Yao tugged at his ear, withdrawing the cigarette from his mouth. “Answer them, Chin. Tell them we welcome them as guests and would enjoy their company for dinner.” He flicked the cigarette away in disgust and turned to leave the bridge.
“Acknowledged,” Giroux answered the Yongsheng in fluent Mandarin. “All set, Captain,” he said, switching back to English. “They’re standing by.”
“Thank you, Ensign,” McTiernan replied. “And remind me to send your mother a thank you card for passing on her Chinese heritage.”
Giroux beamed. “Aye aye, sir!”
“Lieutenant Commander, please bring us alongside the Yongsheng and have the security team meet you in the shuttle bay.” He turned to the other officers on the bridge. “Nice work everyone, very well done. Even better than the sims.”
Chapter 31
“I guess this is it, little brother.”
Zack was standing with Gabriel at the doors to the hub corridor. Behind them, the rest of the team was escorting the restrained prisoners and collecting their equipment.
A stoic Brevik was carrying St. Laurent’s covered body over his shoulder, having refused any help. Gabriel had seen he was very broken up about her death; he had been her commanding officer for over two years. Gabriel completely understood, fleeting thoughts of his lost Eden squad flashing through his head.
Jimenez and Sowers pushed the mercenaries along roughly. Ran was doing his best to walk unassisted, a medwrap immobilizing his left leg. Takahashi slowly brought up the rear, walking with the doctor and one of the Polis. The Poli and ensign were talking and gesturing like old friends. Gabriel made a mental note to finish the conversation they had started about what had happened upstairs. Running out of room for mental notes, he thought idly.
Gabriel turned to his brother. “Yeah, I guess it is. Shame we had to see each other again under such circumstances,” he said as Brevik walked past with St. Laurent’s body. “Sorry about your friend.”
Zack nodded his thanks. “Appreciate that. Just do me a favor,” he said, pressing a datachip into Gabriel’s hand. “He had a daughter being watched by the same guys who ordered this…mess. Here’s her information, if you can keep an eye out for her…” His voice trailed off.
Gabriel took the chip and tucked it into a recess on his chest plate. “Not a problem,” he said. “Our mutual friend here,” he gave Ran a shove as he walked past. The mercenary stumbled on his shattered knee and cursing in pain. “He proved to be a wealth of information. Combined with what my contact on Earth gave me earlier, I think there are going to be several people caught very much off guard.”
Zack extended his hand. “Thank you again. I know I haven’t said it enough, but,” he paused, then gave a smile. “I’m proud of you.”
Gabriel took his hand, hoping his surprise didn’t show on his face. “Said it enough?” he said. “Might be the first time I’ve heard that.” He turned back to look around the operations center. “You should be proud of what you’re doing here. I’m impressed.” He pursed his lips and blew out a breath. “I know mom and dad would have been proud.”
Zack gave a small smile and pulled his brother into a hug, slapping him on his injured shoulder. Gabriel winced a bit, chalking it up to repressed older brother torture.
“Listen,” Zack said, releasing Gabriel and looking around the room. “I know this has been a helluva situation, but if there’s any chance you and your team can keep our discovery here under the radar…we’d all sure appreciate it. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and we’ve just seen what can happen if the wrong people find out.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Gabriel promised. “I’ll also see what I can do about getting some support to you out here. Money, material, whatever you need. I don’t have much in the way of, ah, legitimate contacts, but…”
Zack shook his head. “No worries, Evan. We’re doing just fine.” He glanced at the pile of plastic rubble that was a row of workstations before the two giants had fought it out. “Just a little cleanup I suppose.”
“Take care of yourself, Zack,” Gabriel said.
Zack drew himself up to full height, still a few inches under Gabriel’s forehead, and snapped an acceptable salute. “Aye aye, Commander.”
Gabriel’s mouth twitched upwards in a light smile. “No lid, civvie,” he said, indicating his bare head. “No salute. I’ll be seeing you.”
With that he turned for the door, following Takahashi out into the corridor.
“Minister Tevez, I have Admiral MacFarland on the vidline in your office,” said his assistant.
Tevez looked up from his massive sandwich, a bit of tomato falling from his lips. “Fine,” he said between chews. “I’ll be right there. Have the group assembled.”
“Right away sir,” the assistant replied and closed the door to the dining hall behind him.
Tevez belched and wiped his lips, dropped the napkin on his messy plate, and stood up slowly. He reached for his bourbon and tossed it off in one large gulp, then checked his watch. Right on time, he thought. This had better be good news.
Entering his spacious office, he saw his group of confidants had all arrived and were seated around the room, already partaking of his booze. Cáceres sat in a corner, keeping to himself, Tevez noticed. Weasel, he thought. He’ll be the first he’d need to cut loose.
“Hola, Neftali, Gonzalo, Esteban, Augusto,” he nodded in turn to each man in the room. They all greeted him with various waves and hellos. Cáceres remained quiet, perhaps offended by the omission of his name? Tevez shrugged it off. He stepped over to the liquor cabinet and poured a glass of bourbon. By the levels of the other bottles, he saw the group had a good head start. At least they know not to touch my Kentucky, he thought.
“Caballeros,” he said to the group, turning back around. “Thank you for all being here. I believe we have an important call coming in?” he asked in Cáceres’ direction.
Cáceres dipped his head in affirmative. “Si, Señor Tevez. Admiral MacFarland apparently has good news for us.”
Tevez beamed as he sat on an empty settee; the springs creaked under his weight. “Excellente!” Looking around the room, he fixed each man one by one with his eyes. “I hope you understand, again, that none of this operation is spoken about to anyone else. Entiendes?” More nods, and he smiled. “Put the admiral through.”
The low table in the middle of several couches lit up, and half an image of MacFarland appeared above it. One of the men cursed and leaned over, moving his glass of tequila out of the way of the holoprojectors. MacFarland’s head became whole.
“Greetings, Minister Tevez, gentlemen,” MacFarland’s gruff voice said, slightly out of sync with the 3D image. “Is everyone there?”
Cáceres answered. “Yes, Admiral, we’re all present. I understand from your communique you have news for us?”
MacFarland’s image smiled. “Very good news. Not only are we on schedule, but my people are already headed back here with some of the antiaging compounds. The colony has been successfully transferred to my ownership, so any and all discoveries will now belong to me. Er, us.”
“That is very good news, Admiral,” Tevez said, leaning into the image. “When are they expected to arrive? You understand we must verify their finds before we can proceed, yes?”
“Of course,” he replied. “I estimate them reaching the orbital station three days from now, and they’ll be on the ground late afternoon on Friday. Please feel free to send someone to join me as we greet our returning conquerors.”
Tevez frowned at MacFarland’s bravado. This one may be more difficult to control after all, he thought. “I will do just that,” he said. “Once we have verified the information, your operation can proceed. I will contact our sleepers and have them standby. The troop ships will be arriving in Toronto by…” he paused, looking over at one of the other men.
“Saturday morning, Minister,” he replied.
“Saturday morning,” Tevez repeated to MacFarland. “Agai
n if the information doesn’t check out, those ships will turn around, and we’ll find a new partner, si?”
“Si, ah, yes, of course,” MacFarland replied. “All is in order, no worries, amigos.” Tevez cringed at his accent. “Let me know of your person’s arrival and we’ll roll out the red carpet. We can greet the team at the spaceport together,” he said.
Tevez signaled Cáceres to cut the connection and MacFarland’s image disappeared.
“Can you trust this gringo?” asked one of the men.
Tevez chuckled. “Trust? Not really, but he’s stupid enough to trust us. That’s all that matters. Once we have that technology in hand, and his little coup stirs up a hornet’s nest in the NAF, we can quietly step in as saviors to the headless government, and then take him out of the picture.”
The man looked dubious. “You are sure of this?”
“I am very sure,” Tevez said, sipping his bourbon. “And our friend Ignacio will be the trigger man. What do you say, Nacho? Up for killing an admiral?”
Cáceres shuddered inwardly. This was getting out of hand, he thought. Assassins, troops, and now blood on his hands? Perhaps he had gone too far to protect and take care of his family.
“Claro que si, Señor Tevez,” he said, hoping the nervousness didn’t show on his face.
“That’s my boy,” Tevez laughed. He raised his glass, the others following suit. “To the new and larger Republica de Sudamerica, and to very, very long lives!” he shouted.
All of the men cheered and drank from their glasses. Cáceres abstained, secretly hoping the men got drunk enough for him to slip away unnoticed. He really needed to call his wife.
Chapter 32
“Commander, welcome back.”
Gabriel took McTiernan’s proffered hand and shook it. “Glad to be back, sir. Little warmer up here.”
The mercenaries’ shuttle had been flown back to the Marcinko by Sowers, who unbeknownst to Gabriel (or anyone else in the team, for that matter) had a pilot’s license in commercial shuttles. He had cursed impressively the entire flight up, struggling at the ancient controls and bare-bones instrumentation. Gabriel had almost called it off, but after learning that the only other choice was an automated ascent, his team’s lives in the hands of the lowest computer bidder in the Chinese Empire, he relented and accepted Sowers’s swearing. He had mentally kept his fingers crossed that the tactical nukes Santander and his group had brought remained upright and safe in the shuttle’s hold.
The Marcinko was within a half mile of the Yongsheng, weapons still trained on the cargo ship. The Marcinko’s small shuttle was on board the Chinese ship, having taken Vaillancourt and a security team over earlier to take control, so the docking bay was empty enough for Sowers to bump and scrape the shuttle in.
McTiernan was floating in the corridor outside the docking bay waiting for the team to arrive. Giroux was with him, looking eager to talk to the team about the performance of the drones. Gabriel headed him off with a wave. “Ensign, we’ll chat about the Larrys later.” Giroux cocked his head in curiosity at the name. Gabriel continued. “Right now I need to make a call.” The rest of his team floated out of the shuttle, skillfully pushing the mercenaries ahead of them.
McTiernan looked gravely at Brevik, who was carrying St. Laurent carefully. “Sorry about your loss, Commander.”
Gabriel nodded in acknowledgement. “Thank you sir. Now, about that call?”
McTiernan turned and pushed into the rotating cylinder, Gabriel right behind him. Once they planted their feet on the floor, Gabriel continued. “I need a secure transmission to someone back in the NAF. I have a code from her, she left it in a neuretics file she gave me.”
The captain motioned Giroux forward. The ensign entered the cylinder and stood next to the two men, the rest of the team heading the opposite direction. “Sir?”
“Ensign,” McTiernan said. “Get Commander Gabriel to your comm station right away.”
“Aye aye, sir,” he replied. “This way, Commander.”
“Hang on,” said Gabriel. “Once I’m done on the bridge, we need to get our personnel over to the Chinese ship. We’re going to leave the prisoners on the Marcinko for transfer back, but we need to run ahead of you. We’ve got some people to surprise.”
“You got it,” said McTiernan. He unclipped a comm from his belt. “Vaillancourt, prepare to return.” He addressed Gabriel. “I’ll have her come back with the shuttle and some of my security people, and you and your team can take this shuttle over, but we’ll leave some of my security force on the cargo ship so there are no issues.”
“If the condition of that shuttle is any indication of the cargo ship, you’d better choose your least favorite people,” Gabriel replied.
Ignacio Cáceres sat in his office, staring out the dark window at the brick wall across the street. In his lowly position, a view would have been out of the question, but even this was a bit ridiculous. He had just spoken to his wife in Lambaré, his children already in bed for the evening. She had been so excited to hear from him, but he found it impossible to keep the apprehension out of his voice.
“Nacho, what is wrong?” she had asked.
“Nothing, mi cariña, nothing at all,” he had said. “I just have some things going on at work that are, ah, stressful.”
“Don’t stress yourself, please. You have nothing to worry about. Finish your project, and come home to us. It has been so long since you’ve been able to stay!”
He regretted his lie, or omission as he considered it. He had to keep her in the dark to protect them. His promises of home soon were starting to ring hollow. And with Tevez’s plan, it may be longer before he went home than he had ever imagined.
“Señor Cáceres?” a voice from his desk comm said.
“Yes,” he answered, putting down his warm bottle of Quilmes lager.
“Señor, I have a secure call from an unknown ID in Toronto.”
Cáceres cocked his head slightly. Why would MacFarland call him directly in his office, from a blocked line? “Go ahead and put him through,” he said.
“Of course, señor. But it’s not a man,” the voice said.
Cáceres stared at the comm in puzzlement. A few audible clicks came through, followed by a voice.
“Señor Ignacio Cáceres, this is Lieutenant Renay Gesselli, North American Federation Naval Intelligence. Is this line secure?
He paused, shaking his head as if to clear it. Was the plan already unraveling? And if so, was he now the fall guy? “Uh, yes, this is secure,” he answered in a light tone. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”
“Well, Señor, perhaps we can do something for each other,” Gesselli replied. “I just received some startling information from off-world, and your name came attached to it. And after doing some checking, it seems you may be able to use our help.” The voice paused. “In exchange for some information from you, of course.”
Cáceres sat down heavily in his worn chair, staring out the window. In the dim light, he could barely make out the individual bricks, but he knew there was a wall there. There is always a wall, he thought to himself.
He reached for his beer and took a long drink. “I’m listening, lieutenant.”
Chapter 33
Admiral Llewelyn “Dredge” MacFarland stood on the edge of the tarmac and watched the spaceplane taxi towards him. His trusted SpecOps officers, Javier and Hugh, were there with him, as well as Gesselli. He waited with barely contained anticipation for Santander to step from the plane, holding the key to his next power move.
Cáceres stood just behind the group, sunglasses on. The annoying little man had followed him around like a puppy the last two days since arriving from Argentina. Just as well, MacFarland thought. He needed the SAR to have verification, and once Cáceres gave them the go ahead, his plan would swing into motion. And Cáceres could finally drop the pathetic cover of special advisor, whatever that meant.
The spaceplane pulled up to the group, engines spooling down with lou
d hisses. MacFarland idly wondered again why Santander hadn’t bothered to call once they reached Halsey Station. He was still pondering this when the door to the spaceplane opened, the rolling stairs wheeled up, and a figure appeared at the hatch.
MacFarland squinted in the morning sun, shading his brow with one hand. The figure took a few steps down…no, it couldn’t be, he thought in horror.
The figure reached the bottom of the steps. “Hello, Admiral, I appreciate the salute,” said Evan Gabriel, striding towards him.
MacFarland dropped his hand and gasped, turning around to head back to the car, but Javier and Hugh stepped in and blocked his way. He spun back around to face Gabriel. “What the hell are you doing here?” he spluttered.
“I’m guessing you didn’t expect to see me again?” Gabriel asked lightly.
MacFarland attempted to recover. “Why yes, no, ah, I mean of course I did, what do you mean?” he said. “I just, ah, didn’t expect you on this plane, uh…” His voice trailed off. He looked over at Gesselli, who stood by impassive.
Gabriel turned to her and handed her a datachip. “Lieutenant, as we discussed, I believe this is the evidence you need.”
She accepted the chip. “Thank you, Commander.” She turned to MacFarland, waving the two SpecOps officers over. “Admiral Llewelyn MacFarland, I hereby remand you into the custody of the North American Federation Navy for court martial.” She stepped closer and stared into his eyes. “We’ll worry about your rights later.”
Hugh reached out and took MacFarland’s elbow. “Right this way, Admiral,” he said quietly.
MacFarland shook off his grasp angrily. “What gives you the right? What evidence?”
“We’ll let the JAG handle the formal charges. Señor Cáceres has been very helpful in providing extra information for us,” Gesselli said with a smile.
MacFarland spun to Cáceres, who remained impassive. “What? You little weasel! Your family is dead!” he yelled, losing control.
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