“J’ha u’ru,” he shouted at the man.
Azir turned back around and monitored the guard’s placement of the felines in their cells. Once the cell doors closed, he shooed the guards out the cell block entrance and followed them.
Before Azir could completely disappear through the cell block door, Alpha yelled, “Azir. When is lunch?”
The Zunnuki turned back and looked at Alpha as if he weren’t amused.
Alpha shrugged.
Azir frowned, turned back to the cell block entrance and went through, closing the door with a bang.
Once Azir was gone, Alpha turned toward the newcomer in the cell next to Kilo’s. As the human male paced in his cell, Alpha carefully studied the man.
After four days of segregating his team from Zunnuki prisoners, Alpha thought that it was quite strange they would re-integrate. He was also intrigued by the looks of the man.
Alpha had seen many Zunnuki, both during battle, and here in the prison. This man looked nothing like any of them.
He was taller, lankier and he had gray hair. All of the older Zunnuki that Alpha had seen were salt and pepper, but this man’s hair was almost completely silver. His complexion was much more ashen than other Zunnuki. Even the older Zunnuki that Alpha had seen had healthy olive complexions.
Alpha looked at Kilo and made a barely perceptible gesture for her to watch the man closely. She silently indicated she would.
Alpha looked to his right and noticed that Tango was observing the man also. Alpha walked to the front of the cell and stared at the man.
“Kilo,” he asked, as he stared at the human to study him. “Did you see the surveillance screens in the main lobby?”
“Yes, I did Alpha,” she answered.
Alpha kept staring at the pacing human.
“I didn’t see any interior views of any cell blocks up on the screens. Did you,” he asked Kilo.
“No, I didn’t,” Kilo replied. “I got a chance to study the interior of this cell block also when we were out of the cells. I didn’t see any listening devices at all.”
“Alpha,” Charlie said. “Have you noticed how the bars of the cells are anchored to the walls in the back and the ceiling in the front, but there are no anchors on the floor?”
“Yes Charlie. I have,” Alpha responded. “I’m pretty sure they are electrically isolated from the floor so that anyone who touches them while standing barefoot on the concrete floor will complete the circuit. That is why Sierra got the shit knocked out of him when he was leaning on the bars that first morning.”
He climbed up on the bars for a second and confidently stated, “I believe though, if you stood on the bars like this, you could avoid a shock while grabbing a guard.”
Alpha kept staring at the human, looking for any sort of reaction that let Alpha know he understood what the felines were discussing. At any rate, the man should have been unnerved by Alpha, Kilo and Tango’s uninvited attention.
“I also think if we were quiet about it,” Alpha continued. “We might be able to take apart one of our bed frames and pry the front bars up from the floor enough to slip under them.”
“Or you four might be able to stand on the front bars and break the ceiling supports they are hanging from,” Foxtrot suggested. “The four of you put together weigh six hundred kilograms or more.”
“That’s right,” Alpha said. “I never thought of that.”
He motioned for Tango, Charlie and Sierra to meet him at the front of the cells. He and Tango climbed on the front bars as close to the corner as they could get. Sierra and Charlie climbed on the common side bars and started to bounce, hoping to loosen the single support from the ceiling.
Alpha observed the human watching the four felines make their attempt to break the support. The man shouted what may have been either curses or encouragements to the four felines.
They jumped harder and tried to also sway back and forth.
The human shouted even louder in Zunnuki and pointed to the loosening support. He then waved his hands as if trying to warn them off of what they were doing.
With a loud groan, the support began to give way. The bars quickly dropped until they were barely a centimeter from the floor and stopped. All four felines went sailing backward from the bars and landed squarely on their backs, stunned and unable to move on the concrete floor.
The human laughed out loud at them as they lay there partially paralyzed.
“That’s the same pulsed neuro-interrupter technology as the Ark’s police nets,” he said. “I tried to warn you. I was almost certain your Zunnuki would be better than that by now.”
Kilo and Foxtrot stared.
Alpha was halfway through asking the human how the Hell he knew what he was talking about, when he realized the man was using the perfect English of one who spoke it natively.
“I know that because I helped them retrofit the cells with the technology,” the human informed Alpha and the rest of the felines.
Kilo was still looking at the man in astonishment. She tried as hard as she could to come up with a good reason in her mind for a native English speaker to be there in the cell next to her. By her estimation, there were no missing Ark residents as a result of the original sweeps of the Zunnuki cities or any operations carried out since then. As far as she knew, every colonist was accounted for, except for one man.
“Who are you, Sir,” she asked.
Before he could answer, Azir and two dozen guards came storming in through the cell block entrance. Azir was shouting orders at the guards, who were now armed heavily. He ran to the front of Alpha’s cell and shouted at the feline in Zunnuki. He then turned and ordered Kilo and Foxtrot to assume inspection posture.
The human in the cell shouted at Azir in English.
“Colonel Buzami,” he yelled. “It’s alright. They won’t give you any more trouble. They made me. My cover is blown.”
Azir was still breathing hard when he said in nearly perfect English, “Alright, John. This is your plan. What do we do now?”
“Calm down, Azir,” the man said. “This may make things easier. I would have liked to observe them for a while longer before revealing myself, but now we have no choice. We’ll have to proceed.”
Alpha tried to sit upright. He was now more stunned by what he was hearing than by the jolt of electricity he had just received.
“Please, Sir,” he asked the human. “Who are you and why are you here?”
The man looked at Alpha with a deathly serious expression.
“My name is John Edward Chamberlain,” he said. “I’m a guest of the Zunnuki people. Just as you are, Son.”
Alpha didn’t know how to reconcile this new piece of information with his mission objectives of collecting intelligence and extricating his team from Zunnuki custody.
“I meant,” he asked. “What is your purpose here?”
Chamberlain still had the sullen expression on his face.
“I’m trying my damnedest to save both this planet and the one I came from,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand. “Our mutual friend, General Yuen, is making that extremely difficult, by the way.”
“Why should I trust you, Sir,” Alpha asked. “From where I sit, it looks as if you have been supplying technology and intelligence to the enemy.”
“What makes you think these people are your enemy, Son,” Chamberlain asked the still partially stunned feline.
“They are the enemy of the humans I am fighting for,” Alpha replied.
Once Alpha considered it, he realized it wasn’t the best reason he could think of, but it would have to do for the time being.
“I hate to be the one to break it to you, Son,” Chamberlain said. “But you have a Hell of a lot more to fear from Yuen than you do from Azir and his people.”
Chapter 32
7-December-2192
“I have a shuttle leaving in twenty minutes, Colonel,” the transportation clerk told Black Bear. She looked the schedule ov
er closer. “But, I don’t have a seat on one returning from New Australia for almost forty hours. I can’t possibly get you back here by sixteen-hundred hours tomorrow.”
Black Bear frowned as he thought about his options. If he left now he could be in New Australia in less than two hours. And, if he could do what he needed to do without drawing a lot of attention to himself, Yuen would probably not miss him. The problem was getting back before his scheduled briefing to Yuen the following afternoon.
“Okay, Sergeant,” he finally said. “Get me on the shuttle to NA that leaves in twenty. I’ll worry about getting back here on my own.”
“Certainly, Colonel,” she replied. “Do you have your travel orders? If you don’t have a hard copy, I can call the General’s Office and have them attached to your seating request, electronically.”
“That won’t be necessary, Sergeant,” Black Bear interrupted. “I am taking this flight without orders. I have some personal business to take care of at the compound.”
“How do I account for your passage, Colonel, Sir,” the travel clerk asked.
Black Bear smiled at the sergeant and tried not to shout. The last thing he wanted to do was antagonize her into reporting him, right away. “I realize that things have tightened up, security-wise over the last year,” he said. “And, I know you are just doing your job. However, Sergeant, I am ordering you not to record in any way, shape or form that I will be getting on that shuttle. I am also ordering you not to tell anyone; and I mean anyone; that I did.”
“That countermands the strict orders given by General Yuen, Sir. And you also, Sir, for that matter,” the sergeant said, pointing toward a posting on the wall behind her. It sported signatures from Yuen and Black Bear that stated in no uncertain terms that civilian or military personnel could not travel between the Ark and the surface or from settlement to settlement without the proper orders or permits.
“What happens if somebody asks me about this conversation,” she inquired. “No disrespect intended, but it’s my ass we’re talking about here, Sir.”
“As far as I am concerned, Sergeant,” Black Bear replied. “This never happened. And, even if it were to ever come up, I would be happy to say you were following a direct order.”
The sergeant smiled.
“Well then, Colonel, Sir,” she said. “I don’t know how you might have gotten on that shuttle without my knowing it. I must have been on a bio-break. I am allowed five minutes every two hours. It’s about that time, now.”
“Thank you, Sergeant,” Black Bear replied as he headed toward the tarmac.
****
Upon arriving on New Australia, Black Bear walked the three kilometers from the landing field to the compound. He could have gotten a ground transport, but he felt he needed time to think about a few things before he got there. He also needed to be discrete.
He walked through the woods to avoid being seen AWOL in broad daylight.
“It sure is a lot more difficult to lose yourself in a crowd here than it was on Earth,” he thought to himself and chuckled aloud. The chuckle caused more pain in his slowly healing ribs. He pulled the pain pills from his pocket and took two. “Those shouldn’t bother me too much. I had a nice nap on the shuttle.”
Black Bear reached the compound at about breakfast time. The feline children had to be awakened and fed before the start of the school day. Black Bear hoped to reach his destination; the apartment of one of the civilian teachers, before she left for school. Just as he reached the front door, she opened it.
“Billy,” she exclaimed. She was startled to see anyone at the door when it opened and it was a bigger shock for her to see Black Bear.
“What the Hell are you doing here,” she asked.
Black Bear reached out to take hold of her arm.
She resisted the gesture and shouted, “I don’t have a damned thing to discuss with you.”
“Maggie, please,” Black Bear pleaded.
He towered over her and could have easily forced her to step back inside the apartment, but he didn’t.
“This is important,” he said. “Yuen doesn’t know I’m here. I promise.”
She looked him in the eye to gauge his sincerity. He looked back at her unwaveringly. She backed into the apartment and motioned for him to follow.
“Did any of the civilians see you come here,” she asked him.
“I made certain that nobody saw me,” Black Bear promised. “I had no choice. I’m here without permission.”
“I have to be at the school for my first class in forty minutes,” Maggie said. “If I’m late, one of Dennis Yuen’s civilian spies will come looking for me. Make it fast.”
“I’m sorry about that, Maggie, but I warned you,” Black Bear said. “Yuen isn’t making things any easier on me.”
“You aren’t under constant surveillance,” Maggie protested. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Are you sure about that, Maggie,” Black Bear asked.
It was his turn to gauge Maggie’s truthfulness. She couldn’t return his stare.
“One last time,” he demanded. “Tell me what you know about John’s disappearance.”
“If you think I helped John, get out of that cell you assholes were keeping him in,” Maggie replied, defiantly. “Then, why don’t you just arrest me and torture the information out of me. I’m sure you’ve become quite good at it.”
“Maggie,” Black Bear shouted back. “You know I did everything I could to stop Dennis from carrying out those experiments…”
“She was my child, Billy,” Maggie shouted. “She was our child.”
She began shaking violently and tears were streaming down her face. She shook her fists at Black Bear, threw a punch at his chest. He only partially deflected away it from his smarting ribs.
“She was all I had,” the distraught Maggie shouted at the top of her lungs. “You allowed that inhuman bastard, Dennis Yuen, to take her from me and destroy her. She was just a child, and he tortured her. She was sweet and gentle. I loved her more than my own life.”
Black Bear should have probably panicked at that moment, but didn’t. It was obvious that anyone walking by would have heard Maggie screaming his and Yuen’s names at the top of her lungs and either come to investigate or send the MP’s.
Black Bear knew that pleading his case to Maggie would do him no good. They had once loved each other desperately, but any love that Maggie felt for him was now gone.
He had allowed himself to be placed in a position where his responsibilities to Yuen and the benefactors put him in direct conflict with Maggie’s ideals and her devotion to John Chamberlain. He sat down in the nearest chair and took on an attitude of complete surrender.
Maggie shouted at him for about a minute more before she realized he was not going to fight back and lowered her voice.
“Damn it, Billy. Why did you come here,” she asked. “Why didn’t you just stay the Hell away? You had to have known that coming here would bring a shit storm down on both of us.”
“I needed to talk to you,” Black Bear said.
He didn’t know where to start. He knew for certain the forty minutes or so that Maggie estimated they had to talk were now reduced to just a few.
“I’m sure you saw and felt the effects of the nuclear air burst over the ocean,” he said.
“Of course,” Maggie replied. “The military refused to tell any of us civilians what was going on, but we knew it had to be something extraordinary. A lot of our electronics stopped working soon after. It scared most of us pretty badly.”
“That burst came from a nuclear missile that was fired at us from inside the ring of cities,” Black Bear said.
“John knew they would retaliate,” Maggie blurted out before she could stop herself.
Black Bear reached for her again. This time she couldn’t shake off the grip he had on her arm.
“You need to tell me everything you know about Chamberlain’s disappearance, Maggie,” he pleaded. “You need to d
o it before anyone else has the chance to question you. If Dennis finds out for certain you had anything to do with John’s escape, I won’t be able to protect you.”
“You aren’t protecting me now, Billy,” Maggie yelled, using Black Bear’s given name again.
“I told you,” she added in a quieter tone, still without being able to look Black Bear in the eye. “I don’t know anything.”
Black Bear knew she was lying and brought up his suspicions to see if he could get a response, verbal or non-verbal, to confirm his hunch.
“Has John fallen into the natives’ hands,” he asked.
She turned away from him.
“Tell me now,” he pleaded desperately. “While there’s a chance I can stop this damned war before the natives start dropping nukes in our laps or Dennis Yuen does something just as undesirable.”
Maggie refused to turn and face him.
“What makes you believe the natives have John,” she asked.
“Right now only a hunch,” Black Bear answered. “But, after the events of the last few days it’s the only thing that makes sense. The natives are demonstrating knowledge of our communications and navigation systems that could only come from an insider.”
Maggie still faced away from Black Bear. Hearing his assessment of the situation clearly bothered her.
“They also gave an indication they know we have this compound here on New Australia,” Black Bear told her. “Without any sign of active scanning, whatsoever. They had to have been given the intelligence from the inside.”
“How do you know they haven’t broken the security of the nav-com system,” Maggie asked him.
“It’s obvious they have,” Black Bear replied. “But, you and I both know that would be nearly impossible to do without help. The frequency randomization virtually guarantees the enemy would never find the signal and the odds of them just stumbling upon the data transport encryption scheme are septillions to one. Even our cryptologists were unable to break the encryption John used to prevent our access to his artificial intelligence and they had access to his notes…”
Chamberlain's Folly (The Terra Nova Chronicles) Page 30