Oath of Vengeance

by Terry Mixon

  “If you’re poor, you live just below the surface. If you’re rich, you never see the surface. Or the poor.”

  He shook his head slightly. “I can’t see wealthy families continually moving just because there’s a new opening down below. Surely, there are still some rich people living higher up.”

  “Not so that you’d notice. The status that comes with wealth here also requires that you keep up appearances. Admittedly, you won’t find people moving every five years. Not even every fifteen years.

  “But there is no way in Everlight you’re going to find a wealthy family that hasn’t relocated in the last thirty. Which means, by the way, that the city has hundreds of old family estates that are now being used by the merchant class. That way, they can live just like the people they want to become, sneering at the poor people they’re leaving behind.”

  “Some things never change,” he agreed. “I’d be willing to bet that the criminal element is also moving into those old homes. They like to put on as many airs as merchants. Maybe more.”

  She nodded her agreement and pressed a button about halfway down the panel. “I don’t know precisely where we’re going to find lodging, but if we stick to the middle of the city, we should be relatively safe.”

  Finding what amounted to a budget hotel wasn’t difficult. In fact, advertising screens along every major thoroughfare made certain that a number of possibilities were presented to them. He imagined the city had a lot of visitors.

  Half an hour later, they had checked into a nondescript hotel. The clerk at the front desk had barely glanced at them before taking their reservation for the next three days. The fact that they had no luggage didn’t faze him at all.

  The room they’d gotten was about as plain as one could ask for. It held a double bed, a small desk, and built-in closets and dressers, and had a small enclosed heating unit for food. The bathroom was also nothing to write home about.

  Falcone sat at the desk and pulled out the chip, plugging it into her wrist-comp to sort through the data “This is going to take me a little bit. Why don’t you go to the deli across the street and get us something? And dessert. I want something sweet.”

  “Good idea. That po’ boy was a long time ago. Be right back.”

  “This is Paul Chandra,” Falcone told him an hour later, after they’d eaten. “Randy’s file says that he’s a high-level fence for various organizations based here in the city. There is no known connection between him and the Cadre, but if he has the cargo, he’s their fence, too.”

  The man’s image showed him to be a dark skinned, dark haired man, likely of Indian descent. He was a relatively handsome fellow, but his eyes were cold and hard. This was a man you didn’t trifle with.

  The image had been taken on a crowded street. The subject was surrounded by large beefy men who were probably his bodyguards.

  “So, we’re planning to break into his warehouse and see if we can locate any records about the Cadre?” he asked. “I think the odds of him having anything written down about the Terror are pretty low. And why would he keep them in the warehouse? Surely, he does business somewhere less…industrial.”

  “Probably,” she admitted. “But it’s not as if we have a choice. The warehouse is more accessible than his home. Not easy, but we’re more likely to get in and out safely.

  “If we’re going to locate where the Cadre has your girlfriend, we need a lead on their base. Someone supplies them. If we don’t directly find the Cadre, we can at least get the names of individuals who may have closer dealings with the Terror.”

  “Do we have plans for the warehouse? Is it reachable from the surface?”

  She nodded. “I’m certain the plans are out of date and that they don’t completely reflect what we’re going to find inside, but it’s better than nothing.

  “It’s not reachable from the surface, but it’s not exactly underfoot, either. I think the best course of action will be to find a location that overlooks the main entrance to the warehouse and see who goes in and out. Once we have a better idea of the traffic levels and the players, we’ll be able to more comprehensively plan a course of action.”

  Brad brought up a map of the city. It was geared toward tourists, but at least it had most of the levels marked and many of the major corridors and thoroughfares.

  He double-checked the address for the warehouse and entered it. “That’s not exactly close by, and you’re right about it not being underfoot. We’re going to have to be very careful that we don’t let him or any of his people spot us.”

  She checked the time. “It’s early afternoon, local time. I suggest we make a trip in that direction and drive past it. So long as we don’t linger, we can make enough of an examination to know what we’re dealing with and find a good spot to covertly observe the warehouse.

  “Then we can return here and get some sleep. We’ll head back up to the station in the morning, you can get your regeneration treatment, and then we’ll head back down here and see if we can plant some cameras to watch everything for us.”

  “You’re not planning on observing it in person?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “That hardly seems spy-like.”

  She laughed. “That’s an amateur move. They’ll be watching for anyone who doesn’t belong. We want to find a good location to plant cameras, and then we’ll swing back by and pick up the video they record at a later point in time.

  “We don’t dare leave them transmitting, because it’s a certainty that they’ll be looking for strange signals. If we play this low-key, they won’t even become aware of our presence. Trust me. That’s the way we want it.”

  They rented an older corridor car and had it take them to the general area around the warehouse.

  “We’ll go just south of the warehouse and rent another car,” Falcone said. “Then we’ll make a trip across the district to an area tourists frequent. If someone sees us, a check of the corridor-car logs will show our origin and destination. That way, we won’t raise any suspicion.”

  “And if they check to see where we’re staying? Our hotel is quite a ways off.”

  She smiled. “That’s why we will be renting another room. Don’t worry. The Commonwealth will cover this one.”

  It was eerie how similar their second hotel room was to the first. It was almost as if they had been designed and built by the same person, one with no taste in wall art.

  They left their corridor car at the new hotel and rented a second one. This one was slightly newer but of a similar style.

  By the time they reached the warehouse district, traffic was picking up because many workers were getting off and heading home. Most didn’t have their own transportation and instead relied upon public transportation.

  Most of that was handled via trains running through dedicated tubes in a vacuum. He imagined the 3-D map showing all the routes looked like a tangle of yarn. They had to be built when a level was constructed, and moving them at a later point in time would be virtually impossible.

  As the city grew, what had once been popular transit lines most likely needed to be abandoned every once in a while because the population had relocated. And perhaps there were areas of the city that needed this type of mass transit that couldn’t get it.

  “There it is, on the left,” Falcone said as they approached the warehouse. “There’s an eatery just up the street that’ll make a great stakeout location. We can drop in for dinner, I’ll slip off to the floor above and plant a camera, and then we’ll be off.”

  That sounded so simple in theory. He was certain it was going to be a nail-biter when they tried to actually pull it off.

  They were even with the warehouse when the front door opened and a group of men walked out. Brad had just one glance at them before the corridor car moved past, but he recognized Paul Chandra in the center of the group. And he wasn’t the only person Brad recognized.

  Standing right beside the Martian crime lord was Jack Mader.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “
Was that who I thought it was?” Falcone asked incredulously.

  “If you thought you saw Jack Mader, then you’re right,” Brad said, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder. “I suppose that means we can confirm Chandra’s connection to the Cadre. What do we do now?”

  She sat silently for a minute. “I’m not sure this changes anything. We still need the same information as before. I suppose Mader’s presence means we have a better opportunity to get good data, though.”

  That was the understatement of the year. While Brad couldn’t precisely place Jack Mader in the Cadre organization, he was definitely a senior man. One with a very large price on his head, too. Anything that needed his personal attention in a heavily policed place like Mars had to be important.

  “Maybe the cargo they seized from the Senator was more important than we believed,” he ventured.

  “Why would Barnes lie?”

  “I’m not sure he did. It may just be the cargo that he chose to lure them. In any case, we need to get inside that warehouse as soon as possible. Perhaps sooner than we’d planned.”

  “Why don’t we try to snatch Mader?” she countered. “If anyone knows where the Cadre base is, it would be him.”

  By this time, the corridor car had left the warehouse district and was back in an area of the city with a more varied population.

  “To get our hands on him, we’d have to call in extra support,” Brad said, shaking his head. “We know the Cadre has eyes and ears everywhere. We’d blow this entire operation.”

  “What about Randy? We can trust him.”

  “Just because he wouldn’t personally betray us doesn’t mean that the resources he taps won’t, if they get wind of where we’re working or who we’re interested in. I’d much rather miss the chance to capture Mader than tip him off that we’re here.”

  The corridor car pulled into a parking lot adjacent to a mall, and they climbed out. The collection of businesses was much like similar areas on any inhabited body in the solar system. Places that proclaimed the simplicity of shopping many stores all gathered for your convenience.

  At exorbitant prices, of course.

  Their plans called for them to spend the next hour window-shopping. If something sparked their interest, they’d buy it. Then they’d have dinner at one of the trendy little restaurants that served the tourist community. Also for much higher prices than any of the locals would pay.

  They couldn’t exactly talk about breaking into a warehouse or capturing Cadre pirates with so many ears walking past, so the conversation turned to inane matters. That gave him time to think.

  Why was Mader there? Was he making the right call by keeping his hands off the man who probably knew where the Cadre base was? He’d much rather snatch the bastard and beat the truth out of him, but the risks were too high.

  Even if they succeeded, it would tip the Cadre off that something was going on. The very last thing he wanted was to put Michelle at risk.

  Besides, other than the single sighting they’d had, tracking someone like Mader down would be almost impossible. He wouldn’t be staying at the warehouse. In fact, he wouldn’t be anywhere Olympus Mons security could find him.

  No. As much as Brad would love to get his hands on the bastard, he had to stick with the plan. Though it might not be a bad idea to accelerate the timetable. They might benefit from having a camera on the warehouse tonight.

  They finally settled into a somewhat upscale café. Once they’d ordered appetizers and drinks, Falcone smiled at him over the rim of her glass.

  “You’re thinking about him, aren’t you? Mader. Second-guessing yourself.”

  “Should we really be talking about him like this?”

  She gave him an elaborate shrug. “Look at all the people around us. What do you think they see? How much do you think they hear?

  “To them, were just another couple out for a night on the town. Even the closest table can’t hear what you’re saying with all these conversations going on. We’re safe enough.”

  “I want him,” Brad said bluntly. “More than you could possibly imagine. I’m just not sure grabbing him won’t set off a sequence of events that we can’t control. For us to get what we need, everything has to go perfectly.

  “They can’t suspect that we’re tracing the cargo. They can’t know we’re watching their people. Worst of all, they can’t wonder who took Jack Mader.”

  “You’re probably right,” she sighed, “but I’m not willing to give up on the possibility quite yet. The first step to any plan we make involves planting listening devices and cameras inside the warehouse.

  “You’re right that we’re not going to find any files that say, Cadre base here. The data we need is going to come when someone mentions a name or location. That’s going to lead us to someone we can snatch and make talk.”

  Her wrist-comp chimed, and they both stared at it for a moment before she answered. “Hello?”

  “Kate,” Randy said, a note of relief in his voice. “I’m glad I caught you. We have something of a situation.”

  The other man’s voice was calm but tense. With all the noise in the café, Brad could only barely hear him.

  “What kind of situation?” Falcone asked.

  “One of my confidential informants called to tell me that Chandra is searching for you.”

  “What happened?” she asked tensely.

  “I’m still not completely sure. All I can say for certain is that we have a leak. A very highly placed one.”

  Brad leaned forward. “Who even knew we were here?”

  “By name? No one. But I had to bring in several people to help track the cargo. I thought I could trust everyone involved, but someone told Chandra. And that same someone must’ve told them I was sending you down to the planet.”

  “It won’t be easy to find us. I picked our hotel at random.”

  “I’m sure you did. The problem is that they know how you got onto the planet. If they have access to the security apparatus in Olympus Mons, they could’ve traced you.”

  Brad’s gut clenched. Followed to its logical conclusion, that meant that it was only a matter of time before Chandra found them at their new hotel. Or in this café.

  He turned in his seat and scanned the other diners. No one seemed overly interested, but did that really mean anything?

  “I’m going dark,” Falcone said. “Find your leak.”

  She ended the call, took off her wrist-comp, and disabled it. “I think you’d best do the same. We can’t trust that they don’t have people in Olympus Mons Security.”

  “What do we do now?” he asked as he disabled his comp.

  “Pay our bill and walk away. We’ll find some other place to spend the evening. And don’t make the mistake of thinking we’re going to let this change our plans. We’re still breaking into the warehouse.”

  He felt both of his eyebrows rise. “Seriously? They have to be on the lookout for us now.”

  “I have a plan.”

  Falcone flagged the waiter down and paid their bill in hard currency. That made the man’s eyes widen slightly, but they were tourists. There was no accounting for taste.

  She led them out of the café and into the crowd of people still swarming the mall. They dodged across the walkway and into one of the service corridors as a man walked out. It was clearly marked authorized personnel only, but that didn’t slow her down.

  He wasn’t certain how, but she managed to figure her way through the service corridors until she arrived at a central supply point. They passed several individuals who gave them odd looks, but she held out a clip-on badge and just kept walking.

  Only when they arrived at her apparent destination did he get a good look at it. It was an employee badge. The one belonging to the guy who’d opened the door, allowing them into the service corridors. He hadn’t even seen her take it.

  The parking area held a large number of bicycles. Brad supposed they made more sense for people living nearby than corridor cars, th
ose that just didn’t take the public transit cars.

  Falcone headed for the area reserved for the few corridor cars. In fact, she headed for the most expensive-looking vehicle and pulled out a small pack of tools.

  “You know security is watching us right now,” he said as he looked at the camera in the corner.

  “Not a chance,” she said, not even pausing as she worked on the door. “They have far too many public areas to monitor. That’s just recording in case there’s a crime.”

  “Like this one?”

  “Exactly like this one,” she confirmed, popping the door open. “Get in.”

  Since he really didn’t have any other options, he got in. She activated the car’s internal controls just as adroitly as she’d broken in. The entire process of stealing the vehicle took less than a minute.

  “You’ve done this before,” he observed.

  “More than a few times,” she admitted. “It’s a mandatory part of the curriculum at the academy. Even Kevin Blake passed that part of the final without getting caught.”

  “From your tone, I’ll assume this Kevin didn’t graduate at the top of the class.”

  “The exact opposite, as you probably guessed. He works in headquarters now, making the rest of us miserable. Dammed bean counter thinks he knows everything about field work because he’s technically qualified to be a field agent. I wouldn’t trust him to rescue a cat from a tree.”

  Based on the cats Brad was familiar with, he couldn’t imagine them ever needing rescue. Not that he had much experience with trees in space.

  The corridor car arrived at the security checkpoint situated at the mall perimeter. It barely paused as it headed past the guard in the clear booth. Falcone waved at the man cheerily as they sped by.

  Brad imagined the man was going to be making some very awkward explanations soon.

  “Okay, now that we’re clear, what do we do? I’d really rather Olympus Mons Security didn’t apprehend us.”

  She leaned back in her seat and gave him her full attention as the corridor car headed for whatever destination she’d programmed into it.