by Terry Mixon
“Based on the angle of the blood spatter and the flechette damage to the wall, she was probably standing behind the chair here. He was behind his desk and didn’t see the attack coming until too late. He tried to draw his weapon to defend himself, but she had the drop on him.”
Fei stepped around the edge of the desk and coolly examined the dead man. He hadn’t been wearing any body armor, so the flechettes had ripped his torso apart. The expression on his face was one of both surprise and anger.
Yes. It had to have been Drake.
She looked at the desk and saw that there was a built-in computer. “It looks like he did work on this system. I wish we had Riggio to break into it, but I’d expect you’ve got someone else who’s qualified to get the information we need out of it. Is getting a warrant going to be a problem?”
He smiled indulgently at her. “No problem at all. My position comes with the authority to issue warrants, so I’ll have a couple of specialists brought in to make sure that we can extract the equipment and data without tripping any security safeguards. What are you hoping to find?”
“Dayton. I want her bad. Once we take her out of play, the attacks on Andrea stop.”
“Then let’s hope the encryption isn’t too difficult to break,” Still Water said. “I’d like to get this taken care of before Andrea comes back down to the surface, so that limits our time to make the magic happen.”
Fei resumed examining the dead man. He’d given the orders to frame Andrea and later to kill her. She didn’t regret his death. All she regretted was not putting him to the question before he died. Now she’d have to do the hard work herself.
She could almost taste ultimate victory. Dayton was somewhere close, and she was going to find her. The only question was whether or not it would be in time to help Andrea.
38
Page was paranoid that the bad guys would make their next move quickly, particularly after Lieutenant Na and Earl Still Water found the suspected leader of the criminal organization dead, but things had been ominously quiet in the week since then.
They’d managed to identify the woman who’d gotten away. She’d been a senior member of the crime organization, just like the dead man up here had been.
To Page, it seemed as if this was some kind of power play inside the organization itself. How that connected to Tolliver, he wasn’t quite sure. Nevertheless, he and his people kept a close watch on the recruits and everyone who came near them.
All the vacuum suits were regularly tested, and Tolliver ended up getting a different one each time, each requisitioned by Riggio Gomez and rigorously tested. He’d picked up a dozen of the appropriate size and had them under lock and key, but he still treated each one as if it had been tampered with.
Page approved of the man’s paranoia. Having seen Riggio work, he was now fully willing to believe that the man had been a tech specialist with a combat platoon good enough to go on a raid into the Singularity.
He’d spent much of the past week making sure that the wilderness training area would be completely secure. There would be hidden marines surrounding the platoon even as they trained. Sophia Gomez was his point person because he didn’t want the distraction of her tearing her brother apart for the deception right now.
He hoped it would be enough.
The day for the final exercise rolled around, and he found himself more than ready to be done. Gunnarsdotter’s people were making their run first, and his people were getting set up for their turn.
The exercise was simple. There was a powered-down ship that Fleet used for training. Today there was no one aboard other than the marine drill instructors and the recruits. The recruits would perform search and rescue tasks, some in a vacuum, while under remote observation.
There was some risk to this type of operation because it took time for the drill instructors to get to someone who somehow managed to tear their suit. The recruits were supposedly trained enough to handle that sort of thing themselves. Still, that didn’t mean that recruits hadn’t been injured or even killed on this type of operation before.
Yet the marines trained like they worked. Marines needed to perform these tasks, and the recruits required the confidence to believe that they could do so too.
Since Gunnarsdotter’s recruits would be going first, it had made sense to let her instructors oversee his platoon when they made their run. The other lead drill instructor was more than competent enough to handle any problems, but he was still worried.
With Fleet on the lookout for anyone who wasn’t supposed to be in this area, it was unlikely that any unauthorized small craft could get to the ship, so it should be safe enough.
It had been thoroughly searched before the operation had commenced. It wouldn’t do to have someone hiding there and waiting for them.
After all, were you really paranoid if they were out to get you?
He had tapped into the feeds from his recruits and watched as they boarded the pinnace that would take them over. A second pinnace would typically take the drill instructors across, but it wasn’t necessary in this case.
The only marines aboard the pinnace were the pilots and the crew chiefs keeping an eye on everything. And, of course, Riggio.
Tolliver was leading the search and rescue mission in her role as acting platoon leader. Once the pinnace had landed on the ship’s hull, she and her people would begin the operation under her direction.
The landing went perfectly, and the recruits quickly exited the pinnace, using their magnetic boots to stay on the hull of the ship. Page focused his attention on the various feeds coming from their vacuum suits. Each recruit would be graded on how well they performed the tasks they’d learned and docked for any mistakes they made.
There were dummies aboard the ship that would be treated as casualties so they wouldn’t have to deal with any living wounded. Coping with a ship full of screaming and panicked people wasn’t something trainees should have to deal with. That would come later.
He was just pouring himself a cup of coffee and making some notes when there was a knock at the hatch. “Come in.”
The hatch opened, and Ingrid Gunnarsdotter stepped through. “How’s your run going?”
He blinked in surprise. “Shouldn’t you be telling me that? You and your people are keeping watch on them.”
It was her turn to blink. “You said your people would handle that.”
Before he could say anything, she forwarded a message to his implants. It certainly looked like his codes, but it was a forgery.
“It wasn’t me,” he said, lurching to his feet. “They’re walking into a trap.”
And at that moment, all the feeds from the recruits cut out.
Andrea focused on getting the platoon out of the pinnace and onto the hull of the ship. It wasn’t her first time in space, but the sights still distracted her. Over her head, New Dallas hung, a blue and green globe coated in wisps of white.
All around them, the stars glowed, their colors solid, and the swath of the galaxy clear to the eye. The system’s star wasn’t visible because it was on the other side of the ship, but the globe above their heads was mostly lit, with the terminator creeping across its surface as the sun rose for the people living there.
It was beautiful, but she didn’t have time to waste. She had to get her people inside the ship and begin searching for the dummies that represented injured or dead crewmen. This was a timed exercise, and they had certain milestones that had to be met, all while maintaining the protocols for their safety. Riggio was with them and would be on hand to act immediately if someone made an error that put them in danger.
As she’d expected, Diana hadn’t bought her story that Riggio was following them around to audit the training process for battalion. Still, her friend hadn’t challenged her on it, and the story seemed to have been good enough for everyone else, so she’d count it as a win.
The drill instructors would be watching from somewhere on board the ship, grading them but ready to act if n
eed be. The pilots on the pinnace and the two crew chiefs would remain out here to take them back to the orbital when everything was done.
She was about to order Claudio to take his squad inside when a high-pitched squeal stabbed her ears. What the hell was that?
Andrea messed with the com unit in her suit and decided that someone was screwing with their channel. It had to be part of the test to see how they reacted to a communications failure.
That wasn’t something she’d have expected to be thrown at them on this exercise. Well, they’d just have to improvise.
She tapped Claudio on the shoulder and gestured for him to lower his helmet until she could touch hers to his. The contact between them made for poor conductivity of sound, but if one spoke loudly enough, the other could make out what was said.
“Communications failure,” she shouted. “Pass the word, have your people get the airlock open, and begin the initial assessment of conditions inside the ship. Send someone back out with a report as quickly as you can.”
“Copy that,” he said before breaking contact with her helmet and using his hands to convey his intent to his people.
Even as he was getting his people to access the emergency controls for the airlock, she saw Riggio walk toward her and could see the frown on his face even as he was leaning in to touch his helmet to hers.
“Was a communications failure part of the expected test?” he asked.
“No, but with the way things have been rolling, I suppose I should’ve expected something like this. It’s going to make things more complicated, but we’ll manage.”
“It’s been a long time since I went through basic training, but this isn’t something that I’d call normal. Is your drill instructor the kind of guy that would do that?”
She laughed. “I’ve had so many roadblocks thrown at me over the last month that I’m not surprised by anything. Why?”
“I don’t like it. Keep your eyes open.”
That made both of her eyebrows rise. “Do you think this is enemy action? That’s a little bold. We’re in the middle of a Fleet-controlled area, and there are drill instructors on board this ship. The other platoon just finished their training, so we know that the ship is clear. What could possibly happen here?”
“I don’t know, but after a while in a combat platoon, you get a sense for when things are going wrong. The little hairs on the back of my neck are standing up, telling me that this situation is hinky. I’m more than halfway inclined to just get everyone back onto the pinnace and wave off this exercise entirely.”
The outer airlock door gave way for Claudio’s people, and they entered to do the initial assessment before she could figure out how to respond to what Riggio was suggesting.
They were being watched over by their instructors. If something untoward happened, it would have to be via a ship or something coming in to attack them.
That seemed unlikely. Fleet had ships all around this area.
“I hear what you’re saying,” she said slowly, “but I can’t go through life expecting everything to be a trap. You’re watching out for me, and so are the drill instructors.
“They wouldn’t be playing games. If the jamming wasn’t their doing, you can be sure that they’ll be talking to the trainees that just went through that airlock even as we speak.
“We’ll proceed with the exercise as ordered. I’ll keep my eyes open for anything that looks unusual, but this is a test that we all have to pass if we’re going to become marines. I can’t just run away every time something seems off. That kind of paranoia would destroy me.”
From his expression, he wasn’t convinced. “I suppose we’ll play it your way because I can’t be sure either. Keep your eyes open, though. If there really is something going on, we’re not going to have much time to respond.”
She felt him tap her stomach with his hand and pulled her head away to look down. In between their bodies, shielded from the view of everyone around them, he was holding a stunner. A sleek civilian model that was a lot smaller than the military-grade ones she’d trained with. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was handing it to her.
Taking it would probably violate every kind of rule under the sun, but he was with Imperial Intelligence. Her drill instructors knew that he was responsible for her safety. If someone wanted to complain about her having a weapon, they’d blame him, wouldn’t they?
And in any case, he’d have much more than a stunner on him. Even though he wasn’t a combat marine anymore, he was still well-trained in the use of deadly weapons, and he wouldn’t be under-armed for any fight.
She really hoped that there wasn’t a fight. Who were these people who were trying to kill her? Just what kind of reach did they have? Was she going to have to watch out for this sort of thing for the rest of her life?
The airlock opened again, and Claudio came back out and made his way over to her. She stashed the stunner before he got close.
“All clear. We can go in. There’s low pressure, but we have gravity.”
That didn’t sound like an ambush, so she hoped this was all much ado about nothing.
Using hand signals, she ordered the platoon to advance and enter the ship. It was time to get this exercise fully underway.
The last week had been pure torture for Fei. Not only had Imperial Intelligence failed to get into Peter Bryant’s computer, no one had found any clues that led to where Dayton was hiding. All she’d heard was that every effort was being put into the task and every avenue of investigation explored.
It was utter bullshit.
They hadn’t had any luck finding out who’d killed the man on the orbital, but at least there hadn’t been any further sabotage. Every law enforcement agency on the planet was looking for Lucinda Drake, but she hadn’t been seen either.
All in all, it didn’t sound like they were going to catch a break. It felt to her as if she had no control over events, and that made her angry.
Andrea was conducting her final exercise in vacuum today, and that meant that the training platoon would be returning to the surface shortly. That opened up a vast swath of opportunity for their enemies to strike again.
She felt like a voyeur because all she could do was watch vid feeds of her girl doing her work and read reports about how she was performing. She got reports about how all the recruits were doing and still had to do the work of a platoon leader, which was mind-numbing. She couldn’t wait for this to be over so that she could go back to civilian life and her family.
Most of her family, anyway. Andrea was a grown woman now and would be living her own life from now on. Fei’s job was to make sure that she wasn’t under Imperial Intelligence’s thumb while she did it.
Her desk link chimed, indicating that she had an incoming call. She answered it with more than a hint of trepidation. What else had gone wrong?
Still Water appeared on her screen, smiling. No, he was grinning.
“We’ve broken the encryption on Mister Bryant’s computer, and I have a likely location for Countess Dayton. Could you free up the time that it would take to go pick her up and perhaps ask her a few pointed questions?”
“Oh, hell yes! Where are you?”
“I’ll be landing outside the barracks in just a couple of minutes. Wear something that you can strap a stunner to because I want to take her alive.”
“I’ll be right down.”
She killed the channel and raced for the stairs. She was in uniform, so she wouldn’t have to worry about being able to wear a stunner. She’d strap it to her waist and be done with the nonsense.
Honestly, she hoped that she had a chance to use it too.
By the time she reached the ground floor and went out the back—the ground floor was still locked down—she could hear the air car approaching. She ran around the side of the building just as it came to the ground at the edge of the parade field.
She opened its passenger door and threw herself into the seat, slamming the door and securing herself all in
one motion.
“Where is she?” Fei demanded.
“She’s staying at one of the hotels that we checked, but not in the room where she’s registered. It seems that she checked in under an assumed name to one of the regular rooms and had someone else rent the penthouse suite. At some point, she switched places with them, and that’s why we were never able to tie her to the location.
“Someone with her apparently replaced the image of her that they captured during check-in. It was all very convoluted but effective enough, except that Peter Bryant had located her and had someone keeping tabs on her.”
He brought the air car off the ground and took them toward the front gate at an irritatingly slow pace. Once they were outside the base, they’d head toward the city. It would take roughly an hour to get to the location that he’d sent her through her implants, but that was good. They’d have time to prepare a team to take her alive.
She was about to say something to that effect when an alert went out across the marine network. She knew it wasn’t targeted solely at her based on the header. It was going out to all marines on the planet.
Fei quickly scanned the report and blanched.
“Something is going on in orbit,” she said. “Someone activated a powerful jammer, and no one can communicate. Do you think it has something to do with Andrea?”
He shot her a worried look. “I’d be a fool not to. I know that you want to go up right now, but whatever is taking place would be over by the time you got there. I think we need to focus on capturing Countess Dayton while we can. Are you going to give me any trouble?”
She wanted to rush up and protect Andrea, but she knew that he was right, damn his eyes. Riggio was there, and so were the drill instructors. They’d keep Andrea safe if anyone could. Fei needed to focus on catching that bitch.
