The December Protocol

by Devin Hanson

  “Esteres was a hard nut to crack. You know his real name isn’t Esteres, right?” Ruu ran her hand along the back of the leather chair Marcus was sitting in. A shotgun hung from a three-point sling, held loosely in her other hand. “Nice leather. Once we figured out the Redstone was complicit, we put a trace on your signal traffic. I understand it was a difficult hack, fortunately we have some really skilled guys on our payroll. It’s too bad. Our hacker wanted to be here to do the bust with us, but gunfire makes him nervous.”

  “It didn’t take us long to track down Esteres’ location after that. You’ve had some nice long chats in the last couple months that led us right to his door.” Min chuckled. “He moves around a lot, you know. A very cautious man. So we set up teams to lie in wait at each of his bolt holes and waited for you to give him a call.”

  Min stopped in front of the projection screen, his face dappled by the image still being cast to the screen. He seemed to notice Marcus for the first time. “Do I know you?” he asked.

  Marcus swallowed. “Uh… no?”

  “He’s the transport guy,” Ruu supplied. “The CSI unit found him locked in a room.”

  Min snapped his fingers. “Right! I thought I recognized you from somewhere. What are you doing here?”

  Marcus felt lightheaded. “I was…” he cleared his throat. “Crade and I have a business arrangement.” Min’s face darkened and Marcus shook his head frantically. “No! Nothing like that. I supply her with alcohol.”

  “Oh!” Min smiled again. “I guess the transport business didn’t work out for you?”

  Marcus shook his head numbly.

  “Yeah, can’t say I blame you. Well, you probably don’t need to be here for this part.”

  Marcus stood. He felt like he was dreaming. Grendal was staring straight ahead, her face frozen, her eyes dead. As Marcus made his way to the door, he couldn’t help but glance back. Min’s eyes bored into him. Marcus flinched, certain that at any moment the assault rifle would swing up and bullets would rip through him.

  Min didn’t lift the gun, though, and Marcus backed out of the door and shut it behind him. He was trembling and his back was wet with sweat.

  “Jesus Christ,” he muttered. That was twice he had nearly been caught. Never again, he decided firmly. He didn’t care how much pressure was put on him. Getting involved with people like Crade never ended well.

  Behind him, there was the muffled boom of a shotgun going off and he jerked involuntarily. Without another backward look, he fled the Lounge.

  “So what’s next for you?”

  Min shrugged. “I thought I’d stop in with the Nueva de Vita family, check on Angeline.”

  Ruu nodded. “She wants to be a marshal, you know.”

  “Yeah.” Min made a face. “Maybe I can talk her out of it.”

  “I wouldn’t. You’re her hero. I think she’ll make a good marshal.” Ruu stepped fastidiously around the growing pool of blood. Shotgun wounds sure did bleed a lot.

  “You might be right. I’m hardly a role model though.”

  “Well, Chief Inspector,” Ruu said, flipping the safety on her shotgun and slinging it up on a shoulder. “I’ll see you back in Olympus?”

  “Tomorrow morning, bright and early, Inspector Ruu. I’m sure the new Lieutenant will have some work cut out for us all ready and waiting.”

  “Right you are, boss.”

  Ruu left and Min stood alone, looking down at Grendal’s body. The smell of cordite was sharp in the air. It had been a long year and a half, tracking down Esteres and coordinating the final sting. He was glad it was over.

  It still felt strange, being called Chief Inspector. Director Rosario had insisted on the rank increase when the full report of the kidnapping case came to light. Ruu’s involvement in the kidnapping ring was never proven, but there were too many unanswered questions to leave her in her old rank. She had been busted down to Inspector and placed under Min where he could keep an eye on her. Or so the official line went. The truth of the matter was Min had agreed not to bring up Captain Jiahao’s name in the official inquiry in exchange for Ruu’s pardon.

  Min spat in the growing pool of blood at his feet. Esteres and his ring of kidnappers might be dead, but there was still plenty of crime happening on Mars. His job would never be done.

  That was good. Otherwise he might get bored.

  AUTHOR’S

  NOTE

  Thank you for reading The December Protocol! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  If you did enjoy the book, please take a few minutes and write a review. You would make this author a very happy man.

  My website, http://devinhanson.com will have the latest news. Sign up for the newsletter there to get alerts about new books and access extra content. I promise I won’t spam you.

  If you’re looking for more to read, The Dragon Speaker Series is available on Kindle.

  Until next time!

  Devin Hanson