"…have less than fourteen hours to wrap this operation up. If your team can't make it happen by then, we'll be forced to pursue alternate means," a raspy, hissing voice was saying. At first, Murph thought it might be poor audio quality thanks to his equipment, but he soon realized that the speaker was an Ull and that it was speaking English. How odd.
"Your alternate means are doomed to fail," a human male voice said. Murph assumed it was Hollick from the authority it conveyed. "You know it, I know it, and Margaret Jansen has repeatedly warned you and your superiors that a forceful move against Earth right now would be premature without first securing the object."
"We grow impatient, Human," the Ull said. "This was supposed to be a simple operation. Now you've led us halfway across the quadrant, and we're no closer to success than we were in the beginning."
"There have been some…missteps," Hollick admitted. "Our operative aboard the Endurance royally screwed up, no claiming otherwise, but this operation is still very much alive. Even now we've—" There was the sounds of furniture moving and muffled conversations that were fading as the party left the office. Murph was unable to make out anything else. Maybe the computer would be able to scrub the audio for something else he could use. As Murph was getting ready to cycle the bit of audio through the post-processors, he heard a sharp grunt over the team channel, and then nothing.
"Check in," Jacob ordered, apparently having heard the same thing.
"One," Murph said.
"Three," Mettler said. It was another ten seconds before Murph tried to manually ping MG's com.
"Birddog Four, this is one. Check in."
He was answered with nothing but silence. Just when he was about to ask Jacob what he wanted to do about two of their team members dropping off the net, a shadow moved in his peripheral vision. Before he could turn to focus on the movement, his body was racked by intense bursts of pain. He lost control of his limbs, collapsing onto the roof in a heap. Through the pain, he was able to tell what had happened, the telltale fins of a stun dart sticking out of his right side. The small weapon had penetrated the soft armor meant to absorb and deflect energy weapon fire and unloaded its high-voltage payload into his body.
Murph struggled to remain conscious, but his vision began to tunnel, and he couldn't force his hands to key the com and tell his teammates he was down. The last thing he saw before the darkness overtook him was two Ull rushing at him, weapons drawn.
Chapter 24
"Anyone still on the net, respond! This is Birddog Actual, key your mic if you can hear me."
"Sorry, Young One, but nobody's going to be answering you."
Jacob spun around and looked at Zadra, confused. He saw that the Veran had backed up to give herself some room and now had a plasma pistol trained on him.
"What the fuck is going on here?" he demanded.
"Quiet now," she said. Her demeanor was calm, and Jacob wasn't entirely sure this wasn't some sort of bizarre joke at an inappropriate time. He watched as she reached over to the terminal at her left and deactivated the safe house's security systems, never taking her eyes off him or wavering with her weapon. Before Jacob could get his wits about him, he heard the front door crash open and what sounded like several heavy beings treading into the room. When they walked in, his heart sank.
Ull.
They'd been set up from the start.
"So, you've been working for the other side the whole time," Jacob said, moving away from the terminal he'd been at when the lead Ull waved at him to move.
"Not the whole time," Zadra said pleasantly. "But about the time I realized that for all the talk about becoming an emerging power in the quadrant, Earth had sent out a squad of bumbling amateurs to come get me. Once Jansen's crew got the jump on you, I figured I'd be smart to explore my options."
"We have his compatriots," the lead Ull hissed. "Do we need him?"
"Inexplicably, he's the ranking member of this team," Zadra said. "So, yes, we'll need to keep him alive for the time being."
"Humans are so pathetically predictable," the Ull said. "Hollick is standing by and wishes to see you."
"Wait a moment," Zadra said, moving to the terminal and keying in a local com address. "If you want the package, I'll need to get things in motion from here."
"Hurry up."
"Yes? Why are you calling me? Where's Lieutenant Brown?" Sully's face appeared on the terminal. Jacob opened his mouth to call out, but the business end of an Ull plasma blaster nudged him in the midsection. He nodded his ascent to remain silent. Now wasn't his moment.
"Because I’m the only one left at the safe house," Zadra said. "The team has located Scarponi, but he's fortified with a large group of Ull defending him and asked that you call in Captain Webb. He's currently aboard a Scout Fleet command and control ship, I'm sending you the slip-com node address now."
"How do you know that?" Sully asked, his voice heavy with suspicion. "Or why don't you just call him yourself?"
"An alien blindly calling a human military ship and asking for aid," Zadra scoffed. "How far do you think I'd get with that? Webb would never even get the message."
"Maybe," Sully said. "I'll punch in this address and call in our location and status to Captain Webb if he's actually there, but I'm not requesting support until I hear from someone on the ground team directly."
"Very well," Zadra said. "Call our status in, and in the meantime, I'll ask one of your people to come back and verify Lieutenant Brown's orders."
"I'll be waiting," Sully said and killed the channel. Jacob could have kissed the Navy pilot for being naturally distrustful and playing it by the book.
"Don't worry," Zadra said to the Ull. "Once Webb gets a confirmed location from his people, he'll come in himself. I've already verified his ship is in the area with one of the human assets you provided. This will be over quickly."
"Take her to see Hollick so they can finalize their side of the arrangement," the Ull said to one of his compatriots. "We'll remain here to watch him and monitor their com network. I assume the ship pilot will try to make contact again to confirm the human Webb is coming or not."
"Likely, or he'll try to directly contact the other team members on the short-range tactical com," she said. "I assume you disabled those?"
"Do not question me about strategy, Veran," the Ull hissed. "Your deal is with Hollick, not us. If you can't deliver the package we've been promised, your fate will be no different than that of these humans." Jacob watched the interaction closely, trying to gauge Zadra's reaction given the little bit he knew about Veran mannerisms. For someone who had worked within the seedy underbelly of the quadrant's criminal element and had actually lived by herself in the Kaspian Reaches, she did seem genuinely nervous about the Ull's threat.
"You'll get what you want," she said before turning to Jacob. "Sorry, Young Pup, it's nothing personal."
"Feels personal," Jacob grunted as the closest Ull jabbed him with its blaster rifle again.
"I have to stay ahead of the ConFed and make it out of here." She spread her two smaller arms wide in the Veran equivalent of a shrug. "Mosler may have been able to do it, but he managed to get himself killed by a member of his own crew. You? You I have no faith in. Like I said, nothing personal. It's just good business."
"We'll see," Jacob said. He'd been watching events unfold since she'd pulled a weapon on him with a sort of clinical detachment. His lack of a panic reflex had been one of the things that put him on NAVSOC's radar during first year cadet evaluations. Now that Zadra had given him a little bit more information, however, and he knew she'd been making them dance like puppets to get what she wanted, one of his less savory traits was coming to the surface: a white-hot rage coupled with his body's amped up adrenal response.
The two Ull that remained behind to guard him were watching him closely but didn't bother restraining him. One on one, a normal human wasn't much of a threat to the spindly alien species. They had a dense bone structure and were much stronger than th
eir willowy appearance indicated. Zadra left with the third Ull, and Jacob knew it would be a short time before Hollick sent word to execute him.
"So," he asked. "You guys want to play a game to pass the time or—"
Crack!
"Silence!" the closer Ull barked after slamming the handle of its weapon into Jacob's skull. He slumped against the wall, overplaying the amount of pain he was in and letting his head loll to the side as if the blow had nearly rendered him unconscious. He listened to the pair as they made clicking sounds—apparently what passed for laughter among them—and waited.
It still wasn't his moment.
"It's from an unknown source node, but there's an accompanying clearance code belonging to a…Lieutenant Ryan Sullivan, currently assigned to 3rd Scout Corps, Team Obsidian. Shall I accept the channel request, sir?"
"Negative, ensign," Webb said, frowning.
"Sir?" Commander Duncan asked. They were on the bridge of the Kentucky when the unexpected com request had come through.
"Sully doesn't have this slip-com address, none of the operational assets do," Webb said. "This is a closely guarded secret that not even Commander Mosler had been privy to. All communication from the field would be routed through the com center on Taurus Station."
"The computer has run facial and voice recognition on the incoming signal and confirms it's Lieutenant Sullivan with a probability of ninety-two percent," the ensign at the com station said.
"This operation has already been derailed by a One World traitor embedded within my Scout Fleet teams," Webb said. "Now, I'm getting a signal to an address nobody should know about from a team that is way off-mission without any explanation. I feel like we need to proceed carefully. Ensign, send the incoming signal to the automated messenger service aboard the ship and be careful not to forward it to Taurus Station."
"Shall we reposition the Kentucky closer to Theta Suden, sir?" Commander Duncan asked.
"Stand fast, Captain," Webb said. "We'll remain here until we have a better idea what the hell is happening. Hopefully Sully leaves enough details in the message to put the pieces together."
"Aye, sir."
"Alonzo Murphy! Welcome! It's so good to meet you. I hear Welford thinks quite highly of you."
"Hollick," Murph grunted against his restraints. "We thought you were dead."
"That's sort of the point of faking one's death, isn't it?" Hollick asked. "Who did you piss off to get stuck slumming it with these jarheads, pretending to run around and gather intel with a bunch of knuckle-draggers while keeping an eye one someone for Welford?"
"Where's the rest of my team?"
"Your team?" Hollick laughed. "Going native already? This is barely your second assignment and you've already lost objectivity? Not good, Agent, not good at all. To answer your question, the other Marines we so easily captured are bound and gagged in one of the offices in the mezzanine. So now, you're wondering why you're here instead of trussed up with them."
"It crossed my mind." Murph said. He was restrained to a chair that was so tall his feet didn't touch the ground, obviously built for a much bigger species. The main problem with that, besides being uncomfortable, was that it took away any leverage he may have had with his feet flat on the ground.
"Honestly, you're mostly a backup plan right now," Hollick said. "Once our other party gets here, we can— Ah! There she is now!" Murph stretched against his restraints to look over and see one of the Ull, this one dressed in tactical gear, escorting Weef Zadra across the factory floor. She didn't look like she was there against her will.
"The message has been sent by the pilot," Zadra said to Hollick, ignoring Murph completely. "Webb's ship was last reported on its way to this general area with him aboard, so I don't think we'll have long to wait to get a response."
"And the kid? Brown?"
"Being guarded by two of ours," the Ull said. "They're to eliminate him and sanitize the building once we have confirmation from the pilot that Marcus Webb is inbound."
"It'd probably be best if he was brought here with his friends once they're finished up at the safe house," Hollick said, looking suddenly concerned. "We're not here to rack up a high body count."
"Why are you here?" Murph asked. "I first assumed after the hit at Niceen-3 that you were after Zadra for the same reason we were: her intel network. But from what I'm seeing, she's been working with you the whole time. So, what's up?"
"Shut up, Murphy," Hollick said. "I'm not going to lay it all out for you just because you can't put the pieces together yourself."
"Did you arrange to have Mosler killed, Zadra?" Murph asked, recognizing a closed door when he saw one with Hollick. The agent was too disciplined to start bragging and divulging secrets when he had the upper hand.
"I had nothing to do with that!" Zadra said hotly. "Ezra Mosler was my friend, but I'm also a realist. If you couldn't even protect your own captain, what was the chance that you'd be able to protect me? I made my deal with Margaret Jansen once your incompetence made it necessary."
"It's not too late to unfuck this," Murph said. "They can't force you to give up your network, and we can still get you out of ConFed space."
"They're not after my network, they want something else…something your people have that—"
"Quiet!" Hollick snapped. "He doesn't need to know any of the details of our arrangement. Agent Murphy, unless you want to spend your final hours with a gag, I'd suggest you keep your mouth shut."
"Anyway, now that the Ull know I'm trying to avoid the ConFed, they have the upper hand." Zadra sounded genuinely apologetic. "By just calling in my general location, there would be no way to avoid their fleet while trying to escape. It was nothing personal."
"Does nobody know what the word quiet means?" Hollick asked in exasperation. "What's taking so long? We should have heard back from the pilot by now. Check with the safe house team."
"They are not answering on coms," the Ull that escorted Zadra in said.
Hollick swore and turned to look over at Murphy. The other agent had a ghost of a smile on his face, as if he knew something but didn't want to spoil the surprise for anyone else.
Chapter 25
"This is taking too long. We should have heard back from the pilot by now."
"We could have that one try again…if you hadn't bashed his head in."
"Let's try anyway."
Jacob had been listening as the pair argued about what to do next. The translation matrix loaded into his neural implant had a few gaps for the Ull language, but he was able to pick up most of what he needed. He knew his team had been captured but didn't know if they'd been killed or not. The other important thing he'd discovered was that the Ull planned to give Zadra to the ConFed once they were done with her anyway so, apparently, they were after something else and not her intel network. What that could be he had on idea, only that it involved Captain Webb somehow.
As one of the Ull clomped its way towards where he was still pretending to be unconscious, he was absolutely certain of only one thing:
This was his moment.
When the alien reached down to grab him Jacob rolled over and trapped the offending arm in a wrist lock, bending it back onto itself. The Ull shrieked in pain and tried to wrench its arm free, but it had never come face-to-face with a human processing this sort of strength before. Jacob took advantage of both the pain and confusion and levered himself up onto his knees, still trapping the arm back. He looked over and saw that the other Ull was reaching for its weapon, and he used the pinned arm to spin his opponent around and act as a shield.
The Ull was unbelievably strong. Now that the shock of the situation was wearing off, the trapped Ull was trying to free itself by pushing against his shoulder with its free hand. Luckily, it still thought it was going to get out of the situation without serious injury and was trying to be somewhat gentle while disengaging the crazed little human. Jacob decided to dispel him of that notion. With a heave, he shoved the hand up with his left arm while
pulling down with his right, putting every bit of strength he could muster into it.
When the bone snapped, it did so with a sharp crack that made Jacob's ears ring. What the hell were these things made of? Everyone in the room froze at the sound for a split second, and that was all Jacob needed to release his hold and grab the broken arm in both hands, wrenching it back and forth and maximizing the damage. This seemed to break the dam, and the alien shrieked in agony.
"Kill him! Kill him! KILL HIM!"
Jacob released his prey and rolled away just as the other Ull opened fire. The shot went wide and blasted through a wall, setting it on fire. The injured Ull tripped on its own blaster, which it dropped when Jacob grabbed it, and went down, landing on its injured arm. Its shrieks went up another few octaves until Jacob almost couldn't even hear them.
Another shot slammed into the floor in front of him, sending burning chunks of tile spinning off in all directions. Jacob ignored the bits that pelted his arms and face as he ran for the only cover in the room: the heavy table that all their gear had been stacked up on. He leapt onto it, catching the edge with his hand and tipping it up as he did so that when he landed it was propped up on its side in an impromptu barricade.
"Fuck!" he snarled. His plan had been to use the table for cover and go through the window that was directly behind it, certain he could easily handle the two-story drop to the pavement below. What he hadn’t counted on were the security bars one he was able to look past the heavy privacy curtains.
Another shot blasted into the table and burned a hole straight through it to his right. He'd only meant for the table to be a distraction and maybe slow them down a bit, not actually protect him from incoming energy weapon fire. Now he was trapped, and the fires the plasma shots were igniting were really starting to pick up, setting off the automated suppression system. He slid around and braced himself against the wall, pulling both knees towards his chin, chambering what he hoped would be one hell of a kick. He absently registered the hissing sounds of the directed foaming agent that was being sprayed on individual fires.
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