by Andria Stone
Axel looked at Mark with a mixture of helplessness and rage written on his face. Mark recognized those feelings. He’d experienced the same ones when a cyborg nearly killed his father.
Kamryn circled around from the other side. “Von Radach, we need you in the conference room. Now.”
Months ago, during his H2H combat training with Axel and Kamryn, both his instructors at the time, Mark had been the recipient of her sergeant’s voice, but he’d never heard Kamryn use it on Axel. It was unnerving.
Time stood still as Mark watched his friend fight an inner struggle. Axel radiated anger like a volcano seconds away from erupting. His olive complexion darkened with rage, hands balled into white-knuckled fists.
Gradually, the resentment faded. Axel looked drained in the aftermath.
“Come on,” Mark said, touching his shoulder, “let’s go see what Petra has for us.”
Kamryn cautiously took his other arm as they turned Axel away from certain catastrophe, leading him back to the conference room.
Eva waited in the doorway. “We have the surveillance vid queued up.” She caught Mark’s attention, mouthing, ‘Lock the door.’
His heart missed a beat. Shit. This can’t be good. He did as she’d asked, but a locked door wouldn’t have slowed Axel down before his augmentation, now it wouldn’t even cause him to blink. Mark stayed there, leaning against it with his arms crossed. With a friend in the way, it might give him time to think. No, probably not. Mark steeled himself for whatever was to come.
“This begins after you left Deck 2.” Ohashi whipped one screen around for them to view. The cybers watched the other. The first camera angle showed the Galaxy Club, with people walking past on the concourse. Sorayne, accompanied by two men in civilian clothes, traveled away from the club. A second camera farther down picked up the same three moving along until they reached a store called Phobos Electronics. One man stumbled, and his companions tried to render aid. Two people from the store emerged to help the disabled man.
Everyone entered the store. The business lights went black. No one came out. Nothing more.
Axel didn’t move. “What’s the time stamp on this footage?”
“Twenty-seven minutes ago,” Ohashi answered.
“Who owns the store?”
“Victor Parker.”
“Who owns the Galaxy Club?”
“Valerie Parker.”
“Why didn’t we know this before?”
“Because hacking into an encrypted Martian Security System isn’t easy. If you can do it quicker, be my guest.”
“I’m sorry, Ohashi. I apologize.”
“You’re forgiven.”
Mark tried to relieve the tension. “How many businesses do they own on this station?
Giving Ohashi a break, Petra answered, “These two and the bakery.”
“How many on the planet?”
“None.”
“Have any ships or shuttles departed since Maeve went missing?”
“None.”
Mark stared at the screen. “Can we get a close up on the faces of those two people from the store?”
Petra reversed the file to the appropriate spot. She tapped the screen, rotating and enlarging it until a sizable image appeared.
Mark left his place at the door to get a closer look at the screen. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Parkers.”
Chapter 4
Foam oozed out of several splits in the heavy, martial arts training bag. The freestanding device listed forty-five degrees to the right from too many kicks, punches, and strikes from both of Axel’s augmented left limbs. His friends suggested he spend some quiet time in the gym, to work out his anger, try to clear his head, but it hadn’t helped.
He felt like a caged animal, being kept on the ship at gunpoint. It would have been child’s play to remove those three troops from the hatch, bolt through it, then the six more stationed outside, but he’d only be shot with a pulse rifle or a stun gun before he reached the security gate to Deck 3. He needed Essex to lift the order, allowing him to search for Maeve. He wanted it so bad he could taste it. Down deep, he knew it wasn’t going to happen.
Mark opened the door, peeked in to look around. “You trashed the gym.”
Axel grabbed a towel to wipe his face. He scanned the room, realizing he’d have to refit the whole damn gym when they returned to Terra. “I got a little carried away.”
“You tore up your hands,” Mark glanced at his legs, “shins, too. Go grab a shower. Meet me in the Med Lab. I’ll take care of those cuts.”
Fifteen minutes later, Axel padded in barefoot, dressed in black exercise pants. “Where is everybody?”
“Asleep in their bunks. It’s 2:00 a.m. Terran Time.” Mark brought medical supplies to the small medpod. “Show me your hands.” Mark sprayed the abrasions with liquid bandage, cut the fingertips off a pair of NewSkin gloves. The insides were coated with a nanite protocol to regrow skin in a fraction of the time it would normally take. He tossed them at Axel. “Put those on, then let me see your shins.”
“You’re bossy when you’re doctoring.”
“I get it from my mom. Erik and I were always getting hurt. We played rough.” Mark guided the subject in a different direction while he worked. “Eva wants you to talk to somebody about how you feel. Her minor was in Psychology. She’s afraid if you hold it in, you might suffer an aneurysm or stroke out.” He sprayed Axel’s leg wounds, then applied butterfly bandages in several places.
“What I need to do is start looking for Maeve.”
Kamryn wandered in dressed the same as they were, except she wore the top as well as the bottoms. “I can’t sleep. Thought I’d work out.” She walked over to thump Axel on the chest. “Saw what you did to the gym. Stationary bike’s the only thing you didn’t ruin—it’s the one thing I don’t use.”
Griffin rushed into the Med Lab, shouting, “Everyone’s being recalled to our ships. Major Essex wants you on a vid conference—now!”
They ran to the conference room, where both cybers and Eva were waiting. Within seconds, their vid showed images of Essex with Dimitrios on a split screen.
Essex, dark-skinned, with a sweaty sheen to his bald head, spoke first. “We sent your surveillance footage of the abduction to Headquarters. General Dimitrios shared it with Martian Military Command. The MPLE already had system-wide arrest warrants out for the Parkers when they went missing after the undercover agent was found dead in their bakery. Now that Mars knows about the seizure of our three officers, they’ve approved a joint mission to apprehend the Parkers along with all their associates. Plenty of time to sort out the innocent from the guilty after everyone’s in custody.”
The instant Essex paused to take a breath, Axel inserted a question. “Sir, is there any news on Sorayne or the two sergeants?”
“No, but the station’s been on lockdown since it happened. We’ve posted soldiers at every air lock. No shuttles or ships have been given clearance to leave. MMC has sent reinforcements to cover all the new arrivals.”
Mark seized the opportunity to probe their progress on other matters. “General, Sir, the material we supplied also includes visual confirmation of five cyborgs and four clones entering the Galaxy Club, owned by Valerie Parker. We believe Mars to be Coulter’s second base of operations, which is supported by our findings. Plus, the drone we captured surveilling our ship was programmed by someone in the space station’s C'n'C center. Then there’s Lieutenant Scarlett McDonnell from TMD Intelligence, who said she had orders to follow us here. She’s eminently unqualified to be involved in this. She’ll get herself—or one of us—killed.”
Appearing even more bearlike than in the past, Dimitrios’s thick eyebrows rose, as did the color in his face. “Would this be General Yates’s daughter?”
“Yes, sir, the same.”
“All right, Warren, we’ll get to that one last. Regarding the cyborgs and clones,” he said, rolling his eyes, “Mars is a bit peeved we didn’t share our da
ta with them months ago. They’re being briefed as we speak. The drone situation is an egregious offense. They’re doing a level three background check on all control tower personnel. If any of those people have so much as a pimple on their ass, we’ll know about it shortly.” Dimitrios reached for a cup on his desk, the pulse at his graying temple throbbing at an alarming rate. “All right, people. Give us the room, please.”
As Essex disappeared from the screen, everyone filed out of the conference room except for Axel, who moved to a chair behind the screen where he couldn’t be seen.
Dimitrios leaned in. “Did you, by any chance, have a…liaison…of the intimate nature…with McDonnell on Luna?”
Mark decided he might as well own up to it. “Yes, sir, I did. An extremely brief encounter.”
Dimitrios pushed himself away from the desk and undid the top button to his uniform tunic. It spread wide, freeing his meaty neck. “I’m going to tell you a story about a friend of mine. His nephew, a captain in Terran Space Command, experienced the same type of relationship with McDonnell, which she later used to gain the rank of lieutenant. I wasn’t aware she’d transferred to Intelligence, but this has all the earmarks of her previous tactics for a promotion: using her charms to gain rank or otherwise unmerited assignments.”
“Good to know, sir, but after the fact. Still, the four of us who went to Luna have embedded geolocator chips. We can be found anywhere, anytime. Why send a spook—sorry, an agent—to track us?”
“I don’t know, but be assured, I will find out. I do not abide nepotism or collusion of any variety in my military. And tell Von Radach ‘good hunting.’ Dimitrios out.”
Axel sprang out of the chair. “It’s about damn time.” He ran to the door, stopped, then turned. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Take Kamryn,” Mark said. “You may need a woman partner in certain places. One of us needs to stay here. I’ll guard the hatch with the rocket launcher. We’ll be safe. The cybers will be monitoring your comms.”
Axel came over, clasped Mark’s forearm, and held it. The fire had returned to his friend’s eyes.
“Go. Find her.”
Axel left shouting, “Kamryn, grab your guns. We’re going out!”
***
As they had done countless times before, the two former sergeants stood shoulder to shoulder, gearing up for battle. First came the ballistic-proof vests, covered by black leather clothing. Then a knife in each boot, three guns apiece, stun batons, plus a handful of shock grenades from the weapons locker. They were soldiers again, moving with one mind, one purpose. The understanding was implicit: rescue their people, take no prisoners.
They went straight to the Galaxy Club, but entered through the alleyway’s back door. The bar was going full blast; drunk and disorderly at maximum volume. Turning left, they moved like shadows down a dim hallway. Kamryn opened all storeroom doors while Axel braced himself against the opposite wall, ready to shoot. Finding nothing more than liquor and supplies, they moved toward the last door at the end marked “Office”. Inside, they worked in silence. Axel kept one eye on the door while he ransacked the storage cabinets. Kamryn riffled through the desk, finding little of interest. She fired off a message from the club’s computer to Ohashi, enabling the cyber to hack into the system.
Kamryn searched for safes in the desk, behind wall hangings, and under rugs, but again found nothing. Next, she examined the seams in the metal wall panels. Axel joined in her hunt. She noticed a tiny pin dot glowing red about two feet off the floor on the wall behind the desk. “Look!” Kamryn pointed to the dot, then to a stylus pen. Axel handed it to her. She knelt, poking it in the recessed red hole. The panel started sliding behind the wall to the right.
Guns drawn, they backed up, watching as it slid open inch by inch, exposing a six foot six cyborg wearing similar clothes as one of the models they’d seen earlier. It remained stationary, inert, its eyes closed.
“This is the closest I’ve ever been to one…kinda creepy,” Kamryn muttered. She captured images of it and sent them to Ohashi while Axel took aim at the cyborg’s eyes, in case they came to life.
Kamryn continued searching for more red pin dots, finding another one a couple of panels over from the first. The secret door slid away, revealing a second, motionless cyborg. They sent that image along with a message for someone to come pick up the metal before it was activated. After further examination, they found a third door. It, however, opened to a hidden passageway and tunnel leading in the general direction of the Phobos Electronics Store, where everyone had disappeared.
Kamryn sent more images as Axel stepped into the tunnel, taking the lead. A Terran woman, his woman, had already been abducted. He wouldn’t allow anything to happen to his friend.
Once inside, he calculated that the enclosed space could easily accommodate a cyborg. He flipped on the targeting beam on his sidearm, which came in handy for use in pitch black environments, as well as sighting human targets. With silent efficiency, they moved along the passageway until their beams showed a dead end. They spotted another red glowing pin dot, inserted the stylus. The door slid open.
“What the hell…?” A short, thin man staggered backward, shocked by their appearance in the opening. Axel leaped into the room, stunning him with the baton before he could call for help. The man dropped to the floor, falling over a black body bag.
Kamryn ran through the shop to the front door, found no one, and rejoined Axel in the back office. Their dread mounted while she stared at the bag before touching Axel’s arm. “I’ll open it.”
Axel shook his head. He knelt next to the ominous bag. Nausea threatened to overpower him as horrid visions raced through his mind. Reaching for the pull tab, his hand trembled. A ragged breath escaped him at the first sight of dark hair. Relief and shame flooded his system. Axel pressed a fist against his chest, bowing his head for a moment, as did Kamryn; a Terran custom honoring a slain soldier.
Kamryn commed Ohashi. “We found Wong’s body in the rear of the electronic shop, plus a suspect who’s alive, but not for long, if Axel has anything to do with it.”
The skinny man on the floor moaned. Axel grabbed a knife from his boot and started toward him.
“No, Axel,” Kamryn said. “You can’t kill him—yet. First, we need to interrogate him. Find out everything he knows about all the others. Right?”
She found utility tape in a desk and tossed it to Axel. He flipped the suspect over, none too gently, before taping his wrists to his ankles in the back like an Old Earth rodeo hogtie. Then he smacked the suspect a couple of times, just to wake him up. For effect, Axel hunkered down in front of the man’s face as he played with his knife. When the prisoner’s eyes blinked opened, the first thing he saw was light flickering off the lethal, nine-inch blade.
“What’s your name?” Axel asked him.
The man’s weasel-like features were covered in sweat. “H-Hayes…B-Barton.”
“The body in that bag is Sergeant Wong, a Terran soldier. If you don’t want to forfeit your life for his murder, you’ll give me the answers I want to every question I ask. Do you understand?”
Barton nodded while straining to turn his face away from the knife.
“Sergeant Wong was one of three people that came to this shop. Where are the other two?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.” Axel flicked his knife, splitting the man’s nose open between his nostrils. Blood gushed into Barton’s mouth. He screamed in terror, his eyes as big as moon rocks. Axel clamped a hand over his mouth.
Standing above Barton, Kamryn raised her right boot, lowered it against his head, then applied pressure.
“We’re the tip of the spear, Barton,” Axel continued. “The military will be here any second. They don’t play nice at all. I’m going to ask one more time, you Martian bag of shit—where are the other two people?”
Axel lifted his hand away from Barton’s face. Blood ran unimpeded into his mouth, over his chin, down his neck. “Th
e Ch-Chocolate F-Factory’s walk-in c-cooler.”
Kamryn commed Ohashi with the information. “Go. I’ll stay here.”
“No. I’m not leaving you alone,” Axel said.
“All right, then I’ll go. You stay here.”
“No.”
“You can’t have it both ways.”
Axel raced to the front of the shop, almost ripping the door off its hinges. It took him less than three minutes to reach the Chocolate Factory. He ran around to the alleyway, entering through the temporary covering over the hole made by the cyborg. Once in the kitchen, he found the door to the refrigeration unit locked. After twisting it several times with his augmented hand, it broke apart. He pulled open the door.
Two black body bags lay on the floor inside.
Axel tasted bile in his throat. He tried to move, staggering forward in a daze. He sank down between the two bags. His right hand trembled again as he reached for the first pull tab. It opened to reveal a dark-haired Sergeant Nelson. Axel checked for a pulse. Alive, but faint.
He turned toward the second bag. Hope flourished. Hands no longer trembling, he pulled the tab.
Maeve’s bloodied face met him.
No. This couldn’t be happening.
Axel’s body turned to ice. He checked her carotid, listened for a heartbeat, drew her wrist out to check for a pulse, then finally took off his gloves to lift the lid of her blue eye.
It stared straight up at the ceiling.
Axel raised her torso from the bag, seeing blood smeared around numerous pulse gun flesh wounds on her body. He cradled her lifeless form, hugging her as he rocked back and forth. He lifted his head to let out an anguished roar. It hung in the air, more primal than a wounded animal, more enraged than a beast caught in a death trap.
Kamryn skidded up to the open door, trailed by two TMD soldiers. A pair of MMC troops joined them. She tiptoed inside and checked Nelson, motioning for the pair of TMD’s to retrieve the body before she turned to kneel beside Axel. She put her arm around his shoulder as they both wept.