Page 31 of Stalker
The question now was; where were they keeping the people they captured?
Stalker continued following them.
“With the weapons they’re sending us, we can run those cyborgs out of here. Nobody won the war, you know. It ended because the Wholaskans convinced them to stop fighting.”
“I heard what that ranger told Jax from the Remonta clan that the Enclave has thousands of cyborgs to help them on their mission to re-civilize North America,” Blackwood’s underling told him.
They stopped in front of a brick building set off by itself. Somehow, it seemed to have come through the bombings unscathed. It was surrounded by crumbling asphalt, so it might have been some kind of public gathering spot. It was lit inside, and Stalker noted there were solar panels on the roof.
“You going to relieve Sam, now?” Blackwood asked as they stopped in front of the brick structure.
“Yeah, he wants some time with his female. Do you think the aliens would mind if I tried one of the females? It’s been a while….”
“Only if you can do her without damaging her. We need those weapons to keep those cyborgs out of our business.”
Stalker stifled a growl, waiting for Blackwood to go inside so he could follow his lackey to where the abductees were being held. While he waited, he sent Neely a message through his internal computer to let her know what he had learned so far.
Finally, Blackwood went inside, and the other man headed down the crumbled road. Stalker followed at a discreet distance while keeping him in sight. He wasn’t hard to track because he seemed to be in no hurry.
After about ten minutes, they came to what was once a group of buildings with only one still standing. The upper stories were damaged, but the ground floor appeared to be intact.
The unnamed flunky stopped at the door and knocked in a three, then two knocks sequence.
Stalker grabbed his stun baton and ran up behind the other man, jabbing him in the back. He grunted as the shock coursed through his body, slumping to the ground. Pulling the body back, Stalker stood, his back against the wall, beside the doorway.
The door opened. “Is that you, Ken? What the hell?” The man Stalker presumed to be Sam took a step toward the unconscious man, and Stalker zapped him, grabbing his arm to break his fall.
He probably could have punched them out with his fist, but Stalker calculated that stunning them was less likely to kill them. He might need to question them later. As he slipped inside, the hallway was dimly lit. There was a chair and a desk with some leftover food on it.
Stalker scanned the building and found about fifty people divided into twelve rooms. He could hear some talking among them, and some were crying.
Most of the doors had small windows so he could look inside the darkened rooms. They were unfurnished, with women and girls lying on cloth pallets. Two rooms held men, and two had young boys. Each was fastened shut on the outside with metal hasps with a straight bar shoved through the hole. Primitive, but they worked.
One of the rooms with a crude lock was empty, so Stalker carried the unconscious men to it and locked them inside. His next impulse was to let their captives out of their cells and reassure them, but that would only bring chaos to the situation.
This is where Neely could help him. Dawn was hours away, so it should be safe for Neely to come out.
Neely snatched up her com-tablet as soon as it beeped. She was surprised to see Stalker’s face rather than a text message.
“Hey, beautiful.”
Neely grinned at him. “What’s happening?”
“I found the abductees. Blackwood has them locked up in an old school building. They’re confined to rooms right now. I could use your help coordinating with them.”
“Just tell me, where. I’ll be there in twenty. Sounds like a prelude to trouble; I’ll bring your rifle.”
“The protectors will be here at dawn. They will transport them to the military base, and then we will go after Blackwood’s gang.”
“I’m on my way,” Neely told him. “See you soon.”
Before they even finished the conversation, she was going to the weapons room for her armor/weapons belt. Stripping off her regular clothing, she donned the tank top and shorts that went under her armor. Fastening the belt around her so it rested at her hip bones. She pressed the button that unleashed her armor.
She pulled out two blasters, holstered them, and fastened her shock wand to her belt. Grabbing their ion rifles, she strode out to the garage and slid them into the slings on her sky cycle. Everything else she might need, including a change of clothing, was in the cargo compartment.
Turning around in the garage, she eased the hover bike out onto the lawn and set it to rise vertically until it was above the tree tops. She morphed it into a sky cycle and shot off into the night sky.
Neely arrived at the old school building in exactly twenty minutes since Stalker commed. She had hoped she would see some action after all the training they did those past few months, so she was disappointed that Stalker called her in to handle the victims. Yet, it was better than sitting at home, a bundle of nerves, because she didn’t know what was happening.
