Chapter 1: Father Pierce Arrives
He had been dispatched by the College of Cardinals to help the bishop of Trena in his mission to assist the people of Trena to find God. The Cardinal in the Office of Doctrine and Evangelism had spent a week briefing him. His task was to bring a team of the Chosen Order to the planet of Trena and to ensure that the unbelievers and blasphemers on Trena were brought to God’s word and justice.
He was a little concerned about getting onto the planet. Gone were the days when he could have hired a pilot to fly him to Trena without the authorities knowing not much more than someone had flown someone to the planet. Now all space traffic was routed through a known port of entry. You just couldn’t fly to your buddies landing pad from orbit. The militia was controlling the air space about the planet very tightly. A landing craft couldn’t even begin to land on the planet without filing a flight plan that told the authorities the reason for the flight and a list of what passengers and cargo were on the manifest. In the past thing were quit informal. Nothing was flying now without the militia’s approval and full documentation. The priest was traveling under a diplomatic passport, but not under his own name! It couldn’t be under his own name as his name was on the prohibited list.
So it was with great trepidation that he approached passport control. Though he was going through the diplomatic VIP part of customs, if they did a DNA scan as well as a retina scan, he knew he was on his way to jail. The Trenan’s didn’t have much of a sense of humor when it came to murder and mayhem by the diplomatic corps on Trena. They believed in diplomatic immunity, but they also let it be known that when they deported a diplomat that should the deportee show up on Trena again and if they caught him the authorities would arrest him on sight. He didn’t know the fix was in.
Junior, the DeeSpa’s backup computer had been approached by his buddy at the Republic’s embassy to help get father Pierce on world. The computer knew that the priest was persona non-gratis on Trena, and knew that he shouldn’t do it. But when he tried to back out the Republic showed him several meetings he had been involved in and that severely questioned his loyalty to the Kingdom. The computer secretly reprogrammed the expert system at the pass port control station. Over time he had set it up so the computer at the space port flagged him every time that a passport was presented to it. The AI was totally compromised; father Pierce was only one of many people the AI had allowed through customs. As he watched father Pierce clear customs he hoped that the Republic would indeed help him get off world.
Father Pierce left the space port and took a taxi to the Church’s Trena offices. He didn’t get out of the cab. He saw the militia encampment and knew the church was under surveillance. He drove to a nearby restaurant and made a phone call. He left the restaurant and went to where his team was assembling for their first action.
“Okay folks,” the priest said, “No martyrs. get your weapons planted and get out. I don’t want you taken in this action. We need to stick it to these heathens. I still have to go to the church. It’s being watched so I can’t just go in. I know that someone has a photo of me and will recognize me. So we go with last mission brief. Take the damn out and go on to your next target.”
They were meeting in a small home that belonged to one of parishioners of the Church of the One God. As the team mounted up the Bishop of Trena snuck into the back door.
“Good morning Excellency,” father pierce said.
“Good morning,” the bishop replied, “you had no problems getting through customs?”
“These pagans are more interested in keeping their people from going off world than people getting on.” the man said. He didn’t offer his name as the bishop had been given a dispatch telling him that an action team would be arriving on planet to begin assisting the bishop’s mission in causing problems for the evacuation. The new Cardinal of the Theocracy, had ordered that their nemesis, the Kingdom of Trena be thwarted in its efforts to get its heathen barbaric people off world to safety. It had been decreed in the College of Cardinals that as God had decided to punish the people of Trena for their heathen sinful ways of plural marriages, giving shelter to clones, allowing Thonians to immigrate to Trena that, they, the chosen of God would assist in God’s desire to bring justice to the people of Trena.
“What do you need from me?” the bishop asked the severely dressed man in front of him.
“Nothing Excellency,” The man said, “We’ll be starting soon. We understand that the pagans are changing their method of moving their people. We had expected this to happen and it will make our operation somewhat easier.”
“Yes they’re going to be more vulnerable,” the bishop said.
“Good,” the man said, “We have some operations planned that are going to really wreak havoc. Some of which may cause severe damage to the city.”
“As you are aware the planet is going to suffer extreme damage from the asteroid impacts. So what’s a little more damage?” the bishop asked.
“Very well sir,” The priest said “with your blessing,” the bishop made the sign of the cross over the team’s head and watched them leave. He waited until the team members brought two dead men and left. He knew that he was being watched. His hopes of not being seen had been just that unfulfilled hopes.
The bishop hadn’t. Two black guardsmen had followed the bishop to the house. They had thought they had secreted themselves without being seen. They were wrong. Father Pierce’s team had placed a couple of watchers in the neighborhood. They had seen the marines make their insertion. They were not in their combat fatigues, just everyday clothing. Although usually experts at concealment this time they were not successful. The first guardsman was dispatched with a simple dart. The poison spread quickly and was one the marine was not immunized against. The second one had his throat cut as his partner was darted. The bodies were quietly disposed of in the basement of the house where their team had met. Before they left, they killed the owners and set the place on fire. When the fire investigators found the marines they knew they had a murder, but there was no evidence as to who did it! The easiest crime in the universe to commit had been done; it was also the easiest one to cover up. For all the centuries of the scientific research into fire and fire investigation, it was still almost impossible to prove who an arsonist was. In this case even the houses expert system had been destroyed.
“Grenlin,” her life mate came up to her. They were investigators in the Companions. They were acknowledged as one of the best homicide investigators in the Thonian MP establishment. She felt his frustration. They both had hit a dead end in this investigation. Now two marines families would be receiving their son’s back and they couldn’t answer the questions of why. “It could have something to do with the Theocracy. The investigators found these icons.”
Grenlin saw the cross, and the Book of the Way, the Church of the one God’s main religious document. The Black Guard Team Commander was with them and he saw the book and the cross and said, “They were following the bishop. They did check in on site here. They could have been killed by the bishop or one of his henchmen.”
“We have no evidence that the Bishop did the job or caused it. Even if he did he’s got immunity.” M’lan said, “I know you guys are keeping him under surveillance. Can you forward your observation log to us?”
“I’ll deliver that sorry bastard's carcass to you if I catch him as much as looking cross eyed at any of my team!” the young captain replied. His two dead marines were the best infiltrators he had on his team. “Okay sergeants, if we can recover the bodies, I got some letters to write and as well as a report.”
“Captain,” Grenlin said softly, “when you hold the memorial we would like to be there.”
“Aye,” the young man said and watched the medical examiners removed the bodies. M’lan gently gripped the marines shoulder and left the scene with his life mate. Both were agitated. They didn’t like these types of crime scenes. Later when they learned of what
the bishop’s team did next they would swear a blood oath to bring them justice.
While the churchmen set fire to their home and committed suicide Father Pierce and his team were working a few miles away near where the Evacuation hospital was set up. There was a small damn that held a river in check so it wouldn’t flood the small town of Galloway. The dam was seventy five feet high and a quarter mile wide. The reservoir contained fifteen thousand acres of water. Father Pierce had determined that by blowing the damn that they would cut the Interstellar Rescue Services Evacuation Hospital off from the city, and take out the town of Galloway. The damn break would cause more unbelievable havoc. They planned to take it out at 2 AM; knowing it would catch most folks in their beds. Nothing was more frightening than to be awoken in the middle of the night to an earth quake, or other natural event. While the dam break wasn’t a natural event, the roar of the water, and the sound of breaking buildings would cause the terror that the cardinals wanted.
They worked through the next day setting their charges. The park police had stopped their dive boat but hadn’t done anything more than let them know they would be around if they got in trouble. The team leader had sweated bullets on that one, as their explosives were being towed behind the boat. He thought about killing the police officer. The lake wasn’t loaded with boaters; but the few that were would witness the murder. They made nice with the park police and continued onto their dive area. At the dive area a few hundred feet from the dam itself they sank the larger of the charges. This was the charge that would do most of the work. The small nuclear explosive would create a pulse that would cause a wall of water to cover the top of the dam causing the grout holding the damn to the rocks on either side of it to break free and cause the damn to be ripped out of its foundation. The other charges the team placed were designed to weaken the grout connections to the damn so when the water got there, there would be less resistance and cause the damn to fail faster. The bomb itself was a clean device. They had considered using a dirty bomb; but decided against it. A dirty bomb would look like sabotage, while this would look like a damn failure at first glance. They didn’t want the Theocracy’s finger prints on this activity.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 105
