“Now suddenly, he appears at my door wanting the only copy of all my notes and insinuating that if I play ball, there might be another star in it for me.”
La Force glanced over his glass at Appleton. “He’s good, I’ll hand him that. He knows where to apply pressure and how to do it smoothly, all in all, a dangerous man.
“Tell me Commander, if you were going to murder a powerful politician, how would you go about it?” La Force asked.
“I don’t know; until recently I never contemplated that sort of thing. I guess, I would try to make it look like an accident. That seems the best way,” answered Appleton.
“Yes, it would,” agreed La Force. “However, if one were a very visible person, the possibility of being spotted and identified would be too great.”
“Whatever I did, I would want as few people as possible to know about it. If I had to use others, I would find a trusted man to do the dirty work,” said Appleton.
“Yes, but not to do the actual deed,” continued La Force. “One would find a lackey to do the actual deed.”
“Then get rid of the assassin.”
“Yes, keep the lines of communication as short as possible. That would decrease the chance of being found out,” added La Force. “That would leave only one man who knew the truth.”
“Chu?” asked Appleton.
“Chu.”
Both men pondered this for a moment. Then Appleton spoke up. “So, Schiller tasks Chu with the job of finding an assassin. After the work is done, Chu manages to find a way to kill him.
He added, “I’m not sure if I would want to be in Chu’s place right now.”
“Why is that,” asked La Force.
“You’ve got rid of your rival and placed the blame on another enemy. Now only one man in the solar system, other than Schiller, knows the truth. I would be very tempted to get rid of that last link.”
“Yes, I suppose so. Better hope nothing happens to Mr. Chu,” added La Force.
“Schiller better hope nothing happens to Chu.”
“How do you mean?” asked La Force.
“If I were in Chu’s place, I would be afraid that Schiller would try to get rid of me.”
“In that case, what would you do?” asked La Force.
“I might be tempted to leave some sort of record behind,” answered Appleton. “That way if something unfortunate happened, the man I was working for would go down as well.”
“Yes, just what I was thinking. Perhaps, the paranoia of the perpetrators has finally put us on the right trail.”
“How do we proceed?”
“Cautiously, very cautiously, that’s all I can really say. Here look at this.”
La Force put his computer screen’s image on the large screen in his study, and soon they were watching the interview between La Force and Chu. This was a little something La Force added after discovering his office bugged. He recorded everything now.
After the recording ended, La Force rubbed his forehead hard. “Now, how do we get to the bottom of this?” he thought aloud.
Appleton swirled his drink and thought. “I don’t suppose you know anyone at New Scotland Yard?”
“Afraid not,” responded La Force.
“Pity, that would make things easier. Anyone in Rill City who could help us?” he asked.
The Admiral was not ready to reveal the identities of his two operatives, not just yet. Call it paranoia or just an abundance of caution, but he no longer knew how far he could trust anyone. Above all, he did not want to put Juliette and Mei Ling in any more danger than they were already in. How to proceed?
Neither man spoke for a while. La Force filled their glasses again. Finally, Appleton spoke up. “I wonder if this is not Chu’s first trip to New Earth.”
“We should be able to comb the manifests,” said La Force.
“Do you have access to that?”
“Don’t know, but I might be able to swing something.”
* * * *
The next evening, La Force had just finished dinner with his wife when there was a knock at the back door. It was Appleton, and La Force quickly
let him in.
“Excuse me a moment Commander.” La Force left Appleton sitting in the study. He soon returned with his pad containing what little information he had gleaned from the manifests for a few weeks prior to the assassination.
“I’m afraid I haven’t found anything useful,” Admiral La Force began.
“I may have something sir,” began Appleton. “I checked on the cargo coming into New Earth, just prior to the assassination. There was one large crate that was unmarked except for a name, Tolstoy.”
“Tolstoy, who’s that supposed to be?”
“No one I’ve ever heard of, I’m sure. The crate was picked up by a man meeting Chu’s description. He left with the box and returned with it late that evening. Both the individual and the container jumped off New Earth.”
“I assume no one has any idea what was in the container?” asked the Admiral.
“I’m afraid not.”
“Any chance it was a military delivery?
“There were no military markings, nothing to tie it to Chu. There is only a couple of guys who were working on the loading dock. They said this individual was very quiet and appeared to be someone of importance,” Appleton said.
“What did he do with the container?”
“Apparently, the container’s owner had ordered a truck to pick it up. He took it out and brought it back without saying much to anybody.”
“You think that was our man, Chu?” asked La Force.
“The dock workers identified the image. It was Chu all right.”
“How big a box?” asked La Force. “Say big enough for some sort of vehicle.”
“Oh yes, definitely.”
“You say a truck picked it up,” remarked La Force. “There are only so many trucks in town.”
Appleton said, “It might be useful to find out what he did with the cargo and where the truck picked it up for the return trip.”
“Yes, it would.”
“I’ll get on it first thing in the morning,” promised Appleton.
* * * *
“Yeah, I’ve seen him. I picked his container up myself.” It was Ralph Sanchez who owned the only trucking company on New Earth.
“You picked it up yourself?” asked Appleton.
“Yeah, I’m so shorthanded that I have to do much of the work myself. That is until they moved the Legion off planet. Everyone was glad to see them go, but no one ever thought about the business they brought to town. Now we’re hurting.”
“Where did you drop it off?” asked Appleton.
“I dropped him and his package off out among the dunes.”
“Outside of town, not in town?”
“Yep, pretty weird,” answered Sanchez.
“Can you take me there?”
“I don’t know, business is pretty slow, but I’ve still got to make ends meet.”
“I’ll pay the going freight rate,” answered Appleton. “I’ll even load and unload myself.”
“Okay, then let’s go.”
It did not take long. They drove from town toward the spaceport but turned off well before getting there. Ralph then followed a track around toward the dune field, ending in the shadow of an inselberg.
“Okay, this is where I left him.”
“Let me get out and walk around,” said Appleton.
He dismounted followed by Ralph. “Not much to see, Commander.”
“No there isn’t.”
“What are you looking for?” asked Ralph.
“I’m not exactly sure; what I really want to know is what was in that container.”
“He didn’t say anything about it. In fact, he just stood beside it u
ntil I left.”
“Did he say anything?” asked Appleton.
“Not much, he didn’t talk much. He told me when I needed to pick him up again. That’s about it.”
Appleton began to walk around slowly looking at the ground. He turned back. “Is this the exact spot where you dropped him?”
“I think so.”
Appleton meandered farther away looking for any indication of a vehicle. He finally came to where the dunes began, nothing. The ground had been hard packed where the driver dropped him off. Now it gave way to sand. He turned back and heard Ralph calling to him.
He walked back quickly. “What do you have?”
“I came over here to sit in the shade of this boulder and found a few things.”
“Did you move anything?”
“No, I wanted to let you do that?”
Appleton knelt down. It appears that somebody ate a prepared meal here and just tossed the garbage down. The wind had moved most of it away, but he found a cup which had become lodged between rocks. He turned to Ralph.
“Do you have any kind of bag I can have in your truck?”
“I think so; let me look.”
Appleton put on his gloves and carefully lifted the small cup from where it was stuck. Ralph soon returned with a bag.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
“You think you found something?”
“I found something, but I don’t know if it’s important or not. It might be if I can tie it to the mystery man and his box.”
Appleton dropped the artifact in the bag and began to look further. Then he saw it, something shiny and long. He picked it up, it was a cartridge, a 7.62 X 39 to be exact.
* * * *
“Thank you for coming so quickly, sir. I’ve found something.” Appleton removed the cartridge and the cup with his gloves.
“Please don’t handle it with your hands. There might be some test that can be run to tie this to Chu.”
“Just set it down. I know what it is, and you think Chu may have drunk from this?”
“Yes sir, the owner of the trucking company drove Chu to a site out in the desert and left him and his cargo there with instructions as to when to return. Apparently, he brought his own supplies as well.”
“Is that important?” asked La Force.
“I suspect he wanted no one to know that he was here. If he went into town, someone might remember him. This way only the assassin, the driver, and a few people at the spaceport saw him. He was in and out before the Prime Minister was killed.”
“So he left the assassin to commit the murder, then die. Very well thought out and tidy. I still wonder what was in that crate,” mused La Force.
“Probably some sort of conveyance, a vehicle I’m assuming.”
La Force studied the cartridge. “If we can tie this to Chu, and then Chu to Schiller, we might be able to crack this case wide open.”
“Yes sir, that or get ourselves killed trying.”
“You are correct Commander; there are those who will not be too happy with our discovery. But how do we tie these artifacts to Chu?”
“I don’t know sir, but we have laboratories; maybe someone can find a way to connect them with Chu,” answered Appleton.
“I wonder,” mused La Force.
“About what sir?”
“I wonder if Smith might have some ideas. They have to deal with that sort of thing back on Earth.”
“Perhaps, in fact, Commander Fitzpatrick might have some ideas as well,” added Appleton.
“Yes, he has spent quite a bit of time down on the surface.”
“Where is Commander Fitzpatrick? I haven’t seen him lately.”
“He and Commander Blackstone are off on an assignment. In fact, I hope to see them soon,” said the Admiral.
Chapter 31 - A Desperate Plan
Fitz turned to Smith, “I’m way overdue back at the rendezvous point.”
“Yes, I know. How long do you think the pilot will wait?”
“Don’t know. I believe you’ve met him. He was the battalion commander of the unit you transferred to before you left.”
“He’s a pilot?” asked Smith.
“He was a spacecraft commander before volunteering for the Legion. He really believes in the Legion, you know.”
“That was the idea I got,” said Smith.
“I’ve just returned from the sensing unit, radar room as you call it.”
“What’s the situation?” Denver asked.
“The good news is that there are no ships in polar orbit. The bad news is that the orbit they have brings them far enough north that occasionally they will be over our location.”
“Which means what?” asked Smith.
“The enemy is not looking for us. Ships are coming and going from time to time. Everything has settled into a boring routine. I have calculated when we should be able to get away without being detected.”
“How would you go about it?”
“When the window of opportunity opens, we will leave and fly almost to the north pole before we make our getaway into space. Orbital mechanics would mean that the planet should be between us and the ship.”
“It’s risky. It could get us all killed.”
“Denver, I know that, and I’ve taken every precaution, but the fact is we are of no value whatsoever here.”
“No, you’ve given the men hope, not to mention some much-needed supplies.”
“Yes, but there are no new supplies, and how long before that hope turns to despair. They got their hopes up, only to have us sitting here on our hands,” argued Fitz.
“Have you discussed this with Cee?”
“Oh yes, he is in full agreement.”
“I will take it up with my commanders. It’s their lives too.”
“Taken to leading by democracy?” chided Fitz.
Smith felt his hackles rise, but he controlled his voice. “No sir, but I’m smart enough to know that I don’t have all the answers. I can’t stop you from leaving, but I would prefer you to wait for me to speak to my commanders.”
“I’m sure you could order your men to take me into custody.”
Smith laughed. “I’ve never even thought of that, but the danger is real. If the enemy spots you rising from the surface, anywhere, they will start asking questions. They might even send out search parties. This is trouble we don’t need.”
“True, but we are useless sitting here. Not to mention, Admiral La Force has heard nothing from us. How long will he keep Blackstone waiting?”
“You could just land on New Earth,” offered Smith.
“Right, remember the trouble that caused last time. That might tip off our other enemies.”
“We certainly have no shortage of enemies, now do we?” added Smith.
“No, we don’t.”
“What we need to do is get the Grey’s high command involved. They must intercede on our side,” said Smith.
“Cee will be helpful there, I hope.”
“He might be persona non grata after this little escapade,” added Smith.
“True, but if we are to save the Legion, the only way is to get the Greys to evacuate you.”
Smith thought about it for a few minutes. It was risky, but unless the Legion was evacuated, it was only a matter of time until they ran out of supplies, starved to death, or some other catastrophe killed them. He could see no other way.
“I’ll kick the idea around with some of my commanders. I’ll hear what they have to say, then we will discuss it further.”
“Mind if I tag along?”
“No, better you trying to sell this plan than me.”
* * * *
Smith, Fitz, the battalion commanders, the CO of the sensor unit, Dmitri, Argie, and Farouk sat aroun
d a makeshift table in the mess hall. It was the only place with tables and chairs enough for a group that size. In the galley, the mess crew occasionally glanced over at the brass and wondered, casually, what they were up to.
“Can you at least take some of the worst patients with you?” insisted Argie.
“What would we do with them? If word got to the wrong people, our plans would be brought to a screeching halt,” argued Fitz.
“Sir, I can’t keep them alive much longer! They will be lucky to make it anyway.”
“I understand that, but our position on the other end is desperate. It will not take much to blow our operation out of the water,” cautioned Fitz. “Saving a few could kill the entire Legion.”
Smith had been listening. His commanders were concerned about the Greys and Fitz being sighted just as Smith had been. However, Lieutenant Jones assured them that the plan was sound.
Finally, at a pause at the impasse between Fitz and Argie, Smith spoke up. “I agree that you are of no use here; indeed, your mission will be considered a failure if you don’t get back. Still, how do you plan to get us off this planet?
“I mean, if you can convince the Greys to evacuate us, which I still see as a major hurdle, they have no weapons on their ships. How are they to get in here and keep the lizards off us long enough for the evacuation?”
“An excellent question and I don’t have an excellent answer. I don’t know if we can do any of this. For all I know the whole lot of us will be captured and court-martialed the moment we jump back into the system,” answered Fitz.
“They wouldn’t touch Cee,” insisted Argie.
“Probably not,” answered Fitz, “but they will turn him over to his own people who might just bury him in the deepest hole they can find.”
Lieutenant Medina spoke up. “Excuse me sir. I have a question.”
“Go ahead,” said Smith.
“Whatever happened to those landing craft we used in the beginning of the war? Couldn’t they be used as gunships?”
“That’s a possibility. Heck, for that matter, almost any tub that can make orbit could be used,” responded Fitz.
“If you had the time, if you had the manpower to mount the equipment, if you had the ships, none of which we have,” insisted Smith.
Hell Fighters From Earth Book 2 Page 28
