Espero (The Silver Ships Book 6)
Page 22
* * *
On their way to visit with Alex and Renée, Drake and Jaya passed Tatia in the corridor and were a little confused by the admiral’s wide smile in the face of the dire meeting to come. When they entered the Haraken president’s cabin, Drake took in the stun guns strapped to thighs, and said, “It doesn’t look like a diplomatic solution is at the forefront of your mind, Alex.”
“Talk to my admiral, Will,” Alex replied. “Your ex-TSF major, who has more criminal experience than you and me put together, has made these recommendations.”
“And, as president, you could choose not to follow her advice,” Drake challenged.
Jaya winced, and Renée had to bite her tongue to keep from speaking.
“Is that how you do it, Will? Surround yourself with good people, but don’t take their advice?” Alex shot back. “Keeping in contact with Maria, Will?” Alex asked.
Drake declined to respond to the barb. Instead, he glared angrily at Alex, his jaw locked tight.
“It’s not my way, Will,” Alex said. “I might not be a good listener, but, at least, I try. It seems the trickiest part of leading … sounds like something you need to work on. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I have three young girls to retrieve, and time is growing short.”
After Drake and Jaya left, Alex returned to practicing. Staring straight ahead, he drew both stun guns simultaneously, holding his arms about 90 degrees apart, and then returned the weapons. Alex continued to repeat the actions as he made minor adjustments.
“Why didn’t you wish to tell Tatia what you’ve been doing?” Renée asked.
“Tatia is proud of her prowess in the martial arts, weaponry, tactics, understanding the criminal mind, and all things TSF. The last thing I want to do is supplant some of that pride.”
“So exactly what have you been doing with the two weapons?”
“I’ve designed a targeting app and duplicated it, allowing each implant independent control over an arm. If I can see two assailants in my vision, even peripherally, each implant will track, target, and fire with its assigned arm.”
“Is it working?”
“Yes, actually, much better than I expected.”
Renée studied Alex’s face. She walked over to him, taking his face in her hands, always amazed that Alex would allow his head to be so easily turned by her most delicate touch. “You’re concerned what others may think, not just Tatia.”
“I see the looks on people’s faces when my implant power is exposed. It’s fear.”
“Perhaps it’s fear from those who don’t know you or from our opponents … from our people, it’s awe.”
“I’m not so sure, Renée. I only thought of the second implant as a way to help me with my computing power and the diversification of operations. I had no idea of the doors that two implants would open.”
“And you should have no doubts now, my love. I, for one, accept you as you are, implants and all.” Renée interlaced her fingers behind Alex’s neck and kissed him gently. When Alex responded with hesitation, Renée kissed him again and again, until Alex focused on her eyes. “It’s in your nature, my love, to create, to experiment. You do so with everything you touch. We expect it of you. Never fear where it takes you. Now come … we have a half-hour yet, and practicing with this weapon has awakened my desire for some of your attentions. Feel free to leave your weapons on,” Renée said, grinning and pulling Alex toward the sleeping quarters.
* * *
Tatia stood at the bottom of the traveler’s steps. Julien, the twins, and her troopers were aboard. All was ready for departure, except for two passengers, but it wasn’t like Tatia felt it appropriate to prompt her president and his partner.
Moments later, the bayside airlock hatch opened, and Tatia watched Renée saunter across the bay, smiling at her, and scamper up the traveler’s steps. Alex strolled nonchalantly but wore an unabashed grin.
“Nothing like a happy man about to face death,” Tatia quipped to Alex.
“Only one life to live, Tatia, and just aren’t we making the most of it!” Alex replied and bounded up the steps.
“That we sure are,” Tatia mumbled to herself.
The bay was decompressed and the traveler launched — destination Udrides and the recovery of three Haraken girls.
-23-
Wedged overhead above the corridor’s piping, Miranda occupied herself with idle calculations for hours until she chose to focus on one subject, her interactions with Z through his innumerable messages. Usually, her preoccupation with the president’s emergencies offered limited time to be introspective and consider perhaps the most unusual element of her existence — the gaps in her memories.
Z’s messages always signaled the beginning of a new period of wakening. They updated her on existing conditions, usually troubles that her people faced, and requested her help. Miranda loved that — never ordered to help, always asked. She had access to all of Z’s memories. At least, she considered they were all of his memories, never suspecting the details that Z edited out.
Where do I go? Miranda asked herself. Do I sleep? Am I awakened only in times of need? Why do I not have control of the choice?
The questions might have haunted Miranda for hours more, but an app signaled the movement of a locator beacon, and she connected to the vid cams to review their recordings. Two men and a woman in Toyo’s dark red service uniforms were loading containers of the tagged supplies onto a pallet. She waited until they left the supply area when the vid cams lost sight of them before she eased down from her perch.
Unwinding her wrap from around her neck where it was tucked to prevent it from dangling down in view of passersby, Miranda smoothed it into place. Her persona shifted hierarchical algorithms, and her body swayed provocatively as she walked down the corridor.
Following the signal, Miranda angled toward the service personnel, who navigated a utility corridor in the main dome with their pallet. She caught up with them when they accessed the nearest lift to the lower levels. Miranda stopped to check her footwear, displaying her shapely leg and attracting the attention of one of the men and the blonde-haired woman. A point to note, Miranda thought.
Miranda waited until the lift door closed and the car began moving before she tapped the call button, which lit, responding to her purloined implant. When the car returned, Miranda quickly slipped inside. She spotted the lift’s tiny controller box mounted near the door. It had a small keypad for manual entry. How ancient, Miranda thought.
“Please select a floor,” an automated voice said.
Miranda’s crystal mind raced through her options. She seized on an implant recording Deirdre made of her initial interaction with Jameson. Imitating the security officer’s voice, Miranda said, “The prior floor, please.”
“Dome 4, level 7,” the voice intoned and the display lit with D4-7.
Imagine that, a hidden dome. I suppose if I was a paranoid, criminal mastermind, I’d bury my most wicked achievements in the lowest level of my establishment too, Miranda thought.
The lift dropped quickly. Miranda estimated a distance of over 120 meters. When the car stopped and the door opened, the three service personnel, with their pallet, were a mere 6 meters in front of her. They had stopped to talk to men in Toyo’s security services. When all eyes swiveled her way, Miranda adopted a brilliant smile, saying, “Oh, hello.”
“You boys move on,” the woman beside the pallet said. “I’ve got this.”
The four men shared grins, and they and the pallet moved down the corridor.
“Lost, fem?” the blonde asked, approaching Miranda. “Maybe I can service your needs?” Her smile was as brilliant as that Miranda had offered, and her eyes gleamed. What didn’t occur to the woman was how Miranda accessed the lift to the domes’ lowest levels, but those were the charms of Miranda, which could entice both woman and man.
Miranda waited until the last moment to step out of the lift car, which coincided with the men and the pallet turning a corner in the corr
idor. “I’m sure you can help me, dear. I do appreciate an attentive woman.”
“Why don’t you and I —” the woman managed to say before Miranda was on her, clamping one hand over her mouth and the other cutting off the blood flow in her neck. The blonde struggled ever so briefly, wondering how the raven-haired woman achieved her incredible strength, before she lost consciousness.
Miranda slung the woman over her shoulder and located a utility room, but the door was locked. To her, it was odd that Jameson’s implant didn’t allow access. She filed that note away as she popped the lock off, slid the door aside, and deposited the blonde on the floor. Miranda swept her wrap aside and pulled a small soporific injector from a little med-kit strapped high on her inner thigh. After administering the sleeping agent to the woman, she closed the door and inserted the lock into place.
“Sleep tight, dear,” Miranda murmured, as she pursued the locator beacons. The signals were barely detectable and weakening with every passing moment. She hurried around the corner and within 10 meters the corridor came to a tee. Testing signal strength in each direction, Miranda turned right, pleased that within a few meters the signals regained strength.
That pleasant feeling ended when two burly, New Terran security officers walked around a corner directly into her path. Unable to stop in time, Miranda knocked one of the officers on his rear end, his mouth formed an “oh,” as he expressed surprise at being bowled over by a woman half his size.
“Oh, my goodness! How clumsy of me,” Miranda said, trying to play on her femininity.
The other man grabbed Miranda’s wrist and tried to twist it behind her back, asking, “How did you get down here? Did you come down with someone?”
“Oh, dear,” Miranda said in dismay, realizing her wiles would get her nowhere with these two. Her open palm shot out, smacking the guard’s head into the wall. Eyes rolling up in his head, the guard slunk to the floor.
“Please!” the guard on the floor pleaded. “I’ll do what you want.”
“How considerate of you, dear. Pick up your partner. I need a storage location for the two of you.”
The man stumbled to his feet, hoisted his companion up by the underarms, and dragged him back down the corridor from whence they came. “In here,” he said. He had reached a door, which slid aside when he tapped a button on the wall with his elbow.
Miranda followed the men into the room. Inside were five more individuals wearing the uniforms of Toyo’s security personnel. The guard, who had pleaded for his safety, laid his companion down and smirked at Miranda.
“How very clever of you, dear,” she said, smacking the door button to seal the room. Frowns crossed the faces of every man and woman, including the guard with the smirk.
A few moments later, the guard room door opened and Miranda peeked out. Seeing no one, she straightened her wrap, thinking, Thank goodness for Haraken fabric.
The guards had drawn knives, the favored weapons of Toyo’s people it seemed, and attacked Miranda from all sides. She ended the fierce fight as swiftly as she could in an effort to silence the guards before an alarm could be sounded. Miranda’s lament was that she was not sure every guard would survive their injuries. To make matters worse, she didn’t carry enough soporific to knock out seven people, which meant time was counting down before her people’s charade was discovered.
Tracking the beacons again, Miranda hurried down corridors and corners until there, in front of her, were a pair of gleaming metal doors with window inserts. She eased along the wall, intending to stay out of sight of those inside. Peeking through one of the windows, she saw an anteroom with open cabinets that held containment suits and masks. On the other side of the small room was an identical pair of metal doors. The lab, Miranda thought, smiling.
Miranda quickly backtracked, managing not to encounter anyone else until she stepped out of the lift car into the central corridor of the main dome, where an aging patron and a young fem were waiting for the lift. “Have fun,” Miranda said in a cheery voice, as she eased passed them. It was sad, the SADE thought, that a woman as young as the one she just saw could have eyes that were aged far past her years.
While Miranda made her way back to the suite, she devised plans, discarding one after the other, until settling on one with the greatest probability of success. Entering the suite, Miranda greeted the two commanders and repaired to the bathroom where she stripped off her bloody and soiled wrap, wiped a few drops of blood off her synth-skin, and fixed her hair. She removed the small med-kit from the inside of her thigh with its empty soporific charges and tossed it on top of the discarded wrap.
Joining the commanders in the bedroom, Miranda selected another wrap and covered herself. “That’s better,” she said, as she arranged the colorful garment. “I’ve located the lab, but I was discovered. The last group was only disabled when I ran out of soporific injections. Time is against us. Soon the guards who are unconscious will awaken and sound the alarm. We want to be in possession of the lab by then.”
“Take possession of the lab?” Deirdre asked. “What good does that do us, if the alarm is sounded?”
“Patience, dear. This is where you listen and do as I say. Understanding will come later.”
Deirdre and Svetlana heard the shift in Miranda’s tone and cadence as Z’s tactical mien seeped through her persona.
“We are splitting our forces,” Miranda continued. “Commander Canaan, I will send the majority of our people after you. Retreat to the traveler. You will contact the president aboard the Tanaka and request reinforcements. While we can use more people, it’s imperative we receive stun guns for those who are here now. Toyo’s security forces have a nasty habit of pulling knives in close combat.”
“Commander Valenko, you and I will take a few of our people and take possession of the lab.” Miranda nodded approval at the fierce grin on Svetlana’s face.
“Commander Canaan, here is how to reach the lab,” Miranda said, and sent vids of her accessing the lift, the dome and floor number, and her path through the corridors, editing out her contact with personnel. “When help arrives, arm our people and come for us.”
“The domes are three layers deep,” Deirdre said, taken aback by the vids Miranda sent.
“Surprising, yes?” Miranda replied.
“You will need this,” Miranda said, handing over Jameson’s implant. “We’ll get another. Subtlety and subterfuge are no longer necessary. Speed is of the essence. Go now, Commander.”
Deirdre nodded, left the suite, and hurried as quickly as decorum would allow toward the landing bay.
“What about Jameson?” Svetlana asked.
“Leave him to sleep,” Miranda said. As Svetlana and she left the suite, Miranda sent signals to the Harakens, assigning them to join either Deirdre or Svetlana. The latter group was to meet near the lift closest to the landing bay in the main dome, which Miranda marked in her communication.
* * *
Deirdre was the first one to the landing bay entrance and waited while her people joined her. She had most of the Harakens with her, when several bay personnel came past them. Deirdre announced in a loud voice to the assembled Harakens, “I don’t run the company, Sers. Your president just asked if we could return you to Kephron early. It seems he needs you.”
The Harakens dutifully grumbled, and the bay personnel gave Deirdre sympathetic looks as they passed. When the implant count of those Miranda assigned to Deirdre matched those present, she requested access to their traveler.
“Boarding and lifting, ma’am?” the bay controller asked.
“Boarding only, Ser. We are still waiting for a few obstinate individuals.”
“Miners,” the controller said with disgust.
“They are quaint, Ser, I must admit,” Deirdre agreed. When she received word that the bay was cleared for access, she announced loudly that the people were to board and the group trooped across the bay to the traveler, sullen and angry. Once everyone was inside, the hatch was sealed to allo
w other shuttle flights to come and go while they waited.
Connecting to the traveler’s controller, Deirdre signaled the Tanaka. She connected with Willem, and the SADE directed the comm to the captain.
“Commander Canaan, you’re on bridge speakers with President Drake, Minister Jaya, Captain Shimada, and me. I’ve relayed the pertinent points of your call to President Drake.”
“Commander, I would like to ensure that I understand for myself what you’re telling Eric,” Drake said. “During your visit to the pleasure domes of Jolares, you’ve discovered that Peto Toyo has been using his establishment to hide an illegal drug-manufacturing lab?”
Deirdre thought for a moment that something was lost in translation between Eric and Drake until she remembered Alex saying that they had to be careful since they weren’t operating with New Terra’s approval.