Jethro: First to Fight (32 page)

“No, just not as um, obsessive
compulsive as some people,” Thornby teased right back.

“Devil's in the details dear, you know that,”
Martel sighed, shaking her head mournfully.

“Maybe but...” Doctor Thornby stopped
what she was saying as the lift stopped and the doors opened. She frowned as
three bald human men were standing there. “Um, sorry,” she said as the two
women got off the lift.

“You are quite right doctor, you are
sorry,” the man with the brutal face said as the large male grabbed both women
from behind. A quick move and they were in the nearby broom closet. The door
closed behind them. Thornby gasped but before she could put up a fight the
leader flashed a pulser. He let her get a good look before he holstered it and
opened a bag.

“What do you want?” Martel demanded
plaintively. She was practically in tears, hands up in front of her chest,
afraid for her life, and for good reason.

“What does it look like lady?”

“I don't know?!? I'm just a geneticist!”
Martel said. “You want credits? Take my ID! Here!” she dropped her ID. Three
scooped it up.

“Do we look like common scrags lady? We
want what everyone wants. The shipment.”

“You're insane. You'll never get it off
the station. And if you do it'll be tracked!”

“Maybe, but then again, maybe not,” the
leader said, smiling coldly. “That's for me to know, and you too well... guess
at I suppose,” he said nastily.

“Hey, um, One we don't need two right?”
Three asked. He was a thin guy, rat faced, almost stick like. He held a cut
down pulser in one hand. The pulser looked well used.

“Shut it. Two is better than one,” One
said as the big bruiser held both women in his arms.

He must have been a heavyworlder, he was
incredibly strong Thornby realized. She knew she was in trouble but wasn't sure
why help hadn't arrived yet.

The leader applied zip ties to the
wrists of each woman, then zipped their wrists to their throats. He grinned
nastily as he stuffed rags in their mouths and then taped them shut. “Carry
them two, let's get out of here,” he said, turning away. “Oh and ladies? If
you're expecting someone to ride to your rescue, keep hoping. We've got that
covered.”

Three was at the door, he looked and
then nodded. Carefully they headed out. Both women shuffled along, fists
clenched in front of them. Thornby felt through her link and hit the distress
signal. After a moment she felt a response from her computer in her office,
then her signal went out and all hell broke loose. She closed her eyes as
inquiries flooded her implants, drowning her in noise and demands.

She stumbled, and the hood behind her
poked her. “Pay attention lady,” the one called two grumbled.

Thornby glanced longingly to the
warehouse distinct. They weren't that far away.

“Don't worry lady,” she heard. They
paused at a corner. The bald male called One smirked at her. “We'll head over
there and pick up what we want later. Everyone cooperates and you'll be home by
breakfast. They give us any shit and they'll be picking you out of the
recyclers for months,” he said, smiling a nasty smile. He had gold incisors,
and a battered face. He stared at her coldly with his red eyes, making sure she
knew he meant business before he brusquely waved them onward.

After about a hundred meters they paused
when Three touched his ear. He swore. “Boss,” he said, holding a fist up. Two
bumped the girls then yanked them back against his chest.

“What?” One demanded angrily.

“We've got trouble. Cops. They are
around us, cutting us off.”

“Shit! Mae!” he snarled, turning away
and pulling out a microphone.

...*...*...*...*...

Jethro heard the distress signal and
responded, leaving his post first at a trot, then a run as Lieutenant Myers
reported she wouldn't get to the Commander for another twenty minutes. As he
ran the panther watched the feed from the good doctor in a window on his HUD.
Station security had cut off their planned egress and they were now trapped in
a blind corridor. One of the men was picking at a vent cover, trying to get the
thing off. He angrily yanked off the clear mask he'd had on so he could see and
breath better.

“I thought you said this was a sure
thing Richy, I mean...”

“Shut your pie hole! And what'd I say
about names duffus?”

“Sorry Richy,” the big brute holding the
two women said.

His leader looked up to him and sighed,
shaking his head in disgust. “Amateurs,” he muttered, thoroughly disgusted.
“Surrounded by nitwits and buffoons.”

Jethro winced, the doctor was rolling her
eyes, disorienting him. He missed a step and slowed his stride to compensate.

“What I don't get is why the camera
trick didn't work. You said it was a sure thing. Mae had it all done right?”
The big guy asked, with a growing whine in his voice. He jerked the ladies
around and pushed them to their knees.

“Apparently something else happened or
the damn AI saw through it,” Richy replied, not looking up as he used a
multitool to patiently unscrew the bolts holding the vent on. “I just need to
get three off and we're out of here. How is it going Three?”

“Three?” Duffus asked stupidly, then
looked around. He looked at the guy leaning against the corner with a pulser in
his hands. “Um...”

“Yes he means me. Damn I don't know
where you were picked up from or why. Dumb muscle indeed,” the thin human said,
shaking his head. “We're cool. They're sending a bot in from what I can hear
and see. Mae's feeding me the camera feed from their line.”

“Oh.”

Suddenly the man stopped. “Can they hear
us?”

“Why?”

“Cause all the cops just stopped what
they were doing and all looked at the damn cameras. Spooky.”

“I'd say somethings up. They know we're
tinkering with their feed. Mae's about out of time.”

“She knows,” Three said, shaking his
head. He was a cold one, cold blue eyes, bald, with tribal tattoos on his lean
frame. He had a ripped blue tank top on, and parachute pants. The pockets were
stuffed with gear.

As Jethro got to the line he nodded to
the cops and robot cordoning it off. But as one put out his hands to stop him
Jethro ripped off his uniform and handed it to the man. The polar bear stood
there stunned as the panther kicked off his boots, handed him his pulser and
then began to cloak. “Hold this. I'll be back for it in a minute,” Jethro
growled as he disappeared.

A cop behind the polar bear turned just
as the cloak finished. He gaped like a fish, mouth open in stunned disbelief.

Jethro danced through security, turning
sideways when necessary, but quickly moving through the line of armed people
and robots to get to the front.

He'd been careful to cloak outside the
feed the hoods were monitoring. Hopefully this Mae wasn't monitoring it
directly. He watched on his HUD as the hood named Three looked down at a tablet
in his free hand to keep an eye on things. His distraction nearly got him
squished by a moving explosives robot. He slid past the thing and then creeped
up to the line.

Men and women, some human, some Veraxin,
a few Neo's were there in police uniforms. A few had SWAT armor. It was just
the hood's bad luck to have abducted the doctors on the same deck as an earlier
SWAT call. Jethro snorted and froze as the men looked around. Slowly he got
around them and cut the corner wide.

The hood named Three looked right at
him, but kept turning his head scanning the area. Slowly Jethro creeped on all
fours, stealthfully stalking the enemy. He noted the leader Richy had finished
his second bolt and was tearing at the vent. He was bending it, but he was
wasting his time trying to bend it instead of just removing the last bolt and swiveling
the thing out of the way.

Jethro made a quick assessment and then
acted, using his enhanced strength he slammed the leader Richy into the
bulkhead head first when no one was looking. As he slumped the other two turned
to him in confusion. Jethro felt his concentration slip as he moved faster,
slicing his claws into Three's gun hand, making the man gasp and drop the
weapon in shock and pain.

Just as the man clutched at his bleeding
hand and started to scream Jethro rabbit punched him in the gut. He folded,
gasping and falling to the deck in clear view of the cops around the corner.

By this time the dumb hood Duffus
twigged that something was up and grabbed the doctor. He turned and the
doctor's feet were thrown into the air, clipping Jethro. The panther grunted at
the impact but didn't slow, he moved into the man's personal space and gripped
his throat with his right hand and then uncloaked.

The big human male froze at the grip at
his throat, then wet himself as an apparition decloaked in front of him. Jethro
was snarling, panting slightly, ears flat, eyes narrowed. “Give me an excuse,”
he growled dangerously, throwing subsonics from his implants into that growl.

Slowly the man's grip loosened and he
let the doctor go. She stomped on his foot and he winced but didn't move as she
ducked under Jethro's arm and called out to the officers.

“Wha... what the hell are you?” The man
asked, eyes wide. He was sweating bullets, hands open at his sides as security
forces rounded the corner cautiously and took down Three, forcing him onto his
stomach and his hands behind his back to cuff him.

“You're worst nightmare. A Marine,”
Jethro snarled as the cops got to him. He let go as they snarled for everyone
to get on the floor.

“You okay Commander?” Jethro asked,
nodding to the doctor. “Doctor?” he asked, looking down to doctor Martel,
noting the leader Richy was being cuffed. Roughly the cops jerked him to his
feet and hustled him out of the area.

“Doctor Martel?” Jethro asked as Doctor
Thornby knelt by her side.

“She's okay, we're both okay, thanks to
you. Thanks to all of you. Thank you,” Doctor Thornby said. She was a little
worse for wear, with a black eye and torn lip, but she seemed okay. Jethro let
out a deep breath as the human smiled to him and mouthed the words thank you to
him.

...*...*...*...*...

Jethro stood to one side a few minutes
later as medics cleaned the doctors up. He'd gotten his gear from the bemused
polar bear and was now dressed once more. “They say doctors make the worst
patients,” Doctor Martel murmured as Thornby tried to see the tablet the medics
were using to view her test results.

Jethro snorted. The amusement however
died as Lieutenant Teague and Lieutenant Myers arrived on the scene. Teague
seemed interested in the goings on, but Myers seemed pissed. The panther gulped
as the Marine officer looked around and then put her hands on her hips.

“I suppose you're proud of yourself?”
she demanded, eying the panther.

Jethro just stood there at attention.

“If he isn't I am. Good work Corporal,”
Commander Thornby said. Myers glanced her way. Thornby turned to her. “The lad
saved my wrinkled ass. I'm grateful,” she said.

“Commander Thornby...” Myers sighed.

Thornby held up her hands. “Yeah yeah,
your domain. I get it. He's a Marine, you're a Marine,” Thornby said, half out
loud, half through their shared implant chat.

“Right. He also left his post,” Myers
said, glaring at Jethro. “Give me your report,” she said with a sigh. Jethro
dumped the report to her, and then the Commander fumbled with her implants
before she did too. Lieutenant Teague looked up as both individuals CC'd a copy
to her. She nodded her thanks and then went back to talking with the big brute
who was blubbering like a baby about not wanting to go to jail.

Lieutenant Myers stood their silently,
watching the video feed before she turned an eye on Jethro. The Corporal
gulped. He was reprimanded by Lieutenant Myers who warned him it could have
been a trap.

“They could have drawn you off, then
ambushed your partner. That was stupid and reckless Corporal, you should have
waited for back up. They are professionals, just not well organized.”

Jethro snorted softly.

“Okay, not quite professionals. Amateurs
really, stupid ones,” Myers said shaking her head.

One of the men, the one called Richy
looked up indignantly. He spat on the deck.

She frowned at him but ignored his
disdain. “But even stupid thugs can be dangerous. Did it ever occur to you that
they could have killed a hostage?”

“But ma'am, we're guarding an empty
room. We've already moved the equipment yesterday evening,” Jethro said loudly.
The abductors looked up and groaned.

“You mean, all this for nothing?” The
one called Three demanded plaintively, kicking the leader as he clutched at his
bandaged arm. The leader hung his head and swore.

“No we haven't,” Thornby murmured over
their shared implant chat link.

“Shush ma'am. They don't know that,”
Jethro said ingeniously. Myers hid a chuckle.

Teague looked up and shot him an
approving grin. She knew what he was doing, it would get back to the backers
and throw them off until they could get the load moved.