Fallen Angels (John Hardesty Z04 Book 2)

by Clay Moore

  John did not wait. He bolted for that door and was glad it had a pressure open system. He skedaddled down the stairs I noticed that there were about three or four genetic robots. He drew his 9 mm. One of those genetic robots brought his weapon about, but he was unable to do anything, because John drilled them with a blaster bolt through the upper chest.

  John ran to his Grav-rod. He hopped on the back of the Grav-rod, turned on the Radamite jet engines and let go of the struts. He turned as tightly as he could and then roared down the road to the main road. He felt the concussion from the detonation, and heat from the detonation. He did not need to know what was going to happen. He had planned it too well.

  When he got on the main road he drove quickly until he got to the hotel. He walked through the lobby and noticed that every guest was looking at the instant fireworks provided by John Hardesty. John got into his room shut and locked the door, and headed straight for the shower.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN ANTON HECTON ON THE LAM

  John woke up in the morning. John did not like the dream that he had. He dreamed that a woman with the plain face went into the blast last night. She was trying to save her genetic robots. In the end, they killed her. He did his morning shower. Then he put on his clothes including his blaster in the shoulder holster. He came out of his room and went into the dining room. Today it was the breakfast buffet. There were soft-boiled eggs, hard boiled eggs, flapjacks, bacon, and a whole other bit of food that John did not ever eat.

  He took some flapjacks, and 2 rashers of bacon. He poured out a glass of orange juice. He took his tray of food to a table by the window looking out into the road. From here he was able to see the Intergalactic Interests building directly opposite the bombers out wreck. John’s intense stare toward the building kept people away. There was one person who knew John all too well. A newspaper dropped on the table, and another newspaper fell on top of that new paper.

  * * *

  Well,” said John,”Do you have a problem with fireworks show last night?”

  “No, but these papers know who you are. You have had to give up this idea of walking up to the building. What are you going to say?”

  “Anton Hecton, I arrest you for “

  Jeff looked at John for a beat “the interstellar Concord.”

  Then what will be his response.”

  “There will be a flip answer. Anton will get up, and I will shoot him in the back. Daniel sprawled across the comfortable chair in the lobby. He was used to John talking about killing people with a natural style. What annoyed him the most was that Jeff wasn't an actual combatant. When John was here the last time, he was an agent. True he had an armored suit that protected him from the enemy. But there were only two of these people. This time there is only one. Daniel knew that he could not have Jeff sitting on the fence. When John left the faraway the investigators of all of the worlds that were signatories to the anti-genetic robots and anti-AI organization. Those people were going to come down, and they were going to question everyone. He thought it would be better to have everyone follow the same dialogue. John said no, and the planetary director also said no. They all going to trust some of the simpletons on the planet.

  * * *

  John watched Daniel go through Daniel's thought processes. Daniel was worried that Daniel's down-home neighbors would not understand what was at stake. They would give the correct answer, the right answer, but not the right answer that would cause those other planets to call for the carpet bombing of their world.

  "Hey, Daniel. You want to go to the former tower?"

  "Yes, I would love to go to that place. What will I see?" "What you will see will better your imagination. Unless you are used to these kinds of things as a Marine. You're going to see four floors fall to the bottom floor one after the other. You also see melted mechanical wombs."

  There won't be anything of a secret nature." "Daniel, I sometimes wonder about this desire of yours to see the intelligence apparatus work. Most the time all I do is put a blaster bolt through someone's head. You may not know who this person is but over five planets know of this person and when he dies at my hands, they will rejoice. They should never know that it was I who ended this person's life."

  Daniel looked at John. He was working out whether or not what John said was the truth. He knew that people would not take something as truth unless they had seen it. That was the reason why he did not want

  * * * Daniel waved his hand to John. He thought that John would understand straightforward basic commands. Yes, his first few years in the Marines made him cognizant of the use of simple commands. It wasn't until they needed more information that he got more complex commands. He wanted to test it out one day and gave an order to an underlying utilizing just the hand gestures. It took the private a few moments before he actually was able to bring a few women to the bivouac.

  John went in on the passenger side. He made sure that his pistol fits well in his under arm poster. He wasn't expecting anybody to be still here. If there had been anybody here during the explosions, they would probably be melted just like the floor. That was one thing that John understood better than most that in his business it's best to expect the unexpected.

  Daniel drove his utility vehicle down the service road. Dan did not like to drive this vehicle by simulating the bouncy nature of roads and grav-cars. He thought about driving his car under an arch, but he just did not like the amount of damage that he saw. He stopped his graft car.

  "So I see that you don't know how much damage was done to this piece of Gothic architecture. You think that it might drop a piece of itself on you. That might be true. One of the problems that someone has when they utilize explosives is that they are sometimes called upon to do something as distasteful as bomb damage assessment. I have done that job more often than I care to admit to. So, it actually is a genuine pleasure to have someone with me while I do this bomb damage assessment."

  "So you like to have someone hang around while you see just how well you did the bombing." Every military group has a bomb damage assessment for an army they perform bomb damage assessments whenever they fire tube-based artillery. Tube-based artillery was rather an unusual sound to it. Some of the tube-based artillery is in fact tube fired artillery rounds.

  "The Navy is a little bit different. They don't have to send a person to perform the.bomb assessment what they use is remote. The remote gets close to the target person or ship, and it looks at the damage that is on the Hull."

  "Then what you're telling me is that you do a lot of work looking at other people's damage." "No, we don't do that, at least the Z agents don't do that. We do all the damaging things including killing people, but we have other agents who do other kinds of things. Most of what they do is gather the information that a Z level agent might need.

  "Do you meet these other agents?" "The same school house produces both agents. This has the benefit of allowing for the low-level officers to gather the appropriate information that they might want to have. I can't tell you how many times I've actually asked for something and it was already available.

  John and Daniel walk up the stairway. When they got to the second floor, they were able to see the utter destruction. The four levels were sitting one on top of the other with the mechanical womb in between each floor.

  Daniel looked into the high level that was pancakes onto the other three tiers. Even that there was no flame living on the floors. By the time the people had gotten to a place where they could survive there were already dead. This is the thing that made John different than most other people. He only spent a few minutes worrying about the people dying. Then what he did was see if there was anything he could do to further. The destruction.

  John slapped Daniel on the left shoulder. John then puts his mouth near Daniel's ear. "I need you to take me to the front of interstellar. There is still one more reckoning to perform. The people that were sent to me by my service believe that I can find him in that building."

  "Why are you doing that?
I heard you say that this person that you are searching would think nothing of shooting you dead."

  "I see that my attempts to educate you have succeeded. I was merely told to make my target run. Why can't think of anything more likely to make someone run that assassin was a blaster pistol."

  "If you are going to do this for me there are some rules. And these are not the kind rules of what you get a chance to say something about. So before we even get into what it is I wish you to do can you do what I ask you to without question?"

  "Is asking you a bunch of issues to understand some of the things that you don't want to happen?" "Basically all you will be allowed to do is drive me to the front of that building. Let me get out. The menu drives off as far away from your family as possible. When you hear the rumor that something had gone off."

  "I give you my word that I will drive on when the order to move on is given. I understood that this decree is to save my life and the life of my family. That's what all of your orders have been?"

  Of course. Everybody thinks that everybody can do my job. Then everyone gets to see it up close and personal and realize that I can barely do my own job. A lot of what we are doing has more to do with how we do it. Okay, let's go.

  John stepped into the passenger side of Daniel's car. While he rode in the car, he was filling out several magazines. He did not know how many of the enemy he would need to deal with.

  The new--clans did not need to have a permanent number of members. The old clients were more of a social organization. The new clans are more of business. Everything was organized in these new clans as if they were all members of a particular part of the body. Security, for instance, would consist of a series of warriors that would be considered to be privates. Transportation within the organization would be a group of people who would move around and transport people. This could either be carrying civilians, or just the clan.

  John had an idea of how many people he would have to deal with to force a capitulation. In the old days of the family, John would have to kill over 100 people. In the clan of nowadays, he would only have to deal with maybe 20 people.

  If this new clan had the numbers that he was expecting, then three magazines of ammunition would probably be all that he needed.

  John put the magazines into his right coat pocket. Daniel brought the car to the position indicated by John. The grav-car stopped, and John got out of the personal side of the vehicle.

  John knew that Daniel understood the risks that he was taking. John did not need to remind him of that. That was one thing Daniel knew better than anybody else was the risks that he was taking to his own family.

  John leaned forward and looked through the windows. Daniel did not look at John because he might weaken. John was doing a lot of things for the planet. Nobody else was doing the same thing for them. Now he might have to turn over John to his greatest enemy.

  John stood up and walked around the front of the gravcar. He noticed a soldier standing in front of him. To the right was a man wearing some kind of armor. To the right was 1/4 warrior. Then the fifth person walked onto the area. At that moment the soldier straight ahead from John made a move. He knew what he could do when it was a speed move. He kneeled and popped his blaster at the man straight ahead it. The man took a shot in the chest. Then the man to the right of John also made a move. John rolled to his left on his stomach. And he put a blast right through the man.

  "Whoa now. Let's everybody get drenched in ice." John thought he had l heard that phraseology first from some other mission. John walked about 10 m closer to the man who probably is running the whole show. As he got closer to the man, he realized that it was indeed Anton Hecton.

  This is probably the one person in the galaxy worth a billion credits. If John was not with his scruples, he could take this man, capture him, and sell him for a whole lot of money.

  "I can see where people are having trouble finding you."

  "You didn't have much trouble finding me." "That's because I have a knowledge of you that nobody else happens. I used to be part of a two-person team my name at that time was Ian Hardisty, and the person that I worked with was the Vivana."

  "You are the person who found my sniper. You eliminated my sniper, and I had to leave very quickly. This is something that you seem to do we need to me on a consistent basis. I'm having to get off this place and go to a place that I had prepared earlier than I had expected.

  "Oh shipped," said Anton Hechtt0n. "I suspect that those people above us are your Marines but their powered armor.

  John looked up and watched as he saw a squad descending on null graph parachutes. They were doing something that they should do when landing into an unknown zone. They fired their assault blaster into the building.mmst to tell that everything that they needed to do to the building had been. The man in the posh suit was a question that they had not answer to. It was apparent that the rear Adm. found him to be an interesting person. That could be either a criminal or even someone who catches criminals. Only this time her voice was one of victory. Some of the men in the Marines were little more of the romantic sort. There were telling anyone that wanted to hear that the man that was coming on board was someone that she had known, or would like to know on a more intimate scale.

  "Okay, sir. If you will jump down. I will catch you." * * *

  "What your score on catching civilian, Sgt.?"

  "Okay, so I will say that my first few passing civilians were not very well done. I have since gotten a lot better." "Anybody misses that he is known better after admitting to not being good enough is someone I want catching me. I'm ready."

  "All right sir anytime you would like me to catch you to only say so. Once I have you caught, then I will jump down to the landing spot below. And we will get into that landing ship and be back to the narwhal.

  John did not like the play-by-play that is Marine was doing. John felt like he was doing this to establish to this friends that the namby-pamby spy was not worth it in the field. John looked back up the area and realizes logic a few minutes. He thought he had seen Anton's full shuttle. John knew that he was not B allowed to us after Anton, but if he could show them where Anton went than someone else to deal with them.

  "Are you Navy or are you, Marine?"

  "I am a Navy Petty Officer." John pulled out a piece of paper on which you have written subordinates. He opened the paper to the young man, who was not up-to-the-minute about utilizing the coordinate system. All he had was simply the system that they had given them in the in the system base.

  * * *

  Are you attempting to impede a federal officer?"

  "What do you mean?" "What he is trying to tell you is that he could shoot you dead right now. Not too many of the high officers will allow you to call this man as a witness. Now take the paper. I know you understand the modern coordinate system. If you need to transpose back, your computer can do that. We need to get the shuttle up and flying to the Narwhal. You know how finicky the admiral can be about time schedules."

  "Yes, Sergeant major." John stood over the petty of ficer while he transcribed the coordinates into military coordinates. Once he had done that he entered in the new coordinates into his tracking system. Within a few seconds, John could see the monitoring system flick in a particular direction. It appeared to be aiming in the correct direction. John went over to one of the jump seats that lined the hull on the interior of the assault shuttle.

  The detachment sergeant major went over to the place on John's immediate right. The suits were designed to take even a full -sized Marine in a battle suit. The helmet swiveled to the left. The interior lights and been shut down as per regulation. That met every single one of the Bible suits had their low light optics running. They all look like cats being hit with a flashlight in the night.

  * * *

  The Sergeant major decided to open up this part of the conversation. "Who is that person that you have our petty officer track?"

  "No offense Sergeant Major, but you don't have th
e security clearance for that information. Just saying that he is an old villain. Right now he's one of the most wanted men in all of the known galaxy."

  "Really? What's his bounty?" John looked up into the face mask of the helmet. He suddenly felt the oddness of where he was and when he was. Time was that Sergeant major would've been him. Now he was writing it as if he were a general in mufti. He started a small rumbling chuckle by the time that the assault shuttle had been grasped by the computer system of the light carrier, John was in full belly laugh mode.

  "There you go, sir. At least 1 Thing Went Your Way today."

  CHAPTER TWELVE WINE, A WOMAN, AND SONG

  The Sergeant major escorted John from the shuttle onto the flight deck of the light carrier. As soon as he stepped foot onto the ship, he felt a cold shiver go up to his spine. Almost a year and 1/2 ago he allowed a young Marine Sergeant to beat him up so severely that he would require a few hours in an auto doc. All of this so that he could convince a villain named Anton Hecton to believe that he had been killed. This was so that Anton cannot follow-up, or would not follow-up on the dead man. He would just write up the loss of their newest starfighter to a pirate. The flight deck the beating had taken place had been cleaned almost an hour after Anton Hecton left the Narwhal.

  Apparently, the Sergeant major had been there and seen with his own eyes what happened. Because he started to lead John away from the spot where he had laid dying to wait for Hecton to arrive. The sergeant major was only trying to make sure that John did not suffer any psychological problems. John said nothing but kept on walking straight to the command elevator that was to be taken up to the control level. The Sergeant Major suddenly realized that John was no longer following him, but was now leading him. He was smiling inside his suit. No wonder John Hardesty was a legend among the Marines. They called John terrible as a battle plate, as deadly as a blaster rifle, and as engaging as a priest. The Sergeant Major altered his course to correspond to the destination that John wanted to go.