He felt his opponent wrap him in a bear hug and Grant flashed back to the Minith in the Mother Ship. Reflexes took over and Grant's knee struck home with force. Enough force to make the man cry out and sink to the ground. Grant staggered away from the man and looked at him through blurred vision. The man was not going to get up.
"Ain't that a motherfucker," he said. In his earlier life, the knee had been a devastating weapon but not to this extent. He silently thanked Tane for the ability to do such damage. The new legs that the small scientist was quick to brag about had come through once again. Grant began to feel a new appreciation for the body he had been given.
He shook the stars from his head and took inventory. Roughly two dozen spectators stood about but no one made a threatening move. The girl sobbed quietly and cradled the broken wrist to her body. The black man rocked himself gingerly on the ground, his hands clasped tightly to his groin. He wheezed. Grant retrieved the chain from where the other man had dropped it and tossed it at the man's feet.
"I think you dropped this," he gasped through tired lungs. Several of the crowd laughed and the black man looked up through tear-filled eyes.
"Thanks. I've been looking all over for it," he managed hoarsely. The man smiled and slowly uncurled his body. It was apparent he was still in serious pain. He squatted on the floor of the Fourth Square building and grabbed the chain.
"You take it. You earned it." He tossed it to Grant who caught it easily and draped it over his shoulders like a scarf.
"Thanks. Now, can you direct me to the Inner Square?"
The black man smiled and shook his head.
“Yeah. Eastern door is blocked. Been that way for years. Closest door is to the South.” The black man pointed to the south and stood up slowly.
"That's some knee you've got there, partner. I've been kneed in the balls before but never like that. Where did you learn that?"
Grant smiled. The man would never believe the entire story, so he told him part of the truth.
"A skinny little scientist showed me how."
"That must be some scientist. Think he'd show me?"
"Next time I see him, I'll ask. Good enough?" The black man eyed Grant doubtfully, unsure if he was joking.
"Yeah. Good enough. I'm Mouse. It's not my real name, but I like it. Supposed to be the name of a fierce animal that lived a long time ago, but who knows?"
Although he had yet to see a mouse, Grant doubted the little critters were extinct as the big man seemed to think. Along with rats and cockroaches, they would no doubt outlive mankind. He considered telling the prisoner what kind of creature he was named for, but decided against it. The irony of such a large man being called Mouse held a certain appeal.
"I think I've heard that too, Mouse. A very ferocious animal, I believe."
Mouse smiled at Grant's agreement, apparently pleased.
"Come on. I'll take you to the southern door. It is a rough journey for one man to make alone."
Mouse bent down and lifted the girl from the ground. She still cried with the pain of the broken wrist.
"Help me with, Sue. She doesn’t talk much, but she’s the best friend I have. Then we'll begin."
“Of course. My name is Grant, by the way.”
Pleased to meet you Grant. Your knee, not so much.” He still hobbled from the blow to his groin.
Two hours later, the three arrived at the south door. Standing guard at the door was an even larger man than Mouse and when he saw the small party approaching his door, he stepped forward in challenge. "No further, little ones."
Grant and his escorts stopped short of the door. Grant looked at Mouse who was smiling. "I guess we have to fight this guy, Mouse?”
"Only if you want to proceed toward the Inner Square.” Mouse stepped toward the large guardian. “I call challenge!"
"What? Mouse, I can't let you do this. This is my fight, not yours."
“Grant, this man and I have been avoiding our battle for too long. I have elected not to challenge him until now only because Sue has asked me not to. I will wait no longer."
"Come, Mouse," the guardian called to the black man. "It will be a pleasure to choke the life from your darkened skin!"
Mouse looked to Grant once again, his eyes were serious as he said, "Do not interfere, Grant."
Grant nodded. He would not interfere. This place, known to the outside world as Violent's Prison, held its own code of honor and social propriety. Grant took Sue's good hand and led her a distance from where Mouse stood. She struggled silently against Grant's hold and he realized that she was a mute.
"It's okay, Sue," Mouse calmed her. "This won't take long. Then we'll be on our way to the Inner Square. Just like I promised you."
"Not in this lifetime, Darkie," the guardian taunted. He hefted a broadsword and flashed it quickly through the air. The blade cut a deadly path.
Mouse did not appear affected by the man's show. He turned to Sue. "Hon, today is the day." He twirled the chain Grant had returned to him and advanced.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sue drew the length of thread slowly, expertly through Mouse’s skin. She showed little emotion. The splinted joint was swollen and blue but she did not seem to notice it as she worked on her man.
Unlike the girl, Mouse grimaced with pain as his left arm was stitched closed. The door's guardian had almost caught him in the chest with the long blade of his sword, but he managed to duck aside at the last moment. Now, Grant and the two prisoners sat around a fire in the open area between the Fourth and Fifth Squares. It had been Grant's decision to wait until the next day to challenge the final square and that gave Sue a chance to close Mouse's wound.
"Almost done, Sue?"
"A war wound you can be proud of, Mouse. I count about twelve stitches." Grant found the giant's unease at the sight of his own blood somewhat amusing considering his abilities to fight and his status as a feared fighter of the Fourth Square.
Mouse looked at Grant sideways. "What are you about, Grant? What type of man are you?"
" I don't know what you mean."
"Yeah, you do. You're not like the rest of us. And certainly not like those outside of here.” He waved to the stone walls around them.
"It's a long story, Mouse. I guess you could say I'm a throwback to an earlier time."
"There! That's what I'm talking about! You say the strangest things. I mean, what the hell does that mean, huh? 'A throwback!' What the hell is that?"
Grant chuckled. His language was six hundred years behind the times.
"Sorry, Mouse. Sometimes I forget where I've come from and where I've been. A 'throwback' is someone who belongs in the past. My time was about six hundred years ago."
"I can relate to that, Grant. I've always felt like a... a throwback. That's why I ended up here, I guess. Nowhere else to go, really." Sue patted Mouse on the shoulder, a signal that her handiwork was finished. He inspected it briefly and smiled at the girl. She beamed at the approval and sat down next to him, content.
"Would you like to leave this place?" Grant watched Mouse's reaction closely. He was met with a cold stare of doubt and suspicion.
"You mean the Fourth Square? My friend, we already left there. Nowhere left but the Inner Square. We’ll make that tomorrow."
"That's not what I mean, Mouse. I'm asking you if you would like to leave this place. This prison?"
Mouse’s eye drilled holes. He shook his head.
“That is not possible, Grant. Believe me. I have heard it before. No one has ever made it out of here. Plenty have talked about it. I’ve heard of some who have gone to the Outer Wall and jumped. Thought they could swim through acid. You don’t seem crazy like that, though. What kind of nonsense are you trying to sell me, friend? Tunnel out? Build a carrier? A boat that can cross the moat? What? There is no way out of here. Ever."
Mouse spat.
Grant smiled. Put a hand on Mouse’s shoulder.
&n
bsp; “Let me tell you a story.”
For thirty minutes Mouse listened. Grant described his history and his reason for being in Violent’s Prison. Mouse asked a few clarifying questions, but remained mostly silent while Grant relayed his story.
"Well? What do you say? Are you with me?" Grant watched the other man's face. The doubt was easy to see. Before he had a chance to answer, another voice spoke.
"Yes."
Grant and Mouse looked at Sue, their mouths agape. Grant had assumed the girl mute, and from the look on Mouse's face, he had as well. As if to rub their noses in the surprise, she spoke again.
"Yes. We are with you." She returned Grant’s stare. Her eyes blazed with determination, courage and conviction.
Grant blinked first.
"I'll be damned, Grant. My lady can talk."
* * *
Grant awoke the next morning to a dead fire and sore muscles. The ground in Violent's Prison was hard. Packed solid by the incessant footsteps of its inhabitants, the ground was a solid stone-like surface. He sat up and looked around.
Mouse was still sleeping on the other side of the fire's cold ashes. Sue sat next to Mouse, quietly and calmly staring at Grant.
"Good morning," Grant said. The dead taste in his mouth made him yearn for a toothbrush. He would be lucky to find a clean sip of water to rinse his mouth.
Sue nodded her greeting, and Grant wondered if the girl had once again fallen into the role of a mute. His thoughts were quickly answered.
"Did you mean what you said? About leaving here?"
Grant glanced at the sky, unsure of the answer. The invitation to leave the prison had been directed to Mouse, not the female who traveled with him. "I can't promise anything," he compromised. "It may not be up to me."
"Who is it up to?"
"The men I told you about yesterday. The scientists and politicians."
"Politicians?" The look on Sue's face told Grant she had no idea what he was talking about.
"Never mind."
Mouse stirred and sat up.
"Is it time to move on?" he asked. He rolled his shoulders and looked down at the stitches Sue had crafted the day before.
"Not yet, Mouse. There are a few things I need to know before going on."
"What?"
Grant stood and stretched. He needed to work the soreness from his body. He arched his back and swung his arms in a circle. It felt good to move and he went through a brief cycle of calisthenics.
"Who is Titan?" he asked as he moved.
"What? Who is Titan? Grant, where have you been for the past fifteen years?" Mouse gave Sue an incredulous look, unable to believe, for whatever reason, that Grant did not know the name Titan. Grant did not miss the same look returned by Sue.
"I've been frozen at the bottom of a fucking lake. Now who the hell is Titan? Everywhere I've been since I entered this place, I hear the same damn name -- Titan. Who the fuck is Titan?"
Mouse shook his head skeptically but answered Grant's question. "Man, Titan is the meanest, most violent Violent in this prison. Damn, this place was built for men like Titan."
"Yeah? What did he do to deserve such a reputation?"
"He flattened about a hundred people for his eighteenth birthday! He went totally off the Violent scale, man! It took about twenty Peace-loving citizens to restrain him and even then it was no easy thing to do. The man is huge. You think I'm big? Titan makes me look tiny.
"It took him three hours to make the Inner Square when he ended up here. And he killed every guardian he fought. Not a peaceful Violent, like you or me. He kills because he loves to kill. No other reason. Hell, just a few years ago anyone who went violent out in civilization was called a 'Titan'."
Grant shook his head. Inner Square in three hours. Impressive. He would be a dangerous foe.
"Sorry, but no. Never heard of him." Grant calmly finished his calisthenics and shook the last of the soreness from his muscles. "You ready to go?"
Mouse sighed. Stood up.
"Why not? Hell, Titan's waiting for us."
"He'd better be, Mouse. I didn't come all this way for nothing." Grant turned toward the Inner Square, inconspicuously checking the transmitter inside his belt. Mouse and Sue brought up the rear.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"I want the human returned!" Zal’s fist banged the tabletop. "Immediately!"
The puny human male from the Interpreter Corps nodded dumbly. Zal smelled the fear. The human was fearful for his life. As he should be.
"Y-y-yes, Minister. I shall p-p-pass your command along to the Leadership Council."
"If the female is not returned within two days, your race will forfeit three more of its farms. And another for each day thereafter! Is that understood, puny one?"
The interpreter could not find his voice so merely nodded his pale countenance at the newly appointed Minith Minister. He no doubt wished for the return of Brun, the previous Minister. Zal had no doubt that his predecessor would have coddled this one.
"You are dismissed, human." Zal waved the tiny male away and thought of the missing female. How had she gotten away from the ship? She could not see in the light. And who had killed the two guards in the corridor? It was a mystery and he detested mysteries. Zal was certain that the return of the female would allow him to solve the dilemma.
* * *
The news of the Minith Minister's threat was a physical blow to the Leadership Council. Still reeling from the destruction of three sub-farms and the deaths that had occurred, the debate over how to proceed with the Minith Minister was quick and unanimous: Find the girl and return her to the Minith. The human population could not afford the loss of another sub-farm. Already the cost paid in human lives at the first three farms was too great to bear.
N’mercan Culture Leader Randalyn Trevino immediately passed word to Mr. Blue. "Deliver the girl back to the Minith Mother Ship."
Blue smiled from one of the couches in his apartment as he terminated the call from Culture Leader Trevino. He summoned one of his assistants and promptly carried out his orders.
* * *
Grant and his two companions approached the door to the Inner Square. Mouse was armed with his chain, Sue with nothing but a knife. Grant still carried the wooden staff and ten-inch blade. The guard saw them and stepped forward to meet their unspoken challenge.
"Halt."
Grant stopped six feet from the guardian and motioned for Mouse and Sue to stand behind him. "Good day, Guardian. We desire passage into the Inner Square."
The corners of the guardian's mouth turned up in a parody of a smile. His eyes sparkled.
"Forgive my rudeness, stranger, but that is one request I cannot allow to go unchallenged. What business do you have in this Square?"
"I’m looking for Titan. I have a proposition that I think he’d like to hear. I don’t want to fight you for passage. But I will if I must."
"You say you wish to speak with Titan, eh? You are far braver than I, stranger. Go through my doorway and good luck with your journey," the guardian said as he stepped to the side.
The other side of the doorway was dark and uninviting, and Grant studied it skeptically. He considered it unlikely that this guardian would move aside so easily unless a trap lay just within. Apparently, Mouse was affected by the same apprehension for he whispered to Grant so that the guardian could not hear.
"This is not right. It is too easy."
Grant nodded his head but a fraction. He studied the darkness inside the doorway. Anything or anyone might be waiting for them inside, but it was a challenge they had to meet if they were to reach Titan. Grant observed the guardian for clues but the man's emotions were veiled, ungiving. The man would make an excellent poker player. He turned back to the door and, with a shrug of his shoulders, walked into the gloom on the other side.
"Here we go," Mouse whispered as he pulled Sue close to his side and followed Grant
into the darkness of the Inner Square.
* * *
"You're going to do what?!" Tane could not believe what he was hearing. He knew Blue to be a self-serving pompous fool, but he had not thought the man capable of this.
"I am doing as I was ordered by the Council, Senior Scientist! It is my duty to do so, as it is yours not to get in the way. It is beyond my control now," the overweight man said. He studied the nails of his pale, beefy hands.
"But don't you – I mean, doesn't the Council understand what this could mean? All of our work – our efforts to relieve ourselves of the Minith could come to nothing if we send her back to them!" Tane saw the indifference written clearly across Blue's features and he tried another approach, searching for anything that might sway the other's actions.
"She knows too much about our plans. They could torture her to tell them everything she knows! We cannot allow her to be returned to them. Don't you understand? Doesn't the Council understand?"
Blue raised a hand to stifle a yawn. Tane seriously considered a commission of violence upon another human. His anger was swatted away by a soft voice. It cut cleanly through the tension.
"I will tell them nothing, Tane." Tane and Mr. Blue turned to find Avery standing in Blue's doorway.
"Avery," Tane muttered, suddenly unsure of what to say. He had not meant for Avery to discover what the Council wanted them to do. To send her back to the Minith would mean certain death. But not before an even more certain torture.
"Avery, I know you would never disclose our plans willingly. But the Minith are cruel monsters. They will commit severe Violence upon you."
"Tane. I have served them for years. I know what they are capable of." Tane saw the truth in her words and could almost believe her when she told him, "I will not tell them anything."
The woman's words ended any arguments Tane possessed.
"Have you provided the hospital with a recording of the Minith language, Avery," Mr. Blue asked.
"Yes, it was completed yesterday."
"Good, then your purpose for being here has been served. It is the Leadership Council's decision that you be returned to the Mother Ship. I will arrange your departure within the hour.