Kaspar's Box tk-3

by Jack L. Chalker

  It was his call and he’d made it. They were going in.

  The objectives were basic. Incapacitate and capture for interrogation anyone who might be likely to yield information on this business. Seize as much in the way of records and other intelligence as might be available. And, if possible, get those damned jewels, any and all of them, but insure that they were not in the position of being used by wearers against the team. It was that last that worried them all, but at least now they knew the power of the things and they respected it. The order was clear: anyone, and that included the girls, who tried to use the power of those things against the team or any of its members or in aid of anyone in the Saint Phineas group would be simply eliminated. They could not afford to take a chance.

  Each of the team members wore a combat suit made for them and for no other person. The suits were almost like living exoskeletons, usable only by their matched wearer and, in fact, were grown in tanks and wedded to individuals through a kind of symbiotic connection that only those who oversaw the process knew.

  They had several means of propulsion, but in cases like Barnum’s World, where there was a very strong magnetic field, they were able to literally float above the forest floor and, using magnetic pulses, propel themselves with no more than a low whining sound just about anywhere their wearers wanted to go.

  The suits were also thin and plastic, like a thick second skin, and they covered the whole marine save for the face itself. Cybernetic implants throughout the body allowed not only for full control of the suit’s range of functions but also allowed for near silent communication between team members as well as between themselves and the tech coordinator, in this case Chung.

  They followed the basic rules of those who created and deployed these teams, a cardinal one of which was to never do anything in the daytime if you could avoid it. The marines’ eyes, from a biodesigner and included in their very DNA, allowed them an amazing visual acuity in dark areas, taking in light at such an efficient rate that they were often nicknamed for big cats. In this case they were Tiger One through Tiger Five, with One being Maslovic himself. With augmentation from the suit electronics, they could if need be also see in spectrums ranging from the infrared to the ultraviolet.

  The ferrets had done a nice preliminary recon of Macouri’s lodge and camp, but they could only go so far here. Unlike the house, which had to contend with everything from city power and broadcasts to air conditioning and such, defenses out here could concentrate on the abnormal, which would be anything of any significant size and mobility approaching the compound. Even the ferrets would have been noticed, as they would have shown up as small but potentially threatening animals yet without biological signs. They simply weren’t designed to fend off the kind of probing rays that fed any signs of danger, natural or human generated, to the security people there.

  The ferrets could, however, tell the military team what kind of probes and guards were there, and the away team could compensate pretty well for them. They would probably be noticed when they breached the perimeter, but they’d be pretty damned hard to find once they did.

  The same went for the team. Once they found a way in, they could make themselves next to invisible to people and virtually all known electronic monitors. That was how they’d surprised the captain back in the alley. The suits could so attune themselves to backgrounds that they were virtually invisible, and because they also masked body heat and emissions if the faceplate was in, they simply didn’t show up as life-forms.

  Several kilometers away, completely suited up, Maslovic floated near the compound and observed it through all the filters he had available.

  The place itself was as luxurious as he and the others might expect. Built out of a combination of synthetics and real jungle hardwood, it was almost half the size of the big house in town, although far more rustic and exotic looking. It was also round and anchored in the swampy soil on sturdy stilts of the best building support materials, probably anchored to bedrock far down in the earth. The panoramic windows looked out on a jungle lake so unspoiled that it might have been out of some ancient naturalist’s book, and light was not only artificial and direct inside but also outside, again for atmosphere, given by external blazing torches on long poles. These also marked and illuminated well-manicured trails down to places like the boat dock, supply sheds, stables, and whatever else was there.

  There was a strong electronic fence around the main compound as well, but it was basically designed to keep things out that might wander in with feet or tentacles or whatever on the ground. This was an area where ancient animals of Old Earth had been released after being brought back from extinction, so there were hippos and crocodiles and a lot more about that might well wander into camp. Those the fence would discourage.

  More imposing was the aerial protection. Using the full capabilities of their viewers, the marines could see a vast spiderweb of crisscrossing lines covering the place like a dome, all in the spectrums invisible to the human eye.

  “We’re not gonna squeeze in there without being noticed,” Sanchez commented, merely voicing what the others already thought.

  “Yeah, anybody bring anything for tunneling?” Rosen asked, only half joking.

  “Knock it off, team,” Maslovic responded. “Nothing we haven’t seen before there.”

  “Maybe, but when you look at the amplitudes they’re using, they could short out these suits breaking through,” Ndulu put in. “To get through we’re going to have to break the web ahead of time.”

  Maslovic concentrated on the main lodge. “A number of people in there. I wish we could tell how many. Broz, what about the ferrets?”

  “See if you can drop one between the fence and the shield,” the tech responded from the command center. “They might be plastic enough to breach that web at some point. No place to climb, though, so we’re talking going straight through on the ground.”

  “No good, then,” Maslovic replied. “There’s a base band that ties the webbing together. No way a ferret’s getting through at the base. Whoever did this knew their stuff.”

  “Schwartz,” Darch put in from the command center. “That sort of thing is what she’s good at. It should also absorb a pretty good series of energy bolts, I’d say, and the moment they know they’re under attack, webs like that automatically go to lethal strength.”

  “Maybe. But why have the perimeter fence if you have that?” Maslovic wondered.

  “Maybe the thing’s a series of waves going to that central cap,” Nasser suggested. “That would mean that right at that base would be the weakest point. Your lethal pulses would come from that ring up until they met that cap and were dissipated. I think the distribution’s uneven in any event. You can almost see it.”

  “Not much room between outer and inner, though,” Ndulu pointed out. “Which of you wants to volunteer to try it?”

  It was an interesting point, and a potentially lethal one. If you blew the outer fence, the alarm would go off all over and then, even if the inner web was as weak as the theory went, there would be time for it to concentrate lethal energy on that small area.

  “I think maybe we’re going at this wrong,” Maslovic said after thinking a moment. “One missile and this place is history. This isn’t designed to repel an army, or anything like one. It’s a defense against spies, thieves, and large animals. Too bad we don’t have some large animals around. We might be able to panic them into all that and short it out.”

  Back in the command center, Captain Murphy moved forward. “Darch? You got a high-up view of the animal life in the area?”

  The tech frowned at the interruption but switched one of the screens to a broader view. “Yeah. So?”

  “Hmmm… Forget them big suckers in the shallows there. They’re hippos. They’d do the job but they don’t exactly herd. But there’s some grasslands off to the east of the lake. They wouldn’t generally come into the jungle, but they could probably be convinced. See ’em?”

  “No, I—oh, yeah
! Look mostly asleep, though.”

  “Indeed they would be. They’re daytimers mostly. Still and all, I don’t think we’re gonna sneak into that pretty place out there. That means we either just watch it or we take it down. What do you say, Sergeant? Take it down?”

  Maslovic heard the exchange and examined the options. “I think he’s right, troops. But it’s going to take a while to set up, and in the meantime maybe we ought to sit it out for several hours. See who appears tomorrow morning. By then, maybe, we’ll be in position to take this damned place and all that’s in it.”

  * * *

  They both looked like something out of another world and a far earlier age. Georgi Macouri wore a lightweight but semiformal coat and tie and matching dark Bermuda shorts; Magda Schwartz was in a long flower print dress. Both wore substantial chukka boots that provided substantial if incongruous protection.

  “What a gorgeous morning, darling!” Schwartz gushed, looking at the sunrise over the lake beyond.

  “Indeed. Shall we have some breakfast, my dear?” Macouri asked her.

  “Oh, yes. Out here, of course.”

  Marcouri turned towards the front door and called, “Joshua! We will take our morning repast on the porch!”

  Within a minute, a huge bearded man, easily two meters tall and dressed in white jacket and black pants, emerged from the house carrying a silver tray with two pitchers and twin cups and saucers on it. Only his gunbelt and holstered pistol seemed unusual. He approached the duo now seated at a small table on the porch and professionally put the cups and saucers on the table and then poured for both of them.

  Magda Schwartz turned and looked out to her right, frowning. “Frightful noises over that way, darling! I wonder what in the world that can be?”

  Marcouri nodded and turned in the same direction, cocking his ear, as he sipped his morning coffee. “Can’t say, but it’s not quite anything I’ve heard before from here.”

  “Goodness! You can feel the ground shaking a bit! If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that was a herd of elephants approaching at full gallop! I hope the vibrations don’t set off all the alarm systems!”

  “Elephants! Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like!” Marcouri was on his feet. “Joshua!” he shouted. “Come at once! Everyone else to their places! I don’t like the sound or feel of this!”

  Schwartz looked confused and concerned. “A herd of wild elephants? Why would they be coming this way? My god, there’s swamp and dense forest between their area and here! They must be frightened as hell of something!”

  “Or being driven! Joshua! Bring me the shotgun!” He turned to his companion. “You wish anything, my dear?”

  Magda Schwartz pulled up her flowered print dress along her left leg and withdrew a nasty looking energy rifle from a leg holster. “Not exactly in period, but sometimes one must do what one must do.”

  Joshua emerged, handing a double-barrelled shotgun of the type approved by the Barnum’s World gamekeepers to Macouri and then drawing his own very large pistol. It looked exactly like a large caliber projectile sidearm of the approved sort, but in reality it was a powerful tight-beam ray device that could burn a hole in a hippo at short range. Its only drawback was that its power was quite limited by the need for imitation; although he had more powerpacks in his jacket, he would have only a few seconds of sustained shooting before he’d have to manually eject the dying cartridge and insert a new one.

  Georgi Macouri stared in the direction of the steadily increasing sounds and vibration and shouted over the rising noise, “Magda, what would happen if a dozen full-grown elephants hit that outer fence?”

  She looked suddenly at a loss and shook her head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t designed for an entire herd. More worrisome is the inner grid. At that speed, while the lead couple may well be barbecued, it might displace the connector foundations and bring the whole thing down!”

  Macouri looked over at Joshua. “Get most everybody out here, now! Leave somebody to look over the guests, but otherwise, emergency! And call in the aerobus!”

  The sound and vibration were almost unbearable now, and there was, in addition, the cracking noises and shaking of trees just beyond their direct view, telling them that whatever was coming was almost here. They almost wished that whatever it was, in fact was already here. The suspense was worse than fighting off a threat.

  A half-dozen burly gunmen burst from the lodge and began fanning out along the porch, heavy weapons in hand. They were huge brutes, heavily tattooed from head to foot, mostly dressed in work pants and sleeveless undershirts. They looked like nothing so much as a cartoon of someone’s vision of an old pirate crew; one or two even had nasty-looking side swords to complement their much more modern laser pistols.

  Macouri felt better just seeing them there. Any one of them could blow a couple of rampaging elephants to the next planet.

  Magda Schwartz looked very nervous now, waiting for the attack to come at any moment. “Oh, and it was such a pretty morning!” she said, mostly to herself.

  Joshua, the clear leader of the staff and guards, frowned suspiciously as he looked out at the trembling bush. “There’s something bloody strange here,” he said loudly.

  “What?” Macouri shouted over the increasing din.

  “I said that something’s not right here, sir!” the big man shouted. “Nobody controls elephants like that except they be ridden by experts! Particularly not through that bloody swamp! It’s a trick of some kind, I swear!”

  At that moment, they were all knocked over as a huge blast seemed to strike the lodge from the rear, followed quickly by a series of small, sharp explosions. Instantly, a circular arc of bluish energy was formed by the security grid and seemed to pour to the rear, and there was an incredibly loud clap of thunder and the smell of ozone.

  Macouri tried to pick himself off the porch and find where he’d dropped his gun. “All of you! Up and to the back!”

  “No!” Schwartz screamed at them as the din of charging elephants continued. “That was the grid shorting out! We’ve got no security fence!”

  That got everybody’s attention. “Good god! We’re sitting ducks out here, then!” their boss said loudly but as much to himself as to them. Finding his shotgun, he got to his feet. “Everybody spread out! Joshua! You and Spilver to the rear to see what happened! The rest of you stay at your post and be prepared to shoot anything that approaches!” He ran over and helped Schwartz to her feet. “As for us, my dear, I think we’d better retreat inside!”

  She looked a bit dazed and shaken, but managed to nod, and with the help of his arm made it back inside the large lodge doors.

  At the back, Joshua and the scruffier-looking but equally imposing Spilver made it to the back by opposite routes at almost the same time, weapons drawn and ready. There was nobody obviously there, but something clearly had happened. The whole rear grounds had been scoured almost as if a meteor had struck.

  Going to the railing and looking down, the two guards saw a massive black basalt rock that had to weigh a ton or more sticking half in and half out of the earth. It had clearly had no problems with the outer fence and had been flung in by someone or something with enough force that it had come to rest on the anchor of the grid, and had gouged enough ground to take out the whole circular base for the entire width of the great rock. It looked scarred and now had several deep fractures, the result of both the landing and the massive energy that had come in and concentrated on it just after it had broken the plane, but it had done its job.

  Joshua looked over at Spilver. “Get inside to the security console and cut the exterior power on this thing! Otherwise it could flare up at any moment and fry any of us!”

  “Aye, sir!”

  “And make sure the internal controls are still viable!” the big security chief added.

  As Spilver ran to do his assignment, Joshua got to work with the old-fashioned kind of duty he felt most comfortable about. Calling the security people together, he positio
ned them around the entire lodge but on the porch, warning them not to step off until Spilver reported that it was safe to do so, and placing them in such a way that each one could see the man or woman on each side of them all the way around. Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble with this, but so far they hadn’t taken advantage of it. Well, let ’em come! He felt confident that his people could take anybody else human one on one, and most of them preferred it that way anyway.

  Off to the east, someone quite deliberately and somewhat mockingly killed the noises of a herd of charging elephants in such a way that the sounds slowed to a stop, betraying their phony origin.

  Joshua fingered his weapon and looked out at the bush. Okay, he silently called to whoever it was, you want to come to me now, come on! Even on elephants!

  * * *

  “Got both ferrets in,” Broz reported. “One of them went in the front door with those two characters! They never looked up! Talk about roughing it! The damned lodge is even air conditioned!”

  “They’ve still got power, then?” Maslovic asked.

  “Yes, sir. Full power and water on. They’ve got internal security systems, too, but with all those people there they have to be on minimum.”

  “Still, best not to disregard them,” the team leader said, both to himself and as a reminder to the others. “They’re almost certainly keyed to anybody not in their data banks.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about them too much,” Broz responded. “They haven’t spotted either ferret yet and they had to be easily updatable if the girls are in there, let alone anybody else.” She whistled. “Quite a place in there. Not a lot of privacy, but lots of atmosphere. I’ll feed it to you.”

  It was luxurious, all apparent hardwoods and polished floors and walls. The main living area was a single great room entered from the massive front doors, filled with antique but comfortable-looking furniture, faux wicker tables and settees, a formal dining area that could seat at least twelve, a big central fireplace that looked real but was betrayed as a simulator by the lack of an outside chimney and, along the walls, the stuffed heads of all sorts of exotic wild beasts, mounted on ornate plaques. Although large, the great room clearly wasn’t as big internally as the lodge itself, and there were openings at strategic intervals for entryways into a series of surrounding rooms. Most had push-away netting over their doors, but one near the rear and behind the dining table was a true hinged double door, and next to it a window opening and ledge. Clearly that was the kitchen.