“I’ll tell him about Gloria after I fetch the crystal sphere. Okay?” He gave her a pleased look.
Jozi punched Ozzy in the shoulder.
Ozzy jerked to the side. “Watch it.”
Jozi pursed her lips and shook her head. Her cheeks flushed red indicating she clearly didn’t approve.
Ozzy couldn’t care less. He had a responsibility to his daughter. She’d almost died twice, and now he had a chance to complete his goal—getting her off of Mars and to Europa.
Ozzy pulled out his auric wallet, pressed a button, and a hologram popped out of the top. It displayed twenty two and a half million auric credits, plus some change.
“Thank you, Jonas.”
“See you in a while, Ozzy,” Jonas said, rubbing his greedy fingers together. He wiggled a finger in the air ready to turn off the com line but paused. “Oh, one more thing. I like what you’re doing with Anonymity, but be careful with him. He always works for the highest bidder, and if someone finds out that you hired him to leak vital information to the public, then someone like the High Judge will counter your offer with a bit more money to keep his mouth shut.” He nodded. “Good luck.” The holoscreen went black and folded in on itself, disappearing from view.
Jozi stared at the blank com channel for a few seconds. “No, no. Anonymity wouldn’t do that.”
Jozi and Ozzy had paid Anonymity to hack into the holonetworks, the holochannels, and everything else he could find to show damning information on the High Judge.
Ozzy grimaced. “Is your guy legit?”
“We’ll be fine, Ozzy.”
Ozzy let out a soft chuckle, knowing that dealing with Robert in any way was never fine. He paused. Wait, he thought, Jozi has just learned that Robert is a relative. Was she throwing Ozzy a curveball here? “You realize this will put your uncle in jail, right?”
Jozi reached forward. “I’m getting straight to the bottom of this so you can relax.”
Ozzy wrapped his fingers around her wrist, stopping her from pressing the com line button. “You’re not calling Robert to warn him.”
“I was calling Anonymity.”
“Why? What’s your angle here? Do you or don’t you want to put your uncle in prison? Oh, I get it, you’ve changed your mind on throwing him in the slammer, haven’t you?”
She sighed and batted his fingers off of her wrist with her other hand. “Justice needs to be served, Ozzy. I’m an MMP agent and have made an oath to serve and protect. I wouldn’t be serving Mars and the people if I keep Robert from being behind bars. I can look past the uncle aspect, okay.” She huffed. “This can also get me back inside the MMP where I can make everything right again with my reputation and with Robert.”
What did that mean?
She quickly punched in Anonymity’s com channel.
Ozzy went to smack her hand away, but she was too quick and Ozzy missed. “I don’t trust you, Jozi, let me—”
Anonymity answered.
He had slick black hair, hazel eyes, and white, pasty skin. He had a hood covering half of his face while leaving the other half exposed. Ozzy could tell he was going for the scary, daunting look, but in truth, the guy looked silly.
“How may I help you, Jozi?” His voice was low, almost in a whisper, and was another oddity with the guy.
“I received news from Jonas Moon that you may give someone the opportunity to outbid us.” Jozi leaned forward. “Can I still trust you?”
Anonymity stared unblinking at the screen. “I’ve never blown a deal. An agreement is an agreement. Tell him to stop trying to screw with my business. Lesser rumors have destroyed corporations. I don’t need this crap right now, Jozi.”
“So I can count on you to fulfill our agreement and leak the documents?”
He tilted his head forward. “Correct. The High Judge will be thrown out of office and out of the Ministry by what we show the public. If he’s not ousted right away, the public will surely ask for his head on a silver platter shortly after.”
Jozi winced from his last remark. “A platter won’t be necessary.” She glanced at the date on the flight console. “This will commence in two days according to our agreement.”
That’s if Jozi doesn’t screw this up and warn Robert. Ozzy eyed her like she was the devil. He’d be keeping tabs on her until the documents are leaked to make sure she doesn’t tip off the High Judge.
“I give you my word.” Anonymity gave a half smile and straightened his lips, becoming serious again.
Klank!
The loud sound came from the lower deck.
Ozzy turned in his seat. “What the Mars was that?”
“It came from the storage bay,” said Jozi, slowly standing. “Someone’s on board.” She twisted around. “Gotta go, Anonymity.”
Footsteps clanked across the storage bay’s grated floor. Jozi was right. They had a stowaway. Or worse yet, Quad, the bounty hunter, had found a way aboard.
Not good.
Ozzy unholstered his photon gun. “Stay here. I’ll see who it is.” He stood and cautiously walked from the cockpit to the corridor.
The footsteps on the lower deck grew louder.
He held his gun out and moved slowly toward the ladder that went from the upper deck down to the storage bay.
“Who’s there?”
The footsteps stopped.
Ozzy leaned over the deck railing and pointed his weapon.
A figure came into view, and it was staring at Ozzy.
6
Nearing Pollack Mine, Mars
Ozzy lowered his weapon. “You about gave me a heart attack.” Ozzy holstered his gun and slid down the ladder. “How did you get on my ship?”
“I followed you and Jozi onboard and sat in your forklift over there.” The person thumbed over his shoulder. “You were in a great hurry, so I didn’t want to introduce my presence and slow things down.” Gragas leaned against a crate, patting it. “Is the Ark of the Concordant in this?”
How the hell would he know it was in there? Did it glow or something? “Yeah, and that’s just between you and me.”
“Ozzy,” Jozi said. She was leaning over and pressing her hands on the upper deck railing. “Two minutes until we reach Pollack Mine.”
“Let my brother know I’m arriving. If he doesn’t let us in, tell him the truth: a bounty hunter is trying to kill him.” He wasn’t going to include the fact that his brother’s wife was dead at the hands of the said bounty hunter.
That was the last thing Ozzy wanted to tell him. It went without saying that Lou would be devastated.
Ozzy hurried to the ladder and motioned for Gragas to join them on the upper deck and in the cockpit. “Gragas?” he asked while climbing the ladder. “How in Mars do you keep calm all the time?”
“Do you want to be calm, Ozzy?”
Ozzy reached the highest rung. He thought about it and tilted his head. “Well, not really. May bore the crap out of me.”
“Then let me know when you do. I’ve been practicing being calm in the midst of chaos for a long time. It’s a state of body, mind, and soul. My master has taught me many techniques, but it’s a lifetime practice and not something I think you’re ready for…yet.”
Ozzy pushed off the last rung with his foot and hopped onto the upper deck. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Quite boring.”
He dashed into the cockpit and saw Pollack Mine’s dome graviton shield surrounded by small, red mountains and rocky hills. He plopped onto his seat. “Did you let my brother know?”
Jozi nodded. “He was too chill about it, Ozzy. Something is wrong. He gave slow and what seemed like scripted answers.”
A ship, long and round like a perfectly oval rock, was parked near the guard’s station on Pollack Mine. Ozzy’s heart picked up a beat, and he let out a loud breath. “Quad is here.” It had to be him since Ozzy had never seen a ship quite like this one before. “He’s already inside. Dammit.”
Gragas stood behind them. “He is. Turn around.”
> Ozzy pointed at the dome where the ship entrance was opening. No guards were at the station, and the station’s windows were shattered. “My brother will die if I don’t show up.”
“This is for certain, but if you show up, then you will perish as well. This is what Quad wants. He’s setting you up. It’s an old, old trick.”
Ozzy already knew he was being used as a pawn. But it took two to play chess. He wasn’t a genius player like Lily, but he was pretty good, regardless.
Ozzy lowered Relic, easing her into the ship sterilization chamber. The craft shuddered as it touched down on her skids, and the engines powered off.
The massive outside door slammed closed, and soft-white lights blinked on in the four-ship chamber. The cleansers sprayed from the ceilings and floor, washing off dangerous perchlorate-dense sand that coated a few areas of Relic’s roof and underbelly.
“Ozzy, look at this.”
Jozi was staring at a holovid coming from her wristband. She swiped her hand on the holographic audio control and turned it up. The news was playing and showed Robert Baldwin standing at a podium.
“…and I declare a Mars Ministry Police emergency. We have two fugitives, more dangerous than you can imagine, who are on the run and must be caught.” The skin around Robert’s eyes creased as he squinted, and his white outfit and white hat looked too snug. His young son was by his side, which was most likely to garner the public’s sympathy since his son barely survived the Martian Plague and was deemed a young hero.
Ozzy’s and Jozi’s profiles popped on the holovid screen, and both were doctored to look menacing: their facial features sharp and their eyebrows furrowed. “This is Ozzy Mack and Jozi Ryan. If you see them, contact the MMP immediately. Just this morning, they killed another innocent victim and are believed to be the leaders of the crime syndicates on Mars. They have killed hundreds that we know of and have been part of more than a thousand crime syndicate murders. They must be brought to justice. This is how bad these two—”
Jozi turned it off and lowered her head. Ozzy’s heart sunk another level. The lies were piling on top of each other, nearly crushing his soul.
“You still want to see if you can work things out with Uncle Robert?” Ozzy’s voice dripped with contempt.
Jozi pursed her lips and didn’t reply. She stood and touched her lone photon pistol. Her eyes were welling up. This was her family—Robert and the MMP—that was destroying her career and her life.
Family was everything to her.
“Why would Robert be doing this?” she finally said.
“Jozi, don’t fool yourself. What do you expect? You are looking into information about your parents that could lead to Robert. He will try to stop you any way he can. Even if that means throwing you under the bus.”
“I only want answers, Ozzy. I believe my parents were used as scapegoats. I felt so alone after they died. I had no one. You can’t imagine the pain I felt as a child, not sure who to trust or where to turn for comfort. I only had the other kids in the orphanage. Then I started working with the MMP and they became my family. Ozzy, being an agent is my whole identity. My fellow agents, and even Robert mean the same to me as what Lily means to you. I’m having a hard time understanding that my “family” is now turning against me.”
“…until you’ve walked a mile in another person’s shoes,” the memory of Ozzy’s mother’s voice reverberated in his head.
He reached out to Jozi and wrapped his hand around her forearm. “I’m here for you, Jozi. I’ll help in whatever way I can. We will get to the truth, and Robert will pay.”
She nodded but didn’t speak.
“I’m heading to the gun rack,” she said. “Ozzy, I’ll grab you a photon rifle and a photon gun, and I’ll get me the same.” She looked Gragas up and down. His legs, hips, and back were strapped with daggers, swords, double-barreled photon pistols, a rifle, and some other weapons neither Ozzy nor Jozi knew. She wiped her eyes and with her voice cracking said, “Is Armageddon coming soon?” She didn’t wait for a response and hurried down the ladder to the lower deck.
“Ozzy,” said Gragas. “I’m sorry what the High Judge and this bounty hunter are doing to you, but don’t do this. You need to tuck yourself into your hiding spot at Olympus Mons.”
“No can do, Gragas. Sonya Zeld is in Olympus Mons somewhere, and we can’t find her. She’s just as dangerous as this piece of shit, Quad.”
“He is far more deadly,” said Gragas, pulling out a dagger. The metal against the holster made it sing. He examined it and then holstered it again. “I’ll have to help.”
“That was my plan.”
“Your chess plan?”
Ozzy nodded. “Well, yeah. You’re our backup.”
Gragas shook his head. “I’m by your side, not your backup.”
“Got ‘em,” Jozi yelled from the storage bay.
Ozzy glanced out of the cockpit window and watched as the inside door to the mine creaked open.
He slapped Gragas on the shoulder. “Let’s go.” He rushed down the ladder and hurried to the storage bay ramp where he pushed a button and a door hissed. Steam expelled when the ramp unsealed and opened. It then lowered to the ground and clanked against the pavement.
The smell of burnt rock wafted to his nose. It was the aroma of Pollack Mine.
Jozi handed Ozzy his weapons. He holstered the photon pistol and strapped the rifle over his shoulder.
With confidence, they strode down the ramp like a special ops team ready for business. At least, that’s what Ozzy hoped they looked like.
“Stick together,” said Jozi.
“Agreed,” mumbled Gragas.
The inside mine door loudly pinged when it opened fully.
Miners packed the area and were walking back and forth, wearing dirty mining suits and headgear with flashlights on their foreheads.
In the middle of the mine was a large, dimly lit hole, decked out with steep roads, train rails, and elevators. Outbuildings, offices, and mining vehicles lined the hole and were as dirty as the miner’s outfits.
Why didn’t Lou greet them when the inside door opened?
“Ozzy,” yelled a man who was trotting toward him and fully decked out in an EVA uniform. Several people, also in the same type of EVA’s, surrounded the guy.
It was his brother’s voice.
“Why in Mars’s name are they in EVA’s? That’s never a mining protocol,” Ozzy said softly.
“They may be hiding,” responded Gragas. “They might be masking their faces from Quad.”
“Might is a strong word there, Gragas.”
Jozi eyed the EVA-wearing men and women. “Maybe your brother is playing his own game of chess?”
Ozzy slid his hand over his holster. A miner walked toward him. Was that an actual miner or someone disguised as one? “Or Quad may be playing a little better than we are.”
7
Pollack Mine, Mars
“You led trouble my way.” It was Lou in the miner’s EVA. He strode up to Ozzy, his EVA suit helmet visor blackened. “Leave, quickly. This is a setup. He made me and a few others wear these EVA’s. He synthesized my voice with his in order to fool you when you called. He’s disguised in an EVA right now.”
Ozzy’s chest tightened.
“Where was he the last time you saw him?” Ozzy asked as he glanced around.
“Right behind you,” came a gruff, robotic-sounding voice.
Ozzy turned with a start. A man twice his size, muscles almost bulging out of his battle suit, wore a masked helmet lined with a Mohawk-like Roman helmet from old Earth. He stood ten meters away with two swords drawn and his arms bent at the elbows. An EVA suit was on the ground next to him, torn to shreds. He must have cut the disguise off a few seconds ago. A large EVA helmet rested on the ground as well, something that was somehow big enough to fit his mask and helmet underneath.
He was ready to pounce.
Shiiiiiing!
Gragas unsheathed his swords from the back
of his battle suit. He cocked his head to the side and grinned. “Hi, Quad.”
Before Ozzy could draw his rifle, Gragas rushed forward. “Get your brother on the ship, now,” he yelled.
Gragas came down with one of his swords. Quad crisscrossed his swords and blocked Gragas’s thrust. A clang reverberated across the mine.
Quad flung a sword toward Gragas’s head. Gragas ducked then quickly stood, kicking Quad in the side.
Quad grunted and fell to one knee.
Men and women rushed Quad. The bounty hunter jumped to his feet and swung his sword in their direction. He missed. Gragas sidestepped and stood in front of the miners, blocking them from coming any farther.
One miner didn’t get the hint.
Gragas pushed the miner aside. “Go. You don’t have the ability to fight this man.”
Quad laughed. “You should have seen them when I arrived with a rifle in my hand. They were too easily controlled.” He gave Lou a look. “Signs of a weak leader.”
Gragas sheathed his swords and, just as quickly, pulled his rifle from his shoulder. He aimed at Quad. “Ozzy, do what I said. Get your brother on the ship.”
Quad unstrapped his own rifle and pointed it at Gragas. “Yeah, get him on the ship. I’ll be along soon…after I maim Gragas here…the famous Galactic Knight.”
Ozzy grabbed his brother’s arm, Jozi grabbed the other, and they rushed him toward Relic.
Lou pulled his arms free. “Let me go.”
“Lou, we can’t. We have to get you to safety. The High Judge hired this bounty hunter to kill everyone I know in order to get to me.” Or so Ozzy speculated.
Lou huffed. “Then let him kill you. That way I’ll be free of you.”
Lou had a point.
Wapooh!
A photon blast cracked the ground, sending up chunks of rock and soil against Lou. He toppled on his side, making an oomph sound when he landed.
Gragas returned fire, slamming a photon bolt into Quad’s battle suit. Electricity twirled around his armor. Quad jerked back, lost his footing, and fell to his knees. He thrust his chest outward, shooting the electricity in Gragas’s direction, which zapped Gragas.
Mars Colony Chronicles (Books 1 - 5): A Space Opera Box Set Adventure Page 45
