Conspiracy

by A. K. DuBoff

  “All right, we need to grab this bioconverter,” Leon said as he walked across the room with a freestanding piece of equipment a meter and a half tall and a meter wide and deep. “It’s heavy.”

  Ari leaned against the device and it barely rocked up on its back edge. “Yeah, no shite.”

  “We’ll get it together.” Kyle got situated on one side with Ari on the other.

  With a grunt, the two men scooted the device forward a centimeter.

  “Okay, so it’s not exactly mobile,” Ari wheezed.

  “Sorry. I can help,” Leon offered.

  “No, no, we’ve got it,” Kyle said as he and Ari muscled the equipment forward again. They tipped it on its back edge to get the front over the lip of the hovercart. “1… 2… 3!”

  They heaved it up, the cart dipping momentarily while the hover controls adjusted to the weight change. The two soldiers slid the bioconverter to the back of the cart to make room for more.

  “Good job. What else?” Nia asked.

  “You’re not going to like this, either.” Leon directed the three soldiers through the lab, grabbing two more oversized items and a number of smaller tools he figured would be easier to take rather than procuring elsewhere. Frankly, he didn’t care if MTech ever got the equipment back, even if it was legally their property.

  When the hovercart was loaded down, Leon made a final circuit of the room to make sure they had everything he’d need.

  His gaze rested on his office. “Mind if I grab one more thing?”

  “If it’s small and you can carry it yourself, go for it,” Ari said.

  Leon jogged over to his desk. Placed on the corner was the statue he’d received as a graduation gift from his parents. The metal planet sat atop a square pedestal. While it had no commercial value, the gift had come at a time when Leon wasn’t sure where life would lead him, and his parents had said the whole universe was his for the taking. He’d attached those words to the statue and had vowed to find himself the life he’d dreamed about. Even though that life was now in space, he’d still have this planet to remind him of home.

  “That it?” Ari asked.

  “Yep, ready to go.” Leon nodded.

  “Okay, let’s—” Kyle cut off. “Well, that just figures.”

  “What?” questioned Nia.

  Kyle consulted a screen mounted to the underside of his wrist. “We have company.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Leon swore under his breath. The last thing they needed were trespassers giving them a hard time while the Guard team tried to leave the lab with a cart full of irreplaceable equipment. “Who’s here?”

  Kyle reviewed the details on his wrist read-out. “Looks like vibration signatures for two individuals on the sensor I left by the front door.”

  “Not an army, at least,” Nia muttered.

  “No, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hurt us,” Ari replied, readying his handgun on the sonic stun setting. “Let’s move the cart closer to the entry and find a secure location to leave it. Then we can see who’s out there.”

  Nia nodded, drawing her own handgun. She led the way down the hall with Kyle while Ari pushed the hovercart.

  When they neared the door to the lobby, they turned off the lights on their armor.

  “Let me get the cart,” Leon suggested. “I haven’t practiced much with guns.”

  Ari nodded and stepped aside for Leon to take over. The soldier drew his weapon and shimmied around the cart to join his teammates.

  “Any guesses on who they might be?” Nia whispered.

  “Could be anyone from MTech officials to curious locals,” Kyle replied. “MTech is more likely, but I really hope it’s the latter.”

  They ran their hands along the wall for guidance in the near-blackness. Half a dozen meters from the exit, they directed Leon to park the cart.

  Nia, Kyle, and Ari crept forward down the hall. They gestured for Leon to stay back, but he was curious to see who’d come to the lab. He followed them forward with his handgun at the ready, hoping he wouldn’t have to use it.

  Ari passed by the others and pressed his back against the side wall. “All right, I can make out two figures, as expected,” he whispered to the team. “Doesn’t look like they have on armor—or, at least not powered armor.”

  “We can easily take on two, if we have to,” Nia whispered.

  “They’re just standing in the middle of the lobby talking,” Ari relayed. “I can’t hear them from here.”

  “Can you listen in using the sensor?” Leon asked.

  Nia shook her head. “We could in our powered armor, but we don’t have the right comm setup here.”

  “They’re still talking,” Ari reported.

  Kyle looked back over his shoulder to Leon and Nia. “Do we wait it out or announce ourselves?”

  “This place is under a Guard-instituted lockdown, so we have every right to be here. I say we step forward but leave the cart for now,” Nia replied.

  “Sounds good to me.” Kyle stood up. “Wait here until we give the all clear, Leon.”

  Leon nodded, pressing his back against the side wall. He inched forward with the soldiers until he had a view of the lobby and then stopped to observe.

  “Hello!” Kyle called as he turned on his suit’s light. His weapon was drawn, but he had it pointed down. “What can we do for you?”

  The two figures in the lobby came to attention.

  “Who are you?” the first asked in a mid-range voice that could be male or female. Leon couldn’t make out any distinguishing physical features in the dim light shining through the plastic sheeting.

  “We’re representatives from the Guard,” Kyle said. “Per the notice posted outside, this site is under active Guard investigation.”

  “We need to ask you to leave,” the second figure stated in a lower male voice.

  “Please identify yourselves,” Ari requested as he stepped forward to join Kyle.

  “You have no authority here,” the first person replied.

  “Actually, we do.” Kyle tensed, raising his weapon the slightest measure. “State your name and business.”

  The second person scoffed. “Get out of here and leave us alone.”

  “Can’t do that.” Ari raised his weapon.

  Nia took the opportunity to join in. “Hey, guys, what seems to be the trouble?”

  “These trespassers don’t want to play nice,” Kyle told her.

  “Trespassers?” The second person laughed. “We can’t trespass on our own property.”

  “You’re MTech?” Nia prompted.

  “Probably easiest for you to think of us that way, yes.” The first person said. “And we’re here to assess this foking mess you made of our investment.”

  “That will have to wait until after the investigation is complete,” Kyle said. “Please leave.”

  “No,” the first person said. They took a step forward into the illumination cast by Kyle’s light, highlighting an ageless feminine face with pale green eyes framed by dark hair.

  Leon’s heart skipped a beat. Fok! That’s the Mysaran chancellor!

  The voice was so familiar now that he’d identified her. The man, though, he couldn’t place. It was possible he was somehow connected to MTech and out of the public eye.

  But why is the Mysaran chancellor here on Valta in a condemned MTech lab? He needed to make sure the Guard team knew who she was. Or, maybe it was better for her to think she’d remained anonymous.

  Shite, what do I do? Leon stood against the wall, paralyzed with indecision. He ran through the most likely scenarios and decided he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing—not after what MTech had done to his home. If the Mysaran government had a hand in that, they didn’t deserve any degree of anonymity or excuse.

  Leon took a deep breath and stepped out from the shadows, turning on his light. “Madam Chancellor, please forgive my companions. They aren’t from this system.”

  The chancellor came to attention. “Then yo
u must be.”

  The Guard soldiers dropped the aim of their weapons.

  “A Valtan native,” Leon confirmed, “but I went to school on Mysar.”

  “As many do.” She evaluated him. “But now you align yourself with the Taran Empire?”

  “I aim to serve my people in the best way I can, and I have deemed that to be through service to the Guard, now that this MTech lab has been exposed for what it was. Ma’am,” he added as an afterthought.

  “Oh, so you worked here?” The man’s dark brown eyes looked Leon over, and his lip curled under a moustache.

  “I’m a research scientist. I know what went on here, and I’ll keep working with the Guard to make sure no one else falls victim to the inhumane research practices that were happening here behind the scenes.”

  The chancellor turned to her male companion. “You hear that? It was inhumane.”

  He chuckled. “What a quaint interpretation.”

  Kyle raised his weapon again. “I don’t care who you are. No one talks about what happened at this site like it was okay. Not on my watch. Now why are you here?”

  “We already told you: to inspect,” the chancellor stated. “The Mysaran government has significant holdings in MTech, and it’s our right to audit our assets.”

  “Not buying it,” Nia said. “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “You’re making a mistake by trying to detain us,” the man said.

  Ari squinted. “I dunno. We’re not the ones with guns pointed in our faces.”

  The chancellor chuckled. “What, you think we’d come alone?”

  The plastic over the building opening billowed with a gust of wind outside. The low rumble of an engine vibrated the structure.

  “We’re here to reclaim our equipment,” the man said. “If you refuse to leave, I’ll have you forcibly removed.”

  Leon took a step back toward the A Wing corridor. I need to get that cart.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the chancellor asked.

  “Consider it my severance package.” Leon ran across the lobby.

  Before he’d gone four steps, a heavy form slammed into his back, knocking him to the ground.

  The air was forced from his lungs as he landed heavily.

  An arm looped around his neck. “Should have walked away when you had the chance.”

  Leon gasped for air as the arm tightened around him. Mind racing, he clawed at the man, but he didn’t have the strength to overpower him.

  Then, Leon spotted his globe figurine out of the corner of his eye. He snatched the base from next to him and drove the point of the pedestal backward.

  The man cried out in pain and released Leon.

  Coughing, and with a hand on his throat, Leon grabbed the globe part of the figurine and scrambled across the floor away from the man. When he looked back, he saw the man holding a hand over his right eye where he’d been struck by the point.

  Leon was about to smash the man’s head with the metal sphere of the globe when he remembered he had the stun gun. He tucked the figurine into his vest and then trained the weapon on the man. “Who are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter. You won’t be around long enough to tell anyone.”

  Leon pulled the trigger, and a sonic wave swept over the man. He fell limp on the ground.

  A quick check over his shoulder confirmed that Ari, Kyle, and Nia had the chancellor subdued, so Leon made a run for the hovercart they’d left in the hall.

  He activated the controls on the back and pushed it forward at its top speed—barely above a walking tempo with it so weighed down.

  Ari ran over to help push it. “Sorry! We couldn’t shoot him without knocking you out, too.”

  “I’m not completely helpless.” Leon leaned into the cart.

  “This isn’t going fast enough.” Ari stopped pushing. “We need to get out of here before whoever it is coming down in that ship shows up!”

  “We can’t leave this here!”

  Ari hesitated. “It’ll help Kira?”

  “I hope so.”

  The soldier nodded. “Okay, bring it as quickly as it will go. I’ll scout ahead and try to hold them off with the others.” Ari ran toward the entrance.

  Leon lay into the hovercart and willed it along. This isn’t the time for technology to fail me.

  Ahead, the sound of pounding footsteps echoed through the lobby as the three soldiers ran to get into position. Leon peeked around the bin to see them duck through the slit in the plastic sheeting.

  The chancellor and her companion were still passed out on the floor. Leon wished they had time to interrogate them, but there was no chance.

  Finally, he made it to the plastic sheeting. When he tried to push the cart through, though, the top snagged on the upper flap of the triangular opening. He attempted to force it through, but the heavy plastic didn’t want to rip under the minimal thrust the hovercart was able to muster while weighed down.

  Leon dug through the pouches on his belt looking for a utility knife. He found one in a compartment on his left hip and frantically cut away the extra plastic to fit the cart through.

  Just as he finished, gunshots sounded in the direction of the parking lot. The three Guard soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

  Ari ducked around the corner of the building back into Leon’s view. “Leave the cart! We have to go now!”

  “But—”

  “It’s about survival now.” Ari ran back around the corner and joined in the exchange of kinetic rounds.

  Leon took one final look at the stack of equipment and then left it behind to join his team. He’d be no help to Kira if he were dead.

  He slowly approached the corner where he’d last seen Ari and peeked around. The team members were hiding behind landscaping features that provided minimal cover from a group of two dozen enemy soldiers.

  Oh shite! How are we supposed to make it back to the shuttle? Leon unholstered his handgun. He was barely comfortable shooting while standing still, let alone use it while running for his life. “I’m here! What do we do?” he called to his team just loud enough to be heard.

  “Shuttle is on its way,” was Kyle’s only response.

  Leon spotted the landing shuttle making its way over to the team. He located a likely landing spot only fifteen meters from the main door to the building.

  “Back it up,” Leon called back. “I can make a straight shot with the cart. That equipment is why we came here.”

  “Do it,” Nia said without taking her eyes off the approaching enemies.

  Leon dashed to where he’d left the cart in the doorway.

  Inside, he saw the chancellor and her companion beginning to stir, so he gave them another shot with his handgun after confirming it was on the stun setting.

  He swung around the back of the cart and began pushing it forward at its pathetic top speed. It tore through the weakened plastic sheeting, and he made a straight run for where the shuttle would supposedly land.

  Weapons fire continued just around the corner.

  “They’re close enough!” Kyle yelled, and the low boom of the sonic blasters sounded.

  Kinetic gunfire ceased, and Kyle, Ari, and Nia barreled toward Leon.

  Together, they pushed the cart forward, their combined strength driving it forward faster than it could handle on its own power.

  The shuttle descended from the sky in front of them, its back hatch falling open moments before the group reached the ramp.

  They pushed the cart inside, and Kyle was at the controls in a matter of seconds.

  Leon gripped a handhold next to the door as the shuttle lifted off the ground while the back hatch was still closing.

  “That was way too close.” He leaned against the wall as the hatch sealed.

  “We’re lucky they tried to advance on us—couldn’t fire the pulse guns at the distance they were before.” Nia took a deep breath. “Did we get everything?”

  “I think so.” Leon checked over the cart. It looked good.<
br />
  “Shouldn’t have gone back like that,” Ari said. “If we hadn’t been able to knock them out at the last second, you would have been shot to bits on that run.”

  Leon stared him down. “I came here to complete a mission. That’s precisely what I was doing.”

  Kyle cracked a smile. “We might make a Guard soldier out of you yet.”

  CHAPTER 8

  If there was anything President Joris couldn’t stand, it was inaction. He drummed his fingers on his desktop, trying to suppress his frustration about Colonel Kaen’s dismissive response to his warning regarding Chancellor Hale.

  How could he not take this threat seriously? The Mysaran military might be nothing compared to the Taran Empire’s forces, but they’re only hours from Elusia! Don’t they want to protect us? After all, that was the impetus for Elusia rejoining the Empire. If Joris didn’t get backup when he needed it, what was the point?

  He rose from his chair and paced across the office, hoping to clear his head. Worry clouded judgment, and he needed to maintain rational thought in order to be a good leader.

  But, a good leader would go out of his way to protect his people, even if it meant being forceful.

  No taking ‘no’ for an answer. With his mind made up, Joris returned to his desk to open a secure subspace comm link with Guard headquarters. I’ll talk to Kaen directly if he won’t take action on his own.

  The call took almost a minute to connect. Colonel Kaen appeared on the holodisplay hovering above the president’s desk. “President Joris, what may I do for you?”

  “Hello, Colonel. I wanted to follow up regarding that message I sent you the other day.”

  Kaen frowned. “Like I said, I’m looking into it.”

  “Well, Colonel, that’s not good enough for me. I need assurances that this matter will be investigated swiftly and thoroughly.”

  “With all respect, Mr. President, that isn’t your demand to make.”

  Joris bristled. “Elusia is now a full member of the Taran Empire, and we are facing an immediate threat within our system. Mysaran forces can reach us in a matter of hours, and I have reason to believe that their chancellor is under outside influence and intends to harm Elusia. ‘Looking into it’ on your own timeframe won’t work.”