by Dennis Young
“Easier if Nikolay can patch into their comm, and I might be able to control them, too.”
Talice thought quickly. “And you keep them under your control, or Nemesis orders them to self-destruct. Either way, we win.”
“Exactly. Okay, got Niky on All-Channel.” Mac clicked off and Talice switched her comm again.
“Sergeant, I have the link.” Nikolay’s Russian accent was unmistakable. “The encryption is easily broken, but I cannot say if they will change frequency later.”
“Can you put a tag on it?” Mac.
The line was silent for a moment. “Yes, I can tag the carrier wave. It will follow regardless the frequency.”
“Talice, Mac. We’ve got them by the balls.”
“Hold for later. Don’t do anything now. We need this for the operation.”
“Hua, got it. If they have more drones, we can do the same. I’ve got two more ready to launch whenever needed.”
“Briggs, Rory, status?”
“Those two ATVs are parked north of the complex and out of site. One appeared to be an unarmed groundcar, the other with an auto-feeder on a swivel mount.” Briggs mumbled something to himself, then came back. “Two emplacements south, one each east and west with auto-feeders and hand weapons. Both are manned, two each. North unknown.”
“Sentries at the south entrance of the largest building and the two flanking buildings. Light armor and weapons. All appear to be male.” Rory.
Talice upped the mag in her visor. “Yeah, those are guys for sure. Ollie, could you take out those emplacements from this location?”
“Yes, Captain. Two kilometers, no more.”
Talice held back a chuckle. Two kilometers and no scope. What’s it like to have eyes that good?
Mac clicked in on All-Channel. “Nikolay, is there any chance they can backtrack my tag?”
“Not unless they suspect it, Sergeant. I will put a block on it and a software disconnect, so they cannot do the same to your panel.”
“Don’t take any chances, you two mad scientists.” Talice was happy the team was responding with ideas, but knew Nemesis wasn’t dumb either. They’d proven that on Eos by holding off a Marine battalion for twenty-four hours. “Briggs, finish up the recon, prepare to withdraw.”
“Hold on, Captain.” Rory. “We’ve got activity on the west side.”
“Mac, what do you see?”
A pause. “Hard to tell, my drones are at five kilometers.”
“Armed groundcar coming around the west side, two ATVs in support.” Rory again.
Talice licked her dry lips. “Alright, go silent, stay calm. Safeties off, Ollie, find a good spot for sniping. Bělinka, ready the FunGun.” Shit! Everything was going so well…
Minutes passed as the team found cover. From their vantagepoint, they watched the headlights crawl closer, below the overhang where they hid.
The groundcar eased to a halt half a kilometer from the hillside. The ATVs continued, climbing slowly, one east, one west. Talice slipped the safety off her pulse rifle. From the corner of her eye, she saw Bělinka tracking the west ATV with her FunGun. Talice watched the other.
“We can take these guys.” Rory.
“Hold position. Don’t fire unless fired upon.” Talice curled her finger around the trigger.
“I can cause a distraction.” Mac.
Talice considered only for an instant. “Do it. Otherwise, we’re in a firefight.”
Thirty seconds later, a small landslide started to the west. The ATVs veered off, moving quickly down the hill. They stopped beside the groundcar. Talice hit her 10X mag and watched as the ATV riders consulted. The auto-feeder on the groundcar swung to the hillside. Muzzle flashes lit the night, and heavy rounds peppered the area in front and around the overhang. No one even had time to yell “incoming!”
Talice burrowed into the darkness. 10mm HE rounds exploded around her, throwing dirt and gravel in the air. After what seemed an hour, it stopped. She’d timed it; a full five-second burst. It would not only have killed anyone hit, their rides back to Bird One likely would have been destroyed as well. She coughed into her helmet before clicking to All-Channel. “Hold fire, do not engage.”
Smoke drifted around the groundcar. After a few minutes, the vehicles turned away, heading back for the compound.
Talice still had her finger on the pulse rifle trigger. Slowly, she eased it away and took a breath. “Teams, report.”
“Team One, clear.”
“Cover One, clear.”
“Cover Two, clear, but I have debris in my eyes, Captain.”
Fucking Nikolay! “Why was your visor up?”
“Reading data, Captain. Apologies.”
Talice counted to ten. “Alright, we’ll discuss this later. Team Two is clear. Stay put until we see the vehicles reenter the compound. And put your fucking visor down!”
* * *
They made their way back to Bird One silently and without mishap. It had been very, very close.
Talice slowly cooled her anger, knowing of all the members of her team, Nikolay was the least military. Must have had a good reason. He couldn’t anticipate being fired upon, but should have known the possibility existed. Damn him! Great guy, but damn him!
They pulled into the deployment area. Talice clicked over to Mac’s channel. “Thanks. What did you do?”
“Took one of the drones down on the far side, then up to the top. Scattered some rocks and nudged a few. These new drones are heavier and a lot more powerful.”
“Well done. I’ll be up after we stow our gear. Niky doesn’t do dumb stuff without a good reason, and I need to know what it was.”
“See you then.” Mac clicked off.
The team checked down weapons and armor, Rory and Junior taking charge of those responsibilities. Talice shed her HCS, scrambled into camis, and washed her face. Then she called Niky to the TacOps center and sat with him and Mac.
“Okay, give me a reason. Why?”
“I was checking frequencies of the drones and ran across the comm channel of the vehicles, Captain.” Niky brought out his SLATE. “They are using obsolete Marine encryption, perhaps three years old.”
Talice nodded. “We know that from Eos. It’s how they broke into our wristcoms and tracked us, remember?”
“Yes, but the drone encryption is much newer. And also Marine.”
Talice looked to Mac, worry on both their faces. “The same as Mac’s drones?”
“No, Captain, but no more than two versions back. Perhaps late last year.”
Talice considered, then looked at Mac again. “When did you update your software and encryption parameters?”
“Just before we left Theia, standard procedure.” Mac studied the SLATE, now in her hands. “Yeah, we used this on the Eos mission, so it’s damn near current.” She looked to Nikolay. “That means they’ve got someone who is, or recently was, in Marine intel.”
Nikolay nodded. “My fear as well, Sergeant. Captain, I apologize for my error, but I was studying this when we were fired upon.”
Talice shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Go let Jamal clean your eyes out, then get some rest. Good job, Niky. You’re clear.”
Nikolay nodded to them both, then disappeared around the TacOps panel. Talice sat back and blew a breath. “Mac, this is scary. Our own people…”
“Not ours anymore, Princess. And we’ve had this conversation.”
“We need to get this back to Fawkes quickly. I’ll see if Abie can set up a secure channel.”
“Probably not until we’re back in orbit. In the meantime, we’ll have to be really careful about how we communicate.”
Talice looked away, nodding slowly. “What if we went back to old systems? Stuff they might not even have access to?”
Mac thought about it, and a smile grew on her face. “You mean like using an obsolete language? Might work. We know they’re damn close to what we’re using and might not consider that approach. Of course, the best thing to d
o is not even let them know we’re here until it’s too late.”
“Yeah… that’s the trick, isn’t it? Okay, let’s get Briggs and Rory in the ready room and go over this recon info. Then we need to set our plan.” Talice looked around. “Where is Evans?”
“Sleeping. I sent him to his cabin when you were on the way back.”
Talice looked around the corner to be sure they were alone. “Mac… do you trust him? I’m too damn close to the situation to be sure if I do.”
“What choice do we really have? But I don’t let him get too close, if you know what I mean.”
“Alright. Just be careful when you’re here alone with him.”
“Martin was with us, locked and loaded. Evans wasn’t going to do anything.”
Talice nodded again. “Good for him.” She stood.” Let’s get a bite to eat, then talk over our plan. Then wake Mr. Evans up. We need his brain, if nothing else.”
* * *
Talice thought to have Bird One lift back into orbit, then changed her mind. It was nearly dawn, and the assault ship would light up Nemesis’s IR detectors regardless, so they stayed dirtside and prepared for OpCom.
She sent Briggs, Rory, Martin, and Bělinka scouting after dawn. The debris in Nikolay’s eyes turned out to be worse than thought, with corneal abrasions on both. Jamal gave him antiseptic eye drops and put him under mild sedation, to rest in his darkened cabin for a few hours.
The others were resting as well, while Talice met with Mac and Evans in the ready room. She emptied the folder contents onto the table, passed the intel sheets to Mac and the holo to Evans. “Tell me about Aya Yubari. Everything.”
Evans nodded to the pages in Mac’s hands. “You have the information there.”
“I want to know your relationship with her. Why you’re here, what it is you and the colonel didn’t tell us. You know, the dirty little secrets that just might get us killed.”
Evans hesitated, then shrugged. “I was on the team that debriefed her.”
“What else?”
“It’s really not essential—”
“Look, you should know by now I’m not the person to keep information from. I would think our last confrontation would have taught you something.”
“And I guarded your back on Eos when I had no formal training to do so, so don’t give me that attitude, Captain. I’ve earned a place on this ship.”
Mac raised her eyes. “You’re here because of orders, not by invitation. And that’s the only way you earn a place on this ship. We’re a private enterprise organization, Mr. Evans. Don’t ever forget that.”
Evans opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and looked away. “Fine. I was on the retrieval team, too.”
Talice nodded. “And I’ll bet you assisted in getting her back in, didn’t you? Did you force her to do that, or did she really go back on her own?”
“Her decision.” Evans shrugged again. “I tried to talk her out of it.”
“Ah…” Talice grinned wryly. “That’s why you’re here. You want to make sure she gets away. This whole ‘body’ thing was your idea, I’ll bet.”
“I… had a hand in it, yes.”
“Did you also train her? As a spy, I mean?”
Evans shook his head. “She’s a natural at it. Her Geisha training and Japanese upbringing keeps her about as cool as anyone I’ve ever seen.”
“You’re attracted to her,” said Mac quietly.
Evans’s lips drew a thin line. “We have a bond. Dammit, I want to see her safe.”
“Well.” Talice chuckled. “You’re human after all. Okay, Mr. Evans, that wasn’t so hard, was it? What else? Does she know you’re here?”
He shook his head. “She doesn’t know anything about this operation. She can’t. She’s on the inside and supposed to die with the rest of Nemesis, remember?”
Talice rose to pace behind Mac’s chair. About five steps each way was all she could manage in the narrow corridor where the TacOps center was. Up to the cockpit door. Back to the ready room entryway. Mac studied the intel as Evans slumped in his chair.
“I changed my mind,” said Talice, pausing. “I don’t want names with these people. The operative, yes, but the others, no. My feeling is, this situation may end up with a lot more dead people. We don’t know who are good guys or bad guys. So let’s just keep it businesslike.”
Mac looked up. “They’re hostages, Talice. It’s our job to get them out alive.”
“Then somehow, we’ve got to let Aya Yubari know we’re here to do that little thing.”
“I still have my Nemesis ident.”
They looked at Evans. “Go on,” said Talice.
“I can get us in as long as it’s accepted. I don’t think it was compromised on Eos before the Marines took out that headquarters.”
“You… alone.” Mac shook her head.
“No, I would normally have a contingent. At least a couple of attendants… guards. Yes, I was that embedded.”
Talice sat and faced Evans squarely. “So we pose as your bodyguards, flunkies, whatever. Okay, that gets us in. Then you round up the good guys and get ready for escape when we hit the door, right?”
“Something like that, yes.”
Talice held Mac’s gaze for a long moment before she met Evans’s eyes again. “And you’re willing to do this?”
Evans held up his hands. “Maybe then you’ll extend that invitation. Look, you don’t understand. These people are trying to make a living. Survive. Aya is helping them do that.”
Talice drew back. “Are you saying they want to be here?”
“No, of course not. But if you go in with guns blazing, you’ll kill a lot of innocent people. You need someone who can knock on the door and get in, not knock it down and get shot at.”
Mac passed the leaflets back to Talice. She slid them into the folder with the holo, then looked at Evans once again. “Alright. Let’s put together a plan. Tell me what you need, and we’ll see if we can provide it for you. We’re in.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Working for a Living (Part Two)
Hot Knife Through Butter
“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong,
and strike at what is weak.”
Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”
Bird One…
Rory and Martin volunteered as Evans’s bodyguards and Bělinka was included as a recent “find.” Evans said she would likely deflect any suspicions of his appearance. An offering, as it were. Obviously, Nikolay was concerned, but accepted it with stoic understanding. He and Bělinka shared a couple of quiet, private hours as the team readied for a very unusual OpCom.
Cameras were secreted in Bělinka’s jewelry and Rory’s ornate chest piece over his bare brown skin. Everyone had functional earpieces still embedded from the Corps except Evans, and he wore a typical external device, not hidden. His explanation would be a good one: he was nearly deaf and needed the tech. But it was also a device by which Mac could monitor him on the TacOps board.
The infiltration team took one of the ATVs, once it was stripped of all markings and hardware that might cause questions. Their orders were simple; get in, round up Aya and the hostages, get to a place of safety, either in or out of the compound, and alert Mac. Simple in planning, much more difficult in execution.
The entire operation hinged on Evans’s Nemesis ID. If it had not been flagged since the Eos operation, the chances for success would be greatly improved. If not, the advance team might not survive. They might be taken prisoner at the gate, or simply gunned down where they stood. The risk was great, but everyone knew that from the beginning.
They rolled out at dawn. Everyone but Mac at TacOps gathered at the ramp to watch them leave. Talice wondered if she’d ever see them alive again. Fuck that. We can do this. Evans has given us a great opportunity. Time to go to work.
She gathered the remaining members around her. Even Abie and Jamal were there, with Will on station in the cockpit just in case. Briggs and
Ollie had left earlier and were at the cliff overhang, monitoring the ATV on its trip to the compound. “Let’s gear up and get ready to go. We need to be in position in two hours.” She looked to Junior, then Dosu, then Nikolay, nervous as a cat. “Junior, you’ve got Rory’s SmartGun, I’ve got the FunGun. You and Dosu take point, Niky and I will cover. Briggs and Ollie will meet us at the rendezvous point.”
“How is this going to play, Captain?” asked Abie.
“We get the hostages out. Bird One lights the place up with Hellbores and burns it to the ground. Then we go in and drop the package, and you hit it again.”
“What about cover fire?” Jamal glanced to Abie who looked thoughtful.
“I’m hoping it won’t be needed, but yeah, it’s certainly a possibility. We’d like to get them out without notice, and it may be best to wait until dark. Regardless, orders are to torch the place, no prisoners, no survivors.” Talice looked to Abie. “Problems?”
Abie shook her head slowly. “Not really. As small as this encampment is, I doubt if they have anything they can put in the air or shoot at us that will give us a scare. But what if they get a message off?”
“I have their frequencies and can jam them,” said Nikolay. He shrugged and smiled. “I must keep the team safe, yes?”
“And they’ll be fine, I promise.” Talice paused as she and Nikolay met each other’s eyes. “I promise, Niky. We can do this.”
“Hell, Captain, we’re professionals, right?” Abie nudged Jamal who shrugged, nodded, and smiled all at once.
“Alright, get your gear on and let’s go. The quicker we’re in place and working, the better we’ll all feel. Abie, see the guns are hot tonight. Mama Mac is gonna be busy telling all us kids what to do.”
* * *
“All teams are in place. Briggs, status.” Mac’s voice was cool and professional in Talice’s earpiece. She listened, scanning the three kilometers between her position and the compound.
“We’re moving up, Cover Team taking position two hundred meters south. Ten minutes.”
Junior and Dosu were Cover Team. Talice and Nikolay were Monitor. Talice clicked to All-Channel. “Monitor in place, one hundred meters west of Forward Team. Deploying comm.”
