Children of Zanar 1: The Zanari Inheritance Page 17

  Thea’s smile had a knowing edge to it. ‘If you’re sure.’ Oh, she knew all right. Though she did not seem to be disapproving or disappointed. She did have Cassandra, so why would she be disappointed? Well, if she knew, she knew and that was all there was to say about it.

  ‘I should eat something,’ Kaya said for something to say.

  ‘Perhaps you should. It may be a long night.’

  Kaya started for the provisions cupboards. ‘Oh? Why?’

  ‘If Jay can tell us where Garaka Monteagle is going to be tonight, we’re going to go in and have a little chat with him. I doubt he’ll be receptive, so it could take a while.’

  ~~~

  Jay appeared in the teleport room with a grin on his face. Kaya smiled back, but he seemed to be ignoring her again. A little voice in the back of her head repeated words her mother had said to her long ago: that men only wanted one thing from a woman and getting it tended to squash their desire for long-term commitment. It was advice Kaya had largely ignored after discovering that her parents had had a quite healthy sex life prior to marriage, but now there was Jay not looking at her like she was anything special…

  ‘You’re looking pleased with yourself,’ Thea noted.

  ‘Yeah, well,’ Jay replied, his smile turning into more of a smirk. ‘I ran into a little trouble. Couple of Kraggans had heard from someone that I’d been asking questions. So, I told them I was looking to join up. Just doing due diligence.’

  ‘And they bought that?’

  ‘Hook, monowire, and sinker.’ He really did look pleased with himself. ‘Old Garaka was interviewing today, but he didn’t get all he wanted so they said I could try for an interview in the morning. He won’t waste time transferring up to his cruiser if he’s got to be down here first thing. That means he’ll be in his suite on their base tonight.’

  ‘And do you happen to know where this suite of his is located?’

  Jay’s shit-eating grin just got bigger. ‘Just so happens that I have a complete layout of the site that one of my other contacts got me.’

  Thea smirked at him. ‘Not just a pretty face, are you? All right, we’ll go over the plans and come up with a couple of entry points. We’ll need to check the guard rotations and sensor positioning before we select one.’ Thea glanced at Kaya. ‘By tomorrow, we may know who was responsible for Sadrine’s Drift.’

  Eagle’s Head, Teladish Prime.

  The town of Eagle’s Head had been there before the Kraggans built their HQ beside it, but the mine it had been put there to service had been declared inviable decades ago and now Eagle’s Head was primarily there to serve the needs of the mercs. There were a lot of bars, a lot of paid companions, and a number of companies which handled supply logistics so the Kraggans did not need to. There was not a lot else, but one of the logistics companies had a tall office building that made a good vantage point from which to observe the mercenaries’ compound.

  They had been doing that for over two hours and Kaya was not sure what else they could see before they went in. She had decided not to say anything about it since Thea was the expert, but they seemed to be taking a long time over this. Kaya checked once more through the multispectral binoculars she had been given and nodded.

  ‘Right on twenty minutes,’ Kaya said. ‘They definitely changed the guard teams twenty minutes ago, but they’re back on that twenty-minute-per-checkpoint cycle.’

  Thea gave a nod of her own. ‘We’ll give them another ten minutes to get complacent and then we’ll go in.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘You’ll stay here, Kaya.’

  ‘What? But–’

  Thea turned her masked gaze on Kaya. ‘I’m sorry, but this operation is going to need talents you don’t have, Kaya. You’ll stay back here and keep watch. If there’s any indication that there are problems, you’ll signal Cassandra.’

  ‘We can’t leave her up here on her own,’ Jay said, moving a little closer to Kaya, which Kaya noticed and liked; Jay had been all business since returning from the surface earlier.

  ‘Fine,’ Thea said without a pause for thought. ‘You’ll stay here to watch her and the compound. Don’t use the long-range comms unit unless you need to; they could detect it. As soon as you’ve made contact with the ship, you’ll both need to transport up. These people have gunships and I don’t doubt they would not hesitate to level this building if they think you’re a threat.’

  ‘They wouldn’t,’ Jay agreed.

  ‘And you’re going in there?’ Kaya asked. ‘Isn’t there a safer place to try to get to Monteagle?’

  ‘Not really,’ Jay replied. ‘The cruiser would be far worse. He’s got a retreat he goes to about once a year on Giltanish, but we could be waiting sexagoy for him to take a trip there. This is the best place.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Kaya,’ Thea said. Her eyes smiled through her visor though anything her mouth might have been doing was lost to the mask. ‘Jinny and I have done things like this before and, most importantly, they don’t know we’re coming.’

  ‘Speaking of Jinny,’ Jinny said, ‘Jinny is getting impatient. Can we go now?’

  Thea rolled her eyes. ‘We’ll head down. If you two keep an eye out, you might see us going in. Just remember, the mask comms doesn’t have the range to reach us in the compound.’

  ‘So how–’ Kaya began.

  ‘Tell Cassandra if you see anything going on in there and she’ll tell us. She can have us out of there in a second or two. Don’t worry.’

  ~~~

  ‘Plan A or Plan B?’ Jinny asked as they waited outside the fence for the next pair of guards to pass.

  ‘Plan B,’ Thea replied after a second.

  Jinny grinned inside her mask. ‘Good, I prefer plan B.’

  ‘Yes, I thought you would, but that’s not why we’re going with it.’

  Jinny nodded. ‘Guards seem light, even if they aren’t expecting trouble. Almost an invitation. You think Jay didn’t fool them as well as he thought?’

  ‘I’m not entirely sure what I think at this point.’ Thea watched as the guards moved out of sight. ‘All right, let’s get in there and find out whether I’m paranoid or not.’

  ~~~

  ‘Have you seen them?’ Kaya asked, her eyes fixed to her own binoculars.

  ‘No,’ Jay said, ‘but they’re both probably pretty good at not being seen. I wouldn’t worry about it. They know what they’re doing.’

  ‘I know. I just… This is my mission. I should be doing something.’

  ‘You asked for help, Kaya. Let them do what they’re good at. Does it really matter who finds out the answers?’

  ‘No. I guess it doesn’t.’ Kaya paused for a second. ‘I, um, really enjoyed what we did earlier.’

  ‘My pleasure. I’m sure we’ll be doing it again, but right now we need to focus on this job.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, of course.’ Kaya refocused her attention on scanning the base. She caught a brief glimpse of two bodies on the thermal imaging overlay. It was indistinct so she could not even tell whether they were female, much less Thea and Jinny, and, from what she remembered of the map Jay had obtained, these red-and-orange blobs were way away from the most obvious route to the barracks and Monteagle’s apartment above them. She decided not to mention it to Jay since it seemed unlikely to be Thea and Jinny. What was in that area of the map? The armoury? No, Jinny had gone down there with some sort of huge battle rifle as well as her two revolvers; there was no way they needed more weaponry than they already had.

  Kaya went back to scanning the area. That was not them. They must have got in without being seen at all.

  ~~~

  Jinny did not really like the shadowy stuff, the sneaking. Of course, there could well be a big pay-out to this particular batch of sneaking so she was willing to make allowances, but stealth was not one of her favoured activities. Jinny liked explosions and explosions were as un-stealthy as you could get.

  Thea liked stealthy. Thea was good at stealthy. Thea
was so good at stealthy that Jinny did not see her at the rendezvous point until Thea stepped out of the shadow she was standing in and let Jinny see her. It was a neat trick and Jinny had almost shot her friend more than once because of it.

  Biting her lips, Jinny glared at the smirking woman who had just appeared out of nowhere. ‘One day my reflexes are going to be off and you’ll catch a bullet,’ Jinny complained.

  ‘Never going to happen, Jin. You’re never that off. Everything set up?’

  ‘Of course. You?’

  Thea nodded. ‘Let’s go see what the Kraggans have waiting. Hopefully it’s just going to be a sleeping Garaka Monteagle, but…’ She turned and started for a ladder set into the side of the building.

  ‘You can hope for that,’ Jinny replied. ‘I haven’t shot anyone in weeks.’

  The ladder took them up to the roof of the barracks block where they needed to be careful. There was a watchtower set at the northern corner manned by two mercs. Automated systems would have been more efficient, but a lot of military activity was based around keeping the troops busy and guard duty was part of that. Thea got to the top of the ladder and reached out to one of the men in the tower; both of them were busy watching the outer perimeter, but she kept up her tap on his thoughts as she moved up onto the roof and made her way across to a door in the side of the smaller second floor which housed the officers’ quarters. It was meant, primarily, as a fire exit, but it also allowed roof access and had an electronic lock which was bypassed quickly and efficiently using a psionic override device which Cassandra had invented.

  They were inside. Monteagle’s rooms were not far. One corridor about twenty metres in length, bypass the lock there and they would be in. They listened. There were sounds from below, but nothing much. The majority of the mercs were asleep in their bunks at this hour. Only those unlucky enough to draw the night shift were awake. However, there had been no way to know about corridor patrols inside the building so a little haste was in order.

  Jinny was looking huffy when they got to Monteagle’s door without incident. Thea knew why, of course, but it just made her grin as she activated the lockpicker again and waited for it to override the controls. There was a click and the door edged open. Thea pushed it further open and was unsurprised to see a darkened room beyond, so she pushed in, followed by Jinny who was holding one of her pistols at the ready. Thea slipped a knife free of her belt: this was the point where things got really serious.

  The room was a lounge, but a rather austere one. There was light, just a little coming from a dimmed overhead. There was a desk against one wall, four padded chairs, and a small table. This was as much an office as a lounge, a place for Monteagle to talk to his officers and, possibly, dress down his troops when needed. There was a door at the back and that had to lead to the mercenary commander’s private rooms. Thea started for it.

  And then the link she still had with the man in the watchtower cut off without warning and Thea felt an unpleasant sensation, a sort of cold void that was sucked back into her mind before she released the connection. She reached out and put her hand on Jinny’s shoulder. ‘Someone just kicked in a wide-area null-field generator,’ Thea said softly.

  ‘Oh,’ Jinny replied. ‘Trap then.’ She holstered her revolver and reached over her shoulder for her rifle. Then she turned back to the outer door.

  ‘Trap,’ Thea agreed. Pulling her sword from its scabbard on her back, she headed for the inner door.

  ~~~

  ‘Something’s happening,’ Kaya said, frowning. ‘I can see lights coming on all over the barracks.’

  ‘Yes,’ Jay said.

  ‘We’d better call Cassandra.’ She was half-turning when Jay’s arm slid around her waist, pulling her tight against him. She grinned. ‘I don’t think this is the time for–’ Something cold pressed against her neck, followed by the sharp sting of a pneumatic syringe. ‘What?’

  ‘I don’t think we’ll be calling the ship just now, Kaya,’ Jay said. His words sounded weird, distant.

  ‘What are you…’ Kaya heard her own voice and it sounded more like a mumble. Her vision dimmed.

  ‘It’s just business,’ Jay said, but Kaya could no longer hear him.

  ~~~

  Thea stepped back out of Monteagle’s quarters and looked across at Jinny. ‘He’s not here, of course.’

  ‘Of course,’ Jinny replied. ‘They’re setting up to try and breach the place. They had one go.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And my dry spell has finally ended.’

  ‘Glad to hear it, but they’ll come back with heavier armour.’

  Jinny nodded. ‘I know. Can we do it now?’

  ‘Give me a second.’ Thea walked over to the door, edged it open, and glanced out. Sure enough, there were troops forming up at the end of the corridor. They were not being especially bright: if Jinny had been in the mood, there were exposed body parts she could have put bullets in from the door. Unclipping her mask, Thea yelled down the corridor. ‘You were expecting us, so do you want us alive or are we going to have to kill you?’

  There was a pause and then a male voice came back, amplified by a helmet speaker system. ‘We’d prefer to take you alive, but we’re not losing anyone else tonight.’

  ‘You aren’t Monteagle. I want to talk to him.’

  ‘You’re too late, lady,’ the voice replied. ‘He’s gone, back up to the cruiser and then out of the system. But I wouldn’t worry about that. You’ve got your own problems.’

  ‘No, you’ve got the problems. That would be us.’ Thea closed the door on any reply she might have got and looked at Jinny. ‘Do you have smoke grenades?’

  ‘I am insulted that you should need to ask.’

  ‘Right. Do it. And then do the other.’

  Smirking, Jinny took a small box from her belt and lifted it up. It was about the size of her palm and it featured one red button which was positioned under her thumb. ‘Okay, on three. Three!’ And Jinny pressed the red button.

  The lights went out at the sound of the first explosion, but the explosions kept on happening and, when Jinny swung the door open again, fully this time, there were additional sounds, confused-mercenary sounds, coming from the other end of the corridor. Jinny tossed a grenade down toward them and then lowered her rifle into firing position and pulled the trigger. It was a vicious weapon, firing ten-millimetre, high-velocity bullets at a high cyclic rate of fire, and it tore into the plaster and the concrete beneath, and into anyone stupid enough to stand in its way. However, she was not aiming for hitting anyone at this point; this was just suppression fire to add to the confusion. When it stopped, the men cowering behind the walls assumed she had emptied a clip and they had a few seconds to consider mounting a counter, except that most of them were wondering when the explosions would stop and were worried by the smoke that was filling the corridor. The building was shaking with each bang, and the noises seemed to be getting closer.

  And then Thea came out of the smoke, flying through the air as she leapt in among the cowering troops. She swung her sword, slamming its edge into the faceplate of the nearest man on her right, and it sliced right through the armoured plastic and deep into the tissue and bone beneath. Without a pause, her left arm extended and rammed a knife into a second man’s throat. A single man with lieutenant’s insignia on the shoulder of his jumpsuit got his head together enough to raise his pistol and fire. Two rounds burst from his automatic, skimming past Thea’s left shoulder. Thea yanked her sword free of her first victim’s face and turned, swinging it down to carve right through the lieutenant’s monocrystal-weave suit and straight into his knee. The man let out a shriek of pain and collapsed onto the floor, but his companions were starting to wake up from the shock of the sudden attack…

  And that was when Jinny stepped out of the smoke with her rifle. Thea dropped to the floor, under the stream of bullets that began to blast out into the corridor.

  Thea, are you there? Cassandra’s voice in Thea’s head was
a welcome but not entirely surprising event. The null-field generator had been tied into the mains it seemed and Thea had known it was gone when she could read the mercs.

  I’m here, Cassy. It was a trap.

  I thought as much when I could not reach you. I still cannot reach Kaya or Jay, and I can’t find their minds.

  Thea frowned, another not entirely unsurprising event, this one less welcome. They had a null field going. Kaya and Jay must be in a portable one. I need you to get a position on us and pull me and Jinny out, and the wounded man I’m showing you now.

  Very well. Teleport in five seconds.

  Thea grinned. Better tell Jinny or we’ll be digging bullets out of the walls again.

  So, what else is new?

  Oracle of Zanar.

  ‘Tell me again why I’m healing this piece of human waste?’ Geogracus asked.

  ‘Because I don’t want him to bleed to death before I’ve finished with him,’ Thea replied. The big man gave a grunt, but he focused his attention on the mercenary lieutenant’s leg while Thea focused her attention on the man himself. ‘So, there are a couple of things I want to know,’ she said, ‘and if you tell me the answers, we’ll drop you back on the planet, unharmed.’

  ‘And if I don’t?’ the merc asked.

  ‘Well, then I get the information out of you anyway, in a less pleasant way, and we drop you back on the planet via one of our airlocks.’

  ‘I ask again why I’m healing him,’ Geogracus said. ‘He’s too stupid to go the easy way.’

  ‘Is my colleague right?’ Thea asked the merc.

  ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘How did you know we were coming tonight?’

  The man smiled. ‘Colder’s not a Kraggan, so I wouldn’t be betraying the company to answer that one.’

  Thea kept her expression neutral. It was annoying, very annoying, but not a total surprise. ‘That clears up a few things. Why did he take the girl? What possible use is she to him?’

  ‘No idea. Wasn’t read in.’ And he was telling the truth. No stray thoughts to give him away. Jay had betrayed them, but this man had no idea why.