Ozzy covered his nose and stepped over a monk.
Lyra approached an agent and kicked the man in the face for good measure. “Stupid ass.” She pointed to a staircase. “You want to talk, Ozzy? We can talk. But you haven’t done a job for me in a long time, so I’m confused as to why you’re here?”
“I’m not here seeking forbidden archaeological business.”
Lyra stopped, her entire body going rigid. “You are here to kill me?”
Ozzy looked left and right. “Uh…no.”
She let out a loud sigh. “Good. I’m a little tired of people trying to kill me.” She began to walk up her stairs but turned around. “What is it, then?”
“Jonas sent me.”
She nodded. “You know?”
“I know.” He assumed the knowing was about their alliance.
“Lyra,” a man yelled from across the lair. He was dressed in a long, black robe and wearing an orange shirt and black pants. He was carrying a holopad and hurrying toward her. “We just found this. It was under the couch.”
She swiped the holopad out of his hand. “Give it to me.” She lifted her nose, causing wrinkles around her mouth. “Thank you, Mosen. You can leave now.”
The man walked away, bowing several times. Ozzy and Lyra stared at the blood-soaked holopad.
Lyra mewed. “Mosen, you didn’t even bother to wipe it off. You can’t find good help these days. It’s the times, you know?”
Ozzy shrugged. He reached forward and pressed the “on” button.
A hologram shot into the air. The High Judge sat behind his desk with his hands cupped in front of him. An awkwardly positioned camera was pointed in his direction, though Ozzy could tell the camera was hidden and tucked away.
Robert appeared in all white, which was the usual high official Ministry attire. He donned a white hat with an MM logo that meant Mars Ministry.
“Mr. Wildly,” Robert said, forcing a smile. “We need Lyra No Tail, Jonas Moon, Pluto Beef, Shifty Eyes, and the other syndicates that are forming an alliance to be eliminated.” Robert glanced toward the camera but not directly at it. It was obvious that the High Judge didn’t know he was being filmed.
The camera jostled. “Consider it done. Now, I need some good vibes, Mr. Wears-Too-Much-White.”
That was definitely Wildly. The guy was a Marshole to everybody.
Wildly continued, “I need to be sure that Bill MM237-3 and 237-4 are being pushed through. You know, the vaccine program?”
Robert leaned back, a sinister twinkle in his eyes. “Of course.” He slid a paper across the table.
Wildly grabbed it and put it directly in front of the camera while he read. “The Martian Plague Vaccine will be administered en masse with and without consent. The Mars Ministry desires to rid the Martian Plague from the human race for long-standing.”
The paper went on and on, but Wildly put it down before Ozzy or Lyra could read the rest.
“Sounds reasonable,” said Lyra. “But why is this being filmed undercover?”
“I think Wildly is setting the High Judge up, but the question is why?”
Lyra stood taller. “He’s going to expose Robert. But with a vaccine program?”
Ozzy lifted his finger, shushing Lyra.
“…and you’re creating this vaccine campaign to lower the population. Is that correct, my good General?”
Robert gave Wildly an odd stare. “You know the plan. Are you questioning it a week before I implement this into law?”
“I don’t want any of my men to be given the fake vaccine. It’s poison, designed to kill,” Wildly said. “I need to be reminded, in good measure, why you’ve created this toxin.”
“You know why.”
“I suppose. From what I know, the toxin was created to lower the population for better government control but unbeknownst to the people.” The camera moved up and down, and Wildly’s arm blocked its view for a moment. “Each citizen is required to pay for this vaccine, and the majority of the vaccines are laced with poison and are deadly. You and I are getting a handsome amount from each vaccine purchased.” Wildly let out a chuckle. “I love auric credits. Don’t you, Robert?”
Robert flashed a quick smile, neither nodding nor shaking his head. “What are you doing, Wildly? You’re acting strangely, and quite frankly, it’s not making me feel very good about our agreement.”
The camera turned off.
Lyra gave Ozzy an ominous stare. “Tell Jonas I’m ready to move in to his bunker at Tagus Valles. My men and women will join me. I mean, look what the MMP and Wildly did to my place?” She moaned. “Cleaning this up would be exhausting.”
Didn’t she just witness the video? No shock? No nothing?
She saw Ozzy’s look. She splayed her fingers over her chest. “Do you think I’d be surprised by a crime lord’s backstabbing of a government official?” She shook her finger in front of him like he was a naughty schoolboy. “Us crime syndicates are here to help society while we take from the Ministry and protect Mars from the Dunrakee, which the Ministry doesn’t seem capable of doing. Mort Wildly is doing what a good crime boss does, which is screw over the High Judge to make life better for himself.” She held up the holopad. “He probably didn’t want to lose this, though. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to blackmail Robert.”
She handed the holopad to Ozzy.
Ozzy put his hands up and backed away. “I don’t want it.”
“Then I’ll smash it on the floor.”
Ozzy reluctantly grabbed it.
“And Ozzy,” said Lyra. “Tell Jonas I will arrive soon.”
Ozzy didn’t know about the part of the plan where she’d move into Jonas’s compound and, most likely, Jonas didn’t either. But he’d use it to his advantage. “In order for you to move into Jonas’s compound, I have to borrow your Eagle.” Nothing like using new information against someone. “Or the deal is off between you and Jonas.”
“Why would you need an Eagle?” She wiggled her nose and giggled.
“We need a big enough craft to get me from Mars to Earth to retrieve a rather important artifact.”
She paused and blinked her eyes several times. “Hmm, you’re not bluffing. Okay, I’ll bite, baby. What artifact?”
“I wasn’t told that you’d question me.” He put his hands together and said, “Thank you for your courtesy and for not killing me during the crossfire. I’ll let Jonas know the deal is off.” He turned to leave.
Her large paw curled around his shoulder, and her sharp claws tore through his jumpsuit and dug into his skin. “Not so fast.”
Ozzy winced and did his best not to yelp. He gingerly pulled her paw away. “Don’t do that again.”
“Don’t treat me like a second-class citizen again. Do you understand?” Her paw landed on her sidearm.
“Do we have a deal?”
“Will Jonas let me stay in his bunker?”
Was this twenty questions? “He will.”
“Then you have yourself an Eagle. I’ll get it ready for you and drop it off at a specified location that I’ll give you in a few days time.” She cleared her throat. “But under one condition.”
“Here we go,” he whispered. “Alright, what is the condition?”
“We know Wildly wants to expose Robert Baldwin. Or maybe he just wants to use the holopad’s video as leverage, you know, to get what he wants from the High Judge. But, the rest of us in the crime syndicates want the High Judge dead. He’s a menace to Mars and will accidentally hand over this planet to any Dunrakee terrorist group because he doesn’t know what he is doing.” The fur around her lips moved upward. “And, Ozzy, rumor has it that you are involved with an elite group called the Galactic Knights.”
“Yeah.”
“This is the condition: you must convince them to kill Robert Baldwin or no Eagle for you.”
25
Heading Toward Olympus Mons, Mars
“I cannot give those orders,” Gragas said.
They were sta
nding inside the cockpit of Relic and heading toward Olympus Mons.
Jozi lounged in the copilot’s chair, and Quad was still trapped between the forks in the storage bay.
“Ozzy,” said Jozi. “You’re going against the Galactic Knights’ code. Gragas can’t do that even if he wanted to.”
“Believe me, I want to. It’d be a quick end to a tyrannous High Judge. At least, for the time being. It’s not our code, however,” Gragas said, an edge to his voice. “I’m living by the code of the galaxy. I am not allowed to positively or negatively impact a races’ development unless that race is purposely destroying other races or being destroyed by other races. Killing a high official would change the outcome of what could have happened if your race was left to their own devices. You can kill your High Judge, but I cannot.”
“Damn. How am I going to get that Eagle, then?” Ozzy said, steering the craft higher into the atmosphere.
Jozi looked ahead through the cockpit window. “It’s smarter to stay on Mars. Or, I should say, safer. Going to Earth will kill you.”
Ozzy didn’t want to argue. He knew probably better than her what the outcome would be. He glanced at the device sitting on his thighs.
“Why do you have this holopad?” asked Jozi.
“No reason.”
“Yeah, right.”
A beep echoed, and Ozzy glanced at the radar, gritting his teeth. “Indigo isn’t doing its job, or I have a beacon on board. We have four S-9 Mars Ministry Police ships on our ass.”
“It’s not Indigo,” Gragas said. “My guess is—”
Relic rocked from side to side, and Ozzy gripped the armrests tightly as his straps tightened and constrained his movements. “We’ve been hit.”
Relic didn’t have weapons other than the rifles and guns on the rack in the storage bay.
“Gragas?” The craft shook violently, taking a second hit. Ozzy grasped his control stick, keeping Relic on course to his new home—Olympus Mons. “Is it against your galactic code to go through the hole in the storage bay ceiling and shoot the MMP ships down?”
Gragas heaved a big breath. “It isn’t against the code for the fact that I’m on your ship. I have the right to protect myself for any cause, and because I’m inside your ship, it means I’m being shot at as well. I’ll get Quad to help me.” He left the cockpit.
Ozzy reached out, trying to stop Gragas from getting Quad anywhere near another weapon. “No, Gragas. What are you doing?”
Gragas’s boots clanked on the metallic floor in the lower deck. He was already in the storage bay.
“He knows what he’s doing. If he thinks Quad will help, then I back Gragas one hundred percent,” said Jozi.
“You better be right.” Ozzy veered Relic into a long turn. The ship shook again. “Damn the MMP,” he shouted and flicked on his helmet mic. “Gragas, you on the roof yet?”
“I’m backing up the forklift to release Quad. We’ll be up there soon enough.”
“You know what you’re doing with Quad?”
“He owes you one, Ozzy.”
“The MMP ships are getting awfully close,” warned Jozi. “My boots are magnetic. I’ll go on the roof to help.”
Ozzy held up his thumb. “Be careful.”
She stood and patted his arm. “You too.”
Ozzy flicked on the cameras and split the holoscreen, decreasing the roof cam to half its size and moving it to the top left corner.
He saw Jozi climbing onto the roof first, holding a rifle in her hand. She walked cautiously toward the back of Relic, heading toward its stern boosters.
Quad was next and holding a double-barreled photon gun, and Gragas shimmied up, holding his rifle by his side.
A beam shot past Jozi and slammed into Quad. Electricity spun around his armor like live wires sparking and moving uncontrollably then faded away. He stiffened for an instant but trekked onward.
He reached out, grabbed Jozi and lifted her.
“What’s he doing?” Ozzy said.
Jozi flailed her arms, pushing her hands against Quad’s face. Ozzy stood up about to run out of the cockpit.
Quad set her down behind him, and a blast zipped into his armor a second time. He went rigid, shook, and then dusted himself off.
Ozzy let out the breath he had been holding. Quad was using himself as a shield. Perhaps he wasn’t a prick after all.
“Get into position, guys,” Ozzy ordered. “They’re coming in fast.”
They all dropped to their stomachs and readied their weapons.
“Got one in my sights,” Jozi said. “And…”
A blue beam expelled from her muzzle.
It missed.
“What happened to your crackshot?” Ozzy said, pulling back on his control stick and pushing the ship toward the upper atmosphere.
“I’ve missed before, but never twice,” she said.
The flight console buzzed, and a red light highlighted the cockpit.
Shit.
The MMP ships were gaining on him.
“I need more speed,” Ozzy yelled. “Grab a roof hold and hang on.”
He pushed his control stick forward, sending them into a dive. He eyed the upper left portion of his screen, watching how his friends and Quad, were fairing.
Their gloved hands were grasping the thick and rounded handholds that topped the roof.
“Can’t hold on much longer, Ozzy,” cried Jozi.
Ozzy continued his dive, watching the red terrain below rising closer and closer. He pulled back on the control stick, bringing Relic parallel to the ground, and checked his speed.
He was going fast.
Real fast.
He glanced at his radar. The MMP ships were farther from him now. That wouldn’t be for long.
Hills were coming into view, followed by a gorge. He’d fly through the canyons to make himself less of a target.
The craft jostled up and down, and a bang reverberated against the walls.
Another loud beep engulfed his cockpit. “What the…”
Two more ships appeared on the radar. He glanced at his rear cam and nearly choked when he saw photon cannon blasts streaming toward him.
He heard Jozi scream, and he moved his eyes to the roof cam view.
Jozi flipped backward, and a stream of blaster fire sizzled a portion of her suit. She tumbled and her boots magnetized at every roll but didn’t keep her secured in one place.
She disappeared from the camera view, but Ozzy saw Gragas running in her direction.
Ozzy’s heart skipped a beat while a knot formed in his throat. “Oh my Mars.” He switched to stern cams and stood. “Jozi, hold on.”
She was hanging from a handhold, her legs flailing over the side of the ship.
“I can’t,” she yelled. “I’m losing my grip.”
Gragas reached for Jozi and swiped but caught nothing but air.
Jozi screamed and lost her grip. She fell away from Relic.
“No,” yelled Gragas, losing his balance and stumbling forward. He slid off the roof, falling toward the sand below.
“Shit,” Ozzy yelled. “This can’t be happening.”
A loud beep blared in the cockpit alerting him the MMP craft were right on his tail. He smacked the back of his helmet, panicking. He flicked the autopilot switch on and turned to run to the storage bay and climb out to the roof.
Something out of the corner of his eye on the stern cam caught his attention.
Quad was standing as close to the rear boosters as one could be without burning up. He was taking multiple hits and returning blow after blow.
His shots sunk into the nearest MMP ship, expanding outward into a blue energy cloud a few meters in front of the MMP craft and fading to nothing a second later.
Their shields were absorbing Quad’s weapons fire.
Quad jostled his rifle and aimed. Nothing happened. He shook it again and then targeted the craft in front of him, but still, nothing. He cocked the rifle to the side and checked the magazine c
harge. He grasped it to pull the magazine out, yet even with Quad’s strength, it wouldn’t budge. He brought his knee up and slammed the rifle down on it, breaking the weapon in two.
He threw his double-barreled gun in the air and jumped toward the craft. Fire expelled from Quad’s boots.
Krackow!
Relic shook violently from another hit.
Ozzy fell against the copilot’s chair and landed on his back. The craft bounced up and down, slamming Ozzy along the cockpit’s side wall, cracking his helmet against it.
The cockpit beeped.
Ozzy pulled himself up by the chair’s armrests and rested on his knees. Out of the window, Ozzy could see that Relic was heading into a death dive, falling toward the rocky terrain at an alarming rate.
He scrambled to his seat and grabbed the control stick and pulled back.
Relic didn’t move.
He looked at the altimeter and nearly choked—three hundred twenty-two meters.
He pulled back again.
Nothing.
“Don’t do this to me, Buddy.”
He pulled back a third time.
Relic didn’t budge.
“You’re doing this to me.”
Ozzy leaped out of his seat knowing that if he stayed much longer in his cockpit, with him inside, he would be a goner when the craft crashed into the ever-approaching ground. He ran to the ladder that led down to the lower deck storage bay. When he reached the ladder, he jumped.
The ship dipped and a terrible sound rattled across the entire craft.
Ozzy fell toward the floor.
Krackajjjj!
The storage bay contents lifted into the air, sending the forklift and crates flying in Ozzy’s direction.
26
Heading Toward Olympus Mons, Mars
He lowered his shoulder and puffed out his cheeks, waiting for the impact.
A crate smashed into the upper part of his body, and his head whipped back. Wood splintered in every direction. He twirled in the air, losing all sense of direction.
Shooting, sharp pains traveled through every muscle as his body tensed and smashed to the floor. “Oomph!” Ozzy twisted around quickly, staring at the ceiling.
Martian Insurrection (Mars Colony Chronicles Book 3) Page 11