They were both massive in size and build. One was shorter, with freckles, hypnotic blue eyes and light-colored hair atop his head that would have been brilliant orange if he didn’t have it cut so short as to make him almost appear bald. The other man was black, and towered over the ginger-haired man by a good six inches. Adam had spent a lot of time around top-notched examples of male physical perfection during his time with the SEALs, and this man would have easily ranked in his top ten. He could have been the starting linebacker for any pro NFL team, or a finalist in the Mr. World bodybuilding competition — the man was that massive and cut.
Both men approached Adam, the pale, freckled monster-of-a-man smiling warmly.
“Adam fucking Cain, at last,” the man said through a thick baroque English accent. And before he knew it, the man’s massive fist had impacted the left side of Adam’s face.
The blow was tremendous, sending the smaller man crashing to the floor, momentarily stunned. As lie on the floor, Adam could already tell that his left eye was swelling shut and his lips felt numb.
Riyad and Sherri began to rush to his aid, but the hulking black man stepped between them and Adam, blocking their way.
Just then the ginger-haired man smiled even wider and extended a helping hand to Adam. “Sorry, mate,” he said. “It’s just that I’ve been waiting such a long time to meet you.”
Regaining his senses, Adam wiped the blood out of the corner of his mouth. “You have a funny way of say hello … mate!” he replied. Reluctantly, Adam extended his right hand.
The large Brit grasped Adam’s hand with his left and pulled, easily lifting Adam from the carpeted floor — and promptly laid another massive blow to the same side of Adam’s head. He tumbled to the floor once again, this time rolling on his side and moaning from the pain.
“Stop it!” Sherri yelled, looking around the barrier that was the giant black man. “You’re killing him!”
“I’m afraid not, Ms. Valentine,” said the blue-eyed man.
“Enough!” Ludl yelled. “Leave him alone Mr. McCarthy.”
McCarthy nodded and stepped away. Adam dizzily got to his feet, just as Sherri and Riyad came to his assistance, each holding him up by an arm.
“I’m Nigel McCarthy, British SAS,” the man said crisply. “And this is Mr. Carter Thomas, formally of your U.S. Army Rangers. We have been tracking your progress for a very long time now, Mr. Cain. And…” McCarthy began, looking directly at Sherri, “…if it were up to me you’d all be dead by now.”
“Well, it is not up to you, Mr. McCarthy,” another voice from off to Adam’s right said. He painfully craned his neck, and through his right eye — the only one still open — he spotted another Klin, this one older than Ludl and wearing a long silver cape over his broader-than-normal shoulders.
McCarthy grunted something and then moved away, joining Carter Thomas by the large bay windows. The Pleabaen approached Adam, scrutinizing the damage done to his face by the large Brit. The entire left side was now swollen and almost beyond recognition, rapidly turning an unnatural red and yellow in color. His left eye was completely shut, with blood dribbling from his mouth and nose.
“Oh my, Mr. McCarthy, you sure have made a mess out of your fellow Human. You see, Mr. Cain, we Klin would never have caused such pain to one of our own. That is what makes us superior to you and your kind.”
“On that, I will agree,” Adam said feebly, the entire left side of his head one throbbing mass of pain.
“Please sit him down before the desk,” the leader of the Klin said. Sherri and Riyad obliged, much to Adam’s relief. He was still quite dizzy.
The Klin moved behind his desk and took a seat, while Sherri and Riyad sat in the available chairs to either side of Adam. Ludl remained standing near the edge of the couch where McCarthy and Thomas now sat.
“I am Linuso Summlin, the Pleabaen of the Klin people. I am their supreme leader at this time. I would like to welcome you all to the planet Marishal — even though Mr. McCarthy here has already taken much of the majesty out of the moment. My welcome would have been much more cordial.”
“What’s this all about?” Sherri inquired, anger in her voice. “And who is this fucker McCarthy in the first place?”
The Pleabaen smiled. “Misters McCarthy and Thomas are the supreme representatives of your race here on Marishal, helping to coordinate all the activities of those whom you call the Converts and the 2G’s.” He turned to address the two Humans seated on the couch. “And I will now ask that you both leave and give me some private time with our new guests. I will meet up with you again later. Please leave us now.”
Adam, through his one good eye, could see the reluctance in both McCarthy and Thomas — especially in McCarthy — to grant the request. There was a power struggle going on in the room, and Adam and the others were going to win this round. As the two hulking Humans got up to leave, Adam painfully flashed a bloody grin at McCarthy. The ginger-haired Brit simply returned a glower of his own before leaving the room.
Chapter 44
The Pleabaen now turned his undivided attention to the three Humans seated on the other side of his desk. “You have all arrived at a very opportune time — at an almost magical moment. You are here at the culmination of a journey that has taken the Klin nearly four thousand years to travel, and you and your kind are playing a major role in this upcoming event.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Adam. “We’re your muscle against the fucking Juireans. But it’s been the Klin all along who have pulled the strings in this war.” In his battered condition, Adam didn’t feel like playing nice with the Klin any longer. “I hope you feel good about the deaths of billions of innocent lives you caused, people who were not part of your god-damn grudge match against the Juireans.”
Linuso was taken aback slightly by the ferocity of Adam’s comments. “It is nothing personal, Mr. Cain, I assure you. Currently throughout the galaxy, there are only about two-hundred thousand surviving Klin. Times have been tough since the days of the Juirean betrayal. We will always need surrogates, up until the time when we can come once more into the open and claim a suitable world as our own. At that time, our kind will once again flourish in the light of day and we will have no need of beings like you.”
Adam suddenly turned dizzy again and fell against Sherri. “Isn’t there something you can do for him?” she cried out, dabbed away some of the blood from Adam’s mouth with the sleeve of her tunic.
“Of course there is, Miss Valentine, my apologies. I simply wasn’t expecting this outcome from the meeting between you and Mr. McCarthy. We know everything there is to know about Human physiology, including some truly amazing medical advances which we may someday reveal to you. Let me call in some assistance.” Linuso keyed a comm button on his desk and a moment later two more Klin entered the room from a side door, followed shortly by a third.
“Ah, here is Senior Fellow Limmore. He has served as the senior intermediary between us and your Mr. McCarthy for some time now,” said Linuso. “He is an expert on what you call Human Nature.” He then turned to greet the other Klin. “You can see what your charge has done to our distinguished guest, Limmore. It was quite barbaric.”
Limmore took a seat to the side of the desk. “I would expect nothing less. It is, after all, what makes the Humans so valuable to us.”
The other two Klin came over to Adam and began their examination. After a moment, one of them pulled a jar from a small bag and began to dab some of its contents onto Adam’s swollen face. Almost immediately the swelling began to subside. The other Klin then took a small metal device of some kind and placed it against Adam’s right temple. Adam’s eyes suddenly grew wide.
“That’s amazing,” he said. “My headache’s gone, as is most of the pain. That shit’s amazing!” He blinked several times and could now see much better through his left eye.