Keeper Hunter

I peeled off the covers on the charges and attached them to the consoles. I hadn’t found a remote detonator so I had to do this the hard way. I did know there was a ten second delay more than enough time. I went back out to Sverun.

“Get down the far end of the room I ’m not sure what will happen once I set these charges off?”

“Mother see you safe,” Sverun said a she scrambled to obey my order. I went back inside and planned my route unsure if I was doing the right thing. For all I knew I could be making the situation worse. I pulled the pins on the charges and ran for it taking shelter with Sverun.

I heard a boom followed by two more in quick succession. Smoke billowed from the room as hell broke out. A siren screamed as red lights flashed over head. I’d certainly woken the neighbours.

“Be prepared for a fight,” I warned. I know I was putting my trust in a wounded Sverun but what choice did I have?

Sverun grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Inside the control room the consoles sparked as a fire suppressant fluid sprayed from a sprinkler system. It seemed stupid to have such a system in a room full of consoles. Inkassi’s intel had said the control room had been on a third floor this was the second. The consoles looked dead and I couldn’t see any other way to kill the alarm. I hoped I’d done enough to disable the defences.

I commed Leo. “ Leo got the system down.”

“What took you so long,” Leo’s comms sounded crackly.

“There were complications.” I thought about Hessie and the others. “Be careful there are a number of civilians by the entrance the Human guards tried to kill them they have a Valkyrie with them she’s on our side.”

“We’ll proceed with caution then, Leo out.”

The sprinklers had stopped leaving a slick mess on the floor and everything was wet. All the consoles were dead I’d even lost the monitors so I could not see what was going on beyond this room. The floor was slippery I had no idea what they used for the fire suppressant but it made my fingers itch when I touched one of the consoles. I was forced to holster my Seven Double ‘M’ as I negotiated the floor it was less than ideal but I was worried about keeping my footing on such a surface. The siren still sounded drowning out any other noise. An entire regiment of combat armoured soldiers could have marched in and I wouldn’t have heard them coming. Suddenly the siren cut off and in the blissful silence I heard the other door slide open. I twirled around finding it hard to remain up right. A man stood in the doorframe. He looked elderly with a thatch of grey hair, a neatly trimmed moustache and a goatee beard. He was wearing a dark grey business suit with a blue shirt and a red tie. The latter combination a clash of colours.

“You ruined everything,” he snarled.

“Hold it right there you are under arrest!” I snapped right back.

“Die Human!” He pointed his finger at me.

A burst of red light emanated from it and I ducked instinctively moving faster than I ever could have imagined. I heard something sizzle behind me. He had a subcutaneous laser in his finger. The stuff you’d see in a spy vid not in real life. Up until now I hadn’t believed they existed. I’d hardly time to process that as I ran on automatic and drew my gun and fired. Unfortunately the shot went wide or at least I thought it did I was normally a better shot than that. I slipped on the floor as another laser beam zoomed past me. The although he had all this advanced tech he was a bad shot the only thing in my favour at this time. I fired again this time my shots on target. There was a ripple as my shot hit. Shock ran through my body as another impossibility ran through my brain. The man had some kind of personal kinetic shield. Improbable but not impossible the Core races had to have more advanced tech. The how and why of how he obtained it was not the issue here. The man was trying to kill me I had to take a chance and rush him it was the only way. There was a burst of fire from behind me as I ducked again. A quick glance back saw Sverun shooting. Her shots were of such at intensity that she had the man staggering back. From somewhere she had acquired a ‘barker’ and was using it’s rapid fire to suppress the man’s attack on me.

“Never make an enemy of the Valkyrie!” She yelled seamlessly changing mags and firing,

The man turned and ran under her rain of fire. I took off after him, hard going on the slippery floor. The next room was minimally furnished with a desk and chair and a terminal. There seemed to have been other fixtures at one time but they had been removed. This room had suffered the fate of the control room everything was wet and slippery underfoot. At the end of this room was another door. I ran for that one the best I could and dived through it, heedless to whether the man was on the other side. There was no one in this one either. The room had wood panelled walls since I wasn’t here to sightsee I barrelled though the room avoiding the huge executive desk and heading for the door behind sliding closed. Gun in hand I entered this room only to stop in surprise. I was in an executive bathroom with enamelled washbasin, toilet and shower but no sign of the man. I exited back into office and stared around. He couldn’t have disappeared perhaps he had a secret door in here. There was one in the Curator’s office that had led to a secret base under the bunker cum museum above it? Maybe this place was the same. The only thing that truly puzzled me was a set of wet footprints that led to the bathroom. I followed them back inside. This time I took my time knowing I wasn’t going to catch the man. Between the washbasin and the shower was what seemed to be a line on the wall. I drew my combat knife and used the blade to probe that section of the wall. With a sudden pop the wall opened to reveal a narrow passageway behind it.

Beyond the narrow passageway was a ladder cloaked in darkness and heading down. I leaned over carefully unable to see anything in the dark the intensifier goggles weren’t working I guess that it was some sort of electronic dampener. I wasn’t about to go tearing down it without knowing what I was going to encounter. I dropped my combat knife down it blade first. If someone was waiting for me at the bottom of the ladder they certainly in for a nasty surprise. I heard a clang as the knife hit the bottom. After a moments hesitation I followed the knife down.

“Why do they always have a underground escape tunnel,” I muttered to myself. It was the staple of all those old spy vids I’d watched as a teen.

At the bottom of the ladder was an alcove. I retrieved my knife and stepped out into a tunnel I wasn’t sure of my direction as I started down it. It was semi dark only emergency lights at intervals proved what little light there was. I reckoned this tunnel was like the one the Curator had and was heading to a shuttle port. I moved cautiously down the tunnel. I wasn’t going to rush even if he had a head start. I wasn’t going to risk my life running into a trap or ambush. The tunnel widened to show a number of cages either side of the tunnel. Some of the cages were occupied. One of the occupants waved to me.

“He went that way!” The man was emaciated and had a passing resemblance to the one I was chasing.

“What!” I said.

“Stop him, stop Gustav!”

“Right.” I said and headed down the tunnel.

As much as I wanted to stay and rescue these people I had to get this Gustav and stop him. I followed the tunnel into the dark.