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Alternity 2 - Chapter 16
The trip took several hours. Tyr insisted on doing the driving so all Beka had to do was sit in the passenger seat and fret. She didn't like cars, she didn't like planets and she especially didn't like the forest once they entered the park proper.. Cities were bad enough but these trees were terrifying. They towered above her, in some places blocking out the sky. She was convinced that any minute something was going to jump out of one of the trees and try snatch her out of the car. Eventually Try asked her what was bothering her. His response did very little to calm her nerves.
"This is a public park Beka. Families come here on a regular basis. They tend to get annoyed when family members are eaten by the wildlife and generally take it out on the park officials. You can bet that the most dangerous animal we encounter in this park will be going on two legs."
Tyr drove the vehicle up to the front of Venst's cabin. There was only one vehicle parked near the cabin a beat up vehicle that even the poorest police department would turn its nose up at.
"I guess O'Riley's back up hasn't shown up yet," said Beka. "It also looks like being a professor here on Mohendjo Daro isn't a very lucrative profession. Shall we knock?"
They strode up to the door. Tyr knocked and then announced loudly. "Professor Venst. We're from the Argosy Criminal Investigation Service. Lieutenant O'Riley of the Palmyra police department sent us here to pick you up and return you to Palmyra."
It was fortunate that neither Tyr nor Beka had been standing directly in front of the door for rather than opening the door or even asking questions through a closed one Venst started firing a gun. Several bullets actually passed through the door and lost themselves in the forest.
"I don't think he believes me," said Tyr looking at the bullet holes in the door
"What do you suggest we do ?" asked Beka.
"Keep talking. Keep him occupied and his attention focused here on the front door. I'll go around to the back of the cabin and come in from the rear."
"We want him alive Tyr."
Tyr held up a metal rod about a foot long. "Officer Nogale's shock rod," he explained. "A tap with this will take him down with out any serious injury."
"How did you get Nogales to part with her shock rod?. Did you scare her to death?"
"Actually I asked nicely. She was happy to lend it to me when I explained why I needed it Now start talking." He moved away from the door keeping low to stay under the window that was located near the door.
Flattening herself against the cabin wall near the door Beka decided to try reasoning with Venst first. Maybe she could convince him that they were on his side before Tyr had to take him out with the shock rod. Her suggestion that he call the Palmyra police force and ask for Lt O'Riley was met with with another bullet through the door and Venst saying they could have killed the real cops. Beka pointed out that that they would have had to kill off the entire station. Venst then shouted out how could he be sure that that O'Riley wasn't on the take. Beka then told him that there was a mutual friend of theirs and O'Riley's at the station and to ask O'Riley to have the friend give him some information about the last time he saw Beka. Venst could then ask the question that the friend gave him to ask. She was babbling nonsense but she couldn't think of anything else to say and anyway her job was to keep Venst occupied not to make sense.
Venst didn't reply instead what she heard was Tyr's voice "'That sounded like something Harper would say. You can come in now. I have the situation under control."
Holstering her weapon which she had automatically drawn when Venst first started shooting Beka entered the cabin to find Venst sitting on the floor his hands behind his back with Tyr standing over the obviously groggy professor.
"Did you borrow Nogales cuffs as well?" asked Beka nodding at Venst's hands. "Why don't you gather up some of the professors personal belongings while I have a talk wit him. Maybe I can convince him that we really are on his side.
Tyr headed off in the direction of the cabin's bedrooms while Beka turned her attention to Venst. "You might not believe this professor but we mean you no harm. We're on your side. We've been trying to protect you from the people who killed your assistant but you've led us quite a merry chase."
"One that ends now," came a voice from the doorway.
Beka spun around to see Drummond gun in hand standing in the doorway.
Beka reached for her weapon knowing that Drummond had the drop on her as Drummond raised his But the firefight was interrupted before it began by the sound of shattering glass and the appearance of a pair of cylindrical objects falling on the floor between the two parties. An instant later there was a blinding flash of light and a thunderclap of noise.
When Beka's vision cleared she was greeted by the sight of Drummond lying face down on the floor. There were several holes in his back. Standing over him were Harkness, Nogales and several other police officers that Beka didn't recognize, one of whom was carrying a grenade launcher. Surprisingly Nogales was chatting amiably with Tyr.
Harkness held out his hand to help Beka up. "That's the second time you've been caught by an open door, Captain. Did you sleep through that part of your training?"
"I see you made an exception about only shooting a man who was facing you," said Beka looking down at Drummond's body. She didn't even bother trying to defend herself about the open door. Harkness was right. "But what made you think that your weapons would be able to hurt him?"
"I decided that I could live with my conscience in this case," said Harkness "I figured that his dematerialization trick must be under his conscious control and not something that happens automatically when something comes at him Otherwise he could find himself in an awkward position when something passed through him in the presence of witnesses. I figured the flash bangs would disorient him enough so that he wouldn't have it turned on when I shot him."
"And if you had been wrong."
Harkness shrugged. "I assumed you'd be smart enough to go out one of the cabin windows in the confusion. I didn't expect you to stare at the grenade when it went off."
"You could have used non lethal ammunition on him. Why did you kill him?"
"How do you secure someone who can walk through walls and is strong enough to pick up your partner over there," he nodded in the direction of Tyr who was handing over Nogale's shock rod to its rightful owner, " with one hand and toss him around like a rag doll. I didn't know if he had any other ticks up his sleeve and I wasn't going to risk anyone's safety finding out the hard way." .
"Point taken." said Beka though somewhat reluctantly "But how is it that you arrived just in the nick of time? I thought you said you had other work to take care of and would be along later."
"I detected a bug on your car when it was brought into the police parking compound. From what you told me Drummond's body guard must have planted when you where at Le Chat Noire. I decided to let Drummond follow you. Then I had Zachariah let me borrow some of his men and take a police copter here. We've been waiting for you for a few hours now."
"So you used us as bait and didn't let us know you were using us. Didn't O'Riley say no more secrets."
"Zachariah said that I never agreed to anything. Besides I didn't tell him about the bug, just that I thought it would be good if we got here first."
"No wonder you and Tyr are always butting heads," said Beka. "The two of you are just alike, manipulative conniving bastards."
"Maybe," said Harkness, "but I get the job done"
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