Our target was already programmed in the onboard computers. We drove fast. Well, we drove about as fast as the buses would allow, which was pretty slow. We kept up with traffic. The vehicles were not Chor'Tan made. Human beings were the Chor'Tan chosen ones, you'd think they'd give us more resources. Then Nancy's voice reminded me: auditors and Interstellar Law.
We pulled up two blocks from the target. I called Nancy and told her to cut off the Internet and zap the wireless. She said it was ready. Archangel, Enigma, and Zen stayed with me, while the others went around the back. We had com gear on, built into the helmets, and for sure going into a potential MindBender nest we were wearing breathers.
"Ready," Thomas said.
Archangel and I pulled the battering ram back, then pushed it forward putting all of our weight into it. The door crashed inward. We discarded the ram and pulled stunners. A man sitting on a couch looked up from some kind of pipe. I shot him with the stunner. We were in a living room, with trash littering the floor. Old fast food cartons, cigarette boxes, beer bottles. Archangel raced up the stairs to our right, and Zen followed him. I zip tied the downed addict.
Thomas and GeoSix stepped into our room. Thomas said, "We got one in the kitchen. This place is a fucking pigsty."
Archangel spoke across the com, "Got one upstairs."
"Enigma, run and get a minibus," I said.
She ran. I grabbed the one I'd stunned and lifted him to his feet. Sphinx and Tank brought the guy from the kitchen in.
Archangel came downstairs with his man in tow. "There are three computers and good sized bags of white powder upstairs."
"We'll call the locals and have them grab them. This house needs to be condemned," I said.
"It's likely not bad enough to actually condemn it," GeoSix said. "There is no animal feces or major plumbing damage. No water damage or fire damage."
Enigma honked the horn on the bus, and we hauled our prisoners out. They went in the back. The others raced back to the minibusses, and soon enough we were back at our facility. The whole way the prisoners wanted to know where our search warrant and badges were. Enigma and I ignored them.
It was almost dinner time, and I was starving. It took two trays to carry all the food I needed. I sat with the team and wondered about Sam. Bats? I wanted to find out, but she was almost a world away, and it was definitely something I needed to discover in person.
Sphinx's phone rang. She said, "Mmmmhmmm, and ok," a number of times.
She hung up. "Eat fast, we're going back out. As soon as we offered synthetic MindBender to the addicts, they started talking. We need to climb the ladder."
"Hitting a house again?" I asked.
"They claim that's where they get it. Plus we have been reviewing satellite photos, and the house seems a legit target. Traffic coming and going all day and night."
I was the last person eating, and I needed the fuel for sure. "Same procedure?"
"Exact same. There's been no indication that they've figured out we might know what we know."
I ate even faster. Well, mostly I just quit chewing everything and swallowed stuff whole like a good Chor'Tan.
I once again found myself running with a battering ram attached to an Archangel. We smashed the door in, and three dirty looking people drew guns. Archangel and I pulled stunners and zapped two of them. The third one fired a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun hitting Archangel in the chest. He fell backward. I zapped that guy.
Archangel was on his feet in an instant. More gunfire came from in the back of the house. Archangel and Zen ran upstairs. I zip tied the three in the front room. The place was a mess again, like they just couldn't be bothered to gather up the trash and take it to the curb.
"Got two in the kitchen," GeoSix said, "and we should definitely call the health department, it looks like a dead cat in the pantry."
Archangel and Zen came downstairs with a zip tied man. Zen said, "More computers. More bags of white powder."
We called the locals and hauled our six new informants back to base.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
We made it to the Agency facility. The prisoners were put away. Sphinx said, "Sleep fast, as soon as these guys start talking, we're going out again."
I went to my room and read up on bats. I had never been fascinated by bats before and never even thought to read about them. Plus, I liked Sam. I sent her a quick text, "Mission is going well. Bear."
"You best hurry," she texted back. "I expect at any moment a knight in shining armor is going to crash through my door."
"That's what I am!"
"Lot of knights around here. Perhaps one is the same as another."
I stopped texting her and put the phone away. I curled up in a ball to sleep. An instant later, the loudspeaker in my room was going off. "Bear team. JenSix's team. Report to the armory."
Not even a damn briefing, just armor, then vehicles, location is in the minibus. JenSix's team was getting loaded up in minibusses at the same time as we were. JenSix was tall, blonde, with big boobs, and built like a professional fighter.
We zipped out of the garage. JenSix's team went left, and we went right. We drove through neighborhood after neighborhood until the houses started to get big with large lawns. The house the onboard computer marked could not be the place. Immaculate lawn, three stories tall, attached garage, with no cars in front.
I looked at Archangel. "Do we knock?"
He made a chopping motion with his right hand in a spear. "Smash it down."
Sphinx, GeoSix, Tank, and Thomas headed around back. I hefted my end of the ram, and we ran straight at the house. Zen and Enigma chased after us toting the submachine guns.
The door had windows on each side, and the glass shattered into countless shards. The door caved inward. We pulled stunners and stepped in through the debris. We were in a hallway with doors leading off left and right, plus a door at the end. Along one wall were pictures. They made me pause.
I had seen some of these same pictures years ago before I retired. I studied them. Some of the people in these pictures were in those old pictures, and some of the younger pictures were Pumpkin Spice, Apple Danish, and Bear Claw. We explored the house. Nice furniture. The pictures in the hallway. Computers. No MindBender. No people. Clean, no trash. No dead cat.
We were walking back to the buses when Zen said, "There's a secret room on the third floor. I'm sure of it."
We headed back through the house. When Zen reached the top of the third floor, she pointed. "Look at that wall. Look at the rooms that are attached. There's a room."
"The bookcase on the left side," I said.
We went in there and start pulling down books. We found a switch, and against my better judgment, we hit the switch.
The bookcase moved inward. There was a security terminal in the room, with a black leather chair in front of it. Stacks of one-kilo bags of MindBender lined the walls.
We called in the locals. Before we left, we grabbed every picture off that wall in the hallway. Nancy called us home to Arizona. I slept on the plane.
I was having breakfast with the gang, when Sam walked through the food line. She sat with her friends and started playing euchre and eating. I put my tray away and walked over to her. Nancy stepped through the food line and said, "After breakfast."
I'm going to be busy making sweet love to Sam after breakfast. No, I caught Sam's eyes and smiled. Then I turned and followed Nancy to her table.
Nancy spoke between bites. "While your team was capturing pictures and MindBender, Jen's team captured a few people. One of them is in the old pictures and the pictures you captured. There is a 'D' written on the back of his pictures. He isn't talking."
I nodded. "Why did you call us home?"
"We climbed up the ladder in Wichita as far as possible. In some places, addicts can't get their fix, and they're checking into emergency rooms across the city."
We should shut down even more distribution points. From the look on Nancy's face, I knew we
were already putting a huge tax on healthcare providers in the city. The addiction withdrawals were worse than any human invented drugs.
"This 'D' fellow, he's not an addict?" I asked.
"Apparently not."
Torture him. Drug him. "Are we going to try the drugs on him?"
"We're considering it. A special kind of doctor has to be called in to administer them and do the questioning."
I watched Sam get up and take her tray to the station. She walked really perfectly.
Nancy slapped me across the mouth. "Stay focused!"
I was focused. I had no clue what Nancy was saying. "I'm sorry. Can you repeat that?"
"Consider this downtime. Catch up on classes."
I chased after Sam. Could not find her. Went running. I spent some quality time killing the martial arts bot. I waited for her at the start of the lunch queues. "You again?" She asked.
"I haven't had a euchre partner in years as good as you."
"You want more than euchre from me."
Damn straight I did. "I ain't going to lie."
"Send me a text after dinner tonight."
I spent all afternoon crafting that text. I ended up with, "Watch a movie?"
She texted me back. "No."
I really had no clue what I was asking. It just popped into my mind. "Tell me about the bats."
She paused for a long time. "Come to my room."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
She sent me a text with her room number. I swished some mouthwash and spit it out. Looked in the mirror. I looked fine. A bit of a five o'clock shadow. Maybe a few scales on my cheeks. No, I wasn't that Chor'Tan yet.
I rang the buzzer to her room. The door opened, and she said, "Come in."
I tried to lean in and get a little kiss. She quite skillfully moved out of my range.
"Tell me about the bats," I said.
"You really want to know?"
I nodded and sat down in one of the chairs. She didn't sit.
"The first time, I was eight. My six-year-old brother wanted to go on an adventure. I knew about some caves from some older kids, and my brother and I marched through sand and shrub. The edge of our property was desert, but I knew the way."
She put her hands on her hips. "Most people stop me by now."
"Go on, I'm with you. You and your brother. Kids."
She went on to detail exploring this great cave structure. Sunlight came in through holes above, and she was deep into the passageway when the first clump of bat poop landed on her shoulder. She described it as gritty, because she tried to clean it off with her hand. That's when she realized she was lost. She found a wall, and started following it, figured on just tracing the wall all the way out. I may be summarizing her story, but she did not. She went into extensive details and accentuated her thoughts and cries like a good voice actress.
I sat quietly and listened. The story was good, as good as any writer could do. She described making it home and into the shower. I started clapping.
She smiled wide at me. "I'm not finished. The next time I went into those caves was on a dare from some of my friends when I was ten."
This time the sun set while she was in the caves, and the bats took off for their nightly hunting. She ended up covered in bat poop, but she did not get lost. Her friends didn't even wait for her to come out. Some friends. She took it to the shower again, and I clapped. I had been sitting in the chair in her room for easily an hour. I should have been recording her story.
"You're not bored?" She asked.
"I'm fine. Do you have more?"
"When I turned 18, I wanted to study bats in the worst way. Nobody would listen to my bat stories. Everybody thought I was crazy. I went back to the caves and mapped every room, every passageway. The ammonia smell was bad, but the caves had a lot of ventilation shafts. Little did I know it was slowly poisoning me. I was in there for longer than ever before. A rescue squad came in and got me with breathers on. They say I should have died. The last time I was in those caves for almost 48 hours. The authorities frowned on it. Somebody must have looked it up because they found out I was adopted. They introduced me to some Agency men, and here I am."
And here we are. Staring at her. Listening to her beautiful voice. I had a boner to beat all boners.
I stood up, leaned in to kiss her, and she moved away again.
"We're friends," she said.
"We can be more."
"You're the first person who has listened to my stories."
"I regret that I wasn't recording you."
"They're not that good." She blushed. "I always get cut off after the third sentence."
"You're sure we can't get naked?" I asked.
"You're a great guy, Bear, but I don't want to ruin our relationship with sex."
Sex does not ruin relationships. "Let's build a better relationship."
"You remind me too much of my kid brother."
Oh god. No. "I see."
"You have the same brown eyes. The same broad shoulders. You guys even cut your hair the same way, 1cm buzz cut."
"I understand."
My boner was gone at that point. She hugged me, and it just wasn't the same.
"We could get popcorn and watch a movie!" She said.
Yes, I wanted popcorn and a movie. Hell, it's not like I had a lot of friends. Sam could be a friend. We watched a documentary on bats, after acquiring buttered popcorn. She snuggled in close on the couch in the common area. Zen joined us and started stealing our popcorn, bitch.
Zen looked over at us. "Are you guys dating?"
I sighed. "I look like her brother."
Zen laughed and laughed. I didn't think it was funny.
Sam held my hand when I walked her back to her room. I was not giving up so easily. She pecked me on the cheek and disappeared.
I was in bed when my phone beeped. New text. It was Sam. I didn't know if I wanted to read it or not. Friends read texts.
"My brother has long, brown hair and blue eyes. You were just moving a little too quickly for me. Hugs."
I didn't even send her a reply. The game continued.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sam was standing outside my door when I went to go to the showers. I was only wearing a towel, so I got rid of that, and we did it in the hallway. No, I didn't see her at breakfast or lunch. I waited for her at the entrance to the cafeteria at dinner.
She gave me this look like I was a piece of hot turd on her brand new carpet. I knew that look from other women.
"Hi," I said.
She ignored me.
I fell in behind her in the food line. I wondered if I wasn't crossing the boundaries, but I followed her to her table with her friends.
"You didn't text me," she said. "I've been in evaluations all day, and not even a text."
My brain started processing, little bit by little bit. "I didn't want to be that guy texting you every twenty minutes."
GreenMel, Sam's friend, took a bite of cheeseburger. "I love getting texts every 20 minutes. Then I know I've found my man."
"I like it, too," Sam said.
Jack, her other friend, said, "I like to send them every 10 minutes."
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." No way am I texting every 20 minutes. These people are lying. I ran for two hours, lifted weights for two hours, plus spent three hours listening to stories about short monsters who eat ammunition and explosives to survive. As they grow, they bleed metals from whatever is around them to form claws and teeth. We haven't even invented a cage that will hold them. Fire was the only way. I looked around. I hadn't touched my food.
I thought that was all the abuse I was going to get over failing to text, and I started to eat in earnest.
Nancy approached our table. "Mission after we eat."
I ate quicker. I went to her table and waited. Since I had nothing else to do, I sent a text to Sam, "Is it Valentine's Day yet?"
Nancy finished eating and took a small white pill with water. "Conference room
A. Bring your team."
I went over to my usual table. The guys were all there. "Conference room A."
They were done eating, and we dumped trays and ran to our briefing room.
Nancy touched a keyboard, and a picture of the man JenSix captured, 'D,' was staring back at us. "We must relocate this man to Fort Leavenworth. The army refuses to transport him if he hasn't been convicted of anything. We don't even have charges on him yet. JenSix's team has already returned to their base in Los Angeles, and you guys got picked."
Fair enough.
"It's freeway most of the way there," Nancy said. "We have no reason to assume Centurian knows we're moving him, but there have been drone presences noticed on radar and visual scans."
"How many vehicles?" I asked.
"You'll be driving a manmade armored prisoner transport minibus again. One Chor'Tan made sedan ahead of you and behind. Driver and gunner in every vehicle."
"Are we taking prisoners?" Archangel asked.
"No, if somebody tries to stop you, their life is forfeit."
"I like it."
I questioned that order sometimes, in my more miserable moments. It was going to be them or us. I couldn't let it bother me.
"When do we leave?" Zen asked.
"Fly to Wichita tonight. Do the transport at dawn."
"After breakfast, I hope?" GeoSix said.
Archangel gave me a wink. "You know you want me in the minibus. There is just enough room for a 5.56mm submachine gun."
"If you're small, like me," Zen said, "you can work a grenade launcher from the front seat of one of those buses."
"You're with me, Zen," I said.
"Archangel will drive in the front sedan, with Thomas riding shotgun," Nancy said. "Sphinx will drive the rear car, with GeoSix in the passenger side."
Lobster barked. If Enigma was around, Lobster was around, but I didn't care, the dog was quiet and well disciplined.
We headed for the trucks. Sam sent me a text. "Valentine's Day? You'll be lucky if I'm talking to you over the next week."
I texted her back. "Going on a mission, be back tomorrow."
We piled into a van and drove to the airport. The plane took off. Thomas unwrapped a nice looking brownie and started taking nibbles out of it.
Codename: Bear II: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 2) Page 10
