The Soldier: Final Odyssey Read online

  The woman must have climbed out of her armored vehicle. She approached Cade, with a pistol in her gloved hand.

  A man with a rifle came behind her. “What should we do with him, Lieutenant?”

  The woman, the lieutenant, pulled off her sunglasses to get a better look at Cade. “You’re a big sucker, aren’t you?”

  Cade just continued smiling.

  “Get Hyland to help,” the lieutenant said, “and put him in my car.” She glanced back down the road. “This doesn’t seem like a healthy place to stay.”

  “Roger that,” said the man with the rifle.

  It was the last thing Cade heard as he slumped into unconsciousness.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Cade awoke with a terrible thirst and an equally awful headache. It took effort, but he raised himself off—

  Rubbing his eyes, suppressing any groans, he found himself behind bars, a jail of some kind. He’d been lying on a bunk.

  A mutant was also in the jail, but two cells over, with an empty one between them. The mutant wore a pendant from a leather cord around his thickly muscled neck, a loincloth and heavy leather boots. The creature gripped bars with its massive hands. He’d been facing the only window in the place, an upper one. He must have heard Cade stir because the mutant released the bars and faced Cade. The mutant had the obligatory warthog-like tusks. He had piercing black eyes and a shaved scalp.

  “Who are you?” Cade muttered.

  The mutant did not respond, only stared.

  A door opened. The female lieutenant from the armored car entered. She held a tray with water and food on it. A man closed the door behind her. The lieutenant stayed far from the mutant’s cage and approached Cade’s.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Thirsty,” he said.

  She put the tray on a shelf, sliding it through the bars.

  Cade forced himself to stand. He was shaky, and moved slowly to the tray. “Thanks,” he said, taking it.

  “Sorry about the detention,” she said. “Orders about you came down from the space station. The Arbiter is coming to talk to you. She said you’re very dangerous.”

  “Not right now I’m not. And not to you. Thanks.” Might as well curry some good will while he could. Cade made it back to his bunk, sitting, putting the tray on the floor and taking the glass of water. He sipped slowly, shivering, feeling cold and weak. He sipped more, letting his body absorb the precious liquid.

  “What were you doing on the road?” the lieutenant asked.

  Cade looked up at her. She was pretty after a fashion. Her hair was cut too short, and she didn’t look right in the uniform. She should have worn a dress and been on a dance floor. She had well-formed features, inquisitive brown eyes and moved with a dancer’s grace. “Running from the mutants. Hoping for help. I got it.” He tried on a smile.

  She returned the smile. “My name is Lisa, Lisa Godfrey. I’m the lieutenant in charge of the road patrol that picked you up.”

  “I remember.”

  “You had a pack of mutants chasing you.” Lisa pointed. “He’s the only one that survived. Hyland figures an expended bullet knocked him out. The mutant has a divot in the back of his head to prove it. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t spoken since.”

  “You talk to the mutants much?” Cade asked.

  “No. I never have. To me they’re little more than animals. They do wear clothes, and that one has an amulet. I guess the smugglers can communicate with them. Why? Have you spoken to them?”

  Cade nodded, sipping more water afterward.

  “Why were they chasing you?”

  He decided on a half-truth. “They’re cannibals. We’re meat to them.”

  Lieutenant Godfrey shivered with dread. “How horrible. I’m glad we butchered them then. Cannibals. I didn’t know that.”

  “How long have you been stationed here?”

  “Too long,” she said, obviously avoiding the question. “I’m really not supposed to be talking to you, but damn, Jackson said you were running hard from them. He was the pilot, by the way. It was a good thing he radioed us. We hauled ass, barely reaching you in time. You went down hard, and those mutants—they wanted to cook you?”

  “No,” said the mutant in the jail.

  Lieutenant Godfrey jerked around in alarm. “You really can talk. I had no idea.” She put a hand on butt of the gun in her holster. “Why were you chasing him?”

  “He slew a witch doctor. He was in the tunnels and—” The mutant’s eyes narrowed. “There is another reason.”

  “He means the Diggers,” Cade said.

  The mutant roared, throwing himself against the bars.

  Lieutenant Godfrey shrieked as she drew the pistol, her hand shaking.

  The mutant had grabbed the bars and was rattling them, roaring with rage.

  “Stop that,” she shouted.

  The mutant reached through the bars with his left arm, his fingers clawing for Cade. “Do not speak about what is forbidden.”

  Cade sipped more water as he sat on the bunk.

  Finally, the mutant drew his arm back as he stared balefully at Cade.

  The lieutenant noticed the gun in her hand. She shoved it back into the holster, facing Cade. “They’re scary.”

  Cade nodded politely.

  She frowned. “He said you were in the tunnels? What tunnels are those?”

  The mutant growled warningly.

  “Do you understand me?” the lieutenant asked the mutant.

  He glared at her.

  “I know you do,” she said. “If you keep interrupting me, I’ll have Hyland shoot you. Do you want to die?”

  “You’re all going to die,” the mutant said.

  Lieutenant Godfrey turned to Cade. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

  “I do,” Cade said. He held up the empty glass. “Do you mind getting me more water?”

  “Not at all,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Both the mutant and Cade watched her leave, the door automatically closing behind her.

  The mutant pointed at Cade. “Do not speak about the Diggers. It is forbidden.”

  “How many times can you kill me?”

  “If you speak about the Diggers, the witch doctors will find you. One of them will kill you with voodoo. Then, he will fashion your bones into a lyre. Every time he strums the strings, your soul will scream in agony.”

  Lieutenant Godfrey returned with another glass of water. She skirted the mutant’s cage and put the glass on the shelf.

  Cade rose more easily this time.

  She backed up as he approached.

  He took the glass, inspected, sniffed it and tasted the water. Then, he drank it all.

  “Why did you sniff it?” she asked. “Do you think we’re going to drug you?”

  “The Arbiter might have ordered it.”

  “Intelligence,” Godfrey said, with a shake of her head. She glanced at the other prisoner and then at Cade. “The mutants seem pretty worked up about you. It’s been weeks since any were near the road. Do you think they’re planning something?”

  “I know they are,” Cade said.

  “What?”

  The mutant cleared his throat and made strumming motions with his clawed hands.

  “What’s he doing?” Godfrey asked.

  Before Cade could answer, there was a loud noise from outside.

  “Oh-oh,” Godfrey said. “It’s time for me to leave. The shuttle is touching down. Good-bye—I don’t even know your name.”

  “Marcus Cade,” he said. “Thanks for the water, and thanks for the timely aid. I appreciate it.”

  Godfrey nodded. Then, she hurried out.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  By the time Arbiter Drang and three of her black-armored security people arrived in the jail, Cade had polished off the sandwich. He set the tray and two glasses under his bunk, just in case having brought him the food and water would get the lieutenant in trouble.

  He stil
l needed more liquids. But the two glasses were a good start. The sharp bite of the headache had already started to recede.

  The three security personnel entered the jail first. They stopped short upon sight of the mutant. They raised their stunners at the creature.

  The mutant curled his lips like a dog, growling at them.

  Drang came in last. She wore her greatcoat and military hat, and she looked uncomfortably hot, with a sweaty sheen on her face. She crossed to Cade’s cell, staring at him the entire time. “The report said you were unconscious and dehydrated.”

  “I could use some water,” Cade said, as he sat on the bunk, with his booted feet on the floor.

  “Answer my questions, and I’ll see you get some.”

  “You’re not taking me to the space station?”

  “I’ll ask the questions, if you don’t mind.”

  Cade said nothing to that, waiting.

  Drang turned toward the mutant. “What’s he doing here?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?” Cade said.

  Drang glanced sharply at the soldier before turning again to stare at the mutant. “Do you understand me?”

  The mutant looked at her, but did not speak.

  “I can order you shot,” Drang said.

  The mutant shrugged.

  Drang studied him more closely. Did her interest seem to rise? “What’s that pendant you’re wearing?”

  “Nothing,” the mutant said.

  Drang shed her greatcoat, holding it out.

  One of the security people hurried to her, taking it.

  Drang wore a shirt and tie, the shirt damp with sweat. “The pendant doesn’t look primitive. Let me see it.”

  The mutant did not move.

  “If you don’t give me the pendant, my men will stun you and take it from you.”

  The mutant touched the pedant as if considering the idea. He kept fingering it.

  “Fire,” Drang said.

  Two of the security men fired, force clots hammering the mutant, making him stagger and then hammering him again. Finally, the creature slumped to the floor.

  “Get it,” Drang said.

  “The door’s locked,” said the security man who tried to open it.

  “Get the lieutenant to unlock it,” Drang said.

  The security man left the detention room, returning with Lieutenant Godfrey, who held a key.

  “Can you get the pendant from the mutant?” Drang asked her.

  Godfrey looked at Drang in wonder. “You mean go into the cell with him?”

  “That’s what ‘Get the pedant means,’” Drang said.

  Godfrey stared at the sprawled, unmoving mutant, biting her lower lip. “I don’t think so.”

  “Lieutenant, do I have to report you?” Drang asked.

  “You go in there if you want it so bad.”

  Cade made a mental note. Lisa had some spunk, and didn’t much like the Arbiter.

  Drang made a sound of disgust, snapping her fingers at one of the security men. “Get the pendant.”

  Godfrey unlocked the cell while the security man moved cautiously toward the unmoving mutant. The other two security men had their stunners trained on the creature. The first had to roll the mutant over—

  The creature did not roar. Instead, he grabbed the security man’s head and twisted savagely, killing him instantly.

  The other two fired their stunners, which had little effect. The mutant rose—

  From outside the cell, Lieutenant Godfrey drew and fired, emptying her pistol into the mutant. The creature fell and twisted under the gunfire, expiring as he sought to climb back to his feet.

  Now Godfrey entered the cell. She yanked the leather cord holding the pendant, pulling it over the creature’s head and backing away, holding it out to Drang. The pistol in the lieutenant’s other hand yet smoked.

  Drang was staring at her dead security man. The Arbiter seemed dazed, shocked. “Take him back to the shuttle,” she managed to say.

  The last two security men slung their stunners onto their backs, went into the cell, gingerly lifting their dead colleague. While Godfrey held open the detention door, the two carried out the corpse.

  No one had yet done anything with the mutant corpse.

  As the door closed automatically—the lieutenant did not reenter the jail area—Drang seemed to remember the pendant. She held it up, inspecting it. She froze, and then she used both hands to turn it repeatedly, inspecting it more closely. Finally, she pressed a switch on the thing and it did nothing. She clicked it a second time, looking up to stare at Cade.

  “What is this?” she said.

  “I have no idea.”

  Drang thought hard, finally stepping near the bars and pitching the pendant to Cade.

  He caught it, and knew immediately what it was. “It’s a locator,” he said.

  “Meaning what?” Drang asked.

  Cade looked at it more closely. Then he stood, dropped the pendant on the floor and smashed it with his boot heel. Electronics smoked and then fizzled out.

  “It was a communicator,” the soldier said. “Whoever has the other one was listening to us. My guess is the horde is going to move up their timetable.”

  “For what?”

  “The attack that’s going to kill everyone in the Pit and at the Spaceport,” Cade said.

  “Words,” Drang said after a moment. “How could the mutants achieve such a thing?”

  “I let you go before when you were my hostage,” Cade said.

  It took a moment. Maybe Drang couldn’t switch topics as fast as the soldier did. “You had no choice in the matter,” she said.

  “I had plenty of choices. I gave you my word, though. You’re alive because I keep my promises.”

  “Okay,” Drang said. “I admit that. What’s your point?”

  “That I tell the truth. And this is the truth. I joined a mutant group for a time. While I was with them, I entered a tunnel and learned about the Diggers.”

  “Who?”

  “The Diggers,” Cade said.

  “I’ve never heard of them.”

  Cade nodded grimly. “Believe me, Arbiter, you’re going to hear about them sooner than you like.”

  Drang eyed him. “Sure, you tell the truth. And because you do, I’ll bite. Do you know what Diggers are?”

  “No, but I was in a subterranean tunnel, one with electricity for the lights. The mutants never dug that tunnel or installed the lights. The Diggers must have done all that. I was headed to the assembly area, where the mutant horde was waiting, I think. The mutants also told me you have cyborg troopers guarding the Spaceport.”

  “If the mutants told you that, it was a lie. We’ve dug up some old cyborg tech at the Pit, but no troopers.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Cade said. “But I have a bad feeling someone down here has seen cyborg troopers. The horde is massing and getting ready to attack, doing so with the help of the hidden Diggers.” Cade indicated the smashed electronics. “The mutants have more sophisticated equipment than you realize. Jed Ra told me there are over six hundred of them. They—”

  “Enough,” Drang said, interrupting, as she chewed on her lower lip. “Stay there. I’ll be right back.”

  Cade chuckled and gripped the bars. “I’ll be here. Better hurry.” He watched Drang leave, wondering what else had the Arbiter so worried. Something sure did, and he didn’t think she believed him yet about the coming attack.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Ira Drang walked outside the Detention Center in her shirt, tie, slacks and boots. The greatcoat was still inside the jail area.

  The planet’s humid heat was oppressive and constant, worse this close to noon.

  The jungle waited beyond the electrified fence that surrounded the Spaceport. There were two hangars and a runway for the jets, four barracks for the personnel and three large sheds for the military vehicles. There was a rec building, an officers’ mess next to the enlisted mess and a large building for maintenanc
e and the mechanics.

  There were twenty-five huge guard dogs and seven handlers, a permanent nine patrolling robots with six backups. The robots each had treads, a stable base, camera, computer and .50-caliber machine gun with thousands of rounds of ammo. There were one hundred and twenty-three soldiers with ten wheeled combat-cars, five pilots with six jets, fifteen mechanics, fifty-three maintenance personnel and nineteen assorted specialists. That was two hundred and twenty people, twenty-five dogs and fifteen fighting robots. There was three times the number of people at the Pit, although only one-seventh of them were Patrol soldiers—seventy-five with three combat cars.

  Taken together, that was more people than Cade’s mutant horde of six hundred, but only two hundred ground pounders for the Patrol. A brigade composed of five battalions was on its way to Therduim III, but it wouldn’t be here for another month or more.

  Perhaps she should request the Sub-Protector to strip the cruiser, destroyer and four stings of their marine complements. That could add another one hundred and fifty combat personnel on the surface. They could also add shuttle flights to complement the jet sweeps along the road.

  Cade said six hundred warrior mutants would attack, along with an unknown number of Diggers, whatever they were. Could Cade really have learned all that in so short a time? Could he have actually lived, for even a day and night, among the gruesome creatures, kept them from killing or cooking him?

  Drang shook her head. If anyone could, it would be Cade.

  Just who were the Diggers he kept talking about? Did they really exist or were they a figment of his imagination or mutant lies? Halifax was full of BS. Cade, though…

  Drang made a face. She was beginning to believe Cade. His words had the ring of truth an Intelligence officer could hear if she listened closely enough.

  She and Senior Commandant Estevan had a plan, but it regarded defending the space station if the smugglers should turn out to possess military ships, and if the Patrol cruiser should side with a traitorous Sub-Protector.

  Might such a space assault have been planned in concert with a native ground attack upon the Pit and possibly the Spaceport?