"You were right." said Kepp suddenly.
"What?" replied Liza, a little confused.
"Chasing them would have been stupid."
Liza sensed that this was as close to an apology as she was going to get. She nodded, wondering if Kepp could see it; all she saw of him was a dark shape.
"We'll make sure your team didn't die in vain as well," he said.
"Thanks." The faces of the ambushed squad appeared to her mind's eye. She sighed. She had thought about something like this happening before - many times, and she always assumed that she would feel sad, but it wasn't like that. Now that the adrenaline had subsided, she just felt empty.
"They were all good men and women," she said, "They didn't deserve to die like that."
"They died doing their duty, you can't ask for more than that."
"They were surveillance, none of them had done anything more than basic firearms. It would have been like lambs to the slaughter."
"This the first time you've had people die under your command?" Kepp grunted as he sat up.
"Well no, but...this was my whole team. I feel like I should have told them to be more discreet, or, done something different, maybe, somehow..."
She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm not a wise man," said Kepp, "but I've been through my share of scrapes. Just keep your eyes on the prize, that's what they would want you to do. You can't let them down now."
"Are those words you live by?"
"Heh, I'd hardly call it living. Surviving, maybe. There's also someone I can't let down."
"Thanks." She took what comfort she could from his words.
Morian crowed exultantly to himself as he walked briskly towards the co-ordinates indicated by his datapad. He was flanked by two men, both carrying sniper rifles loaded with tranquilizer darts - this would be too easy.
It took them less than half an hour to approach the location. They approached the field from the south side, Morian could see from his co-ordinates that the two Paragons were actually close to the south end of the field. That meant they would have to skirt around to enter the field from the north side in order to get a clear line of sight for the snipers.
A temporary inconvenience.
Morian delighted in the anticipation. Just a few more minutes and all the obstacles would be removed. The path would be clear.
He motioned for his men to follow the hedgerow around the edge of the field, and they skirted around, keeping their heads low, and their footsteps soft. They were predators, stalking their prey. Prey who had no idea they were being hunted.
They pushed through the hedgerow at the northeast corner of the field carefully; the rustling of their movement was covered by the rustling of the trees from the breeze. Once through, Morian motioned to his men to set up their rifles. His heart pounded as he stared into the darkness ahead; somewhere in that direction, less than a hundred meters away, sat his targets.
There were several metallic clicks as the sniper rifles were assembled, and then his men were ready. They peered down the scopes, their vision enhanced by thermal imaging.
One of the men tapped him on the shoulder, "We have to relocate - their car is in the way. Also, there are three heat signatures."
A flash of annoyance crossed Morian’s face - they had only brought two rifles.
He motioned for his men to reposition. They could take out three people easily enough. It wouldn't be a problem. The smile returned.
Haur had returned from his walkabout. The three of them sat on the grass, wordless, as they waited for backup to arrive.
There was a sudden gust of wind, and a yelp from Liza, as well as a metal plink. Kepp looked at her, the implants providing low light vision. He saw a dart stuck in her arm, and rushed to her side, pulling the dart out.
Haur sprang up, pistol in hand.
"Liza!"
"Tranq..." was all she could utter, before she succumbed to the anesthetic.
Kepp started to drag her limp form towards the car, against which Haur was taking cover. He heard another metal plink, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side.
"I'm hit!" He grabbed a stim pen with one hand and jabbed it into his neck - it would fight the effects of the tranquilizer, at least temporarily.
"I can't see them," said Haur, "probably snipers."
Kepp lay Liza down as gently as he could manage, and staggered to the side of the car, his vision was blurred, and his head felt light. This was a powerful tranq. There were some more plinks as two more darts impacted the car and bounced harmlessly away.
"Fuck, I'm going, Haur. This shit is strong..." he slurred.
Kepp felt his vision blacken, and his senses numb. He collapsed against the side of the car.
Panic wasn't really part of Haur's make up, but he felt tense - this was a tight spot. He glanced around his immediate surroundings. He couldn't see anyone, despite the enhanced vision. He looked at the long distance communications pack - it lay out in the open - it would be impossible to get to.
He opened the car doors and working as quickly as possible, put Kepp and Liza inside in a heap on the back seat. He felt another dart whistle past his ear, and immediately ducked. Careful now.
He slammed the rear door and then jumped into the driver’s seat. He thumbed the starter button.
"ID unrecognized. Please authenticate."
Fuck. Haur had forgotten that all military use vehicles were ID-locked to their specific teams, which in this case, would be to Liza. He hurriedly got out his datapad and linked it into the vehicles data terminal.
"ID Override Commencing," announced the computer.
Come on, willed Haur. He knew that their attackers would probably be closing in on their position. He needed to take off now.
His datapad blinked. "Input PPC"
His fingers flew over the pad, entering in his Personal Paragon Code. It was a twenty four digit code which all Paragons had to memorize.
"Code Accepted"
He reached to press the ignition, when there was a sudden shattering of glass, and then he felt a gun pressed to his left temple. His thumb hovered over the starter switch.
"You press that switch and you die, as well as your friends in the back," came a voice. Haur put his hands up slowly.
"There's a good boy."
The attacker stabbed a dart into his neck. His vision quickly blurred and he fell forward, slumping onto the steering wheel.
The military transport hummed through the sky. Kikuchi Saro sat in his personal suite in the plane, deep in thought. The lounge area was taken up by a 14-man team of United Earth's Special Forces. Saro hoped that their gear was clean - usually a plush carpeted floor didn't react well to dirty combat boots.
He checked the coordinate traces for Kepp and Haur. They were no longer stationary. A grim smile crossed his face - it had begun. His implants buzzed - a call from Hao.
"I've received a call from Morian - he says to turn off the coordinate traces, as he no longer needs them."
"Roger, go ahead. Saro out."
Hao had proved to be a valuable double agent. Saro would have to reward him suitably when this was all over.
The two dots representing the locations of Kepp and Haur disappeared as Hao switched off the coordinate feed. Saro tapped a few buttons on the datapad in his hand, then, a few seconds later, Kepp's dot re-appeared. Saro smiled, the extra datapad he had given Kepp was a specially modified one, containing tracking data which would be sent directly to the receiver which only Saro held.
It would take the assault team straight to their enemy's base of operations.
He switched off the tracking for now - they still had two hours of flight time left; no point wasting the power supply.
His hands brushed the touch-desk in front of him, and brought up a direct video conference line with the Primarchs - the three councilmen at the head of the World Government. Their faces were shadowed - no one interacted directly with them - only via video conferencing. They wer
e known only as One, Two and Three.
"Kikuchi Saro," said One. "I hope you have some good news to offer us."
"Yes," replied Saro, a smile on his face, "We will shortly be assaulting their base of operations. They will be brought to justice, for treason."
"The populace are restless," said Two. "I am eager for us to release the changes that we have discussed in order to appease them."
"Best to wait until after the operation, I think. I will inform you of its success."
"We defer to your knowledge on this matter, Saro. You had best not let us down," said Three.
The connection was cut. Saro sat back in his chair. A nervous anticipation began to build in his chest. Two hours and then the sanity of the world would be saved.
Chapter 10 – Caged
Cold.
Feet, cold.
Kepp blinked his eyes open. His head lolled around on his neck, seemingly not attached by muscles, or at least none he could exert control over. Everything was a grey blur. Numbness coursed through his body, except from his feet, which felt cold.
Dull sounds echoed in his ears. It was like all of his senses had been fogged. His brain tried to grasp at coherent thoughts, falling woefully short at first, but edging closer with each attempt.
His vision finally began focusing, it was like someone removing a smeared up lens from his eyes. He blinked at the figure standing in front of him.
Brown trousers. He willed his head to tilt back. It did so, slowly.
"Well, Kepp. Glad to see you're awake." He recognized the voice instantly. It was like a shot of adrenaline, shaking his senses into clarity.
"Morian!" he hissed, speech still slightly slurred.
"Kepp. Ah, this is a nice feeling. After all that shit you gave me back on Mars. You're in what I would call a bit of a pickle," Morian practically danced around the chair, his raspy voice light and airy. "What to do, what to do, what to do?"
Kepp said nothing, he glanced around the room, familiarizing himself with the immediate surroundings. There wasn't a lot to take in; the room had bare concrete walls covered with dust and the stains of dilapidation. He was bound to a metal chair, which appeared to be fixed to the floor. There was a negation field placed around the cell; Kepp's implants would not work here.
Morian's heels clicked on the floor as he paced around Kepp with barely disguised contempt and open jubilation.
Kepp began to slowly collect his thoughts.
How had Morian known we were there? Impossible.
Did they just get lucky?
I don't believe that.
Betrayal? An insider?
That's possible.
Morian snapped his fingers under Kepp’s nose, breaking his train of thought.
"Let me guess, you're thinking about how you got yourself into this situation, am I right?" he said, eyes glittering. "It's pretty simple, really. A Paragon of your caliber should be able to figure it out."
"An insider?" hazarded Kepp.
"You know Saro once said that Paradigm couldn't be spied on? Guess he was wrong, eh?"
You've always been a cocky shit, thought Kepp. Keep yourself calm. See if you can play him. Forget about Julia for now.
"So, Morian," Kepp tried to keep his voice casual, "What's the scoop, eh? I can see you're dying to tell and rub it in my face."
Morian stopped pacing and gave Kepp a smile, with a small disbelieving shake of his head.
"Kepp. You know me too well. There are a few things though. First, -you- are my prisoner, and had you useful information, you would be the one coughing it up."
"So you think I know nothing then?"
"Nothing of use, no."
Is he just bluffing? Surely the techies at Paradigm would have figured out the Alpha Cybernetics data by now.
"Do you think Paradigm knows anything useful then?" he asked.
Morian paused in mock thought.
"No," he laughed, "Otherwise you wouldn't be in this position would you? Strapped to this chair, being told what in the hell is going on by me, of all people."
There was a tap on the door, and Morian opened it and held a brief conversation, before returning to Kepp, his smile wider than ever.
That can't be good for me, thought Kepp, seeing his expression.
Morian pulled out an alarm clock out of his pocket. An old fashioned 7-segment display that started counting down from 15:00 minutes. He set it on the ground in front of Kepp. The red displayed glared at him, as the seconds ticked away.
"I hate to be one who makes proclamations, but this is how much time you have left to live," he stated flatly, eyes boring into Kepp, waiting for a reaction.
Kepp gave him nothing.
"If you're going to avenge Julia, I would say now was probably your only chance," prodded Morian.
Kepp stared resolutely at the floor, his jaw set, struggling to contain the blind fury which rose up in him at those words.
Information. Get. Information.
He forced himself to meet Morian's eyes.
"You know, it would be an awful shame for me to die without knowing how you utterly bested me, wouldn't it?"
Morian moved animatedly, licking his lips and laughing. Kepp could tell the adrenaline was pumping through him.
"Kepp. You're too much. Too much!" The last half was fully shouted, echoing slightly in the bare room.
Silence fell. The two men continued to stare at each other, one pacing back and forth barely able to contain himself, the other calm on the surface, but a mess of roiling emotion within.
Morian glanced at the timer, 14:00 to go.
"Ah well, I guess you've calmed down over the years. Still, it would have been the cherry on top to see you rage uselessly."
The hell I have.
"Still, I better let you know what's about to happen. So I can enjoy the look on your face for all time."
"This Life Enjoyment Center Culture. It's a parasite to human development; it's a cancer to our knowledge." Morian paused for effect, "I don't care about any of that crap; that's what those old farts say. But, they do have a handy plan to destroy them."
Kepp's eyes widened.
"You realize what would happen right? Global…Anarchy," he punctuated those words, with an air of grim satisfaction. "Estimated casualties; 1 billion. The whole economy would collapse. Society would need to be re-ordered from the ground up. New government, new policies," Morian leaned in close and whispered, "A new leader..."
"You think you can become leader of the world by destroying it?" asked Kepp, in disbelief.
"From the ashes shall rise a new phoenix. Me, and my global order."
"Wait, who are you working with? What old farts? There are hundreds of LECs over the world, how can you destroy them all?" Kepp’s pulse raced, as did his mind, as he struggled to comprehend the scale of the plan Morian had laid out.
"Those old farts? They are the founders of Paradigm."
"Paradigm? What are you talking about?"
Morian looked at the clock. 13:00 to go.
"I would say: ask Saro, but, I don't think you'll ever see him again," Morian paused, "Too bad."
"So, Kepp. I shall become the head of a new global order, and you shall become dust and ashes in some unknown basement. Such is life, eh? Farewell."
Morian walked out of the room, heels clicking with each step.
"Explosives?" asked Kepp.
"Right you are, hidden in the walls and the floor," replied Morian without turning, "I was sure that you would want to go out with a bang."
He slammed the cell door behind him as he left.
James Danuwa looked at the data spread before him, gleaned from the raid on the Alpha Cybernetics facility. None of it seemed to be making any sense; a mass procurement plan for arms and weapons, unauthorized production schedules for two battleships in a shipyard in orbit around Mars, development diaries for orbital strike technology. He also found archives of education curriculums from years gone by from Secondary through to Tertiary
education for every subject imaginable. The newest entry was twenty years ago, and they stretched on for fifty years before that.
Impressive, sure, but what was it going to be used for?
More worrying was a dossier he had found, detailing the time and place of Alpha Cybernetics presidents' assassination.
If this was an internal thing, who was pulling the strings? Was it Morian?
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