AL:ICE-9

by Charles Lamb

  Joe began, “Jake, we tried to go after them in our suits,” pointing at the bodies, “but they started shootin again and hit the wounded. I’m afraid they’re all dead.”

  Jake got the impression Joe was feeling the need to defend himself. He heard the resignation in his voice, clearly beating himself up over his perceived failure.

  “Joe, that’s not your fault,” Jake replied as he turned to face him directly, “this is on them, not you!”

  Turning back to the open floor, Jake asked, “Do we know who these guys are? Were they locals, drifters, or what?”

  ALICE-4 replied, “We know nothing about them at the moment. I do have another team out, do you want me to redirect them to Republic and see what they can find out?”

  “Yes please,” Jake answered, “let’s not escalate things here any further at the moment unless the hostages are at risk. We can afford to let them sweat while we figure out a plan.”

  “Joe, you guys keep things bottled up here while I go inside. Don’t give them a target, but don’t let them wander anywhere either. Unless we can hit all four at once I do not want any attempts to kill one. They might retaliate against the hostages.”

  With that, Jake turned and headed back to the main facility door, going wide while attempting to avoid inciting any activity from the vehicle park. Once inside the facility proper, he removed his helmet and, tucking it under his arm, headed to the command center where he expected to find whoever was backing up Sharon.

  Entering through the double doors and setting his helmet on the nearest console counter, he looked around. He noticed there were actually far more people working here than he expected. It was the standard oval shaped, two-tier room typical to all the ALICE facilities. Surprisingly a young man, about 22 by Jake’s guess, approached and introduced himself. With the staffing ratios running two or three to one to the female side, Jake was always surprised to see a man around the command centers as most of the males pushed for combat rolls.

  “Major, I’m Hector, Lieutenant Sharon’s second here,” he proclaimed.

  “Hector,” Jake repeated, acknowledging him, “how is Sharon?”

  “She is still in surgery, as are the other three,” he replied, “we were fortunate in that we got them out of harm’s way quickly as the intruders retreated.”

  “Who are the other wounded?” Jake asked, unaware that there were more wounded. This was turning into an outright disaster.

  “One unsuited staff member and two of the new recruits. All caught in the crossfire. Actually, I hate using that term, as we never returned fire once they started shooting, there were too many non-combatants in the line of fire. Unfortunately as you saw, there are three un-retrievable dead.”

  Blocking out the memory of the three bodies on the hangar floor, Jake replied, “I’ve asked ALICE-4 to redirect assets back to, Republic was it? I want to see if they can dig up anything on these four,” he finished.

  “Yes sir,” Hector replied, “I heard. They are on the ground there now, and I will make sure you have whatever they discover once they report in.”

  “Can we get eyes on these four now?” Jake asked.

  “No sir,” he replied, “I have had ALICE checking every camera but there is no clear view. This is the best we can do.” At that, Hector indicated for one of the staff operating the consoles to activate the display. A hologram appeared in the center of the room, and it displayed the hangar floor area where the heavy vehicles sat parked. The camera angle was such that the area behind the vehicles had the bodies clearly visible.

  Jake let that roll through his mind and then as if some fleeting memory passed through his head he asked, “Hector, have we meet before?”

  “Yes sir, though not officially, I was recruited in Texas. I am part of Robert’s original group from Fort Hood. We all gathered in the dining hall and you addressed us there. I was the squadron commander for the Jolly Rogers until Lieutenant Sharon asked me to back her up as her second in command,” he finished.

  Robert Jacobson was leader of a group Bonnie had recruited in Texas. Bonnie was commander of the ALICE Texas location, also known as Dallas, although it was nowhere near that city. Bonnie Sullivan was also one of the original six recruits, mother to Jake’s daughter Julie, and Sara’s sister. Robert and his group had been quite a find, and he was currently acting as Jake’s logistics officer. His job was chasing down materials and precious metals for the ALICEs manufacturing needs and Jake’s bartering capitol.

  The thought of Bonnie gave Jake the answer to his current dilemma. Not Bonnie herself, rather a trick she used when recruiting Robert and his hoard.

  “Hector, what do you say we get some food and water to those people while we wait them out?”

  Jake then asked to the room, “Can you put me on the speakers in the hangar please?”

  “Ready when you are sir,” came the reply from one of the women at a console along the wall.

  “This is Major Thomas. We don’t want anyone else to get hurt. We are sending you food, water and a communicator box so we can talk this over,” Jake’s voice echoing throughout the hangar.

  In reply, someone shouted, “Don’t come any closer or we’ll shoot!”

  “No one will come near you. I am sending one of the little robots with a tray. There will be no tricks, no one will come any closer,” Jake finished.

  After a long pause, they heard, “OK, just one of those little critters, no people.”

  “On its way,” Jake replied then made a slashing sign across his throat indicated she should cut the connection.

  “ALICE, you know what to do, right?” Jake asked.

  “Yes Jake, the attendant is on its way now.”

  On the hologram of the hangar, Jake saw one of the many attendant robots scooting across the floor, past the bodies, stopping next to a gap between the parked vehicles. As Jake watched, three more bots followed the first, and each retrieved one of the bodies of the fallen. Jake’s focus on the hostages had been so blinding that he kicked himself for not thinking of that. The first bot placed the tray on the ground and then all four retreated. Next, they saw an arm reach out from between the vehicles and slide the tray out of sight.

  Waiting for a few seconds, Jake then announced, “OK ALICE turn it on in passive mode.” At that, the image in the hologram changed. It was now the area between the vehicles, they could clearly make out the three hostages, huddled together on one side while the four offenders rifled through the supplies on the tray. As if an afterthought, one of the men collected a few of the water bottles and walked them over to the women.

  “You’re using the comm. box to spy on them!” Hector declared.

  “A trick I learned from Bonnie,” Jake replied with a smile.

  Hector had a confused look for a second, and then Jake could see the understanding as a smile spread across his face. He realized Bonnie had used this trick on them.

  “Clever!” was his reply.

  As they all watched, the four men continued to sort through the food on the tray, first giving samples to the hostages, clearly looking for some indication the supplies were spiked. Once a suitable period had passed they began eating, sliding a portion to the hostages but keeping the lions share for themselves. All of this transpired mostly in silence with the occasional whispered comments between the four men.

  It was during all this that one of the communications specialist reported, “Major, we have a report from the team in Republic.”

  “Split screen please, I want to keep an eye on these guys.”

  “Yes sir” was the response as the hologram split in two with the second half displaying a combat suited figure with a rifle slung over one shoulder. The faceplate was in the mirror setting so he couldn’t see the face, but the voice was distinctly female and recognizable.

  Abby opened with, “Jake, we got some info for you.”

  “Report,” was his reply.

  “OK, well first of all, we found the four missing women, alive and unharmed
. Apparently, once released from the interview, to gather their personal effects, the four men you have there, jumped them and locked them in a storage shed. It was located somewhere the locals here call the ‘old Burnett place’ on the lake outside of town. That’s why no one noticed until we showed up looking for them. As to the four men, they are local troublemakers. The head rat is Troy and the other three are Juan, Rex, and Jess. They have no family here, just showed up a few years back, and managed not to be driven off. They have no real history of murder or other violence, just petty theft and mischief. They would do enough odd jobs around here to stay useful, but no one here would vouch for ‘em.”

  “And the women, has the whole experience put them off?”

  “Just the opposite, they wanted to know if this ruined their chances for recruitment.”

  “OK, unless you feel the need to hang around there any more, why don’t you gather those four and head back. ALICE, is there another access port they can use to avoid the main hangar?” Jake asked while keeping an eye on the second half of the split display.

  “Not for the helicopter, but they can use a man entrance. Afterward I’ll park the helicopter in a safe place until the all clear.”

  “Do it. See you soon,” Jake replied, indicating the conversation was over and turning his full attention to the four men in the other half of the holograph. He was now sure the only valuable lives before him were the three women huddled to one side. The question was how to retrieve them unharmed.

  Chapter 2

  First Lieutenant Bonnie Sullivan was just checking in on her infant daughter when the call about ALICE-4 came in. As commander of the Texas ALICE facility, she had a few perks, one of which was a nanny to watch the baby while she was on duty. Lately that seemed to be 24 hours a day. She had no more than peeked in on the girl when she received notification about the trouble in Washington. She had to rush back to the command center, where she expected a complete brief would be waiting that for her.

  As she entered, she acknowledged Robert on the far side of the room, with a smile. He had been using her facility as the center of his operations, scouring the region for the refined materials the ALICE manufacturing units required to meet their ever-expanding production needs. Jake had also tasked him with recovering as many precious metal stashes as reasonable without risk, Platinum, Gold, and Silver. The prevailing thought was they were valuable as payment for future purchases from their new trading partners. The “friendly” aliens, who they freed from domination by the NeHaw, were a potential source of ships and weapons to fight the common enemy. Only time would tell if the hunch paid off.

  Robert returned the smile with one of his own, and then was back at his tasks, huddling to one side of the room with several analysts. The team was going over old maps and querying the databases for leads to abandoned material stockpiles and known manufacturing areas.

  She and Robert had been spending a lot of time together lately, mostly meals and down time. She remembered her first impressions of the man as intelligent and with a kind face. She had regretted that he was wasting his life riding with that gang of outlaws, a group she was intent on eliminating. Later he had come to her, at great personal risk, asking for a chance at redemption and she had jumped at the opportunity to recruit what she thought was a valuable addition. That insight had proven a true prediction, and even Jake had praised her intuition regarding him and his group.

  The thought of Jake gave her a pang of guilt. She almost felt like she was cheating on him with Robert though nothing had ever happened between them and Robert treated her with the utmost respect. All their time together was strictly hands off. She remembered Jake had always said he was in no position to claim exclusivity, but now as the mother of his child, she was not sure that held true anymore.

  Pushing all that from her mind, she headed over to the other side of the room, sat down at a console, and started reviewing all the reports from Washington. Wow, Jake had a real mess there. She noted that he had placed a freeze on all further recruiting until they worked out additional security measures. She was concerned about Sharon’s injuries, but could find no updates on her status.

  Once she finished reading all the available Intel and verified there was nothing further she could do to help, she sat back in her chair and slowly turned to see Robert watching her from across the room.

  ----*----

  Jake had been watching the hologram for well over an hour and had only come up with one possible solution. It was, however, an extremely dangerous option and one the ALICEs were not likely to support. His mind made up, he walked over to the communications console, and motioning the specialist aside, he hit the ON button.

  “Troy” Jake said.

  He could see the four men in the hologram looking around, clearly startled.

  “It’s me, Major Thomas, on the communications box.”

  As he watched, the man who he presumed to be Troy picked up the box and said, “Yeah, what do you want?”

  “I expect you’re getting tired of just sitting there, why don’t you tell me what you want? What did you expect to accomplish with all this?”

  Troy looked at the other three before answering, and then said, “we were just going to sneak in, grab some guns, ammo and supplies and the slip out before anyone noticed,” he finished with, “we didn’t mean to kill them people, it was an accident.”

  Jake thought about Sharon in surgery, the last word he had received was she and the others were stable but still in critical condition. That was a lot of dead and wounded for an accident.

  After a few seconds Jake replied with, “So here’s the deal, you release the hostages and on my word, I will stake you with one rifle each, 500 rounds and as much food as you can carry.”

  As Jake watched, one of the others started to say something before Troy cut him off, “No way! You think we’re stupid or something. The minute we release them girls, you will kill us all.”

  “If you hurt any of those women, we will certainly kill you all,” Jake snapped back at him, irritated at the stupidity of the man. Calming himself, he then added, “Look, how about this, would you consider trading me for them. That way I’m sure they are safe and you have your insurance?”

  At that point, the control panel showed red as the communications link outbound cut off.

  “Jake, are you insane,” ALICE asked pointedly. It was interesting to Jake how the ALICEs could portray human emotions when he upset them.

  Then Troy replied, “You tryin to trick us or somthin, we know you got them suits you wear that can stop a bullet.”

  Hitting the panel to transmit again, Jake replied, “look I won’t wear a suit, just plain clothes and no weapons of any kind, besides there are four of you. You don’t think you four can take me? No one here would risk shooting at me and you get your guns, ammo, and supplies. No tricks.”

  He could see Troy considering the proposal. Meanwhile everyone in the room was staring at Jake, ignoring the hologram completely. Finally, Troy said, “OK you got a deal, when we see you in regular clothes you come here, slow like. Once we’re sure you aren’t trickin us, we let these women go!”

  “OK, give us about 15 minutes to get your supplies together and then I’ll head to the hangar,” Jake replied, then hit the communications button again, cutting the audio.

  Turning, he saw every eye in the room focused on him. “OK, ask your questions,” he said with a sigh.

  “You are talking a huge risk,” Hector offered before anyone else.

  “Maybe, but my first thought is getting those women back safely and secondly, who taught your hand to hand classes?” he asked with a smile.

  ----*----

  Fifteen minutes later, Jake found himself on the hangar floor, white long sleeve shirt, and jeans replacing his flight suit. Off to his right was a small pile consisting of four rifles, several ammo pouches for each and four very large backpacks containing rations. The pile was next to one of the smaller helicopters, all assembled, and staged
by the ever present army of bots.

  As he approached the vehicle park, he had his arms extended out to both sides, hands open, palms out showing he wasn’t hiding anything. When he got to within a few feet, he heard, “Stop there. Now turn around.”

  Doing a slow 360-degree spin, Jake even lifted his shirt showing he hid no weapons. There was nothing beneath his shirt but his white undershirt. Facing the vehicles again, he heard, “OK, now come forward slowly.”

  When he reached the first gap between the vehicles, he noted a movement to his left side and felt the cold barrel of a gun against the side of his head. Grabbed by the collar and pulled sideways into the gap, Jake offered no resistance to the man. He led him into the open space where the seven had been huddled, in between the various wheeled and tracked vehicles. He noticed the communications box on the ground, still in passive collection mode he was sure. All eyes in the group were on him.

  For the first time Jake looked all four men up and down in detail. He noted each had a side arm on his hip or tucked in his belt and two had sheathed knives. Troy had his pistol tucked in his belt in front with the knife on his right hip. None of the men was particularly large, the group ranging from about 5’ 8” to maybe 6’ in Troy’s case, and all under 170 pounds. All were obviously nervous and clearly, they had not thought this theft attempt through and were regretting it now.

  Looking at the women sitting over to one side, Jake guessed they were all likely in their mid-20’s and while clearly distraught over their current circumstances, none looked abused. All three hunched low and out of the way of the men.

  “OK Troy, let the women go,” Jake said while stepping up to close the distance between himself and the leader.

  Troy took a step back, the truck behind stopping any further retreat, as he placed his hand on the butt of the gun tucked in his belt.

  Jake verified, out of his peripheral vision, the one who had led him in still had his gun pointed squarely at Jake’s back. Good.