Chapter 21

Jamie jogged down the corridor behind Drake, Lakewood only a step behind her. So far they’d received a couple of strange looks but there had been no sign of alarm. She didn’t know how far they’d get before someone discovered that Lakewood had been sprung, but she was determined to do her part to rescue the rebel agent from his Hareema captors.

“Take the second left,” Herman directed, and Drake complied. “The high security area should be through the next set of doors.”

Drake took the door at a run, clearly wanting to keep the element of surprise. As they tumbled into the chamber, seven figures turned to stare at them. Six of them were outside of the cage in the center of the room, and one was inside it.

They were all different shapes and sizes. One resembled a human, another two were green-tinted Zantharian males. Then there was a creature that was seven feet tall and equipped with an extra arm. The other two guards were squat creatures with skin like rock.

Inside the cage composed of some kind of electrical shielding, a six-foot-tall block of red jelly wobbled in interest.

There was an immediate response to their entry. The six Hareema surrounding the cage came forward. “What is Lakewood doing out of his cell?” one asked.

Another came up from the other side. “And what are you doing imitating a Zantharian male in the throes of the mating frenzy?”

Mating frenzy. Those words sent a shock through her. Is that why his skin had turned black?

Drake struck out at the nearest guard, hitting hard and fast. The guard dropped, but another took his place. “Jamie, get back,” he growled at her, and she obeyed, moving back towards the door.

She watched at Drake became a blur, fighting for all he was worth. It was sexy, how physically accomplished he was. An excellent fighter, he was holding his own against six of the enemy. But he couldn’t hold out for long, because they didn’t stay down for long.

“Use Herman!” she yelled, and Drake shifted, ripping off his pack and tossing it to the floor. Herman rolled out, taking aim at the closest shapeshifter. There was a flash, and the creature exploded, red goo flying everywhere.

The other shifters moved back, obviously frightened by their secret weapon. Drake continued the fight, driving the shifters towards Herman who was rolling around on his own, taking aim. There were two more flashes. Two more Hareema were destroyed in explosions of jelly.

Only three guards remained. The one impersonating a human rushed towards a console, and Jamie realized he was about to send out an alarm. She ran forward and slammed into him, knocking him off course.

The shifter grabbed her around the neck, his arm becoming a red tentacle that gripped her so tightly around the throat that she could barely breathe.

She saw another flash. Another Hareema down. Drake grabbed the last one, a guard with rock skin, and decked him, knocking him to the floor. Herman rolled close and ran a charge through it.

When the creature exploded, Herman ended up covered in goo.

Jamie struggled, trying to pull herself out of the grip of the final guard. “Help!” she managed to wheeze.

There was a roar from across the room. Drake had caught sight of her predicament. “Let her go!” he roared.

“So you can blast me with that fucking thing? I don’t think so.” The guard took a step backwards, towards the console. “Keep that ball away from me or she gets it.”

“You’ll fucking regret this,” Drake growled through gritted teeth.

“She’s your mate, right,” the Hareema asked. “I’ll fucking kill her if you get any closer. And if she’s dead, you’re dead too.”
Jamie’s eyes widened. She did the math, adding together Herman’s revelation earlier with the Hareema’s words. The mating frenzy would kill Drake somehow.

The creature continued to back up while Drake watched with fury in his eyes. Jamie continued to struggle but it was useless. Her eyes pleaded with Drake not to do anything foolish, but she could tell by the strain in his expression that he was barely holding back his rage.

They were almost to the console when it happened. While the Hareema had been concentrating on her and Drake, he’d forgotten about Dr. Lakewood. The scientist had worked his way behind him, and now he’d knelt on hands and knees behind the guard. In a parody of a child’s prank, he caused the guard to fall over backwards.

In the fall, the guard lost his grip on Jamie. She rolled away, popping up to see that Lakewood had also scrambled away. Drake was on the guard in a second, and he showed no mercy. Jamie watched as Drake pummeled the creature in its face, over and over, with such force that after the third blow, the Hareema began to lose form, shifting into jelly.

“Oh no you don’t,” Drake grunted, rising to stomp the creature’s face. Over and over he landed his blows until the jelly lost shape again, turning black and leaving only a sickly puddle.

“Don’t you ever touch my mate,” Drake growled, breathing heavily.

Jamie stared at him, her heart beating so hard in her chest she thought it might burst out of her ribcage. She’d just seen him beat a man to death for threatening his mate. The feelings were confusing and overwhelming.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to dwell on things. Her eyes shifted to Lakewood who was examining the controls on the console. He pushed a few buttons experimentally, searching for the right combination to drop the shielding around the Hareema prisoner.

“I’m not familiar with these controls,” he said. “I don’t even know the language.”

Drake joined him at the console. “We just have to try different combinations until we find the right one.”

“We may set off an alarm in the process, or get locked out of the console before we discover the override.”

Jamie bit her lip in concern. They were sitting ducks in this room. It wouldn’t be long until someone discovered them.

Herman rolled closer to the shielding, lights flashing along his surface. “Dr. Lakewood,” he said. “I believe this shielding works on the same principle as Zantharian bioelectricity. If I hit it with a charge of reverse rotating current, it may bring the shielding down.”
“So stop talking about it and do it,” Drake shouted.

“The charge will have to be very large,” Herman warned. “It will deplete my battery such that I will not be able to discharge another charge.”

So if he frees the prisoner, we’ll lose our secret weapon. Jamie frowned, looking at the wobbling jelly inside the cage. Even though it didn’t have a face to speak of, she could still feel the waves of suffering coming off of it.

“Do it,” she said.

Herman gave an answering beep, then discharged the current. There was a massive flash as the currents entangled, then the light went out. The shield was down.

The block of jelly transformed, immediately taking the shape of a familiar face.

“Sylvie,” Jamie whispered.

“Thank you for freeing me,” the creature who wore her sister’s face said. “Although I do not know who you are or why you seek to save me.”

“Do you work for the resistance?” Drake demanded.

The Sylvie-creature nodded. “Yes.”

“Then we need you.”
Lakewood spoke. “We must move if we are going to have a remote chance of getting out of here. As it is, I find it highly unlikely that we’ll be able to get to a ship to escape.”
Herman whistled in agreement. “Even if we do reach a ship, the probability of getting out of Hareema space without being recaptured by enemy ships is .001%.”

Drake growled. “Fuck. We have no weapons, and our disguise is completely blown. How in the twelve levels of hell are we going to get off this base?”

Jamie ran a shaky hand through her hair. There was no way they’d get out without something else to distract the Hareema. A problem so big they’d have to ignore the five of them to deal with it.

An idea so brilliant entered her mind that for a moment, she couldn’t believe she’d thought of it.

“Do any of you know where the master control room is for the central prison cells?”

Four sets of eyes stared at her, and Herman’s lights flashed inquiringly.

“If we can find that room, I think we can create a diversion to get us out of here.”