The Hidden Treasure of Darfor

by David Shewring

As he looked up, Sergeant Joval couldn’t help but feel a sensation of trepidation clawing at him from within his stomach. The light was fading fast from the sky above the north-western part of Nexus One as the sun had nearly finished setting. It was almost time for his team to make their move. It wasn’t as if he was inexperienced; he had done raids many, many times before and they almost always came off without a hitch. The trouble was, he got nervous every time he did them without fail. He had learned to control his emotions so that they were no longer intolerably uncomfortable and they rarely affected his performance; if anything they heightened his senses and sped up his reaction times so as to make him even more effective. This, however, in no way lessened the uncomfortable sensation he was currently experiencing. He gritted his teeth and swallowed hard, deliberately slowing his breathing in an attempt to stay calm. Joval glanced at his fellow team members, of which there were three. The first was tall, even taller than him which was impressive considering that Joval himself was around six foot three inches in height. He was always serious and rarely smiled or laughed. Having said that, he never seemed to panic either; he always maintained an air of cool detachment from situations and his face was usually a blank mask of no particular expression. He was extremely reliable and almost never made any mistakes so Joval was grateful to have him on his team. The second team member was a capable officer but she was still fairly young and relatively inexperienced at conducting raids; he would have to keep an eye on her to ensure that she didn’t get into any trouble during the op. The third team member was the resident joker of the group. He was short but strong, very solidly built and seemed to have a grin perpetually fixed on his face. Joval didn’t mind the odd bit of tomfoolery and the occasional joke was always helpful to maintain morale in any team, but he just wished that the joker would take things more seriously more often. In any case, thinking about it would not change anything, these were the officers assigned to his team so he had no choice but to work with them.

  ‘Is it almost time, sir?’ asked the female officer.

  She was fidgeting a lot which Joval judged to be a sign of nervousness about the raid.

  At least I’m not the only one, he thought with a humourless smile on his dark blue, almost purple lips.

  He glanced at his departmentally-issued mini-computer attached to his left wrist which displayed the time and also acted as a com link, recording device, GPS beacon and many other things besides.

  ‘It’s not almost time. It is time. We move now. Everybody get ready,’ whispered Joval as he silently removed his sidearm from a holster on his hip. ‘Everybody form up on me and prime your weapons.’

  As everyone did so, he added, ‘Stun setting only. We want to be able to interrogate these people after we’ve caught them, not give the medical examiners more work to do on their autopsy tables.’

  ‘Good call, Sarge. Especially with Le’Mi on our team. I heard the morgue guys are pulling double shifts ‘cause of her itchy trigger finger,’ teased the joker, smiling as always.

  ‘Screw you, Tylorran,’ hissed an agitated Le’Mi, clearly not in the mood for jokes right now.

  If anything, this simply made the joker’s smile even bigger. The tall one remained quiet, gripping his weapon tightly, ready for action.

  ‘Enough, you two,’ chided Joval as his anxiety levels began increasing again. ‘Take this seriously, will you?’

  He moved to the side of a closed door as the rest of his team dutifully formed a line behind him.

  ‘Everybody set?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m ready, Sergeant,’ replied Le’Mi.

  ‘All set, boss,’ answered Tylorran.

  ‘Affirmative,’ stated the tall one.

  ‘On my count,’ said Joval as he checked his mini-computer one last time. ‘Three...two...one...Go, go, go!’

  Sergeant Joval brought his leg up and thrashed it towards the door with astounding speed. The door was flung open wildly and without even pausing Joval dived in to the room beyond, quickly followed by the rest of his team.

  ‘Galactic police! Nobody move!’ bellowed Joval as he moved into the centre of the room, pistol primed and pointing at a group of shady-looking characters sat around a large table with multiple bags of something scattered across it.

  The rest of his team moved into position: Le’Mi stood alongside the Sergeant to give him support in controlling the suspects, Tylorran watched their six and the tall officer moved swiftly and silently around the room, checking every nook and cranny for any potential threats. Moments later, the tall one took up a position behind the suspects, weapon ready.

  ‘All clear, sir. No immediate threats,’ he said to Joval.

  ‘Tylorran?’ asked the Sergeant.

  ‘Clear, boss. No sign of anyone else.’

  ‘What the hell is this?’ demanded an annoyed-looking alien. With his reddish-orange fur, large ears and small tail poking out from behind his oversized loud shirt, he looked like an anthropomorphised fox with exceedingly bad fashion sense.

  ‘You are all under arrest on suspicion of possessing and distributing an illegal substance,’ explained Joval as calmly as he could manage as he felt his two hearts beating rapidly, one in his chest and one in his right flank.

  The irate fox creature stood up.

  ‘This is bullshit! You guys ain’t go no warrant or nothin’. Get the hell outta my property!’ he yelled angrily, waving a balled-up furry fist at the police officers for emphasis.

  ‘Settle down, sir!’ said Le’Mi, her voice quivering ever so slightly around the edges as nerves got the better of her. Her hands started to shake a little, which was less than ideal considering that she was holding a weapon in them.

  ‘Don’t tell me to settle down, bitch!’ the fox-like alien exclaimed, taking a step towards her.

  ‘Don’t move!’ boomed Joval, his voice carrying the weight of an order.

  The annoyed alien took another step forwards.

  ‘Make me,’ he said provokingly, sneering at the Sergeant as he did so.

  Joval tightened his grip on his weapon and clenched his teeth. Some people just didn’t know when to quit, and he had a feeling this guy was going to be one of them. The Sergeant had no problem with squeezing the trigger and stunning the hostile suspect, however he did not want to start any trouble and he feared for the safety of his team if things turned into a fire-fight in the confines of the relatively small room. The fox creature took another step forwards, this time towards Joval.

  He’s trying to see how far he can push me. I can’t let him get away with this or he’ll completely undermine my authority in this situation, thought Joval quickly.

  ‘Don’t take another step closer! This is your final warning!’ said the Sergeant firmly.

  The hostile alien scoffed and replied, ‘You mean....like this?’ as he slowly and deliberately took one more step forwards.

  Suddenly there was a muzzle flash and the fox-like creature yelped in surprise, pain, or possibly both as he fell to the ground and started twitching uncontrollably. Joval merely blinked in disbelief as he had not fired his weapon. He glanced to his right and saw Le’Mi breathing heavily and shaking in her boots, the muzzle of her weapon glowing white-hot after having just fired.

  The next few moments appeared to happen in slow motion to Joval. He saw the suspects all stand up from their chairs in unison and begin to pull out weapons from pockets, holsters and bags. He had a feeling that they would not be firing stun rounds. He yelled out ‘Code Black!’ as a signal to the rest of his team and half-pushed Le’Mi away from the centre of the room and towards a messy pile of boxes stacked against the wall several metres away. With one hand he continued to push Le’Mi and with the other he raised his weapon and fired a three-round burst. The first two stun rounds missed everyone but the third struck a suspect in the face and he almost did a back-flip due to the force of the impact as he landed on the ground in a daze, limbs twitching. Joval and Le’Mi both scrambled behind the heap of boxes for cover as ball
istic rounds whizzed through the air just behind them, making pinging sounds as they bounced off the hard surface of the walls. Joval leaned out from cover with his arm outstretched. He squeezed the trigger of his weapon and a bright white burst of stun energy shot from the barrel and erupted into a shower of shimmering sparks as it hit another suspect squarely in the chest. He doubled over then fell to the ground, unconscious.

  Joval saw Tylorran drop to a knee and fire a burst of stun rounds into a fat, rather slimy alien with slippery-looking skin who promptly fell onto the table then slid off it and landed on the floor with a wet thud. The quietest member of the raid team was also the coolest and calmest of all of them. Joval watched in awe as he fired single shot after single shot, each round placed with a frightening degree of precision into the centre mass of each suspect. Within moments all the suspects were on the ground, either twitching and groaning or still and unconscious.

  Joval stepped out from behind cover and said, ‘Everyone OK?’

  ‘Still alive, Sarge. Can’t complain,’ said Tylorran who, incredibly, still had a smile on his face.

  ‘I’m fine, sir,’ said the tall one, his face a blank mask of neutrality.

  ‘Damn, Hazir. Don’t you ever make an expression?’ asked Tylorran, grinning.

  Hazir said nothing as he began checking his weapon, ignoring his teammate’s comment.

  Tylorran shrugged and said, ‘Well, whatever. Fine shooting though, my friend,’ as he trotted over to the table in the centre of the room.

  ‘Tylorran – check what’s in those bags on the table. Hazir – check the suspects for any weapons or dangerous objects. If they have any, relieve them of them,’ commanded Joval.

  He holstered his weapon and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, before walking over to check on Le’Mi. She had somehow wedged herself between the boxes and the wall and was still shaking.

  ‘Are you all right?’ asked Joval.

  Le’Mi’s lips were trembling as she nodded a silent affirmative. She was clearly shaken up by the exchange of fire that had just taken place.

  Joval dropped to a knee and said, ‘It’s okay, we got them all. Don’t worry, everyone’s fine. We did it.’

  Le’Mi nodded again and sniffled. Joval couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t have any children but in some ways the young officers under his command felt like his children; he felt like it was his job to protect them, guide them and help them – just like any parent would do for their own child.

  ‘I....I didn’t mean to fire...’ mumbled Le’Mi as she wiped away a tear which had rolled half-way down her smooth cheek.

  Joval looked her straight in the eye as he said, ‘I’m glad you did fire. I’m glad you pulled the trigger. These guys were trouble and unfortunately, it was always going to happen like this. Some criminals just don’t give up, even when it’s clear they are going to be arrested. You made the right call.’

  Le’Mi sniffled again.

  ‘I....did?’

  Joval’s smile broadened.

  ‘Without doubt.’

  With Le’Mi placated for the moment, Joval stood up and called out, ‘What have you found, guys?’

  ‘Two of the suspects were carrying knives which I have confiscated. No other threats found,’ reported Hazir.

  ‘You were right, boss. The bags are full of nimzeek. I’d say this probably has a street value of around seventy five thousand credits. Score one for the police, zero for the bad guys!’ said Tylorran happily.

  ‘Start bagging the nimzeek as evidence. I’ll com dispatch and get them to send some drones over to take our sleeping suspects to lock-up,’ said Joval as he walked towards the doorway and stepped outside.

  The evening air was cool and refreshing against his skin as he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

  ‘Hopefully the Lieutenant will be happy with this bust. Now all we need to do is interrogate them and find out where the shipments of nimzeek are coming from, thought Joval as he activated his mini-computer and put out the required call to dispatch.

  Chapter 9