"If I can do it in four days, would you chip in another ten?"
"Hell yeah. Do it in four I'll drop another twenty thousand on you."
"I need to be on this now," the fellow said, "excuse me," and he left almost running.
"Gordon?" Thor said on com. "I think you better tell the crew they are subject to recall in four days. No promises, but that is the best estimate if everything goes right."
"Good work. Get everybody you can down here in two days and we'll have a service for the crew we lost. I'm staying on the beach so we'll do it luau style with a open bar. Two days should be enough for most to recover to a functional level from it."
* * *
The taxi took them through a much nicer area of Armstrong than she had seen before. They passed what functioned locally as a park, pedestrian entries to upscale malls and private vehicle gates to residential areas. When they turned on embassy row there were flags out front. The British embassy she could tell by the guards out front and a pair of Hinth guards in armor with strange weapons were a wonder at the next door.
"The Swiss are right around the corner," Jesus told Lee. The taxi turned and another vehicle swerved across the street and rammed them with a jolt, pushing them into the façade of the Polish Embassy. The windows on the side against the other vehicle starred with impacts. Those were not frangible rounds.
Jesus and Diana pulled both of them on the floor before the next set of shots hit. Now a new round of impacts blew the glass out. Lee saw Diana reach up and drape the horn of her weapon over the open window edge. She stayed down but swept it back and forth holding the trigger down. The noise was past her hearing range but pressed on her ears painfully. Her teeth ached and she could feel her organs inside jiggling. Outside the noise shattered the glass in the other vehicle. It also broke the globes on the street lamps and raised a din as every part and piece touched by the beam tried to tear itself apart.
When she let up there was a man screaming she hadn't been able to hear before. Jesus raised up and blasted away with a shotgun. The first round cut off the screaming and he fired three more in quick succession.
"That settled the near ones but there is another pulling in behind this one. Lee, crawl around the corner and seek shelter with whoever will let you in. We'll hold them," Diana promised.
Lee grabbed Clare's belt and half dragged, half propelled her along the sidewalk to the corner. She stood and ran for the Hinth embassy. The guards were watching the corner intently, but hadn't left their post to investigate.
She spread her fingers and looked at the guard through them. "We seek shelter. Our guards were ambushed before we could get to the Swiss embassy. There are assassins seeking to harm us. Let us in."
"What does that have to do with us little human? It is none of our affair what those unnamed to the Hinth do with each other."
"I am not unnamed to the Hinth," she said angrily. "I am Lee Anderson and I talk to the explorer Ha-bob-bob-brie face to face unveiled, like this," she said dropping her hand. "We drank and mourned lost kin and shipmates together on Derfhome station and he was one hell of a lot more the gentleman than you and this other feathered bastard," she yelled at him. He actually took a step back shocked. There was a new flurry of gun fire around the corner.
"Step into the alcove little one. Perhaps there is something owed," He was talking rapidly into a com mic. Suddenly his eyes got even bigger. "Take them inside," he told the other. "I shall give aid to her bodyguards." He rushed out strange rifle at the ready.
"Follow," his companion said and turned inside. They immediately had to press against the wall, as six Hinth in battle gear ran out. The last four carried a big weapon with a horn, that looked like Diana's but it took all four to carry it. The door slammed shut behind them.
They followed the guard down the hall and he opened a door. "You will be safe here," he said waving them in, "The six go to guard the entry. The room is furnished for humans to sit, there is com and somebody will see to your comfort and bring news."
The sound of gunfire out front reached faintly down the hall. She turned to tell the Hinth they were set, but he was gone and the door closed.
* * *
Earl stood still in the tree line and looked up and down the creek carefully. It vanished into the woods to his left, small enough the trees formed a canopy over it. To his right it widened and crossed a beach into Lake Superior. It appeared clear. There was no human color or movement, or untoward sound or scent of insect repellant, or cigarette smoke or soap. He waded into the clear water almost knee deep and started filling two plastic jugs. It looked clean but they would need to boil it to be safe. When he turned around there was a young woman standing between him and the trees. She had on a camo jumpsuit with com gear on her ears and a brace of pistols worn cross draw.
"Mr. Hanson, I compliment you. You are a very difficult man to find when you put your mind to disappearing."
"So, how did I mess up?" he asked.
"I have your pictures and somebody at the park store remembered your face. It was old fashioned detective work, interviewing enough people, asking the right questions. Most people think you left the state and are holed up with friends or relatives somewhere. Nobody believed you could be hiding out in the woods with two kids."
Earl raised an eyebrow surprised. "The kids love it. They's be happy if we stayed out here all summer. They are fishing and doing stuff they used to beg to go do a few days a year. I used to camp here as a boy. There is an escarpment back in the woods. The trees grow right up against the face and there is a shelter like a shallow cave open to the east that hides you from the sky. You have water here and if you walk to the store they assume you are from the state campground, so strangers don't cause any surprise. I still can't believe I walked past you and didn't see you or hear you," he said chagrined.
"I know the woods and how to be still too. And this helps a bit," She touched by her collar and the camo disappeared and the jumpsuit became one with the woods. She walked around a boulder and approuched. The edges blurred a bit in motion, but she was like a face and hands floating in the air.
"Damn, that is downright creepy. So are we under arrest?"
"Arrest?" she asked shocked. "I'm sorry, I was so thrilled at finding you, I lost sight of how it looks from your perspective. I'm an employee of Michigan Associates, a security firm contracted to your foster daughter, not law enforcement. They are still looking for you, but in all the wrong places. We are instructed to offer any help we may extend. Anything from handing you some cash, to arranging your removal to a different country or even a different world. Miss Anderson has lands off world and considerable resources at your disposal. We can give you whatever support you wish, see you safe, but not snatch you and impose a solution."
"Well!" he said with a big grin, letting that word encompass everything, "why don't you follow me? We can sit and have a cup of coffee and discuss our options," he allowed.
* * *
"Gordon, there is a fellow here asking to speak with you," Thor said from the Retribution. "He asked for you by your full legal name, so I was impressed enough to call you. Human, male, middle aged, fairly small, soft little hands, not visibly armed. I don't think he is an assassin," Thor judged. "He doesn't move like a fighter. If I had to guess I would say some sort of professor. Well yes I could just ask him that, hang on."
"Are you a lawyer?" Thor inquired.
"No sir, I am a design engineer of several kinds and a college professor as you correctly guessed. How did you know?"
"Who else wears a tweed jacket with elbow patches, tennis shoes and a bow tie?" Thor asked. "Good thing you aren't a lawyer. He said to shoot you dead and hide the body if you were a lawyer."
"Very funny," the fellow said, smiling.
"Yeah, so funny he phrased it as a direct order. Since I don't have to kill you, he'd like to know the purpose of your visit."
"I wish to sell him a weapons system for your destroyer. I'm having a tough time breaking
into the market and would like to sell it to him at a substantial discount to get a demo copy in service for promotional purposes. I feel you are also much more likely to actually use it given you are at war. You can't buy that sort of advertising at any price."
"Yeah. Yeah? OK." Thor put the headset down he had cupped to one ear. "He says he has his butt firmly planted in a lounge, under a pleasant cabana and drinking pineapple juice with rum, watching the kids play in the breakers. If you want to talk to him I am instructed to run you down in the ship's shuttle and he will hold a chaise lounge open for you next to him for a limited time. Interested?"
"Indeed, that is entirely acceptable," the little fellow said. "I'll pick up a bottle of good Fargone rum along the way, in case he is running low. Fargone rum rivals anything Earth makes."
"Better pick up two," Thor advised. "Your customer is a seven-hundred kilo carnivore, with a raging metabolism. He knocks the stuff back in frightening quantities."
* * *
"Where in the hell did you get a Hawaiian shirt?" Gordon asked, staring at it fascinated.
"I collect antique Aloha shirts," he revealed. He had on Bermudas and some odd sandals.
"Are those…?"
"Yes, they are genuine Birkenstocks," he said, pleased to have them noticed. "And these are two bottles of Fargone rum, labeled in our usual unsubtle manner as Poison Pirate's Piss. I thought that hugely appropriate for you. If I can get some ice, it is entirely too fine to corrupt with mix."
Gordon gave one of the cabana boys a little wave. "We're privateers," he corrected again. "I hear you have something to sell us?"
* * *
Jesus and Diana fired on the attackers from inside the ruined cab and the driver and his assistant fired around the outside of the vehicle, but having the mass of three wrecked cabs between them rendered the fire ineffective from both sides. It was a stalemate.
Then the Hinth showed up.
"Retreat to our door gentle beings," the huge bird like alien urged them. "We have a team on the door and help on the way." The Hinth climbed in the cab with Jesus and Diana and shouldered his weapon. When one of the attackers popped up to take a shot at the Hinth, the alien pivoted like an industrial robot with blurred speed. His weapon gave a deep hum and the human exploded in a ball of red mist. "Yesss," he hissed to himself, "let's play peek-a-boo slow ones."
Diana and Jesus took his invitation quickly. Outside they yelled to the other two agents to follow their retreat. They did a quick crawl to the corner and Jesus took a position with his shotgun braced on the corner until the other three passed him.
"Join your friends, please" a voice said overhead. He looked up and back. Two of the aliens were pressed to the wall right behind him. "We will recall the one in the auto," they said.
Jesus jogged towards the door until he heard a warbled cry from the two at the corner. The fellow in the car retreated around the corner with a clatter of claws on pavement. There was a fusillade of shots and the alien jerked with one arm pierced before he reached shelter. Jesus squatted against the wall, weapon ready to cover him.
"Come!" he urged as he ran past.
Jesus looked back at the corner. A pair of human hands holding a stubby machine gun projected beyond the corner in an attempt to spray around the corner without exposing himself. The one Hinth was waiting, with what looked like a extra-long Katana held overhead in both hands and sliced through both wrists. The scream had not even died out before the other Hinth reached low past the sword wielder and tossed a grenade around the corner.
When both Hinth turned and ran Jesus did too. The grenade went off when they were half way to the door with a muted thud. They still almost beat him to the door. The fancy ledges, planters and false columns on the front of the embassy provided all sorts of cover to dive behind. Jesus dove for the ground and slid behind a Greek column. The one Hinth and his driver both appeared to be wounded and were back closest to the door. The Hinth had a big tube laid across a concrete planter aimed at the corner.
When three men in full combat rigs came around the corner Jesus expected them to shoot. The men were spraying suppressive fire and sprinting for the door. Jesus pulled back, completely behind the pillar as bullets pocked the facade. It was only fifty meters or a bit more to the corner. The Hinth behind the planter was sprawled full length on the ground, completely hidden. Jesus was about ready to scream at him to shoot the damn thing. One of the others must have finally given him a sign and he triggered the weapon.
Jesus wanted to scream but the air was too thick. He opened his mouth to try and that was a mistake. The pressure blasted behind his cheekbones, bloated his face and blurred his vision. The bones in his ears beat an unholy rhythm against each other, until he had no clue which way was up or down. When it finally ended he found he had pissed himself. He just laid there, joints hurting, panting and listening to his ears ring. And he was behind the weapon.
"I was cheated. They call this useless pile of crap a sonic cannon," Diana said, throwing her belled weapon on the ground in disgust. "I might as well have used a boat horn. Now that, that is a sonic cannon," she said admiring the Hinth weapon. Her voice sounded like it was down a long pipe to his tortured ears. The only thing making him feel better was the Hinth didn't seem in much better shape than humans. One was holding his head slowly rocking back and forth, another had made a mess and was trying to scrape it off his armor.
One tough Hinth was vertical already. "Come, can one of you assist me to identify these humans?"
Jesus looked at Diana hopeful, but she waved him on. He got up painfully and stood without any support, but none too steady. "Don't you think that was a bit of overkill?" he asked the Hinth.
"We never used it before," he said cocking his head over sharply. What did that mean in a Hinth? "There really was no place to test it. Next time we may cut the power back a bit. That was full power," he confided like it was a big revelation.
They staggered down to the three who were only four meters from the horn when it sounded. A human with sonically shattered bones was really ugly. They were more or less melted looking. They spread out flat like a bladder. Jesus cut the pocket of one laying face down and retrieved his wallet. There were two more down by the corner. The Hinth knew what they were doing holding fire until they caught them all.
The lanky Hinth hung over his shoulder as he opened the wallet. It was a badge carrier and had agency ID. "I don't read English very well. What is ONI?"
Chapter 46
"I am Happenstance Jones Cohen," the little fellow said and set down his drink long enough to retrieve a business card for Gordon.
Gordon figured the man had likely heard every variation of opinion on the odd names Fargoers favored and decided it didn't really matter to him if there was a reason his parents chose that particular word.
"The system I designed is a projectile weapon. Physically it is a hundred millimeter tube about seven meters long with a lining of electronics and a power accumulator that has to be in somewhat close proximity to the tube. If you are able to spare the output of one reactor on a vessel for long periods it can charge itself off existing sources. If you need near peak output on a regular basis you'd need an extra reactor and to adjust your fuel supply and consumption appropriately."
"Why is it such a power hog?" Gordon asked.
"Well the projectile is accelerated to a significant fraction of C. So it takes that much energy because of the basic physics involved."
"Define 'significant fraction'."
"The smallest projectile it will shoot is about the size of a grain of rice. It masses fifty milligrams, but it has a velocity of thirty percent of C. Larger projectiles are slower, limited by the accumulators and the length of the tube. But they carry the same energy of course. It throws a pellet of frozen gas the opposite direction to limit recoil, then evaporates it."
"What is the advantage?"
"It fills the gap between missiles and beam weapons. It can be aimed very precisely, so you can e
ngage a target out well into the missile envelope. It can be evaded of course, but to do so they must know you are firing at them and no current radars or defensive systems can detect or intercept this small and fast a projectile. Most of it is external too - easily installed. Future systems can be modified to shoot smaller faster projectiles, or larger slower ones depending upon what our service experience with this first system dictates."
"How does it work?" Gordon asked.
"How much physics do you know?" Happenstance asked with a smile.
"OK, not enough I'm sure," Gordon admitted. "How much does it cost?"
"Fifteen million dollars Ceres, or two-hundred-ten ounces Au and the battle plot of any actual use you make of the weapon for advertising purposes. I intend to send the gross description to Jane's, but I won't do that until its use is firmly public.
"That's cheaper than an X-head missile."
"Indeed it is and the next customer will pay more. But I'm writing off some of the components, that were paid for with a Fargone grant. I've approached several governments with this system, but the general peace that has been holding with the success of the Claims Commission treaties has been very bad for investing in advanced weapons systems. It has quite dampened the usual research and procurement cycle."
"Not everybody would see that as a bad thing," Gordon reminded him.
"Yes, yes I can understand that to a degree," Happenstance said, nodding his head. "But if we do eventually meet a very aggressive advanced race out there, with whom no compromise is possible, we shall be happy for any advances we can make in weapons."
"And Derf don't count for evil alien monsters?"
"Oh please, you are allies with who some humans had a temporary falling out. I'm talking about the sort of conflict that would have left Derfhome and Earth both uninhabitable by now. If you wished, North America could be wiped clean clear down to the bed rock. Tell me I'm wrong," he invited.
"True. The means exists. We want a certain result, not just to kill and destroy."
"If they had not snatched your daughter and reneged on their treaty, you would have never been roused to make war would you? And you aren't against humans per se. You have human crew! If the Hinth had done the same, you'd be bringing the wrath of the gods down on their heads, wouldn't you?"
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