by Kal Spriggs
It wouldn’t be the first time she walked away from one of her siblings’ schemes. When Patrick got too risky, she had left him. Just in time, too. She had walked away from two of Bernard’s plans before, for that matter. How much did that last screw-up cost him, she wondered. At the same time, if she left now, she would miss out on her share of the reward. Twenty million in gold bars, she thought, for turning over one person. The money wasn’t the important part. No, the key was how their father would see it. That had always been the grand prize: their father’s approval.
Dad wouldn’t like it if I left Bernard holding this one, she thought reluctantly.
“Fine,” Moira said, “we do this. But if I see anything wrong, we’re cutting out, okay?” She gave her brother a meaningful look.
Bernard gave her a confident smile, “Of course!” Behind him, his wife came down the stairs, leading Alex with a hand on his shoulder. Like always, Cassie looked too pretty. Seriously, Moira thought to herself, who puts on makeup for this kind of thing?
Alex looked nervous but he gave Moira a smile when he saw her. She didn’t have the heart to return it. I hope I’m wrong about what's going to happen to him, she thought.
Still, Bernard wasn’t totally wrong. Alex had blood aplenty on his hands from the weapons he had designed. Moira went around to the van’s passenger door and climbed in, leaving Cassie and Alex the back. She waited as Bernard climbed into the driver’s seat.
She hid a smile as she heard Cassie mutter about being left with the back.
“Let’s get this over with,” Moria said.
***
“Alright,” Staff Sergeant Shade snapped as her squad geared up. “Latest report is that the escapee took down the ESPSec boys hard just across the water.” The gang facility that ESPSec’s platoon had been at was less than two miles away, right across the Long Island Sound. She looked over at David, the ESPSec psychic they had been assigned. The poor bastard looked pale, not that she could blame him. From what she knew, he had minimal training and no real combat experience. Now he was supposed to follow them into a firefight and screen them from a psychic who might well be far more powerful than him.
If that isn’t bad enough, she thought, I’ve got a code for the bomb implanted in his skull, so I hold his life in my hands.
From what she had heard, most of ESPSec’s tame psychics didn’t live more than a few months in the field. She certainly didn’t envy him.
She finished strapping on her body armor and gave David a nod, “You ready?”
He gulped and gave her a jerky nod in return. “I can sense him,” he said nervously.
“Good,” Staff Sergeant Shade told him. She pitched her voice so that her squad could hear her. “Get ready, they shook loose a bird to transport us. They’ll drop us in covertly and we’ll move in on the target.” Her gaze went hard as she looked around at her squad. “Don’t hesitate if you have a shot. We know ESPSec’s team wasn’t up to snuff, but from what I heard, they’re all down, no survivors.”
She saw their faces grow stern. Sure, they thought ESPSec was a bunch of goons. But they were still on their side. Any fight where the enemy didn’t take prisoners, well, that just meant neither would they.
On that cue, she heard the turbines from the assault craft as it came in for a landing in the old drill square outside their barracks. “That’s our ride, boys and girls, get moving!” She felt a broad grin stretch her face as she followed them out the door. This was the kind of shit she had signed up for.
***
Shaden stumbled to a halt as he felt his knee twinge painfully. While he might manage to heal himself, it would probably take more time and concentration than he had.
The wail of police sirens cut through the night. He wasn’t certain, but they sounded closer. He checked the M17 pistol in his holster and then the cheap two shot derringer in his pocket. He really would rather avoid fighting at all, but when it came down to it, he wanted to live. Shaden had no doubt that the police, the “whiteheads” as the locals called them, had shoot on sight orders for him. Tactically, he thought, it is what I would do.
He didn’t know what kind of story they had made up about him, but they would probably save it until after they had a corpse that wouldn’t try to defend itself.
Shaden limped onwards and then saw lights and a fence ahead. As he drew closer, he saw a sign. Crap, he thought, I must have got turned around.
He had meant to head west after he got off the peninsula, but somehow he had gone too far north. The gate ahead was a control point that limited access to the highway. With how the area was lit up, there was no way that he could slip through unseen. His mental trick of hiding wouldn’t work, there wasn’t anyone else around at this time of night.
He heard a vehicle approach from behind and limped out of the way as the cargo truck came down the street. The big vehicle’s brakes squealed a bit as the driver slowed and then stopped. The driver leaned out his window. He had a mane of wild hair and a tangled beard. “You okay?”
Shaden didn’t look up, “I’ll be fine, thanks.” He wasn’t used to any kind of offer of help, but even so, he wasn’t going to get this good Samaritan in trouble. He would find a way out.
“Look, man,” the truck driver said. “Maybe we can help each other?” He glanced around, “My partner got the flu, couldn’t make the rest of the trip. I can’t get through the checkpoint without another driver. You need to get past that checkpoint?”
Shaden nodded slowly. “Other side would be fine.”
“Me, too, got a delivery not far from there, then I pick up my next shipment,” he jerked his head, his mane of wild hair flying, “Hop in.”
Shaden limped around the front of the big truck and then climbed in. “Thanks.”
“Hey, bud,” the man said as he put his truck into motion, “you’re helping me too. I’ve been circling the block looking for someone to help me out. Damn sirens going off everywhere…”
The driver trailed off and shot Shaden a suspicious look. “My name’s Chris Sommerkorn,” he said and offered a hand.
“Shaden,” he replied.
“Shaden, huh?” the driver said. “Interesting name. They after you?”
Shaden hesitated, yet as they approached the checkpoint, he didn’t want to expose the man to any further risks. “Yeah.”
“Huh,” the driver said, “well, Shaden, let me do the talking.”
They rolled up to the checkpoint and Chris leaned out the window, “Hey, I got a shipment here, high priority!”
Two of the police moved up to his door, while a third one came up on Shaden’s side. “Papers?” the Chinese officer asked. Shaden didn’t know how he recognized the man’s accent, but he did. The two juniors looked eastern European, maybe Russian, Shaden didn’t know. The International Police were always pulled from outside the nation they served. His memories told him that was to prevent corruption. In reality, he supposed it prevented them from sympathizing with the people they policed.
They aren’t here to stop criminals, he thought, they’re here to keep people in line.
“This says Chris Sommerkorn and Say Len-Woo?” the officer asked suspiciously. He flashed his light up in Shaden’s face, “He doesn’t look like a Say-Len Woo.”
Chris leaned out the window and spoke in a loud whisper, “He’s adopted. Damned retard, if you ask me, can’t barely make words.”
“Is he?” the officer asked. “You there, what is your name?”
Shaden opened his mouth, but then Chris clapped the officer on the shoulder, “Look, I told you, he’s a retard. Can’t speak. How about you let us go on our way, eh buddy?”
Shaden barely caught it as Chris slipped the man a roll of bills.
“Yes,” the officer nodded, “well... I understand. Be on your way.”
He waved at his men to get out of the way and then Chris drove through the checkpoint. “Greedy bastard,” he muttered, “if I wasn’t in such a rush I’d have blasted him.”
“You bribed him?” Shaden asked in surprise.
“Oh yeah,” Chris said. “You can’t make it through a checkpoint without a bribe. Part of the overhead. The guys who run those checkpoints get those jobs just so that they can get a cut.”
Shaden wanted to protest that, but he realized it was the training, the memories that Amalgamated Worlds had planted in him. “How much do I owe you?”
“Not a thing,” Chris said. “You help me, I help you.” He looked over at him, “Now, I got a delivery to make further up the way, but there’ll be people there, some who might rat you out. You want to meet me later, I might be able to get you out of town…”
Shaden shook his head, “Thanks, but no, I have business to take care of here.” He looked around and saw they had come into an area of warehouses. He might find a place to hide for the remainder of the night. “You can let me out here.”
“Sure,” Chris said. “If you run into trouble, send some bastards to Valhalla for me!”
Shaden stared at the other man, uncertain about how exactly to respond, “Uh, okay?” Chris brought them to a halt and Shaden climbed out. “Take care,” Shaden said. Chris just gave him a wave and drove off.
Shaden paused and looked up and down the street.
He cocked his head as he heard the faint sounds of an aircraft. An AH-72, he thought, VTOL transport. The sound was distant enough that he hoped it didn't have anything to do with him. Even so, it would have thermal imaging and he would stand out in the otherwise empty area. He needed to find cover fast.
He started down an alleyway, into the dark.
***
“Staff Sergeant,” the pilot's voice came over Staff Sergeant Shade's helmet radio, “that truck --the one you asked us to keep an eye on-- just stopped and dropped a passenger.”
“Roger,” Shade said. She brought up a feed from the pilot and put it up on her helmet's heads up display. She had marked the truck when the pilot told her it picked up the single target leaving their area of interest.
There were dozens of targets leaving the site where ESPSec had reported their rogue psychic. In fact, it looked like roaches fleeing from the light, except for the fact that most of them had stayed in groups. Given the intel she'd seen on the target area, it was a hub for human trafficking, so she actually hoped most of them escaped. Poor bastards would end up in an Internal Security work camp, she thought.
Unlike most of her fellows, Staff Sergeant Shade didn't come from one of the core systems. She grew up in the colonies and while her parents had legally emigrated from Europe, plenty of people she grew up around had been illegals, those who paid smugglers to get them off Earth or one of the other core systems.
Shade peered at the thermal imagery of the lone figure as he worked his way into a set of warehouses. He stood out from the others. The rogue survivor should be alone, she thought, no allies... It looked more and more like this was her target.
Still, it wasn't much to go on. This could easily be just another refugee or even one of the smuggling gang's people, looking for someplace to hide.
I could just let him go, she thought. Even if this was her target, she had little real motivation to take her squad up against him. For all that she cared, he could go free, especially after what ESPSec had done to him. They made their monster, she thought, I could let them deal with him.
“Archon Flight 226,” a voice came over her radio, “this is InSec Area Command. You need to change your current flight path, you're coming into airspace for one of our operations.”
Shade's eyebrows went up at that. InSec was responsible for counter-terrorism and anti-terrorism operations. The Bureau of Internal Security also acted as a secret police force. Her squad's AH-74 was in flight over the coastal area just short of New York City. The assault craft's altitude and flight path shouldn't be a problem for any kind of legitimate operation. She brought up a unit display and then grimaced as she saw a J-133 attack craft at high altitude. The attack bomber wasn't military, it had InSec transponders. That meant it was probably loaded with a variety of targeted munitions.
She also picked up the transponders from a team of InSec not far north of where her lone target's location. She felt a surge of rage. Heavy handed bastards, she thought, that bomber could level a city block and they've probably got it in position for a bag mission to take some journalist or something. She hated InSec. The bastard who had tried to rape her had transferred over there after she beat him within an edge of his life.
“Negative,” Staff Sergeant Shade said, “Area Command, we are in pursuit of a rogue psychic, Threat Classification Level Two, we advise you to abort your mission.”
She smiled as she said that. Let the bastards chew on that. ESPSec had authorized her to say that much, which if the INSec people knew enough to even look it up, they'd see that a Level Two should have them pulling their people out of the area. The parameters on a Level Two were terrifying. One had gone on a rampage in London just a few months ago and had killed over five hundred people before ESPSec managed to put her down. And that's assuming that this one isn't more dangerous than she was, Shade thought. She didn't really trust ESPSec to tell her if this was Level One, especially not since she already knew that they had made him whatever he was.
“Negative Archon Flight 226,” the InSec dispatcher said after a long moment. “We are on a priority mission to seize a high value target. If you do not withdraw from secure airspace, we will flag you as non-compliant.”
Shade grimaced. High value target, she thought, right... “Then flag me, asshole,” she muttered. She switched the channel back over to the pilot, “Hey, disregard further transmissions from them. They're doing some snatch and grab operation and they don't realize how serious we are.”
“Roger,” the pilot said. “We settling in on the target, then?”
“Yeah,” Shade said. “Bring us in.” Whether or not her target was there, she was willing to take her people in, just to piss off InSec. It felt good to put her finger in their eye, confident in the fact that ESPSec would back her up.
She switched to her squad tactical net, “Alright boys and girls, we're going in. Once we have positive ID, take him down.”
***
Moira Kaid gave her brother a glance as the van pulled to a halt, “You sure about this?” She looked around at the dilapidated warehouse. It didn't seem like the kind of place where Helix would do business… not even shady business. Better to do something like that in a public place, she thought, rather than after midnight in an otherwise abandoned area of the city.
Bernard's fingers rapped on the steering wheel in a rapid pattern. “Yeah,” he said, “we're good.”
Moira checked her nine millimeter in the hidden holster tucked under her belt buckle and then felt under the dashboard for where she'd concealed her submachine gun and made certain it hadn't slipped loose.
“I said we're good,” Bernard snapped.
Moira ignored him and glanced in the back. Nothing looked out of place, though Cassie gave her a poisonous look. Don't worry, girl, Moira thought, I'll be around long after Bernard has grown tired of you and left you penniless and alone. Not that she trusted him not to do the same to her. Moira just planned for it, while Cassie only planned for how to betray other people. That was the key difference between them. Moira didn't just plan for herself, she planned for the tactics of others. Which is why I checked all my weapons myself, she thought, and didn't leave that to Bernard or his wife.
Moira didn't meet Alex's eyes as he looked at her. He was too much like a puppy, in her mind. She'd found that cute when they first met, but now she just found it sort of pitiful. She liked him. He was smart and weird... but he didn't have a spine. In the games she played, Alex was a pawn. You couldn't respect someone who wasn't a player. Moira was a predator and Alex was prey.
“They're here,” Bernard said as headlights appeared at the far end of the warehouse. A panel truck pulled forward and came to a stop thirty meters or so away.
“Rig
ht,” Moira said, “let's do this.”
She opened her door and climbed out, followed a moment later by Bernard. They walked forward slowly. A moment later, a pair of figures climbed out of the panel truck. Both men wore coveralls, which made Moira nervous. Bernard had told them he wanted to make the transfer with someone senior. These guys looked like pure muscle.
“Where's your boss?” Moira asked.
The two men paused and looked between each other. One of them scowled as he realized that they had given themselves away. “She's waiting to make sure you have the goods,” he said after a moment.
“Tell her we'll show you ours when she shows us hers,” Moira snapped.
Bernard gave a nervous giggle at her words, but she tuned him out. Something was wrong, she realized. Her hand dropped to her hip, in easy reach for her pistol.
One of the muscle turned around and went back to the passenger side of the truck. He talked to someone in the seat for a moment and then went around to the back of the truck. A moment later, a woman climbed down from the truck cab, while the muscle lifted down a heavy, brushed aluminum case and then extended the handle and pulled it along on wheels.
That looks heavy enough to be our gold, she thought.
Moira's gaze went to the woman as she approached. The tall, red-haired woman could have appeared in a fashion magazine. Her precisely tailored business suit somehow managed to accentuate both her height and her figure. Her pale, cold features had an otherworldly beauty that set Moira's teeth on edge.
“Well?” the woman arched one eyebrow at them as she came to a stop, less than three meters away. The two bodyguards stood behind her, looming in a way that suggested they wouldn't hesitate to shield her from any kind of attack.
Bernard gave her a nod and then waved back at their van. A moment later, Cassie popped open the door and pulled out Alex behind her.
