Red Planet: The Revolt (Tamarians Book 2) Page 18

  “I've got the gun.”

  If Cassell's sounded the alarm, it doesn't show as we step off the elevator on level five, me taking the lead as we scramble through the corridor, looking for something that might look like a Faraday field control. As we do, I gripe. “Why didn't we just shoot the damn antenna?”

  “Faraday antennas are integrated into the whole building,” Jensen says, his breath coming harder than I thought it would be. His fight with Cassell wasn't that difficult, is it the spray that he inhaled? What was it, maybe some type of lung irritant? “You can't just disable one without destroying the whole mesa. You have to depower.... de... depower the field.”

  “You okay?” I ask, turning to look at Jensen. His eyes are wide, and his skin's sweaty, he's obviously got something wrong. When he looks at me he licks his lips before shaking his head, tugging at his hair almost to the point of painfulness. “Jensen?”

  “I'll... I'll make it,” he grunts, blinking hard. “Go, keep your eyes open.”

  We move down the corridor, coming around the corner to find a guard walking our way. He goes for his internal communicator but I squeeze off a shot, taking him in the chest and blowing a hole in his sternum that's the size of a needle going in, and the size of my fist going out. There's no way to hide this body, the blood spray paints the corridor scarlet almost before his body hits the ground, and he doesn't even have time to blink, he's dead already. Jensen swallows, his voice husky, admiring. “Heaven and stars you're fast.”

  “Snap shooting was one of my specialties. Wish I had my mono wire back,” I reply, going over to the guard's body and taking the pistol. “Here, can you see well enough?”

  “Yeah,” Jensen says. “We gotta move faster now.”

  “Then let's go,” I hiss, running down the corridor as fast as we can. Jensen keeps up, and I see a sign ahead. Electronic Systems Controls. “Guess this is the place.”

  “We can try to fuck them up some,” Jensen rumbles, his voice deeper, huskier. “Kelbara....”

  “Hang on two minutes,” I toss over my shoulder, opening the door. There's two men inside, not guards but still armed and I shoot fast, pumping Gauss rounds into each body even before they have a chance to do more than half turn towards me. “Jensen, cover me?”

  “Covered,” Jensen rasps, his voice shaky. I look back and see that his chest is heaving, he's barely focused, but he's trying hard. I sweep the room, finding the panel labeled Faraday and turn it off, waiting for the system to show total power failure before I shoot the panel, backing away and shooting other things as well. “What's that for?”

  “Maybe I'll hit something that might help us get away,” I reply, emptying my pistol. It's okay, the two dead workers have pistols too and I strip them, along with the light lab coats they're wearing. I toss one to Jensen, who looks at it stupidly. “When we get outside, we'll need something. Better than just what we've got on now.”

  “Ri... right,” Jensen mumbles. The lights in the corridor flicker, going dark for a moment before dim emergency lights turn on, I guess I did hit something vital. “We.... need.....”

  “Let's go,” I finish, pulling Jensen with me. I see a sign up ahead that says stairwell, but I know that any guards responding have to be coming from that direction, and instead I turn, pulling the stumbling Jensen, who has his hand pressed against his belly now, down a side corridor. “There's no way they'll have only normal stairwells.”

  “Kelbara.... I can't....” Jensen groans, his hand clutching at me. “Please... help...”

  “Next level down, Jensen. Hold on, I promise I'll help you there,” I whisper, seeing a maintenance shaft. I've seen things like this before, in big complexes where lots of slaves used to be. There's even a few around the royal palace. They're put in as ways for staff to move around in the event of a slave uprising or as a way for slaves to move to avoid being in the visible presence of their owners if that is what the owner wanted. Basically, it's a good way to make sure the guy scrubbing the toilets doesn't appear in front of anyone. Considering that the shaft isn't locked, I suppose it was used to keep up appearances.

  The shaft is pitch black beyond three or four rungs, and there's nothing visible except for the gray circle below us at the bottom of the shaft as we start down, half walking, half sliding down the metal ladder. We get to level nine before I step off, the shaft coming to an end. The emergency lights are dim, but there's nobody around and I lead Jensen along to a room marked Janitorial and go inside, checking it carefully before I turn and lock the door. “Jensen?”

  He grabs me, his lips already crushing mine as he pushes me against the wall, his breath hot and needy on my neck. I can feel his cock bulging inside his jumpsuit, pressed hard and hot against my thigh as he licks and sucks at my skin. “The drug... the drug....” he mumbles. “I'm sorry...”

  I understand, and instead of being repulsed I pull him closer, kissing him back. The pink ring, it had a variation of the libido enhancer in it that I've heard of before called Cascade, and Jensen's so aroused right now that he can't see, he can't think. He needs this, and even though this is perhaps the worst time and place to think about fucking, I need to give him release before he goes mad with lust.

  “Don't be sorry,” I whisper back, searching for the closure on his jumpsuit and peeling it back, exposing his body in the dim light. I drop to my knees, quickly pulling his cock out of his underpants and stroking him. He's hard as a rock, the veins already bulging and his balls tight, but I know the libido enhancer, he's not going to be satisfied with just one orgasm. But it's a start. “Fuck me.”

  I need to work fast, get his body so flushed with orgasmic hormones that it breaks the cycle, Mogar made me study this when I talked with him about the effects of Cascade. I swallow Jensen's cock, sucking him deep even though I've never done this before, just knowing that it'll help. Before I can even pull back Jensen grabs my head and starts thrusting, his cock pumping in and out of my mouth so hard and fast it's all I can do to control myself from gagging. Jensen's growling, totally caught up in the drug as he fucks me, he balls slapping against my chin as I try to keep my teeth from scraping his cock. My eyes are watering, this isn't the sensual lovemaking of before, this is raw animal fucking.

  Still.... it feels good. Jensen's so powerful, his hands clamped on each side of my head as he fucks my mouth, and I love it, my pussy's actually getting wet as he jams his cock all the way until he's literally buried in my throat and I can't breathe for long seconds, the head of his cock massaged by my desperately swallowing throat muscles. He groans, and I can feel his cock swelling, pulsing as he comes and pulls out, leaving a sweet droplet of his come on my tongue, but he's still hard, sobbing with need and shame. “Oh heaven and stars.”

  I reach down, unbuckling my pants and pushing them down along with my underpants, turning around and pushing my ass into the air. “Jensen... I want it. Give it to me.”

  Jensen's on my body in a heartbeat, pressing me to the floor and ramming his cock all the way deep into my pussy, and I'm shocked, grunting he's so rough. That's it Jensen, give me your need, my love. Yes, I love you, I haven't told you yet in those words but I love you. Oh heaven and stars your cock is amazing, the hard slap of your hips against my ass as you fuck me, that's it.... oh yes... oh fuck....

  I'm nearly coming myself, it's so good, and Jensen shudders again, his cock spewing weakly but he doesn't stop, the wet sweetness mixing to just lube my already soaked pussy and taking away the last bit of pain. I squeeze him, milking him for as much as I can both to help him and to help myself. I never thought it could be like this, this good and dirty at the same fucking time. This isn't lovemaking, it's straight up fucking.... but I want to be fucked by Jensen as hard as he's fucking me right now. “Yes... yes...”

  “One more,” Jensen grunts, and I can hear the clarity in his voice, he's starting to regain control. Still he doesn't stop, but the speed of his thrusts changes a little, he's feeling me and building me up too. He grabs my waist and s
lams away, my hips sore but loving every second. We're rushing, charging towards the plateau, and I'm coming, my pussy squeezing as I bury my mouth in my forearm and cry out, my eyes watering as Jensen shudders and groans, his cock slamming into me a last time before he stiffens, but his cock is dry, there's nothing to come out this time. Still he freezes, both of us enjoying the sensation of his coming until he sags back, groaning, but sounding more under control of himself. “Kelbara.... thank you.”

  “You needed it, and I loved it,” I reply, turning and kissing him. “Come on, let's get out of here, try and contact Tauren.”

  Jensen pauses, and kisses me again, this time tenderly. “I... later. Later, but thank you. Let's get the fuck outta here.”

  Chapter 22

  Jensen

  My brain feels cleared, but still there's something there, and I feel a deep sense of shame as Kelbara and I make our way through the maze like corridors, looking for the next stairwell or access shaft down.

  I've never been so forceful, and the fact is I was nearly out of control. If Kelbara hadn't said she wanted to, I was on the verge of not caring, I needed to come, to fuck so badly. What sort of monster was released inside me? I can feel it twisting around still, and I'm worried that it's going to come again. I'm worried because I liked fucking Kelbara so hard, her athletic body in my hand, her pussy gripping me, her cries of mixed lust with a little bit of pain. I liked it all. What if... what if I'm going to become that monster all the time?

  Kelbara pauses at a corner, ducking her head around before waving us on. “What's the plan?”

  “Get outside, contact Tauren, and then get the hell off this mesa while he pounds it into oblivion,” I reply, my legs still weak from not only the torture, but the sex. Whatever it was that Cassell dosed me with, it didn't work in the same way that the libido enhancers I've used before worked. When I tried those out under Mogar's supervision, I was tireless, totally full of energy from the minute the drugs hit until they finally wore off.

  These were different. I needed to fuck so badly, but the longer I held out the weaker I became, the more distracted. Each time I was able to come with Kelbara, it cleared away some of the mental curtain, but my body still feels like I've put it through a workout that I would prefer to take a twelve-hour nap after. I'm trying to keep up, but I'm weaker than I was before being tied up. Still, I will devote everything to protecting Kelbara and completing this mission.

  “Okay, so how do we get outside?” Kelbara asks, checking her communicator. “Still no signal.”

  “We're probably too deep inside the mesa, the rock itself is acting as a shield,” I whisper, my voice still hoarse, I need water. “Does halnocite effect transmissions?”

  “How do I know? I'm a fighter, not a geologist,” Kelbara quips, smirking. “So we need to....”

  “Hello my daughter.”

  We stop, looking up and around, until I recognize the direction the voice is coming from, a speaker embedded in the wall. “Ambaris.”

  “I see you shut off the Faraday field, very nice. By the way, Cassell says he owes you a little bit for his right leg, and his finger. Thankfully he was only grazed. But....”

  A siren starts, and the emergency lights go from white to red, casting deep bloody shadows everywhere. Kelbara and I flatten ourselves against the wall, checking the corridor, but so far, there's nobody coming, not that we can hear footsteps over this chaos. The sirens whoop for a few more seconds, then die down.

  “Unavoidable, ah well. As I was saying, it doesn't really matter any longer, what you're trying to do. You see, while the troops are preparing for the inevitable attack by royal forces.... I'm coming for you, Kelbara. Run if you want, you're only going to die tired.”

  The speakers make a clicking noise, and we're left in the blood red dim light, silence all around us. I look over at Kelbara, who even in the dim light looks frightened. “So what now?”

  “Ambaris can track a flutterfly in a windstorm,” Kelbara says, shivering slightly. “He's going to be able to track us here too.”

  “Then we need to get out of the normal tunnels,” I reply. “A place like this, it'll have back tunnels, sublevels that contain all the maintenance and other things that keep this place running. That's what those access shafts are for, right?”

  Kelbara nods, chewing her lip. “Maybe.... if we can make it outside, we'll be able to evade him long enough to call in the attack. The area around the mesa looked desolate, some light forest, maybe we could make an emergency snow blind, survive that way.”

  “We will survive,” I reassure her. “First though, if he wants to play psy-ops with us, I'm going to play psy-ops with him. Let's find a comm panel.”

  Ironically, the comm panel and the shaft down are close to each other, and as Kelbara helps me get the lab coat we took from the communications room techs on, I hit the switch. “Ambaris. This is Jensen.”

  “You're either stupid or overconfident, which makes you doubly stupid,” Ambaris replies. “Calling out on a comm panel? Really?”

  “It's simple, Ambaris. If you really think you're good enough to take on a champion of the Arena. I would say that makes you overconfident and stupid. Either way... I'll be waiting for you.” My last words are a growl, a challenge that isn't at all pretend. Come after me, come after Kelbara, and I will end your life Ambaris.

  I switch off the comm panel and take the lead, sliding down the rails all the way to the bottom, which according to the small light up sign on the wall is level 8. “I guess they numbered from mesa top down.”

  “Here, here's a level map,” I point out, pausing. “Okay..... seven more levels to the ground, but there's no way that Ambaris will just let us walk out the same door we came in.”

  “We need to find the maintenance tunnels and air ducts then,” Kelbara says. There's tension in her voice, the idea that Ambaris is coming after us scares her to the bone. “They have to be around here somewhere.”

  “Kelbara,” I whisper, checking around. “I need your help here. You know Ambaris, you know how he tracks. So I'm going to need to depend on you and your skills. How does Ambaris think? How is he going to try to track us? How is he going to try to trap us?”

  Kelbara nods, taking a deep breath before replying. “He uses fear. Psychology, fear, deception, those are his main tools. His first shot was the announcement. He's going to try to get us to run, to go for speed over anything else.”

  “We can't avoid that, we need to get a signal out quickly. The Faraday field might be down, but there's still a rocket launch we need to stop,” I comment, leaning against the ladder and looking around. So far, it's still quiet. “Tauria goes up, it's all over.”

  Kelbara nods, thinking. “Then we need to loop around and get behind him. Distract him, give him a reason to think that we're going up, draw him that direction before we double back. That's going to be hard, he's cocky but he's got a reason to be. Jensen, if I were to make a guess, he's got guards stationed on the mesa level and the ground level, sandwiching us in between. If he thinks he's got us trapped, he'll hunt us at his leisure, tiring us out.”

  I think, then nod. “We can't go up then, that'll just play into his game. Instead, let's get into the air ducts, the maintenance tunnels, and conserve energy. Look for the hole that has to happen at some point, or else force our own. We know he's going to be heading for level five or six. Let's find an elevator.”

  We move down the deserted hallway, seeing the elevator ahead. I call for it, and while we wait for it to arrive, I brief Kelbara on the plan. “He thinks we're either stupid or lying to use the elevator, but we're going to use it just the same. When it comes, I'm going to send it up to level one, but before it can get there I want us on the roof, looking for an air shaft. As soon as we see one, we jump, whichever floor it is, we rest there for a few minutes before we get down to the ground floor.”

  “And how do you plan on doing that?” Kelbara asks. The door opens, and we jump inside, Kelbara hitting the button for the fi
rst floor even as I get up and pop the hatch on the roof.

  “If worse comes to worse, we'll slide down the elevator cables. How's your rope climbing skills?” I ask, looking. Di-car cables, just what I'd expect. While most elevators use hovertech, you can't use hover in this much halnocite. And Cassell's just lazy enough to keep the elevators on emergency power. No way is that man walking up fifteen flights of stairs if he can help it.

  I boost myself up with a little help from Kelbara and pull her up just as the car starts moving. Kelbara studies the cables, shaking her head. “Maybe.... just maybe.”

  “I'll take maybe right now,” I reply, putting the hatch back in place. Hopefully there's no sensors on the thing. “Come on, I see a vent shaft above us. We jump in three. Two.... Go!”

  Chapter 23

  Kelbara

  The air shaft is tight, barely big enough for Jensen to work his shoulders through, but we make progress. At the junction Jensen stops, taking a deep breath. “You need to take the lead.”

  “Why?” I ask, then realize why and nod. “Well you finally got me in a tight space together with you.”

  Jensen chuckles, pressing himself against the vertical part of the air shaft while I work up and between his legs, sliding down. “How're you feeling?”

  “Tired, my muscles ache... but I'll make it,” Jensen says. “Make the next big junction, let's find a place we can get out of this shaft for a few minutes, then we get to the maintenance tunnels.”

  It's hard, pressing myself against the walls and stepping down. Thankfully the shaft isn't thin walled but solid, probably a polymer or something that is lightweight but also supportive. It's slightly slippery though, and it takes extra pressure to control our slide as we move downward. When I see the next horizontal shaft I slide in, coming to a stop.