Sunlord by Ronan Frost

before
turning his attention to his surroundings. They followed a dried
creek bed that twisted its way between the hilltops, and judging by
Capac's cautiousness, they were very close.
    Abruptly Capac raised a hand, fist clenched. Ashian's
heart beat a rapid tattoo of fear. He crouched lower to the ground,
his empty fists clenching thin air. His vision started to fog as
tension increased, his mind a whirlpool of dread.
    Huso continued on unaware of that his companion had
fallen behind. His advance was as silent as Capac's.
    Then silver glimmered between the trees, a whiff of
smoke curling lazily into the air. Capac gripped the rifle harder,
his finger hovering over the trigger as he stepped forward into the
clearing.
    He was stunned to discover the camp was deserted. The
large tent-like structures had been dismantled and taken away.
Looking closer, Capac saw the earth was dug up with tyre treads, a
trail leading back into the jungle.
    His lips moved to form a silent question.
    Where the scroch had they gone?

Chapter Four
    The Hunted.

    Through the jungle flits a shadow and a sigh -
    He is fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
    - Rudyard Kipling.
     
    Shaun Lowry glanced swiftly to either side to make
sure his way clear. Sweat beaded upon his brow and trickled in
small rivulets down the side of his face. Shaun raked his fingers
through his long hair, pushing back the overhanging fringe as it
plastered to his forehead. His ice blue eyes moved once more for
the final check.
    Shaun stood in one of the corridors of the Urisa,
flanked on both sides by faultless mirrors. A double track of neon
lights ran overhead on a ceiling of steel mesh. The floor of the
corridor was made of similar steel mesh, so that the corridor below
could be seen, and the one below that. Likewise was the corridor
above him.
    Shaun checked nothing was in sight, in all three
dimensions.
    The corridor was clear. Now was the time.
    Shaun's image reflected into infinity by the facing
mirrors on adjacent walls as he knelt into a crouch. He was smaller
and more delicately built than the Sunlords around him that ran the
ship. Unlike the others, Shaun stood more erect despite his thinner
build; his neck was upright rather than sloped forward at an angle.
His head was also more oval shaped, lacking the frontal bulge of
the Sunlords.
    This image distorted as Shaun took a step back and
rammed a steel capped boot into the mirror's surface. It made a
grating noise, but didn't give way. Shaun looked right and left to
make sure no one had blundered into view. Satisfied, he stamped his
foot for a second time against the mirrored surface. This time a
spidery crack formed along the length of the mirror. Another kick
brought a network of cracks to the surface.
    Shaun bent over his achievements, gently plucking
loose pieces free and letting them fall through the grating at his
feet. They spun lazily, glinting random shafts of light as they
fell through the many gratings of corridors below, receding in the
distance. Shaun revealed a small portion of electrical circuitry in
the wall, and he worked swiftly to identify their purpose. He at
last found the connection he looked for. Using a small piece of
copper wire that appeared in his hand he shorted the circuit.
    A door opened. With a hiss of machinery the panel of
cracked glass slid aside to reveal dark interior, and Shaun wasted
no time in disappearing inside. The motion detecting lights came on
blindingly at his entrance and the computer consoles hummed into
instant life. In an eye blink the room was awake.
    Shaun looked at the watch strapped to his wrist; he
still had two minutes until the bomb he had planted in his cell
would go off. He had made the bomb in the laboratory of the ship
during his free time. He had worked swiftly to mix together oil and
sodium hydroxide to make glycerin. From the lab he that he obtained
a vial of nitric acid. The result - nitroglycerine. He had put the
two ingredients in a crude but effective vessel.