by Mark Wandrey
Dolan looked up from the medical slate and grinned. He pulled a smaller slate from his thigh pocket and clicked on it a couple times before handing it to Murdock. “I found this.”
Murdock examined the image for a minute, then shrugged. “A couple of crusty old industrial buildings?”
Dolan got a sly look on his face as he reached over and made some gestures on the slate, creating an outline. An inset window popped up showing an AetherNet entry for what he’d outlined. “Not a building,” he said, “not at all.”
“What…” Murdock started to say, his mind struggling to come to grips with the scale of what he was seeing. Dolan again accommodated him and changed the image’s aspect ratio. “Oh,” he said, “oh, shit!”
“Yup,” Dolan said. Dandridge leaned over and looked, his eyes getting wide.
“I don’t understand,” Murdock said, “how is something like that just sitting there?”
“They didn’t need it anymore.” Dolan said, “Thus it was simply abandoned.” He shrugged. “Maybe someone planned to move it someday, who knows. The fact is, it’s here.”
“You can get it going?”
“Already checked,” he said. “There are just a couple issues.” He explained the details.
“Seems like small odds to get any of what we need,” Greenstein said, having listened in and being the only expert on the subject.
“I know,” Dolan said, “but it was worth checking. Maybe lightning will strike.”
Later, Murdock went into the sleeping quarters, stripped, and headed into their shower room. Greenstein had gotten the accumulator circuit working, and they had hot water. It gave them some luxuries few enjoyed in Atlantis anymore.
He stashed the partially smoked cigar by his bunk and climbed into the shower. He let the hot, stinging water massage his ravaged body. Once the crab goo was washed off, he climbed out and examined himself in the mirror. He had some of his old merc muscle tone back, at least, although his back was a mass of ugly black bruises, and he had a couple on his arms and shoulder, too. The scar tissue on the bullet wound at his hip was an angry shade of red. He sighed.
“You look like shit.” Murdock turned around and saw Mika standing by the door, a steaming cup of tea in both hands. “Thought you might want something warm to drink.” She looked him up and down, pausing at his waist, a slight grin on her face. “You’ve lost your little paunch.”
“Where is everyone else?” he asked.
“Busy,” she said, and set the tea on a bench.
Murdock grunted and used his towel to finish drying his hair. When he looked back, she was naked. Oh, fuck. “Mika, what are you doing?”
“I would think that’s obvious,” she said and walked over to him.
He admired the sway of her breasts, and her personal grooming habits. For almost sixty, she looked a lot better than he’d looked then, and a lot more desirable. Like the rest of them, the low-calorie diet and hard work had gotten her into lean shape. His logical mind screamed escape and evade, while his instinctive male side grinned and said cover me, I’m going in.
“It is obvious,” he said as she stopped right in front of him and put a hand on his hairy chest, running it down over his now taut stomach muscles. “You also know I’m involved.”
“Hmm,” she said, looking down at his growing excited state. It wasn’t far for her hand to stray down to it.
“God damn it, Mika—” She cut him off by putting her arms around his neck and kissing him. His lips parted of their own accord, and his arms went around her waist, hand cupping her firm backside. Oh, fuck me, his mind spoke, failing to get the irony of his own thoughts. Their mouths parted, and other parts joined.
Sometime later Mika took his place in the shower, an extremely satisfied grin on her face. Murdock was cursing himself despite how relieved he felt. “What was that all about?” he asked from the bench where all the fun had just occurred.
“Sex,” she said with a laugh in her voice.
“No shit,” he said, “but why now? Damn it, you’ve been teasing me for weeks, and you jump me now?”
“The heist was successful, and you got the credits,” she said. “Now you’re going to go get the guns. We’ll have the opportunity to take out the alien mercs.”
“Goes without saying.”
She stuck her head out of the shower, the look on her face no longer amused; it was deadly serious. “We’ve both been in the shit, Murdock. I like you, a lot, and didn’t want to get my ticket punched without fucking you at least once. Don’t worry, your woman can have you back when it’s all done.” She disappeared back in the shower before he had time to reply.
He sighed. Not because he was upset anymore, because it made sense. He got up and slid into the shower behind Mika. She glanced over her shoulder as he came in, a questioning look on her face. Glad his vigor wasn’t as exhausted as his warrior spirit, he pushed against her shapely behind.
“Hmmm,” she said as she worked against him. “What should I do about that?”
“Just shut up and enjoy the ride,” he grumbled.
* * *
When Murdock walked back into the meeting area of the hideout, a couple of the men looked up. Greenstein looked at him a little longer than the others. After a long second, he gave Murdock a nod of understanding. He let his breath out. It could have gone a lot worse. Mika was at the table sipping her rewarmed tea and carefully not looking at him. Of the others, only Ripper gave him a little wink. Great, he thought, just what we need.
Most Human merc units were integrated to one degree or another. While fraternization was impossible to avoid, units universally forbade it between officers and their direct chain of command. What they had was by no means a traditional unit, but still, such activity could cause problems, especially since Mika was the only woman, and he was the commander.
He decided to just ignore it and hope there was no serious damage to his improvised merc unit. “I want to start preparations to mobilize the irregulars.” Irregulars was what they called the civilians willing and able to fight. Now everyone looked at him and nodded. “Do we have a total on the money?”
Dod and Kelso were sitting at a small card table next to the little autochef. Between them were various stacks of standard Union credit chits, a small bowl, and a box. Kelso spoke up.
“We have just over two hundred thousand hard credits,” he said. Several people whistled.
“Not bad,” Murdock said and smiled. More than enough for the weapons and armor he’d outlined at the BBW.
“There’s more,” Dod said, reached into the little bowl, and fished out a sparkling red gem.
“Holy shit!” Murdock said. “A red diamond?”
“Not a red diamond,” Dod said and picked up the bowl. He poured out the contents into his hand to reveal a half dozen or more.
“Any idea how big?” Murdock asked. Several people shook their heads.
“No clue,” Tully volunteered. “We’re not sure if they’re real.” He took one and held it up in front of a glow cube. It threw a rainbow of red-tinted light. “I’d guess more than a karat.”
“I saw a million-credit chit once,” Mika said, shaking her head. “The diamond in the center has a radiolitic light source so it glows all the time.” She pointed at the one Tully was admiring. “That diamond was smaller than this one.”
“Where the fuck did the HecSha find these?” Murdock wondered aloud. Nobody had any idea. Valais was a prosperous colony, especially for its size, but there was no way someone would have raw diamonds lying where the alien mercs could find them. “Well, stash them someplace safe for now,” he said, pointing at Dandridge to do the deed. “They might not be real, but why take a chance?” Dandridge nodded and gathered up the diamonds. Murdock could see the look on the man’s face; he already had a plan.
Murdock walked over and admired the piles of credit chits, then got a worn-looking backpack and began loading it. Since most of the chits were in denominations of less than a hundred,
it was quite a pile. When he’d finished, he noticed the box again. “What’s in there?” he wondered.
“No clue,” Dod said, Kelso shrugging as well.
Murdock reached inside and found it full of glass cylinders. Each was about twenty centimeters long by four wide, with metallic caps on each end and a little fitting on one of them. All appeared empty and only weighed about half a kilo each. He held one up to the same glow cube and could see it gave off a slightly silver glint he assumed was from the glass. He was tapping the cylinder with a finger to guess how thick it was when Greenstein got a look at it.
The other merc looked at the cylinder for a second and then did a comic doubletake. “Where the fuck did you get that?” he asked.
“They were in a couple of the bags of loot we grabbed,” Dandridge said, looking at one himself. “You know what they are?”
“Bet your ass I do,” Greenstein said and crossed to the box, taking one out and examining it like he was holding a very valuable statue or unexploded ordnance. “Remember what Dolan found, and how you said lightning might strike?” He held up the cylinder and told them what it contained. Lightning had just struck.
* * *
“Welcome back to BBW Outfitters, Unlimited, Mr. Murdock,” the ACSP named Red said as he entered. Coming in broad daylight was a risk he’d decided to take. They needed to move forward immediately. Screwing Mika twice in the shower had also given him a much-needed boost to his energy level. It hadn’t caused a lot of guilt either, something that both surprised and annoyed him at the same time. The beautiful Tri-V was a distraction, at least.
“Hey, Red,” he said and nodded. “How’s tricks?”
“I’m afraid I’m not programmed to respond in that manner.”
Murdock saw some movement and looked up in surprise. For a moment he was afraid there was a damned HecSha in the shop and his hand swept to the handle of his pistol.
“Easy, cowboy,” the man said, stepping into one of the circles of light over the virtual gun cabinets.
“Well, if it isn’t Wil Canaday,” Murdock said. “Funny meeting you here.”
“Poking around again?” Canaday asked.
“Just a customer,” Murdock replied. He looked around, glancing at the patiently waiting Tri-V woman. “Quite the operation you got here.”
“Thanks,” Canaday said and nodded his head. “We find it adequate.”
“Who is we?” Murdock asked.
“Oh, just the imperial ‘We,’” the brown-haired man said with a sly grin. “What can we do for you today?”
“I laid out the details of an order a few days ago?”
Canaday glanced at the Tri-V of Red. She nodded and another display appeared with the details. The man examined it and gave an appraising nod of his head. “Respectable arsenal,” he said.
“Is it all still available?” Murdock asked.
“Naturally,” Canaday said. “If you have the 169,470 credits, of course.” Murdock pulled the backpack off and slid the zipper open. Canaday gave a low whistle. “Impressive,” he said. “Well, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Red.”
Murdock watched as Canaday walked to a side wall. A second before he reached it a door appeared and slid aside for him. The man stepped through into a darkened space beyond, and the door slid closed behind him.
“Impressive indeed,” Murdock said, then turned to the patiently smiling Tri-V. “Well, Red, I’d like to complete our order.”
The ACSP’s smile became much more pronounced. “Certainly, Mr. Murdock. Let’s get to work on it, shall we?”
* * * * *
Chapter Eight
Murdock was annoyed as he moved through the rainy evening. Annoyed because he was late for his own meeting. He’d been going over some details on Dolan’s pet project and lost track of time. He’d gone out late the previous night and done his own recon and had to admit Dolan was right. When he realized he was going to be late, he’d sent Ripper and Tully, who’d both volunteered, to go ahead without him and start the meeting. But still, he hated being late to his own meeting.
“How much further?” he asked Dandridge. They were both armed with light weapons, but no armor. Murdock felt incredibly exposed. The feeling of unease he’d felt when Ripper and Tully had left without him were growing by the minute.
“Just around this corner,” Dandridge said.
Murdock came to a stop and looked. With the gloom and the driving sleet, he couldn’t see anything more than a dim outline. The colony’s fusion plant was running at low output because the aliens were interdicting the system. No commerce meant no way to get vital materials for the fusion plant. Of course, that explained the box of cylinders they had in their headquarters.
Murdock understood they’d used wind and solar back when only a few thousand people lived on Valais. There was no way those sources would suffice now. The other problem was, with no fish going out, no money was coming in. The end effect was no streetlights and precious few lights in residences either. With winter arriving, it was not a good situation.
“What’s wrong?” Dandridge asked after Murdock didn’t move.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Just a feeling.”
“Oh, shit,” Dandridge said, “good or bad?”
“Bad.”
They waited in the sleet for ten minutes, the two men getting steadily colder. It was long enough Murdock began to doubt his own feelings. There was no sign of anything out of sorts. In fact, there was no sign of anyone at all. A couple of big fat white flakes fell past his nose.
“Where’s the lookout?” Murdock asked. “Shouldn’t he be right there?” He pointed to a balcony across the street from the now-abandoned school.
Dandridge dug into the thigh pouch of his pants and pulled out a pair of night vision goggles. “Nothing there,” Dandridge said after scanning the area. “Your feelings were right, we’ve got a problem.” As the sleet changed to a heavy snow, the pair fell back into the dark and Murdock let Dandridge maneuver them around to another side, where the former spec-ops merc used the goggles again.
“Damn me if I can see a fucking thing,” Dandridge said after giving it a good look. “The lookout isn’t there. I don’t see anything else, either.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t,” Murdock said, “not with those shitty goggles.” Dandridge looked at him curiously. “The dinosaurs aren’t quite cold blooded, like the Xiq’tal, but their body temp is low enough to make them hard to spot, even with military night vision.” He shook his head and cursed. “Those thick hides help conceal them better. They’re stealthy for their size.” He spat under his breath and fished out his slate. The wireless connection wasn’t as traceable as a radio.
He clicked the connection with Vince and spoke quietly into his translator. “Kid, you there?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” the boy responded right away.
Murdock heaved a sigh of relief. “Where are you?”
“Over by the starport, watching the dinos.”
Murdock had been sure the kid would be watching the meeting place. He was a hands-on kind of person, a trait that made for a good merc commander. Just then, Murdock was grateful the boy hadn’t been at the meeting place. It seemed all but certain something had gone terribly wrong. “Fuck me,” he said and pulled his sidearm while speaking into the link again. “Something’s not right here at the meeting. Your cubs are missing; I think we have a situation.”
“I’m coming,” Vince said.
“No you are not.”
“But, sir—”
“Don’t you ‘but sir’ me, mister. You stay put. You have eyes on the aliens’ barracks?”
“Yes, sir,” Vince replied, his voice sounding grumpy.
“What kind of movement’s going on there?”
“Real quiet,” Vince replied. “They should have sent a squad to the detention center an hour ago; it didn’t leave.”
“How many are there now?” Murdock asked.
“Maybe two squads.”
&
nbsp; Shit, Murdock thought, most of them aren’t there. “Did a big group leave earlier tonight?”
“No, but several smaller ones did every half hour or so.”
They know they’re being watched, he thought, then spoke. “Pull back from your normal recon locations. I think they know you’re watching them. Try to keep an eye there, tell us when they get back.”
“Okay, sure, I…” the kid trailed off and Murdock tensed.
I’m getting too invested, Murdock thought.
“Murdock,” Vince called.
“Yeah, kid,” he said, carefully keeping his voce even.
“A whole bunch just came back. Looks like all eight squads.”
“All at once?”
“Yeah,” the kid replied. “They look like they’re excited about something.”
Murdock cursed and jumped up, pocketing the slate as he jogged. Dandridge fell in behind him without comment. It wasn’t hard to keep up with Murdock, his hip kept him from breaking into a real run, and he was still beat to shit after the fight with the king crab. Instead he loped along as fast as he could with the spryer man close behind. Both cradled their sidearms and kept as low as they could.
“Kid says the alien troopers just returned,” Murdock said as they moved. “Looks like they’re happy about something.”
“HecSha are only happy about carnage,” Dandridge said. Murdock nodded. Together they approached the school from a side entrance. They stopped on the other side of the street and took a long minute to check. Dandridge wiped snow from his goggles and scanned for any heat signatures, while Murdock used his slate to look for any surveillance or drones, shielding it from the snow with his body. Nothing.
The two men moved across the street, approaching the door. As they reached it, they saw it was already open.
“Fuck,” Murdock hissed as they fetched up against the wall next to the door. He took his own pair of night vision goggles out and slipped them over his eyes, setting them to record. Dandridge hadn’t removed his own; they dangled around his neck. The other man pulled his up as Murdock snapped a view around the corner. A body was lying just inside, its heat signature only slightly above the surrounding floor. “One down.” he whispered, “Going in.”