Zero Hour (Starmen (Space Opera Series) Book 3)

by J. M. Hagan

  “We need access to classified information regarding a fellow Starman,” she said. “We have clearance.”

  He sat back and crossed his arms. “That may be…but I’m still not authorised to grant you access until you’ve been cleared by someone with authority.”

  Siena rolled her eyes. “Go get him, then,” she commanded sharply, and he was unsettled by her tone. “We’re against the clock here.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The guy got up and Siena looked back at Anderson with her hands out. She’s really on edge. I suppose the fact I trust her ability so much is why I’m not so bad. With the way she handled that douche, it’s little wonder.

  A few moments passed. The guy with the crazy hair came back being followed by a tall guy with a straight haircut. He was tan with dark eyes and had a strong build.

  As he approached, he flicked his head their way from across the counter. “I’m, Micho, tier-1 specialist. How can I help?”

  “Well, thing is, we’re investigating a fellow Starman,” said Anderson.

  “His name?”

  “Kal Lojac.”

  Micho gave a pinched look. “Kal.” He nodded. “Just so happens that, Kal, is a friend of mine.”

  Anderson glanced at Siena. She stood akimbo. Kept her eyes on Micho. “Well, he’s being held by the police. Bar fight,” she explained.

  Micho rubbed his forehead. Put his hands into the counter and got uncomfortable. “A bar fight?” he repeated, his eyes scrunching as if he couldn’t accept it.

  “He attacked our fellow crew member,” snapped Siena. “Another tier-1 specialist named, Jeriko Sálávanté. That’s not why we’re here, though. The mark we’re hunting – we think, Kal, knows him.”

  “Why not just ask him about it?” asked Micho, becoming more defensive as they went on. Anderson wasn’t even sure if they should continue talking with him; he was an admitted friend of the guy.

  “Some of our crew is on their way to the station as we speak,” said Siena.

  Micho accepted it with a nod. “What are you looking for here, then?”

  “We wanna know about his last contract. We think it might be linked, somehow. We checked the port records, and last time he went off-world, Kal, set-out the same day as our target.”

  Micho rose a hand. “You can’t look at personal records like that, until they’ve been declassified, without special clearance,” he told them with authority. “That mission is still active.”

  “We’ve got it,” Siena assured him, taking out her PDP and simultaneously wiping the grin off his face.

  She forwarded him the special clearance code Fischer had given them and Anderson was glad the hard-nosed chief had the foresight to grant them it.

  Micho entered the code into the computer and when his brow creased it was obvious it’d been accepted. He set his jaw. “All right…you’ve been granted access to the system,” he said.

  “Thanks a lot,” said Siena, staring at him while he shifted his glare evenly between them.

  Micho beat his fingers off the desk like a drum. “It’s all yours,” he said, backing off. “A word of warning, though, you might wanna inform the Chief that you’re investigating one of his men…”

  Siena watched him with a steely glare until he was some distance away. Then she led them to a free console they could interface with.

  “Something tells me he’s about to inform the Chief himself,” she whispered, with a scolding glare thrown over her shoulder.

  Siena sat down and waved her hand over the node to activate it. A blue holographic display appeared.

  She typed in the name Kal Lojac. His file came up and she scrolled through it. Anderson caught a glimpse of his Starman record which seemed as impressive as it was extensive.

  “Kal, completed a lot of jobs,” he commented.

  “Sure has,” she said, quickly finding his most recent contract. “Says here his current contract was an exploration mission. Kal chaperoned two people. Their names aren’t on file. But I’m guessing one of them was our target.”

  “Damn. That’s why the future-crew never knew about it,” he lamented in a mutter.

  Siena clicked on a link in Kal’s profile. “Says here the contract was offered to him by a man named, Jace Tenley. He lives in Mortron City.”

  Anderson took a note of it with his PDP.

  “We’ve also got access to everything the guild has on, Kal, including his PDP history, address...”

  Siena got absorbed in the screen for a moment…

  “What is it?” he asked, leaning in to skim over it and see what had captured her interest.

  “Kal, retrieved something on his travels. It doesn’t say what it is, but he declared it when he landed at port.”

  She turned in her chair and looked up at him. “Something has been bothering me. Why is it that, Vorjool, was heading to Mortron City in the first place? How did he return to this world without registering his arrival?”

  Anderson shrugged. He hadn’t the faintest idea. But he knew she was on to something.

  “I’m thinking…maybe, Kal, has something he wants. He didn’t turn up because, Kal, didn’t go to Mortron. These records also show he’s got a high-tech safe installed at his apartment.”

  His eyes lit up. “You think whatever it is, it’s in his safe?”

  “Could be,” said Siena.

  She had a look around to check if anyone was watching them. Then she quickly took a small orange object out from her sleeve. Siena unrolled it and he realised it was some form of miniature PDP. She used it to take some snaps of the screen, rather than use her Starman PDP.

  “Is that allowed?” he whispered, knowing full well that it wasn’t. They weren’t even supposed to have another PDP.

  “Nope,” she said, rolling it up again. Siena slid it back into her jacket sleeve and got up. “We’ve got enough to go on now. Let’s get out of here. The clock is ticking.”

  “Why did you take those photos?” he whispered, following after her.

  “We’ll use all this info to have, Europa, cook up some programs to bypass the security. She can work on it while we’re on move. Should be a piece of cake for her if she has the make and model of the safe.”

  *

  Jack sighed with a hand on his brow. The air conditioning was working overtime and it was still hot as hell in the hovercar. They’d been caught up in traffic for a while now and they were still a twenty-minute drive from the station where he was being held.

  “I don’t understand this shit. Why the hell do we have to use these airways anyway? We’re in a damn flying car.”

  “It’s the only way cops can police the skies,” said Jeriko.

  “Oh.”

  Jack was getting more impatient as time drudged on. He was fighting his urge to yap at Jeriko for what he’d done. Then again, it wasn’t exactly his fault. How could he have known his actions would change anything? For all Jack knew, Jeriko hadn’t even been the one to cause the change in the timeline. Maybe something else had sparked it beforehand. He just couldn’t be sure. Still, he found himself glaring more than once at the fernode as he drove.

  Out of the blue, Jeriko thumped the dash, causing the smart glass display to blur momentarily. Then he honked the horn in anger.

  “Fuck! God damn! Son of a bitch!”

  “Easy, big guy,” said Jack calmly. “Don’t bust a blood vessel.”

  “Damn it! Murphy…I’m sorry. This is all my fault…shit!”

  Jack shrugged. “Man, getting all bent out of shape won’t change a thing. Blaming yourself? It’ll only make things worse, too.”

  “I know. But, damn, why did I have to confront him?!”

  Jack held out a hand at his side. “Guy is an asshole, right?”

  Jeriko bit down. “Yeah. Big time.”

  He offered a shrug. “Nothing else to say. You did what you thought was right at the time.” The cars ahead started making some progress. “Chill. Now, come on. Drive.”

  Rig
ht then, he received a com from Anderson: “Jack, we got an address for, Kal.”

  “Anderson – you find anything else?”

  “Turns out, Kal, left the same day as Vorjool. His last contract involved protecting two people on a mission of exploration to the uncharted regions beyond Fringe-Space. Although no names were given, it’s a safe bet that one of those people was our target. The contract was paid for by someone from Mortron City. Guy named, Jace Tenley.”

  “We got anything on, Jace?” asked Jack.

  “Not yet. Right now, we’re heading to his apartment. Kal, has a high-tech safe,” said Anderson. “We’re thinking he might have something inside Vorjool wants.”

  “Okay. Sounds good.”

  “Yeah. What’s more, Siena, thinks she can get us inside with Europa’s help.”

  “E, can crack safes?”

  “We’re about to find out. I’ll keep you posted.”

  “Good work,” said Jack, feeling a lot less frustrated.

  *

  They went down the alley to return to their car. Europa had already been sent the information regarding Kal’s safe. Siena wasn’t surprised when the A.I. promised to get back to them within moments with a solution.

  They were a lot less tense. Things seemed to be coming back into their favour…

  Siena heard a pulse weapon go off and she shrieked surprise. Anderson dropped to the ground with a blue net of current surging through him. He’d been incapacitated by the stun round.

  “Siena Jin-Cora.”

  She turned. Before her stood Sephrin. The man responsible for her training. A man who had always been loyal to her father. He had his gun drawn by his side, and a man either side of him.

  “Get your hands up.”

  “Sephrin…”

  “We’re a long way from home, Siena. Imagine my surprise, when I saw your name mentioned among the brave heroes of Maji-Onda.”

  Siena swallowed. Sephrin is one of the few people in the galaxies to know my mother’s maiden name. “I was proud of my contribution,” she told him, with contempt. “I wanted people to know who I really am.”

  He gave a tight smirk. “You’re coming with us, Siena.”

  She shot a terrified glance to Anderson. He was unconscious.

  “Don’t worry,” said Sephrin. “We’ll bring along your friend.”

  He shot her in the chest. Siena dropped feeling the current surge through her body…

  15

  Vorjool had been busy while Kal was sleeping it off in his cell.

  Zero was hooked into everything. He checked Kal’s profile at Starman HQ, bypassing their firewalls without detection. He learnt of the safe in his home. All the while, he was hooked into the police mainframe, too, and was constantly observing Kal’s cell via their internal security feed.

  Zero had told him not to worry, and with so many resources now at their disposal, he hadn’t. He fully believed they would succeed.

  Vorjool went to Kal’s address and slowed as he approached the building roof that had a wide open circle in the centre. He lowered into it and looked out the window on the way down. It went all the way to the ground. The apartments were circular. Two on each floor with large windows at the entrance. They seemed pretty luxurious.

  They reached Kal’s apartment on the seventh floor, Vorjool lowered them onto the small landing pad that was connected by a bridge to the balcony.

  He walked along the bridge lit with circular lights built in every few steps of the way. It didn’t have a safety rail. Vorjool looked over the edge and felt a little weightlessness, like his insides had been caught in Zero-G for a moment.

  The glass door to the inside seemed a couple of inches thick and was locked airtight. There was no way he could break through it.

  “How are we gonna get inside?”

  The door panel turned green, and it opened automatically as he approached.

 

  Vorjool smiled stepping inside, and the lights came on the instant his footsteps were detected on the living room floor.

  There was a huge white rug and two pristine cream sofas. A large artificial fireplace beneath a huge viewscreen, and a glass coffee table in between that was overflowing with what looked to be junk mail. It was cold inside. The heating hadn’t been on in months.

  “Are you sure he’s been back here?” asked Vorjool.

 

  Vorjool walked down the corridor on his right. The safe was in Kal’s bedroom somewhere. He didn’t even have to search. When he entered his bedroom, and the lights came on, Zero said,

  Vorjool turned and saw a picture framed on the wall.

 

  Vorjool lifted off the picture and set it on the floor. There was the safe. It was half the size of him. There was a complex locking mechanism and heavy bolts across the door. The keypad brightened as he stared. Zero was working his magic.

  In seconds, the safe opened before him…

  Nothing…

  He pulled the door open and made sure.

  Vorjool hung his head. “How can there be nothing?” he asked, tensing up.

  Zero was quiet for a moment.

  He began his search, tossing the bedroom. He found a sidearm in his bedside drawer and had a look at it. It was a small pulse pistol that didn’t hold more than a couple of rounds. Vorjool took it up and felt its weight. Then he put it in his pocket. Killing you with your own gun? It should make the deed even sweeter.

  He checked every drawer, his wardrobe – nothing.

  He was about to go out and start checking the next room when a thought came to him. He stopped in his tracks. “You think it could be in his car?” he asked. “Maybe…he intended to go to, Aria, first thing in the morning. Maybe he was going to stay in that woman’s apartment; it’s just a block away from the checkpoint.”

  Zero replied thoughtfully.

  As they were in agreement, they travelled through late night traffic across to the other side of town. It took them almost an hour. Kal was still in the police station sleeping it off.

  Vorjool reached the lot next to the nightclub that was still booming even though it was early morning. He parked up and waited while a drunken couple got into their car and drove off. Then he got out and walked to Kal’s car, observing his surroundings keenly.

  Zero opened the door for him and he got inside like it was his own car. It smelt like perfume and cigarettes. The door shut. Zero started the car’s computer, causing the glass to auto-tint and hide him from any potentially prying eyes.

  He searched the glove box. A box behind the throttle and between the seats. Then he hopped in the back and checked through a pile of coats on the backseats.

  Vorjool got out again to check the trunk. There was just some rope and a tool kit. He checked through that and found nothing. Slammed the lid closed and then ran a hand up his smooth head.

  What do we do now?

 

  Vorjool went and got into the driver’s seat. He formed his hands around the wheel tensely. Looked at his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “You think he had it on him?”

  said Zero.

  “Damn,” he said, squeezing the wheel. “Something tells me…that sneaky bastard has friends in the police. They might have turned a blind eye to it, let him hold onto it?”

 

  “Was there any time when he was somewhere you couldn’t see him, or hear him.”

  Zero paused. he first arrived.>

  “You think he left it in there somewhere?”

 

  *

  If it hadn’t been for the coffee the young officer brought him when he woke up, Kal, doubted he would even be on his feet. The stims had worn off during his sleep and he was feeling the effects of his head injury.

  “Damn. That fernode packed a Helluva punch,” he said, twisting his neck with a hand on his brow. He had been let out from his cell and was being guided out from the holding area by a young cop.

  “We’ll just fetch your personal belongings and then you can go about your day, sir,” the officer said.

  “Say, what’s your name?” asked Kal. It was obvious the kid was excited to be around him.

  “Travis,” he said.

  “Nice to meet ya, Travis.”

  He stopped and gave a smile. “Thanks, Mr Lojac. It means a lot coming from you. I was trained at the guild, too, you know?”

  Kal had to act surprised. “Really? You don’t say?”

  “Sure was,” Travis told him proudly. “Tier-3, of course. But, damn, I loved it there.”

  They went into a secure room and gathered his belongings from a lockbox. When Officer Travis took out his PDP it was lit up and vibrating. The kid handed it over quick. Kal spied the contact before answering – it was Micho.

  Putting a hand to his vexed brow, he expected to be berated by his colleague for having been arrested for such a petty crime. Damn you, Micho. How’d you find out so fast?

  He waved at the kid and went to the back of the room to answer. “Hello?”

  “Kal, where are you right now?” he asked in a low, anxious tone.

  “Huh? Micho, what’s wrong?”

  “Kal, they’re coming for you.”

  “What? Who are you talking about?”

  “A team of specialists were here at HQ checking through your records – they had clearance. I had to give them access to your personal file.”

  Kal tossed his head back. Shit. “Did they say what they were looking for?” he asked, rubbing a troubled brow. Did they find out I’m working for, Aria?