America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 3: Silent Invasion (6 page)

Chapter 4

“We should nuke New Memphis,” argued the
Special Forces Commander. “New Memphis is the center of Mafia
activity.”

“It is also a major inland port,” said the
Fleet Commander. “Let’s not start a war quite yet.”

“I was just thinking out loud,” advised the
Special Forces Commander. “But, we should do something to send the
Mafia a message that we will not tolerate terrorism.”

“I agree,” said the Fleet Commander. “I will
authorize a commando raid to hit the Bonanno organization. I leave
the details of that raid to you. Do not get entangled with the
Legion. Avoid open combat.”

“Thank you sir,” said the Special Forces
Commander. “I will use the same team leader who made the successful
raid on the truck shop.”

“That was good work,” said the Fleet
Commander. “It sent a strong message to those responsible, but also
left the Legion guessing as to what happened and why.”

“Why did the Legion kill our survey team?”
asked the Special Forces Commander. “Their murders seem so
pointless.”

“My spy suspects it was done by a local
commander and was not a part of any particular Legion plan,” said
the Fleet Commander. “Also, I am having the survey checked for
accuracy. There is an important oil find just inside the human
pestilence zone that might be contested.”

“You have a spy on General Kalipetsis’
staff?” asked the Special Forces Commander. “How did you do
that?”

“All you need to know is that I have an
information source inside the Legion,” said the Fleet Commander.
“Who is not important. It never ceases to amaze me how much money
means to the human pestilence. They have no sense of honor.”

* * * * *

Before the start of negotiations, the Special
Forces Commander introduced me to his aide-de-camp Team Leader #1.
The Team Leader held out his claw for a cordial shake. I refused,
saying “Excuse me if I don’t shake your claw. It will be a cold day
in Hell before that happens.”

“Rudeness at negotiations is unbecoming,”
replied the Team Leader. “I will remember the slight.”

“Maybe Captain Czerinski is concerned you
might have nerve agent applied to the tip of your claw,” said
Lieutenant Lopez. “It’s been known to happen.”

“Are you accusing me of something?” asked the
Team Leader. “I will not take your insults.”

“Deny involvement in the assassination
attempt, and I will shoot you between your eight eyes,” I said. “No
one will miss you.”

“Yes, I suspect you would shoot me,” said the
Team Leader. “I studied your exploits in Special Tactics College.
As one professional soldier to another, I have nothing but the
utmost respect for you. Let us start our dialogue anew.”

“Why are we having this conversation?” I
asked. “I suspect you just want to make sure you can pick me out of
a crowd with your sniper’s scope.”

“I need a private conversation with you,
Captain,” said the Special Forces Commander, glancing at Lieutenant
Lopez. “It is about a very delicate matter.”

“I have no secrets from Lieutenant Lopez,” I
said. “Say what it is you have to say.”

“Oh really?” said the Special Forces
Commander. “And Lieutenant Lopez keeps no secrets from you?”

“That’s right,” said Lieutenant Lopez. “What
is your problem?”

“On the contrary, I am sure you do keep
secrets,” said the Special Forces Commander. “What happened to our
survey team?”

“What survey Team?” I asked.

“Ask your Lieutenant,” said the Special
Forces Commander. “He knows what happened to them.”

“I’ll talk to you about it later,” I said to
Lopez. “Is there a point to all this?”

“So, Lopez does keep secrets from you,” said
the Team Leader. “I find this amusing.”

“I don’t know what he is talking about,” said
Lieutenant Lopez. “Ask him about the bomb that went off at the
truck repair shop. You owe the Chevron-Texaco Corporation big-time
for damages.”

“Again Lieutenant Lopez accuses me of
something?” asked the Team leader, taking a step forward. “It is
you who is the provoker. It was you who ordered an air strike on a
construction project.”

“And you are in league with the Cable Guy!”
responded Lieutenant Lopez.

“You want to talk to me about minor incidents
no one cares about?” I asked. “Why are you wasting my time?”

“You are quite right,” said the Special
Forces Commander. “It’s all liquid under the bridge. I want to talk
to you about Carlos Bonanno.”

“Bonanno?” I said. “He is just another thug.
We kill them off, and more pop up. Bonanno runs the rackets in New
Memphis.”

“I want to whack Carlos Bonanno,” said the
Special Forces Commander. “And I want your blessing and
support.”

“I didn’t know my translation device spoke
New Jersey,” said Lieutenant Lopez. “Why do you want to whack
Bonanno?”

“We owe Bonanno some payback,” explained the
Special Forces Commander. “There is evidence he ordered the nuclear
destruction of our Command Flag Ship.”

“I noticed you haven’t been talking much
about that,” I said. “Debris is still falling from the sky. What
makes you think Bonanno is responsible?”

“It was either Carlos Bonanno or the Legion,”
replied the Special Forces Commander. “Was the Legion
involved?”

“No. Of course not,” I answered. “That would
be an act of war.”

“I know Carlos Bonanno ordered the bombing,”
said the Special Forces Commander. “The nuke was mailed from
Arthropoda, but it was sent by the Mafia. Do you deny that the
Mafia has influence on both our home worlds?”

“No. It probably does,” I said. “Are you sure
you want to start a war with the Mafia?”

“The war has already been started,” said the
Special Forces Commander. “What I propose is to win the war.”

“You aren’t afraid of the Mafia,” said the
Team Leader. “I heard you once bombed the New Memphis Mafioso from
space.”

“We have had our differences, but I can
depend on my superiors not being corrupted by the Mafia. I can’t
say the same for your superiors on Arthropoda.”

“That is my worry,” said the Special Forces
Commander. “I have already taken that into account.”

“What is it you want me to do?” I asked.

“Just look the other way when our Special
Forces commandos cross the border on their way to New Memphis,”
said the Team Leader. “My mission will be to arrest Carlos Bonanno
and as many of his associates as possible.”

“Why go to all that trouble?” I asked. “Just
kill them and be done with it. I might even help you.”

“They will be summarily executed,” said the
Special Forces Commander. “But first they will be interrogated. I
will find out who are their accomplices on Arthropoda.”

“Just follow the money,” I suggested. “Check
bank accounts. Okay, I will help you. I will even share our
database for New Memphis so you can ferret them out. A shuttle can
drop your commandos at the outskirts of the city.”

“Wait,” said Lieutenant Lopez. “General
Kalipetsis needs to know about this. You are talking about allowing
spider commandos to kill American citizens. There may be collateral
damage. Aren’t you worried about the scandal if this gets out? Do
you trust these spiders?”

“He is right,” I said. “You are asking me to
take a huge risk. General Kalipetsis needs to be brought on board
with this.”

“We are just killing Mafia,” argued the
Special Forces Commander. “The Legion throws Mafia out airlocks all
the time. What is the big deal?”

“The big deal is I cannot allow your mission
unless General Kalipetsis approves it.”

“That will take too long,” said the Special
Forces Commander. “General Kalipetsis will pass the buck. We need
to cut through the red tape and just do it.”

“Sorry,” I said. “There is too much risk of
something going wrong.”

“How much?” asked the Team Leader.

“What?” I asked.

“How much do you want for your cooperation?”
asked the Team Leader. “A million dollars?”

“We can not be bought on this issue,” advised
Lieutenant Lopez.

“Two million dollars?” asked the Team
Leader.

“They insult us,” said Lieutenant Lopez.
“It’s time to leave.”

“Three million dollars? You are a thief to
make me offer so much,” said the Team Leader. “Justice demands we
get payback on Carlos Bonanno.”

“This is getting ugly,” said Lieutenant
Lopez, standing up to leave.

“Three and a half million dollars,” said the
Special Forces Commander. “That is three and a half million dollars
apiece.”

“You have a deal,” I said. “I will make the
arrangements immediately.”

“You should have brought a Green spider to do
your haggling,” Lieutenant Lopez advised the commander. “You could
have saved a couple million.”

* * * * *

When negotiations started, the Fleet
Commander introduced a resolution calling for coordinated efforts
to fight banditry along the border. I noticed that Team Leader #1
slipped out a side exit, so I followed him. At first the Team
Leader appeared to be innocently walking to the checkpoint gate.
But then he stopped by a wall and lit a cigarette. The Team Leader
looked from side to side, as if checking to see if he had been
followed. He took a rag out of his pouch and erased graffiti from
the wall.
How odd,
I thought. The Team leader then walked
past the Legion checkpoint, entering the spider zone.

I went to the spot where the Team Leader had
been standing. The graffiti must have been put on the wall in
chalk, because it was easily wiped off. But I could still see
traces of the marking on the wall. It was a human street gang
symbol. It was a Roman numeral ‘XIV.’

Street gang graffiti was common anywhere the
Legion fought. Tagging was encouraged because it promoted esprit de
corps. What was not common was for a spider Special Forces Team
Leader to erase gang graffiti that had been printed in chalk. I
theorized that this particular tag had been put on the wall as a
signal. Perhaps a message would be delivered or sent later to or
from a traitor.

I walked up to the checkpoint. Guido was at
the gate waving traffic through.

“I want one of your security video cameras
pointed at that wall,” I ordered.

“Why?” asked Guido. “I need my cameras
pointed at the spiders. It does me no good to have a camera pointed
back at our zone.”

“There was a tag on that wall earlier,” I
said. “It got erased. If the tagger comes back, I want him
identified.”

“You’re talking about the XIV? You don’t need
a camera for that. It was Lieutenant Lopez.”

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Contents

Chapter 5

“You are joining the spider commandos as an
advisor,” I said. “I want you to keep them out of trouble. I don’t
care if they get killed. Just don’t let them get into trouble.”

“I would rather stay here and help with
negotiations,” said Lieutenant Lopez. “I rather like the life of a
staff officer.”

“Call it punishment for shooting that survey
team and not telling me about it,” I said. “Did you know they are
sending out another survey team?”

“I heard the Fleet Commander is raising a
stink about the border being marked in the wrong place,” said
Lieutenant Lopez. “He’s right, too. We moved the markers.”

“Now you tell me?” I groused. “Oh well. It
makes no difference. I’m going out there myself with the armored
car and tanks. We are not going to give up that oil field.”

* * * * *

Lieutenant Lopez and about twenty-five spider
commandos loaded into a shuttle and left for New Memphis. They
landed just outside the city limits. A rented truck was waiting.
Lieutenant Lopez got the commandos through the Legion roadblocks
and checked into the Marriott Hotel. The Special Forces Commander
brought lots of cash. The commandos were split up into teams and
promptly sent on their missions of kidnap and mayhem.

“This is the best pizza I have ever eaten,”
commented Team Leader #1, as they ate at Bonanno’s restaurant. “Who
would have thought that the Mafia could make such good pizza?”

“I say we arrest the cooks, too,” said
Commando #97. “If we take them back to Camp Alaska, we can force
them to cook pizzas for us.”

“We are here to arrest Alfonso Bonanno, one
of Carlos’s top associates,” said the Team Leader. “We will stay
put until he shows up.”

“How about we arrest just one of the cooks?”
asked #97. “Who will miss one cook in a city this big?”

“Slavery is immoral and illegal,” insisted
the Team Leader. “We have only been here an hour and already you
are starting to think like the human pestilence.”

“Fine,” said #97. “I am going back to the
salad bar. It is all you can eat night.”

“Bring me another pitcher of beer,” ordered
the Team Leader. “And don’t be bringing me Lite beer again.”

“Alfonso Bonanno better show up soon,” said
#97. “It he does not, I will be too fat and you will be too drunk
to do anything.”

Commando #88, standing at the front door,
gave an alarm signal. The Team Leader dispersed his commandos along
the wall. The Team Leader stayed seated, trying to look relaxed. In
walked two deputy sheriffs, one human and one spider. Immediately
the spider deputy sheriff noticed the Team Leader.

“Show me identification,” demanded the spider
deputy.

“I do not have identification,” replied the
Team Leader. “I lost it in the flood.”

“Everyone needs identification,” advised the
spider deputy.

“No one told me I needed identification,”
said the Team Leader.

“Are you one of Bonanno’s boys?” asked the
human deputy. “I haven’t seen you here before.”