Twisted Justice: An Oz Garrett Novel, page 27
There remained too much outside his control.
Chapter 52
Rosa and Sylwester stood together on the edge of a clearing overlooking Drani IV’s only spaceport, less than three kilometers away. They had arrived shortly after dawn and parked the convoy of three trucks carrying the former prisoners under nearby trees to make them less conspicuous.
Her initial plan had been to drive straight up to the gates of the spaceport and force entry. But during the long drive from the camp, Rosa had decided she was not comfortable with that approach. She wanted to avoid bloodshed if possible; there had already been enough death for one day. Second, a direct assault might raise the alarm to the local military garrison. While she and her ragtag collection of prisoners might be able to overpower a handful of guards, they could not defend themselves against a sustained attack by a larger group of soldiers.
There was no telling how long it would take Garrett to turn up with her son. She stopped herself from thinking too much about that possibility, afraid to raise her expectations for fear of being disappointed. It was difficult, but she told herself she had to focus on her aspect of the mission. If, by some chance, Garrett found Mikel, the effort would be wasted if she did not secure a means of getting off the planet.
“What do you see?” Sylwester asked nervously.
Continuing to study the spaceport through binoculars discovered under the driver’s seat, she replied. “Still not much action. Only two guards at the main gate. One delivery is being sent to a warehouse on the far side. There’s an adapted freighter over near the larger hangars. I think it’s probably from the Stellar Cluster from its design.”
“Is that important?”
“Oh yes,” she said, lowering the binoculars. “I wouldn’t trust a Brotherhood ship to get us out of the Bevas Sector. Our best option is the freighter.”
Sylwester accepted her analysis with a small nod. It impressed Rosa how quickly he had adapted to the situation they all now found themselves in. Unlike some of his companions who were content to hide in the back of the transports, Sylwester continued to show an interest in what was happening, and even offer suggestions of his own. “Are there any other guards?” he asked.
“It’s hard to tell. There are many buildings located around the perimeter. The large gray building across from us could be a hospital or a prison, and there are smaller sheds that look like barracks or maintenance facilities. I need longer to carry out a full recon job, but we don’t have the time.”
“I’m scared, Rosa. We were safe where we were. Now I feel as if the Brotherhood will discover us at any moment. I don’t think they will return us to the instruction camp.”
“That’s nonsense,” Rosa whispered, placing a reassuring hand on his arm, at the same time looking around to ensure no one else was listening. “What you are all doing is courageous, and it is normal to be afraid. But you can trust me and Oz. Are the others feeling the same?”
Sylwester nodded, looking back at the group of people hovering close to the three transports that had brought them this far. “Only the children are excited about this adventure.”
Rosa looked back at the entrance to the spaceport. The two guards were talking to each other near the small hut next to the main gate, their rifles leaning against the hut. One guard laughed, presumably at something his friend had said. These two were not expecting any trouble. But she knew discovery of the jailbreak was only a matter of time, and that would bring hundreds of Zaen’s troops down here. The spaceport would become an impregnable fortress if they did not act soon.
“I have a plan,” she said after two minutes of contemplation. Not for the first time, she wished Garrett was with them.
***
Rosa’s truck led the convoy of three vehicles across the five kilometers from the spaceport’s main gate to the aging freighter at the far end of the facility. In the row of seats behind her, two guards, their eyes filled with terror, sat still. On either side of them, a former prisoner pointed a handgun at their heads.
The two men had been taken by surprise when Rosa’s truck had rolled up to the small wooden cabin next to the main gates. She had hidden her long hair under a cap and, as the guards had casually walked out to greet her; they had no suspicions anything was amiss. It was only when she opened the cab door that it shocked them to see a woman. One of them ran back to the hut in search of his rifle, only to see a young child running away with it around the corner of the truck.
The two men had quickly surrendered in the face of twenty people, most of them carrying a weapon of some kind. The men had not struggled as Sylwester bound their hands and forced them into the rear of the transport’s cab.
Rosa didn’t think they needed to know she had removed the bullets from the two handguns pointed at their heads. Removed for her safety as much as theirs.
She looked at the freighter through the windshield. As she drew closer, she could see the effects of a prolonged stay in Drani IV’s humid climate on the ship’s hull. Dull red patches of rust and oxidation confirmed the ship had been grounded here for at least a week. As she parked her transport less than fifty meters from the ship, she hoped it had not been abandoned.
Telling the others to remain in the cab, she stepped down onto the concrete landing pad and walked toward the ship’s hatch.
“Finally!” a male voice shouted from the shadows of the hangar to her right. “I was beginning to doubt the supplies would ever arrive.”
Rosa spun around, raising her gun, and pointing it at the stranger.
“Whoa lady!” said the man, raising his hands in submission. “There’s no need for that.”
“Who are you?” Rosa demanded.
“Captain Dreyfus. This is my ship. Who are you? Why are you aiming that gun at me?”
Rosa ignored the questions. “Does your ship fly?”
Dreyfus lowered his hands and smirked. “She may not look like much, but she’s never let me down. This goddamn planet has brought out the worst in her. You ask a lot of questions, by the way.”
“I need a ride off this planet.”
Dreyfus shrugged. “I was waiting for you to make the request. I was asking myself why a resident from the Stellar Cluster dresses like a local peasant to force their way onto my ship. Can you answer my question?”
“Necessity! Let’s just say I have to make an urgent getaway.”
The captain looked at the three trucks parked in a row and raised an eyebrow. “Just you?”
“Sixty-five. Men, women, and children.”
She thought Dreyfus’s eyes would bulge from their sockets as he contemplated the number. “The answer has to be no, lady. I’m here to conduct a business transaction with the Brotherhood. I can’t carry their cargo and act as a taxi service for your waifs and strays. There simply isn’t the room.”
Rosa could see the captain was serious. She raised her gun at him again. “This is a humanitarian emergency. If I don’t get these people off Drani IV in the next few hours, their blood will be on your hands. You will help us.”
“Now hold on. Threats won’t work on me, so please stop pointing that toy gun. Second, you are the one who brought these people here. I’m just the unlucky captain who was in the wrong place when you arrived. It sounds like you have no proper plan other than hijacking a ship. Any deaths will therefore be on your head, whatever your name is. And I will continue conducting business with the locals. They may have weird ethical values, but they also have deep pockets.”
“The Brotherhood only have credits because they exploit people like these.”
Dreyfus shook his head. “I make a policy of not getting involved in local politics. All I care about is having enough credits to pay my crew, my bar tabs, and for repairs on this little beauty. I won’t get rich by acting as a charity to someone who won’t even reveal her name.”
Rosa’s dislike for the man was growing. Yet she realized she was at fault for getting off on the wrong foot with the captain. She should not have tried to intimidate Dreyfus, and she had been foolish to think otherwise. He was a simple captain of a freighter, with probably limited ambitions and no allegiance to anyone other than himself. She was asking a lot to think he would simply roll over and allow her to commandeer his ship. She wondered if she would react in the same way if the roles were reversed.
“My name is Rosa Pasma. I’m originally from Nesta, but the Brotherhood imprisoned me here when I came to find my son. That was over three years ago. These people with me were all locked up for disobeying the Brotherhood’s laws. I promised them a better life if they came with me.”
“My heart bleeds, Rosa. But you really shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“What will it take for you to transport us back to any planet in the Stellar Cluster?”
“More than you have,” scoffed Dreyfus. “Much more.”
Rosa raised an eyebrow. “How much is the Brotherhood paying?”
“That’s none of your business. I can tell you it is a good sum toward my retirement plan.”
“One hundred thousand credits?” she asked.
“Double it and add some more,” he replied, smiling wryly.
“So, let’s say a quarter of a million credits. That seems very generous for transporting fruit and vegetables. It’s a shame they’re making you wait.”
“It’s still more than I make on a standard run back home.”
“What if I said I could pay you one million credits?”
“I’d say you’re crazier than I already think you are. And you must think I’m an idiot if you believe I’ll fall for such an obvious scam. What is it? The credits will be waiting for me when we arrive at the destination.”
“No tricks. I can pay up front.”
“What did you do? Steal an expensive trinket from Zaen’s palace?”
“Something like that. Do we have a deal?”
Dreyfus began walking slowly toward her, rubbing his hands together. “One million is a good starting number. But it doesn’t really cover my costs and contingencies.”
His response was not unexpected. He was a chancer, and she had already figured he would want to haggle.
“How much?” she said, folding her arms.
Dreyfus rubbed his chin, his lips moving as if he was working out the sums in his head. “What you’re asking is very dangerous. If it’s discovered you and your friends are on my ship, the Brotherhood’s fleet may come after me.”
“Your ship has more than enough weapons to defend itself.”
“And there will be no more trade with the Brotherhood,” he continued in an unsubtle attempt to pull at her heartstrings. “They will blacklist me forever. So I need to calculate the future loss of considerable earnings.”
“Go on.”
“Five million,” he replied, his face deadpan.
It was Rosa’s turn to scoff. “One minute ago, you thought I had nothing. Now you want five million. I don’t have that much, and I wouldn’t pay it even if I did.”
Dreyfus returned her angry stare. “Four million. That’s my best offer. Take it or leave it.”
“One and a half million. That’s way more than you make in five years.”
“Don’t go making assumptions about my earnings. Worry about how much these lives cost. Three million.”
“One and three quarters,” she countered.
“No,” he replied, but she heard the hesitancy in his voice. “Two and a half.”
She shook her head. “Two million. I think that’s more than generous.”
“You obviously don’t place a high value on your life. Or on my retirement”
“Do we have a deal?” she said, holding his gaze and failing to be swayed by his deep blue eyes.
He reached out his hand, and she shook it. “You’d better not be playing me, Rosa.”
She shook her head. “There are ten crates in the back of these trucks, each of them filled with precious metals. Two of them are yours.”
“Does that mean you have ten million in total?” Dreyfus said, after spending several seconds calculating what she had just shared, his eyes glazing over for a moment. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I expect Zaen to come looking for us. Another person should arrive at any moment, and he’s due to be executed today.”
Dreyfus’s jaw dropped. “Oz Garrett?” he murmured.
Rosa smiled. “Yeah, maybe I should have mentioned him sooner.”
Chapter 53
“Is my food ready?” Zaen asked, standing and stretching his legs as Chan reentered the cloister. The cold weather was not helpful for his aging joints. At least Bevas is warmer and drier, he consoled himself.
“It is, Your Eminence,” said Chan with a concerned expression. “But I could not contact Warden Stagg or anyone at Instruction Camp Four.”
Zaen tensed at the news, not believing this could be happening. “Are there any reports of power outages?”
“None. We cannot connect to their comms equipment, but it is unclear why. I have dispatched an outrider. We should have confirmation within thirty minutes.”
Zaen instinctively knew the communications failure was too much of a coincidence. Cursing himself for trusting the day would go as he intended, he rushed from the cloister with Chan in tow, five paces behind. “Prepare the guards. I want them ready in ten minutes,” he barked.
Chan disappeared, leaving Zaen to stride back to his quarters where his two personal servants were standing, waiting to give him his daily bath.
“No time for that,” he shouted, walking past them and through his bedroom to his dressing room, barely noticing his bed was now empty, the sheets and pillows straightened. His only thought was of Garrett, convinced that he had somehow escaped the instruction camp.
“Do I have to do everything myself?” He was raging at no one in particular but directing his anger specifically at Warden Stagg. If Stagg had failed him, there would be hell to pay.
The two nervous servants caught up with him and stood quivering by the door. “Find me my battle robes. I’m going on a hunt.”
***
Confirmation that the instruction camp was empty, with the instructors killed or seriously injured, came through to Zaen just as he led the convoy of elite guards from the palace’s main courtyard. The news that Stagg’s body had been located was no consolation.
Zaen ordered the captain of the guards to head directly for the spaceport, the only logical destination for Garrett who was no doubt intent on leaving the planet and avoiding his execution.
“Mobilize the local battalion. I want no one entering or leaving the spaceport,” he instructed Chan. “And ground all flights.”
There was no telling how many hours head start Garrett had. For all Zaen knew, the man could already have taken a craft and be halfway back to the Stellar Cluster. After all, he had done it before.
“You may as well ready the planetary defense force,” he added.
At the back of his mind, he wondered how these events would play out with the Elders. With luck, he could recapture Garrett and contain news of the escape attempt. But if the worst-case scenario occurred, it was bound to raise doubt in the minds of the Elders that he was capable of joining their ranks. The damage to his prospects did not bear contemplating.
“Go faster,” he urged his driver. The armored transports behind him would simply have to keep up.
***
Zaen’s car arrived at the spaceport main gate at the same time as the local battalion commander. He stared at the unguarded gates with a sense of foreboding.
“Where are your men?” he demanded.
The commander, a man he did not recognize, cowered under his intense gaze. “I would like an answer to that question as well. Two of them were assigned here. There is no sign of a struggle.”
Zaen looked beyond the gates at the distant hangars and assorted spacecraft. All seemed tranquil, with nothing out of order. “Have there been any unauthorized departures in the past twenty-four hours?”
“They have brought nothing to my attention,” the commander replied, without confirming one way or the other.
The answer did not satisfy Zaen. “Get your men to search all those ships and hangars. There is a fugitive loose and I have a powerful reason to suspect he’s out there somewhere, looking for the means to escape Drani IV. You cannot let that happen. Do you understand me?”
The commander blanched. “Perfectly, Your Eminence. Do you want him dead or alive?”
“I don’t care. But you will if he gets away.”
Zaen turned to Chan. “Where is my captain?”
Chan was about to answer when he heard the roar of engines from the guards’ transport vehicles.
“About time,” Zaen shouted at the hapless captain. “Search the spaceport with the battalion commander’s men. You’re in overall command of the mission.”
“Yes, Your Eminence.” The captain saluted stiffly, before directing the guards to follow the commander’s men toward the first set of hangars.
“And have two of your men guard my ship. That bastard will not steal it again.”
Zaen climbed back into his car to keep warm but, within one minute, was outside once more, pacing up and down, waiting for a report that would recover the tranquility he had hoped this day would bring.
“Garrett must have had help to escape,” Zaen said to Chan, for want of anyone else being within earshot. “I want a full investigation as soon as Garrett is recaptured or killed. Proctor Chan, do not spare anyone to discover the truth. If there’s a conspiracy, I want to know everyone involved. Round them up for me.”
“Of course, Your Eminence.” Chan hoped these orders would be the end of Zaen’s paranoia. He had seen too many times how the old man was overly suspicious of those around him. It would not surprise him to receive some accusations from Zaen before this escapade was over. The unfolding events should never have arisen. If he had any chance of remaining as Zaen’s chief proctor once he became an Elder, then the complete truth, and all those who had helped Garrett, had to be uncovered.
