James Axler – Rat King

There was no response. No blasterfire.

Following through in one motion and using the momentary distraction of the

airborne object, Jak aimed the Python over the top of the desk; bobbing up

briefly to locate any enemies.

The room was empty. Seemingly.

Mildred had taken advantage of the diversion to scan the room.

“Damn place is empty, Ryan,” she called.

“Mebbe. Mebbe only seems.” Jak smiled across at her. “Mebbe not stupes.”

The last thing any of them expected was the voice that came from the corridor

beyond the door at the end of the room.

“Right so far, Sarj. Let’s see if they’re officer material.”

WALLACE WAS WATCHING the outsiders on a vid monitor positioned in the corridor.

He could see two men and two women strung out in a line behind their temporary

cover. The camera was behind them, positioned on the wall above and to the right

of the mat-trans chamber door, on the angle of the hexagon.

He now knew that there were at least four of them. They were sharp and showed

intelligence. Were there any others still in the mat-trans chamber? The

armaglass was too opaque to be sure.

Murphy stood behind the big man, watching over his shoulder. He was irritated

that Wallace had taken over management of this operation. As head of sec corps,

it was Murphy’s job to handle attacks of any kind.

Even if they came from within.

“Temporary stalemate, Sarj. We go in, they blast. They get blasted back. Need

them alive, but we got more men. Numbers, Sarj, that’s the key. That’s why the

mechanism is so important.”

Murphy didn’t respond. The problem with the mechanism was bothering Wallace more

than he wanted to let on. Why else mention it?

This could be the break that Murphy had been waiting for. The circumstances when

the regs could be broken. But that was for another time. Right now there were

more pressing problems.

Like how many were left in the chamber.

RYAN SCANNED the empty room.

“How many people beyond the door?” Mildred asked.

“One is one too many,” Krysty replied. “I feel like a complete stupe behind

this.” She tapped the edge of the desk with the barrel of her Smith & Wesson

.38.

“Any cover is better than no cover. And if we don’t know how many of them, they

sure as hell don’t know how many of us.” Ryan kept his attention fixed on the

doorway at the far end of the room, watching for the slightest movement.

Jak took the opportunity to recce the area to the rear, knowing that Ryan had

the front covered.

“Not sure. Vid behind. Mebbe watching us.”

Mildred looked around and saw the camera above Ryan’s head.

“Smile, you’re on TV.”

One round from her ZKR 551 took out the camera through the lens in a shower of

sparks. They rained over Ryan, but the one-eyed man ignored them, keeping his

attention fixed on the redoubt doorway.

“Just as well I held the second shot,” J.B. said quietly from inside the

chamber. He kept his voice as low as possible in the eerie quiet mat had

succeeded the siren. “If they know about you, then there’s three of us they

don’t know about.”

“So what do we do? We can’t stay here forever, just like we couldn’t stay in

there,” Mildred said grimly, gesturing to the mat-trans chamber.

“One trap for another.” Jak had his back to the table, checking his blaster. He

looked over at Ryan, smoothing the milk-white hair away from his scarred albino

skin. His red eyes were piercing.

Ryan smiled tightly. “Read something once about what they used to call a Mexican

standoff. Bastard stupe name, but I guess this is what they meant.”

WALLACE CURSED as the monitor went dead.

“Sir, what do you want me to do, sir?” Murphy said in a flat monotone, trying to

keep the amusement out of his voice.

“I want them alive. No casualties. I want to know how they used the mat-trans.”

“It might be that they don’t see it that way, sir.”

Wallace turned toward Murphy. The sec man shivered as he looked into the heart

of his superior and saw a glimmer of insanity too close to the surface. He knew