by Drew Avera
VERITY
Book Two of The Dead Planet Series
Drew Avera
www.drewavera.wordpress.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is pure coincidence.
All rights reserved by Drew Avera 2015
Prologue
Four months after leaving Mars:
Months had passed without much change of scenery. I could hear the grunting sounds emanating from Laurel and Kara as they trained together in hand-to-hand combat techniques they had been going over ever since we left our home planet behind. They were improving rapidly, but I had cause for concern that I struggled to keep to myself. Kara's obsession to train constantly had grown tiring, but I knew deep in my soul this was necessary if we were to bring down The Syndicate. I kept a watchful eye out for onlookers; Captain Fillon had assured me that we could train in the open bay without disturbance, but I was still up in the air about whether I could trust his word.
I turned around to check on my team. I wasn't sure if team was an appropriate word for what we had or not. If two was a duo and three was a trio then, I imagined that was the closest thing to call us. The only difference between us and any other trio out there was that we were armed with gauntlets. I checked the time on the digital display mounted above me on the bulkhead. Kara and Laurel had been at this for well over an hour. It was time to break it up.
"That's enough for today, ladies," I said with an air of authority. It was a trait I picked up when I trained new agents with The Agency. An old, unnecessary habit, I imagined, based on the glare I got in return.
"I feel like we've just gotten started," Kara said, as she wiped sweat from her brow. Laurel followed her lead and sopped up the moisture around her neck as well.
"We will train more tomorrow," I said. "Besides, Laurel needs to go back to work. Let's not forget, you and I need to keep track of our targets also. A few board members will be going to lunch about this time and we have our rounds to make."
Kara shrugged. She had been fairly excited about our mission at first, but all of the waiting had grown old with her. She was craving action worthy of her training. Not that I could blame her; I too was itching to finish what we had started, but we had to play this thing out as safely as possible. If a radio transmission to another transport alerted members of The Syndicate that we were on a killing spree, then we could kiss ourselves—and any chance of saving Mars—goodbye. The Syndicate would kill an entire transport if it ensured their own survival. Had it not been for Captain Fillon aiding Kara and Laurel with disposing of Sorell and his men, we could have gotten blasted down then. It was the only reason I trusted him as much as I did.
Laurel walked up to me and wrapped her arms around me. "I've got to go, but don't give Kara a hard time. I think she is struggling with the effects of taking someone else's life. It can't be easy," she whispered in my ear before kissing my neck.
"I know. It's just that she is taking this too seriously. I'm afraid it's at an unhealthy level," I said, as I wrapped my arms around her. "I love you."
"I love you too," she said. She let me go and headed back to work. I looked over to see Kara stretching her legs after her workout. So much had changed since I had come back into her life. I now had more control over my emotions and felt more human, but I felt it had cost Kara a part of herself she would never get back. For that I was helpless to do anything for her. I could only hope she found peace again once this was all over.
"You're wrong, you know," she said abruptly.
"About what?”
"I'm not obsessed. I'm just determined to live a life where I'm not controlled by some kind of authority, especially an authority as corrupt as The Syndicate." Her heart was in the right place. Still, I felt she was going overboard with how she internalized everything. There was something about dissociating yourself with your target that made my job as a policeman easier to cope with. Of course, the programming removed my ability to feel compassion or regret, at least as far as they knew.
"I'm determined to have that kind of life as well," I said. That life was hard to fathom though. No matter what happened, I couldn't shake the thought we might always be under the influence of some kind of control. What if the next opponent was worse than The Syndicate?
"Are you ready? I have registered movement of Ghon Abert near the bridge," she advised me, as a small holographic image illuminated from the surveillance device in the palm of her hand. Laurel had given her the device once we devised the plan to keep tabs on the members of The Syndicate by implanting chips into their suits. We had a hookup in the laundry department who implanted them for us. This had been a very valuable asset to us. If nothing else, it allowed us to avoid contact with the men we planned to kill once we landed on Earth.
"I wonder what he’s doing there?" I asked.
"Maybe he’s just lost." She replied, rolling her eyes. It could be that simple, but based on what we knew of Ghon Abert, nothing was ever as simple as we would like it to be.
I began walking towards the bridge. "Maybe, maybe not," I replied. We couldn't leave anything to chance. If there was some information we could use later, then we owed it to ourselves and our home to do whatever was necessary to save Mars. Even if it meant being in uncomfortable proximity to as sadistic a member of The Syndicate as Ghon was. "Let's get this over with." Kara followed me up the ladder well and towards the bridge.
Chapter 1
Three months later:
I could hear the pause of breath as we looked down on Earth from the bridge of our transport. Captain Fillon had asked us to sit in as a security detail, which I assumed was just a way to get us in the same room for our descent. We had been away from our home on Mars for just over six months, but this time away had felt like a lifetime. I gripped the hands I was holding a little tighter to remind me that the ones I loved were still by my side. I sensed a small movement to my right as Laurel turned her head and smiled at me. I smiled back and shared my elation with Kara who stood to my left. Even the emotional turmoil she had experienced after killing Sorell did nothing to curb her enthusiasm today.
"This is amazing! The birthplace of humanity," she said with a smile. There was nothing I could think of to respond to the awesomeness we beheld, so I just looked back at Earth as we approached her. The expanse of water covering the planet was overwhelming. I had seen maps that pictured Earth before Mars was inhabited and there had been much more land exposed than what I was seeing now. I imagined the polar ice caps had melted and flooded most of the general coastlines, based on what those maps originally depicted.
Laurel gripped my hand harder and drew my attention. "Captain Fillon said we will be landing on the continent known to us as North America. The land mass is much smaller than the survey suggested from the last expedition here a few centuries ago. Preliminary analysis suggests that melting ice caps or severe seismic activity could have caused this anomaly."
"I was just thinking the land mass looked smaller than the maps had suggested," I said. I was glad my assumption about the polar ice caps was in line with their scientific explanation as well.
"I know. You were mumbling to yourself." She laughed as she made eye contact with Kara who smiled in return. Ever since I had overcome the mental programming I had experienced during my training with The Agency I was prone to speaking my thoughts aloud without realizing it. Perhaps it was a kind of relapse back into my former self. I couldn't help but feel a little awkward about revealing my thoughts verbally, no matter how innocent they were.
Captain Fillon walked over to us. His uniform jacket was unzipped halfway and I could see beads of sweat on his forehead. "We will be approaching Ea
rth's orbit within a few hours. Once there, we may experience turbulence to a degree I have not experienced as a pilot before. I will be making a shipwide announcement when the time comes, but I wanted to let you know the entire ship will be on lock down, everyone will be restricted to their staterooms. It's a normal procedure for atmospheric entry, so no need to worry."
I had an uneasy feeling about Captain Fillon. Ever since Kara and I found Ghon Abert snooping around the bridge and administration department, Fillon had been acting strange. It was almost like he was caught in the middle of some plan he knew had damning consequences. Kara could not prove anything in regards to Abert, but my suspicion had grown considerably that he and Fillon were scheming together about something. What that could be was anyone's guess.
"Let's go get some dinner," Kara said, as she stepped in front of me. "No need to sit around before we are all on lockdown."
"Alright, sounds like a good idea to me," Laurel replied, bright-eyed. "The crew has prepared a 'Returning to Earth' dinner for tonight. It's supposed to be a large feast of delicacies."
Yeah, right, I thought, based on the quality of the food over the last few months. At this point a delicacy was anything you could get to stay down.
I followed as the two of them led me to the galley. It was packed full of refugees, former citizens of Mars coming to find a new home on Earth. The smell of grilled meats was a welcome assault on my sense of smell compared to the smells I was growing accustomed to. I could feel my mouth watering already. The three of us grabbed our trays and entered the line. The girls were slightly more conservative in their food choices than I. I suspected that was why I had gained about fifteen pounds since we left Mars, despite how unappetizing the offerings had become. The upside was that I looked a bit more like I did before I was recruited into The Agency—no more sunken in cheeks.
We sat down in a corner booth to devour our dinner. Kara and Laurel were carrying on about their plans to explore Earth once business was taken care of. My thoughts were drawn to the realization that the mission was imminent as I saw Ghon Abert stalking through the crowd. Hot on his heels were two men I did not recognize, I noticed, though, that one of the men wore a gauntlet. I stopped breathing for a moment as the realization of there being more armed guards on board struck me as odd. After Kara killed Sorrel, I had not seen another person with a gauntlet for the past six months. How peculiar.
"Look at that," I said, interrupting their conversation.
"Who is he?" Kara asked.
"I don't know, but the fact he is standing there armed tells me we are not alone. Our mission has now become much more dangerous."
We watched the men as they conversed for a few moments. The armed guard was not dressed like a member of The Agency. Instead, he looked like an average person with the noticeable exception of his attire. He looked from side to side, monitoring the crowd. I took note that he seemed nervous as hell. It was obvious he lacked proper training. Some people might assume an untrained enemy is less of a threat, but the truth was that a lack of training made a person much more dangerous. The last thing we needed was a half-cocked, scared guard running around shooting lasers into everything that spooked him. I must have been staring at him too hard, because he finally made eye contact with me. He held my gaze for longer than comfortable and before looking away a smile curled his lips.
Chapter 2
I could feel my jaw drop at the fact that he smiled at me. It wasn't a friendly smile, but more of an 'I'm looking forward to killing you' kind of smile. The emotional response triggering in my brain demanded I blast a hole through his skull, but the logical response was to let him go, that we would have a time to face off against each other later. If he wanted a fight, then he was looking to the right man; I was determined to send The Syndicate, and all of their pets, straight to hell.
"Are you alright?" Laurel snapped me out of the darkness of my thoughts.
"Huh, yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Maybe because your fist is clenched so tight that your palm is bleeding.” I looked down, and she was right—my fingernails had dug deep into the fleshy part of my hand. I winced slightly as I unclenched my fist and watched blood ooze from the cut in my palm. Laurel handed me a napkin to clean the blood.
"What's wrong?" Kara asked. "I haven't ever seen you like this before."
"I don't know," I said as I wiped away the blood. I held the cloth down and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. "It's that guard I saw. I was watching him and when our eyes met I could have sworn that he smiled at me."
"So, he smiled at you. What's wrong with that?" Laurel asked.
"It was the way he smiled. Almost like he was welcoming what was to come," I said.
"Nobody knows what's coming," Kara said. "That's why we've done everything in secret."
"If not, then why is there an armed guard following Ghon Abert? How come after all this time we finally find someone armed with a gauntlet after we killed Sorrel and his guards? How come we made this discovery just before landing on Earth? Something isn't right here," I said in frustration.
Kara sat back in her seat and produced the surveillance device from her pocket. The display illuminated above her hand as she manipulated the controls. "Ghon Abert is in the cargo bay area of the transport as we speak."
"I thought that was being closed off due to the landing protocols." I said in a voice more disrespectful than I intended.
"That restriction takes place once we enter Earth's orbit. There will be a small crew prepping for the landing during that time, but they do so based on the Captain's authority. Anyone else caught in the cargo bay will be sent back to their state rooms, or put in the brig," Laurel explained to us.
"That sounds like a good time to check the board members locations if you ask me," Kara said. She had taken a liking to keeping tabs on the men who she blamed for every wrong in her life. They had killed our father, they had taken me away from her, and they had put a hit on her. The last had led her to killing not just one person, but two. She had killed a policeman in self-defense and she had killed Sorrel to protect me. Both deaths she felt responsible for and it tore at my heart to watch her deal with her guilt. No matter what Laurel or I said to her, she always went away carrying the same burden. That was why she was so focused on training; my guess was it was her way of dealing with her actions.
"I agree. If anything weird is happening, we will know at that time. Whatever their plan is, I'm afraid it's not going to rear its head until the last minute. I suggest that the two of you stay on high alert. Keep your eyes moving, and don't trust anyone. Do you understand?" Kara and Laurel both nodded their heads in agreement. "Good, now let's go do some last minute preparation before we get restricted to our state rooms."
The three of us navigated through the maze of pedestrians as we left the galley behind. The image of the guard smiling at me was still on my mind even as I tried to push it aside. I had enough to worry about other than some punk thinking that he could best me. We turned into a passageway and scaled down a ladder well that would lead us to the cargo bay. Ghon Abert was at the top of my list of people to bring down. His suspicious behavior warranted my immediate attention and no amount of personal bodyguards would deter me from seeing my plan come to fruition.
We entered the cargo bay to see that it was organized for our Earth landing. Everything that could be strapped down to the deck was secured. The rest I assumed would be taken care of by the crew after the lockdown was called away. We wandered through the labyrinth of pallets and other supplies until I saw Ghon Abert. He was having a discussion with someone that I could not see, but it was evident that Ghon was frustrated, since he was making big gestures with his hands and was pointing into the chest of the man he was speaking to.
"What's going on?" Kara asked, as she tried to look around me.
"I'm not sure, but it looks like Ghon's plans might have hit some turbulence.”
"Who is he talking to?" Laurel asked.
"I can't tell from
here, the person's back is to me. All I can tell is that it is a member of the crew."
"Maybe it's one of the crew members who are securing the cargo bay for when we enter Earth's orbit," Laurel suggested. It was possible, but I had my doubts.
I watched as Ghon flung his hands in the air with exasperation. I couldn't make out what was being said, but I could tell that Ghon was angry as he walked away. The crew member turned to walk in our direction. I stepped back to hide in the shadows of our position. Kara and Laurel followed my example, and I held my breath as I heard the footsteps approaching. I could hear the mumblings of an angry man and could recognize his voice. My suspicions were substantiated as Captain Fillon briskly stomped passed our position. I gasped after the angry Captain was out of hearing range.
"Oh my God," Kara said. "Captain Fillon is working with Ghon Abert?"
"No way can that be true," Laurel said.
"I don't know." My brow creased in concentration, "The only fact I have is that this is the second time Kara and I have stumbled upon Abert and Captain Fillon engaged in some kind of conversation. I don't know what to think."
"Captain Fillon would never side with The Syndicate." Laurel said. She and Captain Fillon had a friendship that went back a few years. I understood her desire to stand up for her friend, but without facts it was hard to make a case either way.
"How do you know?" Kara asked. Laurel fell silent, trying to piece the information together in her head.
"We're not safe here, let's go to our state room and discuss this. I don't want curious ears to hear us." Just as I said this, another guard walked passed. I didn't recognize anything about him except for the gauntlet wrapped around his right wrist. I turned to look at Kara and Laurel before setting off toward our state room. Something wasn't right and I had a lot of questions that needed answers. The biggest one being, where the hell are these guys getting these gauntlets?