by Mel Odom
“Yes sir.”
Halladay’s expression turned grim. “And something else to remember, people. Until you get me the proof that DawnStar is involved in a criminal enterprise, I can’t help you. If you’re caught on-site there, you’re felons, and they won’t keep you alive to try you. They’ll want to make an example of you.”
Sage nodded. “Understood, sir, but once we turn the tables on them, we’ve got leverage.”
The Cer’ardu Heights
140 Klicks West of Makaum
0117 Hours Zulu Time
Clad in his combat suit and hidden in a cleft of rock above the black-market drug factory, Sage scoped out the operation. Sneys had told Sage the operation was big, and that it was a clearinghouse for raw materials necessary for processing the drugs in the various smaller labs scattered throughout the jungle.
Most of the complex—and Sage was comfortable thinking of the operation as that because there were a number of prefab plascrete buildings scattered over the site—remained underground. The prefab construction served mainly to control access to the natural underground caverns.
The cursory geological surveys that had been done on the region by the Terran Explorer Division, responsible for mapping out the planet, had given considerable information on the cave systems. Although the initial decision to put Fort York close to Makaum City had never wavered, a number of fallback positions had been designated in the event of Phrenorian aggression.
The Cer’ardu Heights had been in the top ten of those positions. Gazing on the area now through nightvision magnification, Sage understood why the place had gotten such a high rating. He wondered if DawnStar had found the site themselves or if they had discovered it on their own with one of their off-books pharmaceutical teams surveying the planet.
Sage pushed the question aside because it didn’t really matter. What he had to do now was get his team inside the installation, get Murad somewhere close to the computers that ran operations, and let the lieutenant gather the intel they needed to rain Terran Army down from space.
Secmen patrolled the darkness below, all of them dressed in combat hardsuits with camo capabilities and nightvision. Their communications were sporadic and heavily encrypted. So far the capture prog software Murad had in his bag of tricks hadn’t been able to penetrate the encryption.
In addition to the lieutenant and Kiwanuka, Sage had brought in the eight fireteams they had been operating with on the covert missions. Six of those fireteams had dug in a klick away to the north, higher up in the mountains, and were awaiting orders. They’d been armed with powersuits and light artillery to provide suppressive fire in the event of a forced retreat. If things went as planned, and the order for the assault was given, they were supposed to create a backdoor for the insertion team or provide confusion until the heavy troops arrived.
Two of the fireteams were close in, ready to offer immediate support if they had to. But only if it would do any good. If the probe team got busted during the insertion phase, they had orders to stand down and withdraw.
Sage turned from his observation post and faced Murad and Kiwanuka. “Let’s get this done.”
Kiwanuka looked at him, her face barely visible through the faceshield of her helmet. “I don’t like being left out here. I could go with you.”
Sage shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of giving up a sniper just to put her inside a situation she could help me get out of. If this goes sideways, if there’s a chance I can get out of there, I want you watching my back.”
She nodded. “I understand. Just make sure you get back out.”
“Roger that.” Sage shifted his attention to Murad. “These drones are all automated? All I have to do is deliver them to a comm access point?” His backpack contained a dozen different flying drones equipped with hijacking progs and burst satellite uplink capabilities.
“They’re ready to go, Top.” Murad seemed a little tense. His vitals were elevated. “I could still come with you to ensure the tech works the way it’s supposed to.”
“No, sir. The platoon leader stays with the soldiers to take care of the situation. That’s why sergeants were made.”
“Good luck, Sergeant.” Murad offered his hand.
“Thank you, sir.” Staying low, Sage went down the mountain.
Dhanvantari Point
0138 Hours Zulu Time
Velesko Kos clambered out of the crawler he’d just spent the last three hours rattling around in. He hated the necessity of ground travel to arrive at the hidden complex, but the operation was under his protection. DawnStar had been adamant about that. Granted, the assignment had its own perks. He got a percentage of the profits, not just a straight salary, which was better than any other contract he’d gotten from the corp in the past.
DawnStar wanted a motivated security chief for the ops on Makaum. In the beginning, the arrangement had been more than satisfactory. Kos had been making more profits than he had in twelve years of being associated with DawnStar. Makaum had turned into a good deal for him.
Now, though, with the losses inflicted by the Terran military’s new sergeant, Kos was currently making less profit than he had in those twelve years. As he’d come to discover, when the losses had to be covered by DawnStar, the corp also took debits out of his accounts.
Even as Kos swept the entrance of the hidden complex with his gaze, his thoughts were centered on Terran Army Master Sergeant Frank Sage. Kos wanted the man dead for several reasons now, not just for the confrontation at the club. Sage and his team were cutting into the drug profits.
However, DawnStar had not yet sanctioned direct action against the sergeant. That was coming, though. Kos was certain of that, and he was going to tend to the matter himself when the time came.
Covered in the hardsuit, nightvision systems on, Kos strode from the dust-covered crawler toward the complex’s main entry area. DawnStar had listed the site as Dhanvantari Point, naming it after the Hindu physician to the gods. Corps were like that, always insisting on naming things.
If Kos had been in charge of the site, it wouldn’t have had a name. No name meant no one talked about it. No one talking about it meant no one ever found out about it.
So far, Sage’s jungle raids hadn’t come near the site. The location had been chosen because not even the Makaum hunters frequented the area. Saber spiders lived there in heavy numbers, making the Cer’ardu Heights one of the most dangerous regions on the planet.
Kos’s comm crackled in his ear. The heavily encrypted equipment was another nuisance. This far out, the encryption became problematic and bogged down the cyberware. The constant feedback gave him headaches. He didn’t like coming out to the site, but he did so once a month just to crack the whip. Security only ran smoothly if the head of operations showed up when expected, and also unexpectedly.
This was one of those unexpected times, and Kos hated the fact that the visit wasn’t prompted as much by wanting to keep his sec team on their toes as by his wanting to make certain everything there was going well. Days had passed since Sage’s last foray into the jungle. Profits from drugs were still down, and sales onplanet were dropping because the street prices had gone up. Kos had been in favor of using DawnStar’s deeper pockets to keep the product prices low and drive out the independent agencies, especially the domestic efforts that had sprung up, but DawnStar’s board of directors hadn’t gone along with the idea.
The board was good with playing the long game against other corps, playing price wars and withholding stock to make competitors exhaust their own resources, when it came to standard profits. But when it came to illegal profits, DawnStar execs wanted that steady flow of credit filling their coffers.
Makaum was a gold mine. The board just couldn’t see it. If they were able to lock up the planet’s natural resources, control the drug trade on- and going offplanet, they could have had a monopoly.
Kos had almost gotten board members to go for a coup on the drug trade, except that Sage’s delivery of Andre
sik’s corpse in the club had triggered an unexpected reaction on the part of the Phrenorians. No one knew why Captain Zhoh GhiCemid had backed Sage that night, and everyone expected Kos to decipher it. Worse than that, the board blamed Kos for the sudden interest by the Phrenorians. The Sting-Tails had been making inroads with one of the Makaum political factions. Especially after the humanitarian aid the Phrenorians had exhibited during the fire in the sprawl.
AGITATED AND SEETHING, Kos wanted to go rattle the cages inside the complex, make the lower echelons scurry, and see the fear in their eyes—and then he wanted a tall drink and the company of some of the women they kept on-site to service the sec squads.
The comm crackled again, but this time a message printed out on the inside of his faceshield:
WE STILL HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO FIND SNEYS. EVERYTHING SEEMS OKAY AT HIS HOME, BUT THE DOMESTIC STAFF ACTS NERVOUS.
Kos wasn’t surprised the domestics at the merchant’s home were acting tense around the sec team he’d sent to investigate Sneys’s silence that day. They were intimidating people. That was what he’d hired them for.
Sneys was a different matter, though. The man was petty and greedy, qualities that Kos knew on a personal level how to work with. He had managed and manipulated Sneys since the first day they’d met.
WHAT DOES THE HOUSE STAFF SAY ABOUT HIS ABSENCE?
THEY’RE NOT HERE EITHER.
Kos was certain something had happened. Sneys wasn’t a clever mastermind by any stretch of the imagination. But the man could be bought too.
CONTINUE YOUR INVESTIGATION. FIND SNEYS.
YES SIR.
At the sec door built into the prefab building, which looked like a fungal growth clinging to the side of the mountain, Kos took off his glove and waved his hand in front of the biometric scanner. The sec system cycled and the airtight door slid open.
Two guards in heavy armor stood inside. They acknowledged him with nods but kept their rifles at the ready. Kos passed between them and took the elevator down thirty feet to the secondary security checkpoint.
He passed through that, lifting his faceshield for the first time, and gazed out at the main cavern, where the bulk of the offplanet chemicals were kept awaiting delivery to satellite sites. All the barrels and crates stood neat and organized on a stone floor that had been resurfaced with mining lasers. The rock that had been removed to enlarge the cavern had been used to shore up defenses in other areas, making the reinforced areas look like part of the natural terrain.
“Good evening, Mr. Kos,” a pleasant voice said.
Kos turned and found Frantisek Dubchek bearing down on him, flanked by two heavily cybered sec guards. Kos returned the greeting and meant it. He and Dubchek went back even further than the current relationship with DawnStar. Dubchek had never had a qualm about killing whoever Kos told him to whenever the order was given.
Dubchek stood tall and lanky, and his face appeared baby smooth and much younger than he really was. Over the years of their association, Dubchek had done everything Kos had asked him to do no matter how dangerous that had been. The man had nearly been killed several times, and his face had been reconstructed a lot. Kos couldn’t remember what the man had originally looked like, but the features that Dubchek wore now looked alien and artificial because they were so perfect.
“Everything is running well,” Dubchek stated. “We have your quarters ready for you.”
“Good.”
“You’re actually in for a treat. The outer perimeter guards caught a group of Makaum hunters getting too close to the Point. The guards attacked them, killing some of them, and managed to capture some of the women. Once I heard you had arrived, I took the liberty of sending for one of the girls taken captive so that you might enjoy her.”
Kos nodded but didn’t say anything. Although he would not have admitted it, tonight was a night he looked forward to violent pursuits, and the possibility of sharing them with someone not as seasoned as one of the paid women was pleasing. He wanted to break someone, to hear them cry out in pain, and allow the frustration he felt to be given voice.
The suite of rooms was kept for Kos. No one else went there. He stepped into the closet space and the automated valet stripped the combat armor from him, leaving him naked. He pulled on a robe.
Dubchek stood at the wet bar and poured them both a drink. He handed a glass to Kos and asked, “Will you want to go over any of the reports now?”
Kos shook his head. “No. Sometime tomorrow will be fine. How are the supplies doing?”
Dubchek frowned, and the expression looked strangely out of place on that angelic face. “We are stockpiling chemicals at the moment, due to the loss of the satellite manufacturing sites. We are attempting to develop replacement operations, but—given the pressure and scrutiny we’re under—we’re proceeding slowly so our efforts here aren’t compromised.”
“We’ve got to move faster. Nature abhors a vacuum. If we don’t get manufacturers to meet the demands for the drugs, the locals or the offplanet independents will take up the slack.”
“Agreed. I’ve been developing more personnel connections. I’ve even taken the liberty of contacting Miroslav to pull in some of his drug designers. They may not be as savvy regarding the local flora and fauna, but they’re fast learners and we already have a number of products they can simply take over the manufacture of.”
“Good.” The choice was good. They had worked with Miroslav before. The man would cut himself in for a piece of the action, but that could be tolerated for the moment. And they had several designer drugs that had good markets on- and offworld.
The door pinged, announcing the arrival of visitors.
Dubchek put his glass on the bar. “That will be your entertainment.” He went to the door and returned with a young woman dressed only in a silky gown.
Kos studied her, immediately drawn to her youth and vitality, and the aggressive tilt of her chin. She couldn’t hide the fear that filled her, though, and lent an even sharper edge to the hunger that vibrated through him. She thought she was strong enough to resist him, and that made him desire her even more.
Then he realized he had seen her before. She had been in the intel packet concerning Sergeant Terracina. The girl belonged to one of the Makaum hunting bands that had given the sergeant information about the drug labs. She hung around the young Makaum scout who had become so interested in Sage.
Kos’s eyes narrowed as he captured her chin in his hand. “I know you.”
She yanked her face away from him. Before she could complete the action, though, Kos backhanded her and knocked her to the ground. She caught herself on her hands, barely keeping her face from smashing into the floor as she rested on her knees.
Kos hunkered down beside her and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her face back up to look at him. Tears swam in her widened eyes. “Tell me your name, girl.”
For a moment, pride held her silent, but the fear was too much. She answered in a trembling voice. “Noojin.”
THIRTY-TWO
The Cer’ardu Heights
140 Klicks West of Makaum
0147 Hours Zulu Time
You cannot go down into that place. They will kill you.”
As he gazed down on the hidden installation and felt the fear and loss and the pain swelling up in him, Jahup listened to Lyem’s argument and knew that what his companion said was true, but he could not agree. “Noojin is alive, Lyem. I cannot leave her.”
The offworlders had taken Noojin alive. When he’d passed out, thinking that he was dying, Jahup had seen the offworlder sec man laughing with his companion as he threw Noojin’s unconscious body over his shoulder and carried her away.
At least, Jahup told himself, Noojin had been unconscious and not dead. She could not be dead. He would not believe that. He had trailed after them in the direction they had gone, afraid that he would find her body, and terrified that they would keep her prisoner.
Lyem cursed in the darkness and called Jahup all ma
nner of a fool. “Even if she is alive, Jahup, they will kill you. And what use will you be of to Noojin then?”
Jahup did not try to answer that question. That would have meant admitting the answer might exist. No, Noojin lived, and he knew he had to find some way to free her. The horrible stories of what the offworlders did to captured women ran through his head.
These men were as predatory as a kifrik or a khrelav. They deserved to be killed as such too.
Looking down on the prefab buildings almost hidden in the rough mountainside, Jahup thought desperately, trying to figure out some means of getting inside the underground complex. Noojin was in trouble because of him. They had been arguing over the Terran sergeant again, even though Jahup had deliberately taken them deep into the Cer’ardu Heights in order not to cross paths with the Terrans, and Jahup had missed the warning signs of the drug traffickers in the area until after they had opened fire.
Most of Jahup’s band had scattered, miraculously alive, but they had left three dead behind. One of them had been Oesta, who had been almost like a brother to Jahup. Noojin and two other girls had been taken. Jahup blinked his eyes and willed himself to be strong, forcing himself to believe that Noojin would be fine and that there was time for him to rescue her.
“Perhaps we can return with other hunters,” Lyem suggested. “Jahup, it is worth trying.”
Jahup wouldn’t let himself be fooled. They were at the least five days’ hard travel from Makaum City by foot. Other hunters, if they came at all, wouldn’t risk using crawlers because they would easily be detected. So that would mean another five days’ travel back to this site. That time didn’t even include the delay that convincing others to accompany them to attack an offworlder site protected by heavy weapons would take.
If he could convince anyone at all.
And during that time Noojin would be subjected to horrible things that Jahup did not wish to contemplate, but could not keep from his mind either.
“They will not come,” Jahup said. “They will not stand against these offworlders for fear of being killed.”