Jason King: Agent to the Stars 1: The Enclaves of Sylox by T. R. Harris Page B
Authors: T. R. Harris
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real cousin. And if she did work for one of the conglomerates, then outing her wasn’t really that serious of a thing.
I was actually excited about telling Jennifer all I knew, along with my suspicions. Unfortunately, I never got the chance.
All I remember when the elevator door slid open was the brilliant flash of light and the excruciating pain in my chest. After that I welcomed the darkness that followed….
**********
When I came to I was strapped to a cot in a dimly-lit room with dirty concrete walls. The scene was almost too cliché as to be laughable – if it didn’t involve me tied to a cot in a dimly-lit room with dirty concrete walls.
The pain in my chest was from a Level-2 flash bolt. It hadn’t meant to kill – at least not a Human – only to stun. But whatever its stated purpose, it still hurt like hell.
So Miranda’s people didn’t like me snooping around, up to and including the point where they’d resort to kidnapping to make their point. Kidnapping – or Unlawful Detainment as it was called here – was a serious crime on Sylox, as it was on Earth, so this made me think these people were a little more serious than I’d first thought.
Now, as I looked around the room, I wasn’t really scared. I’d been trained to handle things a lot worse than this. Besides, I didn’t know anything. Miranda was a mystery to me, and if her people wanted me to back off trying to find her, well, you didn’t have to ask me twice. I wasn’t anxious to find her in the first place.
I was alone in the room and growing more impatient by the second. I had things to do today, including a closing at three. I just wished whoever abducted me would come in and get this over with.
“Hey, I’m awake!” I yelled out. “And I’m ready to answer your questions! Can anyone hear me?”
Silence was my answer.
Even though I was strapped to the cot, I was still able to see the dial on my watch. It was Mid-0:32, or twelve thirty-two. I was sure I would need a change of clothes and to put some ointment on the flash burn before the closing, so I figured I had to be out of here by one, one-fifteen at the latest.
I called out again. “Hey, dickwad, I don’t have all day! Let’s get this interrogation going. I can’t wait to spill my guts, tell ya everything I know, and then some!”
Finally the door to the cold room opened and two men entered, who were clichés themselves. Both had dark complexions, with coarse black beards. They wore functional khaki-colored pants and short-sleeve shirts, and each carried a compact MK-24 flash-repeater weapon.
“Why don’t you shut up, big-mouth.” The taller and fatter of the pair said.
“But if I shut up, how can you get any information out me? I’m ready to talk. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
My two captors exchanged confused looks.
“We don’t want to know anything, at least not yet,” said the second kidnapper.
“If not now, then when?” I asked, truly concerned. “C’mon, ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
My two guards looked at each other again.
“I have nothing to hide, so you’re just delaying the enviable. The sooner you get to the questioning, the sooner we can all go home, both kidnappers and kidnappee.”
Just then another being entered the room. This one was an alien. I’d seen his kind before on the streets, but I didn’t know the name of the species. He was a typical Prime, almost to the point of being a Human clone. But the hard-looking plates growing along each side of his face, along with the excessive amount of gray-colored hair on his head and arms, definitely classified this thing as an alien, and an old one at that. I watched as the two Human thugs deferred to his leadership.
“Lift him up.”
The Human lackeys untied my restraints, allowing me to sit up on the cot. My hands were still bound at the wrist in front of me but my legs were free. Obviously, these wannabes thugs hadn’t read the gangster manual on how
I was actually excited about telling Jennifer all I knew, along with my suspicions. Unfortunately, I never got the chance.
All I remember when the elevator door slid open was the brilliant flash of light and the excruciating pain in my chest. After that I welcomed the darkness that followed….
**********
When I came to I was strapped to a cot in a dimly-lit room with dirty concrete walls. The scene was almost too cliché as to be laughable – if it didn’t involve me tied to a cot in a dimly-lit room with dirty concrete walls.
The pain in my chest was from a Level-2 flash bolt. It hadn’t meant to kill – at least not a Human – only to stun. But whatever its stated purpose, it still hurt like hell.
So Miranda’s people didn’t like me snooping around, up to and including the point where they’d resort to kidnapping to make their point. Kidnapping – or Unlawful Detainment as it was called here – was a serious crime on Sylox, as it was on Earth, so this made me think these people were a little more serious than I’d first thought.
Now, as I looked around the room, I wasn’t really scared. I’d been trained to handle things a lot worse than this. Besides, I didn’t know anything. Miranda was a mystery to me, and if her people wanted me to back off trying to find her, well, you didn’t have to ask me twice. I wasn’t anxious to find her in the first place.
I was alone in the room and growing more impatient by the second. I had things to do today, including a closing at three. I just wished whoever abducted me would come in and get this over with.
“Hey, I’m awake!” I yelled out. “And I’m ready to answer your questions! Can anyone hear me?”
Silence was my answer.
Even though I was strapped to the cot, I was still able to see the dial on my watch. It was Mid-0:32, or twelve thirty-two. I was sure I would need a change of clothes and to put some ointment on the flash burn before the closing, so I figured I had to be out of here by one, one-fifteen at the latest.
I called out again. “Hey, dickwad, I don’t have all day! Let’s get this interrogation going. I can’t wait to spill my guts, tell ya everything I know, and then some!”
Finally the door to the cold room opened and two men entered, who were clichés themselves. Both had dark complexions, with coarse black beards. They wore functional khaki-colored pants and short-sleeve shirts, and each carried a compact MK-24 flash-repeater weapon.
“Why don’t you shut up, big-mouth.” The taller and fatter of the pair said.
“But if I shut up, how can you get any information out me? I’m ready to talk. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
My two captors exchanged confused looks.
“We don’t want to know anything, at least not yet,” said the second kidnapper.
“If not now, then when?” I asked, truly concerned. “C’mon, ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
My two guards looked at each other again.
“I have nothing to hide, so you’re just delaying the enviable. The sooner you get to the questioning, the sooner we can all go home, both kidnappers and kidnappee.”
Just then another being entered the room. This one was an alien. I’d seen his kind before on the streets, but I didn’t know the name of the species. He was a typical Prime, almost to the point of being a Human clone. But the hard-looking plates growing along each side of his face, along with the excessive amount of gray-colored hair on his head and arms, definitely classified this thing as an alien, and an old one at that. I watched as the two Human thugs deferred to his leadership.
“Lift him up.”
The Human lackeys untied my restraints, allowing me to sit up on the cot. My hands were still bound at the wrist in front of me but my legs were free. Obviously, these wannabes thugs hadn’t read the gangster manual on how
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