by Mark Wandrey
“We look forward to providing you with all your merc weapons needs.”
A block over from the outfitter Vince caught up with him. He hadn’t seen the kid in person for more than a day; he looked tired. “How’d it go?” the boy asked.
“Better and worse than I expected.” Murdock explained the discussion.
“Wow,” Vince said and whistled. “You have that much?”
“I don’t have one percent,” Murdock said as he turned down an alley. “You need to get more sleep.”
“I’ll get some tonight,” he said, “Bo’s pack is going to steal some stuff from the crabs later, and I want to be there to help.”
“You’re taking chances.” Murdock said, “I need you to coordinate, not get caught stealing junk from the alien mercs.”
“They look up to me,” Vince said.
Murdock glanced at the kid and shook his head. A lot of the kids in the wolf cubs were older than him, but they looked up to Vince because he was Murdock’s kid. They didn’t know Murdock wasn’t related, only that he and the kid were family of some sort. That was all that really mattered to them. Murdock was the guy who’d killed a thousand pirates with his bare hands, then shot down a Xiq’tal dropship with a handgun. The damned story got more far-fetched every time it was told. The thing had an energy all its own. Being in charge of the wolf packs made him feel important, and he was.
“Supervise, don’t act on your own. You promised.”
“Yeah,” the kid grumbled.
“You want me to take you off that duty?”
“You wouldn’t really,” he looked up at Murdock. “Would you?”
“I’ll have you at the hideout washing Dod’s underwear in a heartbeat if you don’t do what I tell you to do.”
“Fuck,” the kid cursed.
“Language,” Murdock reminded the boy.
“Sorry, sir.” He looked back up at the old merc. “I’ll only get involved if they get in trouble. Okay?”
“And only if you can help without getting caught yourself. That clear?” The kid nodded. “Good.” He was afraid the boy might spill vital intel if caught. Sure he’d lived through hell as a slave to the pirates, yet you never knew what would happen until a HecSha was pulling your fingers out of their sockets one after another. Zeke Avander had told him some tales about the HecSha that still haunted his dreams.
“I have a quick job,” he told Vince. The kid fixed his eyes on the man and listened intently. “Go to the other safe houses and have them come to ours tonight, late, so we can all talk. We need to consider our next course of action.”
“We gonna kick some dino butt?”
“Maybe,” Murdock said. They came around another corner and a squad of HecSha were coming out of a business carrying crates of looted goods. One of them pointed a rifle at Murdock and Vince, watching the two humans closely. Murdock and Vince stopped and stood back as the aliens pillaged. “Maybe,” Murdock said, grinding his teeth together.
* * * * *
Chapter Three
“You’re asking us to risk our lives?”
A chorus of outraged voices rumbled agreement with the statement, and Murdock did his best not to scowl. Instead he drew on his first sergeant experience and waited for the hubbub to calm, then spoke. “Maybe,” he admitted. This time when they started complaining, he used his command voice and spoke over the din. “What I’m really asking you to do is take your own destiny in hand!” The complaints fell off to a grumble, then became silent.
Murdock badly wanted to light up, though this crowd wouldn’t like it, so he resisted. “We’ve gotten intel on what this is all about.” The old mercs had decided before the meeting that they wouldn’t divulge anything about where the intel had come from, or how they’d obtained it. The hundred-odd men and women crowded into the space were all volunteers, and Murdock would put no money on there not being spies in the group.
The room had once been a fish drying building, set up in the early days of the colony. Like the old guys’ hideout, it had been abandoned and all but forgotten years ago as unsuitable for retasking, and it smelled badly to boot. It was dark inside, making it hard to clearly distinguish faces. It helped with secrecy. As he looked around, though, it was light enough for him to see that he had their attention, so he continued, “Valais wasn’t an isolated incident. It was part of a move by the Merc Guild to take Humans out of action. They’re invading all our planets.” This time the explosion of anger wasn’t directed at him.
“They can’t invade Earth!” someone complained, loud enough to be heard over the others.
“They could, and did,” Murdock said.
“But what about all you mercs?” another asked, this time a woman.
“What about us?” Ripper asked. “Besides mercs being generally looked down on by the government, only a few hundred units exist, and there was no warning, no time for coordination.”
Murdock nodded and spoke. “Earth didn’t have more than one old cruiser and a handful of frigates in space. They were probably taken out in minutes.” The room slowly fell silent again, many shaking their heads or looking at the floor. Murdock and the others had a difficult time agreeing to tell them. In the end, they’d figured the knowledge was more motivational than allowing them to think it was only Valais.
“Why?” This time he knew the speaker, Jerry Sharp, the marine biologist and B&B owner he’d stayed with for a few weeks when he’d first arrived. His wife Margaret was not in evidence, and that made Murdock wonder.
“We aren’t sure,” Murdock admitted. “However, since it’s a move against all Human interests, and mercs were ordered to be destroyed, we guess it’s some kind of revenge thing.” He grinned and shrugged. “It’s no secret we’ve done pretty well in the last century.” He didn’t say anything about Peepo; it simply wasn’t knowledge anyone in the room would need or understand.
One of those attending dropped the other shoe. “What good will fighting do, then, if Earth is gone?” A mumble of agreement passed through the crowd.
“Because more mercs will show up before long,” Murdock said.
“More aliens,” Dod agreed, and spat on the already filthy floor.
“Worse aliens probably,” Kelso agreed.
“I took out a dropship full of Xiq’tal, the crabs. That left them lighter in ground strength than they intended. They expected no resistance; we were supposed to be a walkover. They’ve set up defenses we can make use of to hold off any reinforcement.”
“Those reinforcements won’t be expecting resistance,” Greenstein said. “We can take them out before they ever get on the ground.”
“What happened to our defenses?” someone asked. “We had lasers and stuff.”
“Looks like our people were caught with their pants down,” Murdock said. “The survivors around the starport said nobody fired a shot before the alien dropships started bombing everything.”
“I was a dropship pilot,” Greenstein said. “If they managed to take out the patrol boats Valais had in space between here and the emergence point,” he snapped his fingers, “done deal. I doubt we had any satellites monitoring stations.”
Murdock surveyed the room again, trying to sense the mood of the crowd. It seemed uncertain, and that wasn’t good. He needed them on board, one way or another. If fighting started, and they weren’t 100% ready to help, they would be worse than useless.
“Maybe the government here can help,” someone said, a woman near the back.
“Yeah!” someone agreed.
“Not a chance,” a new voice spoke. Murdock recognized it and smiled. He’d been hoping the man would make the meeting.
“Who are you exactly?” the woman asked.
“I used to be Detective Shawn Tyrie with Atlantis Police,” he said. There were a few gasps and exclamations from the crowd.
“All the police were killed,” someone said.
“Not all,” Tyrie replied.
“Shawn volunteered to help us,” Murdock said. �
��Since we encountered each other just after the attack, he’s been trying to find out what he could from within the government by keeping in contact with a few friendly voices who are still there.” Murdock gestured to the man. “Would you tell us what you found out?”
Shawn Tyrie moved up to the front to stand next to Murdock. He looked a little uncomfortable to be addressing a room full of rebels. Murdock grinned at the man’s discomfort as he cleared his throat and began. “Certain elements within the government aided the alien mercs by scrambling transmissions from our gunboats, who tried to warn groundside defenses. They also provided strategic targeting data.”
Now the room exploded in outrage. Murdock and Shawn let it run down before the merc and several of his fellows stood and called everyone back to silence.
“He’s got more,” Murdock said, and Shawn nodded.
“Things were a little disorganized for a while, then several government administrators emerged, apparently in control. They turned in members of the government who weren’t in line with the popular ‘green movement.’ Those people were all arrested by the aliens, leaving the conspirators in charge.”
“Traitors!” someone yelled.
“Fucking quislings!” another agreed.
“Yes, exactly,” Shawn said. “All that and more. They’ve confirmed what Murdock said; they’re here to stay, and in a few weeks, more aliens are coming to create a permanent garrison and put us to work for them.”
This time Murdock and the others let the outrage roll around the room like waves rebounding from a rock in a pool. He leaned closer to the former detective. “Where are they meeting?” he asked. “The so-called government?”
“I don’t know,” Shawn admitted, “they’re keeping it really quiet.” He looked at Murdock. “I think they know you’re out here somewhere. The attack against you failed, so they’re afraid.”
I’ll find them, Murdock thought. He was still grinning a savage grin when the people started to speak up in a uniform manner.
“We’re in,” one man said, his wife next to him nodding.
“Me, too,” another added.
“Count me in!” a younger man called out.
“Fucking aliens, this is our planet!” someone said, and a cheer went up.
“Show of hands,” Murdock said, “everyone who will help as best they can.” Hands shot up, some a little slower than others. “All who want to sit it out?” None. “Okay, we’re all in.” This time it was just quiet applause as they realized what everyone had just agreed to be involved in. “Now,” Murdock said, “we have men and women willing to help. What we don’t have is arms for you. However, I can get them. We’ll need credits, though. So please give us whatever you can.”
“How you gonna buy guns?” a man asked. “Them aliens closed all the gun stores.”
“Not all of them,” Murdock said. “There’s a merc outfitter that opened a month or so before the attack and is still in business.”
“Yeah,” a woman agreed, “BBW? I remember because I thought big beautiful woman.” There were some chuckles and the woman, a little bit on the big-boned side, grinned and blushed.
“I saw some of the dinosaurs coming out of there the other day.”
Murdock rounded on the speaker, a man no older than twenty, who was near the front. “What? You sure?”
“Positive,” the young man replied. “They had a rifle with them, looked brand new, and they were all hissing happily.”
Ripper poked Murdock in the back and spoke to him when he leaned over. “Fuckers are selling to the aliens.”
“Sure seems that way.” Murdock said, “Probably why the aliens didn’t close the place down.”
“Doesn’t that complicate things?” Mika asked.
“I don’t think so,” Murdock said. “There’s a good chance they don’t realize the outfitter is selling to both sides.”
They passed a number of floppy hats around. After a minute it came back. The contents were less than encouraging.
“2,300 credits,” Greenstein said after counting it, “more or less.”
“People,” Murdock said, “we need all you can give.” Everyone held up their hands. He couldn’t believe this was all the money the people had. “Maybe some stashed at home, or with friends?”
“The aliens took most of it,” a woman complained.
“Went through all the businesses,” a man agreed, “and house to house.”
“Quick too,” another said. “We didn’t know what they were doing until it was over.”
“Well, fuck,” Murdock said, then turned to the others in his inner circle. “Any bright ideas?”
“We could rob the outfitter,” Dod suggested.
“Robbing a gun store isn’t the best idea,” Murdock said. The old man scowled, then nodded.
“Credit?” Greenstein suggested. Then he looked at his fellow mercs and gave an embarrassed grin. “Yeah, okay, right.”
They bounced a few ideas around for a minute, each either impractical or just plain stupid. Then someone spoke up from the civilians.
“No more alien ships have arrived, right?”
Murdock squinted and noticed it was Jerry Sharp who’d spoken.
“Correct,” Murdock replied.
“So,” Sharp continued, “if no other ships arrived, the aliens still have all the money here, in Atlantis.”
Murdock looked from Sharp to his old merc friends, who were all staring at him. “Well why didn’t I think of that?” he said. All they had to do was find where the alien mercs had stashed all the stolen credits and steal it back. What could be simpler?
* * *
Murdock stepped out of the meeting into the nighttime drizzle, one of the many pairs that would be slipping into the gloom over the following hour. The alien mercs were always on the lookout for groups of more than a couple Humans. Getting caught at night usually meant a trip to the concentration camp, or a beating at the least.
He walked in the wet gloom for a short distance before turning down one street, then another. As he rounded the second corner, a figure emerged from the shadows. The boy was familiar, but his manner was different. Over the short time he’d been working with the various kids they’d recruited, he’d grown into a leader. More than an urchin, not quite a grown man. Still, he was a formidable weapon, should Murdock choose to wield him.
“How’d it go?” Vince asked as he fell in with his guardian.
“Good and bad,” Murdock said. Then he explained the details of the meeting, including their decision on how to proceed.
“You want to rob the dinosaurs?” Vince laughed as he asked Murdock the question.
“Yup,” Murdock said. The kid stopped laughing. “The HecSha stole every credit they could find from the citizens, banks, and businesses of Atlantis. The money is still here somewhere. We need to find out where.”
“How are you going to go about finding it?”
“I’m not going to do it,” Murdock said. They were walking along an alley between two closed fish shops, being careful nobody saw them, Human or alien. Vince looked up at him and Murdock stared back.
“How do you expect me to do it?”
“With a little help from your wolf pups,” Murdock held out a package, “and this.”
Vince took the package and looked inside, then whistled. “You sure about this?”
“Completely,” Murdock said.
“This should be fun,” Vince said. Murdock patted the boy he’d somehow begun to think of as his son on his shoulder and smiled down at him. A moment later, Vince was gone back into the night, and Murdock lit up a cigar. This might just work.
* * * * *
Chapter Four
The patrol moved among the mostly closed businesses, stopping from time to time to investigate anything interesting. Whenever they encountered Humans, the HecSha had only to snarl, and the pathetic mammals would shrink back or simply flee. They considered their job an amusing one, if not overly exciting. Except for a brief fight o
n day one, they’d seen no real action.
Under the category of “no real action” was the constant harassment they’d been suffering from the local young. The hatchlings seemed to delight in appearing at all hours to trip sensors, ruin equipment, and steal anything not nailed down. HecSha weren’t used to considering hatchlings a threat, and while these Human hatchlings weren’t truly a threat, they were an itch under the mercs’ scales which proved all but impossible to scratch.
Thus, when the patrol came around a bend in the road and spotted a vending stand, they paid no real attention to it. The stand was being operated by a group of the Human hatchlings. However, they appeared to be involved in commerce with a group of mature Humans. Curious yet cautious, the leader led his squad forward as stealthily as a meter-and-a-half-tall reptile could manage.
One of the adult Humans turned and looked in the patrol’s direction, then did a double take in surprise. The Human said something, and all the heads turned to look at the HecSha.
“Apprehend them!” Patrol Leader Chosht ordered, and all five of the troopers surged toward the Humans, who began to scatter.
The HecSha were squatter than Humans, with shorter legs and somewhat long arms. They resembled Velociraptors except for their wide, flattened heads. Despite their short legs, the alien mercs were incredibly fast. They lowered their bodies closer to the ground and shot ahead.
Keeping to their operational orders, two of the squad pursued the scattering mature Humans, and the other three converged on the vending stand and the Human hatchling operators. The little ones tried to flee but were easily captured.
Chosht held the hatchlings, who huddled in a group behind their vending stand looking frightened and talking among themselves. Chosht gave them no serious attention until the other two members of his patrol returned.
“We did not apprehend the others,” the trooper said.
“You were in hot pursuit,” Chosht chastised. “How could they escape?”
