The Lost Artifact Read online

  “Just pointed the device, pressed his thumb, dead,” Maddox said. “That was a Hell of a way to go. It wasn’t even a fight. Your friend was angry I’d killed his friend Yunnan. I can’t blame him. If someone slew Sergeant Riker, I’d kill him, or her, if that were the case. But no. That little prick Lee took out his control unit and fried your friend’s brain with it. I can still smell it. Can you smell it?”

  “Shut up,” Jand said. “Just shut your yap and wait for it. You’re not going to be talking soon.”

  “I get that,” Maddox said. “I just don’t understand your place in this. I mean, two of you are already dead. I killed one. The little Doctor Lee burned your friend’s brains, not that he had much of a brain to start with. But if I had a burn unit in my head—”

  “You do, you idiot,” Jand said savagely. “It will do more than just burn you, though.”

  Maddox was silent a moment as if pondering that.

  “That shut you up,” Jand said with a sneer.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Maddox said. “Why use the tangle gun on me, then? Just press a button to stop me. I don’t know why you’re lying about that, but you obviously are.”

  “You think so?” Jand asked, staring at Maddox with hot beady eyes.

  “I know it,” Maddox said.

  “You have stitches in the back of your head, you fool. Why do you think they’re there?”

  Maddox raised his eyebrows as if surprised.

  “That’s right. They put a control chip in your head. A better one’s going to go in deep later. Right now…”

  Jand suddenly seemed worried that maybe he’d said too much.

  This was the moment. Maddox could sense it. He also felt that he’d gotten a handle on Jand’s personality. It was time to twist the metaphorical knife.

  Maddox chuckled.

  Jand’s face soured. “What’s so funny, huh?”

  “You and me,” Maddox said. “What do you think I’m going to tell the little guy about you?”

  “If you’re smart, not a damn thing.”

  “Wrong,” Maddox said. “I’m going to tell him how you told me about the deep implant. That’s good, because it gives me information. You’re screwed, Jand. I’m going to watch Doctor Lee burn you. I’m going laugh while he does it, too.”

  “You’re a bastard.”

  “I’m Captain Maddox.”

  “Yeah…” Jand said. “I know about how you think you’re tough because you’re half New Man. You ain’t crap, though. I could twist you like you’re a child.”

  “I doubt it. I killed your friend easily enough. Now, I’m going to watch you die. I’m going to—”

  “Shut up!” Jand shouted, stepping close, looking as if he was going to kick Maddox in the face.

  Maddox looked up into Jand’s eyes. The heavies were obviously powerful, but they were not bright. They were also far too emotional, which seemed strange given their background.

  He wondered if they were from the planet Shanghai. He’d read a report once about the lush Earthlike planet with two crushing gravities at the surface. Hadn’t there been Chinese colonists? He seemed to recall experimental drugs that had promoted massive muscle growth along with tougher tendons. Most of the second generation had died on Shanghai. The few that had survived were incredibly strong compared to regular 1-G raised humans. Could Yunnan and Jand be from Shanghai? Doctor Lee had also looked Asian, but he clearly wasn’t from a 2-G world.

  Jand crouched in front of Maddox. The gunman held the tangler under his right armpit as he flexed his huge fingers in front of Maddox’s face.

  “I know what you’re doing,” Jand whispered with his bad breath. “It ain’t going to work, though. I’m going to watch them shove an implant deep into your brain. I’m the one who’s going to laugh, not you.”

  “You’re not going to laugh after I talk to Doctor Lee,” Maddox said.

  Rage boiled in Jand’s black eyes. He stood, deliberately turned his massive back on Maddox and stepped to the hatch. He leaned against the frame as if indifferent to everything.

  “And another thing,” Maddox said.

  Jand began whistling as if to show Maddox that he wasn’t going to listen to any more provocation.

  That was fine, as that was what Maddox had been trying to achieve. He didn’t think he’d have long, though, and he had no doubt Jand had hair-trigger senses. Low-IQ gunmen often had the best hearing.

  “You can whistle all you want,” Maddox half shouted.

  That only made Jand whistle louder.

  As Maddox continued to goad the big man, he strained his left arm. Tangle strands were capture tools. They weren’t meant for long-term confinement, though. The sticky web still held him, but not quite with the same ferocity as earlier. The trick with tangle strands was to relax. The harder one fought them, the more they tightened.

  Maddox had relaxed and fraction by fraction he’d been repositioning his left arm. Now, he strained. Now, he had run out of time. He strained until his head pounded. He strained so his right arm throbbed with renewed agony. By a monumental effort, he forced his left hand under his jacket. He’d stopped talking. If he tried to speak while he did this, his voice would sound too strained. Jand would surely turn to investigate then.

  In truth, Maddox needed some luck. Jand could turn around at any moment. The man could also realize that Maddox no longer spoke. The loud whistling helped a little. That might be the margin that allowed him to—

  Maddox’s left hand clutched the handle of the monofilament knife. He jerked back. The sticky strands fought him. He jerked back again, and he grunted.

  The whistling stopped.

  Maddox took a slow deep breath, tried to slow his jackhammering heart, and said in a rush, “I knew that Lee was going to fry your friend’s brain. I have to say that I really enjoyed—”

  Jand hunched his monstrous neck and began whistling again.

  Gritting his teeth, Maddox heaved, yanking his left arm back enough to free the monofilament blade from its sheath. He had to be careful or he’d hack himself.

  He brought out the blade and sliced several sticky strands. He ended up shaving some of the uniform, but he didn’t slice into his flesh. He cut more strands, giving him a little more control of the left arm.

  He worked frantically, slicing, freeing more of himself.

  The whistling stopped again. “What are you doing?” Jand asked as he turned around.

  Despite the agony, Maddox rolled, using his right hand to push against the floor. That hurt like blazes, but it worked. He heaved up as Jand stared at him in surprise.

  Then the mountain man brought up the tangle gun. Maddox lunged. Jand pulled the trigger even as the captain clapped his right hand over the barrel mouth. The capsule struck his hand with terrible force.

  Maddox growled at the pain. He stabbed left-handed, the blade entering Jand’s flesh. The blade cut effortlessly through Jand’s clothes and flesh, bones and blood vessels. It was a sickening weapon if one had time to think about it.

  Jand screamed, flinging himself backward in order to get away. Remorselessly, Maddox followed, killing the enormous man by slicing off the top of his skull.

  As the captain did so, he found himself looking out of the hatch and down a long corridor. It was lit now, and it seemed like a ship’s corridor with metal bulkheads. The corridor went for a ways. At the far end appeared two more heavies. They carried a stretcher between them. Bringing up the rear was the thin Doctor Lee.

  Maddox did not hesitate. He knelt, felt around Jand’s bloody jacket and grabbed a magazine of tangle capsules. Then, he was up with the tangler, moving into the chamber where he’d first woken up.

  “Stop!” Lee shouted in the distance. “I’ll shock you if you don’t stop.”

  Maddox did not stop but charged through the chamber, heading for the hatch on the other side. Lee might or might not shock him. Probably the scientist would, but while he was free, Maddox was going to try to escape.

&nb
sp; -4-

  As Maddox passed through the hatch and entered a different corridor, a buzzing sensation caused the back of his head to tingle.

  Maddox hesitated. Would he drop, convulse or simply go unconscious? None of those things happened. Abruptly, the tingling stopped.

  Maddox began to run.

  The first mountain man must have hit him too hard when they’d fought. The heavy must have jarred something loose in Maddox’s control chip. Instead of smiling at his luck, a fierce resolve built in Maddox. Someone had shaved his scalp and operated on him. According to Jand, Doctor Lee or his team planned to put a deep implant into his brain.

  The brain surgery sounded like Methuselah Man Strand. Maddox knew that Strand was a prisoner of the New Men, of the Emperor on the Throne World. Maddox knew because he’d captured Strand on the Junkyard Planet Sind II and given him to the New Men as a gift.

  Maddox turned a corner. He still felt strong.

  Could Strand have escaped from the New Men?

  Maddox seriously doubted that. Could the Spacers be behind this? They surely hated him enough.

  The captain glanced back but couldn’t see any pursuers. If this was a spaceship, there should be monitors everywhere. He did not see any security cameras. He still did not feel any vibration on the deckplates.

  Maddox reached another hatch. He panted. For all his vaunted self-control, he had been running too hard. The control unit in his head might have something to do with that. The remembrance of Strand’s horrible practice of having a controlled crew of New Men added a touch of horror to Maddox’s predicament.

  He let himself pant as he put away the monofilament blade and loaded the tangler. He had three shots. He had to use them wisely.

  Maddox cocked his head, listening. He heard footfalls in the distance. The two stretcher-bearers and the scientist were coming after him.

  An alarm began pulsating. The sound came from the other side of the hatch before him.

  The hatch slid open, and Maddox saw two new Chinese heavies in black uniforms. They were too close for a good tangle shot. Maddox automatically reversed the direction of the shotgun-like tangler and used the stock, smashing it against the nearest face. There was crunching, and the big man staggered backward as blood gushed from his broken nose.

  The second heavy’s eyes widened with surprise. Maddox drew back the tangler and tried the same stock-smashing tactic. The man was fast despite his size. That confirmed Maddox’s suspicion that the heavies came from Shanghai, from a 2-G planet, like his wife Meta had.

  The heavy yanked the tangler out of Maddox’s grasp. Maddox moved in aggressively and brought up his left knee in a vicious groin shot. He didn’t have time for anything more elegant. At least the heavy had unprotected and normal balls. The man’s eyes bulged outward as his mouth opened and he made gobbling noises.

  Maddox shoved the man. The Shanghai bruiser toppled backward and curled into a fetal ball, clutching his groin as he did so.

  In those seconds, Maddox examined the chamber. It seemed like a guard station. There were video screens, coffee cups, rice snacks—

  On one screen, Maddox saw the two stretcher-bearers racing down the corridor. He presumed they were running after him. Doctor Lee huffed and puffed, falling farther behind despite his labored running.

  On another screen, Maddox saw what seemed to be a bazaar with stalls, sellers and milling crowds. What was interesting about the bazaar was the ceiling. It arched high, but it seemed artificial, as in a satellite or possibly an interior asteroid.

  Maddox had normal weight, which meant normal gravity. A satellite or a rich enough asteroid base would have gravity control.

  None of that jogged his memory, but he wasn’t going to worry about that now. The point was if he went through the next hatch, he could possibly mingle with the bazaar crowd, losing himself among them.

  The captain did not like to kill needlessly. He did not consider himself a murderer, except for the hundreds of millions who had died due to his actions in the Alpha Centauri System a year ago. In personal situations, he did not casually murder the helpless.

  But this seemed different. He was lost. He did not have all his memories, and a nefarious group was trying to control him with brain implants. Since he didn’t know what this was about, he would assume the worst. He had to believe this was an attempt to infiltrate Star Watch, maybe help overthrow the government of Earth.

  Maddox drew the monofilament blade and swiftly slew each guard. He did not think he had much time left. He could not afford any mistakes.

  He took both men’s IDs from their wallets. Then he buckled on one gun belt—fortunately adjustable for a thinner man—with its blaster and secreted the other gun on his person.

  Afterward, he moved to the hatch and automatically touched his shaved scalp. Would that make him conspicuous out there? It was possible.

  He made a last glance around, saw a felt hat on a console, grabbed it and slung it onto his smooth head. Then—

  He picked up the tangler and used the stock to smash each screen. The others wouldn’t be able to use the guard station to track him. Finally, Maddox went to the hatch and opened it, heading down a short corridor, which he hoped led to the outer bazaar.

  -5-

  One of the first people to notice Maddox was a young woman with long dark hair and a veil that only revealed her brown eyes. She wore an ankle-length dress and was flanked by two gunmen wearing slick jackets. The gunmen weren’t like the Shanghai heavies. They weren’t even Asian, but they looked stocky and competent enough.

  The woman’s eyes registered surprise at the tangler in Maddox’s hands. She stared at him as if he was a man of low morals. She backed away until she bumped up against a stall. One of her gunmen noticed, turned and spied Maddox. The gunman had a dusky complexion and hard eyes. He squinted at Maddox as his gun-hand dropped to the butt of his holstered weapon.

  Maddox turned away, putting his back to them. He’d just slipped out of a hatch from a building beside the bazaar. He could feel the man’s gaze against his back. He tucked the tangler horizontally inside his jacket, hiding it from view. He had no idea why the woman or her guard should look upon the tangler with suspicion.

  The bazaar had countless stalls packed in an open area under a high arched ceiling. There must have been more than three hundred people milling around and in the stalls. It was crowded, busy and much quieter than he would have expected. Everyone seemed…careful and watchful of his neighbor. Otherwise, the people seemed ordinary enough. The men primarily wore pants, jackets and boots and were all armed in some fashion. The women wore long dresses and all were uniformly veiled. None of them were Asian that he could tell.

  Maddox stepped behind a stall and was momentarily out of sight of everyone. He set the tangler against the stall and moved away. He went deeper into the crowd and watched the hatch.

  Thirty seconds later, two Shanghai heavies burst out. They each gripped a gun. The two looked around, searching, angry and maybe even a little desperate.

  Maddox eyed the crowd near the two men. Several people noticed the two heavies and hurriedly looked away. That indicated they knew who the heavies were and were frightened of them.

  Several more heavies rushed out of the hatch. They conferred together in low whispers as they eyed the large crowd.

  Maddox had seen enough. He faded back. He had no doubt the heavies or their employer would soon offer a reward for his recapture. That told Maddox something important.

  This was not a spaceship.

  If this had been a spaceship, there would have been a captain. A captain could easily order the passengers to help the crew track down a dangerous fugitive. The arched ceiling, the intense crowding; Maddox was now certain this was an asteroid port of some kind.

  Maddox tugged the felt cap lower over his eyes. A memory struggled for his attention. He couldn’t quite grasp it, but it told him that he was correct about this being an asteroid base. He was also quite sure this place was not i
n the Solar System.

  As he processed that thought, another certainty surfaced. He had come to this star system for a precise reason. He had first spoken to the Iron Lady. Yes. Maddox had come to this star system at the Brigadier’s request.

  Did that mean Starship Victory was in the star system?

  A nondescript little man moved away from a stall while holding a sizzling shish kabob. He was an older man with thinning white hair, a gun at one hip and gripping a beer in his other hand. He gnawed a piece of meat, obviously enjoying it.

  Maddox moved near the man, looming to the side.

  The older man looked up at him.

  “Where is this?” Maddox asked quietly.

  “Get away from me,” the man growled.

  Maddox grabbed an upper arm, applying pressure. The older man winced and tried to twist free.

  “No,” Maddox said in a low, dangerous voice. “Don’t make a scene. Tell me what I want to know.”

  The man eyed Maddox, and there was cunning in the gaze.

  Maddox increased his grip.

  “Smade’s Asteroid,” the older man hissed. “Now, let go of me.”

  “What star system?”

  “What kind of question is—” The older man cried out, dropping his shish kabob because of Maddox’s cruel grip.

  “The Tristano System,” the older man whimpered.

  Maddox’s forebrain began to throb. He let go of the man to rub his forehead.

  The man picked up his shish kabob and hurried away, blending into the crowd.

  This is a pirate base, Maddox realized.

  More memories surfaced. The Tristano System was outside of the Commonwealth of Planets. It was a no-man’s space between the Chin Confederation and the Social Syndicate Worlds. The planet Shanghai was in the Chin Confederation. The Social Syndicate…they used to bother Doctor Dana Rich’s home planet, Brahma.

  According to recent reports, the pirates here preyed on both the Social Syndicate Worlds and the Chin Confederation. The people of this place would likely regard a Star Watch officer as a weasel, an officer of the law in a lawless land.