“Well, I thought I was.” She injected irony into her tone as she lifted a hand in the girls’ direction. “But I guess my idea of fun and theirs are a bit different.”
A twinkle appeared in his eyes. “Couldn’t help but overhear that.” He inclined his head toward the part of the pool where another group of teens were tossing the volleyball back and forth over the net. “My son wouldn’t have turned down the extra numbers. Hard to get a decent game going if you can’t recruit enough players.”
Asha’s lips twisted into a wry grin. “Can’t say I didn’t try.” She shrugged. “I guess teens are different now. Or maybe it’s just the way I was raised. Seems we were always outdoors, or at the range.”
The man’s other brow lifted to meet the first one. “Range,” he mused. “You sound like my cousin.”
His stare turned appraising, as if he was trying to figure out who she was and what place she held in the world. The look was one Asha had encountered often.
“Let me guess; career military?”
Asha knew it wasn’t necessarily her body’s build, although she was fit and had a whipcord lean frame that was so common with the Unit operators. In the era in which they lived, body modifications were the norm and easily accessible to all, which meant one could look as fit or as voluptuous as one wished. Asha was rather proud of the fact that hers had been achieved through sweat and hard work, though she had to admit the augments she received from the Navy hadn’t hurt.
She realized that once more, she’d waited a beat too long to respond, and shook her head with a smile. “Yes. Sorry, guess I’m just a bit distracted today,” she said, vowing silently to pay a bit more attention to the conversation.
The man sat back, a satisfied look on his face. “Thought so. You remind me of my cousin.”
“Oh? She served?”
“Yep. Still does. She’s a captain in Special Recon. You might’ve heard of her. Lane Reid?”
Asha had just taken a sip from her water bottle. The name of the woman who had been involved in the Q-Course, and more specifically, the Hell Walk she’d just completed, had her almost spitting the water out. She choked as she swallowed, mimicking Thad’s earlier action.
The man shot her a concerned look. “You okay?”
She waved away his concern. Clearing her throat of the water that had gone down wrong, she rasped, “It’s not that, it’s just—” A wry smile settled over her face. It widened as she envisioned Thad’s reaction when she told him. “Oh yeah, we know Captain Reid. Pretty well after last week, I’d say.”
The man barked a laugh. “I should have guessed. I’ve seen some of my cousin’s victims afterward. Hell Walk, right?”
She saluted him with her water bottle. “Got it in one.”
He shook his head as he continued to laugh. His amusement caused Asha to narrow one eye at him.
“You seem awfully entertained by that thought,” she accused with mock seriousness.
He grinned back at her, unrepentant. “Lane may have told me a thing or two about her tactics. She claims the process helps her accurately assess each candidate’s skills. Personally, I think she just likes torturing people.”
It was Asha’s turn to laugh. “Thad would agree with you on that. She was the one who—” She broke off. “Sorry, OPSEC.”
He nodded, seeming to understand that she couldn’t say more, due to the need to maintain operational security. His chin jerked in the direction of the boardwalk behind them. “Is he one of the guys who just left?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh. The younger one.” She spread her hands. “Tall, dark, massive shoulders?”
He chortled, eyes dancing in merriment, likely comparing the size of his petite dynamo of a cousin to the mountain of a man Asha had shown up with.
“Not asking for any details, but can you tell me if she messed him up good?”
“Oh, yeah. Thoroughly.” She held out a hand. “Names Thacker, by the way. Asha Thacker. “
The man took it and shook. “Chris Reid.” He dropped her hand and waved at someone over Asha’s shoulder. She turned to see a woman walking their way.
“My wife, Amy,” he explained.
Asha nodded a cordial greeting at the woman. As she settled in next to her husband, he turned to his wife and explained, “I just met another one of Lane’s victims.”
The woman turned and favored Asha with a sympathetic grimace. Asha waved it away.
“It’s nothing we can’t handle. Honestly, it’s nice to know they’re so rigorous during their assessment. I look forward to serving with her.”
“You’re tabbed?”
His smile widened at her nod.
“I am. So’s Thad. He grumbles a lot, but it’s all good-natured.” Her eyes glinted mischievously. “And I can’t wait to tell him who’s here. He’ll probably think Lane has him on surveillance. “
Amy snorted in amusement, the sound far more ladylike than it would have been if Asha’d made it.
“I’ve heard special operators can be a bit paranoid.” Reid’s words faded into the background as Gabe’s voice claimed Asha’s full attention. She held up a hand and looked down as she concentrated on his words.
She could tell the special agent was running. Even though his words were mentally projected, Gabe’s words sounded slightly rushed. He brought her up to speed on all that was going on.
{Be right there,} she responded. Looking back up, she caught a knowing look in Chris’s eye.
“You need to go?” He jerked his chin in the direction of the float, where the girls lay. “We can watch over them for you if you like.”
Asha considered that. Ordinarily, she’d never leave her niece in the care of strangers, but was a relative of an SRU leader, a storied SRU leader, really someone who fell into that category? When Gabe broke in again, this time telling her there had been shots fired, Asha shot to her feet, her decision made.
“Thanks.” She pointed to the girls. “Two pinks, a tangerine, and a teal.” Her words came out rapid and staccato-like as she named off the colors of the bathing suits the girls wore. “Teal is Tatiana; she belongs to me.”
The man nodded. “Copy that,” he said. All humor was gone, and there was a seriousness to his voice she hadn’t heard before.
Something of her surprise must have shown on her face.
Amy smiled wryly. “I see Chris left a few details out, as usual. Lieutenant Colonel Reid is one of the commanders of Beryl’s orbital base. I promise, you can trust him, and me, with your niece. We’ll take good care of them. “
Asha blinked at that, spine straightening as the colonel added in a tone of sharp command, “Go. Do what you need to do. They’ll be fine here.” An invitation appeared on her overlay, the icon tagged with his ident. “If you need anything, ping me.”
Asha nodded crisply. “Yes, sir.” She paused and then used the ident to initiate a private connection.
{Shots have been fired. But it seems to be a lone incident and they feel confident they have a lid on things.}
He nodded his understanding, his eyes watchful as they swept the beach. {Be sure to let me know if that changes.}
Asha wheeled, bent to scoop up her shoes from where they lay in the sand beside her blanket, and then jogged up the hill to where the beach met the boardwalk.
12: TRACK AND ASSESS
Lazy River Area
Gabe caught the flash of metal slicing through the air right before it connected with his head. He ducked, forearm coming up to deflect the blow. The pipe clanged against the bridge directly above his head as Gabe moved to counter the attack.
Just as his hand wrapped around the Marine’s wrist and began to twist, he saw the younger man’s eyes widen in what Gabe could have sworn was recognition, though he’d never seen the kid before. Sucking in a deep, ragged breath, the young man released the pipe and stepped back.
Unwilling to leave anything to chance, Gabe held onto the man’s wrist.
“Stand down, soldier,” he ordered.
<
br /> The younger man nodded, but his eyes tracked nervously about, seeking his pursuer.
“My friend is hunting down the guy who shot at you. Want to tell me what that was all about?” he asked as he released the Marine’s wrist and stepped back.
Relief flickered in the kid’s eyes.
“Sir,” he spoke rapidly and in a low undertone. “There’s a smuggling ring on this platform. They have a shipment of Navy weapons they’re moving. I accidentally stumbled upon it, and that guy caught me as I was headed out to find help.”
Gabe eyed the man thoughtfully. The Marine seemed earnest enough… “You have proof of this?”
The man nodded. “Name’s Brady, sir. Lance Corporal Boone Brady, with the 407th.”
He thrust out his hand. Gabe took it, and the instant his fingers wrapped around the corporal’s, a peer-to-peer request popped up on his overlay. Shunting it to a sandboxed partition he used when receiving case material from suspects, Gabe carefully accessed it.
Both eyebrows climbed into his hairline as he dropped the man’s hand and looked him dead in the eye. “Seems like I owe you an apology, Corporal.”
“From what I’ve overheard, they’ve infiltrated the park. I’m not sure who we can trust and have no idea how many of them are here. I counted five. there’s a sixth they pinged over the wire… but there could be more.”
As reports went, this one was succinct and organized.
Gabe nodded slowly. “Understood.” He rubbed a hand along the edge of his jaw as he thought for a minute, and then nodded. “Good call, son. If I were them, I’d be tempted to try to plant someone inside park security, too.”
The corporal looked at him expectantly. Gabe realized he was waiting for him to make the call. Turning, he began to climb the embankment, waving for Boone to follow. “Come on. Let’s go see how my friend’s doing.”
Reaching out to Thad, he asked, {You done yet?}
* * *
Gabe’s query pissed Thad off. Not at the NCIC agent, but at the shitbag Thad was chasing. Apparently, Gabe had no trouble bagging his target, while the couyon Thad hunted still evaded him.
It hadn’t taken the man long to realize his weapon was ineffective against Thad’s shield. Abandoning that, the man instead began to upend every item in his path that wasn’t anchored down. The impromptu obstacle course was fast becoming a pain in Thad’s ass, extending a chase that should have lasted seconds. That was more time than he’d intended to invest in the fils-putain.
The man careened around a pile of fake boulders—and something, an innate sixth sense, stopped Thad from doing the same. He crouched low before launching himself forward into a roll, shield held over his head.
Sure enough, his quarry had been waiting, his finger on the trigger of his flechette. Also as expected, the man’s aim had been higher than Thad’s current position. Thad swept the man’s legs out from under him with a quick twist of his hips. As he landed atop the guy, pinning him in place, his hand closed around the man’s wrist, turning both hand and pistol back on itself. The flechette clattered to the floor, the odd angle snapping his wrist and wringing a cry of pain from the man. Not having anything to secure him with, Thad resorted to brute force. He brought his elbow down in a hard strike. The man slumped, unconscious.
* * *
Gabe was just about to ping Thad again when a disgruntled mental voice retorted, {Yeah, he’s down. Had to bust out the elbow to get him to comply, though.}
{You need ol’ Asha to kiss it and make it better?} The medic’s sardonic voice turned crisp and businesslike. {I grabbed some cable off that float display he shot all to hell. We can use those to restrain him. Old-fashioned, but it’ll do the job.}
{What about the other guy?} Thad asked. {We need to restrain him, too?}
{Negative,} said Gabe, and with a mental flip, brought the corporal in on the net. {Corporal Boone Brady, meet Specialist/Medic Asha Thacker and Lieutenant Thad Severance, SRU. I’m Special Agent Alvarez. Folks, check his feed. He has a story you’ll want to hear. We’re headed your way.}
13: SWAMPER
Park interior
Maintenance area
Jay was setting the final package when Petra’s mental voice came across the connection.
{Ike’s drawn some unwanted attention. Turn on the swamper.} Petra’s voice was calm, but there was an underlying tension in her tone.
Jay sat back, package in one hand. {Park security?}
{No. Ike says it looks to him like some overeager Marine on his day off.}
With a low curse, Jay reached mentally for the app to activate the swamper. An icon popped into existence blinking its ‘ready’ status message. With a single command, the device would feed an overload signal into the platform’s network.
After brief consideration, Jay dismissed the app, opting instead for an encrypted program that had cost a considerable amount of credits to acquire. The program routed the fake ID token of one Jay Henson through an identity-obscuring scrambler. Entering the code that would connect to the Mastai cartel, Jay waited for the person on the other end to answer.
Words were exchanged, swift and succinct, delivering the information the cartel’s boss was waiting to hear. Disconnecting, Jay flipped on the swamper and looked down.
The package in Jay’s hands was the last explosive device Petra knew about. There were four more held in reserve, plus one additional piece of equipment also liberated from the Navy case, waiting back at the hide.
With a swift look to ensure there was no one around to see, Jay set about executing a very different plan.
14: RECON
Exiting Lazy River Area
Footsteps fast approaching sounded above the chatter of nearby park-goers, catching Gabe’s attention. He pulled Boone to a stop and motioned for the corporal to circle around for an intercept. When Asha appeared, the aforementioned cables swinging from her hand, Gabe relaxed and waved Boone over.
The medic gave Boone a terse nod as she fell into step beside Gabe. “Planetary net’s down.” She speared the young Marine with a look as they closed on Thad’s location. “You know anything about that?”
Boone’s head had jerked her way at the mention of the pubnet. “Actually, yeah. I overheard one of them saying they installed a swamper to keep anyone from calling for help if they’re discovered.”
Gabe repeated Boone’s words to Thad over the combat net. The former Marine was scowling when they drew to a stop beside him.
“Well, damn,” the newly tabbed operator said. He shot a disgruntled look at the slumped figure at his feet. “Guess this asshole had the presence of mind to send out a warning after all.”
Gabe frowned as he thought through what Boone had overheard.
“Their inside man must have installed it,” he said. “I’d thought they might infiltrate park security, but now it sounds like our ringer might be in maintenance.”
Asha cocked her head, a considering look on her face. “Workers like that carry equipment around all the time; no one would question it.”
“They weren’t planning on using it unless they were caught,” added Boone. He grimaced. “I guess I’m to blame for them deciding to use it.”
Thad’s brows rose. “Didn’t see you putting a gun to their heads and telling them to steal from the Geminate Navy, hoss.”
Boone lowered his chin, acknowledging Thad’s comment, yet his expression remained uneasy.
Gabe’s gaze settled on the unconscious man at Thad’s feet. “The question is, what message did he send before you clocked him, and do they realize they’re dealing with more than just the person he was chasing?”
Thad stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I hear what you’re saying, ami. Guess there’s no way to know.” He looked down, using his foot to roll the guy onto his back. “None of us came here expecting a fight. None of us is carrying, either. I’m not counting my knife, or this pansy-ass thing.” He looked down with some disdain at the flechette in his hands.
Asha reached
for it. “If it offends you that much, I’ll take it off your hands.”
Thad pulled back. “I didn’t say it was useless. This here’ll work just fine as a gun gettin’ gun.”
“Uh-huh.” Asha hid a smile and turned to assist the corporal, who had liberated one of the cables from her hand to secure the prisoner. She stopped, an arrested expression crossing her face.
Gabe followed her gaze, only to discover that the man was already bound. The corporal was tying off the cables with a practiced ease that suggested familiarity with the skill. Gabe caught Asha’s eye; the medic’s brows rose, silently signaling her surprise.
Thad had taken notice, too. “Not bad. Where’d you learn that?”
Boone sat back on his heels and looked up at Thad. “My family owns a ranch up north, sir, where the headwaters and the Swan Mountains meet. We all took turns riding the herd.” He shrugged as he stood. “Fences go down, predators break through. Sometimes the things you have close at hand aren’t high tech. You learn to adapt.”
Thad grunted, but Gabe could tell he was impressed. “I’m assuming by the way you ran, you’re not carrying, either?”
Boone shook his head. “No, sir. Only things I have are these.” His hand dipped into the still-damp pocket of his Marine-issued PT shorts. He pulled out a cylinder and a small disk. The look Asha shot him caused the young man to redden with embarrassment.
“What did you intend to do with a LockPik and a canister of surveillance drones on a civilian platform, Corporal?” she asked.
“It’s not what you think, ma’am,” he said, back straightening in response to her tone. “I was inventorying gear when my platoon mates lassoed me into coming up here. I must’ve shoved it into my pocket instead of setting it down without realizing it.”
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