He could tell now her shirt was the thermal-controlled undershirt a soldier would wear in battle armor. He was getting little clues as to her identity.
“We do need to get off the side of the road.” Before she could say anything else, he raised his head and kissed her on the lips. There was no response at first. Then she kissed him back, forcing his head back down against the dirt road. He was just starting to enjoy it, when...
She pulled away quickly and jumped up off him. “Get up.” Her attitude now was one of authority. “We need to get moving.”
Ben struggled to get up. He could feel the little stones stuck in the back of his arms and he brushed himself off. She did an about face and started walking up the road in the direction of his place. She was ten steps ahead of him and he heard her talking to someone. About 20 seconds later, he saw headlights coming down the road toward them.
“Hey lady!” he said. She kept walking. “Hey lady, what do I owe you?” She stopped. He knew he was in for it.
She stormed back toward him. “Stop calling me lady. I am Major Andrea Andersen.” Ben was smiling. Finally, he had some kind of answer to the weird shit that had befallen him.
An all-black hover car pulled up to them before he could say anything else and she said, “Get in.”
“No, I think I’ll walk,” he replied.
Two men wearing black got out of the car. The driver was shorter and looked to be Asian, and the passenger was a large black man. Ben knew enough now to guess they were military trained. He decided to get serious. He walked to the back door of the car and opened it. “After you, ma’am,” he said, gesturing to the major and then to the open door.
He was also looking around for a way to escape. There were fields on both sides of the road and a creek about a hundred yards away with thick foliage along the banks. It meandered across all the farms. Parts of it were deep and there were places he could hide. They must have thought he was cooperating, because all three got in the hover car. Ben slammed the back door on the major and made a run across the field towards the creek. He heard the hover car lift up behind him and give chase. He hadn’t studied the car enough to know if it had armament, but he was sure the people inside were armed.
The waist-high crop made running a little slower but gave Ben some cover to drop down, belly crawl in a different direction, get up and run again. He was about ten yards from the end of the taller, thicker plant cover when he heard the hover car behind him. A second later, a blue flash hit the plants next to him. He knew the car was to his left so he broke to the left to reduce any angle of fire. In only a few seconds, he was in the tall cover. The major and the passenger were firing at him from the windows. He made it to the denser growth along the creek and slid quietly into the water.
Who the hell are these people? he thought.
Ben heard the hover car following the creek, searching for him. There was an area where the trees and plants uprooted during the last storm had collected in a bend along the bank. He took a deep breath and dove under the water, grabbing the limb of a submerged tree and holding on. He was looking up through the branches and plants as the car’s lights passed over the area then moved off on down the creek, still searching. He eased up to the surface to take a gulp of air then dove down again to his spot under all the brush and plants. He decided that he wasn’t going home. Gus’s place was two miles back and if he stuck to the fields, he could get most of the way there without getting in the open. He started wondering if his old C. O., who hated him, had put out a hit on him.
He had done nothing to the man but save his life. Who would think that a person’s ego was so big he couldn’t stand having his life saved?
Ben had been convicted on trumped-up drug charges and dishonorably discharged. He had an exemplary record with numerous commendations and medals. He was framed for being a hero.
The drugs were planted in his duty bag in his locker. It was an open and shut case. That was 10 months ago. Why would he send a kill squad after him now? On second thought, they didn’t seem like a kill squad. Ben decided to let that all stew in the back of his head while he worked on getting somewhere safe for the night.
In the hover car, the major was cursing. Her driver and passenger were smirking and hoping she couldn’t see from the back seat. They headed for the farmhouse where they knew Ben rented a room from the Vander Hoyts. They wouldn’t bother the oldsters, but they were going to look around the farm.
The driver said to no one in particular, “They said he would be a handful. He was the best of their unit. Railroaded as he was, wouldn’t exactly warrant friendly cooperation towards us. We really didn’t need to test him. We should have just approached him and offered him the job.”
The major knew they were probably right, but it had been her idea to test him. She wanted to see how he reacted out of the comfort zone. The passenger was saying something but her mind was drifting elsewhere thinking about a kiss. How had that happened? Why did she even put herself in a position for that to happen? Benjamin Jamison was dangerous, she knew that for sure, but not in the way the men in the front seats thought him to be. She would have to be damn careful.
Arriving at the farmhouse, the hover car parked 200 meters away so they could approach and observe without being blind-sided by a pet or alarm system.
Ben crawled out of the creek after coming up for air and listening for a few minutes, figuring they must have moved on down the creek or headed for his boarding house. He took off in a jog through the field, listening and watching the sky as he made his way back to Gus’s bar. He knew it was only about 1 am, and being a Friday night, with the added excitement they had had tonight people would still be sitting around there talking. He was winded when he got to the back door. He was also wet and dirty and his clothes were ripped in places.
The night cook was startled for a second when he saw Ben. Then a light went on and he said, “Man, what happened to you?”
“I wish I knew.” Ben asked him to get Gus while he stood at the back door. The night cook went up to the bar and whispered to Gus, whose eyes lit up. He called Cindy over to watch the bar.
Gus saw Ben by the door and a concerned look came over his face. Ben took Gus out the back door and gave him a generic version of what had happened after he left When he finished, Ben asked, “Do you think I can crash here for the night?”
“Sure, I have just the thing. There’s an apartment up those stairs,” Gus replied. “It’s been empty for a few weeks.”
He told Ben the last tenant had skipped out on him but left a lot of stuff, and he could use the apartment and anything else he found in it. Ben asked Gus if he would have the night cook make him a cheeseburger and fries, and he would be down after he cleaned up to eat. He realized he had missed dinner in all the excitement during the evening.
Back in the hover car, the major got on her com and asked if they had found or seen anything. They both replied with a negative. She told the sergeant major and Gunny to meet her at the car. The short Asian man was Sergeant Major Mathew Kim and the large black man was Gunnery Sergeant William “Bill” Smith. The two of them had worked with the major since she was a second lieutenant. They had both been mid-rank NCOs at the time.
The major decided to regroup. “Let’s go find the sheriff’s office and see if we can bail out those slugs I hired and get them a ride back to their ship. We’ll turn in after that and meet for breakfast at 0700,” she said.
Bill called up emergency services on the hover car navigation. That got him the sheriff’s department as well as the hospital. He wasn’t sure if the sheriff would get them medical attention, and he thought they owed them that. As long as they didn’t push their luck with the major, she would probably take care of them.
Ben found soap in the shower and a new toothbrush in a drawer in the bathroom. Gus wasn’t kidding; they left a lot of things behind, he thought. Clothes, furniture, towels, bedding. Whoever the man was, he weighed about as much as Ben but was shorter. Gus provided the
washer and dryer for the apartment, so Ben threw his clothes in. He found a pair of scissors and made shorts out of a pair of pants that fit him in the waist but was four inches too short.
The shower felt so good. The hot water and soap washed off the dirt and smell of the creek. His cuts and scrapes stung and his busted lip was swollen and throbbed a little, but overall Ben was feeling a lot better. He dressed and put on some sandals he found in the closet and went downstairs to get his cheeseburger and fries. His food was ready and in a basket. It smelled wonderful. He asked the night cook if he would take his money up to the bar, pay for his food, and get him two beers. Gus came back a minute later with two beers and his money.
“It’s on the house from here on out.”
“Thank you but you don’t have to do that,” Ben said.
“Yes I do. You stepped up and helped when I needed it,” Gus replied.
“They were assholes and had it coming.”
They laughed. Ben said good night and headed up the back steps to the apartment. The food was good and the two beers helped him to relax even more. He lay back on the bed and closed his eyes. He hoped tomorrow would go back to normal. He would go home to the farmhouse and help the Vander Hoyts with anything they needed done on the farm.
He thought about Major Andrea Anderson, then wondered, What the hell was with those damn spacers? If it had just been, the spacer crew he could have wrote that off in his mind as a fluke. The thing with the major followed right on the heels of the fight, so there is something fishy as hell about both of them. It was a nice kiss once she responded.
Deep down Ben knew it wasn’t over. He knew he would see the major and her boys again soon. She didn’t seem like the type to just give up and go away. Ben drifted off to sleep.
The major, sergeant major and Gunny were at the sheriff’s office. The spacer crew was all in one cell. They were mostly upright except for the big meathead who was out of it on painkillers. The major told the sheriff that the spacers were her crew and she had let them off the ship while they took on fuel and supplies. He chewed her ass up one side and down the other, telling her that the place they had tried to trash and persons they assaulted were friends of his.
The night judge had already set their bail and fines earlier so after the sheriff was through yelling and the fines paid, the cell was opened and the spacers helped each other out to the hover van they had rented. She asked them if they wanted medical attention and that they would take them to the hospital. The captain replied that they could take care of themselves back at their ship. On the ride to the space port, the major asked Gunny for the travel safe and the combination.
She sat down, punched in the combination and opened it up. Inside was a stack of credit chips, all in Sols — ten, to be exact, at a thousand each. The van arrived at the ship and the doors automatically opened. They all were moving slow and two of men got on either side of the big guy to help him up the loading ramp and onto their ship. The woman and the skinny spacer got out next and walked away, and the captain exited the van last.
The captain paused, keeping the door from closing, and looked at the major. He had that hateful smile on his face. After a short silence, he told her, “I think I’m going to kill that guy. I’m not under contract to you now that we’ve been paid and I know my crew wants his hide.”
The major returned his stare with one of her own. “Captain, I would not advise that if you don’t want to orphan your ship,” she replied coldly. “You didn’t threaten him tonight, even after that skinny asshole pulled a knife. If you go back to that bar and start anything, you may not come out alive. Those people are his friends.” She paused for a second. “It will go very bad for you and your crew if you go back there. I can’t stress this enough to you.”
“And what about you, Major? What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Right now, Captain, in his eyes I am no better than you. However, my people are much better suited to deal with him,” she said. “Tomorrow I’m going to get him to join my team, and then you will have to go through us to get to him.”
The captain snorted and walked away with their money under his arm. The major held the door and watched him. He was shaking his head and talking to himself. He probably didn’t believe her, and he was just enough of a cocky fool to get his whole crew killed. He had been warned. The door slid shut, and she told the sergeant major to take them back to the hotel. 0700 was in four hours and a little sleep would be nice.
Chapter 3: Workout
The major’s alarm went off at 0600. She showered, then sat down and logged into a secured net to see if there were any messages from the general’s office. There was only one, wishing them luck on the mission and hoping the asset could be signed up and secured in the least amount of time possible. The major replied with a report of the first day’s events. She left out only one thing in her report. As far as she was concerned, it was an isolated incident and there was no reason to mention it.
She met her men for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. They planned to fly out to the farm first and look around again. She thought she might talk to the Vander Hoyts, tell them she was an old friend and find out if they had heard from Ben. They lifted off at 0730 and retraced the route from the night before, from the space station hotel complex to Gus’s and out into the country. The major put on a sundress and some soft-sole flat shoes. A designer purse and sunglasses rounded out her outfit for the day. She did not want to draw attention to herself or make people less willing to talk to her.
She drove the hover car herself to keep the illusion of being alone. Matt sat in the front passenger seat while Bill sat in the back, listening to audio from the bar the night before. There was nothing much at all to hear until the fight broke out.
They had been sitting outside with a directional mic, recording for hours, until Ben left and made his walk home. Matt and Bill had decided not to tell the major they had the mic and infrared recording the whole time she was confronting Ben on the side of the road. They had seen her knock him down and laughed at the scene. They could do nothing but stare as she straddled him and pinned him to the ground. After about ten seconds of no audio or movement, they saw Ben raise his head and, they thought, head butt the major. Her temperature spiked then eventually returned to normal.
Later they understood when they saw the major was not hurt — plus Ben was calling her “lady” again and asking how much he owed her. They looked at each other, then back to the screen and laughed. Holy shit! It was a kiss. One day they would have to shake that brave young man’s hand.
The Vander Hoyts were both out in the yard. Janet was pulling weeds from the flowers surrounding the front porch and Harold had a hammer and nails, repairing a fence. The major pulled down the gravel drive, shut the engine down, and let the car sink to the ground 15 meters from the house. She did not want the Vander Hoyts covered in dirt and sand.
The major walked up to Janet first and said good morning. She got a big smile and a sweet “good morning dear” in return. She said her name was Dawn and explained she was looking for Ben. Harold walked over and answered before Janet could say anything. Harold said he was looking for Ben also. The “rascal” was supposed to fix the fence for him today, but it looked like he didn’t come home last night. Janet said it was unusual, that even on Friday nights when Ben stayed out later he was still home before midnight. He was always up at six on Saturday doing something for Pa until mid- afternoon or later.
Janet offered the major some coffee and to come sit on the porch. Harold cleared his throat. “Am I chopped liver or can I have some coffee too?” he joked.
The major went up the steps and sat down. Harold sat next to her. Janet brought three cups of black coffee, cream and sugar. They made their coffee quietly until Harold broke the silence.
“So Dawn, how do you know Ben? He’s never had anyone come visit.”
“We use to go to school together and went separate ways afterwards,” the major lied. She said she had heard f
rom someone that Ben was on Anubis, so she thought she would look him up on her way to Osiris. Janetsaid he was a wonderful boy— always so nice and helping out. He kept his room clean and always paid his rent on time. She would do his laundry from time to time and money would mysteriously appear on the kitchen table the next day. They just wondered about him because he didn’t talk much about his family or life.
The major knew a little about his family, and decided it would not hurt the mission to give them a little info. She told them Ben was an orphan. A train wreck on Athena had killed his parents. She told them she did not think he had any family other than his grandparents. They were both sad to hear about Ben’s misfortune, but it made sense to them now. The major could see they both thought the world of Ben, and he probably felt the same way about them.
Surrogate grandparents, she thought. “Now, don’t tell him I told you. He may have his own reason for not saying anything.,” she said.
“We won’t tell him,” Harold said.
She thanked them for the coffee. She shook Harold’s hand, then turned to shake Janet’s, who decided a hug was better. She tensed for a second, then relaxed and hugged Janet back and said good-bye again. She walked down the steps and crossed the yard to the hover car.
The major realized she had really enjoyed that 20 minutes with them. She got behind the controls and lifted off. “Where to now, boss?” Bill asked from the back seat.
“I want to go by the bar and see what time it opens,” she replied. “If they are open I may go in and sit for a while, maybe read and have some more coffee. I want you to wait outside for about 30 minutes in case he is already there or walks in. If he does not show in 30 then you can start a search perimeter, working your way away from the bar until you’re no farther than 15 minutes in any direction. I want you to be able to get back here if I signal his arrival.”
The Chronicles of Benjamin Jamison: Call Sign Reaper Page 2
