CHAPTER 16 – TYING UP LOOSE ENDS WITH STEEL BARS

The gunshot from Deputy Brown’s rifle was deafening in the cavernous warehouse. For a moment, everyone froze, having no idea what happened. But Deputy Brown was the first one in shock when he realized Darala was still standing. Her fists were crossed in front of her chest, her silver bracelets forming a very small shield. They heard the distant ricochet of the bullet hitting somewhere else in the warehouse.

Stunned and furious, deputy Brown fired again and Darala adjusted her bracelet to catch the bullet which was crushed against its surface. It landed on the cement floor and spun like a coin before falling over.

“Impossible!” Deputy Brown shouted. He took another shot, but the chamber was empty. Darala rushed forward and grabbed the rifle from his hands. She peeled the barrel apart from the stock of the gun with a loud snap, now holding it like a bar in her hand. She threw the stock aside.

“Now, deputy… put your hands together in front of you.”

Deputy Brown fumed, but did as she said.

Darala placed the barrel above his wrists, and then, applying her strength, quickly bent it around and beneath them, then pulling the ends back around top, wrapping his wrists together. The steel groaned loudly in her hands as she twisted the ends together forming a makeshift set of handcuffs.

Stunned, deputy Brown couldn’t move his wrists, the tightness of the metal very uncomfortable.

Darala then directed him toward a support beam in the middle of the warehouse. “Over there,” she said. She walked him to it and positioned him in front of it.

“Jason,” Darala said, “Will you please bring me one of those long steel bars?”

“With pleasure,” Jason said. He hurried over and grabbed one. It was two inches thick and about seven feet long. It was very heavy. But Jason lifted it and carried it in one hand, bringing it to Darala.

Deputy Brown said, “What are you doing?”

Darala grabbed the bar from Jason and said, “Tying up loose ends.”

With Deputy Brown pressed against the beam, Darala swung around behind it. She lifted the bar out front so it lay across his chest. And with her otherworldly strength, Darala began to bend the massive bar, pulling the ends back toward her. The howling cry of the big steel bar filled the warehouse. Darala pulled the ends together around deputy Brown and the beam! Then she pulled them past each other. After that she grabbed those ends and twisted them over each other, the massive steel bar wailing and screeching in her hands as she bent it to her will. Her arm muscles were harder than rock, the steel no match for her Tau Ceti might. In one final, terrible screech from the steel bar, Darala knotted the ends, her biceps and forearms defined, bulging lines of muscle beneath her shiny suit.

And then she was finished. The bar was a tied tangle of thick steel.

Darala stood back and exhaled loudly. Jason approached her and she turned and embraced him. He could feel the panting of her chest through her skintight lycra and the hard beating of her Tau Ceti heart.

“I thought you were dead,” Jason whispered in her ear, and kissed her. She kissed him back, deeply, and then looked in his eyes.

“I thought I was too. I was scared, Jason.” She said. “But thankfully my bracelets were strong enough to deflect the projectile. I suspected they might since they are made of Tau Ceti alloy.”

She lifted her bracelet, the gleam of it stunning.

“But I wasn’t entirely sure it would work,” Darala said. “It was the only thing I could try. It was a huge risk.”

Tina approached them, studying the massive knot in the big bar.

“You can tie knots in steel bars!” Tina said, stunned. “Darala you never cease to amaze me,” she said.

Darala smiled warmly and said, “And now it’s time. I need to get this transponder out of here.”

She made her way around the beam so she could face deputy Brown. Fastened against the beam with the massive bar, his hands tied together by the rifle barrel, Deputy Brown was completely helpless.

“Now,” Darala said, planting her hands on her lycra hips, “What were you planning to do with the device. Don’t you realize it’s nothing you can possibly understand? What did you hope to gain by it?”

“Money,” deputy Brown said through gritted teeth. He swung his furious gaze at the Torellian. “We had a deal! An artifact from space is worth millions!”

“Well, I hope you saved some of your precious money,” Jason said, “Because this is your rainy day.”

Darala’s bracelet lit up suddenly, a bright flashing red light on top of it.

“What does that mean,” Jason asked.

Darala looked alarmed and turned toward the crate. Tina had opened the lid with a pry bar and inside the transponder was glowing brightly. Darala hurried over to it and put her hands inside to lift it out. It was just as she described it, a cylinder with a light and the Tau Ceti engravings.

Darala felt heat coming off it. Intense heat.

“Something’s wrong,” she said, her face growing dark with concern. “It shouldn’t be this hot.”

Darala glared at the Torellian who was slowly trying to sneak out behind them. Quickly, Jason ran over and snatched him by the arm. He tried to get away, but Jason was stronger. Much stronger. He dragged the alien back to the crate.

“What did you do to this?” Darala demanded. “You made some sort of modification—what exactly?”

“I may have… turned it into an explosive,” he finally said. And then added. “It’s a chain reaction from the isotopic power source so you might want to get it away from here… far away!”

Realizing that she now held a bomb in her hands, Darala said, “Jason, Tina, don’t follow me. It’s too dangerous.”

Now desperate, The Torellian said, “It was an accident! I thought I could tap into the communication center of the device and eavesdrop. But I never thought it would… oh, what have I done!”

Jason looked at Darala and said, “Darala let me help you.”

She shook her head and said, “Jason, no matter what happens to me, know that you are in my heart.” She leaned in and kissed him softly, and then, in a startling burst of superhuman speed, Darala ran from the building with the glowing lethal bomb in her hands.