by Francis, Ron
“Please, Captain. Let us not skip the pleasantries altogether,” the president laughed.
She smiled as she poured a cup of coffee and handed it to the president. She then poured herself a cup and spent the next five minutes engaged in small talk.
“Now, if you would turn your device back on, Captain,” he requested.
She turned the jamming field back on and took out her file. “Mr. President, I have reason to believe that there is a high level assassination plot against you. There is one against my cousin, Nina, as well.” She handed him the evidence, then gave him a few minutes to go over the information and let it sink in.
“Do you know what this is, Miss Marcos?” He asked in a hushed voice as if suddenly paranoid.
“Yes, Sir, that is why I brought it right to you,” she replied a little confused.
He smiled; he had been talking about something entirely different. “You have brought me evidence not only of a plot to kill me, but you also have uncovered the identities of most of the members of the Enclave in your report.”
She was still confused. “I’m not sure I understand, Sir. Are you saying that all of the people detailed in my report are connected to some sort of secret organization?”
“Exactly, I’ve been aware of the existence of the Enclave for some time, but I had no idea who might be a part of it. Now it seems as though you have been able to identify nine of the twelve members; and their reach is greater than I ever imagined. It would seem to contain generals, admirals, senators, businessmen and criminals. Even a member of my own cabinet is apparently a part of it.” She was still a bit confused and it must have shown, so the president continued. The Enclave is a secret organization made up of very powerful individuals that believe it to be their birthright to rule over humanity. Their foundational principle is that humanity isn’t intelligent enough to govern itself, so to save us from ourselves and extra terrestrial threats they wish to be in power. No, they believe they deserve to be in power,” he corrected himself.
“Well it would seem that Nina’s decision to open up the possibility of moving our military production off of Earth has forced them to take more extreme measures than they otherwise might have. They want you out of the way because you are currently backing us.”
“How did you come across this information, Captain?” The inquiry carried with it the need for her to answer.
“A freelance spy gave it to me, Sir.” She answered truthfully, purposely leaving out as many of the details as possible.
“I’m afraid that’s not going to be good enough, Captain. If I wish to go after these people, I’m going to need a reason in the eyes of the people. I need context.”
She sighed and relented. “After the assassination attempt on myself, Nina and Manny, I hired a spy to follow Natora around. We knew he was behind the attempt because my visor caught several of his men involved. That was the real reason we didn’t kill any of the assailants. We knew he would try to bring us up on charges for killing members of the military.”
“You knew Admiral Natora was behind it and you said nothing?” The president asked.
“We couldn’t prove it; he could have easily said his men acted on their own, so I decided to start looking for proof. I hired a friend of Jesse’s that I have never met. The spy is trusted by my cousin, and that is enough for me. I sent money into an untraceable account with a coded description of the job and received a handwritten confirmation of acceptance. It appeared in my home and the person that left it was not caught on any of my surveillance.” The president nodded and she continued. “I had been receiving regular updates on Natora’s whereabouts and activities, but then I had to go to Polisia for a week. When I finally made it home yesterday, I had all of this new information. Apparently, my spy had found out about the attempt they were planning on you and somehow managed to track it to each of these people.”
“You know the military does not appreciate people spying on their top guys, you could be brought up on charges of treason for this,” he said with a look of concern in his eyes. “The only thing that might help your cause is that you don’t seem to have any military information in your file here.”
“That was actually one of the stipulations of the agreement with my spy, Sir. I have thought about the possibility of being brought up on charges, and my defense would be that I was only trying to get to the bottom of the assassination attempt on me. The evidence is what led me to follow Admiral Natora.”
“That would actually be a pretty good defense. You probably wouldn’t get jail time, but you would also be invited to leave the EDF. None of that will happen, though, because you may have just saved my life and put a huge dent in the Enclave’s ability to complete their plans.”
As the meeting wound down, the president warned her to be very careful and to share this information with no one save Nina. He, meanwhile would be on his guard and would be looking for ways to decrease the Enclave’s power. His first move would be to bring Admiral Bliney back from the protection of the Coalition's outer frontier. He would then send Admiral Thomas out there in his place, taking one of the members of the Enclave out of the equation. He would also give Admiral Bliney the top spot in the fleet because of his experience, making Natora the number two man. He would still be very powerful, but he would be subject to following Admiral Bliney’s orders. He had more ideas, but he didn’t want to do too much at once and alert the Enclave that he was on to them, but it was a good start, and Ariel left her meeting with the president in high spirits and with confidence that they would both survive what was to come.
______
Jesse was getting very tired. His clothes had dried, but his sweat had caused his shirt to cling to him uncomfortably. He had lost a fair amount of blood, and ripping open the wound on his side while saving the Princess and Wassan hadn’t helped matters. He knew he needed time in the pod and a week of rest, but first he had to get everyone out of this jungle alive. He only let the team set up one tent, which he fully intended to abandon if the enemy caught up to them. The Princess and Lady Collette were to use the tent and everyone else was to sleep outside on alert for Jaketh or Blade’s men. His team followed his orders almost to the letter: setting up the perimeter, placement of the tent and rotation of the night watch. They made only one adjustment. Josiah in his condition needed to sleep in the tent as well. Kimi had given him a mild painkiller and after a long drink of water, he was out cold pretty quickly.
Jesse, too, had been given pain medication before falling asleep. He had woken up almost six hours later and unwrapped himself from his blanket. He stood up to get some air. As he took a seat on a thick branch, the chill made him wish they could have a fire. That was not going to be possible, given how close the enemy was likely to be. He was greeted by Commando, and Commando sat by his master’s side as Jesse pet him and whispered, “Good boy, Commando.”
Kimi took a seat next to him and asked, “What are you doing up, Jesse? You need your rest to regain your strength.” She gently put her hand on his arm and he raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, not that I’m complaining, but how did I get back on your good side? A couple days ago, you would barely speak to me. I know I made some mistakes that you were having a hard time with...”
“You are not the only one who made mistakes, Jesse,” she interrupted.
“It’s okay, Kimi, I don't blame you, but what changed? How did we get back to the way we were?”
“I overheard your conversation with Collette last night; I had nowhere I could go, so I don’t consider it eavesdropping," she smiled. "I realized that you really were hurting and my attitude wasn't helping. Maybe there is still a chance for us, and maybe we will never be together. You are still my closest friend, and when I saw you with Cassie, I kind of forgot that."
"Kimi, I hope you know that I would never intentionally hurt you. I just hope we can get past this."
She smiled and looked into his eyes. “I think I’m almost there,” she said.
�
�Well good, because I miss being able to talk to you and just hang out without all of this other stuff hanging over us.” He stood to stretch his legs and she stood next to him.
She put her arms around him, careful not to touch his injured side and leaned her head on his chest. “I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating you lately, so I figured I should make up for it by taking care of you.”
“I’m sorry, too, and you can take care of me anytime.” He smiled at her and she blushed again as he put his arm around her.
As Jesse and Kimi stood together in the Pandaran jungle, he knew that things were back to normal and that she had forgiven him. He was enjoying the tender moment with his friend, hoping there was still a chance for them, when suddenly, they heard the proximity alarms go off quietly on Kimi’s belt, and they both knew the moment was over.
Chapter Eleven:
______
Everyone was awake, Jaketh’s forces had found them and now things were going to get a whole lot harder. Fortunately, Jaketh’s forces did not yet know they had found them. Two of the proximity sensors were now glowing more steadily, which meant that they were closing in from two directions. Josiah was to lead Princess Rayelle and Collette along with Tomra, Wassan and Commando away from the fighting. Jesse was to stay with Kimi, Honus and Bosar to slow down Jaketh’s advance. Hopefully, the explosives they had planted would take out enough of the enemy that they would pause before coming any further. Bosar was positioned behind a log barricade with a heavy repeating blaster, and Honus was perched up in a tree with a sniper rifle. Jesse was pressed to the ground near the middle of where the battle was likely to take place, while Kimi had disappeared into the left flank. As soon as the proximity sensors showed steady red, they would set off the first round of explosives almost one hundred fifty meters southwest of their position. Honus could see the heat signatures of several enemy soldiers as the proximity sensors for both locations turned solid red. Jesse pressed the buttons one after the other, and explosions lit up the night as they rocked the jungle.
Jesse hoped that Josiah would be able to get Princess Rayelle far enough away while they held off the attack that was about to happen. Honus indicated that the blasts had taken out several of the enemy soldiers approaching the camp. They had now paused, as they were no doubt assessing the situation, and trying to come up with a new plan of attack. Jesse wondered how many they might have lost in those first two explosions. He knew that there were nine patches of death brush between the enemy and his camp, and he had two more rounds of explosives that were not likely to be found. He hoped that by the time Jaketh’s forces reached them, they would have lost enough men that his small group could defeat them. Honus signaled him to blow the next round, and another explosion set fire to the night in the Pandaran jungle. His team retreated to their next chosen locations, and he knew that by the time Jaketh left here, Josiah would have at least a three kilometer lead on them.
Colonel Jaketh and Captain Blade had to know they were close now. Honus signaled again and the last round of explosions hit the assault force. Jesse’s team could see the survivors, and Jesse opened up with two blasters. Kimi opened up with two blasters as well, while Bosar cut a swath of destruction through the jungle with his heavy repeating blaster. There was a good amount of the jungle on fire behind the enemy, and it didn’t look like they had too many warriors left. Honus was slowly and deliberately picking the enemy off from his sniper’s nest as Jesse, Kimi and Bosar stealthily retreated into the jungle.
______
Colonel Jaketh was in shock at what had just happened. He had let Captain Blade lead him right into a trap. Many soldiers were killed in the explosions all around them. Men that were diving away from explosions were sucked up by the death brush, and then the enemy had opened fire. The Conglomerate gear couldn’t pick out their heat signatures due to all of the fire around them, and being backlit was effectively making them sitting ducks. By the time Marcos men had stopped firing, Jaketh only had six men left. He looked at Captain Blade and he only had four men and his Pandaran Ranger left. Sixty-five warriors had entered the jungle in search of Colonel Marcos and only thirteen remained. There was no way they could continue after Marcos until they had reinforcements. Dealing with Colonel Marcos had become quite a costly affair. He was beginning to wish he had turned him over to Captain Blade and let him become the pirate’s problem.
“How long will it take for the reinforcements to be dropped in to our position?” Jaketh asked the tiny face on his portable transmission unit. “I don’t want Marcos getting too far ahead of us again. We will also need a contingent of men in the city, just in case Marcos can get his people out of the jungle.” He listened to the sergeant rattle off a bunch of numbers and statistics and then replied. “We will need forty more men in the jungle, have a shuttle hover over our position and they can repel in on lines. Make sure Zendar is with them. He has the most experience in dealing with Marcos, so we could use him. I would also like forty men each in the two most likely places they will try to enter the city given their current trajectory.”
He looked over at Blade having a similar conversation with someone on his ship. Jaketh couldn’t remember his name and didn’t care to try. He hated these pirates almost as much as he hated Marcos. The only reason they were still alive is that he might need them to acquire his objective. He knew Admiral Greyside was going to punish him if he did not get the royals back, so he gathered the few men he had left and began to make a plan.
Forty-five minutes later, two shuttles hovered over their position and men began to repel out of the ship into the jungle. Blade only had thirty men join them while Jaketh had forty bringing the number of soldiers and pirates hunting Colonel Marcos up to eighty-three. Jaketh held his position for another hour to allow the reinforcements to carefully search for any more surprises that might be in store for them. He also wanted to rest and let his remaining men rest from the previous conflict. Captain Blade held his men up as well; not wanting to charge into another trap and lose more men than Jaketh would lose.
As they waited for the all clear, Jaketh heard an explosion, and a few moments later he heard a pair of screams. He was contacted on comms almost immediately. “Colonel, we have located and diffused the last of the enemy traps,” a voice he didn’t recognize informed. “Unfortunately, one of our men fell into the death brush and another was killed by a tiger. We cannot get our man out of the brush; please advise.”
“Shoot him and move on, there is no known way to rescue someone from death brush, you will be saving him from a slow and painful death,” he ordered. Two more men lost to this jungle. He would make Jesse Marcos pay for every man lost on this expedition.
______
Jesse’s group finally caught up with Josiah nearly fifteen kilometers away from the battle. Josiah was happy to see that everyone had made it, but now they were all in need of some rest and the enemy would be coming. Jesse had seen the shuttles dropping off reinforcements, and knew that if their luck didn’t change drastically, it was only a matter of time before Colonel Jaketh, Captain Blade or the Pandaran jungle caught up to them. They were either going to need to fight their way out of the jungle or fight their way into the city, possibly both. He knew he just didn’t have the kind of manpower they would need to pull that off. The only thing that gave them a chance was that he knew Jaketh and Blade had to capture the Princess and himself alive. That meant that they could not use grenades or strafe the jungle. It had to be closer combat, and that meant he could set traps all around them.
After an hour or so rest, he decided to keep the group moving until they found a location that was more defensible. After another eleven kilometers, Jesse found the perfect place to make their stand. They had come across it just in time, too. Neither the princess nor Josiah looked like they could take another step. He had a feeling that he wasn't the only one who had sweat through his clothes. They were on a densely-wooded hilltop, just past a river that was wide enough that it couldn’t be crossed without
ships. There was a natural bridge almost four meters wide leading to the other side of the river. To find another way across would take the enemy far out of the way. He didn’t have heavy enough explosives to destroy the natural bridge, but it did present itself as a bottle neck where they should be able to hold off superior numbers. He realized the King had probably sent another rescue team by now, and that either Collin or Reece or both of them would be with it. That meant their location could be tracked by the transmitter he still had in his arm. So once they found out he was on Pandara, they would be able to find him and his group easily enough. He only hoped they knew he was on Pandara.
______
Soall came before King Dominus practically trembling. He didn’t think the King would believe him, but he had seen it. He had seen Torav go into the sublevels and then another transmission was made. Shortly after that, another security log deletion occurred. Soall knew the identity of the traitor, and he knew the King would not be happy.
“What is it, my friend; you have no reason to fear me.” He said as he noticed just how terrified Soall was.
It was good that the King was alone, that would make it easier to say. “Y…Y…Your Majesty,” Soall stuttered. “I have found out the identity of the traitor.”
“That is wonderful news, Soall, why are you so afraid?”
“Because of whom it is, Sire; I saw your advisor, Torav, enter the sublevels, and shortly after another transmission was made by the cloaked figure to Admiral Greyside of the Conglomerate, Your Majesty. Then there was another security log deletion. I am frightened because I am unsure you would believe such an accusation.”
“This is most troubling news, Soall, I do not see how you can be correct, but I cannot ignore a claim of this magnitude, either. He would possess the necessary clearance to get all of those Conglomerate assassins into the capital. I just can't believe it would be him. He is my most trusted advisor and friend. How would we find out? Is there no way to know that Torav is a Conglomerate spy? If he is, he obviously has the ability to cheat our truth tests, how could we confirm this?”
