“My Galactic Knights tell me that the rest of the Dunrakee fleet are leaving the planet as we speak.”
Ozzy stood, brushing off his EVA suit. He shook his head, trying to get his bearings and the world to stop spinning. “Why?”
“The power of the Ark of the Concordant.”
A hand touched Ozzy’s back. “I can’t believe you actually pulled this off.”
It was Jozi.
Ozzy stretched his neck. “Yeah. I ain’t doing that twice.”
Gragas bowed. “You’re of the bloodline. Always remember that.” He put his hands together, dipping his head in gratitude. “Thank you.” He crouched and then jumped. Metallic wings unfolded from the back of his battle suit, and ionic thrusters from the bottoms of his boots lifted him higher into the air. He took off, flying over Tagus Valles, and disappeared into the butterscotch-colored firmament.
“Uh, alright. See you later, Gragas.” The Galactic Knight came and went like a hauler pilot carrying freight across Mars from city to city. Here for a few days and gone for months or longer.
Jozi wrapped her arms around Ozzy.
Ozzy stood, keeping his hands by his sides. Other than his daughter, he wasn’t used to affection.
Jozi let go of him, patting his chest. “You pulled off a miracle.”
“Yeah.” He slapped his helmet, hoping the blur in his eyes would wear off soon, and yawned again. “Let’s go. I have a feeling the MMP will be on top of us soon.”
Tagus Valles’ exit tubes opened, screeching loudly across the area. Ozzy spun on his heels, squinting his eyes as a ship shot from a tube, veering in Ozzy’s direction.
He slumped his shoulders. “Now what?”
Jozi jabbed a finger at the Ark. “We still have that thing.”
“I do that again, I die. No way.”
The crafted eased in for a landing and kicked up dirt. Jonas stepped out of the ship in an oversized EVA suit, specially made for someone as wide as him.
“You’ve done me proud, Ozzy.” He clapped his hands together. “You’ve not let me down.”
Ozzy took a few steps in front of the Ark. “Don’t touch it. You do, you die.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Since I can’t have this thing, I can’t give you the rest of the auric credits. That was our agreement, you know.”
Ozzy lurched back. “The hell you can’t. The deal was getting this thing, and I about died getting it.” He thrust his chest out, walking in Jonas’s direction. “I did my job.”
“You know as well as I do that I can’t touch the Ark. If I do, then it won’t be pretty. Hence, half of what I wanted can’t be fulfilled because of unforeseen circumstances.”
Ozzy could see a wry grin forming inside Jonas’s radiation visor.
Ozzy sighed. He was out of juice and didn’t have any fight left in him. “Whatever you say, Jonas.”
Jonas’s mouth gaped open. “Say what?”
“Keep your money.” Ozzy gripped the Ark’s staffs. He pulled it back, dragging it to the ship. “Get me Relic back and all fixed up in one piece, and we’ll call it even.”
Jonas screwed up his face. “Alright. That shouldn’t take long with some techbots. Where shall I leave it?”
“At the base of Olympus Mons.”
40
Olympus Mons, Mars
“Why are we here, Daddy? I thought we were going to play chess on the asteroid like we usually do?” Lily was sitting on Ozzy’s lap, staring at Relic across the way.
Her chessboard and pieces were on the flight console. She usually beat Ozzy in chess and just about everyone else she played.
“Just a second, Lily-bug.” Ozzy eyed Relic, admiring its beauty.
They were at the base of Olympus Mons in the half-broken S-6 Hawk, close to where Ozzy found the Ark of the Concordant.
Jozi shifted in the pilot’s seat, keeping her mouth shut. She was uncomfortable for some reason. Perhaps it was Ozzy’s good relationship with his daughter—to an orphan that might be hard to watch—or it was because Jozi was now a fugitive, cut away from what she loved the most—being an MMP agent—thanks to Robert Baldwin, the High Judge.
Or maybe it was the fact that they had some extra company sitting in the back of the craft—the Ark of the Concordant.
The Ark was more powerful than even Ozzy had ever dreamed, and it proved that fact half a day ago.
After the latest events, they had picked up Lily from Venessa’s house in Tunnel Downs. Ozzy wanted to see her badly.
When Ozzy saw Venessa, her hands were shaking and she was mumbling, “I thought we were going to die, Ozzy. The Dunrakee were right above Tunnel Downs, ready to drop bombs on us to blow our underground city away.”
“I told you they were coming.”
Venessa nodded. “I apologize. If it weren’t for the Ministry and the Martian Marines, we’d be dead. All of us.”
Ozzy only nodded in return, feigning a smile. If he told her the truth—that he and a Galactic Knight named Gragas, who was also a Dunrakee, pushed the armada off of Mars—then she’d laugh in his face, or worse yet, think he was crazy and stop his visits with Lily.
And, of course, the Ministry took credit for the win, just like they did with the Martian Plague.
Ozzy huffed and came back to the present. He peered out the window. His S-4 Jumper was there, dropped off by Jonas’s men a short time ago. It sparkled, thanks to the techbots, and it looked fixed and near to perfection.
He eyed Jozi. “What’s wrong?”
Jozi looked down, forcing a smile. “You’d think I’d be sad about not being an MMP agent anymore, and believe me, I am. But I can’t stop thinking about the pendant around Robert’s neck.” She touched her necklace. “That’s my family’s pendant. There is no way he could have one unless he took it from my father’s or mother’s neck before they burned up in the Prancer crash.”
“Maybe he somehow got it from your dad’s brother? You mentioned your dad created one for his estranged brother, right?”
Jozi kept her eyes low. “My dad said his brother died around the time I was born. My uncle was buried with the pendant. I’d be surprised if Robert were in the grave-robbing business too, so I doubt that’s where Robert got the pendant.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Jozi let out a chuckle. “And you mentioned that Robert and I look alike. Maybe my dad’s brother really didn’t die.”
Ozzy laughed in return. “Yes, there is a similarity, but if you’re thinking that Robert is your uncle, then you’re crazy.”
“Yeah,” Jozi rubbed her forehead. “I’m being silly. He can’t be related to me. If he were, then he would have officially adopted me, don’t you think?”
Ozzy didn’t think he would. Robert had his own children and only thought of himself, and Jozi would have been a burden. Robert most likely used Jozi during the time he was around her when she was growing up, perhaps thinking she’d be good somewhere in the Mars Ministry Police department. But actually to raise her, feed her at his table, and lift a finger to help her with relationship advice or any advice whatsoever was beneath him.
Or so Ozzy thought.
“Daddy,” said Lily, pointing at the chess board.
“Oh yeah, my turn.” He moved a piece and glared at the horizon. The sun was setting, and a typical Mars blue sunset was in full glory. “When I was inside Olympus Mons,” he said to Jozi, “I saw a hologram or a shield big enough for a ship to pass through. I didn’t have time to investigate it.”
Jozi lifted her head and narrowed her gaze. “That’s why we’re here? You want to investigate that now?”
Ozzy rubbed his eyes. “No.” He yawned for the umpteenth time today. He straightened and wiggled, doing his best to wake himself. “I want to find a way in through that giant hologram. I think the Ancients created the hologram to make it look like it was part of the mountain base. It’s not a type of hologram I’ve seen. The technology allows the heat to stay in while keeping the c
old out. It’s remarkable.”
Lily moved a piece. “Checkmate.” She hopped off of his lap and leaned against his leg. “That was too easy, Daddy.”
“I’m sorry. My mind is on that mountain there.”
She looked into his eyes. “And we’re going inside it?”
He patted his daughter’s head. “We’re going to try to go inside.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “Lily-bug, get your EVA suit on, and we’ll trudge over to Relic. I’ll drag Mr. Ark of the Concordant over there, too.” He slipped his helmet over his head, clicking it in place. It hissed, bringing breathable air in through his EVA’s oxygen tubes.
He reached down, grabbing Indigo, something he had snagged from the S-99 Flying Miner before landing here.
“Is there enough room in the mountain for this Hawk?” Jozi asked.
She was a fugitive now and more or less needed to stick around Ozzy until she could clear her name.
Ozzy nodded. It was easy to see Jozi didn’t want to sleep in Relic. He understood. He was a messy bachelor.
“Good,” she said and swiped her hand over the holographic display. “I’ll warm Hawk up and follow you to the opening.”
“If there is an opening, and I didn’t just imagine it,” mentioned Ozzy.
Jozi nodded. “Understood.” She clipped her helmet into her EVA suit’s collar. She sat in the pilot’s seat and pressed the engine button.
It didn’t start.
She tried again.
Nothing.
She sighed. “Son of a Mars. I guess I’m going to Relic with you.”
Ozzy hovered Relic around a small portion of the mountain’s base.
Lily stood behind him, grabbing onto his seat. Jozi was in the copilot’s chair.
“You see any anomalies?” he asked, staring at the energy tracker pulled up on the holoscreen.
Jozi went to shake her head no, then pointed. “Wait a minute. Look at that.”
“That’s got to be it.”
The energy tracker had brought up an energetic difference in a small area of the mountain. The energy was less dense but not by much. If it were the hologram, then holy crap, the Ancients could almost hide a thin energy signature from a dense one. In other words, they could practically replicate a rock’s signature into their hologram.
That was unheard of.
He activated bow thrusts, backing Relic up. He rotated the ship and zipped forward over an incline, quickly slowing her down as he approached. “That’s got to be it.”
The base of the mountain was covered in red rock and fresh sand. Ozzy could tell some of the sand had accumulated from dirt devils and sand storms over time, but most of the red dust was fairly new, except for a giant patch that more or less hadn’t been touched.
That untouched patch was the hologram.
To the untrained eye, it would look normal, but if you were looking for holograms—and why on Mars would anyone be looking for holograms anywhere on the mountain—then you could easily see the difference.
“Now what?” Jozi asked.
“We fly through.”
“What if we’re wrong?”
Ozzy snorted. “We fly extremely slow, and if we’re wrong, then we get a few scratches and scrapes on Relic.” He patted the flight console. “Nothing she can’t handle.”
Lily stepped closer to Ozzy. “Daddy is never wrong.” She laid her head against his forearm, hugging him.
Jozi tightened her lips. She was holding in a laugh. “Did you teach her to say that, Ozzy?”
Ozzy ignored her. “Heading on in.” He pushed the throttle forward, sending Relic into a slow and steady descent.
They moved forward, the ship’s bow heading closer and closer to the rocky mountain. If this didn’t work, they’d butt up against it, and he’d have to steady Relic from tipping too far back and raking the aft ionic burners against the rocky ground.
Lily closed her eyes.
Ozzy wanted to as well. “Almost there.”
The craft’s nose slid through the mountainous wall. Everything went gray as they moved onward. Then, what Ozzy considered the castle inside the mountain came into view.
The walls glowed, lighting everything in the big room a soft white. A large craft with its wings tucked back like a diving Earth eagle sat perched on the ground.
“Whoa,” muttered Jozi.
“You can open your eyes,” said Ozzy, smiling at his daughter.
Lily did, and a big grin erupted on her face. “Wow, Daddy. Wow. This is a big house.” She crawled onto his lap, leaning her head against his chest. She closed her eyes, yawning.
“And it’s going to be ours for a while.” He hovered Relic, then touched down next to the craft.
Jozi gently punched Ozzy’s leg. “Why didn’t you tell me you were thinking of using this to squat in?”
Ozzy shrugged. “No one will know we’re here. It seems perfect, plus we can walk around this castle without being cramped inside Relic all the time. Beats the asteroid I usually squat on.”
Plus, he wanted to explore to see if there were more rooms inside the castle.
He slapped a button, and the storage bay’s ramp opened, clanking when it hit the floor. Fresh air wafted through the storage bay and into the cockpit.
“The life of a criminal,” said Ozzy, leaning against his seat and rubbing Lily’s back, listening to her soft, sleeping breaths.
He kicked his feet up. “Turn on the news. Let’s see what lies they are spreading now.”
“Are you sure?”
He gave her a look. “No, but we need to. This is the life of a wrongfully accused, outcast criminal. You’ll have to get used to it.”
She switched the holotube on, turning the channel to the news.
“…and the Ministry, using technology undisclosed until now, defeated the Dunrakee. The remaining Dunrakee fleets are heading back to Earth.” A holovid image showed alien battleships, cruisers, and starfighters heading outbound from Mars’s exosphere.
Ozzy rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course. Don’t give credit where credit’s due. The ways of High Judge Robert Baldwin.”
“In other developments,” came the voice of the news anchor, “the Ministry, under the newly revised Terrorism Act, is raising taxes for military defense and is implementing a 10:00 p.m. curfew to all residents of Mars.”
“Turn it off,” blurted Ozzy, shaking his head. “They’re going to be taxing breathing, too, one of these days.”
An almost evil smile twisted on Jozi’s lips. “You want to screw him over?”
“Who?”
“Robert Baldwin. You know, expose some of his lies?” Jozi slowly nodded her head as if a diabolical plan were taking shape in her brain.
“What do you have in mind?”
She turned the com channel on, dialing up a number he didn’t recognize.
A man answered. The person was familiar, but Ozzy couldn’t place his face with a name. He had slick, black hair, hazel eyes, and white, pasty skin. He looked like he spent too many hours on the holocomputer.
He wiped his mouth, eyeing Jozi and then Ozzy. “Hi, Jozi. What do I owe the pleasure?”
“Can you hack into the news streams and send out some documents that would incriminate the High Judge?”
Holy red rock, it was the man the authorities called Anonymity. He had been on the most wanted list for years, hacking secret government files and exposing them to the public. How did Jozi know this guy? Wasn’t she supposed to be the one exposing him while she was in the Mars Ministry Police force?
“You helped me with getting information about the High Judge hiding important facts about my parent’s crash. I want that, and I have a few more things I want to send your way to expose him for the fraud and liar he is. Including recordings I’ve had with him the last few days.”
Anonymity rubbed his hands together like washing them with soap. He wore a black hoodie and a gold chain around his neck. His icy-blue eyes were piercing, and his stub
ble told Ozzy the guy wanted to look tough. “It’ll take time,” he responded, his eyes forward, his chin down. He spoke as if he was a shadow: his voice low and hushed. “Send me the materials. Give me a week to patch into the system. I also have video I took with more than a hundred drones. It shows who really turned the Dunrakee away and back to Earth. And it’s easy to tell it wasn’t the Ministry or the Martian Marines. Shall I include that as well?”
Ozzy nodded his head up and down. “Hell yeah.”
“If you want my services, the fee is five million auric.” He grinned like a weasel.
Ozzy’s eyes widened. Five million would render him almost penniless, and he worked his ass off to get what he had.
“I can’t. Sorry.” He had to save money for his trip to Europa—if that day ever came.
“Ozzy.” Jozi shot him a look. “The answer is yes. Don’t be an idiot.”
Ozzy glanced at Lily and then at Jozi and back to Anonymity. “One million auric.”
“No.”
“Two million auric.”
Anonymity leaned forward. “Let me say this again. Five million auric credits.”
Ozzy’s gut wrenched. “Are you kidding me?”
“Send the funds right away,” Anonymity said. “And Jozi, I’m sending something over the com channel. It will appear shortly, and it’s something I think you’ll be very interested in. I found it a few days ago when I was hacking Robert Baldwin’s files.” The com channel blipped off and then back on. A picture of someone’s birth record appeared.
That was odd. Ozzy ignored it for a moment and rubbed his temples. He sighed loudly, speaking through gritted teeth, “I can’t keep a damn dollar to save my life.” He paused, thinking. He had to do it. He had to get rid of Robert or else the guy would plague him for the rest of his life. “I’ll send the money.”
Yet, Robert will know who funded this—somehow. He had his ways. He was going to be beyond pissed, and he’ll be sending everything he could at Ozzy.
Screw Robert.
He hugged his daughter, feeling her warm breath against his arm.
Jozi chimed in. “Ozzy? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Martian Ark Page 20
