Heller's a lost cause, but Gris still has an item on the night's agenda - punishing Commander Snelz, the officer in charge of the security detail that's supposed to be keeping Heller under close watch, but has instead become all chummy with him. So Gris hops on a "zipbus" and takes the underground road from Spiteos to Camp Endurance. He asks the (half-naked, for some reason) driver about the unusually high traffic and gets some expletives aimed at officers, which makes Gris agree with Hisst that such "riffraff" and "trash" is indeed worthy of extermination.
After passing through the security checkpoints blocking the so-called Camp Kill off from the Apparatus' super-duper-secret headquarters, Gris heads towards the officer quarters carved into the hillside like "animal caves." There's the usual sounds of loud music and a nighttime brawl, along with the characteristic stink associated with the Apparatus. And then Gris is attacked in a Hubbard Action Scene.
I am pretty fast. Otherwise I would have died in my tracks!
The blastgun barrel was into my stomach with violence!
I hardly even saw the man behind it.
With a roll to the side I made the barrel shoot by. I brought my right hand down on the back of the sentry's neck!
And so forth. Gris defeats the overly-enthusiastic sentry and clubs his skull twice with the butt of his own weapon, crushing bone and leaving the man motionless and bleeding. Apparatus troopers such as this have it tough - as a bunch of criminals, "the worst riffraff of the planets," they have a tendency to hide while on duty. As a result, their officers are authorized to execute them at their discretion, so a sentry is faced with the choice of risking his life for a murderous superior or risking execution for dereliction of duty. And yet the Apparatus is able to hold itself together to present a credible threat as a villainous organization.
Gris boldly pushes into Snelz' quarters to find the officer sitting at a table in his underclothes, practicing his dice game, while in his bunk a camp prostitute sleeps peacefully. Using his incredible Apparatus training, Gris deduces that Snelz intends to win some money from his mates to pay back his whore, but he doesn't intend to give his victim the chance. Drawing his weapon, Gris formally announces Platoon Commander Snelz' death sentence for fraternizing with a prisoner. The prostitute behind the officer is also in the field of fire, but meh, collateral damage.
But oh, the irony! When Gris pulls the trigger he gets the pop of a dud fuse. What a... silly mistake for a seasoned Apparatus operative to make, not checking his weapon before going a-murderin'. If you haven't noticed by now, Gris' secret agent skills are only as keen as the plot requires.
Luckily Snelz didn't notice that Gris' weapon is suffering projectile dysfunction. The officer grovels, begging for his life, pleading that the "fraternization" with Heller is just a way to avoid raising his suspicions, as per Gris' orders. He even crawls over to offer some crumpled currency at Gris' feet. The (filthy, dirty) prostitute wakes up during this and is irate: "Hey, don't give away no money! You can buy another (bleep)!"
While Snelz is still trying to bargain for his life, the whore makes a dive for the twenty spacebux on the floor in front of Gris; in reply our viewpoint character stomps on her hand, shattering bones and sending her naked and screaming out the front door... until she sees the downed sentry out front, panics further, turns around and runs back into the house with the gun-toting, hand-stomping Apparatus agent, and decides to cower in a corner. Even Gris is dismayed at her stupidity.
After Snelz offers to split half of whatever Heller gives him with Gris, our villain protagonist agrees to spare his life. He even hands over a ten-credit note so the skull-smashed guard can get a trip to the doctor, before heading back to Spiteos and the armory for a functioning weapon. On the way he tries to figure out why his gun didn't fire, and rejects the idea that Heller somehow swapped out the cartridges, concluding that he took the gun that Heller's friends had packed, which had been loaded with a dummy cartridge for safe transport that Heller hadn't removed yet.
Gris roughs up the armory... guy. Armorer, I guess? Hubbard doesn't give him a title or name. Anyway, Gris gets loaded up with shooty and choppy bits, as well as complimented when the armorer suggests that he's becoming more like Lombar Hisst each day. Or at least Gris decides the guy means it positively, so he doesn't kill him.
The chapter ends with Gris returning to his shared quarters with Heller, where he concludes that the sooner he leaves Voltar the better, especially since Heller will be completely at his mercy on Earth.
Allow me some hollow laughter at the idea of them getting to Earth quickly.
Back to Chapter Five
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