“It seems they have a section of northern Trenaport that has become blind to them! DefConnie in the Mountain reports it is not blind to her, but the guys upstairs think it might be a computer security problem. Go up and take a look.” The lieutenant ordered.
“Okay LT.” Alice replied. She got her tool kit and went up to the surveillance shop. It didn’t take her long to get there and five minutes after she got there she knew what the problem was.
“You have been hacked.” Alice told the unit commander, “Loos like an AI has been messing with you! I’ve put in a better firewall, and an alarm, so if anything is blocked again, you’ll think the GQ alarm got switched on. I’ve located the records and have emailed them to you Captain.”
“Do I need to deactivate the AIs.” the captain asked.
“No,” Alice said. The bugs she had placed around and in the computer would tell her the story. It was the best lead she had gotten so far while in orbit. Her suspicion concerning DefConnie was growing. DefConnie was the only AI that could misdirect the surveillance system without drawing attention. “No it wasn’t the expert system. It was a ground based AI that was messing with you! I think we’ve got a handle on it.” “Thanks Sarge,” the captain said.
“Anytime captain,” Alice replied and left the center. Before finishing with the surveillance computers she had sent herself a copy of the surveillance data that she sent to the captain. She reviewed them as she went back to the cyber cops shop. When she did it stuck out like a sore thumb. The time span for the outage was the same time span that Lady Wilson had been abducted for. They were for a twenty block area of Northern Trenaport.
That part of Trenaport that was mostly evacuated. She was sure that was where Lady Wilson was being held. She needed to get back down and talk to the people hunting for Lady Wilson.
As she walked into the security shack she quickly had a set of orders written for her, assigning her to the Trena Mounted Patrol team hunting Lady Wilson. When the lieutenant told her about the new orders she, she quickly reported on her activities in the surveillance shack, before leaving to pack her bags. The orders said for her to immediately report to Mr. Kellogg at the Mounty headquarters. With Bugs in his carrier she started for the departure lounge. Bugs had made a lot of friends on the station. No one knew that he was a robot! He was becoming the unofficial mascot for the unit; but no one understood why they had never seen him chase the occasional rodent that popped up in the security spaces.
The LT thinking that Alice would be on station until they closed up shop, was surprised to see that she was being transferred out. Already she had found several cyber computer criminals and fixed several dozen leaks in the system. He was enjoying her competency. None of his other investigators, including the AI had her skills. She was going to be sorely missed as they began to automate the station, and prepare it to be bombarded by the asteroid field. He made a call to his boss at the computer security division at the Mountain on Trena.
“Major,” the lieutenant spoke into the communicator. “I know it’s highly irregular, but I want to field promote a Tech Sergeant to a Second Lieutenant.” “Why,” the major asked.
The lieutenant discussed what he knew of Sergeant Jones’ background, what she had done for him, for the logistics command, and for the palace. He felt she had earned a promotion to lieutenant.
“Okay Ralph,” The major said, he had recommended the lieutenant to his current posting, and the lieutenant had been a warrant officer before he had been promoted to lieutenant. He knew that the LT was not one to promote his people ahead of zone, or to recommend his people for an unusual promotion. He was a good officer that nurtured his people and prepared them for their next assignment. If he was recommending one of his cyber cops be promoted to an officer she had to be hot shit. The major pulled up Alice’s personnel file and made a snap decision. The promotion may only be valid for a couple of months, but she had all the paper work, education, as well as the skills to become a lieutenant. He saw her new orders and then added an addendum. Upon completion of her current assignment Alice was assigned to the Mountain as a first lieutenant in charge of a cyber-security platoon. They were short a lieutenant in that unit and the sergeant that was running it refused to be promoted to a lieutenant. It was a fix the officer liked. The promotion was immediate.
Alice had just gotten to the debarkation lounge for her trip to Trena when a private from her old unit came up to her.
“Sarge,” the private greeted her, “new orders from the Mountain. Oh the LT said to give you these.”
He handed her two single silver bars.
“He also said to keep up the good work, LT.” The young man stepped back brought himself to attention and gave her, her first salute. Not sure why he would salute her she returned it.
“Oh,” Alice commented as she took the paper from the private’s hand and then read the orders. A little stunned, she said “Tell the LT, I have received my orders and will comply. Oh, and tell him thank you.”
“Aye-aye LT.” the private a young kid that Alice had been working with over the last week showed a lot of promise and had a bit of a crush on her. He saluted her again and left in a hurry. As he left one of the officers waiting to go planet side turned to her and asked, “What’s going on sergeant?”
Alice showed him the orders, he shook he is head saying, “You know this is the first time I have ever heard of being given a promotion in transit. What gives?”
“I don’t know,” the humbot replied, “I will be heading up a cyber-security platoon when I get down.”
“Lieutenant,” the major said, “You’re out of uniform!”
“I am at that,” Alice replied, “By your leave sir?”
The major nodded and walked away shaking his head. Things were sure a changing. Alice checked the time, and decided to treat herself. She had two hours to go before her flight. She left Bugs with the departure clerk in the departure lounge and went to the station’s uniform shop. She emailed them her sizes and what she needed. She showed the clerk her papers and soon had her uniforms. She left the shop and was just in time for her flight. On the flight down she changed from her enlisted uniform to her officer’s uniform. Wishing it didn’t look so new.
Once down, she got a port police officer to take her to Mounted Patrol Headquarters. There she went into the emergency operations center where Lord James was working with Kellogg on the latest intelligence. Kellogg who knew Alice, as did Lord James were both speechless when they saw what uniform she was wearing. Kellogg assumed it was a cover, James for his part didn’t know what to think. Alice presented her orders to Kellogg who nodded and asked, “What do you have for us lieutenant?”
“I know where Lady Wilson is,” Alice had been talking with Frasier, the Mounty AI, while in route to Mounty headquarters. She had shared what she had discovered with him. Frasier double checked the information and was ready to display the data when Alice walked into the center, “Frasier please display what we have been working on.”
Lord James looked at the thirty something officer realizing that Alice was not who he thought she was. It was one of the very few times that Alice had ever let on that she was other than a human being.
Frasier displayed the section of Trenaport that the AI had blocked. He then laid down a grid map of the same area. He had worked with the municipal service computer and found out what homes and buildings were still drawing power and might be occupied. There were five hundred buildings that someone might be in. Once the display was complete, she explained how she had come about the data.
“DefConnie thinks she’s a smart computer. She is rather dumb.” Alice said with some venom after she made her presentation. Alice was a computer packed into a human looking body, “She doesn’t know I am on to her. I’ll get her next week. After we rescue Lady Wilson, she gets fixed!”
Kellogg and Chief James both noticed the venomous tone of voice. They both thought that it might not be a bad i
dea to stay on Alice’s good side.
“We can use those cadets for this.” Kellogg said, “I also want to set up staging for the SWAT units here.”
James nodded. Pointed to a police officer and said, “Move the SWAT to this fire station here. I want them to go from twenty four hour alert to eight hour pad alert. They roll on anything suspicious in the area.”
“I am going to the forward OP at the fire station!” Kellogg said, “Alice I want you forward deployed, to provide com security for the team.” Kellogg commanded “It’s too early to tell Lord Wilson.”
“Aye,” James agreed.
###
“It was that simple,” The princess asked, “I mean half the planet’s military and police hunting for grand mom and you found it by accident!”
“To this day,” the General replied, “I have trouble believing it myself. It was so off the wall and unanticipated that it could have been over looked. Especially when you consider how the surveillance net was off and on over that portion of Trenaport for weeks. It wasn’t until it went out for a week and the other maintenance guys were busy that we wouldn’t have even had what I found.”
“A couple of us have reviewed that data,” Lamile Mitchum commented, “Last night it seemed to us that, this was a long shot! Especially after in hindsight what we knew was going on.”
“It was at that.” General Alice Jones commented, “But it was the best lead we had.
So we went with it.”
Chapter 31: SWAT Forward OP
“It was an awesome sight to see the gathering of heroes that began assembling at the fire station.” General Jones was sitting on the edge of the desk, the following class, “We had police officers from Trena, the Companions, Trojack and SpecWars from the Black Guard. We had cadets, militia, and fire fighters begin assembling at the fire station. But it was a waiting game…”
###
It was a waiting game now. Although the SWAT team was now on 8 hour alert, all of the teams, the Mounty Team, the Trojack Team, the Black Guard, and Companion Team were all sitting in the abandoned fire house’s common room. Their gear was laid out by unit in the abandoned equipment bay. This was the worse time for the teams. They were looking over maps, and building diagrams. The waiting was in the early part. All of the advance training was over. All four teams had played both aggressor, and rescuer. All four teams thought they were the best, but in General Alpine’s opinion they were evenly matched with maybe the Trojack security unit being a little better at entry and recovery, with her Black Guard being a bit better in the infiltration with both police units being about evenly matched on infiltration and entry. She hated to admit that her Black Guardsmen were being second best by the biopeople; but her guardsmen lacked certain finesse when it came to gaining entry quickly and quietly without killing the subject. They also knew how to clear a building quickly. The detachment commander told her over dinner one evening that her NCOs were learning big time from the clones.
“Part of it is that when these guys were doing their thing, on Trojack, they didn’t want to destroy company merchandise. So they learned very early how to make an entry that didn’t get clones killed. “The captain said, “But they are good. Their infiltration has a lot to be desired. They don’t usually have to cross into an enemy held position and take it out without being spotted. I am really surprised that the MPs and the cops are good at that.”
“Yes they are good as they need to get in close and not be seen before they make an entry. So when they make entry they can do it fast and furious.” the Princess had said. “We could learn some stuff from the Companions and the Mounties. I think once we clear Trena I think I will mention to Lord Wilson, that Home might set up a Special Forces hostage rescue academy. There will be a lot of Mounties that can teach the course, and
there might be a call for them to be an on call hostage rescue team.”
“They’ll need to earn some money somehow.” the captain said.
Now the Princess stood silently watching as the four team leaders began to work out how they would do things.
“Look we know that there will be more than Hozenbur in the area. They may not have heard that we’re hunting for Hozenbur. They may think we could be hunting them. There may also be people in there ready to support Hozenbur. So we need to set up a response protocol.” The Companion Team leaders spoke. The Trojack, the Mounty, and Black Guard teams had generally accepted them as the overall Tactical coordinator. General Alphine had to admit the woman and her lifemate were good. It was unnerving to be around them sometimes. As one would start to talk then the other would finish what the other’s thought was. Or they would both begin speaking together as they were doing now and you couldn’t tell one from the other. “Unless someone objects, I have divided the twenty block area into four strike areas. Each of our teams has been assigned a strike area.
Black Guard is assigned blue; Mounties, Red; Companions Green, Trojack Yellow. Get the feel of your sector. When the sector is entered by the sweep team, I want you guys to deploy half your team forward. I want us to be ready to make the infiltration and the extraction. If your team makes the infiltration, we’ll back you up. The Mounties are securing the area. There’ll be no foot traffic and road traffic in or out of the area.
“The sweep teams will be made up of cadets from the Queens Own Royal Corps of Cadet Academy. Major Atomi will be their lead.” the Companion pointed to Lamile who was studying the map. She had been pulled from her team to attend this briefing.
“We think,” the companion continued, “That if we work out from the center. Spiraling out. I’ve been talking with Lieutenant Jones here and she agrees with me. It is significant that these twenty blocks have been blind to the surveillance team. We think that the center of the zone is where Lady Wilson is being held. It could be an elaborate spoof. But that’s where we’re going first.
“Lady Hawthorne will be here soon and she’ll oversee the deployment of the rest of the cadet teams. The rest of Lady Atomi’s guys will be arriving in the next hour or so. We have about three hours of day light left. Princess Carroll, Kellogg, are the cadets authorized to work after dark.”
“Negative.” The marine commandant said, “My guys can work after dark. They own the night, to repeat a corny phrase. You guys might miss something in the dark.
Besides it would be out of cover to doing the survey after dark.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky,” someone commented, “and get this done tonight.”
The Companions looked at each other shrugging in unison and turned to the group speaking in unison, “That would be outstanding. To continue…
“The sweep team will be doing what they have been doing for the last week or so. Checking buildings and such. The Marshal doesn’t want them in harm’s way; but they will search these buildings to ensure everyone is out of the area. Major if you stumble upon anyone call for an officer and we’ll take over. If you stumble upon Hozenbur, disengage and get out of there. We don’t want you harmed.” Lamile nodded.
“If Lady Atomi stumbles on Hozenbur she’ll get out of there and we’ll go into stack and rack. If someone else stumbles upon the captain we’ll get the cadets to safety and then go in.” the companions were quiet for a moment. Watching their faces and body language, it was obvious they were discussing something. They looked to the map then finally turned to Lamile, “Lady Atomi I want you guys to work on the edges. The more we think about I think it will be safer for you to work in.”
Lamile nodded again. She had mixed feelings about her assignment. She was concerned about the danger her cadets were in. Not certain how Hozenbur would react to them should she find them.
“Force Leader,” She turned to the thonians, “Is there any possibility that Hozenbur will know who I am? Am I putting my kids and Lady Wilson in more danger?”
“We know you have been in the news Lamile,” Kellogg said, “We have let it be known that your cadets are searchin
g the neighborhoods and securing the abandon homes. But no one has even mentioned that you are hunting Lady Wilson at this time. To answer your question. I can’t answer how safe you will really be; but we think that you will be okay!”
Lamile nodded and knew she could trust Kellogg. He had made a point of checking up on her personally every day and making sure she was okay.
“Let’s go around the table one more time,” the Force Leader said, “Go or no go!” “Medical,” She asked.
“We’re staged; with the landing craft is sitting at Trenaport Main. The crew is sleeping in the bird and that includes all my medics. The Valiant has been named to receive our casualties. I have an ISR team with me they’ll be first in after you guys clear the house.” a woman in the livery of the Interstellar Rescue Service spoke up. She had been living with the team since they had started practicing. At first a fire department medic unit had been assigned but they were needed by Trenaport Fire as they were getting short on staff and the IRS team knew something about hot landing zones. “We’ll triage your injured and Lady Wilson then yell for the Calvary. They’ll be on the ground five minutes after light on skids.”
“Logistics?” the Thonian asked.
“I’m ready,” Sergeant Hoi had been seconded to the team when they moved to the fire station. Langtree hadn’t even blinked an eye when the team said they needed a top logistic sergeant. Langtree had turned to his aid and asked why are you still here? He turned to the team commanders. “There’ll be a mess team here in a while. Some of the cadets will be making up your bunks. I think we have everything we need.” “Fire?” the Companion asked.
“The Trojack team will be staging in the fire house and they will be your fire suppression team,” A fire fighter wearing the white shirt of a battalion chief spoke up. He had been on duty since the announcement had been made of the disaster. After leaving Trena he would end his fifty year career as a fire fighter.
“Traffic control,” the Companion asked.
“As planned,” a captain in the Trenaport Mounted Patrol replied. “My guys have the outer perimeter, the MPs have the warm zone, and the SWAT units have the hot zone. This is the entire 20 block area. One block out from the hot zone the MPs are setting up road blocks. Everyone in this area is now to be positively identified. Three blocks out from the warm zone we have closed everything down. No traffic in or out unless the CP has cleared them. I don’t have enough people; but General Qoum is loaning me some militia men, a lot of my off duty people are coming in to help. We can do it. But force leaders, you and I both know we cannot secure a neighborhood this big.” “PIO,” both thonians nodded as they asked.