​     "Goldbody just told the world he wants half a trillion dollars in an hour or people start doing space walks without spacesuits." This from Claudia. ​

​     Great, Adam thought. Shadow-man was right. This guy's gotta' be killed, the sooner the better.

     But first he had to break free from the duct tape. His fingers were taped to his chest, and the adhesive they used with this particular brand of duct tape was very strong. But Adam was pretty strong himself. He got his fingers, eventually, after, say, ten minutes, to his utility vest, where it took another ten minutes to tap in the code and get it open. Then, inside the vest in search of his mini-laser. He then got the laser turned around and aimed at the tape. He activated the laser, then used it to cut a hole through the duct tape around his right hand, the hand that had taken out the laser in the first place.

     "I don't think anyone's got their eye on me," Adam whispered. "Otherwise, they would have been on me by now."

     Once his right wrist and hand were free, it was relatively easy to cut through the tape around his arm, then around his face so that he could see. Claudia was right. He hung by a hook upside down in the corner of what looked like an empty jail cell or storage space. It didn't take long to cut the rest of the tape away, and, once it was off, he was able to access his immediate environment. Very small room. One bunk against a wall.  

     Okay, so was the door locked? And how small was the vessel he was on? Was there someone right on the other side of the door? Only one way to find out. He counted to three, then tried the door. It was unlocked. He opened it just the slightest bit, expecting an attack at any moment.  

     He peered into what was beyond the room...

     and...oh...oh yes, this couldn't be better.  

     He saw that he still rode in an air vehicle. 

​     He was in another one of those attack ships.

     He was inside one of the two ships that had attacked the Stargod to knock it out of the sky.

​     The walls and consoles were filled with switches and dials.

​     Adam counted three associates, all hunched over the controls, one seated, two standing. Adam looked out through the front of the vehicle to see that they were still very high up in the sky. 

     Yet, also, they were getting ready to land. 

​     They were getting to land on another air vehicle, this one roughly the size of an aircraft carrier.

​     Adam mimed a whistle. There was no doubt about it now. Goldbody was getting his technology from more or less the same place Adam got his.

     It really is coming then, he thought. The storm. A chill ran the length of Adam's spine. He shook it off. Nothing to be done about it now. He had other things to think about.  

​     "We'll be landing in approximately thirty-seven seconds," an associate said into his mouthpiece. "Cargo still..."

​     Adam snapped his neck with a karate chop so fierce and strong his skull slapped his shoulder like a fallen tree. The other two turned, but too late. Adam grabbed a skull and twisted. Snap! went another neck. The third associate tried to twist away. Adam palmed him in the torso, snapping a rib. The associate gasped, the agony was so sudden and powerful. Snap! A third neck. 

     At which point, without a navigator, the vessel spun like a thrown toy. 

     "Associate, report!" Adam heard from a speaker. "You're..." 

     Adam kicked a twitching corpse off the control seat, then sat down himself. Most control panels were basically the same. Just...

     BAM! 

​     The attack vehicle, still wildly out of control, bounced off the top of the flying fortress BAM! before spinning off into the sky. 

     "Associate!" a voice roared over the com-unit. "What are..."

     Adam thought, what I need now is to get this thing steady enough to...

​     BAM!

     "Where are you, Claudia?" he asked into his com. "I need another Stargod right quick." 

​     "No can do, friend. It's going to take another good twenty minutes to get there." 

     "Damn!"

                                             CONTINUE