Theogony 1: Janissaries (15 page)

“
We have a problem,
”
Top commed to Calvin.

“
What’s the problem?
” Calvin answered. He knew there
was an exercise going on out in the woods, but didn’t have time to attend it.
Night was the observer for it while Calvin got some of the backlogged paperwork
completed. He was also supposed to have dinner with Sara tonight, which was the
only thing keeping him going on the paperwork. She had called and said that she
had something important to tell him.

“
It seems like we have an intruder,
” Top replied. “
Yokaze
was up in a tree and let the attacking force go past him. He was planning to
come back down and pick them off from behind. Before he could climb down from
his perch, he saw someone else moving through the woods. It appeared to be a
woman dressed in a white camouflage suit. He said that he might not have seen
her, except for the fact that he could see a little of her black hair showing
inside her hood.
”

Calvin opened the channel to the whole platoon. “
Yokaze,
Lieutenant Commander Hobbs. Can you capture the intruder without her seeing
you?”

“
Without doubt, sir!
Yokaze replied.

“
Please do so, then,
” said Calvin, “
and bring her
to Master Chief’s cabin. I will meet you there. Night, please have everyone
meet back there.
”

“
Roger that, sir,
” Night replied. “
We’ll see you
there.
”

Calvin looked at the pile of paperwork that was still on his
desk and sighed. He hadn’t made much of a dent, and his flight tomorrow was in
jeopardy if he didn’t get some more of it done. He might have to come back
after his date tonight, damn it.

There was a fire going when Calvin got to the cabin,
although it was almost out. He stoked it up and put on a new pot of coffee. It
was cold outside, and there were about six inches of new snow on the ground.
The walk in from the road had sucked. He didn’t have to wait long before the
platoon arrived. Night carried the unconscious intruder into the cabin,
accompanied by Ryan, Top, Yokaze, Staff
Sergeant
Jim Chang, Staff Sergeant Patrick Dantone, and Sergeant Jose Morales.

Night placed her in a chair, and Ryan provided some zip ties
to secure her arms and legs to it. Calvin had Shuteye close the blinds on the
windows so that the woman couldn’t see out. If she knew who they were, she
could probably figure out where she was, but if not, there was no sense giving
it away.

As Ryan stepped back from her, the woman woke up.
“Wha..what’s going on? Where am I?”

“I’ve got this,” Night said to Calvin, stepping in front of
the woman. He put two fingers under her chin and lifted it up so he could look
into her eyes. “Who are you?”

“I’m Joyce Young,” she said, shaking slightly. “Where am I?”

“I’ll ask the questions for now,” said Night menacingly.
“What were you doing out in the woods?”

“I was just hiking,” the woman replied. “It’s not illegal to
walk in the woods, is it? I find a walk on a day like today to be very
refreshing.”

“Hey sir,” said Sergeant Morales suddenly, “I recognize this
woman. She’s been out at the bars a couple of times, talking to some of the
troops.”

“Really?” Calvin asked.

Sergeant Morales nodded his head. “Yes sir, I’m sure of it.
I was the designated driver a couple of times while she was there. I know it
was her.”

“Well, yes, that’s true,” she replied. “Woody said he was
doing some maneuvers out here in the woods, and I thought it would be fun to
come and watch. He didn’t say I wasn’t allowed to watch. I thought since it was
public land it would be OK.”

“Where do you live?” asked Night. “What is your address?”

“It’s 745 St. Helens Avenue in Tacoma,” the woman answered.

“
Solomon, Calvin. Can you tell me what is at 745 St.
Helens Avenue in Tacoma?
” Calvin asked.

“
Certainly, Calvin. Records indicate that there is a
restaurant called the Amerawcan Bistro at that address. You could do worse if
you are looking for a place to eat. The reviews for that establishment are very
high.
” Solomon replied.

“
Thanks, Solomon. Calvin out.
” Calvin cocked his head
at Joyce Young. “So, I guess you eat well, then?”

She looked puzzled. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, I was just at that address yesterday, and it’s a
little bistro,” Calvin replied. “Pretty good food, but not so great as a residence.
Why don’t you tell us who you really are?”

“My name is Joyce Young,” the woman said, “and that’s where
I live. You can look at my driver’s license if you’d like. It’s in my pocket.”

“No thanks,” said Calvin. He looked at Ryan. “Could you go
get the foreigners and bring them in? We’ll see if any of them knows who she
is.” Ryan started to go. “Oh yeah,” Calvin called, “please bring Woody too.”

Within a couple of minutes, Corporal Christian ‘Woody’
Woodard entered the cabin, accompanied by all of the foreign soldiers. “Hey,
Corporal Woodard,” Calvin asked, “do you know this woman?”

Woody looked at the woman and blushed. “Yes sir,” he said.
“I’ve seen her out at the bars a couple of times.” He looked at the floor.
“I’ve talked to her a little bit. And...umm...other stuff, too.”

“Other stuff, like of a sexual nature?” asked Calvin.

“Umm...yeah, we’ve gone out a couple of times,” Woody said.
“She’s come back to my apartment a couple of times too.”

“Uh huh,” said Calvin. “Does anyone else recognize this
woman?”

The foreign soldiers moved where they could see her face.
Calvin was surprised by the reaction that he got from Wraith, who spit at her
feet. “I recognize her,” Wraith said. “She is a Russian spy. I saw her once
when the Chinese captured me. They brought her in to help question me. You
should kill her now,” advised Wraith. Her face hardened further. “On second
thought, give me a couple of minutes with her first. If she is still alive,
then
you can kill her.”

Night moved over to Wraith and put his arm around her.
“Easy,” he said. “That’s over now.”

Wraith shuddered. Shrugging off Night’s arm, she walked toward
the door. Reaching it, she stopped and looked back at the woman with hate in
her eyes. “You should kill her now. If I ever see her again, I certainly will.”
With that, she walked out.

“Well, Miss Young, you certainly have given us a bit of a
problem,” commented Calvin with a sigh, “and I am afraid that you are going to
make me miss my date tonight.”

“Well sir,” said Night, “if you wanted, you could just give
her to me. We’ll make sure that her body is never found.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you would,” said Calvin. “I’m just trying to
look at the bigger picture and see if there isn’t something better that we can
do with her. Hmmm...” Calvin thought for a moment and then said to Night, “I’ve
got an idea. Untie her from the chair and zip tie her hands behind her back,
please. We’re going to take her to the
Gulf
.”

“Are you sure, sir?” Night asked. “Once she sees it, we
will
have to kill her.”

“Yeah,” replied Calvin, “I am. Let me have your pistol,
please.” Night handed Calvin his laser pistol and started tying her hands
behind her back.

Calvin held it up where the Russian spy could see it. “Do
you know what this is?” he asked.

The spy looked at it critically. “It looks like a child’s
toy pistol.”

“It does,” said Calvin, “but it is actually the most
powerful pistol that you have ever seen. It is not a projectile weapon. It is a
laser pistol. I’d like it a lot if you’d try to escape, that way I
could
have Night shoot you.”

“Ha!” the spy exclaimed. “If you had functioning laser
pistol, we would know. That is child’s toy, nothing more.”

“
The XO and I are going to take the spy to the
Vella
Gulf
,
” said Calvin to the platoon. “
Everyone else can go back to the
hangar and debrief. We’ll fill you in on the details when we get back.
” He
looked around to see everyone’s heads nodding. Calvin’s next call was to the
ship. “
Solomon, Calvin,
” he commed. “
Please send down a shuttle to
the landing area at Master Chief’s cabin.
”

“Where are we?” shouted Joyce Young as they brought her onto
the
Vella Gulf
. “How did we get here? What was that thing?”

“Everything will be made clear in a few minutes,” replied
Calvin. He spoke to the ship’s AI through one of the receiver/transmitter pairs
scattered throughout the ship, “Solomon, Calvin. Could you please scan the
woman with us and make sure that she doesn’t have any weapons or anything else
on her that we need to know about?”

“Certainly sir,” the AI replied, his voice coming from
speakers hidden in the walls. “Scanning...done. My scanners indicate that the
woman with you has three weapons: a knife in her left boot, metal wire for a
garrote in her other boot and explosives in her earrings. Although you didn’t
specifically ask, you would also probably want to know that she has two
electronic imaging devices on her person. One is probably disguised as a pen,
and the other is in the third button down on her jacket. I am currently jamming
the transmitter, although it is very unlikely that the transmitter has anywhere
close to enough range to transmit to the receiver she left in her hotel room.”

“By ‘electronic imaging devices,’ do you mean cameras?”
asked Calvin.

“If you want to simplify them, yes, they are cameras,”
replied Solomon. “She also has an audio recording device on her key chain.”

“Night, could you please remove the weapons and surveillance
gear from Miss Young?”

“It would be my pleasure,” he replied. He pulled out his
knife to cut the laces in her boots and took them off. He then cut off the
button with the camera and removed her pen and car keys from her pockets. He
wasn’t particularly gentle as he searched her, but neither did he go out of his
way to abuse her. It was just a thorough, professional search.

“I’m tired of playing games,” Calvin said. “Would you like
to tell me your real name?”

“My name is Joyce Young,” repeated the Russian spy. “You can
see that on my driver’s license.”

“If that’s the best you can do, we may have to take you
outside without a suit and see if you can breathe vacuum,” threatened Calvin.
“Solomon, what is this woman’s real name?”

“This woman has had many names,” the AI replied, “and
usually uses three or four of them at a time. The name that she was born with
is Irina Rozhkov.”

The woman slumped. “No one knows that name,” she said.
“Either your intelligence network is very good, or you drugged me to find that
out.” She made a biting motion, and then a look of puzzlement crossed her face.

“I took the liberty of using the transporter to remove the
poison that Miss Rozhkov is trying to take when I scanned her,” Solomon
announced. “As she was tied up when you brought her onto the ship, I assumed
she was a prisoner. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that is correct,” agreed Calvin. “Thanks.” He switched
to his implant. “
Arges, can you meet me on the bridge?
”

“
Yes, in two of your minutes,
” Arges replied.

“OK, let’s go,” said Calvin. He began walking to the bridge
with Night escorting the Russian. They entered the bridge to find Arges already
there. It didn’t take long before she made a startled sound. Calvin wasn’t
surprised; she
was
a spy, after all. She was
supposed
to notice
things that were out of the ordinary.

Ignoring her reaction, Calvin spoke to the Psiclops. “Arges,
I know you can watch what is going on in the DUCC, but can you transmit into
the DUCC as well?”

“
Do you really want her to see and hear that?
” the AI
asked via implant.

“Yeah, I do,” Calvin answered. He chuckled to himself.
Answering questions that hadn’t been asked would hopefully cause the spy some
distress as she tried to figure out how they were communicating.

The DUCC came on the center four screens. Calvin found it
somewhat disconcerting to see the president that much bigger than normal. He
hoped it had the same effect on the spy. From the looks on the faces of the
people he could see, it was obvious that his face was now on their monitor. He
could also hear several people say, “What the hell?” simultaneously.

“Sorry to interrupt sir,” said Calvin, “but we have a bit of
a problem.”

“And what would that be?” growled the president. Apparently,
he still didn’t like being interrupted in his fancy ‘secure’ meeting room,
especially by Calvin.

“We found a Russian spying on one of our training
exercises,” said Calvin. “She also has been targeting members of the platoon,
using sex to get close to them.”

“Do the Russians know you have her?” asked one of the men at
the DUCC conference table. Calvin thought he was the head of the CIA, but
wasn’t sure.

“No sir, we don’t think so,” replied Calvin after quickly
confirming it with Solomon, “but most of the squad does. Apparently, she also has
a history with some of the members. Our Korean representative had to be
restrained, or she would have killed her.”

“I recognize her,” said the same man to the president.
Calvin decided that he must be the CIA head; he was positively drooling at the
thought of getting his hands on her. “She is one of their top operatives and
someone we’d very much like to have a talk with.” The way he said it made
Calvin think ‘torture session’ rather than simply ‘talk.’ The man continued,
“Mr. President, can we have her brought down to our headquarters to debrief
her?”

The president ignored him. Looking at Calvin, he asked, “I
take it that you have a plan for her?”