To Rescue a Villain

Chapter 32

"Don't you think they should be back by now?" I asked Di, leaning back in the chair she'd provided. Both teams should have returned. What was keeping them?

My fears were about to dissipate when I heard the door open but the tremors in my heart didn't end because only Zora and my stupid boss were standing there. I thought he'd left.

"Where's Mary?" I asked, rising from the chair slowly. "Is she—"

Zora's eyes started to tear up, which only made me more afraid. Waving her gun at the ceiling, she walked toward me. "They killed her."

Huh?

My numb mind thought that over for a moment, trying to figure out if there was an alternate meaning of what she'd just said. Killed? Mary? Who was they?

Once the full realization struck me, the world started to spin. I felt ready to throw up and had to lean over the desk to keep from fainting. "You're lying!" I whispered, my throat too dry to form the words fully. "That's impossible."

"Those three..." She pointed at the far door, her voice cracking from emotion. "They pushed her out into space. Said something about how she'd keep them from stealing the alien artifact. I tried to stop them but..." Her voice cracked once more and she had to look down, unable to continue speaking.

I couldn't believe it. Mary couldn't have died. I wouldn't have allowed it. "Is this true?" I asked, looking to John, the last man in Manica I'd ever want to ask.

The coward nodded slowly, his entire body shaking. "If it weren't for Zora we'd be dead too," he whispered, fiddling with the gun dangling from his hand.

"That..." It couldn't be real. I had to be dreaming. "But she's a Valdis. Why didn't she teleport?"

"They put some device on her," Zora answered, clenching her teeth in anger. "I should have stopped them. I shouldn't have run!"

My body suddenly snapped out of its stupor. I ignored Zora and ran to the computer, suddenly yelling for Di to bring up the security cameras. I needed to see this for myself. If this was true, which it totally wasn't, then I could still save her. There had to be a way!

"I detect a heat signature floating toward Manica," Di informed me as I brought up the footage. "I've dispatched a drone but it will fail to reach her in time."

"Do something!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, my nose starting to sting and making my eyes water. "She can't die!"

I was trying to come up with a plan B but as soon as I rewound the video and saw John shoot the camera, I turned on him with my teeth bared. His eyes were wide. He knew he'd been caught.

"You were in on this too?" I hissed, drawing my pistol from my belt and aiming it toward his heart. Actually, maybe I should aim at his head. He might not have a heart.

He stepped back, whimpering like a dog, but I didn't lower the barrel.

"Why?" I asked but already knew the answer. He wanted the alien artifact. They all did. They knew it would bring in more money than anything else in this world. They had killed my wife over it!

"Why did you bring him in here?" I yelled, turning my gun toward Zora. "Are you in on this too?"

The woman shook her head. "I couldn't care less about that ball of yours. I just wanted him here so he could prove I was telling the truth. Then I was planning to kill him."

True to her word, as soon as she finished speaking, she pulled out her own gun and shot him through his open, screaming mouth. She then sent a second bullet through his left eye as he fell to his knees and splatted on his bloody face. I didn't feel an ounce of regret as he fell.