Shell Game, page 18
part #15 of The Last Hunter Series
“What about the people on board? They’re going to realize something is wrong with their communications at some point, and we still have to get the hatch open and get them out. Even a vacuum suit’s communication system can get us in trouble.”
“They aren’t going to be in vacuum suits, and we don’t intend to leave them enough time to get to them. Once we’ve got the communication systems jiggered, we’ll blow the atmosphere. Cutters don’t come with airlocks, so all we have to do is get the one hatch open.”
Derek raised an eyebrow. “Those hatches are designed not to open when there’s pressure inside and vacuum outside. How are you going to get around that?”
“Brute force and ignorance. There are a couple of places on the hull of a cutter like this that we can blow a hole through and vent the atmosphere quickly. It won’t be someplace that’s easily seen, so we can weld a repair plate back over it so you can re-pressurize. We’ve got atmospheric tanks to replenish their system before we peel off. Once the interior is in vacuum, it’s simplicity itself to open the hatch.”
“What about the people inside? Vacuum will make them bleed, and we don’t need any traces of having done this.”
The man shrugged. “There’s only so much we can do, sir. We’ll leave something for you to clean up after us. Seems fair with all the work we’re doing cleaning up after the Navy.”
Derek laughed. “Fair enough.”
The plan seemed risky, but it was the only game in town. If they wanted to get aboard the Tardan flagship and have an opportunity to get their hands on what they needed, that meant taking risks. If everything went to hell, they’d be rescued, but it would be much better to try to deal with the situation covertly.
Frankly, it was a good thing they had their own uniforms because the odds of being able to salvage whatever the prisoners would have on them were low. Death by vacuum was an ugly way to go, even for enemies like this.
Even so, they’d chosen to invade the Confederation, and they had only themselves to blame. This was war, and he wasn’t going to cry over dead enemies.
“I leave that in your hands, Sergeant. How long until we’re ready to go?”
“Last I heard, the cutter moving to pick up the kingdom representative was about ten minutes short of arriving at their ships. Give them another five to land and get their guest on board, and another five to be in a position for us to intercept them without being too obvious about it. Even though they’re relatively close in distance, we’ll be out of visual range, so they won’t have anything to go by other than what their sensors pick up. We’ll be leaving in the next few minutes to set up that interception.”
“Very good. Carry on.” He turned his attention to Vassen, who was sitting beside him. “Are you ready for this, Ensign?”
“I’m a bit nervous, sir, but I’ll do what needs to be done. I’m afraid that I’m not well-trained in flying a cutter, though. I hope you will be able to handle that for us.”
“If there’s something out there that I can’t fly, I haven’t found it yet. I’ve gone through several passes over the controls, and with my understanding of the language, it shouldn’t be a problem. We won’t be performing any dangerous stunts, so a nice sedate landing won’t be beyond me.”
“That’s a relief, sir. What about weapons? Are we going to have concealed weapons on us?”
Derek nodded. “Once we’re aboard the cutter and the Marines have departed, I’ve got some pistols. We won’t need them unless things go very wrong, but if they do, we’ll be happy to have them. Have you had training in firing Confederation weapons?”
“A little bit, sir. I won’t be a danger to us, but I’m not certain that I’ll be much of a danger to them either.”
“Then let’s hope that doesn’t turn out to be something we need. The best plan is for us to deploy the sabotage drones when we get aboard the flagship and use them to create any distractions we need if required. Just remember, as a Tardan, you are obviously part of their team. No one will question that. So far as me, the fact that I can speak your language will label me as a kingdom officer. I won’t be trusted as much, so it’s going to fall on you to be the face in some situations. Go with your gut.”
It was hard to read expressions on the Tardan, but Derek thought he was trying to put on a brave face. It was his job to make sure that the young officer didn’t get into a situation that he couldn’t handle, and that was a little difficult for him because he was young, too. This would be a wild ride, he was sure. Even so, they’d get through it.
Right on schedule, the cutter undocked from Specter and headed out into the dark. As advertised, the rendezvous took very little time, and when the Marines indicated, they put on their helmets. Shortly after that, the atmosphere was pulled into storage, and the hatch opened. Derek couldn’t see anything from where he was seated, but the enemy cutter would be somewhere below them, he imagined.
The Marines exited quickly, carrying equipment with them, leaving them with the pilot and one another for company. This close to the enemy, they didn’t dare even use the suit communications for fear of being detected, so they’d just have to hope everything went well. If it didn’t, the Marines would come piling back in, and they’d try to get away. As the cutter was undetectable via sensors, they had a good chance of making that work, but it would blow their opportunity to get the control codes they needed.
After about ten minutes, the Marines returned carrying the still bodies of two people: one human and the other Tardan. Derek undid the kingdom officer’s rank pins and his name tag. Everything else would be just fine. The dead man even looked somewhat like him, so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to hope that the Tardans wouldn’t recognize the substitution.
While he’d been working, Vassen had done the same, and the two of them quickly made their way out of the cutter, which allowed the Marines to move them into the enemy cutter. Once they were inside, one of the Marines tapped the side of his helmet, and Derek turned on his radio at the lowest setting.
“We’re going to leave you here, sir,” the Marine said. “The little bag attached to the seat has some cleaning agents, and you can stash your vacuum suits at the rear of the cutter. There’s some storage back there, and no one should be digging around in it during the timeframe that we’re talking about. We’ll begin refilling the atmosphere before we close the patch up completely.”
Derek nodded. “As soon as you’re out, I’ll close the hatch, and we’ll clear all the traces that they died here. I assume you’ve removed the jammer.”
“We’ll do it as soon as you close the hatch, sir. Good luck.”
“Thanks. Be ready to come grab us if things go to hell.”
“We’ll be floating out here waiting for you, sir.”
Once the Marine had left, Derek closed the hatch. A minute later, he started hearing the hiss of air being fed back into the cutter. Only when his suit indicated the pressure was good did he remove his helmet and begin stripping off the vacuum suit.
“Make sure not to get any blood on you, Vassen. In fact, maybe we should clean up the blood before we strip down.”
“That sounds like a good idea, sir. I’ll let you take the control area so that I don’t inadvertently do something. I’ll fix things up back here.”
Derek made his way into the place where the pilot had sat and saw that there was some blood on the controls and other areas. Not nearly as much as he’d expected, but plenty for him to clean up if he didn’t want someone to start asking very pointed questions.
Cleanup took less than five minutes, and then they stripped out of the vacuum suits and stored them away. Attaching the rank insignia and name tags took another minute, and then Derek strapped himself into the control couch.
He scanned the controls and was satisfied that he understood how everything was supposed to work. He’d never actually flown one of these cutters, but they weren’t going to be doing anything crazy. He took the opportunity to gently maneuver the cutter so that he could verify his understanding of the controls, and everything worked as expected.
The flagship they were approaching wasn’t too distant, though it still wasn’t visible to the naked eye. The sensors showed it clearly, as well as the escort ships around it and the Locusts flying all around in a globe. It was a very protected vessel and the audacity of trying to sneak aboard it was shocking when he thought about it.
Well, if it was easy, anyone could do it.
The comm system came to life, and he heard someone calling the cutter. The voice spoke in the Novarite language that the Tardans used and was giving him directions. Derek gestured for Vassen to come forward.
“Hold the headset next to your mouth, and when I give you a thumbs-up, acknowledge the orders. We want them to hear your voice because humans don’t sound like Tardans, even when they’re speaking the same language.”
“Understood.”
As soon as Vassen was ready, Derek pressed the transmit button and gave him the high sign.
“Acknowledged,” Vassen said.
And that was that. There was no more communication from the flagship, and Derek got on the course that they had been ordered to. It looked like it led to the main small craft bay, where the hatch was already open. Keeping their speed down, he flew in and spotted a series of flashing lights that led him to where he would park.
Setting the cutter down and shutting everything off only took a few seconds. Once that was done, he extracted himself from the control area and handed Vassen a small, holstered pistol. “Stick that in your pocket. It was small enough not to be noticed but readily available if you need it. Follow my lead on when it’s time to pull it.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that, he opened the hatch, and the two of them stepped out into the small craft bay on the enemy flagship.
24
Patrick made his way down the lift shaft and exited on the same level they’d entered as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Since the lift had a sign indicating that it was out of service, his maintenance coveralls were all the excuse he needed to be there. Lisa had disabled the cameras that watched the area, and no one would be any the wiser about his presence.
He made a mental note to have her go through the other cameras in the general area so she could erase every moment that one of them showed up on the cameras. Once Garibaldi turned up missing—not to mention the governor—they would start a manhunt and go over everything. The safest thing for them would be if there was no evidence pointing at them whatsoever.
He’d already taken the precaution of looking over a general map of the area, and he suspected he knew where he could find what he needed. Being that it was late at night, the traffic was light, and no one gave him the slightest bit of attention other than the occasional head nod. Given fifteen seconds, they wouldn’t remember anything about him other than the fact he was wearing a set of maintenance coveralls.
Patrick found his way to the custodial section on this level and quickly bypassed the locks to gain admittance. Once he was inside, it only took going through a couple of rooms to find what he was looking for. Someone was responsible for doing laundry, and there was an interior lift that took him a few levels down to that section. There, he was able to grab a laundry cart that was big enough to hold both their prisoners.
He made certain to get some sheets that would prevent anyone from seeing them and asking awkward questions. He also went through the various lockers until he found several lengths of sturdy-looking rope. He wasn’t certain what they’d normally be used for, but it would be more than enough to secure their prisoners as they lowered them down.
It wouldn’t be enough to go all the way down, but if they could lower them down far enough to secure them and then come down further and lower them again, they could make the trip in stages, and that would have to be good enough.
With that accomplished, he returned to the lift shaft and made his way back up. He left the laundry cart beside the lift and hoped that nobody would come along to move it. The odds of that were slim but not nonexistent. He would make the trip back down before they actually initiated the journey with the prisoners to make sure there was still something there to receive them.
When he arrived back at the top level, he saw that they had taken the time to put some clothes on the prisoners, which would mean less damage to their persons as they were lowered. With Garibaldi, that had to have been a chore.
“It looks like you’re ready to go,” he said. “I’ll have a few more areas of the security feed for you to go through to make sure and erase any trace of me being there. I’ve got a laundry cart waiting below, and I brought some rope. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to lower them all the way down, so the trip will have to be taken in stages. If we secure a couple of ropes around Garibaldi, we should be able to keep him tied up and simultaneously lower him down until he reaches the end of the safety line. Then, we should resecure him and do it again.”
Lisa nodded. “That’ll work. I was able to go through his computer and pull out quite a bit of data. I took the opportunity to erase it all using a dedicated program so they wouldn’t be able to reconstruct anything. I figured they might believe that someone he was blackmailing had done him in. It’s a pretty thin cover, but it’s all I can figure out.”
“I think that’s good enough. So long as they have anything that they can focus on other than us, that works. If he has a reputation as someone who blackmailed others, then that will be where they look first. Remember Occam’s razor. The simplest solution is usually the correct one. Unfortunately for them, we’re a black swan event. Something they couldn’t foresee and that they have no frame of reference for.”
“A black swan event?” she asked curiously. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one of those.”
“It’s pretty much what I described. Something straight out of the blue that they have to try and figure out with only the benefit of hindsight. Since they don’t have all the facts, they won’t come to the correct conclusion. They’ll go with what feels right, and in this case, they will be looking at one another. It’s going to cause a lot of tension between the various movers and shakers, particularly since the governor will be missing, too. They’ll wonder if someone has her or if she’s been murdered.”
“I don’t think so,” Lisa said. “If somebody was going to kill her, her body would be found in his bed. Same for him. There has to be a reason why the two of them are gone, and nobody would carry him down the lift shaft without a good reason. That means that there’s a purpose to it, and they will lose their minds trying to figure out what our angle is. Or rather, what they think the angle of the kidnappers are as they suspect them of being part of the Poseidon Group.”
He considered that and nodded. “You’re right. I have no idea what they’ll come up with as a potential answer, but I’d imagine there will be a lot of rationalizing going on. If the bodies never turn up, it’s really going to make people wonder. If I was staying here over a longer period of time, a few more blatant assassinations would probably start a civil war among the rulers here. That could be very entertaining.”
She gave him a frown. “It wouldn’t be good for the people having to keep their heads down to avoid being killed in the crossfire. Even so, I can’t argue with your logic. We’re going to be here for a little while, so maybe you should be looking at a couple of decent targets to take out. After, of course, we get Garibaldi down the lift shaft. Hopefully, without dropping him.”
Once the Marines had the rope, they began securing Garibaldi. As he suggested, they had three different sets of lines attached to the man. They were using belts they’d gotten from somewhere to create a makeshift harness around his waist and torso. That would keep the ropes from slipping off and allow them to be more certain nothing untoward happened during this trying extraction.
The plan was for them to secure a rope above Garibaldi as a safety precaution in case he slipped or they dropped him. The second line would go to the Marine down below, who would secure it as another line of defense in case the first line broke. The last rope would be the one they used to actually lower him.
Lisa would follow along once they were done so she could rearm the security system and remove any of the looped camera feeds so there were no traces of their intrusion. Let the Poseidon Group wonder exactly how they’d done it.
Once he’d climbed all the way down the lift shaft to the level they needed to exit, he opened the doors and stepped out. Unlike before, he left the doors open and stood there, making sure that no one was around to note their presence. As expected at such a late hour, the area was deserted. The laundry cart was sitting as he’d left it.
He leaned into the shaft and waved. He couldn’t see up above, but he was well enough lit that they would be able to know that he was signaling them to climb down. Once again, he didn’t want to risk using any communications devices that might leave a trace somewhere.
The process of lowering Garibaldi was painstaking and slow. Whereas it had taken him less than five minutes to get down to the level with the laundry cart, it took the Marines almost half an hour to lower the first prisoner. By some miracle, they didn’t drop him or even have one of the ropes break.
Once Garibaldi was dangling just inside the shaft, Patrick pulled him out far enough that they could complete lowering him directly into the waiting laundry cart. Then, he loosened the ropes and took the belts off. He secured everything back together and handed it to the Marines, who went back up the shaft to get the second prisoner.
While they were gone, Patrick covered Garibaldi in sheets and moved the cart further away from the lift shaft. If someone came along, he’d rather not have to explain that he wasn’t really dumping laundry down the lift shaft. That’s the kind of thing that stood out in people’s minds.
