The Euclidian: Alien Hitman Page 14

  “Wylyy, could you give him a sedative and put him in his bed?” Adar said, in Euclidian. “Then send me to my house.”

  “Right away, Adar,” said Wylyy. “Looks like he’s had a few.”

  At home Malcolm stirred from his sleep when his mother’s hand touched his shoulder. “Malcolm, when did you get home?” she asked, surprised that she didn’t see him come in.

  “I’m not sure. I was playing with some friends after school and just lost track of time. I felt so tired that I just collapsed in the bed. I don’t remember looking at the clock when I came home. Oh my goodness, mother, I had the strangest dream. You won’t believe what happened.”

  “I’m sure I won’t. It will have to wait, though. I’m on my way to work. Food’s on the stove. Bye, dear,” his mother said, kissing him on the forehead.

  “Bye, Mom.” Malcolm looked down at his shirt and squealed with excitement. It wasn’t a dream!

  Chapter 6

  Tatan Takes Out Adar

  Adar came awake and for a moment felt disoriented by his surroundings. This wasn’t his compact berth aboard the Andrea. Instead, soft, dark linens tangled his limbs as he lay on a flat surface broad enough to support six of him comfortably. The young human called this structure a king bed. Adar wondered what king had once slept here. But the question failed to occupy his thoughts for long. Instead, his mind returned to his difficulties tracking down the Cheoili, making him angry and impatient.

  Adar hated being angry. He perceived anger as nothing but a distraction, like so many things he had experienced on this mission. He had been beaten by opponents before, though rarely. Still, he accepted defeat as a learning experience. But the Cheoili’s actions went beyond the pale. They didn’t just want to beat him, they wanted to kill him.

  As Adar shed the last cobwebs of sleep from his head, he took stock of his situation. I need to finish this job, so I can enjoy the rest of my time on this curious planet. The captain is going to be checking in with me soon, and I don’t want to tell him I let these fugitives slip through my grasp, again. If they are still in this city, I will find them. As a matter of fact, I’m going to find them now.

  Hopping up from the bed, he spoke into his UCD. “Wylyy, I’m going to walk up to the northern part of the city. I’m sure they are holed up there. I need you to stay alert in case I need you.”

  “You mean, like if you’re falling through the sky again,” replied Wylyy, laughter erupting in the background.

  “Just do it!” growled Adar. I know this will work. I just need to find where they hang out. Adar walked two dozen blocks and sure enough, he finally detected Cheoili DNA. I knew I would find you. Now tell me where you’re hiding.

  Adar circled the block looking for more clues. I can’t believe those amateurs got the drop on me three times. I’ve been wasting too much time being nice to them. It’s this building. I’m sure of it. Adar stood in front of a tall condo building looking up as if searching for signs of his foe. This had to be it. Their DNA is everywhere. “Wylyy, I’m going in. Keep an eye on me.”

  “I’m right with you, Adar,” replied Wylyy.

  Adar walked into the condo building and went floor by floor until he came across a door with an overwhelming amount of evidence. I can smell their flowery scent. I’ve never been so happy to inhale that horrible smell.

  “Wylyy, scan the apartment in front of me and tell me what you see,” whispered Adar.

  “There is one male human inside and no one else,” replied Wylyy.

  “So should we transport him to the ship for interrogation or should you place me inside to interrogate him or should I just kill him and wait for the Cheoili to show up?”

  “Why not just knock on the door and ask him where everyone is?” Wylyy giggled.

  Adar grimaced and knocked on the door.

  “Hello, can I help you?” Mike inquired politely, after answering the door.

  “I am looking for Tatan, Daloi, and Dholi. We used to work together.” Adar tried to sound friendly.

  “I’m looking for them myself. They moved out a couple of days ago, and I haven’t heard from them since.”

  “Do you have any idea where I can find them?” Adar persisted.

  “Unfortunately not,” Mike replied, shrugging his shoulders.

  “Okay, goodbye.” Adar turned and walked away. Now I have to start over. He grumbled under his breath.

  “Wylyy, keep an eye on this place, in case they come back. I’ll keep searching.”

  “Will do, Adar.”

  ***

  “Daloi, Mike here,” said Mike, calling Daloi with his mobile phone. “Some guy just came by looking for you.”

  “Did he give you his name?” Daloi asked, sounding worried, since no one was supposed to know to look for her there.

  “No, but he’s a short, wiry looking guy. He wore some weird wrap-around shades.”

  “Did he have a fauxhawk and a long coat?”

  “Yes, that’s him. He said you used to work together.”

  “Yes, but he’s not our friend. Thanks for letting me know.” Mentally, Daloi was going through the reverse of five stages of grief, lamenting the fact that Adar still lived.

  “So when am I going to see you again?” Mike whimpered.

  “Soon, baby. Soon,” cooed Daloi, in her most soothing tone. She knew it was a lie, but she needed him to trust her in case he had further news for her.

  I can’t believe he is still alive, thought Daloi. It’s to the point where we need to make a concerted effort to kill this guy, or leave.

  ***

  Daloi decided to go by Checkers to see if Philly or his people might have any new information on Adar’s whereabouts.

  Locating the gangster a short time later, Daloi approached him. “Philly, forgive the interruption, but I need you to help me find a guy,” said Daloi. “He’s a short guy, wears dark glasses, and used to hang around that voodoo kid.”

  “You mean Adar?” asked Philly. “He took over EZ Smooth’s place. As a matter of fact, that’s how I got to be over all this new territory.”

  “You know him?! Why didn’t you tell me?” Daloi cried, startled by the coincidence.

  “You never asked. Do you think he had something to do with that weirdness at the school?”

  “Just tell me where he lives.” Daloi took down the address and hurried away to confer with Dholi and Tatan about her new plan to get rid of Adar.

  ***

  Adar was still out for his stroll around northern Chicago when he got a call from Wylyy.

  “Adar, we just got a transport alert at Millennium Park,” said Wylyy.

  “So send me there,” Adar requested anxiously.

  “Daloi, Adar just showed up here,” Tatan said, calling Daloi on his mobile phone as he watched Adar from a bench in the park.

  “Good. Stay out of sight, and do what you can to keep him there,” Daloi ordered.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll throw the explosive devices about that Rosda made for us to keep him occupied.” As Tatan launched the grenades, Adar ran to investigate the explosions, suspecting the Cheoili might be involved. Unfortunately, he arrived too late to detect Tatan.

  “Tatan, we’re done here,” said Daloi. “Come join us and watch the fireworks when he shows up.

  “I’m on my way,” replied Tatan, who took a cab to join Daloi and Dholi, who had hidden across the street from Adar’s place.

  “Look, there he is.” Dholi pointed at Adar as he walked through the front door of his house.

  “Great, but we have to wait for him to go upstairs,” said Daloi. “There he goes. Now! Set it off now!” A series of explosions engulfed the house in flames. “Let’s see the Ossie survive that.” Daloi smirked.

  “Wylyy, transport me to the ship now!” Adar screamed in a panicked voice.

  Seeing Adar’s condition, Wylyy shouted, “Oh, my goodness! Krystyy, I need you to transport Adar to sickbay now! Let Valera know he’s badly burned.”

  ***
<
br />   Once he was aboard the Andrea, Dr. Valera treated Adar’s burns.

  “Adar, you need to relax,” Valera said, trying to calm Adar when he awoke following the surgery. “I had to apply a lot of cellular rejuvenation to replace your burned skin. It’s going to take a while for the new growth to stabilize.”

  The nerves in Adar’s brain danced in a fiery undulation. He could see himself falling, Tatan laughing at him, being knocked into the water, and the house exploding over and over again. “Get away from me!” said Adar, shoving at Valera.

  “Adar, I need to administer some medicine,” Valera pleaded.

  “Fine. Get it over with then. I keep having these head flashes,” Adar complained, grabbing the sides of his head with his hands.

  “Lay back and let me look at you.” Valera pushed gently on his chest hoping to force him to remain stationary.

  Adar tried to keep still, but his body kept twitching. “Here, this will help you relax and diminish those flashes in your head,” said the doctor, administering an inhalant.

  “As soon as you repair the damage to my skin, I’m going to kill those bastards,” Adar wheezed, between deep breaths.

  “You know who did this to you?” Valera asked.

  “Those damn Cheoili caused this, who else? They have tried to kill me a couple of times already and failed. I’m not tolerating these attacks from that weak species!” Adar pounded on his bed with tight fists. “They would not dare to challenge me to my face. Get me my UCD so I can get out of here.”

  “Captain, Adar’s awake and he’s agitated. You need to get down here before he tears the place apart,” Valera said quietly into her communicator.

  Shisal materialized a moment later in sickbay. “Adar, you need to stay and rest so you can heal,” he said firmly.

  “I need to get back so I can kill those Cheoili,” Adar argued, gritting his teeth against the pain as he tried to stand.

  “You can relax and follow Valera’s orders, or you can be further sedated and restrained. And I’ll hold your UCD, until Valera tells me you’re ready to return to duty. Until then, shut up and do as you’re told. By the way, kill them if you must, but if you do, I will need evidence I can turn over to Central Control.”

  “Aye, aye, captain.” Adar saluted, before allowing a med assistant to help him lie down again. Valera gave him a strong sedative, which caused him to slip into an amorous dream about Yolanda.

  ***

  “Adar, welcome back to the land of the living,” said Wylyy when the enforcer materialized a few days later on the attack ship.

  “You are not going to believe what is happening right now. Take a look.” Wylyy grinned and pointed at the scene unfolding on one of the ship’s viewing screens, where the tiny craft’s three crewmembers had focused their attention.

  “Is that Tatan with the human I met the other day?” Adar asked, his voice rising with incredulity.

  “Yes, it is.” Wylyy smiled. “He walked into the apartment several minutes ago. I heard you were heading back here and decided to save this moment for you.”

  “Wait until he is just at the moment of climax, then transport him here,” Adar directed.

  “I think he’s ready. Stand back.” Wylyy transported Tatan to the ship, face down upon the deck.

  “Argh, what the hell?” yelled Tatan, startled by the change in his surroundings. He then growled, “Did you have to bring me here so I’m slamming my penis into the deck?”

  “Do you think we wanted you spewing ejaculate all over us?” Adar asked, sounding sarcastic and menacing.

  “Adar? You’re alive!” shouted Tatan, scooting away from the Ossie in shock.

  “Why wouldn’t I be? Because your friends shot at me with their blaster, or you dropped me from space, or you blew up my house with me in it?” Adar asked.

  “We like to have fun. We knew you would survive those pranks. Nothing personal.” Tatan smirked.

  “Glad you feel that way. So tell me. Where are those fun-loving friends of yours?” Adar asked, a playful look hiding much darker emotions.

  “I’m not sure where my SISTERS are. I saw them wandering around the park earlier today.” Tatan sounded vague and evasive.

  “How about telling me where you live now?” Adar asked, his anger growing.

  “I can’t really say.” Tatan shrugged nervously.

  “Oh, you’re going to tell me. And there’s no way they’ll be saving you from here,” Adar said, leaning forward menacingly.

  “Okay, we live at the place you transported me from,” said Tatan, holding his hand to Adar’s chest and daring to push him back.

  “He’s lying,” said Wylyy. “He’s the only person that’s been there since you left.”

  “We’ve been traveling. They’ll be back in a couple of days,” Tatan insisted.

  “You mean from the park?” asked Adar in disbelief. “You know how it feels to be burned alive, Tatan?” Adar pulled out his blaster and disintegrated one of the Cheoili’s feet.

  “Ahhh, what are you doing?! You didn’t even give me a chance to answer,” said Tatan, grabbing his smoking leg and shrieking with pain.

  “I’m just going to keep blasting you until you tell me what I want to hear,” Adar said, pressing a button on the weapon and watching Tatan’s other foot turn to ash.

  Tatan screamed again and cradled his legs in his arms.

  “Adar, remember we have to have evidence that we killed them,” said Wylyy.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll leave one of his hands,” said Adar, blasting off one of Tatan’s arms.

  Tatan let out a loud yell, partly from pain and partly from fear of dying. “Don’t kill me. I’ll tell you what you want to know, just don’t kill me.”

  “We’re listening,” said Adar, pausing to give Tatan a chance to gather his composure.

  Tatan whimpered for a moment and then began to speak. “We took over an apartment on the west side. I’ll give you the coordinates,” Tatan blurted, between bursts of unintelligible noises.

  ***

  Daloi, worried about Tatan’s absence, called Mike on a cell phone she had acquired. “Mike, is Tatan with you?” she asked.

  “No. I don’t know where he is. One moment we were in a strong embrace, and a moment later, he vanished.”

  “What do you mean he vanished?” asked Daloi, afraid to hear the answer.

  “I felt him on top of me and then I didn’t. I don’t know how to explain it,” Mike said, sounding confused.

  “Did you hear that, Dholi? You have the personal transporter, right?”

  “Yes, it’s right here,” responded Dholi.

  “The Euclidian must have him. We need to get out of here now. Thanks for the warning, Mike,” said Daloi, hanging up.

  ***

  Daloi and Dholi fled the new apartment before Adar could catch them. This put Tatan in an awkward predicament.

  “Adar, that apartment looks like it could be the place. There’s no one there, though. Hold on. I just got another transport alert. Guess where it originated from?” Wylyy asked, rhetorically.

  “That apartment! Tatan, you warned them somehow,” accused Adar.

  “No, I swear I didn’t,” stated Tatan.

  “Bye, Tatan,” Adar said, grimly blasting away the remainder of the Cheoili’s body, except for one hand. “Make sure the captain gets this hand. Now send me to the coordinates of the transport alert,” Adar instructed.

  When Adar materialized, he identified his location as just outside Chicago’s Union Station, but he saw no sign of the Cheoili. Great! Another dead end. At least I got one of them, he thought.

  Part II

  New York

  Chapter 7

  One Down Two to Go

  Back aboard the attack vessel, Adar worked with Wylyy and the other crewmembers to plan his next steps. The four sat at a table in the area behind the cockpit to discuss options.

  The attack vessel was the size of two greyhound buses side by side. The cockpit was a room
y space that fit three people comfortably, the pilot, co-pilot navigator and technical officer who managed weapons, communications and ship-to-shore transport.

  A multi-use area behind the cockpit contained a shower, commode, transporter, kitchen and dispensary. The area could sleep eight and seat 20, as needed. The rest of the ship housed the engines and weapons systems.

  The ship’s skin appeared dull grey when inactive, though the special metal alloy of which it was made could change to any color or pattern to blend in with its surroundings­­­ and avoid detection by the Euclidean’s enemies. Equipped with both plasma and gravitational engines, the vessel needed to dock with the larger resource ship when interstellar travel was required. This meant Wylyy and his entire crew were stuck on Earth until the Andrea returned to retrieve them.

  Wylyy commanded and piloted the craft, while Kulick served as copilot and Rookelyy filled the technical slot. Their sole mission was to support Adar in his quest to capture or kill the escaped Cheoili. For the most part, they stayed onboard, except to occasionally raid a grocery store at night to obtain food. The crew used the ship’s scanning technology to explore different areas of Earth and sometimes to spy on its inhabitants. So far, their surveillance had provided little assistance in finding the Cheoili.

  “Rookelyy, have you received any transport alerts from the Cheoili?” Adar asked, not bothering to hide his exasperation.

  “No, not a one.” Rookelyy shared Adar’s disappointment. “I searched the area and didn’t notice them anywhere. Of course, they probably took on entirely new forms to evade us.”

  “I had our computer programmed to search new broadcasts for keywords about alien activity,” Wylyy stated. “Nothing new beyond the sighting of the Andrea and other so-called UFOs.”

  “Okay, patch me through to Commander Cobalt,” instructed Adar. “Maybe he can provide us with some suggestions.”

  Cobalt served as a planetary interrogation officer. An inhabitant of the planet Majorelle, he had humanoid features and blue reptilian-like skin. His species had a keen ability to learn new languages and perceive a person’s emotions regardless of their species. He had been placed in charge of logistics for the possible mining of Earth’s resources. He became familiar with Earth’s cultures, languages and cities. He also cultivated several operatives on the planet, using various forms of incentives.