by J Palliser
The group entered the Ops Center and they were lead directly to Jace's office. He closed the door behind them and motioned the two women to the seats in front of his desk. Otto remained standing behind Mira's chair as Ares leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the small room.
"When Neva contacted us, we began checking to see if anything unusual happened while Aiden was here that may have had some bearing on his disappearance. Basically we found that it was a pretty short and straightforward visit. He came to give a lecture about fighter cover for convoys that the Reich and Thula were putting together. It was a well-publicized visit, no big secret."
"After his lecture, we had dinner together and visited a while. He spent the night in the guest officer's quarters at the base here. Next morning, we met for breakfast, and then he raised ship."
"That doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know." Ares frowned. "What was the headway you mentioned?"
"In questioning the people here at the landing zone that were in a position to observe his ship while it was here, we came across something suspicious. Several of our people had noticed a ground crewman hanging around Aiden's ship for longer than usual. They didn't think anything of it at the time, but now, we decided to take a closer look."
Otto raised an eyebrow. "And?"
"We started a search for him based on the descriptions of our own ground crew, but he seemed to have disappeared. Then we got lucky. He tried to leave Thula and was caught at customs." Jace smiled. "We've got him in custody."
"In custody. Two of my favorite words." Otto rubbed his hands together, a devilish grin on his face. Mira nudged him in the ribs and he looked down at her. "What?"
She gave him a dirty look and turned away from him. "You don't have to look so happy about it. If you were a smuggler, you wouldn't like those words at all."
"I thought you'd like them, Otto." Jace smiled at him.
"Would it be possible for us to question him?" Ares asked. "I mean, he's a Thula citizen, I presume?"
"He is. But that won't be a problem. Only two or three of my people know that we even have him and why he's in custody." Jace made sure to say 'in custody' very slowly and deliberately. Mira looked razor-blades at him.
"Aiden is important enough for us to bend some rules. And since this is a military base and not a local Security Outpost, we have a certain amount of... let's call it leeway." He came around his desk and clapped Otto on the shoulder. "Want to play a little KorSec?"
"Oh, I'd love to."
"Good officer, bad officer?" Ares pointed first to Otto then to himself.
Otto shook his head. He pointed to Ares. "Bad officer," then to himself, "worse officer. With a couple of not too happy ladies thrown into the bargain." He looked over at Jace. "We need to get out of these flight-suits."
"No problem. You can change in there." He pointed to an adjoining room.
"Good. I'll go get our gear." Otto winked at Mira and Ajax as he headed out the door.
Mira smiled at Ajax. "This is going to be interesting. Otto is very good at this."
Ajax's face remained serious. "I just hope it works. For Aiden's sake."
Once Otto and Ares had changed into their Kriegsmarine uniforms, the group followed Jace down to the lowest level of the Ops Center and to an interrogation room at the very end of a long hallway. It was the kind of place that was very familiar to Otto. As a member of the Korsican Security Force, he had performed hundreds of interrogations in places just like this.
He felt a tremendous amount of relief at finally being able to do something to get the situation back under his control. Ever since they found out that Aiden had been attacked, he had felt the situation spiral out of his hands. And it wasn't a feeling he enjoyed.
The two guards at the door came to attention just before they reached them. Otto looked at Jace with raised eyebrows.
Jace pointed at the two of them. "You don't know a thing about the prisoner, do you, fellas?"
"About what, sir?" One of them smiled.
"What prisoner, in where, sir?" the other one echoed.
Otto gave them a crooked grin then turned to the group behind him. "Okay. Everybody ready? You all know your roles and what's expected of you."
There were nods all around. Even though Ares was in charge of the squadron and all of its missions, he had let Otto do all the planning for the interrogation because he knew that it was his area of expertise. Not for the first time, Otto's respect for Ares grew. It took a great man to know when to step aside and let others take over. His father had been like that. And Aiden, too. "All right. Let's go."
Jace opened the door, and everyone filed into the room. The man within stood up and immediately started whining. "What's going on here? I ain't done nothin' wrong, and I'm being treated like a criminal. I demand to know what I'm being charged with."
Ares walked over and shoved the man roughly back down into the chair he'd vacated. "Sit down and shut up, Flak. If that is your real name. You're not in any position to demand anything."
"Who are you?" He looked at Ares's Kriegsmarine uniform, then at Jace. "I'm a Thula citizen, they have no jurisdiction over me. You can't let them..."
"I can let them do whatever they want. And if I were you, I'd cooperate with these people, because you really don't want to get on their bad side. So, why don't you just tell them what they want to know about the disappearance of Aiden Hunt."
Flak studied them for a moment, then leaned back in the chair. Otto had seen this kind of reaction before. Since Flak knew that he had information that they needed, he felt like he had something to bargain with. "I might answer some questions, if those two honeys ask them." He leered at the two women, who'd leaned against a table in the corner of the room.
"Hey!" Otto gave him an open-handed slap on the back of the head. "That dark-haired 'honey' is my wife, you diarrhea-trailing shit"
Ares leaned in close to the man, his hands on each of his shoulders. "You're not off to a very good start here, Flak." He nodded at Otto. "You see, his wife and Aiden were raised together. He's like a brother to her. And she's not happy about him being missing. Neither is her father, Dallas Raines. Ever hear of him?"
The man paled visibly at the mention of the ex-smuggler's name. He thought about it briefly then seemed to get some of his nerve back. "Yeah? Who's the other one? His mother?"
"Wrong again, little man." Ajax moved across the room so quickly that Ares just managed to get out of her way. She leaned over the man in the chair, smiling sweetly. She caressed his cheek with her left hand, lifting his face so he looked up at her and not at her cleavage. Her right hand moved suddenly in a flicking motion and the unmistakable coolness of a boot blade edged near the man's exposed throat. "I'm a good friend of his. And if you think you need to worry about what Dallas Raines might do to you, you don't know the half of it. Compared to what I have in mind, you'll enjoy dealing with him."
"Ahem." Jace cleared his throat and Ajax backed off a couple of meters. "In case you didn't notice, Flak, those three pips she's sporting on her uniform means that she's a Major in the Waffen-SS. She could fillet you with that blade in time for you to show up on the supper menu at the nearest Shista cafe." Jace smiled coldly. "And the two gentlemen present both spent time at a charming little place called Harbinger, as guests of the late Yasmin Jaza. So they know all sorts of interesting techniques for 'information retrieval,' which I'm sure they'd love to share with you."
What little restraint Flak had quickly dissolved at the mention of Jaza. "You guys have made a mistake. I don't know n-nothin' about nobody disappearing." His voice developed a nervous squeak. "I ain't done nothin' wrong!"
He reached over and picked up a glass and a pitcher of water from a tray at the center of the table. He poured a little of the water into the glass with a shaking hand. He had just brought the glass to his lips when Otto slapped it out of his grasp and it shattered against the far wall. Otto grabbed the man's shirtfront and jerked him half out of the chair.
>
Although he wasn't as tall or as well built as Jace, Otto knew that he could be very intimidating if he wanted to be. And he had played this role so many times that he could do it in his sleep. "That's it, I've heard enough." He pulled his pistol from its holster and aimed it between Flak's legs. "I think you better start answering some fuckin' questions, or you're going to start losing some parts. I'm sure we could learn as much from an autopsy if we had to."
"Wha... whadda ya mean? You can't d-d-do that." Flak looked wildly at Jace. "You... you can't let him do that. Tell him he can't do that!"
Jace looked at Otto with feigned disapproval. "You can't do that," he almost sang the words. He wagged his finger at the Korsican.
I never gave Jace enough credit. He's really good at this. Otto fixed Jace with a glare. "The hell I can't! Just watch me." Otto's green eyes danced, wild with rage.
"I tried reasoning with him, Flak," Jace shrugged. "You know how difficult these Korsicans can be."
Otto prodded with the pistol. "Do you know how easy it would be to make you disappear? Slice a few records here; change a few words there. We load what's left of you in the hold of our ship and once we get off world, dump you out the airlock. Poof! No more Newt Flak. End of story." Otto leaned closer to the man. "You get the view?"
"Okay... All right... W-whadda ya wanna know?"
"Who hired you, and what have they done with Commander Hunt?" Ajax moved closer, a foreboding look on her face.
"Oh man... I don't know." Sweat poured down Flak's face.
"Wrong answer. Start with his elbow, Otto." Ajax pointed with the blade, then put it back to the man's throat. "We can work our way down."
"Good idea," he said, and moved the barrel of the pistol. He was impressed with Ajax's additions to the character that he had given her to play. The only thing was that he wasn't entirely sure she was acting.
"No! No! Please, don't. I... I really don't know. It was a contract. The word was put out to be on the lookout for Hunts' ship at the spaceport. Who-whoever found it was to put a tracker on it. The client even supplied the tracker."
"How'd you collect the money? Who was the contact?" Ares asked.
"I left word at a local bar as soon as I planted the tracker. The bartender gave me my money."
"What bar? What was the bartender's name?"
"It was The Nightshade in the East District. His... his name was Morgan."
"You better not be lying about this." Ajax increased the pressure of the blade ever so slightly underneath the man's chin, and a drop of blood appeared from the resulting nick.
"I'm not. Really, I'm not." The man was near collapse. "I-I swear!"
Otto released the man's shirt and shoved him back into the chair. "If you're lying, she and I are coming back, and you won't be happy to see us." He backed away, never breaking eye contact with the prisoner.
Ares moved back in front of Flak. "How much?"
"Huh?"
"I said how much? How many credits did they pay a piece of worm bait like you for the life of a man like him?"
"Fif-fifteen thousand credits." He shrank back into the chair, away from the look in Ares's eyes.
"You'd better enjoy it while you can and hope that we find Aiden alive. Because if we don't, I'm giving her father your name, and believe me, there won't be a corner of this galaxy dark enough for you to hide in."
Otto moved over to Ares and put a hand on his shoulder. He could feel him trembling with barely controlled fury. He had never seen him like this before. He physically moved Ares away from the prisoner, and Ajax moved in to take his place. "Remember. If you're lying, he and I will be back."
In one effortless move, she took the top four buttons off the front of Flak's shirt with the blade. She turned her back and walked out the door, followed by the others.
Jace was the last to leave. "I think we'll keep you here a while longer, Flak, just so we know where to find you if necessary." He patted Flak on the head. "But it won't be necessary, will it?"
"N-no, s-sir!"
"Good."
Once outside, he closed the door and turned to Ares and the others. "Well?"
"Well, it looks like we go to The Nightshade and have a little talk with Morgan." Ares said. "And we had better get some answers."
Mira looked over at Ares when she heard his tone of voice. "Are you all right?"
He visibly sagged as the anger left him all at once. "Yeah, I guess so. But not knowing what's happened to Aiden is really starting to eat at me. He stood up for me when no one else would. He's saved my life countless times. I just hope I can do the same for him this time."
Otto thought of the man that they were desperate to find. "He's done so much for the Reich, how can we do any less for him? We will find him, Ares. I know it. We just have to keep looking. Let's find out where that bar is and get some answers." Otto took Mira's hand and led the group down the long hall.
16
XV
Aiden used all of his remaining strength to concentrate, trying to remember the words to the lullaby his mother used to sing. He seemed to be having a lot of trouble remembering things clearly, but he knew he needed to know those words. They were the only things that could keep out the pain. If only his head didn't hurt so much. Or the rest of his body, for that matter. It made it awfully hard to concentrate on anything as other jumbled thoughts kept getting in the way.
But if he remembered the words, and he really focused on them, he could hear his mother's voice singing them to him. Like she had when he was a child; he missed her.
That song had always brought him a feeling of well-being. Whenever he had been sick, or frightened, she had sung that song to him. It had always made things better. But as he'd gotten older, and wasn't her 'baby' any more, she'd sung the song less and less. When he'd needed comfort, she and his father had consoled him in other ways, like most parents do as their children grow and mature. Then in one terrible instant they were gone, their lives snuffed out in a fiery explosion. Dallas Raines, a friend of the family and Mira's father, had taken him in. He had tried his best to guide and support him, and Aiden realized that he had come to think of him as a father figure. But now he was alone, with no one to comfort him anymore.
Months after he'd hunted down and destroyed his parent's killer in a borrowed Headhunter, he lay in his bunk on the Raven, halfway between wakefulness and sleep, and he'd thought of the song again. Although he wasn't a great believer in spirits, he had heard his mother's voice singing it to him as clearly as if she'd been right there with him. With the certainty that only a grieving sixteen-year-old boy could have, he knew that it was meant to ease his suffering, and had clung to it for that reason.
Since that time, he'd had the same experience on two other occasions. Once, after the Kriegsmarine had made its escape from Siria, and a raging case of Yellow Fever had put him in the medical center with blinding headaches and a dangerously high temperature. Then, again, when he'd been on high doses antibiotics on Graf Spee, after nearly losing his hand and his life when he'd prevented an Khawarij message drone from exploding in orbit around the desert moon of Remus.
Now, even at twenty-five, he needed to hear her comforting voice again. What are the words? '... Keep you safe from hurt or fear?' That sounds right. And it does hurt... It hurts really bad. Mom?
"Mom?" He heard his own voice call to her, but it wasn't his mother's compassionate voice that answered.
"No, Commander Hunt, your mother's not here. Only a mother whose sons you've killed." Tanweer's tone was cold and brittle, not warm and enticing like it had been at the party the night before. Or afterward when she had tried to seduce him.
