’s mind, but she couldn’t bear the thought of losing this version of him now. His presence had added a sense of safety and stability to her life.  And she knew how much he meant to the girls.  She felt some tears escaping onto her cheeks, but said only, “Be careful, then.  You both mean a lot to all of us.”  She reached out and touched each man lightly on the shoulder then turned and moved quickly to the shelter.

Tom and Doug looked at her as she closed the door behind her.  “We can’t screw this up, Doug.  We can’t get killed and drop her and the girls on their heads.”

Doug had already turned and was hurrying towards the beach.  “Got that, my friend.  But let’s get past the defeatist thinking and go kick some butt.”

“Give me a break!”  Tom shook his head and ran after him.  He hoped that Doug’s quest for vengeance wasn’t clouding his judgment as much as he suspected it was.  That insect-looking thing that took Erin had gotten inside Doug’s head like nothing he had ever seen.  And to make it worse, Tom suspected that the technology the future people used was advanced enough that anything he and Doug tried was going to end in failure.  Massive, blown to pieces failure like that old-time navy ship that was now just a bunch of debris. 

Doug quickly covered the distance to the spot where Tom had seen the hover vehicle destroy the frigate.  There was no sign of anything in the air, but the field of debris was still clearly visible just offshore.  Doug leaned his missile launcher against a tree and looked around in all directions.  Tom joined him as he focused his binoculars on the future people’s boat.  It was about two miles straight out from the beach where Tom had been fishing with Megan and Allanah.   It seemed to be anchored in place and there was no sign of activity.  He wondered if he could hit them with the missile if he went ahead and launched it straight at the boat.

“Any sign of the saucer?”  Tom looked around rapidly but didn’t see anything.

Doug could not see anyone on the deck of what he assumed was Dara’s boat and there was no sign of the hover vehicle.  “The landing pad is empty so it has to be flying around somewhere. We should try to get closer to Megan and Alannah in case the insect man tries to take them.”

“Wait, Doug.”  Tom grabbed his arm tightly.  “If we go to that cave now we will just give away their position.  It is possible he doesn’t know they are in the cave.”

Doug stopped and stepped back under the cover of the trees.  “So what’s your plan?  We just sit here and wait for them to fly by.  And then blast them?”

Tom watched the sky as he talked.  “Not exactly.  To have a hope of hitting them, we need to fire at the same time.  That will lessen their chance of avoiding our missiles.  If either one of us is hit before we can fire, we have lost any slight advantage we have by having two missiles.  I think we should move slowly forward toward the beach, staying apart by at least a hundred yards and stay under cover until we see them.  If we have a clear shot, we count to three and fire together.”

Doug looked at Tom, catching his breath as he thought about what came next.  If they followed Tom’s plan, and were able to hit the hover vehicle with at least one missile, he was unsure what the result might be. He mostly wanted to blast it to pieces, but the calmer side of his brain told him that capturing the hover vehicle might be the only way they could obtain the technology they needed to get Erin and the others back from the future.  “Ok, we will try it your way.  You lead the way.”  Doug picked up the missile launching tube and waited for Tom to go first.

Tom nodded and pointed towards a large tree on the right of the trail.  “Head that way Mr. Cameron.  And keep your eyes open.”  Doug headed into the bushes at an angle to the path they had been following while Tom went at an equal angle to the left of the trail.  The trees and undergrowth began to thin out slightly as they got closer to the west coast of the island.  Tom assumed it was the impact from the spray of seawater in that area.  In a few minutes the two men had reached the edge of the cliffs that overlooked the beach below.  They had cover from the trees and Doug ended up far enough to the north of Tom’s position that a single burst from the future people’s weapon wouldn’t kill both of them..

They set the missiles for firing mode but didn’t switch on the radar for fear of giving away their position to a sensor on the hover vehicle.  Tom kept wishing he knew more about what he was up against and whether they had some way to sense where he was.  He assumed they could sense body heat.  It was mid-afternoon and he knew the future people would have a big advantage after it got dark.  Night vision capability had to be part of their systems on that flying saucer.  Otherwise their night landing when they captured Erin would have been impossible.

The minutes went by as both Doug and Tom felt their impatience growing just as their adrenalin began to gradually subside.  It had been nearly an hour since Tom had seen the hover vehicle blast the frigate and yet there was no further sign of it.  The only thing in sight was the future people’s boat anchored off-shore, gently rocking with the ocean swells.  Tom knew that Doug was likely getting ready to do something rash.  But Tom was focused on looking for the hover vehicle and wasn’t prepared for the cold mechanical hands that suddenly gripped both his arms and held them tight.  “Do not be afraid.  I won’t hurt you.  I would like to speak with you and Doug.”

Chapter 33

Tom started to yell for Doug, but Jelk beat him to it.  “Mr. Cameron!  Why don’t you come over here and join me and Tom.  We need to chat.”

Doug froze at the sound of the strange voice until he saw Tom and Jelk step out from their cover.  Jelk was holding on to Tom’s left arm in a vice grip.  Tom was about to try to break free when Jelk said quietly, “Please don’t resist.  I can shock you, but if I meant you harm you would already be dead.  I really just want to talk to you.”

Tom looked up at him and Jelk turned his head to one side and raised his eyebrows in a disarmingly human way that Tom wasn’t expecting.  Tom turned to Doug and said, “Hold on, Doug.  He wants to talk to us.  Come on over.”

Doug switched on the missile so it was in full powered-up mode, then stepped slowly from behind the bushes he was using for cover.  He had the missile pointed squarely at Jelk, but he and Tom both realized that it would probably kill all three of them if he fired it.  His finger was poised on the trigger as he walked slowly forward.  He was conflicted about what to do.  He didn’t want to sacrifice Tom, but he had to stop Jelk at all costs. But even his blind hatred for Jelk couldn’t bring him to casually destroy Tom.  And Jelk spared him any more angst by saying, “Erin’s safe.  I just spoke to her in her room yesterday afternoon.  Please put down the missile and come over and talk to me.”

Doug felt the same sense of disbelief that Erin experienced when she realized that Jelk was not some mindless, speechless creature of evil.  It never occurred to Doug that he could talk to the insect man.  He was just something that needed to be killed.  He kept the missile aimed at Jelk but he walked slowly toward him.  “Ok, let’s talk.  What do we have to talk about?”

“Could you lower the missile?  I promise I won’t harm either of you.  My name is Jelk.  I am a Hybroman who works for the Yir-Lak Command.  My defensive shield should protect me from your missile, but I am not interested in finding out if it really will.  Could we try to fight the urge to kill each other and just talk for a few minutes?”  Jelk released Tom and in his strange mechanical way turned and sat down on the grass with his metal legs folded up beneath him.

Doug stared at this scene for several seconds and then switched off the missile.  “Oh hell, none of this makes any sense anyway.”  He walked over and sat down across from Jelk, as did Tom.  But they were both out of his reach just in case things didn’t go well.

“Thank you.  I have a story to tell you but we don’t have very much time before I need to return to the boat.  And I need to take Doug with me.”

Doug jumped to his feet and drew his pistol but Jelk didn’t flinch or make any move to defend himself.  Tom held up his hand and motioned for Doug to sit down, which he did after a brief, and uncomfortable, one-sided stare down.

“Why would I let you take me with you?”  Doug asked the obvious question as he continued to hold the pistol in his hand.

“Because I need your help, Erin and the rest need your help and you will get a chance to see her in three days from now.  Would that be sufficient incentive for you to accompany me?”  Jelk turned his head to one side and waited for Doug to process this information.

“How do we know this isn’t just another mind game?  The Erin you released told us all about Dara and the way you guys do things to your prisoners to see how they will react?  Isn’t this just one more example?”

Jelk reached behind his back into a small pack and brought out a Viewtonc.  Doug pointed his pistol at Jelk at this movement, but then holstered it when it was clear that mechanical hybrid man had no intention of going for a weapon.  When he unfolded the Viewtonc, a picture appeared of Jelk standing next to a stunningly beautiful dark skinned, dark haired woman and a small female child.  The mother and daughter were dressed in bright colored summer dresses. The three of them were smiling and standing in front of a silver building that appeared to have no straight lines.  It looked like a pile of silver whipping cream.  Doug thought it looked like a picture from a family vacation.

“This is my family.  My wife Olunda and our little girl, Jinnee.  I love them very much, but I am scheduled for termination in three months.  That is the rule in my world.  Nobody can live beyond thirty-six years of age unless there are exceptional circumstances.  Dara is in the same situation.  Our superiors warn us to avoid being intellectually poisoned by exposure to people like Erin and yourselves.  But it is clear to me that our world’s social policies of early termination are just the Yir-Lak’s mindless continuation of policies instituted when the entire world was having severe shortages.  There is no reason to continue them now and some of us want to do something about it.”