“Yes, and so far, they’ve done nothing suspicious.” The man looked frustrated.
“Cheer up, the day’s not over yet.” Micah let a touch of sarcasm leach into his voice.
Ginder snickered, and Micah took the opportunity to introduce the animals accompanying him.
“This is Pascal,” he indicated the big cat beside him, “and Sneaky Pete.” His hand landed atop the ferret’s head.
The female agent leaned in, peering at Sneaky Pete. “Interesting. I've heard of working dogs and cats, but never a ferret. So, they say you have a nose like a bloodhound, eh?”
She looked back at Micah. “I suppose its head is pretty much all nose anyway, now, isn’t it?” With a chuckle, she stepped back.
{Rude, rude, ruuuude,} the ferret said, chittering indignantly at the woman.
Ginder stared back in fascination at the trilling noises the ferret was making, and Micah was glad they had restricted the animals’ E-V comms to team members only.
Ignoring Pete, he smiled at Ginder. “Yes, they have an extraordinarily well-developed sense of smell. We’re hoping they’ll be able to find something we’ve missed.”
He looked down at Pascal. “Ready to get to work?”
The big cat chuffed and paced forward a few steps, turning and shooting a look back over his shoulder at Micah.
Torgen laughed. “I take that as a yes. Come on, then. Ballroom’s this way.”
He gestured, and Micah fell into step beside the two agents. They led him to a bank of lifts at the far end of the lobby, where he could see one had been held open for them.
As the doors closed and the lift began to rise, the ferret suddenly stirred from around his neck.
Nose in the air, Sneaky Pete sniffed, and then chirruped. {Up! Up! Want up!}
He balanced on his hind paws, and rose until his front paws were braced on top of Micah’s head.
The captain could see in the burnished copper of the lift’s doors that the ferret was staring intently upward. As he watched, Pete lifted a paw, reaching toward the lift’s ceiling.
Micah exchanged a puzzled look with the two protective service agents. “Any idea what might be up there?”
Ginder shrugged and exchanged a look with Torgen. “Safety cables, maglev SC batteries?”
“Light fixtures?” the Coalition agent chimed in. “Why, does he smell something?”
“I don’t know.”
Micah stepped to one corner of the lift and steadied Pete with one hand so that he could tilt his head up without getting a face full of ferret. As he moved along the lift’s perimeter to inspect the ceiling, he groped inside his tactical vest for the recon drones he’d packed for just this situation. With the flick of a wrist, he released the small swarm.
The tiny machines synched with his overlay, and he sent them winging upward before continuing his visual inspection of the ceiling. His eyes stopped at a seam that looked like it might be an access panel.
He pointed. “There. Let's see if we can’t get that open.”
They stopped the lift at the next level, and one of the agents exited long enough to locate a chair. She hauled it inside, and Micah nodded wordless thanks as he stepped up onto it.
His fingers probed the edges of the panel until they found a section that moved. He pressed it, and the panel slid open.
Sneaky Pete stretched his body to peer inside. Micah felt the ferret wobble, and he placed a hand on the animal’s flank to stabilize him.
{Yup, yup, something here. Yup.}
The ferret flowed into the darkened crevice, chittering to himself as he sniffed around. They heard a scraping noise, and a few seconds later, the ferret’s head popped out.
To Micah’s astonishment, his paws were wrapped around a cylinder that matched the image Jonathan had sent.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he heard Torgen say.
As the ferret pulled it further into the open, the guards instinctively backed away.
Micah unslung the bag he’d hooked over his shoulder and rummaged inside it for one of the mini clearsteel cases it contained. Reaching up, he took the small, silver cylinder from Sneaky Pete’s paws.
{Found a cylinder,} he sent over the team’s combat net as he inserted the offending object into the case and activated its ES field. {Can we get them to evacuate now?}
He heard the surprise in Gabe’s voice when the man replied.
{That was fast.}
{It was Pete who detected it, and I’m not entirely sure how,} he replied.
{Smelled it.}
The ferret wriggled down from the opening, settling once more around Micah’s shoulders.
{You smelled it?} he repeated, ignoring the chorus of questions being shot at him over the combat net as he focused on the ferret. {What do you mean, smelled it? What did it smell like?}
The ferret scrunched up his face. {Icky sweet, like funny cloud around man’s head outside cage. Make Snotface loopy.}
Micah patted the ferret’s head as he absently slid the access panel shut and stepped down from the chair. He hardly noticed when Ginder dragged it back out into the hallway, and the lift resumed its ascent to the institute’s ballroom level.
{Gabe?} he sent on a private path. {I need to check in with Sam about this. Pete’s saying he recognizes it from somewhere, but his description sounds like it’s from a lab, and I’m not entirely certain it’s the CID he’s talking about.}
Gabe’s mental tone was sharp. {Are you talking about a memory from deGrasse?}
Micah’s hand returned to the ferret. {Yeah,} he replied slowly. {I think I am. Hang on, let me get Jonathan to ask Sam a few questions….}
After a few minutes of back-and-forth with his doppelganger, Micah was back with Gabe.
{You’re not going to believe this.}
{Try me.} The agent’s voice sounded impatient.
{Pete smelled Frenzy on the cylinder.}
There was a moment of stunned silence from the other end.
{He smelled what?}
{Sam says that one of the lab workers back on deGrasse was arrested for possession of Frenzy. A review of the feed showed he’d been vaping it while cleaning out the animals’ cage.}
{Yes, but—} Gabe’s mental voice broke off. {Hang on, bringing the team in on this.}
Micah’s icon tag changed from private to multi-user, and he could feel by the quality of the connection that they were once more connected to the full combat net.
Gabe brought them quickly up to speed, adding, {I understand the Proxima base is an old Frenzy processing plant. Could trace elements still be there?}
{That was a decade ago,} Sasha countered. {Surely, squatters would have raided all the stock.}
{If they didn’t, the Akkadians would have scrubbed it clean before working with a virus this deadly,} Ell added. {You don’t do that kind of thing outside a clean room.}
{Maybe one of the lackeys down the line ran into a hidden stash when they went in to sterilize the place,} Rafe suggested, {Or maybe it has nothing to do with the base at all.}
Quinn came on the line, his voice thoughtful. {You might be on to something, Major. Even in totalitarian regimes like the Akkadian Empire, there is a robust black market, and trafficking in illegal drugs like Frenzy. I’ll add that to my search filter as I scrub through these names again.}
{Okay, so I’m clear to share this with the protection detail?} Micah asked.
{Yes.} This came from Gabe. {And summit security is working on evacuation.}
The two agents shot him an incredulous look.
“You have got to be shitting me. Frenzy?” Disbelief rang in Torgen’s voice as they exited the lift. He shot the large cat a look. “Can he smell it, too?”
Micah looked down at Pascal.
{Yes. Wrong-sweet.}
{Can you use that smell to find more of the cylinders?} Micah asked.
For answer, Pascal turned and began to slink down the hall. {Going hunting.}
“Guess he can,” Ginder murmured as
she watched the cat disappear down the hallway just as service staff and security personnel began to head toward the lift where they stood. She shot Micah a look. “We’ve been told to evac. Are you sure you’re okay being in here?”
“We’ve been given experimental vaccines,” he lied. “How long will the evac take?”
“Not long,” Torgen said. “This level’s going to take the longest, since this is where the summit’s being held.”
“I’d better catch up to Pascal then, before he runs into anyone.”
As if on cue, they heard a shriek coming from around the corner.
Micah exchanged looks with the agents and then began running toward the sound.
A LUCKY BREAK
Merki Institute
Downtown Midland
Hawking Habitat
Micah rounded the corner at a run, but came to an abrupt halt when he spied Pascal pacing around a caterer’s cart. The big cat’s head was lifted and his jaw slightly open in classic flehmen response as he scented the air.
Three people stood frozen beside the cart as Pascal continued to circle it.
“Get. This. Creature. Away from here,” a woman demanded shrilly. She was wearing a business suit and teetering on a set of ridiculously high stilettos. Her face was contorted in a combination of anger and fear.
“The institute’s events director,” Ginder told him.
“And a royal pain in the arse, too,” Torgen added under his breath.
“You both need to evacuate and let me handle this,” Micah told them.
Ginder shrugged. “We’ve already been exposed to one cylinder,” she said, not moving.
Micah didn’t waste time arguing; he strolled forward, his focus entirely on Pascal. {You smell something?}
Pascal abruptly stopped, his eyes zeroing in on an object on the cart. {Might smell something,} the big cat’s whiskers arched. {Might not. Need to scent.}
He rose up onto powerful hind legs, his front paws settling onto the maglev cart. It began to shift under the new weight, and Pascal dug his claws into the soft material skirting the lower half. It tore with a loud ripping sound.
The event director shrieked once more, but fear of the sleek, darkly furred animal kept her at bay.
Micah left her for the two agents to handle while he steadied the cart for the cat. {What do you smell?} he asked.
{There.} Pascal pawed at a set of serving utensils, and one went flying.
{Careful!} Micah called out, but the cat ignored him, reaching for the one remaining on the cart.
{Here.} A massive paw landed on top of an ornate salad tong, its handle easily two centimeters in diameter at its end.
As Micah reached for it, he realized one of the catering staff was edging toward the exit. “Stop him!” he pointed, and Ginder unholstered her directed energy pistol.
A single shot, and the man was down.
Micah pulled the heavy metal utensil from between Pascal’s paws and examined it carefully. Torgen joined him as he flipped the piece over in his hands.
“Look,” the man said suddenly, pointing to where the heavy fork flared. “I’ll bet the entire end piece is threaded.”
Micah looked at it more closely. “I think you’re right.”
He looked up and saw that Ginder had the man cuffed. Three additional Protection Service agents had joined her.
He palmed the heavy piece. “Now would be a good time for the rest of you to evacuate.” He nodded toward their captive. “See what you can get out of him, too, maybe?”
Torgen nodded, and he and Ginder rounded up the civilians in the corridor as the Coalition team led their captive down the hall.
Micah waited until the floor was cleared before kneeling and carefully unscrewing the tong’s handle. Another cylinder slid into his palm, and he placed it in the clearsteel case alongside the first one.
{That’s two. Any news from the base yet?} he asked Gabe. {Any idea how many of these they’ve planted?}
{Not yet. Keep searching. If they get any information out of the guy, the animals can reconnoiter and confirm.}
At least one of their sources was cooperating. The Coalition agents’ questioning of the caterer who had tried to escape led to the discovery of two additional vials before the search was called off at the end of the day.
Several hours later, a weary Micah led Pascal out the front entrance and over to where Gabe and Sasha stood.
Foxtrot’s team lead nodded to the small, furry bundle in his hands. “Looks like he’s had all the excitement he can take for one day.”
Micah looked down at Sneaky Pete. “Yeah, guess he’s earned a nice meal and a good, long nap.”
“Speaking of which,” a voice behind him said, and Micah turned to see Rafe, flanked by Ell and Quinn. “I know a place that serves killer steaks, and they deliver to the base. How about we place an order, round up the team, and head back for that debrief?”
An hour later, the team had reconvened in the secured hangar back at Nimitz Base. They spent the meal dissecting the day, going over everything that had occurred.
Micah picked at the remains of his meal, his mind on the day’s events. His head jerked up when Gabe’s fork went clattering to his plate.
The man tossed his napkin aside in disgust. “This feels… off,” he stated, his words echoing Micah’s own thoughts.
“You’re thinking the whole thing’s too easy, aren’t you,” Rafe said.
Gabe lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug, his eyes distant. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“But your instincts are pinging, aren’t they,” Ell said knowingly. “Mine are too.”
They were interrupted by a notification from Task Force Blue’s headquarters. When Gabe accepted it, Harper’s voice came on the line.
{The director would like to speak with you,} she informed them. {You guys have access to a holo?}
Two minutes later, Duncan’s face stared back at the team from the portable holo they’d set up.
“I’ve spoken to the team in charge of security for the event. Based on today’s outcome, they believe the threat to have been neutralized, and plan to proceed with the summit as scheduled tomorrow.”
Gabe looked back at the holo, his jaw working. “I can’t help but feel this was some sort of decoy or diversion.”
Ell’s eyes tracked between Gabe and Cutter’s image. “He’s right, sir. It’s a tactic Akkadians would use, too. They’re a cagey lot.”
Cutter grimaced. “The colonel and I agree with your assessment, but the Coalition does not. However, we think they’re making a mistake, which is why we want you to continue to pursue all leads.”
He looked at Micah. “I had to pull a few strings to get you admitted to the summit tomorrow, Captain. Officially, you’ll be part of the Alliance Protective Detail. Unofficially, your job is to try to figure out what their next play is—if they have one. No joy on the animals, though.”
Micah straightened abruptly. “Sir, they’re the ones who found the canisters, not me.”
Cutter’s hand rose. “The official line is that they’re not allowing them entry. Unofficially, someone named Torgen reached out to us and offered to help get them in under the radar. You know this guy?”
Micah nodded, relaxing back into his seat. “He was with us when Pete and Pascal found the cylinders.”
“Ah,” Cutter said. “You have a believer on your hands, then. Good. If you can get them in without being seen, you have my blessing.”
Micah nodded, his gaze straying to Gabe’s as the holo came to an end.
“That’s it, then.” The special agent stood, his gaze landing first on Sasha, then on Rafe. “You have teams that will patrol throughout the night?”
Both nodded.
“Very well.” He turned to Micah. “You’ll be inserting first thing in the morning, and I want you fresh. Get some rest.”
SHADOW SHIP
Midway “Belly Band” Ring
Hawking Habitat
The ship came i
n silently, its ultra-black coating and layers of high-performance electromagnetic shielding making its signature virtually nonexistent. Its pilot timed thrusters to match nearby ships when she could, and kept the bursts to a minimum when she couldn’t.
She managed to slip in between the watchful eyes of those on patrol by dint of a bit of careful timing, swinging inside the arc of a shuttle that was docking just as it passed between her and the departing Novastrike.
The ship settled up against the ring at a maintenance hatch and used its own version of a Bravo Charlie to hack its way past Hawking’s security and access the ring’s interior.
Two figures slipped inside, the smaller of the two urging the other to work off the cramps that assailed his body from remaining in a single position for hours on end. A small backpack was hauled inside, its contents a simple change of clothing and a set of hacked ID tokens that had been acquired at great cost.
Thus, Citizen General Che Josza emerged into Alliance space clad in workman’s coveralls, an assassin by his side.
{Come,} she murmured, a hand at his elbow. {We have little time.}
{Why did you bring us here, Dacina Zian? Are we once more to be found at the scene of a failed operation?} Che asked. {If we are found out, we are dead. You know this. Better to have died in battle, on the station, than to be executed for treason back on Eridu.}
Dacina shot him an inscrutable glance. {All is not lost, my general. Trust me.}
SUSPICIOUS FIGURE
Downtown Midland
Hawking Habitat
Gabe watched from across the street as Micah entered the institute the next morning. The increased level of security surrounding the event should have eased his mind; instead, he couldn’t shake the fear that they were being played somehow, and he was going to be just a hair too late to figure it out.
They’d received word that the ship carrying Asher Dent had been delayed. The vessel developed a small magnetic field flutter in its tokamak, so the delegates were being transferred to another ship. The arrival would put them a few hours behind, and Gabe couldn’t help but wonder if this was the window of opportunity the Akkadians would use to strike.
The Chiral Protocol – A Military Science Fiction Thriller: Biogenesis War Book 2 (The Biogenesis War) Page 29