Page 38 of Stalker
“Does Darken think the people you all rescued were destined for off-world?”
“He didn’t then, but Blackwood’s revelation makes him think so now.”
“I’ve seen pictures of the Mesaarkans; I don’t know many humans who would find either sex attractive.”
“I don’t know why the Mesaarkans would want humans other than to make them suffer,” Stalker replied. “Since we don’t have diplomatic relations with them, I don’t know how we could find out.”
Soon they were back in Los Angeles, landing the flyer by Blackwood’s house. Stalker checked in with the protectors, who were busy clearing the adjacent blocks of rubble dwellers. The teams to clear away the ruined buildings would arrive in two days.
Meanwhile, Stalker and Neely went back to salvaging parts from the other two wrecked flyers.
After killing Devlin White, Colton Price took the dead man’s personal aircraft and flew it to his secret mountain cabin. It was a prefab he’d bought when he returned to Earth after the war, located just east of the boundary between Enclave and Overlord territories.
The only way to reach it is by coordinates in a hover-flyer. His Federation handler could ping his internal computer to locate him, but not without him knowing. The four-room dwelling was nestled in a grove of tall pines that shielded it from view by air.
Price sat on the concrete slab in a folding chair, sipping from a bottle of whiskey he’d snagged from White’s private supply. He felt no remorse for killing White. The man was evil in what he did to women.
He still suspected White had killed his wife Tessa or sold her to the highest bidder. White claimed he didn’t know what happened. She went missing one day, and the Overlord never heard from her again.
Finding Tessa had been Colton Price’s main reason for taking the job as a covert operative for the Federation. But he no longer felt any loyalty to them. He’d given his legs, an arm, an eye, and various organs, fighting for humanity. Rather than let him die, they turned him into an abomination.
Tessa swore it didn’t matter. They had loved each other since they were kids. She was thrilled he was alive and coming home. By the time he returned a month later, she was gone without a trace. A year later, he was no closer to finding her.
He put the bottle to his lips and took another swallow relishing how it burned all the way down. Now that he had murdered Devlin White, none of the other overlords would trust him, and the buyers would be pissed because the merchandise had been taken by the cyborg rangers.
Colton couldn’t complain to the Federation because even though they didn’t have jurisdiction, the people stolen had come from their territory. He was about to take another pull from the bottle when his internal comm bleeped.
“Mr. Price, we have trouble out here. A whole slew of cyborgs raided our territory. They arrested Mr. Blackwood and freed all our merchandise,” the ganger told him. “The place is crawling with cyborg protectors, and they are rounding up everyone who worked for Mr. Blackwood. They shot down those alien flyers we had, and they are salvaging them. Blackwood still owes for them. Driscoll is coming for the delivery in two days, and we got nothing.”
“Who took the flyers?”
“The new cyborg ranger Stalker Night and his woman.”
“Neely.”
“Yeah, that’s her name. They fixed one with parts from one of the wrecks.”
“How the hell did this happen? Blackwood should never have activated those flyers for a ground raid. They were safely hidden. We could have moved them out before they started evacuating the sector.”
Colton took another swallow from the bottle as he considered what to do. “Kid, I will call Driscoll and tell him that the Enclave is taking over. We have to move our operations out of North America. I’m coming out to move the weapons before the vat boys find them. Have a nice life if I’m not at the rendezvous in three days.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s something I need to do, but it’s not a sure thing,” Price said cryptically. “If I’m not there, find Driscoll in San Francisco. I’ll warn him the cyborgs will be moving in, probably soon.”
“Thanks, Mr. Price. Hope you make it.”
“I’ll do my best.” Price stood, picked up his chair, and took it into the house. Time to pack up and leave. With luck, he might be back someday.
Chapter Twenty-One
Stalker awakened at dawn, even though he and Neely had made love into the wee hours. He wanted to unload the spare parts from the Mesaarkan flyer and put them into the garage until he could build a proper hanger for them.
It was a mundane task he could easily complete alone, so he saw no reason to wake Neely. Most parts were too heavy for her, and he could easily do it himself. He wasn’t thinking about intruders or arming himself at his isolated mountain forest home.
He quickly realized his mistake after pulling out a heavy propulsion system piece to find Colton Price pointing a blaster at him. Stalker immediately summoned his armor and heaved the part at Price. The other cyborg deflected the heavy component, and Stalker kicked the weapon from his grasp, going on the offense….
Neely slowly drifted from a dream that was not a dream but a memory of joyful, hot sex with Stalker the night before. She reached for him before she opened her eyes and found his side of the bed empty. With a soft sigh, she opened her eyes and stretched.
