Condition Zero, page 26
part #6 of The Earth Saga Series
Shakil put his chin down and rested it on the top of his aunt’s head. “I’m home now, auntie.”
The woman released her grasp and looked up at her nephew. “You look older than you should.” She said, shaking her head. “And skinny.”
Shakil didn’t know what to say. “It was different in Maputo.”
“Well, now that you’re home, you will eat and relax.” She said.
“Is it safe here?” Shakil asked.
“In Zavala?” His mother asked. “Yes. I think so. The farmers and herdsmen have joined together to protect us.”
Shakil nodded. “Okay.”
“Shakil, why did you leave Maputo?”
“Fighting.”
“Between men?” His mother asked.
Shakil nodded.
“As if we don’t have enough worries.” She pointed upwards. “That we must fight among ourselves.” She reached out and took her nephew’s hand. “Come and sit with me. Tell me about your adventures.”
Shakil followed his aunt to an old couch that was up against the long wall of the living room and sat down next to her. Looking around the room, he could tell that almost nothing had changed since he was there last. The same pictures on the walls, the same trinkets in the same places on the shelves.
He was home.
Looking at his aunt, he smiled. “Life in Maputo was an adventure.”
100-Mechcharga
The five figures in the room had all taken extreme measures to conceal their arrival to the skyscraper in the middle of the capital. The hotel was known for its accommodations and dining by all visitors to Mechcharga of consequence. It was one of the most expensive buildings to enter in the Etelainen. So exclusive and luxurious, some guests never left, they got themselves a room and stayed forever.
There were several distinctly different ways to reach the hotel. The most modest was to walk in off the street, but this was rarely done. Anyone doing it would immediately draw the attention of other guests and hotel staff and security. A publicity stunt was usually the reason for such a gesture.
Another method, almost as pedestrian, was to take the high-speed shuttle from the spaceport, or one of another half-dozen select spots that had an exclusive rail link with the hotel. The third option was to take the hotel flying shuttle from the spaceport directly to the check-in reception on the 50th floor. This option might have been preferred by the vast majority of guests, depositing new arrivals into the magnificent lobby, which made a concealed approach impossible, even with the best disguises and prosthetics to hide one's appearance.
The fourth option was the one preferred by the wealthiest clients or anyone with their own transportation on Mechcharga. That was to land at one of the landing pads that moved around the exterior of the building, allowing any balcony to suddenly have a temporary landing pad attached to it. A transport arrives, drops its passengers, and then depart. That was the method the five conspirators in the room had used to reach their current location.
Of course, one couldn’t fly around Mechcharga city airspace without the proper codes and authorisations. Getting everything lined up took time and money. When Royal Councillor Valoris called the meeting, he was surprised that four other members of the original conspiracy were still on Mechcharga. The die-hards. The ones who had poured generations of their families into the plot. The ones which might have liked the money and wealth and power that they had gained, but were in it more because of ego at this point.
Valoris knew that this would be his final night on Mechcharga. Things were lost. Out of their control. There had been a change in management all the way at the top, and once the Grand Marshall had taken over, nothing was stopping the peace, and with the humans still alive, they were well aware that one day, someone would come looking for them.
“What about going to this peace conference and stopping it?” Mater Nune asked.
High Councillor Omeg Zaloo let out a laugh. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” He shook his head. “Do you know how many ships he must have as security?”
“I’ve been told that he went there with a minimal security force.” Nune said.
Elder Vox shook his head. “No. I’m done. The madness has to stop at some point.”
“I trust that you have all your assets off world.” Royal Councillor Hyrm Marolous stated. “Portable wealth is very important in these times.”
“The diversification of my assets has been handled perfectly. I have credit in institutions in numerous star systems, including those that are slightly off the grid.” Vox said with a smile on his face. “From here, I am going straight to a ship I have at the spaceport, and from there, you’ll never see me again.”
“So our friendship has come to an end?’ Nune asked.
“I’m not sure that you would have ever called it a friendship. More of a long-term, mutually beneficial business arrangement that has now outlived its usefulness.” Marolous replied.
“And so that is it?” Nune asked.
“Has to be.” Zaloo answered. “Clean up here, get away before the web closes in on us.”
“I do wonder if there will be any web at all. With this new peace, perhaps those at the top will be too distracted to worry about us. Plenty of money to be made with the Borders opening up.” Vox said.
“You want to risk all your wealth on the chance that the Grand Marshall or whoever is in charge of tracking us is going to give up because of the peace?” He shook his head. “I think that you are mistaken. If anything, this will give them more time to hunt us down.”
“With the Coalition’s assistance.” Nune interjected.
“You think?” Zaloo asked.
“I think that there is a chance that whoever is in charge of the Pohjois will want answers about the war. When they find out that we did everything in our power to drag the war out, payoffs to senior military officials and politicians, murder, sabotage, the entire remit, they are going to want some form of retribution.”
“And that, my friends, is why I am off. Meeting here was dangerous enough in the first place.” Varolis shook his head. “It is still risky to even be on Mechcharga, let alone be in the same room.”
Before Valoris could say another word, there was a knock on the door.
The room fell silent.
“Are we expecting someone?” Nune asked.
“I’ve ordered some room service.” Valoris said, a smile on his face. He got up from his chair and walked towards the door.
The other four males watched as the door opened just far enough for a single individual to walk in. A six-foot-tall female with short cropped blue hair wearing a burgundy coloured skin-tight rubberised suit. On her right hip was a laser pistol and at the small of her back was a very distinctive knife.
“Valoris, we have no time for girls!” Vox barked.
“I’m afraid, my friends, that I have had to make a tough decision.” Valoris said.
“Who is this woman?” Marolous asked, walking towards the female who was stood motionless by the entrance to the room.
Valoris smiled, his jagged teeth showing. “This is my top operative.”
“What?” Marolous asked.
Valoris nodded to himself. “Finest biological weapon in the entire Etelainen.” He started walking away from the door over to the large bar and poured himself a drink. “She costs a fortune, but she’s worth it.”
“What is she?” Marlous demanded. “An assassin?”
“She’s a Prime.” Valoris answered. “And she’s going to kill you.”
He didn’t have to say another word. The female, a forty-year-old from Traxis, had spent the last two months in Valoris employment. She was sick of the war, and when he found her in a hotel bar on AnBarn Central, he immediately offered her a job. She told him she wasn’t for hire, but he offered her a sum that he had never offered before. She cost him more than a brand new shuttle, just for one year's salary, and when Valoris watched her move about the room at the speed of a blur, slashing here and stabbing there, he knew that she was worth every credit she had been paid, all in advance.
In a matter of seconds, the four other males in the room were dead. Blood covered the female and much of the floor and walls. Each wound on each of the victims had been inflicted to ensure a swift death. Most probably hadn’t even seen her coming once the word had been given. She was too fast and dangerous to counter. Only another Prime or a Sentinel would possibly have a chance against her. These old men, fat by too much rich food and drink stood no chance.
“Thank you, Nise.” Valoris said.
Nise picked up a cloth and cleaned off her Dynamic Operations fighting knife before slipping it back into its sheath.
“Ready to leave?” She asked.
Valoris shook his head. “I have a team coming to clean the room and dispose of the bodies. Once I am satisfied that there is no trace of these four, then we will leave.”
Nise didn’t say anything. She looked over her work, then walked towards the windows that looked over the forests of Mechcharga that stretched their way towards the Royal Palace. “I could use a drink.”
Valoris took a moment to remember what she preferred, then brought it over to her at the window. “I didn’t think you were the squeamish type.”
“I’ll kill for you. That’s what you paid for.” She took the glass and sipped the clear liquid.
“Still some honour in you?” He asked
“I prefer a fair fight to a slaughter.” She replied.
Valoris nodded. “Still some honour.”
It took over an hour for the cleaning team that Valoris had arranged to arrive. It took another hour for them to complete their work. Once the room was looking almost identical to how it had when Valoris had arrived, he and Nise left via the shuttle platform that re-appeared at the balcony and flew directly to the spaceport.
“My ship is waiting for us.” Valoris said. “Which means we should be relaxing in the Solven Gap in a few hours.”
Nise didn’t respond but caught the leery look Valoris gave her. She turned and looked out the window, watching the city go by.
The shuttle landed on the roof of the main terminal at the spaceport on time, just as the regulations stipulated. Valoris and Nise exited the transport and walked down into the massive building, passing through security control and out into a busy terminal. Both were travelling on false documents, but they were the best available, and they even had permits for the weapons that Nise was wearing.
Valoris knew his ship was docked at pad 15, which would require a short mini-train ride on a line that ran the length of the spaceport down one level from the concourse. Making quick time, they passed all the shopping and dining options and took the lift down one level, and onto the waiting train with a handful of other passengers.
As the train moved off, Nise examined the other travellers, and suddenly realised that seven of them were surprisingly fit, and appeared to have little or no luggage between them. It was a major red flag. The train stopped at pad 8, and an old couple got off. The doors closed, and the train moved off. It stopped again at pad 14 where everyone other than the fit males exited the train.
Nise shot a glance at Valoris. He was staring off towards the front of the train and the tunnel they were moving through. Keeping her back toward her boss, she stepped back until she bumped into him.
“Don’t move.” She instructed.
“Huh?” Valoris muttered.
Nise took two steps to her front and looked down the white, brightly lit carriage towards the seven men, who were all facing her, their bodies tense.
“Your move.” She said.
The male closest to her twitched first. He didn’t reach for a weapon; instead, he chose to charge her. Two factors were working against him. The first was that he was too far away to launch such a charge with any chance of surprise, the second was that she was a Prime. Her mind worked too fast for a conventional organic to understand, and her body was almost indestructible and absurdly fast.
Facing just one opponent, Nise might have reacted differently, but there were seven of them, which forced her to be more aggressive in her counter-attack. Dropping her hand to her blaster, she pulled the weapon and fired six shots in rapid succession, killing six of the seven males.
Before their bodies had hit the ground, she reholstered the weapon and was dashing down the carriage towards the last man standing. He was twenty years old. Local to Mechcharga, and woefully underqualified to his task. When Nise reached him, all he had managed to do was soil himself.
“Pad 15.” The auto announcement said.
“Valoris, let’s go.” Nise said, following her boss off the transport, the young local in front of her, his hands secured behind his back.
When they were halfway to the lift to bring them up to the pad, Valoris stopped and turned around and looked at Nise and the male, then back into the carriage. He shook his head, then looked at Nise. “How did you know?”
Nise rocked her head from side to side. “Something was off.”
Valoris looked at the male. “Well?”
“Well?” The kid asked back.
“Two options.” Valoris said, taking a step towards the kid and Nise. “Option one is you die, my preference. Option two is that you live.” He shook his head. “Not a fan of this one, but!” He jabbed his finger into the male's chest. “You do have a very slim chance at life, so, I’ll repeat myself, well?”
“Omeg Zaloo hired us.”
“To do what?” Valoris asked.
“If anyone left the hotel and he didn’t, to kill them.”
Valoris nodded. “A reasonable request. Anything else? How did you track me here?”
“Zaloo knew that you were planning to leave from the spaceport. We’ve been waiting here, and when we saw you and had no word from Zaloo, we moved.”
“So, Zaloo has other teams around the city then?”
“I don’t know.” The kid replied.
“Is my ship safe?” Valoris asked. His eyes were locked on the kid, then looked at Nise. “What do you think?”
“If your security is still in place, we should be good.” She replied.
Valoris took a step back and rubbed his chin. “So, Zaloo was worried about being taken out.” He shook his head, smiling. “Not stupid of him.” He looked at Nise. “What do you think? Let him live?”
Nise didn’t respond, she violently jerked the kid off his feet and threw him ten metres back towards the train that was still sitting on the platform. His body slammed into the floor with a thud and was covered in the blood of his dead comrades.
“We should leave.” She said.
Valoris looked at the train and could see that the kid was limp, lying on the ground. He looked back at Nise. “Is he dead?”
Nise turned around and looked at the body. “No. Concussion.”
Valoris shook his head, turned, and walked towards the lift and punched the call button. When the elevator arrived, the pair boarded, and rode the transport up to the surface, where Valoris’s ship was waiting. The vessel was surrounded by a ring of armed figures, all dressed in a mismatch of gear.
“Time to go.” Valoris barked as he strode up the ramp into the ship followed by Nise. “Time for some sun.”
20 May
101-Kerguelen Island
The team of scientists from the local French outpost, those from Tohil and their Alliance colleagues waited in tents set up by the droids for the light inside the main chamber to be fully illuminated. While Master Doctor Prure wasn’t the biggest fan of waiting, at his age, he was used to it.
The tents that had been put up were fully heated and comfortable and had workstations already prepared for the scientists to use. Most of the time was spent staring at live images that were being sent in from the drones that were now documenting every inch of the inside and outside of the massive structure.
Prure didn’t have much of an interest in the pictures. It wasn’t really his thing. He sat by himself in a comfortable chair listening to music from a portable device. On the fourth day of waiting, the scientists rushed outside into the morning sun almost at once. Prure pulled off his headphones, turned off his music player, and followed the excited mixed of humans and Alliance members outside.
The weather was still freezing, and Prure had left his warm coat on the back of his chair. Turning around, he walked back inside the tent and retrieved the jacket. Slipping it on, he zipped up the front and started to walk outside when he heard a collective scream followed by silence.
Stepping back outside, the Master Doctor watched as a pink coloured wave approached him from the structure. He didn’t have time to do anything more than question what he was seeing before the wave swept over his body, instantly re-sequencing his DNA, and killing him on the spot.
Ten seconds after he had died, his external features started to morph into something else other than that of a Portean male, but stopped when the re-sequencing couldn’t achieve the goal it was aiming for. As his body slumped to the ground, the wave killed the grass that was on the ground just as it had killed the humans and off-worlders, but instead of merely eliminating the green grass, it was immediately replaced by purple coloured grass that started to grow rapidly in the fridge air.
After moving for more than fifty metres from the structure, the wave dissipated into a light smoke that was blown away by the wind leaving nothing behind besides dead corpses, wrecked droids and robots, and purple coloured grass, the only thing left living within the radius of where the wave had passed.
102-The Seven
“What was that?” John Robert asked the question, but everyone in the room was thinking it.
“Nothing good.” John Riley said. “That thing gives me the
The bright flash from the structure on Kerguelen Island emanated no farther than fifty metres from the structure itself and was bright pink and lasted only seconds before it disappeared.
“Where are Dr Stephenson and his team?” John Robert asked. His eyes were locked on the image of the island, but he couldn’t see any people on the surface.
