Do Or Die by E.R. Baine
Viktor’s teeth gnashed together. His breathing quickened harshly. He raised his fisted hands to pound either side of his head.
Get a grip man, get a fuckin’ grip…
She looked so small where she lay. At five feet, two inches, most men towered above her.
She was so small, so innocent – in all of this…Don’t lose it, man!
Her scalp is what sent him over the edge. Her bare head was exposed and her soft, relaxed hair was nonexistent. Viktor stared, unresponsive. Her head had been shaved.
They cut off her hair?!
Viktor’s nails bit painfully into his palms; his chest ached as he tried hard to catch his breath. His shoulders trembled. Closing his glistening eyes, he held his breath and begged himself to remain calm. Then his eyes fluttered open to focus on her peaceful face. They travelled down to rest on her hands. Finally, he touched her, holding her soft, small hand…
Where’s her ring?
There was movement at the doorway, causing Viktor to take heed. An Asian man of medium height and frail build, balding and wearing wire-thin frames, stood in the doorway looking as though his heart had stopped beating the moment he entered the room. The young, golden-haired nurse, who rivaled the old man in height, looked just as pale, leaving Viktor to come to one conclusion - they were both shocked stupid.
Viktor’s eyes searched theirs for a brief moment before the nurse’s fear of his silent warning got the better of her. She dropped the medical chart she was carrying, whirled around, and bolted out the door. In the entryway she darted to her left, but the strange snarling arrested her, and she turned to discover a menacing creature advancing towards her. She screamed, staggering backwards before the werewolf jumped her.
Viktor’s attention was not caught by the happenings just beyond the entryway. His eyes were still on the little man before him, whom he assumed was the person in charge of this operation. He looked familiar, in his common, dull grey slacks and equally dull shirt, his shoes well-worn. His appearance was belied by the cocky glint in his eyes. His hand rose to slip his wire frames down the slender ridge of his large, crooked nose. He gave Viktor a once over that spoke volumes of his calm demeanor. Viktor was further taken aback by the guy’s nonchalant behavior.
Did he not know his life was doomed to end right here-right now?
“Mr. Maxckmillian, I dare say, out of the many countless scenarios I may have manufactured to have to deal with, none of them included you. You often restrain yourself above your wife’s activities, I thought us once to never meet.” The little man then pushed the glasses, which were too refined for his deeply-creased features, back atop the bend on his nose.
Viktor’s head cocked sideways, and he sighed. Holding his wife’s hand with his left hand, he reached to his side for Hell’s Embrace with his right. The weapon hummed as he decided to go slow with this one. The nuts cracked easily…at least for Viktor…
But he might not be the figurehead. There might be others involved, and he needed to find them and destroy them all the same.
Viktor kept his eyes on the dainty man. His eyes focused on him, he squinted. He figured he knew him, most certainly his voice sounded familiar…
“You don’t know who I am. Heh, heh, heh.” He was quite brash with his vitriol.
Viktor was still considering what to make of this man before him. He was not afraid of him. The old man was human, but not a fool. Viktor was in a fair mind to grab his wife and take her home rather than to subject himself to the musings of a soon-to-be-dead dog.
Don’t want to hang the little one and allow the bigger one to escape.
His mind sought to reason with his non-obliging nature. Viktor stared at the man once more… Who the hell was he?
“Too bad.” He looked up. “I really had hoped to catch a glimpse of Saturn’s rings tonight. Ah…But I’m guessing that could still transpire. Things can all still go well tonight.”
A familiar tune filled the air, coming from the doorway behind the old man. The lyrics were in Mandarin- Gōng chē shàng de lún zi zhuàn ya zhuàn- but the nursery rhyme melody was familiar to every creed and race on the planet.
Xin made his appearance at the entrance, towering above the other Asian man. He continued singing the children’s tune: “Oh the wheels of the bus go round and round,” Xin stepped around the man, towards Viktor where he stood near his wife. “Round and round, round and round, the wheels of the bus go round and round, all the way home.”
Xin looked at Viktor with an accusing glare. “How dare you wear silver around my pups.” But Viktor’s eyes were all on the little man.
Now they both stared at the small man, who grinned like the Cheshire cat, just realizing he had the full attention of the crowd.
The look on Viktor’s face was priceless, Xin thought. Without looking in Viktor’s direction, he whispered to him, “One of yours?”
Highly rhetorical, Viktor mused silently. “Dr. Eli, I presume?”
The Asian man lowered his head slightly. “For the man married to one of the top information theorists in the world, you truly are slow, aren’t you?”
He thinks himself to be very clever…
Viktor then did the unconscionable; he chortled with irrepressible mirth. His burst of laughter surprised the little man. Dr. Eli’s eyes narrowed on the billionaire diplomat.
Viktor slapped his face with his left hand. “You called. You called to ask after her.” Viktor continued with his burst of laughter. He bowed and hugged his stomach as though not able to contain his glee.
Xin gave Viktor an incredulous look and staggered back. Both men were engrossed thoroughly by Viktor’s unfathomable display. Amazingly, a long, thick silver chain spewed forth from his mouth, landing with a loud clang on the floor.
Slowly, a deeply composed Viktor righted himself. Looking at Dr. Eli with somber eyes, he yanked on the chain, whose reach suddenly extended beneath the earth. The strength of the pull caused the earth to break apart as more of the chain came above ground. At the end of the chain a massive, silver, circular instrument escaped the earth: a bear trap. The equipment jerked, sharp teeth clamping down on the doctor’s legs.
“Argh!” Dr. Eli’s face contorted in pure agony as the teeth of the bear trap bit into his legs. Blood streamed out from exposed flesh and bone.
“Is this one of the scenarios you anticipated in your playbook, doctor?” Viktor wrapped the big anchor chain round his forearm. The gesture caused Dr. Eli to fall hard on the floor. If not for the brutal agony of the painful, jagged teeth in his legs keeping him cognizant, the impact of the fall might have knocked him out cold.
“Surely now my actions have earned more than a vague interest from you?” A second coil wrapped around Viktor’s forearm drew the doctor closer over the rubble of displaced earth.
“Arrrrrhgh.” Dr. Eli’s fingernails scraped against the bloody earth. His blood soaked into his clothes as he was dragged. Dr. Eli gritted his teeth against the torturous, overwhelming pain. “Mr. Maxcksmilli-“
“No-No.” Viktor’s stare became less relaxed. “You don’t get to say my name. My name is her name. You’ve scorned her trust, her honest faith in you. You’ve scorned my wife…”
I need to keep him alive to catch the larger evil before it escapes.
“You are too selfish.” Dr. Eli managed weakly heaving out each word on failed puffs of breath. Saliva leaked over his gums and lips. “She is too valuable-you only want to keep her for yourself.”
Oh, so that is what this is about…
Viktor stilled. He thought fiercely as he felt Xin’s eyes on him. Studying him quietly, wondering what the old man meant by that last statement: his very last statement.
“You’re an evil whose existence cannot be tolerated out of necessity,” Viktor raged. He reeled Dr. Eli to him like a fish caught on a hook. Hell’s Embrace hummed, waiting; sensing his master’s need for him in fight.
Dr. Eli lay before him. Viktor raised his glow
“Not before your wife.” Dr. Eli lifted his hand to reveal a small object that resembled a silver pen,with a red, blinking light for a head.
Then Viktor knew- he was too late. He heard the beeping coming from beneath the gurney where his wife lay and witnessed a flashing of dull red light behind the white sheet.
“Noooo!” Viktor’s guttural outcry was drowned out by the blast from the bomb hidden beneath the gurney.
CHAPTER 8
Audrianna shielded her eyes from the bright white light that had amassed suddenly before her. The light flashed, enveloping her, and then quickly receded into the distance until it was a remote speck on the horizon. She blinked. She was surrounded by darkness but for the dull, glowing orb ahead.
The space around seemed a void. The blackness was more encompassing than the starless space of the cosmos. She stood on a narrow platform of dry, yellowish earth, leading to the orb. On either side, clear water lapped in sullen waves. Barefoot, dressed only in a hospital gown, she walked to the glowing center.
Her feet felt leaden; her legs were cramped. But she knew she could not give up the path she had chosen. Walking, the distance seemed limitless: then she was there. She blinked and was before the orb. It emitted slivers of static electricity that fizzled out less than five inches away from its fuzzy surface.
A low sound reverberated from the glowing ball and bounced off the dark walls of the dome she was in. The phenomenon stood suspended in midair over a cream-colored, twisted pedestal that had thin, rough, curved groves carved into its winding form. The pedestal was heavily smudged by the same yellow dirt as the plain where it stood.
Audrianna, still dazed from sleep, looked at the glowing ball and raised her hand to touch it. As she paused, her hand close, it hummed even louder.
A calm, soothing, feminine voice softly spoke to her, “Don’t be afraid…step into the light.”
Audrianna still faltered in placing her hand in the mysterious light. Less than semi-conscious, her wits offered a foreboding that aimed at deterring her from causing herself harm. In that instant she felt a crushing clamp on her lifted arm, making her more alarmed and wakeful. Stunned, she turned to look up at the person who manhandled her.
She stared up into the face of a towering, bald black man with ashen skin. He had harsh, menacing features and gritted even, pearl-white teeth. He appeared to be straining to push her delicate arm onto the glowing orb. His eyes showed resolve, though, and with one strong push her hand landed in the glowing structure. The light flashed and the white glow amassed and spread once again, embracing them both. She screamed.
* * *
“What the fuck was that shit?” Mat balked. He was at the helm of the only commercial helicopter on the island, with Lincoln beside him. They flew north-east towards the Aripo mountains,no longer flying low.. They witnessed a plume of smoke shoot up in the distance, dissipating into the night sky.
The lights of the city had faded behind them, and though there were a spattering of households and squatter settlements in the area, the majority of the mountainous zone was covered by tropical rainforest. Lincoln was afraid there would be no way for the Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team to make it up the mountain in the Northern Range in time to stop the abductors from transporting Audrianna to a second location.
Out of sheer habit, as a former Marine, Lincoln glanced down at the controls. But the helicopter they maneuvered towards the scene had the basic flying equipment a cockpit would need to function. There were no thermal imaging sensors for navigation purposes.
Shit, man! It’s a Beetle with a rotor blade and a tail fin stuck on it.
Lincoln grew irritated that he was basically flying blind with a 360-degree blind spot. He looked down at his smart phone; Audrianna’s location on his GPS signaling app had gone dead. The direction had been at 0:200 when it vanished, the direction of the explosion. Lincoln cursed, slamming his palm on his fist. He squeezed Mat’s shoulder. “Balls to the wall, Coyote!”
Mat jammed the pedal and eased the cyclic control stick to his right, flying towards the fire that burned the dark-green forest at full speed.
* * *
“Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.” the ringing in Viktor’s ears sounded like the emergency testing transmission on a television. He couldn’t hear anything else.
He squeezed his eyelids tightly closed.
Dr. Eli…
Viktor’s eyes popped open. Dr. Eli, he thought savagely. His eyes filled with unimaginable rage. His veins burned with hatred. Viktor gripped his weapon in his hand. He wanted to beat the old man within an inch of his life.
Viktor felt a harsh nudge to the side of his head, where he lay on the floor in his dimensional enclosure. He looked up at Xin. Viktor’s vision was still hazy from being blown back by the impact of the blast. Xin nudged him again with the tip of his shoe.
“Hey.” Xin’s indifferent features looked down at him from what was, to him, a great height. Almost mocking, he said, “We’d like out.”
To Viktor it was pantomime. Unsure of his sight, hearing shot, Viktor shoved himself off the floor of the dimensional chamber he had created earlier for their entrance onto the scene. He had instantly pulled all his acquaintances into the chamber with the detonation of the bomb.
Viktor flexed his arm. Pointing Hell’s Embrace with authority, he fired a strong white blast at the black apse structure. The walls dispelled into black smoke until they disappeared completely, revealing the white room his wife had been in once more.
The room, along with half the house, had been destroyed. Burnt rubble lay everywhere. The dark night sky with its two moons shone brightly. Dr. Eli had killed many of his allies with that detonation. There were burnt, shredded limbs, stubs of incinerated flesh, everywhere. The smell choked the lungs.
“Ahhh, how nostalgic…I love the smell of burnt, raw flesh at sunset.” Xin might as well have been talking with cotton balls in his mouth; all Viktor heard was mumbled jargon. Viktor slapped his palm against his ear. Feeling a wet substance, he rubbed his fingers and looked at his hand. Blood. His blood. His wife…
Viktor swiveled around and accounted for everyone he had come with. Payne was bent on one knee as though genuflecting, Darksmith assessing the damage around him with calm surveillance; the three teen cubs were all present, if a little worse for wear. They were all disheveled, faces marred by anxiety, their bodies heaved vigorously with exhaustion.
Viktor shook his head, blinking profusely. The ringing finally stopped.
“ ‘Bout time we retrieved your lover,” Xin mocked, looking out across the bluff. Viktor walked over to him. He sighed with relief, his eyes welling up with tears as he watched Audrianna staggering towards the bushes. She walked into the canopy of a group leafy palms some three miles below, out of sight.
Viktor gritted his teeth against the swell of emotions that burned within him. He sucked in a deep breath and took a step off the bluff that supported the unique building structure of the small brick house, sliding down the muddied path to the foliage beneath.
Xin drew the attention of the teen wolves with a wave of his hand and a nod forward in the direction Viktor was headed, a silent command to follow. They all slid down the slope towards the direction Audrianna had gone.
Payne looked at Viktor, Xin, and the werewolves heading down the path; Darksmith stood next to him. “Well,” he patted Darksmith on the back, “there goes my ride. Let me know how it turns out.” Payne whipped around on his feet and walked off in the opposite direction, into the darkness of the blown-away building, into the open jungle.
Darksmith looked in either direction; then, gritting his teeth, he stumbled down the path in the direction of the other party.
* * *
&n
Audrianna stumbled through the jungle brush to a small clearing that led to a steep ravine. Her steps were slow. Her mind confused, she did not recognize her surroundings, she felt trapped in a trance from which escape was beyond her will. She sensed a presence behind her and turned. Her vision impaired, the seven combatants with automatic rifles, circling her as they entered the clearing, did not cause her to become alarmed.
Audrianna backed up, mere feet away from the edge of the cliff. She faltered and dug her feet into the ground, and her arms lifted responding to inner machinations out of her control. Her hands cupped together, drawing apart to reveal a small ball that crackled with electricity. The ball began to pull swirls of air into it as it started spinning, becoming bigger. It fashioned itself into a glowing, humming orb of uneven shape.
The combatants encroached on the space between themselves and Audrianna. Audrianna stood squarely; the darkly-clothed men took another step closer. They were not more than five feet away when the ball stopped its out-of-control spinning and slivers of very sharp, very white electric current crackled and burst from its surface. It happened too quickly for the men to raise arms against her; a burst of electricity crashed into every man. Remarkably, they were not shocked- instead, their bodies became elongated, pulled and stretched.
Each body was a distorted, massive swirl which appeared to be sucked into a vortex of spiraling white light. Into each individual vortex, the men vanished, along with their assault rifles.
Audrianna, her mind unclear, became aware of the approach of another interloper to her right. She clapped her hands together and drew them apart to reveal the formation of another small ball, which had only just begun to spin drawing in tuffs of air.
Viktor glimpsed Audrianna. It was just the two of them in the clearing. He saw her harnessing the powerful element in her hands and was awed by it. He thrilled at the sight of the orb the woman he loved formed. But even as the thrill enveloped him, he was realized that the power she possessed was now focused on him. His heart raced and his shoulders tightened as he inhaled a ragged breath through clenched teeth. and bellowed to her, “Audriannaaaaaa!”