by James Wisher
Oliver hated the gray stone building. He could trace most of his troubles to this place. Still, it would serve him now and that’s what mattered. They entered the building and took a lift to Adam’s office.
They stopped outside the door. “Do you need anything right now, sir?” The woman asked.
“No, just make sure I’m not interrupted.” They entered Adam’s office. The moment the door closed Adam went to his desk and started making calls.
Celine sat in one the chairs beside the desk and took out her data slate. In a few seconds she had a grid on the screen, each square representing a camera covering one of the approaches to the office. Smart girl, Oliver doubted Voidwalker had any assets on Mars, but better safe than sorry.
“It’s no good, sir. I’ve tried everyone I can think to call.” After three fruitless hours Adam through his hands up in frustration. “They either don’t answer or they give me the run around.”
Oliver frowned. Something was wrong, Adam ranked high enough that someone in Earth Force should have been willing to talk with him about his concerns, unless his old body had warned then against dealing with his associates.
“Grandfather, we’ve got company.”
Oliver went over to Celine in time to see a heavily armed strike team enter the lift. They didn’t have long. “Adam when you wake up tell them we forced you to help at blaster point. You’re going to be my inside man. If you learn anything send it on my private comm channel.”
Oliver flipped the selector switch on his blaster to stun and shot Adam who slumped to the floor behind his desk. He reached under the lip and felt around for the catch.
“They’ll be here in less than a minute,” Celine tucked her slate away and stood.
The catch clicked into place and a three foot circle dilated open in the floor. “Everybody in, quick.”
One after the other they leapt down the emergency escape hatch. Oliver slid down the smooth metal tube. For a second he felt like a kid at a playground. Then he thought of the men trying to kill him, spoiling the illusion.
A few seconds later they slid to a stop in a small, dark chamber. Something clicked, then movement, and the door opened. Oliver blinked in the light until his eye adjusted. He stepped out into a clearing surrounded by thick trees. They must be in the park across from headquarters. Oliver looked back in time to see a lift car slide back into the ground. When it was all the way down a hologram covered it with an illusion of grass.
“How did you know about that escape hatch?” Celine asked.
Before he could answer the world went black.
***
Oliver groaned and sat up. He was in a cage situated in the basement of a building. The others laid on the floor of the cell still unconscious. He went to Celine and shook her until her eyes fluttered open. He moved on to Max then the remaining guard. Everyone sat up and tried to get their bearings when the sound of footsteps on the concrete floor caught his attention.
A fit older man with white hair and dressed in a charcoal gray suit, a lit cigarette dangling from his lip, walked toward the cage carrying an antique wooden chair. He set the chair down, sat facing them, and took a deep drag on the cigarette.
“So.” The moment Oliver heard the Russian accent he knew who sat before him, Vlad Valcore. “Who are you and why does Earth Force want you dead?”
“You have to let us out.”
Vlad shook his head. “No, you have to answer my questions. If I like your answers maybe I’ll let you go. Maybe I’ll sell you to whoever offers me the most credits. Maybe I’ll kill you. Now, who are you?”
“My name is Oliver MacDonald—”
Vlad’s harsh laughter cut him off in mid-sentence. He pulled a blaster out of a holster under his suit coat and pointed it at Celine. “You I recognize. Councilor Solace, or is it former councilor? You will tell me what’s going on or someone will die.”
Celine raised her hands. “Please, I’ll tell you, but you must understand it will be hard for you to accept.”
Vlad put up his blaster and blew a smoke ring. “Try me.”
Celine laid it all out and Vlad listened without interrupting. When she finished he shook his head. “You were right, I do find it hard to accept. However, since only a lunatic would make up such an unlikely story I’m inclined to believe you. The question becomes what should I do with you. I doubt these monsters you’ve bargained with would be inclined to pay me. Perhaps I should just shoot you and move on.”
Oliver stepped over beside Celine. “We can’t let the Void have Earth. They’ll destroy everything, transform the people into an army billions strong. We need to strike now, before they grow too entrenched.”
“You say we, but you have no allies. Earth Force believes you’re a murder and hunts for you even as we speak. Surely the five of you don’t think you can defeat this threat on your own.”
“No.” Oliver hated to admit it but the gangster had a point. No one in Earth Force would help them. “We need to contact the Galactic Council. I don’t who else could help us.”
Vlad sat in his chair, lost in thought. Oliver wondered what Vlad would do. He slumped down to the floor. It was out of his hands now.
A young man came running toward Vlad carrying a data slate. “Boss, you gotta see this.”
***
Puppet Oliver glided along beside his three bodyguards, a metal briefcase on his lap. They traveled through the sterile, chrome and glass Earth Force building toward the president’s office. Oliver had a meeting scheduled with the president before they met with the commanders of Earth’s military.
A pair of soldiers stood outside a door engraved with the Earth Force shield. They held up their hands and Oliver stopped. “Security protocol, sir, just you inside.”
“Of course,” Oliver said. “You three wait here.”
His bodyguards moved to stand across from the door. They clasped their hands behind their back and stared straight ahead.
One of the soldiers pressed the intercom. “Director MacDonald to see you, sir.”
A buzzer sounded and the doors slid open. Puppet Oliver glided through and the doors slid shut behind him. President Surinyac rose from behind his desk and came to stand in front of Oliver.
“Sorry about the security. Since you were attacked my people are a little paranoid.”
Oliver waved his hand. “You can’t be too careful. Did everyone arrive safe?”
“Yes, Admiral Sheridan got here only a few minutes ago. The meeting starts in an hour. Do you want to head over now?”
“One moment.” Oliver held out his hand to the president. “I don’t know if I’ve ever told you, but you’ve done an excellent job, Pierre.”
The president smiled and grasped Oliver’s hand. The moment he did a massive electric jolt ran through him and he collapsed. Oliver pressed a button on his hoverchair to alert his bodyguards the mission had begun. He glided over to the president’s desk, found the buzzer, and pressed it. The doors slid open the soldiers stuck their heads in Their eyes widened when they spotted the president collapsed on the floor. They rushed in to check on him. Oliver’s guards came up behind the solders. In one smooth motion they grabbed the soldiers’ heads and snapped their necks.
Oliver tapped the button again and the doors slid shut. He opened his briefcase and removed a miniature version of the mind transfer device. One of the guards rubbed his face until pieces of skin and polymer flaked off. In a minute the president’s clone removed his mask. The clone lay down beside the original. Oliver handed the device to one of the guards who place the headbands around first the original then the clone. When he’d snugged them down he activated the transfer sequence. The small device took twice as long as the one back in the lab, but they had an hour to kill anyway.
Thirty-seven minutes later the timer beeped. The guard removed the device and put it back in the briefcase. The clone sat up and smiled. “Do we need to get going, Oliver?”
Oliver took a pair of vials out of the case and hande
d one to the clone who slipped it into a pocket. The second guard drew a disruptor and disintegrated the bodies. Unless someone did a micro scan on the room they never figure out what happened.
The four of them left the office and headed towards the conference room. It only took a couple minutes to walk the short distance. Another pair of guards stood on either side of a door identical to the one leading to the president’s office. The two young men snapped to attention and saluted. Oliver’s guards stopped a short distance away while the two imposters continued through the steel doors.
Inside the conference they found a dozen of the most powerful men in the government seated around an oblong wooden table inlaid with the Earth Force shield. They all started to stand, but the clone president waved them back to their chairs.
“Is everyone here?” The clone Pierre asked.
“Yes, Mr. President,” Admiral Mull said. “We were only waiting for you and the director.”
“Excellent.” The clone turned to Oliver. “Shall we begin?”
“Absolutely, sir.” Puppet Oliver took the vial out of his pocket and smashed it, releasing a haze of nanovivus. The clone repeated the procedure with his vial and soon the room filled with the haze of death.
Generals and Admirals staggered around clawing at their throats, coughing, and dying in the most horrific manner. Voidwalker observed with no more emotion than the computer controlling the puppet. When the final human collapsed to the floor Oliver pressed a button on his hoverchair that released a neutralizing agent in the air and as fast as it appeared the haze vanished.
Oliver turned to the clone. “I believe you have an announcement to make.”
The clone took a data chip containing the text of a speech written for him out of his pocket and nodded. The two imposters left the conference room. The clone headed to the media room where he’d announce a horrible terrorist attack. Oliver turned the opposite way, his guards a step behind. They retraced their steps to the entry hall and went to a lift few people had access to.
They rode the lift down to the lowest level. The entire bottom floor of the building housed a single occupant, a massive supercomputer and hyperspace relay that connected every Earth Force ship in the galaxy to a closed network allowing instant communication and precise control during combat. The government network didn’t have any connections to the public hypernet so hackers couldn’t access it.
Oliver glided down a long hall that ended in the computer room. A wide, deep moat surrounded the sealed room housing the computer. He crossed the bridge leading to the access door. When he stopped a pair of heavy laser cannons locked on to him. He reached up and placed his thumb on the control panel. The computer compared his DNA to those with access to the computer. A few seconds later the cannons retracted and the door slid open. Oliver glided through. The instant he cleared the door it snapped shut behind him.
He glided past racks of processors and cooling equipment, his near dead body untroubled by the almost freezing temperature of the computer room. At the center of the room the primary access terminal waited. Oliver stopped in front of the keyboard and typed in a command. The data port slid open and Oliver plugged the data chip Voidwalker’s agent had provided. The port closed and the computer read the chip. A message appeared on the screen requesting approval to run the program on the chip. Puppet Oliver granted approval and far to the south Voidwalker allowed himself a small smile.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The alarm rang, signaling their imminent return to real space. Everyone gathered in the cockpit. Marcus couldn’t stop thinking about the information on Iaka’s chip. That an organization as sprawling and dangerous and the Children of the Void existed and he knew nothing about it stunned him. That no government had done anything about them seemed impossible.
The star shuddered when they returned to real space. Several hundred thousand miles distant streams of light appeared around the council’s asteroid. Marcus flipped on the cloaking device. He knew laser fire when he saw it. The council was under attack.
Iaka leaned over his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing good. Solomon, see if you can get Dra’Kor on the comm.”
While his friend worked Marcus flew them closer to the asteroid. He fiddled with the scanners and they zoomed in on the battle. Three burned out hulks drifted near the asteroid while a pair of huge, black warships pounded it with laser fire. Most of the attacks bounced off their shield, but a few got threw and chipped boulders of the massive asteroid. Weird, no counter attacks came from the council’s cannons.
“I recognize those ships,” Iaka said. “They look like giant versions of the fighter piloted by the Void assassin.”
“Great, the Void again.”
“I can’t get through,” Solomon tapped his keyboard. “There’s major jamming going on out there.”
“We have to check it out. Plot us a course to Dra’Kor’s secret entrance. If we’re lucky the first councilor will be nearby.”
Solomon laughed. “When’s the last time we got lucky?”
Marcus smiled at the double-entendre, but didn’t comment. He guided the ship along the path Solomon laid out. He kept his thrust to a minimum so it took a while to reach the asteroid. When they did the damage looked far worse than it had from a distance. Huge gouges in the stone gave mute testament to the power of the warships’ weapons. Marcus eased them to a stop a few feet from the underside of the asteroid.
Solomon typed a command and a few seconds later a pair of disguised doors slid open allowing them access to a secret hanger. Marcus eased the ship inside and landed. The doors slid shut behind them. Dim light filled the hanger. They were operating on emergency power. The scanners said they still had good atmosphere so they’d could breath outside the ship.
“Try Dra’kor again.”
Solomon flipped the comm switch. A second later over a staticky connection Dra’Kor’s voice comes through. “Marcus, is that you?”
“Yes, boss. We’re in the hidden hanger. Give us your location and we’ll come get you.”
“I’m in safe room three, in sector six. Someone’s trying to cut through the door.”
Solomon pulled up a map of the asteroid. Sector six was three floors up and a quarter mile west from their position. The universe alone knew how many of those masked men they’d have to fight through to get there. Lucky he just stocked up the weapons’ locker.
“Hang tight, first councilor; we’ll be there as soon as we can.”
Solomon disconnected. Marcus got up and headed to the hold, the others followed along behind. “Solomon, you need to guard the ship. Iaka, if you’re willing I could use your help getting the first councilor.”
“I wouldn’t mind a little payback,” Iaka said.
They reached the hold and Marcus went to the new storage container beside his armor container. He typed in his access code and the cylinder spun around. Inside blaster pistols and rifles hung on hooks, tubs held a variety of grenades, and his favorite new toy stood in the center, a Guardian Mark III heavy laser with tripod.
“God, Marcus, are you planning to start a war?” Iaka stared at the collection of weapons wide eyed.
Marcus grinned and grabbed the heavy laser and tripod. “Dra’Kor hasn’t asked me to start a war yet, but better safe than sorry.”
He carried the heavy laser down the ramp and set it up on the tripod facing the only exit while Solomon plugged in the power cable. Solomon dragged a half inch cable down the ramp and plugged it into the laser.
Iaka joined them beside the laser. “Do you think that will stop those Void assassins?”
Marcus patted the weapon. “This baby draws power directly from the ship’s power core. It was designed to shoot down star fighters. If their person shields are strong enough to withstand a hit from the guardian we’re in deep trouble.” Turning to Solomon Marcus said. “Anything comes through the door wearing a black mask fry it.”
Solomon nodded and settled in behind the laser. Marcus led Iaka
back up the ramp to the weapons’ locker. He took down a blaster carbine and handed it to her. “Do you know to use one of these?”
She nodded. “I haven’t fired one since basic training. How will we get through their shields?”
Marcus reached into one of the tubs, pulled out three plum sized grenades, and handed them to her. “Ion grenades. They’ll fry any electronics and overload their shields. They’re on a three-second delay so be careful.”
Iaka pocketed the grenades. “Anything else?”
“I think that’s enough for you.” He belted on a two gun rig and holstered a blaster pistol and an ion pistol. That one two combination should take care of anything they might run into “I’ll handle any small groups, save the grenades for big groups.”
Iaka reached in, grabbed a spare power pack, and slipped it into her empty pocket. “Ready when you are.”
They walked down the ramp. Marcus patted Solomon’s shoulder as they passed. He led Iaka up to the door and tapped his code into the security pad. It swung open into the first councilor’s private office. Marcus saw no enemies and no one shot at them, so far so good.
They jogged though the austere room to the door leading into the public portion of the asteroid. Marcus looked at Iaka who nodded. He tapped the release and the door slid open. Marcus stepped into the hall weapons at ready. He faced left and Iaka came out behind him facing right. No enemy in sight.
According to the map the nearest staircase was three hundred yards down the hall. Marcus led the way with Iaka watching the rear. They moved fast, careful not to make any noise that might draw unwanted attention. When they reached the staircase door Marcus motioned Iaka to stand by the control panel. When she got into place he pointed the ion pistol at the door and nodded. She pushed the button and the door slid open. A shiny black mask stared at him. Marcus fired the ion pistol; jagged sparks crawled over the masked man. A second later Marcus blew a fist sized hole through the mask. The dead assassin fell to the floor. He grinned. The bastards weren’t so tough without their shields.