Justice Keepers Saga--Books 13-15, page 44
Telixa silenced her with a withering glare. “You won’t have to search the entire city.” She spoke as if lecturing a child. “They will place the nuke in a location where it can do the most damage. And since you people love circles so much…”
Most Leyrian cities were disk-shaped. The major ones were, anyway. The outer edges became lumpy as neighbourhoods expanded – and sometimes geographic features got in the way – like Kelman Bay on the west side of Denabria – but the basic shape remained the same. Which meant the best place to hide the bomb was the exact centre of town. “The Hub…” Anna whispered.
“That would be too obvious,” Telixa countered. “But it will be somewhere nearby. Possibly in one of the surrounding buildings. I can’t narrow it down further without speaking to Carmylo or one of his men.”
A plan took shape in Anna’s mind. “Yes,” she murmured. “Yes, that could work. Novol, tell the others we meet in the conference room in five minutes. Telixa, you’re with me.”
The Admiral raised an eyebrow.
Anna matched her stare for stare, refusing to waver. “You’re part of my team now,” she said. “Which means you take your orders from me. So, get ready. Because you’re about to go on a mission.”
“Why not?” Telixa muttered. “I’ve already lost everything. May as well have some fun.”
A green, wireframe hologram floated in the middle of the conference room. The bomb was a box about the size of Anna’s torso. Inside, she saw a mess of circuitry. She couldn’t even begin to guess what half of it did.
Anna stood by the wall with her arms crossed, nodding slowly as she inspected the schematic. “So, that’s what we’re dealing with,” she said. “You gotta marvel at the kind of mind that would come up with something like this.”
She strode through the hologram, causing it to waver, and froze on the other side. “So, the question becomes, ‘Just how do we disarm the damn thing?’”
Edrin was smack-dab in the middle of the room with his left arm stretched out, his new multi-tool projecting the image. “The SlipSpace transceiver can be removed,” he explained.
The others had gathered as well. With all those bodies in such a small space, it was a bit too warm for Anna’s liking. Well, at least she didn’t want for friends. The Scrappy seemed to be taking in a new stray every other day.
“So, we remove it,” Drayvin said. “And the general won’t be able to remote detonate the device.”
A momentary grimace passed over Edrin’s face. “It’s not so simple,” he countered. “The bomb has security systems. If you run afoul of them, you could activate it.”
“Wouldn’t that be fun?” Telixa murmured. She was leaning against the wall with her legs stretched out and her ankles crossed, idly studying the back of her hand. Some of that anger Anna had been searching for flared up. This was no joke. She was half inclined to say as much, but Telixa was fragile. Provoking her would only dissuade her from providing what meager assistance she was willing to offer.
Jack covered his mouth with one hand, pacing a circle around the hologram. “Tricky,” he murmured. “We’ll need someone with mad skills to get past those traps.”
“Sun?” Drayvin suggested.
The dark-haired woman raised her hands defensively, shaking her head. “Na-uh!” she said. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. You’ll have to pick someone else.”
Standing in the middle of the room with their arms hanging limp, Drayvin stared dejectedly at the floor. “Then I guess it’ll have to be me,” they said. “Sigh. I always knew this day would come. Write good things in my obituary.”
“You’re not going to die,” Rajel insisted.
“You can’t be sure of that.”
Rajel stepped forward to rest a hand on Drayvin’s shoulder. “Yes, I can,” he said. “Because I’m going to be there, protecting you.”
At the back of the crowd, Corovin scoffed. “Could you people be any more ridiculous?”
“Two teams,” Anna said. “One will locate the bomb and disable it. The other will focus on freeing the civilians from Barleno Stadium. Jack will lead the first team. I’ll take the second.”
“How do you imagine you’ll get those people out?” Telixa asked.
“Oh, I won’t,” Anna replied. “You will.”
“Me?”
Anna strode toward the admiral, pinning her to the wall with the force of her stare. “You’re coming with me, Telixa,” she insisted. “You’re going to talk to this general and convince him to stand down.”
Telixa stood there with her mouth agape, blinking slowly as she tried to decide if this was really happening.. “You’re insane,” she spluttered. “What makes you think I can convince that man to do anything?”
“Because you’re very persuasive,” Anna said. “And because Novol and Edrin will be coming with us. The three of you are going to tell your stories and convince Carmylo that if he and his men stand down, we will show him mercy. Which, we will.”
Anna turned on her heel, pacing over to the window and gazing out on a billion twinkling stars. She could just barely make out a slightly denser region, the distant Galactic Core. Ragnos would be on the other side. “We’re going to let them go home.”
Her friends were all misty shadows gathered behind her. She could sense a few uneasy expressions. “Are you sure that’s wise?” Larani asked.
“What’s the alternative?” Anna replied. “Demand that they stand trial? Hold them as prisoners of war? If we tell them that’s what we have in store for them, most would rather fight and die. It’s time to end the fighting.”
Spinning around, Anna faced the others and nodded once. “This war has gone on long enough,” she said. “It only ends when both sides decide they’ve wasted enough energy on revenge.”
She strode into the middle of the group. The others instinctively formed a ring around her. “This is a stealth mission,” Anna informed them. “Our goal is to slip by their patrols. If even one of them sees us, Carmylo might detonate the nuke. Which means we don’t engage the enemy unless we absolutely have to.”
Everyone muttered their agreement.
“We’ll need to find a way into the city.”
Pressing a fist to his mouth, Jack cleared his throat. “I might be able to help with that,” he said. “I made a few calls while you were talking with the admiral.”
“Then I guess we’re ready to go,” Anna said. “Grab your gear. We meet in cargo bay two in half an hour.”
“This will just take a moment,” Drayvin promised.
Rajel had no idea why they had insisted that he come to the cargo bay well before any of the others showed up. There was nothing in here but an inactive SlipGate. He was growing impatient. Anna would be expecting him to be ready to go in ten minutes. He still had to stock up on some extra ammo.
In his mind, he sensed Drayvin kneeling by the door, fussing with something inside a metal briefcase. The chief engineer was muttering to themself. Rajel couldn’t make out the words, but he could sense the apprehension behind them.
Drayvin retrieved a small, plastic ring from the case, holding it up to inspect it. “It’ll have to do,” they said. Before Rajel could ask, they were on their feet and coming up behind him. “Here.”
They slid the ring over Rajel’s head, fitting it over his eyes. It partially covered his ears, which wouldn’t do at all. He had to be able to hear. Whatever this thing was, it couldn’t be worth losing that sense.
Drayvin yanked the pistol out of his holster without so much as asking permission. Rajel’s irritation was reaching its breaking point. Any more of this, and he was going to snap. “No, no, that won’t do,” Drayvin said.
They returned to their metal briefcase, set the gun down and retrieved another one just like it. “You’ll be using this,” they said, shuffling over to Rajel and practically shoving the new gun into his hand. “Yes, much better.”
Rajel traced the pistol with his thumb. And just to be sure, he mapped its contours with spatial awareness as well. “It’s just like the other one.”
“What?” Drayvin spluttered. “Of course, it isn’t.”
They rested hands on Rajel’s shoulders, gently pushing him forward into the middle of the room. “There,” they said. “Now, try not to hit the SlipGate. I’ve set the weapon for low-velocity ammo, but just the same.”
Rajel’s mouth dropped open, and he shook his head. “What is this about?” He spun to face Drayvin as they marched back to the door. “I don’t have time for-”
Standing with their back turned, Drayvin lifted their forearm and tapped a button on their multi-tool. “Execute program seventy-three,” they said.
Rajel sensed motion at the corners of the room. He couldn’t tell what it was – the cargo bay was too large for that – but he could discern each type of drone by the pitch of its anti-gravity system, and only one thing made that ear-splitting shriek. Death Spheres. Drayvin had Death Spheres. “By the gods above, what are you-”
The spheres zipped about, staying high enough to confound Rajel’s spatial awareness. But the ring around his head started beeping and buzzing against his skull. The beeps seemed to be coming from different directions. In fact, they almost seemed to match the whine of the Death Spheres. Was it possible…
Spinning on his heel, Rajel lifted the pistol in both hands. He swung it right and left, up and down, tracking. The gun pulsed in his hand, and he fired. A soft chime rang in his ears. “You got one!” Drayvin shouted. “Time to up the difficulty.”
Vibrations against the back of his skull.
Rajel jumped, back-flipping through the cargo bay, uncurling to land several paces away. He heard a beeping in both ears. Could that mean… He pointed the gun straight up and fired.
“Good!” Drayvin whooped. “Watch out, they will target you!”
“You can’t set off particle beams in here!”
“With harmless lasers,” Drayvin clarified. “They’ll target you with harmless lasers. We removed their plasma emitters. But if it registers a hit…”
An awful screeching in Rajel’s ears told him that one of the spheres had got him. He had let himself get distracted. “See?” Drayvin said.
Motion to his right.
Throwing himself sideways, Rajel rolled across the floor. He came up on one knee, pointing his gun out to the side, angling it upward to match the vibrations against his skull. The instant he felt a pulse, he fired.
“Three down!” Drayvin declared.
Buzzing against his forehead.
Calling upon Rix, Rajel put up a Time Bubble in the shape of a long tunnel that stretched out before him. He couldn’t sense anything beyond its confines, and the beeping stopped as soon as he was engulfed in the tiny pocket of space-time. That was all right. He remembered the drone’s position.
Rajel leaped into a forward somersault, rolling over the floor tiles. He came up, let the bubble collapse and heard a beeping in both ears. He pointed the gun into the air and fired. “And that’s four,” Drayvin said.
Standing up, Rajel wiped the sweat off his brow. “Thank you,” he said, nodding. “You have no idea what this means to me.”
“This is just a prototype,” Drayvin said. “We can refine it as we go. But this one is ready to go with you on this mission.”
Grinning, Rajel felt a sudden warmth in his face. He carefully removed the headband…or whatever it was called. “This is a remarkable device. What exactly do you call this thing?”
Shuffling over, Drayvin took the plastic ring. It was quite flexible, Rajel realized, made with dozens of tiny joints to fit the individual contours of his head. “I call it the Augur. It warns you of danger.”
“Well… I am grateful beyond words.”
“Go get your gear,” Drayvin murmured. “The Augur will be here, waiting for you.”
Sliding her pistol into its holster, Anna checked herself in the mirror. Denim shorts and a blue tank-top: not exactly standard gear for a mission like this, but standard gear would make her stick out to any Ragnosian soldier who crossed her path. She had to look like a civilian.
Her red hair was tied up in a short ponytail, thin strands framing her face. Her eyes…Bleakness! When had her eyes taken on that haunted look? This war was going to grind her down.
She turned around to find Jack standing in the doorway, dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. The only sign that he wasn’t an ordinary schlub wandering around his hometown was the pistol that he wore on his hip. “You look good,” he said.
Stepping forward, Anna held his gaze for a moment and then nodded. “I wish you were coming with me,” she murmured.
“I am going with you.”
Anna forced a small smile. “I meant on the same team,” she said. “But I suppose they need you even more than I do.”
He tenderly brushed a lock of hair off her cheek and then bent to kiss her forehead. “We’ll get through this,” he promised. “We always do.”
They made their way through the Scrappy’s crowded corridors, heading for an elevator that would take them down to Deck 4. When they arrived, Jena and Larani were waiting, both dressed in civilian clothing. Jena must have borrowed a few things from the chief director. They were about the same size; so, it worked out.
The four of them rode the elevator in total silence. When the doors opened, they found themselves in another busy hallway. One of Drayvin’s engineers hurried past, a round drone following in his wake.
Together, they journeyed to the back of the ship, to the port-side cargo bay. The crowds thinned out as they neared their destination. She had left Corin in charge in her absence. He must have told the crew to steer clear of the area, knowing that Anna would be using it as a staging ground.
Her people were waiting inside, all properly attired in shorts, t-shirts and sneakers. Except Corovin. He insisted on wearing that suit of armour he liked so much. She could practically feel him glaring at her through the blue visor.
Jack stepped forward, standing with his feet apart and his hands clasped behind his back. “You all know the plan,” he began. “Rajel, Arin, Melissa, Jena and Larani: you’re with me. We’ll be escorting Drayvin to the nuke.”
Anna stepped up beside her boyfriend. “Cassi, Novol, Edrin, Keli and Telixa,” she said. “You’ll be coming with me to find General Carmylo.”
She was about to order them to the SlipGate when she noticed Melissa fidgeting and staring down at her feet. The girl was positively anxious. Anna hadn’t seen her this flustered since that first disastrous mission on Salus. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Melissa looked up, and a flush reddened her face. “I was hoping to go with Novol,” she muttered.
“I hear you, kiddo,” Jack said. “But I need you with me. We’ll probably come up against some heavy resistance, and I need the best Keepers I can get.”
Melissa blushed again. She had never been very good at taking a compliment. “And I need Novol with me,” Anna added. “The more Ragnosians I have with me, the better chance we have of convincing the general to listen.”
Mechanized joints hummed as Corovin strode forward, bodies parting before him. “And where do I fit into all this?” She had only thought that he was glaring at her before. “Surely, you’ll want my assistance.”
Jack spared her the trouble of answering.
“That big suit of yours will draw too much attention.” he said. “You’re gonna sit this one out, bud. Unless you want to come without the armour.”
Corovin tilted his head, thinking it over. “You would have me go defenseless into a war-zone?”
A disdainful sniff silenced him, and then the crowd parted again to make room for Telixa. She sauntered forward with an arrogant swagger, smacking Corovin’s shoulder. “You always were a big, lumbering oaf, Dagmath.”
Pacing a circle around him, she pressed a single finger to her lips. “What interests me, however,” she went on, “is why you want to come. You were never the self-sacrificing type.”
Corovin tried to track her, but his mechanized neck couldn’t turn as far as he would like. “My reasons are my own!” he growled.
Grimacing, Anna waved a hand to silence both of them. “None of which are relevant,” she insisted. “Corovin, you’re not coming on this mission. I don’t want to hear another word about it. Remove your armour, and go enjoy some downtime.”
She was glad for the excuse Jack had offered; the suit would draw too much attention. But she had another reason for wanting the man to stay behind. Simply put: she didn’t trust him.
Corovin had no one but himself to blame for that. There were only so many times that you could insist you would do whatever it took to win – including murdering helpless people – before people started giving you the side-eye.
Muttering under his breath, Corovin plodded over to the door. He paused for one last glance at the lot of them, then left the room. That went better than she would have expected; Anna had been bracing herself for an argument.
“All right,” she said. “Everyone over to the SlipGate.”
“We’re taking the Gate down?” Melissa asked.
Jack shrugged as he stepped into position, spinning around and putting his back to the metal triangle. “What can I say?” he replied. “I’ve got friends in low places.”
They made the journey in two trips, Jack’s group going first, Anna’s following. They arrived in a place with yellow walls, a room that Anna had thought she would never see again. She could just make out the blurry images of people moving outside the SlipGate bubble. Jack must have been greeting his friends.
The bubble popped.
As expected, she found herself in the basement of Justice Keeper HQ. Jack had shared the plan with her before they came down here. But the one thing she was not prepared for was the sight of Gabi standing at the Gate controls.
The woman had grown out her black hair, letting it fall past the small of her back. Other than that, she was very much as Anna remembered her. Same plump, voluptuous figure, same copper-skinned face, same dark eyes that seemed to peer into your soul. She quickly locked the Gate.
