Capture Death (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 20) Read online

  Best chance is to get the Kurtherian to come out.

  “How?”

  Not sure. Tempt them using their sense of superiority. He or she will want to move to a better host than they have now.

  “You want me to find a tempting host around here?” She put a hand on her waist. “We could get one or both of the aliens killed.”

  Technically the uncle is going to die anyway, but I wasn’t suggesting we use a random stranger as the bait.

  It took her a microsecond to realize what TOM was suggesting. “No fucking way!” She started jogging down the roof. “You want me to use my own body so I can have two Kurtherians duking it out?”

  I’d rather think that there is no way another Kurtherian can beat me.

  “How sure are you of that?” she asked, her eyes scanning the street below as she continued moving along the roof.

  Not terribly, TOM admitted. That is why I’m not saying we should absolutely do this.

  “If you fail that fucker will have my body and I’ll die, and you along with me.” She caught sight of a Queegert and zeroed in on it as it wove through the bodies below. “That would end my revenge and breach my promise to save my people. Is one random alien criminal worth that?”

  >>Confirmed! That is Jermom.<< ADAM interrupted.

  Baba Yaga eyed the building across the street, then she took two quick steps and jumped, angling like a billiards shot to the walls a bit ahead of her quarry. Her foot was tilted as she stiffened her leg right before slamming into the building, and she twisted to her left as she dropped down from above. “Look out below!” she growled as all sorts of aliens looked up in surprise.

  —

  Gorllet, Eighth of the Eight, was relishing his new-found freedom. As a passenger in Teret’s body he hadn’t gotten a chance to use the senses, so he was enjoying the sensations, smells, and other…

  Shit. He looked down and wrinkled his nose. “What a dirty world,” he spat in disgust.

  While this alien’s body was somewhat simple, he rather liked the three eyes. It allowed for broader spatial awareness.

  Pretty handy, he had just decided when he caught the action above his new host. He stopped in his tracks and flicked up the three tentacles to block the rocks that started showering down on him as an alien dropped to the ground yelling a warning.

  His middle eye opened in surprise as the alien landed in front of him. The well-lit street backlit the alien, whose white hair was floating around her head.

  What surprised him the most was that she spoke Leath.

  —

  “Where are your brethren?” she hissed at him as he took in the armor. If this was to be a gun battle, he was woefully unprepared.

  Good thing it wouldn’t be.

  She pulled a pistol and casually shot him in the leg.

  PAIN!

  Gorllet fell to the side and grabbed his leg as she walked towards him. He hadn’t been prepared to deal with the body’s reaction, but now he shut down the nerve transmitters so the pain wouldn’t overwhelm him.

  Blessed relief! He stared at the alien as she squatted next to him, her pointed teeth bared in the reflected light. “Hurts like a sonofabitch, doesn’t it?”

  “I’ve had worse in life,” Gorllet replied as the pain diminished. Unfortunately, his body wasn’t going to operate too well at the moment.

  Wits it would be.

  “Not recently, I suspect.” She pushed on his wound with her pistol barrel, but he felt nothing. Two of his eyes looked down at what she was doing, and one kept looking at her. “In fact, the theory is you were a ride-along with one of the seven Leath that were seen leaving. Since you can’t seem to feel pain, I’m going to assume you are one of the Kurtherians I’m searching for.”

  He sneered. “You are the Witch. I will…”

  The vicious slap rattled the shit out of his vision and his head swung violently to the right. He shut down more pain connections as agony exploded in his ear from her slap.

  She finished his comment, “Not do a damn thing or I’ll kill your host, and then you will die when I burn the body.”

  Gorllet was refining the calculations for this situation, taking care to review the permutations, when she continued speaking.

  She pointed a finger at his body, then at the ground next to him. “You will come out of this host.”

  “Why?” He looked around at the locals, who had stopped to watch.

  He could hear someone from local law enforcement working to push his way through the crowd.

  “I’ll feed you so much pain, me shooting your leg will feel like ecstasy.”

  “You will kill the host at the same time,” he replied with a glint in his eye. “Where will that get you?”

  “Satisfied you are dead,” the alien replied. “He obviously wasn’t a good citizen since your people knew about him.”

  Behind the two of them, a police officer finally made it through the crowd. “Get back!” the Shrillexian demanded as he took in the two figures on the sidewalk, the stones all over the street, and looking up, the large chunk of rock missing from the wall above them. “You with the pistol! Set it down or I’ll…”

  Baba Yaga shook her head for a moment. “Just my luck Eddie the Ignorant was the first one on the scene,” she hissed to herself as she looked down at Gorllet. “Don’t you go anywhere,” she commanded before her head turned like a gun turret to look at the newly-arrived cop. “Officer, keep these people back or I’ll send you to a new dimension.”

  The officer’s eyes narrowed as he reached down and pulled his pistol. He was lifting his arm to aim when the white-haired alien disappeared.

  “Where did she…” He stepped forward and Baba Yaga appeared behind him. He was able to twist halfway around before she shoved him off his feet.

  This time he disappeared.

  Baba Yaga took three steps and resumed her squatting position near the Queegert. “There, now I’ve got some more time to play with you.”

  >>Would you stop messing around? I’m showing five more cops only half a block away.<<<br />
  This fucker is going to tell me where his people are.

  How are you going to make him do that? TOM asked. We can’t force him to speak, and killing him inside the body would kill the host.

  Who said I had a problem with that?

  Rather “Michael” of you to say that, Baba Yaga.

  Perhaps he had the right of it, TOM, she spat back. My patience has grown thin.

  No, your pain has grown too much, TOM argued.

  >>Can you connect to Jermom’s senses?<< ADAM asked the two.

  “What?” Baba Yaga asked aloud.

  “I didn’t ask anything,” Gorllet replied, confused for a moment before he smiled. “You aren’t alone!”

  The red eyes flared as the lips parted to show her sharpened teeth and she leaned forward, her right hand reaching for his forehead. “Well done, Kurtherian. That was your one hint that your future is about to be horrible. Welcome to hell…”

  Gorllet watched through Jermom’s eyes as the fingers touched his forehead. It was a tiny intuitive leap for him to switch from using the eyes to sensing along the links Gorllet had connected to his host to find his synapses and nerve fibril heads connected by the alien just a moment before he started screaming.

  The Witch had found him, and now he was on fire.

  The amount of pain being sent up his connections threatened to overwhelm him, but pain had been his constant friend for decades. What he received, he sent back in spades. He struggled to keep his wits as he withstood the attacks and looked for an opening to go back up the channel to attack her. If he could grab her consciousness, he would be able to transfer from this body to hers.

  Through his pain Gorllet kept internally focusing on finding the weak link, the forgotten thread he could use to move up through the host’s system and back to her. His laugh was maniacal, evil, as he realized he could end the war right now.

  Let’s see who bends first, Witch!<
br />
  —

  Captain D221 was expecting carnage as he made his way through the crowded streets. “Move aside!” he yelled as he considered ways to try and direct the innocents away from the fight.

  He really didn’t want to have a gun battle with an armored vigilante from another star system who was hell-bent on finding self-determined war criminals infesting the criminals of his city.

  The paperwork on the destruction and death would take him a month.

  Elbowing aside the last citizen in his way—some sort of alien with four sets of green ears and a yellow bump on their back—he stumbled into the cleared area to see the Witch.

  He assumed Jermom was the Queegert on the ground. She must have shot his leg, since there was blood. Both bodies vibrated, their eyes closed and her hand on his forehead.

  He made sure not to get near his gun.

  A short Torcellan touched his arm. “Are you looking for your officer?” The captain looked down, his eyes narrowed in confusion. The Torcellan pointed towards the Witch. “She pushed him and he disappeared.”

  D221 turned to stare again at Baba Yaga and Jermom. “Of course she did.” He grabbed his comm and clicked a switch. “This is Captain D221. Keep the civilians away from the two on the ground.” Releasing the call button, he nodded to another of his officers, who was making his way into the opening. “Get everyone to move back. We don’t know what’s going on with these two!”

  He turned to the crowd and started yelling for them to give the officers more room.

  He sure hoped Baba Yaga didn’t have any explosives on her body.

  —

  Gorllet found a link back through the connection to the alien’s mind and thrust his consciousness into it. Traveling past Jermom’s synapses and through the connection, he followed the path into the alien.

  FINALLY!

  You’re mine now, human! he crowed as he read her lineage from her mind. He was able to get some information easily, but it was proving difficult to dig deeper.

  He didn’t notice that the path back to his body closed behind him,.

  I don’t think so, a new voice said, interrupting his efforts.

  Who is this? He was mentally looking for the new traveler when pain spiked into him. This wasn’t like the pain from earlier, this was assaulting him in an area no other alien should be able to attack.

  He had been hit through a Kurtherian Etheric connection.

  Gorllet screamed in pain and frustration as the attacks continued hitting him, not allowing him time to get his bearings. He turned to flow back into his own body to get away.

  That was when he found out he was blocked from moving back into his old host.

  Welcome to Hell, the voice said to Gorllet. I’m your guide, Thales of Miletus. You may call me Death…

  Gorllet screamed in frustration, then pain, and then his consciousness ceased to exist.

  —

  Captain D221 saw a couple of the crowd cover their mouths and point to the bodies, so he turned back, only to see Jermom’s mouth open and a large worm-looking creature start to crawl out. It stopped moving while it was still partially in Jermom’s mouth.

  A few moments later, Baba Yaga started shaking her head and pulled her hand from Jermom’s forehead.

  She looked down at the worm and made a disgusted face, confirming in a hoarse whisper, “I’ve got to pull that out?”

  D221 looked around to make sure the citizens didn’t move closer.

  He watched as she grabbed the worm and pulled slowly, the emerging body growing longer and longer. “Oh God, this is gross!” she muttered. “I’d better get triple-time pay for this shit.” Her other hand reached over to grab another portion, and she continued to pull the creature out.

  D221 hoped it was normal for this Witch to speak to herself.

  She tossed about a body-length of worm off to her right side and shook her hand, flinging viscous fluid off her gloves. “Oh my God, I’m so burning these gloves.” She continued bitching for a moment before grabbing her right fingers with her left hand and starting to pull the glove off, “I know I can’t burn them, but I swear there’d better be a way to clean them or your ass is grass, TOM.”

  She finished pulling her glove off and cupped her hand, and a moment later a red ball started forming above her palm. When it had grown to about the size of her head, she tossed it onto the worm that was now slowly wiggling on the street.

  The sizzle of burnt flesh was immediate.

  Baba Yaga jumped up and put an arm over her face. “Oh, the SMELL!” Then, looking around, she ordered, “Someone get Jermom a doctor.” She looked down at the quickly shriveling black worm and murmured, “That’s going to leave a mark” to herself before she turned to gaze at the captain.

  “Captain D221?” she asked. When he nodded, she flicked a hand toward the Queegert. “Jermom should be ok.”

  He nodded. “How about my missing officer?”

  She smiled—not a very reassuring sight, as he would later write in his report. The Witch took a step closer to him. “I’d move a bit to your left.”

  The captain took a step. “No, two more of those tiny things.” She watched him step twice more. “Good.” She disappeared, then his officer appeared and stumbled right past where he had been standing a moment before.

  She didn’t reappear immediately and his Shrillexian officer looked around, caution in his eyes. “Where is the Witch, sir?” he asked, recognizing his boss.

  A moment later a gun was tossed out and bounced across the ground.

  A moment after that the Witch reappeared holding the ammunition cartridge in her hand, and eyed the Shrillexian with annoyance on her face. “Are you ready to act reasonably or am I going to have to stick my size-seven boots up your ass?”

  The captain looked at his officer. “Be respectful,” he told him, a stern expression on his face.

  “Don’t have to tell me twice.” He nodded to the Witch. “Can I have my weapon?”

  “Of course, but if you aim in my direction I’ll assume you wish to become a target.” She turned to the captain, keeping the officer in her peripheral view, and pointed to the dead worm. “One Kurtherian, dead.” She pointed to Jermom. “One Queegert, alive.” She pulled the hood back up over her head as those around them started pointing up. “I’m leaving. That bastard didn’t know where his people went.”

  “Off-planet,” the captain replied. “We traced them a few minutes ago.”

  “Well, that pisses me off,” she ground out as she looked up. “My ride is here. Take care, Captain.” She smiled at him, her white teeth glistening in the light that made it under her cowl.

  “Why don’t you…” he started, but she had vanished. He placed a hand over his eyes to block the light and saw what looked like a ship hovering above the buildings. A moment later the ship gracefully started moving up and turning to its left in the air before it disappeared, accelerating into the dark quickly enough to seem like it was there one moment, gone the next.

  He sighed. “Come to the office and help me with the paperwork.” He looked down at the Queegert and wondered what kind of person gave a shit about a criminal on an out-of-the-way planet like Devon.

  He looked at the burnt worm. She could have destroyed his body anytime she wanted to and saved herself the trouble of trying to keep Jermom alive.

  He looked at his officer, who seemed to be settling down. “Next time you see her,” he nodded his head in the direction her ship had taken, “how about you don’t pull a weapon?”

  “No shit,” the Shrillexian agreed. Then remembered who he was speaking to. “Sir,” he finished. He wouldn’t need either a battle or the Shrillexian medicine to calm his urges for a while. Being alone in that white milky dimension had taken care of his fighting needs, and frankly that bitch was scary enough to give him nightmares.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds

  Lance scribbled his signature on the tablet and handed it back to Cheryl Lynn. “
No,” he told her, his frown evident, “I don’t know where she is. You’ll have to deal with the requests for interviews, like I do.”

  Cheryl Lynn eyed the General with absolutely no humor in her eyes. “And how do you propose I do that? Use a hologram?”

  He snorted. “I wish. Wait,” he looked around before leaning in closer, “is that an option?” he asked, his voice low.

  Cheryl Lynn shrugged as she considered his question. “Should I check into it?”

  “Hell yes!” Lance leaned back and raised his voice to normal. “That all?”

  “Yup,” she answered, turning around and waving the tablet. “I’ve got permission to rule the galaxy now.”

  She stopped suddenly, her facial expression horrified as she looked back at Lance. “Forget I even said that.” Her eyes scanned those near Lance. “I don’t want it!”

  “Damn,” he muttered with a straight face, “so close.”

  She smiled and turned toward her office as Lance and those with him headed towards the military shuttle bays.

  John Grimes leaned over. “You don’t want to leave my cousin in charge of the galaxy, Lance.”

  Lance looked sideways at him for a moment and John shrugged before he continued, “Okay, I don’t want my cousin in charge of the galaxy. I love her, but ruling idiots isn’t a skill she has.”

  Lance slowed down as Eric walked ahead of them, a smile on his face as he went to check out the shuttle. “Hell, ruling idiots isn’t a skill most people have, but manipulating idiots is.” He nodded towards Cheryl Lynn’s office. “She can manipulate idiots with the best of them.”

  “She claims it comes from raising teenagers,” John told him. He caught Eric’s thumbs-up, then nodded for Lance to enter the shuttle. “All clear, so let’s get this zoot-suit boogie going,” John told him as the small group of support staff started up the gangway.

  The voice of the pilot came over the speaker system, causing Lance to raise an eyebrow at John. He shrugged and replied, “Said he wanted to come back to the front seat because he didn’t trust the ‘young’uns’ to ferry around the most important man in the Empire.”