by Terry Mixon
Sandra poked Jess in the chest. Hard. “And that’s the reason I can’t take my eyes off you. You’re going to see something shiny, and then you’ll be off to do whatever idiocy you think is more important than protecting your own life.
“For Christ’s sake, you almost died in France. If Nathan Bennett hadn’t stuck you into that sarcophagus, you’d have bled out.”
Jess rubbed the spot on her chest where Sandra had poked her. “What exactly do you want me to do, Sandra? What can I do that will make you happy?”
“Happy? You could make me happy by trotting your cute little ass right back through the gate and going to Freedom Express. I don’t expect that to happen, mind you, but anything less isn’t going to make me happy. I don’t suppose I can guilt trip you into doing it, can I?”
“Probably not, but I promise that I’ll stay up here until Harry says I can go down. I’m not going to run off. You can stand right here and watch me.”
“Don’t think I won’t,” the sniper said grumpily. “You’ve obviously lost your freaking mind. There’s no way I am taking my eyes off you until we’re clear of this planet. Thankfully, it looks like the fighting is winding down.
“Once we secure the area around this hill, we can start focusing our attention on the Asharim city. And don’t think for one second that I’m going to let you go along with the expedition to take the city and those gates. Not going to happen.”
She started to open her mouth to argue, but Harry’s voice came over the bud in her ear. “All units, attention. Our spotters indicate that we have hostile aircraft inbound. They look like atmosphere-only antigravity cars.
“I want everyone to take cover immediately. Do we have any troops with antiaircraft capability? Respond on this channel.”
Before anyone could answer, Sandra had Jess by her elbow and was steering her toward the cave. “We’re done here. Back inside you go.”
Jess yanked her arm back. “I’ll get under cover, but I’m not leaving this hill until the fighting is over. We’ve got troops that can take out those ships. Hell, we’re probably not the targets anyway. It’s going to be the troops on the ground.”
Sandra looked as if she just wanted to throw her over her shoulder and take her off to the cave anyway but stood there grinding her teeth for a moment before shoving Jess toward a large outcropping.
“You make me crazy. Get behind this rock where I’ve set up my sniper’s nest. If I think you’re going to run, I’ll taze you. Is that clear?”
As much as she wanted a better view of what was going on down below, Jess knew that was folly. The enemy was going to be shooting at them with either flechettes or something else high tech. Being in the sights of someone like that was not a recipe for long-term survival.
As she crouched behind the rock, Jess started scanning the sky toward the city. She saw something that might be birds or perhaps aircraft at a great distance. She wasn’t sure.
“How can they have advanced technology?” she asked. “If they had access to something like that, they should’ve destroyed the Volunteers already. This makes no sense.”
“When someone is shooting at you, you’d be much better off ducking and fighting back than trying to figure out what you got wrong. There’ll always be time for that later.”
As she was speaking, Sandra had gotten her sniper rifle up onto the rocks and was using the stone as a support while she swiveled the weapon and looked through the sight.
“There they are,” she said slowly. “Three vehicles, open topped and flying along just like they were airplanes. No wings, and I don’t see any pylons with heavy weapons. It’s a bit too far to see what the occupants are carrying. Settle down while they get closer. It’s time to see exactly what the Asharim are bringing to the party.”
Chen was still in the air when he got word of the successful strike on the New Zealand base. Rather, his senior guard got it from his own contacts in Beijing. Satellite images indicated a very high probability that the base had been completely destroyed.
Excellent. That denied the enemy access to at least one gate that was far too close to the shores of his home country. There was nothing he could do about the ones off planet. At least not until such time as he had access to a gate himself.
While the ship China had sent to Mars would still take weeks to get there, the outcome of that mission was certain. If the American was stupid enough to send one of his little armed ships against it, he’d find out what kind of weapons the Dragon still had at its disposal.
For the moment, Chen would continue to focus his attention on events here on Earth. There would be more fallout from the attack on New Zealand. He didn’t believe the alliance would actually go to war with China over the incursion, but he’d been wrong before.
If they did, the fighting would be brief. All of the nations involved might have a decent level of technology, but they didn’t have very many ships. China could swamp them with numbers.
And it wasn’t like the old days. China was a true superpower now, with all of the sophisticated weapons that anyone else had at their disposal. Of course, they’d stolen most of the technology from the United States, but they still had it.
America was in decline now. The corrupt oligarchy that they called Congress had defunded the military and neutered it to the point where it wasn’t capable of fending off a war with even the false face of China. If they added in the weapons that the Dragon had access to, the fighting would be over even more quickly.
His phone rang with a number that he didn’t recognize.
“Chen.”
“This is Hyde,” a familiar voice said. “Congratulations on your strike. It seems to have borne fruit.”
Arthur Hyde was the American-born member of the Dragon that he’d met just a few days ago. The one that was overseeing operations inside the United States.
“Mr. Hyde,” Chen said, easing back to relax in his seat. “I hadn’t expected to hear from you so quickly. What news do you have for me?”
“My spies inside the White House indicate that President Blankenship has asked for and received Secretary of State Queen’s resignation.”
Chen allowed himself a dark chuckle. The irritating man that had decided to stand up to him was now thrust out of his seat of power in disgrace. Perfect.
“Excellent news. Do we have word who will replace him?”
He was certain that it would be one of the assistant secretaries of state, but it could be any one of the three. Some would be easier to deal with than others.
Darryl Dickman would be the worst possible outcome. He was just as arrogant and stubborn as Queen, only less polished and more impulsive. Lana Bohannon would be his preference. She was cautious and tentative. He could bully her.
That made the most likely possibility Phillip Judge. He wouldn’t be a pushover and could negotiate in a give-and-take situation.
“There’s no word for certain at this point, but my money is on Phillip Judge,” Hyde said. “He’s got the best set of qualities for the job. But that’s not really the reason that I called you.”
Chen raised an eyebrow even though the other man couldn’t see him. “Oh? What else is happening?”
“In between the time that Blankenship asked for Queen’s resignation and the time he delivered it, Queen initiated a number of actions. I don’t believe that the US is aware of them yet, but something is going on.”
“Do you have any idea what? Even if you don’t know the full scope of the action, can you give me an example?”
“A good bit of money has been paid to at least three major universities in the form of significant grants. Those call for hundreds of reputable scientists being reassigned to some secret project. Probably ten times that many graduate students are accompanying them. Nondisclosure agreements have already been signed, and the people are disappearing even as we speak.
“We’re trying to keep track of them, but it’s not certain that we’ll be able to do so. Someone is taking a lot of care to make ce
rtain that no one follows them to their ultimate destination. I don’t know precisely what that means, but it’s probably not good for us.”
“And you say that there are a number of other suspicious activities?” Chen asked, his brow furrowed as he considered what the man was telling him.
“I believe that there are, but I have no information to be sure. There is other money being relocated from the Department of State and some special accounts that Queen had access to. Encrypted orders have gone out to a number of military units as well. As of yet, with everything being done so quietly, I’m uncertain exactly what is taking place.”
“Find out as much as you can as quickly as you can,” Chen ordered. “It sounds as if that pathetic man is making one last play. I need to know where those scientists are going. Most likely, he’s loaning them to Rogers. If so, I’m not that concerned.
“What I am concerned about are surprises that come from unexpected quarters. We still believe that there is at least one player we haven’t identified in this grand game. That former FBI agent that was on their most wanted list. Cabot. The one we believe that stole some Asharim technology.
“We still need to know who she is and who she represents. The Americans no longer are searching for her, which means that they’ve made some kind of deal. If they’d captured her, we’d have heard, so there’s still something happening there. If these orders revolve around her and those who she works for, I need to know immediately.”
“I’ll keep you informed,” Hyde said. With that, the man disconnected.
Chen put his phone away, frowning at the unexpected news. Just when he’d thought that he had the upper hand, something new was taking shape. He didn’t like it. He had to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible so he could stop it now.
32
Harry moved his troops through the dark forest and to the tree line on the other side. He knew approximately where the edge of the forest would be simply because he’d watched hours of drone footage overnight.
Once they were in place, everyone spread out and began looking for the incoming aircraft, if aircraft was even the right word. For all he knew, these could be anything from military strike craft to civilian ships appropriated for use in battle. They knew far too little of the Asharim and their current circumstances to even guess.
“Should I try to interdict the Asharim battle commanders before they get away?” Rex asked over the command circuit.
“Negative. I don’t want you caught out in the open. Let them go.”
“It’s possible those ships are coming in to pick them up.”
Harry considered that and slowly nodded to himself. “Probably. If so, we won’t have to deal with strafing runs. I’d much rather have the Asharim get away than use some type of super weapon on us.”
The drones were still keeping an eye on the incoming aircraft and, as they got closer, he was able to determine more about them. As indicated, they were open topped, but once they became clearer in the drone’s view, he was able to see that there were no dedicated hardware mounting points.
They wouldn’t be dropping bombs then. Not unless somebody inside the damned things flew over them and dropped something over the side. Which, he admitted to himself, was still possible.
One of the aircraft began dipping lower in an obvious bid to meet up with the fleeing Asharim. Rex had been right. This was a rescue mission.
The other two aircraft were coming toward where Harry was hiding. Well, not specifically toward him. As they split apart, it became obvious they were bracketing the explosions in the woods. They didn’t know specifically where he or his people were.
The video feed showed that the craft were occupied by a mixture of Asharim and the slave race that had been fighting just below the hill. It looked as if two of the Asharim were piloting the craft and the rest of the occupants were warriors carrying what certainly appeared to be Asharim-designed flechette weapons.
So much for just having to face black powder rifles.
“It looks like we’re going to be dealing with some flechette weapons,” he said over the channel dedicated to the two teams. “We’ve got one of the aircraft heading toward us, and the other one is circling around where the mortars struck inside the forest.”
With that, he changed channels on his radio to talk to the snipers. “Sandra, what’s your status?”
“I’ve got them in my sights,” she said. “The range is ridiculously long, but I might be able to get a hit if I empty my magazine.”
“How about the aircraft on your left? It’s the one going on the far side of the mortar impact zone from us. It’s possible it will overfly the forest and try to come up behind us when we engage the other one.”
She was quiet for a moment. “If they do that, they’ll be in a better position for me to give them a couple of rounds. Are you sure you can take the other aircraft? We don’t know what makes these things tick.”
“We’re about to find out. Fire when you’re ready, but try to let them get as close as you can. There are two Asharim piloting the damn thing. If you take them out, I’ll bet it crashes.”
“Copy that, Boss.”
With his orders given, he settled in. The aliens must’ve spotted something, because they opened fire. The range was still long for his weapons, but it didn’t look like they were firing at his people anyway. It was possible that they’d seen some of their comrades and mistaken them for his troops.
It was obvious that the alien slaves wielding the flechette weapons didn’t have any skill with them. They opened fire at too great a distance and seemed unfamiliar with the process of reloading them.
In fact, they seem so unfamiliar with what to expect that more than one of them dropped the weapons as soon as they squeezed their triggers, shocked expressions on their faces.
This was obviously a scratch force brought together because of the advanced—comparatively speaking—weapons that his people had brought to the party. In any case, both his own troops and US military Special Forces were far better trained, and he began to feel a little bit more hopeful that they’d come out of this fight on top.
He watched the approach of the air car—that’s what he’d decided to call them—through the short-ranged scope of his weapon. Second by second, the vehicle grew closer to their position and began reducing altitude in small dips and jerks.
Personally, he’d have preferred a smooth descent, but it was obvious the pilots were also somewhat unfamiliar with their craft. Oh, they knew enough to fly them, but they didn’t have true skill with the controls or flying in general.
When he was confident that they were within range of his weapons, he gave the signal over the channel to his teams. “Target the pilots and fire for effect.”
As soon as he finished saying those words, the woods echoed with the sound of suppressed shots ringing out. He added his bullets to the hail rising to meet their enemy and saw the short windscreen that protected the pilots from the air in front of them crack and divot as a few lucky shots struck them.
The material was tough and protected the pilots from the incoming fire but not their own reactions to it. One of the pilots must’ve done something epically bad, because the air car flipped over, dumping all of the troops in the back out. They fell screaming to their deaths.
“Well, sucks to be them,” Gunnery Sergeant Danvers said with a grunt.
“Sure as hell does,” he agreed.
The pilots were strapped in and didn’t fall, but their recovery from the unexpected roll once more highlighted their inexperience. When they finally leveled their craft, it was dangerously close to the trees. And to Harry’s people.
One of his men, who was equipped with a grenade launcher, fired a round into the bottom of the craft as it passed overhead. The explosion and resulting shower of debris were too far away to be dangerous to them, but the air car lost all lift immediately and crashed into the trees somewhere behind them.
Harry was about to ask what the status of the ot
her air car was when it came barreling overhead from behind them, completely out of control, and crashed into the open field in front of them. It wasn’t a pretty sight as bodies flew from the wreckage while it skidded sideways and began flipping over, instantly disintegrating.
“Good work, Sandra,” he said over the radio. “What’s the status of the other vehicle? If we hurry, can we ambush the alien leadership before they get away?”
“Afraid not,” his sniper said. “They’ve already taken off and headed back toward the city. I tried to take them out, but none of my shots hit. We’re going to have to do this the hard way.”
It looked like they were going to have to invade the city after all. So much for taking the easy way out.
Brenda completed her addendum to the agreement she’d made with Queen and sent it back to him. Twenty minutes from the time he’d called her, she had a signed agreement with the United States of America in her hot little hands. One that guaranteed her possession of the base she’d found.
Of course, he also had an agreement in his greasy hands that meant she had to start handing over some of the tech and know-how to them. Not any of the gates or weapons tech, but it still soured her stomach a little.
Well, it was no different than the agreement the US had with Humanity Unlimited, but the Families actually had enough data to get them started doing something.
She also had several phone numbers and an assurance that various people would be contacting her in the next few days to fulfil the agreement from Queen’s end. He also assured her that he’d file his copy with his people formalizing the event.
To make certain that none of the little details got lost, she sent a copy of the agreement back to the base in France. From there, it would be couriered to New Zealand to make absolutely certain everyone had copies of what these documents said.
Since the alliance had not yet formally expelled the United States, the US government would get a copy of the agreement from that end as well. That meant that whoever replaced Queen wouldn’t be able to back out.
