Treason

by Valerie J. Long

  “If you can entrust me with your life, then you can with your cock, too.”

  If I had wanted it, he’d long have been helpless. A different pose, perhaps a cheeky wink—I didn’t need anything primitive like a hand at his crotch. However, I left him the freedom to choose.

  “Regardless of what I do, I’ll regret it. But Jo—not this time. Do you know why?”

  “Why?”

  “When it happens, I don’t want a quick fuck standing up. I want the gourmet meal with all bells and whistles—you don’t deserve anything less.”

  “Is that a promise?”

  “That—and an incentive to survive the upcoming events.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Can we talk in private somewhere?” Cap addressed the Colonnello.

  “Yes, sure. This way, please.” Davide pointed at the door to an adjacent room and gave me an apologetic glance.

  We couldn’t risk accidental discovery. So the Marines had come ashore under camouflage—okay, they had had to risk the holes in the sea—and had then followed Davide and me without talking a single word.

  Except for a brief introduction upon entering the house, the two hadn’t made progress yet, and now Cap had secrets?

  Andrea approached me. A pity, actually—I wanted to focus on eavesdropping. Ghost, please record.

  It wouldn’t help to arrive on bad terms with Davide’s second. “Hello, Andrea.”

  “Johanna. How do you like Italy so far?”

  “I wish I could simply think of vacation. But I can’t get the mission off my mind.”

  “Colonnello Altamano,” I heard Cap’s voice.

  “Capitano Stokes. On behalf of my country, thank you for your offer for support.”

  “Do you need a distraction?”

  “Perhaps. No. The mission comes first. Once we’ve stabilized the situation, I’ll search for a distraction.”

  “Colonnello, before we’re commencing the mission planning, we need to talk a few words about Ms. Meier.”

  “About Velvet.”

  “A pity. I’d like to make you think of some other ideas.”

  “I see, Andrea. You already have other ideas.”

  “Yes, about Velvet. What do you know about her?”

  “She’s good. She’s barely arrived here and already saved our asses once.”

  “Yes, I can’t hide it. I’m a healthy man with healthy needs.”

  “Nothing wrong with that. I’m a healthy woman with healthy needs, too—but right now I’m a pro.”

  “Do you trust her?”

  “Yes. She’s making a very honest impression.”

  “What’s got one to do with the other? We have to eat during a mission, too.”

  “What do you know about Johanna Meier, Andrea?”

  “She’s honest, that impression’s true. My men would follow her on any mission—that’s what we’re here for.”

  “Fine. So?”

  “I’ve talked to the others. Your Ironman performance is second to none.”

  “Go on.”

  “Colonnello, you haven’t seen what Velvet took upon herself.”

  “Tell me.”

  “You’ve visited the Dragon university.”

  “And graduated from there. But that’s not all. The athlete and student Johanna Meier had a job.”

  “In New York, she let herself be tortured, to stir up the populace.”

  Cap gave the Colonnello a very brief summary, which however didn’t leave out any important detail. It came hard to me to push back my own memories about it along with the rising nausea.

  I focused on Andrea. “Have you ever heard of the Eva Keller wellness centers?”

  “Who wouldn’t? They’re famous. Most of all the Rome center—in antique style. Damn, I’d like to go there once!”

  Oh, they still had active houses here?

  “Andrea, I’ve been the best employee on two continents, except for Eva Keller herself. A professional. For me, sex and professionalism have got everything to do with each other.”

  “Ugly, Capitano.”

  “Yes. It’s not easy for me to push the images aside.”

  “Yes, and? Does that mean that you want money?”

  “No. Andrea. I no longer practice this job. When I have sex, that’s leisure time—and thus not part of the mission.”

  He made a disappointed face, but he gave up. Fine, so I could focus on listening—without letting it show. I found a seat even a bit farther away from the door. For my refined hearing, that didn’t matter.

  “What are you trying to tell me, Capitano?”

  “We think there’s a problem. Not directly connected with the mission, but it could be that she’s, well, unstable. Like a grenade with broken splint. If she’s confronted with a situation that touches these memories, how will she react?”

  “You believe that she could endanger the mission?”

  “We believe she can’t be controlled. We don’t think that she’s an immediate danger for the team, but when she gets mad, there could be collateral damage. Did she talk about Japan?”

  Oops. Would Cap give away the Dragon?

  “No. What happened in Japan?”

  “She was able to make an armor suit fusion reactor melt down. From a distance.”

  “Caspita!”

  “Yes. She’s a bloody dangerous woman. We think it were better if she’d return to America after the initial phase.”

  “You’d rather go on without her support—although she’s so good? Why?”

  “Colonnello, you don’t want to create a public heroine who you can’t simply let disappear if it becomes necessary. If the risk occurs.”

  “Oh.”

  “That would be a problem which you don’t need, Colonnello. So I ask you to not get into our way when it’s time, when we have to take Velvet with us. It’s the best for all involved, including this woman.”

  Crap. Cap planned to return me to America on the quiet? So that Nick wouldn’t lose control over me? And of course with sweet words—come along and relax for a while, enjoy life, you’ve deserved it. Yuck.

  “I understand, Capitano. But let me introduce you to the minister now, so that we can discuss our first steps.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  One thing I surely wasn’t—a grenade with broken splint. Whatever the psychologists had fancied there, without ever having seen me in person—they didn’t know about my Analogy. As long as I had this thing in my head, I simply couldn’t get entirely off my trolley.

  Those headshrinkers also didn’t know enough of my past, so they could hardly know anything about the torture Dandy had done to me, and they couldn’t know anything at all about Hermann’s acupuncture treatment. They had no clue what pain meant to me. So they couldn’t guess that New York wasn’t actually the traumatic event for me that could throw me off track. Hey, I had known what I’d get into!

  Well, at least mostly. I had known that it would hurt. The bottom line was—the injuries I had suffered in the following battle had been worse than the pain from the torture. I had overcome both.

  If the headshrinkers were so worried about me, why had they allowed the gentle treatment in jail then? Were those less damaging, or what? If I was so dangerous, why was I then allowed to go on this mission?

  Because I was useful. After the end of this mission, I’d no longer be useful, so I had to be stored away, until I was useful again—for America.

  They wouldn’t want to repeat the New York mistake—letting me become a heroine. That told volumes of the true reasons.

  So Cap was here with the order to betray me. Well, then. That didn’t make the missions to come easier, as I now had to watch my back, too, but I’d get along with that, too.

  Never trust anyone, as that was the only rule I could bet on. Nobody except Achrotzyber. How had Eva Keller put it one day? You must be alert. Treat people fair as long as they treat you fair, but wat
ch out if their attitude changes—and once it happens, be quicker.

  I’d be quicker.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The suits’ micro fusion reactors’ characteristic stray emissions could be sensed over distance, just as those of several car-and-cottage aggregates. This allowed me to deduct that those, without exception, all were older models that didn’t utilize the Meier effect—although I didn’t care. All that counted for me was that both my primary targets were indeed here.

  So the two Italian Capos, second on my short list, shouldn’t be far, either. ROS and Marines could do all other tasks well without me. That was their job and their pride, and I wouldn’t unnecessarily interfere with it.

  Regardless of what I thought of Cap’s goals, basically I wasn’t eager to become an Italian public heroine, either. For me, it sufficed if only a few Carabinieri and one minister knew the truth.

  Neither thieves, gamblers, nor whores needed this kind of publicity, and at some time—soon!—I’d be on my own again and pay my lunch myself, instead of having only raw fish or raw rat. Those weren’t my favorites, thanks.

  Davide made a sign—advance.

  I nodded, and we sneaked on. His men followed us, and the Marines kept a little distance. With their amplifiers they could close the gap in a blink anyway. Davide had argued, the later the Mafia learned about the Marines’ presence, the better. If we didn’t need them at all, that was a sign for a smoothly-running operation—or a total loss.

  We wouldn’t bet on the latter, though. With Velvet, failure was impossible, wasn’t it?

  The last six-hundred meters would tell. Five-hundred meters rough shrubs, then a three-meters-high iron trellis around the entire building, and then a further one-hundred meters lawn to the house, likely with the usual security, from spotlights to motion detectors.

  Davide gave me a side glance—I signaled Stop. That earned me a raised eyebrow, only twenty meters before the forest edge and these last six-hundred meters.

  I had to focus on myself first to find out what actually had disturbed me. Perhaps it only was professional paranoia? But if I’d have to secure this building, I’d expect potential clients to come sneaking through the forest. So I’d at least roughly secure the forest.

  Only, how? Cameras? Motion detectors? That would require wiring, or at least batteries with regular servicing.

  Tripwires could be triggered by the local fauna—impractical as well.

  Practical would be pits that could support the weight of a dog, but not that of a grown-up man. I went down on all four and felt the ground ahead of me. At least Davide should think so. In fact I was looking for the little temperature differences that such a cavity might trigger—or hints in the soil profile.

  I made my next steps on tree roots, then I reached a conspicuous area, about two by two meters, with uneven borders, and like the rest of the forest covered by leaves and broken, dry twigs. And—how was this hole secured? Electromagnetic fields? Bell wires? No. I placed one finger on the covering and let a nano camera grow inside. In the dark, I couldn’t see much, though. I had to cheat. Only a few extra light quanta, only a quick flash.

  Uh-oh.

  Two and a half meters deep, here someone had dug diligently. And sharp-edged pikes with barbs at the ground—a medieval, but nevertheless effective method.

  A few moments later, I knew how to lift the cover without danger, and did it. Davide’s eyes widened when he saw the trap. His lips formed a silent curse when he peeked inside in the little moonlight that shone through the trees.

  A pit of this size could at least slow down a careless armor suit. For his own men, it would be a death trap.

  Your decision, my hands told. For the primary targets, I already was close enough, which I had told him in private after the mission briefing myself. I hadn’t told him that I knew of Cap’s indiscretion.

  He looked at me, silently asking, only I alone? I nodded, but then spread my arms. If I should.

  He shrugged, and then he waved me forward. My game.

  With the minister’s liberation, I had already proven that I was able to assault a Mafia villa all alone. Why shouldn’t I be able to repeat the same feat here? Only to steal two Capos from the Mafia—a worthy challenge.

  My biggest problem was that these actions always were an All In. Either I was successful—or most likely dead.

  So far, not all cards were dealt out yet. Time to place the ante. I sneaked around the pit, checked the route ahead for further traps and paused again at the forest edge.

  Ah yes.

  The rough, diminishing shrubs didn’t deserve that label—not any more. There were no bushes. Freshly evened-out holes and stumps of cut-down plants told of the gardeners’ overtime. The approach to the trellis had to happen without natural cover.

  In the spotlights, I could recognize a circle of white spots around the trellis. Flour? A maze of fine light threads, invisible in the normal visual spectrum, was woven by obviously only recently installed provisional laser light barriers.

  The chirps of an unreasonably high number of motion detectors that were bound to interfere with each other, together with the small humps of supposedly camouflaged sticky-net casters on the pillar caps, and the barrels of sniper rifles on the roof all showed that they were expecting unwelcome visitors.

  All that was a trap with the name Velvet on it.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  The gaps in the flour ring were suspicious. If you wanted to discover an invisible person, you wouldn’t leave any loopholes open?

  Magnify.

  Geometrical forms stuck up between the blades of grass, little stones and flat leaves. Colored in pale green or pale beige, no more than two or three centimeters high, pointy and sharp-edged, the caltrops threatened the careless intruder with painful surprises in the soles of their feet.

  Some of these spikes were hidden in the flour, too. And more—little paint balls that surely would create decent blots upon stepping into. This place was truly well prepared.

  If you took into account that all these preparations—perhaps with the exception of the pit traps—had to have happened in the last eighteen hours, the inhabitants must have been informed about simultaneously with the end of our planning meeting. So Davide had a traitor in his team.

  If the trap should spring right, there had to be an outer ring that would take care of the Marines and Carabinieri. The team was in imminent danger. If we’d leave on the fastest track now, we might be able to avoid confrontation and get away unhurt.

  But what next? There wouldn’t be a next time. The countermeasures could only get better. If we failed today, we didn’t have to come back. However, at the same time, that would be the acknowledgement that Italy couldn’t be freed.

  No, we had to be successful at least here. We couldn’t help the teams in northern and southern Italy anyway. If they were affected by the treason, they had to tend to themselves.

  Moreover, I wanted to know how thoroughly the Mafia was informed. That would give me clues about the traitor, and we’d urgently need those later.

  I waved at Davide a last time, and then activated my camouflage and got on my way.

  Grassy country always made sneaking difficult. Waving blades impair every camouflage—but at least in the dark and over some distance I could expect the other blades of grass to hide it.

  The entire maneuver reminded me of my first visit to the Belgian ZONE—even if they hadn’t expected my visit back then, I’d been facing a whole bunch of new, ugly traps for the first time there. Back then, my Analogy had helped me to control each of my steps and at the same time watch my surroundings. I hadn’t forgotten that!

  But the next five-hundred meters went well—time must have been too short to hide more surprises here.

  From closer up, I could recognize the improvised new security measures even better. Okay, it was patched together and inefficient, but overall quite suited to cause me trouble.

&nbs
p; Flours and color wouldn’t stick to my nano soles, and the tips couldn’t penetrate the material any better than a knife. I had no chance of avoiding color spots in the flour though, unless I avoided the flour entirely. Were there any other traps hidden under the caltrop passages then?

  Perhaps another pit trap?

  Bingo.

  Not exactly beneath, but in an inviting almost-gap. If I’d try to jump across a larger score of those iron tips, I’d land right in the pit.

  I checked the snipers on the roof. Yes, those had marked several targets for their rifles or even prepared rest positions—they only had to place their gun on the marker, and their aim matched.

  Conveniently for me, their rest positions gave me good hints for where not to step. They couldn’t know that my Analogy could precisely calculate each gun barrel’s direction for me.

  As I didn’t know when the trap behind us would snap, I couldn’t grant myself any longer break. I can do it. I memorized my path and several alternate routes, took a deep breath and started.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  From standing, I could manage a high jump of eight or nine meters. With my membranes, a glide ratio of five was feasible—that is, five meters distance per meter descent, half as good as with a paraglider, and with a little wing flap a bit better. So I could cover forty to forty-five meters of ground without stepping into flour, paint, caltrops or pitfalls a single time. The web wasn’t woven that tight here.

  In three zig-zag leaps, I reached the trellis without grazing a single laser finger, and at the same time always in the area where the motion detectors were still interfering with each other, where it didn’t show up that my suit surface simply swallowed their signals.

  Likewise quickly, I crossed the fence and the lawn behind it, and still the Mafia had no clue of my presence.

  My next targets were the snipers on the roof. On no account should they find an opportunity to warn someone or even shoot at my team.