by Frank Carey
"Do we have to turn it on?"
"It's already on," Shenda said as she ran a scanner over it. "Christa told me about this trap. It wants you to turn it on so it can call security while scramming itself." She took off her necklace and removed the end of it, revealing a USB plug. Biting her lip, she plugged it in. She watched as a small blue light on top the pendant blinked rapidly. Smiling, she took out her scanpad and aimed it at the pendant. "Half-done," she announced.
"How much data are we talking about here?" Anne asked.
"According to the pendant, four terabytes. We're at eighty-percent."
Two flashes of blue signaled the arrival of Randy and Nels. "What the hell are you two morons doing? This isn't part of the plan." Anne whispered.
Nels tapped his earpiece. "We tried to raise you."
"You are about to have a visitor." Nels said.
"Ninety percent," Shenda announced.
"Can't you make that thing work faster?" Anne whispered to Shenda.
"You're kidding, right? Ninety-five percent."
A sound interrupted them. "What was that?" Anne asked.
Randy hooked a thumb toward the door. "Company." They heard the lock on the door disengage.
"Shit."
Randu and a team of security operatives ran up the stairs. "Are you sure you're detecting terminal activity?"
"Yes, sir. It's hidden by an extremely advanced masking protocol. We were lucky to even observe it when we did."
"Dammit, we have top-of-the-line electronic countermeasures and the finest mechanical lock made. How the hell could anyone get in here?" He checked the alarms and the lock. Seeing nothing amiss, he deactivated the perimeter alarm, then unlocked the door.
The security team leader gently pushed Randu to the side. "Allow me, sir."
Randu nodded. Seeing his men ready, the lead opened the door and rushed in with his team close behind.
"Clear, sir."
Randu walked in and found the room empty, the terminal still in the state he had left it in. He walked over and keyed in his password. Once in, he ran a diagnostic. "Everything looks good."
Meanwhile, the security team swept the room, but found nothing except for a half-eaten blini. The team leader shook his head. "Sorry, sir, must be a false alarm." Using the room comm, he called the security center, hanging up after a short conversation. "Sir, the monitor on duty reports everything is back to normal."
Randu shrugged, then looked at the room's chrono. "Damn, I'm late for a meeting. Lieutenant, button this place up and have the techs look the terminal over in the morning."
"Yes, sir," the lieutenant said. He threw the blini in a trashcan as he and his team followed Randu out of the room.
Reginald walked into the private room and found a pile of sovereigns in the middle of the table next to two empty bottles of vodka and three empty trays. His hands shook as he counted the money. He stopped when he saw the note. "Enjoy the tip - Anne." He folded it and carefully put it in his pocket before preparing the room for the next guests.
The four agents materialized in the lounge where Losira, Gren, Torren, and Neta waited. "Did you get the data?" Neta asked.
Shenda handed over the pendant. "We were also able to infect their InterWeb with Christa's little bug," Randy said.
"Excellent. Grendel!"
"Yes, mistress!"
Neta handed Gren the pendant. "Rip it apart! I want names, places, dates, and details!"
"Yes, mistress!"
"Now, all we need to do is stop a bomb," Losira said.
Chapter 20 - Action!
With the sun high in the sky, nothing stirred around the facility, not a bird, nor a gust of wind. Overhead, the corvette hovered, its shields protecting the building and itself from attack.
A utility door opened, followed by two individuals in power suits stepping out into the hot afternoon sun. "Alex, this is Hera, do you copy? Over?" one of the suits radioed.
"We copy, Hera. Our scopes are clear."
Hera stopped and surveyed the area outside the force field. Both suits were equipped with phase-adjusters which allowed them to pass through the field. As she stood there, looking for any sign of the robocreatures Lucien had described in their last meeting, the other suit, driven by Perseus, another assassin, stepped outside the field. "He lied to you, Hera. There's nothing out here except scorpions and spiders."
"Percy, stop your damn grandstanding and get back in here before I put a bullet in you myself."
He never had a chance to comply as dozens of centipedes erupted from the sand and opened fire on him and the shield surrounding the facility. He was cut down before he could fire a single shot.
"Percy!" she screamed, but it was too late. His suit was no match for lasers designed to cut through rock and rubble. She screamed the battle cry of the woman elf warrior while letting loose a barrage of fire at the attacking bots, but her weapons were made useless by the force field protecting her.
"Hera, get your ass in here!" Alex yelled as the ship above opened fire, its weapons synchronized with the field. The centipedes noticed this and fired back with the same frequency. Hera dove into the door as laser fire impacted the outside surface of the facility.
"That son-of-a-bitch elf! He wasn't lying! He killed Percy! I'll rip off his head and piss down the stump! I'll..."
Alex grabbed her by her armored shoulders and looked directly into her suit’s optical inputs. "You will get the plark inside the inner wall and get out of that suit. You will then find McMurphy and get her to the control room before we're over run by those things."
Her suit shook with her anger. "Yes, sir!" she hissed while around them, the walls thrummed with laser hits.
With the Grumpy Elfling parked nearby carrying a team of EarthSec troopers waiting for the signal to proceed, Lucien and his family walked over to where the tunnel entrance was hidden within a rock outcropping.
"This is it," Lucien said. He ran his hand over the sandblasted surface of a large metal door embedded in a boulder. It sported a metal lock. "Torren, show time."
Torren knelt down and examined the lock while Lucien, Sana, Aerith, and Jewel kept watch. They heard a click followed by Torren showing them the lock. "Easy peasy."
Aerith scanned the doorway for alarms. "Clear."
"Let's get moving," Lucien said, pulling the door open.
They stepped inside and headed down the dimly lit tunnel toward whatever awaited them.
The tunnel was clean and well-lit considering its age. There were no signs of cobwebs, or root incursion. The four members of Team Elf quickly made it to the opposite end of the tunnel where they found a second locked door, this one also secured by a mechanical lock. Torren worked his magic, and they found themselves inside the facility. "Activate headsets and go to augmented reality," Lucien ordered. They pressed a button on the side of their units, then swung the viewer into place in front of their dominant eye. They gave a thumbs-up, a signal for the release of the beetle bots. Once free of their storage unit, the bots spread out down the corridors in search of Marta, the package, and its control console. A moment later, sirens went off as the building shook with impacts.
"Right on time," Jewel said as she looked at her chrono. "We have fifteen minutes to find Marta."
On her signal, they moved deeper into the complex. Rounding a corner, they ran into a group of armed workers. Before a shot could be fired, the workers succumbed to a nasty case of angry elf and elfling syndrome whose primary symptom is deep unconsciousness. After dragging the sleeping group members into empty side-rooms, the team continued down the hallway.
"Wait a minute," Aerith said as she stopped in front of an open doorway. She walked in and sat down in front of a terminal, dropping a hacker ball onto the units CPU case. Tentacles appeared and speared the case. She typed commands into the keyboard. "I'm in."
"Can you find your mom?" Lucien asked.
"Yeah, transferring data to headsets."
A map appeared, floating in front
of their eyes.
"Anything about the package or its controls?" Jewel asked.
"Yeah, both are at the center of the facility. The package is attached to the drill and they are both approaching the moho discontinuity. The package control is located in the same control room as the drill controls. It looks like a typical drill control shack suspended above the rig floor. Anything else?"
"Light off the evac and fire alarms, then scram the network, and I mean send it back to the Stone Age," Lucien replied.
"Copy that," Aerith said. She typed in a command, hitting return as she grabbed the hacker ball. The computer screen and keyboard erupted in flames as alarms went off around them.
"Damn, girl," Jewel exclaimed. "You have to show me how to do that."
"When we get back," the elfling said as she retrieved her weapon and headed out the door after her father.
"This way," Lucien said as he followed the map hovering in front of his eye. He turned the corner and ran right into Hera.
"Aymar!" the assassin screamed as she grabbed him and put a blaster to his head. "So, I get to finally collect those bounties on your head, smuggler. Make it easy on yourself. I promise to be quick."
Lucien muttered something.
"What did you say, elf? I didn't catch that."
"They always forget the tail," he replied as he wrapped his tail around her wrist, snapping it. She screamed in pain while dropping the weapon to the floor. Before she could retrieve it with her good hand, a stun charge hit her, knocking her to the ground unconscious.
Lucien turned to see Marta standing behind him with a blaster in her hand. "No one threatens my family," Marta growled, holstering her weapon as she ran over to Lucien. "Are you hurt?"
He grabbed her and kissed her. "I'm fine, now."
"I can't believe an elf forgot about the tail thing."
"Yeah. You would be shocked at the number of times it happens. Go figure," he said. "Torren, signal the force we have Marta and are proceeding to the drill control room."
"Damn, you two are cute," Torren said as he made the call. Around them, the facility fell into chaos as computer after computer erupted into flames while alarms blared and strobes flashed. Marta looked at Aerith. "Your doing?"
Aerith nodded. "It was getting boring around here."
Lucien looked at his chrono. "It's getting late. We need to deactivate the package. Jewel, can you lock Sleeping Beauty in Marta's cell?"
"With pleasure." She walked over to the unconscious assassin and picked her up as if she weighed nothing. In moments, Hera was safely sleeping off the stun charge inside a locked cell.
"Marta, can you disarm the package and scram it so it can never be reactivated?"
"Just get me to the control console. I'll slag that damn thing."
They headed toward the center of the facility while a battle raged around them.
Chapter 21 - Deconstruction
Grendel, Losira, Nels, and Neta stared at Grendel's monitors in disbelief, and Grendel had a lot of monitors--nine in total-each with spreadsheets and charts spread across them.
"Gren, you can make sense of this?" Nels asked.
"Sure. Here, let me make it clearer." She pressed a key and the images formed a layered onion starting from the center screen. "As you can see, the outer layer companies protect the ones beneath them right down to the central core. This type of structure has been popular for the last thirty years since it was taught by Dr. Theo Echo. Ten years ago, the model went out of favor, and Dr. Echo was discredited, when a flaw was found."
"What is that?" Neta asked.
"The whole scheme unravels if three key companies--nodes as Dr. Echo called them--became insolvent. The resulting cascade failure opened all the other companies to scrutiny under existing bankruptcy laws, thus exposing all illegal enterprises. I never thought I would see an Echo in the real world."
The others looked at each other. Nels shrugged and asked, "How does that help us?"
She pointed to three nodes. "These companies' computers will hold all the data required to unravel Adrestia and confiscate every penny and every asset they have. Accessing them will allow you to gain access to the core computers and all personnel records. We just have to raid these three companies and have a team standing at the core. I think our warrant should be valid."
Nels kissed her cheek. "You, Grendel Tavish, are an amazing woman."
"Thank you," she said as her tail sneaked up over her shoulder to watch him.
Neta looked at Losira. "Do it," the Queen replied. "Shut this puppy down."
The Adrestia headquarters was in an uproar as the users found themselves locked out of their accounts. First the computers, then the commlinks and sat phone lines went dead. Finally, the lights went out, leaving everyone in the dark. A moment later, a knock at the door broke the silence.
One of the elves, a male by the name of Argent, walked up to the door and peered out through the peephole. "Shit!" he said as he spied at least a dozen armed officers wearing R-Sec uniforms outside, their weapons slung in an easy-carry posture. Standing directly in front of the peephole, holding up a warrant, was a young elf woman with long blond hair and a look that could cut through adamantine steel plate. Argent opened the door and peered out. "Yes?"
"Agent Grendel Tavish of Royal Security. I have a warrant to search the premises. Now, either open the damn door, or these elves standing behind me are prepared to rip it off its hinges."
Argent looked at the agents and saw each and every one of them topped two meters in height. All of them looked like they could tear large hard cover books in half with their bare hands. He swung the door open and invited them in. "For give us for the disarray, but we have been having computer, comm, and electrical problems.”
Ignoring him, except to slap a copy of the warrant into his chest, Grendel walked in and stood off to the side as the security officers took up positions around the room. More agents walked in, some wearing jackets emblazoned with either 'Royal Security' or 'CSI,' and spread out through the building.
"You should call your lawyers, all of them," Grendel said.
"Can I borrow your comm?"
She handed him her commlink. He made some calls before handing it back to her. "Thank you."
She pushed him gently back against the wall as an agent brought out an elf in handcuffs. Another followed, then another. A tall elf wearing impeccable clothing walked in. "What is the meaning of this? My name is Solstice MacPhee and I represent Argent and all these elves."
Argent handed him the warrant. Then Grendel handed him a stack of arrest warrants. "Murder? Mayhem? Kidnapping? Grand theft? Espionage? Attempted murder?" the lawyer asked.
"I am Royal Security Agent Grendel Tavish. If you read the fine print you will see we are investigating the murder of over two thousand sapients over the last twenty years, the murder of twenty-five employees of Nico's, the kidnapping of EMEF General Marta McMurphy, the theft of a top secret weapons system, and the attempted murder of the population of the planet Earth."
Argent fainted while Mr. MacPhee went apoplectic.
"If you look carefully, you will see the warrants have been countersigned by Queen Losira, General McMurphy's sister-in-law and the current ruler of Ventos Prime. Counselor, you'd better get down to R-Sec and start talking to them. The more they cooperate, the better things will go for all involved."
MacPhee stared at her for a brief moment before heading back out the door.
"You may want to call in some backup," Grendel chimed at the counselor's retreating back. There was a flash of blue as Nels appeared out of thin air. She grabbed him and pulled him out of the way as more agents headed out the door with prisoners in hand while other agents entered to continue the cycle.
"Damn, woman, you have an assembly line going, don't you."
Grendel dropped her tough agent demeanor to revert back to a giddy girl. "Yes, I do. Look at all these assassins being led out and I'm in charge."
"Any problems?"
> "Not so far. Things seem to be going smoothly."
The hallway lights flashed as sirens sounded throughout the building.
Grendel returned to tough agent mode. She tapped her earpiece. "Report!"
"Ma'am, one of the assassins tripped a booby trap. We have less than a minute before detonation."
"Location of the device?"
“Down the hall and to the right.”
Grendel and Nels ran to the room and found two R-Sec agents working on a small device in the middle of the room. "Where did it come from?" Grendel asked.
"It was hidden in a potted plant," one of the agents said. "Ma'am, this is a nuke and we don't have time to get it out of here or evacuate the city."
Before she could say anything, Nels grabbed the plant and shunted out of the room. Moments later, the sky above them lit up with a bright flash just as Nels returned, his body covered in frost. "Get a medic in here, now!" She knelt down and helped him sit up. "Get me blankets, now! Nels, talk to me. What did you do?"
"I shunted the bomb into orbit, but took too long to return. Damn, it’s cold when the sun is behind the planet."
Agents brought blankets. With the other agents help, she bundled him up, then held him to give him warmth while the medics checked him over. "Nels, that was the greatest act of bravery I've ever seen. You're amazing."
Neither of them noticed their tails intertwining.
The agents and medic did notice, though, so they quietly left as Nels and Gren looked into each other’s eyes. "You sure about this," Nels asked as he took her hands in his. "You're young with a full life ahead of you."
"I know. I want to spend every minute of that life with you."
