"It's my job, Jack. I volunteered for it, same as you." Nancy shrugged. "So, what is our plan?"
"Can that AIC of yours figure out where the SIF generators for the penthouse are?" Jack finished off the food bar and swigged at some sports drink from a pouch in his flight suit. He was beginning to feel his normal self again.
"She says so. Here, I'll put her on speaker," Nancy said.
Candis, go audible also, he told his AIC.
Roger that.
"Hello, Captain Boland, my name is Allison," Penzington's AIC said. Jack was surprised it was a female AIC. Jack had long known that some women can talk to a female personality easier than a male one. Some couldn't. As fully female as Penzington appeared, he half expected some very male and suave voice. He was always surprised by the story he found inside the cover of books. He thought of Fish. Karen Fisher was more than "boat cute" by a long shot, but she was as much a tomboy as anybody would ever meet. Her AIC was as male as could be.
"Nice to meet you, Allison, Ms. Penzington. I'm Candis."
"Call me Jack, or DeathRay, Allison."
"Yes, Captain," Allison replied.
"So, what can you tell us about the SIF generators on the penthouse?" Nancy asked her AIC audibly.
"Here, I'm transmitting a DTM image of the Capitol Building at New Tharsis. The engineering components of the building are mainly in the basement area here," Allison pointed out in Jack's mindview. He could see the Seppy leader's building, and then it zoomed in and downward to an auxiliary equipment room beneath and behind it.
"Hmm, that is kind of stupid. There are no SIFs around the SIF generators?" Jack pondered out loud.
"Yeah, that seems a bit uncalculated for Ahmi, doesn't it?" Candis added.
"Well, if you take into account that there is a garrison of soldiers that usually stands guard there, I'm not so sure," Allison answered.
"Well, were I to attack from the air or space or even with tankheads, I'd go for the SIF generators first." Jack replied. That gave him an idea.
"Hey, that gives me an idea," Nancy said.
"Me, too. You go first." DeathRay turned to the CIA agent and pointed. He smiled at Nancy. She looked a lot different than he remembered her. Her hair was a different color, and shorter, her body was very tanned from what he could tell, she was in amazing athletic shape, or at least the enemy compression flight suit she wore suggested so, and she looked much younger. Jack was sure she had been rejuved fairly recently, maybe within the last four or five years.
"Okay. We see about commandeering some mecha." Nancy didn't seem to even flinch at the thought of stealing enemy fighters. Jack just figured that her time here must have really made her proficient at getting what she needed. "Stingers or Gnats would be fine. We autopilot the Lorda into the SIF generators, and then we burst into the penthouse with the fighters. There you teleport her out of danger. Then we fight our way out as best we can. Or not."
"Okay. That's more or less my plan. I figured you being a secret agent and all, your plan would be more sneaking around, breaking and entering, and getting out without being detected." Jack smirked at Nancy with his left eyebrow raised.
"I prefer the direct approach sometimes," she said. The tone in her voice almost sounded to Jack like an invitation to flirt with her. Some other time he'd consider it, but right now, saving Dee was the only thing on his mind.
Saving Dee was the only thing on Alexander's mind. He and Sehera and his two loyal Marine bodyguards had rushed across the Sol System to the QMT facility in the Oort Cloud. They boarded the USS Anthony Blair only seconds before the jump to Tau Ceti. Alexander and company were led to the bridge by the XO of the ship as the QMT teleport occurred. Before they reached the bridge, the entire remaining U.S. Naval Fleet had teleported to a three-minute hyperspace jaunt from the planet Ares. That put them about four-and-a-half astronomical units from the planet. Their location was directly out of the ecliptic plane of the Tau Ceti system above Ares.
"Mr. President." Rear Admiral Lower Half Sharon "Fullback" Walker addressed him as he stepped onto the bridge of the supercarrier. The rest of the bridge crew stood at attention and saluted. Moore promptly returned the salute.
"Please, as you all were. Admiral Walker. Thank you for, uh, entertaining us today." Alexander smiled at her through thin lips. His sense of humor had left him about the time he realized his daughter was in trouble. Sehera stood beside him, and the other two marines stood behind him quietly.
"My pleasure, Mr. President. What are your orders, sir?"
"I'm not here to give you orders, Admiral. I know two things about running a supercarrier, and diddly is one of them. We are here to take this system back from the goddamned Separatists, and I am here specifically to find my daughter, who has been kidnapped by Elle Ahmi!"
Admiral Walker gasped. "My God, sir! We had no idea. We are at your disposal, sir."
"No, Admiral. Once we have found Deanna and gotten her safe, we'll get out of your way. My guess is that the Seppies must have detected our QMT by now. Shouldn't we be getting the battle plan under way?" Moore nodded to the admiral.
"Uh, yes, Mr. President. We have. I'll have the long-range sensors looking for your daughter." Walker turned to her crew. "STO, start looking for the First Daughter's AIC emergency beacon as soon as we get into range."
"Aye, ma'am!"
"As soon as you find her, Admiral, my team and I will be teleporting down as close to her as you can manage," Moore said, motioning to his wife and the two bodyguards with him. The four of them were wearing AEM skin suits. "We'll be in the QMT deck getting our suits on."
"Uh, sir, we need to speak . . . privately. If you'd join me in the briefing room."
The president was ready to cut the Admiral off on the spot but looked around the command deck and thought better of it.
"After you, Admiral."
With a nod from the admiral, the STO joined them, as did Sehera and their Secret Servicemen, Thomas and Koodie.
As soon as they were alone, both Admiral Walker and the president started to talk, but the admiral quickly ceded the floor to her commander-in-chief.
"—I know what you're going to say, Admiral, but I don't give a flying damn. I'm going down to that planet, and I'm going to find my little girl and bring her home."
"With all due respect, sir, you aren't. I know what you're feeling, but we will not allow it."
"We?"
"Sir, there's not a single senior officer in this fleet who would allow you to go down to that planet, even if you order them directly, even if you do have snap-back QMT wristbands." The STO had been nodding in agreement with his CO, until a withering glare from the president caused him to tuck in his chin like a plebe being dressed down.
"Knowing we have a way to whisk you away to safety is why I didn't object when you insisted on coming aboard. But it's one thing to know we have got some of the strongest armor and SIFs in the entire fleet between you and harm's way. It's quite another to let you go down to a hostile planet. Unless you're ready to relieve every officer serving in this fleet, you are not going down to that planet, Mr. President."
Moore looked about ready to explode. He glanced at his bodyguards, but they didn't flinch, nod, or wink. They'd been with Moore for too long and seen him do what he damned well had to and Secret Service be damned. Moore looked back at the admiral.
The STO snapped to attention, and spoke. "Mr. President, we cannot allow the enemy a chance to capture you. It is simply unthinkable, sir. It could completely compromise our attack."
President Moore looked ready to chew through a bulkhead until his wife laid a hand upon his clenched arm, breaking his intense glare at the officers.
"Alexander, they're right. And you know it." Something passed between the husband and wife, and President Moore relaxed ever so slightly. Sehera turned to the Secret Service men. "Thomas will get her for us, won't you?"
"Yes, ma'am." Thomas and Koodie stepped forward and nodded.
Abby, we expect
ed this.
Sir.
Move out on our other plans.
Yes, Mr. President, his AIC responded and then added, or is that General?
"Might I suggest we send along a squad or two of AEMs or mecha?" Walker asked.
"No, Admiral," President Moore said. "That would draw too much attention. As long as you make a menace of yourselves elsewhere, that should provide all the diversion . . . they need."
"CO! CDC!"
"Excuse me, sir." Walker tapped a button on her comm. "Go, CDC!"
"CO, long-range sensors have picked up two friendly AIC handshaking signals." Walker turned to Moore inquisitively but said nothing.
"Might be DeathRay and that CIA agent, Alexander," Sehera interjected. "Talk to them!"
"Admiral, can you connect us?"
"Not sure. CDC, can you connect us to the two signals?" Walker asked.
"Hold on, CO." Moore and Walker passed glances back and forth during the brief seconds they waited for an answer. Walker didn't think they were close enough to get a connection with the AICs. Limits were usually about a light-minute with no large repeaters. The Blair had plenty of amplification, but the little AIC on the other end didn't. "Sorry, ma'am. They are too far away."
"Keep at it, CDC. I need to know as soon as you connect to them."
"Mr. President?"
"I say we start getting this attack under way."
"Agreed, sir. We'll jaunt in and attack in five minutes, sir," she said as she snapped a picture-perfect salute, trying to keep the relief from showing on her face.
"So, Nancy, uh, nice place here. And, where did you get these mecha?" Jack asked. They had landed just outside New Tharsis at a fairly nice farmhouse. The hangar in the back acreage of the farm housed two Seppy Gnats.
"Oh, well, I've squirreled away Seppy dollars for years, and I have several safe houses spread about the planet. This is one of the better ones. The mecha are actually part of a requisition error made on an order to the manufacturer. They delivered two more than they were supposed to down at the spaceport in New Tharsis. I happened to be a shipping clerk by the name of Carrie Thomas there about five years ago. I needed to do some training in these, so I managed to get them here. There's also an Orca drop tank out back. The logistics was a little more complicated than it sounds. The point is, I have them. We can use them. Think you can fly one?" Jack tried not to laugh. Nancy had managed to infiltrate the Seppy acquisition system so well that she procured two brand-new Gnats without anybody ever missing them. She and her AIC must be real good at their day job.
Jack started slipping his flight gear back on, and Nancy followed his lead and pulled out some flight armor from a locker in the hangar. The two of them changed and climbed into the mecha.
"Hey, this thing feels almost just like my Ares-T. The controls inside the cockpit are identical down to the coloring," he shouted to Nancy.
"Yeah. They stole the blueprints from the manufacturer. They are as close to a real Ares-T as it gets," she replied.
Jack pulled his helmet down with a twist and lock. Air hissed into his face. Instinctively he started to pull the hardwire UDP connector out and plug it in to his shoulder harness port.
Jack, not sure about going hardwire. It would be harder to firewall attacks from the Seppy AIs, Candis warned him.
Fine with me. He let go the cable, and it reeled itself back into the panel.
"You read me, Nancy?" He spoke into the communications net link he created between his and her fighter. He started toggling through the weapons stores in the mecha. The enemy mecha was loaded for bear. Penzington was prepared. Prepared for what, Jack wasn't certain.
"I got you loud and clear, DeathRay. Try not to damage my hangar as you pull out."
"Roger that, Penzington." Jack thought about it as he cycled the landing gear up and went onto the hoverfield. "Have you filed a flight plan for us, or are we going to hit a bunch of resistance along the way?"
"We should be good right up until the last couple of kilometers. Then we should go thrusters full," Nancy said.
"Right. Good. Let's get on with it."
"Roger that, DeathRay."
Hold on, Dee, we're coming, he thought.
Chapter 25
July 1, 2394 AD
Tau Ceti, New Tharsis
Friday, 3:44 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
"It would appear that your father has sent a fleet of ships to rescue you, my dear." Elle Ahmi looked at Dee with what she would have described as a crazed look. "I had better take care of this. Don't bother trying to escape. And don't worry. You are perfectly safe here, Dee. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."
"Then why don't you just let me go?" Dee argued with her terrorist grandmother.
"Ah, I wish it were that simple. But there are things happening here today that are bigger than all of us." Ahmi held her hand up to Deanna's cheek and touched it gently. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances. I'll return shortly." She turned and met the elevator as it rose up from the floor. Dee tried not to shudder from the touch. Ahmi donned her ski mask as the elevator dropped out of sight.
Several minutes passed before Dee decided to gather herself up and try to find a way out. She walked around and around the periphery of the terrorist leader's penthouse but couldn't really find anything of use. Every drawer, closet, door, or other moving part, blunt instrument, or sharp object was behind an AIC lock that probably only Ahmi's AIC could unlock. Dee was trapped in a very good prison, behind SIFs, and several stories up.
What do I need to do here? she thought to herself. If her father had sent a fleet to Tau Ceti, then she needed to contact them. She decided to allow her AIC to handshake briefly with any so-called friendlies that might be out there.
Be careful, Bree, but see what you can see, she told her AIC.
Sure thing, Dee. I'm looking.
Well?
I don't see any fleet vessels, but that could just mean they are too far away to detect. I am getting a response from two different AICs. One from that supposed CIA lady again . . . and the other from DeathRay!
DeathRay! He's here!
Apparently so. All the security clearances check out, and it certainly appears to be Candis—DeathRay's AIC. The probability of the Seppies being able to forge such an exact replica of Candis, much less having known to do so, borders on nil.
Put me through!
Okay. Go.
DeathRay, DeathRay! Is that you? Dee thought frantically.
Yes, Dee. It's me. I have a CIA agent with me as well. We are on our way right now to free you. We'll be there in about thirty seconds.
Holy shit! I'm so glad to hear from you. Ahmi just left about five minutes ago from this penthouse, saying that my father had sent a fleet of ships. Are you with them?
No, Dee! I don't know anything about that. I'll check into it. In the meantime, if you can, go to the south side of the penthouse and take cover!
Roger that, DeathRay!
Dee looked out the window, trying to decide what south was on a moon orbiting a Jovian. She applied the same logic as she would on Earth. The rings of the Jovian planet had risen earlier, so she assumed that direction was east. She pushed the love seat over and dragged it next to the far window and then crawled under it. About that time, an enormous blast made the penthouse ring and rattled her teeth. At first she thought they might be explosions, but then she realized it must be AA cannon fire coming from the rooftop. Hell, she was practically on the rooftop, so that fire was coming from just outside. No wonder it sounded so damned loud. Then there was an explosion from somewhere down below her that seemed to shake the entire building. . . .
* * *
I've got the fleet signals, Jack. I'm boosting them through the mecha's comm system, Candis told him.
Good, put me through.
"Fleet ships, fleet ships, this is Captain Jack "DeathRay" Boland, CAG of the Madira Gods of War squadron. Do you copy?"
"Roger that, DeathRay. Thi
s is CO, USS Anthony Blair. Please advise of your status and status of our missing package." DeathRay recognized Admiral Walker's voice.
"Admiral! It's damned good to hear your voice, ma'am. Be advised that Ahmi knows you're here. The package told me that herself. I'm engaging her location as I speak and hope to be in physical contact with her in seconds . . . at the coordinates my AIC is sending now!"
"Roger that, DeathRay! Be advised that we are about to hit this system with everything we have, as hard as we can. You had better get in there and get out."
"Yes, ma'am. I am painting two Seppy Gnats with the blue force tracker for you. That is me and a friendly operative code-named Bachelor Party, ma'am." Jack wasn't sure if Admiral Walker had been briefed on Nancy or not, but it didn't matter as long as she knew not to shoot her out of the sky.
One Good Soldier s-3 Page 25
