Command Authority, page 5
part #5 of Last Hunter Series
Jack knew Connor was a majority owner in the place, and he hesitated to guess what kind of business was usually conducted in this room. Still, that wasn’t his concern.
“We’d appreciate that,” he said with a smile. “I’d like a beer, and I think we can both agree that chips and salsa will work to start. I’d like enchiladas and refried beans, so we can have that as the primary order for me, plus whatever Commodore Nastasi wants.”
“I’ll take what he’s having,” Sara said. “If you’d make certain the server knocks before coming in, I’d appreciate it. I’m uncertain if this room is monitored, but if so, this is Navy business, and we’d appreciate having the recording turned off. We’re not going to be discussing anything earthshaking, but it is business.”
“We at Handor’s understand the need for discretion, too, so this room isn’t monitored,” the woman said in a somewhat cool tone. “The server bringing your drinks will bring a chime you can use to summon him.”
Taking the rebuke, Jack inclined his head. “Thank you.”
Once she’d departed, Sara raised an eyebrow. “Is it just me, or do I get the impression that a lot of shady deals are conducted in this room?”
Jack shrugged. “When in Rome, you’re supposed to be a Roman candle. What they do here is none of our business. We should be grateful we have a private nook where we can talk without everybody and their third cousin listening in. Even if they are monitoring us, these people work for Connor, so they’ll keep their mouths shut.”
There was a knock, then a young man wearing a white apron came in and set out two beers, chips, and salsa. He also left a small device with instructions to press the button anytime they wanted him. He promised to return with their enchiladas as soon as they were ready. That done, he departed and shut the door behind him.
Once they were alone again, Sara raised an eyebrow. “So, what’s going on?”
“We have the independent quantum drive working aboard Hunter. Obviously. We’ve also located the surviving Novarite ship. It’s on its way here to Port Royale, though we plan to intercept it before it gets close.”
“That’s good news,” Sara said, taking a sip of her beer. “How are you going to work it?”
“We’ll position Hunter as close to its most likely exit point as we can and wait for them to appear. They’ll be in cool-down mode and unable to use hyperspace for about six hours. That will give us plenty of time to deal with them.”
“Does that mean you’ll have to be waiting there for them when they come out? How will we locate them without being right on top for them for a week?”
“Once we head back to New Copenhagen, I’ll get my hands on one of the other hyperspace detectors and equip one of the exploration ships with it. We’ll dispatch it to trail behind the Novarite warship, and the exploration ship will come and get us if it drops out early.”
She considered that and nodded. “I suppose that works. I understand the detector isn’t precise, but if you’ve got them pinned down into a fairly small area, you should be able to locate them using the independent quantum drive before they can enter hyperspace again. Do you think they’ll fight after you handed them their asses last time?”
“They’ll fight,” he assured her. “Even our prisoners would rather fight than talk. We’ve got a pair of crewmembers we’ve been having a dialogue with, but even they aren’t what I’d call cooperative. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out in the long run, but I wouldn’t count on any enlightened behavior from the Novarites. Humanity is lucky not to have run into them before, and if I have anything to say about it, no word will get back to them about us.”
Sara considered him for a few seconds. “And how likely is that? Do we know this is the only group that came in pursuit of the Tardans?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Lisa and Regex are working to break into their computers. As one would expect, they’re heavily encrypted, and even though this is the kind of thing Lisa was born to do, it’s complicated.”
“That seems to be the story of her life these days.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” he muttered.
She’d almost been killed by a stray bullet and would’ve been paralyzed if his mother hadn’t implanted Regex inside her. The alien’s host body had died in the chaos, and he would have as well if she hadn’t intervened.
Not that Lisa seemed inclined to forgive. Her life would never be the same, and she blamed his mother for that. It was severe enough that he’d suggested a different doctor oversee her recovery, much to his mother’s annoyance.
They talked about Sara’s work until their food arrived, and then they dug in. As he’d remembered, the enchiladas were hot and spicy, just the way he liked them. The beer complemented the meal, and one wouldn’t hurt. Thankfully, the Navy understood that impairment was the issue with alcohol rather than any consumption of a limited amount at meals.
Once the two of them had finished eating, he leaned back in his seat and considered his fellow flag officer. “I know you’ve been busy over the last month and that doing your work from Hunter isn’t convenient, but I have to say I’ve missed having you around. I can’t talk as openly with anyone else about my problems.”
She took a sip of her beer and set the mug on the table. “What kind of problem are you dealing with now?”
He laid out the circumstances under which Lisa and Regex had been united and the hacker’s reaction to it, though he knew Sara had gotten word of the incident already. Then he explained how his mother was being obstinate in how she dealt with Lisa.
When he’d finished, she nodded. “I think you’ve started off on the right path. Duncan McCrae is an abrupt and grumpy man, but he might be the best choice to work with her. Lisa is angry, and with cause. Maybe her outlook will improve. If it doesn’t, things are more complicated, but your mother will just need to cope. Do you think it would help if I spoke with her?”
“I have no idea. I suppose it can’t hurt. Thank you.”
“I’m no counselor, but I’ll cheerfully give anybody free advice. Except for the legal kind.”
Jack laughed. “Fair enough. Well, if we’re done eating, maybe you could show me what’s happening aboard Scorpius. Now that we have offices opening up at New Copenhagen, you may want to move your flag there.”
“Actually, I think I belong aboard Hunter. That’s where the action is taking place, and I suspect you’re done reacting to events now. Is it time for a real offensive?”
“I think so. If we can get just a bit more information from our prisoners, I think we can pick out a nice juicy target to liberate next. Would you like to be part of the questioning process? I assure you, we aren’t violating any of the laws of war.”
“Maybe. I can leave some of my staff here to keep doing the work that needs doing and relocate others to New Copenhagen. I’ll have to expand my staff. It’s not big enough to deal with everything happening in the cluster.”
He stood and gestured toward the door. “We can talk about that while I fly us over to Scorpius. I’m not sure if you want to do any recruiting at Port Royale, considering many of the residents’ questionable views on legal matters, but whatever assistance I can provide is yours.”
“That can be a plus, so don’t count them out. Let’s settle our bill, and I’ll show you around.”
The idea of having her aboard Hunter again pleased him. The two of them had grown quite close during her recovery, and he’d found himself missing her presence. Things were definitely looking up.
6
David decided it was best to leave their prisoners alone until later in the evening so they could unwind in private. Of course, the privacy was illusory because hidden cameras and microphones recorded everything they said or did. The prisoners had to be aware of at least some of that, yet that didn’t stop them from holding an intimate reunion that he promptly forwarded through.
“Hold up there, Cowboy,” his wife said. “Back that up. We need to hear everything they’re saying.”
He raised an eyebrow at his wife. “I never pictured you as a voyeur. Don’t you think this is a little personal? I don’t think they’ve got state secrets on their minds.”
She smiled smugly. “And if it was us in that position, you can rest assured I’d be passing things I didn’t want our captors to hear while they were fast-forwarding. If this makes you uncomfortable, you can always step outside.”
“You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack. When is the best time to pass along a secret? When no one else is looking. When’s the second-best time? When you can make someone turn away. Honestly, if that’s what they’re doing, they’re smarter than I gave them credit for. This might be what it looks like, but we can’t make any assumptions.”
“I’m not going to leave you to work by yourself,” he said with a sigh. “Why don’t I listen to the audio while you take care of the video?”
“You can’t multitask? I thought you were the big bad analyst and nothing put you off your pace. You just need to buck up and do what needs doing. I won’t hold you watching another couple have sex against you. Much.”
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes and shake his head. “You’re a real piece of work. I knew there was a reason I loved you.”
She gave him a lascivious smile. “There are many reasons you love me, and I’ll be happy to demonstrate a few this evening, but for right now, let’s focus on work.”
The two watched the prisoners having sex. It was apparent that it wasn’t being faked, making David even more uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he forced himself to do it when his wife placed her unwavering attention on the screen and listened closely to everything being muttered back and forth. It was one of the strangest things he’d ever had to do as an intelligence analyst.
Even so, he had to admit that Tina had been right. In the middle of what was obviously a very passionate moment, Larista began instructing Aralan how to behave in hushed tones meant to come across as intimate whisperings.
“Aha!” Tina exclaimed triumphantly. “I told you this is what they would do!”
“You are a frightening woman,” he said. “If this was you trying to conceal information, exactly how would you keep our captors from knowing what you were saying?”
She gave him a toothy grin. “There’s more than one way to transmit a message, lover. We could use fingers to tap out something in Morse code under the covers. Or there are other ways to get patterns back and forth that would be more… pleasurable and significantly harder to detect.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.
“You’re incorrigible. What is she telling him?”
“I’m not incorrigible. I’m saucy. She’s telling him he can’t discuss anything they heard aboard the ship. They also can’t tell us anything about their society or the war they’re fighting. Basically, she’s telling him to say nothing.”
“And what will she do when we start pressing for information and threatening to separate the two? He has to realize there’s a price for housing them together. They have to feed us at least enough information to keep us hoping for more.”
“She hasn’t said anything about that, and now she’s a little distracted. We’ll have to wait and see if he agrees with her plan.”
Leaving his wife to watch over the prisoners having sex, he went back to the record of what had been said in whispers when they’d brought the prisoners together in the first place. It was more of the same, but the male had argued that they had to say something. He was smart enough to see the reality of their situation.
David tried to determine which of them—if either—was the primary in the relationship. After listening to the short exchange where they were whispering and the more extended conversation after he and his wife had left, he decided they thought of themselves as equals.
They didn’t have the same views when it came to cooperating. She was a fan of saying nothing and letting the consequences fall where they may, whereas he felt they needed to find a balance and open a dialogue.
David was a good judge of character and behavior, and even though these were aliens, he felt confident the male would be more likely to cooperate if threatened with being separated from his mate. Personally, he’d rather not have to go that route, but he was here to gather intelligence critical to the survival of humanity. He’d do whatever was necessary.
Sadly, he doubted they’d get any meaningful information from them anytime soon. That meant they’d have to turn their focus to the Tardan prisoner that was most vulnerable. The one implanted inside the unwilling human survivor: Julian Fogg.
The unfortunate man was being held in a detention cell near the medical center where the doctors could continue examining him. Once Jesse Romanoff had figured out the drugs that had been used to suppress his consciousness, he’d been able to take control of his body, and they were only mildly concerned that the alien intruder could still influence him.
The problem was that the monster just wouldn’t shut up. Fogg indicated his unwanted passenger was always whispering in the back of his mind and reading his thoughts. It was justifiably driving him crazy. Something would have to be done to rectify the situation soon because this amounted to torture.
Once they’d finished reviewing the intelligence take, he and his wife made their way to the medical center and, with a bit of searching around, found Jesse Romanoff talking with one of her colleagues. They waited nearby until she was finished and then approached.
“What can I do for you two?” the older woman asked, smiling at them.
“We want to talk to Julian Fogg, and we’d like you to accompany us. We intend to intimidate the alien because we need information, and he’s the best source to get it.”
“As long as you’re not doing anything physical, and Mister Fogg isn’t too distressed, I don’t have any objections. No matter what Lisa Gane may think, I’m not a fan of having these things inside anyone.”
“You did the best you could with a difficult situation,” Tina said. “It’s only been a month, but she’s already adjusting. We work closely with her, and the two are beginning to get along like thieves. Give them another month, and they’ll wonder how they lived apart all this time.”
“I hope you’re right because I don’t like doing things to patients that make them hate me. I made this choice because it was the best option. If the situation came up, I’d do it again. Does that make me a bad person?”
“I don’t think so, but I’d reserve it for truly terrible situations,” David said. “The Tardans aren’t accepting of having this done, and it doesn’t seem like uninformed individuals like the process any better. Next time, it would be better to ask permission than beg forgiveness.”
The doctor sighed and nodded. “The Marines are taking more precautions, so there shouldn’t be a repeat of the situation. Now that the Tardans have expressed themselves on the matter, I’ll have to figure out different ways to solve that kind of problem. If you’ll come with me, we’ll see if Mister Fogg’s unwelcome guest will give you the information you desire.”
As the three started walking, David kept up the conversation with Jesse. “What’s the endgame with the thing inside him? Unlike Lisa, he’s definitely not welcome, and there has to be a plan for getting him out. What is it?”
“The complications come in with the way the Tardans were designed,” Jesse said as she took them into a side corridor and toward a pair of Marines standing guard at a hatch. “If they are removed while the host is still alive, they release a neurotoxin that’s lethal to most life forms. That wasn’t an issue with Regex because his host was dead, so there was no release. The trick is making sure we contain the symbiote so it can’t get into Mister Fogg’s system.”
“How is it delivered?” Tina asked.
“Via the filaments that connect the two. The process will need to be fast and completely thorough. My colleagues and I are working on a strategy we think will be successful, but we won’t be ready to execute it until our confidence level is higher. The Marines might be excited to hear this, but we believe using explosives might be warranted.”
David found his eyebrows rising as they stopped at the hatch. “That sounds a bit extreme.”
The older woman chuckled. “Only in minute quantities. We want to be able to press a button and have every filament severed at the same time. If we surround the symbiote with something impermeable, we should be able to get it out before any of the neurotoxins can leak out. There will be remote-controlled servos attached to the filaments to constrict them. This will be dangerous, but it’s the best we can do.”
She pressed the admittance chime and waited for a response before opening the hatch and stepping inside. David and Tina followed.
“How are you feeling today, Mister Fogg?” Jesse asked cheerfully. “Are you getting everything you need? Is there anything I can provide?”
The man looked more than a little ragged. He hadn’t shaved in a while, and his eyes were red and bleary. Maybe he hadn’t slept. David imagined it was probably hard to sleep with something like that yammering at you day and night.
“Get this thing out of me,” he said, his voice hoarse. “That would help a lot.”
“We’re working on it, but I’m not quite ready to discuss the details. This is David and Tina Chen. They have a few questions for your unwilling passenger, and I want to stress that any irritation they show is toward it, not you. You’re a victim in this, and we’re doing everything we can to separate you from that thing.”
“If you were doing everything you could, you’d take me to the operating theater right now and cut this damned thing out of me,” he said in a low, almost desperate tone. “You have no idea what it’s like. He’s crazy and vicious, and says horrible things.”
“So you can understand him?” Tina asked. “I’m not sure if you need to do any translating for him, but he needs to know there are two ways he can come out of your body: alive or dead. With what he’s done to you and the people of New Copenhagen, I’d be happy with him dead. If he wants to have a chance at life once we remove him, he’ll have to give us something of value. He knows where others of his kind are gathered in the cluster, and we want that information.”
