by Kal Spriggs
“You work for Mister Bhutto?” the Guard Army Non-Commissioned Officer stared at Bob with suspicion.
“Yes,” Bob smiled and filed away the name. He doubted it was the agent's actual name, but it gave him a starting point. “I'm normally his office assistant, but his personal assistant is ill today.”
The NCO stared at him, “We can't let you through security without authorization.”
“Of course, not!” Bob nodded quickly. “But could you call upstairs to see if he left it in his last meeting?”
The posture of the guards relaxed slightly. Bob kept his pleasant expression as one of them went over to the building's phone system. A moment later he came back. “Colonel Steyn's secretary says it isn't in his office, sorry.”
“Damn,” Bob said and adopted a hangdog expression. “He's going to tear into me. Look, can I give you my contact information, if it turns up?”
“Sure,” the NCO waved a hand. Bob gave them the address to one of the shell accounts he'd created and waited patiently as they typed it in. As they did so, he considered the situation. He had confirmation of Chandral agents present on the planet, and further confirmation that a senior level one had met with the acting commander of the Guard Peacekeeper force.
Bob would report in, but he already knew the orders he'd receive. Taking out the Chandral operative would be highest in priority. Eliminating his contacts within Guard Space would be the next level of operations. Bob could well guess that whatever had drawn this agent would need to be determined. Higher leadership would head towards the Protectorate as soon as word reached them. Bob would need to stay in place to brief them, assuming he managed to successfully eliminate the senior Chandral operative.
My life is about to get very busy, Bob thought. He relished the opportunity, the challenge, and the importance of his task. Yet he felt a moment of regret, for his companions on Fenris. Regardless of whether he failed or succeeded, his time with Mel and the Fenris was over. He felt a sudden impulse to call them, to warn them... and most importantly, to say something to Aldera Kynes.
Yet he quashed that urge. They were in enough danger as things were. They had a host of enemies, both among the Guard and among the ranks of the terrorists of Guard Free Now. The last thing he wanted to do was to draw them into his business. Especially not Aldera.
The thought of the quietly fierce, intelligent woman having to face the Chandral made Bob's chest hurt. No, he thought, I will protect them the best way that I can... I will make certain that they have nothing to do with any of this.
He'd send them a message that he wouldn't be able to return. Then he'd follow his mission priorities: eliminate the Chandral operative, eliminate his known contacts and associates, and then stand by for his senior agents to arrive on scene and assist in further containment.
At least they should be out of the line of fire, Bob thought to himself.
***
Mel waited patiently as the shuttle docked. Fenris had monitored the docking procedure and seemed satisfied that the situation was well in hand. Now it was her turn to wait for their guest. Mel had decided to have Brian present to greet the party as well. That left their “prisoner” technically unguarded, but Fenris's security systems monitored that area of the ship, so Mel was willing to take risk there. After all, he wanted this interview, no doubt for the opportunity it presented in his campaign to be the next leader of the Harmony Protectorate.
The indicator lights blinked green and the airlock slid open. Almost before the doors were fully open, a tall, beautiful, blonde woman led the way through. Her bright blue eyes were friendly and cheerful and she exuded confidence and she had a presence that rocked Mel back on her heels a bit.
“Welcome aboard, ma'am,” Mel said. “If I could show you the way to Admiral Rao's quarters?”
“Yes...” she cocked her head, “perhaps your escort could lead my camera crew that way? I wanted a moment to freshen up and gather my thoughts.” It wasn't a question. Mel didn't see a polite way to insist that they all remain in a group. She shot a glance at Brian, who only shrugged.
“Sure thing,” Mel said with a fake smile. “My head of security will escort your crew to our guest quarters. I can lead you to our meeting room, if that would work?”
“That sounds lovely,” Samantha Yewell smiled. Her teeth were perfectly white and even and her smile was so friendly, so natural, that Mel couldn’t help but smile back
Mel waited for Brian to lead the others off, before she did the same with the woman. “How was your trip, ma'am?” Mel asked politely.
“The shuttle ride was uneventful,” Yewell replied neutrally. “I'm glad to be done with it, honestly. I had to hire a local team after the bombing, I didn't want to put my media team in further danger, and, well, let's just say I've been disappointed with their overall skills.”
“Oh?” Mel asked neutrally. Commodore Creed had told her that the Guard Peacekeepers had searched the team for weapons. She had told Brian to do the same, but they were stretched awfully thin. Mel would have to pass on a warning that these weren't the woman's normal people.
“They're good with cameras, but their personality skills leave much to be desired,” Yewell admitted. “I think they're a Guard Army Special Service team, here to kill or capture Admiral Rao.” She said it off-hand, as if it were of little consequence.
“I'm sorry, what?” Mel asked in shock.
“They're good at hiding what they are, but they're definitely military and they weren't as subtle about communicating with their superiors as they thought,” Yewell said casually. “Since one of the first things I did when I arrived in the system was hack into the Guard communications network, I knew that they were going to try to infiltrate my crew before they even showed up.” She paused looking at Mel expectantly, “Now, are we going to your meeting room, or not?”
“I think I need to contact my escort for your people,” Mel said.
“He looked like a capable fellow, I'm sure he'll be fine,” Yewell noted. “Besides, if your security system isn't monitoring this conversation and already passing information along, I'd be surprised. It's the shuttle crew that you'll need to worry about, they'll no-doubt go active based on their timeline, at which point they'll move to secure key locations along the route for their kidnapping extraction team.”
“Kidnapping?” Mel asked. She led the way forward, hoping that Fenris was monitoring all this.
“Admiral Rao is the target, of course, please keep up dear,” Yewell’s voice was politely patronizing.
Mel led the way into the meeting room and turned to face the woman. “Now, could--”
Mel didn't get the chance to finish her thought. Yewell caught her by the throat and spun her against the bulkhead hard enough that Mel saw stars. As her vision cleared, she found herself pinned against the bulkhead by Samantha Yewell's surprising strength. The woman held her with one arm, her other held a needle-point dagger only a few centimeters from Mel's right eye.
“I'm going to ask you a question,” the woman said, her voice cold and calm. “If I think for a moment that you are lying, I will kill you, do you understand?”
Fenris spoke from overhead, his deep growl threatening, “You may kill her, but if you do, you won't leave this ship alive.”
“I'll worry about me, thank you,” Yewell snapped. Her blue eyes didn't leave Mel's face. “My son, Jeremiah Swaim, is he alive?”
“What?!” Mel blinked, “That's what this is about?!”
“Answer me,” Yewell's voice leached all of the warmth out of the air.
“Yes!” Mel blurted. “God, yes, he's alive... and mostly due to me, I might add. He's got the survival instincts of a lemming!”
For a long moment, Samantha Yewell stared at her, unmoving. Then, just when Mel feared the other woman didn't believe her and was going to kill her anyway, she relaxed, stepped back, and made her knife disappear. “Finally some good news,” Yewell shook her head. “My apologies, but I had to be certain... family, you know?
”
Mel thought about how desperate she was to find her brother. Still, the situation was a bit different. “Can you please explain what the hell is going on?”
“You need to settle your boarding problem,” Yewell waved a hand. “I'll wait here.”
Mel ground her teeth. She hated not getting answers. “Fenris, what is Brian's status?”
“I messaged him on his earpiece,” Fenris growled. “He's aware of the threat. However, Miss Yewell was correct, the shuttle crew has begun boarding operations as well. They have also initialized a localized jamming that's making it hard for my sensors to track them.”
“Great,” Mel growled. Brian would need to deal with his group, and no one else was aboard, other than Swaim. This is his fault... Mel couldn't help the thought, him and his overprotective mother...
“How many?” Mel asked.
“Five,” Yewell volunteered. “They don't have heavy weapons, but they have demolition charges and hacking gear, they'll be able to get through security bulkheads. Why don't you send your response team to deal with them?” Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You do have some kind of response team, right?”
“We're a little short on manpower at the moment,” Mel admitted.
“A little short?” Yewell asked. “How many is a little short?”
“Well,” Mel grimaced, “counting me, Brian, and your son? We've got three people capable of fighting off a boarding team.”
Admitting that was totally worth it, Mel decided, just for the expression of shock on Samantha Yewell's face.
***
Chapter 7
Time: 1700 6 February 292 G.D.
Location: Harmony System
Brian finally wasn't bored.
He'd pegged the “camera” team as a threat from the moment he'd seen them. They were too alert and too synchronized in their movements for them not to be military. Their casual attitudes were token things, the way they called one another by first names and showed friendly smiles and cracked jokes were also obvious warning signs to Brian. No group of civilians was ever so uniformly friendly and cheerful. Everyone had an off day, and especially among professionals like a camera team, someone was bound to be there as the asshole who they kept around because he was that good at his job.
The three-man camera team was here for the initial extraction, Brian guessed. Either they were here to assassinate or kidnap Admiral Rao. Brian didn't much care which it was. He led them down a wrong corridor and then towards a forward section, even as he listened to their rehearsed banter.
“Say,” one of them said. His name was either “Mark” or “Dave” but Brian didn't care which, it probably wasn't his real name anyway. “I thought your Captain said the guest quarters wasn't far... seems like we might have made a wrong turn.”
Brian looked around casually. He'd wanted to go a bit further away from their shuttle, especially since he figured they had encrypted comms that would penetrate Fenris's hull. Still, one place was as good as another.
Brian didn't bother to answer. He stepped in arm's reach of the speaker and drove his elbow into the man's throat. As his trachea crushed, Brian moved in on the next man.
They were fast, he'd give them that. The other two didn't hesitate. The second man blocked Brian's knee strike, but the open-hand slap spun his head and Brain drove his other knee up into the man's groin hard enough to lift him off his feet.
The man didn't drop to his knees, though, he barely seemed to react to the impact... and Brian grinned as the man lashed out with a powerful blow that rocked him back. Finally, a challenge.
A bullet cracked past Brian's head but he didn't duck. The shot had come from the first man he'd hit, who should have gone to the ground, unable to draw breath, in shock from pain. Instead he was up, pistol aimed. Brian cranked up his own movement, rolling to the side as the man fired again, pulling his current opponent in front of him as a human shield. Two more shots rang out and both of them struck Brian's shield, but the man didn't go limp. In fact, he struggled against Brian's grip, even as the third man drew a pistol from out of a camera bag.
Brian's forearm crossed his captive's throat and he could feel something under the man's skin. Something like pliable steel mesh. Enhanced, he thought to himself. Some Guard units, most often Guard Marine Recon or Guard Army Special Service, made use of cybernetic enhancements. They would be faster, tougher, and apparently armored.
Brian drew his knife with his other hand and drove it up into the back of his captive's head, just at the juncture of neck and skull. As the dead man went limp, Brian threw his body forward. Shots rang out and Brian felt several impact his body armor, but he moved faster than they had expected, faster than any normal human could.
He snatched the pistol out of the nearest man's hand, breaking fingers as he ripped it free and threw it down the corridor. He drove his leg up in a knee strike with all of his body weight behind it and the assassin flew back into the bulkhead behind him. Brian used the rebound force to drive his leg backwards in a kick that caught the man behind him right in the face.
Brian felt the impact all the way up his body as he drove hard with all of his bodyweight and uncoiled his muscles like a spring. The assassin's armored skull crumpled and the corpse stumbled a few meters back before the body dropped lifeless to the deck.
The surviving man picked himself off the ground. “You're good,” he growled. “Marine Recon?” His hand had dropped to his back, almost as if he were massaging an injury.
“I'm a bit older than that,” Brian grinned.
The other man's eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what that meant. Brian didn't hesitate. In the moment of distraction, he leapt forward and drove his full bodyweight into a kick to the assassin's shoulder. He heard the joint pop and the man's arm flopped uselessly. Brian brought his knife up into the underside of the man's jaw and drove it up into his brain.
As the corpse slumped, Brian rolled it over and checked. As he'd suspected, he found a grenade hidden in the man's waist-band. A couple more seconds and he would have activated it, either to kill them both or as a viable threat to get Brian to stand down.
That worried Brian a bit. That meant these men were truly dedicated. He activated his comm unit, “Mel, this is Brian. I've taken down the camera team. All three men were heavily enhanced with cybernetics. They all have subdural armor and strength enhancements, along with pain dampeners, I would guess.” He paused, “Probably some kind of combat drug implants or neural splicing, too, their reactions were faster than most normal humans.”
“Roger,” Mel said. “Miss Yewell and I are moving to intercept the shuttle team. I'd appreciate it if you would assist.”
Oh splendid, Mel and a media star against cybernetic-enhanced assassins... this will go great. He supposed that he had better hurry.
***
Sergeant First Class Jason Cordova watched as his lead man worked on the latest hatch. He and his team had their pistols at the ready. Not for the first time, Jason wished he had more serious firepower.
Jason wasn't a big fan of this mission. The infiltration of Samantha Yewell's camera team had gone smoothly enough, though Sergeant Cordova thought that the woman at least suspected that they were military. No, what had bothered him was that they were going to try to kidnap their target from on-board a large warship, presumably loaded with heavily armed and trigger-happy mercenaries.
Jason was a veteran of seventeen years in the Guard Army, fifteen of those had been spent in the Special Service. He'd been on VIP escort missions, infiltration missions, even a few kidnapping and assassination missions like this one.
When Colonel Steyn had briefed him on this one, he'd thought it was a suicide mission. He'd said as much... and then the gloves had come off. Colonel Steyn had reminded him in a maddeningly emotionless voice that he had done terrible things, highly illegal things, while working for Major General Tibault. The truth was, most Guard Army Special Service teams hitched their careers, at one point or another, to
a senior officer. When Major General Tibault had died, Jason's team had become vulnerable... and Colonel Steyn had plenty of dirt on them all.
Infiltrating this way and then seizing Admiral Rao was the best route that he'd seen to getting out of this alive. If they had the man as a hostage, they could use that to get off the ship.
Yet something had gone wrong. Decker had reported contact and then gone silent. The corridors didn't match the plans for the Tenacity. It would have been one thing if they were a little different, but there were structural bulkheads where there shouldn't be... it was almost as if they were aboard an entirely different class of ship.
And those corridors were empty. There weren't any crew. Jason hadn't seen a soul since they left their shuttle. If this wasn't some kind of ambush, he should have seen someone... and if this was an ambush, then they should have triggered it earlier, well before Jason and his team reached the inner hull.
“Hurry up on the door, Dominguez,” Jason snapped.
“One moment, Sergeant,” Dominguez worked furiously on his datapad. “I think they know we're here, someone's resisting my hack.”
“Shit,” Jason nodded at Porter and Karlsen, who moved to watch their rear. “I thought you said our jammer should prevent them from locating us.”
“It was,” Dominguez said, “but then they locked the security doors and as soon as I tried to hack the controls on this one...”
“Attention,” A gravelly voice spoke from above. “At this time, I've located your team and our response team is on its way. Your other three compatriots have been taken down. I give you two options... put your weapons on the floor, put your hands behind your heads, and surrender, or I will vent the compartment.”
Shit. Jason looked at Dominguez, who shook his head. If his electronics guy couldn't get through, there would be no way to bypass. Yet surrender wasn't an option, either. The best result of surrender was that they'd be turned over to the Guard... who would disavow any knowledge of their mission and try them for mutiny and attempted murder. If Colonel Steyn didn't have them shot to keep them quiet, then they'd be deported to one of the prison hell-worlds.
