Chapter 4

This assignment was a bit on the strange side. I was completely nude, so, in the interest of creature comfort, I had absorbed my cock and balls up into my body. I was on a jungle planet and my skin was colored a mottled green for camouflage. This time, for weapons, I was depending entirely on my built-in flame thrower and light machine gun. I was on a rescue mission: a humanoid female executive had been kidnapped by a criminal cartel and they were holding her for ransom. The ransom was not money, but inside information on what her company planned to launch for new products in the coming year. I didn't know what the criminals expected to gain from this, but I was here to rescue someone in trouble, not to debate business plans.

The woman was being held in a cage-like prison on an island in the middle of a swamp. It would be hard to imagine a more unpleasant location, what with the noisome smell of the swamp permeating everything. There was the odor of rotting vegetation and decomposing flesh, plus the sickly-sweet aroma of several large flowering plants. As soon as I hit the place, I asked Honeybunch to cut my smell detection to the minimum safe limit. Honeybunch was monitoring my olfactory sensors so that I would not stumble onto something dangerous, and I almost sympathized with her, even though she could do it without experiencing any distress.

There was some sort of dampening field in operation that kept the advanced technology at The Center from just snatching the woman to freedom with the transporter. Whatever it was causing the problem, it was necessary for an agent to go in and physically rescue her, and I was volunteered. Naturally, I didn't mind, but it was more fun to bitch about it.

I was forced to leave conventional weapons behind because of the sophisticated detectors the criminals had distributed around the island, but what I had with me was surely enough to cover my ass. I was also as proficient as it was possible for a human body to be in all of the martial arts, so I was deadly in what my Japanese friends call "empty-handed" fighting—nobody who is trained in the art is ever weaponless.

I had traveled just over 13 miles through the jungle from my entry point. Any closer, and there was a danger that I would have tripped some sort of warning device. The trek had not been difficult, just tiresome. I did have to discourage a snake-like carnivore that tried to eat me, but I took care of that problem by jamming my right arm down its throat and activating the flame thrower. It was quickly discouraged by the 9,000 degree plasma my weapon emitted. That damned snake was over 50 feet long and quite capable of swallowing me whole, which it tried to do. As it was, all I got were a few scratches which Honeybunch healed in less than a minute; it sure is nice to have the right kind of friends.

I came to the lake surrounding the island while it was still dark, as was according to plan. My eyesight was sensitized by Honeybunch so that I had no trouble seeing in true color as well as I would have during a normal day on Earth. I looked around to make sure that the description of the place as provided by intel was correct. I am as lazy as the next guy, so I didn't want to fight my way through the lake if there was an easier way to cross it. Well, no such luck. I was going to have to stick to the original plan.

The first step was to submerge myself in the water and change my skin color to a dull gray on my back and fading to a light gray on my belly. I would return to the mottled green camouflage later, if it was warranted.

I didn't expect any trouble from swimming creatures in the lake, since it was not large enough to support anything of the size that could threaten me. However, there were some plants in the lake that could be a problem. They resembled a kind of sea anemone, and their tentacles imparted an electrical shock. As long as I did not submerge too far, I should be OK.

I can hold my breath for 15 minutes at any level of exertion, and up to two hours at rest, so my plan was to swim to the island just under the surface. Honeybunch adjusted my weight so that was easily done. I took a couple of deep breaths and set off to rescue the damsel in distress. I reached the island in 12 minutes, so there was no problem with having to surface to breathe.

Honeybunch shifted my skin color to a uniform non reflective black, and I slithered up onto the shore. Honeybunch can change my skin color in seconds, and I don't have to monitor the operation, so I was like a super chameleon with the way I could meld into the shadows. All I really had to worry about was casting my own shadow.

I can be very supple and agile when I try; it is a feat truly amazing to watch. I practically oozed up the steps onto the veranda of the building surrounding the lady's cage. There was one guard patrolling the veranda. He seemed to be a cross between an 800-pound gorilla and a porcupine. It's a cinch, no ordinary person would try to subdue him by jumping on his back, and I wouldn't either. It was almost ludicrous that he carried an enormous, iron-bound club with a spike. It was certainly a weapon that mirrored his appearance.

This guard was no surprise, as I had been warned to expect him. I had also been warned that he was implacable—once he selected a victim, he would not stop fighting until one of you were dead. I didn't want to start a major fire, but I hoped to get close enough to him to use my flame thrower. I was reluctant to use the light machine gun because of the noise and the fact that I doubted how much good it would do me.

There was nothing wrong with the guard's eyesight, so I had to be careful as I approached him. I suppose that I could have avoided him for a short time, but he had to be eliminated if I was to make a successful escape with the woman captive.

There was no furniture or potted plants or anything else that I could hide behind, and there were damned few shadows that I could hide in, so it looked like I was going to have to face the guard head-on. Shit, where had my luck run to.

The guard did have the general internal construction of most Earthly animals, so I could rely on my training to guide me to the best striking points. I had to get inside the swing of that gigantic club, so I had to approach him fast and toward his front. It seemed to me that his most vulnerable sites were his solar plexus and his throat. Like mine, his genitalia were hidden out of the way inside his body, so that was not a likely target.

I let the guard circle the veranda which ran all of the way around the building. Once he was out of sight, I stood upright on the veranda in front of the main doorway and shouted as loud as I could, "HEY, YOU BIG BASTARD! I AM AT THE FRONT DOOR! COME AND GET ME!" It did not make any difference what I said or what language I used, he was going to come charging after me as soon as he heard my voice.

I had my plan of attack and I had it set up with Honeybunch. All I had to do was wait for the guard to show up, and that was only seconds away. Even though the guard could kill me if he could get to me, I was not apprehensive. However, I was pumped full of adrenaline. Honeybunch would shut that off as soon as the fight was over, but I needed it right now.

I was not completely sure which direction the guard would come from, so I was standing with my back to the wall and watching for him from both directions. I sure as hell didn't want him coming up to my back and catching me by surprise.

Sure enough, he came from the expected direction, so that was one point for me. The trouble was, this game didn't pay off on points! As soon as he was close enough, I jumped at him, feet first. My weight was down to the minimum so that I could jump farther. I hoped that would catch him by surprise, which it did, though I am not sure that it made any real difference.

This fight had to be over quick, or I was a goner. Just before my feet made contact with the giant's solar plexus, Honeybunch flicked my weight to maximum, and I hit with over 500 pounds concentrated in my feet. That had to be unexpected, and the giant bent over as he tried to recover his breathe.