“Leave us with them,” said Kaufman.
The guard left the room, followed by Captain Lewis, who took one last peak in the room before shutting the door. He was clearly uneasy about the situation, but could do nothing but follow the chain of command. He may hold a more senior rank than Kaufman, but with the authority the IBI had been given, he was completely at their beck and call.
“Do you know why we are here?” asked Kaufman.
“No, Sir!” the two men shouted.
“Please, sit down, both of you.”
The two men relaxed slightly, surprised at the response. Still baffled, they sat down before the three men. They studied the IBI officers intently, trying to understand what they could in the situation.
“We are on a tight schedule, so I will give it to you straight. We are hunting some very dangerous criminals. I have lost two of our officers already. I need those roles filled by men that are both capable and loyal. I can see by your files that you have always done what you considered best for the people of the colonies, I need men like you.”
“Sir, I don’t understand, you’re offering us jobs?” asked Wilson.
“That’s right. I have full authority to grant you both an early release, effective immediately, on the proviso that you sign up to work for the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation for what would be the remaining years of your sentences.”
“The authorities put us in here for doing what we thought was right, why should we trust you?“ asked Morrison.
“Because I am your only chance of getting out of here anytime soon. The truth is, corruption is our biggest enemy. We need men who are incorruptible. We have been given free rein to do whatever is necessary to bring these gangs to justice. You’ll work directly under my command. We are something between a detective agency and a paramilitary force. Quite frankly, we need you, and you can’t want to stay here?”
The two men looked at each other, showing the hope in their eyes from escaping the hell that had become their home. They both nodded.
“Welcome to the IBI,” said Kaufman.
Within an hour they were aboard Intrepid and lifting off from the barren and ugly military colony. They were all glad to be leaving the miserable place, but none more than the two former soldiers. An hour after lift off Kaufman found the two men in the canteen, chewing on food that Fletcher had prepared for them. They scoffed the food down as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks. He sat down beside them. They stopped eating and sat up, as if caught doing something they shouldn’t.
“Carry on, don’t let me stop you.”
“Thank you, Sir,” replied Wilson.
“I appreciate you coming on board. You two were hung out to dry for what you did, there’s no doubt about it, and you will not find a man or woman among us who doesn’t know it. But that time is passed. I need you both to be focused on the task at hand. These gangs are well armed and highly organised, you’ll need to be ready for combat asap.”
“Sir, you lead, we’ll follow,” said Morrison.
Chapter 9
The canteen was a hive of activity as the whole crew sat about eating their food after the long day of investigative work and research. They had pursued multiple leads and set several authorities onto potential breakthroughs in finding some of the successful gangs. Kaufman tapped his glass, signalling for the room to pipe down. He stood up from the table and looked around at his crew who eagerly awaited his words.
“Moments ago I received word from Commander Denton about new information regarding the whereabouts of the elusive Gadson Gang. As you all know, they have so far done a fine job of escaping our grasp. From now on, I want them to be your number one priority. Bringing them down will strike a major blow to the criminal underworld, and bring back a lot of confidence with the law-abiding citizens of the colonies. We land on Europa in the morning, be ready for a fight.”
The crew cheered. Although they had not yet stopped the Gadson Gang, or any of the key players for which they were set up to pursue, morale was high. Their IBI task force had already brought down one gang, saved the life of the Mayor of Titan1 and were re-equipped with all new military grade hardware. They felt ready for anything.
Kaufman slept well that night, knowing that they were pursing some solid leads. Despite being anxious to land on Europa and get to work, he felt that finally they were making the progress they needed.
First thing in the morning they sat about the canteen once more, discussing the day’s mission. Europa was a rich colony and it was easy to see why they would strike it. It had been colonised shortly after Mars, but been kept a more elitist place. Europa had its own industry, but only in carefully designated districts, where the workers were not allowed into the ‘civilised’ cities. Most of the wealth came from the mining colonies surrounding it, primarily Ganymede.
“After all the hassle we have given them, you think they’ll go right back to another bank job? Barski asked.
“Probably, for all the intelligence of criminals, they so often get greedy. It has worked for them so many times before, why would they change now?” asked Nowak.
“They also have no idea we’re onto them. As far as they are concerned we have lost their trail. This information has come from one of Denton’s sources,” said Kaufman.
“Is it a hundred per cent legit?” asked Barski.
“If the Commander has given it to us then it must be.”
“Do we have any more info on their whereabouts or likely activities?” asked Nowak.
“No, but it will be easier to pursue them on Europa than any other colony.”
“Why, Eric?”
“Because, Max, it’s the only colony which has unrestricted usage of security cameras and facial recognition devices, it’s the only colony which allows it.”
“Sure that isn’t against the constitution?”
“It is, but allowing the colony to maintain its lax laws on personal freedoms was the only way to get its leaders to sign up to the Alliance.”
“Will we get much help there?” Max asked.
“When it’s in their interest, yes. The people who live in the nicer areas of Europa, where the major banks are located, care more for money and status than anything else. If that is being threatened then they will take all the help they can get,” said Kaufman.
“How many banks are we talking about?” Nowak asked.
“All of the colonies wealth is held in the five banks of Europa. They have existed since the formation of the colony and are controlled by powerful business executives who are mostly in league with each other, all working to further the wealth and power of Europa, at any expense.
“Seems a bit of a risky place for the Gadson boys to hit?”
“Yes, and also the ultimate target, as if they can pull it off it spits in the face of both us and the Alliance. If a colony such as Europa cannot stop them, then it sends a simple message to the people of all the colonies, Max, that nowhere is safe.”
* * *
Like so many times before, Intrepid put down to have its crew greeted by authorities of the city. The Prime Minister of Europa stood ready to greet Kaufman and his crew, with thirty bodyguards and police officers in attendance. Kaufman shook his head at the sight of them all. They wanted to keep their presence unknown to as many as possible. He stepped down the steps to greet the PM and his wife.
“Lieutenant Kaufman, I presume?” asked Prime Minister Adams.
“Yes, Sir, good to meet you.”
“This is my wife, Muriel.”
“Lovely to meet you, Madam. Sir, I requested that our presence be kept off the radar.”
“And it is, there are no press allowed, and all in attendance have strict orders to maintain your cover. I am still curious as to know why it is such a secret that a key establishment such as yourselves want to remain hidden from the world.”
“As you know, we are pursuing the Gadson Gang, a particularly clever and vicious group have so far outwitted the finest of police authorities.”
“Well, I have to say I would be highly surprised if they could manage anything so audacious on our colony. However, I have appointed Lieutenant Rivers to your command, he will assist you in your work, you will find him very resourceful.”
“Thank you, Prime Minister.”
“We must be off, good luck on the mission.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Kaufman walked back to his two sergeants, Nowak and Barski who stood at the entrance to their ship.
“What an ass, remind me to never come back to this place,” said Kaufman.
Lieutenant Rivers marched up behind Kaufman, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It was certain that the officer had been appointed to them more to keep track of their actions than to assist in the hunt for Maric and his gang.
“Lieutenant, I see that you have extensive video surveillance on the banks in the city, can you arrange for us to have live feeds to them all?” asked Kaufman.
“I can indeed, but it’ll take me thirty minutes to arrange it.”
“Great, have you got somewhere to work?”
“I have a temporary office set up in the port, I’ll be in touch when I have them ready for you.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
Kaufman strode back aboard their ship, stopping to talk to Nowak and Barski.
“This colony is jam packed with video and audio surveillance. While I trust in the authorities to protect their assets, I do not trust them to allow us to do our jobs.”
“You think they’d interfere with our operation?” asked Barski.
“To maintain their procedures or to steal our thunder, yes, among other reasons.”
“A clever criminal could use that to his advantage,” said Nowak.
“What do you mean?”
“Barski, if we can get access to those feeds, so can Maric. He’d never dare a raid on Europa without monitoring the surveillance systems, he’s playing us,” said Kaufman.
“A smoke and mirrors job?”
“Indeed. He will inevitably use the technology against us, setting up clues and diversions to draw our attention away from the real heist.”
“You think he would risk it with us bearing down on him?” asked Barski.
“Yes, this man is keen to show that he can outwit the authorities, it is his perfect moment to embarrass us all.”
“So what do we do about it?”
“Step this way.”
They stepped into the elevator and made their way up to Kaufman’s office beside the bridge. Denver was surprised to see them back so early, but didn’t question it. They sat down once more in the office behind closed doors.
“Alright, Rivers will jump at the first sign of trouble and he will expect me to be by his side. If anyone has eyes on us then they will most likely be monitoring his movements as well as mine. That means that wherever I end up will likely not be the target of the attack. Therefore, I will have to rely on the rest of you to do the hard work.”
“No problem, boss.”
Kaufman acknowledged Max and then hit the intercom button for the whole vessel.
“Sergeants Denver and Lin, please join be in my office.”
Moments later they were at his desk and eagerly awaiting instructions.
“Denver, your team is to stay on board the vessel for the duration of the mission, you will manage comms, data and be ready for deployment if necessary. I’ll take Barski’s team. Lin, you head north, I want you on the main highway leading out of the city that side, Barski you’re with her. Nowak, head out to the west side of the city.”
“Do we have any clues yet as to where they will strike?” asked Nowak.
The intercom light flashed in the middle of the desk, Kaufman quickly reached forward and opened the channel on speaker for everyone to hear.
“Kaufman?” asked Denton.
“Sir, you’re on with agents Barski, Nowak, Denver and Lin.”
“Our informant has confirmed the presence of Anton Maric in the city, as well as at least a dozen associates.”
“Any last known location, Sir?”
“That’s the thing, our guy tells us that Maric’s people have scattered across the city, he has no clues as to where.”
“It’s a smoke screen, Maric is trying to confuse the authorities and keep us from pinpointing his target.”
“Well he’s doing a damn good job of it.”
“Sir, may I ask the identity of your informant and their intentions?”
“Sorry, but that is strictly confidential, I have given you all that is useful to your case. We will continue to pursue leads our end, Lieutenant, good luck to you all.”
Kaufman hit the comms button and looked up at his colleagues who had the same dumbfounded expression as him.
“We get our hands on that informant and we could learn a lot more.”
“Possibly, Max, but we have our orders. That data only confirms what we already suspected. The plan remains the same. Our armoury has been re-stocked with military grade weapons, I want all teams to be equipped with them.”
“The city officials won’t be too happy about that, the regs state that no military hardware is allowed within their limits,” said Lin.
“Those are their regs for their people, we operate under Presidential orders only, if they don’t like it, they’ll have to go over our heads. I still suspect that Maric will have people monitoring the surveillance equipment. If that is the case, he will be monitoring everyone who comes and goes from this ship.”
“We want to give them the run around?”
“No, Max, the gang only has so much manpower. They’ll need a lot of it to carry out whatever job they are planning, the monitoring cameras will do the rest for us. All we have to do is make them lose us on camera. I want all teams to head out with their cars in gloss black livery, make them look like typical government issue. You’ll each need to find locations hidden from surveillance in the city, locations that will allow you to mask the cars as something completely different.”
“Think they’ll fall for it?” asked Nowak.
“Yes, they only have so many people to monitor it all. I need each of the teams to blend in asap. Report back to Denver with your new vehicle identities immediately. During this operation we will maintain two channels, the open police channel that Rivers has access to, and our own encrypted one. Any contact that we want to keep to ourselves stays on the private channel.”
“You really think they’ll be able to monitor the police channels too?” asked Barski.
“Quite possibly, but we also don’t know who we can trust. Denver, I will need you to route the encrypted channel to my private communicator, can’t have the comms being public knowledge when Rivers is around. I’ll have an earpiece in at all times enabling me to keep track of what is going on. Last thing, we need everyone to make regular use of the principal channel, no one must suspect that we are using alternative comms. For the duration of this mission, the encoded channel will be referred to as Richard, it will maintain its cover if it needs to be discussed in the field, any other questions?”
“Seems like every time we are after these guys we are several steps behind, we really still have no idea what their target is?” asked Lin.
Kaufman sighed. It was the unfortunate truth.
“No, but we are onto them, each time closer. Now they will have to play intricate games to pull this job off, and they have no idea of our intentions. They have had an inside man on our previous missions, and outgunned us, this time it’ll be different. Remember, I’m going to have to pursue whatever leads they give us, but I am convinced that they will use several diversions. I will report my actions on the open channel, I want the rest of you to work on finding out where the real job is taking place,” he paused and looked around.
“That’s it, fall out and get to it!”
Kaufman made his way to the armoury, glad to get his hands on some better hardware. He’d been lucky to not have to face off against the
gang in a major firefight yet, but he knew very well what they were capable of. Wilson and Morrison were already in the armoury, assembling weapons for the troops.
When the IBI was started, it was with the strict remit that they were never to have more than twenty field operatives at any one time. However, Kaufman had learnt that attrition meant that he always needed people to plug holes. Morrison had taken Travers’ badge, while Wilson worked as their armourer for the time being.
“These rifles, are there any body armours that are proof against them?” asked Kaufman.
“The best armoured points of the MILAL suit will stop a round, other parts will save you from a glancing round or from longer range fire. As for civilian equipment, I’m not aware of any personal equipment that will stand up to them.”
“Thank you, Wilson.”
“Sir, you should know that a military outpost was broken into last week, it didn’t make major news. Whoever got into that establishment now has these weapons also, and I’d be willing to put money on it being Maric’s outfit,” said Morrison.
“Christ, that’s not the news I wanted to hear.”
“Just be thankful you’re not going out there with your pop guns, you’d get shit canned.”
“Alright, Wilson, enough. Morrison you’re with my team, grab you gear, let’s move.”
Kaufman stepped out down the ramp of the garage door as his officers fired up their vehicles and rolled on down to the docking bay floor. Lieutenant Rivers approached with an antagonistic look on his face.
“Sir, you can’t take those weapons into the city.”
“Lieutenant, very shortly the Gadson Gang is going to raise hell in your city, you can either help me do my best to stop them, or leave me the hell alone!”
“The Prime Minister will never allow it!”
“He will not have to know about it, and if he asks, I forced you at gunpoint.”
“But you didn’t, Sir?”
“Don’t tempt me!”
The man shook his head, he was too spineless to either support or hinder their actions, choosing to dip his head and pretend he hadn’t noticed their blatant breach of the colony laws. Kaufman’s car floated in beside him and came to a halt alongside the other vehicles.
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