by Gary Weston
Boss said, ‘Well, he’s not with Commander Garfuncle. She left Raven two hours ago. I wonder what the hell he’s up to?’
‘I could page him again, Boss.’
‘No. Is he working on anything at the moment?’
‘Not that I’m aware of. Boss. Agent Raven. Is he always…?’
Boss nodded. ‘Pretty much. You’ll need to put your foot down with a firm hand, Miss Saltoe.’
‘So I see. Boss. I had this communication for Agent Raven. Marked classified. Initialled ATJ.’
‘Let me see. Three from ATJ in the last hour. Open it, Miss Saltoe.’
Saltoe was unsure. ‘It is for Agent Raven, Boss.’
‘Perhaps when he graces us with his presence, he can read it also. Open it.’
Saltoe opened the message. ‘It says, “BIG T. DRIX. D S. W N H. ATJ”. Does that mean anything to you, Boss?’
Boss nodded. ‘I’m afraid it does. Reply to it, Miss Saltoe. Secure line. The following message. OK. ATR. RWUR. BOSS. Now, send that, please.’
‘Done,’ said Saltoe. ‘Is this serious?’
‘Transfer any other messages from ATJ here to me when they come in,’ was all Boss would say. ‘When Agent Raven turns up, send him to me right away.’
It was half hour later when Raven walked into Boss’s office.
‘Where the hell have you been, Raven? Never mind. We’ll discuss your recent unprofessional conduct later. Sit.’
Shamefaced, Raven sat.
Boss said, ‘BIG T. DRIX. D S. W N H. A T J. Ring any bells?’
‘How long ago?’
‘Every hour on the hour, since you went walkabout.’
Raven started, ‘ I was only…’
‘Not interested, Agent Raven. This message. Big trouble, Drixolate. Deep space. Will need help. Agent Tilly Jordan.’
Raven said, ‘Tilly’s onto something.’
‘Tell me something I don’t know, Raven. Where was she assigned?’
‘She wasn’t. She was on leave following her refresher training.’
Boss impatiently drummed his fingertips on his desk. ‘Is she on this planet?’
‘Probably not, Boss.’
‘In other words, you don’t know.’
Raven shrugged. ‘We could ask her.’
‘Such a radical idea, Raven. And risk blowing her cover? You should know better.’
‘It was just a suggestion.’
Boss got up and paced the floor. ‘Let’s think. I didn’t authorise Agent Jordan on any mission. Did you?’
‘No, Boss.’
‘Agent Jordan knows better than to take off on a mission without authorisation from either myself or you. If she was on this planet, I would be talking to her, not you. Did she mention going on a flight somewhere, for recreational purposes?’
Raven shrugged his head. ‘Not to me, Boss. To be honest, I’ve hardly seen Tilly since she came out of hospital. She went on the refresher course while she was recovering from the final surgery.’
‘Well, we know the course went very well.’ Boss returned to his desk and put a call out to Commander Felix Gordon who organised D S I military flights. It took a moment to be answered. ‘Felix. Boss, here. Agent Tilly Jordan. Any clues to her whereabouts?’
Gordon said, ‘No, Boss. Not on military. Tried domestic? Maybe even commercial?’
‘I’ll do that next. Thanks, Felix.’
Ten minutes of calling the people who would know, revealed nothing.
Raven said, ‘I think she’s gone incognito on a small flight somewhere, but not on a mission. Like you said. She would have to have you or I authorise it, if that was the case. The mission found her, not the other way round.’
Boss agreed. ‘I think you’re right. Hopefully, she has had my message, so she knows we are waiting here, ready to help.’
‘Agent Maxwell is available. I’ll have him on standby with a military ship.’
‘Good idea. See General Millet. Have a full crew ready.’
Raven stood up to go. ‘I’ll cancel my R T D session.’
‘You will certainly not, Raven. You don’t get out of it that easily. You will organise backup for Agent Jordan, and leave it to Maxwell.’
‘But…’
‘Go, Raven. And no more walkabouts.’
‘Yes, Boss.’
* * *
The meeting was a three-way split. General Millet, Agent Hank Maxwell and Agent Raven.
Millet said, ‘Of course we’ll be on standby, Tagg. But we can’t do that indefinitely. We have interplanetary exercises to go on in a few days. That’s been arranged and cannot be cancelled, short of out and out war, somewhere.’
Raven said, ‘I can’t put a time frame, on it, General. Just have a ship available for Agent Maxwell, here.’
Maxwell said, ‘No clues at all, Tagg?’
‘Not a one. My concern is, we’ve had no contact with Agent Jordan since Boss let her know we’re ready for her.’
‘I must admit,’ said Maxwell. ‘All the surgery Tilly’s endured lately, I’m doubting she’s going to be on top form.’
‘That’s a possibility,’ said Raven. ‘Reports from her refresher course were all positive. Physical, ok. Weapons capability, excellent. She has a way to go, but it isn’t her physical ability that would be my concern. I wanted to see her on some low key assignments to get her confidence right, before anything too ambitious.’
Millet said, ‘You don’t think she’s up to the job?’
Raven said, ‘I would just have liked her to ease back into things, that’s all. And I think she felt the same way. If she is into something big, she wasn’t looking for it.’
Maxwell said, ‘But drixolate? Surely that’s just about had it?’
‘We all hoped that to be the case, Hank, but like that cowboy outfit on Solaron, there are always creeps looking for a way to exploit others. We’ll have a few drixolate missions for the next few years, yet.’
Millet said, ‘I’ll have a crack crew waiting, Tagg. You just give us the word.’
‘Thanks. You’ll know as soon as I know.’
Chapter 147
‘Agent Raven. Your first class is in one hour. Do you have anything prepared?’
‘Donna…’
‘Commander Garfuncle.’
Raven tried a grin which got him a blank stare. ‘Commander Garfuncle. I’m kinda new to this. I just thought I’d do a questions and answer thing with the rookies.’
‘No.’
‘Just to keep things casual.’
‘No. The idea of your involvement with the R T D is for you to improve your structured communications skills. Key word, structured. Your last field mission. For you, what was the stand-out highlight?’
‘Easy. Getting out alive.’
‘Agent Raven!’
‘Blasting the crap out of that tank of creatures. Well, to be fair, Captain Armstrong and General Millet actually shot the tank.’
‘I heard all about that. But, from an agent’s perspective, it was ultimately you who brought the D S I military to that conclusion of the mission.’
‘I guess.’
‘So. That’s what’s important. How you got from A to B. The process of how an agent worked the mission.’
‘From start to finish?’
‘The logical sequence of events. You have half an hour. Start getting it written down; I’ll check up on you later.’
‘Yes, Miss. I mean Commander Garfuncle.’
Raven sat alone at the table, the recorder ready to take his pearls of wisdom. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but he felt like he was a little schoolboy, in detention for some naughtiness. And for what? Just because he wasn’t great at report writing. The scant few notes he’d prepared by the time Garfuncle returned, was testimony to that fact. Garfuncle looked at his notes, then at him, then the notes again.
‘And good luck with that. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
She led him to the lecture room and he followed her inside. Nine blank-faced wannabe D S
I recruits stood to attention when the commander entered.
Raven said, ‘Damn. You got this lot well trained.’
‘Sit,’ said Garfuncle. ‘Not you, Agent Raven. Right. No doubt you have all heard of the legendary Agent Tagg Raven?’ Blank stares.
Raven offered, ‘Nyzon Five? Big blue monster things. Bomb? Boom, boom? Right. Drixolate runners, battles in space. Monsters in tanks?’
Garfuncle whispered softly, ‘What is it with you and monsters? Never mind. I’ll be at the back of the room. Carry on.’
Raven clapped his hands together and tried to look enthusiastic. That he would much rather be exchanging laser fire with drixolate runners than being out of his comfort zone in front of a bunch of indifferent teens was an undeniable truth.
‘Information came my way regarding a drixolate operation on Foregone. Well, at that time, I was…’
‘Sir?’ A young man asked.
‘Yes?”
‘Where did the information come from?’
‘What?’
‘The information that came your way? Where did it come from?’
‘Well…err, that’s classified. Sorry. A good agent never reveals his sources of information. You might wish to take note of that. So. I was suspicious that we had a spy in the D S I, possibly a drixolate slave, tipping off the enemy. So, obviously I couldn’t let anyone…Yes, young lady?”
‘What made you suspicious?’
‘Right. Gut feeling. Nothing I could put a hat on. Never underestimate the intuitive instincts of a good agent. You may wish to take a note of that. Anyway. I set off with a captain in a ship to Foregone. The first problem we hit was a drone ship, shooting at us. I took that out with a laser cannon. But the runners got a lucky hit to our ship and we crashed. Well, if that wasn’t bad enough, we had at least a hundred runners out to kill us. So…’
‘Sir. A hundred?’
‘Give or take a few dozen. Fortunately, me being an experienced agent, I knew how to survive on a hostile planet with eighty runners chasing us to rip us apart.’
‘Sir. How many?’
‘The actual number is classified. Well, having rescued the pilot from a ferocious snake thingy, which was about twenty foot long, with fangs and things, it all came down to survival. So…’
‘Sir?’
* * *
Joy asked, ‘Had a good day?’
Raven had collapsed in a heap when he got home. ‘Boss officially hates me.’
Joy said, ‘He does not.’
‘No? He gets me an assistant who looks like she practices bondage, sadomasochism and does things with whips. Then he has me lecturing spotty teens who question everything I damn well tell them. All because he doesn’t like my report writing. I shouldn’t even be here. Tilly could be in danger.’
‘But you don’t know where she is.’
Raven said, ‘Well, as soon as I know where she is, I’m going after her.’
‘Don’t even think about it,’ said Joy, patting her belly. ‘You go nowhere.’
Chapter 148
‘Mom. Please stop staring at me.’
Tilly Jordan had always called her stepmother mom. Tilly had never known her biological mother or father, and had been in an orphanage until being fostered then adopted by Sally and Ian Jordan when she was just one year old. When Tilly had joined the D S I, against Ian’s better judgement, her missions all over the planets meant opportunities to see each other became few and far between. Ian had seen a business venture on Tryzon, and he and Sally had moved there to start a new life.
After the incident when Tilly had been shot, she had shut herself away, and the one visit from Sally and Ian had been as much as she could bear. With her face now repaired, Tilly decided to visit Ian and Sally, before concentrating on resuming her D S I career. She knew neither Tagg Raven nor Boss would complain at her taking as much time as she needed before going back to work. She hadn’t realised that the little planet of Tryzon would have her working even before she got back home.
‘I just can’t believe how lovely you look,’ said Sally. ‘Ian. Doesn’t she look lovely?’
Ian nodded. ‘She looks beautiful. But you’ll be giving the girl a complex if you keep staring at her.’
‘Just treat me as normal,’ said Tilly. ‘That’s all I ask. So. Dad. How’s business?’
‘Not bad, for an out-of-the-way little planet like this. The long winters make for good old fashioned sporting activities and the skiing ranks with the best.’ Ian and Sally had bought a half share in a run-down ski lodge and with a lot of hard work, was making it a successful business. ‘If we can land the Interplanetary Winter Olympics, Tryzon will really take off.’
‘I’m glad you are doing ok.’
Sally asked, ‘But what about you? What are your plans?’
‘I’m back with the D S I. I told you that. It’s what I want to do. It’s what I need right now.’
Ian said, ‘See much of Tagg Raven?’
‘I will be. Him being my supervisor. Dad. I don’t blame Tagg for what happened. I know I did at the time, but I was a mess. Physically and emotionally. All that negativity was unhealthy for me.’
Sally said, ‘But you and he won’t be getting back together, surely?’
‘No, Mom. We’ve both moved on. He’s with a woman named Joy Dainty. I like her. They’re having a baby.’
Sally and Ian looked approvingly at each other. They had also held Raven responsible for what had happened to their daughter. But if Tilly could put it all behind her, perhaps they could, too.
Ian said, ‘Well. I have to get back to the lodge. Tilly. Why don’t you try your hand at skiing? I have all the gear you need.’
‘Maybe later, Dad. I’ve a few things to do while I’m here, first.’
‘Ok. Tilly. It’s wonderful how you’re coming along. Inside as well as out. Maybe now we’ll see more of you.’
Tilly smiled, something she was still getting used to doing. ‘As often as I can, I promise.’
Ian kissed her cheek and left for work. He wasn’t to know she couldn’t feel his lips on her synskin.
Chapter 149
Tilly Jordan went to her room in her parents home and opened the small case and took out the cone and pulled out the antenna. As soon as she did, the message was there, on the secure line. OK. BU-A. R W U R. BOSS. That meant, Ok, Backup available. Ready when you are. Boss.
It puzzled her for a moment, why Boss had sent the message, rather than Tagg Raven. It didn’t matter. The important thing was, they were aware something was happening, and undoubtedly, arrangements were in place to respond for any request for backup, when she needed it. Although the line was secure, it didn’t pay to be sending too much stuff out there into cyberspace. She also had to find out a lot more before she committed the D S I to a mission.
Putting the case away, she checked her appearance in the old fashioned mirror. How she had kept her figure after years of inactivity and living off booze with insufficient regard for her diet, was a mystery even to her. The refresher course had shed a few pounds on the assault courses, and toned her body. She examined her face. The synskin had blended in and healed perfectly. It took just a little make-up to hide the feint scars. The tongue still felt like an alien creature in her mouth and she was prone to biting it occasionally when she ate.
The new voice-box still sounded as if someone else was talking inside her head, and it had a husky quality Boss had told her sounded sexy. Boss had lived up to his word and had spent all the time he could spare with her. She owed it to him to be the very best agent she could. To that aim, she went out into the busy streets of Manhatoff, the principle city of Tryzon.
Located at the foot of the mountain ranges, bordered by the river of the Grande Divide, a natural split ran from the mountain ranges, to the Ocean of Plenty, it was a city of nearly a million people, mostly earning their living from the winter season which lasted two thirds of the year. The other third, the locals enjoyed what passed for summer, catering for a few t
ourists taking advantage of the off-season.
Tilly Jordan loved Manhatoff, but wouldn’t live there permanently. One thing she had in common with Tagg Raven was a dislike of being cold. She could have caught one of the many hovercabs, but had decided to walk to her appointment. The house she was heading to, was on the outskirts of the city and she had allowed time to walk there. Without making it obvious, she regularly checked if she was being followed and took several detours, before arriving at the house. Curtains fluttered and the front door opened just a few inches. Tilly held up the disc which identified her as a D S I agent. The woman opened the door, let Tilly inside, looked anxiously up and down the street and closed the door behind her.
‘You don’t look like a D S I agent.’
Tilly smiled. ‘Met many D S I agents, have you, Mrs Wilson?’
‘No. You’re the first. Sorry. Please sit down. Can I get you anything? I’ve baked cookies. Jason loves my…Agent Jordan….’
‘Tilly. May I call you, Agnes?’
‘Of course. Agent…Tilly. My boy Jason. He’s a good boy. I mean, he gets in a little mischief now and then, but nothing serious. It wasn’t his fault he got dependent on drixolate.’
Tilly understood that. All the drixolate slaves that she knew of, had been afflicted by other slaves, often complete strangers. Just before and after her arrival, a number of young men had disappeared without reason or trace, all of them drixolate slaves. The news and the gossip had been rife. The local law officers had drawn a blank. Tilly had only taken a casual observer interest in the disappearances, but her agent instincts had been too strong to ignore. The law officers had been only too pleased to provide her with the contact information of the men’s immediate families. Agnes Wilson was the fourth one to interview. Tiny pieces were dropping into place.
‘Unfortunately, that happened a lot. To a certain extent, it still does. You’re aware Jason wasn’t the only one here?’
Agnes nodded. ‘Of course. Hard to miss. There must be a connection, I’m thinking.’
‘Did Jason know any of the others?’
‘Not that I’m aware of, Tilly. Jason likes a good-time, out with the lads and all that. He works hard all week, running his own courtesy shuttle from the airbase to the city hotels. So he lets his hair down once in a while.’