by Colin Weldon
“You’re locked in Nora. I could just leave you there until we hit port but someone else clearly wants you dead; the missile strike in Jakarta wasn’t us, Nora. Civilians were killed. This is not what we do. Come on now, bang on the door to let me know you understand. I am not your enemy!” he shouted again pointing his gun at each of the twelve containers.
Nothing. Only the sound of the howling wind and rain as it pummelled the metal all around. His earpiece suddenly crackled and a voice came through. It was distorted but he could hear it. It was Miller.
“Conrad…abort… airstrike inbound… six minutes,” Miller’s voice said.
Eddie looked up at the night sky and reached up placing his finger on his ear piece.
“What?” he shouted.
“Get out of…. Now!.. That’s…Order!” he heard Miller say.
“Call it off you fucking lunatic, I’m about to make contact for christ’s sake!” Eddie shouted into the night.
His earpiece suddenly cut out.
“Shit!” he shouted frantically pointing his gun back at the containers, “Hiran?…Abigail?”
Nothing.
“Stupid mother fuck…” he began saying as the metal door to a container on the deck suddenly burst open.
It sprang completely off its hinges with such force that the entire door flew straight past Eddie narrowly missing his head causing him to hit the deck. His gun slid out of his hands and rocketed across the slippery deck out of sight.
“Jesus,” Eddie said as he looked up.
He raised his head and saw a dark figure standing over him. He was about to roll away when a powerful hand gripped his neck and wrenched his body clean off the deck and into the air. He looked down and saw a furious female face glaring into his eyes. Her left hand, which was free, reached up and snatched the night vision lens off his face and threw it away. Darkness descended as the rain and wind smashed its strength across his now choking body. His feet dangling in the air as he tried to breathe.
“You think you can kill me?” shouted Nora Stone into the rain as she swung the arm that was firmly fixed onto Eddie’s throat, “where is Tarsis?”
Eddie looked at her, baffied.
“Where is Tarsis!” Nora said gritting her teeth.
Eddie was suddenly launched into the air as she threw him across the deck. He felt his body weightless as he soared through the air for what seemed like an eternity. His journey into the night came to an abrupt end as his shoulder took the impact of the wet metal door of a container. He hit it hard and slid down its surface, catching a metal rod door handle on the way down. It tore through his clothing as he felt a searing pain run down his arm. Warm blood began to flow freely. He hit the deck, knocking his head in the process. The world went away for a moment as blackness entered his mind. It was brief but enough to completely disorientate him. He gasped for breath. Raising his head, he saw a pair of legs approach. The only light available was some strip lighting along the rails of the ship but it was enough to see the outlines of things. He frantically looked around for his weapon but it was gone. He pressed his left arm against the deck and flipped his body, rolling away from his attacker. He slid to her right and managed to get to his feet.
“You’re quite the hunter aren’t you?” she shouted into the night, “I admire your commitment Eddie I really do but I think you’ve bitten off a little more that you can chew wouldn’t you say? Now I’m going to ask you one more time. Where is Tarsis?”
The rain began to ease slightly, making the visibly a bit better. He could see her outline as she walked towards him. She was all in black, but he could see small flickers of light pulsing around her fingers.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What the hell is Tarsis?” Eddie shouted at her.
She smiled at him and as she did her face crossed an area of light revealing something that Eddie had not expected. A truly beautiful smile. He looked at the long scar, which ran down the side of her face.
“So you’re telling me Wise didn’t tell you he was sending Tarsis?” She stopped a few feet in front of him. “That makes sense. He takes me out and leaves no witnesses. Oh Eddie you really are in over your head. You probably don’t even know about the Academy do you, or the Quorum,?”
Eddie did not respond.
“The Academy, Eddie? Oh Jesus, I’m insulted. They sent a fucking amateur,” Nora said.
“Just talk to me, tell me what the hell is going on, I’m not here to kill you,” Eddie said.
“They’re stealing our children Eddie. Can you imagine that?” Nora said, suddenly revealing a growing rage in her voice.
“Abigail didn’t tell you? She knows all about it. You’re a pawn who’s made the wrong move, Eddie. You’re about to be taken out by the Queen without so much as a thought. They’re after the President. Bet they didn’t tell you that, did they, Eddie? I need to know where Tarsis is, Eddie, think, you must know something. If you don’t have anything at all for me, you die” Nora said, making a move to grab him again.
This time he was ready for her. He moved his shoulders swiftly and slammed his right forearm into hers.. It was like hitting an iron bar. He felt a crack as another round of pain receptors fired off emergency information to his brain. Information that told him he was in serious shit. She countered quickly and sent several well placed jabs into his stomach. It felt like being hit by a freight train. He doubled over, gasping to get more oxygen into his lungs. He barely had time to take a breath when he felt himself being raised again off the deck. She had bunched his clothing in her hand and was dangling him in mid air. The adrenalin coursing through his veins allowed him to grab onto her arm with both hands. He knew it was pointless and he also knew they were both dead unless he could think of something. He saw something else in her eyes now. It was not anger. It was curiosity. She had her head tilted and was looking at him like a large predator who had just found something it needs to examine before eating it. He felt his throat begin to constrict.
“The ocean is blue and….” He began saying. She quickly reacted and threw him into the air for the second time.
There was getting your ass kicked and then there was this. He was a chew toy. He landed hard once again, thankfully on his other shoulder. He rolled away and into the side of another container.
“Did Abby tell you to say that? Where is she? In the helicopter? I really wouldn’t be trusting her if I were you, Eddie,” Nora said. “If you ever see her again – and we’ll see about that – tell her that bullshit won’t work on me anymore. Tell her I’m coming for her too. I’m coming for all of them.”
Eddie was out of options. He threw up his hands.
“Ok stop! You win, I give up. You got me. Time out,” Eddie said.
Much to his surprise, she did.
“Time out?” she said looking at him oddly.
“Fuck this,’ Eddie replied, “you want to kill me, go ahead, but in about sixty seconds an airstrike is gonna take out this ship, then all your revenge bullshit isn’t gonna mean squat. Yes I was sent to take you out, but I need to know why. Unlike you I don’t kill blind. I do it to save lives,” Eddie said getting to his feet.
She looked into the night sky and as she did, the ship tilted hard. Eddie figured a large wave had just hit but did not have time to think about it as they both suddenly lost their footing. They hit the deck and began sliding towards the edge of the boat, both crashing hard into the railing. Nora’s body slid under a large gap at the bottom of a railing and began to fall. Without thinking, Eddie reached out and grabbed her arm sending the pair under the gap and out towards the sea. With his left hand he hung on to the railing as the ship tilted even further. Both their bodies were dangling in mid air. Eddie felt Nora grab his arm tightly.
“Hold on!” he screamed not knowing why he was suddenly trying to save her.
Her exposed mechanical hand grabbed his forea
rm so tightly that it felt like she would break it. He screamed with the pain of both their body weights pulling down on his wrist. He looked down at her. Her face was calm. Then he saw it. A small flash of light from somewhere up above them.
“Fuck!” he shouted looking down at the writhing ocean below.
He couldn’t hold on. That much was certain. Getting them both back on the ship was not going to happen. He looked down at her and shook his head. He only had one option. Go out their way, or go out his. He looked past Nora at the sea below and back up at his strained hand.
“Ah screw it,” he said, taking a breath and letting go.
They fell, at the same moment a loud crackle exploded the ship all around them. The night lit up as if a second sun had just been born right next to their falling bodies. The shock wave of the missile impact hit the pair in mid air, sending them tumbling away from the ship and into the void of the storm. Eddie felt hot metal against his skin and a searing heat before hitting the water. A contrasting cold swept over him as he submerged. Above the surface of the water he could sense the ship breaking up into pieces. Container after container began to follow them into the icy depths. Something heavy hit Eddie squarely in the chest and the world fell away into nothing.
“Wheels up in three minutes, sir,” said the air force cadet to the President as he took his seat.
Royo nodded as he settled in behind the desk of his Air Force One office. He listened to the engines as the huge aircraft gracefully crept down the runway. He placed his rectangular silver-rimmed glasses on his nose and leaned back, taking the old copy of The New York Times off the desk and turning to the crossword page. He folded it neatly into four quarters and looked at the puzzle he had been working on with his wife. It was almost finished. There was only one word missing, thirteen down, five letters;
‘Undergo transformation, as one image into another’. It was the last thing they had argued about. He stared at the empty white squares for a while before opening the middle drawer of the desk, placing it inside and closing it gently. He felt a sudden pressure and looked out the window as Air Force One fired up its GEnx-1B engines and launched itself into the air. The ground fell away. This would be one of his last journeys on this, the most prestigious of planes. The closing months of the last job he would ever hold would be mostly ceremonial. Legacy building, as Kroch kept telling him. The Orbital Accords were the last in the calendar. A gathering of world leaders to regulate the growing need for jurisdiction over military assets orbiting the Earth. It was getting crowded up there and mass protests over the United States military space program were causing more than their fair share of tension in the international community. Royo was tired of the squabbling politicians. The endless procrastination of Congress and the lack of progress. The undercurrent while political egos and the real power brokers – those in control of America’s money – created a bottleneck in the capital.
He reached over and tapped a small computer pad on his table. It came to life with CNN. The anchor currently reading the news was Alex Knight. Royo had met him at the correspondents’ dinner. He was a sharp kid and had hit him hard on the militarisation of space issue. He was a scrapper. He reminded him of the old newspaperman that his father had once been. A dying breed of reporter actually interested in the truth.
“Witnesses along the coast reported seeing a large fireball in the sky, the local coast guard says several survivors were plucked from the ocean, most in severe or critical condition. The cause of the explosion is not yet known but the ship and all its cargo is said to have sunk. There are unconfirmed reports of several militant factions in the area but at present, reports of their being responsible for the sinking of the vessel are uncorroborated,” said Alex Knight.
Royo frowned and sat forward in his seat
Willbert Kroch appeared in front of him. Alex Knight continued.
“The vessel, said to be carrying a large manifest of vehicles and livestock being transported to Singapore, put out a distress call at 3.31 am this morning. A spokesman for the shipping company has claimed the bad weather could have presented rough sailing conditions and the circumstances of the explosion are currently being investigated. In other news President Royo is currently en route to the Orbital Accords in Paris this morning in an attempt to save face following the disastrous economic forecasts in the third quarter of the…” Royo put the tv on mute.
He looked up at Kroch and frowned.
“Well?”
“We’ve got sat recon on it right now. Hammond ordered a sortie out of the Gerald Ford to take it out,” Kroch said.
Royo’s mouth opened.
“He did what?”
A rage began to burn in his stomach.
“Yes, Mr President, it seems that Nora Stone commandeered the vessel and murdered its crew. Director Wise had a window of opportunity to take her out and executed black ops protocol to deal with the situation.”
Royo tightened his fists and slammed them on his armrest.
“Get me Wise on the line. Now! And get Hammond…” he was interrupted by the phone ringing.
“That’s the General, sir, I had him contacted immediately,” said Kroch.
Royo grabbed the phone.
“Are you out of your mind!” he shouted,. “You don’t take out a civilian target without my permission!”
Royo had always considered himself to be cool under pressure, most of the time anyway.
“Sir, we had a directive order from Jaguar with a presidential sign off and code word clearance verified its authenticity,” Hammond replied down the phone,
Royo looked at Kroch with his mouth open.
“Where is Wise?” he said to him, still holding the phone to his ear.
“I don’t have his location, sir.” Hammond replied sounding confused.
“We’re trying to reach him now,” said Kroch at the same time.
Royo gritted his teeth, flipped the handset down and switched it onto speakerphone.
“Who else knows about this?” he asked both of them..
“In all likelihood, nobody outside the defence grid. Maybe the Russians and Chinese have intelligence in the area. We are checking on that, but at the moment, it’s classified as black ops,” replied Hammond. “With all due respect sir, Jaguar was given broad ranging scope with regards to the Nora Stone containment situation. This action, while regrettable in terms of civilian casualties, could fall under the prelude of protecting both national and international security.”
Royo looked at Kroch.
“Is that what my legacy is, gentlemen? Rogue agencies casually blowing up ships because they think one of our most highly classified augmented assassins is on board? Jesus Christ, if the press get a sniff of this, we’ll have a war on our hands!”
“That won’t happen sir, I can assure you of that,” Kroch said.
Royo sank back in his seat and pressed his thumb and forefinger into the bridge of his nose. He could see Ginny’s face, standing in front of the desk. Shaking her head with disappointment that he had not listened to her and reined in Wise when he had the chance. He took a breath and looked out of the window. They had just broken through a cloud field that spread as far as the eye could see. The mountainous vista of pure white made him lose his train of thought for a moment. The phone bleeped again, making his head turn.
“One moment General,” he said, regaining some of his composure.
He flipped the button.
“Sir, I have Director Wise on the line,” came a female voice.
“Put him through,” he said looking up at Kroch.
“Mr President,” said Wise sounding resolute.
Royo wanted to tear his head off but bit down hard and channelled his diplomatic composure.
“Director Wise, report,” Royo said.
“Sir, at 02.32 WIB I initiated operation Sleeping Tiger, with good intelligence
from Eddie Conrad’s team that Nora Stone had been located on a vessel en route to Singapore. We received intelligence that she had a chemical weapon on board and was about to detonate it. I am afraid that I felt it necessary to break protocol for a presidential code clearance, as I only had a matter of minutes to react. I can confirm that the ship and Nora Stone have been safely taken care of, sir. Regrettably, we lost Conrad in the explosion, but I think he would have made the same call, sir,” Wise said.
Royo looked at Kroch who seemed to have a strange look on his face. He knew that look. It was a look of scepticism. Royo moved his hand up to his chin and began lightly stoking it.
“Where are you at the moment Director?” Royo replied.
“Washington, I have some loose ends to tie up with Jaguar intel here. I will be returning to Langley on the next flight out,” Wise replied without missing a beat.
“I would like all your Intel regarding this, Wise,” Royo said, still frowning.
“I would prefer not to discuss that over open comms, sir. If you like I can debrief you in person upon my return to Washington,” Wise replied.
After forty-one years in politics he knew how to spot a lie. Maybe not the specifics, but the intonation was unmistakable. He could pit himself against the oldest world leaders in the game and still be able to hear something in the voice of the most skilled of liars. He looked up at Kroch, who instantly saw in his face that something was up.
“So you are confirming that Nora Stone is dead?” Royo replied.
“Yes sir, of that there can be no doubt,” Wise replied.
Royo thought for a moment.
“Director, I want a full report upon my return from Paris, I am also shutting down the Jaguar Augment program until a top level review has been conducted,” said Royo.
There was a pause on the line. Royo listened to the gentle hum of the plane’s engines as he waited for a response.