Indomitable (16 page)

“Yes, we do, Sarah. Speaking of games, I need to reach the control room and push the little red button. Up for a little ruse?”

Sarah chewed her lip in thought. “I don't know—Lieutenant Cahill isn't that bad. But, you—you're Lieutenant Promise Paen. Well, what are they going to do to me? Fire me for becoming a hostage in a war game.” Sarah unclasped her utility belt and handed it to Kathy. “Go on—take it.” She undid the front of her coveralls, stepped out, and tossed her clothes to Promise. Her skivvies were civilian-grade. Royal-purple separates finished with enough white lace to cover her vitals. Unlike her face, her construction was far from plain.

Promise heard a couple of mouths pop open behind her.

“Mouths closed, gentlemen.” Promise took the coveralls from Sarah and quickly dressed. “Thank you, ma'am. My men are in your debt.”

Sarah placed her hands on her hips and gave the gunny a once-over. “You—comm me later and we'll call it square. Make that an order.” She winked at the now-blushing Tomas Ramuel and jerked her head down the corridor. “Take the lift to the twenty-third floor. Exit and head left through two more corridors; take the third one right, and then an immediate right. You'll probably need this.” Sarah pulled her minicomp out of the cup of her bra and handed it to Promise. “When you get there you'll understand why.” Then she turned to her civilian colleague with mischief in her eyes. “Strip.”

*   *   *

As the lift doors
opened, two ANDES swiveled round to meet them.

“I-dent please,” warned the one on the left in a pleasant-sounding voice.

Promise stepped into the lift's threshold and held up Sarah's minicomp to the I-dent port on the sentinel's chest. “Here you are, sentinel.”

The ANDES considered Promise a moment, and then ducked to peer into the lift. It suddenly jerked upright, turned to its left, and walked across the corridor and into the opposite wall. The wall cracked and the ANDES went still. The second ANDES sat down and put its head in its lap.

“Everyone out,” Promise ordered.

“That one's flexible,” Kathy observed as she crouched next to Promise, rifle scanning for hostiles.

Private Atumbi and Sergeants Morris and Sindri crouch-walked around Promise and into the open, scanning for targets. Maxi kept to the wall nearest the lift and moved forward several meters, toward a set of double doors. Found them locked. Staff Sergeant Go-Mi and Gunnery Sergeant Ramuel maintained overwatch positions from their partially concealed positions just inside the lift.

To his credit, Atumbi's approach was close to textbook: He was balled up to present the smallest target possible, and he was leading with his fixed sights. The only sign of self-doubt was the sweat on his brow, which on a more experienced Marine might have been overlooked completely. Atumbi and Morris reached the wall opposite the lift, and took up defensive-fire positions. After scanning the corridor, they signaled Maxi, and Maxi motioned the all-clear. Only then did Promise walk into the open.

Kathy and Promise were dressed in civvie coveralls. Kathy's were large enough to fit two of her in each leg, and the material scuffed as she walked.

“Can you be any louder?” Promise did a quick three-sixty. “Kathy, I need eyes in the sky.”

Kathy stuck out her tongue and then took a knee. She pulled two disks from a thigh compartment and slid them across the deck. Maxi did the same but in the opposite direction. Before the disks had slid to a halt, the tops opened. Four swarms of whiskers took flight. The insect-sized probes hovered for a moment before forming into flights and accelerating away. Almost immediately the map loaded to Promise's minicomp began to update.

Still no challenge,
Promise thought.
I have a bad feeling about this.

“Wait, I've got two tangos headed our way,” Kathy subvocalized over her mastoid implant. “Twenty meters and closing … in that direction.”

“Kathy, you're with me. Maxi, I want to know what's through those doors.” Promise pointed to the doubles that were locked. “Everyone else, hide.”

Promise walked back toward the lift where both ANDES were. She held her minicomp out in front of her and started talking loudly with her free hand and an affected drawl. “Beats me. I've scanned these two twice and can't locate the problem. This one's gyroscope and optics must be shot through. That one crapped out on the floor. We're gonna need a gravsled to haul both to the shop. I knew we should have brought one with us. Told you so myself.”

Kathy's mouth dropped open. “Ah—right, ma' … Mary. What a pain in the rear! Guess I was wrong. I'm sorry.…”

Promise shook her head at her guardian. Gave her a look that said,
Is that the best you can do?

Kathy shrugged her shoulders, turned, and walked over to the ANDES sitting on the floor. She kicked it in the side, and then again in the head. “Stupid frogging ANDES! Armored-up but no one's home.”

The two tangos rounded the corner, hands on their sidearms. A medium build lance corporal named Childs wore light makeup and neatly trimmed brows. A balding sergeant named Korviscante took the lead. “Just what do you think you're doing?”

“Taking out my frustration on this worthless piece of tech,” replied Kathy from down the hall. She looked back at her CO and smiled. “Lieutenant Cahill told us to fix them. Well, when I get done, they're going to be in a world of hurt.”

“Uh-huh. I don't recognize either of you. I-dent please.” The sergeant's hand twitched at his sidearm. “Slowly.”

Kathy walked up to the senior noncom with her minicomp outstretched as Promise reached into a deep front pocket to fish out hers too.

“Here is mine,” said Kathy.

“And, here is mine, Sergeant.”

The sergeant's pulse pistol was nearly out when he got shot. His chest tag started blinking red.

“That was fast, Sergeant. Well done.” Promise leveled her pulse pistol at him and motioned to the floor. He slowly pulled his weapon and tossed it. “What gave me away?”

“Your accent vanished.”

“Perceptive.” Promise held out her hand. “Lieutenant Promise Paen of Victor Company.”

Korviscante and Childs came to attention and saluted. “Ma'am, we weren't expecting you.”

Promise returned the salute and shot them both again, paying deference to the sergeant's higher rank first. “Kathy, tie them up. Sorry to drop you this way. But, I intend to take this station and…” Korviscante's eyes glazed over. “Oh, that would be the lieutenant on the comm, right?” Korviscante nodded slowly. “Okay, Sergeant, here's what I want you to tell Lieutenant Cahill.”

 

Nineteen

APRIL 24
TH
, 92 A.E., STANDARD CALENDAR, 0625 HOURS

REPUBLIC OF ALIGNED WORLDS PLANETARY CAPITAL—HOLD

PUGILIST SEA, CORREGIDOR ISLAND WARFARE TRAINING CENTER

“This is strange,” said
Atumbi. “Why would the Corps build a passageway to nowhere?”

“The Navy Corps of Engineers built this place,” said the gunny.

“Oh.”

“Now, now, Gunny. Our Navy brethren aren't the ignorant irradiated spacers we make them out to be, at least not all of them,” Promise said. She scrunched up her nose in thought. “Give me a hand.” Promise set her minicomp on Kathy's outstretched palm. A holomap of the twenty-third floor appeared above it. A small blinking icon winked to life a moment later, marking their location on the schematic. They watched as the whiskers scouted unknown passageways, updating the map's blacked-out areas with the exact positions of doors and the internal dimensions of offices and various other rooms.

“The control room is supposed to be here. It's not,” Promise summarized. “It has to be here, unless…”

“That sergeant you shot fed us bad intel,” Kathy said. “Can't blame him for taking it personally.”

“We did zip-tie and stuff him in a utility closet,” Promise added thoughtfully. “That might have been a bit much.”

“What about this room?” asked Kathy. She stabbed a large rectangular-shaped area near the center of Floor 23. Maxi's icon wasn't far away. “One of the whiskers stopped here but didn't enter. Why?”

“Maxi, please check it out,” Promise subvocalized over her mastoid implant.

“Aye, aye, ma'am. Stand by.”
One mike later Maxi had the answer.
“I found the head.”

“Oh, good. Nature calls,” replied Kathy.

Staff Sergeant Go-Mi looked down the bridge of her nose, clearly not amused.

“I found a morgue full of ANDES too,”
Maxi added.
“I walked in, cued the lights, and found myself surrounded by assault-class drones. I nearly creamed my skivvies.”

“Any signs of static defenses?”

“None. Not a single blip. Except for the ANDES in the closet, this floor appears to be empty. I checked a couple of offices and a maintenance hatch on my way back. They were all unlocked, and the hat racks were empty too. I found some personal effects, framed stills mostly. I also found a small arms locker, which was locked tight—no surprise there. And I found this.”

An image of a small menu appeared in the air, adjacent to the holomap.
“It loaded to my comp when I stepped inside a Sergeant Tiller's office,”
said Maxi.
“A Captain Copenhagen is making flapjacks.”

Promise read the menu's header: “Flapjack and freshly brewed caf, 0615–0700 hours. Come while it's hot.” Toppings included local berries found on the island, fried eggs, syrup, and crisped bacon.

“Let's drop by when we wrap this up,” Kathy suggested. “I'm hungry.”

Promise glanced at her chrono. “Your stomach can wait. We have seven mikes to find the control room and press the little red button before breakfast is over. Stop pouting, Kathy. You'll survive.”

“
This
isn't right, ma'am,” Staff Sergeant Go-Mi said. “Where is everyone?”

“Isn't it obvious?” said Kathy, clearly annoyed. “They're at breakfast.”

Go-Mi was not amused. “This entire enterprise is a waste of time. Ma'am, can we please get on with this?”

“Let's take a closer look at Atumbi's passageway to nowhere,” Promise said. “Gunny, Atumbi—watch the mouth of the p-way. Shoot anything that enters.”

*   *   *

“The walls are taller
here. I wonder why.” Promise followed the three-meter-high rock face to where it joined with the overhead.

“Looks like a dead end to me,” said Kathy.

“Looks like a Navy corridor to nowhere,” said Maxi.

“Looks can be deceiving.” Promise pulled Sarah's minicomp from a thigh pocket and tossed it in her hand. “Sarah said I would need this. Why?” Promise touched the screen, and nothing happened. She turned it over in her hand and shrugged her shoulders. “This isn't coded to me. What am I supposed do with it?” Promise walked to the wall and ran her fingers across the uneven rock. “Where's an I-dent port when you need one?”

“Ma'am, it just appeared, right there.” Private Atumbi pointed to the left-facing wall, at about eye level, to a small recess in the rock, just inside the mouth of the passageway.

“That wasn't there a moment ago,” Kathy said. “I think there's a projector in the wall.”

“Good work, Atumbi.” Promise held Sarah's minicomp up to the interface.

They all turned when a low hum began emanating from the dead end behind them. A seam appeared in the rock. It became a step, and then two steps, and soon an entire flight of stairs lay before them. And they could hear someone coming down.

“Maybe that's Lieutenant Cahill.”

“If it is his timing is perfect.” Promise commed the lieutenant over her mastoid implant.

“Who is this?” The voice echoed down the stairs and into the passageway, and the footfalls stopped.

“Lieutenant Promise Paen.”

“Ah, Lieutenant, so sorry about today. Better luck next time.”

“I certainly hope so,” Promise subvocalized. “Your defenders did well. Congratulations.”

Kathy spun her pointer finger in the air and looked up. “Here they come now.” When the whiskers flew by and up the stairs, Kathy turned around. “Stay on me.”

They took the stairs one at a time, up one flight to a landing and a switchback, up a second flight to another landing with a small window to the outside. Beaches and ocean stretched out far below. They encountered Cahill on the third flight and almost knocked him over. He wore tan utilities and the single gold bar of a first lieutenant on each collar point.

“Sorry about that, Lieutenant,” said Kathy, who offered him her hand and yanked him to his feet when he refused to take it.

“Just what is the meaning of this?” sputtered Cahill.

“Lieutenant Cahill,” Promise said, extending her hand, “I'm Lieutenant Promise Paen. I'm afraid you're my prisoner for the duration of this exercise.”

“We'll see about that.” Cahill reached for his sidearm, but not before Sergeant Morris had a hand on it.

“I'll take that, sir.” Morris drew the weapon and tucked it into his web belt.

“Lieutenant Paen, I don't know what you hope to accomplish—”

“Lieutenant Cahill, I'm a bit pressed for time. Let's do this up top. Everyone up.” Promise motioned up the steps with the business end of her pulse pistol.

“I will not be manhandled. This is my installation. Remove your hands from me this instant, and point that thing somewhere else or … or I'll have you court-martialed.”

“Not today, Lieutenant,” said Promise. “After you, sir.”

To Promise's surprise, the nexus of the mountain was little more than an excavated chamber with rough-hewn walls. Three workstations and four folding chairs sat facing a wall of clear armorplaste. A small table sat against one wall with a cup and the remains of Cahill's breakfast on it. A broken-down ANDES stood next to it. The lack of security was appalling. Mount Bane's exterior was all bravado and balls, ANDES standing guard and ground-based launchers searching the skies. Inside the mountain was a paper tiger.