The Fifth Column Boxed Set

by J. N. Chaney

  I couldn’t speak for a full minute. My best friend couldn’t have shocked me more if she’d hauled off and socked me in the mouth. The more I thought about it though, the more it made sense.

  The message they’d sent her after being questioned was so obvious now. The way she’d said they could take care of themselves and had encoded the transmission. Then the times she’d acted guilty… I felt kind of stupid for not putting it together.

  “Will you say something?” she said impatiently.

  I grinned at her. “So, what you’re saying is that you are a double agent for the Union?” I teased.

  Sophie’s face went slack with relief before she wrinkled her nose in distaste. “No, they’re just as bad. We just want to stop the Sarkonian Empire from hurting more people.”

  I blinked then looked pointedly at the holo display.

  She nodded, understanding.

  “I could only feed them bits of information here and there to avoid raising suspicion,” she explained. “So, they only acted on the information they thought was most important.”

  “No wonder you were so good at organizing the data,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her.

  “I’m really sorry, Eva. Alyss.” Sophie bit her bottom lip like she did when she was agitated. “I wanted to tell you, but my parents made me promise not to. They were afraid of you. They thought you might turn them in to your father.”

  My head jerked up at her words. “What? I would never do that to your family,” I protested, a little hurt at the notion.

  “I know you wouldn’t. They just had to be careful,” she said, her eyes begging me to understand. “Are you pissed? You have every right to be. I probably would be.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” I disagreed. “And I’m only mad about one thing,” I said, fixing her with a stare. “You made me feel like a dick for not telling you my escape plan.”

  “Gods, you’re right. I’m the jerk,” she groaned.

  “Wait a second.” I held up a hand to stop her from launching into another apology. “Does your cousin know?”

  Farah got that guilty look on her face again, then nodded. “Mack is part of the rebellion.”

  “I knew something was going on there,” I said. “I’ve got to hand it to you, though, this is the last thing in the galaxy I would have guessed of you. I’m impressed. You never acted strange until the last couple of days, and even then I never suspected.”

  “Thanks for taking it so well,” she said, moving to give me a hug.

  It struck me that she’d also become a lot more touchy feely lately.

  “No problem. Besides, I’ll pay you back somehow,” I promised, hugging her back. “Now that we’ve cleared that up, can we get back to saving all these innocent people?”

  She finally laughed then let me go.

  We used the next few hours to refine our plan. It had to be simple, since it was only the two of us. Luckily, the security on the surface remained light, so the workers didn’t catch on that something was up. The element of surprise was still on our side too, as far as I could tell.

  Navari’s notes included special orders from Kaska that would have allowed her to bypass the guards and should work to get us past anyone we encountered.

  Farah had shown the schematics for the device to Mack before we left. She’d come up with a way for us to disable it too, as long as everything went according to plan.

  If it didn’t…

  Well, let’s just say that I hoped death came quick. The research detailed in very graphic notes and photographs the devastating effects of the toxin.

  I had a feeling that the files Navari had in her possession weren’t strictly for her eyes. My suspicion being that Kaska provided her with the intel of his own volition. If that was the case, he probably assumed we didn’t have the commander’s access key, and therefore, no way to decrypt the data. Even if he somehow knew we’d obtained her key, I highly doubted the Vice-Admiral would expect us to act on it.

  Hopefully, he assumed we were running for our lives and watching our backs instead of right under his nose. Or he did know everything and planned a trap for us. If that was the case, we would be royally screwed.

  I tried not to think about that scenario.

  Vega estimated that the trip to Karbine would take us just over three standard days. On the way, Farah and I studied the files that we’d marked as least important. We weren’t sure what to do with them because they detailed assassination orders for government officials. That wasn’t surprising by itself—even I had been on a wetwork job once before.

  The Sarkonian Empire had a long history of using whatever means necessary to stick it to the Union. The surprising part was the discovery that the targets weren’t all just Union officials. Some included prominent Sarkonians.

  “They don’t even have loyalty in the upper echelon,” Farah said, tossing her pad on the table we were working at in obvious disgust.

  “It is the Sarkonian Empire,” I pointed out dryly. “Not exactly a revelation. I mean, look at us.”

  I spread my hands to indicate our current predicament.

  “I know, I know,” she replied. “It’s just that every time I think it can’t get any worse, we find out something more despicable.”

  My lips curled into an ominous smile and I raised my gaze to meet my co-captain’s. “That’s why we’re going to stop them.”

  Her eyebrows winged up and her eyes widened a little like I’d startled her. “Can I just say I’m glad we’re on the same side? You are positively scary when you get that look in your eye.”

  She shuddered dramatically for effect.

  I laughed at her antics, pleased we could still find humor despite our circumstances, then sobered.

  “All kidding aside,” I began, straightening and crossing my arms then clearing my throat. Emotional speeches weren’t my thing, but I had to get this out. “I’m glad you’re with me. I’d planned to go solo and live my life on the run, but this is way better.”

  Farah grinned back at me. “Well, we’re still on the run. But I’m glad we’re together too. Besides, who would patch you up? Because I’ve seen your field dressings,” she joked. “They would probably kill you before the Empire or the Union could.”

  I grimaced. “True. But still, you could have gone back to another covert unit and I would have understood if you had. It means a lot that you chose to stay.”

  She shook her head in denial. “No, I couldn’t. I felt like nothing I did mattered or changed anything. This does. Things are finally going to change.” Sophie’s voice had lost all traces of humor and a dark expression covered her face.

  The ferocity I saw every time the Sarkonian Empire came up made me curious.

  “You know, we haven’t really talked about that,” I said, treading cautiously. “This rebel faction, what was their ultimate goal?”

  “It started out like this.” She motioned her hands to encompass both of us. “People getting used, stepped on, and discarded by the Sarkon government. My parents saw what the Empire was willing to do to achieve success. No cost was too high.”

  Sophie spoke with a quiet calm, but the words came out with an underlying tone of ragged emotion. I wanted to offer her comfort but didn’t interrupt as she continued.

  “I’m not an only child,” she confessed. Our eyes met and I could see the pain there. “I had an older brother.”

  I wondered how I’d missed that piece of information in all the time I’d known her. Had I just never bothered to find out more?

  “What happened to him?” I asked.

  “Jax excelled in combat at the academy, like you.” She gave me a crooked smile. “It was one of the things that drew me to you. Anyway, also like you, he struggled with the academics. The government had gotten their hands on some Union bioengineering tech and wanted to test it out. The details there are hazy, but they approached my parents about putting Jax in the beta program.”

  Her reaction to the information we’d found and her c
hoice to stay with me suddenly made a lot of sense.

  “They said no. It was too dangerous, Jax was too young, their only son, yada. It didn’t matter,” she said, shaking her head sadly. “He needed to ‘do his part,’ according to the project lead.”

  “The government didn’t take no for an answer,” I guessed. It was easy to see where the story was headed. My heart hurt for Sophie and the loss her family had gone through. We were more alike than I’d known.

  Only the years of Sarkonian conditioning had stopped me from sharing all of my own painful story with her. One day I would, but I wasn’t there yet.

  “Exactly.” She nodded. “They made it mandatory. He left for the program without any word or our parents’ permission, pulled from a class in the academy in the middle of the day. We didn’t even get to say goodbye. Jax was just gone. We received one transmission, a holo he’d recorded. It didn’t even seem like him anymore. A few weeks later, a message delivered the news of his death.” She sniffled a little, but her eyes stayed dry.

  “Soph,” I said, using her old nickname intentionally. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah. I miss him a lot. That was the year before I went to the academy. My parents begged me to fail at combat assessments and get good academic marks to stay off the radar. But I hated getting my ass kicked. Then you came along.”

  Some of the tension lifted and I smirked as the pieces came together. “Now I see why they didn’t like me.”

  Farah nodded. “You were—are—so skilled at fighting. I’m surprised you didn’t get drafted into the program. It’s probably a good thing. If they gave you cybernetics, you’d be too dangerous to them.”

  An image of Dolph and his bicolored eyes surfaced. I snapped my fingers and leaned forward. “I think the program became the Void.”

  15

  Farah blinked. “That actually makes a lot sense,” she said thoughtfully. “How did you figure that out?”

  “Dolph,” I said simply. “The eye, ridiculous muscles, no rank or last name… it just fits.”

  Understanding dawned almost immediately on her face and she slapped a hand to her forehead.

  “How in the universe did I miss that?”

  I raised a hand guiltily. “In your defense, I had just told you to go kick space rocks. Although, in my defense, I didn’t know you were an undercover agent, so it evens out,” I reasoned.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

  I grinned. “Nope.”

  “Figured as much.” Farah sighed, then started swiping through files at a fast pace, as though something had just occurred to her.

  “What is it?” I asked, unable to read as quickly as she was sifting through the data.

  “Got it.” She enlarged a file and jabbed a finger at it. “Remember when I couldn’t access Dolph’s medical profile and how tight-lipped Navari was about him?”

  “Hard to forget.” I thought back to the emotionally charged days before the doomed op. I’d been distracted by my plans to leave or I’d probably have put all of this together sooner. Or so I liked to think.

  “We only focused on mission docs before,” Farah said excitedly, pulling me from my thoughts before they turned to Mateo. “Navari had encrypted personnel files too.”

  That got my attention. “What’d you find?”

  She smiled in a catlike grin. “For starters, you were right about the eye.” She ticked off her findings on her fingers as she read. “Gene manipulation, artificial limbs, neural co-processor.”

  “Sounds more computer than human,” I commented. “No offense, Vega.”

  “None taken, Captain.” The AI had been quiet during our little heart to heart and sounded pleased to be rejoining the conversation.

  “This is highly classified information,” my friend continued, enlarging the file. “Way above Navari’s rank. It reeks of Kaska.”

  I propped my chin on an elbow and tried to puzzle it out. “It’s obvious the Vice-Admiral and commander were working together, but why?”

  “That’s where things get a little murky,” she admitted. “All I’ve come up with is Kaska had plans that he was keeping the rest of the government in the dark about and maybe offered Navari something to help him.”

  “It’s interesting, but how do we use this to our advantage?” I wondered.

  Sophie shrugged. “Blackmail? I’m not sure yet. But more information like this could prove useful.”

  “Captain Cortez, we are nearing the final S.G. Point,” Vega informed us.

  “Let’s table this for now,” I said, pushing up from the work center. “If we make it back, we can chew on it some more.”

  Farah nodded, then stood up too, but she didn’t move to leave.

  “What is it?” I asked cautiously. I didn’t think I could take any more surprises tonight.

  “It’s just weird,” she admitted. “Do we prep for this the same way as usual?”

  I’d been thinking the same thing. Before, the routines we’d gone through made sense. They were methodical and designed to have us in the best frame of mind. At least that was what I used to think. Now I wasn’t so sure. All the rigid rules and procedures just felt oppressive now, but without them, I was a little disconcerted.

  “I guess just do what feels right. Free will is going to take some getting used to,” I joked.

  With Karbine only a few hours out, I didn’t bother with a full workout. Instead, I put myself through some stretches to limber up, then suited up.

  I’d gone back and forth between using the uniforms or tac suits to move through the colony. The uniforms would be less conspicuous but lacked a way to carry more than a single pistol. Then there was the issue of our new haircuts. If anyone gave us more than a cursory glance, that would be a dead giveaway.

  The tac suits would make carrying weapons easier but would definitely grab attention, especially if we wore helmets to cover our hair.

  In the end I went with the tac suits, reasoning that we could claim to be there for an op. Neither of us were overly skilled when it came to tech, but Farah seemed to have a better grasp than me. Because of that, I opted to act as cover while she disabled the device.

  “You ready?” I asked. Farah and I stood in the cargo bay as Vega landed the Second Genesis. The AI had found a spot to put us down only a few kilometers from the site where the device was located and there was no real military presence. As long as they didn’t move in on us.

  My co-captain inclined her head in a quick motion.

  “Vega, keep her running in case we have to make a fast retreat,” I ordered.

  “Affirmative, Captain.”

  I snapped the face of my helmet down and watched it go opaque, then clear. It would keep my face hidden from anyone looking at me while still allowing me to see out. If anyone questioned it, we’d tell them it was above their clearance. I’d always wanted to say that.

  “Run one last scan for bodies, Vega. I don’t want to appear out of thin air and start a firefight before we even get there.”

  “Of course,” she answered. “My sensors detect no organic signatures or movement within a hundred-meter radius.”

  “Good. Let’s go,” I said to Farah.

  The ramp opened and we exited, taking our first steps onto the moon’s sunbathed surface. It was bright, but the helmet immediately adjusted by darkening.

  Even in my tacsuit, I felt exposed in the daylight. Covert ops as a rule were run at night, and being out there without the cover of dark made me itchy. I wondered briefly if we should have waited, then dismissed the idea. For all we knew the scientists were minutes away from finishing their work and the toxin was already on its way here. Hell, it might already be here for that matter.

  The atmospheric generators that provided oxygen to the colony were housed in a large warehouse on the edge of town. The structure was massive and dwarfed most of the nearby buildings.

  “Two guards on entry control,” I said through the comm. They
blocked the entrance, which was expected. I knew from the blueprints that there was only one way in and out of the structure.

  “Copy. I see them,” Farah responded inside my helmet. “Jammer’s on.”

  Though I was reasonably sure that Navari’s document would pass scrutiny, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Haas had left an array of tech in his gear trunk, including a jammer that would prevent the guards from checking on our orders.

  We angled right for them, not pausing when the first soldier noticed us and went on alert, stance straightening and grip tightening on his weapon. His partner reacted to that by snapping his rifle up in a jerky movement. The first to see us shook his head and pushed the nose of the weapon at the ground to stop in annoyance.

  “Special ops unit,” he said. “Wonder why they’re here.”

  His voice came through my helmet as clear as if I was standing right next to him, thanks to the noise-cancelling tech.

  I assumed he was in charge from his demeanor and directed my attention to him as we closed the gap. His fatigues declared him as Petty-Officer-Reyes. Twitchy Finger looked like he’d just left the academy. A quick scan identified him as Recruit-Bell, so I hadn’t been far off.

  Reyes saluted in typical Sarkonian fashion—a closed fist over the heart and lowered gaze—as we came even with the pair. Bell’s hand snapped up so fast that it hit him audibly in the forehead. His cheeks flushed red and I had to suppress a laugh.

  “Petty-Officer-Reyes, we’re initiating the final phase for this posting.” I made a show of checking my mini pad and the time. “You have three minutes to vacate the area.”

  He dropped his hand and took a closer look at my suit to read my name and rank, then looked at my face. The mirrored effect from the helmet seemed to unnerve him because his gaze went slightly left. “Commander-Rhee, with respect, we’ve received no such orders.”

  We’d modified the suits with fake names and ranks in case our old ones were well known here, a distinct possibility.