NEW SCI-FI THRILLER NOVEL "SEAGORA" - SLICE 23

The high seas saga continues....

Ventorin lay shivering in the fetal position, nursing the wounds from his latest torture session.  It was mostly just his nerves this time.  Machines were capable of producing pain associated with an injury in a human, but without actually causing the injury.  This left the human much more able to endure a greater amount of abuse.  

D-1 had manipulated Ventorin with atomic precision and caused him to feel that his ribs had been broken over one-hundred times.  Actually, no ribs were broken, but the pain and the mental anguish were as real as it gets.  

Setarcos had tried to run away and not witness the ultra-black horror, but Torcer had forced him to watch.  

Now, Torcer was pacing methodically back and forth with his typical red, stony face.  He was impressed that both of them had held out and not given the information needed to buy their freedom.  He also felt a twinge of remorse, as he had gotten to know Ventorin a bit over the years and also because Setarcos was a young man that he would envy to have for a grandson.  

Setarcos couldn’t cry anymore.  He was all cried out.  There was only so much crying one could do before another level of despair was reached, one in which a person just fell limp from the shock of it all.  

A floating security drone informed Torcer of an unusual development and handed him an access tablet.  His weary eyes sprang with surprise and looked at the drone, then back to the tablet.   How could this be? He ordered the drone to keep watch over his “guests” and walked out briskly.   In a small room with no windows, he threw on a VR headset and flew his fingers over some holo-controls.  Within seconds, a familiar face appeared.  “Hello, Caro.  What a surprise.”

Caro curled a lip, “Hello, Torcer.”

“We thought we had lost you.  Your communication went out a while back.  Care to elaborate?”

“That’s funny.  I thought you could shed some light on that for me.”

“I guess we’ll just have to call it a mystery.” Torcer smiled widely and narrowed his beady eyes, “I’m glad you popped back up on our grid.  The timing is good. Perhaps you could be of some assistance.”

“How so?”

“Talk some sense into your husband.”

“You should have let me try that a decade ago.”

“Or your son.”

Caro forced back her anguish.  “You’ll let me speak with them?”

“It might be in everyone’s interest at this point.  Standby.  I’ll put you on the holo with them in a minute.”

With a controlled burst, Torcer returned to Setarcos and Ventorin.  He ordered the drone out, then addressed Ventorin.  “I have some medicine for you.” He turned on the holo-projector.  Ventorin winced and squinted at the new image as he continued his struggle to breathe.  Setarcos got a brief surge of adrenaline and nearly fell over himself to get near the projection.  “Mom!”

Ventorin rose slowly and stared at his wife.  He stared at her fair cheeks, and bowl-cut hair, and slender frame.  Were it not for the intense nerve pain he was still experiencing, he would have thought it was a grand illusion.  Or perhaps it was? It was child’s play for a technological facsimile to be made to appear before him.  He limped towards her, with one hand gingerly holding his guts, and the other reaching out so desperately for her.  

Caro sniffled and wiped away the tear that she couldn’t force back.  She whimpered, “Hi, Ventorin.”

He choked and trembled and managed to squeak out, “There aren’t words to describe.” His hand whiffed through the projection as he tried to touch her face.  

Torcer interrupted, “I hate to break up the family reunion, but I must insist we get down to business.  Caro, what do you have to say?”

“I’m so proud of both of you,” she said as the dam broke and her face flooded.  Noticing the red marks on Ventorin’s neck she continued, “What have they done to you?”

“Probably best if you don’t know the details,” Ventorin replied hazily.  He steadied himself by leaning on a pillar and tried to smile as he admired the long-lost image of his wife.  

Her gaze shifted to Setarcos and was relieved to see no evidence of physical harm on him.  Torcer spoke gruffly and he edged closer to Caro, “Caro, you want to be with them, right? So why don’t you talk some sense into them.  You’re in a no-win scenario.”

“I know what I want, and I know what Ventorin and my son want.  We want to be left alone.  We want love and freedom and all the beautiful things that go with it.” She paused for effect and looked Torcer harshly in the eye, “And I also know that we’ll never get that if those devils you work with get their hands on my men’s fantastic discovery.”

Torcer shook his head emphatically and charged over to the bar.  “Dammit, Caro.  What the hell is wrong with you people?” He grabbed a bottle of Kelp Ale and slammed it to his lips.  

“Torcer, try asking yourself that the next time you look in the mirror.”

Torcer called up the holo controls and cut the transmission.  

Caro slowly removed her headgear and looked through her window at the thriving undersea habitat.  She got a sinking feeling that rushed on her suddenly.  What if all the men in her life perished? She would end up cold and alone.  Could she handle such an unthinkable tragedy? She was interrupted as a nearby gadget alerted her to an incoming transmission.  She answered as she bit nervously at her nails.  “Masher, did it work?”

“So far, so good.  Your call to Torcer allowed us to access their data cloud security.  Now we just need some time to navigate it and exploit it.”

Caro asked nervously, “Are you sure they can’t see or hear our communication right now?”

“Aw, come on, Caro.  Give me more credit than that.  I wouldn’t be contacting you if they could.”

“Remember, you’re the one that let Escapo run off with my son to begin with.”

“Ok, there’s that, but I was caught off guard.  That won’t happen again.  You can count on me.”

“I don’t have much choice in the matter, Masher.”

“True enough.  I’ll keep you all informed as things progress.”

“Have they launched yet? How are they looking?”

“Well, let’s just say, there’s the good, the bad, and the ugly, but they’re still afloat, so that’s the most important thing.”

Caro sighed and said goodbye.  She’d done her part, and now she felt the malaise of a powerless spectator.  

Slice 24 Coming Soon!
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