Dekkir (Galaxy Alien Warriors #1)(53)
He was taking me to the main briefing room, a large auditorium capable of holding all four hundred of the base personnel. At the front of the room, a tall, narrow stage bathed in spotlight glowed. I knew what he planned to use it for tonight. I just hoped Dekkir and our allies would make their move before he managed any of it.
He marched me in, the two soldiers flanking him looking at me with a mix of wariness and curiosity. They didn’t seem to understand why I wasn’t crying or begging. Norcross didn’t either.
“What’s the matter, honey? Cat got your tongue? This is your last chance to beg me to change my mind. You should probably take advantage of it.” I stayed silent, so he angrily dragged me forward with more force, taking me up the stage stairs and towing me out to the middle. He then raised his hand to address everyone, and the muttering crowd went silent.
“People, I’ve got an announcement to make.” He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to face the audience. I looked out at them, keeping my expression neutral. There were science officers I had trained with, some I had even considered friends. There were soldiers I had eaten lunch with in the mess hall, soldiers I had gone to physical training courses with, even a few who had flirted with me, with a lot more respect than Norcross had, now that I thought about it. But each and every one of them stared back at me now without a single scrap of sympathy or understanding in their eyes. They were eating up what Norcross was saying. He had already poisoned them against me, and I knew no matter what I said, until something happened to make them more persuadable, there was no point in saying anything.
Norcross raised his voice in the emphatic tones of a vitriolic preacher. “This little traitor bitch is the reason a hundred of our men did not come back from Lyra today. She told them all our secrets. How our weapons work, what our tactics usually are, everything. It’s her fault your brothers in arms are dead. And then, when we brought her back to interrogate her, she murdered Commander Wickman!” His voice brimmed over with false horror. An angry buzz rose from the crowd, and Norcross smirked down at me.
I looked out at all of them and suddenly noticed a change in the room. As they stood obliviously, taking in their new superior’s lecture about what a traitor I was, something was happening no one had seemed to notice yet. High above, amid a nest of exposed ductwork, several ventilation grates opened directly above the crowd. As I watched, what looked like a sparkling golden mist started blowing out of the grates, slowly drifting down toward the crowd in a thickening cloud. My eyes widened slightly as I recognized spores of the Golden Strain, more than I had ever seen in one place. Tabirus put it in the ventilation system!
Norcross went on obliviously, his hand like a steel manacle on my wrist. “It’s become clear this woman is too much of a liability to allow her to continue to survive. Therefore, it is my decision that she be punished in front of everyone, right here, right now. And once I’m done with her, boys, you can do anything to her you want. Just make sure she doesn’t survive it.”
Another rustle went through the crowd. To their credit, most of the soldiers immediately looked uncomfortable. A few men pushed to the front, grinning eagerly. Others stared in horrified sympathy, understanding at once what the less-than-subtle lieutenant planned to do. But in any case, all eyes were on me. None of them noticed the shower of gold descending from above.
Norcross twisted my arm behind my back painfully and drove me hard to my knees. “Now, bitch,” he hissed as he reached to unzip his fly, “you’re going to suck my cock in front of everyone, and that’s just the start.”
“You get that filthy thing near me, I’ll bite it clean off,” I hissed back. “You’re going to kill me anyway. I may as well leave you bleeding out through a groin wound.”
A ripple of laughter went through the crowd, and Norcross looked up in horror. The stage speakers had picked up and broadcasted our conversation. He angrily yanked on my arm, sending jolts of pain up my shoulder. “No, you won’t. You don’t have the guts.”
“You wish I didn’t have the guts. Truth is it will probably take less than a second and only a tiny effort to bite off your dirty dick. Thing’s probably got the dimensions of a toothpick.”
The ripple of laughter grew louder. As I looked out at the crowd, I saw the women laughing the loudest and wondered how many of them he had harassed during his tenure at the base. From their expressions, it was most of them.
Norcross started to huff and hiss through his teeth. He threw me against the stage and started kicking me. His boot slammed into my ribs, making me wince from the pain, but I refused to make a sound. I rolled away from him, and he chased after me, starting to yell and swear. My eyes narrowed. Had about enough of this crap. With nothing to lose, I chose to act.
When he kicked me again, I grabbed his leg suddenly, locking it up with my arms and rolling over. He went down with a yell; the crowd gasped. A few guards ran for the stairs to intervene. Meanwhile, I got up, hauled off, and drove the heel of my boot into Norcross’s groin.
He sucked air and choked, for the air was now full of golden motes, and he had just gotten a lungful of them. His eyes widened. The guards stopped dead, and I heard shouts rise up randomly from the crowd, none of the voices recognizable.
“What’s this shit?”
“Is it an attack?”
“It looks like glitter! Is somebody playing a joke?”