His eyes scanned the congregation for the zillionth time. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. He looked to his left and across the aisle. It was definitely something about her side of the family that was bugging him. Apart from there being many more of them on that side…
And in the chatter beforehand, he noticed that some people who knew the other side were put on this side.
That would figure, he thought to himself. I bet Sean doesn’t have many people who he’d invite from his side. They must have run out of space on the bride’s side.
He noticed that they all seemed a certain type. Despite there being many different species in the room, it was as if they all belonged to the same tribe. Or family.
He narrowed his eyes, wracking his brain for what else he had noticed unconsciously. He noticed toward the back, there were lots of human cyborgs. Like a small contingent. An army. He watched them for a few moments until one of them noticed, and Pieter looked back at the front of the room.
A family. With their own personal army.
Where had he seen that before? he wondered.
Well, obviously in the mafia movies on the archives… Shit! That was it. That was why Sean was going through with it! He must have gotten caught up in a mafia thing on this mission, and now, he’s deep undercover and…
His eyes were wide, and Brock must have noticed. He was looking over at him, demanding a silent explanation.
Pieter looked furtively around, trying to find some way to warn the others without drawing attention to themselves.
His mind raced.
The priest made his final proclamation. “You may now kiss the bride.”
Sean leaned in and kissed the girl in the white dress, and applause erupted in the church. The father of the bride was beside himself with what Molly could only assume was happiness. Except he was crying and waving his hands.
Molly glanced over at Joel. “Well, I guess that’s that,” she said, as detached as if she’d been commenting on the weather. Joel started to say something comforting to her, but all of a sudden, there was a big bang at the back of the church, and people started screaming and shouting.
Then, there was a hail of bullets flying through the length of the simulated building.
Molly instinctively ducked and turned around.
I bet those aren’t simulated bullets!
No such luck.
Panic erupted in the ranks of guests. People were scattering everywhere, shouting and squealing. “We’ve got company,” she shouted down the pew to the others, who had already ducked for cover and were reaching for their weapons.
She peeked up over her pew to see a band of Leath brandishing tommy guns and firing into the crowd.
The bank of cyborgs at the back of the church seemed completely underprepared. They reached for their tiny pistols that they had concealed in their ankle holsters. Molly didn’t have time to wonder why they had small guns and not something bigger in their jackets. They seemed like the type.
She had already pulled her guns from the holsters and scrambled out to the side aisle, keeping as low as she could so as not to get hit.
Not that they’d kill instantly. They look like lower caliber old-fashioned weapons.
They’d still do some serious damage. Could kill you if you take a bullet to the head. Or a vital organ. I’d advise against getting hit.
Thanks, Oz. I’ll keep that in mind.
She carefully stalked down the aisle until she was only a couple of pews from the back. Then she started picking off the Leath, glad of the Jean Dukes she had to get the job done.
She took out two of the five in the first round but instantly drew the fire of the other three, who had already pushed the team of cyborgs into a side room to take cover.
Just then, there was shooting behind her. Quickly, she pivoted in her crouched position to see a few of the cyborgs were dealing with a threat of Noel-ni coming in from one of the back rooms. The fox-like humanoid creatures seemed to be using swords with a special forcefield that they used to deflect the bullets. They weren’t firing any of their own. In fact, the swords also seemed to double as an actual sword. She watched as one of the cyborgs got within swords-length of one of them. The weapon cut straight through him like it was slicing through butter.
Motherfucker!
She noticed that Joel and Crash were firing at the remaining Leath. Brock was readying a grenade. Jack… she couldn’t see where Jack was. But Pieter was safe with Joel.
She turned back to the front. Most of the guests had either scampered away or were taking cover between the pews.
There was only one thing for it: she was going to have to deal with the Noel-ni herself.
Keeping low, she stalked toward the front. She saw one had his sword raised above his head, about to bring it down on someone. Shit! It was the father of the bride. He cowered, petrified, one hand shielding his head. Molly stood briefly, firing off three shots, and watched the sword-wielding tyrant stagger back before falling over.
One of his comrades noticed. She was female. She turned, screaming, and ran toward the slumping body. In doing so, she forgot to shield herself, and a bullet blast whistled through and took her out.
Molly glanced to see where the other shot had come from and glimpsed Jack taking cover again.
All of a sudden, she felt movement behind her. A Noel-ni was coming at her with a sword, wielding it like a machete. She turned her body around and managed to fire with one pistol as she pivoted. It caught him in the gut, and though he was jumping through the air and the momentum was carrying him and his sword, she was just able to get out of the way of the sharp blade. The body of the dying Noel-ni knocked her to the ground, crushing the air out of her lungs as they both fell backward.
She could hear the guns firing and the continued kerfuffle of the war zone around her. She struggled to get the creature off her. He was heavy. And bleeding.
Ick.
Better ick than dead.
She sighed, trying to catch her breath so she could move again. After a few moments, she tried again, and this time managed to get herself out from underneath the body.
That is… ugh.
The hail of bullets had stopped. A strange quiet, punctuated by groans and whispers, filled the church. Molly carefully surveyed the scene. She could see wedding guests hiding, some peeking to see if it was over. The bride was by her father’s side, helping him up. Sean was standing over a Noel-ni. She could tell from his position that he’d gone up behind it and killed it with his bare hands. She shook her head, amused that even without a blaster, he was a deadly weapon.
Joel. Where was Joel? She panicked.
She scanned the area of the pews where he had been. Brock was the first to sit up on the bench. He was grinning, relieved and exhausted. Jack appeared from the other side of the room. Molly headed back up the outside aisle to check on the others. As she approached, Crash and Joel stood up. And then Pieter hauled himself up.
She wandered through a row to the center aisle. “Well, maybe we weren’t that over-armed,” she called over to Joel, who just burst out laughing.
* * *
It took a while for the guests to compose themselves, and then for station security to show up and start helping people out and taking statements. It took another half an hour or more for everything to be resolved and the bodies to be taken away.
“Well, it’s a Sean Royale thing,” Joel was saying to the group of Sean, the bride, and her father.
Sean looked confused.
“What?” Joel continued. “You didn’t expect that Royale could have any kind of celebration or event without it involving a gunfight for good measure. Whole thing seems kinda apt to me!”
The group laughed hysterically, and Sean slapped Joel on the back. Molly watched carefully as she approached, not really sure she was ready to meet this strange bride that had convinced Sean to cut them off, risk his life, and then tie
the knot.
Sean beckoned her over, and she walked more purposefully. “I was just introducing Joel to my wife and my father-in-law.”
“Please, call me Dad!” Vito exclaimed.
“Okay… Dad!” Sean said, clearly embarrassed by the whole thing.
Sean presented Karina. “Karina, this is Molly Bates. Molly, meet Karina Royale. AKA Mrs. Sean.”
Molly stepped forward to shake her hand. Karina, still clearly high on adrenaline from the gunfight, flung her arms around Molly. “Molly. So glad you could make the wedding!”
Molly tried to pull herself away from the smothering embrace and was about to protest about Sean being in mortal danger and how she hadn’t been invited but was more trying to save his hide… when Joel put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
Molly relented and relaxed, allowing the girl to hug her. Slowly, she made an effort and put her hands on Karina’s back. Sean caught her eye. He was clearly amused by the interaction.
Molly peeled herself away. “Well, congratulations, Sean,” she said, holding out a hand to shake. “Glad you’re not dead.”
Sean knocked her hand away and hugged her.
Molly sighed, resigning herself to the new reality that at least during this damn wedding, she was going to be hugged.
“Very nice to meet you,” the father of the bride said, stepping forward. “My name is Calzone. Vito Calzone.”
Molly felt a mild relief as he pushed out his hand, rather than forcing her into a hug. “I must say,” he continued in his strange accent, hardly opening his mouth as he talked, making the tone kind of suppressed and mumbled. “I’m very grateful that you and your friends were here with weapons.” He glanced at Sean. “You know, all guests were instructed they weren’t to bring weapons. Just the family employees were meant to have a few guns, just in case.”
Molly rolled her lips inward, wondering whether she should come clean. “We didn’t get an invitation,” she confessed. She glanced at Sean for backup.
Sean laughed heartily. “Yep, that’s Molly. Just always showing up… uninvited!” He seemed nervous but moved toward her and slapped her on the back. Vito was laughing, too. Seeing that, Sean relaxed again, only to catch a scowl from his new bride, who was less than happy about him touching the leggy blonde who had happened to save all their lives.
“Well,” Vito chuckled, “this party isn’t going to start itself. Molly, I thank you for saving the wedding guests, myself, and my precious daughter. You are, of course, invited to the reception.”
He raised his voice so that those around would hear him. “Time to move to the reception, people. This is a day of celebration, and we won’t allow a little skirmish with rival families to interfere. Everyone to the One2One Bar on the main concourse of this level. Let the station staff finish clearing up the bodies in peace.”
He waddled forward, disrupting the circle of people who were gathered in the group.
Molly and Joel folded away their weapons and followed. “I still feel underdressed, though,” Molly murmured to Joel as they made their way out of the simulated church.
Wellness Spa, Aboard The ArchAngel, Sark System
The server in the spa area deposited two more martinis on the table between the two women and cleared away the empty ones.
Barb didn’t want another martini but knew it was important to keep up with Carol. “So, what exactly did you do?”
Carol picked up the fresh martini. “I just had some of my team put out some feelers. But of course, they had some kind of firewall in play and we got made.”
“So, what happened?”
“Nothing.” Carol shrugged. “Molly didn’t even call.”
Barb laid back and relaxed, closing her eyes. “Interesting. Did she know it was you?”
“I guess probably not,” Carol confessed. “Else she would have been in touch. Or, at least, descended on our decoy facility.”
Barb smiled. “I don’t think she would have been fooled by a decoy facility.”
“What makes you so sure? We have the best techs in the system.”
“Oh, she has a pretty good team. And a good head on her shoulders.” Barb smirked underneath her martini glass as she took another sip. “So, come on, what’s going on? Why is your husband kidnapping you if all you’re doing is putting out feelers for your daughter?”
Carol sighed, sitting up on the lounger and swinging her feet onto the floor. “Well,” she confessed, “I might have overstepped.”
“Overstepped how?”
“Well, I may have arranged for one of my ex-agents to make sure that my daughter and Sean Royale could never be involved… personally.”
“How did you do that?”
“I, erm… I sent this agent to ensnare Royale. Take him out, as it were.”
“You’re kidding? Carol, you don’t need me to tell you that that is insane, do you?” Barb looked perplexed, like she couldn’t tell if she was talking to someone who was just driven or clinically insane.
Carol bobbed her head deferentially. “Well, it may have been a little rash,” she admitted, as if she was confessing to having raised her voice in a meeting. “But I was emotional. And I haven’t seen her for so long, and she acts like she’s not my little girl anymore.”
“So, you decide to interfere with someone else’s life like that?”
“Well, technically, two someone elses’ lives. But I don’t want that rogue anywhere near her… with his cyborg enhancements and goodness knows what.”
Barb sighed, ignoring the potential for a double entendre. “You know Sean is a good guy.”
“Good guy my ass!” Carol scoffed, reaching for her drink again as if to medicate her anger. “He just uses women and then discards them. One after another.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I’ve been keeping tabs on him. And besides, how do you think I came to have an agent from outside Estaria?”
“Sean?”
“Yup. Goodness knows where he found her, but he wiped her background and deposited her with Lance, who then put her through the academy and then pulled some strings to get her into my agency. Which is where she stayed until she retired five years ago.”
“And what brought her out of retirement?”
“Me.”
Barb shook her head. “I’m going to need another drink,” she muttered and lifted her still half-full martini glass to the waiter.
* * *
Barb had directed the conversation off into other areas, deliberately getting Carol to open up about other things before steering their focus back to the problem at hand. Carol, however, was the one to change the subject back to Molly.
“So, do you have any idea what’s going on?” she asked Barb, now slightly slurring her words. “Is the Federation in touch with my daughter?”
Barb frowned. “Lemme look,” she said, opening her holo device and scrolling. “Oh, here we go. Yes, ADAM is monitoring the whereabouts of their ship, and the local news stations and security reports.” Her eyes darted around the projected holographic screen for a few moments. “Hmm, it looks like…”
“What?” Carol pressed.
“Well, it seems there was a disturbance on a space station where a girl was kidnapped from. Here, they have an image.”
Barb showed Carol the image of Karina going into the restaurant.
Carol slammed her hand over her mouth.
“Your operative?”
Carol nodded, keeping her hand in place.
Barb carried on flicking through the screen’s data. “Ah… and some more. There was an attack with guns on a simulation deck on a trading outpost. There have been a few arrests, but most of the perpetrators were killed.”
Carol seemed to quickly sober up. “Can we get an ID on any of them?”
Barb flicked some more. She shook her head. “Nope. They haven’t been processed yet.”
Carol put her hands over her face. �
�It’s all my fault,” she muttered from behind her hand, tears welling in her eyes.
Barb glanced over at her. “No, no, no. Hold on. We don’t know that was Molly and her team. For all we know, she was the one doing all the killing. In fact, knowing what I do about that Sanguine Squadron, it probably was them. And look, ADAM updates this report every five seconds. We’ll know more soon, I’m sure.”
Carol tried to compose herself, but instead, she broke down.
Barb patiently consoled her, reaching across to touch her arm. “Come on, it’s going to be okay. Molly knows what she’s doing. And if Sean is still around, then they’ll be back here in no time. I’m sure of it.”
“I’m a terrible mother!” Carol howled through her hands.
Barb sat up and faced her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Now, now… You’re not. Molly’s turned out great. She’s made the Federation proud on several occasions, and if anyone can deal with this mission, she can.”
“I know, but I put her in this situation!” Carol insisted.
“Yes,” Barb agreed. “You did. But the good news is you can help get her out of it.”
Carol paused her sobbing and looked up at Barb. “How do you mean?”
Barb shrugged, clearly in control of the situation. “Well, you could start by explaining everything you know about this operative and what her play was. Then sharing all the intel you’ve gathered in your investigation would go a long way toward helping us help Molly get out of there safely.”
Carol nodded, gulping her sobs back. “Yes. Anything. I’ll do anything.”
Barb signaled to the server. “We’re going to need some coffee over here when you’re ready,” she said.
The server nodded and headed off to fill the order.
Chapter 14
Level 40, Sim-deck 25, Glom Space station, Kirox Quadrant
The party was just leaving the church when Karina suddenly piped up. “Daddy! I need to throw the bouquet!”
“Oh, of course,” he gasped. “See who the next lucky lady is to get hitched.” He winked at Sean, who tried to maintain a polite expression. He thought about warning the others not to play the game, but then figured that Vito couldn’t exactly go around insisting that random couples get married.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 186