Chapter Two
Not five feet from her starting point, Shalina was taken down by April and Sara in a thrashing tangle of arms and legs. They hit the floor hard enough to make a dent in the stressed concrete and I quickly moved to try to grab some part of Shalina as the struggle continued.
Sara yelled, "Ed, get back, dammit!", but I reached for Shalina's left ankle and shoved her pants leg up enough to put my fingers on the bare skin of her leg, then opened a link and used a trick I'd learned from a lady named Stella Warn.
With an overwhelming level of insistence Stella had taught me, I commanded, 'Everybody FREEZE!'
All three ladies stopped struggling and stared at me, so I hurried to continue, 'Let her show us what happened. She says she didn't do whatever it was. Shalina, think about what happened. Take us through it.'
There was some mild panic and confusion in Shalina's mind for a few moments, but April and Sara were in the link, too, and they weren't about to let go of her.
April sent, 'Yes! Show us, Shalina! Please!'
After a short time, Shalina seemed resigned to her capture and took a deep breath as she stopped her struggles.
Glancing between April and Sara, then up to me, she thought, 'You can really hear me this way?'
'Yup," I replied, 'All you have to do is think about what happened. That'll show us your memories like a movie.'
She still looked skeptical as hell.
I said, 'Hey, we're talking now, aren't we? Come on, lady! If you're really innocent, how can it hurt to show us what really happened?'
Instead of answering, Shalina must have simply taken us back in her memories. It was like being there, seeing through her eyes and experiencing every sound and sensation. I found myself looking at a lobby. People lay on the floor in positions too uncomfortable-looking for them to have been alive. Further along the hallway I passed through an archway and saw that description and warning signs above the international symbol for radiation were in French.
The words read, 'Centre d'Etudes de Valduc'.
April said aloud softly, "It's the Valduc nuclear weapons facility near Dijon."
Also aloud, Shalina said, "Yes. I answered an emergency call about an armed break-in."
Further down the hallway was an open door. Through it I saw a man slumped over a desk. A dark-haired woman wearing a lab smock over a blue dress hunkered in a corner of the room, crying her guts out.
As I approached the woman, something dropped over me and I felt a sickening weakness. I barely had time to realize it was netting of some sort and that it contained gold before something slammed into the back of my head.
Reeling, but not out, I saw the woman stand up and laugh as she stepped forward to hit me several times with blinding speed and strength almost on a par with mine, then she shoved me and someone behind me pinned my arms.
Barely conscious, I was dragged down the hall to another room, where they stripped off my uniform and the woman put it on, then she put on a blonde wig.
As the man held me captive in the hallway, the woman quickly kicked in the door, trashed the room with her bare hands while apparently searching it, killed two men from an adjoining office who tried to stop her, and ripped open the big vault door at the rear of the room.
She went into the vault and came back out holding two metal canisters, then approached me and set the canisters down so she could take off the uniform. Once she again wore the blue dress and smock, she hit me several times. Everything seemed to dim gradually, then went black.
I woke to find myself surrounded by armed security guards, two of whom aimed odd-looking guns at me. I was again wearing my uniform and my hands were cuffed behind me.
Someone had put a man's heavy gold watch on my left arm above the elbow and there were slim gold bracelets on my wrists. I could feel rings on all my fingers and my hands were heavily taped together, probably to keep the rings in place.
I was still dizzy and disoriented. I had trouble walking as they took me to a holding room, tied me to a wooden chair, and questioned me.
When I tried to tell them what had happened, one man angrily spat at me and asked if I thought they were fools. He pointed at a camera in a corner of the room and said six men had seen what I'd done.
Questioning became interrogations that seemed to go on forever. The gold made me violently ill, but they didn't care and the rat-faced little man in charge kept coming back for more. Tired. Sick. Started losing consciousness in the middle of interrogations and the skin on my arm was blotching from continuous exposure to the gold watch.
I managed to snag the watch under a sneaky pervert guard's belt buckle when he rubbed himself against my shoulder and told me some of the things he'd like to do to me.
Lunging up and heaving him at the wall with all I had left, I nearly lifted him off the floor before the watch band broke. Felt a little better immediately, strong enough to shoulder the guard into the wall, but not hard enough.
He got up and aimed his rifle at me as I sat down to work my hands under my legs and bring my arms up in front of me. I raised my hands to protect my eyes.
A bullet hit the handcuffs and one side broke open before I grabbed the guard and hit him twice, finally putting him down. Dizzy as hell. Staggered against the chair and fell. Realized I may have actually killed the guard. Didn't seem to care.
Starting to feel better with the gold off my arm. Clawed at the tape with the hook from the handcuff. Some of it came off my left hand, some of the rings still stuck to the tape. Fingers were swollen; couldn't get all the rings off, so I start clawing at the tape on my right hand.
Guards burst into the room. One shoots and his bullet ricochets and hits another guard. Four men between me and the door. They can't shoot, so they don't seem to know what to do. More tape comes off as I head toward them.
The guards pile onto me and we struggle. More tape comes off. I hit the guards and peel them off as they go limp. Soon only one left, a kid about twenty. He's scared as hell and aims his pistol, but can't seem to pull the trigger.
But once I turn my back on him to walk to the door he works up the nerve to shoot. The first bullet hits me in the middle of the back. Hurts like hell and jars me into the door frame.
I turn and the second shot hits my arm where the watch had been. Agonizing pain. I look down and see my own blood for the first time in my life. When I look at the kid, he shoots again. The bullet hits my neck, then the wall. Kicks up plaster dust.
"One more time," I growl in a voice I've never heard before, "And I'll kill you."
We face each other for a long moment. He drops the gun and it falls on one of his friends. When it hits the floor, it goes off and the kid pees himself as he jumps away from the gun.
Turn, head for the hallway. More guards coming. Ripping off the remaining gold rings, I sling them at the guards. They hit the walls and floor like bullets and one of the guards goes down holding his leg.
Two shoot at me. Their bullets skip off me into walls and the ceiling. Some bounce again when they hit the floor. The men stop shooting and back away as I walk past them.
More guards at the lobby. More shooting. Feeling much better now. Look at my arm. No more bleeding, pink tissue sealing the gash. Fountain in the courtyard. It's dark outside. I stand in the fountain and let the cold water wash over me for a while as I watch people gather at the lobby doors.
Bastards! Assholes! The rat-faced guard leader is coming out of the lobby with one of those big-barrelled guns. Aims it at me. I send some heat at the middle of it and his hands are smoking when he drops it.
The gun turns in the air, lands on its back, and goes off pointing between his legs, but misses him. Big shell blows the hell out of the lobby doors. Guards fall, others scream, some have hands to faces. Probably blinded by glass. Gold dust billows, but the wind is behind me. Good thing I didn't let him shoot at me with that thing.
Still too weak to fly. I step out of the fountain walk to the parking lot, find a red Renault-16 with keys in the ignition. Drive away wondering why no cops or military ever showed up. Smash past the aluminum bar at the checkpoint on the road to the facility.
Don't get far before I'm sick again and find out why. Throw up twice on the side of the road and the second time I heave up more gold rings. Don't remember swallowing them, but I wasn't conscious half the time. Felt a lot better, but wondered if there are any more in there.
Try to levitate and stagger into the air. Slow flight west until I see a big farm. Land and follow power lines to look for a circuit box, find one at the corner of the barn. Big bar fuses. Manage to work one loose and out, then stick my fingers into the grips and feel the juice surging up my arms.
Soon sick again. I let go of the circuit to kneel and throw up two more rings. Stand up and lean on the wall as I charge some more and study the rings on the ground. Wedding bands, their designs worn down a bit.
Someone's idea of a way to make sure I couldn't get rid of all the gold during interrogation? If so, big mistake. Works better on the outside. I cough a laugh and glance at my healing arm as I think, 'That watch sure worked well enough.'
What seems like only moments later, a yelp and a cold spot on my leg wakes me. A dog is backing away, shaking his head and pawing at his nose. It probably sniffed at me and got shocked.
With a low growl, the dog lunged at my calf. The moment its mouth made contact, it began spasming uncontrollably until it shook free and lay at my feet. Still breathing, at least. Broken teeth and some charring inside and around its mouth.
I studied the dog and couldn't seem to care about it much. Pulling my fingers out of the fuse holders, I took stock of myself. Still a bit weak, but a lot better than before.
My head had cleared, or at least I thought so. Lifting into the breaking dawn sky, I headed for Paris, but suddenly didn't feel it would be a good idea to show up there. Instead, I went home and set up my Dictaphone, hooked myself up to my own charger, and dictated a report as I fed on two-twenty current.
The more I said, the less believable my story sounded, and as I neared the end of my report, I decided to avoid the office until I could contact someone there and find out what was going on.
Noises in the street interrupted me and I looked out the window. Two men were approaching the front door on the walkway. I spotted more men surrounding the house to each side. I finished my report quickly and went upstairs to pack a few things as the doorbell rang.
Apparently Shalina fast-forwarded, because the next memory she showed us was set in a small town in the mountains. We saw her dial a pay phone and she introduced herself to whomever answered by another name, then asked to speak to Miss Evelyn Russell.
Russell realized immediately who she was talking with and used Shalina's alias when she gushed, "Oh, my God! It's been ages since college! Are you free for lunch?" and so on. A meet was set 'at that cafe where I met Julian' and Shalina fast-forwarded us again.
A smiling brunette woman handed a newspaper across the table as she chatted about some guy named Julian's preference for oddly flavored coffees, then said, "It's good to see you again. I was worried when you dropped out of school."
Shalina answered, "But I left you a note. On the coffee table."
Shaking her head, Russell replied, "I never got it. They cleaned out your place and re-rented it. I don't know where they took your stuff."
"Doesn't matter. There weren't any heirlooms."
Looking at her watch, Russell said, "Well, back to work. It was nice seeing you again. We really must keep in touch."
"We will."
After goodbyes and watching Russell drive away, Shalina sipped coffee as she studied the neighborhood for signs that anyone might be following Russell. Some minutes of that passed before she stood up, picked up her shopping bag and dropped the newspaper into it, then walked away.
Fast-forward again. She took an envelope out of the folded paper, tossed the paper in the trash, then opened the envelope.
The note read, 'You're wanted for seven murders and theft of nuclear components. Do NOT come back to the office. Sauder is either one of them or working for them. Colonel Danon has orders to capture you at all costs to include killing you, and he was issued two of the captured rifles. I don't think he's an Aktion, but he will follow orders.'
Standing up, I took my hand off Shalina's leg and broke the link, then went to the bureau for my coffee mug.
"Damn," I said, "Now I feel as if I need to sit down and charge up for a while, too."
All the ladies looked a bit green at the gills as they began untangling themselves.
Shalina sat up, scooted back until she could lean on the bed, and looked at me as she asked, "What now?"
Pointing at April and Sara, I said, "You'll have to ask them, ma'am. I'm not in charge of anything."
April said, "As I recall, the plutonium was recovered, but the murder cases are still open."
"I recovered and returned it," said Shalina, "I followed rat-face for days until he finally made contact with the woman who stole it. He drove to a warehouse office in Lyon one night. After some talk, she led him into the warehouse and left him impaled on a forklift blade."
There was a knock on the door and I waved at the ladies to get into the bathroom as I yelled, "Be right there!" then went to open the door.
Two guys in hotel jackets stood in the hall. One of them looked past me into the room as the other asked, "Sir, have you seen or heard anything in the last ten minutes or so that sounded like an explosion?"
It had only been ten minutes? Oh, well. Meeting the guy's gaze, I said, "I heard some kind of a really loud thud, like a helluva lot of weight hitting the floor or something. You think it was an explosion? Are you evacuating the hotel? Do I have time to finish packing?"
Raising a hand, the man said, "No, sir. There have been no orders to evacuate; we're just trying to locate the source of the sound. Can you tell us where the sound came from?"
I gave that some thought, then offered, "Well, I was standing in front of the bureau and it sounded as if it came from in front of me." Turning myself as if standing in front of the bureau again, I pointed ahead and said, "I was definitely facing that direction when I heard it."
The other guy pointed at my stuff on the bed and asked, "You're preparing to leave early?"
Nodding, I said, "Yeah. There's nothing else I want to see here and we have beaches back in the States."
Referring to a sheet on his clipboard, the guy asked, "You had no trouble with our laundry facilities?"
"Wow. You guys are really on top of things around here. No, I just put in money and the machines worked fine. Wish the TV had an English channel, though. The news was all Hebrew."
He rolled his eyes and gave me a confidential look as he replied, "Well, it is our national language, you know."
The other guy grinned with him and I grinned, too, as I replied, "Over half the people I've met here are Americans."
That removed his grin. They excused themselves and continued down the hall as I closed the door. As I turned around, the bathroom door cracked open a bit and Sara asked, "Can we come out now?"
"Sure, lady. Where are we going from here?"
As they filed out, she asked, "Why leave at all? You have the room for the rest of the day."
"But someone down the hall is going to point those guys back this direction shortly. Someone that way," I thumbed over my shoulder, "Already sent them this way. Nope. I think we ought to split before I get charged for the dent you ladies made in the floor."
April chuckled, "They'll just bill your card for the damage."
"No card. I paid cash and I'm outta here, ma'am. If they call me about it, I'll tell 'em to bill the lab."
Sara said, "Let's let Shalina decide where to go."
Shalina gave her a fisheye look and asked, "To do what?"
Shrugging, Sara said, "Lie on a beach. Talk some more. Find a way to get those charges against you dropped."
"Just like that, you believed me?"
I said, "Vivid memories are damned hard to fake. They're a lot more than just pictures."
April nodded and shuddered at the same time.
"Yes, they certainly are. It felt as if that gold was..." she took a breath and said, "Ed, I'll call the hotel later about the damages. You check out and meet us on the beach."
Saluting, I responded, "Good 'nuff. Be right there."
The ladies flitted out the window. I finished packing, then headed downstairs, got my change, and left the hotel. When I reached the stone steps, I saw the ladies standing in the surf and headed down to the bench where I'd first talked to Shalina. Rolling up my pants legs, I wandered over to join them.
April said, "It's about time you got here."
"I walked, ma'am. Didn't want to attract undue attention by flying out of the lobby, you know."
Two guys walking by studied April and Sara rather intently, but didn't stop to chat. A kid on a boogie board skimmed by, and people who might be his parents were approaching.
I said, "This place gets some traffic. Might be better to take things somewhere a little more private."
Sounding a little suspicious, Shalina asked, "Such as..?"
"Your place is right up the hill, isn't it? That window I saw you leaning out of earlier?"
Looking at all of us in turn, Shalina said, "No, I'd like to be able to go back there. That is, if I'm not going to be arrested."
Shrugging, I said, "I don't see how arresting you would accomplish much. They got the plutonium back and nuke plant guards having all that gold on hand made it pretty obvious the Aktions set you up for a fall. What happened after whatsherface killed rat-face in the warehouse?"
Shalina asked, "Do you want to see it or just hear it?"
"Both," said April, "But hearing is good enough for now."
Nodding, Shalina said, "I followed her. She drove to a nearby farm, met two men, and switched to a black Mercedes. I followed them to the coast, where they boarded a sport-fishing boat in Martigues. Once they were a few miles out, I landed on the boat and snapped off their radio antenna, tapped out the two men on the upper deck and set the auto-pilot due south at five knots, and waited. Another man came up from the cabin almost immediately. I tapped his skull as he appeared and waited some more. The woman came up the steps next, and she had one of those gold-guns."
Taking a breath, she said, "I tried heating it, but she just laughed and continued up the steps. When she aimed it at me, I flipped the hatch cover over. It hit the barrel, the gun went off, and the shell flew back the way we'd come. The woman dropped the gun and jumped straight up through the hatch cover to grab me. She was only about half as strong as me, but she'd had some excellent training and it was all I could do to contain her. Then she did something that threw me completely off balance and managed to grab the hatch frame to pull us down the steps, where she broke free and grabbed another of those damned guns off a bunk."
Shuddering, Shalina said, "I saw her finger move on the trigger and launched myself straight up. The shell hit my foot and exploded as I burst through the upper deck. When I was a few hundred feet up, I circled the boat to see if she'd come out, but she didn't. My foot and leg were in agony and coated with gold powder, so I flew into the water ahead of the boat and kicked hard to get rid of the gold. When the boat reached me, I lifted enough to look through a port hole and saw nothing but gold on the glass. I flew above it and tried to see through the hatch, but the lights were out. There was gold powder all over the rear deck and the wheel area above the cabin. Men were waking up on deck and one of them went below, then came out shaking his head and waved at one of the others to help him. They moved three suitcases up to the rear deck while the other man inflated a rubber boat and put a motor on the back of it."
She stopped again and looked around once, then sighed, "What the hell. I decided those people were too damned mean to live. One of the men started the little boat's motor and they slid it off the deck with him and the suitcases in it. I flew down, broke his neck, tossed him out of the boat, then moved it farther away and watched the big boat sink. One man went down with it. The other tried to swim for the raft, but I kept it out of his reach. I recognized him from my interrogations. He finally sank and didn't come back up."
After a few moments of silence in our little group, I shrugged and said, "Well, horror of horrors. Some bad guys bit the dust. Or gnawed water or whatever. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch. Now tell us about the suitcases, ma'am."
Shalina's moderately horrified expression almost matched those of April and Sara and I rolled my eyes at them.
"Yeah, yeah. Gimme that look and get it out of your systems, then let's get on with the story, okay?"
Another moment passed as the ladies glanced at each other, then Shalina said, "The plutonium canisters were in two of the suitcases. The third suitcase contained almost three million dollars. I took the plutonium to Dijon, left the suitcases in a train station locker, and called the police about them. I kept the three million for expenses."
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