by Tobias Roote
“DISARM AND DISEMBARK – SLOWLY !” The command came from the first soldier. He had three blisters on his helmet, a squad leader. The others around him left Grady in no doubt they would fire if he gave them due cause. He wasn’t about to give up his weapons either. The trouble was in these close confines, that amount of fire-power would take out the internal walls of his ship even if they missed him, which he doubted would happen at this range.
He still wasn’t prepared to go down here and now. He made no move that could be considered offensive, but remained completely still. Only his lips moved as he spoke,
"Commander Grady, SO attached to Command - STAND DOWN GENTLEMEN.” He looked straight in the eye of the squad leader and spoke to him specifically.
The SL stared right back without blinking.
“Take us to Command - that’s an order, soldier,” Grady said firmly enough to be considered a commanding voice.
“Sorry, but Command has been breached, sir. We have orders to hold anyone who isn’t authorised.” The SL refused to back down, but licked his lips nervously.
“Check your authorisation with the directors of Command, but make it quick. I’m not going to wait here all day, soldier,” Grady kept up the pressure on the SL.
“That will not be possible, Commander Grady,” the SL replied acknowledging Grady’s rank.
Grady thought he understood, the soldiers were panicked, which meant Command was severely compromised. Grady needed to know just how bad, but thought it was possibly the worst news.
“I understand. We are too late to help. Are any of the directors still alive ?”
“I cannot answer that question, sir. I must ask you to disarm and stand down.”
“I’m not disposed to do so. Either you take us to Command or you shoot us, those are your two choices.” Grady kept cool and made sure the ice in his voice was as hard as permafrost, but he could see this was going to be an impasse that needed breaking somehow.
“Squadron Leader Range ?” Shrilla’s voice came from behind Grady, she’d so far not been observed by the soldiers outside the ship.
“Ma'am ?” The SL called out, not shifting an inch, but his stance showed he wanted to lean over to see who it was.
“It’s Captain Beyeur - I’m coming out - don’t get twitchy Pete, it’s Shrill,” she said calmly. Grady felt her move to his left and appear by his side. He glanced down briefly, she hadn’t disarmed either.
Grady realised from the exchange that Range knew her, but the man didn’t blink. He might be nervous, but was showing real professionalism. The other soldiers took their lead from him, and he was definitely in control of both them and himself.
“Ma'am - We’ve been ordered to take any unauthorised personnel and cage them until order is restored,” Squadron Leader Range informed her.
“Pete, this is important. The breach has been discovered because of a mission we’re on. We need to get to Command immediately. There is a corporation mole that is causing this. We need to get up there and work out who it is and stop them,” Shrilla explained. It wasn’t a lie, and until they could get up there and find out the truth they wouldn’t know what was really going on.
“I don’t know about that, ma’am, but I can’t just stand down, the base is under attack,” the SL explained. Grady could see the indecision in his eyes and his voice now indicated indecision. He was about to push the SL, but Shrilla got there ahead of him.
“Fine, then you’d best just shoot both of us and get it over with - because we’re about to walk through you to deal with the real problem on this base and you’re in our way. Understand, Pete ?” Shrilla kept her voice hard and firm. Grady was impressed.
That gave him the glimmer of an idea. Grady spoke. Still iron-hard, but with a hint of compromise.
“Squadron Leader Range, you’re ordered to escort us to Command to validate our credentials. We will not submit arms until we reach our superior officer and had an opportunity to establish such. If when we arrive there we are ordered by Command to submit our weapons, we will do so immediately.” Take the fucking olive leaf, son, I don’t want to fight you, he said to himself.
Range looked at Shrilla, then at Grady his eyes screwed up as he came to a decision, then he smiled grimly.
“Affirmative, Commander. Please fall in and follow us, do not make any move to retrieve your weapons. Your hands are to remain free until ordered otherwise.”
Grady didn’t point out he was carrying his black holdall, but nothing was said and they stepped out of the Citrix and onto the apron.
“Squad, form up. Escort detail, four men with me, the remainder - guard the landing bay and this ship - nobody in and nobody out,” he ordered.
Grady turned and closed the valve, the door slid shut behind them. Range looked at him as if he was stupid.
“Squadron Leader, what is in there is off-limits to you and everyone else on this base, understood ?” he told him.
“Aye, sir. Understood,” Range turned and began the escort through the corridor.
Grady looked at Shrilla, a slight tweak of an eyebrow was all the acknowledgement he got. That was a close call, he thought.
They progressed quickly through the underground bunker that they called the corridor. There were few visitors, so the guards at each checkpoint had plenty of time to give them stick over keeping their weapons. In the end, a sergeant who was working towards an extra stripe called ahead and got confirmation from someone in Command and they were allowed through without further mishap. The escort stayed vigilant and Squadron Leader Range went strictly by the book.
The floor of Command was in chaos. There were stretchers and medics working on the injured. Pools of blood and ricochet damage indicated this had been the path of destruction. Grady had anticipated worse and he soon found that he wasn’t wrong.
“How many dead ?” Grady asked one of the medics treating an administrative worker with what looked like a shoulder wound, as they marched through. Range turned, but didn’t stop the exchange and the detail slowed.
“Fourteen, sir. Twelve seriously injured, thirty-two shrapnel victims and a few minors,” the medic responded, harassed and under pressure. Their job was always nothing for an extended time, then all hell breaks loose and they can’t be in enough places at the same time to save everyone.
“Carry on,” he said as their escort continued to move them through the war-zone. Grady was worried. It was evident that they had been sorely compromised and an attack, possibly suicidal had taken place in the last hour. The point was - who was left in charge.
“How did they get in, Pete ?” Shrilla asked.
“That’s just it, Shrilla, they must have had clearance from the top to get into the elevator. Nobody knows how, but they breezed in and shot the place up.” He talked to them sideways as he kept up his escort. His manner was now easier with his decision to follow Grady’s orders, especially after the desk sergeant had cleared their way ahead.
“So, who’s in charge ?” Grady asked, concerned at the attackers apparent access to the director’s level which shouldn’t have been possible
“The Ops Controller, Sir ; General Kildark, the others are dead.”
“What ! Vangher and Preston both killed ?” Shrillla sounded incredulous.
Grady coughed. It couldn’t be. He had trouble believing that old buzzard would sell them out - cold-hearted, bloody-minded, but traitor ? No. It didn’t figure. He looked across at Shrilla. Her face had paled and he thought he understood why ; she reported directly to him and probably knew him better than most. This wasn’t going to go down well, they’d better tread very carefully. These guards would turn him into a sieve on Kildark’s orders and not worry for a second whether it was mandated, or not. None of these people had ever seen him before even though he could walk through the place using his own access codes.
They arrived at the elevator. With only enough room for five, Range and his 2nd got in with Grady and Shrilla while the remaining gua
rds stationed themselves at the doors while Range. All of them were silent the long seconds it took to get to the Director level, overcome with the news. They were met at the elevator door by a figure that Grady recognised immediately, General Kildark.
“As you were, Squad Leader, I’ll take these two from here,” he told him sternly.
“Sir, they’re still armed, I thought...” Range said quickly before the two got out of the lift.
“Yes, yes, I know, they aren’t going to shoot me, are you ?” He looked directly into Grady’s eyes.
Grady’s eyes locked on to the General’s and what he saw was an honest look that was showing a great degree of self control in place of a serious case of worry and concern, not the look of a man hiding anything. Grady relaxed a little and replied.
“No, sir, not today.”
The General smiled, but the eyes didn’t and Grady became concerned at what would be coming next.
“Hopefully not tomorrow either, which gives us another day to sort out this mess and find out what the grell happened.”
Then he added turning to the Squadron Leader. “Well done, Peter. You can wait here to escort them back,” he said, his brusque manner indicating he would deal with them and send them on their way again shortly.
Grady wasn’t so sure.
Kildark glanced at Grady and Shrilla.
“Follow me both of you,” he ordered and turned marching swiftly to his office further down the corridor.
Grady took a look behind him and saw the bodies on stretchers about to be moved out. There was at least half a dozen. Someone had put up a fight. He couldn’t see if the Director and Deputy were amongst them.
“Right, let’s have it, then,” Kildark commanded as they cleared his office door and it closed behind them, an attentive ensign ensuring they didn’t see the bodies being moved out.
“How did you time your arrival here at this precise moment in time ? Are you prescient ?” he asked, then waved his hands at them in a ‘don’t bother explaining it’ gesture as he sat in his chair and leaned back.
His hawk eyes had not missed a thing. He looked at their weapons, glanced at Grady’s holdall, then looked up at him as if to say, I know what you have there, then looked back at Shrilla.
“Captain, perhaps you would care to inform me why you blew up two mutant hunter ships in full view of the station and Universal Television yesterday ?”
“I was... I was ordered to, sir,” she stammered, caught off guard.
“Oh ! by whom and why ?”
“Err.. The orders came from you, sir.”
He shook his head. “No, not from me. How did you receive them ?”
“Coded signal, authentication was yours, sir.”
“I see, you obviously have your recorded exchange. Is it accessible ?”
“Yes-sir, but it’s on my ship and I’m – ”
“Right, well we’ll get to that,” Kildark interrupted.
Switching his attention to Grady, the look narrowed even further, the man's eyes almost seeming to merge together giving him an intensely beady expression. His black eyebrows met and completed the transition.
“Commander, we meet in the flesh at last. Were you trying to leave without paying your docking fees yesterday ?”
“Sir, I was responding to a situation where my ship and I were under threat of involvement in Captain Beyeur’s mission. The choice was to stay and risk the ship being impounded, or make a quick exit until the situation clarified. The matter was compounded by the fact I had a stowaway, a person of interest to Lorgia’s security from the incident in the docks, sir,” Grady replied.
“Ah ! I see. So that’s how you two come to arrive here on the same ship,” he mused. His face maintained his permanently serious pose.
Grady had to hand it to Kildark, he was a cool customer. Nobody would look at him and believe he had just gone through a complete meltdown in security. Could he really be the infiltrator, he wondered.
“So, would one of you care to explain to me why those two incidents brought you to my door in less than twenty-four hours at a time when anyone who was sane would be keeping themselves at solar system’s distance from here. I take it you’re aware of what has transpired here and you have a theory ?” He gestured at their state of preparedness.
Grady shut up. It was better coming from Shrilla, she was on a one-to-one with him and would know how best to avoid the pitfalls.
He listened to her explain everything that had happened from her demolition of both ships, to their arrival here complete with their escort. She didn’t mention that the only possible candidates for the infiltrator could be him or one of the other two directors. She didn’t need to. Grady could see him pale as he put the pieces together in his own mind. He must have thought something of the same, but without the information that Shrilla had just given him, it wouldn’t have made sense. Now it did, and he could see where the suspicion led.
Grady remained still, but was poised for action. Kildark noticed.
“Stand down, Grady. Your skills are well known here and I’m not your enemy.” He waved at him almost dismissively, but Grady knew he was saying don’t be too hasty. He didn’t intend to be, he was just more concerned about his and Shrilla’s safety.
He sat for a minute digesting something that wasn’t sitting well with him. Grady thought he could understand what.
“So, it appears by my being the only one left alive out of the three members of the inner council, that I am obviously the traitor and it's your intention to prove it, then deal with me. I can’t say I disapprove of that, it’s exactly what I would do. However, I can only say that despite what it looks like, it's the wrong outcome, but I cannot prove it. Therefore, you two have to do it for me.” He pressed a buzzer and Grady went onto full alert, he saw the hint of stiffening in Shrilla and knew she was ready.
The door opened behind them, Grady’s gun was out and aimed at the head of the ensign before he had completed his entrance through the open door.
“Put your weapon away, Grady, he’s my fucking assistant, and he’s too good for you to use as target practice.”
“Sorry, sir. We’re a bit keyed up and you have to admit, you left things a bit open there,” Grady replied.
“Kelly, will you call in Range, at the double,” Kildark requested.
“It has crossed my mind, Grady, that if I have both of you shot, that there would no longer be a problem for me. However, I’m going to do something that goes against my better judgement, but will give you two a chance to find out who the real infiltrator is.”
As Range arrived in the doorway Kildark waved him right in.
“Range, good man. I’m placing you and your squad under the direct and exclusive orders of Commander Grady and Captain Beyeur. You are to follow their orders regardless of consequences, those orders will not be countermanded by me, or any other senior officer in AW Command. If they tell you to shoot me - you will do so, is that clear ?”
Kildark turned back to them. “Don’t get me wrong - I’m not planning on getting shot, but if I don’t provide you with an immediate solution then we’ll be dancing around mistrusting each other for the next two days and there isn’t time to waste fucking around.”
Range stood to attention and slowly saluted, but didn’t confirm, his eyes were wide and he was looking at both Grady and Shrilla as if they could make everything make sense. Grady felt for him. They had to be the worst orders any soldier could receive.
“Kelly, have those orders typed up and ready to sign before these two leave this floor. Range, wait outside these two will be with you shortly.” He waved them both out, the door closed again.
“I think you know what’s needed. You are both ordered to find out how this event occurred, what weaknesses were exploited and who the traitor is, or was – there are a lot of dead bodies out there,” he said by way of explanation of the last point.
“When you find the answer you have two choices, report to me, or g
o over my head – I understand the necessity to stand aside and will not fault you if you are unable to clear me and need to take it to a higher authority.”
“What will you be doing, sir ?” Shrilla asked.
“Doing, Captain ? I will be doing my job, and hopefully minimising the fallout from this débâcle.” His surliness returned.
“You have twenty-four hours - dismissed.”
Grady looked at Shrilla, they both turned and went through the door. Range was waiting for them, a very troubled look on his face. Kelly flew past them and back into the office with sheets of paper in his hand. He was back out within a few seconds, breathless. “Your orders, sir.” He handed each of them a copy of the orders, signed by the operations controller.
“OK, Range, let’s find somewhere we can talk about what needs to be done.” Grady indicated that the man should lead off and they headed down the corridor away from the removal of bodies. Range obviously wasn’t taking any chances until he knew what was going on. He found an office that wasn’t being used and checked it for bodies or personnel before he sat down at a desk that spanned the length of the room.
Sleight of Hand
“Range, it’s Peter, right ?” Grady asked.
Range nodded.
“We’re going to find out who the infiltrator is, but I have to be upfront with you now and say the likelihood is that it is Kildark,” Grady opened, looking carefully to see what Range’s reaction would be. Could the man be trusted ?
“I also have a problem that might, or might not need sorting. Are you two an item ?” He realised as he said it that he’d phrased it crassly. “What I mean, is it me against you two here, or are we all on even ground ?”
Range looked questioningly at Shrilla, but she just nodded. He looked back at Grady and answered.
“There’s nothing, sir. We’re both professionals and nothing will stop either of us doing whatever’s necessary.”
Grady looked at Shrilla, she just nodded. He took that as the end of the matter and put it out of his mind.
For the next five minutes he went over the ground they had established with Kildark and outlined a few areas of potential investigation. They decided to split up. Range had experience of investigating criminals in an earlier career, so he was set to taking statements and asking questions of everyone involved. Shrilla was the computer expert so set about trying to track down the real traitor and perhaps their footprint on the systems AW used. Grady had an idea, he decided he would interrogate the CCTV systems wherever they were active - he wanted to see who was where when the assassination went down.