“Why not flash rifles or something like that?” Sherri asked.
“These are much more subtle, missy,” McCarthy answered; Sherri bristled at being called missy.
“This doesn’t answer the question about what do we do when we get out of here,” Chief Rutledge said. “We’re up to our assholes in hostiles and no way off this rock.”
“Have faith, mate. Like I said, I’ve got it covered. I’ve seen the Klin operate in the past, with other races they’ve used and discarded. Even though they always said they needed me and my men, I never felt they gave us the respect we were due. I figured it was just a matter of time before they’d throw us all away, too, just like the others. Once we’re out of here, there’s a car park behind the building where we can get some transports out of here. Just stick with me and my men, and we’ll be out of here in a jiffy.”
Besides the eight members in Adam’s team — including Kaylor and Jym — McCarthy had Thomas plus five other extremely fit-looking men with him, all looking to be ex-Special Forces as well. All of McCarthy’s men were now armed with the blades, plus three extras which he passed to Adam, Tobias and Rutledge. Tindal, Riyad and Sherri armed themselves each with a length of pipe from the cots.
McCarthy and Thomas took up positions on each side of the door, and then the Brit inserted the key into a round hole in the door and turned it.
Thomas flung the door open while McCarthy bolted into the room outside. Two guards were there, natives of the planet Marishal. Before either could react, McCarthy had slashed down on one of them with the sword, severing the alien’s right arm. The cut was so quick and clean that the stunned creature had time to look down at its fallen limb lying on the floor and then over at its shoulder — a blank look on its face — before collapsing to the ground. Thomas had swung his blade low at the other guard, slicing through both its legs. The creature tumbled forward, and before it could reach the ground, the hulking black man had brought the blade back down from behind, severing the creature’s head from its body. Neither guard had made a sound as they died.
All the prisoners spilled out into the area outside the cell. The jailhouse was a small building, separated from the rest of the more elaborate structures that made up the Klin estate. In consisted of basically two rooms; the room they now found themselves in and the cell itself. Even though the jail had been built as a contingency by the Klin, they obviously had not been expecting to use it much.
McCarthy and Adam moved to the exit and cracked open the door, just enough to look outside. They were about a hundred meters from the main building, with the jailhouse sitting far off in a secluded corner of the grounds. There were a few trees placed aesthetically between them and the main building, and Adam could now see a large number alien cars parked behind the building between the structure and the wide lake.
“We need to get to the car park without drawing attention to ourselves,” McCarthy said. “Go out in twos and threes and walk casually toward the park. Nothing will draw more attention than fifteen people all sprinting across the lawn.”
“Roger that,” Adam said. He turned to his people and they all paired off, making sure that a Human was assigned to walk with Kaylor and Jym each — just in case they panicked halfway to the parking lot.
McCarthy turned to Thomas. “Get them all to the shuttle. We’ll meet you there as soon as we’re done.” Thomas nodded, and then slipped out the door, followed by all the others.
“What are you going to do?” Adam asked, suspiciously.
“It’s what the two of us are going to do, Mr. Cain.” McCarthy pointed a freckled finger at the main building. “See that antenna array on the roof? That’s the main comm link between the Klin command and the rest of galaxy. I’m sure you’ve been pretty impressed with what they can do as far as communications are concerned. Well it’s through that damn thing up there that all the magic happens.” He grinned broadly at Adam. “We’re going to take it out.”
“With what…these swords?” Adam protested. “You’re fucking crazy!”
“Have faith, mate. Like I said, I’ve planned ahead.”
The massive ginger-haired man stepped out of the jailhouse and began to casually stroll toward the main building; Adam quickly moved up beside him. The other prisoners were now about halfway to the parking lot, and even though they weren’t running, it was still an odd scene, as small clusters of Humans nonchalantly strolling across the green lawn of the estate, yet all headed in the same direction.
There were several aliens outside of the main building, some tending to the grounds, others coming and going from the huge parking lot. There were easily a hundred transports or more parked there. Occasionally, a few of the aliens would look over at the slowly approaching Humans and lock their gazes on them for a moment, but none pursued it beyond idle curiosity.
Tobias and Thomas were the first to reach the parking lot. Since most of the transports were sized to carry four passengers at the most, they would need either the largest vehicle they could find, or a convoy of four of the smaller cars to get all fifteen of them away. Thomas checked the door of a large truck sitting near the edge of the lot. It was unlocked — another consequence of the Klin’s trust amongst themselves. He jumped into the driver’s seat while Tobias run to the back and raised the rear door panel. As the others arrived, they began to climb in the back.
Sherri looked around just as she reached the rear of the truck and didn’t see Adam. Riyad noticed, too, and they both began to scan the grounds.
Adam was nearly at the main building by now and noticed when Sherri hesitate at the rear of the truck. They made eye contact. Sherri shook her head and raised her arms out to her side in a gesture of “What are you doing?”
Adam moved his right hand back and forth and then waved for her to go ahead. Still she hesitated, until Riyad grabbed her by the arm and almost threw her into the back of the truck.
Chapter 60
When McCarthy and Adam reached the side of the huge brick building, the SAS operative moved swiftly to a stone bench sitting near the structure, facing the lake and nestled in a cluster of small trees and bushes with brightly blossoming flowers. Using his considerable strength, McCarthy lifted the stone bench off its base and set it down on the grass. Inside the base Adam saw four canvass satchels.
The ginger-man pulled two of the bags out and handed them to Adam. “Do you know what cyclotrimethylene trinitramine is?”
“Yeah, it’s C4 explosive.” said the Navy SEAL.
“Well we’re going to climb to the roof the building and place these charges around the base of the antenna.”
“That’s pretty convenient, that you’d have these explosives just sitting here.” Adam said.
“I’ve been planning for this contingency for a long time. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to use these, but we can’t have the Klin sending out word to stop us as we’re leaving the planet, now can we? Knocking out their communications will give us a jump start. It’s basic stuff, Cain.”
Just then, a loud whooping sound rose up from seemingly everywhere around the estate. The two Special Forces operatives crouched down lower in the bushes and looked toward the prison building. There was a small car parked outside of it now, with several aliens — including a few Klin — scrambling about. Adam looked over at the parking lot and noticed that the truck carrying the team was now gone. He breathed a sigh of relief.