Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 17 (d)

Gaulle waited in his cabin for his team to arrive back. It had been agreed no messages unless there was trouble and true to that plan, there has been no contact. The door chime sounded and a quick look revealed it was Adjani, Adisa and Goroshenko.

"Enter," Gaulle called out.

The door slid to one side and the three men entered. Goroshenko was looking pleased with himself. He pulled the brush out of a pocket and put it on the table. "Done."

"Excellent," said Gaulle. "Any problems?"

"Not at all. Piece of cake," said Goroshenko with bravado. Gaulle looked to Adjani and Adisa for confirmation and they nodded their heads.

"Singh is coming down soon?" questioned Gaulle.

"No communication unless an emergency as you ordered," said Adjani. "My understanding is that he has to assemble and taken down computer monitoring equipment each time or be discovered by housekeeping."

Gaulle frowned. "Well, no matter. We can get started." He sat down in chair in front of the desk. Aubrey Chase Chen's brush lay there and strands of her thick black hair were present in the bristles. Blood was on the ornate handle.

"Do you need anything from us?" Adisa asked.

"No, but anyone present in this room and with psi powers will experience what I do," said Gaulle. "Everyone should take a seat as it can be disorienting."

Goroshenko looked doubtful. "What will I experience?"

"If I focus solely on the last events, we will see the moment that Ms. Chen died and who killed her," said Gaulle, scowling in Goroshensko's direction. "Do try not to let me lose focus, if you please."

Goroshenko said nothing but waited for Adjani and Adisa to obediently take seats at the table. Once they were all seated in front of Gaulle, they remained quiet. All stared at the brush and the unmistakable blood on it.

Gaulle closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Adisa closed his eyes as well while Adjani looked at Goroshenko till the Russian closed his eyes as well. Once satisfied that happened, Adjani closed his eyes last.

It was a hazy dream-like state that all four men found themselves standing in Aubrey Chase Chen's cabin. The room was intact. A datapass sat on a desk along with a coffee cup. Personal items sat on the side table by the bed including the hairbrush.

Goroshenko looked about the room. Of the four, he was the one most familiar with the layout as he had been in the cabin. It was strange to see it undamaged. "How soon is it before the attack?" he asked.

Gaulle held up a hand to silence him and motioned to the corridor leading to the entrance. It was then that they heard the door to the cabin open and in stepped Aubrey Chase Chen.

She entered the room with that same imperious look that she was famous for. She called out: "Lights...standard." The room illuminated. Instead of moving forward, Chen's eyes scanned the room in suspicion.

Goroshenko looked where Chen looked and saw nothing. Adisa and Adjani scanned the room as well while Gaulle stared at Chen the whole time. Nothing was in the room and the only sound was air circulating.

Chen seemed to settle and proceeded deeper into the cabin when she froze. Her eyes focused on another corner of the cabin. "There you are," she said. He smile was stiff. "You're the last person I would have expected to see here."

Everyone stared where Chen was looking. It was another empty corner.

"What is she looking at?" Goroshenko asked.

Gaulle held up his hand again to halt the questions.

"You seem to have come prepared," said Chen directing her statement to the empty space. "It was a mistake for you to stowaway on the ship. There'll be nowhere to run."

Adisa and Adjani were visibly spooked and were looking one way and the other trying to see who else was in the cabin. Their search was fruitless. Gaulle's face, a usual mask against emotion, had creases on his forehead.

Chen backed up slowly towards the entrance. "I don't know what you hoped to achieve. You won't find what you're looking for and the information you want isn't with me."

She looked she was about to run. "Surrender now and maybe there's hope for you," Chen said with what looked like feigned bravado.

What happened next made all four men jump back in surprise. Chen lunged forward with both hands and grasped nothingness in a choke hold.

"What the hell?" Gaulle questioned. Adisa, Adjani and Goroshenko were equally shocked.

"You're still the same small, meek mouse you ever were." Chen laughed with malice. "You're no match for us. No match for me. Not then, not now, not ever. Your foolishness led to what happened. I hope you realize that now. And now you're going to die knowing that you let them down."

Chen appeared to be having trouble holding onto whatever she was trying to hold onto. All of the sudden, a crashing thump could be heard and the grip was lost. It was a stroke right at the solar plexus. A second blow was struck and the sickening crack or ribs was heard.

Blood was at the corner of Chen's mouth. She dabbed at it in anger.

An object flew across the room. "A coffee mug doesn't scare me," Chen said, spitting blood up.

The coffee cup shards shot back and embedded deeply in her arm eliciting screams from Chen. This time she looked scared.

She ran to the cabin door to escape but as she got to the corridor, the room safe was ripped from the floor and flung against the door effectively blocking it. She was dragged back into the room with unseen hands and shaken like a ragdoll and tossed about. It seemed everything was flying through the room at once. Objects hit her repeatedly, many sticking deep into her body.

Goroshenko cringed on the floor as objects passed through him and past him. Even Adjani and Adisa looked terrified while Gaulle could only gape.

Bloodied and battered, Chen stood for one more counter attack. She screamed and charged forward but soon was driven back by what seemed like every object in the room aimed at once. In the moments that followed, she died and then the whirlwind stopped and everything dropped to the floor. It was over.