Alliance Hunter
Chapter 22

I stared at the junction and considered my options. The broad white line veered sharply to the right and there was a red line to the left.

“Which way?” I asked Monica who was nervously hovering at my side.

Monica pointed to the red line. “That way leads to the Director’s office.”

I thought about her comment. This Director would have access to everything. “Of course we can access the system from the office?” Perhaps even find out what happened to my team. I hoped they had escaped the ambush. I knew in my heart that Jervic was alive. I don’t know how but I knew. It was just a matter of finding him. Find him and I’ll find the others. I stepped onto the red path determined to find my team and free the prisoners.

“No!” Monica yelled grabbing my arm. “You’ll be killed!”

“Not if I get them first!” I declared and snapped my mouth shut. I wondered how I got so blood thirsty. It wasn’t me, well it wasn’t the old me.

“No!” Monica repeated. She pointed at two metal columns either side of the corridor. “We can’t go that way!”

“Why?” I said bluntly frustrated by Monica’s irrational fear.

She touched her collar. “Anybody with a collar will be shocked to death.”

I understood her fears. “If I deactivate your collar are you willing to show me the way?” I wasn’t going to push her. She had too much trauma in her life for me to do that to her.

Instinctively she touched her collar. It seemed to be a habit she picked up. Like my hand and me. I found myself doing that and took a deep breath. I wasn’t about to force her. That would make me as bad as her captors.

“It can’t be done,” she stated firmly.

I merely pointed to my neck. I know it was blistered but I wasn’t wearing a collar. “I did.”

Monica regarded my face carefully. “I don’t think I could take the pain?” she said getting the wrong impression of what had actually happened.

“Please Monica let me at least try?”

“No I can’t,” Monica said in a panicked voice.

We were wasting time here my impatience got the better of me. “Then I go alone!”

Tears trickled down Monica’s face. “Please don’t leave me?” she begged.

I hadn’t the heart to be that cruel to her. “Which is it to be?” I demanded. I hadn’t wanted to say that I regretted my words as soon as they left my mouth.

“Ok take it off?” Monica sagged defeated.

I wasn’t that sure myself. “Scout?” I said in the confines of my mind.

“Mother?”

I winced at Scout’s words. “Can I do the same to Monica’s collar as I did to mine?”

“Yes.”

I felt Scout withdraw from my mind. I sighed and dug into my scab wiping the blood onto Monica’s collar. I heard a click and Monica’s collar loosened. I saw a pale band around Monica’s neck. It looked as if she had been wearing the collar for a long time. The rest of her body not covered by her orange jumpsuit was tanned. My anger surged again but I managed to calm down.

Monica stared at the collar in my hand her fingers touching her neck. “How?” Was all she asked.

“Don’t ask,” I told her as gently as I could.

“You will tell me?”

I heard the question in her voice. “Later I promise.”

There was a long pause before Monica spoke again. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Hesitantly I approached the gap between the metal columns. I waved my hand between them nothing happened. I squared my shoulders and walked through. Outwardly I appeared calm but my heart was beating ten to the dozen. I signalled for Monica.

“Coming Monica?”

She hesitated then rushed across almost leaping in to my arms. “We’re through,” she breathed her hand to her chest her eyes wide in shock.

“Monica please show me the way?”

Monica stared at me. “Yes follow me,” she said more confidently than she had been earlier.

We walked on down a seemly endless corridor. I felt anxious with every step I was worried I was walking into a trap. I hadn’t seen another soul anywhere. Suddenly Monica halted signalling me for quiet.

“Monica?” I asked her in a whisper.

“There’s a guard station ahead.”

I could see a window and a door set into the corridor wall. I edged closer to the wall on that side and couched down. Monica followed mimicking my movements. I crept forward my whole body quivering. I halted at the edge of the window and eased myself up and looked in.

And wished I never had. Horror mixed with a boiling rage at the sight that greeted me. A man had his back to the window and his front pressed against the wall his jumpsuit around his ankles. I saw what he was pressing against. I couldn’t shake my mind away from the look of terror in the young naked girl’s face he was forcing himself onto. She was chained to a metal railing. I felt so ill seeing such a sickening scene I wanted to puke. From somewhere within me came a rage. I could easily blamed it on my Valkyrie blood but it was more than that. I was inside and tearing the man off the girl before my mind had time to register what I was doing. I rammed him into wall several times. It didn’t seem enough for the blood lust I felt but the more logical calmer part of my mind prevailed and I let go. The man slid to the floor leaving a smear of blood down the wall. I knelt down and felt for a pulse my more logical side urging me to do so. He was still alive. I looked up at the crying girl. I wasn’t sure of her age but to me she looked no more that fourteen which made things worse. I was shocked at how bad the rot had gone. No prison I knew of would have allowed this to happen. I guessed this was an illegal operation.

I looked at the girl “You going to be ok?” I put on my calming security voice. I hadn’t used that training in some time. It seemed appropriate here.

The girl just stared at me in shock.

“Monica?” I didn’t know if she was there, I just assumed she was. “See what you can do?”

“Yes Gwen,” Monica responded.

“You will be ok Alena?” Monica told the girl.

She rattled the chain that tethered her to the bar. “He’s got the key.”

Girding my disgust I searched the man’s pockets. I pulled out the key and handed it to Monica. Who was examining the girl a tight expression on her face. I saw blood and other stains on the girl’s thighs. I felt my anger surge. I looked at the man my hands curling into fists. I suddenly wanted him dead but the logical part of my mind prevailed. If I killed him he’d escape justice and I knew enough about the Valkyrie to be certain he would pay. I turned my attention back to Alena as the chains bounding her dropped to the floor. With a sneer of contempt at the comatose body on the floor she picked up her discarded clothing and dressed. I had to admire her calmness, I on the other hand would have been a quivering mess.

“He still alive?” Alena asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Pity,” Alena grunted.

“Have no doubts he’ll wish he was once the Valkyrie get hold of him.”

“Good,” she said.

I looked at Monica who merely shrugged.

I dragged the man to the bar on the wall and chained him there. I didn’t care for his blood or his state of dress. Alena took one look at him snorted again and disappeared into a side door I hadn’t noticed. I had been too busy extracting a small measure of justice to notice it. What I had done was frowned upon in my time as a security officer. She was back a moment later with a roll of duct tape and a hood. My mind cringed at the implications that this asshole had this on hand. She waved me way when I went to help her.

“I need to do this,” she stated.

I stood back with Monica and watched her work. I felt Monica grip my hand reassuringly.

“That was a long time in coming,” she said to me quietly. “He was one of the worst.”

Alena taped his mouth and pulled the hood over his face. “That will shut the fucker up and I won’t need to see his face again.”

Alena then walked over to a bank of monitors another thing I’d failed to notice in my rage. I felt my blood run cold as I saw the images of the screens. One showed the columns. There was no way we could have sneaked here. Had he not been busy with Alena he would have seen us and been ready with back up. Then all I had done would have been for nothing. She leaned peering at the monitors.

“I take it you are here to take down that bitch that runs this place?” Alena asked without looking at me.

“Bitch?”

“Yes the bitch! Tell her hello from my parents and I as you cut her throat.”

I steered the conversation away for her blood lust. “If anyone comes hide.”

She touched her collar. “This compels me to surrender,” she said bitterly. “I’m not strong enough to endure the pain.”

I saw Monica nod sadly.

“I could free you from it.” I didn’t like the fact I’d bleed again to free her but I had to do it. I must look a mess with blood streaks and bruises covering my face. In truth I didn’t feel easy with myself leaving her collared.

Alena shook her head. “That will only alert them to your presence when they find me. Best if they believe I did this on my own.”

I had to admire her bravery in the face of such danger. “I still want you to hide,” I told her.

I saw Alena glance at Monica something hidden passed between them. Monica nodded slowly.

“Best you get going there will be a patrol through here in a few minutes. I’ll delay them as long as I can,” Alena said.

We hurried down the corridor passing more doors. These were just doors but I did note the numbers of the doors counting down like some imaginary doomsday clock. Each door we passed seemed to be harbouring a potential threat. Or that’s what my worried mind kept telling me. A door slid open and I reacted without thought again like some vid screen robot. A man stepped into our path. I hit him hard without a backward thought. He staggered back into the room he was exiting from. I followed it up with a savage kick to the groin. He folded over my foot with a whoosh and was down. I kicked out as he writhed on the floor groaning. I kicked him in the head and he fell silent. I checked his pulse despite my impulse to kill I was no killer. He was alive if unconscious. Monica hovered in the doorway staring at me uncertainly.

“Quick get inside and close the door!” I ordered her.

I glanced around the room taking in my surroundings. I was in a barrack room long and rectangular. With at least two dozen beds each with a footlocker. I noted two other doors both marked with washroom signs.

“Find something I can tie him up with.” I didn’t like ordering Monica around I wasn’t military nor was she.

“Oh course, Gwen,” she said and began rooting in the nearest lockers. She pulled out several belts. Canvas style belts ideal for tying someone up. “Will these do?” she said handing me the belts. I tied the unconscious man up with the belts using a set of soiled underwear I found in a linen basket. I felt it was grimly appropriate considering what these ‘Scum’ as I labelled them had done. I took note that one of the washrooms said ‘women’.

“Do you have any female guards?” I asked Monica.

“No!” she said firmly.

As I went to drag the man into the washroom I noticed his jumpsuit and my blood went cold. It was the standard grey of the Confederacy but what had me staring were the three black stripes on the cuffs.

“Black Stripes!” I hissed. I knew where I was now. The hidden base the Elders had alluded to. It made it more important for me to stop what was going on here.

“Black Stripes?” Monica sounded confused.

“That’s what I said.”

“You mean the Patriots,” Monica said bitterly.

“No Black Stripes. The assholes responsible for an attempted attacks on Alfheimir and Saros.”

Monica stared at me her jaw working. “Wait a minute you’re not here to rescue us?” I saw tears start in her eyes.

“Recon only for strike teams. Rescuing you and any others trapped like you is a bonus. One I expect to exploit.”

There was a long pause. “I accept that,” she said finally.

“Monica, the Black Stripes are dangerous. They tried to start a war between the Valkyrie and the Confederacy and failed. Then they tried and failed to frame the Alliance when they attempted to kill millions on Saros. I had to put aside my pursuit of Vanessa because of these assholes!” I said.

Monica looked shocked. “You were hunting Vanessa?”

I nodded. “I nearly had her but these assholes.” There I’d used the word again but then it showed my anger at having to pick up the pieces of their actions. I found myself starting at my hand.

“You’ve seen her?” Monica said. I heard a distinct tremble in her voice.

“Months ago,” I complained looking at my hand. Images of the fight in the ruins came back to haunt me. For a moment I nearly lost myself in the event. “I even managed to shoot her. I remember seeing her fall and being dragged back to her shuttle as the Alliance drop ship landed. “She escaped.”

“The bitch, she dead?”

“No I only wounded her.” I remember vividly freezing when she was in my sights. I shuddered in phantom pain as I saw in my mind’s eye the limpet mine destroying my hand. I pulled myself away from the direction my mind was heading in. I had to focus on the now, a warning Runa kept repeating.

“Damn the nights I’ve dreamed of putting my hand around her throat and throttling the life out of her.” Monica paused as if a thought occurred to her. “You think she’s one of them?”

I understood what Monica was saying. “They want her dead as much as we do.”

Monica looked at me puzzled. “I don’t understand?”

“She’s an Imperial,” I stated simply.

Monica glanced at me surprised. “I see but you are Terran as well. I’m damn sure you are despite what you have said to me. I checked you medical records when you boarded. It said full human. Yet you say you have Valkyrie blood?”

“No longer and it’s complicated more complicated than that,” I said and it hurt. I’d sold my loyalty in order to catch Vanessa and from the looks of it I wasted the effort.

“I really don’t understand.”

“It’s complicated. I’ll tell you later but for now we stop this Director and free the rest of you.” I made a gesture. I hadn’t really got a plan I was winging it. I couldn’t tell Monica that.

We exited the barrack room and headed down the corridor.

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