Andrew Mackay - Pink Symphony

Handax shot Katcheena in the shin and kicked her against the console, “Stupid woman. Where are the animals?”

Her colleagues tore across the room and made for the opened emergency exits.

Leif and Moses didn’t know whether to take potshots at the fleeing USARIC medicians, or train their guns on their captives.

“Handax, what do we do?” Leif called out over the screaming and crying.

“Shut up, I’m thinking.”

“Handax? People Against Animal Cruelty Handax Skill?” Katcheena went for her bleeding leg, trying to fight off the urge to faint. “Just kill me, you dumb animal-botherer. I’m telling you nothing.”

“I mean it, Katcheena,” Handax pointed his gun at her chest. “Tell me where they are.”

“Never,” Katcheena’s eyelids closed slowly as she slumped off the console and hit the ground. Handax watched as the last of the medicians barreled through the door to freedom.

“Damn it,” he screamed over the alarm and waved Moses over to the console. “Do it. Now.”

“On it,” Moses made a dash for the console and unfastened his shirt sleeve.

“How long to absorb the records?”

“Depends on their interface,” Moses lifted the plastic cover from the flat screen on the deck, “Last check, they’re storing fifteen terabytes of data so, maybe, two minutes?”

“Get on it,” Handax watched Moses press his forearm to the screen.

“Cee-Cee, connect,” Moses yelled at his arm as the ink reformed into three lines. “N-Gage. Four, five, seven.”

“N-Gage connection complete,” advised the calm female console voice, “Commencing data download.”

“We’re in.”

Handax and Moses shared a brief smile. Something resembling victory was forthcoming – as long as they got out in time.

“Hey, babes,” Handax shouted at Leif, who kept her gun on the two security guards from behind. “Take care of those two and come help me break these doors down.”

“Sure.”

BLAM-BLAM!

She shot each guard in the back of their right leg. Both men wailed in pain and dropped to their knees, clutching at their wounds.

Moses raised his eyebrows in shock at what she’d done.

“What are you doing?” Handax shouted over the alarm. “I meant tie them up, not shoot them.”

“Tie them up with what?” Leif bolted towards him. “I don’t have any ties.”

Handax grabbed her hand and pulled her across the console. She jumped to her feet and ran with him to the three doors on the far wall.

“That was unnecessary. You didn’t have to injure them.”

“They’re only human, it doesn’t matter.”

“Guys,” Moses hollered after them, effectively chained to the console by his forearm. “The data’s downloading. I dunno what you have planned, but whatever it is, make it fast.”

Handax turned to the first door and aimed his firearm at the handle. “Stand back!”

KERR-ASH !

The door burst off its hinges, leading into the second compound. A pungent smell of death greeted Handax as Leif followed him into the frosty cryo-chamber.

“Ugh. What’s that smell?”

“Smells like rancid butter,” Leif stepped forward and accidentally knocked Handax’s heel. “Ugh, I think I’m gonna be sick.”

The lights fizzed to life and illuminated the contents of the small room. Leif’s face fell when she peered from behind her hand. “Oh my God.”

Handax took a look around and felt his soul machete through his chest and run away from his body, “I don’t believe it.”

More cages. But this time, stuffed to the brim with animal carcasses. Most of them had tails and were long dead.

“No, this is a mistake. This can’t be right.”

One of the in-built storage units caught his attention. He slid the compartment out and stared at the gray feline carcass inside it. One of the lucky ones, by all accounts.

He lifted its hind leg. What was once a Russian Blue was no more. Attached to its foot was a tag with a name written on it.

“Bisoubisou?” Handax muttered. “But she’s—”

“—She’s on Opera Beta?” Leif interrupted. “Has been for nearly two years.”

“Guys,” Moses hollered from the central control unit, “I’m nearly done. Get ready to get the hell out of here.”

The illness Leif felt in the pit of her stomach was hard to take. Handax lowered the cat’s hind leg as gently as he could to the surface of the cage. “She never went.”

“I hate USARIC,” Leif freaked out and thumped the cage, inadvertently shuffling the carcasses around, “We were supposed to set them free. How can we set them free when they’re all dead?”

“Calm down,” Handax took her by the shoulders and tried to shake her back to reality. “Leif, please.”

“They’re all dead. USARIC killed them all.”

“Leif, you’re hysterical. Calm down and listen to me.”

“Let go of me, I have to rescue the animals!” She pushed him back and darted out of the room.

Moses looked over at her running towards the second door. “Leif, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to rescue whatever’s behind that second door,” she aimed her gun at the door handle and blasted it with her gun.

BLAM !

Handax chased after her with trepidation, “Leif, don’t go in there. You don’t know what you’ll—”

“—No, Handax. I’m going in.”

He closed his eyes and allowed her to carry out her quest.

In the second enclosed compound, a series of cages housed more than a hundred cats. They howled at Leif as she entered the room, each of them vying for her attention.

“Oh my God!” Leif clapped her hands together in delight. “They’re here!”

Handax bolted into the room after her and took a look around. “Oh, wow .”

A torrent of ‘meows’ flew from the cages, each and every one of them desperate for freedom.

“What are they doing here?” Leif asked. “Why is USARIC keeping them?”

SNARL … SNASH … HISS !

Two of the cats in their cages displayed their frustration at having been kept holed up in their metal cells.

“I dunno,” Handax scoured the room and attempted to count the felines on display, “There must be a switch or something that releases them all. It’d take forever to open them one by one.”

“Hey, little guys,” she approached the cages and addressed the wailing felines, “It’s okay. We’re here to set you free.”

Leif clamped eyes with a white American bobtail who seemed happy to see her, “Hey, gorgeous. What’s your name?”

“Meow.”

Handax looked around the room for the release switch. “I can’t find anything here. The cages are bolted shut. No individual releases. I’ll check with Moses.”

“Okay,” Leif didn’t turn around to see Handax run out of the room. She focused her attention on the fluffy white creature and read the name on the tag attached to her leg.

“Fluffy? Ha. Figures, you sure are fluffy.”

“Meow.”

Fluffy ran the side of her face against the metal bars.

“Why are they keeping you here, Fluffy? What’s going on, pet?”

“Meow.”

Handax hopped up to the control bank while Moses absorbed the data from the control panel. The inked loading bar on his forearm snailed toward the crook of his elbow. “Careful, man. Don’t knock me or you’ll sever the connection.”

“How’s the transfer going?”

“I figure sixty seconds or so. Security are gonna be here any minute, now. We gotta get ready to run.”

“We gotta find that release switch,” Handax perused the console like a madman, “I’m not leaving those cats in there.”