“We have a number of leads, and I have people following them up. Concentrate on your ship. Piet Brandeis has detailed a team to make sure no one gets anywhere near you.”
James Heron gave a sour smile. “I understand, and I’m not to take any direct action myself.” Holding the security chief’s gaze, he added, “I know the routine, sir, and the orders I would give if our roles were reversed.”
Despite the tension, the Admiral laughed. “Damn it, James, you’re too sharp. You’d make a superb leader for one of my specialist groups.”
“Thank you, sir, but no thanks. I’ve enough spooks in my family tree without becoming one myself.”
Felicity’s frustration simmered. A week since her abduction, and she was still not able to figure out where she was being held. They’d provided her with some entertainment, a library of digital books, movies and music, but nothing with which she could access any information about current events, and definitely no access to interplanetary news channels. She had all the food she needed and the accommodation was comfortable, so the biggest enemy was loneliness and lack of human contact. She’d had a cryptic message from her captors that she’d be released if the Fleet met their demands. It suggested that there might be a link between her abduction and the attack on Terri Hollister.
Knowing she was under observation did nothing to help her frustration, since it meant she had to restrict her efforts at finding a way to escape to the sort of obvious effort a clueless ‘administrator’ such as she would use. She prowled the compartment and discovered that at least one of her implants was still active. The tingle as she checked the obvious places for a hidden surveillance device told her she’d hit the jackpot. She found three, all where she would have placed them if she’d set up a room like this.
I bet they’ve got audio as well, she mused. Moving to the door, she banged on it, something she did at intervals, hoping it would convince her captors she was not coping very well with captivity. “Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear me?” She made a show of listening, her mind running over everything she could recall, then moved to the one comfortable chair in the room.
Her training had kicked in early, and she’d settled into a mental routine that helped her cope with the isolation. It also helped her sort out everything she’d been able to piece together so far. She was still alive, and that was a good sign, but could it last? She would have to take it one day at a time, or better yet, one hour at a time.
She sighed. All she could do was hope the Admiral and the team found a way to get her out of here. She walked over to the bed and lay down, and her thoughts drifted to James Heron, as they often did. She hoped he would be involved in her rescue, and then she smiled. Of course he would. He was nothing if not professional, in addition to his other admirable assets. She felt a wave of desire and longing course through her body, but she’d be damned if she caved in to that temptation with the Consortium pervs watching.
You’d like that, wouldn’t you? she snarled at them in her thoughts. How she despised them.
Oh, James, please come find me. I need you. I need you to get me out of here so we can be together again. Please hurry.
To chase away the agony of longing, she repeated a mantra that cycled on an endless loop through her mind. Number one, stay in control of yourself. Number two, set up a randomised routine to keep mentally and physically sharp. Number three, don’t lose hope.
She would be found. Piet and the team were probably already taking the place apart. She just had to wait, unless she found an opportunity to get herself free. She would make that decision if and when the time came.
“Captain, there’s been an attempt to access the primary weapons system.” Commander Petrocova was livid. “The security system responded and locked them out, but not before they’d got at least part of the operating manual.”
“How much did they get?”
“Fritz isn’t sure. He thinks possibly only the first sections—none of the technical specifications.” Valerie paused. “Only someone in the weapons branch would have been able to get that far. So it’s one of my people who’s a bloody traitor, and I can tell you right now, I’m pissed about it!”
“Okay. Take a seat, Val, and let’s see what we can do.” Captain Heron waited until she’d sat. “We have several problems, and they all seem to come back to your particle beam weapon. Somebody wants the specs badly enough that they’ve sent in a team of assassins, abducted Felicity, almost killed Theresa Hollister, killed several people who appear to have been snuffed out just so their identities could be used, and they still have people on the Dock and onboard as well.” He tapped the arm of his chair, staring at the bulkhead. “It’s all connected, so let’s narrow down the field of suspects among our own people. Do you have any ideas of who they are?”
“I can think of a few I’m not sure of, sir. Should I have them removed?”
“No, have them watched. Get the Master at Arms on it. Mr Suddaby will find any dirt they’re hiding. Give me the names as well. I’ll get Brown’s people on it as well.” He paused. “Get Fritz to plant a dummy manual. That’ll throw them off for a while.”
“Done, sir. Fritz set that up for me as soon as we found the intrusion. And I’ve changed all the access permissions to the weapon itself. No one can get into the PBW compartment without the double access keys and codes.”
“Good. One more thing. I think it’s time we ran some full power trials of our deep surface scanners. I’m ordered to stay out of the search for Felicity, but there’s no harm in testing our scanners to identify areas where some of the abandoned settlements show signs of occupation.”
Valerie smiled. “Leave it with me, sir. You’re right, our scanners are a lot more powerful than anything fitted to any ship around here. We should be able to give a detailed image of what’s down there—unless they have something to block it.” She stood. “I’ll get that list to you as soon as I get back to my office. I’ll have to file the scanner tests with the Dock and Mars Base, of course, but I’ll keep it vague.”
“Sounds good. I’ll talk to the trials oversight team, but I won’t say exactly what we’re expecting. Perhaps link it to a test of the manoeuvring engines—that’ll keep them guessing.”
James Heron paced like a caged tiger. “It’s been two damned weeks since Felicity was kidnapped, and your people still can’t find her?! What the hell are they doing, sitting on their hands?”
“Take a breath, James, and have a seat please. You’re making me nervous, and that’s saying something. We know she’s still alive, so that’s good news.” The Admiral held his own anger in check, and what was worse, he was angry at himself. He wasn’t going to admit it to Heron—not unless he wanted that tiger to lunge across his desk—but his own plan to take down Bast and her team had gone awry. She’d outwitted his agents, and he felt like a fool. Was he losing his edge?
He deflected.”Mars is a warren of tunnels and abandoned habitation centres. We’re having to work through each one. We’ll find her.”
“Alive, I hope, and in good health!” Recalling his visitor’s rank, he added, “Sir.” James forced himself to calm down and dropped into a chair. “I’m sorry, sir, it’s just—”
“I know, James, I know. My agents are like sons and daughters to me. I will find Felicity, and we will deal with the people responsible. For now you need to know that I’ve had a demand from this Bast—she’ll release Felicity on one condition. She wants you delivered to a site and on a date she’s specified, alone, but she says you can bring weapons with you.” His expression was grim. “As I explained in our previous discussion, she enjoys hunting her prey, and it’s even more exciting when her prey—that’s you—is armed, because it’s more of a challenge for her.”
James’s face was expressionless. “Just tell me where and when.”
“Seven days from now.” Mr Brown paused to gauge James’s reaction and got a focused stare in return. “She favours a needle projector and poison, so we’ll fit you with something tha
t protects against that.” He took note of James’ too-calm demeanour. “James, I’m going to say this, and you won’t like me for it. You are more valuable to the Fleet right now than anyone else. I would not even contemplate this if I didn’t know you are possibly the only person not in my team who has even the ghost of a chance against this Bast woman.”
“You’re right, I don’t like that—sir. But there’s a complication. We’re supposed to be conducting the propulsion trials in three days. They’re scheduled for a full twenty-four hours. I don’t really want this hanging over me.”
“None of us do.” The Admiral leaned back in his chair. “I’d prefer to push the trials back, but with everything else, we dare not do that. We have to keep things looking as normal as possible, and I’m hoping the trials will flush out a few more double agents.”
Bast watched Yelendi Dysson leave her accommodation. She smiled, a predatory expression, and a rather unpleasant one had anyone been close enough to see it. I know what your game is, Yelendi Dysson, and I intend to spoil it. I want the weapon specs and the Captain, and I’m not going to have my fun spoiled by you or your amateurs.
She touched her comlink.
“Yes, Leader?”
“How’s my guest keeping? Is she showing signs of cracking?” It amused her to know that the men hearing her on the other end of the transmission got nothing but a very mechanical simulation of her voice, a little precaution that kept her identity and voice pattern unrecognisable.
“She’s holding out well. A tough cookie, probably ex-services. She knows she’s being watched.”
“Good, more fun for later. Fleet Security are searching section by section down there. Make sure your perimeter monitors are functioning properly. I want no slip-ups.”
“There won’t be, Leader.”
“Make sure of it. I expect Heron will persuade his superiors he should be allowed to accept my terms soon, and I want him captured and shipped. But first I’m looking forward to a little sport with him.”
Chapter 19
Orders, Captain
“We’ve got permission to run the trials and test scans, sir.” Commander Petrocova smiled. “There were some raised eyebrows—especially when I suggested we needed to run some high penetration trials.”
“Good.” Captain Heron paused. “We’ll run the local manoeuvring trials tomorrow at 07:00 Ship Standard Time. We’ll be taken off the Dock, but that’s not a problem because the trials will only use our manoeuvring units. We’ll do four orbits, and on each pass you’ll run a deep penetration scan. Try to cover the whole planet in the four orbits, but if you can’t, I’ll find an excuse to run further tests.” He grinned like a mischievous little boy.
Val couldn’t hold back a smile. “Got you, Captain. The ScanTechs are keyed up to run the full range—below ground structures, electronic signatures, life forms, weapons and anti-scan screens—the whole gamut.”
“Good. Are we certain the techs are all sound?”
“Yes, sir.” Val Petrocova smiled. “I’ve weeded out the bad seeds, and a couple of dock techs won’t be aboard either. Mr Suddaby persuaded them to take some leave, but this is the end of the road in their career with us. They won’t be back.”
The Captain nodded then turned his attention to the Engineering Commander, Mary Allison. “Are your people happy, Mary? Have you briefed them on what we need?”
Mary grinned. “You’ll get the power overruns and under shoots you want, sir. We’ll make it convincing.”
“Good, then we’re all set. Nick will have the barges out on our flanks recording the trial. At least that’s the official purpose. They’re carrying the drone units for the deep remote scanning. If there’s anything hidden down there, we should find it and hopefully—”
“Does the Adm … Mr Brown know about this, sir?”
“He knows we’re running trials. He’s got enough to worry about.” That’s all James Heron would say on that topic. He kept to himself his feeling that someone in Fleet Security was leaking information to Bast. Plus, he was pretty sure the head of Fleet Security was running a parallel operation. It would be typical of the Admiral to do this, but the question was who or what he was really after.
“Where did this come from?” The Admiral stared at the display. “No wonder we can’t sweep the place any faster. Half these areas are not shown on the registered maps.”
“The source is an agent we’ve been watching, sir, one of theirs. We’re not sure why they’ve decided to provide this now, but it may be related to the involvement of this Pantheon team.” Commander Piet Brandeis shrugged. “I think they may be trying to distance themselves from the Pantheon operation, and these plans actually show someone’s been very busy since the settlement was officially ended.”
“Hmph. Do you think somebody’s playing a risky hand defending their own operation? Or are they sending us on a wild goose chase while their team gets away?” The Admiral glared at the display again. His ghost team were still monitoring Felicity’s captors, but they were no closer to identifying where they were holding her. “Are we absolutely certain Ms Rowanberg is not on the Dock or hidden on one of the ships in build?”
“Positive, sir. There’s nowhere we’ve not checked aloft. We have discovered how they moved her to the surface, though, and we’ve searched through about a third of the areas we had on our charts as habitable.”
“Too damned slow.” The Admiral stood. “Put that display on the bulkhead. Let’s have a closer look at the areas not on the official records.” For a long moment he stared at the display. “Overlay it on the official version.”
“Yes, sir.” Piet Brandeis’s eyes grew wide and he whistled in surprise. “Damn, that almost doubles it in size.”
“Yes.” The Admiral scowled. “And it raises the question of how our people missed the fact the record was incomplete.” He studied the display. “Ah, I see, these areas used to be linked, and these still are. So why are the link passages that should be here and here not showing?”
The Commander’s link chirped before he could comment. “Brandeis.”
“Sir, Vanguard’s Weapons Commander says she has some interesting results from her tests on the ship’s scanners.”
“Where is she?” Mr Brown demanded.
“In the Ops Room, sir.”
“Bring her in.”
Yelendi Dysson watched as the holograph of her Director formed. “Good evening, Director. Fleet Security have a lead on the rogue agency.”
“What? That’s the last thing we need right now. The Chairman is already angry.” He paused. “What have they got?”
“They think they have the location of the cell’s base on Mars, or at least the place they may be holding the Rowanberg woman. It may give us the distraction we need to access the specs for the particle beam weapon.”
“Take care, if you mess that up, or worse, get caught between the Pantheon team and Security—”
“I know the risks.” Yelendi frowned. “I know which team they’ve assigned. They’re one of the worst. Have you ever heard of an agent named Bast?”
“Bast? That’s who’s there?” The Director hesitated. “She’s ruthless. No one who might identify her is known to have survived an encounter. Do you…? No! Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”
Yelendi hid her smile. One up on you then, Mister Director. How much more don’t you know about your own operations or the ones the Chairman is running behind everyone’s back?
Her reply was straightforward. “According to my source, she’s set up one of her hunting games. Her target is Vanguard’s commanding officer himself, Captain James Heron. She has offered a swop—Ms Rowanberg for the Captain delivered to a location she will identify when they agree.”
“Is she insane? No need to answer, of course she is. That’s what makes her so deadly.” The Director’s concern showed. “You’ve an informant in Fleet Security? How reliable are they?”
“So far, very, but I’m double checking everything t
hey give me.” She paused. “If this goes ahead, my team will have a chance to get into the Vanguard’s data files. They’ve installed some safeguards, but we can get past them.” She withheld the information that she had acquired the access codes. Never show your whole hand was her motto. You never knew when it would save your neck to be holding cards no one else knew you had.
The Director nodded. “Just take care. If they take your operation down, it will expose a hell of a lot more than you know, Yelendi.”
She nodded. “Believe me, I intend to make sure none of my people get caught, Director, not by the Chairman’s pet cat or the Fleet.” Her smile before she cut the link was more of a smug little smirk.
Commander Piet Brandeis found the Admiral in their Operations Centre. The deep scans carried out by the Vanguard had shown up a number of clandestine operations, all of them needing investigation. It had also revealed where there was a single occupant of an extensive complex of what had been accommodation units located on the far side of the planet.
“What have you got, Piet? Can we get in and get Felicity out?”
“They’ve got all the approaches to Felicity’s holding place monitored, sir. There’s no way we can get in undetected. There’s a strong chance that triggering one could set off something intended to kill the hostage as well.”
The Admiral glowered at the displays around him. “Are we absolutely certain their captive is Felicity?” Though he knew the answer, he wanted to hear that his Chief of Operations had taken steps to confirm it.
“Afraid so, sir. With this fix on her, we managed to locate the signal from their monitoring equipment in the last hour. It’s her alright.” Piet Brandeis smiled. “She’s holding out magnificently—better than I could in the same circumstances.”
Mr Brown felt a small glow of pride. His people were good, the best, in his view. He played the demanding boss card. “Why wasn’t I informed immediately? Do we have a tap on their monitors? What other systems are they using?”
Captain James Heron: First into the Fray: Prequel to Harry Heron: Into the Unknown of the Harry Heron Series Page 21
