by C. R. Daems
It was late when we finished, so Kris asked Wheeler to wait until morning to set up the meeting with the Police Chief and the person in charge. We didn't want to give either too much lead-time.
* * *
The Star Mining Processing facility had three large buildings: two processing buildings with metal exteriors and the main building, constructed of a blue-gray steel with narrow glass windows. We arrived early the next day thirteen strong: four marines stayed with the shuttle while Kris, Wheeler, Clark, Pannell, four marines, and I entered the main building. Inside the building was a modern lobby with comfortable chairs, couches, and tables, a metal and glass reception booth, and monitors running videos of various aspects of the mining and processing operations. A security guard, looking very attentive, stood near the elevators and another behind the reception booth.
"Hello, Susan. We've an appointment with Mr. Graham," Wheeler said as he reached the reception booth.
"Hi, Jerry. Go right up. He and Chief Holland are in his conference room." The petite redhead gave him an award winning smile.
We followed him into the elevator and then down a long hallway to a glassed-in room where two men stood talking: a broad shouldered man with close-cut brown hair in a police-chief uniform, and a short stocky gray-haired man in a dark-blue suit and white shirt open at the neck.
"Mr. Graham, Chief Holland, this is Commander Sinclair and Commander Paulus of the Oxax NIA office. Commanders, Mr. Graham is in charge of the SMC Processing operation, and Chief Holland is the Chief of Police of Star County, where this facility is located."
"Lieutenant Wheeler did explain the reason for this meeting and indicated you had P1A authorization. What do you expect to find that Chief Holland didn't?" Graham asked, sounding irritated.
"Commander Paulus and I are part of the team investigating a series of robberies perpetrated by foreign raiders. This appears to be their fifth raid. We're here to determine if it is and if it is, whether or not they used the same methodology."
"Their method was simple. They used brute force to enter, plundered, and then left. We'll catch them eventually when they try to leave the planet." Holland sneered.
Kris ignored his bravado and the sneer. "Mr. Graham, what was stolen that was worth more than three hundred million credits?"
"We don't normally accumulate that much at one time, but we hit a particularly rich vein of high quality industrial diamonds and also had a large special order for a metal used on war ships." He shook his head. "Just bad luck they hit when they did. Five more days, and both orders would have been shipped."
"Who would have had access to that information, Mr. Graham?" I asked.
"None of my staff would have helped the robbers."
"Humor us, Mr. Graham," Kris said with a smile. "Who?"
"Well ... the plant manager Mr. Byrd, the sales manager Mr. Wallace, and Ms. Weller the processing manager, and of course me."
"Can you call them here for a meeting, please?" Kris said.
"Is that necessary? They aren't criminals," Graham said.
"We aren't accusing anyone, just attempting to eliminate possible leaks. The raiders used software to get their information."
Graham shrugged and tapped on his tablet for several minutes. "They’ll be here shortly."
"A snake!" Holland shouted while drawing his gun.
But before it cleared his holster, Pannell and the two inside marines had their weapons pointing at him. Pannell walked over and removed the gun, ejected the pellet clip, and then handed the gun back to him.
"The snake's not dangerous. Commander Paulus has the Coaca virus, and the krait keeps it from becoming active. Their relationship is symbiotic. But the commanders already have a several Purple Hearts each on this assignment, so you can understand that guns make me nervous."
The chief looked indignant at first, which turned to open-mouthed shock. He nodded.
Just then a large woman entered, and with her eyes locked on Red, took a seat at the far end of the table from me. Minutes later two men entered, one a tall older man with dark skin and the other a middle-aged freckle-face redheaded man.
"If I could have your tablets and the passwords, please." I walked to where they sat.
"No!" Was the unanimous response.
"It's not a request. I'm invoking P1A authority." I held up my P1A badge. "We’re looking for software that may have infiltrated your devices," I said, continuing the subterfuge Kris used—adult speak. "Yours too, Mr. Graham. Chief Holland, I'll also need you to visit each of their homes and collect any devices that can be connected to the Internet."
"That's illegal without a warrant," Holland said before anyone else could.
Two of the three smiled.
"What would be illegal and land one in jail would be to refuse to cooperate with a P1A request. You may if you wish complain to the courts afterward, but you must comply now," Kris said.
Holland didn't like it, but he left to comply, while Kris and I began examining the tablets. Feeling paranoid after one of our last visits, Pannell insisted the four remain sequestered.
Just as the home units were appearing, Kris and I had each finished examining the tablets. Also feeling paranoid, we decided to keep the tablets until we had finished. We didn't want anyone communicating with the outside.
"What did you find?" Kris asked, smiling.
"The Controller took a different approach, if I'm not mistaken," I said, reviewing the correspondence I had found on Mr. Graham's home tablet. "I think somehow they found Graham was involved in some minor illegal transactions and either through intimidation or greed got him to provide the information they needed. I'll bet we find ten million in the new bank account he opened on Shadow’s Rest."
Kris nodded. "What now?"
I sat back and closed my eyes. I doubted raiders cared if we caught the inside man or not. He didn't know anything that we didn't already know.
"Arrest him, but I would like to know the date he gave them the final information."
"Why? How will knowing the date help? We already know what the Controller does with the information."
"Not really sure, but we’re missing a critical piece to the puzzle, so I'm grasping at straws, as the saying goes."
Over the next hour, we returned the equipment and let everyone go except Graham, on the pretext of needing additional information. Within an hour we had the whole story. They had somehow found out he was illegally selling small quantities of processed gems and had used that to convince him it was jail or free with ten million credits.
The police chief was quiet as he took Graham into custody, and we proceeded out of the conference room and down the hallway to the elevator. I could feel Graham's nervousness increase as we entered the elevator and again downstairs as we approached the doors. When I looked back, his eyes were darting from side to side and he felt ready to explode.
"Kris." I grabbed her arm as we walked. "Something isn't right," I said, looking around.
Holland was directly behind us with Graham, with the two marines trailing them. Pannell was walking beside us, and two marines were in front of us. Red had wound around my neck, and he hissed as the two marines opened the doors for us. Outside, I could see the military shuttle about twenty-five meters to the side, and the four marines left to guard it. All four were close together talking.
When we reached the doors to go outside, Red hissed again. I drew by Mfw, thumbed a narrow spread, and fired as two of the marines stepped back opening the circle, their weapons rising. Shooting from the waist, I aimed chest high—in case I was mistakenly shooting at our marine security. One was thrown back against the shuttle and another dropped his weapon as my second shot was a bit wide, hitting him in his gun arm. At the same time, I pushed Kris back through the doors.
"Anna, those are your marine security—" Pannell began, but he stopped as the other two marines in the group by the shuttle began firing.
"Sir, those aren't our men," one of the lead marines shouted as he ret
urned fire while trying to drag his wounded partner back into the building.
Red seemed to change direction and I spun in time to see four men in suits but with automatic rifles emerge from inside the reception booth. Our two trailing marines were looking toward the front doors, covering our retreat.
"Behind you!" I shouted while thumbing a wide spread and firing several shots from my waist, aiming chest high. My practice had paid off and each blast was close to where I aimed, tearing through arms, necks, and faces. The shards had the desired effect of alerting the marines to the danger behind them and temporarily disrupting the men's attack.
My shards had caused the lead man to stumble and crash face first onto the floor. As he attempted to push himself to his knees, Kris's laser pulsed and he was hit twice in the head.
The man just behind him to the left had been hit in his gun arm and shoulder and lost control of his weapon. Before he could recover, one of the marines shot him several times in the chest.
One man to the lead man's right kept charging even though his face and arm were bleeding. The blood must have been obscuring his view because his aim was high, tearing through the wall just above Kris and me.
Pannell, I think, shot him several times, including two to the head. His momentum carried him to within two steps of me.
The fourth man I missed, as he dove behind a couch.
At the same time, the chief spun, drawing his gun only to find it wasn't loaded. As he dove for cover, Graham bolted toward the back of the lobby. The man behind the couch shot him before he was halfway to the reception booth.
It was mayhem, with us caught in the open and taking fire from two directions. I pushed Kris to the right where tables and padded chairs provided some protection. When I looked around, Pannell and the one functional marine had managed to close the doors and had found partial cover. They were busy defending the doors from the thugs trying to enter.
Only one of the two tailing marines remained functional. He had found cover to the left and was exchanging periodic fire with the remaining gunman behind a couch.
"Cover me," Kris said with steel in her voice and began moving to the right.
I rose slightly, aimed toward the edge of the couch, rested my hand on the arm of the chair I was behind for support, and waited.
A few seconds later, Kris kicked one of the tables, which made a scraping sound on the floor.
The man behind the couch rose up with his weapon swiveling toward the noise.
I shot twice, missing because he had a cushion in front of him, and ducked down quickly after my first shot.
He surprised me by rising up almost immediately and firing in my direction, missing only because his first two shots were hurried. If I hadn't dropped at the sound of his first shot, he would have killed me as his third shot ripped through the top of the cushion where my head had been. A scream followed and then an eerie silence—as if everyone had left the building.
"I got him," Kris shouted. "You alright?"
"Yes, grab a couple of their weapons. The marines will need help holding the door."
The chief was quick to jump up and retrieve the weapon from the thug on his side of the room. Moments later Kris slid in behind me and handed me a marine-like Mfw. I switched it to projectiles and automatic. The next several minutes were deathly quiet like standing in the eye of a hurricane.
"Kris, watch the lobby. There's undoubtedly a back door into this place." I tried to think what I would do in similar circumstances. Red changed position just as I heard Kris fire.
Four men had entered from the back of the lobby. The chief, the marine, Kris, and I fired as they ran into the room shooting. Two went down before they reached the booth and the other two took cover. Simultaneously, several men burst in through the front doors. But without support from the men entering from the back, the entrance was relatively easy for Pannell and the marine to defend and three went down before the other two retreated.
I couldn't hear what was being said, but I could hear one of the men in the back talking on a communications device, as was the chief. The question was which group would get support first. I doubted Pannell or the two standing marines could last long based on the blood on their uniforms and the floor. Then I thought I heard a shuttle's engines and saw the two in the back of the lobby make a dash for the back door.
I thought it safe and ran to where Pannell and the marine lay. Surveying both, I decided the marine was in worse shape. The chief, Kris, and I spent the next half hour providing first aid to stop the bleeding. Chief Holland's troops arrived shortly afterward and the wounded were taken to the hospital. Kris and I were taken to the shuttle port, where twenty marines waited to escort us to the Vulcan.
* * *
"They really don't like you," MacLin said that night at dinner. "It's a miracle neither of you were injured. Paulus, I'm told you were the first to recognize it was a trap." It was more a question than a statement—how?
"I guess my paranoia is on high alert. Besides, I think Admiral Lultrel will court martial me if I get another Purple Heart," I added to change the subject. What could I say, Red warned me? I think even Doctor Renata would have trouble with that concept. "Kris saved me."
"Days and days at the firing range helped. When I joined the navy, I thought the sidearm was symbolic because I was an officer. Now I feel like a marine recruit." She snorted and took a drink of her wine.
"The marines I talked to have a new respect for the navy. They credit you two with saving their lives. What now?"
Kris shrugged. "I would like to find a husband and have a couple of kids. No offense, but no line officers. However, I suspect we have to destroy the raider organization first. Anna, what do you think?"
"I think we have the pieces to the puzzle of how to find the raider cruisers, we just have to put it together." I felt that we were close. I just needed time to sort through the information we had collected. "Back to Oxax. We need to put our heads together."
"To putting the puzzle together and sending the foreign cruisers to perdition." MacLin raised his glass to us.
* * *
Kris and I walked down to sickbay to see Pannell and the surviving marines and found them awake.
"How are you doing, Paul?" Kris asked.
"Better, thank you. How did you know, Anna? I thought you had gone crazy when you started shooting at the four men in marine uniforms," Pannell said.
"I think Graham warned me. He seemed increasingly nervous as we approached the door. And ... the marines didn't look right." I knew how strange that must sound but the truth would send me to the psych ward—forever.
"That was a gutsy move shooting on a ... hunch." Pannell gave me an appraising look.
"I did shoot toward their chests, since they had vests on, just in case I was wrong."
Pannell laughed and immediately winced with pain. I noticed the other two marines had a similar reaction.
To my relief, Renata entered. "Since you’re both here, I wonder if I could have a word with you?" She motioned toward the door.
Kris and I nodded and followed her to one of the offices.
Inside, she closed the door. "Sit. Now that you've had time to relax, I was wondering how you felt?"
"Thankful to be alive," Kris said and gave a small snort of a laugh. "And although I killed my first human ... it was an easy choice. He was trying to kill Anna." She reached over and squeezed my arm only centimeters from Red, whose tongue flicked in response but he made no attempt to move.
"Red doesn't bother you?"
"No. Anna says he's lazy, but I believe he knows friend from foe."
"Red has been an anomaly right from the beginning. It's like he adopted Anna." Renata sat staring at Red as if awaiting a response. "Anna, how do you feel?"
"Sad that people are being hurt because of me."
'It's not your fault, and they're after your teammates as well, not just you."
"True, but Kris is only here to look after me ..." I whined.
> Renata looked to Kris.
"Not true. You, Red, and me are a team. Who else is going to care for Red when you’re in a bad mood?" Kris went on to explain to Renata the incident with Captain Sharat.
"That's unbelievable. He definitely demonstrates a level of intelligence." Renata laughed. "Even I think of Red as he rather than it. Every person who has attacked Anna or attempted to take him away from her, he's struck—even a man who had the Coaca virus. It's the reason I don't consider her strange for giving him a name and considering him ... more than just a medical dispenser."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Missing pieces
"I don't know what to do with you people. You don't appear safe anywhere," Rawls said at an early morning briefing the day after we returned from Safe Harbor. "We would like to give you new identities and move you to other systems. But the realities are that we need you. So we're going to wrap each of you in a cocoon of marines, who I hear are quite impressed with you." She slowly sipped on her coffee while appearing to study each of us. "Where are we after your visit to Safe Harbor?"
"The raiders' system has been designed to ensure no merchant, whether UAS or FPU, nor any Controller can give away the location of the cruisers," Adrian said, assuming his unofficial role as leader. "As a consequence, Commanders Sinclair and Paulus believe after their Safe Harbor visit that the raiders made only minor changes to that system. They believe we're close to discovering the missing pieces." Adrian's comments summarized the group's earlier discussions.
"Right now there is no higher priority in the UAS. You've an unlimited credit account. What you want, you'll get," Rawls said, rising while waving for us to keep our seats.
"Anna, I have that request in to Master Puzzles. When I get it, I'll forward it to everyone. You think they're using another puzzle to designate the coordinates for what?" Adrian asked.