Shell Game, page 21
part #15 of The Last Hunter Series
One of the other officers around the table raised his hand. “What about our forces heading toward the center of human space? Have they determined with certainty where the human leadership is located?”
“According to the reports that have come back to me, they are proceeding carefully and receiving moderate resistance. Nothing our drones can’t handle, but they have to operate with care to avoid damaging the infrastructure. If we intend to assume control over human space and utilize it as a platform to launch future attacks against the Novarites, we need to take everything we can intact. The technological level displayed by the humans here is low in comparison to the kingdom, but we believe that can be overcome with the assistance the kingdom has provided thus far and that they will provide once we have secured this area.”
He turned back to the map and tapped three different star systems. One of them was Earth, and the other two were heavily populated worlds with high industry that were somewhat close to Earth.
“Though we have not ruled anything out at this point, there are three systems that seem to be the primary candidates for the leadership of the humans here. The central forces are going to attack each one in turn and, once they have secured it, move on to the next. After they have all three under their control, we believe that the resistance we are encountering will collapse. The humans have no chance against us, so it’s only a matter of time until we have eliminated their spaceborne forces and can focus on what comes next.”
Derek was wondering what came next, but he doubted that they would be honest about that in front of him. After all, if they had any intentions at all of continuing with what the other Tardans had done and trying to turn humans into hosts for their symbiotes, they wouldn’t exactly tell the humans from the kingdom about that.
“Before I let you go,” the commanding officer said, “I believe we should hear a status update from our kingdom representative. I am curious how far along they are in their planning stages and when they anticipate the various operations they’ve promised will be initiated. Stand up and give us your report, young man.”
Well, crap.
Derek rose to his feet, sliding his hand into his pocket and pressing the activation button for the sabotage drones. He’d run out of time, and now they would have to see what happened next.
The lights went out even as he opened his mouth, and it took a second for the emergency lighting to kick in. Then, an alarm began ringing in the corridor. It was game time.
28
Patrick walked around the prisoners and eyed them both. Garibaldi would prove problematic, but he had higher hopes for Albertson. The woman had promised to cooperate, and if she actually followed through on that, he was willing to indulge Lisa and allow her to live.
It would complicate his life and their departure from this area, but he didn’t truly enjoy his work as much when things went smoothly. Life needed little challenges to spice things up.
Or he could just decide at the last minute whether or not to kill her. If he administered a slow-acting poison, Lisa wouldn’t be aware that he’d executed Albertson until long after the fact, if she even found out. That would entail risk, though. If he went that route and she discovered what he’d done, that might complicate their relationship. Or end it.
It would still be the simplest and most effective way to be certain that no one knew what they looked like, but he wanted to develop something more than what they currently had, and if he betrayed Lisa’s trust in such a manner, the consequences would be grave.
No, it was better to humor her desires in this matter and deal with the complications. If they played their cards correctly, they could still escape without unduly complicating their lives.
He stepped over to the tray of tools he prepared, loaded a drug into one of the autoinjectors, and squatted down in front of Garibaldi. “I believe I will start with you. Let me see if I’ve got this correct, Mister Garibaldi. You’re the head of the secret police?”
“Go screw yourself.”
“Entertaining but physiologically impossible. I was going to offer you the opportunity to go through this the easy way, but it seems that you are overly enamored with the tough guy image. Let me assure you that you aren’t in a position that carries any power whatsoever. Whatever I choose to do to you, you can do nothing to stop me. If I were to take a handy knife and slit your femoral artery, you would bleed out and die with no one willing to lift a finger to save you. If I decided that you lied to me one too many times and cut out your tongue, no one could stop me. Are you still willing to be so resistant?”
The man lunged against his restraints. “When I get out of this, I’m going to see you tortured. You will beg for death, and I won’t give it to you. I’ll keep you alive for weeks in as intense an agony as I can arrange.”
“I’m impressed,” Lisa said. “You’re pulling off the mustache-twirling villain routine without even having a mustache. Are you really that stupid?”
“Sadly, he is,” Albertson said. “Whatever you’re going to do, just do it. He won’t change the way he’s acting.”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut your filthy mouth,” Garibaldi snarled at the woman. “If you don’t, you already know what’s going to happen to you.”
“Please, just kill him.”
Patrick found himself chuckling. “They are quite the pair, aren’t they? Very well, we’ll do it your way.”
He placed the autoinjector on Garibaldi’s neck and pressed the button. It hissed, and the drug quickly made its way into the artery leading to Garibaldi’s brain. Moments later, his expression slackened, though it didn’t quite take on the same dull look that it had when he’d applied the medicated patch in his bedroom. That only made sense since this wasn’t quite the same drug either.
While it began having an effect on the man, Patrick turned his attention to Albertson. “I have to confess that I am curious, Madam Governor. I can’t imagine any set of circumstances where you would willingly be in a relationship with such a disgusting human being. Why?”
“Because he is blackmailing me,” she said with a sigh. “And I haven’t figured out a way to have him killed without it getting out yet. I can’t imagine how you got into his quarters because the agents that I sent to do the same thing were never successful. Trust me when I say that I’d much rather have slit his throat myself and be completely covered in his blood than let him touch me.”
“It must be quite damaging,” Lisa said. “How did he get whatever he had on you?”
“He didn’t. There was someone else gathering the material, and I have no idea how they managed it. Garibaldi acquired it from them, though I’m not sure how. Once he had it, I had the choice of either giving in to his demands or having the information released. There are times when I think I’d have been better off choosing the latter, but I never quite convinced myself of that.”
“I’d be a lot more sympathetic if you weren’t part of the Poseidon Group, much less in charge of an entire solar system. That makes you as dirty as he is, if not quite as gross.”
“Whatever. Just do what you’re going to do.”
Patrick found the exchange entertaining, but enough time had passed that Garibaldi had dropped into simply muttering to himself. He judged the man was deeply under the influence of the drug and would now be much more cooperative. Unfortunately, much like with the previous drug, he would have to be led to give more complete answers. That was the price one paid for compelling obedience to asking questions.
“Let’s start with something simple, Mister Garibaldi,” Patrick said as he set the autoinjector back on the tray. “What is your full name?”
“Alphonso Jacob Garibaldi.”
“What is your official position with the Poseidon Group?”
“I am an assistant to the governor of the DuPont system.”
“But that’s not the only work you do for them, is it? What else would you consider to be your primary job here?”
“I run the secret police in the DuPont system.”
Patrick nodded. No surprises there. “As the head of the secret police, what are your primary duties?”
“I keep an eye on the citizenry to be certain they aren’t acting against the Poseidon Group. If I determine they are trying to resist, I identify the leaders and cells that are operating and either kill or capture them. I also keep an eye on the senior members of the Poseidon Group to make sure they aren’t attempting to split away from the leadership on Earth.”
“And what would you do to one of the Poseidon Group leaders who decided to do something like that?”
“Kill them.”
Patrick looked over at Lisa. “That sounds pretty straightforward. Would you like to ask him some questions?”
She stepped over beside him and crossed her arms. “We already know the kind of work he does. Why don’t we just focus on the angle to which we need answers? Mister Garibaldi, where do you keep the prisoners you collect?”
“A small space station.”
“Remember to be more specific in asking your questions,” Patrick said.
“Got it. Mister Garibaldi, where exactly is the space station the secret police use to hold their prisoners?”
“It’s less than a few hundred kilometers from this station. You would have to go in the direction that the asteroid belt is orbiting the star to locate it. The name is Yard Tree Station.”
“Does everyone know that it belongs to the secret police? If not, what does the general populace believe takes place there?”
“The fact that the secret police are using that station isn’t common knowledge. Most people assume that it still does work as a minor manufacturing facility.”
“But it’s not, is it?” Patrick asked. “I assume that it’s been modified in some way to make it into something the secret police can use for their own purposes.”
“Incorrect. It still functions as a manufactory, but a section of the station has been turned over to the secret police and is being used as a prison.”
“Did your computers contain schematics for this facility?” Lisa asked. “I don’t mean the original ones but how they’ve been modified to suit what’s taking place there now?”
“No. Information about that facility isn’t kept elsewhere. That would be a potential security breach.”
“But you kept blackmail material on your computers. Wouldn’t that be considered a potential security breach?”
“No. That information is used to compel people in the DuPont system to cooperate. Only the most basic blackmail material was on my computers. Everything else is contained at the prison.”
Patrick found his eyebrows rising. “You have two sets of blackmail material? What does the more secretive one contain?”
“Sensitive information about all the leadership in the Poseidon Group. Each system head of the secret police has access to that material. It both keeps us alive and makes certain that no individual member tries anything against the Poseidon Group as a whole.”
“Is the material you’re using against Governor Albertson there as well?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you think the people who gave you that material would be upset to hear that you’re using it to blackmail her into having sex with you?”
“Yes.”
“This guy is a real piece of work,” Lisa said disgustedly. “We’re going to have to get a more detailed layout of the facility. I’m not sure that he can tell us enough to make a difference. We might have to go in blind.”
“I can provide you with detailed schematics of that station,” Albertson said. “All I ask is that you destroy the blackmail material linked to me.”
Patrick smiled at her. “Why would we do that? There’s going to come a time when we have to compel the obedience of each member of the Poseidon Group. We already have you in our power. Why would we both release you and remove anything that we could hold over your head?”
“Because you’re not going to get the information any other way. I’m not an idiot. I understand that if you’re not happy with what I do to assist you, you can kill me, but I’m not going to just let that information be used against me over and over.”
“We’d only be deleting it here,” Lisa said. “It sounds like every other head of the secret police has the same information. Even if we were willing to destroy that information here, there’s nothing we can do to make sure that it’s destroyed elsewhere. Exactly what would you have us do?”
“You’re associated with those people with the battleship, right? That means you have an independent quantum drive. Tell me you’re not going to isolate the system when you leave. I already can figure out how this will play out. When you’re done here, you’ll move on and leave us isolated. That means that if the information isn’t here, none of the other secret police can compel me to do something against my will. I can’t control anything outside the system, but I will still call the shots here, no matter what happens to you.”
Patrick chuckled. “You’ve got fire in your belly. I like that. I’m willing to agree that in exchange for the complete schematics we need to break into the facility.”
“I can’t guarantee that they are complete, but they definitely carry the modifications that were made by the secret police when we took control. If they’ve made any further updates, that won’t be in the data that I have.”
“Understood. Lisa?”
The ex-hacker shrugged. “I’m fine with that. Unlike a lot of systems, when we get back around to this one, they aren’t going to be able to hide very well. Governor Albertson will have the opportunity to surrender and save her life when that time comes, but she won’t be able to hide. Not for long.”
“Where will this information come from?”
“I have it stored in my computers in my office. I can provide you with an external comm code to call that will connect to the office computers and can direct you to where those files are located.”
Lisa tapped her finger against her chin. “I can work with that, though I’m not going to penetrate that network in an area where I can be under observation or readily traced to. It could be a trap or someone could be paying attention now that you’re missing and figure out what’s going on.”
Patrick watched as she paced in front of the prisoners, ignoring them for the moment while she thought out the logistics of how she would do this work. When she got into the groove like this, it was always a pleasure to watch.
He turned his attention back to Garibaldi. “Well, that’s all very interesting, but we still have a lot of things to talk about. You see, I want to know everything that you’ve been up to in the system and what you know about operations in other systems. Why don’t we get down to it, Mister Garibaldi?”
He had no doubt that they would get useful information out of the man, but if they could get Albertson to cooperate fully, that might be even more useful. The two of them together could very well provide him and Lisa with enough information to perhaps give them an angle they could use to bring the Poseidon Group on Earth down.
The recorder he had on the tray with his instruments would capture everything, and then they would go through all the computer files they stole to see what tidbits of information would prove most helpful to their cause. Then, they would strike when the time was right.
29
Jack resisted the urge to pace as he waited for whatever was going to happen aboard the Tardan flagship to kick off. Derek and Vassen had no way of knowing that the ship they were aboard was heading out to meet another force. He still wasn’t certain his guess about what was happening was correct, and he certainly hoped that he was wrong. If this wasn’t the command group for the invasion, that meant they’d wasted all the time and effort they’d invested thus far and put two of his people in harm’s way.
Still, it was water under the bridge. Sometimes, one couldn’t guess which course of action would be the right one, and they chose wrong. This might very well be one of those situations, and if so, he would just need to move on. Recriminations wouldn’t do anyone any good.
Tina was monitoring the situation as well as anyone could, and the fighters had launched from their cutter bases and were shadowing this particular group of ships. He’d ordered the cutters they’d been docked to out of the inner system where they could rendezvous with the battleships. He’d also sent a signal to Amanda to be prepared to jump in as close as possible and try to lure Locusts out of position if that was required.
The lightspeed delay in communications meant that he couldn’t decide for her when the right time to act would be, so everything would be based on her best judgment. She might decide that it was better not to reveal herself in the beginning, or she might choose to jump one of the battleships blatantly into the outer system and see who she could draw out to meet her. Whatever course of action she chose to follow, he’d figure a way to make it work.
Under the best of circumstances, it would still be hours before Amanda received his message and acted. Whatever happened in the short term would be up to him and the people he had with him. There wouldn’t be any outside assistance for the first part of the dance.
“We have activity aboard the Tardan flagship,” Tina said. “It looks like their engines have stopped thrusting, and their fusion plant might have shut down. If I had to make a guess, they just activated the sabotage drones.”
Well, they were committed now.
“Signal the fighters,” he ordered. “There’s going to be a couple of minutes of uncertainty, but it won’t take them long to figure out that something very unusual is taking place. This is our opportunity to take the attention off the flagship. I want them to target the remaining Tardan military vessels and those two kingdom warships. If they can disable them early in the fight, that means we can eliminate more of them than if we try to destroy them outright. Have them focus on that.”
