Enforcer

by Kevin Ikenberry

  Hr’ent holstered the PK and caught Graa’vaa looking at him with a stunned look on her face.

  “Now get out of here. I’m sick of smelling the stench of vermin.”

  The ISMC team rose from their seats, all of them visibly shaken. They shuffled quickly toward the door, some of them shoving others aside in their haste.

  “Hey,” Hr’ent barked at them.

  They all turned and faced him together.

  “And tell your bosses, I’m going to be watching them from here on out.” He patted the PK. “If I have to clean up one more of these little ISMC shit-shows, I’m coming for them, one by one, and damn the consequences. Now…go!” Hr’ent ordered, pointing toward the exit.

  The ISMC suits practically stampeded through the doors.

  Bith, on the other hand, slowly rose to his feet and faced Hr’ent.

  “Thank you, Honored Hr’ent,” he said. “I and my people owe you a great debt.”

  “You owe me—” he glanced at Hak and Graa’vaa and then looked into Bith’s eyes, “—us…nothing,” Hr’ent said slowly, and there was anger and shame in his voice. “Don’t ever believe otherwise.” He tore his gaze away from Bith, a wash of shame filling his features, and stared at Hak as he spoke. “We were manipulated. We engaged before we had the facts. And my predecessors should have done a better job before blindly following orders that were invalid to begin with.”

  Hak gave a barely perceptible nod.

  Hr’ent faced Bith once again and searched his eyes.

  “I will never be able to apologize enough for the losses your people suffered in all this, much of that by me.”

  “None of our hands are clean, Enforcer. None. So, I can accept your apology, as long as you can accept mine.” He looked around the room and nodded to Graa’vaa and Hak before facing Hr’ent. “We have built something here today, and I think the winds are changing, not only for my people, but for the Galactic Union as a whole.” He held out his hand and Hr’ent took it. “What you have done here means something…not just today or tomorrow, and certainly not just for my kin on the world below. Bear that in mind as you pursue Sabin 5. I have faith in you, Enforcer.” He released Hr’ent’s paw. “Now, if you will excuse me, I believe I have much work to do.” With a heavy sigh, the large, weary GenSha leader turned and walked out of the room with heavy, determined steps.

  When the doors closed behind him, Graa’vaa stepped up to the table across from Hr’ent.

  “You just threatened that entire board of directors with the death penalty and threatened their lives if the suits at ISMC’s Corporate HQ don’t capitulate. Do you seriously believe that’s legal?”

  Hr’ent turned to her and smiled like an evil god.

  “Actually,” Hak chimed in, “it is.” He gave Hr’ent a calculating eye and nodded. “Now you get it,” Hak said somberly. “You truly are an Enforcer.”

  Hr’ent grinned and looked into Graa’vaa’s eyes.

  “Graa’vaa,” he said with iron, “it doesn’t matter if I believe it or not.” A wicked smile crossed his face. “What matters is that they believe it. And I’m pretty sure they do. Let’s just hope we get more dirt on them with Sabin 5.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Lupta

  Peacemaker Regional Barracks

  They’d boosted for the Thrustcore as soon as the dropship docked, and Rsach was placed inside a stasis tube with enough power and nanite formulas to keep him alive until they reached the barracks. Graa’vaa wasn’t sure how Hak managed to get the gate master to allow them to cut in front of 14 outbound vessels, but they’d immediately transitioned from the system and hadn’t looked back.

  Hr’ent spent a full three days asleep after his surgery to remove the remaining shrapnel. He was sedated and hooked up to a hyper-nutritional IV that would allow his enhancements to finish putting him back together. Graa’vaa spent those days idly checking on him every chance she got and scrolling back through the information she’d gathered during his mission on the ground.

  Both activities left her in awe. Post enhancements, Hr’ent’s physique appeared to have changed during his deployment to the surface. His muscles bulged and rippled where a normal Oogar would’ve appeared almost soft under their fur, and there didn’t seem to be a micro-gram of fat anywhere on his body. Everything about him seemed different, but she wouldn’t really know until he rejoined the realm of the living. When he’d gingerly carried Rsach aboard, the sheer act of it had surprised her, but his careful tending to the critically wounded Jeha stunned her to inaction so thoroughly that Hak had been forced to scream at her to move.

  So much had changed in so very little time.

  As soon as Hr’ent had been sedated, Hak-Chet had passed the Enforcer’s slate and earpiece to Graa’vaa with a smile.

  “I trust you can get a full download of his activities from these?”

  She’d nodded. “I can.”

  The Deputy Selector had smiled at her. “I’d like you to consider leaving the intelligence section and coming to work for the Enforcer division permanently…as a duly authorized Peacemaker.”

  “You have plenty of intelligence specialists, Hak…” Her voice trailed off. “Wait…what? As a—”

  “As a Peacemaker,” he said again. “You’ve earned it, and I can make it happen. It’s mostly just some paperwork for someone in my position. There’s nobody as good as you, and Hr’ent deserves the best.” He’d grinned. “You said we need more and better intelligence. I’m willing to wager you have some ideas about that.”

  It was her turn to smile.

  There was much to think about. She’d seen things she’d never believed possible for anyone, much less one of her own kind. Working with an Enforcer certainly carried an element of prestige among her peers, but that pride and self-worth didn’t call to her. Nor was it the calling of a higher duty. Her work on the mission had been exciting. There were no limits. No boundaries. Everything she could do to help Hr’ent and the others was understood to be cleared and permitted as long as it did not thwart any of the Galactic Union’s few laws. And now she could do it as a Peacemaker. When she asked herself if she wanted to continue that type of work, she’d been surprised at the first answer that came to her heart.

  As long as it’s with Hr’ent.

  Her interest in his recovery, she realized, was more than professional. While her having feelings for a younger Oogar was not unusual, the power of it surprised her. From the moment they’d met on the shuttle, she’d thought he was depressed and sad. Through the mission, he’d been brash, young, and arrogant to a fault. Yet, as they’d spent time together, she realized there was much more to the depth of her emotional connection to him. What she didn’t know, and did not see any indication of, was his potential interest in her. Until he woke up and completed the arduous debriefing process, there was nothing she could do but distract herself with his mission-capture video and the audio from his earpiece and slate. Most of that was terrifying.

  Still, there was promise in what he could do. Things were not well within the Peacemaker Guild, and if her inklings were correct, there were many more potentially awful missions for Enforcers to undertake. Hr’ent would undoubtedly deploy again and again with his newfound comfort in the role. Whether it was her sudden interest in him or the maternal instinct she’d suppressed since graduation from the Academy, she decided to go with him on one condition.

  Distracting herself from those thoughts while Hr’ent recovered from the mission was relatively simple. In the captured video and audio feeds, she’d focused on categorizing Hr’ent’s behaviors for trend analysis on his combat strengths and weaknesses and other key points she could help him learn and internalize. She’d learned from Hak the breadth of Hr’ent’s relationship with Rsach and the others, and his actions at the ruins defied understanding until she’d found the Feral Koduzai’Vahsh in his quarters.

  She’d never read any of it, but what she knew of the ostracized members of
her race allowed her to put Hr’ent’s heroism into context. He did what he did for them, not for those Peacemakers on the mission, but for all Peacemakers…everywhere. Hr’ent’s new clan, for lack of a better word, was the Peacemakers, and he seemed determined to serve them to the best of his ability. It was selfless and honorable, and it colored her nascent feelings for him even more when she saw his face as they’d loaded the remains of the other Peacemakers aboard. Vresh and Ven’s bodies had been carefully tended to, although they left Tyrn’s corpse to rot in the sun and be eaten by animals.

  The GenSha willingly passed over their communications devices and slates to Hr’ent shortly after their surrender. Despite the files clearly showing the GenSha guilt in the armed taking of the Peacemakers in the performance of their duties, there were several key bits of intelligence that aligned with the discussion of the ISMC video she’d reviewed with Hr’ent.

  Nothing smelled right. Bith Sundo’s surrender and remarks about Sabin 5 triggered her instincts to delve into the intelligence files she could access on the ship. Unsurprisingly, the “combat forward” files on the ship were limited. Given the grave condition of Rsach, Hak initially ordered them to Ocono for recovery, until Graa’vaa showed him the video and requested they divert to the regional barracks at Lupta. The intelligence servers there were remote storage devices for the guild’s main collection facility on Kleve. They’d made their jump through hyperspace and arrived just as Hr’ent woke. Hours later, they were individually debriefed several times by her peers. The procedure was familiar as she’d participated in it herself. The specialists would keep them separate until they filed a joint report pasting everything together. If there were no inconsistencies from the verbal records or anything captured by their equipment, it could last a few days. If facts and events didn’t line up, the process would begin again. All she could do was—

  “May I come in?” Hr’ent asked from the open hatch, breaking Graa’vaa out of her thoughts.

  “You’re out of quarantine?” she asked.

  “Technically. They released us about 10 minutes ago. I’m surprised you didn’t see the message.”

  She flushed and pointed at her screen. “I’ve been a little busy. Want to see?”

  Hr’ent walked into the room, and she noticed just how different he was from that first meeting. His gait and posture demonstrated confidence. She stood to meet him. They leaned in and sniffed a circle around each other’s muzzle. Hr’ent’s nose lingered a few moments longer than hers, and he seemed to breathe in deeply, as if he were hungry for more. When she pulled back, their eyes met, and there was something peculiar about the way he looked at her. He didn’t say a word, but it seemed as if he wanted to, and the moment felt a bit awkward to her.

  Could he? she thought. Can’t think about that now. She stepped back and smiled.

  “I am happy to see your injuries are on the mend.” She gave him a warm but professional smile. “You are feeling better, yes?”

  “As good as the new me can get.” A faint smile turned up the corners of his muzzle. “The wonders of modern medicine. And chemical enhancements, of course.”

  She laughed. “I’ve been going through your mission files.”

  “So I noticed,” he pointed at the Tri-V. “It would appear you’re looking deeper into what Bith said to me. About Sabin 5. What have you found?”

  “Quite a bit, actually.” She sat at the workstation, and Hr’ent pulled a stool over beside her. His scent filled her nose as he leaned in, and she forced herself to concentrate on the Tri-V. “The intel server on board the Blue Flight didn’t have anything on Sabin 5. That’s not really surprising, given how long ago the mission happened and its parameters.”

  “Blue Flights also get lost on occasion. Better not to have classified data aboard,” Hr’ent said.

  “Exactly.” She tapped the slate several times and a different login pane appeared bearing the Guild Master’s seal. “This is the guild’s overall server—we have backups here at Lupta. Once it logs me in, you’ll see in the search criteria that there are reports of an incident in Malbiar Province on Sabin 5, but almost all of them are heavily redacted.”

  Hr’ent snorted. “All the good stuff usually is.”

  “What I learned from the official reports is that Breka, Dolamiir, and Bith were all on Sabin 5. That was stunning, but there’s more.”

  “More?” Hr’ent was intrigued.

  “I believe the evidence we need is in those redacted files. Maybe even on the Guild Master’s personal server and its backup, which I can access once I key in that code. Sabin 5 was just like Godannii 2. Breka was the last Peacemaker standing, and it seems he made a deal. In exchange for his testimony against the GenSha, ISMC gave him a cut of all future profits.” She chuckled. “Oh, it’s buried deep, but it all makes sense now. I had to go through seven shell companies to get at the financial history, and it all leads back to Guild Master Breka. I don’t know if ISMC blackmailed him into doing what he did on Godannii 2, or if he just wanted another piece of the roast, but either way”—she locked eyes with him, and a vicious snarl rumbled in her chest—“he’s all yours.”

  “You’re going to open the files? Clear the redactions? That’s too risky, Graa’vaa. I mean, you’re a contractor.”

  “I am, and I accept that risk, Hr’ent,” she replied. “The possibility that the Guild Master will know we did it is almost certain. How he responds will be anyone’s guess.”

  Hr’ent nodded. “I don’t want to put you in an adverse situation, Graa’vaa. You are a valued member of our team.”

  “That’s not official, yet.” She smiled. “I haven’t officially accepted Hak’s offer.”

  “Why not?”

  “I have a condition that needs to be addressed before I say yes.” She turned to face him and laid her left paw on his right forearm. “I need to know that you’re not going to go off and do something stupid. I will not support an idiot who thinks he is invincible and above taking the assistance and advice of others.”

  Hr’ent snorted and hung his head. “I was an imbecile, I admit it. I swear on my ancestors, both civilized and Feral, that I will not do it again. So, are you willing to work with me?”

  She nodded. “You pull any of that Izlian shit again, and I’ll leave your sorry ass hanging in the breeze and find myself another Enforcer.”

  He laughed, took her paw in his, and squeezed it. Graa’vaa tried not to shiver. He smiled at her.

  “Agreed.”

  “Then I accept the position as your Peacemaker Intelligence Specialist.”

  “Emonk is already on board as our pilot, too.” Hr’ent said, and then he got a surprised look on his face. He locked eyes with Graa’vaa. “Wait a minute…you said Peacemaker as if—”

  “As if I had joined your ranks,” she finished for him. “That’s right,” she said with a grin. “Hak gave me a field commission and said he’d sort out the paperwork later. “I’m a Peacemaker, Hr’ent.” Her voice was full of pride and delight and even a fair share of disbelief.

  “A dream come true,” Hr’ent said with a smile. He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her in a mighty Oogar hug. She returned in kind, and they stood there a few more seconds than was necessary, sniffing each other in a tight embrace. “Congratulations,” he said and then slowly extricated himself from her arms. “You earned it,” he added, staring into her eyes. She’d never looked so attractive.

  Graa’vaa had the grace to pull back gently and sit back in her chair, but the smile on her face never left. She stared up at him and got a determined look on her face.

  “We’ve got Breka dead to rights, and I can prove it.” She pointed to one of the screens without even looking at it. “He’s the one who ordered Tyrn and provided the Guild Master Seal. It could only have come from him. The message only went to Tyrn and Rsach, which explained the change of mission to support ISMC. That decision was based on the doctored video we saw.”

  “But the message self-destr
ucted,” Hr’ent said.

  “Like I said, the Blue Flight’s LAN has a Disaster Recovery Protocol that intelligence uses and most everyone else is unaware of. I found it, decrypted it, and have it in my file. There’s no doubt Breka is the one who put this in motion with that message to Rsach. And I bet I can find communications between him and ISMC. I just need to start digging. Tyrn was a traitor to the guild, but he was just a foot soldier. Breka sent them all to die, and Tyrn bought into the idea wholesale.”

  Hr’ent looked thoughtful for a long moment. “Once we get into the Guild Master’s files, you’re expecting to put the rest of the pieces together?”

  “I am. I think we’ll have to do it before we are deployed on another assignment.”

  He pointed at the screen. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about our next assignment. I think we’re going to figure that out when you clear that file. It’s going to be Sabin 5 or Kleve. One way or the other, we have to honor the threat Breka is to our guild.”