Sam began to feel that an officer cadre was being assembled that would be loyal to the interests of the Aos Si, but not necessarily to the interests of the human population of Earth. Soon, Sam began to be troubled by this. Sam was even more disturbed when one night, whilst drinking with some of his fellow officers, he heard one of them make mention of a Sol 3 Agenda and how they were to be pivotal in its implementation. Sam knew that Sol 3 was what the Aos Si called Earth, but when Sam pressed the young Second Lieutenant from Texas, for information on the Sol 3 Agenda, the man clammed up and wouldn’t say any more. The following day, Sam saw that he was absent from their class. When Sam asked the man’s friends where he was, Sam was told that he’d been transferred to a unit serving overseas. Sam never saw the man again.
At the end of the three years, Sam was astonished to learn that the specialised field, or ‘branch’ of the army that he’d shown a preference for had been granted. He was assigned to lead a Military Intelligence unit based in Bulgaria which was tasked with gathering intelligence on what remained of the Soviet Union since Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary had gained their independence from the bloc, back in the late 1980’s. Then it seemed that the Soviet Union would entirely disintegrate, but this had failed to materialise and today the Soviet Union was stronger than it had ever been. It was whilst there in Bulgaria that Sam had learned more of what the Sol 3 Agenda entailed and whilst doing so had almost got himself killed.
“Colonel, a Deltoid has just briefly decloaked. Now it’s gone again.” Sergeant First Class, Eoghan Kelly suddenly announced.
“That can’t be right,” Hoskens said in exasperation. “That gizmo we have is supposed to ensure that an enemy Deltoid would be unable to recloak.”
“It is supposed to do that, Colonel,” Kelly replied, “but then it’s not been tested before,” he pointed out.
Hoskens was now very worried, for he was quite sure that the unknown, potentially enemy Deltoid, must be well aware that something had been disrupting the teleportation of the Aos Si woman and her companion. They would without doubt be searching for the cause of that disruption and another Deltoid would be the obvious source. They now potentially had a hostile force hunting them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oval Office, White House, USA
Mona McBeolain had a very self-satisfied look on her face when she put the phone down in the Oval Office. She turned to JT, who was with her.
“The Nemhain has just tried to teleport up to her Deltoid again, JT, but the experimental extension to the defence screen worked. She could have teleported, but she must have realised, that if she did so she would probably be atomised.”
“Pity she didn’t try then,” JT replied. “Where was she trying to teleport from?”
“Norfolk, Virginia.”
“I see, so, what do you think she’ll do now?”
“Well she could get Fenella to bring the Deltoid down into Earth’s atmosphere and descend to a point where it would be safe to teleport up to it.”
“It would be in stealth mode of course.”
“Yes, it would be cloaked,” Mona answered, “but it will need to decloak briefly to initiate teleportation. I have technology available which we haven’t tested before, which could ensure that the enemy Deltoid is unable to cloak again.”
“What is this technology? And why haven’t you told me about it?”
“It’s something that we developed at the Aossi Corporation, JT, and Colonel Hoskens and his crew have it on board their Deltoid. “
“What do you mean it’s on board their Deltoid? I didn’t know you had one. Why didn’t you let me know about it before now?” JT angrily demanded to know.
“Oh, don’t look like that JT, I was going to tell you in good time,” Mona reassured him in the sickly sweet voice that she occasionally used to annoy him.
Mona had obviously been holding information back from him. He had certainly had no idea that she had a Deltoid available. JT wasn’t sure whether his own shuttle craft was still in working order, as it had been badly damaged upon landing, when he’d first arrived here on Earth. If the situation on Earth ever became too dangerous for JT to remain and his shuttle was unviable, then he would need an alternative means of escaping the planet. A Deltoid would suit him fine and he would need to get his hands upon it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earth Orbit, Nemhain’s Command Deltoid
Fenella had reached the Teleportation Chamber just as Fionnuala and Joshua materialised within it.
“Something was disrupting the signal, Fenella. We were unable to teleport.” the Nemhain told her second-in-command as she and Joshua walked back to the bridge with her. “Are you sure that there isn’t another Deltoid out there. I wouldn’t put it past the Fianna to somehow be involved.”
“Commander, the Proximity Scanner has located another Deltoid in the vicinity,“ a crew member announced, as they walked onto the command deck, “ but I am unable to identify it.”
“There I told you the Fianna would be involved somewhere in this!” Fionnuala vehemently declared, turning to look at Fenella.
“No, it’s not the Fianna, Nemhain it must be someone else. Should I destroy it Nemhain? Or do you want to find out who the Deltoid belongs to?”
Fionnuala turned to look to where the other Deltoid could now clearly be seen on the Proximity Scanner screen. It then struck her what Fenella had just said.
“How can you be so sure that it isn’t the Fianna, Fenella? Those renegades are our enemy,” Fionnuala asked turning back to her second-in-command and giving her a searching look.
“They’re no longer our enemy, my Nemhain.”
Fionnuala looked at Fenella in astonishment.
“What do you mean? They’re no longer our enemy, they betrayed us!”
“Fionn Mac Cumhaill helped me to escape from the Confederation and also rescued the Morrigan-in-waiting,” Fenella tried to placate Fionnuala. “There is so much to tell you, my Nemhain, but it appears we that we may have a more pressing problem to deal with.”
“Commander, the Deltoid out there is powering up its weapons systems, it must have seen us when we decloaked,” another crew member announced.
“Use the Image Cloner,” Fenella instructed and then turned to the Nemhain again. “It’s a piece of technology that can clone multiple images of a Deltoid, that will not only appear on the Proximity Scanner of an enemy, but also appear visually to them. Also power up our own weapon systems.”
“Image Cloner initiated, Commander,” the same crew member confirmed.
“Weapon systems being powered up,” another crew member reported.
“Now the unknown Deltoid will be presented with a potential six targets, instead of one and they will all appear to have their weapon systems powered up,” Fenella told the Nemhain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earth Orbit, SATCU Deltoid
“Sir! Another five Deltoids have appeared!” Sergeant First Class, Eoghan Kelly cried out pointing at the Proximity Scanner. Hoskens got up from his command chair and rushed over to Kelly’s station. Peering closely at the screen of the Proximity Scanner, Hoskens saw that Kelly was correct. The screen clearly showed a total of six crafts on it, all identified as Deltoids, and all were powering up their weapon systems. How could that be, Hoskens had been assured that he would only be facing one Deltoid, not six. He was outgunned and also knew that his own craft stood no chance at all if it came to a firefight.
“We have visual too, sir!” Master Sergeant Thompson announced. Hoskens spun his head around. Thompson was staring at the viewing panel at the front of the Deltoid. Beyond it out in space, six Deltoids could clearly be seen.
“Give me a link to the President,” Hoskens said quietly. “I don’t think this is going to end well and I need to let her know.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oval Office, White House, USA
Mona pursed her lips as JT glared at her, he was going to be difficult she knew. Yes, Mona knew that she wa
s probably wrong to have kept her possession of a Deltoid secret from him, but she had known that he would want to get his hands on it if he heard about it. The Deltoid had been a crashed one found buried near Roswell, New Mexico and had been taken to Area 51 in great secrecy. Still the conspiracy theorists had got to know about it somehow and a disinformation campaign had had to be started. There was of course no little grey alien bodies in it, the Aos Si Imperials who had been on board it had safely teleported off it before it had crash landed. Of course, all this had happened thousands of years ago when the first Aos Si colonists had come to Sol 3, or Earth as Mona now preferred to call the planet. The truth was, that Mona didn’t trust JT one little bit and had plans to get rid of the nasty little Andromedan as soon as she could. Suddenly the phone on Mona’s desk rang again. Mona angrily snatched it up.
“Gayle! I distinctly said that there was to be no further interruptions! “ Mona irritably snapped at her assistant. “What? It’s Colonel Hoskens, then you’d better put him through.”
JT watched Mona as she took the call and saw the colour drain from her face. It obviously wasn’t good news that she was receiving. Mona’s hand was visibly shaking as she replaced the hand set on the receiver.
“Bad news, is it Mona?” JT asked sarcastically.
“That was Hoskens, six Deltoids have uncloaked and they’re all powering up their weapons systems!”
Chapter 23
Tuesday 13th September 2005, earlier that day
King’s Journey to Abbot’s House
“We’ll soon need to join the B5234, Royalty. If we carry along this road, we’ll come to the interchange. The turn-off should be signposted and so you’d better keep your wits about you.” King was sure he then heard Terry mutter, “if you have any”. Again, King had to bite his tongue.
They drove on and eventually came to the interchange where King saw signs for the B5234.
“Do you want me to turn off?” King enquired.
“That’s what I said,” Terry sarcastically replied. “Or are you deaf as well as stupid?” King kept his silence, but guessed his tongue must be bleeding by now, due to the number of times he’d had to bite it. He’d get his revenge in good time he vowed and wipe the sneering look off ‘Soldier Boy’s’ face.
As they turned off onto the B5234, a large limo was approaching. It slowed down as it reached the junction, and something made him glance at it. He noticed a young woman sitting in the rear passenger seats, beside a young man. King couldn’t believe his eyes, it was Kate Penrose and impossibly, she didn’t look a day older than when he’d last seen her over twenty years ago. King nearly blurted out what he’d seen, but held his tongue for some reason. It shook him though and he crunched the gears as they drove on, drawing another sneering look from Terry. Soon however they’d left the town behind and as they drove through pleasant countryside, King started to get his thoughts in order. Had it been Kate Penrose he’d see, or was he losing it and it had been someone else. His recollection of his hunt for her back in the 1980’s was very hazy and all he really remembered was that he’d lost track of her near Penzance.
“There’ll be a side road on the left coming up very soon that we need to take. Got that, Royalty?” Terry broke into his musings and King nodded in response.
King soon saw the side road and turned off into it. Driving on a short distance King saw the beginning of a high stone wall. He could have sworn he’d seen a similar stone wall somewhere before, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember where. Still it didn’t matter. They passed a gateway with stone gate columns, mounted with security cameras and a large wide heavy metal gate. Someone took their security very seriously he thought and again it troubled him as he was sure he’d visited somewhere like this before. They very soon came to a village and then after driving through it, a few miles further on they passed the Abbot’s Arms Hotel, a rather posh looking spa hotel .
“Turn the car around, I’ll book in here,” Jackson told King.
“You’re stopping here?”
“Yes King. We have some surveillance to carry out on that house we passed by.”
“What, the one with the security cameras? We’re doing surveillance on it?”
“Yes, or rather I will, and you’ll be on standby with the car for when I need it.”
“But where am I going to stay?” King questioned.
“We passed a pub that did bed and breakfast back in that village. You can book in there,” Terry told him. “Oh, and before you go, you can carry my bags inside.” Terry got out of the car and walked off towards the entrance of the hotel, leaving King muttering to himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Late evening, Tuesday 13th September 2005
Abbot’s House, Trentbury
Terry Jackson had decided to scout out around Abbot’s House that evening. Learning that a public footpath from the grounds of the Abbot’s Arms Hotel passed very near to Abbot’s House, he had taken it and walked the short distance there. He had a small rucksack on his back like walkers might use as a day pack, but his contained the equipment that he needed to carry out surveillance, rather than walking accoutrements. Soon Terry had reached the high stone wall that surrounded Abbot’s House and faced the same challenge that unbeknown to him, had faced Marcus King over twenty years ago, albeit at Lost Valley Manor.
Terry however had technology available to him, that gave him an advantage that Marcus King hadn’t had. After taking a quick look around to make sure that no one else was in the vicinity, Terry opened the back pack and took out first a camouflage bracelet which he put on his left wrist. Activating it he immediately became invisible. Terry then took out a personal teleportation device and having set it to the coordinates he’d calculated, he operated it. A moment later he was on the other side of the wall and now well within the grounds of Abbot’s House.
Terry noticed that the undergrowth this side of the wall was cut back and that he was standing on a strip of rough grass. Beyond that were trees, part of the woods which Terry knew from having studied an Ordnance Survey map of the area, completely surrounded Abbot’s House. Taking no chances however, Terry searched through his back pack again and took out another device, which could detect any security measures that might have been put in place. He guessed that there would be some around and certainly didn’t want to trigger any. Looking at the display he saw to his surprise that the only security measures detected, were in the immediate vicinity of Abbot’s House in a 20-metre strip surrounding it. Very lax of the inhabitants there Terry thought, but it made his task far easier than he’d anticipated. How wrong he was.
Terry strode off into the woods, picking up a footpath he guessed led in the direction of the house. He was still invisible and knew the effects would last for about an hour, before the camouflage bracelet would need charging. The camouflage bracelet that Terry wore wasn’t as powerful as the ones that Fionnuala and Joshua had used and were made by the secret military technology division at Area 51, that Mona McBeolain had set up using Aossi Corporation resources. William Geacher had obtained camouflage bracelets for himself and Terry from her.
Terry thought that his progress through the woods was unobserved and didn’t notice the Jackdaw watching him as it flew from branch to branch and tree to tree. It was no ordinary Jackdaw however, but a very sophisticated surveillance drone secretly developed by the VarTech Corporation and much more advanced than the ones used back in the 1980’s at Lost Valley Manor. The drone had already recognized Terry Jackson as an intruder and after searching extensive data bases, had also identified who he really was, sending an alert through to the fully automated security centre at Abbot’s House and also simultaneously to Conn.
“I wondered when you would show up, “ Conn said to himself, studying the photos and data that the drone had sent to him and frowning when he saw what it contained. “So, you are a cyborg after all, Terry Jackson, and a very dangerous one too. I’ll have to do something about that.”
Conn took out a mob
ile phone and dialled a number. When his call was answered he gave the Fianna operative very careful instructions. After terminating that call, he phoned another number.
“Oisin, we may have a little problem to resolve,” he said when this call was answered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Early morning, Wednesday 14th September 2005
John’s Train journey to Derby
John Trevaskis was up very early the next day, hoping to avoid seeing Kate, Morann and Padraig and having to answer any awkward questions. Conn said he’d arrange for a sleeping draught to be slipped into Kate’s bedtime drink and as regards Morann and Padraig, well, he’d explain the situation to them. Fortunately, the sleeping draught appeared to have worked as there was no sign of Kate that morning, nor for that matter any sign either of Morann, or Padraig. John felt bad about not letting Kate know what he was doing, but had guessed that if he had told her, she’d have worried and would probably have wanted to come along with him. Besides which, he’d been told to come alone and not tell anyone where he was going.
John had arranged with Conn, to be driven to Trentbury railway station, to start the first part of the journey to his destination. He left Abbot’s House without even having breakfast, a meal that he never usually missed. Bill drove him to the railway station in a non-descript saloon car, rather than the limo he’d previously been using, so as not to draw any attention. Arriving at the railway station, Bill dropped him off and as John hadn’t pre-booked his ticket, he had to queue at the ticket office to buy one, before going down onto the platform.
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