Storm Divers (Book 1 of The Fractured Republic Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  Wu came in just as Rachel was finishing. She frowned at the prisoner. “This is not the woman Jason is enamored with.”

  “No,” Rachel said as she set her kit onto the table and opened it up. “She’s gone, though she did leave a note. She heard something about people looking for C.S. and decided it was time to head for greener pastures.”

  “A wise decision,” Wu said grimly. “My people have determined where the large sums of money came from. Gambling.”

  Rachel nodded as she measured an injection of her favorite interrogation drug. “Money is one of the big ones. Since she infiltrated the divers group, I assume she was manipulating things to bet on them. With the games taking place, I’m sure the wagers are pretty large.”

  “Indeed, though in a worse manner than you suspect. She sabotaged divers and bet on their deaths to profit.”

  That stilled Rachel’s hands, and she stared at the older woman. “Seriously? That’s sick. If I’d had any idea, I’d have killed her already. I don’t suppose there’s a chance she’s still on the station.”

  “We shall see. If so, it’s possible that I can arrange something. If not, I still may be able to insert one of my people as a passenger to see that a suitable accident befalls her on the way to her destination.

  “If all else fails, I can pay another organization to deal with her at the other end. No one crosses my family and lives to brag about it. Even if my grandson is an idiot.”

  “We don’t need to mention this to them right now,” Rachel said. “They have more pressing matters to focus on.”

  Wu nodded. “I think that wise. Who is this?”

  Rachel finished laying out her gear and stepped back from the table. “She works for Janus. She and her dead partner were monitoring the area around Cindy’s apartment for visitors. Probably hoping Jason would turn up.”

  “What do you hope to learn from her?”

  “Their current plans. What they hope to accomplish. What she knows about security around Evans. We need to strike soon and I want to have as much intelligence as we can get. Once Hale gets back with a way into headquarters, I’ll get us in.”

  The older woman raised an eyebrow. “How will you accomplish this? A false ID?”

  Rachel nodded. “I’ve had time to check my bots. I can swap out some key details in an ID and make it work.

  “For example, I can’t forge a new set of identification. There are chips that I can’t clone so easily. However, I can change this woman’s file to have my appearance and use it to get in with her access. The dead guard can stand in for Hale.”

  “If they have access to the areas you need.”

  “That’s a concern,” Rachel admitted, “but these people worked for Evans. I’m thinking this will work out.

  “Back to Cindy. She left some information relevant to that missing crate. Could you see if your people can figure anything out about it?” She handed the woman the note.

  Grandmother Wu read it slowly. “I will have my people make inquiries.”

  “I hope they can track it down,” Rachel said. “It might give us another angle on what Zane was up to.”

  A guard came in and whispered into Wu’s ear. She nodded and dismissed him.

  “Jason and Adam are back. They seem excited.”

  “Good,” Rachel said. “Maybe they found an easier way into the headquarters building.”

  The female prisoner moaned.

  “Our guest is waking up. Excellent. Things are finally starting to break our way.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Adam watched Price question the woman she’d captured with more than a bit of interest. He’d never been present at an RIS interrogation before. He wasn’t counting the one in the cargo area, since she hadn’t finished it.

  She took it a lot easier on the prisoner than he’d have expected. No harsh verbal commentary and she even told the woman that if she cooperated, they’d stash her until this was over.

  “You think she means it?” Jason asked him quietly.

  “Yeah. I’m not sure why, but I do. Did your grandmother get anything out of the equipment in the van?”

  “Not that she’s said. But something’s up. She’s behaving a little weird. There’s something she hasn’t told us.”

  “About this?”

  His friend shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maybe she’ll tell you if you ask nicely. I’ll just get a stern look. It’s like I’m four.”

  Adam grinned. “That’s not too far off. I’ll go see what I can find out while you keep an eye on the proceedings.”

  He slipped out of the residence and found Grandmother Wu talking to one of her guards in the warehouse.

  She gestured for him to approach. “Has your friend broken the prisoner yet?”

  “Not yet. The drugs are starting to take effect, though. I wanted to ask you about something else. Jason seems to think you’re holding something back, and I’d like to know what it is.”

  The old woman gave him a steady look, but relented. A small hand movement sent the guard away.

  “This is not something that will help you in your current situation, but you deserve to know. I ask that you be sparing in what you tell my grandson as it will pain him greatly.”

  That didn’t sound promising.

  He listened to her story about Cindy with a sick stomach. “That bitch. Christ.”

  Adam rubbed his face with his hand. “No, I don’t think I’ll tell him about this just yet, but he’s going to find out she’s gone soon enough. Did she get away?”

  Wu nodded. “She departed on the most recent flight to Mars. It was gone before I could get a man aboard. I’ll have someone on the Red Planet deal with her.”

  “What about the crate?”

  “None of my people are familiar with such a company. Security has already sealed the building the port delivered it to, but my contacts tell me there is no sign of anyone there. Your brother must have moved it again. I’m afraid it’s a dead end.”

  The door to the residence opened, and Jason came out with a com. “That reporter Rachel spoke with is calling, but she says she can’t break off the questioning or it’ll screw up the woman’s responses. She said for you to deal with him.”

  Adam took the com and unmuted it. “Hale.”

  “Mister Hale, it’s an honor to speak with you. Malcom Enright, Republican News Service. I was expecting Miss Price.”

  “She’s tied up at the moment. Perhaps I can help you.”

  “I’d imagine you can. I sent the message she requested. I had one of our techs bury it in a video file of the attacks here and sent it to the home office on Earth. It took a while for the station to let it out, but they finally did.

  “Once I received the receipt from Earth, I sent a follow-up with hints to look into the data more deeply. I’m hopeful that will be enough since I can’t make any live calls.”

  Adam smiled. “I’m sure that’s the best anyone could ask for.”

  “Any chance I can get an exclusive interview with you? People will want to hear your side of this once things really break.”

  “Things are coming to a head, so I’m afraid not. I promise to send you any updates so that you can keep on top of the story.”

  The man sighed. “I suppose that’s the best I could hope for.”

  Adam was about to disconnect when he decided to ask the man a question. “Before we go, have you ever heard of a company named Baumgartner and Merrick Import and Export?”

  “As in Leann Baumgartner and Jenny Merrick? They died before I was born. I had no idea they founded a company.”

  He frowned. “Who are they?”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them. They solo climbed the summit of Olympus Mons with only the gear they brought with them. It was just after Earth founded the first settlement on Mars. They were major extreme sports figures of their day.”

  Okay, that was odd. If his brother had used their names on purpose, it had to mean something.

  “
Thanks for that bit of trivia, Mister Enright. Look for a call from me in the next day or so. Trust me when I say that this is going to go big. I’m not sure how, just yet, but I’m confident we really don’t know the entire story.”

  “Good luck, Mister Hale. If the opportunity presents itself, I want an exclusive one on one.”

  “Deal.”

  Adam disconnected and removed the chips from the com. “That was interesting. Apparently, Leann Baumgartner and Jenny Merrick were mountain climbers. They did Olympus Mons way back.”

  “Hang on,” Jason said, pulling out a com of his own. “We have an Olympus Mons Boulevard. That’s not the official name, of course, but people have been calling it that for as long as I’ve been here.”

  The other man searched on his com and grunted. “I don’t know if it’s connected, but there used to be an import and export business there. Its name was Summit Import and Export.”

  “That can’t be a coincidence,” Adam said. “We need to go see what’s there now.”

  Wu shooed them back toward the residence. “I will have some of my people take a casual look around, in case security has also made the connection.”

  The two men went back in to find Price winding up her interrogation. They sat in silence until she finished and gave the woman another shot. This one put her out.

  Price sat down beside them. She looked tired.

  “She works in Janus’s security department. She does covert monitoring of people they’re interested in. You, for example. I’ll bet she’s seen you naked.”

  “Lots of pretty women have seen me naked,” Adam said. “What about the setup around Evans?”

  Price shrugged. “She knows a little, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough when the time comes. She wasn’t in the inner circle. She has no idea they’re working with the Disruptors and no clue what their secret agenda is.”

  “You’re confident she wasn’t holding back?”

  Price nodded. “The drugs are damned effective. She told me everything she knew.”

  “Then it’s a good thing we hit pay dirt. We found out what Janus is hiding on the docks.” Adam handed her his com and connected it to the observation device.

  She watched it curiously for a minute. “So they have a ship. I bet they have lots of them.”

  “That’s a dive ship. A damned big one. Why would they need to go into Jupiter’s atmosphere at all? There’s nothing there of interest to a big company.”

  Jason shook his head. “Obviously not true. They’ve been paying big money for dive technology and data for years. It has to be for this. The question is what they use it for.”

  “You could always ask those people,” Price said.

  Adam took the com and examined the picture. A team of men and women were going over the ship. It looked as though they were preparing it for a dive.

  The door to the warehouse opened, and Wu stepped in. “My people are at the building once occupied by Summit Import and Export. It is not yet under surveillance, so I had them take a discreet look. I believe they have found your missing crate.”

  * * * * *

  Rachel gave the area around the former import export building a good look before she risked going inside. If she’d wanted to set up a trap for herself, this was exactly the right kind of thing to get her attention. Everything looked clear.

  Whoever owned the place had kept it in good repair. Perhaps they hoped to use it again someday.

  Grandmother Wu’s people had already disarmed the alarm and opened the locks, so getting inside was as simple as walking in.

  If anything, the interior was in better shape than the exterior. It wasn’t furnished, but the owner had taken care to clean it thoroughly. Perhaps they were actively trying to sell or rent it.

  If so, no one had come inside in the last few months. If they had, they’d have noticed the rather large crate in the middle of the ground floor.

  Hale walked around the tall container slowly. “This is it. The original shipping instructions Zane used are printed right here. What do you think is inside it?”

  “Damned if I know,” she said. “My guess is that whatever’s inside belongs to Janus. That’s why they’re so eager to catch us.”

  “Shall we open it up and see if it shines a light onto the conspiracy?”

  She nodded. “Don’t you need a tool?”

  “Nah. Modern crates are self-opening.”

  Hale lifted a cover on the side of the crate, and pressed the button inside. The top lifted a little, and all four sides folded down to rest on the floor.

  A massive machine took up most of the interior, but part of the crate held a full set of mission gear. It had everything she’d lost and more.

  Rachel grinned. “This is going to make breaking into Janus a lot easier. Any idea what that thing is?”

  She looked over at Hale as she asked the question and froze. He stood there with his mouth open, clearly shocked.

  “What is it?” she repeated.

  “This is a whole lot of trouble. It’s an FTL drive.”

  “Seriously?” She looked at it closely. “I thought these things were so top secret that they never let one out of their sight until it was installed.”

  Hale ran a hand along the side of the machine. “That’s right. I’ve seen exactly two in my time with Janus, and this is the second of the pair. How the hell did it get into the port at all? They don’t even bring them onto the ship until just before we deliver it to the new owner. They have a special crew just for that. These things are booby-trapped.”

  She stepped back. “Then don’t touch it. I don’t want to get blown to tiny little bits.”

  He shook his head. “It’s only going to go off if we try to open it. What do you have there?”

  “It looks like a selection of the gear we normally take on missions, only more of it,” she said as she started opening boxes to glance inside. “We’re spies, so lots of monitoring gear, some intrusion tools, and weapons. Lots more than that, but you get the idea.”

  “Will it help us get into the headquarters building?”

  She nodded with a smile. “Oh, yes. I can duplicate the cards we have so that the pictures actually look like us. We need to get this moved to a secure location. I don’t trust that security won’t come calling.”

  He walked over and spoke with Wu’s people. They nodded, and one of them made a call.

  Hale came back over. “They’re getting a cargo hauler. They’ll see the crate back to the warehouse. How long does it take to fix up the ID?”

  “I can do it right now.” She took a camera from the gear and snapped his picture. Then she scanned the dead guard’s ID.

  “I’ll keep his uniform, but put your head in place of his.” She downloaded the image into Zane’s comp and unpacked the ID printer. It scanned the original badge’s chips and accepted Hale’s updated image. Five minutes later, she handed him a completely valid Janus ID.

  “I’ll need to update the files linked to these badges on their systems before we try to use them. I was saving that for last. Here, take my picture.”

  He took several images. “Smile. Normal people actually want to look good on their ID photos.”

  “You’ve seen how well that works at the DMV. If I smile, I look like a serial killer.”

  “Are you?”

  She snatched the camera from his hands. “Jerk. Find out where that cargo hauler is. We need to get things going.”

  He frowned. “Just the two of us? That’s a bit light, don’t you think?”

  She started constructing her ID badge. “Not really. If they catch us, we’re screwed whether we have two people or ten. This is a sneak, not a smash. Get your head out of military mode.”

  “True,” he said with a smile. “You know what our unofficial motto was on the strike teams? ‘When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight.’ I’m more used to blowing things up and shooting people.”

  “Save it for when we find out what they’re up to.
I’m sure you’ll get to break things then.”

  Rachel looked over the comp’s contents while her badge was printing. If Zane had left any other mission data, it would be here.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t seem as though he’d written any notes. That was too bad. She knew he often waited until a mission was over to type up his report, but that made piecing things together a lot harder.

  What she did find was a schedule of some kind. Dates and times matched with what looked like latitude and longitude. The dates were all in the past. None was more recent than Zane’s arrival on the station.

  “I found something, but I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Are these coordinates for somewhere on one of Jupiter’s moons?”

  Hale looked over her shoulder. “I don’t think so. I’ve been to all the major moons and there’s nothing at these locations. Look at the times and dates. The coordinates are bouncing all over the place with each one.”

  She put her newly created Janus ID badge in her pocket. “Let’s not ignore the obvious. They have a ship that they’re getting ready to use. Can it make it to the moons?”

  “Sure, but it couldn’t land. They aren’t built for that. They drop into the atmosphere and then boost back out. Jupiter’s atmosphere slowly thickens up until it transitions to a supercritical fluid. I’ve been in that before. You can’t see shit and you can’t go very fast. Getting back out is a bitch.”

  Rachel hit the button and started closing the crate. “What about the coordinates? Are they a specific part of Jupiter?”

  He nodded. “An area nearer to the northern pole. Call it the top quarter. They’re all around that part of the planet. And before you ask, there’s nothing there.”

  Several more of Wu’s men came in and started fitting a lift to the crate. Rachel stepped back and shook her head at Hale. “The evidence suggests otherwise. Maybe Evans can tell us about it.”

  Hale smiled grimly. “He’ll tell us everything he knows. Let’s make this happen.”

  That’s when a small commotion at the door started. Wu’s men drew their weapons as a man walked into the building. Malcom Enright. The reporter had his hands up, and his eyes were huge.