Chapter 6: The Closers
Theyy arrived together. The same pilot who had flown Lord Hawthorne out had flown them in. He had been an Ebio stringer. The pilot had been one of the people that the company used to smuggle people on and off world. She hadn’t wanted to kill the pilot. It was only after she found him calling the Mounties that she had known she had to kill him. She knew that he was a throw away. He was a stringer that was known to the Mounties as a smuggler and would be thought to have been killed by a client. They knew the Mounties would soon know they were on planet. But she hoped it wouldn’t be until they finished their primary task closing the file on Clone Delta 1980 Alpha Omega Bravo. She had escaped twenty years before from a containment teambreeding center. They were to kill her in the most visible, goriest way possible to send a message to the millions clones that had escaped and were on the run through out the galaxy. Ebio would find you and take care of you as they saw fit. All of them were trained hired killers, none of them were bioengineered, or bioenhanced human beings. They loathed escaped clones as if they were unclean garbage. They didn’t understand how these clones could escape from a company that the closers thought treated them well. All of the closers enjoyed their work.
Now after a couple of days on world, Hozenbur, the team leader, was now listening to the intelligence her team had gathered in the short time they had been on planet.
“I checked out the halfwit’s home. I talked to a couple of neighbors, they aren’t there any longer.” one of the men begansaid, “Haven’t been there since the night they announced the evacuation.”
“Yeah,” Hozenbur remarked said, “They are living in the palace. I heard that before we left.”
“I checked the palace out.” One of the other woman on the team spoke upreplied, “It is tight. It’s a layered defense in depth. Although there is not any air restrictions over the palace most aircraft stay clear of it. Because a few years back the expert system controlling the air defense system hiccupped and killed a family flying over it. So for the most part air traffic stay away from the palace. Then there are foot patrols beginning a block or so out from the palace, then there is the uniformed queen’s own regiment that are more than ceremonial guards. They are fully armed with laser rifles, pistols and grenades. They are on all the public and private entrances. They are to assure positive ID of everyone entering the palace. In side the palace walls there are roving guards. They walk random patrols, with random shift changes. The AI that manages the security system is the finest money can buy. Literally the same one the emperor on Earth uses; but on steroids. It includes unmanned fully automated random secbots. They are armed. While normally not on hair trigger fire they can be. And to make things interesting, the Queen, the Marshal and his family all have human, Thonian, and Clones on their security team. Their personal security team is made up of ten people to each team. Some, the principles know about, other they don’t know. There is always an armed plain clothes security officer with the Queen, or just out side her door. The same is true of the Marshal and the clone. In fact the Queen ordered the protective detail to take the unit protecting her and assigned it to the Wilson’s.”
“What do we know?” Hozenbur asked.
“Everything and nothing,” The woman said. “Every one of the protective detail lives on the palace grounds. Most of them have no family. All of them have no serious vices. They have been checked back two generations, with the exception of the clone. He is an emancipated bioengineered human. He bought himself out of indenture. And yes I checked him out! He can’t be bribed, he can’t be touched. He lives on the palace grounds, seldom goes out. There is a PX for him and everyone who lives and works on the grounds. When he does go out it is to drive the Queen or now The Halfwit, and her family.”
“We can blow the car,” Hozenbur suggestedaid.
“Yeah,” one of the team women repliedsaid. She had been a sleeper on Trena just being the eyes and ears of the company. She had been aware of the clone, but had known better to pass it on. If she did she wouldn’t have lived through the night. “But the departure is never advertised, and there are usually three vehicles, loaded under cover, never in the open. I haven’t seen them reload at destination. They sometimes use landing craft. If they do, they use a military style LC with a full counter measure suite installed. That includes automatic anti air defense. Laser, rockets, air mines, slug throwers, flare and chaff dispensers. It is harden electronically and immune to EMP. The AIs are virus and worm proof. If a virus is detected in one of the AIs it is taken off line and one that has been isolated in secure storage is warmed up and put on the landing craft.”
“Do we know the location?” Hozenbur asked.
“No,” The woman replied, “No one I have talked to will tell me where it is.”
“So what do we do?” Hozenbur asked.
“We have a list of other clones that are thought to be hiding out on Trena. We can start hunting them, and keep an eye on the palace. At some point they will be some place we can get them.” The woman said.
“Just so everybody is on the same page...” One of the men spoke upaid, “Everyone knows how these people handle containment teams?” There were nods all around, “You know that these people have authorized their cops to use deadly force to prevent a clone from being taken back? And if we put up any resistance on capture we will be killed. If arrested and convicted it’s not just being deported. It is being sent to Dungeon for life.”
“Look a lot of what we do is against the law on the various worlds we have worked on.” Hozenbur replied, “We just have to be careful.”
“We pick up only those clones that have done serious damage to the containment teams. There are several here who have killed our brother officers when they escaped. I want them.” Hozenbur said a while later. “I would prefer to pick them up and take them back to the nearest company world where they can be executed in front of other half wits. But if necessary kill them in the goriest hideous way you can think of; something that will make the news and send a message out to the clones. I want them thinking about their future. Many of these guys got to be thinking what happens to them when they evacuate. There aren’t many places that they can go that have the same protection as Trena.”
Every Last Mother's Child Page 43
