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It was almost midnight when a young man hurried towards the reception desk at the Collingswood clinic and spoke breathlessly to the security guard at the desk.
“I have only just heard about him, I have been away working in the Brazilian rain forest, and so I was completely out of touch with the events back here in civilisation, please tell me if my friend David Charlton is any better.”
Jacob Baer had been working at the clinic for two long and boring years. He had been forced to retire from a job that he liked, the Washington DC police department, at the mandatory age of sixty years, and needing a supplementary income he had become a security guard, as too had many a retired police officer before him. The man standing before him looked hot and tired after his hurried trip to the clinic, and very much like a worried friend of one of the patients of the clinic. Therefore, as Baer was a friendly sort of person he looked down at the computer screen before him to try to help the man, even if it was very late and most of the hospital staff had gone home to their beds. Colum Branis hand reached down and pulled out a small compact Phaser weapon, he had to force himself to carry out his order, but the thought of his loved one drove him on. He felt pity for himself and his victim as his finger found the trigger of the powerful weapon, the scar that ran from his hairline to his right eye stood out boldly now, almost angrily. As another moment went by, Jacob Baer felt the red hot energy bolt sear his heart, he never heard the high pitched scream of the Phaser pistol he just fell dead to the floor, he had never even realised what was happening to him.
Branis looked down at the dead body of the guard, but it was not Jacob Baer he saw lying there, but his young girlfriend, she was coughing up large amounts of phlegm as violent coughs racked her slim wasted body. He had known that she would soon die if she were left to live in the town of Idalou, as had seemed so very likely before he had decided to volunteer for special duties. The price of getting her and her family out of Idalou was his taking part in the mission.
Branis pressed a button on a device in his other hand, and moments later the other Six men of the team rushed in from outside to join him. One of the other men, Retz Pula, a middle aged man who was attempting to achieve something in life after a lifetime of debauchery, pulled the dead man into the men`s toilets situated on the opposite side of the reception desk and hid the body in one of the empty toilet cubicles. He then donned the guard`s hat and jacket and assumed his place at the reception desk. Pula`s other reason for coming on this mission of violence was to ensure the wellbeing of his young nieces and their parents. Their father was his younger brother who he hadn`t seen in such a long time. Like him they had lived in one of the sprawling industrial centres, and like him they had be slowly dying due to the toxic smog that filled the streets of such cities. However, for them it was now so different, no longer would they suffer from the toxic air that filled such cities. They had been the price he had exacted from the authorities to agree to come on this mission.
While he was occupied at this grisly task, the other six men hurried to the elevators at the other side of the reception desk and took one of them up to the third floor, from where three of them headed into the room where the still figure of David Charlton lay on his bed. One of the remaining three men held the elevator open for their escape, while the other two men stood guard, one at the either end of the corridor to ensure that they were not disturbed.
Leor Amharic eyes were concentrated on the explosives that he was fixing to the underside of the bed, where they would go unnoticed by all but the most diligent of cleaners. Finally, he inserted a remote controlled detonator into the explosive and he was done. Getting to his feet, he looked across to the leader of the team of assassins.
“It is now ready Rohr; you can now proceed with the rest of our plan.
While Leor Amharic had been busy with the explosives, Marat Palau, a tall dour man of thirty with a long black beard, and even longer hair, had been busy installing a small camera recessed into the plastic cover of the ceiling light, where it would provide an excellent view of all the sick man`s future visitors. He too had finished with his part of the plan, and he now got down from the lightweight ladder that he had brought in with him. Palau`s looked across at the still figure of David Charlton and had to fight against his feelings of guilt at seeing the young man so dead to everything. Palau had been the man who had been chosen to act on that fateful night, when David had been thrown through the air to strike the concrete post. To calm his conscience he thought of his reason for coming on this mission. He wanted his brother and his family out of the slums of the industrial city where they lived. To allow them to start a new life, for they had been given a new apartment in the capital city of Mazere and a new job. Palau himself didn`t have a family, for he had lost his wife while they had been living in the toxic waste that was Idalou, the chemical capital of Mazere.
Rohr Javari now purposely set off all of the alarms on the many machines around the still figure of David Charlton to ensure that someone would tell Richard Charlton of the intruders in his sons` room, the three men now hurriedly exited the sick room and rushed for the elevator that was being held open and ready for them.
Ricoh Gaudi had purposely delayed his departure, to be seen by the medical staff that quickly arrived, in answer to the many alarms going of together. Gaudi was one of the men who had kept watch at end of the corridor; he was the youngest member of the team and eager to get on with the task that they were all occupied on, as his friend had done earlier that day when he had unfortunately died, when he had attempted to destroy the starship. Gaudi now entered into the sick room and awaited the arrival of the medical team. As they entered, Gaudi brandished his hand Phaser at them and then rushed from the hospital room seemingly in a panic. As soon as he arrived at the waiting elevator, Rohr Javari pushed the button to return them to the ground floor.
“At least four nurses saw me Rohr, and they will tell John Blazer and Richard Charlton that there was at least one intruder in David Charlton`s room. The two men will almost certainly hurry across immediately to the clinic to ensure that he wasn`t harmed in any way.” Ricoh Gaudi declared excitedly. He was only seventeen years of age and small even for a youth of that age, being only five feet three inches in height. He had a boyish face with dark brown hair and matching eyes, unlike the others he was still beardless. He weighed only one hundred and twelve pounds and was quite lean; the chances on his filling out though were slim, given his chosen occupation.
On exiting the elevator, six of the men quickly left the clinic and returned through the darkest of the streets of Washington DC to the apartment that they rented near to the spaceport. The seventh man who was Ricoh Gaudi didn`t go with his comrades, he simply crossed the road where hidden by the trees of a nearby park, he awaited the arrival of the teams intended victims. He had a small monitor with him, which occupied half of his attention, the other half being fixed on the entrance of the clinic. They would not only kill the captain of the planned space expedition, but also the man bankrolling it, this they thought would kill off any chance of the planned expedition from happening, now or in the foreseeable future. He carried with him a picture, it was in his pocket; it showed his younger sisters and their mother. He smiled when he thought of his mother, for she was recovering nicely after getting out of the toxic smog that had filled the town where they had all lived. Now they could breathe clean air and grow strong.