Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour

by Mark E. Cooper

  The darkness of the basement was relieved here and there by maintenance lighting, and winking lights on the unfathomable controls of humming machinery. She guessed that most of this junk supplied the hotel with clean water and heating. She recognised some of it as air conditioning units by the ducting attached to it.

  The light was at such a low level, she decided to pull on her goggles. Setting them at low power, she explored her surroundings. When Robert first brought her to the Mayflower, he had explained that the two towers, one of which had been converted into the Mayflower Hotel, had been owned by McPherson and Dermot—a now defunct drive coil manufacturer. It had been nothing but trivia at the time, but now it gave her a possible escape route. Both towers were identical in design on the outside (except for those horrendous balconies) and would have similar support needs. She was betting that both towers were linked together by maintenance tunnels.

  Kate looked up at the ducting and pipes overhead and grinned. “Damn, I’m good.”

  She traced the pipes from one of the machines, which registered brightly on thermal imaging. She guessed it was the source for some of the hotel’s hot water. She trotted along following a huge pipe that glowed hotly on her display, until she reached a T junction and two huge valves. One pipe was hot, the other cold—the valve was shut. She followed the cold pipe into the darkness.

  As she had hoped, the pipe she followed was joined by many other ducts and pipes that eventually led her into a tunnel. If not for the occasional lamp embedded in the floor or wall, she would have been in complete darkness. Her goggles were excellent tech, but they did need something to work with. The pipes were cold and the ambient temperature low. Thermal was useless, and low light amplification nearly so. Nearly was good enough. With her goggles set at maximum amplification, she emerged into a basement similar to the Mayflower’s sub basement. The machines were silent, the only sound was her echoing footfalls raising miniature dust storms. No one had been in here for years.

  Kate quickly located the elevator, but cursed when she realised it had been shut down. The entire building was on power down. She would need another way up. Scouting around the basement, she found the emergency stairs, but the door was locked. Typical. She supposed some lucky guy had received a bonus for realising the stairway was a security risk for the hotel, but she couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for his lucky break. She dropped her kit bag and rummaged through its contents until she found what she needed. Inserting the compad’s probe into the card reader, she quickly broke its code and unlocked the door.

  She trotted up the stairs the now open door revealed.

  The reception area was dusty and abandoned. A dead potted plant was the only witness to her emergence from the stairwell. She quickly crossed the empty space to the main doors and crouched to check outside. No one was in sight. She could see an occasional vehicle coming or going on the road, and the hotel was clearly visible on the other side, but she couldn’t see any of Fairhead’s…

  Her eyes narrowed. “There you are.”

  Parked in the hotel’s lot were a pair of hoverjeeps. They were sitting hull down on their skirts, but she knew they could be quickly powered up for a chase. She didn’t plan on giving them one and had no intention of going near the hotel. She broke the glass in the door and slipped out into the night.

  Finding a vehicle was easy. A woman alone at night, and looking like Cherry did, attracted the wrong sort quite easily. She had only been walking along a side street for a couple of minutes when a car pulled up. It was wheeled, which might be important, and quite new, which wasn’t. It didn’t have four wheel drive, and that was annoying, but the guy leering out the window at her clinched it. She didn’t like him. She quickly lowered the zip on her sneaksuit.

  “Hi,” Kate said leaning down to give him a nice view down her top. “Can I have a lift?”

  He grinned. “Sure you can, sweetness. Where you heading?”

  She let her tongue peep out between her lips and smiled coyly. “Wherever you are.”

  “Hop in.”

  Kate rounded the car, zipping herself up again in the process, and climbed in beside him. She threw her kit bag on the backseat using the movement to cover her retrieval of her pulser. She pushed it between her knees and clamped it there out of sight. She watched the buildings going by for a few minutes to make sure they weren’t heading back toward the hotel. The Assembly Building went by on the left, and she relaxed a little more. They were heading the right way.

  The driver eyed her and smiled. “What’s your name?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Runaway huh?”

  Kate shrugged.

  “How old are you?”

  “How old do I look?”

  He inspected her like a piece of merchandise. “Sixteen, maybe seventeen.”

  Kate smiled, but her skin was crawling. He was some kind of pimp, not that he would name himself as one. He probably called himself a Human resources consultant or something similar. It didn’t matter what he called it. She knew what he was, and what he was after.

  “I’m old enough to know what I want and how to get it.”

  He leered at her. “Yeah? Got any money?”

  “Why?”

  “Want to make some? I know some people.”

  She was sure he did. “Yeah? What kind of people?”

  “People who won’t ask questions, people who pay well. You interested?”

  She was sure now. He was a procurer… probably a kiddie fiddler himself. He had that look. She glanced outside to find the street deserted, and night coming on fast. She still had an hour or two before curfew, but she didn’t plan on cutting it too fine. She wanted out of the city as soon as possible.

  Kate summoned a smile. “Pull over.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to show you something,” she said, playing with her zipper. “Pull over.”

  He grinned and pulled over to the curb. He turned toward her in time to see her raise the pulser. “Don’t—”

  She shot him in the face.

  “Damn kiddie fiddler,” Kate said with loathing. There was nothing worse in her book. “I should have burned your balls off, but lucky for you I have places to be.” She checked outside, and then looked back at the still smoking corpse. “It’s the trunk for you.”

  Minutes later, Kate was on the road heading for the Coyne Mountains with a dead kiddie fiddler in the back, and humming along to a popular tune blaring from her car’s speakers.

  * * *

  Sanderson glared at his daughter over the breakfast table.

  “Where have you been?”

  “Oh daddy, can’t I have any fun? I went to a party,” Bobbi said.

  “What party? Where? You’ve been gone two days and nights. The security people said you gave them the slip again. I can’t have that, Bobbi. I know it’s hard, but I have enemies.”

  “Yes, daddy,” Bobbi sighed.

  “There’s a good girl. Will you promise not to escape again?”

  “All right,” Bobbi said with a put upon sigh, and sat down to breakfast with him. “Where’s Lynn?” she asked stirring the food around the plate. She didn’t feel like eating now.

  “I’ve asked you, and asked you, and asked you not to call your mother—”

  “Step mother,” Bobbi said hotly.

  “She’s your mother now. You know she doesn’t like being called Lynn.”

  “All right. Where is Gwen-do-lynn then?”

  Sanderson glared, but gave up the attempt to discipline her. “She’s not feeling well. She won’t be joining us today.”

  Oh dear, what a shame!

  “Oh.”

  Bobbi stirred her food around the plate and thought about Cherry. It had been a shock awakening naked in a strange bed with no idea how she’d gotten there. She was sure she had dreamed it all at first, but then she realised she could never have dreamed up someone like Cherry. She didn’t remember very much about that night, but what she did remember sc
ared her to death. Cherry had asked lots of questions at gunpoint, and Bobbi had answered, but she couldn’t quite remember what the answers had been. She prayed she hadn’t told Cherry the truth about Millard and that it was she and not him leading the fight against her father. She had realised early on that people needed someone to lead them, but that they would never take orders from her. So she had searched for a front man. Millard was that man. He was nothing more than that. Why would he go behind her back and hire an assassin? It was too soon for that. Sure they had discussed it, but they needed more of their own people in high places before taking that step. What was that idiot playing at? Cherry could have killed her and ruined everything!

  Bobbi stirred her food, frowning thoughtfully. She had been quietly working toward her father’s removal from office for some time now. Someone had to do it. Why not the person who knew his evil the best? She knew every dirty little secret he had, but the one that had hurt her the most was her mother’s murder. She could have forgiven him almost anything, but not that. Her father had killed her mother, killed her because she threatened to leave him and take Bobbi with her. It made her strong in her hate.

  Was Millard playing his own game now? Maybe. Did he think he could overthrow her father without her support? If he did he was a fool… scratch that, he was a fool and she knew it, but he had always been her fool to use. Maybe his ambitions had grown. Did he think he could actually pull it off without her, maybe even run for election afterward? It had long been her intention to do something similar. If her plan succeeded, she would have the popular support to win a fair election. With Cherry out there somewhere, she needed to make some adjustments. Was there anything she could do to make Cherry’s job easier?

  “Are you driving to the capital today?” Bobbi asked.

  “I’ll fly. Things are still unsettled. By air is safer. Why?”

  Bobbi shrugged. “I was going to fly out to the lake.”

  “There’s a perfectly good pool here.”

  “It’s not the same,” she snapped. “Mother used to—”

  “I know she used to take you up there,” Sanderson said not looking up from the roll he was buttering. “But it’s dangerous on your own.”

  “I could take one of your men.”

  “Three.”

  “Two,” she replied quickly.

  “Done.” Sanderson grinned. “But no skinny dipping. They’re only men after all.”

  “But that’s the best part,” Bobbi said laying it on, but she was pleased. She had no doubt Cherry would thank her for making him go by car.

  “Bathing suit or you don’t go. I’ll drop you on the way.”

  “But…”

  “Yes?”

  “Nothing,” Bobbi said hiding her anger at being thwarted. It would do no good. It never did. “When are you leaving?”

  “An hour or so.”

  “Fine, I’ll get my stuff,” she said leaving the table.

  “What about my kiss?”

  Bobbi stopped by the door and walked back to him. Leaning toward him, she kissed him. “Love you, daddy.”

  “I love you too, sweetheart,” Sanderson said pleased. “My darling girl all grown up.” He patted her behind. “Off you go then.”

  Bobbi smiled tightly and left to get her swimsuit and a towel.

  Damn him!

  * * *

  Damn him! A day and night stuck in a bloody tree, and nothing. Not one glimpse of the bastard.

  Kate shifted a little trying to ease the ache in her hipbones. Laying face down on a knobbly branch was damn painful after a single hour, after twenty-four, her body was screaming for relief. She endured with the use of discipline learned early in her training, and meditation she had learned later during hurry up and wait missions like this.

  Accept the pain. It is nothing. Be one with it. Take it into the centre of your being and you will control it, and not it you.

  It did work… usually, but she had never needed to do it for this long a time. She had a fierce headache and her eyes were burning with tiredness. She shook her head at the double image that had begun plaguing her last night. She squeezed her eyes shut then opened them and wiped away the stinging tears with gloveless fingers.

  That was better.

  Kate settled down again. “Oh thank God,” she whispered as the door opened and a security detachment exited.

  A man she recognised as Sanderson followed the detachment. She took a breath and flicked off the safety. The shot was long—right on the limit of her rifle’s killing range. It was exactly eleven hundred metres as the dart flies.

  Zzzzzing!

  The dart flew.

  * * *

  The dart flew toward its target, but the range was long. As it slowed to subsonic speed, it began to tumble. When it struck, it did horrendous damage as it buzsawed through Sanderson.

  Bobbi screamed in shock as her father’s chest blew apart and his body fell. It was horrible and shocking, and her scream seemed to echo in the air. People were running and shouting, some at her, while others screamed into their comm units to get a doctor.

  No doctor was good enough to fix the hole in her father’s chest. If he’d ever had a heart, he didn’t now. Bobbi stared into the trees and felt Cherry watching her. Was she the next target, had Millard betrayed her? She was trembling so badly that Cherry could probably see it. She couldn’t run and she couldn’t hide; it was much too late for that. She did the only thing left. She forced herself to smile and mouthed the words silently.

  “Thank you.”

  * * *

  Kate cursed her foolishness. Why hadn’t she killed the little bitch?

  Bobbi wasn’t the finance minister’s daughter. She was Sanderson’s mistress or something. The news broadcast said Sanderson was in seclusion from his government, from everyone in fact. That being the case, Bobbi should not be here. First Whitby uses her to clear the way for his dealings with Sanderson, and now this little bitch had pulled the same stunt! What was it about Bobbi that had gulled her? Was it the lost puppy look she had given her when they first met? It didn’t matter.

  She sighted on Bobbi and took a steadying breath…

  Bobbi looked up and right at her. Right at her and said thank you. Kate could read lips well enough to see the exaggerated words on Bobbi’s. It was definitely thank you.

  Her finger tightened…

  She flicked the safety on. “You’re welcome kid.”

  Kate looked down at the ground far below, and groaned. She would have to be gone quickly now. Aching as she was, a long hike back to her car was not appealing. She took one last look at Bobbi through her range finder this time, and smiled before scrambling down.

  * * *

  Part II

  Chapter 8

  Alliance HQ, Luna, Sol system

  Gina stepped out of the transport tube and into Alliance HQ proper. She didn’t class the landing pad and travel tube as part of HQ of course. As soon as she crossed the yellow line, she felt herself and her duffel lighten under Luna’s one-sixth gravity. Taking no notice of the strange looks she received, she braced to attention and saluted a huge depiction of the Alliance flag on the wall opposite. She had nothing but contempt for those who took for granted the flag and what it stood for. It was shocking, but many of HQ’s personnel were civs. There were plenty of men and women walking by in uniform, but the majority by far were civs in their ridiculous fashions that tried to blind the eye. If she ran this place, everyone would be in uniform—no exceptions.

  She looked around expecting to be challenged, but security was ridiculously lax. She was standing in the hub of the Alliance military, and no one cared to find out if she belonged here! All orders flowed from here, and all reports flowed back. What better place was there for a spy to snoop around? Her eyes locked on a civ across the way. He was lounging against the wall looking directly at her. He was a broad shouldered black man, a little on the short side for her taste, but he had a presence that caught and held the eye. What he was s
upposed to be doing she couldn’t fathom. Didn’t he have anything better to do than stare at her?

  Gina shook her head at her preoccupation and started walking. It wasn’t hard to find her way. Just a short distance along the concourse, she found a terminal with a notice beside it telling her to insert her orders for directions. This she did and received a detailed display of the entire base with a red line indicating the route she should take. She memorised the route and keyed no when asked if she wanted a printout. Hefting her duffel, she made her way to the training centre.

  Gina managed to squeeze into an overfull lift car. She had to hug her duffel tight to her chest to let the doors close. Someone behind her had dragon breath and she tried not to breathe. The car dropped six levels before the doors opened to allow her to stagger out onto the station’s platform. There were many like it servicing bases and manufactories all over Luna, most of which were subsurface like HQ itself. Others, automated defences and tracking facilities for the most part, remained above ground uncaring of the intense solar radiation that bathed the surface.

  Gina made her way along the busy platform hoping to find a spare seat, but before she could do so, a rush of wind announced the imminent arrival of the train. She stopped and waited with the other expectant looking pedestrians.

  The train slammed into the station chasing its own wavefront of displaced air down the tunnel. It was a sleek looking bullet-shaped power car towing a dozen passenger cars full of people in its wake. It was moving so fast, she wondered if it would stop or blow on through the station. She checked her wristcomp, but she had plenty of time. If not this train, then the next would see her to her destination with time to spare.

  She needn’t have worried. The automated train sensed the braking zone, and with a deep thrumming noise reversed its maglev propulsion system. With a rapidity that still surprised her after all these years, the train slowed to a halt. As luck would have it, a door opened right in front of her. Two quick steps was all she needed to claim her LZ—the very last empty seat in the car. By the time she had settled her duffel between her feet, the car was filled to capacity with disgruntled looking people standing along the aisles. The train pulled smoothly out of the station.