Chapter 6

Assti opened her eyes slowly. Her head was throbbing, the sun was setting, and the light was harsh and glaring. Assti estimated she’d been out about 2 hours. Slowly looking down her body, she saw the little bastard hadn’t tried to molest her. Not more than twenty feet away from her, his slightly rotund body was perched on a ruined section of wall. Again, she tried not to gag from the rancid aroma of filth that emanated from his body. Trying not to make a sound, she tested her hands; they were bound? What the hell? How in the hell had he gotten her shield deactivated?

Tantka was feeling pretty confident now that he was on the planet. He had a foolproof plan to kill fart boy, and as an added bonus, he’d captured that assassin bitch who’d stalked him for months. A sound behind him drew his attention to the skinny, flame-haired beauty; she certainly was looking pissed at him; good, she deserved it after chasing him for so long.

“By now, I’m sure you’re wondering how I got through your shield,” Tantka said, chuckling at the death looks she was throwing at him. “It was quite simple, really; I have hacked almost all of fart boys’ programs; he’s so predictable. After I immobilized you, I just removed it. Though it isn’t as good as this one, I can tell it’s one of fart boys.”

Assti hoped the signal she’d sent out before she was hit had been picked up so her sister and Sam would know where she was.

“Now I have a present for you,” Tantka sneered, “I thought since you went to the trouble of chasing and finding me, I’d give you just what you deserve; plus, it’s about how I feel about you.”

With that, Tantka dropped his pants, revealing an extremely small cock and balls; aiming the head at her face, he commenced pissing in her face and hair. The smell was about to overcome her. She tried to keep her mouth closed as long as possible. Finally, a little made it past her lips.

The smell and the taste were just too much; she began to vomit uncontrollably. Laughing, Tantka began to rub his piss into her hair.

“There you go, you bitch, just what I think of you, hardly even worth the effort to piss on,” Tantka spat at her, “serves you right for trying to kill me.”

Assti could hardly hear him; she was vomiting so badly. Finally stopping, she looked up at him as he pulled his pants up.

“I have a confession to make,” Assti gasped out, “I was going to just kill you, but I think I’ll kill you as slowly as I can. I’m going to enjoy listening to you scream and beg for me to kill you, but it won’t come for a long, long time.”

Laughing even harder, Tantka replied, “You keep dreaming, you whorey bitch, as if I’ll ever give you a chance again!”

Tanaka turned to studying the capital city. Once it was dark, he could make his move. Looking at the power supply, he thought he had just enough to complete his mission.

Sam and Nissie had been trying to locate Assti for over 2 hours; they’d seen her reach a certain point, and then she stopped her comp and said she’d been hit by a stinger type of beam. Nissie was extremely worried when Mark awoke; running to him; she threw herself at him, crying; she thought her sister was in trouble.

Sam pulled up the last conversation with Assti, “I need Mark. That little bastard has a shield!” Nissie said, her voice almost frantic.

Mark thought for a few moments. Snapping his fingers, he turned to Nissie, “I think he still has mother’s comp. It was never recovered, and I assumed it had been destroyed. The thing he doesn’t realize is that I built that piece of equipment. I know all the codes, no matter what he has done to it. After all, I wrote all the basic programs for it.”

Mark walked over to a comp that was showing constant readings; sitting down, he began to type at a furious pace.

Sam was trying to keep up with what he was doing but Mark’s pace was a dizzying one.

“There, that ought to do it,” Mark said with a small smile on his face, “In about an hour, he won’t have anything.”

Sam was finally starting to understand all the commands that her brother was typing, but how the hell had he done it so fast? Looking up, Mark saw Sam with a look of confusion on her face. Puzzled for a moment, he stopped to ask her what was wrong.

“I’ve been helping you and have been your partner for over six years, and still, to this day, I can’t even begin to enter or write code even half as fast as you do,” Sam replied.

Chuckling, Mark smiled, then answered. “I was doing this for years before I left the school. We went through exercises an hour every day for years till reading and writing it this fast was almost normal.”

Sam continued to stare at her brother, hardly believing a word. He said, “All right, can you show them to me?”

Mark’s face beamed. Now he knew his sister was finally serious about maintenance work. “Sure, Sam, after we rescue Assti, no problem.” This made his sister smile, something he loved to see.

Nissie still wasn’t convinced that her sister was going to be safe. “Mark, we’ve got to rescue Assti! There’s no telling what he could have done to her!” Nissie said, almost beside herself with worry.

Mark saw the worry on her face and immediately began to type on the comp, again at blazing speed. Moments later, Mark’s face held a grim expression.

“Damn it!” Mark suddenly yelled. Nissie rushed to his side, the worry on her face even more clear. “That bastard has captured her!”

Nissie clutched at Mark’s arm, “we have to help her! If Tantka has captured her, then it means her tech failed!” Nissie collapsed in a heap at Mark’s feet, crying for her sister.

Holding Nissie close, Mark whispered in her ear, “I will personally go get her. That bastard is through hurting my family!” With that, Mark headed out the door without a word to anyone else, though the fact that he had taken his full pack was also not lost on anyone.

A mile away, Tantka dragged Assti to her feet, her face bruised and swelling, a small trickle of dried blood near her mouth. Laughing, Tantka roughly pushed her forward, her left eye blacked and swollen shut from his savage kick, her right slightly swollen from his slap. She did her best not to stumble as he began a hurried pace. Mark had been tracking Assti’s com and comp since he’d left. Damn it! She’d never put the last two updates he sent her into her equipment. Mark was less than a thousand yards from them when he found the spot he’d been looking for. Looking at his watch, he silently cursed; the shutdown codes he’d enacted hadn’t had time to work yet. Watching their position, Mark knew he’d have to time this almost perfectly; he couldn’t risk using the probes. Tantka might not be the best, but he was far from stupid. From what Mark was reading, Tantka had some type of probes of his own, though they were far, too far away to make any difference. Any moment now. Seconds later, Assti first rounded the darkened corner, followed extremely close by Tantka.

Mark stepped out behind Tantka without a sound, pressing the cold barrel of a plasma pistol to the back of Tantka’s head.

“I was going to say don’t move, but in your case, PLEASE move. I am more than done with you, you savage traitor!” Mark snarled, pressing the pistol even harder into the back of Tantka’s head.

“My, my, fart boy came himself. Should I be honored? Drop the weapon, or I’ll kill this fucking assassin bitch!” Tantka growled back, holding the knife he had held at her back, now across her throat.

“I don’t know why you are so damn smug. That comp is my invention. I wrote all the codes. I built it. I know ALL the hidden codes, no matter what you think you did to it.” Mark snapped back, hoping the codes kicked in soon.

Mark could see that Assti’s comp was finally starting to kick in; the bruising on her face was starting to lessen, plus she looked at Mark with a glimmer of understanding at his last statement. Mark watched as she slowly edged away from Tantka as much as she could. Suddenly, a tone erupted from the comp on Tantka’s wrist.

Assti used Tantka’s momentary lapse to break free. His eyes wide, Tantka kicked out, making Mark jump. Tantka scrambled away, not unlike a crab. Mark cursed himself for falling for Tantka’s trick.

Mark rounded the corner behind Tantka, but stopped short when there was no sign of him! Looking quickly at his comp, Mark saw no reading of him. Switching over readings, Mark soon found that Tantka was heading into the city at a rapid rate. Helping Assti to her feet, they made their way to his waiting speeder. How in the hell had Tantka gotten a speeder out here, waiting for him? Damn it! That was what Mark had thought was stray debris. He’d have to fix that later. They’d just made it to his speeder when Assti stopped him.

“I don’t want Nissie to see me like this. I can feel the med section of my comp healing me, but it isn’t fast enough. Catch that bastard. No, scratch that; kill that bastard. No fucking mercy, just kill him.” Assti said an almost begging anger in her voice.

Mark nodded, his own anger starting to mount. It was time to end this. He’d made a promise to his children, his wives, and several people who were close to his family. Opening his com, he warned Sam and Nissie to prepare and make sure they, the children, and the King had their com shields set to auto-activate.

Mark and Assti arrived only minutes after Tantka, but it was almost impossible to track him.

Mark could see that the swelling was half of what it was, but Assti still refused to see her sister till she was healed more. Mark agreed though he wasn’t sure of the cover story he was going to use. Walking in, Mark headed to the comp, almost ignoring Nissie and Sam, his anger more than apparent on his face.

“Did you get to her in time? We weren’t able to get clear readings.” Sam inquired. Nissie was standing directly behind her, and hope was clearly apparent on her face.

Mark had never been much of a liar and truly disliked those who lied to him, so, as always, he told the honest truth.

“Yes, I got to her in time.” Mark started, holding up his hand to quiet Nissie before she started, “She asked for a little time to heal before she came in. Okay? It was her request, not mine.”

Nissie nodded. It sounded just like her sister’s, thinking that Nissie was too delicate to see her hurt or weak.

Again, with blazing speed, Mark had well over half the lockdown procedures done when he heard his son yelling. Rushing to that part of the building, he saw Arthur against the wall, his shields at full intensity. Little Arthur was crying; in hushed tones, he said, “I tried to stop him, Papa. He had this weapon that pushed me, then finally caused my shield to pin me to this spot. I tried to stop him, but he took Catrina; I was showing her how to set the auto on her comp when he grabbed her. I’m sorry, Papa.” Little Arthur hung his head, afraid his father would be ashamed of him.

Gently nudging his face up, Arthur could see the pride on Mark’s face, “You did extremely well, son. Again, I promise you, I won’t let that bad man hurt your sister or anyone else ever again.”

Tantka needed a hostage if he was going to make it out alive. Ah! Children! Good, he hated children, especially little children. Grubby, little, filthy wastes of space, in his opinion. Hearing the boy explain the actuation, he quickly grabbed the girl. The boy’s shield snapped up, firing the stinger beam. It only pushed, then pinned the boy to the wall. Damn it! Fart boy had adjusted for the beam, well, no matter. Pulling the struggling girl from the room, Tantka ran as fast as he could for his speeder.

Mark wasn’t too far behind Tantka, not with Tantka having to hold a struggling Catrina. Making his speeder, Tantka saw Mark round a corner behind him, firing a few shots off and ducking as Tantka shot off.

Cursing himself, Mark grabbed the fastest speeder he could find and took out after him, knowing that Tantka was heading for his ship.

“Sam,” Mark said, speaking into his com, “have the shuttle prepped to meet me in case he lifts off the planet.’

“You have to get that bastard,” Sam cried, “I won’t have our daughter harmed by him.”

Mark nodded and agreed, pushing the speeder to its limit. He was soon within sight of Tantka. Damn it! Mark thought Tantka was too damn close to his ship; God only knows what traps he’s set up nearby.

Tantka suddenly stopped. Mark could see that he was struggling. Good, Catrina wasn’t making his attempted getaway easy at all. Good girl.

Turning and seeing Mark’s fast approach, Tantka’s face was a small mask of terror. Shoving Catrina back out the door, Mark could see her shield was active. She was okay. More concerned about his daughter than Tantka, Mark swooped in, grabbing her as he rocketed away, barely missing being singed by Tantka’s ship’s exhaust. Racing back, Mark left Catrina with Sam and Nissie. Running to his shuttle, Mark broke several windows with his emergency lift-off as he left the planet’s surface. Ah good! The tracker he’d planted earlier on his and the family’s last planet was still working. Accelerating, Mark could see that Tantka’s ship was indeed fast, but Mark had no doubt that he could catch him. Again, Mark had to push his shuttle almost to the breaking point to catch up to Tantka.