Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within

by Jasper T. Scott

  The guy cursed and yelped, making a grab for his gun, but Lucien kicked his hand and snatched the weapon for himself. He aimed it at the other goon’s head before that man could draw his weapon.

  “You two are dead,” the second one gritted out.

  Lucien took his gun, too, and said, “Either you can lead the way to Joe, or we can knock you both out and let you sleep it off behind the bar while we look for him ourselves.”

  “I lead you to him and I lose my job. Or worse.”

  “Then point the way,” Lucien said.

  The man did so, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to a shadowy staircase at the back of the club.

  “Thanks,” Lucien said. He passed the second gun to Brak, and the Gor gradually lowered goon number one to the floor. Lucien kept his aim on both of them as he and Brak backed toward the stairs.

  He needn’t have bothered, both men turned and ran for the exit, probably thinking to get a head start on whatever retribution awaited them for failing their jobs. Lucien tried not to think too hard about that. He was on the other side of the law now; he couldn’t afford to let his conscience get in the way. At least not yet.

  They reached the back stairs and Lucien gestured to Brak, indicating he should hang back. Brak nodded once, and Lucien climbed carefully, watching for more guards as he reached the landing and turned to climb the next flight of stairs. There were two more guards in plain sight, standing beside a thick metal door at the top of the stairs. Both had their weapons drawn and aimed, having somehow seen him coming.

  “One more step, and you’re dead,” one of the guards said.

  Lucien raised his hands. “Hey, don’t shoot,” he said. “I’m just looking for the bathroom.”

  “With a gun?”

  Lucien glanced at the slug thrower pistol in his hand, and flashed a grin. “It’s a dangerous joint.”

  “Nice try,” the guard said as he descended the stairs. “That gun is Coretti issue, and I ain’t seen you before, meaning you stole it.”

  “I’m new,” Lucien said.

  “Drop the weapon.”

  Lucien let it clatter to the stairs.

  A fan of blue light flickered out from a padlock dangling by a gold chain around the guard’s neck. A hidden scanner. It flickered over Lucien’s face and the guard snorted. “Lucien Ortane, Chief of security for Fallside. Brutha, you must have a death wish comin’ around here. I should jus’ shoot you right now. Get myself a nice promotion.”

  Lucien shrugged as if he really did have a death wish. That was when Brak made his move. Perfectly invisible but for the gun in his hand, he cold-cocked the guard still standing at the top of the stairs, and the man fell with a thump that blended perfectly with the sounds of the music below. What didn’t blend was the metallic clatter of his gun jumping down the stairs.

  “What the—” The guard standing in front of Lucien half-turned to see his partner lying in a heap on the landing.

  Lucien kicked the man’s hand, and the gun went flying. Then Brak reached him, and an invisible hand wrapped around the man’s throat, hoisting him into the air.

  “Be nice, Brak,” Lucien said, just as the Gor de-cloaked and appeared as a naked gray wall of rippling muscle with even less claim to modesty than the dancers downstairs. Brak hissed in the guard’s face, and the man’s eyes bulged. He batted impotently at the vice around his throat.

  “You’re going to kill him like that,” Lucien said. Brak brought the man down and put him in a choke hold, waiting until he sagged. Now safely unconscious, Brak set the guard down gently, and Lucien went to fetch the guard’s pistol, tucking it into the right side of his belt. It was an upgrade from the slug thrower he’d stolen from the guard downstairs.

  That done, he patted down the guard, searching for a key to open the door at the top of the stairs, but all he found was an illegally-modified communicator for off-the-grid comms. He activated the device.

  “Joseph Coretti, it’s Chief Ortane from Fallside. Remember me? I’ve got a business proposition for you. I’m waiting at the back door on level two of the Crack of Dawn.”

  Wordlessly, Brak cloaked himself again and waited. The door at the top of the stairs burst open a moment later, revealing no less than six armed guards. These guys were carrying automatic pulse rifles. A pair of them descended the stairs while the others kept their guns trained on Lucien. As soon as they reached him, they patted him down and confiscated his two pistols; then they scanned him for good measure.

  “Satisfied?” Lucien asked.

  “Come on,” one of the men replied, as the two of them grabbed him by his arms and jerked him roughly up the stairs. The other four parted ranks and fanned out, making way for them to cross the threshold.

  Lucien jerked his arms free of the men holding him. “What do you think I’m going to do without any weapons? It’s six against one!”

  “I wouldn’t want to be you right now,” one of the men walking beside Lucien said.

  The door swung shut behind him with a heavy boom, and the group led him down a shadowy corridor to another door. Upon reaching it, one man pressed the button for an old-fashioned intercom, and said, “We got him, boss.”

  “Bring him in,” a familiar voice replied.

  Locking bolts slid aside and they pulled the door open.

  Lucien got an eyeful of a private show being put on by three fully naked girls. He glanced away, looking down at his feet.

  “What’s the matter?” that same familiar voice asked. “Are you going soft on me, Lucy-lu?” The man snapped his fingers, and said, “Later, darlings.” Bare feet padded on tiles as the girls departed, and Lucien looked up into the grinning face of none other than Joseph Coretti, eldest of the three Coretti brothers. His silver eyes were glazed, and it was easy to see—and smell—why: the air was thick and glittering with smoke from glow sticks. Several smoking butts were still smoldering in an ashtray on the table beside Coretti’s throne-like chair. Glow sticks didn’t just glow from the lit end, but all along their length.

  Joseph grabbed one of the longer sticks from the ashtray and took a deep drag from it. His eyelids fluttered as he did so, and he blew out the smoke with a sigh. He turned the butt around and offered it to Lucien. “Want a taste? Our best batch yet, guaranteed.”

  Lucien shook his head. “I don’t smoke. Sorry.”

  Joseph frowned and raised his eyebrows. He took another drag while leaning over the ashtray and staring sideways at Lucien. “Why the frek not?” he asked, letting out another stream of smoke. “You haven’t lived until you’ve smoked glow. You officers must have a few kilos lying around that no one’s going to miss. You should roll them up and see how the other side lives. It’ll blow your mind, Lucy-lu.”

  “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “Your loss,” Joseph said, shrugging as he left his glow stick smoking in the ashtray beside him. “You mentioned you have business to discuss?”

  Lucien nodded. “I’d like to help you out.”

  Joseph arched an eyebrow at him and smirked. “Weren’t you the guy who spent a year trying to help me out of my freedom? What are you going to help me out of now?”

  Lucien explained, and pretty soon even Joe’s witless goons were glancing at each other in shock. For his part, Joseph was leaning forward in his throne, looking equal parts intrigued and outraged. The glaze had left his eyes, and they were suddenly as sharp as Brak’s teeth.

  “Frekking aliens!” Joseph said. “You know how much product we lost in Fallside when they blew the place open?”

  “I’m not sure I want to know,” Lucien replied.

  “So what are you doing here? You should be on your way to arrest Ellis and his alien buddies right now.”

  Lucien shook his head. “He’s got control of the military and the government. But what’s worse is he’s got control of the Resurrection Center. If we try to go after him head-on, he could alter our memories and wipe away our suspicions, then all we’ll get for our trouble is a bad case of amnes
ia.”

  “So you’ve come to me for help,” Joseph said, nodding slowly and smiling. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

  “I do appreciate the irony, yes.”

  “What are you proposing?”

  “I need a bomb. Something small enough and powerful enough to sneak into the Resurrection Center. I’m going to infiltrate the center with it and hold the place ransom while I find proof that the Faros have taken over Astralis.”

  Joseph’s eyebrows elevated slightly at that, and he sat back in his throne. “Not a bad plan, but what makes you think I have a bomb?”

  “Come on, Joe, you and I both know you do.”

  “All right, so what’s in it for me?”

  “You mean besides avoiding whatever fate the Faros have in mind for us—death at worst, slavery at best?”

  “You don’t know that. If they’ve gone to all this trouble to take over, they must want Astralis intact.”

  “Maybe, but whatever they’re planning, I doubt it lines up with your goals for building a criminal empire. They might be planning to take us back to the Etherian Empire to gather intel for an invasion, in which case your little operation is going to get wrapped up real fast when Etherus is back in charge.”

  “True...” Joseph said. “Business has been booming ever since we left. All right, I’ll help you, but on one condition—”

  Lucien waited. Here comes the catch...

  “I’m sending a team with you.”

  “A team?” Lucien wasn’t expecting that.

  Joseph spread his hands. “Sure. You can’t hope to do this on your own, and it’s in my best interests to make sure you succeed.”

  Lucien considered that, his brow knitted tightly enough to give him a headache. Or maybe it was the muted thumping from the music downstairs. “I don’t want to be an accomplice to the murder of some unsuspecting desk clerk at the center.”

  “I’ll make sure my boys stick to stun. Fair enough?”

  Lucien still didn’t like it. Joe was up to something. “Do I have a choice?”

  “Not if you want my help, no. Thing is, I could pull this off without you, but you can’t do it without me.”

  “Not true,” Lucien countered. “You do this without me, and the operation will lose any possible claim to legitimacy. Your men will get arrested when it’s over, and you’ll be implicated in whatever they’ve been charged with.”

  “Not if we find the evidence you’re looking for. We do that, and my boys will be heroes, and so will I. In fact, I might even decide to run for office after that.” Joseph grinned and laced his hands over his stomach. “Yeah, I think I might just do that,” he decided, nodding to himself.

  “All right, fine. Your team comes with us, but I’m still in charge of the operation.”

  “Sure,” Joseph said and stuck out a hand. “It’s a deal.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Lucien said. “I don’t know where that hand has been.”

  Joseph laughed. “You come here, begging for my help, and then you insult me like that? Must be hard dragging around those boulders you call balls. I’ve killed men for less.”

  “You want to state that for the record?”

  Joseph smiled, but his silver eyes were cold as ice. “Maybe I should just kill you, Lucy-lu.” He mimed a gun with one hand and fired it at Lucien’s head.

  “You do that, and my partner will kill you next.” With that, the air behind Joseph shimmered, and Brak appeared, his skull-shaped face looming over the back of the chair.

  “Boo,” Brak growled.

  “The frek!” Joseph jumped up and spun around, backing away quickly. His goons belatedly adjusted their aim. “Motherfreker!” Joe screeched.

  The Gor bared his teeth, grinning at the crime boss.

  Joseph looked from Brak to Lucien and back again. “Touche, Lucy-lu. Touche.” Turning to his guards, he said, “Who the frek let that monster in here?”

  His men glanced at each other, redirecting the blame.

  Brak hissed and straightened. “Who do you call a monster?”

  Joseph waved his hand dismissively at the Gor. “It’s all good, Skullman. Come on, Lucy, we’re going bomb shopping.”

  Chapter 40

  Astralis

  —TWELVE HOURS LATER—

  Tyra had a hard time finding a chance to meet with Lieutenant Commander Wheeler away from the bridge where Admiral Stavos and General Graves would be privy to their conversation. She ended up hanging out in the wardroom around lunch time under the guise of inviting officers to the charity dinner she was organizing.

  Finally, at just after one o’clock, Lieutenant Commander Wheeler came in. Tyra tried not to watch too conspicuously as Wheeler made her way down the line-up at the fabricators, and then found a table with a group of other officers. Tyra wove around the room until she reached that table. She pulled out one of the empty chairs and sat down.

  “Commander Wheeler,” she said. “It’s good to see you again.”

  Wheeler’s eyes darted up, but her head remained hovering over her plate of pasta to avoid spilling. Her eyebrows formed the question that her mouth was too busy to ask, and Tyra launched into an explanation about the charity dinner. She invited Wheeler, along with everyone else at the table, telling them to bring their friends and families.

  “I hope you’ll all be able to make it,” Tyra finished.

  Commander Wheeler nodded slowly and washed down another mouthful of pasta with a cup of juice. “I’ll see what I can do.” The others gave similarly noncommittal replies.

  “Thanks for your time, officers,” Tyra said as she got up to leave. “Oh, and Commander—I wonder if you would be able to help me put together a list of other officers that I could invite? Along with their contact information?”

  “I’ll get someone to send that to you.”

  Wheeler wasn’t making this easy. Tyra needed to meet her in person. “Thank you... and if I could trouble you for one more thing...”

  Commander Wheeler looked up, wearing what was left of her patience on her face. “Yes?”

  “Would you mind meeting me in my office to go over the invitations I’m planning to send to those officers? I’d like them to be convincing, and I was hoping you could help me come up with some incentives to offer that might appeal to the ship’s military personnel.”

  “That’s easy. Free beer.”

  The other officers chuckled at that, and Wheeler smiled at her own joke.

  “Well, we can’t offer free anything, since the idea is to raise money... but I’d really like to consult with you on this in more detail. Is there a time you could meet with me later today? I’d consider it a personal favor. There are a lot of families counting on the funds we’ll raise from this dinner.”

  Wheeler sighed. “I’m off duty at eighteen hundred hours. I was planning to use that time to hit the rack, but...”

  “It won’t take long. I promise.”

  “All right.”

  Tyra flashed a grin. “Thank you, Commander.”

  “Sure.”

  Tyra breezed out of the wardroom just as Admiral Stavos was breezing in. She bumped into him in the entrance. “Sorry, sir,” she said.

  He caught her by the arm before she could leave. “Councilor? What are you doing here?”

  She explained about the charity dinner.

  “An excellent idea! I’ll make sure attendance is mandatory for all non-essential crew.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Tyra replied, bobbing her head and smiling gratefully.

  He smiled back. “Glad I could be of service.”

  “Yes, sir. I look forward to seeing you there.”

  “Count on it.”

  “And General Graves?”

  “He’s the XO. Someone should be on the bridge...” The admiral scratched his chin absently through his beard. “I suppose we could leave LC Wheeler with the conn. I’ll invite him for you.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Of course.”

&nbs
p; Tyra nodded and hurried off, her feet buoyed on a stream of adrenaline. Things were working out perfectly. Wheeler was going to be alone on the bridge. Convincing her to join their plot was more important than ever now.

  * * *

  Astralis

  Lucien and Brak were back at the Crack of Dawn for the second night in a row, going over infiltration plans with Joseph Coretti and three of his men.

  “The ventilation shafts are the easiest way in, but while the fans are on, they’re a death trap,” Joe said, pointing to a holographic schematic of the Resurrection Center.

  Lucien nodded. “We could cut the power.”

  “My thoughts exactly, but they’ll send a maintenance crew to fix it within minutes, so we need to hack into their comms first. Then when we cut the power, their call to maintenance goes straight to us. Guntha here takes the call and goes in through the front door. From there he can shut down the security system in the ducts so he can get in to make repairs, and voila—the rest of our team will sneak in from outside with the bomb.”

  “That might work,” Lucien said.

  Joe just looked at him. “Might?” He thumped his chest. “Come on, give me a little credit here.”

  “It’s a good plan.”

  “It’s a great plan. We came up with it years ago. Took six months to get our hands on the schematics and work out all the details.”

  “So why didn’t you go through with it?”

  Joe shrugged. “Too risky to hold the center ransom. It’s a one-way ticket. Easy to get in, not so easy to get out.”

  “Once we find the evidence we’re looking for, that won’t be a problem.”

  “You better be right about that,” Fizk Arak, the team’s demolitions expert said.

  Joseph patted him on the back. “No worries, Fizzy. Lucy-lu wouldn’t risk going to corrections over this. He knows what happens to cops in prison—don’t you, Lucy? We’ve got lots of old business associates on the inside waiting for you if you frek this one up.” Joe grinned.

  Lucien narrowed his eyes at that, and Brak hissed.