The MMP opened the back doors of the van. Bucket seats lined the sides, and a barrier partition from the floor to ceiling was behind the front seats.
“Stop,” a loud and penetrating robotic voice yelled.
They all turned, including Ozzy.
Eight hooded men with capes, robot-looking battle suits, and donned with robot masks and helmets, stood with large photon cannons and photon rifles pointed directly at the MMP.
“Gentlemen. Uncuff my friends.”
3
Tunnel Downs, Mars
Silence filled the underground street except for water drops splashing onto the ground and sidewalk.
Gragas and his Galactic Knights stood ten meters away.
Sergeant Marino stepped in between the masked men and his MMP agents. “This is Ministry business. You are violating a police investigation and an arrest. I suggest you leave before we are forced to cuff you.”
A giant, bulky Galactic Knight stepped forward to meet the sergeant halfway. His cannon hung near his hip with a long strap connected to his weapon and around his shoulder.
A few clicks came from the Knight then laughter.
It was Dizzy, a guy Ozzy could never and would never forget. He had helped Ozzy when he and Jozi were looking for the Martian Plague cure. Without him and the rest of the Knights, Ozzy doubted he would have survived, along with the rest of the human race.
And look at how the Ministry thanked them for all their hard work. If Robert hadn’t been petrified of contracting the Martian Plague, Ozzy knew the prick wouldn’t have hired him to find the cure in the first place. Robert would have let most of the population die.
The fewer people there were, the easier they were to control.
“Sergeant Marino,” said Jozi, her hands still cuffed behind her back. She stood straight and tall. “You know I’m innocent. If you don’t let me and my friend here go, bloodshed will take place, and I guarantee you will not survive. Plus, I have information I would like to discuss with Robert Baldwin, personal information about him I think he should hear directly from me if you let me use your com unit.”
The MMP and Marino ignored her. They and the Galactic Knights trained their weapons on each other.
The sergeant took a breath. “Stand fast, Agents.”
“Marino,” yelled Jozi as she took a step back, her eyes widening. “All the agents have a family, just like you. You have a wife and two kids. Think of them. Think of all the agents here who have children. Their kids might not have a mom or a dad after today.”
Gragas slowly stepped around Dizzy.
“Don’t move,” said Marino, pointing his gun at Gragas.
Gragas dipped his head. “I’m putting my gun down as a goodwill gesture, but my Galactic Knights will not do the same. I, for one, do not fear any of your MMP weapons. You down one of us, the rest of you will be downed before you could ever imagine shooting another photon blast. We are the elite of the elite, gentlemen, and nothing to mess with. So, please, Sergeant, be wise.”
Ozzy backed away. He glanced at Jozi. She took his cue and moved to the side of the van. The last thing Ozzy needed right now was to be caught in the crossfire.
“Don’t move, you two,” ordered Marino. His stressed-out, sunken eyes narrowed. “You are under arrest on orders of the High Judge. Don’t make me slap on more violations.”
“Galactic Knights,” said Gragas, who was still in a crouched position with his rifle on the ground. “Fire when I give the order.”
“Don’t do this,” screeched Jozi.
A car stopped at the end of the road, and seeing that there was a situation about to happen, the person backed up and turned around.
Shit was about to go down.
Ozzy took a few steps toward Venessa’s door. Any secondary blasts would tear down the street and into the Knights and agents. He’d jump through the door and into the house and out of harm’s way, if possible.
“I said, don’t move,” growled Marino.
Jozi spoke loudly, “Think of your son, Marino. Think of that little tyke growing up without a dad. He’s only four. Your daughter, too. She’ll be the one most likely impacted, because she’s older, and—”
“Shut it, Jozi,” he said.
The agents weren’t flinching and the Knights weren’t either.
“Your call, Sergeant,” said Gragas, his hand slowly curling around his weapon. “When we leave, we’ll be leaving alive. You won’t.”
Marino huffed and eyed Gragas. “Unhand your weapon, Sir.”
“Knights,” yelled Gragas. “In three seconds, if not sooner, let—”
The Galactic Knights let loose blast after blast, hammering their photon charges at the agents, the Knight’s rifles and cannons recoiling against their bodies. The Knights were too fast and the agents too slow.
Ozzy jumped and slammed into the door. He bounced off of it and hit his side on the cement. He tried rolling toward the door as close as he could and hugging it to stay out of the way of any stray photon beams.
Marino’s gun shattered and he bent over, holding his injured hand with his other while wincing in pain.
The agents were all doing the same. Even though the Galactic Knights were a little outnumbered, they managed to hit all the agent’s guns, disarming them.
Ozzy’s eyes were wide. Not a single agent was killed, but all of their guns had been distorted and destroyed.
Gragas wasn’t lying when he said the Galactic Knights were the elite of the elite.
“Uncuff my friends, Sergeant,” ordered Gragas, standing with his weapon trained on Marino.
The sergeant wiggled his hand, breathing loudly. He stood straighter, cringing, his face screwed up in pain. “Who are you guys?”
“The Galactic Knights. We are here to help the galaxy against genocidal races, such as the Dunrakee.” Gragas shifted his gaze to Ozzy. “We’re trying to recruit Ozzy, and so if you have any clout, Sergeant, could you put in a good word about us Knights to Ozzy?” There was a bit of humor in his voice, something Ozzy wasn’t used to.
Ozzy attempted to stand, his hands still cuffed behind him, but he slipped against the damp pavement and fell onto his back. He loudly yelped as he eyed Gragas. “Not going to happen, Gragas.”
Jozi stepped forward and walked toward Marino. She turned. “Uncuff me.”
4
Tunnel Downs, Mars
Sergeant Marino uncuffed Jozi and then Ozzy. He pointed down the street. “Get going.”
Gragas bowed. “Ozzy, do what he says.”
“I have a different route if you don’t mind,” said Ozzy, kicking open Venessa’s door.
He rushed inside with Jozi behind him. They grabbed their hidden weapons and went up the elevator. They hurried across the upper portion of the underground city passing carts with food smoking from their grills and several family owned shops and cafes. Finally, they made it to a large garage where they had parked their ship and made their way to his S-4 Jumper, otherwise nicknamed…Relic. Next to Relic was Venessa’s designated parking space empty and no sign of any agents. Ozzy let out a sigh of relief.
Ozzy sat in his cockpit, leaning against his chair’s backrest. “Mars’s plumber’s hole, did that just happen?” He shook his head.
If Gragas hadn’t arrived, Ozzy would have been cuffed and on his way to prison by now.
Truthfully, it didn’t matter. Robert would be exposed for the fraud and treasonous bastard he was and soon.
Anonymity was on the case.
When exposed, Robert wouldn’t be able to pay the bounty hunter to kill Ozzy—if Robert was indeed in on the plot.
Ozzy activated Relic’s engines. “Here I come, Lou.” He had to get to his brother’s work at Pollack Mine.
Thinking about his brother and that he needed to be the one to tell Lou his wife was dead brought a small bit of nausea up Ozzy’s throat. He swallowed it down like he swallowed just about every emotion he refused to feel. The last thing he wanted to do was break this kind o
f news. It would crumble the man, and Lou would want to crumble Ozzy in the process, blaming Ozzy for yet another death in the family.
Jozi rubbed her hands together and grimaced. “If I had any hopes of getting back on the MMP’s good side, well, I just lost it. Unless—”
“Don’t say Robert. Him being your uncle will not change a thing, plus you practically saved their asses down there, Jozi. You kept them from taking the first shot. How many of those men and women were thinking of their families instead of blowing a Galactic Knight’s head off?”
Jozi blinked several times. “They won’t see it that way, but Robert might if I can talk with him.”
Ozzy wanted to say who cares. But her life and her passion were with the Mars Ministry Police and the man she called her other dad, Robert Baldwin, the damn High Judge of the Ministry—the most powerful man on Mars—of all people. She’d do almost anything to serve and protect again and to have a blood relative. She had been abandoned and left as an orphan, always wondering if she had any family members related by blood, and now this information about Robert actually being her uncle must nearly having her wanting to burst out of every seam in her body.
Jozi reached for the com line, and Ozzy reached to gently touched her hand. “I don’t want to alert Robert I’m not in custody right now. He might still think otherwise.”
She pulled her hand back, biting the inside of her cheek. “Let me call, please. I’ll keep you out of the com channel holodisplay, and I’ll act like I’m driving and that you’re in custody.”
“Why do you want him to know so bad?”
“He already knows. I want him to know that I know, which will lift the burden off his back and may lighten our situation. He’s obviously been holding it in for a long time and has wanted to tell me for years, but because of reasons I don’t know, he couldn’t reveal it to me.”
That was some story she had in her head. To Ozzy, Robert was a liar. Nothing more. Nothing less. Ozzy wanted to cringe at Jozi’s moment of child-like innocence, but his mom’s empathy crept into his mind, “Walk a mile in another person’s shoes…”
“I’m sorry, Jozi, but no can do. We’re not calling the High Judge.” They were less than a minute away from the flyway port to get out of this town. Ozzy brought up the holoscreen. He swiped the keypad, initiating engines. Relic purred and the S-4 Jumper rose into the air and blasted forward, zipping past parked ships and into a system of tubes.
He turned on his headlights, hurrying toward the flyway. The tube widened and opened to a large port with hovering ships ready to exit the city. Windows lined the tubes, acting as an underground tower of sorts, and amber lights were next to each window, lighting the area for the exiting craft.
Ozzy pulled back on the throttle. “Dammit.”
The dark Tunnel Downs flyway port was more packed than he expected. Ozzy clicked on his com channel and connected to the tower. “I have to skip the ship check. I have an emergency.”
“Negative, S-4 Jumper, the departure patterns are full.”
“Yeah, sorry, Tower. You’re not going to like what I do next.” He flicked off his com line and pushed the throttle forward.
Jozi’s head jerked back, and her eyes were almost as big as her opened mouth. She pointed ahead. “Watch out.”
“I see it.” He veered left, avoiding a small two-person Mervette hoverjet. He flew around a bigger craft, an S-32 Samurai Puddle J, and hovered in front of it.
He could practically hear the swear words coming from the other driver’s lips, along with the security alerts and warnings the tower was trying to get through to Ozzy’s disconnected com line.
He pulled forward and entered a departure tunnel all decked out in white and lined with multi-colored lights.
His alarm system beeped. It was the tower getting through to Ozzy in another way. He pulled up the alert’s holoscreen.
Warning. Launch tube 11 is shutting down.
“Why couldn’t you just wait your turn, Ozzy?” Jozi asked in a low tone, frustration seeping through her words no doubt because Ozzy would not allow her to call Robert.
Ozzy ignored her because it should have been obvious—someone was trying to kill him and his family, and that someone might also be at Pollack Mine right now to get his brother, so he had to get out of Tunnel Downs quickly.
The tunnel in front of him started blinking, which meant it was going offline. “That’s hogwash,” whined Ozzy. He flicked on the com line. “Do you think I’d be acting like this if it weren’t an emergency?”
“Sir, we ran a check on your ship’s ID. Your name is Ozzy Mack, and you have been placed under criminal lockdown by the High Judge. Land your craft. We’re taking you into custody.”
Ozzy punched his armrest. “No can do, Richard.” He didn’t know if that was the guy’s name in the tower, but Dick, short for Richard, sounded about right. “Either let me fly out of here, or I’ll blow the inner and outer tube doors with my AAR-7’s, you know Air-to-Air Rams. I have aft and bow locked and loaded, ready to launch into the tube’s exit and entrance doors.”
The truth is, he didn’t have any weapons. The last time Relic was fixed, the techbots automatically dismantled them on account that the weapons system he had was illegal. A civilian craft carrying missiles and photon cannons was frowned upon.
Ozzy paused, waiting for a reply. When none came, he continued, leaning into his flight console and closer to his com mic. “You know what will happen when that occurs? You won’t be able to shut the outer tube because it will be blown to scraps. You won’t be able to secure Tunnel Downs either because the inner tube opening will be shot to bits. Ultimately, the oxygen will be sucked out, and everyone in Tunnel Downs will die of carbon dioxide inhalation in about two to three minutes. Got it, Charlie?”
He pressed a lever parallel to the floor and zipped forward. His back slammed against the backrest.
Relic flew forward like a bat out of hell.
Jozi’s mouth flew open, grasping her hands to her chest. “What are you doing, Ozzy? You’re going to kill us.”
“They’ll open the exit door. Trust me.”
The colored light lining the departure tube runway blinked on and off as they passed each one, coming ever closer to the end of the tube.
The exit tube’s door wasn’t opening.
Crap.
“Slow down, Ozzy.” Jozi gripped her armrest, her fingernails poking through the upholstery and her knuckles turning bare white.
“I said, trust me.” At the moment, though, Ozzy wasn’t trusting himself. The tower had to take his bluff. They had to. He didn’t have any missiles or weapons, but they didn’t know that from Adam as the tower would most likely detect that there had been some type of weapons installation on his ship in the past, but would they trust their holocomputers that no weapons were actually installed?
“Stop the craft, Ozzy.”
It was too late.
Relic approached the exit door. If Ozzy stopped now, he might slow down just under a hundred miles per hour before ultimately hitting the door.
If so, he’d die anyway.
He grinned. It was better him dying than his daughter and brother being killed. With Ozzy dead, Quad wouldn’t be able to finish his job, and hence, wouldn’t be paid and would need to go home or find another bounty.
Ozzy hammered the throttle forward. If he were going to die, he’d make it a firework’s show. He’d be famous for years.
He knew Jozi would kick his ass in the afterlife, but maybe he could haunt the lying, backstabbing, evil pig: Robert Baldwin.
Relic beeped, and all the warning lights blinked and the alarms blared. His cockpit went red, yellow, and orange, all the caution colors Ozzy could ever want.
“Ozzy,” screamed Jozi, closing her eyes and bracing for impact.
“We got this,” he yelled, knowing they didn’t.
A bright light filled the tube.
The tube’s exit door was opening.
But it was too lat
e.
Ozzy closed his eyes and bared his teeth, readying for the explosion of all explosions.
5
Tunnel Downs, Mars
No explosion came.
Ozzy opened his eyes just as the departure door fully opened, and Relic shot out of the tube like a cannonball. One of its wings scraped against the lip of the tube but nothing serious.
Ozzy took a deep breath. “Oooey!” He fist pumped the air, wiping the sweat trickling down his face with his other hand.
Relic rocked up and down, and Ozzy straightened her out. He checked Indigo’s digital operation that was connected to the craft’s CPU and auxiliary engine room.
It was on and working well.
Indigo was his secret weapon. The indigo-glowing rock kept him invisible to all radar, though not invisible to the naked eye.
Sitting next to him, Jozi breathed heavily, and her eyes dilated as she snapped, “You…are…I can’t believe you. You’re…insane. You’re a danger to society.” She tapped her chest several times with her pointer finger. “You’re a danger to me.”
Ozzy laughed, punching in the coordinates for Pollack Mine on the flight console. “You gotta trust me.” He almost rolled his eyes at his own response. In truth, they should be a splat against the tube’s exit door, and if she could see how fast Ozzy’s heart was beating, she’d know Ozzy was as surprised as her. Regardless, he acted calm.
“I need to talk to Jonas.” He put up a finger, quieting any further discussion on the almost dying subject.
He brought up his com line’s holoscreen and called Jonas Moon.
Jonas answered with a grape in his mouth. Did the guy ever stop eating?
Jonas smiled. “I’m glad you called, Ozzy.”
Ozzy frowned. “That’s never a good sign.”
Jonas leaned forward. “It’s a great sign. Thanks for letting me know your ex-wife and Lily were coming over,” he said with a smirk. “They’ve been here for about fifteen minutes.”
Martian Insurrection (Mars Colony Chronicles Book 3) Page 2
