Blue Sky of Mars

by Christopher R Wills

  Gunny put up his arm, signaling them to stop. Jethro checked his gun was ready and waited.

  Gunny crept forward to the lip of the caldera and peered over. He raised his left arm and signaled for one to go right ten meters, one left ten meters and Jethro to join him.

  Jethro looked over the rocky edge of the caldera. This side was steeper than the side they had scrambled up from the Methuselah. It was almost as steep as a cliff face but covered in loose rocks and stones. Difficult to climb down without ropes even on reduced gravity. At the bottom, the ground leveled off to an undulating surface and further along to the right Jethro could see a building. It was an old style aluminum aircraft hangar building that looked like half a giant cylinder on its side. It looked like it was built before domes were available to cover buildings and create a safe breathable atmosphere around buildings.

  Jethro switched his goggles to binopower.

  “Gunny? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

  Gunny didn’t ask what Jethro was seeing he simply replied, “Aye sir.”

  Around the building, there was a low wall being built of stones and rocks by a chain gang. There were two teams of humans chained by the ankles together. Jethro counted ten in each team being overseen by an armed human. One chain gang team was being coerced to the rocky face of the edge of the caldera and made to pick up rocks and return to the wall. The second chain gang team were picking up the rocks and effectively building a dry stone wall. It was too far to make out individuals so he couldn’t see if Maddy or any others of the crew of the Blackbird were there.

  Jethro also saw a spacecraft the other side of the building but it was not in a state to fly as it was covered in dust and its legs were deep in the dust.

  Jethro called his SAR team together.

  He asked if they had spotted a route down the cliff. Peck said she had seen one to the left of where they were and Guppy said she couldn’t see one to the right and immediately above the building.

  “Here’s the plan. Guppy. You’re the sniper. Get yourself a good firing position from the top here immediately above the building. I’ll lead Gunny and Peck down to the plain and when we attack, I want you to pick off the guards of each chain gang. Then concentrate on the building. Try to get everyone that comes out of the building. We’ll take the rest out. OK?”

  Guppy nodded.

  “Keep your comms open on me. I might need to change your focus depending on what happens.”

  Guppy acknowledged.

  Jethro took Gunny and Peck along to the path and led them carefully down to the plain below. The shadow of the caldera edge allowed them to remain in the dark as they approached the building.

  “Gunny? Fancy a little yomp?”

  “Could do with stretching my legs.”

  Jethro gave him his orders.

  chapter 32

  Alice: “And that concludes the news today. Just one last thing. I’m sorry Ted. I don’t love you. Did you hear that Mrs Ted? I don’t love your husband. He’s my colleague. Only that.”

  Ted: “Thanks Alice. I don’t think it will have much effect though. Mrs Ted has been going through old news broadcasts and noting down every time you or I said anything pleasant to each other.”

  Alice: “That’s bad. Nothing worse than when a partner is keeping score. Apart from that, how is everything between you?”

  Ted: “Improving Alice. Yesterday she let me come into the house for the first time in a week.”

  Alice: “What? Have you been staying in a motel or something?”

  Ted: “The garden shed Alice. I’ve been sleeping in the garden shed.”

  Alice: “Oh no. Why?”

  Ted: “I figure if I suffered, she might take pity on me.”

  Alice: “Is it working?”

  Ted: “No. Last night she had a house party. Invited all the neighbors and our friends.”

  Alice: “Err… thanks Ted. So that was the World News for today. Remember people, unlike other news channels we deal in facts. We don’t make this up.”

  chapter 33

  Jethro and Peck took their time as they neared the building to allow Gunny plenty of time to get in position on the opposite side. Jethro could see one man and one woman guarding the chain gangs. Each had a standard issue assault rifle that could be bought anywhere, especially on Mars. There are always ex-military weapons for sale after a war, especially one that lasted ten years.

  There were three other guards who were walking the perimeter wall that was being built and another by the door of the building. They looked bored, which was good; bored means complacent. The other good news from Jethro’s observations was that by the way they waved their weapons around none of the men and women he could see had military training. The bad news was that he didn’t know how many people were inside the building and now that he was closer, he couldn’t see Maddy or Conrad amongst the chain gangs but he recognized two others from the Blackbird crew.

  Jethro spoke into his comms. “New plan. Guppy as before. Gunny do nothing except get as close as you can from your side and find a good defensive position. I think some of our people may be inside the building and you’re our ace card. Peck and I will do a full frontal.”

  Agreement.

  “Ready Peck?” She nodded. “You take the one by the door then the solo patrol. I’ll take the two-person patrol. We’ll shoot, run five metres, then look for another target.” He held up five fingers and counted. “Five - four - three - two - one.”

  Jethro fired off his shots and downed both in the two-person patrol. He ran diagonally and looked through his sight for another target. Peck’s solo patrol target was down but moving so he finished her off. Then he moved again and scanned the area. Good. Everyone was down including the chain gangs who had sensibly hit the ground as soon as the shooting started. He saw the door of the building open and two men ran out shooting wildly around at nowhere in particular but they both fell under the marksmanship of Guppy from the top of the cliff.

  He told Peck to go to the chain gangs and release them and get them behind the cover of the wall they had built from rocks. Then he waited.

  He knew that inside there would be arguments and discussions going on, but eventually an offer would be made probably using the people held inside the building as bargaining chips. He warned Gunny and Guppy that this might be the case. He waited.

  There was nothing Jethro could do. A direct assault on the building was out of the question. They didn’t have the weaponry to smash their way in unless they called up the Methuselah and the only other way in was through the door which could cause heavy casualties on both sides. Also, Jethro had no idea how many were inside the building, good or bad. He had to wait.

  Two hours passed. Clouds were rolling in from the north along the plain. Jethro told Peck to take the rescued back up the cliff path and to the Blackbird site, or to the Methuselah if it had returned to the dark zone the other side of the caldera. She was also to brief Brains that they might need the Methuselah at short notice. Jethro waited.

  Three hours had passed and the rolling cloud was now upon them reducing visibility to about fifty meters, which was how far Jethro was from the building. He communicated with Guppy to remain where she was at the moment although she couldn’t see what was going on from her perch above the cloud. He also asked Gunny to move in close but remain hidden.

  The door of the building opened and a piece of white material on a stick was thrust out of the door and waved about. Jethro immediately told Guppy and Gunny what had happened as neither would have been able to see it from their positions. They pushed a figure out of the door. It was Conrad. He had his ankles shackled so running was out of the question but other than that he appeared OK.

  “Jethro,” he shouted. “They want to talk.”

  Yeah right.

  Jethro stood up.

  “Put your weapons down and come here. They want to talk with you.”

  No fucking way.

  Jethro switched his goggles to binoc
ular to see Conrad’s face through his helmet. He could detect no signs from him. Then he looked at Conrad’s hands. He had his fingers crossed. Well done Conrad.

  “I’m staying right here,” Jethro said. “If someone wants to talk, they will have to come out unarmed.” He sat down behind the wall.

  Conrad was pulled back in through the door. Jethro waited.

  After about another hour, the white flag was thrust out through the open door again. The waiting was good because the clouds were drifting through so Jethro could see the tail end of them approaching and Guppy would soon have a good view of the killing ground in front of the building again.

  Maddy. She’s alive.

  Jethro could see Maddy as the person holding the flag.

  “Jethro,” she started timidly. “They will kill us all if you don’t come forward to talk.”

  Before Jethro answered, she was dragged back into the building and the door was shut.

  Shit.

  Standard policy was no deals with terrorists. It had been proven many times over the years as the best long-term way to deal with them. But it often resulted in short term pain. Casualties. And that was Maddy. He had no idea how many were in the building. But that was Maddy. He had no idea how many hostages there were. But that was Maddy. He had no idea of the internal layout of the building. But that was Maddy.

  Jethro got Gunny on the communications and asked him if the building had a back door. It did.

  The cloud had moved on. Guppy now had a full view of the killing ground.

  Jethro opened communications with the Methuselah. “How long before you could get here if you needed to Brains?”

  “Thirty minutes.”

  Jethro relayed his stupid plan to the team. He was going in alone.

  He stood up and made a great play of laying down his gun. But he disarmed it so only he could fire it up with his retina scan.

  He walked across the open ground towards the building half expecting to be shot at as he did so. There were no windows in this side of the building so a shooter would have to come out the front door and Guppy had that covered although another bank of cloud was rolling in. Jethro walked faster. He wanted to get into the building safely, then it would be down to his wits and his training. They trained him to kill. It was time to see how good he was.

  When he reached about five meters from the door, it opened. He naturally tensed himself and hoped Guppy was paying attention. Nobody came out of the door, so he assumed he would have to enter it of his own free will.

  He stepped inside the airlock alone, forcing himself to breathe deeply and slowly like an athlete at the start of a hundred meters race. The door hissed shut behind him and he heard the air being pumped into the airlock. The pump stopped and the door in front of him slid open.

  If they had planned to kill him, they would have done it when he was outside in the open so for a few minutes he was safe. They probably wanted to assess the strength of his force before they did anything.

  There were two men waiting for him either side of the door. They looked rough and Jethro could smell them.

  The standards of hygiene in this place must be low.

  One man approached him with a set of shackles.

  No fucking way.

  “Stop right there.” Jethro said in his most commanding voice. “You’re not putting those on me.”

  The man was bigger than Jethro but not as big as Raja.

  Maybe I should have brought Raja along.

  “Boss’s orders.”

  There’s only one way to deal with bullies and tough guys.

  “One more step and I’ll take those chains off you, wrap them round your fucking neck and pull them tight until your eyes pop out.” He turned slightly towards the other thug. “And you. Get over here where I can see you, or I’ll rip both your arms off and ram them into your two biggest orifices so the bloody ends meet in the middle.”

  Jethro saw from the expressions on their faces that neither expected this response but Jethro didn’t budge an inch and waited for their next move. He was quite prepared to kill them both. Collateral damage.

  The thug behind Jethro shuffled around and stood next to the other who had lowered the shackles showing he no longer had any intent to carry out his Boss’s wishes.

  Round one.

  Jethro was in a large storage area full of aluminum crates stacked up in groups. He couldn’t read what was written on the crates, but he could see the Earth government military logo.

  Arms smugglers.

  The storage area occupied the front half of the interior of the building. The rear half was a three-story block of offices that was built inside the building, some of which had windows looking out over the storage area. He could see the occasional silhouette of someone in one window. He assumed because of their movement they were not captives so he counted. Two thugs at the door. Three levels of offices and he had seen two figures on each level so that added up to eight so far. Assume at least two guarding the captives so that made ten.

  They might not all be combatants and he had Gunny, if he could get into the building. He looked the two thugs at the door over. One had an old side pistol in his belt, a Glock 27 by the looks of it, and the other wore a rifle slung over his shoulder. It was a brand new grip activated Heckler and Koch HK666. A real beast of a rifle that Jethro loved when firing one in training.

  But this was inside a building so the Glock was his preferred weapon every time. The HK666 was beautiful but not as much use indoors because of its longer barrel. Having chosen his weapon, he had to choose when he would check it out of the armory. Not yet.

  chapter 34

  Jethro heard a slow clapping then he saw a figure appear out of a dark corner.

  It was a small man wearing a white silk shirt and black baggy trousers held up by a belt that had an ancient flintlock pistol stuffed in it. Across his shoulders, a diagonal leather belt held a sword at his waist. The sword was one of those curved swords that Jethro thought was called a cutlass although he was no expert on swords. On his head, the little man had an ancient black tricorn hat with gold braid, decorated in the front with a logo of a skull and crossed bones beneath. He had a full head of tousled hair which rolled out from the sides and rear of the hat completing the image of a pirate straight from an old Hollywood movie.

  Jethro had to try very hard not to laugh at this comical figure who was coming towards him. He wouldn’t look out of place in a kid’s fancy dress party apart from the fact that his face had a scar running diagonally across that had taken out one of his eyes and he displayed a smile that looked as welcoming as a tiger looking at a potential meal.

  “Bravo, bravo.” The pirate laughed but it did nothing to make him look any warmer.

  He stopped about ten meters from Jethro, just out of the range of a shuffle and a kick Jethro might try to drop him.

  “So you want to parley with me?”

  “Depends,” Jethro replied.

  “On what?” There was steel in the pirate’s voice that cut through his size and appearance.

  “On what cards you hold in your hand.”

  The little man laughed again. “Confidence. I like that. Come with me and let’s parley.”

  Jethro looked around to see if he could see any more but he couldn’t.

  “You stay by the door.” The pirate told the thug with the rifle. “Oh and don’t go outside unless you want some new air holes in your suit.”

  This pleased Jethro because it meant the Glock was coming with him. The little pirate turned his back on Jethro and walked away. “Follow me.”

  Then Jethro saw it. A glint of light from the roof of the office block. Probably a sniper. That’s why the pirate was so confident. Had Jethro made a move they could have shot him at any time.

  Note to self. The pirate is cautious. Expect him to have a backup.

  He followed the little man. As they approached the office building a door was opened and there was a man and a woman, both armed, but neither
had any military training. As Jethro entered the building, he could easily have taken a weapon off either of them.

  That’s six enemy inside confirmed.

  They were in a corridor and heading for the last door. A huge African man opened that door. Unarmed but almost as big as Raja, so he probably didn’t need weapons for close order combat. Jethro was stunned by what he saw when he entered the room.

  He was inside an ancient Galleon.

  The walls looked like they were made of paneled oak. Jethro walked up to one and examined it closely. Aluminum with oak design paint. The room was split into two areas; an open area where he had entered and in front of him set back from the open area was an alcove with five arched windows built onto the back walls with a painting of a sea battle behind the windows. At each side of the alcove was another window and the sea battle painting extended around to those windows also.

  “Do you know what the battle is?” asked the little man.

  Jethro looked again at the sea battle. He recognized the style of some ships from paintings he had seen whilst in boot camp at Dartmouth. “Trafalgar.”

  “Excellent. It’s good to be in civilized company at last.”

  Not too sure about that.

  “Come and sit at my table.” The little man said, pointing to a chair.

  Jethro sat on the chair and noted that his Glock moved to the right and stood facing him, back to the wall in front of a display that held three cutlasses in a frame. The little man climbed up two steps and sat in his ornate throne, which naturally was higher than Jethro’s seat.

  On the table in front of Jethro was a feast, the likes of which he had not seen since Wardroom Dinners at Dartmouth and at xxxx on special occasions. There was a smorgasbord of meats and fruit, some of which Jethro didn’t know what they were. The smell coming from the table was exquisite and reminded Jethro’s stomach he hadn’t eaten for a time.

  “Please help yourself.”