Banished Worlds (12 page)

Jane leaned close to me. “Great plan, Danbeu,” she said.

One assault rifle fired, making a big hole in a section of bricks not too far from my place in the dirt. “Out now!” the man ordered.

“Fine,” I yelled back. “I’m coming out.” I stood up, hands in the air, and waited.

“All of you. Your friend told us how many. Everyone, get up now.”

In minutes, we were all stripped of our weapons what few we had. Our wrists were bound; we were tied together in a line, then tied to the back of the flatbed. The flatbed was turned around and headed back the direction it had come from.

Bender had told the leader of this army that the spacecraft was destroyed, and that we had some kind of an escape plan, but did not know any more. At least we were headed in the right direction.

I moved the line of tied people as close to Bender as I could get. “Why?” I asked.

He looked to Roberts. “I want her, and I have skills. I’ll trade my skills to them for her.”

“We were going to get you off of this planet, Bender. There are lots of women off this planet.”

“Off of this planet, like there is such a thing. Children’s stories that is what you planned your escape on from our compound to this?” Bender shook his head.

“Off world, Bender, you just gave up your seat to get off of this planet.”

“When they kicked you out of your old compound, was it because you were crazy?” Bender inquires.

“Roberts and I didn’t come from another compound, but from a ship in orbit. You could have been there too.”

“Off world doesn’t exist. And why go there when she is here? Off planet without her, or here where her safety depends on me? It wasn’t a hard choice. As far as the rest of you are concerned, who cares about you?” Bender turned his attention forward.

“Understand this one thing, Bender, you’re a dead man. At the first chance I get, you’re dead.”

CHAPTER 7

“Now, let’s try this again.” The big man from the flatbed turned my face his direction.

“I don’t have anything to tell you.” I pulled my chin out of his grip.

“That’s rude.” The man hit me in the gut. “I am Ulysses.” He hit me again. “Formerly an agent, and more recently a convicted killer sentenced to Tirus. Most people here call me Boss and answer me when I talk to them.” He hit me for a third time just for emphasis.

Another man stepped over in front of me and punched me on the opposite side, but like Ulysses, below the ribcage. They did not want any broken ribs tearing up organs that I might die from before they finish questioning me.

I coughed from the blow.

“Our source tells us that you have a way off of Tirus.” This man hit me again. “I’m Lance, Ulysses’ partner, agent and partner in sentencing.” He hit me a third time. “You being a former agent like us, well, we are pretty sure you’re going to want to share.”

“We are ready to leave this lovely little planet, and former agents like Lance and me, well, we think you’ll want to invite us,” Ulysses added. He did not hit me this time.

“Tell us about the extraction point. Where is it? What is the contact signal? There has to be a contact signal for a ship to drop into this orbit, or it will get blasted into a million pieces. We all know about the orbital weapons platforms, no traffic in or out.”

“Not without a contact signal.” Lance patted my chest. “We really want this information.”

My tied hands had been thrown over a hook and I could just barely touch the floor with my tiptoes. I hurt, but at least nothing was broken, yet.

I took too long to answer. They both stepped back, and Lance motioned to the men at the doorway. They disappeared from sight for a few moments, then carried in Bender. His hands were also tied and he too was lifted up to a hook, like mine.

“Bender, here, tells us that you know all about this extraction point, and it is in fact your team since you took out Big Chin. Your plan is to remove a certain young woman from this evil prison planet.” Lance patted Bender’s chest. “Isn’t that right?”

“I can help you. I have skills. I run the power plant at our compound. I can make your life here easier,” Bender told Lance.

“Shut up, we want the ride off this planet!” Lance barked at Bender.

“There isn’t anything beyond this planet,” Bender said. “Those are just stories told to children. When you grow up everyone knows they are just lies,” Bender said to Lance. “I can make it better here for your compound.”

“Now why would you help us and turn on your boss?” Lance asked and turned to face Bender.

“I’ll help you, all I want is the other woman you caught with us. I’ll help you, but I can’t tell you Boss Danbeu’s plans, I mean Agent Danbeu’s plan. He didn’t tell me.”

Lance smiled and turned to me again. “Agent Danbeu, how did they talk you into this job? Was it honor, duty, one of those worn-out ideals?”

“Actually, they pulled me off of another prison planet, Lark.”

“Danbeu,” Ulysses said, then tapped Lance’s shoulder. “Harry Danbeu, that big trial.” Ulysses and Lance looked at me.

“He stole a ship, against central command directives, to evacuate the council members. He then took the ship back into the Stimplen dust cloud and tried to save his team. He’s one of those damn hero types.” Lance’s smile grew wider.

“Well, would have been if some of the council members hadn’t died. Instead, he went down as a screw up. The brass made an example of you for your actions and for not telling them who all was involved. They talked about the first public execution in over two hundred years. You pissed off a lot of high ranks.” Ulysses smiled.

“How could you know about the execution discussion that wasn’t public knowledge, and it was discussed only one time?” I inquired suspiciously.

“Told you, we were agents,” Lance said and grinned.

“We had good connections. Our trials were small things, compared to yours, but then they didn’t want to make an example out of either of us. You just made all of them look bad, and that made them angry,” Ulysses reminded me. “Agent Danbeu, one former agent to another, tell me about the extraction point, tell me the call sign.” Ulysses pushed for the information.

I looked down at the ground.

“Get us off this rock, and we can all disappear into the network. We have good connections,” Ulysses offered.

I looked over to Bender. “What do you think, Agent Bender, expand our little group by two more? You being the extraction expert it would be your call. Can the ship you have hidden take two more? Power shouldn’t be an issue, I wouldn’t think, but you’re the specialist, Tim. You have all the details.”

“Liar! You liar! I am not one of these agents. I know nothing about the plan to get away from here. There is nowhere to go.”

“Just tell them, so we can get off this planet,” I said this angrily. “I was security, get us in and locate the girl. Your job,” I looked over to Ulysses, “his job was to get us the hell out. The sap fell for one of the other agents.” I shook my head. “Roberts, pretty brunette, you caught her too.” I knew how to lie enough that with a line or two of truth it made the lie more believable. “Been keeping him off of her ever since.”

“You liar!” Bender screamed at me.

“Ask her. Ask her if Agent Bender has been after her,” I offered. “Bring her here too,” I said.

“He is lying to you,” Bender told them again.

“You got skills, you told us that,” Ulysses reminded him, “power plant skills.”

“And all you want is the woman for offering us your help,” Lance told Bender. Lance and Ulysses moved over in front of Bender. “Guards, take Boss Danbeu to the cell.”

As I was dragged off, Bender started yelling at me and pleading with our captors.

I was led down several hallways of the building that had been taken over. The building was the Department of Enforcement when this was a living world and part of the network. It housed hundreds of guards over the years.

I was taken to the cell the others were in. The door had been modified from its original design with electronic locks, to a more practical hasp and key lock type. After all, without electrical power, electric locks did not work. The guards pushed me into the cell, then closed and locked it.

Everyone gathered around me. At first, I just lay there not moving. Slowly, I turned over, and with Daiman’s help I pulled myself up to a sitting position.

“You okay, Harry?” Roberts asked, kneeling next to me.

“To hell with that. Harry, what did you tell them?” Nelson demanded.

“The truth. I told them that Agent Bender is our extraction expert and that he has all the plans for getting us off of this planet.”

“Agent Bender,” Bikes said. “I didn’t know he was an agent too. Wow, what’s an agent?”

Jenkins took Bikes off to a corner of the cell to talk quietly to him.

“Our captors are former agents sent here on murder charges sometime after I was sent to Lark. They remember my trial and the media circus that it was. They want off this planet.” I looked to Nelson. “I assume that after we get off the ground we’ll be met by armed guards.”

“At the rendezvous point there will be armored and armed guards, yes,” Nelson confirmed. “It won’t take those two long to figure out that Bender isn’t an agent. When they come here, you’re going to need one hell of a story as to why you wasted their time.”

“I’m thinking we take them with us. The armed guards on the other end can deal with them.” I looked around the group and at the cell walls. The cell was four walls, no windows, and one door.

“So, if we’re going to offer them a ride, why feed them Bender?” Daiman asked.

I pushed up to my feet. “He gave us up. He deserves at least a little beating.”

“Did he say why?” Daiman again questioned me. I guessed he was trying to judge if I was lying to them. “We didn’t talk much. He did spew on about there not being anything beyond this planet.”

“Yeah, some of the ones born here have it in their heads that it’s an old wives tale that this is the only planet there is. No matter who tells them differently, they think Tirus is the only world,” Jenkins explained.

I walked to the door and rapped on it with my fist.

“It’s solid, old brick frame design. The metal door and frame are set in hardened bricks with no openings other than the 4 x 4 guard view port,” Roberts informed. “Not easy to get through, or open.”

I trusted her evaluation of the door, it matched what I saw.

“Room’s empty, Harry, other than the toilet on the wall,” Nelson added.

“They don’t have a guard outside the door. Do they use a roving guard system? Make regular checks, what?”

“We haven’t had any visitors other than the guards bringing you and taking Bender.” Daiman walked over to the door with me. Roberts joins us and pats my side. I jumped.

“You got beat up again,” she said.

“Yes, Mom,” I answered.

“When they come back, it’s going to be in force and they will likely, beat on all of us,” Daiman commented.

“Then we should leave before they do that.” I hit the door with my fist again, but harder this time and tried to look down each end of the hall to see if the noise got any guard’s attention. I did not see any, but was limited by the view port. “We have to figure this out fast.” I walked to the wall opposite the door, leaned against it, and studied the door and our situation. I had only just begun to think about it when we heard people in the hall.

“Guards,” Daiman said from the door.

“That didn’t take long with Bender,” Nelson said.

The guards opened the door. One pointed his assault rifle into the room. “Everyone step back.”

The cell was small with no cover. A few short bursts from the rifle and everyone would be dead. We all moved to the back wall. “Roberts, step forward,” one guard ordered.

“Wait, I’m in charge of this group, Lance and Ulysses want to see me.” I stepped in front of the guard.

The guard clocked me with the butt of his rifle. I hit the ground, was not unconscious, but seriously dazed. I pushed up to my hands and knees, tried to focus, but only to get hit a second time. Staying on my knees, too dizzy to do much more, I let the noise quiet down. Was not sure if the room got quiet, or if it was the pounding in my head that had eased up. I looked around the room.

Nelson, Daiman, and Jane stood together, in a corner, in one group. In the opposite corner, Bikes was on the floor with Jenkins and Price kneeling next to him.

I crawled over next to Jenkins. “What happened, what did I miss?”

“One of the guards beat Bikes down pretty badly.” Jenkins twisted his face to look to me. “He doesn’t understand that here, you are not the Boss, and that you and Little Boss aren’t in charge. When they tried to take her, he fought them.”

“After the guard hit you and yelled for Mia to go with them, Bikes tried to stop them,” Price said.

“He wasn’t always like this. He was on a demo team and was hurt when part of a wall fell on him. He was Trevor then. The plow bar caught him, tossed him against a wall like a toy, then the wall fell on him. Trevor hit the wall, and Bikes crawled out, broken leg and broken mind.” Jenkins touched the other man’s shoulder. “He was a demo team leader at that time.”

“The guard would have beaten him to death if Mia hadn’t pulled him off and went with them.” Price looked at me. He wanted away from here and wanted to be safe. He liked me and wanted Mia Roberts with us.

“How bad is Bikes?” I asked Jenkins.

“He’s bad, unconscious, but strong.” Jenkins looked at me, then back at Bikes. “I don’t think he can take another beating, I don’t think you can either.”

I stood up and turned to Nelson. “How long has Roberts been gone?”

“Too long, she’ll talk, they’ll kill her, and we’ll be stuck on this planet,” Daiman replied.

“We don’t need her now, do we Harry? She’s told you everything by now.” Nelson grinned. “Tell me she told you the extraction plan and gave you all of the details.”

“You bet on the wrong horse, Nelson. She didn’t tell me anything, I wouldn’t let her. Only Roberts knows how to get off this rock.”

“We’re screwed!” Daiman yelled, turned, and kicked the wall.

“I don’t believe you, Harry.” Nelson moved forward a step. “You two have been almost inseparable since we hit the dirt. You can’t tell me she hasn’t told you everything, like you’ve told her about us.”

“Roberts hasn’t been forthcoming, I haven’t let her,” I told Nelson.

“Liar! You two have exchanged information. I know you’ve told her I turned you in to the authorities. Only you and I know that, and I can see the distrust in her face when she looks at me.” Nelson pointed at me, but was not quite close enough for me to grab his hand and break it. “You told her, and she told you her story, her past, don’t deny it.”

“You’ve always been paranoid, Nelson, and it’s getting worse with age,” I told him.

“I should beat the truth out of you,” Nelson said.

“You should try,” I offered. “But you better do it before those two do, because they didn’t get to be powerful warlords by leaving things to chance.”