Oh, God help us.OrIN was free. She raced back the way she came. As she ran, panic was right there with her, rising up in her throat and trying to take over, but she kept it at bay. She burst into the holding area near MarIK’s cell, causing the guards to reach for their weapons. She was out of breath.
“OrIN…is…free…and…coming this way!”
The guards rushed over to her and pulled her inside the holding area. “We’ll take care of it. Once we leave, enter the code 22348. I set it myself this morning and only the Commander or Lieutenant Commander can override it.” The guard didn’t wait for her to respond but took off with the other guard. She quickly entered the code and the door to that holding area closed and locked. She could hear gunfire on the other side of the door.
“Sharon, let me out,” MarIK called out her.
“How do I open the bars or turn the thing off?”
“Use the same code but over on my cell panel.”
It couldn’t be that easy, could it? She entered the code the guard gave her and, sure enough, MarIK’s laser bars dissipated. He embraced her quickly. “Let the others out, but please — I want you to stay here while I check on the situation with OrIN.”
She opened another cell and turned back to MarIK. “No, I don’t want you to go.”
“Stay, I’ll be back.” He motioned for his warriors to take positions at the door once they were released.
“But you guys don’t even have weapons.”
He winked at her. “We are a weapon. Get back, and close the door behind us.”
After quickly running through the corridor and releasing all of the warriors, she did what he said, but she hated closing that door without knowing what was going on. What seemed like hours but was probably only minutes passed. Then she heard a code being entered, she glanced around for a weapon but only found a chair. She reached for it, just in case she needed to defend herself. She was relieved to see MarIK enter. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“OrIN and his warriors shot all four guards.” MarIK looked serious. “We’re going after them. I’m sure they’re heading to the docking bay. I need you to get hold of the medics to get help for these guards before they die and let the Commander BrAX and Lieutenant Commander LazAR know that OrIN had help getting free.”
She followed him out of the holding area and frowned with concern. “MarIK, you don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.” MarIK kissed her one more time before following his warriors to the lift.
Please God and Goddess, if you’re listening watch over him, Sharon thought.
She knelt down next to the first downed guard. He was unconscious and bleeding but still had a pulse. She took his comm link and placed on her as she ran to check the other guards. One was already dead, but the other three were still alive — barely.
“Medic wing,” she spoke into the comm link and it connected her immediately.
“Medic TreyES here.”
“This is Sharon Task. I’m in the holding cell area and I have three injured guards and one that is dead.”
“How did this happen?”
“I’ll answer your questions once you get here. These guys are barely hanging on.” She ended communications with him because she also needed to let someone know about OrIN and about MarIK — she didn’t want anyone shooting him by mistake.
“Commander BrAX.”
“Sorry, Commander BrAX is not available.”
“Lieutenant Commander LazAR.”
“Lieutenant Commander LazAR here.”
“It’s Sharon. I came to be with MarIK during the battle and found that OrIN had broken out of his holding cell with some of his warriors. He shot four guards and one of them has died.”
“What?”
“I have the medics coming to help, but I wanted you to know that MarIK and his team are going after OrIN. Oh, and MarIK wanted me to let you know that OrIN had to have had help getting out.”
“Who in Kitana released MarIK?”
