by Tobias Roote
“Somewhere safe and out of reach of the Core navy and any security ships that might attempt to track us.”
Her look told him she didn’t believe a word of it. She looked out of the cockpit screen and then back at him, pushing him away to possibly give herself room to physically react.
“You mean they let you go ? I don’t believe it ! Nobody gets past their Gatekeeper - the destruction of those two ships should have locked down the whole sector.” Angry surprise was evident in her voice.
Grady was equally surprised “You intended for that to happen ?”
What am I missing, he wondered.
“You were supposed to....” Realising that she’d laid herself open to interrogation, she pushed past him and reached the cockpit to see where she was.
“I don’t recognise this,” she said as she turned around back to face Grady. “Where are we ?” she demanded, hands now on hips with no sign of drowsiness.
“My home, and you’re welcome.” He responded to her lack of gratitude and aggressive behaviour. “Had we remained at Simos Station you would now be incarcerated along with me while Lorgia’s decided whether to ‘space us’ both. He’s had three attacks on his station in the last two months. If any of those others were your work, you are decidedly enemy ‘numero uno‘ in his book. We got out, and for the moment you and I are safe,” he added, then decided to turn the screw a little.
“I need to know what you have gotten me and my ship into and you aren’t going anywhere until you tell me what that is.”
Grady stood ready to defend himself from an attack, which he saw was definitely on the cards. Her tell-tales were giving her away and he anticipated her first move well before she made it, but when it came it was fast, very fast.
Shrilla’s arm came up in a cutting scythe, followed by a dead-man punch aimed at his solar plexus. He blocked her attack and pushed his own, aiming for her newly repaired arm and shoulder and he didn’t miss as the heel of his hand hit home. He heard the sharp intake of breath and felt sorry for her, that would be hurting. His elbow then rammed her ribcage providing a painful reminder that she was still recuperating.
He used his height and weight advantage by revolving her body as she fell away pulling her in and folding his arm around her neck and exposed throat. Clinching tight he felt her try to extricate herself, but picked her up by the neck leaving her with no leverage. He was only eight inches taller, but it was enough to keep her off the ground until she settled. The confines of the cockpit meant she couldn’t counter his attack.
She tapped his arm. He reluctantly released her, still taking her weight for her while she regained her balance, but ready for another attack.
It didn’t come, instead she turned around, bracing herself against the wall. She felt her throat, massaging it back to life until she felt she could speak. Her spurt of energy had cost her dearly and set back her overall recovery time.
“It isn’t generally recommended to go into physical combat immediately after surgery,” he said, smiling confidently. He’d expected her to try, but he was on top form and she was still drugged. In a fair fight he might not have won so easily, but he knew he would still have won.
She smiled sourly and walked out of the cockpit, twisting the valve to open the ship’s hatch. Stepping out into the main hangar area, which in truth wasn’t that large once the Citrix was inside, she stood and studied the workmanship of the dock. The base had been completed with the intention of becoming an executive hideaway, but had been handed over to Grady who had towed it to its current location. The finish inside was professional and to a very high standard. Pressure suit lockers, jet-packs and skimmer sleds were racked along with safety equipment for all types of situation.
Her nodding wasn’t lost on him. She was the first person to see this complex since he’d taken it over from his brother. It was the top-end of professional luxury and had everything you could possibly need to keep your base intact and maintained for an extended period. There were many other secrets that he wasn’t about to share with anyone, especially this woman who would likely use his own protection system against him. If she could over-ride his AI, then what else was she capable of ?
Grady walked behind her, almost touching her in the confined space next to the Citrix. Under different circumstances bringing a female into his private habitat would have been an excuse to show off his accommodations, but here and now with the surly Shrilla Beyeur, Grady was no longer sure about having brought her here at all.
They walked out of the hangar and into the living quarters of his home, he guided her towards the kitchen, careful to avoid physical contact. There was no familiarity here. He was keeping it professional especially as she was effectively his superior, according to the report. He didn’t really care, he was his own boss and AW was happy for him to work independently - so long as he performed his duties when required.
She turned towards him as they walked, he could see her trying hard to take the initiative to move them past their mutual animosity. He let her as right at this moment their needs were mutual and urgent.
Recounting from memory she went through his job file. “OK, let’s see. You joined the Alliance of Worlds four years ago after an altercation with the Core navy that left you exposed to possible repercussions. You trained as a freelance agent and completed your training in fourteen weeks, went on to advanced reconnaissance and deep cover operational qualifications. You left before collecting your certificates, which incidentally, are pinned up in the mess hall displaying your pass grades. Nobody has beaten them yet. Every fresh intake is shown, and reminded, that the grades mean nothing if you're dead. Your leaving them behind like that sends a powerful message to every one of them.”
Grady nodded as though hearing this for the first time, which, for some of it he was. He’d had no idea that his grades were a conversation piece in the mess hall let alone being unbeaten. None of his instructors had told him. He wanted to tell her he had no idea what she was talking about in an attempt to evade what he knew was coming.
“Shrilla – ? “
She turned on him so fast he almost didn’t see her hand come towards his throat, he deflected it only at the last second. Her face indicating her anger, teeth bared, she hissed at him.
“How do know my name ?”
“The same way you know my history, I guess.” Grady responded without missing a beat, although he was surprised at her violent reaction to her name being voiced.
She remained stiff, aggressively pinning him against the wall while she chewed over what he had just said.
“The Medicbot ! - you scanned my DNA.”
Grady pulled her arm away with a sharp tug downwards breaking her lock on his throat and reminding her that he’d just beaten off her last attack. He pushed her away and walked off into the galley.
“What did you expect ? You blow up two hunter vessels, force your way onto my ship, threaten me with a weapon and leave me in a very difficult, ‘highly questionable’ situation that might just result in me being hunted throughout the sector by the fucking Core.” He stopped momentarily to calm himself, letting out a slow breath he continued, “sure, I’m going to check you out with every agency I’m registered with to find out if you’re a threat, loose cannon or rogue agent of some kind.” He allowed the disgust he felt at her naivete clearly reflect in his tone.
She stepped back as though physically hit by his words, her thought processes easy to read on her face. Uncertainty, indecision, confusion, then eventually realisation.
“They wanted you to know who I was,” she murmured as she continued to back away, her mind caught up by something she was churning through. He left her to it while he prepped breakfast.
The food processor churned as he pressed buttons until he had a range of options rendering and walked over to the beverage machine and clicked on two kaiko’s with feego root. It was the closest thing they could get to real coffee anywhere in the galaxy. Still prohibitively expensive, b
ut it had a nice kick to it that he liked. He had expensive tastes, but could afford it.
The double ka’ching of the food processor indicated their meals were ready. He took the kaiko and plates and put them on the table where Shrilla was now perched, thinking hard, but watching him closely as if getting the measure of him.
“If you’ve checked on me, then you know I have the right to sequester the services of your ship and you in pursuit of my mission,” she stated resolutely. Her guard was up and he could see her attempting to gauge his reaction to her statement - ready to push his buttons if she had to.
Grady would like to see her try to take operational control of the situation, but she really wasn’t in the same galaxy as him when it came to AW operations. He wondered briefly how she had managed to reach a BETA9 clearance. He pushed some buttons of his own to see how she would react.
“Are you always so arrogant, or is this a new form of training given out by the AW ?” he replied, tucking into his food while she digested his response.
She growled, her frustration evident. “You’re an AW Agent and subject to its regulations. What don’t you understand about your obligations ?”
He waved his fork at her “Actually, I’m freelance. My only obligation is to the requirements of each assignment that I accept. The emphasis is on ‘accept’. So far I have neither been apprised of a mission nor accepted one. I suggest you take a different tack,” he advised her giving her adequate warning.
She appeared to think about that while taking a mouthful of food.
Grady decided to give her a bit more time to chew on things. His own thoughts took him back to his training at the Alliance of Worlds centre. He had joined them because their objective was to provide an alternative means of dealing with the mutant colonies. Although he was a hunter by designation, this was just a cover that allowed him to get close to operations run by the large companies. The current peace between the Febrillo Alliance and the corporations meant that direct action to counter the genocidal actions of the companies to protect their investment in planetary resources was fraught with potential disaster. Nobody wanted to upset the fragile peace, but amongst the participants on both sides was a growing movement against the eradication of clones, be they mutant and dangerous, or otherwise.
This act by the woman opposite him might raise questions in the marketplace he operated in. If his ship’s survival was viewed as anything but coincidental, his cover might be brought into question too. She hadn’t done him any favours and might even have brought his ‘hunter’ career to an abrupt halt.
“Why did you really destroy those ships ?” he asked coldly not expecting a straight answer.
She glared at him over the steaming cup of kaiko while deciding whether to answer him or not.
Grady was becoming impatient. He’d just about had enough of her prickly silences. He’d about given up and prepared to deliver a broadside when she capitulated.
“Because they were onto you,” she confessed.
He sat back, astonished at the delivery of the last thing he expected. He fell silent as his thought processes pulled it all together - it began clicking into place. It explained the attack on him in the market square, although it didn’t explain the intervention of Dalt and his group, they shouldn’t have even been there. That implied long-term planning and something deeper afoot - he realised he needed more data.
“What do you mean - onto me ?” Grady asked recovering from his self revelations, but not yet certain what exactly she was referring to.
“They were onto the fact that you were an undercover operative for the AW. You were to be taken out,” she sighed realising that having opened the can of worms she would now have to explain everything.
“We’ve been experiencing a leak of some magnitude within the AW’s operations. It has been infiltrated by corporation spies, or someone has turned. We don’t know which. For a time, it was suspected it might be someone out in the field.”
“You thought it was me,” he surmised, understanding her reluctance to explain her actions.
“We had thoughts on that score, but they weren’t seriously considered. The spotlight was placed equally across all other assets in the field. In every case they were dismissed. The source is closer to the centre, we just don’t know how close.
“So, why destroy the ships ?”
“As I said, they were onto you. We intercepted a message blowing your cover and demanding you be taken out.”
“That still doesn’t explain your involvement and the incident at the space-port - why are you involved ?”
Now she became impatient, “because they intended for the Citrix to be mined then for you to be sent out on a bogus mission, for them to explode remotely as soon as you were in open space. Those two ships were the recipients of the order. We removed them before they could compromise your vessel. As far as I know AW were going to doctor the video feed on the TV news to include your ship in the ‘accident’ - you obviously blew that plan by escaping the station.”
Grady thought furiously. They had seen him arrive and sent teams out ahead of him to take him out in the marketplace. They weren’t going to bother with mines. He knew these bastards - if they discovered he was an undercover agent for the AW, they would demand immediate satisfaction. It had occurred spontaneously and Shrilla’s luck was that they weren’t on the ships when she sabotaged them - or was it ?
“You saw me dock and watched them set a trap for me, using their fortuitous departure as an opportunity to take out their ships,” he accused her.
She looked guilty, but nodded. He put aside the fact that her concerns were taking out their ships instead of warning him. Hard-nosed bitch, he decided unkindly, then backed up his attitude. There was more to this, much more and he suspected she either wasn’t telling, or she didn’t know about the protection team that sent him back to the ship. He continued to keep this information to himself for the time being. Something was still setting his warning bells jangling.
“So, what went wrong ?” Grady indicated her arm and shoulder.
“I got caught in the front ship by one of the crew that had been left behind. He lasered me as I planted the charges. When he saw what I was doing, instead of running like I would have expected, he pressed the emergency lock-down button. I only escaped by hacking the valve code. The bomb blast kicked me out of the ship - that’s what broke my arm and ribs. Your ship was the only place I could get to before the dock security arrived.”
“You didn’t have someone in the security team ?” He looked at her sceptically.
“Not officially, but yes, a sympathiser. He would have tried to redirect attention away from the Citrix. He probably suspected I had hidden aboard.”
“The Inspector,” Grady nodded. “He was watching for me and pulled the guard off my back just when I thought I was going to have to floor the bastard. He looked at me funny, he must have guessed something was going to happen when I went aboard.”
“Yes, that would be him.” Shrilla remained quiet after that, thinking.
Grady watched her. She had by no means accounted for her actions and he was suspicious of her ability to access his ship. He wondered if there were other things she could do to override his control. He wasn’t going to ask, but he was going to do an in-depth search of any possible codes he missed when he upgraded the ship AI.
She had mentioned the leak occurred inside Command, the control centre for the Alliance of Worlds. A huge security operation locked down inside a large cliff complex adjoining a space port. That meant either someone high up, or an insider who had access to information above their grade. A spy, or hacker.
Grady felt a need to redirect the conversation while he considered everything so far.
“And the source ? You mentioned the leak was inside.”
“They think they have it located, but we don’t know if they were working alone, or part of a network,” she admitted.
“So, me contacting the database and o
btaining information on you might have tipped their hand,” Grady said.
“Yes, more than likely. If there are additional subverted assets, they will now know we have communicated and that you are still at large. “
Grady sighed, suddenly his meal didn’t sit well with him. He thought it through. Anyone watching the TV and hearing the reports would know that both the hunter ships were destroyed. That could only happen if the communications the hunters used had been intercepted, which meant they were compromised. They would try to escape, or if this was part of a wider conspiracy they might put in place a thermite-plan. Something that would burn brightly causing damage to the AW while they made their escape in the confusion.
He thought harder. If there was a spy or saboteur within the AW, who would put them there ? Corporations ?
He nodded to himself. There, that had to be the link. If corporations were behind the attempt to take him out then it was also likely the spy was a corporation-based asset. That had to mean there was something driving the corporations to act, or react.
Something big.
Chapter Eight
AW Command will be Hit
Shrilla watched Grady out the corner of her eye. He’d really surprised her with his speed, and that strength of his wasn’t normal - was it ? She believed the high marks he’d achieved in training, but his file didn’t say anything about any enhancements, so was it a natural ability, she wondered. There was also the issue of his missing history prior to the Core navy, having had a peek at his records back at Command when a mission required placing an undercover agent in situ. He’d been selected, but the choice had been made over her head and still left a bad taste. She remembered there were years in his history that were unaccounted for prior to the Core and that made her suspicious, but there was nothing she could do about it. The directors had made their choice and Grady successfully completed the assignment. That had been the end of the matter. Until today.
She recalled the mission parameters received from Kildark. They were themselves unusual in that Kildark had sent her orders by cryptext, a short encrypted messaging system that piggybacked on carrier waves, making them practically undetectable. Her instructions had been precise and the location and timing had been laid down in the attached briefing. AWA knew precisely where Grady would be at that time and he was supposed to have remained at the appointment for at least two hours giving her time to remove the threats and get clear. He’d been tipped off that something was happening at the space-port and returned at the double - just in time to get caught up in it all. How did he know, what tip off ?