Chapter 17
Wolff strained at his bonds, but they held firmly. He eyed Kiev dangerously as the little man moved around the room prepping surgical instruments. His skin crawled as one fearsome tool after another was was pulled out of hidden drawers.
" What are you planning to do?" he growled.
" Shut up." Barked the armed guard.
" No, no… it's quite alright. Ask all the questions you want to ask, Mr. Wolff… or should I say, Mr. Riddick?" said Kiev, cunningly.
Wolff gave no indication of his surprise.
" Yes, I know who you are. You see, Mr. Riddick, I was stationed at Slam the very year you made your daring escape. I learned a lot working there, including the secrets of a lot of the prisoners there… including the secret of one demented, yet brilliant, Dr. Hathaway."
Wolff's expression remained impassive..
" Oh, you don't remember? Shame, shame on you my boy. How could you forget the name of the one who gifted you with those marvelous peepers of yours?! He was the genius who gave you those eyes!"
" Never bothered to get his name." Answered Wolff.
" What a shame… considering how long and hard I had to torture him just to get the info on you out of him. It was just too bad that he was able to take his life with the shards of a broken test tube, before I could question him some more. Oh well… I was able to retrieve most of his notes… but something is still eluding me. And that's where you come in… studying your eyes will help immensely to explain how Hathaway did it. Unfortunately, they will have to be studied quite closely, which means they will have to come out… sorry."
Wolff struggled fiercely, making his bonds groan, but they held firmly. Kiev laughed at his struggles and continued his preparations for whatever monstrous deed he was planning.
The door to the operating room opened and another guard stumbled in dragging a fiftyish, distinguished looking woman by one arm. She stared defiantly at Kiev as she came to stand before him. Gutierrez strode in after them.
" You were right." Gutierrez said. " It's a good thing you told us to watch her… she was trying to sabotage the Hosting Room."
Kiev's face flooded with color, while his eyes seemed to freeze over.
" I doubted…" he grated. " that my own darling wife would dare doublecross me… I doubted it, but it seems I was wrong."
" You didn't doubt anything, you bastard!" she spat back. " You still had me followed!"
" Here's a lesson for you sweetheart when it comes to games of intrigue… don't EVER ask too many questions… tends to make people suspicious of you."
" Thanks for the advice, DARLING!" she replied scathingly. " I'll remember that next time. I won't do it again."
" No you never will." Whispered Kiev, almost regretfully. He looked up briefly at Gutierrez, then turned away.
Gutierrez calmly and nonchalantly raised his pistol, and shot Magda Kiev through the back of her head. The guard that dragged her in picked up her pitiful form and carried her out of the room.
Kiev, with his back still to the room, spoke to Gutierrez.
" Find someone to take care of Tammy."
" Yes, doctor." Replied Gutierrez as he headed out of the room.
Kiev finally turned around and went back to what he was doing. Wolff just stared at him, following him around the room. Kiev glanced up every now and then, noticing Wolff's perusal.
" What are you looking at?" he snapped. " Stop staring at me!"
" It's funny…" said Wolff, still staring.
" What is?" replied Kiev impatiently. " I said, stop staring at me, or I'll cut them out right now!"
Kiev stood, trembling, with a scalpel held in one shaking hand.
" Oh nothing." Responded Wolff. " it's just, you'd think you'd be able to tell a wife killer just by looking at him… but I guess you can't. Did you enjoy killing Magda?"
" Shut up." Whispered Kiev, as he suddenly paled.
" Oh wait." Continued Wolff. " YOU didn't even kill her, you had to have someone else do it for you because you're nothing but a spineless excuse for a man."
" I said, shut up."
" I wonder what was the last thing that went through her mind… besides of course, the bullet?"
" AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggggghhhh!!" screamed Kiev as he launched himself at Wolff.
He stopped with the scalpel mere inches from Wolff's eyes.
~ Those eyes, those damned eyes. Feels like they're staring straight through me. Feels like Magda's staring at me, but it can't be!!! Magda had brown eyes, beautiful, dark, brown eyes… Oh Magda, why did you make me do that to you? I'll rip out those eyes! No, no… must calm down… need them intact and unharmed… god, I'm shaking… can't do this now… need to calm down… get the edge back… yes… I'll just go lie down for a bit… yes, that sounds good… ~
He shakily stepped away from Wolff, dropping the scalpel to the floor.
He then left the room without another word.
Wolff dropped his head back in relief. For a second there, he thought he had pushed the madman too far. He was sure for a moment that he was a dead. But his plan had worked. Now was his chance to escape.
Calmly, he dislocated the thumb on his left hand, allowing him to be able to squeeze his hand through the metal shackle. Popping the thumb back in, he proceeded to repeat the process with his other hand, when he sensed movement out of the corner of his eye.
He froze, thinking that one of the guards must've sneaked back into the room without him noticing.
" Doesn't that hurt mistah?" asked Ellie as she came to stand beside the bed to stare up at him.
" Ellie? What the…"
" We excaped… Willy and me."
Wolff then noticed the figure of the android as it paused in the doorway leading to the scrub room.
" Ellie, we better go, before they come back."
" But we hafta help him, Willy! Doc Keef gonna hurt him too, just like he hurt Missus Keef. We hafta find da key!"
" No, I don't think so Ellie. Look at how he's chained up, maybe he's a criminal, maybe we should just leave him alone." Said the 'droid as it wrung it's hands like a nervous mother.
" I don't need your help, droid. Get this girl out of here before the guards come back."
" No! Mistah Wolff! You help me and Jack excape monstah now Ellie help you."
" He helped Jacklyn?" asked the droid, taking a couple of steps closer.
" I said to get the fuck outta here now!" shouted Wolff.
Ellie's face settled into a stubborn frown as she regarded him. Planting her feet as if expecting someone to try and pull her away, but it was the droid that spoke.
" No, I'm sorry Mr. Wolff. I can't comply with that order. Miss Ellie won't let me leave you and I can't see myself leaving behind someone who once helped my Jacklyn."
" I don't care for your apologies you bucket of bolts… and she's not your Jacklyn!"
Wolff's eyes shot warily to the droid as he reached out. Taking the remaining manacle in hand, Willy calmly and effortlessly ripped the manacles from it's joining to the bed. He then did the same to the ones at Wolff's ankles.
" Wow! Willy, you really strong!" exclaimed Ellie.
" Yes, I am." Agreed the android. " I am a CerberusXTA after all, and I was made to have the strength of ten normal human men, and…."
" Yeah, yeah, yeah!" snapped Wolff as he donned the nearest labsuit for warmth. " Let's save the bragging for later, okay?"
" Bragging?!" retorted Willy. " I'll have you know sir, that everything I said is completely…"
Just then, the doors to the lab opened as four armed men rushed in, weapons drawn and aimed.
" Shit!" grumbled Wolff as he raised his hands in surrender. " Goddamned things are more trouble than they're worth."
" Shit!" echoed Ellie, also raising her hands.
" Ellie!" gasped Willy, shocked.
Wolff just rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Chapter 18
As they were being marched down the hall, Willie was preaching to Ellie about the evils of profanity. Wolff would've sworn if anyone had asked that his head was on the verge of imploding. The droid's incessant, overly cultivated, yet supercilious tone of voice grated on his nerves, and if someone didn't shut it up… Wolff swore that getting holed by one of the guards would be well worth the satisfaction of pulling the plug in that walking contraption.
" Will you shut the fuck up, you bucket of bolts!" snapped one of the guards, obviously just as irritated by the droid's chatter.
" Doan talk t'Willy like dat!" protested Ellie, indignantly.
" Shut up!" snarled the guard, slapping Ellie viciously, knocking her to the floor.
Wolff sensed the droid's attack, swiveling he made his move too on the two near him.
Wolff smashed the first guard's nose up into his brain, killing him instantly, and was already turning on the other, when he heard the audible snap as Willy broke the neck of the guard who had hit Ellie.
The fourth guard, with a scream of protest, shot Willy point blank in the chest as the droid stepped toward him, knocking the droid back to fall twitching next to Ellie.
Ellie screamed Willy's name as her new friend lay in front of her horrified eyes, with a smoking, gaping hole in his chest. She coughed and choked as she inhaled some of the smoke.
Wolff snapped the neck of the second guard, while kicking out to knock the gauge out of the fourth's hands. Nimbly catching the gauge as it twirled lazily in the air by one hand. He took out the last guard as he turned to flee, by sticking one finger in the trigger guard as it twirled around and pulling the trigger as the muzzle came around to face the guard. With a gurgled shout, the last guard flew forward from the force of the shot, landing unmoving face first in the now eerily quiet hall. Ellie's soft sobs seeming to be muted.
Wolff silently thanked his luck that the gauge had been the advanced model that had no recoil effect when fired. Otherwise, he'd be suffering right now with a shattered finger, for his last desperate attempt to take down the fleeing guard.
Turning, he hurried to Ellie who had curled up beside the still form of Willy. She sobbed heartrendingly as she tightened her hold on him as Wolff bent down to take her into his arms.
" No, mistah Wolff! We canna leave Willy here! NO!" she screamed as she fought off his hands.
" Kid! Let's go! He's down… he's been deactivated! We have to go before more guards show up!"
" Fix him! Fix 'im mistah Wolff, please? He my friend!
" Fix 'im?! Kid, we've gotta be getting the fuck outta here… you wanna stay then we stay! We stay, we die… ya hear me kid?"
Ellie sat up, rubbing her eyes. She nodded reluctantly, taking his hand allowing him to bring her to her feet.
" Bye bye Willy." She said sadly, as they started off.
As Wolff led the little girl cautiously down the hall, his thoughts turned to the android. He had no great sorrow for the loss of the droid but he had to admit to himself that if it hadn't been for the droid, Ellie and he would now be back in some kind of confinement. Wolff felt he had to respect that.
Wolff froze as a sound of commotion came echoing up the hall from around the corner. Sounded like many men running at full tilt.
Wolff swore furiously as he pushed Ellie behind him. He looked up and down the hall, but could see no other way out of the hall.
" Fine…" he said in a growl. " let's get it on."