Free Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour by Mark E. Cooper

of its holster and worked the latch on the door with her other hand. Inside, she found more darkness. Her eyes adjusted quickly and she began to make out a room sparsely furnished in the style of someone’s residence. Instead of a harvester’s shack, which this building most certainly had been before Millard’s arrival, it was a palatial residence—by Tigris standards. One wall held electronic equipment for Millard’s embryonic army, comm and vid mostly, but there was also an entertainment centre with a good selection of films. She took a moment to peruse the titles.
    Zelda and the Spaceways, Zelda Force Recon, Zelda and the Chaos Engine… Hmmm, a Zelda fan was he?
    That didn’t really surprise her after seeing Millard’s security arrangements. She crept through a door and found a long hallway with numerous doors leading further into the building. She was beginning to wonder if anyone was home. The first door on the left opened silently to her touch, but the room beyond was unoccupied. The next opened—
    Someone crashed onto her shoulders.
    Kate rammed herself backward and slammed her attacker against the wall, fighting to keep her pistol out of his grasp. Rather than allow him to have it, she dropped it and kicked it away. With that done, she counter-attacked in earnest. Her left elbow pistoned back. The explosive grunt behind her said she was on target. Once and then twice, she slammed it back to break his grip on her. She spun in a crouch to face him just in time to take a kick to her thigh. She went to one knee as her leg went numb, and a fist to the jaw rocked her head back against the wall.
    “That hurt,” she growled licking blood from her split lip. She pulled her knife from the sheath at her waist, and held it low before her. She was hoping he would move within reach. Her throbbing jaw made her want to gut him.
    “I meant it to,” the shadowy figure said and came forward.
    Kate swiped the knife at him, making him leap back, and that gave her time to regain her feet. Miracle of miracles, her leg supported her. She punched the knife forward and followed it with a high kick aimed at his head. He dodged both the knife and the kick, but he didn’t see her other fist coming.
    “ Ughh, ” he grunted as his nose was smeared across his cheek.
    “You Millard?” She feinted with the knife. “Well are you?”
    His eyes widened in sudden fear at the name. “No,” he gurgled, snorting and spitting blood.
    She didn’t believe him. Although he wasn’t a perfect match for his picture, he was the right age and build. If he wasn’t Millard himself, he must be a relative—the likeness was that good. Flicking the knife at his eyes to distract him, she went into a whirling dervish of kicks and punches designed more to confuse than kill. He blocked some with skill, but many more went home. He grunted repeatedly at the power she brought to bear. He lashed out and her head rang, but her blood was up and she butted him right on his broken nose.
    He went down.
    Kate dropped to her knees with both hands on the knife, and slammed it down to the hilt in his guts before he could move. His eyes popped wide in pain and shock as she worked the knife in his belly. He clutched at her arm like a drowning man clinging to a rope, but his grip was already weakening.
    She leaned close and stared into his eyes. “Why am I here to kill you, Millard? Why?”
    The man gave her a bloody grin. “I ain’t Millard…” he sighed and went still.
    Damn!
    Now Kate believed him. She retrieved her pistol from where she had kicked it, and paused to listen for any disturbance. Nothing. She checked the other rooms, not expecting to find her target, but she didn’t have another plan. The noise of her fight would surely have woken the dead let alone Millard. If he had been here, he would be long gone by now… but maybe not!
    She stepped into a bedroom and found a podgy man sleeping soundly with a mask over his eyes. This idiot couldn’t be