Steel Walls and Dirt Drops

by Black, Alan

  Misha turned to the other man, "Okay, you would be Tree, then. Good. What I need is for you to analyze the traffic Lamsa intercepts and give me situation reports. I need clear and clean sitreps to give me a view of what is going on and where it is happening. I need it fast and I don't have time to handle it myself. Got it?

  Both men responded with, "Roger that, sir."

  Misha turned to Takki-Homi. "Deuce Taks, what’s the word on Trooper Riffler?"

  "Good news, Trey. She just got stuck backing out of one of the enviro-vents. She maintained voice radio silence, but she was tapping code like crazy. Gaineretti said she was really pissed by the time he picked up her signal. I sent him with two others to pull her out."

  "One last thing, Deuce: where is Bilideau? He should have been here by now."

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Wilderman watched Bilideau's back as they trudged down the hallway. He was sure Beans dragged him along on this wild goose chase as punishment. He thought, "All I was trying to do was squeeze out the back hatch to meet up with Singletary. Clearly, this is an opportunity for profit. Mutiny is a thing for command level APES and AMSF officers to worry about, not me. Money is my line. I’d rather be checking in with Gates and company; not being here with this group of chumps checking another group of chumps."

  Wilderman slowed his steps again, trying to put distance between Bilideau and himself. He thought if he could get far enough behind, then he could duck out and still meet up with Singletary. However, every time he slowed down, so did Bilideau. They were almost at a crawl and they were almost to the hatchway.

  The group rounded the last corner. Wilderman was surprised to see Deuce Kranitchovich hadn't put anyone on guard duty outside the training bay hatchway. The hatch was open to the inside. Kranitchovich was lazy, but he wasn't stupid.

  Wilderman watched the first two of their six-man party disappear through the hatchway. He saw the next two hesitate, but arms reached through the open hatch and yanked them into the training room. Bilideau turned to shout. A very compact female body crashed into Bilideau and with a wild fury drove him to the steel deck, driving a knee into his solar Plexus.

  Wilderman heard a whoosh of air escape from Bilideau and turned to run. Instead of moving, he froze. The barrel end of a needler snuggled onto the tip of his nose. His eyes crossed momentarily as he stared at the weapon. He refocused onto the face of Chewie from Charlie Squad.

  Chewie smiled sweetly. "In the training bay, if you please."

  Wilderman began backing toward the open hatchway while the needler stayed connected to his nose. He wanted to back away quickly, but was afraid to make any sudden moves. He knew Chewie well enough to know the man was crazy. Out the corner of his eye Wilderman saw a melee of wildly swinging arms, claws and teeth, it was as if the woman on top of Bilideau was trying to shred him. Wilderman paused, not knowing which way to turn.

  Chewie said, "Hey Peanut, go ahead and kill the S.O.B., I don't care, but you have to explain it to Taks; not me. As for you, Wildchild; just back around this mess on the deck. We are having a little party in the training bay. The pleasure of your company is required."

  Wilderman felt the needler push against his face, causing him to move backward toward the hatch. He slowly moved around the two tangled bodies on the deck, until Chewie's body blocked them from view. He felt more than saw, two bodies rush around him. He hoped they pulled Peanut off Beans before she killed him. The man was a cretin, but he didn't deserve to be minced like last night's roast beef. His heels stubbed the base of the hatch and he crashed backward through the hatchway into the training bay.

  Chapter Fifty

  Misha looked at the small group around her, wondering for the umpteenth time if she was doing the right thing by dividing her forces. She knew it was a classic mistake, but she couldn't see any other way. There were too many things to do that all needed doing at the same time.

  She debated with herself on how to divide those forces. It was a no-brainer to leave Charlie Squad intact. They were already a well-formed unit with strong leadership. She gave Takki-Homi two of their four needlers as they had the farthest to travel across the spacecraft. Charlie Squad was the least of her worries although their mission was critical by contractual standards. She doubted Second Takki-Homi would fail.

  She wanted to leave all the rookies behind to guard Hotel and the pieces of Dawg Squad that they had captured. Misha's part of the plan was a dangerous task even for veterans. But, there were not enough veterans to go around.

  She had needed Second Aardmricksdottir for a special task that would take her and three others from Joker Squad out of the training bay. Vark took Joker Trooper Six Garcia, and Jokers' two newest rookies, Trooper Ten Brown, Trooper Eleven Hassletanker and Kilo's Trooper Eleven Smith. Although, Vark’s task was better undertaken stealthily, Misha had still insisted they take one of the remaining needlers.

  Strangely enough it was Trooper Beaudry who had given Misha a solution to the prisoner problem. He suggested they put the twelve healthy prisoners in the tri-wave sim couches and send them on a long vacation to a quiet beach somewhere. They wouldn't pose any problem to whoever was guarding them. He also, with a malicious smile, suggested they program the tri-wave to instruct their captives in the APES manual, various contracts, and legalisms involved in inter-service relations and mutinies. He suggested he would be able to keep watch over the four remaining injured prisoners if she left him with one other person. She could see his mind working as he also suggested that to keep everyone safe, they should lock the training bay hatches from the inside and the outside. Over his protest, she had given him her last needler and left him with Trooper Aarvan Kelly. She would rather have Kelly with her, but the other two unassigned rookies were Oberman and Ramirez. Both had formerly been in Dawg Squad. She was pretty sure of their loyalties, but didn't want to test them too hard by having them guard former squad mates.

  In the end, she had no choice but to keep Able Squad together as a unit with the four replacements she had culled from the earlier group: Ethica Kelly, Na'aranna, Raza and Lamont. Plus she commandeered Greek and Tree to continue monitoring and reporting on communications traffic. Finally, she had the two ex-Dawg rookies. It was a large force for intra-craft action, but it wasn't a team by any stretch of the imagination.

  "Okay, you APES. We’re going to take back engineering. Frankly, if we don't, then we don't go home."

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Misha crouched in a closed hatchway. She was passing through Kiirkegaard's officer country. They found many of the hatches closed and locked from the inside. She could hear movement on the other side of this hatch, but she doubted that whoever was inside would come out. Many of the crew, including a large number of officers locked themselves in quarters to avoid either a charge of cowardice or a charge of mutiny. She felt sorry for their predicament, but a review board would most likely find that by disobeying Britaine's calls for help, they were guilty of failing to obey an order, if not worse. Still, she kept one eye on the hatch and one eye on Aggie Raza and Ethica Kelly. The two women were on point. They had reached a major intersection in the spacecraft's maze of corridors and hallways. Both point men were flat on their stomachs peeking around the corners, keeping their heads as low to the ground as possible, each looking in a different direction.

  It was a dangerous way to look around a corner. Misha would have been happier to jump around the corner blasting away with needlers. Or, if they had been suited, they could have slid an opti-cam cable around the corner and broadcast the view of the hallway to everyone's HUD display.

  They had only managed to commandeer two additional needlers from stray AMSF Security. The team of Ottiamig and Lamont, the veteran from India Squad and her Able Squad rookie found an unlocked hatch. They quietly slipped the hatch open. Ottiamig was just about to step through the hatchway when Lamont grabbed him by the collar and yanked him backwards just in time to avoid a hail of needles.

  Misha grimaced when she real
ized she had been almost directly across the corridor from the open hatchway. The needles spanged off the bulkheads and peppered her face and arms. The ricochets did little damage as the needles shattered and spent their energy before flying back at her.

  Everyone froze where they were. Misha needed those weapons, but it would be a difficult task to flush out armed and trained men when her team wasn't carrying anything deadlier than a large stick. Misha moved to stand across the hatch from Lamont. Ottiamig looked ashen at his near miss, but he stood gamely behind Lamont, ready to rush the room if Misha called for it. Trying to talk the men out would have been the best course of action, but she ruled it out right away. First, she didn't know anything about who was in the room, how many there were or on which side of this mutiny they found themselves. Second, she sucked at diplomacy and negotiation.

  Misha ducked down toward the deck and stuck her head into the room. She quickly whipped it back. There were two men in the room. Both men aimed their needlers at the hatchway. Both fired at her, but both shots were high. Neither man fired wildly. Each shot was a short controlled burst, neither wasting ammunition nor energy. Stealth wouldn't work. Misha didn’t see any other way into the room. A direct frontal assault would be disastrous. She was sure she could reach them before they could cut her down. The APES who followed would surely be able to wrestle the weapons away from the two men, but Misha would be seriously injured or dead.

  She looked at Lamont. He only shrugged as if to say he didn't have a clue how to proceed. She glanced at Ottiamig and saw him nod back to her, signaling he was ready to rush the two men. Lamont reached back and patted him on the shoulders. Without a smile, he said, "Down, pup. We can die later."

  Na'aranna sidled up to Misha, peaked around her shoulders, and then ducked back before the men could fire. She whispered to Misha, "What we need is a concussion grenade."

  Misha nodded back and then called loudly enough for the men inside to hear, "Na'aranna, bring me that canister of grenades. I’d like to take these men alive, but I don't have time for delicate negotiations."

  Na'aranna frowned as if she did not approve of bluffing, but said loudly, "I've got a couple of CT-906 shrapnel grenades that’ll shred everything in that room to little more than dripping slime on the chandelier and greasy spots on the carpets."

  Misha said loudly, "No. No. I don't think we need to do that. I’d like to be able to allow medical to identity the bodies without having to do deep DNA scans. I think if we just toss in a CY-2 cyanide grenade and pull the hatch shut, we could move on and not worry about these two bozos. Be quicker, don't you think?"

  Na'aranna said coldly, "Not really quicker, plus the CY-2 takes so long for them to die; burns from the inside out. Shredding is more merciful."

  Misha all but shouted, "I’m not much in the mood for mercy. I've got better things to do than mess with these two vacuum suckers. They shot at me first so let them try breathing cyanide." She took her cudgel in both hands and snapped it over her knee. She looked up to see Lamont as he raised an eyebrow at the feat. Misha flashed the hand gestures. "Follow close behind me." Lamont nodded. She called out, "Okay, team. Put your breathers on and be running, just in case we don't shut this hatch quickly enough." She stifled a smile as Lamont, with deadpan seriousness, jerked an imaginary breather out of an imaginary side pocket and settled it over his face. He wiggled his eyebrows alternately and then wiggled his ears, but he pumped his fist as the signal, he was ready to go.

  Misha called out. "On the count of three, I’ll toss in the CY-2. Then Lamont grabs the hatch and slams it shut. Then we can get on our way. Everybody got that?" She held up one finger to Lamont and received his nod of understanding. Misha said, "One!" She then tossed in both halves of the cudgel sending them skittering to opposite ends of the room. She uncoiled her muscles and leapt into the room expecting to have to cover the distance before the men could react. She knew the distraction of the fake grenades would only give her a heartbeat to reach them before they could fire. She was surprised to see they were rushing towards her with panic on their faces. Misha shot out her right arm and clothes-lined the first man. Using the momentum of the contact she pivoted on her right foot. Spinning, she drove the heel of her left foot into the second man's stomach. She heard a whoosh of air as the man collapsed to the deck.

  Lamont reached the first man and with only a brief struggle twisted the needler out of the man's hand. The second man dropped his needler. He was on his hands and knees gasping for air. Misha picked up the man’s weapon. For the first time, she saw a third person in the room. There was a young woman strapped to the bed, gagged and blindfolded. She was stripped completely nude. Misha tossed her needler to Na'aranna who was standing in the hatchway. "Block the hatch. Do not let anyone else in."

  Na'aranna looked past Misha to the bed and said between clenched teeth, "Roger that." She turned her back on the room and stood cross armed. Misha could see the back of her neck was turning bright red.

  She turned to Lamont, "Find something to tie these two up. Make it tight."

  "I will use their intestines if I can’t find anything else," Lamont replied. From his expression, Misha couldn’t tell whether he was serious or not.

  Misha turned to the woman on the bed. She grabbed a sheet and spread it across the woman to cover her. The woman flinched at first, but she relaxed minutely as she realized what it was. "Don't worry," Misha said. "I'm not going to hurt you. Give me just a sec." Misha got the blindfold pealed back and smiled at the woman. "There you go. Let's see if we can get that mouth muffler off." She reached across to work at the knot rather than pull the gag off. She kept talking to the woman in quiet soothing tones. "I've had one of these on recently and I know they are uncomfortable. I should have this off… there you go."

  "Thank you, thank you, and thank you. I am-" The woman blurted out.

  Misha interrupted. "Hold on. First, are you going to need medical attention?"

  The woman snorted, "Nothing a hot shower won't cure. That and taking a ball-peen hammer to their nuts. I probably will need trauma therapy once things settle down, but I’m not… well, no medical anyway. I just got enough of a rush of adrenaline and anger to get me through until things settle down around here. Thanks."

  Misha finally got the bands loosened enough on the woman's wrists, so she could sit up. She did so, letting the sheet fall to her waist. She didn't slow down enough to pull it up as she reached for her own ankles to untie her feet.

  Quickly enough, the woman got to her feet. Ignoring the sheet completely she walked to the closet and pulled out an officer's utility jumpsuit. Dressing, she unceremoniously stuffed her breasts into the suit and slid the tabs closed from navel to neck. She turned to Misha and stuck out her hand.

  "You’re McPherson, right?"

  Misha, nodding, shook her hand. "And you?"

  "You were right, doesn't matter." She looked down at the two men tied up on the deck. "It’s just enough to know that two cretins favorite wet dream, precisely at this very moment, turned into a cold, dark nightmare." She looked up at Misha. "You know, I almost wet the bed when I heard those grenades hit the deck. Say, so you suppose you could give me one of those needlers to take care of these two?"

  Lamont said to the woman, "Ma'am. They are tied good and tight, they aren't going anywhere." He looked at Misha, "Unless you want I should drag them somewhere for you? Like the trash compactor."

  Misha shook her head. "Sorry, I've got to keep the needlers and I really don't have the people to spare to give you a hand with these two."

  "Not to worry. I can take care of them now. I could have handled them before, but they jumped me in my own cabin, plus they had needlers, you know?"

  Misha had hated to leave the woman alone with the two men, but she really didn't have weapons, people or time to spare. She imagined that she should worry more about the two men than the woman, but it was hard to work up any sympathy for the pair.

  They were getting close to her first planned dest
ination, far past AMSF officer country and into a cluster of offices and workrooms. They were moving slower and with ever increasing caution. Misha looked up the corridor at Raza and Kelly. Neither of whom had needlers. Misha believed if the action of the man on point required stealth that he was less likely to expose himself if he was unarmed. Misha had given one needler to DeLaPax, who with Metzler, was watching their backs. She left the other needler in Na'aranna's hands. As the senior weapons tech, Misha assumed her familiarity with weapons would give the team the best chance if this outing turned into a full-blown firefight. She knew they would meet resistance before they took back engineering, but they needed more time to gather intelligence and more weapons.

  She looked around at her team. Everyone carried some weapon. She made Steinman and Qualls trade the pikes they had been carrying for cudgels before they left the training bay. These hallways were too close and tightly packed to try swinging a seven-foot spear with a hook on the end.

  Raza signaled from up front, "All clear."

  Misha nodded and signaled for her to proceed along the right hand hallway.

  Raza flashed an "OK" signal and tapped Kelly on the shoulder to get her attention. Raza pointed at Kelly's eyes and then pointed down the left hallway. The older veteran turned and slid silently along the right corridor.

  Misha twirled her fingers above her head and pointed down to where Kelly still stood. With a quick twist of her wrist, she shot her hand to the right, held two fingers up and stretched both arms in the direction Raza had disappeared. Misha could see Kelly still at the intersection with her eyes glued to the left corridor. Her team slid silently forward and turned the corner to the right, dividing into two parallel columns moving along each bulkhead of the wider corridor.