The voyage continues...
Tradewinds 12: Keep One Eye Open)http://www.absolutechaos.net/viewstory.php?sid=10679Summary: Wherein the crew of the Maximum try to take a tropical vacation. Yeah right…
Categories: Original Fiction
Characters: None
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Rated: R
Warnings: Death, Graphic Violence, Violence
Series: Tradewinds
Challenges: None
Published: 08/20/11
excerpt, from Intro:
“…According to the report, they were shooting it out with each other in traffic…”
“While we were stuck here the whole time,” Andrew muttered. “Just once, Terry, I wish we’d get to see a little action around here, that’s all.”
The two stood in silence for a moment, then Andrew piped up again, saying, “Say Terry, do you know anything about this ship we’ve been guarding lately?”
“Nope. Just the name CheckMate, that’s all I know,” Terry told him. For all his partner’s talk about boredom, this was quite possibly one of the most unusual assignments he had ever received. “Some bigwigs are passing through, and they entrusted it to us during their stay. Port Security’s been pretty hush-hush about the whole thing, so I’m not sure exactly what it is we’re guarding. Just that our bosses are being paid a hefty sum to watch it.”
“CheckMate, huh? Maybe we should—”
Before he could suggest any bright ideas his partner would probably object to in spite of his own curiosity, they both paused, hearing a loud splash from inside the hangar itself.
“Jack, what’s up?” Andrew asked their inside man, wondering if he might yet get a glimpse of this mystery ship.
Silence.
“Hey, Jack?” Terry called out, a little louder this time. “You fall in or somethin’?”
“Could you give me a hand?” a voice called back.
“Sure thing, Jack,” Terry replied as he unlocked the hangar door. He turned to Andrew, all trace of humor having taken a back seat to business, saying, “Stay here.”
Then he went in. The darkness inside the hangar cast everything in heavy shadows. Moving toward the light switch, and cursing the complex’s mostly outdated systems every step of the way, when he saw it.
At first it didn’t quite register, even as he looked right at it. Jack’s body lay sprawled on the floor near the edge of the inner dock, soaking wet, one leg and arm still dangling in the water. What held his attention, though, was the fact that his head was turned almost all the way around.
There was no need to examine him; no one survived having their neck that cleanly broken.
His cry of horror froze on the tip of his tongue, though, as he felt an iron- knuckled fist pressed against his back. This sensation barely registered in his brain as it was quickly followed by a piercing, stabbing pain, then total numbness in his back and torso. He gasped as he looked down in frozen terror at the three lavender laser blades protruding starkly from his chest. In the final moments of his life, time seemed to slow down, and all he could do was watch, too numb to utter more than a barely audible squeak, as those shimmering instruments of destruction raked straight down.
“Three down…” a voice behind him whispered darkly.
The last thing he would ever hear…
Author
Topic: shadesmaclean/Tradewinds updates (Read 44581 times)