Archangel waved at the newcomer. "This is Tank. He's heavy weapons. We trained together."
"You've only introduced us now?" Zen asked.
"He has only recently been assigned to this division."
Tank sat down. He had three bowls of oatmeal, two bowls of fruit, and plates of turkey sausage links spread between two trays. "I've been stationed in New York for years."
It went across the intercom. Nancy's voice, "Bear's team to the main conference room after breakfast."
Bear's team? Was Mercury in retrograde or something? Shouldn't I get a pay boost if I was in charge? Tank did not eat slow or fast, simply efficiently. He would take large bites and chew in uniform number.
Zen finished first. "My man prefers hemp rope over nylon."
"Damn it, woman!" Ben shouted, but he had a wide grin plastered on his face.
"I like leather," Tank said.
Archangel's eyes jacked open and turned on his friend. "I'm getting married next week, and we're not going to need hemp rope, nylon, or leather."
"Sometimes handcuffs are best anyhow," Jet said.
Wait, Jet said? I looked at my well-tanned and lean Asian friend. What the Cthulhu are they talking about this stuff for?
"Bear has a bed sheet that has been ripped in half he uses," Xeon said. "The cotton is comfortable enough, and I can wiggle loose and escape if he has a heart attack."
My brain was already shut down. All of this was too much for me. I stood up and dumped my tray. Xeon followed and hugged me around the midsection. She just told this huge lie to my team, but I was still processing that information.
I thought to go for a run, or maybe start porking Xeon right there in the cafeteria. Main conference room after breakfast.
I went there and waited. Two men a little younger than me showed up. They were both fit and trim like Agency guys. One of them had black hair, tan skin, and smooth curves to his face. I figured Spanish or Mexican. Maybe even Native American. Not that it mattered. He extended his hand and said, "I'm Einstein."
"I'm Bear. Are you really smart?"
Xeon smiled and waved. "I'm Xeon."
The second new guy said, "He's an idiot. Random name generators. I got GeoSix."
I shook hands with GeoSix. He had the same tan skin as Einstein, and black hair, but the lines in his face were straight and hard, and I immediately thought Middle Eastern. They did not have foreign accents. Like they were born in America.
Nancy stepped into the room. "The Chor'Tan computers have not arrived, and this conference has a twelve-year-old computer in it. I'm early to get it started booting."
She pushed a button, and massive loud fans whirred to life. I mean compared to a twenty or thirty-year-old computer they were not loud, but they were loud compared to a silent modern computer.
She pointed at me. "You've introduced each other? Einstein and GeoSix are joining your team."
Are they fucking sane, because after the conversation at breakfast, I'd be happier if they were sane.
"We've said hello," I said.
GeoSix sighed just a bit. "They never serve Greek food in the cafeteria."
"That's a legit complaint," Nancy said. "Our chefs focus on healthy local options. While ethnic food can be healthy a lot of the time, it's simply not something our cooking staff studies for or buys supplies for."
The clunky computer started to get quiet, and I wasn't sure if it was just done booting or dying on the spot. The rest of the team showed up, including Ben and Tank.
Nancy cleared her throat. "I'd like to start with the fact that Bear is being officially promoted to team leader. If you have questions or problems or anything to talk about, he is officially next in command with the exception of Sphinx. If you need to go over Bear, go to Sphinx or me."
People started clapping a bit, and the blood rushed to my face causing a nice warm sensation. I motioned with my hands to quiet them down.
"I think the computer is booted." Nancy sat down at the terminal and clicked away on the mouse. "Wait for it. I'm bringing up some three-dimensional aerial photos." She glared at the computer like she was mentally threatening it with a hammer. An image appeared over the table.
The image was blurry at first, but it solidified. Fenced in compound, with three structures, including two simple steel structures, and one bigger five story tall cube of a building. A parking lot filled with 20-30 cars. A few big rigs were parked next to one of the bigger steel structures.
"There was a tracking device implanted in Ralan unknown to him," Nancy said. "We kept the knowledge out of the computers. Only a few people knew about it. The installation I'm showing you is one location that we tracked him to. He only spent a few hours here."
"What is it?" Einstein asked.
"All we know is there is no legal record of this place's construction or even the roads that lead to it. It doesn't exist as far as local and state governments are concerned. Your mission, after a week or so, to integrate new members and for Bear to heal, will be to search and destroy this compound. You'll be equipped to the gills. Stunners on your hip, 9mm in your armpit. Two WP grenades. Submachine guns. Helmets with breathers and halfway zipped jackets, so you reach your pistols. Heavy weapons will be using 7.76mm belt-fed guns."
I was getting kind of excited. "Prisoners?"
"We need information terribly. We need you to recover as many computers as humanly possible, and we need people to interrogate. This is a scorch and burn, too, so don't risk your lives to take captives."
Chapter Sixteen
"Let's take a closer look at this place," I said.
Nancy tossed me a 3D wand to move the picture. I spun the image round and zoomed in on a few places. "These sheds on each corner where the fences meet are likely power stations to charge the fence. It's electric, and I bet if we cut into it, it's going to set off an alarm."
Nobody said a word.
"I want Tank and Archangel stationed outside with rockets and rifles. Fire rockets at these two front-most sheds controlling the fences. Then the rest of us take two armored personnel carriers and punch through the fence at the gate.
"There are ten of us. Two groups of two go after the steel structures. A group of three goes in the back door of the cube structure. Jet, Enigma, and I go in the front of that structure."
"Bear's an idiot," Zen said.
"I think this is a good plan."
"The plan is solid. I just felt like calling you an idiot."
I should smack that bitch. I moved around the base again with my 3D wand. There was a helipad, but no helicopter.
"I don't want a steel structure," Einstein said. "I want in on the cube thing."
"Why?" GeoSix asked.
"To me, those steel structures look like storage places for explosives."
"Paranoid fucker."
"Ben and I will take a steel structure," Zen said.
Ben nodded.
"I will take the other structure with Xeon," Sphinx said.
Nancy smiled wide. "That leaves Einstein, Thomas, and GeoSix on the rear of the cube structure. This is satisfactory to me. Train in the danger room for at least a week."
Xeon and I went on a run after the meeting. I had yet to find a good place to hide from Bill. No matter where I was in the complex, he'd show up ready to work. The sessions were getting easier. Didn't feel like I was going to black out or anything anymore.
Danger room was two hours every other day. The computer randomized the elements inside the structures we had pictures of. I had kind of a sinking feeling that we were doomed. Doomed. No, I think I was just losing at too many video games lately. The team proved efficient in the danger room. Not the team, my team. Crazy.
I was in bed curled up with Xeon. I wanted to ask her about birth control. I didn't really think stopping and raising a family was a good fit with the Agency. She seemed so happy lately.
"Are you on birth control?" I asked.
She snuggled in closer to me and purred.
"I just
want to know," I said. "I'm not going to be angry or love you less no matter the answer."
"I love you."
I kissed her on the forehead.
"I quit the birth control," she said.
Ask her to marry you. Wait, who said that? We don't need to get married. I'll propose when the test comes back positive. For some reason, that whole train of thought got my dick hard again, and I made love slow and careful to Xeon.
A few days passed, and all twelve members of the team were having dinner. We pulled two tables together to make room for everybody.
Sphinx was sitting next to GeoSix. She reached out and touched his hand. "Have you ever drank three bottles of Chor'Tan Ale?"
GeoSix smiled.
Thomas said, "Don't do it!"
"You should avoid that, GeoSix," I said.
GeoSix leaned in close and whispered in Sphinx's ear.
Sphinx laughed. "Oh, I can get the ale if you're willing."
"I've never tried it," GeoSix said, "but if a beautiful woman wants me to try it. I lost my virginity after a full liter of Ouzo."
"Let's do it tonight, before the mission."
"Unwise to drink right after eating. Let's watch a movie, then do it."
Sphinx kissed him real slow like on the lips. Their tongues danced for a few moments.
"Three bottles of Chor'Tan Ale?" Ben asked.
Zen licked her lips. "Sphinx, where are you getting the ale?"
"Kitchen has a few six packs, ice cold," she said.
"Oh God!" Thomas exclaimed.
Enigma said, "Better to do it before the mission versus after."
"Ussilla makes me do it every day," Jet said. "Especially now that Bear's offspring are showing such promise. I think it's the real reason they ended my retirement."
Einstein got up and left with an empty tray. Archangel and Tank left, too.
Enigma grabbed Thomas's hand. "Three bottles?"
"Hell no, woman. I'm too old for that."
"You're so physically fit, though. I bet you'd survive."
"I might survive. There are more important things than dying."
Since when were Enigma and Thomas fucking? I mean they kind of deserved each other.
"I'll do it the sober way, if you want," Thomas said.
"No," Enigma said, "three bottles or nothing."
"Then it's going to be nothing."
She let go of his hand and left.
Thomas shook his head. Sphinx and GeoSix were gone by then, too. Xeon and I got up and left next. Xeon said, "Movie?"
I pulled her in close. "Let's watch one of those old zombie movies."
"I hate zombie movies, and you know it."
"Watch one for me!"
She kissed me. "For you!"
Chapter Seventeen
I was at breakfast with the crew. It went across the intercom system. "Bear's team to conference room A."
We dumped our trays and headed there. Nancy pulled up a map of the structures we were going to hit. "There's an airship on the helipad, and it's time to strike."
"Today?" Einstein said.
"The clock is ticking."
We ran for the garage. We put down rubber. I was driving one truck, and the other Thomas was driving. The transport plane was big enough for both ground vehicles. Soon enough we were airborne on our way to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The target was 250 kilometers from the army base. The plan was to drive the armored personnel carriers there ourselves.
On landing, we loaded the APCs with our weapons and a stash of food bars for lunch. Thomas put a big cooler into his APC. Within fifteen minutes of landing the plane, we were on the road. Cornfield after cornfield with three-foot tall stalks growing in rows. We did about 120 kph the whole way there. Everyone was quiet. Had been since leaving Phoenix. The installation we were hitting was a big unknown, and my stomach felt like it was bleeding acid.
We turned down a dirt road. I stopped two hundred meters from the fence line. Archangel and Tank grabbed metal briefcases out of the truck. They pushed a button on those, and the cases transformed into one-meter tall platforms. Never seen anything quite like it--the whole thing just kind of unfolded out of itself.
"They aren't very sturdy, but they'll give us a better angle," Archangel said.
They set up. We punched the gas on the APCs and steered towards the fence line. Tank and Archangel launched the rockets when we were about fifty meters from the gate. The rockets were on target, and the shacks on the corners of the complex exploded in balls of fire and sparks.
The APCs drove over the fence, and we exited the vehicles with submachine guns in hand. The problem was people exited from the structures just as quickly. Some of them had rifles and fired at us.
I took aim and shot one in the chest. Jet was beside me, and the next thing I knew a blast of energy hit him in the belly, burning a fist-sized hole all the way through him. Damn blast rifles.
I gunned down the guy who shot Jet. Everybody on my team was returning fire, but the people coming out of those structures had more and more blast rifles. Another energy bolt cut down Einstein, and he screamed terribly. Enigma ran over to him. I was too focused on taking down enemies than wondering about friendly casualties.
We got the last of them. Bodies littered the field. We were super lucky to only lose two people. Fucking blast rifles. Those things are banned on Earth according to Interstellar Law.
I shouted, "Move!" And took off in a run towards the square structure that was my job to penetrate. Enigma was at my side.
Enigma pulled the door out of the way, and I hit my infrared sensors. There were heat signatures, but no motion. We stepped into the room. Enigma hit a light switch.
I shut off the infrared. Babies and kids in plastic encasements? What the fuck?
"They're cloning," Enigma said.
"Huh?"
"They're growing human bodies for spare parts for rich people."
That should be illegal. "Isn't that illegal?"
Enigma sighed. "It is. The clones created with this method are conscious."
Centurian doesn't care if it's illegal and having access to spare parts for cronies is a good motivator. Sucks.
In the distance, motion. But it was off to the side, not our guys.
"Go," Enigma said, "I need to figure out how to get these clones out of here."
I took off in a run. I stepped outside from a door I didn't know existed. A real life Razdoran was walking towards the airship on the helipad. Razdoran were the chief cause of all our problems with Centurian. We're not allowed to kill Razdoran.
I lined up his chest in my gun sights and fired on full auto. A slimy kind of glint of light, like you'd expect on a wet fish, flashed on the skin of the Razdoran. I kept firing. The Razdoran did not fall. He/she/it turned to face me. It was clearly a male. He stood over two meters tall, with two sets of arms, one tiny and the other huge. He had maroon skin and thick legs.
I fired at his skull, and he didn't even flinch. He ran up and grabbed me by the throat. I was picked up off the ground and thrown full force into the side of the building. It hurt badly. This fucker was going to kill me, and my guns were useless.
The Razdoran stood over me and laughed. My only thought was better both of us than just me. I reached into my pocket and hit the safety. The Razdoran picked me up in both of his hands.
I slammed the white phosphorous grenade into his skull. Boom. Fire. Pain. Darkness.
I floated for a long while. Spent some time reliving the videos of my Chor'Tan children. I had to be dead. Just floating. Blackness.
Chapter Eighteen
Dreams. Drifting. I was dead I knew it. The dreams were good, though. Never nightmares. I knew bliss.
Heart racing! Blood pumping.
"Bear!" Enigma. I wasn't dead.
I was in a regeneration chamber again.
"Look, Bear, you went into a Chor'Tan hibernation state. We pumped you full of Chor'Tan blood. Had to amputate and regrow your right arm at the elbow.
We just gave you a stimulant. If you understand me nod or something."
I clenched my fists.
"Awesome," Enigma said. "We're purging the chamber."
The fluid I was floating in drained away, and I was on my feet. The breathing mask I had been wearing disconnected itself automatically.
Enigma was standing there with a sandwich. I was hungrier than I'd been in my life. I took it and ate it.
"I have bad news," she said.
There were a few other technicians in the room, but I wondered where Xeon was. She would have been there.
"One," Enigma said, "you killed a Razdoran, and there's now a multi-million interstellar credit bounty on your head."
I kind of laughed at that.
She lowered her eyes. "Two, Ben is dead. He was on a mission, and there was an explosion. Xeon's on a mission right now."
No! Ben was a good man. Enigma said, "You need more food."
I heaved up the previous sandwich onto the floor. Made quite a mess.
Enigma grabbed me by the arm and lifted me up. "If you don't get some food in you, you're going to be in a bad way. Come on."
"I'm in a bad way already."
She pulled on me. Survival instinct kicked in, and I walked. They were serving breakfast, and the Chor'Tan food looked so good. I had the tongs in my hand to grab a few precious chunks, when Enigma slapped my hand and knocked the tongs out of them.
I made it through the food line. My team saw me. They got up and ran at me, smiling.
"Look at you!" Thomas said.
Zen leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "We weren't sure if you were going to wake up."
Enigma pushed past them, pulling on me. "He needs to eat, not talk to you assholes."
Archangel raised one eyebrow. "I'm not an asshole."
"You're the worst of the bunch, now make way."
I sat down at our table. The food tasted good, and I resisted the urge to puke it back up.
Codename: Bear II: Secret Agent (Codename Universe Book 2) Page 6