Free Death Drop by Sean Allen

smuggled the Serum back and forth a number of times. He may somehow have discovered what he was smuggling and who he was smuggling it for and infiltrated our operation. It’s just a theory, Colonel, but the pieces fit.”
    “They certainly do,” the colonel said with a faraway look. His eyes snapped back to their usual razor-edged clarity and he fixed them on Otto again. “How in the hell do you know all this, Major?”
    Otto became agitated and rubbed his webbed hands nervously against each other. “Well—um—you see,” he stammered with an uneasy grin, “I like to play the runners in Trillis, Colonel.”
    The colonel stared silently back and the uncomfortable pause made Otto feel nauseous. “I can’t believe I pay you enough to bet on anything in Trillis,” Abalias said with genuine surprise. “What a man does with his pay is his own business, and it certainly seems that your extracurricular activities have given us a good lead to follow for figuring out this damnable mess!”
    Otto stopped fidgeting with his paws and breathed easier.
    “Who do you place your bets on in Trillis, Major?”
    “They call him… The Ghost .”
     

Chapter 9: Wretched Army
     
    “I see two possibilities,” Colonel Abalias continued. “Either this Mewlatai has gone rogue and is acting on his own as this Ghost character, or our Mewlatai allies have turned against us. But in either case, I’ve never heard of a Mewlatai breaking his code of honor for any reason—they’d rather die than be dishonored. It just doesn’t make any damn sense!”
    “Mewlatai rogue,” Malo grunted.
    The Colonel and Otto stared at the Moxen giant with doubt.
    “How do you know that?” Otto said.
    “Mewlatai say he find Serum maker and eat him. Say he kill entire house.”
    “He is a rogue Mewlatai!” the colonel gasped. “Did he say anything else, Malo?”
    “Name… Blangaris !” Malo spat out the word like it was bile, choking his throat and eating away at his tongue. Suddenly, an inferno ignited in Malo’s brain and the jolt of pain that went careening through his body caused his vision to blur momentarily.
    “Malo, are you all right?” Blink said.
    He moaned in pain and stumbled into Bertie, reaching out with his immense hands to catch himself. Before the doctor could climb the steps and look into Malo’s large pupils, the pain had vanished as quickly as it came.
    “What the hell happened?” the colonel asked.
    “Malo head hurt.”
    Colonel Abalias and Otto both turned to Dr. Blink with concerned stares.
    “Don’t get too excited, gentlemen. Malo has been through a tremendous physical, not to mention emotional, ordeal. It’s not uncommon to feel some after effects.” Dr. Blink was unruffled and his calm reaction soothed all of their doubts.
    “Can you contact your Mewlatai correspondent and ask him about this Blangaris?” Otto asked Abalias.
    “No, Major. The frequency is set to work one way only—from the Mewlatai to me. That’s all. We need to find out what he injected Malo with, and then I think I have a plan to find this Mewlatai and uncover the truth.”
    The colonel turned to Dr. Blink, who was standing next to Bertie. “Artie, are you going to tell us what he’s been injected with?”
    “Um—well—yes, you see—the problem—unfortunately, with the medical unit being evacuated…”
    “Spit it out, Artie!” The colonel had reached the end of his fuse.
    “I’m sorry, Colonel, I seemed to have used up my last syringe.”
    Colonel Abalias found it hard to believe that Bertie didn’t have a syringe hidden somewhere in his seemingly endless array of storage bins and compartments. He was about to express his disbelief to Blink, but the words didn’t have time to materialize; instead, they were forced from his mind by pure instinct and reflex.
    Abalias heard the shell hurtling through the air overhead before the explosion rocked the base. The frosted viewing panes of the examination room erupted in a