Starfire

by B. V. Larson

The Altstadt was blocked off to all but foot traffic. A ring-like road system encircled the district, and transportation was readily available. He paused to work on the tangle of wires he’d lifted from the dead woman. After a bit of tweaking, he managed to get the headset working. He listened in on the enemy team’s conversation.

  “He’s crazy,” said a voice. Brandt was pretty sure it was the guy whose finger he’d snapped. “My God, he killed Catia. Flat out killed her. We’ll have to put him down next time.”

  “We can’t. We’ve got orders from the top on that. The lab people need him too much.”

  “That’s bullshit. We can use the girl. We don’t need him.”

  “We can’t be sure of that.”

  There was a moment of quiet, then a fresh, angry outburst. “I’m telling you, if he pulls something like this again, I’m going to fire.”

  “No, you’re not. You have your orders. Follow them.”

  “What’s the new plan then? No one is going to talk him down.”

  There was a hesitation, then: “Agreed. Next time, we grab hard. No soft-pedaling. Now, go find him.”

  A team of three, Brandt thought. They hadn’t changed their playbook. He’d barely been listening to their chatter, he’d been counting voices. They still thought and moved the same way, and that had been his only advantage this time. Next time, they’d know he was committed, willing to kill if necessary—and that was bad.

  Brandt disconnected the earpiece and crushed it with his hands. He tossed the wad of wires and the black plastic battery pack into the nearest trash receptacle. He’d heard enough. There’d been no talk of immediate pursuit. The headset might be useful, but it might be used to track him, too. He couldn’t take the risk.

  He swept Jenna up in his arms and hugged her. She was sniffling, and her cheeks were streaked and wet.

  “Sorry about that, honey.”

  “It was my fault. I went to the wrong lady.”

  “No, no. It wasn’t your fault. None of this is.”

  She looked up at him with big blue eyes. “Is it grandpa’s fault?”

  Brandt sighed. She was getting older and smarter. She’d been putting more things together lately.

  “Not really,” he said.

  Carrying his daughter again, he found a taxi a few blocks away. He climbed into the back of it and threw money at the driver. The man looked at him worriedly, frowning and rapidly flicking his gaze everywhere at once.

  “American, yes?” asked the cabbie. “Where to?”

  “Train station.”

  “Which one?”

  “The big one.”

  The driver looked thoughtfully at Brandt, Jenna, and the money in his hand. He was a foreign fellow from the Mideast somewhere. He looked like he knew trouble when it climbed into his cab. Brandt could tell he wanted to throw them right back out of his cab. He hoped for everyone’s sake the driver didn’t try it.

  Finally, the cabbie pulled out into traffic and sped away. He didn’t say another word, and he even turned his mirror away so he couldn’t see their faces. He didn’t want to be a witness to anything.

  There were sirens going by now. It had taken them long enough. Brandt guessed the Germans were out of practice and slow to react to this kind of thing.

  “Daddy?” Jenna asked.

  “What is it, honey?”

  “Can we go back someday and watch the mechanical men? I didn’t get to see the end of the show.”

  “Sure, honey. We’ll do that when things are better.”

  It broke Brandt’s heart to lie to her, but he didn’t know what else to do.

  Chapter 10

  Aptos, California

  Night

  Jackie and Detective Perez returned to San Miguel Lane. The Detective was supposed to drop her off, but when he stopped the car in front of her house, neither of them got out.

  Jackie’s eyes were glued to the wreckage that had been Tom Mackle’s house. She didn’t even look at her own place until Detective Perez got out and spoke.

  “There’s something wrong,” he said.

  Her heart accelerated in her chest. She followed his gaze—then she saw it. Her door was hanging open. The interior of her house looked dark and perfectly still from the street.

  “Did your dog-team leave it that way?” she asked.

  “Very unlikely. Stay here.”

  She sat in the car and watched him approach the house indirectly. He jogged along the street, disappearing between shadowy trees. The beach was gray in the cloud-filtered moonlight, and the lone streetlamp at the circular end of her road cast an inadequate glow. Her house was as black as a tomb, and Tom Mackle’s was destroyed.

  Detective Perez reappeared, looking cautiously into her doorway. He had something—was that the metallic flash of a gun in his hand? The idea surprised her. She didn’t like this situation, and she felt a ripple of fear run through her.

  For years, she’d run along these roads and down this lovely stretch of beach. She’d never eyed the landscape with fear before, but tonight was different.

  A shadow moved close to the car, and she jumped in her seat. She turned and looked through the salt-streaked glass, expecting to see the detective’s calm face. This expectation didn’t make sense, as she’d just seen him creep into her house a moment earlier, but somehow she still expected to see him.

  Instead, the face was that of an unfamiliar man with a dark complexion. She stopped breathing for a moment.

  The stranger was well-dressed and well-groomed but that didn’t allay her fears. She’d seen too much today. He lifted a pistol to the glass and tapped with it, indicating she should lower her window by spinning a finger in the air.

  Instead, she scooted across the car, screaming, and climbed out the driver’s side. The man circled the car, coming after her.

  If there was one thing Jackie Linscott could do, it was run. She ran from the stranger, heading for the next house up the block. If she could get inside her neighbor’s place and make a call—

  A shout and a booming shot sounded behind her. She winced and almost stumbled. Had she been hit? No—there wasn’t any pain.

  She reached the curb and chanced a look over her shoulder.

  There were two men in the street, fighting. One was Detective Perez, the other was her assailant.

  The instinct to keep running was very strong in her. But a gun had fired. Perez could be hurt. She felt she had to help, as there he was out there, fighting alone in the street to defend her.

  She trotted back, circling behind the stranger.

  The fight was only dimly lit, but Jackie knew right away she was out of her league. Both men were fighting like they knew how to do it. They punched, blocked, kicked and blocked again like two professionals. Her college courses in self-defense seemed woefully inadequate.

  Jackie ran to the cliff that loomed across the street from the row of houses and picked up a fallen rock at the base of it. Using both hands, she carried it back to the scene in the street. It seemed to her that the stranger was getting the worst of the fight, but she was still determined to do her part. If he were to put his back to her for just a moment—

  The nature of the fight suddenly shifted. Both men threw themselves down on the ground and rolled, struggling and grunting. She wanted to hit the stranger, but couldn’t be sure of her aim. They were wrestling on the ground, trying to get to a fallen pistol.

  The pistol! They were both crawling toward it. She hadn’t seen it before on the dark street. She dropped the rock and picked up the gun.

  “Dr. Linscott,” the stranger said, “you have to run, I can’t hold him.” He had an accent, but it was only a slight one.

  “How do you know my name?” she demanded, aiming the gun at him.

  “Careful Jackie,” Detective Perez said. “That’s a Glock. There’s no separate safety. If you pull that trigger—”

  “I know what I’m doing,” she lied. She’d had a few lessons from her father and an instructor, but she was far
from an expert with firearms. “Both of you, stop fighting and start talking. Who are you?”

  She directed this last question to the man whose gun she’d grabbed. He was staring at her, then Detective Perez in turn.

  “You know this man?” the stranger asked her.

  “Sort of,” she said. “He arrested me today. He’s a cop. Who the hell are you?”

  “My name is Sandeep,” he said. “I work for the government. I’m afraid this situation is a vast misunderstanding. I’m here to protect you, Dr. Linscott.”

  “Bullshit,” she said.

  Perez got to his feet and dusted himself off. Sandeep stayed on his knees.

  “Looks like it’s true,” Perez said to Jackie. He held up a wallet with a flipped open ID. “I pulled this out of his pocket while we were on the ground. He’s from Homeland Security. Let him up. And for God’s sake, point that gun away from us, will you?”

  Jackie, breathing hard, lifted the barrel of the gun toward the sky. Both men visibly relaxed. Detective Perez helped Sandeep to stand. They displayed IDs and apologized for having beaten the hell out of one another. From the look of their faces, Jackie estimated that Sandeep had taken most of the blows. There was blood dripping from his jaw and one of his eyes was half-closed. Despite this, he showed no signs of discomfort or anger.

  “You fight well, detective,” Sandeep said. “Who trained you?”

  “A marine sergeant, years back. I was in a recon unit in Iran.”

  Sandeep nodded respectfully. “The years have not weakened you.”

  “Look,” Jackie said, feeling stressed. “What the hell is this all about?”

  “It’s about you, Dr. Linscott,” Sandeep said. “I’ve been sent by the federal government to retrieve you.”

  “Are you sure you haven’t been sent to blow me up?”

  Sandeep chuckled and shook his head. “Hardly. But we do have opposition. If you don’t mind, I would prefer to explain on the way. Will you accompany me to the airport? My car is at the end of the street.”

  “I’m not getting into your car without knowing more,” Jackie said.

  “I can’t discuss details, not here. I can say that the situation is urgent, and it’s a matter of national security.”

  “It always is with you guys,” Jackie said suspiciously. Few who grew up in Santa Cruz County had been raised to trust the government.

  “May I have my weapon back?” Sandeep asked politely. “It’s something of an embarrassment to have been disarmed so easily.”

  “You managed to knock my weapon down as well,” Detective Perez said.

  “I must thank you for not shooting me out of hand, Detective. The situation was tense and unclear. I must apologize for that, the fault was mine.”

  “If you two are done praising one another,” Jackie said, “I need to get my computer out of the house.”

  They agreed, and she went inside, grabbing an overnight bag and a computer case. She put the strap over her head and followed the two men out into the street. She locked the door but wondered if there was any point. Her house had been broken into by two different branches of the government today alone.

  Warily, the two of them followed Sandeep to his car.

  “I’ll come with you,” the detective said. Jackie felt a surge of gratitude.

  “That isn’t necessary,” Sandeep said, “but I understand. I’ll arrange for transport home for you after Dr. Linscott is safely on her way.”

  “If I’m so important, why didn’t the feds send a helicopter down here to get me?”

  “What? Should it land on the beach?” Sandeep asked, amused.

  “Yeah, why not?”

  “That is a movie thing, Dr. Linscott. Our helicopter fleet is stretched thin today.”

  Jackie wasn’t quite sure how to take that. It could be good news that she wasn’t very important, or it could be bad news. This guy didn’t even seem to have a partner. Weren’t federal agents supposed to have partners? The truth was she had no idea how these things really worked.

  They climbed into Sandeep’s car with Jackie in the back seat. At least the car had government license plates. She’d given up the gun, but she wished she had one of her own. Her survival instincts were singing, and she was as nervous as a cat.

  “Allow me to explain what I can,” Sandeep said as he put the car into gear and rolled sedately away. “There has been a rash of attacks today, carried out by organizations that oppose mine. I wasn’t aware that Dr. Linscott was a target until they moved on her today. I apologize for taking so long to get here, but I’ve been escorting people all day long.”

  “Escorting people where?” she demanded.

  “There’s a problem up north. A confrontation is building between the United States and Russia.”

  “Russia?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you telling me that Russians blew up my neighbor and Blue-Sky Labs today?”

  “Possibly, but unlikely. They’re working through intermediaries. Moles, paid criminals. Usually, such people gather intelligence and spread propaganda—but this year things have changed. Have you been watching the news of late?”

  Jackie had been off-handedly keeping track of Russia’s military adventurism. But as a committed isolationist, she hadn’t been ready to support direct U. S. action. Like many, she knew her government had to do unpleasant things at times to keep her breathing—but she didn’t like to admit it.

  “What’s Russia doing that would involve me?” she asked.

  Sandeep glanced at Detective Perez, who was watching and listening carefully. Jackie could tell the detective was taking everything in, weighing every statement and making decisions about how to handle the situation. She liked his ability to keep quiet when others were handing out vital information. She also liked the way he’d come to her rescue in the street and come along for the ride to protect her. Sure, he’d arrested her and interrogated her, but she had to admit any reasonable cop would have done just that after the bombing. It was his job.

  Sucking in a breath as if he was coming to a hard decision, Sandeep answered her question at last. “What is your company working on at your lab, doctor?”

  “Lots of things. Propulsion, packet-transmissions, new long-range protocols and solar technology.”

  Detective Perez looked impressed. “Really?” he asked. “So, you’re some kind of rocket scientist?”

  “No, not exactly. Blue-Sky is a research company that contracts for aerospace giants. We mostly do satellite development. It sounds cooler than it is in practice. We build better satellites so your cellphone connection is clearer when you call Europe, that sort of thing. Lots of companies are involved.”

  Detective Perez turned toward Sandeep again. “What makes her company special? What’s worth killing people and burning down buildings?”

  “We aren’t entirely sure. As I said, she wasn’t on my target list until today. When I learned of the strikes against her facility, however, I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. There have been other attacks around the globe, key people have been killed, facilities burned. Whatever you’ve been working on, Dr. Linscott, the enemy thinks it’s worth disrupting.”

  The enemy. Russia was an enemy? Wasn’t the Cold War over? That was history, the stuff of the last century.

  But in her heart, she knew better. The U. S. had plenty of enemies abroad. She wished it wasn’t true, but that didn’t change reality. She’d seen things today that had brought that home to her.

  “Okay,” she said. “You’re here to protect me and take me somewhere safe. Can I ask you where? Is this going to be some kind of safe house or just a hotel? I’m not interested in abandoning my old life completely.”

  “Are you interested in dying?” Sandeep asked in a voice that was almost cheery. “Because those that have moved against you today have failed, but that is only a temporary setback for them. They may not come again for a year or more. But they will not forget you. They will finish their mission.”

/>   “Where are we going?” she asked more forcefully.

  “To the airport, as I said. A private craft will take you on the first leg of your journey.”

  “And where do I end up?”

  Sandeep hesitated. “At a base,” he said. “Out to the east.”

  “A base? A military base, you mean? Something up north like Travis Air Force Base?”

  “Think farther east.”

  “Nevada?”

  Sandeep shrugged. They merged onto highway 1 and headed north, switching to highway 17 at the junction. She knew this mountainous road well. Although she generally used software to work from home, all staff members were required to come to the main office in Santa Clara a few days a week. When the physical trials finally began, they had to commute every day. Highway 17 was the primary route everyone took between the coastal cities around Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley. The road was heavy with traffic in the daytime, winding and treacherous at night.

  Sandeep seemed oblivious to the roadway. His car had all-wheel drive and hugged the pavement, but each whipping turn made Jackie’s stomach churn. At least it wasn’t raining, and there was little traffic this late at night.

  When they topped the mountain range and began the long way down again, everything went wrong.

  A pickup came up beside them with its high beams on. It paused there, and they all looked at it. The driver didn’t return their glance. Instead, he sped up and pulled ahead. They were going downhill now, and Jackie felt a surge of relief. She’d had enough excitement for one day.

  “Could you slow down?” she asked. “I didn’t like the way—”

  That was all she got out. Twin bright lights glared as they rounded another turn, and for a second, everyone in the car was outlined in brilliant halogen high beams. Then the pickup hit them.

  Afterward, Jackie could never be sure whether or not it was the same pickup that rammed them and pushed them off the road into the trees—but then, it really didn’t matter.

  They slid and rolled once, completely flipping the car onto its back, then flipped again onto the wheels. Jackie thought she was screaming, but that could have been the two vehicles screeching and grinding against one another. Sparks flew, brilliant orange streaks in the night.