The Time of The Cat 39

PRISON CAMP

The door had opened in the back of a different-sized room. Our preparatory steps were rewarded because we were facing a squad of Pugs. They hadn’t been expecting the transporter and weren’t oriented in our direction, but they were turning rapidly and most of them already had their weapons out.

Liz shot first, followed after a brief hesitation by Juan. After three quick shots, all into the same Pug, his gun was empty. I took a second longer. I had to assure myself that whatever was behind my target wasn’t something that was so vital that we couldn’t afford to disintegrate it.

Some of the Pugs were down when I erased the rest, but if I hadn’t fired when I did, they would have gotten us for sure. It’s really nice to have an overwhelming weapon that is quiet and leaves no mess. It makes for less cleanup afterward.

On a serious note, I wondered why the Pugs didn’t use the eraser-gun on us. I thought it was most likely to be due to the over-kill problem. They didn’t want to randomly destroy everything surrounding and behind their target. I also suspected that they were complacent about human fighting capabilities and didn’t think that it was needed, since they’d been unopposed to date. In addition, their splinter guns were totally lethal when used in close-quarters fighting. The only defense was to duck behind something the splinters couldn’t penetrate.

There were a couple of dead Pugs that Liz had shot on the other side of the room. Their splinter-guns were still on their belts and I salvaged both weapons. Liz’s gun was also nearly empty and I gave one to her. Juan was watching me closely as I did and I held one out to him.

“Waste not, want not,” I said. “You can’t get these things down at the local gun store, so we’ve got to pick them up when we can.”

“I understand.” He took it and shoved it into his belt.

We stepped over what was left of the corpses, Jefferson giving them a wide berth, and paused by the door exiting the room. Liz held her finger over her lips in a gesture to be quiet. There were people in the next room based on the sporadic, low conversation we could hear coming through the door. It sounded like several groups of people engaging in quiet conversations. We couldn’t make out individual speakers with any accuracy, though. I looked at Liz and said, “Could be a lot of people in there.”

She frowned and replied, “Might make it hard to see the Pugs, if there are any in there. Be careful. Shoot first if you’re unsure. We can always apologize to the survivors later.”

I carefully cracked the door inward while Liz stood ready with her splinter gun. The first view through the crack showed groups of people standing around in a large room and talking quietly. There were some sitting in groups on the floor also. As I looked to the side there was the distinct outline of a Pug’s face about five feet to the right of the door.

If there was one there, there was probably another one on the other side, I reasoned. It was a good thing the splinter-guns were so quiet. They allowed us to have more chances at stealth than if we’d been limited to explosive weapons.

I turned to Liz and pointed toward the enemy standing to the right. She nodded and positioned herself to my right with her gun ready. Readying for action, I handed the eraser-gun I’d been carrying to Juan. He slung it over his shoulder and I gave him a thumbs-up in approbation. I drew my splinter gun and took a deep breath, then opened the door fully.

Liz leaned out and shot the Pug to the right. As she did, I spun to the left with my right hand pointing the gun around the left side of the doorjamb. There was a second Pug standing guard over the door. He had been watching the mob of people and only caught my movement out of the side of his eye. I plugged him as he started to respond to the motion.

There was a murmur in the crowd as people turned towards us. The nearest were five Marines wearing utilities. A sergeant looked meaningfully at me and waved his hand both directions, signaling that there were more Pugs. He gave a quick order to the other four and they merged backward into the crowd making an effort to get people not to give us away by looking at us. After a brief pause, the nearby conversation started again, but more loudly this time.

The room was huge. Judging from the aircraft-sized door directly across the space from us, we were in a hanger designed to hold large jets. There must have been two hundred people there. They were bunched in the middle, away from the walls. I thought this was strange, but then I realized that it must be to give the Pugs some clear space around the edges of the group. Fortunately, there was enough noise and confusion to disguise our presence momentarily.

The sergeant walked a little closer, moving sideways and not looking directly at us. When he was about fifteen feet away, he stopped and said, “There are six others in here. They’re spread evenly around the room. Two on each of the other three sides. They move back and forth every so often, so they can keep an eye on all corners of the room. Move out here with me and you’ll blend in with the crowd. We aren’t allowed to get too close to that door.”

I looked him over carefully. He was about my height and gave the impression of calm competence and also complete honesty. I liked what I saw. He appeared tough and intelligent.

We casually moved out and blended in with the people nearest us, deflecting questions as we walked. Everyone wanted to know if they were being rescued and we simply nodded and told them to act as if things hadn’t changed. The sergeant walked along with me.

“We’re going to have to kill the rest of them before they give an alarm,” I said. “Let’s get the splinter guns from the two we killed and we can arm you and one other man.”

“We’ve got to be careful that we aren’t seen,” he spoke softly.

“You get the one to the right and I’ll pick up the left one,” I told him.

I sauntered over along the front of the crowd of people until I was in front of the Pug I’d shot. He was lying in a heap about twenty feet to the left of the door and his splinter-gun was still on his belt. The people nearest were looking at him and I could see a couple were trying to get up the courage to go for his gun, but it looked like they were so fearful that they really couldn’t make the decision.

I had no such problems and I ducked down and shortly had the creature’s weapon. I worked my way back to the sergeant, telling the people that I passed, “Just act normally until we kill the others.”

To give them credit, they did their best, but a guard on the left wall got curious and I suddenly saw him walking our way. The people along the left wall made an attempt to move closer to the center of the room as the Pug went by them. It was easy to follow his progress since I could see the motion of people’s heads as they moved away from him.

A sudden inspiration hit me and I dropped quickly to the floor close to the door we’d entered from. I tried to act dead as if I’d gotten a little too close and the guard had shot me. My ruse worked well. When the Pug reached a point where he could see along the back wall, he saw both me and his two comrades lying on the floor and he took several quick steps in our direction in order to see better. He neglected to alert his compatriot as he did and it was a big mistake.

He had raised his gun to cover the standing people and they shoved back from the door. As he scanned them suspiciously, I shot him and he dropped. This time one of the other Marines grabbed his weapon. I motioned the man to come over and we conferred as a group.

“Can we work our way through the crowd until we can shoot the rest of them without their being aware anything is going on?” I asked the sergeant.

“We’ve got to avoid some of the people near the middle of the room. They’re with the Secretary of State and they’d be likely to try to alert the Pugs,” he cautioned.

“What! The Secretary of State? What’s she doing here?” I asked in surprise.

Her name was one of those on the incriminating papers I’d picked up from the desk in Carlsbad. If nothing else, I had a serious conversation to have with the woman. The idea that the Pugs had grabbed her led me to believe that they were nearly ready to roll out their invasion plans in full force. They wouldn’t have taken someone so easily missed otherwise.

“She’s been a real problem since they dumped her in here with us,” he commented. “A lot of us have been here for several days. Some as long as a couple of weeks. My men and I were captured when we escorted a couple of trucks that were loaded with ordinance to a firebase near Kandahar. They brought us in here through that thing in the back room. The Secretary has only been here a couple of days. She’s already convinced the aliens to start selecting the military personnel for the nightly round-up.”

I paused at that, and then refocused on practical matters, “OK. You’ll have to fill me in on the whole situation later. Liz, you move through the crowd near the edge until you can take out the other Pug on the left side. Sergeant, you and your man see about getting the two on the right and Juan, you and I will slip around to try and get the ones on the far wall by the hanger door.”

It wasn’t a great plan, but it did account for all of the Pugs. The sergeant nodded and said, “We’ll do it.”

He looked at his gun and asked, “Any briefing on these things?”

I explained that there was no safety, except keeping your finger off the trigger. I needlessly emphasized that they were deadly. He assured me that he’d seen a number of people shot and already knew that.

Juan looked nervous, but said, “I’m ready. This will be my revenge on these despicable creatures.”

He and I started to move. Liz had already gone off, moving in a meandering fashion towards the left wall as she threaded through the captives. Juan and I followed after her moving rapidly enough to catch up.

“Let us get ahead of you and I’ll try to catch his attention when we’ve gone past. When he looks at me, you shoot him,” I instructed.

She simply nodded in response.

We gradually worked our way through the edge of the crowd until we were near the single Pug who was looking down the wall to see if his companion would show up soon. As we passed him, he fixed his eyes on the two of us and hissed something sibilant while raising his gun. He didn’t get the chance to shoot before Liz stepped out of the crowd behind us. She moved away from the people in order to get a clear shot and he started to swing his aim towards her. The arc of his gun’s movement suddenly stopped as he dropped. The three of us had shot him simultaneously.

At that moment, I heard loud hissing from across the room. The Marines had eliminated one of the guards stationed there, but the other had seen him fall. The Pug had cleverly dashed into the crowd and people were starting to try and get away from his vicinity. He was apparently shooting randomly and it was going to be a mess. Literally, everyone hit would die.

Juan and I ran full speed to the large door and cleared the edge of the crowd just as the two Pugs there were reaching the far, right-hand corner where they could aid the one that was calling for help. They were fast, but they couldn’t outrun the splinters.

We shot both of them in the back before they knew we were there. As they dropped, I realized that the crowd was a little quieter. I didn’t hear any more hissing. The Marines had killed the last Pug, leaving us in control of the hangar

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