Rebel World (The Eternal Frontier Book 4)

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  “Sure,” Tag said with a smile.

  After they dropped off the samples at Hannah’s lab, Tag, Bull, and Sumo started the march toward the Principality’s modest government headquarters. “I think that scientist has a thing for you,” Sumo said to Tag as they walked. “You and her going to be a thing?”

  “I don’t really have time for that,” Tag said.

  “Didn’t answer my question, did you?” Sumo smirked. “Must be killing you inside to act like you’re just a dumb diplomat.”

  Now Bull grinned. “Got to pretend all that science is just hocus-pocus.”

  “It’s not hard,” Tag said. “I spend enough time around you all to know what that looks like.”

  “Harsh, Cap,” Sumo said. “I’ll have you know I understand at least ten percent of all that scientific mumbo-jumbo you and Alpha are always on about.”

  Tag raised a brow. “Ten percent, really?”

  “Fine, but do you know how to field-strip and clean a pulse rifle in fifteen seconds?”

  Tag lifted his hands in a gesture of defeat. “Won’t even pretend I do.”

  Bull let out a grunt. Tag couldn’t tell if it was disapproval or something else, and he didn’t have time to ask. Lieutenant Governor Robert Lindquist burst from the government building to meet them. His puffy cheeks bloomed bright scarlet, and sweat poured down his forehead from his matted-down comb-over.

  “You’re back!” Lindquist yelled. “Burton and Cho are in the neutral zone. You better get up there!”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  The sounds of raised voices echoed from the neutral-zone building.

  “Want us to wait outside?” Bull asked.

  “Not this time,” Tag said, jogging up the path.

  When he entered, no one turned his way. Burton was engaged in a yelling match with Cho. Each had a contingent of bodyguards who looked dangerously close to unholstering weapons. It seemed that with the right breeze, the whole building might go up in a flurry of blades and guns.

  “How could you let them take our people like that?” Burton asked with a wide sweep of her hand.

  Cho’s face was red. “If you want to be independent, you can damn well learn what that really means.”

  “What is going on?” Tag demanded.

  They ignored him.

  Tag stepped between Burton and Cho, pushing them apart. Their rage turned from each other and toward him. Accusations flew like arrows. Tag withstood the onslaught.

  “Quiet!” Tag bellowed when both Burton and Cho paused to draw breath. “Nothing is going to get done around here if you don’t shut the three hells up!”

  Cho’s chest heaved, and his hand strayed toward his pistol. Burton’s nose was pinched up in a snarl.

  “Everyone out,” Tag said with a growl. “It’s just you two and me in here.”

  When neither said anything, Tag stomped his foot. “Now!”

  The marines and colonists didn’t twitch until Burton and Cho finally gestured for them to leave. Tag nodded to Bull and Sumo.

  “Keep an eye on them outside.”

  “Yes, sir,” Bull said, his face expressionless.

  Once the doors shut behind them, Tag motioned for Cho and Burton to have a seat. They continued to stare at each other, their gazes locked like two stags with intertwined antlers.

  “We are all goddamned adults,” Tag said. “Let’s act like it.” He stayed between them, his chin raised, until they backed away. Adrenaline flowed through him, and it didn’t settle when he finally took his own seat.

  “Cho abandoned us. The marines abandoned us,” Burton began. Tag could still see the anger behind her glowing eyes, but she spoke with a measured voice. “They let my people get taken.”

  “We didn’t let your people get taken. They did a good enough job on their own.”

  “But you did nothing to save them from the Imoogi!”

  Cho shrugged. “How many times do I need to tell you? If you want to be independent, that means you deal with these issues on your own. You admit you’re part of the SRE, I’ll treat you like it. Besides, that’s what our friend is here for, isn’t he?”

  For the first time, a look of sincere concern crossed Burton’s face as she turned to Tag. “Did you get them?”

  Tag sighed. “No, I’m afraid we couldn’t save them.”

  “Gone with the other colonists. Gone with my marines,” Cho muttered. Then the fire behind his eyes returned. He stared hard at Burton. “Whatever you did to piss off the Imoogi, you better set it right.”

  “What I did?” Burton said.

  Tag could see the conversation was quickly going to devolve into shouting again. “Give it a rest. You’re not getting anywhere, and even if you were, you’d be headed in the wrong direction.”

  They still fumed, but at least they were watching him now. Tag took a deep breath, praying that they would actually listen.

  “The Imoogi who abducted the colonists weren’t representatives of their people,” Tag said. “They’re dealing with some kind of drug epidemic down there.” He explained what he had found out about the addicts and the stimmadd laced in the beedle-gee, along with the research the Imoogi had been performing. “That being said, neither they nor I have any idea why a group of addicts would abduct humans.”

  “Can you be certain they were the ones that took the marines?” Cho asked. He was still eyeing Burton suspiciously.

  “No, I cannot,” Tag said. “But it certainly seems like it.”

  “Hmm,” Cho said. “I could buy it. Maybe. But I think Burton has some goddamn explaining to do.”

  “Me? About what?” she asked.

  “Don’t play me for a goddamn fool,” Cho said. “I know about your private investors. You’re not as innocent as you pretend to be.”

  “These baseless accusations—”

  “Baseless, my ass,” Cho said. “I told Ambassador Brewer all about your little games.”

  Tag recalled Cho’s half-paranoid conspiracy theories that the colonists were up to something and thwarting his reconnaissance attempts.

  “Burton, you’ve got one chance to come clean,” Cho said. “One chance before I blow the lid on the shit you’re trying to pull.”

  “I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Burton pursed her lips, her nostrils flaring. “Tell me what it is you think I’ve done.”

  Cho ignored her and stared at Tag. “I’ve been waiting for someone from the SRE to show up before I reported this. Now maybe I’ll actually get the support I need—and the respect I deserve.”

  “Go on,” Tag said, his mind spinning. Had Cho discovered something about the collaborators?

  “I had my marines do a sweep after the attack,” Cho said. “Wanted to probe the area for vulnerabilities and see if we could find any evidence of where the Imoogi went. Didn’t find them, but we did find something else more interesting.”

  He tapped on his wrist terminal, and it displayed a holo of a hole in the ground next to freshly shoveled earth. There was a crate in the hole.

  “I don’t understand what we’re looking at,” Burton said.

  “Maybe this will help.” Cho gestured over the wrist terminal, and the next holo showed the crate opened. Tag’s pulse accelerated. The crate was filled with weapons and ammunition. Everything from pulse pistols to rocket launchers.

  “Why are you showing me a crate of your weapons?” Burton asked.

  “These aren’t ours, Governor.”

  “Where did you find these?” Tag asked.

  “About twenty klicks south of here, following the coastline,” Cho said. “I’m sure Burton—or one of her people—could show you the spot.”

  “I assure you, I have no knowledge of the crate or its contents,” Burton said.

  “You sure about that? Maybe your backers could explain it, then,” Cho said.

  Burton sighed. “It’s true that the people who invested in our colonization attempts were unsavory. But our interactions with them were limited to ta
king their money. I never knew what they were doing or why. And I didn’t ask questions. My people were desperate. You must understand that. We wanted out of the SRE. We wanted a home. Our investors gave us that opportunity. They promised not to bother us, as long as we didn’t bother them.”

  “You like those kinds of deals, don’t you?” Cho asked. “How well did that work out with the Imoogi?”

  Burton went on as if Cho hadn’t said anything. “Maybe they were in the weapons trade or something. I don’t know. I never wanted to know. But what I do know is that I don’t have anything to do with guns, drugs, or abductions. And neither do my people.”

  Everything Burton said held an intense sincerity. Tag had a difficult time judging whether she was that polished of a politician or if this was absolute truth.

  “You’re really going to pretend you know nothing about what these investors were doing or why they came here armed?” Cho asked. “Tell me, what were you planning with their weapons?”

  “You know as well as I do that we haven’t ever armed ourselves, nor do we have any intention of doing so.”

  Cho shook his head. “Liar.”

  “Look,” Tag said. “Cho, you’ve got a crate of weapons here that looks like it’s been buried for years. The investors, whoever they were, are no longer living here. Unless you have some other proof you want to share with us, it’s best if I talk to Burton alone.”

  Cho lifted his hands, palms facing out. “Be my guest. You might also ask her about the unregistered tritium weapons we found.”

  That piqued Tag’s interest. Rifles and pistols were one thing, but fission-based weapons? Good gods, that was a whole different league. This went far beyond a petty squabble between colonists and marines. What the three hells had Tag gotten himself into?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  “I did some digging into the old files other platoons left behind,” Cho said. “Apparently these so-called investors were transporting tritium and storing it here in large quantities.”

  “That’s why they wanted an out-of-the-way colony without much of an infrastructure,” Tag guessed. “All that radioactive matter. They wanted it out of sensor range.”

  “Pretty much,” Cho said. “That’s also why they high-tailed it when the SRE finally sent marines down here.”

  “Gods, I had no idea,” Burton said. “If I had... all that tritium. If there had been a single leak, the radiation would’ve poisoned my people. I never would’ve colonized here if I’d known.”

  “You were damn lucky,” Cho said.

  “How do you know all this?” Tag had been given precious little information on Orthod, but whatever records the marines had kept would surely have been shared with him, especially if it concerned something like illicit tritium trade.

  “Maybe the SRE is withholding access to all digital records. They never return my information requests. But they can’t hide the paper records my predecessors left. And it turns out Lieutenant Mattis, the original platoon leader on Orthod, kept some interesting records that my people just uncovered. Took a bit of work. He hid them well.”

  “This is insane,” Tag said. “Did he say who was responsible?”

  “Mattis wrote down the name he got for the group down here. Lorris Industries, or some bullshit like that. But he thought it was nothing but a front, a shell company.”

  “Gods,” Tag said. “We need to talk to Mattis.”

  “Yeah, we do.” Cho narrowed his eyes, focusing on Burton. “But he’s dead. Died on Orthod, in fact, in an accident. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Burton?”

  Burton looked shocked. “I have not murdered anyone, and neither have my people.”

  “I’ve heard enough for today,” Tag said. “Burton, keep your people in town for now. Establish a watch. Cho, I want you to post guards near the Principality, too.”

  Cho looked about ready to protest, but before he could open his mouth, Tag spoke over him. “I know you don’t want to help the colonists. I disagree with your reasoning, and I wish I could get an order from a superior to make you comply, but I can’t right now. If it makes you feel better, tell your men that they’re on the lookout for the Imoogi addicts. If they strike again, you’ll have a better chance of catching them than the locals. Maybe you can find out where they took your marines.”

  “Assuming it wasn’t the colonists that took my people,” Cho said.

  “Give it a rest,” Burton said.

  “Do not start,” Tag said, massaging his temples.

  “And what is it that you plan on doing, Ambassador, while we’re risking our asses?” Cho asked.

  Tag wanted to tell the marine that he was going to be the one risking his ass, along with his crew. But he refrained. Arguing with these people didn’t seem to do any good. They were so caught up in their feud that they couldn’t see the bigger picture. While Burton and Cho squabbled over control of Orthod, the real danger lay in the stars. Unless they could learn to work together, they would have nothing to argue about when the Collectors enslaved or destroyed everyone in the SRE, including this measly colony.

  Be the dragon, whispered a voice through his head.

  “Cho, give me the location where you found those weapons,” Tag said. Then to Burton, “And as best you can, I want the location of where Lorris Industries set up shop. I’m going to do something I should’ve done when I first got here.”

  ***

  The sun glinted over Alpha’s silver chassis as she waited for him outside Hannah’s lab. Tag had already sent the rest of the crew back to the Argo. Scuffmarks still marred Alpha’s synthetic skin, and a coating of dust made her limbs look rusty. Battle-worn as she was, she showed no signs of fatigue.

  “Good to see you, Captain,” she said.

  “How are the colonists?”

  “They all seem very angry and scared,” Alpha said. “I wish I had more time to study their reactions to crisis. So far, the only humans I have truly studied have all been with the SRE. Civilians act quite differently.”

  “I was talking more about physical health. Anyone hurt?”

  “There were casualties during the attack. Three people died. It appeared they tried to resist the Imoogi’s abduction and were dealt blows that were immediately fatal. Five colonists sustained superficial injuries that were treated by bystanders with rudimentary first aid knowledge. It proved sufficient.”

  “Understood,” Tag said. “Listen, when we get inside, I need you to talk to the technicians.”

  Alpha took a moment to process this order. “You are supposed to know very little about science. I almost forgot.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Tag said. “I’m just the diplomat, and you’re the leading scientific expert in the crew right now. Can you handle that?”

  Alpha clapped her hands together with a jarring sound of metal scraping against metal. “Yes, I can certainly do that, Captain.”

  Tag knocked on the lab door. Rodrigo answered, still donning his white lab coat. “Ah, Mr. Brewer. Dr. Baker told me you would probably stop by later.”

  “Great,” Tag said. “Can I talk to her?”

  “I’m afraid she’s not here. She’s out collecting new specimens.”

  “Oh, of course,” Tag said. “Do you know if she ran the samples I gave her?”

  “She did,” Rodrigo said. “Please, come in.”

  He led Tag and Alpha through the antechamber and onto the bottom floor of the laboratory. A few of the droid lab assistants were handling experiments, moving between machines with jerking motions.

  “Over here,” Rodrigo said. “Dr. Baker performed the complete analysis herself. Must have been something quite interesting; usually she passes those experiments off to us.”

  “What did she find?”

  “One second,” Rodrigo said. He tapped on one of the nearby terminals, and a holodisplay image popped up. “Here’s what she left you.”

  Tag leaned over the holoscreen. Instead of a list of chemical matches, it was a simple note:
No matches found. You owe me a beer.

  “Is that all? I thought we’d have more thorough data to sift through. That’s why I brought Alpha.”

  Rodrigo nodded. “That’s all I have access to. You’d have to ask Dr. Baker if you want to see the specifics.”

  Tag cursed. It seemed Hannah hadn’t previously catalogued the plant or animal or whatever the stimmadd portion of the addictive beedle-gee had been synthesized from. Or... a frightening thought passed through Tag’s mind. What if the stimmadd wasn’t from Orthod? What if the compound had extraplanetary origins? That would certainly complicate things. Since the SRE controlled deliveries of goods, people, and data to the planet, the possibilities for how the stimmadd had gotten to the Imoogi left Tag with a bitter taste.

  “Something wrong?” Rodrigo asked.

  “It’s just...are you sure you can’t get access to Dr. Baker’s data?” Tag asked. Maybe he could compare the analyses she’d run to the extensive molecular database on the Argo. If stimmadd contained recognizable chemical analogues, then the Argo’s lab files would find a match.

  “All of her proprietary data is protected. It’s part of Enviro-Cosmos’s agreement with us.”

  “Any idea on when Dr. Baker will be back?”

  Rodrigo shrugged. “Sometimes her trips take a few hours, sometimes they take days.”

  He wasn’t about to wait around for Hannah to return. If someone was responsible for smuggling the stimmadd down here, it stood to reason they might also be enabling other nefarious acts around the planet. Say, recruiting marines to act as Collector collaborators.

  “We really are in a hurry,” Tag said. “It sure would be a shame to leave here without the data.”

  He glanced at Alpha as he said it. She gave him a confused look.

  “Yeah,” Rodrigo said, looking slightly annoyed that Tag kept belaboring the point. “Wish I could help you.”

  “I suppose if we can’t leave with the data, I’ll just take back the sample I gave Dr. Baker,” Tag said. “The SRE can conduct further analysis.”

  Alpha still looked confused. He understood why; they had plenty of beedle-gee samples to go around. They didn’t need the one they’d given Hannah. But it wasn’t the sample he wanted.