Chapter 29
“Tyrol, we don’t have him yet.”
“I know, but you’re running out of time, and I need this resolved.”
“Well Tyrol, he’s proving to be a slippery bastard, but we have some solid leads, shouldn’t be more than a day.”
“That is unacceptable, Jack. The meeting will take place at four am tomorrow morning.”
“Whoa there, what the hell gives you the right to dictate this to me?” Jack’s voice was just shy of a shout, and he had the attention of everyone in the workshop now.
“Well, if you want to see your boy Ping’s Uncle Jay again, you had better have Solice at the meeting place. And I want the Biotronics Decoder, don’t even pretend you don’t have it.”
“What the hell are you doing with Jay? You bastard.”
Ping heard his name and charged over to Jack shouting and swearing. Jack pushed him away, and pointed at Blake to take him outside.
“Oh, seems I’ve hit a raw nerve with one of your boys, Jack. Don’t worry, he won’t be harmed, as long as you hold up your end of the deal. And Jack, I also have the document you want, awaiting Solice’s confirmation.”
“What say he doesn’t give it?”
“He will. I’m guaranteeing him asylum in France if he ratifies the statement.”
That sounded about as legit as a politician with a clear conscience, so he was either planning on killing Solice, Jack, or both of them. “Where are we meeting?”
“Third Quadrant.” Tyrol cut his comm.
“Dammit!” Jack shouted as loud as he could. Blake and Ping came back in the room.
“Calm down, and tell us what’s going on Jack.” Cindy sat on one of the couches in the corner of the room.
“This just turned from a one-sided gun fight, into a right royal mess up, that’s what’s going on.” Jack was pacing back and forth, trying to get everything clear in his head.
“What’s going on with Jay?” Ping was nervous as heck.
“Tyrol has him. Says he wants to trade him for the Biotronics Decoder.”
“We giving it to him?”
“As far as he knows, yeah. I owe Jay, and I’m not going to leave an almost-innocent man to that dog.”
“He’ll use it for bad things, Jack.”
“I know, that’s why you guys are going to start making a fake copy of it in about five minutes. He’s never seen the real one, as long as it looks legit enough to fool whoever he has to ratify it, it will be good enough. He won’t risk taking a high-value techie into a hostile situation, so it will be video feed confirmation only.”
“It’ll be Loach, and that slimy bugger doesn’t have a combative bone in his body.”
“What else do we have hun?” Cindy interjected, trying to keep them on track.
“Well, he says he’s got a document that confirms I wasn’t involved in the assassination, and just needed a bio-signature from Solice.”
“Sounds like a pile of crap,” Blake chimed in.
“Yeah, I know. I figure he’s just trying to get us all there to finish us off. But he doesn’t realise he’s stirred up a damned hornets' nest.” Jack lost his nervousness, and was almost chanting now.
“Ox didn’t say it directly, but he has contact with Solice, probably close. I’m picking he’s acting as some kind of foreign consul to the government or something. Perhaps I could convince Ox to lure him to the site, rather than us hunting him down.”
“Well you better make it quick, if we don’t have a confirmation in an hour, we’ll have to get on the grid and track him down. How long would it take you to find him Sin?”
“We know he’s in the general area, and he’s not moving through general channels, so pretty quick actually. It only took me an hour to find the PM on a secret retreat for a client a few weeks ago. This bloke can’t be a heck of a lot more connected.”
“Don’t be so sure. Blake, get onto Ox, see if he’ll play ball.”
Blake went upstairs to contact Ox and see what was going to go down. He sat on the couch and threw his head back for a minute. The world was spinning so fast, he had trouble keeping up with what was happening. He thought for a minute about Holly. It had seemed like an eternity since he had been with her. He hoped she was ok, wherever she was.
There was an unopened energy bar on the coffee table in front of him. He grabbed it and noticed the architecture magazine displayed on the table holo. He tapped it and it enlarged in front of him with the cover. It was this house, although a good fifty years ago by the look of the small plantings outside. Blake looked out and saw thirty metre giants outside the same view as the cover. Apparently it was designed by the grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright in tribute to his masterpiece Falling Water.
He hesitated and wondered why he was getting distracted by such things. Fatigue was obviously kicking in, but it was no time to fall apart. He raised Ox on the comm, but there was no reply. He left it for a few minutes, and then Ox pinged him.
“Everything OK, Ox?”
“Sure, if World War 3 is OK. We’ve got street cops, Feds and agents scouring the cities for you, your mates, anyone linked with Tyrol, and we’re coming up bust.”
“That’s because Tyrol has been running diversions the whole time. The runners he’s been sending out have been on meaningless errands, except for their attempt to take Jack and me apparently.”
“So what have you got for me? I’m trying not to get too far ahead, but I can’t stay back forever Blake, I’ve got a career to think about.”
“Tyrol wants the Biotronics tech, that’s all he ever wanted.”
“And you have it?”
“Perhaps, but it’s not going to you, not yet.”
“For christ’s sake Blake, this is one fart shy of a full Government intervention.”
“Well, let’s not let things get to that. Solice is the key, who is he to you?”
“He’s a government liaison, assigned by the Secretary of Defence, to ensure we limit the effectiveness of the Alpha’s illegal activities.”
“He’s full of it. I bet he’s paying close attention to the acquisition of the Biotronics tech.”
“You have my attention now, carry on.”
“He’s been tangling with Alphas for a while now. Being ex-KGB he has global contacts. He’s either bribing or blackmailing someone at the Secretary’s office.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because we have the best techies in the world sitting right here with us Ox. You should see these guys work, I mean, it’s pretty damned impressive. Anyway, Tyrol has said that he has a document that clears Jack and incriminates Solice, but he needs a bio-sig from Solice to ratify the document.”
“And you don’t believe him?”
“I believe that Solice is guilty, but I don’t believe the bio-sig business. I think he wants Solice there to take him out. He probably has mud on Tyrol. It’s possibly how he got into your operation, giving some trinkets of info to the Sec.”
“Plausible. Why don’t you come in and we can go over a plan.”
Blake laughed. “Not happening. It’s not you, if Solice has his tentacles into the Sec, there’s no way I’d walk out of a Fed building alive.”
“So what’s the plan then? A rag-tag bunch of fugitives saving the day by out-witting and out-powering one of the most prominent members of society to save the day and the country?”
“Something like that, but we’re more ‘objectionable’ than ‘rag-tag’. Look Ox, I know you don’t believe Jack is innocent, or that Solice is a bad bugger, but I do.”
“Oh, I’m coming round Blake. To be honest Sophie and I have been uncomfortable since his arrival, and I don’t trust Tyrol as far as I can kick him. I want the tech back, but more than that I want justice. If Solice is involved like you say, I’m willing to bring him to your little show. I’ll only have a small group, and they will be under instruction not to attack or arrest you, or your team.”
/> “How can I trust you?”
“You can’t, but I’ll give you my word for what it’s worth. Blake, the only reason I took you on at Osiris is because I could see you were a good man. I’m trying to fight that feeling, but to be honest, I’m losing that fight.”
“If you double cross me, we will destroy the tech. It will be rigged to incinerate on the call of any of us.”
“Fair enough. But when the dust settles, I want the tech back in Government hands.”
“How can I be sure it won’t get stolen or sold?”
“The PM is now aware of its value and power. Believe me when I tell you that this is now becoming a priority for the Government.”
“I want exoneration for all of my team.”
“Jack only gets it if we nail Solice.”
“I have to confirm this with my guys. I’ll give you an address two hours before the meeting. If the team say you’re in, you’ll be going to the right place, if you’re out, you’ll be on the other side of the state. And by the way, we have Sats overhead now, any prior movements will be noticed and there will be hell to pay.” Blake cut his comm.
Blake went back downstairs, trying to figure out how he was going to get the team on board. He believed that Ox wouldn’t screw them, but at the same time had trouble believing his men would keep their finger off the trigger. On the other side, it was going to be a tough call for them to take Tyrol alone. His display of firepower at the Wing’Tan showdown was impressive, and that may not have been his whole arsenal.
As he entered the workshop he could see the mold from the 3-D scan had just been completed. The box looked pretty accurate already, but needed a few flashing lights or whatever the hell was in that little headache sitting in the corner of the room. Jack was over with Betty checking her over. Cindy was moving tappers on both hands with the ferocity of a shadow-puppet ninja, manipulating some gadget on the screen in front of her.
“What do you have there, Sin?”
“Just finishing the prototype for a retina projector.”
“Sounds painful!”
“Shouldn’t be, unless I over-estimate the charge required to calibrate it.”
“So what does it do?”
“Well, this unit is a transmitter.” She brought up a box the size of a deck of cards. “You have that anywhere on your body or clothing. Then you place a contact lens on your eye, which is the receiver.”
“With you so far.”
“When it’s active, Ping or I will be able to send you live feeds of Sat-data, or bio-sig’s of personnel in the area, whatever we want. It will get sent to the receiver which emits a low energy display straight to your retina. The beauty is, the lens is completely flexible and cannot tear, so you don’t have bulky glasses to get in the way, or break.”
“Very cool.”
“That ain’t all. I also have sonar imaging, infrared and 3D sound recording sensors to attach to your suit. That will also be connected, so you can more-or-less see through thin walls, or ‘see’ sounds and their point of origin.”
“This just went from very cool to rediculously cool.”
“Hey, Sin,” Jack shouted from across the floor, “can I have one?”
“Nah, your eyes are too messed up. You’ll have to settle for super-human motion recognition.” She turned back to Blake. “So what did your old boss say?”
Blake waved the others over. “He wants to make a deal.”
“With a bunch of fugitives?” Ping gave him an odd look.
“He wants the killer of Mac, and is starting to believe it isn’t Jack. He’s on our wavelength with Solice, thinks he’s bad news. He also wants the tech back.”
“That’s a big Christmas list, Blake,” Jack added.
“I know, but I trust him, and I’m not certain our engagement with Tyrol will end well without his support.”
“So what would you suggest?”
“We carry on as planned. We take the replica decoder, and if things work out, we give it to Ox. He may get the real one some time, we can discuss that later. He has Solice as a consultant, and will have him at the meeting.”
“And Tyrol?”
“We subdue him and hand him to Ox. There will be enough evidence around that scene to at least get them a search warrant. If Loach is in on things with him, they may get him.”
“And Solice, for the trifecta?”
“I think we play on his bravado and arrogance. If he’s there with Ox he will need to be pushed, but I think the opportunity to grab the decoder while it is in front of him will be too great.”
“Sounds like a bloody fairy tale if you ask me, but stuff it, could be a challenge.”
“Sin, Ping, are you guys in?”
“Hey, I just want Jay back. Make that happen and I’ll give you guys whatever you want.”
“You boys know me,” added Cindy, “I’m a sucker for helpless animals. I’ll back you up.”
Blake looked at all of them. “Tonight may be the last time I see you guys. If that’s the way it’s supposed to be then so be it, but let’s make sure the hellers on that hill don’t forget us. I’ve had enough of pricks like Tyrol, and if I make it to tomorrow, I’m going after all of them.”
“Amen to that.” Jack sounded pumped.
“Nice pep talk hun.” Cindy pecked him on the cheek and went back to her programming.
Blake stood there and looked around the room. Of all the time he had been in the military, the Police, the Feds, he hadn’t quite had the same feeling of inclusion he felt now. It was a pretty messy family, but he got it now. These guys had all been crapped on by society in one way or another, but all of them were now about to fight to save it, possibly, from a much bleaker future.
Sure there was a vested interest in Jack clearing his name. But that wasn’t spoken of much, and to be honest, Blake didn’t think that Jack thought about it much. In a country where corruption and power went hand-in-hand, it seemed those that fell victim to its effects were also the same ones that just might stop its reign.
“Hey Jack, didn’t you say Jay’s workshop was a war-chest.”
“More like an armoury, but they’ve raided it.”
“Yeah, but what if they didn’t know about that area? What if they were only after him? Ping, can you get in there?”
“Hell yeah! I developed the security system for him.”
“Worth a look then, Jack?”
“Sounds like we’re in for a battle of weapons, not words, tonight. We need all the help we can get.” He sounded like a kid in a candy shop. “Sin, get this gear ready ASAP, we’ll be back soon with some more toys.”
As the three of them made the short trip to Fitzroy Falls, the night sky was dominant against the barren landscape. The contrast of blurred stars and bright Aurora was almost a work of art. No matter what was going around him, Jack always felt eased by just looking up.
Fitzroy Falls was a quiet place at the best of times, and tonight it was like a ghost town. They still didn’t take any chances, so left the vehicle four blocks away and took their time getting to the workshop. There were only a few people around that didn’t pay them much attention. A few dogs scrapped in the car park but ran as soon as they saw the three of them.
Jack stopped them a block away, and crouched. The others followed suit. “There’s a shadow moving at the end of the workshop. Looks like they may have left someone behind, in case we came for clues.”
“I’ll go around the long side and approach him like a concerned citizen.” Blake pretended to be drunk. “That should take his attention away from your direction so you can take him down.”
“Here’s hoping there is only one of them, huh?”
“Here’s hoping.” Blake moved off away from the building to box around.
“OK, Ping, you stay here and wait for the all clear.”
“What’s the sign?”
“That shadow flat on his arse,” Jack grinned, and then disappeared a
long the shadow of an adjacent building.
Blake moved through the street as quick as he could, but was sure not to appear too out of place. He couldn’t see too many people around, but third party awareness was critical when wanting to stay anonymous. He walked past the pub and down toward the garage. He slowed when he got near, hoping Jack had enough time to get into place.
Walking towards the mark, he could see he was alone, and a big bugger. He looked down and realised he was wearing his tac-suit, hoping like hell in the dim light it was mistaken for a motorbike outfit. He got nearer and the man casually turned towards him, showing little emotion to Blake’s presence.
Blake tried his best slightly slurred speech. “Hey bud, nice night, huh?”
“Sure.” The man turned away.
“I’m Blackie, nice to meet you.” Blake put his hand out.
“Roller.” Barely acknowledging Blake.
“Hey, you got a light mate?”
“Sure.” He reached in his pocket and tossed him a lighter.
Blake looked at it, it was inscribed with the 501st Military Legion of America. “Nice lighter, you ex-mil?”
The man took a little more interest now, turning towards him. “Yeah, why so interested?”
“Hey, no reason man.” Blake tried his best to appear confused at the question. “Just reading the lighter. You got a ciggie too? I’m out.” He patted his pockets and showed his hands out.
“Dammit, you want me to smoke the thing too?” Clearly annoyed, he grabbed his ciggies and tossed the pack to Blake.
Blake took one and moved towards him to hand the packet back. He saw Jack moving in from the other side, so stayed back a little making the man reach toward him to grab the packet. As he did, Blake spoke to him in a loud voice to disguise Jack’s last few steps. “Cheers bud, not too many people look out for anyone else these days around here.” He winked at him and dropped the packet.
The split second Roller glanced at the falling packet, Blake stepped back. Jack jumped at him and kicked him square between the shoulder blades. Roller stumbled towards Blake who jumped into a spinning heel kick, connecting with the side of his head and sending him to the ground. Blake landed with a crouch to take his weight, and spun back up to his feet.
Jack looked at him and shook his head. “Damned show pony.”
Blake shrugged his shoulders, and then his eyes went wide as he lost his balance. Roller had grabbed his ankle and pulled his leg out, causing him to fall. Rising to his feet, Roller brushed his shoulders and grinned at Jack. Suddenly he looked about three feet taller, and twice as wide.
Roller started lunging towards him, reaching around his back. Jack pulled his pistol and shot between the eyes of the blue mass moving at him, before stepping aside, watching the mass of muscle fall to the ground.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Blake was pissed as he got up rubbing the back of his head.
“The arsehole was reaching behind his back. Jack shoots first bud, no argument.”
“Well, I’d say we have ten minutes max before the cops are here, so thanks for the pressure dickhead.”
“Better get Ping on to it then, huh?”
“Too late.” Blake pointed over Jack’s shoulder. Ping was tapping the main door entry code.
Blake and Jack pulled the body into the workshop as fast as they could. People would have heard the shot, even if they didn’t see the incident. And they didn’t think the cops would be interested in knowing why he shot first, he was a felon already.
By the time they got him in and closed the door, Ping had entered the secure area. They walked towards him, but he put up his hand for them to stop. He stood in front of the end wall while the biometric scanners confirmed who he was.
“You guys can’t come in here. I set it up so that I could have access, but only Jay could take others. His request.”
“Well that’s just bloody great. You got two minutes to toss out as much hardware as you can.” Blake swished his hand for him to hurry.
“Get that old rocket launcher too,” Jack shouted.
Blake looked at him in an odd manner. “What the hell do you want a rocket launcher for?”
“Boy Scout, be prepared. Besides, it’s very cool, you’ll like it!” Jack looked like an excited school kid, again.
Ping started bringing out everything he could. They relayed to him what they needed, anything surplus would be stashed back in the secure area. If they could keep the area hidden for future use, all the better. Tonight might not be their last fight.
Five minutes later, they had sorted through the cache and taken as much hardware as they could carry in the duffle bags. After Ping dumped the rest back inside and secured the secret entry, they left, being careful to avoid people on the way back. When they got to the vehicle, there were two young men hanging around.
“This your vehicle?” the smaller of the two men said in a cocky tone.
“We’re standing here aren’t we?” replied Blake.
“What do you want for it?”
“It’s not for sale sorry, we just want to go home.”
“What the three of you? You faggots?”
Blake knew they were trying to get a rise, looking for a fight, at least. “Sure bud, whatever.”
Blake put down the duffle as if to get his keys, but was just freeing himself up. As he did, he saw movement from his right. He stepped straight into the small guy and kicked him between the legs, before lunging backwards and thrusting his elbow into the solar-plexus of the large man. At the same time, he grabbed his arm from behind and used his falling momentum to arm-throw the big man into the other one.
By the time they landed, Jack had his gun trained on them. As they got up, they flashed their eyes from Blake to Jack and saw the gun. Their eyes went wide open.
“Now, thanks for the work out, but as my friend said, we’re going home, so if you don’t mind getting the hell out of here, I’d rather not waste two bullets.”
Jack didn’t move, didn’t flinch, just kept his eye and the gun on the two men. By now they had filled their pants, and scrambled up to their feet, hobbling down the road.
Jack turned to Blake. “Beating up kids, I dunno Blake, you’ve turned into a regular thug. Such a shame.” He slipped his gun into the holster and opened the trunk, tossing his duffle in.