Greener Green II: The Balls Brigade

by Peter Sowatskey

  "At high noon. Most sunspot activity. Makes radio traffic harder to trace."

  "10-4. Bath and bed. Showers where?"

  She pointed. We both undressed and scrubbed each other's backs. Then we fell onto separate loungers, weapons by our sides.

  A buzzer awoke me. I withdrew my hand from the automatic under my pillow when I realized where we were. I opened an eye and saw Lin Ti walking to her pack on the table. I sat up. She said, "Time to make calls, see what the rest of my team is doing."

  "I'll watch. What kind of a rig do you have?"

  Both of us sat at the table where our packs were. She held up a large garage door opener type device with five buttons on it. "This is the modern rig, maybe beyond modern. It is an Earth resonance transmitter/receiver. Very hard to trace using burst transmissions. It has a built in encrypter. Let's see."

  She pushed a button to activate the speaker on the back, and the number 1. It said, "Party sought not available."

  I watched her body stiffen and her set face harden. I figured that meant dead. Three more 'not availables' came back. Next to the last one got the response, "Hi, how's the weather at the beach?"

  She answered, "Pretty rough, Aunt Sarah and Bill and the kid all have sunburns."

  "Yes, I saw that in the social column. Terrible shame. We'll have to meet and compare notes on that soon. Maybe by the fountain?"

  "Yes, by the fountain would be fine. See you there."

  Nothing more came out of the device. I watched her set face and stiff posture. She was looking, but she wasn't seeing. Finally I ventured, "Bad, huh?"

  "They've killed three out of five of us. The forth is hurt, but will recover in time. That leaves just me operational, though we'll have some support from Deke. That's him on the link. You'll like him, ex military, drinks brandy though."

  I assured her I could tolerate a brandy drinker and covered her closest hand with mine until I felt her relax.

  We both stiffened when a voice demanded, "Where's something real to eat here?"

  We smiled at each other and turned in the direction of the voice. Lin Ti answered, "Come, I'll show you the kitchen. We can all use some 'real' food."

  They went off. I explored and found a perimeter control room with TV cameras. Every inch of the perimeter was covered. I knew the system; so I set it on audible alarm, max volume. There was a regular radio room with equipment familiar to me. The armory door handle turned, but I didn't go in. It should, would, have been locked. Lots of rooms had rations; various types of freeze dried, vacuum packed cans, along with the weekly field rations. We had eats. We had water. I could make beer. It would taste terrible, but. The matter of visitors dimmed my optimism. They probably wouldn't argue. Set off a small neutron bomb and keep on moving. Wouldn't take two minutes.

  The splashing circle around the pool finished the same time dinner did, steak and fries, with canned apricots for dessert, heaven.

  Afterward I pulled up the back of the lounge chair and listened to Lin Ti and Merele try to have a meeting of minds.

  The question of parents and home town got no response. Instead Merele said, "I can help you with the freighter."

  I sat bolt upright. I really hadn't paid a lot of attention to her beyond having a suspicion of her being somehow false. Now I took a close look at her and saw a small person who'd thrown away the pretense of being a child. She looked me directly in the eyes, reminded me of my grandmother.

  I said, "Explain our meeting."

  "I can't. I saw in the swirl that you'd be there. You don't know about swirls. I can't explain. It's something little people know, but I can help, I can. I come from a settlement along the coast near Freizton. We avoid contact, wrong idea this time."

  Lin Ti interrupted and demanded, "What sort of a group? There's no one there I know of but the Mafia complex."

  "We're a group of little people."

  I asked smirking, "You mean people like fairies and elves?"

  "No. You doltish idiot. Little people like dwarfs. People smaller than the norm. Not everyone in the world is overgrown like you."

  Taken aback I said, "Sorry. I just never heard of you. Give me a moment."

  Merele relaxed a whit.

  Lin Ti asked, "Tell us what you know?"

  "I'll tell you about us later, maybe. We got caught up in the hijacker's web before we knew it. We work tin, pots, pans, and trinkets. We needed cash for material. Heard they paid for dock workers. Some of us are quite strong. That was the start. Before we knew it we were involved."

  "You could have reported to the police."

  "Yeah, sure, and have the whole settlement get sucked into their caves."

  Lin Ti insisted, "There are no caves, wrong kind of stone."

  Merle looked at her, drew herself up and shouted, "Look at me. I have eight children, twenty three grand children. Look closely."

  Lin Ti looked, "Sorry, I see you now. Continue."

  "They dug the caves out, reinforced them, their slave workers did it. They work, two people tied to each other."

  I thought of the missing truckers and asked, "How many?"

  "At least a hundred. I watched them for two days after I died."

  Lin Ti and I both asked, "You're a ghost?"

  "No, you idiots. I had to make them think I'd drowned during my daily swim. Otherwise they'd tortured the details out of someone, who couldn't tell, as I took no one into my confidence."

  I said, "You two go over the terrain. I'm going to camp in the Security room. Some one sold your team out, Lin. Maybe they sold out this place. Relieve me at mid-night."

  "My team members didn't know about this place. But you're right. See you later."

  I gathered several books I hadn't read from the 'library' shelf along the wall. Went to the room and settled in.

  Merele brought a snack about 2100. She put the food on a table and jumped up onto my lap, stood on my legs, put her hands on my shoulders and said, "I'm not angry with you. Old age makes me impatient. It also makes me want to try what I haven't tried, one of you who are so oversized. I'll bet we could. Try you after this. Lin says she's trained you well. Bye."

  She jumped and landed lightly and was gone before what she'd said registered. When it registered, I reflected I must be getting slow in mind. I'd saw that happen to the ones who drank too much. Oh well, damage done, trained, huh. I smiled.

  OPERATIONAL AREA - ALTERNATE REALITY AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 2010

  LONG TOM LUDHOLM

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  I didn't smile when at 2200 the intruder alarm went off in the building where I'd parked my tractor. Infra red showed two intruders doing; what the hell. They were leaning on walking sticks, and looking over the tractor like it was on a used vehicle lot. Then the alarms went off again, door. Two figures came in, larger than me, and started looking at the tractor also. I didn't feel real. I clicked the walkie-talkie that would alert Lin. More alarms. Now what? I didn't have but one vehicle to sell. What the hell, I didn't want to sell anything. The new alarms were outside the buildings, but inside the mine field. I quit after seventy nine in one quadrant. Oh, goodie. Lin arrived, took the situation in with one glance, and said, "We're cooked."

  Merele, behind her said, "Glazed too."

  A medium sized figure in the tractor bay walked toward the camera and made a beckoning motion. I turned the audio pickup on and said, "It's not for sale." And felt stupid.

  A voice came back, "Of course not. (No accent) I can plainly see that it's someone's baby. Come on up and chat anyway. Tell Merele and Lin we won't hurt them. You either. You prayed. We came. Let's go on from there."

  We looked at each other. I was sure I was sober. We three shrugged at the same time.

  I said, "We'll be up directly. Your people should probably get inside. The buildings are shielded from satellite heat pickup."

  "If that will make you less nervous I so order."

  It took three minutes before all of them were inside. I felt like I was back in the Army again.
Trouble was whose Army?

  The first two were standing by the entrance door when we got there. I saw through the infra-red goggles the other two were still looking at the tractor. They were testing the shocks. I stopped. You don't test the shocks of a forty ton vehicle. Yet they were doing it.

  The leader said, "We've really came to help. You know about bread and fishes, from the Bible?"

  I said, "Of course."

  "Pull out that .50 caliber and shoot one of us."

  Turmoil of thought went through me. In the end I could do naught but what he asked. I emptied the fifteen round magazine into him. Not even a ricochet.

  I said, "I'm impressed."

  "Well you should be. You see that drum over by the wall."

  "Yes."

  He pointed the walking stick's bottom end toward the drum. A blazing bolt of lightening went from the stick to the drum. It melted into molten fragments. He motioned a tall figure to move forward. The stick blazed again, at the figure, longer than before. It stopped. No damage had resulted that I could see.

  He said, "Enough of the fishes bit. Let's go swimming."

  I looked at Lin, and Merele, they shrugged. Well, we were good at something, shrugging. They led the way. The tall figures in the Battle Suits were crowded, but they made it through to the pool.

  It was like coming home week. Lin made a pot of coffee. She, I, and Merele sat around a table with the Leader, introduced by himself as Rafe, and his assistant Molly. The tall figures were still walking around the pool. Finally they came over to us and Rafe said, "Stand down permitted."

  Whereupon they went to a near pillar and each grasped an opposite corner with a hand. Then the suits opened in the back, like vertical clam shells. Stepping backwards out of them were two female bears. I grabbed Lin's hand. Merele jumped off her chair, ran to them and asked, "Care for a swim?"

  They said, "Of course." The three of them were diving off the edge before I got my mouth shut. But not before I saw three sets of breasts on either of them. I must have gripped Lin's hand tighter because she gave me a jab in the ribs. That brought my power of speech back and I croaked, "Who?"

  Rafe said, "Regs. Long story. They are friends, from far away. We're from far away too, different reality. We'll fill you three in as we go along. I hope you don't mind us dropping in like this. My fighters will be taking rooms on the floors above and below. Your housekeeping will hold up. Actually you have one of our reactors powering this place. You didn't actually think you paid fair market value for the work done here, did you Lin?"

  "Lin answered, "Seems like I don't know much at all any more."

  Molly said, "You'll get up to speed quickly. I've prepared a briefing Vid. Maybe we can go to one of the conference rooms and I'll show it to you."

  Lin rose and when I started to also she said, "It's just for us females, housekeeping details."

  Lin actually grinned while I relaxed into my chair. They left and I asked Rafe, "You sure you're in charge?"

  "Seriously? No, but they make me feel like I am, so that's nice."

  I asked, "Do you know my background?"

  "United Nations peacekeeper, drunken truck driver, semi genius IQ, (hides that well), lost your goal, didn't find another one, until today."

  "What goal did I find, oh learned master?"

  "Kicking ass. Being a step ahead of the bad guys and taking them out in droves."

  "You make that real, I'm your man. I'm very tired of trying to catch up."

  I listened while Rafe explained that his force was from a different reality. I couldn't get my mind around it, too much, too quick. What I couldn't dismiss was the fact that my .50 caliber pistol bullets hadn't killed him.

  Lin and Molly came back. Lin said to me, "We're in. Unless you've had some sudden revelation how you can get the hijackers off of your trail."

  "Leaving the country would just put my family in danger, there's a lot of them, so I'm in too. What's the plan?"

  Rafe answered, "Two plans. We need to get Merle and her people out. Orders from my HQ, high priority. Then we attack, take over the ship, and get control of the gold. On land, at the same time, free the prisoners, if they aren't already dead. Then we leave our gold in place of theirs and allow ourselves to be beaten back. The hard part of it all is to convince them we are retreating under superior firepower. Not because we came and conquered and left because we wanted to. That's going to be sensitive."

  I said, "I'm going to assume you know what you're doing. It will take careful timing. Do you have maps? If so we can lay out two dimension representation in the largest hanger. Also what are you using for intercoms? Can it be jammed?"

  Molly answered, "Telepathy, and no. We have 3 D holographic capability, adaptable to any size. Look."

  She sat a three inch diameter ball on the table supported with four six inch legs. All of a sudden we were at sea looking at the harbor. The shift was so quick I grabbed my chair arms, and thought about swimming. How the hell I was going to swim with a chair. I quit trying to solve that problem and blurted out, "Warn a fellow, won't you."

  Molly said, "Sorry, I didn't allow for your recognition time."

  "Now I'm an idiot. Oh, forget it. Let's do a three-sixty to the right and see what's to be learned."

  She complied. From my experience I started picking out ingress routes and force levels for each. When we were back to the sea I knew how it could be done. The main issue was how quick a disabling gas could be blown throughout the ship?

  Molly shut the projector off and said, "Three minutes, for the gas that is."

  "You're in my head?"

  "Yes. We've all seen what you've seen as you saw it. Except Captain Rafe, that is."

  Rafe said, "Seems my development has been slow. I have other qualifications though."

  We waited for him to list them. When he didn't, I cleared my throat and said, "I expect the combined experiences of all the fighters may indicate minor variances. When do we go, Rafe?"

  "Tomorrow night. We'll take this up 1000 tomorrow. Stand down schedule in effect until then."

  Worked for me. I headed for the kitchen and a six-pack out of the beverage cooler I'd discovered, asking, "Beer anyone?"

  I heard lots of affirmatives; so I figured I might as well throw a case, or five cases, in a tub with some ice, plan big.

  By the time I'd done that, put the tub on a cart, and returned with it to the table, the swimmers were out of the water sitting at my table. Lin had provided bath robes. Only trouble they were a bit short for an eight feet tall figure. Merele was hidden by hers. She'd taken a seat between the 'bear girls'. Well, that's what they were. I didn't say anything out loud. Having too much fun with my thoughts. Being careful to maintain eye contact I asked, "Do you two read minds also?"

  One answered, "Not so much word for word. More like impressions. But others of our race do have the full talent."

  Lin hurriedly stuck a beer bottle in her mouth. Evidently she enjoyed beer so much she bounced with joy.

  After everyone had a few Molly said, "Merele, can you think about the location of your people, in as much detail as you can."

  Merele became reflective. After a while Molly said, "Warning Tom. You're going to sea again."

  We did. We saw an inlet about a K from our position. There were houses on the West side of it. About two K to the East, at the side of the representation, was the bay we'd viewed earlier.

  Molly said, "This is not in real time. It's from Merle's mind. We don't want to go real time until just before the attack. Small, but existence, chance of detection."

  Merle said, "There are two roads going into the interior that go up from the rear of the houses. They're steep, slow going. Best to remove us by sea. Maybe under the sea, if that could be done. We have covered boathouses, near the front there. Depth is approximately 10 meters depending on the tide."

  Lin broke in, "Any sub I could request wouldn't meet the time frame. How can you get all the people into the boathouses at the right time?" />
  "Everybody helps with unloading a big catch. The children are taken there also to be watched in the nursery. All usual happenings. Also I can send a message. Not everyone can hear, but enough can so that I'd be listened to. Especially since I'm dead. We think death brings wisdom. Do all of you think that too?"

  I went for another case. It was going to be a long discussion. Molly left the view on. I learned to walk on water, so early in the night yet.

  We broke up about midnight. There had been a long discussion about reborn. It didn't seem to bring any deep wisdom, cut out a lot of worries though, nice. The bear girls took sleeping rolls out of a back-pack on their suits and slept next to them. I went to sleep imagining I was a suit, and how nicely I would rub them all over.

  The next morning smells of frying meat persuaded me to heave to. Evidently some discussion had resulted in the fact that this place might not be defended, rather, abandoned after this operation. So an attempt was being made to eat all of the frozen goods for breakfast. I helped as much as possible. Rafe's fighters rotated between the mess line and the main hanger where war games were going on. About noon finalization was achieved. After that the troops had their chances in the pool. I began to question what role Lin and I could play.

  Finally Rafe and Molly sat down for lunch and I asked, "What can I add to the plan?"

  Rafe looked puzzled, "I didn't, did I? I didn't tell you your place, yours, and Lin's, but I kept putting it off. You two are in charge of Artillery and battlefield oversight and Air Cover. I don't care who does what. As we advance pockets of resistance will develop. You shoot a rocket and they go away. The system's based on the viewer. It's almost automatic but I want a human hand on the launch stud. Some call me old fashioned. As to air cover, if it isn't friendly, and doesn't warn away the first time, shoot it down. Molly will explain the equipment, might take fifteen minutes to learn both systems. Merle's coming with us, specifically the extraction teams, which will be coming in from the sea."

  I asked, "What level of resistance are you expecting?"