“Those involved think their activities are totally unknown. That is going to change very soon. When it does, they will begin to take active measures to insure their part in what is going on is kept secret until it is a fait accompli.”
“Why are you so sure they will find out we know?”
“Not we. Me. I’m going to tell the Governor I know what is going on at the Inaugural Ball. Speaking of which, I…”
“Are you nuts? You can’t just tell her! From everything I’ve picked up, she could easily have you killed! Even right there at the ball!”
It was no sardonic smile this time. It was feral, Willi noted. “I’m not that easy to kill,” Johnny said. “That part of the rumors about me are true. Besides, she won’t know it is me telling her. It’ll be Johnny Oneshot telling her.”
“You are Johnny Oneshot!”
“But only you know that. And soon, Captains Butler and Echart.”
“You trust them?”
“Don’t you?” Johnny asked.
“Well… I am inclined to… but I only just met Butler tonight. And I only met Janet on the way out here…” She studied his face. “Still… everything I have learned… tells me to trust them.”
“I believe they can be trusted. To be on the safe side, however, if you don’t have anything better to do tomorrow, I’d like you to fly a little high cover for me while I bring Captain Butler into the fold.” He smiled then, and added, “And unless I miss my guess, Captain Echart. She is one sharp cookie. Just like Butler.”
“I agree about Janet, but what do you mean you want me to fly high cover?”
“Oh. I thought you would know that expression. It means…”
“I know what it means!” Willi said. “But how in the world am I…”
“Just be ready tomorrow morning at six. I’ll pick you up at your boarding house. You’ll learn the rest then.”
“But…” Seeing the steady look he gave her, Willi fell silent, then added, “All right. I’ll be ready. I don’t have any flight clothes with me, of course.”
“Everything you need will be provided.” Johnny rose and turned toward the door again. And again he paused, hand near the control. “Just one last thing. I need to be at the Ball, as you know. I can get in several different ways, of course. The easiest, and the one I can make use of most effectively, is to show up with an escort. One that can be distracting when I need a distraction.”
He looked at her, meeting her eyes with his own. “You in that red shimmer dress would be a most suitable escort, capable of several forms of distraction, if and when I might need them used.”
Surprising herself no end, Willi knew her eyes were suddenly sparkling, when she asked, “Are you asking me to help you in the plan, or are you just asking me for a date?”
“Oh, just…”
Willi was holding her breath when he started to answer, then let it trail away. Then she gasped slightly when he finished.
“Just a little of one and a lot of the other. I’ll let you make the distinction of which is which.”
He was gone before she could think of any response.
Chapter Three
-
Willi decided not to pursue the question the next morning as she waited in the lobby, such as it was, of her rooming house. Dressed in casual clothes, she tried not to look anxious as she read the news screens the area boasted, while she killed the time.
Though it was still a few minutes before the appointed time, Willi wandered outside. Even knowing he would be coming, it was still a surprise when Johnny stepped up to her from slightly behind and to one side of her.
“Missy? Spare credit chip, Missy? For a veteran? No problem, Missy, if no.” The appeal was not loud, but it was hearable to those nearby. The next words were not. “Around the corner.”
Willi did not bobble. She handed the stoop shouldered figure a credit chip and he moved away, in the opposite direction from where he had indicated she should go. She walked casually toward the corner and was quite surprised when she saw a cab door opened and it turned out to be Johnny already behind the controls.
“How’d you do that so fast?” she asked.
“Planning,” was all the answer she received.
Despite the curiosity she felt, Willi stayed silent as Johnny maneuvered the taxi in what was obviously a circuitous route to wherever they were going. Which turned out to be a small ancillary jump port for private travel.
“Hanger thirty-nine,” Johnny said, stopping the cab in front of the control building. “Give me eight minutes.”
She stepped from the cab without a word and went through the doors of the control building. A quick glance around and she saw the directional arrows. It took her only a few minutes to get to hanger thirty-nine. There was quite a bit of activity, but she really only had to nod and smile a few times. No one tried to engage her in any conversation. Everyone there seemed to be busy with their own activities.
Willi had looked at her chrono when Johnny had said eight minutes. It was a full thirty seconds shy of that when Johnny entered the door of the hanger where she stood. He looked completely different, again. First the panhandler, then the cabbie, now a businessman carrying a flight bag.
“Jumpsuit in the jumper,” he said, walking toward the small jumper sitting in the middle of the hanger floor. It was one of those used by private citizens to transfer to and from the planet to private and commercial vessels in holding orbit in space.
As he took the controls, Willi picked up the jumpsuit laying across one of the seats. There was only the small open cabin, not even a lavatory. She did not hesitate. Willi stripped out of her outer clothes and into the jump suit, trusting Johnny not to try to get a free look, though she did keep her back to him.
It was only a few minutes later they were in space, passing close to a small commercial trading vessel. Willi knew that unless they were being intentionally tracked from a vessel deeper in space, all other indications would be they had docked and merged with the commercial vessel.
She took the seat nearest the single seat cockpit. “Where to, now?” she asked.
“Bit further.”
“The dead zone,” Willi said, realizing his probable intention. “Beyond the GeoSync orbit, but in too close for routine traffic.”
“Yep.” He handed Willi a device similar to the one he had produced in her dressing room. She looked at the display and saw a tiny blip of light.
“Won’t someone see the marker beacon?”
Willi was sure the sardonic smile was on his face when he said, “That sends a coded signal and the beacon tight-beams a signal back. Minimum risk.”
“Oh.”
“There they are,” Johnny said after only another minute or so.
Crouching down so she could look out the cockpit view port her mouth dropped open when she saw the two Dominators drifting in space. “Both of them!” she exclaimed. She waited until he had matched their orbit before she spoke again.
“But you just jettisoned the other one!”
“Went back, assembled the second one and then network flew it here.”
“How did you even find it? And you assembled it in free space?”
Johnny shrugged. “Sure. Took a little time, but not that difficult if you’ve done similar things.”
She wanted to ask, desperately, “What similar things?”, but decided it was neither the time nor the place. Willi did ask, “You expect me to fly a Dominator?”
“Sure. Aren’t many that could, without extensive training, but you are one of them. I’ll network with you as we head where we’re going. By the time we get there you’ll be able to do anything that might be required.”
He seemed to have more confidence in her than she had in herself. When she realized that fact, which was pretty much an unknown event, Willi decided that she probably would not have any problems. It was not braggadocio when she admitted she was one of the best pilots around.
Johnny handed her the rest of the flight suit and
she finished getting ready to transfer to the Dominator. After they cycled the airlock of the jumper, Johnny pointed to one of the Dominators. He pushed off from the jumper toward the other Dominator. Willi did the same, crossing the short space to the one he had indicated.
Moments later and she was strapped into the craft, the canopy down and locked, the internal life support system up and everything active. Willi had no doubt they were on a secure commlink when she heard Johnny speak. “You have the control layout?”
She had been studying it automatically as soon as she had guided herself into the cockpit. “Yes.”
“Activate the link.”
“Active.”
Johnny told her the coordinates. “Set the pace and get familiar.”
“Sure doesn’t say much, ever, but sometimes…” Willi thought to herself as she easily activated the controls and started to become at ease with the craft. By the time they reached the spot in space Johnny had given, she was. Even with the weapons systems. They had passed through one band of asteroids and Johnny had marked three for her to use for target practice. He had never said a word of approval or disproval at any of her flight actions or weapons use.
Willi knew she was good, but she had not performed perfectly. She expected Johnny to give her corrective instruction, as her original flight and weapons trainers had aboard Trinity Home. She knew her actions would be better each time, and they were very good now. It was only the unfamiliarity with the craft that had caused the minor performance flaws.
“Maybe he knows that, too,” Willi told herself when Johnny said nothing about the activity, simply giving her another set of coordinates.
“Take station just outside the swarm. When you know Telstar is inside, monitor the approach he used. Any activity, warn me. Take no action unless required. The pass code is loaded. Check it.”
“Got it,” Willi said, bringing up the challenge pass code and required response that would be used for friend or foe checks.
“You don’t get the proper response, destroy whatever or whoever it is, no matter what the risk to any of us. Understood?”
“Understood.” Willi could not help it. She shivered. Even the electronic transmittal of Johnny’s voice carried the seriousness he intended.
She had defended herself and the shuttle, and even helped fight off an attack on Trinity Home in one of the small fighting craft it carried. She suddenly realized that what she was involved with now could affect millions of lives, just as Johnny had said.
Johnny peeled away from her suddenly and entered the asteroid swarm. His sensor image immediately disappeared among the white noise on the monitor that was the swarm. She boosted the engines of her Dominator and took up the position Johnny had requested. She maneuvered right into the edge of the swarm, camouflaging her position, keeping her sensor arrays just clear.
As she waited, Willi began to think about some of the rumors she had heard Sydney and Clyde talking about at various times pertaining to Johnny Oneshot. Again, she shivered.
If he had done only a tenth of them, at a tenth of the degree to which was attributed, and she suddenly thought that, perhaps… no… more likely… he had, then he was probably the most capable person she had ever met. And the most dangerous.
Willi shifted just slightly in the cockpit. They had been there a while, and it must be extremely difficult holding position inside the asteroid swarm. She was having to use her maneuvering engines from time to time to maintain hers. It was always dangerous inside an asteroid swarm, but this one was particularly dangerous. Instruments and sensors were of no use. It was strictly intuitive flight.
She saw the blip at the very edge of her long-range scanner display. It approached quickly, and Willi began to wonder if Captain Butler was in trouble. He did not look like he was going to slow at all before he hit the swarm.
She was tensed, ready to try to do something when he suddenly slowed and turned, and then corkscrewed past the swarm. Willi held position, suddenly realizing he was checking for followers. Another few moments and his Dominator entered the asteroid swarm.
Willi relaxed slightly, but only for a moment. Another blip had appeared on long-range scan. From almost the exact same point in space from which Captain Butler had appeared. It was another moment before the computer identified it as a Triple Seven.
“Janet!” Willi whispered. “Johnny knew Isis would follow Telstar!” Willi thought to herself.
Indeed, Captain Echart had followed. She had joined Rapier Squadron in the Triple Seven with Captain Butler in his Dominator. The only bogies they had encountered had been picked up on the Dominator’s long-range sensor. He had vectored the flight toward them.
At first it looked like the pirates would engage the flight, as they had often in the past with Rapier flight outnumbered more than three to one. Suddenly the pirates had turned tail and run.
They were too far for the flight of F-321s to give chase, though the Dominator and her Triple Seven could have done so and caught them, with enough reserves to engage, and then return to the base.
“They turned as soon as their sensors identified the Triple Seven,” Captain Butler said. “I believe your reputation has begun spreading, Isis.”
Janet grinned at the memory. With her in the Triple Seven, and Captain Butler in the Dominator, both flying with the squadrons of F-321s, they had had much more success in these patrols. The pirates were getting cautious. She frowned then. If only they had two of the Triple Sevens, much more could be accomplished, even with their limitations.
Captain Butler had finally vectored them back toward the base, maintaining Tail End Charlie position. It did not dawn on her for a bit when he had turned over command to her and said he was going to vector back to do a long-range scan again just to check, that he had not returned to the formation when he should.
When she tried the commlink, Lieutenant Peterson had responded that he often did not return until after the rest of the flight had docked at the station. She almost left it at that, but suddenly turned control over to Lieutenant Peterson and turned back herself.
With plenty of reserve power, Janet went to high speed and narrow beamed her long-range sensors, doing a cone pattern. As soon as she got a blip she went passive on sensors and just high balled toward the coordinates of the blip. When she was close she powered short-, and then medium-range sensors for a moment. There was a blip at just the edge of medium sensor range. On a completely different vector than previously. She headed for it at high speed again, going back to passive sensing.
She slowed after a bit, and then again used, first short range, and then medium range sensors. Still without a contact she used the long-range scan. The blip was on the same vector, still at high speed. Janet matched the speed, staying just at the edge of her long-range scan range.
The Dominator had better sensors, but one of the very few advantages of the Triple Seven was its small sensor image. They could see each other at about the same distance on their instruments. If she kept slipping in and out of range so she did not lose him, she should be able to determine where he was going.
Janet was beginning to feel sick. She had never imagined that Bill Butler could be operating with the pirates. But what he was doing was highly suspect. The asteroid swarm suddenly showed on the monitors and she lost the blip.
She eased her speed and approached slowly. He could be using it as a shield, having gone around it and away, if he had seen her blip on his sensors. He would be using them, she was certain.
Willi started to key the command to tell Johnny that Janet was approaching. She remembered his instructions and the chill that had gone down her back when she had heard them.
She eased the Dominator slightly out from the asteroid swarm and keyed the com, using the frequency and code sequence that had been part of the information Johnny had transmitted to her when they had been networked. “Identify Triple Seven. Respond to Prometheus.”
Janet was caught completely by surprise. She immediately changed course
and armed the weapons systems, going to defensive maneuvers, even as she responded to the challenge. “Countersign Romulus and Remus.”
“Acknowledged. You are secure.”
Willi keyed the secure commlink to Johnny. “Isis.”
Captain Butler had just maneuvered to within a few meters of Johnny’s Dominator. He had no way to express his surprise at seeing the craft. He stared over at Johnny in the cockpit of the Dominator. Seeing his finger motions, Captain Butler keyed in a frequency and code sequence.
“Hold one, Telstar. Pipeline, vector Isis to my entry point. Instruct three niner niner niner upon entry.”
“Acknowledged.” Willi switched back to Janet’s frequency.
She eased the Dominator away from the swarm just slightly and made the call. “This is Pipeline,” she said using the call sign that Johnny had just given her.
Willi gave Janet the coordinates and vector, and then the maneuvering instructions Johnny had given to her. Willi saw on her sensor monitor that Janet stopped the defensive maneuvering and headed for the coordinates.
Johnny had been watching Captain Butler and even through the two canopies saw the man stiffen when he heard Janet Echart’s call sign and the instructions Johnny had given Pipeline. Even with the relatively short distances involved, the commlink was filled with interference due to all of the radiation in the swarm.
There was nothing else for him to do, so Captain Butler waited patiently. This would play out, one way or another. He could tell that Janet was just as surprised to see the other Dominator as he had been. She maneuvered her Triple Seven toward them, creating a three-blade fan formation so they could see one another through the canopies.
As he had done for Bill, Johnny signaled Janet the frequency and code sequence to use so she could communicate with them.
“What the hell is going on?” she demanded immediately.
“Ditto,” Bill said.
Johnny gave them nearly the same explanation he had given Willi the night before. The two Captains said nothing for some time.
Mission to Sector ZZ1219 Page 7