Paul Kater - Bactine

Daniel retreated into the dark, hoping they would go back to the stairs and up to deck. They did.

Gaguran coughed. “We took the girl and put her in the cellar, sir. It was the safest place, we thought, he would not look there at all. One of our operatives took the liberty of installing and detonating an off-world implosion device in the building.” Gaguran chuckled as they climbed the stairs. “I am quite certain that the device was set correctly. The operative has not survived either, so there is no witness against us.”

Daniel, going behind the three, had his heart near escaping from his throat. He also was feeling hot and cold at the same time. Clelem and Gaguran had arranged to have the building with his apartment to be blown up? To kill him? And the cellar-

“You’re cold, Dandra ko Galem,” said Birkle. “It was your kid in the cellar.”

The men reached the deck and took time to catch their breath.

“Not my kid,” said Clelem. “They both are my wife’s. I wanted the money from her family, but getting rid of her husband was enough of a problem. I could not do the two children also without people becoming suspicious. But at least the nosy one is now out of the way.”

Daniel closed his eyes for a moment. There was the man who had struck him as a good and gentle, concerned person, good for his people. And he was telling the pirate that he had killed a man for the money of his wife’s family, and now the daughter of his wife?

And cellar… Daniel’s heart stopped for a few moments. The cellar under what had been the building where he had lived! He had to go there, as quickly as he could. And he couldn’t. He was too close to the deck. If he moved on the stairs, the men would almost certainly hear him.

“And the boy? No problems from him?” Birkle seemed to be quite well informed on Clelem’s family situation.

“No. That’s an idiot who only lives for music and books. And his stupid poems. I may find a good way to get him out of the way too when the need arises, but for now he’s no problem.”

Daniel willed the three to go away. Go, go, go… He was holding on to the ladder so tightly that his arms started to ache.

“If you say so…” Birkle stomped away. “I’m going. Too bad you had to kill the bastard that took my slaves away, Slindris. I would have loved to see my Bonto play with him for a while. Maybe I’ll ask Dandra ko Galem if I can have you instead.” The pirate laughed.

Daniel was tempted to move down the ladder, but the laughter could stop any moment… Then he heard more footsteps move away. Agonising seconds later he heard the sound of feet on the gangway. He bolted down the stairs, blindly searched his way through the corridor and found the door to the first cargo bay. The open hatch made it easy for him to find the way out.

He peeked around the ship’s side. Drat… the three would see him if he would run now, and they were coming down faster than going up. No way he could get away before them.

It felt like hours to Daniel until he finally could get off the Pricosine 2 and start towards the exit. In the cover of the shadows he could get quite close to the three men. He heard how Clelem locked the gate. The three men walked off, talking and apparently joking, as Birkle laughed again.

Daniel looked at the gate. It was high. The top had nasty-looking pointy parts. He was for certain not going to leave the shipyard through or over the regular exit. Taking more chances, he started to run towards the spot where he knew the fence to be low. The one he had climbed over before, to get to this shipyard. Darkness did not make that easy, so he did not go fast. Nothing much had changed, so he climbed over the fence and found his way to the exit of that yard. There, the powers were with him. The gate was as open as the first time. Even in the night.

As he walked towards the road, careful still as he had no idea how fast the three others had gone, he debated with himself if he should take a carriage or go walking. With the carriage, he was afraid he would fall asleep. And walking was at least as fast. That took care of that.

In the streets everything was quiet. No carriages, no people. Daniel fell into a jogging pace he usually could hold for hours. His long legs took him to the corner of what used to be ‘his’ street. The police now had put up a fence and a few warning signs. From where he stood, he did not see any guards, but that did not mean there weren’t any.

“No chances,” he mumbled to himself. He walked past the Street of Barges and found the parallel street again. This time there were no people guarding the fence. Slowly, moving from tree to tree, Daniel reached the fence. It took him only a few seconds to get over it.

On the other side, he crouched down for a while, scanning for police that might still be around. The area was quiet. Very quiet. The street lights showed the devastation that was the result of the bomb Gaguran had arranged. The lower half of the building was still standing, that much was clear. For some reason Daniel did not know, the top part had collapsed to the front, not straight down. The way things looked was as if some giant hand had knocked the upper floors off the building, slapping it from behind.

After minutes, Daniel decided that it was safe to move closer. He kept to the shades, to make as sure as possible nobody would notice him. After all, there had been enough commotion around this explosion. As he circled the remains of the building to get to the back side, he saw two lamps burning. He came closer and found a table in front of the back-door. The two lamps were on it, and next to one of the lamps was a handwritten sign that read ‘Keep Out: Danger’. Especially the capitals made it look quite deterring.

Carefully he moved the table far enough to the side to give him access to the back-door. That was still in place. Daniel tried the doorknob and pulled. The door resisted for a moment, then opened. A creaking noise startled him and he ducked behind the table. Again he waited for several minutes, but nothing stirred. He dared to breathe again and picked one of the lamps from the table before he entered the collapsed building. Daniel was fully aware that he was taking chances. The sign was not terrifying, but it did tell the truth. This place was dangerous now.

His feet bumped into strange blocks of stone. Lowering the light, he saw there were many and they seemed to have come from the ceiling. “Okay, Daniel, easy does it,” he told himself as he slowly, foot for foot, moving forward to the door that led to the staircase of the cellar.

There was no need to open the door. The building had sagged somewhat, breaking the door and making it fall out. The large cracks in the wall were worrying, but Daniel had to go on. If there was any chance that the girl was down there, he had to take it.

The staircase that led downwards had not sustained any damage. Daniel was still very careful, testing each step a few times before putting his full weight on it. The only sounds he heard were his feet on the wooden steps, his breath as he went on, and the pounding of his heart that seemed to grow louder with every move he made.

Finally he was in the cellar. Daniel had only been there a few times, out of curiosity. He knew there were four doors in a short corridor. Two of them, he knew, were always open. These doors had no locks. He found these two open still, and empty also, except for a lot of dust and some fallen down bits of ceiling.

He tried the third door. Locked. He knocked on it. “Is someone in there?” Daniel strained his ears, attempting to catch even the faintest sound. There was nothing though.

“I am going to kick in the door,” Daniel said, hoping that his words were not in vain. He took a few deep breaths. The cellar seemed to be intact, but he did not know what was wrong in the parts he could not see. And there were far too many of those.