by Terry Mixon
The Senator’s expression had gone from purposeful to grim. “The Terror and his crew have caused me great problems in the past in addition to those he has inflicted on the Commonwealth. Personally, I can survive what he’s done to my business, but he’s hurt and killed my people, which I will never forgive. And now he has touched my family.”
The man focused on Brad. “We both want him dead. We just have to find him. I might be able to assist in that.”
“I’m listening,” Brad said. “The Terror is already my blood enemy but not one I can easily locate. I also have a pressing reason to find him sooner rather than later.”
“The Commonwealth has conspicuously failed in trying to find the Cadre,” Barnes said. “So conspicuously, in fact, that I decided to covertly help them with the process. The Cadre seemingly strikes with impunity in the Jupiter system, so I made certain that I had a means to track both a ship that would interest them and the cargo it carried.
“One of mine, of course. The crew surrendered and was allowed to board escape pods. A blessing, that. About a third of them vanish, never to be seen again.”
Falcone’s interest seemed to sharpen. “Exactly how do you hope to track something like that? The ship will have disappeared and they’ll make certain to disable all the transmitters. Even the ones you think you’ve hidden.”
Senator Barnes showed his teeth in a ferocious grin. “That’s true, but I gave them additional hidden transmitters to find. My people devised something that doesn’t trigger their alarms.
“When the engines are firing, a concealed port opens every five hours or so and takes a passive scan of the star field. It determines where the ship is and, based on what potential obstacles are around it, uses a narrow-beam transmitter to squirt that data to ships I’ve tasked with collecting the information.”
Brad gave him an uncertain look. “That sounds like something Fleet would’ve already tried. Or the Agency.”
“Indeed they have,” Barnes agreed. “Which is why all the cargo and ships the Cadre seizes go through a number of steps to be certain that only the patsies get caught.
“Admittedly, the ship and cargo were quickly separated, but one of my people managed to determine where the goods were going. Mars. The ship is on its way out into the Fringe. We’ll continue shadowing it at a great distance to find out who receives it.”
Brad leaned back in his seat and considered that. “Mars is different from the Outer System. Do you know if the cargo is going to the planet itself or just to orbit for transshipment?”
“That remains yet to be seen. My people were able to determine that the cargo was removed in deep space and loaded aboard another ship. Once that ship arrives at Mars, other people will be watching for it. They can use low-powered transmitters to confirm it’s there and where it goes after it arrives.”
“All of this has been done before,” Falcone said. “The Cadre always figures it out somehow. What makes you think your undercover operation will succeed where more professionally run ones have failed?”
The senator smiled coldly. “Don’t mistake private for unprofessional. I hired the very best people to design these systems. I then found people I knew I could trust beyond any doubt at all to run the operation.
“They have no idea why they’re doing this or even who the targets are, though I presume they have their suspicions. They certainly have no idea how wide an impact their work will have.”
“That’s one more lead than I had when I walked on board this ship,” Brad said. “I’ll help, of course. You might not have heard, but the Cadre, or perhaps some unaligned bounty hunters, attacked me here. Innocent people died.
“As soon as the ship I’ve chartered from Heimdall’s Raiders gets here, I’m free to travel. I’ll need to go back to Io and get my new ship, but I have enough financial cushion to spend the time to track down these leads.”
“You haven’t heard what I have for you yet,” Falcone said. “Not to interrupt, but it may bear on this. Lieutenant Commander Greer got word to me about the commandos you encountered, as you requested. I dug into their backgrounds and found a few places where they intersect. One of them is Mars.”
“I suspected that might be the case,” Barnes said, rubbing his chin. “Commander Greer is a resource I’ve used for a long time to get data from and to Fleet quietly. She saw your arrival at the Io Yards as being connected to the unusually trained pirates. She mentioned you’d come from Mars.”
Falcone scowled. “Too many people I know are telling you things I’d rather keep quiet, Senator.”
If that bothered him, it didn’t show. “I can make it up to you. I’m certain that the Agency has people on Mars, but the Cadre has to have ears everywhere to get away with what they do. That alarms me more than I can tell you.
“I can get you onto the main orbital or even the planetary surface without anyone else being the wiser. I can also provide you with alternate means of getting equipment and information. Even some things that the Commonwealth would frown upon. The smaller the chance for someone to betray you to the Cadre, the better, I think.”
He turned his attention back to Brad. “As I said when we spoke previously, I will continue our financial arrangements while you go after the people behind my daughter’s kidnapping. That means I have prepared a contract just like the one you signed last time. Double pay until you kill the Terror, starting now and running until the bastard is dead.”
Brad grinned. “I think we have a deal, Senator.”
Chapter Nineteen
“I really think you should consider pulling out before the mercenary ship gets here,” Falcone said. “You need to vanish off the Cadre’s scanners for a while.”
Brad was doing his evening therapy. It involved dropping lots of objects that normal people could easily manipulate.
He raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s my ride back to Io so I can get together with my crew on the new ship.”
“It’s just like when we broke into Fabian Breen’s house on Ganymede. You didn’t need a ship full of people for that. You can’t use it running down leads on MOSO or on Mars itself, either. You only need their firepower when you find your prey.
“Besides, if you leave without it or them, the Cadre bounty hunters have no way of finding you. Poof! You’ve just vanished. They’ll be watching the Io Yards, your offices, your crew, and your ships as closely as they can. Turn up there and they’ll have you.
“Which brings me to the final argument. Heart of Vengeance is back at Io. The Cadre informants will have noted the Raiders’ ship escorting it, even though they turned back before Heart docked. What makes you think they won’t ambush your new ship just to kill you?”
He set the small rings he’d been manipulating on the table and gave her his full attention. “So, you think I should just pack up and leave with you on Lion? We’d head straight for Mars? What about the Senator?”
“Not exactly,” she said with a shake of her head. “We’ll still head back to the Io Yards but come in from a more roundabout direction. The Senator would leave the ship and we’d continue on our way without raising any red flags.”
“And what should I do with Trista and Lisa Simon? For that matter, what do I do about the kill teams they’re going to send to this station?”
The Commonwealth agent shrugged. “The station is beyond your control. The bad people will be coming whether you’re here or not. Announcing that you’ve left will just shift the attacks to another location. As for your people, we’ll bring them along.”
“That little ship doesn’t have much in the way of bunk space,” he said doubtfully.
Falcone smirked. “My impression is that they’ll only need one. It’ll be crowded with all of us, but that will ease once we’ve dropped our distinguished guest off at the Io Yards.”
“Exactly how much spare cubage does your ship have?” Dr. Duvall said as she walked up. “I have excellent hearing, in case you’re wondering.”
“Dr. Gina Duvall,” Br
ad said, “meet Agent Kate Falcone of the Commonwealth Investigative Agency. Why do you ask? Is this part of pausing my treatment?”
The physician shook her head. “No. I’ve already told you that isn’t going to work. If you prematurely terminate the regeneration treatments, the nerves of your arm will be locked into their current response levels for the rest of your life.”
Falcone picked up the rings Brad had clumsily dropped and stared at the other woman. “You mean he’ll be like this all the time?”
“Precisely,” Duvall said with an aggrieved tone. “I’ve told him this repeatedly, but he refuses to listen to common sense. He must continue to have daily regeneration treatments for a minimum of two weeks more. Four weeks is a more likely span of time, but six weeks is not beyond the realm of believability.”
“And I’ve told you why I can’t stay. In two weeks, we’ll have more bounty hunters killing innocent people. In four weeks, we’ll have Cadre ships firing on the station. Light only knows what will happen in six.”
“You can’t cripple yourself,” Falcone said. “Once you catch up with the Terror, you’ll finish that fight you started on Blackhawk. He’ll kill you.”
“Maybe,” Brad admitted. “Maybe not. I almost took the top of his head off. He lost an eye. We’ll both have our off sides.”
“Or you could go the novel route of doing what makes the most sense,” Duvall said. “Allow me to continue treatments. That’s my plan.”
Brad shook his head. “We just went through why I can’t stay here.”
“Indeed. Which is why I will be accompanying you on this escape, at least until your regeneration is complete. Hence my need to know how much cubage that ship has. The regeneration equipment is not as compact as one might wish. I’ll need something on the order of four meters by three in a contiguous space.”
Falcone overrode him before he objected. “We’ll find a way to fit you and your equipment, Doctor. The Commonwealth is in your debt.”
“Don’t you think you should at least ask the other passenger?” Brad asked wryly. “He might object to being stacked into the wardroom like a log.”
“You think you’re being funny,” Falcone said with a snort. “That’s exactly where I intend to put the regeneration equipment. The crew uses two small cabins for a total of four people. That leaves the two remaining cabins for the other passenger, myself, Dr. Duvall, you, and your two mercenaries.
“The other passenger will be off in three days, but we’ll still be putting five people into two cabins. Four of them women.”
She gave Brad a steady look. “I sense that one of us is not like the others. I’ll wager the captain can fit you in with his crew. Hot-bunking is rough, but you’re a big boy.”
“It’s not as if I haven’t done it before,” he grumbled. “Not that I enjoyed it then, either.”
He gave the doctor his full attention. “I don’t get it. Why would you even suggest going along for what will end up being months away from home, even if everything goes right? I get being dedicated to your patients, but this seems to go far beyond that.”
“It does,” she agreed. “I have other patients I’ll need to pass on to my colleagues, teaching assignments my students will need to get from said colleagues, and the conditions will undoubtedly be arduous. So be it.
“You asked how doctors such as myself could strike back at the Cadre? By making you fit to kill the man responsible for killing one of us,” she said coldly. “In doing this, I act in the stead of all of us.”
Brad considered that and slowly nodded. “That is something I can understand. I wish you didn’t have to make such a hard choice, considering how much good you’d have done right here, but I won’t decline your offer.”
“I wasn’t worried that you would,” she said serenely. “If you’d declined, I’d have spoken to the unnamed—but undoubtedly important—passenger you’ve both ever so carefully failed to name for the last hour. I’d wager he wouldn’t hesitate in welcoming me aboard.”
“Welcome aboard, Dr. Duvall,” Senator Barnes said warmly. “Once Agent Falcone informed me about the situation regarding Commodore Madrid’s recovery and your selfless offer, I would’ve moved into the engine room to make space for you and your equipment.”
She shot Brad a smug look. He wondered if it was natural or it was part of all doctors’ training.
“That won’t be necessary,” Brad assured him. “I’ll hot-bunk with the crew. The ladies will sort themselves out.”
Putting four of them in one tiny cabin was going to be rough for the next few days, but he wasn’t feeling too bad about it. Not really.
“I’ll speak with the captain and we’ll all hot-bunk, as you call it,” the senator said. “Where will the regeneration equipment go?”
“Into the wardroom,” Duvall said. “I verified everything fits. Barely. Commodore Madrid will actually be partly in the corridor during sessions, but we can make it work.”
“How long will it take you to get everything moved aboard?” Falcone asked. “I’d like to be on our way before we get any unexpected visitors. This ship isn’t armed, and isn’t the stealthiest thing in space, either.”
“Two hours, I believe. Unless you believe I need to move it in a manner unlikely to arouse suspicion. That will take longer.”
Brad shook his head. “In this case, I think being open is the best plan. In fact, let them know where I’ve gone. Make sure the word spreads far and wide.”
Falcone blinked in surprise. “We still need to drop the senator back at the Io Yards. If everyone knows you’ve boarded this ship, we don’t dare dock there.”
“Don’t worry,” he said with a grin. “It’s all part of my mad plan. I should’ve thought of this earlier. The senator will have a different ride back to the Io Yard. One that will be just as unlikely to arouse suspicion as this ship would’ve been.”
Senator Barnes raised an eyebrow. “I can’t wait to hear how this will work.”
“Have you ever considered becoming a mercenary, Senator? Because I’m about to call the guards in. One of them is about your size, so you’ll be able to wear his armor. He can borrow a crew uniform and go ashore with some of the real crewmen. No one will know, since his helmet hid his face and they haven’t left the ship.
“When the Raiders arrive in a few days, they can get you back to the Io Yards easily enough. I’ll leave messages I want hand-delivered to my people there. While they do that, they can get you off the ship and back to your hotel with no one the wiser.”
Falcone considered that for a moment before smiling. “That works,” she admitted. “No one would suspect a thing. And with you making a big show of leaving Serenity Station, the Cadre would have no reason to even be looking at the mercenary ship.”
Barnes grinned. “I wanted to be one as a boy. Mother wouldn’t hear of it, of course. Do I get a weapon?”
“Of course,” Brad assured the man. “Maybe not any ammunition, but you’ll need the weapons to blend in. Welcome to the Mercenary Guild, Senator. Do us proud and let’s hope you don’t have to earn that combat bonus the hard way.”
The doctor was as good as her word and they were on their way in just over two hours. Brad made a point of being seen entering and exiting Lion several times as part of helping her people load the gear.
Or perhaps hindering them was more accurate.
In any case, it made for a good show, and Senator Barnes didn’t get a second glance as he stiffly marched off the ship about halfway through the process. If anyone looked less like a mercenary than the wealthy politician, Brad couldn’t imagine how.
Someone would get word to the Cadre, and that would spare Serenity. That was all that truly mattered.
Lion’s bridge was far too small to have visitors, but he, Falcone, and his two mercenaries jammed themselves into the tiny cabin the ladies would all share, and observed the departure via the small screen. Dr. Duvall was in the wardroom, putting everything back together.
They’d
been discussing what to do once they made the turn for Mars for almost an hour when a chime sounded and Captain Mahdi’s voice came over the speakers. “We have company.”
Brad would’ve said they all crowded around the screen, but they were already crowded together like thieves planning their next crime.
He flipped the display to show the ship’s scanner readings. Indeed, there was a vessel racing in from the Fringe. It was at a terrible angle to intercept them under the best of circumstances, but someone was trying heroically to do so.
The courier showed them the error in their thinking by piling on the acceleration. Brad watched the projected courses alter and allowed himself to feel a bit jealous of this ship’s ability to leave the enemy in their stardust.
The enemy was going to be able to hound them for hours but never come close to being inside realistic weapons range.
That didn’t mean they wouldn’t try, of course. Small markers spat out of the enemy icon as they fired mass-driver rounds at them in wild abandon.
Lion adroitly began altering course, and it very rapidly became obvious that none of the shots would even come close. They’d handily escape unless other ships were out there trying to bracket them.
And they wouldn’t know that unless that plan actually worked.
Brad shut off the screen and turned back to Falcone. “Let’s focus on things we can control. We’ve got about a week to get our plan in order. It would be faster if we didn’t have to convince everyone we were going to the Belt, but I suppose that can’t be helped.
“I’d like to game out as many contingencies as possible. I asked Trista and Lisa to join us because Trista needs to learn how to plan at this level and Lisa was a senior station security officer and can contribute possibilities for MOSO that we might not have thought of.”
The agent nodded and settled in. “We won’t know exactly where we’re going at Mars until we get there, but I think MOSO is the most likely cargo destination for transshipment. We’ll plan on that and improvise as needed. I think we should start with…”