“There’s something over here,” Alec muttered, his voice strained. He was already working to get open whatever he’d found.
Mark stepped up to him and looked over his shoulder. The object was mostly in shadow, but it appeared to be a large box with several metal clasps.
“It’s useless,” Alec finally said when his hands slipped off the clasps for the third time. “Go get me that axe.”
Mark quickly grabbed it from the hallway where Alec had dropped it after pounding the door hinges. He hefted it in his hands, ready to take a shot at getting the box open.
“You’re gonna do it?” Alec asked, straightening up. “You sure about that?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Alec pointed at the box. “Boy, do you have any idea what could be inside that thing? Explosives. High-voltage machinery. Poison. Who knows?”
“And?” Mark pushed.
“Well, I wouldn’t just start whacking at it or we might be dead before noon. We need to be careful. Delicate, precise hits on the clasps.”
Mark almost laughed. “Since there’s not one delicate cell in your entire body, I think I’ll give it a go.”
“Fair enough,” Alec replied, taking a step back and sweeping his hand out with a bow. “Just be careful.”
Mark gripped the handle of the axe tightly and leaned in, taking little chops instead of full swings at the small but stubborn brackets. Sweat poured down his face and the thing almost slipped out of his hands a couple of times, but eventually he broke the first seal and moved on to the next one. Ten minutes later his shoulders ached like nothing else and his fingers had grown almost numb from gripping so hard. But he’d broken through every last clasp.
He stood up and stretched his back, unable to keep himself from wincing. “Man, that wasn’t quite as easy as it looked.”
They both laughed, which made Mark wonder where all the sudden levity had come from. The task ahead of them was treacherous and scary. But for some reason his mind refused to focus on that.
“Feels good to get yourself worked up in a sweat, doesn’t it?” Alec asked. “Now let’s see what we’ve got waiting for us. Grab that end.”
Mark slipped his fingers under the small lip of the lid and waited for Alec’s signal. The man counted to three and then they both lifted—it was heavy but they were able to get it up and swing it against the wall, where it crashed with a boom. All Mark could see inside the box were shiny, elongated forms that reflected the red light. The things almost looked wet.
“What are those?” Mark asked. He glanced over at Alec and saw a wide-eyed, almost crazy expression on the man’s face. “Based on that look, I’m guessing you know exactly what they are.”
“Oh, yeah,” Alec said in a tight whisper. “I do. I really think I do.”
“And?” Mark was almost bursting from curiosity now.
Instead of answering, Alec leaned down and grabbed one of the objects from the box. He lifted it up—the thing was the size and shape of a rifle—and examined it, turning it in his hands. It appeared to be made mostly of silver metal and plastic, with little tubes spiraling down the long shaft of its main body. One end was a gunlike butt with a trigger, and the other end looked like an elongated bubble with a spout popping out. There was a strap to sling across your shoulder.
“What is that thing?” Mark asked, hearing the awe in his own voice.
Alec was just shaking his head back and forth, in obvious disbelief as he continued studying the object in his hands. “Do you have any idea how much these things cost? They were way too expensive to ever make it to the actual weapons market. I can’t believe I’m holding one.”
“What?” Mark asked, filled with impatience. “What is it?”
Alec finally looked up and met his eyes. “This bad boy is called a Transvice.”
“A Transvice?” Mark repeated. “What does it do?”
Alec held the strange weapon up as if it were some holy relic.
“It makes people dissolve into thin air.”
CHAPTER 49
“Dissolve?” Mark said skeptically. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Well, it won’t matter much if these things don’t even work.” Alec inspected the box for a minute, then removed a bulky black thing with silvery latches. He took his precious items and moved past Mark, out of the storage room and into the hallway and beyond. “Come on!” he yelled when he’d disappeared.
Mark spared a last glance at the menacing, almost magical items shining inside the box, then took off to catch up with the man. He found him back in the cockpit, sitting in the captain’s chair, admiring the weapon in his hands. He looked like a kid with a new toy. The black thing he’d also retrieved was sitting on the floor. It looked like a cradle for the weapon. Some kind of charging device, perhaps.
“Okay,” Mark said as he sidled up to stand behind Alec. “Tell me what that thing does.”
“Just a sec,” Alec said as he placed his toy in the long cradle bay of the black thing. He pushed a button on a small control pad on the side. Something chirped, then hummed; then there was a gray light emanating from the entire body of the weapon itself.
“We’ll charge her up and then you’ll see what she does,” Alec announced proudly. He looked up at Mark. “Ever heard of a Flat Trans?”
Mark rolled his eyes. “Of course I have. I live on planet Earth.”
“Okay, wise guy. Calm your shorts. Anyway, you know how expensive those things are, right? And how they work?”