Gunship (59 page)

It was for these weapons that Welch had decided to forge an agreement. That and the fact that the aliens would fight anyone who opposed him as long as he kept his side of the agreement and returned the solar systems that had been lost to them in the Armistice. He had also offered to hand over the agent who had brokered these deals: Commander Alex Zain. The aliens had provided a list of Zain’s personnel that they wanted transferred to their control. Welch of course had agreed immediately, especially since the names on the list made up the majority of any viable opposition to his consolidation of power. Now all he had to do was sit back and wait. Between the aliens and his implanted ISU troopers, Welch was confident that Zain had no chance. They would be routed once their location was discovered, and the last opposition to his rule would be ended. Welch smiled inwardly at the thought of boundless power and what he could do with it. He glanced back to the screen at the commander as he finished his detailed report of the weapons being transferred to AOC control. Once Zain was gone, he would deal with the Vhax. Part C of his final plan. He remained composed and waited for the commander to stop speaking.

“I trust none of your troops were harmed in the attack?” Welch inquired, feigning politeness.

“Yes, several were killed, but they died bravely and in battle, honorably.” The commander flashed again and then was still. Welch nodded absently and performed a series of brief hand gestures meant to convey gratitude and regret. He really could care less about alien losses, but for now, a little could go a long way. The commander acknowledged his gestures with a brief series of his own.

Welch continued, “The base that Commander Zain was thought to occupy was found to be abandoned. My forces are continuing to seek him and his fighters, but we have no new intelligence yet. If you discover any information, I would be very keen to hear about it. He has several fighters whom I would like brought to me alive if possible. I would like to interrogate them before turning them over to you for your uses. I have sent you photos. The woman is especially of interest to me. I would be most grateful for her intact return and offer an additional solar system if you or your forces should capture her.”

The commander turned his head to examine the photos on the screen. Reilly Campbell and Joby Ty featured prominently, along with Forlan Chang, Trace Callum, and a few others. He turned back to Welch and uttered a few more clicks and groans to the translator.

“These are some of your heroes from the battles of the past. The woman Campbell—I can guarantee her life for the system, since it will give life back to my people. The others also killed many. I can offer no guarantee for them without a similar agreement. The sight of them alone will cause much anger, and in battle it will be difficult to stop my troops from frenzy. Without an agreement, they will die.”

Welch nodded. “I understand. For now, I offer an agreement for the woman only. If the others survive and can be brought to me, I will work on other agreements depending on the shape they are in and if they will live or not.”

“Then we will keep the woman alive and perhaps the others. Our word to you.” The commander completed another series of gestures expressing gratitude, honor, and respect that Welch responded to before the holoscreen turned off.

He delicately opened the folder in front of him and for the hundredth time stared at Reilly’s photo. He was still furious that she had tricked him, that she had dared to tell him no, dared to turn down his offer. Her defiance only made him more determined to track her down. She was too valuable to kill. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t use other methods to make her more compliant. He ran a finger around the cold steel collar that sat on the edge of the desk on a stand. He had designed it himself, covering it in a beautiful carved pattern accentuated by several opals and rubies. She would look fantastic in it, doing his bidding, standing by his side. Welch let his mind wander as he relished the possibilities. In time and with the appropriate application of pain, he was certain she would be his. His plans had never failed. If he wanted Reilly Campbell at his side, then she would be there.

He closed the folder and leaned back in his chair, watching the security feeds. The feed of Raymond leading his new pet around another convoluted pathway on the ship was beginning to bore him. The boy stayed close to the psychopath, looking around as if he expected someone to jump out and kill him at any moment. Perhaps they had tried, since he had a long gash along one cheekbone. His showing so far had depressed Welch. He had high hopes that the boy would have taken out Raymond himself, but apparently that was too much to expect. Instead, he appeared to be yet another cowardly bootlicking minion in a long line of minions Raymond had trained, kept, and then killed. Too bad. Welch pushed a button, and a moment later his director of operations appeared.

“So what do you make of this?” he waved one hand at the feed as Raymond led the boy down yet another hallway and out of the camera’s view.

Dobbin shrugged. “He lives in his own world. Who knows what to make of it? Or why the boy is still alive after almost six weeks? I’d have bet against him living this long around Alton.”

Welch thought about that. Raymond probably had been torturing the boy to soften him up for training. By now his mind must be broken, so Raymond was able to bring him out without fear. Welch noted that the collar the boy had worn was gone. If only he were brave enough to venture out alone! He would very much enjoy shooting another one of the psycho’s pets. The last one had made such an impact, and it had been marvelous to watch Raymond fuss and fume, unable to do anything in light of the superior force Welch retained. But the play dragged on and the script never changed. Raymond was not a stimulating opponent, not up to his caliber. No, it was time to get rid of the insect. Welch had had enough of his annoying little games. Besides, it would be one less item he had left to clean up before completely securing his rule.

“Dobbin,” Welch said, lazily watching the screen, “tell Raymond he will need to move the cruiser to the far side of the docks by the end of the week. I need to have the space for visiting dignitaries. And then, once he’s moved, use the AOC turrets to destroy it. Understood?”

Dobbin nodded once and then left the room. His first stop was to talk to the turret gunners and arrange for the ship’s destruction. They directed him to have the cruiser park at the furthest dock to prevent explosive damage to any other ships. Dobbin noted the location and then left for the cruiser to inform Mr. Alton of the commander-in-chief’s request.

—————

Reilly’s wing lined up obediently in the starfield above Roen. The captains were the only ones aware of the true reason for the gate. Everyone else had been told it was for removing any potential tracking devices before they departed the solar system for the directional beacon. The implants would have no idea what hit them. Tiny nodded to her. The gate was active.

“Okay, folks. Let’s do this.” Reilly keyed up the mic to the wing. “We’ll start with the gunships first. It is imperative that you turn off those systems I mentioned earlier and maintain radio silence until after all of the ships have passed through the gate. We want to avoid any errant transmissions until we’re certain every ship has been cleared.”

Duv placed their gunship behind the gate while Chang and Marek hovered in the fighters to either side in case of any trouble. The ships slowly began to move through the gate and reassemble on the far side behind Reilly’s gunship. One transport ship began to list to the side as they watched and then started to drift away from the group. The other ships continued through the gate, maintaining radio silence.

Reilly watched as Chang and Marek approached the transport to see what the problem was. In a flash, the ship fired up its systems and prepared to run for it. Chang quickly strafed the rear engines, but the shields deflected the fire.

The last ship transited the gate as radio silence was broken. Yelling could be heard on the far end, followed by several shots. The transmission garbled, went out, and then came back on again.

“Foxtrot Whiskey One, this is Transport Gemini Two! Shit! Our logistics guy just went nuts…he killed a bunch of people over here…he killed the captain, too. Shit…” The man began to sob into the mic as more yelling could be heard in the background.

Reilly grabbed the mic. “Gemini Two, this is Captain Campbell. Is your vessel secure? Is the threat neutralized? I repeat, is the threat neutralized?”

The man on the mic pulled himself together long enough to give an “affirmative” and then lost it again. Another voice came on the line. “This is Gemini Two. We’ve lost our pilot as well. We’ve got no one to fly this thing.”

Reilly held the mic to her forehead.
So it begins
. She took a breath before continuing. “Gemini Two, stand by. I need all vessels to report in. Please confirm if you have lost any crew members.”

The wing began to report, and within a few minutes, additional reports came in. Six more bodies plus the Gemini II logistics crewmember accounted for all of the Tether’s implants. The radio rumbled with concern as chatter caught like wildfire between the ships. Reilly nodded at Tiny, who squelched the comms, allowing Reilly to override them so she could speak.

“This is Captain Campbell. The men and women who are now dead were part of a plan to infiltrate our wing. They were implants and they won’t be last ones we’ll be seeing. My advice to you is to put them out an airlock soonest. We aren’t sure if they can still be tracked by the devices after they die. Our intelligence indicated that there were eight of them hidden in our wing. I found one aboard our ship as well, so that accounts for all of them. I know you would’ve liked to know up front about the gates, but I couldn’t risk releasing that information. If the implants had been alerted, they could’ve avoided the gates and caused problems for us later. Get used to not getting everything up front. I will withhold information if it means saving lives.”

Reilly paused. “If these were your friends, then I’m sorry for your loss. But this is the kind of war we are facing, a war in which even our friends and families may be turned against us. So let me give you one last chance to decide if this is for you. If you want out, then dock with the Gemini Two and transfer to her. Roen will have a rescue ship and a pilot up before too long, and you can stay here. There’s no shame in that choice. Once we break orbit, though, we cannot allow you to go back, or we risk putting the entire wing in jeopardy. We can’t afford to be followed. So decide now. Enough people have died today. I don’t want to have to kill any more. You’ve got thirty minutes to offload and be ready to go.”

Reilly hung the mic back up on the wall and waited. Several ships took advantage of the offer and transferred passengers to Gemini II. Another couple flat-out refused to go after what had happened. At the thirty-minute mark, Reilly signaled to Duv to head out. Trace and Nado formed up next to them in their gunship as they made their way on to the beacon. Of the forty-three ships she had recruited, thirty-seven followed them out into deep space.

—————

Zain waited for the beacon to trigger, and while he waited, he watched a security feed that some of his best hackers had obtained from Ray Alton’s space station, or what was left of it. He was especially interested to note Tiny’s role in the rescue and how infatuated Alton seemed to be with her. He tugged on his lip thoughtfully. The confrontation between Welch and Alton was also valuable information. Two psychopaths with trust issues who hated each other was like having oil and a match and being told to start a fire. Zain was dying to find a way to pit them against each other. He set that thought aside, pondering the video feeds as they continued. Welch obviously wanted Reilly Campbell, but for what purpose? Did he really want her and her crew to take over leadership of his war machine? Or was there some other reason behind his interest? These were all critical points he could look to exploit if he could get inside their planning loop. He reminded himself to thank the hackers later for their fine work. The intelligence from the feeds would be very helpful as he planned his next move.

Still, he was missing one thing: Seth Jackson had vanished. The boy had disobeyed a direct order. The control programs must have malfunctioned, since he had failed to check in. Zain had given up after keying the pain controls with no result. The kid was either resistant to them or he was dead. Either way, it only served to remind him of the wasted time and training for a mission that wouldn’t happen. The mission that could have ended the war and saved so many lives. Now he would have to start over. The cost in lives had already gone far beyond what he considered to be acceptable losses. Even if he won the war at this point he would lose. Once the AOC regrouped, Zain had no doubt that his punishment for failing would be swift and decisive. Still, he had been entrusted with this mission, and it was his to see through to the end.
Whatever end that might be.

His communication suite lit up as the beacon was accessed. Reilly Campbell appeared on his screen.

“I’m transferring the encrypted coordinates to you now for the new base. Be advised that these should not be shared out among uncleared vessels and personnel.” Zain watched for her reaction.

Reilly acknowledged receipt of the coordinates before responding. “Sir, I have thirty-seven vessels under my command. And they will all be given this information.”

He smiled, but it looked more like a grimace. “Already pushing the limits? And here I thought there’d be a grace period. Don’t forget who you’re working for, Campbell. How do you know these people can be trusted? They could be the enemy. I’d hate to see you lose us the war from the start.”

Reilly looked at him coldly. “We gated them. But that’s interesting, that comment about trust and the enemy, sir. Funny thing about the enemy is you never are quite sure who that might be these days. Could be an implant from Welch, could be your own commander. Guess we’ll just have to keep eyes out all around.”