Though she didn’t trust the Dagger’s motives, she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. They needed the assist, so they’d just have to deal with the consequences later.
She looked over at Thad with a subtle nod.
The Marine took a knee and gave a quick hand motion, signaling for her and Jonathan to follow. They dropped beside him, and the two soldiers tossed the ghillie net over their forms.
“For this to work, you must remain still and be completely silent,” the Dagger whispered. “And keep your heads down if you do not wish to be injured in the fallout.”
With those cryptic words, she pivoted and ran swiftly to join her soldiers, calling out, “Blow it!”
The camouflage netting had a loose enough weave that Ell could see through it. She observed as the shaped charge the assassin had set detonated several meters away, rock shards and debris spewing outward, the energy directed away from the depression where they lay.
Even as the rubble settled, the assassin was out from under cover, her rifle in her hands and pointed at the impact crater.
The soldiers with her hurried to join the Dagger, positioning themselves in a semi-circle, their weapons poised, muzzles pointing down at what Ell knew to be an imaginary foe.
It was stagecraft, pure and simple.
But to what end?
* * *
The Dagger stood with her cadre of cadets, waiting for the prison guards to burst through the ravine. She could hear them race around the corner, and then skid to an abrupt halt behind her.
“Where are they?” the lead guard demanded.
Dacina snapped her rifle up into its ready position and turned to face them, her cold gaze landing on the man who had spoken.
“Dead,” she said flatly, pointing to the crater made by the shaped charge.
The leader of the guards who had been pursuing the Geminate agents kicked a nearby rock and said with some disgust, “Doctor Janus isn’t going to like this. He pinged and explicitly told us they were to be taken alive.”
Dacina lifted one brow. “That will not be happening. I should not need to remind you that the doctor does not have the authority to order someone detained rather than eliminated.”
The man who had spoken shot her a smug look that suggested he knew something she did not. “He wanted them for the premier’s program.”
Dacina’s eyes hardened. She removed the band that constrained her hair and stepped into the light mounted on the guard’s rifle. She heard the satisfying sound of a sharp inhale when the light caught the beads woven into her braids—one bead, one kill.
The man took an involuntary step back when he realized to whom he had spoken.
“Assassin.” The sibilant whisper traveled fast among those who stood behind him.
Dacina spared a glance over her shoulder, her voice cold and hard as she addressed one of the Dozen who stood beside the small crater.
“Have a cleanup crew gather what DNA they can from the site, and present it to the doctor. Perhaps he will find some use for the remains.”
One of the Junxun bowed his head. “It will be as you say, Dagger.”
She turned back to the insolent prison guard, whose face was now as pale as one of her victims.
“The doctor will have to make do with what we can find.”
He swallowed hard. Wisely, he refrained from speaking.
She turned to look at the contingent of guards who had accompanied the leader; they stood as if not quite knowing what to do next.
This was easily remedied. Her voice cracked through the silence. “Why do you loiter about? There is a prison to guard. It is a wonder the prisoners aren’t running the facility.”
Her words struck home. Even her Junxun plants within the guard jumped. With alacrity, they turned and began to jog back toward the prison.
Dacina waited, watching her hacked feed until she was certain they were well on their way back to the facility, before slinging the rifle over her shoulder and kneeling to lift the ghillie net from her prize.
“Elodie Cyr.”
A soft snick sounded, and in the next moment, the woman she had once named zhídé de duìshǒu, a ‘worthy opponent,’ peeled her hood from her face.
Ell nodded warily. “Dacina Zian.”
“Well met,” the Dagger responded.
She stepped forward, hand weaving in the complex Junxun sign for ‘esteemed warrior’—though she didn’t necessarily expect the other woman to know its meaning.
“I have a proposition for you. Your people and mine share a common problem. I need your help to stop it.”
PRISON INSPECTION
Shar-Kali Correctional Facility
and Reeducation Center
Aksu Desert
Jonathan took his cues from Thad and Ell, and when the other two rose to their feet, he followed.
While trapped under the ghillie net, watching the staged drama play out before them, he’d reached out to Morrison to check on Joule, and was relieved to hear the big cat had returned to the hide unscathed.
“Need our help?” he heard Thad ask sharply. “What for?”
The assassin stepped closer, her cold eyes causing a chill to chase down Jonathan’s spine. Her words, spoken in a low tone, were innocuous enough, and yet her stance, the bite in her voice, everything about the woman promised death.
“I know what our premier has done to your prime minister. I can help you free him.”
Thad stepped forward to meet her toe to toe, his action causing the Dagger’s soldiers to shift in warning. Jonathan had to give the Marine props; it took balls of steel to go up against a killer like that.
“What?” asked Thad, gesturing to himself, Ell, and Jonathan. “You want to pass us off as part of your elite soldier unit, doing some sort of prison inspection or something?”
The woman stared back unblinkingly. “Exactly so.”
Ell stepped up, placing a hand on Thad’s arm. “You said we share a common problem. What is that?”
The assassin turned to her after a hard look at the big Marine. “He plans to do to every other star nation what he has done to yours. He must be stopped.”
Shock reeled through Jonathan at her words.
Ell’s new pal had just made a compelling case for pooling resources, and yet something didn’t quite ring true about her words. He couldn’t understand why such aggression would bother this Akkadian.
Why does she care?
His thoughts derailed as the woman motioned to one of her soldiers, and the man stepped forward, thrusting a stealth suit into Jonathan’s hands.
“Put it on,” the Dagger ordered.
He frowned. “What’s wrong with mine?”
“This one has Akkadian IFF. Your stealth will not be questioned.”
This had to be the strangest exfil Jonathan had ever been part of—not that he’d been on this side of an exfil before.
He fingered the Yinshen suit, shooting Thad a questioning look. “Your call,” he told the Marine.
Thad turned to the assassin, hooking a thumb toward Jonathan. “Why him and not either of us?”
The faintest look of annoyance crossed her face. “You infiltrated the prison’s network, so you cannot possibly have missed it. Clint Janus has a lab here.” She gestured to the pilot. “You know as well as I do that his is a face the doctor will recognize.”
Thad’s expression hardened at mention of the man, but it was nothing compared to the anger Jonathan felt.
He immediately began to don the Akkadian suit. “If this plan includes taking Janus down, I’m in.”
Ell’s gaze swung from him to their new pal, and she picked up where Thad left off. “So, you help us recover Garza and eliminate Janus and his lab, and in return, we help you, what? Spring Rin Zhou?”
“Yes. The minister of state security will explain when we arrive.”
“Hold up.” Jonathan looked up from his attempt to figure out how to get the suit on correctly. “Isn’t Rin Zhou the perso
n your current boss replaced?”
Seeing him struggle, the assassin waved one of her men over to help him.
“He is, but there are… extenuating circumstances. In this, they are unified.”
Jonathan doubted that but he let it ride, his attention back on the suit he’d just stepped into.
He wasn’t certain if it was because it was Akkadian design, or if it was just the subconscious knowledge that he was using enemy tech, but the thing felt uncomfortable and ill-fitting.
The soldier tweaked the Yinshen’s collar, adjusted the chest plate, and then slapped him on the shoulder in the universal ‘good to go’ signal all special forces warriors seemed to use.
Jonathan nodded his thanks, palms smoothing over the material’s foreign pattern. From what he could tell, it was made of a liquid armor similar to that of their own drakeskin.
He felt a sinuous brush along his left leg as Joule announced her arrival. He looked down, but saw nothing.
{Joule?}
{You know any other cats out here?}
He suppressed a grin.
{Reinforcements just arrived,} he informed Thad. {Joule’s here.}
The Marine’s expression didn’t change. {You had Morrison send her back out?}
{After suiting her up, yeah. Light-bending nano for the win.}
{Good thinking. She’ll be our ace in the hole, just in case Ell’s BFF turns on us.}
Jonathan hid a grin at the dark look Ell shot Thad at that last remark. {That’s a good copy.}
{Won’t the colloid mist catch her?}
Ell’s words had Thad turning to the Akkadian.
Tilting his head to indicate Jonathan, he explained, “They run a mist down on that level that’ll tag him, even in a stealth suit. You really want him incognito, we’re going to have to turn that off.”
“I already did,” said the Dagger. “It is no longer a problem.”
Thad crossed his arms. “Well, then it looks like you have yourself three—” he angled his head toward Jonathan and corrected himself, “two new soldiers, and one Yinshen-suited spook.”
The assassin didn’t respond; instead, she motioned for another soldier to hand Thad and Ell their own change of clothes.
“How should we address you?” Ell asked as they donned the uniforms.
“You can call me Dagger, or…” she hesitated, “Fermanedh.”
Jonathan’s wire helpfully provided a translation of the Aka’a word: ‘Commander.’
Interesting that she seems uncomfortable with the title….
The woman indicated they should move out. “Citizen Minister Josza is currently conducting a tour of the facility,” she told them as they headed that direction. “Later this evening, he will personally interview the prisoners Garza and Enlai.”
{Interrogate, you mean,} Jonathan muttered over their team’s connection.
“It is customary for someone at his level of importance within the government to have an advance team sweep the facility to ensure his safety,” the assassin continued, unaware of his side remark. “It will not be unreasonable for us to enter their cells to perform a preliminary inspection.”
It was the most they’d ever heard the assassin say at one time.
“I see,” Ell said, voice thoughtful.
Her limp was barely noticeable now, but the uniform she wore looked odd on her.
Equally strange was seeing Thaddeus Severance in a Tèzhǒng ostovar’s battle dress.
“And then?” Thad asked.
“And then the former citizen minister and the present citizen minister will explain to you exactly why we must join forces.”
“To do what?” Ell prodded, but the assassin refused to say anything further as they arrived at Shar-Kali.
At a signal none could hear, the hangar doors retracted, sand spilling off as they hinged upward. They didn’t open fully—just enough for humans to pass through.
They moved single-file through the opening, Jonathan lingering until all of the soldiers had passed inside the hangar.
Joule pressed against his leg, and he silently motioned her forward before stepping inside himself.
{Stay close to me,} he murmured to the cat.
He received a mental growl in response.
* * *
It felt surreal to Thad, standing in the midst of Akkadia’s most secure prison, wearing the uniform of one of their elite soldiers. Despite the fact he carried a loaded weapon—a fact that astonished him—he still felt naked and exposed, this deep inside enemy territory.
{Easy does it,} Ell’s amused voice penetrated his thoughts. {Shoulders look a bit tense there, Captain. You belong here, don’t forget.}
{Not about to forget I’m wearing an enemy’s uniform, cher.}
They marched through the compound, conducting what appeared to be a standard drill, inspecting each level for security, and then moving on.
When they reached level four, where the most secured cells were located, Thad smiled inwardly as he caught a glimpse of the cleaning bot docked in the corridor.
The microdrone it had delivered to Garza’s cell was a bit of intel the assassin knew nothing about—and he intended to keep it that way.
As they approached the cell that housed the former minister of state security, a prison guard stepped forward. The moment he spied her signature braids, his bluster fled like a balloon deflating.
“We require entry,” the assassin stated. “The citizen minister will not be allowed inside these walls until I have seen for myself that his safety is assured.”
The battle of wills… was no battle at all. The man fairly tripped over himself in his haste to open the door.
Thad was surprised when the guard found the courage to try and join them. He hid a smile at the man’s poorly-concealed flinch when the Dagger held up her hand.
“It would not do for you to abandon your post.”
“But protocol—”
“We are of the Tèzhǒng,” the assassin said in a deceptively mild tone. “You doubt our ability to defend ourselves against an old woman and a Geminate political prisoner?”
The guard shook his head rapidly and stepped away.
On his overlay, Thad saw the shadowed figures of Jonathan and Joule slip inside just as the assassin closed the door. When he turned, he saw that both Rin Zhou and Garza were standing, looking warily at the newcomers.
They remained silent until the assassin spoke.
“Minister.” She bowed her head.
Enlai’s eyes narrowed. “Greetings, Dagger. I half expected our earlier encounter to be our last.”
The assassin did not respond; she merely stared steadily back at the woman.
Thad used that opportunity to access the data the microdrone had begun feeding him the moment they entered the room. He relaxed minutely when he saw that not only had Garza accurately answered the challenge questions, but he’d volunteered every scrap of intel he had about the facility.
He saw the Dagger motion to Jonathan, and then his suit deactivated. By the look on the pilot’s face, he hadn’t been the one to do it.
Garza startled when Jonathan appeared, his eyes widening.
Rin Zhou’s gaze held no such surprise. “Are you the original,” she asked, “or are you the clone?”
* * *
The former minister of state security was staring at him with the same sort of fascination someone would give a scientific exhibit in a museum. It reminded Jonathan of a display he’d seen as a kid—a collection of dead insects, their wings pinned open to show their varied patterns and colors.
He started forward, angry at the clinical detachment he heard in her tone.
Thad’s arm snapped up, the back of his hand smacking him in the chest, effectively stopping him.
It couldn’t stop his words.
“Micah’s not a thing, he’s a person! An individual. A living, thinking, breathing individual. And your people did that to him.”
Rin Zhou dipped her chin and looked at him fr
om under lowered brows. “Come now, Captain. It was your own chief scientist who did that to you, not any of my people.”
“But it was one of your people who enabled him.”
“Be that as it may, sometimes scientific advances require sacrifice.”
Jonathan surged forward, shoving against Thad’s fisted hand.
“Careful,” the big Marine growled, but then turned to Rin Zhou. “Watch your words. Minister of state security or not, I’ll let him come at you.”
“What they did to him, and to Micah, was unconscionable.” Ell stepped forward, her quiet voice cutting through the tension.
“On that, we agree.” Rin Zhou swiveled her head to look the sniper in the eye. “And that is precisely why you will help me.”
Ell shifted, hands tightening on the rifle slung across her chest. “You seem awfully confident of that.”
Rin Zhou seemed unruffled by the threat Ell posed. She merely nodded and then turned to face Thad. “I assume you’re here to break this gentleman out?” A fluid hand gesture indicated the man standing silently beside her.
At their silence, Enlai continued.
“Your prime minister and I have spoken at length about a proposition I offered. He has accepted.”
“Proposition?” Thad asked in a dangerous voice.
Rin Zhou’s gaze turned to the assassin, favoring the warrior with a puzzled look. “You didn’t tell them?”
* * *
Thad felt himself tense as the assassin stepped between him and Rin Zhou. Reflex prodded him to reach for the pistol holstered at his side; he curled his hand in a fist, consciously fighting the urge.
Her gaze drilled into his. “Listen to her,” was all she said.
Thad broke eye contact with the Dagger long enough to shoot Garza a questioning look.
The prime minister dipped his head slightly in a faint nod.
“All right, then.” Thad braced, feet apart. “Let us have it.”
“You’re all well aware that we can now chirally clone humans.” Rin Zhou indicated the prime minister beside her. “What I suspect our Dagger has told you is that Asher Dent’s plans extend far beyond the Geminate Alliance. Raphael Garza is just the first step in Project Obelus.”
Chiral Justice: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (The Biogenesis War Book 3) Page 28