MAN FROM TOMORROW (EPISODE 109)

The General continued his tirade. The man who had gone inside with the pen drive came back along with it and whispered something in the general's ear. The general took the flash drive and gave a satisfactory nod.

Martin taking this as cue took a step backward, and continued to move away from the General, dragging the crying Anita with him.

"I don't remember saying that you could leave," Martin heard the General say, and heard his gun click a split second after. Martin pushed Anita to the ground to dodge the bullet, but didn't stop moving. He used the tables as cover to circle the room and get back onto the side with the door he used to enter the room. By the time he and Anita were on the other side, all of the guards were shooting at them. Glass flew everywhere when bullets shattered vials and other equipment, but none penetrated the sturdy tables. Not yet.

Martin remained low against the floor, trying to think of a plan.

"Do you think you're going somewhere?" the General called. "I told you already- perhaps you misunderstood. You are free to have the girl, but not your lives. You know too much to just walk out of here."

Martin ignored him and continued to think. Neither of them could see anything where the General and the guards were before he and Anita made it to the other side of the tables, but he heard someone- the General, by the sounds of it- jump up onto the table nearest to him, his boots cracking the already shattered glass that lay on its surface. Now was their only hope, because if they waited any longer, the guards would reach and kill them before they got the chance to escape

It was a small chance, but Martin took it.

He unlocked the buckle of his belt and held it against the light. Anita could see that it was in fact a knife half the size of a palm. Martin was concealing a knife in the buckle of his belt all this time. At some normal time, Anita would think of it as paranoid behavior. Martin considered it insurance. Martin jumped out of the comfort of the table and threw the knife at the general. It pierced the flesh of his arm and the general dropped his gun with a shriek of pain.

Martin broke his fall, snatched the fallen gun and the flash drive and jumped to the safety of another table, writhing in pain from his thigh wound. He indicated Anita to brace herself. Bottles were broken and test tubes shattered by the indiscriminate firings. There was total confusion. A fog had developed by the release of various chemical vapors into the room. Getting up from the safety of the table he shot two bullets; one into the chest of the General, who was caught off guard by the belt-buckle knife, and another into the TEB tank on the other side of the room. 

(To Be Continued Tomorrow...)

[The complete Book ‘MAN FROM TOMORROW’ can be downloaded at amzn.to/2MSf1ng]