Retired – Chapter Nine – Vengeance is Mine

I moved to the door and stood beside it. I was just reaching for the knob when a voice called out from the hallway. “You might as well come out, Drake. I can see you just fine with the thermoscanner.” The voice left a cold shiver down my spine. It was Dundal.

I moved away from the door. I had to figure out how to get out of here, but I was trapped. Out the window were battledroids. In the hallway was an ambush.

“Uncle Drake! Don’t come out!” It was Cleo’s voice. It was followed by her scream of pain.

“Yes, Uncle Drake, don’t come out,” Dundal mocked. “I have a gun pointed at her pretty little head. I am going to count down from ten, then I pull the trigger. Ten… Nine…”

He made it to six before I opened the door. “I am coming out.”

I stepped into the hall and breathed a sigh of relief. There were no battledroids there. They must be outside only. Then a chill ran down my spine. Cleo and her intended were on their knees in front of Dundal. Dundal had a rail pistol in each hand, and they were pointed at his prisoner’s heads.

“Come forward one step, and start removing your weapons and clothes,” Dundal said, as he poked the pistols into the heads of the people before him.

I had no choice. I was stuck. I stepped forward and started to remove my weapons. I tried to palm a throwing knife, but Dundal saw it, so I dropped it quickly.

“Now, have that pretty little piece of ass in your room come out.” As he spoke, he nodded his head towards the door. That was his mistake. The instantaneous break of eye contact was not enough for me to move. But Lizell surprised us both. She stepped out of the door with the pistol leveled and pulled the trigger.

Dundal spun as the bullet ripped through his shoulder. Cleo sprung like a bear trap and used her body to knock Makeal over and away. I dropped down and tried to retrieve a weapon.

By the time I stood, Dundal was running down the hall cursing. I had to stop him before the battledroids could be called in.

I took off after Dundal. All I had was a pistol with one twenty-round magazine and a vibe knife with a five minute charge life. The first explosions started outside as the Praetorian Guard arrived. The battledroids had something to fight. That removed them from my worry list. As we moved deeper into the palace, I found a couple of the night guards. They had been gassed. The bedrooms all had separated filter systems, and the main part of the house was on its own system. Dundal had found a vulnerability.

This damn palace had no straight hallways. We had designed it that way on purpose. Now I was pissed about it. I knew where he was headed. He was headed towards the garage.

I followed as fast as I could, but he was always one turn ahead of me.

I burst into the garage just as he went out the top on a hoverbike. I did not pause to think. I ran for Daniel’s section of the garage. There it was, Daniel’s new racing bike.

I had to hope he copied the identity profile from his older ones. I was in luck and it started as soon as I touched the pad. I was flying after Dundal seven seconds after he had flown out.

As I came out of the top of the garage, I saw him speeding off to the north. I followed and opened the bike up to its maximum. This baby was fast.

I was only twenty feet behind him when he fired his first shot. The bullet grazed my wind deflector and spun off into the night. I started to weave the bike. This was a new chase for me. For the first time in my life I was involved in a chase and the other guy was wounded.

I raised my pistol and tried to aim. Have you ever tried to aim at a target while you and the target are traveling at over three hundred KPH, and both are weaving? Trust me, it is not easy. I started to time his weaving and then I pulled the trigger. Later in my life I would brag about that shot. I would claim it was pure skill that sent that round on its path. I will tell you now, it was pure fucking luck.

The round sped out at ten times the speed of sound.