Sanctioned

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  He looked down at his holo. The others would be arriving shortly. He decided to make himself a drink, and rest while there was still time. There were still several hours of work to do once they got here. It would be easier as a group, though.

  Senate Building, Spire

  Erik sounded pissed. “Shut uuuup, Henry!” Erik hissed at Henry.

  Finally, Garet thought. They must be here.

  Having spent the last half hour waiting for their arrival, his palms were sweaty, and he simply couldn’t settle. In fact, he was almost relieved they were here; even if it did mean that they were going to potentially take him out.

  There was still some kind of activity out in the corridor. Garet listened, still trying to pretend he was working away casually on his holo in case Molly walked in on him.

  “Ooo.. OOOOoooo!” he heard Henry exclaimed excitedly. There was shuffling and movement outside the door. Garet could have sworn he heard the click of a weapon powering up.

  Then he heard Molly’s voice. “We’ll be going in now,” she told the two Oggs.

  He heard the doorknob turning, and watched it as the door started opening. He quickly averted his eyes to his holo screen, and shifted his weight back a bit more in his chair.

  Yeah, super-casual, he told himself.

  “Let them come!” he called out to Henrik, still not looking up but sensing the door was open now.

  Molly stepped into the room, weapon raised. She locked eyes on him.

  She was not amused.

  Yep, I’m done for.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Gaitune-67, Molly’s conference room

  The team arrived back in the conference room straight from the pods.

  Sean was the first to speak. “Well, that could have gone better.”

  Molly was irritated more than anything. “Why would he do this?” she fretted, asking herself more than any one of the team members present.

  Joel pulled out a chair for her, and indicated she should sit down. The rest of the team settled down, too. Joel instinctively knew that getting them seated was going to reduce their adrenalin circulation, and drop them back into being able to focus rationally with the upper part of their brains.

  Just then, Maya walked in. “Hey. Oz filled me in,” she said, indicating her holo. She took a seat while the others started removing some of their combat gear.

  Molly pulled the wooden stick out from the back of her vest and plunked it on the table. “Son of bitch,” she said under her breath. She exhaled, and then took another deep breath before looking up at the folks assembled.

  “Okay. We’re onto plan B,” she announced. The others looked at each other before realizing that no one knew what plan B was.

  Molly gathered her thoughts.

  “Here’s what we know: The Syndicate knew we were coming, and scattered. We can suspect that Garet tipped them off. We can deal with him later… but I want to leave him in play. He could have disappeared with them too, but he didn’t. We don’t know what kind of game he’s playing, but we can always pick him up again later, now we’ve got a tracker on him. If his intel turns out to be good, then great. If not… we’ll cross that bridge.”

  She paused and glanced at Jack and Sean, watching to see if Jack was at all squeamish about her approach. No reaction. She kept talking. “Regardless of what happens at that point, we now have some actionable intel. Oz is working on verifying it, first; but with this, we can come up with a four-pronged attack on each member.”

  Molly stood up and started pacing, removing her arm protectors and other kit as she strode about.

  “Needless to say,” she continued, “we have to rethink how we go about this. At this stage, I’m thinking just killing them is too much of a relief for them. I’m thinking they each need to be taught a special lesson in what it feels like to be in their own worst nightmare.”

  Molly paused. Joel looked over at her. “What exactly do you have in mind?” he asked.

  Molly started to smile a little. “Well, there’s some work to do on how we execute this plan, but I’m thinking we need to let them think they have escaped, and regain our element of surprise. In the meantime, we can prep and take our time, making sure we can strike at them all simultaneously. I think we have enough team members to do this now, and to do it elegantly.”

  Sean’s ears pricked up, and his eyes came alive. “You’re making battle sound like art…”

  Jack nodded in agreement. “Uh huh,” she said adding her support.

  Molly grinned. “I think this requires a certain degree of craftsmanship.”

  Joel pointed at Sean, now smiling a little. “I think you’ve created a monster!” he told him, shaking his finger.

  Molly watched morale slowly return to the team. “I’d also like to see what Garet does. He’ll either be useful to us down the line, or he’ll be too untrustworthy. It’s time he picked a side.”

  Joel nodded strongly in agreement.

  Molly nodded once. “Okay, now here’s what I’m thinking, in terms of our plan…”

  Iantrogen Offices, Downtown Spire

  Jessica strode through the corridors of the quiet offices. At this time in the evening, everyone was heading home. Not Jessica. Having spent most of the day holed up in her fortress, waiting, she decided that she was remaining a prisoner no more. If Molly was coming for her, she would be just as safe at the office as she would at home. Probably even safer, given the public nature of the place.

  Jessica almost flounced into her own office, following a team of four security personnel in front of her, with another two trailing behind her. They worked swiftly and professionally, checking the venue, and marking each zone safe, reporting into the rest of their borg-like team in other areas around the building. If Molly was going to get to her, it was going to be through them.

  She popped her antigrav mocha cup from home on her assistant’s desk, along with her handbag, which was heavy with the weapons she had stowed away. She shifted her weight as she paused for the team leader to report back to her. He came back in from her office, gave her a professional emotionless nod, and then ushered the majority of the team outside.

  One remained standing by the door, looking into the room; already settled as wall furniture, rather than an intrusion to her privacy.

  Jessica stepped carefully into her office. The place seemed so quiet and unappealing now. She was still unable to settle. Normally, showing up at this doorway meant she would automatically flick into task mode - optimizing for productivity. And profit.

  But today, her brain felt scattered. Distracted.

  That would be the fear, Jessie, she told herself, almost hearing her grandmothers’ voice in her head. Her grandmother had been the one to teach her mastery of self.

  Jessica dumped her bag on her desk and sat in the visitor’s chair. In the back of her mind, she didn’t feel capable of taking the “Jessical Newld, CEO” seat right now.

  She opened her holo. “Call Andus,” she told it. The holo started dialing, and then cut out.

  NUMBER DISCONNECTED.

  Shit. Andus, I need you, she cursed. Desperate times… she thought to herself, as she dialed Mac Kerr.

  The holo dialed again, and then again cut out.

  Fuck.

  Maybe she had been stupid, staying visible and coming to the office.

  She sat in the silent office, the sound of the fluorescent light loud against the stillness. Her brain seemed to hum in symphony with it. Her shoulders prickled at knowing that her security guy was behind her, aware of her every move. She felt self-conscious.

  But more than that, she felt scared.

  Maybe I should call the police, she considered, turning the option in her mind. But my security is so much better equipped and trained. The police wouldn’t stand a chance against Ms. Bates.

  She knew that now.

  And they may end up siding with her. Better to keep them out of it until after the attack, when they can make statements that Bill can use to get a
conviction.

  She turned back to her holo, flicking through the annual reports and quarterly statements she had to read. Her mind wouldn’t let her go to the mundane.

  She breathed, trying to gather herself. Then, making a decision, she flipped her holo closed. Gathering up her gear, she strode Jessica-Newld-style out of the office.

  The security personnel were still loitering in the corridor, deciding how best to defend the corridor and windows (because they now knew that the Bates team had blown out the windows to get at the hostages). They snapped into action again as soon as Jessica stepped through the door. She looked in the direction of the team leader, and then started walking down the corridor.

  “I’m working from the conference room. Send me someone who can fetch me some food. And get my assistant back in for the evening. And the legal team.” Her heels clipped decisively down the hall. “We have work to do.”

  This was a trick she had learned from her father: distraction. Work as an antidote to fear. If she was going down, it would be amongst the soldiers who had helped her build this empire. And it would be while she was fighting from every angle she had left.

  Gaitune-67, Safe house, Molly’s conference room

  JOEL, YOUR IMPLANTS HAVE ARRIVED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE BROCK INSTALL THEM FOR YOU?

  Joel did a double take when he saw the message from Oz flick up on his holo.

  WTF? he typed back.

  Then he remembered. The implants. For the “enhancements” Oz was going to hook him up with. Of course!

  Shit.

  He looked around. There wasn’t anywhere he could talk to Oz easily. He was working away in Molly’s conference room, and, though he was the only one here, he didn’t want their conversation to be overheard by anyone passing by outside. He needed to get to a pod. Without being seen.

  He flicked through his mind, remembering where everyone was. Sean had gone for a workout - which meant he might be downstairs in the base gym. Molly was doing something similar. Maya was in Molly’s lab…

  Heck, I’m just going to have to risk it.

  He packed up his screens and typed Oz a quick message that he would meet him in a pod. With that, he left the conference room and headed down to the basement.

  He rounded the last flight of stairs, and heard Brock’s music blaring in the workshop. Good - that means Brock would be around. I still need to broach the subject with him.

  As he entered the workshop, he could hear Brock singing and busting a move as he worked on a holoprogram, tinkering with some kind of mechanical device next to him.

  Brock turned to see who had just come down stairs. “Yo! My man, how’s it hanging, Joel?” he called over to him.

  Joel put his hand up in a wave, and wandered towards him. “You got a minute?” he asked, his face serious.

  Brock waved at the music, and the sound level dropped by 50%. “Sure. Everything okay?” he asked, his dancing now subsiding to a gentle swaying, as if the music just couldn’t leave his system.

  Joel nodded, but still looked serious. He glanced around the workshop. “Are we alone?” he asked.

  Brock’s swaying stopped, and he looked around, too. “Erm, yeah.” He waved the music off completely. “What’s up?”

  Joel stepped in to talking distance. “I could use your help on a special project. It’s on the down-low, though. You okay with that?”

  Brock looked suspicious. “Errrr, I guess so. It’s not something that’s going to get me into trouble with the Moll-ster, though, is it?”

  Joel shook his head. “No. No way. More… Hang on. Better I explain this properly. You okay to come and sit in a pod with me?”

  Brock’s eyes narrowed. “Now, if you just wanna ask me out, you just need to come out and say it Mr. Joel!” His voice was jovial but his face was deadly serious.

  Joel couldn’t help but chuckle. “And on the day I decide to ask you out for a romantic interlude, I will indeed remember that. In the meantime, you want to get your mechanic ass down to the pods so I can run this by you?”

  Brock’s eyes widened, now amused, and still play-acting. “Well, well. It’s only ever my engineering skills that need using mercilessly, I see.” He placed down the laser screwdriver he had been using, and shut down his desk holo before marching off towards the Demon Door.

  The pair made their way down into the base, and selected a pod a couple of rows into the batch, so as best to be hidden from anyone passing by.

  Joel stepped in after Brock and sat down next to him, swiping at the door control to close the pod up. Brock glanced at him, his eyes all pretend-serious. “You sure you aren’t making a move on my sweet ass?” he asked.

  Joel blushed and looked down, completely embarrassed. “No. No. I’m really not. I promise,” he told his friend. “It is something rather sensitive, though. Oz, are you there?” Joel prompted.

  Oz’s audio channel in the pod clicked open with a tiny amount of static before settling. “Yes, I’m here. Hello, Brock.”

  Brock looked down at the ground and leaned back against the wall of the pod, sideways on. “Hi, Oz.” He paused and looked at the console, and then at Joel. “So… what am I doing here? With you both?”

  Joel looked down at his hands. “You wanna explain this one, Oz?”

  “Sure.” Oz replied through the intercom. “It seems that young Joel is wanting to increase his abilities… specifically his reflexes, a la cyborg.”

  Brock’s mouth dropped open. “You mean you want in on some of the Sean Royale action?!” he exclaimed, his voice louder, now almost singing. His open mouth turned into an enormous grin. “You want to hold your own against the super soldier! That’s why the secrecy and blushes!”

  Joel’s blush deepened. Brock slapped his own leg and stomped his feet in the pod. Even Oz seemed to be chuckling through the pod… the vibrations running through the seat they occupied.

  Joel tried to hush Brock. “Come on, man. You’re going to get us rumbled!”

  Brock lifted his head a little, and Joel could see actual tears rolling down his cheeks. Brock pulled a colorful handkerchief from his overalls pocket and dabbed his face, careful not to smudge his eyeliner. “Maaaaaaan. You got balls. You’re going to get Oz to implant you with all kinds of shit, just so you can run faster and beat Sean?”

  Joel seemed to recover himself and his dignity, as a small frown started to show on his eyebrows. “Oz. You can back me up any time…” he grunted in the direction of the heads-up display.

  Then he turned back to Brock. “Not run faster. I’d need more muscle for that. And it’s not just about competing with Sean. This is about upping my game. We’re going to need every edge we can get going into this Etheric Empire battle, and who knows what lies ahead? I just want to make sure that I can be as ready as possible.”

  He paused, his eyes drifting off into the distance a little as he spoke next. “Besides, all it takes in a fight is being a split second too slow, and you can lose your life. Or worse. A teammate.” He shook his head. “Not on my watch.”

  He looked back at Brock who had sobered up a little. “So, if it means letting you stick chips and widgets in my brain to make me a better soldier, a better protector, and a better teammate… then, so be it.”