Torquay, England – July 14, 1999
Liam arrived in the blink of an eye. He was standing outside the front of what looked like a block of holiday apartments. He seemed to go into a trance for a moment while he checked with his databanks that this was the right place. According to the future records, he was right. He had had to pay a little visit to New Arizona; the future city created after a nuclear holocaust in the year 2000 took the world back to another Ice Age. Larna Fox had not been present there—as Liam had hoped. When he accessed the central computer databank, he found a record of her having disappeared from this area around this time in the evening. This place was the last record of her having been recorded. The history computer in the future kept records of Larna’s transportation through time in a version of chronological order. Not as she appeared in the past, but the order in which she visited them. The line stopped here. Liam folded his arms across his chest. He had picked Larna up on his internal scanner. She was on the top floor of the building at the moment, in the end apartment. Liam did not fancy going right up to the top floor just say hello. He would wait until she came down before he surprised her. He had worked out though that Larna was probably in the middle of sorting some bad guy out, so he did not want to disrupt the time reality too much by stopping her from getting this bad guy. There was no other reason why she would be back here, but her stopping a mad man who was intent on changing the past. Liam focused his scanner on to Larna, to make sure that he did not lose her trace.
Larna peered over the side down to the balcony some eight feet below her. Larna Fox is twenty-one Erayears, one hundred and forty-seven Chronoyears old. Erayears is a new age that has been created after the nuclear holocaust. Because of the arctic temperature, the human body’s metabolic rate slowed down, meaning that humans only age one year every eighty-four months. She stands five feet eleven inches tall, weighs nine stone and has hazel eyes and auburn coloured hair, which has a white streak running down the middle. Her hair is swept back into a tight ponytail at the back of her head, leaving just a tiny fringe down her forehead. With measurements of 36B-24-35 she has the body of a top model of the nineties. With looks closely resembling those of the actress Hudson Leick, she can be classed among the most attractive women on the planet. On the right side of her neck she has a tattoo of the Chinese for Eternal Devotion, in memory and honour of her late husband. On her right bicep she has got a tattoo of a Fox. On her left buttock is a tattoo of a black rose wrapped around a dagger, signifying her assassin background. She is wearing a pair of black fishnet stockings, with a very close tight pattern, which made her legs look even sexier than they were without them. On top of them going around her waist is a small, tight figure hugging black leather mini-skirt which, at about eight inches long, just covers her buttocks. On the top is a black leather shirt over a black lace bra. This shirt is tucked into the mini-skirt. Her jacket is a black leather motorbike jacket with matching black leather motorbike boots on her feet. The boots have got a number of buckles on the side and come right up to about half way up her shinbone. Around her neck she has a gold chain with a cross on the end. The cross hangs down to lie just in-between her breasts. It was her mothers’ necklace and Larna is never without it. On her right wrist she has the wrist part of a pair of handcuffs that they use in the present day. Her father gave it to her when she was young. She used to keep it in a box until she killed her foster father, now she wears it constantly to keep reminding herself that the police want her. Her face had just the right amount of make-up. Her eyes were surrounded by a dark eyeshade and her lips were a bright red with a black surround.
That eight-foot drop down on to the balcony would have been a major asking of any other woman. But Larna was not an ordinary woman. Her body has been trained and honed into the perfect fighting machine. It is flexible, fit and strong. It is the product of the six Martial Arts in which she a master. Her late husband taught her those Martial Arts before he was killed. Larna used them to get her revenge on his killers and now uses them to stop people from changing time. Savate is an Old French form of martial arts. It is based on hand and foot fighting and is recognised by its flamboyant kicking techniques. Pencak Silat is the National fighting art of the old Indonesia. Moves are based on the evasion and warding off of attacks. The offensive moves are all geared to getting the opponent off balance. Taijutsu is an unarmed form of combat, the forerunner to the old Judo technique. Ninjitsu, the art of invisibility, is the techniques of the ninja. They involve the use of dirks, darts, daggers, throwing stars, smoke bombs and various poisons. Capoeria is an old Brazilian form of combat in which the foot is considered the strongest weapon and the head the weakest point. This art aims to bring these two into contact by using various kicks, somersaults and handsprings. Her gymnastic training as a younger woman has been moulded into a tool to help with this art. Kenpo, also known as Fist uses Linear and circular movements combined into major and minor moves with flow constantly. This is a very flexible form of martial arts. All added up, they turned Larna into the perfect street assassin and the perfect time travelling Time Protection Agent. She took one step back. The more she thought about what she was planning to do, the more thoughts of why she should not do it ran through her head. She planted both of her hands down on the wall running around the roof to help her swing her legs right over it. She dropped down right on to the balcony. Bouncing forward the moment that she touched down on the balcony, she sent her right shoulder crashing through the glass doors. She rolled through the shattering glass, right into the heart of the living room. Using the roll’s momentum she sprang up to her feet.
The moment she was upright, her laser gun whipped out of the holster under her left arm. Travis jumped back in the sofa when he saw the laser gun pointing right at his face. Larna did not show any signs of injury, even after she had crashing through glass doors. The glare in her eyes told of her intent. Travis placed his hands on his head.
“I had nothing to do with anything that they did to you, you have got to believe me,” he stammered nervously, knowing all too well about Larna’s reputation for getting revenge on the people that did her wrong.
Travis was a member of a gang of bank robbers that Larna had been chasing recently. The leader of this gang was Hunter. Hunter was Larna’s ex-assassination partner’s brother and her wanted to kill her. He had tried in this adventure—by torturing and raping her, but Larna survived and now wanted some payback. No man that had raped her had lived to tell the tale. She was here to make sure that that record still stood. Larna started glancing around the room, trying to take everything in as quickly as possible.
“Where is he?” Larna asked, not giving Travis a direct answer to his pleas.
“He’s in the master bedroom, with Charlotte,” Travis said in a growling tone of voice.
Larna sensed that Travis was not happy with that situation in the slightest. Suddenly the door to the master bedroom swung open. Hunter came storming out into the living room to find out what all the noise was. His right hand was holding his trousers up. The top half of his bottom was naked. Larna whipped the gun up from Travis to Hunter the moment she heard the door. Without even waiting to see who had opened the door she fired. Hunter ducked. The laser beam went right over his head. Before Larna could fire again, Hunter slammed the door shut. Larna darted forward. She leapt right over the top of Travis and the sofa, doing a forward somersault to clear them to enable her to take the quickest route from A to B. Larna charged at the door. She did a right-footed flying kick right into the middle of the left-hand door as she looked. Inside the bedroom Larna landed on her feet then ducked down into a forward roll. At the end of the roll she came up into a crouched position, swinging the laser gun around her in all directions to make sure that she had covered every hiding place. Her eyes took in the entire scene in the shortest time possible, just as her ninja training had taught her too. Charlotte was facing down, naked, on the bed. Her arms were stretched out and tied to the top corners of the bed. Her ankles were tied to the bottom corners. There was no way that she could have fought Hunter off. Larna rose to her feet. Suddenly Hunter came crashing through the door of the wardrobe to Larna’s right. He rugby tackled Larna around the waist. He forced her right through the glass doors leading to the bedroom balcony. The pair of them was going so fast that they could not stop themselves from going right over the rail. They fell through the air like to lead weights. Hunter by this time had lost the grip of the rugby tackle. Larna had long since lost the laser gun. They crashed right into the pool, ten floors below the balcony.
Hunter was the first to surface. He started swimming towards the side of the pool as fast as he could. Larna sprang out of the water, coughing and spluttering as she tried to get the water from her throat. She felt like she had swallowed half of the pool. Hunter hauled himself out of the water then started running towards the gate that led on to the road. Larna swam to the side herself now. She could not let him get too far ahead of her. Hunter crashed through the gate at full speed. Acting on survival instincts he went to the first thing that he saw. A transit van. He smashed his right fist through the driver’s side window so that he could open the door. Quickly he slipped on to the front seat and started to hot-wire the ignition. Larna came running through the shattered gate just as he drove off. Larna slammed her right hand against her leg. She was a fast runner, but there was no chance of catching him up on foot. She turned to look down the street. Parked outside the next gate down was a motorbike. Larna shrugged her shoulders in a—at last something has gone right—expression. She sprinted down to the bike, jumped on to the seat, then set about hot-wiring the bike to get it started. Within seconds she had got it started. She revved the engine then screeched down the back alley, pulling a high wheeling when she powered forward.
Liam sprinted around into the alley just in time to see the van and the bike racing off into the distance. His scanning device would not lose Larna, it would just be a pain in the ass for him trying to keep up with her like this. He activated his transport device to try and get ahead of them both.
Hunter took nervous glances into the rear view mirrors on the side of the van every few seconds. He could see the motorbike speeding along the road behind him. Being on a bike, Larna found it easier to pass the cars in front of her. Hunter veered out on to the other side of the road to try and pass the car in front of him. He quickly had to duck back in behind it again when a large came right for him. The truck blasted out a long hard horn as it went passed, but Hunter did not care about the reckless driving. He just wanted to get away from Larna until he had a chance to compose his thoughts. When he had to be spontaneous, he could not think up a good plan to beat her, but given time he would. He had never been a quick thinker. Larna increased the burn on the throttle to get as much power from the bike’s engine as she could. She weaved in-between the large truck and a car, then powered up behind the transit van. Hunter glanced in his mirrors again. Larna was right behind him now. He slammed the brakes on hard, then spun the steering wheel around. He slid around the turn into another road that had joined the main road. The van almost went up on to two wheels. Larna lent over to the right side, almost touching her knee across the tarmac, so that she could turn into the junction without slowing down too much. It was just like a grand-prix motorcycle rider in the middle of a race. The van bounced from side to side as it fought against the turn at such a high speed. Larna could now see her chance. She pushed the throttle as far as it would go one last time. When she got close enough to the back, she jumped up, so that she sat with her feet on the seat. After a quick count of three, Larna launched herself forward. She jumped right on to the top of the transit van. The bike jerked and crashed down on to its side behind the van. Larna slammed down hard on to the roof of the van. She quickly grabbed the side with both hands, to stop herself from sliding right off. She lay flat on her stomach, trying to battle against the turbulence rushing over the top of the roof. Hunter started weaving across the road in his attempt to shake her off the top. His actions were becoming more and more panicky as time went on. He could not think of anything, which was making his actions more dangerous and more careless. Larna increased the grip that she had of the sides of the van, straining her arms to get as much strength out of them as she possibly could. Hunter pushed his foot to the floor to get more speed. The van was now speeding up a backcountry lane that was only really big enough for one vehicle at a time. They had come out of Torquay along a sea side road. This tiny road was heading right towards the cliffs. Hunter did not care whether something came the other way. He just anted rid of the pest on his roof. With her chasing him for once, he could not concentrate on trying to come up with a plan to get rid of her. Larna inched herself forward slightly. When she was at the front of the van she rolled off to the left. She swung her legs around into the glass of the passenger side door. She slipped right through the small window into the front of the van. Now both of them were inside the cab of the van.
Hunter tried to get the first punch in. He missed. That gave Larna the chance to reach forward and grab his head. Larna slammed it hard against the steering wheel in front of him. Larna continued to slam his head into the steering wheel for several seconds, putting as much force behind the blows as she could get in such a cramped space. Hunter then managed to place his hand around her throat. He started choking her as hard as he could. Larna bent her back away from him to make him have to stretch. That released a lot of the pressure of the hold. The van crashed into the side of the road now. Hunter had had to take his hands off the steering wheel. The van veered right across the road to crash into the hedge on the opposite side. That crash sent it back in the other direction again. The force of the impacts had forced Hunter into removing his hold on Larna. Larna took full advantage. First she smacked him in the face with the elbow of her right arm. Then swung her right fist down into his chest. The blow pinned him back in to the seat. Then she did an uppercut with her elbow again to send the man right over to the top of the seat into the back of the van. The van started losing speed quickly now that no one had his or her foot on the accelerator, but Larna as not concerned with the speed on the van. She jumped over the top of the front seats to land right on top of Hunter in the back of the van. She pinned him down by sitting with her legs on either side of him. Now she had Hunter pinned down she started punching him in the sides, with alternating blows to each side in quick succession. Ahead of the van the road curved away sharply to the right. With no one at the wheel the van just went straight on. It ploughed through a hedge into a grass field that started sloping down towards the cliff face. The vehicle soon started picking up speed as the slope took it. Hunter hit Larna in the chest with a blow as hard as he could. It knocked Larna backwards, forcing her down on to his legs. He twirled his legs around to wrap them around Larna’s neck. Larna retaliated by hitting him where it hurt the most—his manhood. Hunter released the grip on her immediately. Larna jumped forward, diving on top of him and planting her left elbow into his stomach. When he jerked upright in a reflex to that blow, Larna hit him in the face with face with the same left elbow. Next she swung around and grabbed him under the chin with both of her hands. Using the upward swing of her arms, she lifted Hunter up to smack his head against the top of the van. Hunter started seeing stars. Larna dropped him back down then slammed down on her hands into his chest as hard as she could. She was sure she hard a few cracking sounds. Hunter lay on his back. But he was not finished yet. He lifted his foot into Larna’s back. The blow sent her face first into the front seats. The impact of the seat knocked her out cold. She slumped down to land right on top of Hunter. Her left elbow caught him across the face and knocked him out too. Hunter lay on his back now motionless. Larna was slumped over the top of him. They looked like a pair of sleeping lovers, not two enemies fighting.
The van gained speed with every passing second. Its unconscious passengers unaware that the slope they were going down led right to the edge of a cliff. At the foot of the cliff a watery grave awaited. The bumps sent the two people in the back all over the place, but they did not stir. By the edge of the cliff the van was going well over one hundred miles an hour. It flew right off the edge, through the air several hundred yards before undertaking its downward curve into the rough sea below.
Liam reappeared with Larna safely tucked up in his arms in a cradle hold. He had managed to get inside the van just before it had gone off the edge, then transported out, with Larna to safety a split second later. He stood and watched as the van went flying off the edge, with only Hunter left inside. When the raging sea at the bottom of the cliff had extinguished the explosion and the plume of black smoke, Liam placed Larna carefully down on to the ground. He then sat down right beside her to wait for her to wake up. Larna slowly opened her eyes after about five minutes. Liam lent over her with a broad smile on his face. Larna rubbed her eyes, trying to remember how she had managed to get out of the van and in to this field of grass. When she saw Liam leaning over her, her heart dropped. Things were going from bad to worse. She had just managed to beat the living daylights out of one thorn in her side, only to find herself facing another—one that would be slightly harder to beat than a human being. Larna started shaking her head.
“Whatever I did to deserve being thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire, I apologise for,” she said, not speaking to Liam, just speaking out what she had running through her mind at that moment.
“Calm down Larna, I am not here to make trouble for. Quite the opposite in fact. I came here to help you out,” Liam stated firmly, looking down over the side of the cliff as he spoke.
Larna slowly moved up into a standing position. She did not want to make any sudden quick movements, just in case Liam was ere to finish a job that someone else had started previously. She peered down to the rocks at the foot of the cliff. The van wreck could just be seen slipping under the waves one last time. Larna whipped her head around to face Liam, who was standing at the spot where he had been sitting. Liam had the same broad smile on his face in a—I told you that I did you a favour—expression.
“I saved you from that wreck. Would I do that just so that I could kill you myself?” he asked questioningly.
“Who knows what is going on in that computerised brain of yours?” Larna asked bluntly. “Did the person who hired you want my head on a late perhaps?” she finished with a cheeky grin on her face.
“I am here because of Rhonda,” Liam said, not answering Larna’s question directly.
Larna remembered Rhonda. She also remembered the last time that she had seen her. Rhonda had left with Liam to go and life a new life on a different planet. Larna could tell by the way that Liam looked that the news about Rhonda was not good.
“What happened?” Larna asked with a concerned tone to her voice.
“The Loretis invaded the forest planet Marius that we had decided to settle down on,” Liam explained immediately. “They killed my son and took Rhonda away in a space ship. The army was too large for my to take on, on my own, so I had to come and find the one person who I knew would be able to help me get Rhonda back,” he finished reporting.
“So you came to ask me for my help?” Larna asked, just to clarify the details.
“You are the only one I could turn to Larna,” Liam said almost pathetically. “You have got to help me get her back from them. There is no telling what they are going to do with her now that they have got her back. She escaped from what they classed as a prison colony—the Slaronia Farming Colony. Her sentence his going to be harsher than before,” he paused to gage the reaction on Larna’s face. “Please Larna. I know that I have caused you a lot of bother in the past, but you are the only one that I can trust to help me.”
“I wish I could help you Liam,” Larna said as she moved back away from the edge of the cliff to join Liam a safe distance away. “But Marius, where-ever that planet is, is in a completely different dimension from the one we’re in at the moment. How am I supposed to get there? And then how the fuck are the two of us supposed to beat the whole Loretis people?” Larna asked sharply.
“Have you not faced harder odds in the past?” Liam asked, surprised to find that Larna was so against this adventure. “Did you not stay clear of the whole of the New Arizona Police force for three years while living on the street as an assassin?” he finished, wanting to try to use what she had done in the past as a spur for her to do this now.
“Liam, there are so many things that can go wrong with this. We get fucked out in that alternative dimension and there is no back-up plan,” Larna pointed out bluntly.
“You are scared!” Liam exclaimed, finding it even hard to comprehend himself.
Larna moved into a more upright stance, squaring her shoulders back as if that insult had made her want to stick up for herself a little more. Liam took this opportunity to push home his insult a little further.
“You are scared that if you do screw up then no one can come back from the future to save your ass,” he added to his first statement.
Larna placed her hands on her hips in a defiant posture.
“When we get to this alternative dimension there are a few things that we’re going to need—like a fucking fast getaway vehicle,” Larna exclaimed sharply. “Because you understand that none of my technology from this dimension is going to work. The Thala is going to be absolutely useless to me,” she concluded briefly.
“Fine,” Liam said as he activated the Inter-Dimension Vortex that he had built into his system now.
Larna watched the whirlpool effect start in thin air then spread out until it had created a circle about three feet in diameter. Liam walked straight for the grey, swirling light that almost seemed to have a cloud-like appearance. He disappeared the moment he touched the grey substance. Larna had the distinct gut feeling that she should not be doing this as she walked towards the Vortex. But Liam had saved her life before. She guessed that she owed him this one.
The Thala is her time travelling aid. It stands for Time, History And Location Analyser. The computer is surgically attached to her left wrist and accesses the Factual Historical Information (FHI) Implants that have been surgically attached to the inside of her skull. These Implants gave Larna every single piece of data concerning people, places and events going right back to 1980. Thought processes operate the Thala and the responses are given to Larna in her subconscious thanks to a modified FHI Implant. The only sign that Larna is using her aid, is when it appears on her wrist. It appears when Larna activates the operations function. When it is activated the Thala loses the power to keep the invisibility shield in operation, as it is at all other times, so no one can see the technology on her arm. As she had mentioned this device will become useless to her the moment she stepped into that grey substance. She would be stranded in another dimension, with only Liam as the source of a way back to Earth. One thing she must not do is get separated from him—then she would find herself in more trouble than she could handle.
Liam returns, needing Larna’s help to rescue Rhonda, his Slarone wife, who has been taken prisoner by the Loretis. The rescue attempt fails and Larna finds herself being taken to the same prison as Rhonda. The worst prison colony in the whole of the galaxy.