As soon as she settled and shut off the drives, Urania flashed a map of the area onto the main screen and announced, “I have both Ron and Jis located. We’re good. This is their final destination. Ron is currently about four hundred feet underground, three and a half miles from here, relatively near the structures labeled B on the monitor. I doubt the comm-gear can penetrate through that much rock. Even the GPS signal is barely discernible.
“Jis is above ground, just over five miles distant in the highlighted area which I’ve labeled A. The structure on that site is a single building having the appearance of a large chalet or a vacation home for the wealthy. It is completely enclosed by a sturdy looking metal fence and surrounded by a relatively dense green belt.”
She highlighted another area of the map. “This area, labeled B, is a collection of twenty-six rough buildings surrounded only by desert. The equipment scattered around the area suggests a mining operation which also explains why Ron is underground.”
She made a grunting noise. “I don’t see any people at either location. The freighter we followed in is still grounded near location B with its rear loading hatch sitting open.”
She highlighted another area of the map. “There’s a solar energy farm to the north of the freighter. I see twenty-seven wind turbines running between the Area A and Area B. Their capacity for power generation greatly exceeds what the buildings here seem to be using. I can’t see anything that tells me where they get water from. My guess is a subterranean aquifer.
Lexi sent out over the comm, “Jis, we’re here. What’s your situation?”
Chapter 23
Undercover
Almost immediately, Jis responded. Even in this situation her tone came across as almost perky. “I’m fine, Lexi. I’m currently alone in my room dressing for dinner so I’m free to talk. We found them! The E’Krets are here. Not only them. These people are holding a number of other political captives we weren’t expecting. There are people here from Cardin’s Paradise, Naragene Nine, Xeas and a couple of other worlds. We’re going to have to get them all out, if we can. I don’t understand why I didn’t see this coming. The CIB detectives you talked to on Naragene were correct; the multiple disappearances are connected. I’m making all sorts of new friends.”
With a sigh she added, “My situation is much better than Ron’s. He’s down in the mines being used as slave labor. Do you already know about the mines and the prisoners there? We assume the Grake security people must be there too, although he hasn’t seen them yet. He’s asking around about them. I can only reach him when he is brought back up to the surface after his shift is over. As of last night, he was OK. He’s very angry, Lexi, but OK. He should be up again in another three or four hours. He’ll be able to tell you about it then. They only operate one ten-hour shift a day.”
“I’m a little surprised you can reach him at all without Urania around to amplify your signal,” Lexi stated. “But that’s all to the good.
Jis hesitated. “He has complete confidence in your ability to get us out. I think you’re very lucky to have him, Lexi. Let me warn you, love, he was caught in an underground explosion. He’s bruised and, last time we spoke, still has some ringing in his ears, but otherwise says he OK. I can’t tell over the comm if that is the truth or not, but I doubt he would lie to me about it.”
Geena said, “No. In this situation, where his physical condition might make a difference in getting you and the others out, he wouldn’t mislead us about it.”
Their undercover asset’s tone changed from one of concern to that of an operative reporting. “Anyway, ladies, from what I’ve been able to pick up, there are two very criminal activities going on here. The miners are all slave labor. A portion of them are from your planet, Lexi, believe it or not. But many more were taken from looted starliners. They are underfed, overworked and beaten. According to the information Ron has gathered, most don’t survive more than a few months. Ron estimates that there are close to seven-hundred slaves and no more than twenty or so overseers. The overseers are armed with sidearms.”
She paused. “On the other hand, I am imprisoned in a luxurious resort. We have an indoor swimming pool, a spa, a gym and courts for various games. I can’t rave about the food, but honestly, it’s not bad. Our jailers allow us to wander around the estate mostly unencumbered. There are fifteen, I’m going to term us, political prisoners here counting the three E’krets and me. Some of them have been held here close to two years. All of us are related to high ranking officials on our respective planets. In fact, there are so many people here I’m surprised we’re not tripping over investigators. What’s with that?”
“Interesting observation, darling,” Geena said. “The kidnappers are being careful about not leaving clues laying around. It makes it difficult to find this place. We’re pretty far outside of the Accord. If they hadn’t snatched you, we may not have found it either.”
“At your service, my dear. In addition to Kahvia,” Jis continued, “six of the captives are people I already know. Apparently we’re being held for future use. None of us know what that use might be. From talking with these people, I’ve come to doubt they would have taken me at all, my father being as old as he is, if I hadn’t confided to Sori while making conversation that I have a sister. I know I mentioned it to you the night before we were taken, but I really don’t have the sense that Sori is part of this operation. Whether I’m wrong about her or not, she would have been obligated to update her embassy’s files with that tidbit.”
She laughed. “You may yet rule in my stead, lovely Lexi.” More seriously, she went on. “I have counted nine servants on the staff. All are slaves. It’s a coveted position. If they’re here, they’re sheltered from molestation. Those unfortunates working the mines don’t have that protection. Ron knows more about that than I do.”
She paused. “There are only ten guards in the compound, all beefy, human males and all armed with handguns. They’re not Glocks, Lexi. See I was paying attention to the lessons. They’re armed even when off-duty. When they’re not officially on the clock they’re still a little bit creepy but otherwise personable enough. Their shifts rotate so that there are three on duty at all times. The tenth man is their commander. The man in overall charge of the operation is named Becan Kraft. He appears fully human. Fairly generic. He’s not tall enough to be a Cardin native. I don’t know where he is from.”
Jis paused, giving Lexi the opportunity to say, “I’m going to need you to evaluate defenses, honey. There shouldn’t be that many. Other than the criminals, this planet is uninhabited. Still, I need to know what we’ll be facing.”
“Already done, to the best of my ability. If the planet is uninhabited, the defenses are oddly formidable. I made friends with KumKum. He’s one of the guys taken from Naragene, a son of one of the corporate moguls. He’s been here seven months. He offered to take me for an outside tour.”
She paused a moment. “All of the male captives seem to want to be my friend. It’s somewhat distracting.”
“I’m sure it is,” Lexi said, with a smile on her face Jis couldn’t see. Jis, with her sheltered upbringing, probably had no clue how attractive she was. “Keep in mind we want to get you out of there sooner rather than later. You should factor that into any decisions you make concerning how distracted you want to let yourself become.”
“Hmm,” Jis said. They all knew she was smiling. She was mostly always smiling. “Was that advice coming from my loving sister or my wise team leader?”
Geena said, “Jis, darling, now is not the time. Can we please get back to your report?”
“Of course, Geena.” She audibly sighed. “The only male prisoner I’ve been letting distract me, by the way, is Koe. A sixteen-foot-high fence surrounds the grounds. We threw branches at it to check and it does appear to be electrified. I suppose there must be a switch somewhere to shut it off. I can’t tell what material the fence is made of. It’s been painted in shades of green and brown. Apparently the paint i
s conductive. I’m not sure why they painted it, but it is less intrusive visually from the house so perhaps it is merely an aesthetics decision.”
She took a steadying breath. “Nothing other than the fence defends the inside of the compound. The perimeter outside the fence, however, is surrounded by weapon emplacements. I’m not up on military hardware, and frankly, neither was KumKum, although he pretended to be. I’m not sure he was even pretending. He seems to really believe he knows what he’s talking about. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but trust me, for the most part, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
She thought a moment. “I saw what are definitely heavy-duty machine guns. The other things on the emplacements are what I guess are some kind of cannon. They might be mortars. I’m not exactly sure what the difference is. I didn’t see anything large enough to be mountings for energy weapons. The bunkers must be automated, and I assume AI controlled. I watched one track a lizard the size of one of your Earth horses through the woods, but it didn’t fire.”
“That’s a big lizard. I wonder what it eats,” Geena remarked.
Jis replied, “I have no idea. Probably smaller lizards. Maybe it’s vegetarian. The emplacements look solid, although there is a door facing the house. KumKum thinks it’s there for maintenance. I suspect he’s right about that. I counted twenty-four of the weapon clusters spaced equidistant around the house, approximately eight-hundred feet outside the fence. The speculation among my fellow captives is they’re in place to defend against an uprising of the miners. Or an attack by even bigger lizards, not that anyone has seen any lizards larger than the horse-sized one I mentioned so that is just imaginations running wild.”
“Good work,” Geena said. “We didn’t pick up either the weapons or giant lizards when we were flying in. The weapons must be camouflaged from the air. Maybe the lizards are too. What about air defenses?”
“Speculation only, dear. My tour-guide suggested the four towers may contain missile launchers. From the ground, I couldn’t observe any cannon or machine guns up there.” She paused. “I’m not currently in any danger. Ron is, but he’s being careful. Getting caught in the explosion was him being heroic rather than careless, but I’ll let him tell you about it himself. How are you three holding up?”
“It’s been tough,” Lexi admitted. “We took a huge gamble with the lives of people we love. Geena and I have been keeping busy and spending time consoling each other. Urania feels it too, but she is harder to console.”
“I derive comfort from being with you guys,” Urania said. “But you’re right, this is a tough situation to deal with. I have only four friends, Jis. You and Ron are two of them. I don’t know how I would feel if we lost Ron, or now you, Jis. I most decidedly do not want to find out.”
“When I volunteered for this job, I didn’t give much thought to what you’d have to deal with to get us out,” Jis admitted. “This place is far more heavily armed than it should be. I don’t see how you can breach the chalet’s defenses, guys. If you can’t get me out, it’s OK. This was my choice. I made the decision that put me here.”
“We’ll find a way, Jis,” Lexi promised. “We have to.”
Chapter 24
The Wild West
“Eventually, they’re going to question us as to how the repairs are going,” Geena pointed out while they were preparing lunch. For the last two hours the three of them had been brainstorming following Jis’s report on security at the chalet. The best they came up with so far was physically setting Urania down inside the compound. Unfortunately, if the chalet did have missiles in those towers, those could destroy her on the way in. Jis was attempting to ferret out more information on that.
Carrying her sandwich to the small table in the kitchenette, Geena continued, “As soon as someone comes out to check on us, they’ll know our situation is not as we claimed. We need to have a plan before then. None of our ideas so far are really feasible. We may have to go back to Borgol and have Jadkim send in the military. At least we accomplished the first part of the job. We located his family.”
Lexi, sounding and looking grim, answered, “You realize it’s not just Ron, Jis and the E’Krets. We now have over seven-hundred people to rescue.” She added, “I don’t believe for a minute they’re going to let us leave here, either. If we try, I see a missile in our future. Whether we know anything about what is really going on here or not, they won’t want it known that their operation exists.”
“Why would they be allowing us time to repair our supposedly malfunctioning drive?” Urania asked.
“If they capture us first,” Geena said, “They have extra workers and a valuable ship to sell or use. I agree with Lexi. They won’t let us just leave.”
Geena took another bite of her sandwich, washing it down with an iced herb tea, still thinking. “We’d need to bring in a transport to carry all of them. That is not going to happen, not at this point.” She frowned. “We could get them all out if we commandeered the freighter we followed in.”
Geena paused, looking pained. “It wouldn’t be a comfortable trip for them. I’m also afraid we’d run out of food before we got anywhere. Without a transport standing by, that’s the only ship we can get hold of that is large enough.”
“OK,” Lexi said. “That actually sounds like something we can do. I’m sure we can take the freighter. We should be able to scavenge food from the mine. Urania, a ship that age and size, what are the minimum crew requirements going to be?”
“That’s a Helgan Model Nineteen-C freighter, built by Cromon Industries. It’s probably approaching four hundred years old. Four crewmen per shift are recommended. You might be able to scrape by with three. I think a realistic concern is having the chalet launch a missile at the freighter. The towers are shielded. No telling what they have in them.”
Geena sighed. “That lets out using the freighter. If we take it, assuming they don’t blow it up, we still have no one left to get into the chalet. Unless, we do ask Urania to handle it on her own and land in the compound. We might find people in the mines or the chalet with ship-handling experience. That would help.”
Urania said, “I can’t see the weapons from here, but it would be foolish not to have them on rotating turrets able to fire into the compound. Even if I wasn’t destroyed in the attempt, I doubt all of the hostages would survive.”
“That means in order to rescue everybody,” Geena said resignedly, “we’re going to have to subdue and capture, or kill, all of the overseers and guards at both locations. Then we can come back with a real transport.”
Lexi responded slowly. “I realize that, Mom. I don’t see any way of doing this without at least some of them dying. Probably most of them. I’m talking about the criminals. Do you think you can handle that, love?”
Geena noticed Lexi looked as stressed as she felt. They were contemplating the execution, or murder, or over thirty individuals. “If I have to. Part of our more immediate problem, of course, is that Ron is at one location and Jis is at another. The bad guys will wonder why we would be concerned about Ron if we’re obviously here for one or more of the prisoners in the chalet. Yet, assuming we can free Jis and the others, they’ll lock down the mining camp, making it that much more difficult to get Ron out, especially if they drive the miners underground first.”
She watched Lexi nodding. “I’ve never tried it personally,” Geena continued, “but I can imagine all sorts of complications storming a mine if they sequester their slaves down there. The reverse is also true. If we go after Ron first, rescuing Jis and the others will be that much more difficult. Do we even have the resources to do this? I naively assumed we’d find them both held in the same place.”
“I made the same assumption,” Lexi admitted. “The mining operation was unexpected. I pictured the two of us busting in wearing those sexy black outfits and mowing down the opposition with the new ray-guns. It was a very satisfying mental picture. It still is. Satisfying, that is. It’s not workable though. I don�
��t want to totally abandon the notion of using the freighter, but I’m afraid it’s going to wind up unworkable as well.”
Her voice determined, Lexi added, “I’ve only had Ron a few months, Geena. I’m not going to let anyone take him away from me. And we’re not going to leave Jis here to rot. We can’t.” She had been thinking furiously while Geena talked. In the movies, at least in the action films she liked to watch, they rescued people in impossible situations all of the time. This was definitely a Mission Impossible situation. Sadly, Tom Cruise and the IMF team was light-years away. And the IMF is fictional. Then she looked directly at Geena and smiled wickedly. “We can do this. We’ll have to split our forces. You and I take the house. Urania goes after Ron.”
“But, Lexi,” Geena protested, “Urania is totally unarmed. She can set down in the mining camp, but then what? I suppose her atmospheric drive could be used as a weapon.” After a brief pause, she added, “That’s an oddly disturbing thought for some reason.”
Urania said, “It would also be difficult to aim and not much good at all for precise targeting. It might serve the purpose. I could blast the overseer cabins to sticks with it.”
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