The Primal Connection (30 page)

Charlie was a second slower but no less shocked by this latest twist. But in the next second, it got even stranger.

There was a hurried exchange in the native language of the Chrliti, and then in English, Mir shouted,
“Use those frequencies to combat his attack! Have your host try to get out of the room! The range he can do this at is limited! Once out of the room, you should be clear!”

Abshrd had heard every word. And none of them had pleased him.

“Mir, you traitorous little
krvel
! How you managed to find the power to do this is beyond me, but when I find you, I will take great pleasure in finding out before I send you screaming into the afterlife!”

Mir’s response was classic human.
“Up yours!”

Abshrd’s reply was a growl attached to a spate of unintelligibility. It was clear, though, that he was again trying to restore his attack to its former fury. And despite the appearance of Mir, there was no guarantee that he would not succeed.

Terry, however, had regained enough control of his mind finally to take note of the room. And his attacker. It was a jarring sight.

In the middle of the room was what appeared to be a wheel chair with an elongated rear filled with what looked like a generator of some kind. Not a huge one but definitely a generator. The oddest part of that was that it seemed to be connected to the chair’s occupant through small wires at the wrists and the temples. But the thing that startled him was that occupant. It was Dr. Broche.

Not the Dr. Broche from the pictures he had seen earlier. That woman looked to be in her fifties, yes, but that was a woman that was vital and healthy. This woman before him looked like she was waiting at death’s door and had been for some time. Her eyes were puffy and dull, while her mahogany skin looked ashen and dry, almost as if she was dehydrated to the point of desiccation. Even her muscles seemed shrunken, leaving the skin to hang off her atrophied limbs, giving her the appearance of it being too big for her.

All this Terry noticed in just a couple of seconds as he stared at her through eyes squinted against the onslaught of pain. Noticed and deduced that this was the host of the being called Abshrd. And the tool being used to cause the pain he and Decker were in. And lastly, that he was not sure that he would be able to help this woman. Or what was left of her.

For Decker, it was a reassurance to see her even though he too had no idea what had happened. And like Terry, he too wondered if there was anything that they could do to help her. Especially given the
thing
that inhabited her. At the moment, though, the most important thing was trying to figure out how to get away from the source of the pain.

To that end, Mir was still trying to help.

“Quickly, get out of the room! The range of this is small enough that should get you out of it! Be careful of the guides though. They are still out there, though I can’t detect them anymore. Abshrd must be shielding them from me.”

“Perhaps,”
Charlie cut in, anger tingeing his voice with an edge that bode bad things for Abshrd if he had hands to strangle him with,
“but I do not think he has the power to block this even with his new toys!”

To prove his point, Terry felt Charlie literally draw power out of him in a burst that he could feel slam into the being that they faced. At almost the same moment, he fairly shouted in Terry’s mind,
“Take the door! Now!”

Decker also heard the order and joined the attack on the door. Magnetically locked, it was a simple mechanism configured simply to keep the door closed. It had never been designed to stand up to two desperate men determined to escape. As a result, it flew open quickly at the first impact.

As soon as the two men cleared the door, the pain dropped to almost nothing, proving Mir’s point. A moment later, his second prediction came true as well, as Abshrd’s minions converged rapidly, eyes still blank but now burning with a fury that showed there was still intelligence behind them, even if it was controlled. And that intelligence was apparently demanding their destruction.

The same student that had led them to the room where they had been attacked led the charge, swinging the blade he had been carrying with enthusiasm if not skill. Had he been faster or better with it, he might have gotten one of them, but his attack was centered low, to incapacitate rather than to kill.

As it was, Terry snapped a kick at his head that slammed him back into a wall.

Decker, meanwhile, slammed a massive fist into the side of the head of a second student who moved up to aid the first. The effect was basically the same.

Mir’s voice rang out then with a shout,
“Leave here now! The others are still nearby with better weapons! I still cannot detect them, but I know they are close!”

As soon as the words finished forming, a large female stepped around the corner, a machete in hand.

Terry sidled off to the left while Decker slid to the right, giving her two targets to choose between.

The woman hesitated, her muddled mind trying to find a solution to the moves.

Decker feinted an attack, and as she turned to counter it, Terry grabbed her arm and drove his fist into her jaw. She sagged to the floor, unconscious before she landed.

Terry took the machete and immediately noticed the weight of the thing. It seemed to be concentrated on the edge, giving the blade an unwieldy feel. He had no time to figure out why, because he could hear racing footsteps coming down the hall.

Charlie was suddenly active in his mind.

“The hall is clear in the other direction as far as I can tell. Move quickly!”

Terry wanted to repeat the directions to Decker but realized that he had heard the command as well. Apparently, the field that had allowed Abshrd to be heard was still in effect. The two men ran down the hall away from their new attackers.

Mir gave them one more aid.

“These halls don’t have much in working surveillance. They cannibalized them to get the others working. They will have to search manually down here.”

“Then, we’ve got one more thing on our side!”

As he spoke, Decker seemed to struggle to remember something then stopped in front of another door. “Here!” he said suddenly. “In here!”

Terry wanted to shout that they needed to run, to get further away, but Decker was already opening the door and motioning him inside. The hallway was clear, but Terry wondered what good it would do to hide here, so close to where Abshrd had attacked them.

Once inside, Terry turned to Decker, who was moving cartons in the back as if he was trying to build a wall in front of them to hide behind. Instead, though, he reached for a panel and felt around the edge. Suddenly smiling, he pulled a small lever and yanked at the panel. It snapped away from the wall, revealing a darkened tunnel behind it. Decker bent and stepped through without hesitation.

After a moment, Terry followed. Once inside, he watched Decker replace the panel quickly, throwing the same lever and leaving the panel looking as if nothing had happened.

Producing a flashlight from his pocket, Decker checked in both directions, decided on the right side for their escape and began moving down the hall, Terry following quickly. A few seconds later, they turned down a second corridor and into a hub of sorts that had several tunnels connected to it. Decker grinned as he pulled out his cell phone and turned on the lantern feature to let them see each other.

Terry was astounded. And he let Decker know.

“What the hell is this?”

Decker smiled in the dim light. “Safety tunnels. Some of the guys that Dr. Broche brought here to try and help were last-chance types. So these were put through the buildings in case something went wrong and they needed a way out. Kinda like a panic room but with a lot more ways in.”

Terry was impressed. And worried. “If that thing is in control of her mind, don’t you think it’ll know about these tunnels, too?”

Decker smiled even broader as he shook his head. “She never knew! She trusted these guys she brought here. People who were afraid for her and of the kids she brought here did this. Story was that she never went anywhere without one of us being close enough to yank her into one of the tunnels if something happened.”

Terry was suddenly curious. “Us?”

Decker’s smiled faded replaced with a smirk. “How do you think I knew so much about this place? It was my first job for the city before she lost her standing with this place. I was one of the security guards here. She was the one that gave me the job.”

Terry nodded. At least that was an explanation for why Decker was so protective of the doctor. “So what now?”

“Now, we find our way out and get some help. This shit is way too big for us! We gotta get—”

“NO!”

The voice had rung out in both of their minds so loudly that Terry felt as though it was vibrating inside his skull. It was so loud that it took him a second to realize it wasn’t Charlie but Mir talking, which led to another question.

“Mir, where the hell are you?”

A silence ensued for several seconds as Mir contemplated his answer. Or rather how to say it. Finally, he began haltingly.

“You must understand, I had no choice. Once Abshrd incorporated me into his conglomerate, he held me as he did the others by limiting the energy I could receive. I could not break free. Once the two of you showed up, I managed to gather enough energy to tear myself away and make a leap. I was barely able to make it. The only reason I was able to was that he was concentrating on his attack of you two so hard, he failed to detect my escape. I-I had no other option. I had to get away from him! So, I managed to jump into you, Mr. Decker.”

Decker frowned as he understood what Mir was saying.

Terry took a deep breath in preparation for what could be coming, remembering his own initial reaction to his discovery of Charlie. He hoped that Decker did not freak out even worse.

Decker took a deep breath. “You mean you hooked into me like this Charlie is in Bridger?”

Surprisingly, Mir said,
“No. Like Terry, your bio-fields are powerful. Extremely powerful! I was afraid that if I integrated with you fully, we would be trapped together much as Tanoak...Charlie is with him.”

Terry jumped in there. “So what exactly are you doing?”

“I managed to slip in without fully entering your bio-fields. Enough to draw energy from you without risking entrapment. It is both difficult and dangerous, but it was the only way I could be sure to be able to get out to aid Traci once we find her.”

Now, Terry’s head snapped up to stare at Decker and, in turn, at the alien inhabiting him. “What the hell are you talking about? Where is Traci? What the fuck is wrong with her that she’d need—”

Mir cut him off, explaining,
“The day after you left, Traci wondered what would happen with the two of you. That night, as near as I can figure out, somehow they knew where we were and must’ve sent one of his lackeys with a nerve agent of some kind. Then, we were brought here. With her paralyzed, I had no sensory input to know where we were going. Next I knew, I was here and Abshrd used one of the devices on that cart to forcibly remove me from Traci and drew me into that obscenity.”

Terry exploded.
“
Where the hell is Traci?
”

Both men felt Mir’s exasperation.
“Once he pulled me out and absorbed me, he told me she was one of those that he needed to make the final part of his new plan. Dr. Broche being one, and you, Terry, being the other.”

“Me? What the hell would he want with me? And how the hell did he know about me?”

“He has been following your exploits for months, perhaps years. It was simply fate that had you begin a relationship with Traci. Even these murders are a part of his plan! He knew sooner or later if he kept it up, there was a better-than-even chance you would show up to help them solve them. That was why he helped Dr. Broche in the first place. It was all an elaborate ruse to draw you in so he could finally attempt to decipher the secret of the power of your fields. If he can, from what I was able to gather, he can then use that to learn how to power several Chrliti, like the conglomeration he has formed within Dr. Broche. Only this one will be powered naturally and far more efficiently. That was what he stole from the doctor. Her ability is that she can sustain several Chrliti, as long as they are all suited for her bio-fields. He wants you for the power to sustain those fields despite there being several drawing on them. And from Traci, he plans to extract the ability to be able to allow access to any Chrliti. If his plan works, he can create a hybrid that he can control and has enough power to take over this entire planet!”

Terry and Decker were both stunned, but Decker was still wondering about his new association with Mir. Terry was still worried about Traci, however, and wasn’t about to let the matter be sidetracked.

“So Traci is here as well?”

“Yes! Abshrd is having her examined to learn how she does what she does. I have no idea what that entails, but given his disregard for humanity, I doubt that he will care if she survives! We have to find her, and when we do, I must be able to reoccupy her if she needs my help to recover!”

Terry was tired of being polite. “They brought her here to experiment on her?”

Decker finally got a chance to shout his way in, then stopped, realizing that he could draw the attention of Abshrd’s minions if he got too loud. “Look, I appreciate the trouble your friend could be in, but I gotta worry about me for a minute.”

Terry was quick to dismiss Decker and his fears. “Oh, relax! They don’t mean us any harm, and if not for the fact of this aberration, you would never know there was anything going on. And besides, he said he isn’t integrated with you, just hanging on. Whatever is happening with Traci is dangerous! This clown doesn’t care about us. About any human! We’re all just tools to this guy. He’ll kill her and us if it means he gets what he wants! And I am not about to let that happen!”

Decker stood his ground, but he recognized the ire in Terry’s voice. “Look, I don’t know about most of this, but you got me wrong. If this Mir can help us free the doc and he wants to use me to do it, I’m all for it! I just wanna know what the fuck is going on, that’s all! Remember, I got that burst of info from your guy Charlie. I know what they stand for, at least these guys. But this Abshrd guy scares me! And for what he did to Dr. B, I want the son of a bitch dead! So if you gotta use me to make it happen, let’s do it!”