“Several manned and unmanned ships were sent through the wormhole, the most notable being Spirit and Opportunity which were named for the Martian rover probes. None ever returned. The project was scrapped, the evidence destroyed, and Alamo Drift was set free in the Asteroid Belt to be forgotten.”
“What does that prove?” growled Revelier, right before being struck in the gut again. Hall smiled.
“In and of itself...nothing.” Revelier was feeling more confidant now that the gunfire had stopped. “But, the falsified Moon Police Service report dated before the robbery, located in your secret files, proves a bit more.” Hall enjoyed the shocked look on Revelier’s face.
“It’s all there. The robbery, the false witnesses, the involvement of Moon Police and the Marshals Service.”
“So? I do some time for making a false report. Big deal, my lawyers will get me out in no time.”
“Hmm. Then there’s the dead informant on Churchill Drift with a wormhole file in his holophone. A holophone which had received a call from you. How unlucky for you that I am one of the most brilliant technology forensic experts in the Commonwealth; there is almost nothing that I cannot get data from. Not even a holophone with a self-destruct sequence.”
Revelier paled but said nothing more.
“And while you were watching Ryevolutzia closely, the Secret Service was watching you. They knew you had been in contact with them, but they just couldn’t pin down what you were up to. Until you had their agent murdered. That dead informant was a Secret Service agent.
“With Revelier’s connections in government, the Secret Service was worried that any military action would be compromised by leaks from the inside.”
“So you enlisted Virgil’s help, made them official, and came after the Ryevolutzia,” said Heck.
“Yes. The Secret Service has the power to issue Letters of Marque, signed by the PM, to aid in policing the solar system. With Virgil’s sizeable fleet, and his willingness to help you, it was the logical choice.”
“What was the payoff?” Heck said as he turned and faced Revelier. “What could possibly motivate you to sink this low, selling weapons and secrets to criminals?”
“Power,” began Hall when Revelier wouldn’t respond. “Once the Ryevolutzia had succeeded in building a working Centaurus Device, Revelier was going to try to use the Bureau to destroy them and get back the Centaurus Device. After gaining possession of the device, there is no telling what his twisted mind would have convinced him to do.”
“And Doolin was feeding you my information all along, wasn’t he?”
Revelier smirked.
“The missile and identity signatures, the CS Marauder, Espinosa. All of it was coming from him.”
Heck reached out as if to grab Revelier by the throat, but stopped when he saw something on the launch pad that he hadn’t seen before.
Another shuttle.
***
“Hold it, Dooly!” shouted Heck as his ex-partner tried to open the sally port leading to his freedom. “You do it and you’re a dead man.”
“I’m sorry, Heck,” said Dooly, his hands high. “For what that’s worth.”
“It’s worth nothing,” said Heck, his finger itchy. “And so are you, now.”
“Just trying to get my freedom, Heck. That’s all.”
“Nope. There’s a Centaurus Device on that shuttle and you plan on selling it to the highest bidder.”
“Oh, I get it,” he said, laughing as he slowly turned to face Heck. “You think you’re going to go and rescue her?”
“The thought crossed my mind.”
“Be reasonable,” he said.
“I’m listening.”
“Look, that device could earn us enough money to buy an entire drift. Palace Drift even!”
“You’re not convincing me yet, Dool.”
“You’d really throw that away?” he asked. “For what? A piece of ass?”
For some reason, that smug, condescending statement had the effect on Heck that nothing else had over these past days; over his entire life, in fact. It caused him to intentionally put Business Mode in the ‘off’ position.
CRACK!
Dooly was dead.
***
Footsteps sounded in the corridor leading down to the shuttle craft as Heck returned to Stalin, the sally port closing with a loud CLUNK behind him. The Centaurus Device was now in his possession and he walked, grim faced and determined, back up the corridor that led to the laboratory. Virgil and Hall met him in the corridor.
“Where’s Doolin?” asked Hall.
“Dead,” he replied simply. “You are in my way.”
Virgil knew Heck Thomas well enough to know when not to tangle with him, he stepped to the side.
“Where are you going?”
“To finish this,” he said simply, evasively. They would try to stop him but he couldn’t let them do that.
“Marshal Thomas,” said Hall. “You have been reinstated. You have your life and your career back. You’ll even receive a medal for thwarting a plot to overthrow the Commonwealth.”
“No thanks.”
“What?”
“No thanks. Now, if you will excuse me I have somewhere to go.”
“Well, I won’t stop you. But I’d like you to leave that device with me.”
“Why?” he demanded. “So you can bring it someplace ’safe’? Someplace where it will be studied and put to ‘good’ use?”
“That’s the idea,” Hall said, nodding. “But when you put it that way...”
“Maybe the Centaurus Device needs to disappear forever,” offered Virgil. “At least one made from that God-awful U-999 crap!”
Heck nodded, quiet determination plain on his face.
“What will you do?” Hall called as Heck stared up the corridor. “Where will you go?”
“It’s better you don’t know, Agent Hall.”
“Heck, please,” he said. “You’re about to go down a one-way road. There’s no coming back.”
Heck nodded, then continued back along the corridor. He thought about the events of the past few days and he had regrets. He regretted not giving himself to Laylara, not letting her get inside his wall of protection. He regretted not finding a way to save her. But the past was over. Business Mode had been turned off. Perhaps for good.
Heck Thomas was going to put a few things right.
--The End--
About this book:
Thank you so much for buying and reading my book. The Centaurus Legacy was written to be a segway into the world of Marshal Henrick (Heck)Thomas. Although the characters called Marshal Heck Thomas and Deputy Marshal Stephen W. Doolin are purely fictional, there was in fact a Marshal Heck Thomas and a William Doolin. Marshal Heck Thomas was a hero of the American West while William “Bill” Doolin was the leader of one of the worst gangs in Old West American history.
Marshal Andrew Henry (Heck) Thomas was a United States Marshal in the late 19th Century. A Georgian by birth, Heck served as a courier in the Civil War at the age of 12 under his uncle, General Edward Thomas. Heck later became a member of the Atlanta Police where he earned a reputation as a fearless fighter.
In the 1870’s Heck had moved to Texas where he worked for the Texas Express Railroad and later became a member of the Fort Worth Detectives Association. Following his appointment to the Marshals Service, Marshal Thomas was assigned to police the lawless Indian Territory. By 1889 the lawman had partnered with fellow Marshals Bill Tilghman and Chris Madsen; the trio became known as “The Three Guardsmen,” and were largely responsible for bring law to the lawless territory.
The Doolin Gang (AKA the Doolin-Dalton Gang) was one of the most violent gangs of the time. For four years they robbed trains and committed other crimes in Kansas, the Indian Territory, and Texas. In 1896 the Three Guardsman caught up to the gang and the notorious Bill Doolin. Eventually every member of that gang died fighting, refusing to surrender to the law. Bill Doolin was killed in 1896.
&nb
sp; The Three Guardsmen were credited with arresting 300 wanted men during their tenure. Heck Thomas retied in 1909 and died in 1912 of Bright’s Disease. He was buried in the Highland Cemetery in Lawton Oklahoma where his grave remains today.
- “Heck Thomas,” Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia Information retrieved 15 December, 2011 http://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/heck_thomas copyright 2012 Wikipedia
- “Wild Bunch,” Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia Information retreived 15 December, 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolin-Dalton_Gang
About the author:
Howdy. I’m Tom Bielawski and I wrote this book. So, you want to know a little about me?
I’m a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, and I served “In every clime and place.” After departing active duty I became a lawman, which I still am to this day. I’ve been deputy sheriff, a county police officer and a special agent. I took a short hiatus from policework to serve in Afghanistan for two years as a police mentor.
I’m a husband and a father of two humans, two horses, three dogs, and five cats. Aside from spending time with my family, I love bass fishing, reading, writing, trout fishing, camping, fly fishing, hiking, fishing, and any other kind of fishing.
Please contact me at my website: www.tombielawski.com
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/thechroniclesofllars
On Twitter: www.twitter.com/TomBielawski
I’d love to know what you think about this book and what direction you’d like to see our hero go in next!
More from Tom Bielawski:
Please check out the first installment of my epic fantasy series, “The Chronicles of Llars.”
Volume one, “A Tide of Shadows” is available now.
Volume two will be available in spring 2012.
The next installments of the Adventures of Heck Thomas should be available in spring, summer, and fall of 2012.
I am also working on a series of modern adventure suspense fiction, a series of historical fiction, and a children’s story.
Go to www.tombielawski.com to stay informed!
The Centaurus Legacy (The Adventures of Heck Thomas) Page 12
