Deep Space Intelligence : Complete Series

by Gary Weston

  Raven said, ‘Then we have to delay them some other way.’

  ‘There’s that we again. I’m just your pilot, remember?’

  ‘Karma. I’ve no intention of getting either of us killed.’

  Casey snorted, ‘You could have fooled me when you made us crash the ship. Look. I’m with you on the drixolate. Convince me with a plan, I’ll help you. Otherwise, I’m staying put and waiting for my ride home.’

  It didn’t take much to persuade Casey to stay behind as Tagg went down to find out what was going on. Using the bushes for cover, he climbed up onto the hillside into which the cave of the runners was. He found a patch of vegetation which offered good cover and a view from the cave to the ship. Below him, men and women were pulling carts loaded with large cubes of the processed powder to the side of the ship near to where the still closed airlock hatch was. Already he could see enough to poison a half reasonably populated planet, and it was still coming. He had no doubt, this was a major haul. Two men stopped for a break just below him at the entrance of the cave and he strained to hear their conversation.

  ‘We shoulda been gone by now,’ said one.

  ‘Relax. We know they did get a radio message out before they crashed, but we still have days before they get here.’

  ‘Yeah? How do you know the DSI didn’t have ships already on their way before that? They could be here any damn minute.’

  The other man laughed. ‘Our inside man would have told us by now. He’s already told us when to expect them. Besides. This time tomorrow we’ll be gone.’

  That told Raven all he needed to know. They still had one full day in which to do something, and also that there was a spy for the runners, possibly even a DSI agent or somebody just working for the organisation. He’d had his suspicions for some time, which was why he had been vague on details, even to Boss. Now it was confirmed. It didn’t really surprise him, because with the money the runners made plus the control over anyone they used the drixolate on, they could shell out small fortunes for inside information. He made a solemn vow to find out who it was and do something about it later. He made his way back to Casey.

  ‘Find out anything?’ Casey asked.

  ‘They still have work to do here. They leave tomorrow.’

  Raven had already decided on his way back to her he wouldn’t tell them he knew about the DSI spy. For all he knew, Casey herself could be involved. He hoped not, but until he was sure, it would pay to be cautious around her.

  Casey asked, ‘What do you intend to do?’

  Raven shrugged. ‘Not sure,’ he lied. ‘I’ll think of something.’

  Chapter 86

  ‘Hang on in there, Joy,’ said Captain Armstrong. ‘Another few days and we’ll get him out of there.’

  Joy hadn’t said anything, but Armstrong had been keeping an eye on her. During a quiet time, when the officers were filling their time by sleeping, reading, or playing cards, Joy had sat alone, thinking about Tagg Raven.

  ‘I’ve been thinking. The sooner I fall pregnant, the better. He’ll not be off doing stuff like this with a baby to worry about.’

  ‘I’m not sure about that. Many of the grunts in here have families. It doesn’t stop them doing their jobs.’

  Joy said, ‘Tagg can still work for the DSI, just not in the field.’

  ‘Maybe it’s hard for him to let go,’ said Armstrong. ‘All I’m saying is, make sure you get pregnant for the right reasons. Doing it just to keep your man at home may not be enough.’

  Joy sighed. ‘I suppose. Think you’ll ever have kids, Vickie?’

  Armstrong looked away. ‘I can’t. A couple of years ago, I got shot up pretty bad. I wasn’t supposed to live. Where I was shot mangled up my womb, amongst other things. The surgeons did all they could…’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Vickie.’

  For a moment, the “hard-case” persona vanished, the shell slipped away and Joy saw the real Vickie Armstrong.

  ‘Maybe I’ll adopt one day. Yeah. Maybe. One day. No rush.’

  Joy said, ‘It isn’t compulsory. Did you ever work with Tagg?’

  ‘Not directly. I met him a few times, of course. Agents like him set the missions up for grunts like us. Small stuff they generally handle themselves. Anything bigger, they just line things up for us to mop up. Tagg should have done that this time.’

  Joy asked, ‘Gut feeling, Vickie. Do you think he and Captain Casey are alive?’

  Armstrong wasn’t about to lie. ‘Maybe. Hey. Tagg’s a pretty experienced and resourceful guy. If he’s got any sense, he and Casey will keep low until we get there. That way, they’ll stand a chance.’

  Joy knew that was as honest an answer a seasoned officer like Armstrong would give. It would have to do.

  Chapter 87

  Raven quietly left the shelter of their cave, the smell of the embers of the fire as they hissed from the gentle rain, filling his nose. Leaving the cave and Casey behind, he made his way over the stream and down the slope to the side of the wrecked greenhouse. No external lights lit up the runners’ operation, but the silhouette of the huge ship dominated the landscape. It wasn’t the only dark shape he could see. It was clear the runners had been very busy. The foot square plastic wrapped cubes of drixolate powder had been neatly stacked to a height as tall as a man, ready for careful loading into the hold of the ship. He estimated there was three times the amount he had seen earlier. It represented a fortune on the market and also untold death and misery for millions. All doubt had gone from his mind at the sight of the drugs.

  Down he went, keeping low, running to the space between the ship and the drugs. One thing he knew about drixolate powder, was that with a little encouragement, it burnt well. Things were damp, but the rain had stopped. Raven secured his suit helmet and checking his gloves, made sure none of the processed drixolate could touch his bare skin. Taking his knife to the bottom layer, he slashed open the whole row of cubes. The powder poured freely out. He was about to set it alight when an idea occurred to him. From the top layer, he lifted a cube. Slashing a hole in it, he let it trickle out into a deep pile along the bottom layer. For good measure, he slashed more of the cubes.

  Finally, he picked up one more cube and cut a slit in it. Peering around the side of the stack, he could see the coast was clear. Scurrying along and keeping low, he created a continuous line of powder to act as a fuse. It got him away from the stack of drugs and gave him extra distance with which to make his getaway. Discarding the packaging, he lit the fuse. The powder hissed and fizzled, and burned steadily. It wasn’t exactly gunpowder, but it was working. He watched the line of fire gradually snake out towards the pile of drixolate, then he turned and ran as fast as he could away from it.

  Reaching the fallen flat slab of rock they’d used as a shelter, Raven climbed up. He was in time to see the burning line of powder reach the stack, round the back of it between it and the ship, where the deeper layers of powder were. For a minute, it looked as if his plan had failed. Perhaps with the rain things were just too wet.

  ‘Come on, damn it.’

  Then he saw the yellow and reds of the flames as the slashed cubes caught fire, the fire feeding off itself. Another minute, the stack was well alight, becoming a bonfire. As expected, the runners poured out of the cave armed with fire extinguishers, yelling and shouting. Raven knew he had given his hand away, and he and Casey would be hunted down as soon as the fire had been put out.

  Racing to the stream, he paused just a few seconds to wash any powder off his suit, then he ran to the cave for Casey.

  ‘Karma. Come on. We have to get out of here.’

  Casey woke up and rubbed her eyes. ‘Tagg?’

  ‘Hurry. They’ll be after us.’

  Casey got to her feet. ‘Tagg. What have you done?’

  ‘No time. Later. Now hurry.’

  Outside the cave, Casey could see the flames licking the night sky and could hear the runners yelling.

  ‘Tagg. You fool.’

  ‘More t
han likely. We have to run.’

  Chapter 88

  The exchange was as heated as the pile of drixolate the runners were frantically trying to salvage. By the time they had donned bio-suits, the drugs were well alight. Only one third of the cubes had been rescued.

  ‘They must have survived the crash.’

  ‘No shit. I said we should have this guarded, round the clock. I’m not taking the flak for this mess.’

  ‘This is just part of the game, win some, lose some.’

  ‘Over a year’s worth of production up in smoke. You wanna tell the Masters it’s just part of the damn game? You’re on your own over this one.’

  ‘You’re in charge. It’s your hide they’ll nail to the wall.’

  The row continued for several more minutes, until the men both calmed down enough to think rationally.

  ‘Corey. We get that DSI agent’s head and the Masters might let us off with our lives. But we gotta work together on this. Come on, man.’

  Corey said, ‘Oh, you come on, Fritz. We got a squad of DSI coming here. We got no time to go hunting an agent. They could be damn well anywhere. I say we load up all we can and get the hell out of here.’

  ‘We need something to offer the Masters. A dead agent might just do it. We gotta few days. Give me a couple of days to try to catch the son of a bitch.’

  Corey thought about it. ‘Ok. But we catch them alive. The Masters might be able to use him for leverage against the DSI.’

  ‘Right. Worth a shot.’ Fritz looked at the wild, mostly unexplored terrain. It wouldn’t be easy finding an experienced DSI agent out there. The Masters were unforgiving employers at the best of times. Handing over a live agent would at least be better than nothing.

  Corey said, ‘We still have some sap being processed. We can make up some of the shortfall. I can doctor the records. Maybe we’ll get away with it if we keep our heads. Six of us can stay behind to process some more while we go get the agent.’

  At first light, all but the pilot and co-pilot were fully armed and determined to capture the ones responsible for ruining their biggest pay-day in years. The angry drixolate runners were intent on revenge.

  Chapter 89

  Raven and Casey were desperately trying to put distance between themselves and the runners. They had two hours head start and rugged terrain in which to hide. After four hours of non-stop punishing effort, they collapsed on a small hill.

  ‘Five minutes,’ gasped Raven.

  ‘Make it ten,’ said Casey.

  Raven took a minute to get his breath back then said, ‘We can do this. They have no idea where we are. They also have a pretty good idea the DSI ships will be after them soon. We just have to keep going for a couple of days and they’ll have to leave us behind.’

  ‘You just couldn’t help yourself, could you, Tagg? We were safe. They thought we were dead. Oh, no. You had to make a bonfire of their stash. They might be slightly annoyed at us.’

  Raven’s heartbeat was close to normal at last. ‘Karma. That was the biggest haul of drixolate I ever saw. We put one hell of a dent in their operation, that’s for sure.’

  ‘I’ll remember that when some prick is putting a dent in my head.’

  Raven got to his feet. From his high vantage point he could see for miles. There was no sign of the runners. He offered his hand to Casey. She glared up at him, then took his hand. She said nothing as they stared at each other, then they were hurrying away again, like foxes on the run.

  * * *

  Fritz said, ‘Here. A footprint.’

  They had reached the stream and on the opposite side, found two sets of prints. The direction pointed to the cave. The charred remains of the fire told them they were on the money. With the laser rifles ready, they flanked the mouth of the cave, pressed flat against the hillside. They weren’t sure how many they were tracking, but the prints indicated at least two. Corey, across the mouth of the cave from Fritz and signalled to fire into the cave. On the drop of Fritz’s hand, both men took a short burst from the rifles onto the ground of the cave, then dodged back out in case of return fire. Receiving none, the runners poured into the cave.

  ‘They’ve been here for a day or two, I’d say,’ said Corey. ‘If I were in their boots, I’d be heading north away from us. Come on.’

  Only a mile away, two exhausted people could just make out the runners who had correctly chosen the right path. As tired as they were, they knew they dare not rest longer. Running on willpower, they pressed on, distance between themselves and the runners, their only chance to evade capture.

  Chapter 90

  Raven and Casey were saved by nightfall, nothing else. The distance between them and the runners had at one point been reduced to less than a few hundred yards. They could hear the runners’ voices, scarily close behind them. When it got too dark for the runners to continue, Raven and Casey made up some distance, stumbling through the undergrowth in the darkness.

  Eventually, they could go no further, taking refuge in a copse of straggly trees. Something slithered close by, eyes shining bright red. The creature paused, its nose twitching, then it moved away from them. They were too tired to even care about the large snake. Other things rustled the branches and the grasses; creatures great and small.

  With their backs against trees, suffering from dehydration and hunger, all they could do was to hang on and try to rest, hoping as they waited for the first sunlight to flicker through the trees, praying they would be on the move before the runners were on top of them. Shadowy shapes moved all around them, tiny beady eyes staring menacingly at them. It would be either the daylight or something eating them which would come first. Casey rested her head on Raven’s chest and fell asleep.

  * * *

  At the first streak of sunlight through the leaves, Raven stirred. The cracking of the branch had woken him, not the light. Through the branches, he could see the runners, even though they had not yet seen him and Casey. He nudged her, silencing her with the palm of his hand, nodding at the runners. Then he signalled behind them.

  On hands and knees, they went silently through the bushes. They came to the edge of the cover, nothing left to hide in, just open space ahead of them. More cracking of twigs behind them. They were running for their lives, shouting runners behind them. The ground sloped steeply away from them, the surface like soft, dark green moss, too slippery for them to run on at the speed they needed. Both lost their footing, and they were on their backsides, careening along.

  Bursts of laser fire blasted all around, inches away from them. Raven took a knick to his arm, another to his leg. Then they came to the cliff at the end of the slope. They jammed their heels into the soft wet moss, but there was only one way to go. They could have been smashed up on the rocks below, but they were flying through the air, and they landed feet first in the pool of water. Still the laser fire blasted all around them, and they took cover into the water. Going back up to the surface would have had them shot to hell.

  A glimmer of light under the surface of the water, a break in the lip around the pool, the pool emptying through it. Up wasn’t an option. Around them, the water hissed with the heat of the lasers. They swam towards the break in the lip, Casey getting there ahead of Raven, the current forcing her through it, Raven inches behind her. The waterfall came next.

  Chapter 91

  It was probably no more than a fifty yard plunge into a swirling maelstrom, but it seemed like a mile long drop to Raven and Casey. Not the recommended manufacturer’s method of cleaning their suits. It came as a pleasant surprise to still be alive. Not so good to still have runners with lasers on the cliff above them, trying their level best to correct that fact. Under the surface they went again, kicking out, swimming with the fast flowing river, swollen with the recent rains. Three miles downstream, they dragged themselves up the muddy bank, totally drained.

  ‘Well, I guess that takes care of bath-time,’ said Raven. ‘Are you ok?’

  ‘Fully rehydrated, thanks for asking.
If I had any strength left, I’d strangle you.’

  ‘Seems there’s a whole line-up of bad guys ahead of you. Are you able to walk a little way? Find a place to hole up?’

  Casey said, ‘Not much option. They know the direction we took. Let’s go.’

  They helped each other up.

  ‘You’re hurt,’ said Casey.

  ‘Close shaves. Don’t worry about it.’

  ‘I wasn’t,’ said Casey.

  They trudged another two miles, following the river, often looking behind them. No runners.

  ‘Think they’ve given up?’ asked Casey.

  Raven replied, ‘One can only hope. They have to load the ship and get off this rock. We just need to make it until dark.’

  ‘I want to kill them.’

  Raven pulled up sharp. ‘You do?’

  ‘I could have got by without it, until they started shooting at me. Us. That really annoyed me.’

  ‘I think we should let them go. I mean. I did some serious damage to their investment portfolio. Like you said before. We can live to fight another day.’

  ‘Raven. What’s the last thing they’ll expect? Us to double back and take them on again. I say we kill the sons of bitches.’

  Raven was convinced. ‘Ok. But. We need to feed. I’m so hungry, I’ll not be thinking straight. Neither will you.’

  ‘We saw some little furry things back there. I wanna know what they taste like.’

  Raven grinned. ‘Chicken, I hope. Or maybe rabbit.’

  One thing about a virtually human-less planet, was that most critters didn’t realise they should be afraid when really, they should have been.

  The one in the fork of a branch learned the hard way. About the size of a domestic cat, it stared more out of curiosity than fear. Raven and Casey stared back at it from behind a bush. Raven weighed up the rock in his hand. He threw the rock. The furry thing just sat there.