by Gus Flory
“He was probably already dead when he hit the ground. Investigators are hopeful that the discovery of Kyle Pelagi’s corpse will provide clues as to the identities and whereabouts of his accomplices in the Einstein Plaza Attack. Reporting from the Bentley Hernandez Foothills, this is Judy Reza.”
“We finally have a solid lead,” Helms said. “Tupo Pelagi’s been lying. She knew her husband and son were Neo-Fascists. She’s probably the ringleader of their cell.”
“We need to find her son.”
“Yes. We’re scouring Titan for him. At some point, he may try to contact her.”
“Have the police taken her into custody?”
“No. She’s gone off the grid. Disappeared. She’s probably having tea with Amad Robodan as we speak.”
“How did the police let her get away? How did the SSIS let her get away?”
“I told you, Zanger. They know how to defeat our surveillance systems. But we’ll find her. She couldn’t have gone far.”
At the end of the workday, Diego left the office and met Helms for dinner in the dining facility on the top floor of the T-FORCE MAIN headquarters building. They sat in a cupola with a domed ceiling. Through the clear acrylic plastic was a view of Cassini City’s skyline. Skyscrapers climbed skyward in the tholin atmosphere. Saturn and its rings were visible behind the buildings, domes, towers, antennae and satellite dishes.
Diego ate his spaghetti and meatballs. He was surprised how much better the food was here than back at Camp Hammersteel. The selection was more diverse and the cooks did a better job at preparing the dishes. Lab-grown beef and chicken were served here, not the synthetic algae-based product he was used to.
Helms could tell Diego was enjoying his meal.
“Good stuff, huh?”
“It’s better than the Hammersteel DFAC.”
“Yeah, I like eating up here. It reminds me of dinners with my wife back home. She’s a helluva cook. She used to cook for me and we’d sit out on our balcony in the evenings in the summertime. The sun would set and the cicadas would buzz and the stars would come out.”
“I didn’t take you for a romantic.”
“Me? Nah.”
“How long have you been married?”
“Twelve years. Two kids. Boy and a girl. Six and nine.”
“You don’t wear a ring.”
“I see you removed yours as well. How’s your family?”
“Fine.”
“Mine’s doing well. They’re on vacation in Australia.”
“Your family lives on Earth?”
“Yeah, North America. The Minnesota Consolidated District. The nearest radiation zone is four hundred miles away.”
“So, you’re an Earther.”
“I used to be. Haven’t been back in four years. My old lady refused to relocate off Earth. She thinks if she leaves, the SSIS will never let us move back. My plan is to successfully complete this mission and use that as leverage to get reassigned to Earth.”
“You’ve got a lot riding on me.”
“I do. Don’t screw it up, OK?”
“Just so you know, this assignment could wreck my marriage.”
“Come on. Your wife is a billion clicks away. What she doesn’t know, won’t hurt her.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“For all we know, she’s got someone on the side. What you don’t know, won’t hurt you, either. She’s probably with him right now.”
“Do you know something you’re not telling me?”
“No. I’m just playing around. Don’t think about it. You’ve got a job to do. It’s for the greater good. Think of it that way.”
Diego leaned back in his chair. He looked up at the flat screen mounted on the inside of the dome wall. A war movie was playing, set on Mars.
“It’s Friday night,” Helms said. “Let’s head down to the officer’s club for drinks. I’ve been putting the moves on a Titanian bartender—laying the groundwork. A real looker. Who knows? Maybe tonight’s my night. A big, handsome soldier like you, maybe you’ll get lucky, too. What they don’t know can’t hurt them, right?”
“I’ll have to pass. General Order Number One. Soldiers on Titan are prohibited from drinking without an exception-to-policy memo.”
“Not a problem, my friend. Besides, your new mission might require you to imbibe. You’re working for the SSIS now. Boozing is part of the job.”
Diego’s handheld vibrated. He checked the message. It was from Pristina.
“Midnight. Zulu Time. Be there or be square. Encrypted map attached.”
Helms grabbed the handheld and looked at it for a long moment.
“Things are looking up, Zanger. Turns out you have better options than I do tonight.”
Diego declined to have a drink with Helms and returned to his room. The room was on the fifth floor of one of T-FORCE MAIN’s residential towers, which was occupied mostly by field grade officers and high-ranking T-FORCE civilian employees. It was larger and far better accommodated than his spartan room on Camp Hammersteel. Here he had housekeeping service, a wall-sized flat screen, a coffee maker, refrigerator, stove, a private bathroom, a queen-sized bed with plush linens, and a window that looked out on T-FORCE MAIN and Cassini City beyond.
He changed out of his uniform and lay on his bed. He watched the Martian war movie on the flat screen, killing time before he was to head out to meet Pristina.
The movie roughly followed events that Diego had taken part in years before when he was a lieutenant new to the Army. The plot centered around the Neo-Fascist massacre of an entire colony of 1,600 people who lived in the Elysium Volcanic Region, and the rescue by Solar System Federation Army Special Forces operators of several families who had been taken hostage. Diego knew a few of the Special Forces operators depicted in the movie. They were good soldiers, great even, but some of the feats portrayed in the movie were impossible and overly heroic. Their magazines never ran out of ammunition, their tactics were either non-existent or ridiculous, and some of the action defied physics. The actor in the role of Amad Robodan was playing him as an evil, bloodthirsty monster. Evidence that Robodan participated in the actual massacre was tenuous at best, but in this movie, he planned and led it and even had a direct hand in torturing and killing dozens of innocent people. As a soldier, Diego found himself overly critical of much of the movie, finding it melodramatic and ludicrous. Still, he found himself rooting for the Special Forces operators as they closed in on Robodan, and cheering the death of each Neo-Fascist, cursing when Robodan managed to slip away, although by betraying his own men in an act of deceit and treachery.
Diego checked his handheld and reread the message from Pristina. He wondered what she wanted, why at midnight, and why the encrypted map? Did she want to see him or was something more nefarious in the works?
His handheld vibrated. It was a message from Havana. Diego debated in his mind whether to open it.
“Hi, Dee. We just got back from George’s lacrosse match. He scored three goals. He’s really becoming quite the athlete, a leader, just like his dad. The other kids look up to him. You’d be so proud. And Tee’s our little scholar and musician. If I had one wish it would be for you to be back here to see them now, growing up, becoming little grown-ups. They miss you so much. We’re going out to a movie tonight. Me and the kids and Connie’s kids. Jody will be there, too. I haven’t heard from you in a few days. You must be busy out there. Stay safe. I love you and miss you.”
“Who’s Jody?” Diego asked himself.
He locked and loaded his pistol, slipped it into the concealed holster on his waist, left the room and stepped into the elevator.
“Mike, this is Diego. I’m leaving now. I’ll follow the waypoints. I’ll drop pins when I reach each waypoint.”
“We’ll be tracking you closely. At the first sign of trouble, give the signal and our guys will make the extraction.”
Diego could hear laughter and bar talk on the line. He was hoping Helms would be in the ops room
for the engagement; but, apparently, this little mission was not enough to interrupt his Friday night plans.
“Don’t worry, Zanger. Be cool. If you feel you’re in danger, let me know and I’ll pull the plug.”
“Roger. For the record, I hope your mission with the bartender fails tonight. For her sake.”
He closed the call and opened the map Pristina had sent. It only had one location marked—the T-FORCE MAIN Subway Station. Diego left the main gate and walked down the steps into the station. He caught the first train. Only a few passengers were aboard this late, and most looked like they were returning from dinner or their watering holes.
A waypoint appeared and flashed on the map at the Einstein Plaza Station. Diego exited and walked out onto the plaza.
A few bars and restaurants were open. Live music played from one bar where the crowd seemed lively. A new waypoint appeared at Einstein’s statue. Diego walked to the statue and stood under it. Another waypoint appeared, this time in the Pioneer District.
Diego walked the covered streets of Cassini City, crossing town. Traffic was light. Most of the shops, stores and restaurants were closed. He knew he was being watched through the city’s surveillance systems by an SSIS special operations team. They were tracking him and moving unseen as he walked from waypoint to waypoint.
He entered the Pioneer District, a dense and crowded sector of the city where the Noer population was concentrated. The streets were narrow, the low ceiling was crisscrossed with struts and support beams. The establishments here seemed crammed together and less prosperous. There was even graffiti on some of the walls and support columns.
“Titan for Titanians” was scrawled on a column. “T-FORCE go home.”
Another waypoint appeared on the map. Diego followed his handheld to an alley. Across the street, two young men sat in plastic chairs in front of a hole-in-the-wall bar. They were playing a card game and nursing drinks. Diego stood in front of the alley, looking down it. It was unlit and dark.
Diego looked over at the two men across the street. One made eye contact and nodded his head, then returned his attention to his cards.
Diego stepped into the alley.
“You guys tracking?” he said into his handheld.
“Roger, we got you, Major,” said an SSIS special operator.
Metal warehouse doors were interspersed on one of the walls. Diego checked a door but it was locked.
He kept walking into the darkness. Another waypoint flashed. Diego stopped in the alley in front of a door. He checked it and pushed it open. He looked down a long narrow staircase that disappeared into blackness.
“I’m going in.”
“Roger. I recommend you lock and load.”
“Done.”
Diego stepped inside.
Lines of softly glowing blue and green lights pointed downward into the darkness.
Diego reached the bottom of the stairwell and came to another door. He pushed it open and walked down a dark hallway. Music and lights pulsed at the end of the hallway. He stepped into a large warehouse swirling with light and sound and people.
7. The underground
A bouncer at the entrance to the warehouse stopped him.
“Your handy.”
Diego raised his handheld. The screen flashed: “VIP.”
The bouncer nodded. “Welcome, my friend,” he said over the music, “to the best party on Titan. The bar is there, dancefloor there, and good times everywhere.”
Images of Earth were projected on the warehouse’s high walls and floor. Scenes of beaches, waterfalls, deserts and forests were depicted with incredible clarity, creating an illusion they were within the scenes, which flashed and changed with the beat and pulse of the music.
“I’m looking for Pristina Sage. Do you know her?”
“Prissy? Of course. I haven’t seen her tonight. But if I do, I’ll let her know you’re looking for her. What’s your name?”
“Diego.”
Diego walked into the crowd of mostly young adults, few were over forty, and most were in varying states of intoxication. They talked in groups. Everyone seemed to know each other.
A deejay stood on a platform at one end of the warehouse. Beneath him was a crowded dancefloor. The tightly packed crowd moved with the music, bouncing and pulsating, some on the dancefloor bouncing high above the crowd in the low gravity, reaching for the rafters, flipping and turning and gyrating, before descending and bouncing back up again. A few had reached the rafters and hung on before letting go and falling into the crowd.
Diego made his way through the crowd to the bar. People shouted out orders as three bartenders quickly mixed drinks and moved to the next. A bartender finally made her way to Diego.
“Club soda. Lime.”
“You want vodka in that?”
“No.”
“Rum, gin, Vermouth?”
“Negative.”
“Soldier, huh?”
“Maybe.”
Diego smiled at her as she handed him his drink. She smiled back and stood there looking at him.
“You must be a special kind of soldier to get invited to a Noer underground party.”
“Pristina Sage invited me.”
“Well. Aren’t you special?”
“Diah,” one of the bartenders called to her, obviously irked. “We’ve got people waiting on drinks here.”
She smiled again at Diego.
He winked at her.
“I like your style, soldier,” she said as she moved on to the next drink.
Diego turned around and studied the crowd. He picked out three young men at different locations who were pretending they weren’t watching him. He looked over at the bouncer who immediately looked away.
The warehouse darkened. The imagery on the walls shifted from Earth to the churning yellow, orange and red clouds of Jupiter. Jovian clouds surrounded them, boiling and roiling. The pace of the beat quickened.
The imagery brought back memories of Callisto where Jupiter and its angry colors dominated the black sky.
Diego turned and casually pulled out his handheld. “At least three males tracking me. They’re fit, like soldiers, pistols under their jackets. Possibly wearing armor. Looks like the bouncer put them on me. No sign of target.”
“Copy that. Alpha Team staged on the warehouse roof. Three micro-drones are giving us a good feed from inside. We’ve got eyes on the three males. At first sign of danger, we’ll ingress through the roof and pull you out of there.”
“Roger.”
Diah looked over at him and smiled as she mixed another drink.
“She’s out on the dancefloor.” She pointed with her nose while shaking a mixer. “If things don’t work out, come look for me. We’ll dance.”
She winked at him.
Diego made his way toward the dancefloor weaving through the crowd. He deliberately walked directly for one of the men watching him. He was young, in his early twenties, blonde and well-muscled. As Diego neared, the young man turned away and lowered his face.
Amateur, Diego thought. His mind flashed through the motions of snapping the young man’s neck and then quickly dispatching his two friends with well-aimed pistol shots.
Diego had killed Neo-Fascists before, much more formidable than these three goons. This one didn’t look capable of being one of the black-armored killers that had committed the Einstein Plaza Massacre.
Diego remained cool as he walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, buddy. I’m looking for Pristina Sage. Do you know her?”
The young man wouldn’t make eye contact. Diego noticed his two friends were watching with alarm, averting their eyes when Diego looked their way.
“No, never heard of her.”
“You sure, man?”
“Yeah.”
The young man put his handheld to his ear and pretended to be receiving an important call. He walked away through the crowd.
The music slowed. The images on the wall
s shifted to black. Billions of stars came into focus. The Milky Way was aglow. Saturn appeared on the wall above the deejay. A dreamy psychedelic sound filled the warehouse. Saturn grew larger on the walls. Iapetus shot past. Then Titan. Then Hyperion, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas. The beat began to pulse as they soared over Saturn’s rings. They raced over a shimmering fresco of hues—pink, blue, gray and black—closer and closer to the giant planet that began to surround them. An angelic voice sang a wordless melody to the quickening beat and rhythm. Banded pale clouds of yellow, orange and blue swirled around them.
Diego walked in the crowd at the edge of the dance floor. The people on the floor were lost in the music, swaying and turning, mind and body synchronized with the sound. The images of Saturn’s swirling clouds surrounded them. They plunged into a white storm. Bolts of lightning flashed and danced from expanding cloud heads that glowed with a vivid aura.
Out on the dancefloor everyone was looking through the crowd, watching someone, as they danced. Diego couldn’t see what had caught their attention through the mass of pulsing bodies. He walked onto the floor for a better look.
Everyone was watching Pristina. She danced alone, moving with feminine grace. Lightning flashed across the walls as her body moved with the music. She was easily the most beautiful woman in the building.
Diego was entranced.
Her face was slightly sweaty, eyes closed, as she moved in the light and sound. She looked up and their eyes met.
She smiled and beckoned him with her hands. He moved through the crowd to her.
Green and red filaments of plasma danced electrically from ceiling to floor, like lightning strikes, moving from person to person, illuminating them in an incandescent glow.
Pristina danced as electric light flashed and twisted down from the rafters. Silent bolts of green, red and blue plasma danced around her, spreading tendrils that touched her as she moved.
The bolts flickered and jumped through the crowd.
She took his hands and pulled him to her.
