Dark Fire

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 4

Oriana had been gone for close to half an hour and it was
starting to worry me. The whole of her little trip was not
supposed to take more than twenty minutes. Killing that
doctor, if that needed to be done, was to come later.

I shook my head, not liking that thought. The idea of
killing someone shouldn't come so easy to me, no matter who
they were. It was just that some part in the back of my mind
was letting me know I'd done it before. But the image I kept
seeing was of choking someone to death, not shooting them
from across the room, which is how I have killed before.

The strange part was, it seemed to tie in with the one dream
I kept having every few days when I slept the little sleep I
did. Still, it's just a series of disjointed images of a
fight. I'm starting to remember choking someone in there, as
well.

Dangerous dreams... very dangerous...

Up at the front of the room a waiter slipped behind the
seated speakers, moving to a human who had just spoken. The
waiter gave the man a note and left. The human read the note
then let it drop to the floor.

This was perfectly normal, and had happened once before with
another speaker. No one seemed to have even noticed it. I
did notice though that whatever the note had said, it made
the man nervous. He keep tugging on the cuffs of his jacket,
his eyes bouncing from one door to another.

I drew in a slow breath. I was willing to bet that the note
said that Oriana had done her job a bit early, and Dr.
Grafrin's body had been found. He was now watching for
people to slip back into the room, betting one was the
killer.

He would be right too, unless I could head Oriana off and
come back in with her. I could provide some kind of cover.
Standing up I headed towards the exit at the back of the
room. The waiter manning the exit stepped in front of me.
"Sorry sir, we are not letting anyone out of the room right
now."

I frowned, looking this man over. He didn't look like the
normal waiters that had been moving in and out of the
banquet hall throughout the evening. His uniform seemed
about a size too small on his frame. I could also see the
bulge of a weapon inside of his jacket.

"Why not?" I asked, taking a couple steps back.

The man looked down at me. "There is a surprise coming soon,
we want everyone here for it."

I nodded, and walked a few feet away, standing just out of
his sight in a corner of the room. I had misjudged what was
going on. This didn't seem like it had anything to do with
Oria or her target. This was something else entirely.

I looked around the room, summing up the people who were
there. From what the speakers had said, most of them were
business heads, or generally high up in the government of
the Krein home world. As well as the three highest ranking
people on the Council...

My mouth was suddenly dry, and I reflexively gulped. I
Looked back over my shoulder at the guard on the door, then
back at the human speaker, who was getting more nervous as
time went by. This was a lot bigger than just the
assassination of a doctor. I started to walk towards Rachel
when the human speaker stood up.

"Sorry to interrupt you," he said to the person currently
speaking, "but we have a surprise speaker."

The other speakers all gave each other looks that said 'Did
you know about this?' while the current speaker shot daggers
with his eyes at the human. "Who is it?" someone asked.

The human just made a motion to the side door, and sat back
down. Through the door walked the new speaker. A human, just
a hair under seven feet tall, totally bald and with the pure
white skin and pink eyes of an albino. Grasion-- the one
person I had hoped never to have to see again.

He walked to the speaking podium, smiling as he looked over
the population of the room. He didn't seem to notice me, but
I suspected that might change in a few seconds. He smiled at
all of us. "Greetings, my guests."

There was a series of thumps as the guards closed all the
doors out of the room, and placed their large masses between
the room and the doors.

"What is going on here?!" a wolf demanded, standing up at
her table. A few others joined in.

Grasion smiled wider. "Look around. In this room is enough
power, controlled or created, to destroy a world."

"Or rule one," someone else said, their voice nearly a
whisper.

He didn't respond, I'm not even sure if he heard the
comment. Right then his eyes finally found me standing at
the back of the room. He stared at me, his eyes narrowing,
his smile becoming even wider, if that was possible.

I didn't look back, I grabbed an empty chair that was next
to me and swung it at the guard by the door. The guard
ducked the chair and swung one of his massive fists at me,
hitting my chest and sending me to the floor.

Grasion laughed. "Well done, Fox," he spoke the words as a
complement, "I see you've grown more of a backbone since
last we met."

My response was to gasp for air as I tried to pull myself up
onto my feet. I was only able to get to my hands and knees
before I felt a foot sitting heavily on my back.

I looked up and across the room; Grasion still stood behind
the podium, leaning forward a bit. "So, Fox, what brings you
to this side of the universe?" He glanced at Rachel. "Let me
guess... you're still being used by the Council."

"At times," I coughed.

He smiled at me, and walked out from behind the podium, then
over towards where I lay. He nodded to the guard, and the
foot was removed from my backside.

I took in a deep breath, and stood up, watching Grasion as
he calmly walked through the tables to stand a few feet from
me.

"Do you know that I've not been able to do anything without
you interfering since we first met?" he asked, crossing his
arms.

I smiled, adjusting my shirt. "I try to please."

"It isn't going to be easy this time, Fox. Right now, I
control this base and everyone inside of it. All I have to
decide is that I don't like how I'm being dealt with and
people will see the far side of an airlock."

I shrugged. "So you have hostages, what does that give you?
How many people will hate you for it? How many will just
work around it? How effective do you think it could actually
be to hold any of these people for any length of time?"

He laughed, "But you see, I want more than them. I want more
than just the power they hold. My plan is more than just a
simple hostage situation, it's about control."

"Of what?"

He spread his hands apart. "Oh, Fox, do you think I'm just
going to stand here and tell you what I'm planing?" He
sounded like he was disappointed in me.

I gave him my best winning smile as I said, "It would help."

He laughed again, then thrust one of his arms forward,
pulling his hand back, exposing his wrist, and something
strapped to it. As he did there came the sound of a muffled
gunshot, and a sudden pain in my lower chest.

I started to buckle over, reaching up to grab my belly. I
could already feel the blood seeping into my shirt as I
realized that I had been shot.

Grasion smiled, showing some kind of tube-like gun strapped
to the inside of his wrist.

"Nice toy," I whispered, falling to my knees. "I'll take
five."

The sound of his laughter was the last thing I heard before
darkness took me.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.