“Why did you tell me?” Blondie asked.
Tactical frowned at her and silently turned back to her station. Blondie turned to Baby Doll for an answer. Baby Doll stared at her as if deciding to give her an answer or just slap her upside her head. Finally, she said simply, “You’re the assistant intel officer on the flotilla flagship. You should know.”
“But I’m just here for a few months for one mission.”
“You’re a member of this crew.”
“I’ll be leaving soon.”
“Doesn’t matter. You will always be a member of this crew until you don’t want to be.”
Blondie smiled. “I sort of like that.”
“Lots of crewmembers do. The Captain is serious about it too. He looks after everyone, even those who have left the ship as long as it was under good circumstances. These crewmembers scatter throughout the universe and provide great intel to us if they come across useful information.”
“What happens now on Sundance Drift?”
“Captain will take care of it,” Tactical chimed in from her station.
Two days later another communication came in from Father Stapleton. The Brie Charge de affaires died in an accident at the shipyard he managed.
Chapter 13
The two pirate destroyers entered the Badlands three days later. As planned, Nemesis pulled off and departed without a word. Killian O’Hare did not like being out of the Badlands for extended periods and had undoubtedly planned a series of raids to ensure her ship made up for lost time. She also had a limited time to conduct business before her ship had to enter the yards for a quick overhaul and power plant adjustments in preparation for the OrCon mission.
From his command chair, Hawkins watched Nemesis move to the edge of sensor range of the tactical display on his screen. Although he appeared calm to the point of boredom, he always worried about Killian. She was smart and an excellent captain and tactician, but he worried nevertheless. Her desire to inflict damage and casualties on the Goths and their supporters seemed to know no bounds. She had done more to win the war than any other captain, himself included. Despite her bravado and seeming recklessness, she actually picked her battles carefully and prepared meticulously for the fight. She had been victorious in all her confrontations without suffering any serious damage or setbacks. He hoped she wasn’t starting to feel bulletproof.
Unnoticed, Baby Doll and Tactical came up to look over his shoulder at the departing blip. They watched as Nemesis moved out of range and off the screen.
“She’ll be fine,” Baby Doll whispered.
“Of course she will,” Tactical chimed in quietly.
Hawkins nodded without taking his eyes off the now empty sensor field. “Have either of you heard of her picking a replacement for Desperado?”
Desperado had been a corvette in O’Hare’s squadron until lost in recent fighting. O’Hare could pick a replacement from the long list of pirate ships wishing to join Pirate Flotilla One. She was supposed to run the pick by Hawkins, but he would not be surprised if that did not happen. He knew the two women with him would be tuned into the selection process.
Baby Doll spoke quietly. “She is in no hurry. I think she is waiting until after the Murmansk mission so she’ll have time to get a new ship indoctrinated within her squadron.”
Rafe nodded. He had suggested exactly that to her when he briefed her on the upcoming mission, but her tepid response left him unsure as to her decision. Typical Killian O’Hare. Even if she agreed with you, she wouldn’t admit it. He changed the subject. “Don’t we have a staff meeting soon?”
One hour later the staff meeting was winding down. Each department head had briefed their areas of responsibility. Blondie had briefed the status of her mission. Hawkins had provided guidance for the near future.
“Anything else before we call it done?” asked Hawkins.
Surprisingly, Joker, or maybe it was Ace, spoke up. Normally the most taciturn of participants at these meetings, he was the first to take up the Captain’s offer. “We have a former crew request, Captain.”
All eyes at the table turned to the engineer. Blondie had no idea what the words meant, but nobody else looked surprised. They all waited for Joker to continue. “I don’t know if you remember him, but we had a crewman down in engineering name of Jason Hobson. He was with us for little over a year. Skinny kid who was a decent worker, but tended to get in trouble planet side. Women, alcohol. You know the story. Anyway, he left about six months ago and drifted a bit, but ended up on Agra 2, one of the agriculture planets in the Cinnamon system. Got a comm from him a couple of hours ago. He is in jail in the town of Benteen. Charged with rape and murder. Says it is all a setup because he is an outsider and a former pirate. Due to hang in three days. Wants help.”
All heads swiveled to the head of the table and their Captain. He pursed his lips in thought for a few seconds. “Time to get there?”
Joker had the details. “Two days at max sustained. A couple of minutes on the ground to verify or bust him out.”
“You believe him?”
Joker thought before answering. Everyone noticed the delay and it did not reflect well on Hobson. “He was a wild one, but that’s a big step from party guy to rape and murder. If he was drunk and wanted a woman, it’s possible. The townies probably knew he was a pirate because he had likely been telling them what a bad-ass he was. Not the smartest kid in the universe for sure. To be honest, I don’t know if he is innocent or not. Could have done it or he could be the fall guy. Lots of those agriculture planets are tight groups who don’t like outsiders, especially outsiders who are stupid and former pirates. The kid fits that bill perfectly.”
Rafe nodded, “I guess we need to find out one way or the other. If he is innocent, we’ll get him out, and if he is guilty we let it ride, but at least we will know. Let’s do this simple for once. We’ll take a shuttle down. Land as close to the jail as we can without violating the traffic laws, and a group of us will mosey over to the jail to check this story out.” He turned to Tactical. “I want a death squad with us. You pick me four guys who can handle a shootout against superior numbers. They will stay in the shuttle unless we need them.” He turned back to the group. “Four of us will go to the jail. Me, Logan, Tactical, and Blondie. Two men and two women will look less threatening. Weapons under cover. No quick moves or mad dashes across open space. I don’t remember the kid, but if he was one of us, we need to get this resolved.” Hawkins looked around the group. “Anything else?”
“What if he is guilty?” Blondie had resolved to be quiet after doing her brief, but she couldn’t help herself after finding out she was on the landing party. She had visions of busting a guilty man out of prison amidst gunfire and explosions.
“They hang him as scheduled,” Hawkins replied with ease. He rose from his seat signaling the end of the meeting.
Two days later, Predator entered orbit above Agra 2. As the name implied it was the second in a series of five planets. The five had several traits in common. All were sixty to seventy percent covered in fresh water. The land on each planet was in the form of one to three large continents. The soil was remarkably fertile. Agriculture was the one and only business. Each planet had few large cities but many small towns surrounded by kilometers of orchards, worked fields, and lush pasturelands. Exports were fruit, animal feed, vegetables, and livestock. Rail systems with electric trains moved the products to the bigger cities where they were loaded and sent to neighboring systems for processing and then on to the consumers. Rafe had been to three of the Agra planets during his travels but not Agra 2. He recalled large areas teeming with growing crops, large herds, and kilometers of trees in rows. Although not rich by any means, the people made a decent living. They had been hardworking people who minded their own business and expected others to do the same. They had been suspicious of any outsiders and preferred to limit contact with them. This wasn’t necessarily a bad trait. Rafe concluded there were plenty of worse people in the Bad
lands and the universe at large.
Ten minutes after arriving in orbit, the ship’s shuttle launched with Tactical at the controls. Her destination was a landing pad directly across the street from the sheriff’s office in Benteen. As the shuttle followed its flight path downward, the rolling lands soon came into focus in the afternoon sunlight. Everyone was surprised at the fallow fields, dead orchards, and few stock herds under the speeding shuttle. Rafe had assumed this planet would be like much like its four siblings. He had routinely reviewed all available Agra 2 information on his computer. Normally Baby Doll would have prepared a brief on this planet, but she and her department had been focused on the upcoming operations and didn’t have time to research this. Rafe had thought that had been the right priority, but now realized that may have been a mistake on his part. This may mean nothing at all, but it was a new fact in the situation that Hawkins had not foreseen, and he did not understand the reasons behind the change. Like all warriors, he did not like unanticipated forces shaping his potential battlefield and the enemy forces. If these people were going through a serious economic downturn, they would be suspicious, quick to anger, and unpredictable.
Tactical aimed the shuttle straight for the town, and then straight for the landing pad once it came into view. Losing time while loitering in the air or on the ground could be the difference between success and failure. Tactical set the shuttle down smoothly on the pad and thirty seconds later she, Hawkins, Blondie, and Logan exited the craft via the port side hatch. The four moved as two couples across the street in an easy walk, with Rafe and Blondie in the front and Tactical and Logan just behind them. All four scanned the area continuously. The downtown section was in a genteel downward slide toward poverty. There were buildings in need of repair and painting. Weeds grew through cracks in sidewalks. The streets were largely deserted and the few people in view moved with the laconic pace of individuals with no particular place to be and in no particular hurry to get there. Logan moved ahead, opened the sheriff’s office door, and stepped aside for the two women and his Captain. After entering last, Logan closed the door behind him and stepped past Blondie. She took up a position in front of the door as the other three moved further into the room. The party did a quick scan. Three jail cell fronts were apparent on the right side of the room. From the angle of the front door, there was no line of sight into the cells, but at least one was sure to be occupied. The room itself was one large office. There was a middle-aged man in a uniform with a badge at a large desk in the back of the room, and a young secretary staring at a projected computer screen at a smaller desk immediately in front of the entrance. Both looked up as the four people entered the office and the first three moved to the front of the young secretary’s desk and casually stood abreast with clear fields of fire.
Rafe spoke casually, “Sheriff?”
The man in uniform stood up. “That’s me,” he responded cheerfully. He came forward and extended his right hand with a smile. “Greg Paulsen.”
As Hawkins reached for the hand, a cry came from the center cell to the right. “Captain!” Hawkins sighed inwardly. No, this kid was definitely not the smartest guy around. He might as well have sent up a flare to announce the pirates’ arrival.
The sheriff froze in mid reach and lowered his hand. It rested near his shooter on his right hip. Both Tactical and Logan pulled their weapons and covered the room. Nobody moved for a few moments.
Hawkins spoke easily and calmly. “We’re not looking for trouble here, Sheriff. Just want the facts on the young man over there.” He nodded to his right at the cells five meters away. He glanced at Jason Hobson as the young man stood pressed against his cell bars and stared into the room. The prisoner was casually dressed in his own clothes. He had a three-day beard but looked well cared for and in good physical condition. Raferty would estimate this set up would surpass ninety-nine percent of the other incarceration situations in the Badlands. Of course, Rafe wasn’t due to be hanged the next day. That would definitely put a pall over anyone’s stay in this jail.
Sheriff Paulsen carefully kept his hand away from the holstered weapon at his side. “He was charged with raping and killing nineteen-year-old Matilda Olsen, a pretty young girl from this town. He did these acts four weeks ago and left the body out in the fields. Wasn’t discovered for two days and wild animals gave it a good going over in the meantime. Not too much in forensic evidence but his skin was found under her fingernails. He had scratches on his chest and shoulder. He had no alibi that could be collaborated. He was given a fair trial and convicted due to the skin samples, eyewitness testimony about their relationship, and his movements at the suspected time of the crime and immediately afterward.”
Hawkins turned to the jailed man. “Well?”
“It was all set up before the trial, Captain. I never had a chance. They needed a guy to take the blame and they picked me. I’m an outsider. I’m a former pirate. I got no family here. Easy choice.” The voice had the desperation of a man looking for refuge and not much caring where he found it or what he had to do to get it.
“What was your relationship with the girl?”
“I didn’t have one. Some of the people here made it up to make it look like I was jealous of her dating other guys.”
The Sheriff spoke up in a calm voice, “It is true there was no relationship, but not through lack of trying on his part. You could say their relationship was him trying to start one with her.”
Rafe stepped sideways toward the cell. He ensured he passed behind Tactical on his right to stay out of her field of fire. His voice assumed a quiet tone. “You wanted a relationship with her.”
“Sure I did. She was pretty. Nobody’s girl. Be stupid not to try.”
“But she wasn’t very smart turning you down?” The question was again voiced in a soft, conspiratorial voice. A voice which announced “we’re all just guys here talkin’ about some bitch.” The voice wouldn’t have had much of an effect on the great majority of people, but it was already established that young Hobson was not the cream of the crop. He fell in with the mood before he considered the ramifications.
“She was a highfalutin’ bitch who thought she was too good for me. Always prancing around and pretending she didn’t know she was strutting her stuff.”
Silence filled the room as everyone turned to stare at Hobson. His face had assumed a hungry look of an animal looking at meat just out of reach. He smiled at some secret joke. That secret probably involved what happened to girls who thought they were too good for average guys like him. Hobson was a poor liar and worse actor. His demeanor plus the physical evidence would have convicted him in any honest court in the universe. Hawkins stared at him, then turned suddenly and looked at Tactical who stared back at him evenly. No words were spoken, no expressions exchanged but something passed between them.
Blondie’s eyes flicked from those two to Hobson who was beginning to see that rescue was not at hand. Her gaze came back to the room and she became startled momentarily as she realized Hawkins was now staring directly into her eyes now. Blondie stared back evenly, and without as much as a word spoken, she passed judgment on Jason Hobson. Hawkins looked away. Question asked, question answered. Blondie had wondered why he had picked her for the landing party and now she knew. He had brought her for a woman’s point-of-view and to ultimately pass a verdict.
“Is he really a pirate?” The quiet soprano voice belonged to the young girl at the front desk as she spoke for the first time. She was addressing Blondie, having correctly judged she was the most approachable of the quartet of visitors.
Blondie waited to see if anyone else would field the question but everyone remained silent. Blondie replied, “He worked on our ship for a year. Down in engineering.”
“He used to brag about killing people in gunfights in bar rooms and in space battles. He said you all keep count of your kills as a point of honor.”
“I don’t know anyone who keeps count and nobody sees it as a point of honor.” Blondie
decided to take a stab in the dark. “Quite frankly, I never heard of him killing anyone except the girl here.”
“Have you killed anyone?” The young lady leaned forward to ensure she heard the answer.
Blondie answered in a quiet voice, “Yes.”
“How many?” The secretary looked at her with respect now.
“Too many.” That was a true answer. The one man in the saloon fight was too many, but she was also thinking about those to come.
“Where are you from?” The secretary had forgotten the circumstances in the office as she became absorbed in talking with a real live woman pirate.
“I was born in the Aurora Empire.” Blondie did not want get more specific than that.
“Why are you a pirate?” she asked. “Everyone in the Aurora Empire is rich. You should be home and doing nothing but spending money.”
“Not everyone in the Empire is rich. My family is not poor but hardly rich. There are people around here who probably have as much or more money than my family.”
The secretary shook her head and said with a sigh, “Maybe once but not anymore.”
“What about me?” cried Hobson as the thirty-second conversation between the two women had left him forgotten in his jail cell.
Tactical walked over to him with her shooter in her hand. At first it looked as though she was going to shoot him herself. The revulsion on her face made it seem like a foregone conclusion. Hobson seemed to think so also, and he shrank back into the depths of his small square box. Apparently, her expression accurately reflected her intent, as Tactical had to take a deep breath and visibly force herself to put her shooter in her belt under her jacket, as if to remove the temptation to kill him then and there. She said to him, “Why should I cheat them of their fun. They deserve their revenge just like we do when we’re wronged.” She now turned and headed for the door. “We got places to be.”
Payback Is a Given: Pirates of the Badlands Series Book 2 Page 10