Red Angel: Book II: Raiders (Red Angel Series 2) (13 page)

"We could leave within twenty-four hours." MacLin received nods of agreement from his fellow captains.

"If you don't mind, Admiral Rawls, I would like to discuss it among my teammates," Adrian said.

"Alright. Although everyone is excited to know what’s at those coordinates, the raiders may be long gone, or it may be a permanent base. Either way, a few days won't matter. Let Captain MacLin know when you decide." Rawls rose, signaling the end of the meeting.

"Pros and cons as I see it," Adrian began after we had returned to our area, "together, we might see something one of us would miss like with Rich's X25 anomaly, but it would put us all at risk, with no one to continue the work if something happened. A new team would take years to come up to speed and might not have the insights we have developed. Of course, it's probably dangerous here on Oxax as well. The raiders certainly know where our home office is located." Adrian looked at each of us before continuing. "I'm sure you’ve given it some thought, so who would like to stay here?"

Adrian was right. I had given it a great deal of thought, as I was sure the others had. My biggest concern was leaving Alexa with the worry I caused her, but she wouldn't want me to stay home on her account—keeping in touch would be sufficient. And I loved being on a cruiser, being part of the team, and chasing the raiders—so I wanted to go.

When no one said anything, Adrian smiled.

"I guess we’re all going. The next decision is who goes on which cruisers?"

"I suggest we split up like before, just in case ..." Kris left off,
the cruiser we're on gets destroyed.
"And let MacLin decide."

"Alright, I'll let MacLin know and contact you with the details."

I reported to the Vulcan two days later. MacLin had decided Kris and I would start on the Vulcan but transfer to the Lapis if we decided to visit any planets. Adrian and Rich would stay on the Cabiri.

After showing my ID to the Lieutenant on duty, I entered the loading bay and found Major Pannell waiting for me.

"Good morning, Commander Paulus, I'm here to escort you to your assigned quarters. I understand Commander Sinclair is arriving on the next shuttle."

"Good morning, Major Pannell. You must be busy with your new security detail."

"Yes, I have forty-one marines: a detail of ten for each of the four of you and a lieutenant as my second-in-command. She's currently responsible for the two details on the Cabiri. I'm staying on the Vulcan with my exciting high-risk duet." He grinned.

"Hopefully for Kris's sake, it will be a boring cruise: we go to the coordinates, the raiders surrender, and we return home."

Pannell laughed. "What about for your sake?" He sounded genuinely interested.

"I've come to accept ... excitement as part of my destiny. What worries me is that the people I love are exposed to danger because of me."

"I'm here to minimize the excitement so that neither you nor anyone with you is harmed." He looked at the two corporals behind us. "The men and women guarding you know you're an extra high-risk person and to be alert at all times. In fact, one of the reasons you haven't seen much of me is because we’ve been undergoing some additional training by the UAS Secret Service on what to look for when guarding an individual." He stopped at a door in the hallway to the Bridge and nodded. "The Captain has taken very good care of you and your partner."

I put my hand against the hand plate, and the door slid open to reveal a spacious room by cruiser standards, with a single bed and a fresher, no doubt a full commander's quarters. My suitcase already stood against one wall.

I had just stored my things when my PCD displayed a message from MacLin to join him in his office. When I exited, Kris was just leaving her room next door.

"Going my way?" she quipped. "For all the time I'm getting on cruisers, I might as well have volunteered for cruiser duty."

"But then you would be in smaller quarters, never getting time on the Bridge or dining with the captain—and you wouldn’t be nanny to a red-headed krait."

"True. Hi, Red," she said as Red made his way out of my blouse and around my neck. "I would never have met you, and I wouldn’t be on the slippery slope they call the fast track." She laughed and linked her arm in mine.

The guard at MacLin's office opened the door when he saw us coming. Inside we braced to attention and saluted.

"Relax and get yourself something to drink. I understand that Commander Shrader wants to visit the coordinates in Safe Harbor first, then Westar, and Zespa last."

"Right, the coordinates were from the Controller in Eastar, which was the most recent raid," Kris said.

"What do you expect to find at these coordinates?"

"Nothing," I said, and I could feel my cheeks heat with embarrassment.

"Why not?" MacLin frowned.

"If it were a permanent base of operations, then the Controller wouldn't have to send the coordinates. He has to send them because it changes periodically, maybe after a delivery—or it might just be a drop-off point for the messenger. In either case, they’ll be long gone."

"Then why go?"

"I agree with Anna, but we have to follow every lead. Most will lead nowhere, but if we don't, we might miss the one that does lead to results," Kris interjected, to my relief.

"Or hope the raiders aren't as logical as you and we catch them sleeping." MacLin grinned. "Travel time should be two days to Safe Harbor, three to Westar, and six to Zespa."

"Sixteen days including the time back to Oxax!" Kris said as we sat in the captain's conference room examining the puzzle messages for some anomaly that would lead to breaking the code. "Sixteen days I could be searching the Oxax Officer's Club for the father of my children."

"Is that how you find a mate?" I wasn't sure if I ever would be, but it was good information for when I was ready.

"Yes and No. You frequent places where you’re comfortable and hope one of the men you meet will turn out to be the one. I'm not comfortable with the men one meets at bars or places where crews frequent on shore leave. Sometimes you can meet the right man at work, but I'm never there!" She gave an exaggerated sigh. "Instead, I'm on a cruiser with men who I refuse to consider because they're like gypsies."

"I wonder where someone with a permanently attached venomous snake goes to find a man." I had intended it as a joke, but it did hit home. I wasn't interested in looking right now, but what about when I was? I could feel Kris's deep sympathy as she struggled to come up with an answer.

"Red found you when you needed him, and the right man will find you when the time is right."

"Thanks, Kris. That's not only a comforting thought but no crazier than Red seeking me out in the snow." The thought actually cheered me up, and I turned back to reviewing the puzzle messages.

"Brett, how are you doing? Cody asked as they stood in the bathroom attached to a backroom in the High Roller's nightclub.

"The damn cards have turned to shit. I was ahead at least eighteen thousand but my cards have gone sour over the past hour and that last hand killed me. That friggin’ merchant from Holy Star went all-in and I had to give a twenty thousand marker to see him. I couldn't let him have the pot when ten thousand of it was my credits and I had a full house, queens over sevens. That was the best hand all evening. So I signed a twenty thousand credit marker. The bastard had kings over fives. Where in hades am I going to get twenty thousand credits? These guys aren't going to let me pay in installments." He choked out a laugh. "They would grow grey waiting for me to pay off that kind of money. I don't guess you’ve won enough to help pay it off?" He stood looking at his bloodshot eyes in the mirror. It had been a long night. They had been playing for more than twenty hours.

Cody laughed. "I've had to sign two ten thousand credit markers to keep playing. Like you, I knew I couldn't pay off the first marker so I signed the second, hoping to get lucky. When we were winning at the blackjack table, it seemed like a good idea to join the poker table for some real money."

"Too much free alcohol makes you feel invincible. If we could get back to the ship ..."

"I agree, brig time looks pretty good right now." Cody looked around the room, hoping for a window to freedom.

Solid walls stared back. The only door led into the card room, where certain catastrophe awaited. When they walked back in, the four other players had left and only the dealer and the three security men remained.

"I've paid off your markers, as the men were anxious to get back to their ship, which is due to leave in a few hours. So if you'll settle up, we can call it a night," the dealer said. He was a tall wiry man with space-cold eyes.

The security men didn't look like typical bouncers—big muscle-bound men with scarred faces. These men had athletic builds and each had a multifunctional gun at his waist. As marines, Brett and Cody recognized cold-blooded killers—men who enjoyed killing—when they saw them.

"We don't have it," Cody said, thinking it was better to get it out right away.

"Now that’s a shame," the dealer said. "I'm out forty thousand credits. That's a lot of money. I should let my men make you suffer like I'm going to suffer losing all that money, but that won't get me my forty thousand. Sorry, the only thing you have of value is your body parts, probably not worth forty thousand but maybe ten to fifteen each."

"It's there something else we could do ... smuggling, maybe?" Brett's face was pale and sweat stained his armpits. He wasn't afraid of dying in a fight where he had a chance, but knowing he was going to be butchered for body parts generated a fear he had never experienced before.

"What ship are you currently serving on?" the dealer asked, looking interested.

"The Vulcan," Brett said, feeling a slight glimmer of hope.

"Cody?"

"The Vulcan."

"We might be able to reach an agreement if you're clever, greedy, and risk takers."

"We're marines!" Cody said, thinking that would satisfy the dealer.

"I've a proposition for one or both of you. I want someone killed and could buy a couple of good assassins for forty thousand credits. In your case forty thousand plus your lives. But I personally don't know if I can trust you not to renege on our deal, thinking I couldn't or wouldn't chase you down and kill you."

"You can trust us," Cody said, willing to agree to anything that got them out of this room.

"That proves my point. You're too fast to agree without knowing who or where or when." He smiled. "Don't underestimate me. If we can't agree, I'll kill you painlessly and take your saleable body parts. If you agree and then renege, I'll spend whatever it takes to find you, but then I'll be in a bad mood and will kill everyone you hold dear before I brutally kill you. That's lots of body parts, which will make it worth the effort and expense."

Cody and Brett paled as the gravity of their situation struck home. Neither man had any doubts the dealer would carry out his threat. He meant it. He would do just what he said, and if there had been any doubt, one look at his security men erased it.

"Who?" Brett asked, feeling sick.

"Let me sweeten the pot, give you a reason to want to honor your oath to me—one million credits each. Half immediately as a token of good faith and the other half when you succeed." The dealer smiled as the two marines' expressions turned from fear to smiles. "Enough to leave the marines and live happily ever after ... or join us and get even richer."

"A half million each in advance?" Cody asked.

"Yes."

Cody looked at Brett, who nodded. "You have a deal. Who?"

"Two NIA agents are joining the Vulcan. You're to kill or permanently disable them. When you do, the other half million will be deposited into your account."

"I thought they would kill us," Brett said as they sat in an upscale nightclub later that night.

"That was an elaborate setup. They knew we were marines stationed on the Vulcan ten minutes after we walked into that nightclub." Cody picked up his glass, sniffed it, and then took a drink. "And greedy."

"True, but this is like dying and waking up in paradise. Until they call us back from shore leave, we have our choice of women, booze, and accommodations. And—"

"And if we live through the experience, a life of excesses." Cody took another drink from his glass and sighed with pleasure. "I never thought I could afford a glass of New Orkney Malt Scotch. The women we're used to don’t cost as much as this glass of whiskey. It’s brewed with the same formula and process as a famous Scotch whiskey brewed on old Earth a thousand years ago."

"Shore leave isn't going to last forever, so let’s find some high-class women to match your high-class whiskey."

"What have you learned?" Brett asked as they sat alone in their four-man room three days later.

"The dealer was right. Two Lieutenant Commanders came aboard yesterday. They're from the Oxax NIA office. The problem is that new group of marines under Major Pannell is their security. If they leave the ship, they have two marines guarding each one, and while on the Vulcan, they always have at least one marine each. They even have a guard at their door while they’re in their quarters," Cody said, rubbing his chin.

"Explains the reason he’s paying two million credits."

"The problem isn't going to be killing them. The problem is going to be getting away with it long enough to spend our hard-earned reward."

Brett nodded agreement. "Fortunately there’s no time limit. We need to establish their routine and then develop a workable plan, because not trying isn't an option. It's all or nothing." Brett held out his fist and Cody touched his to it.

"Rich or dead."

"I've come to the conclusion they don't have a schedule. They eat in the Mess usually but not always, use the firing range daily but at odd times, have access to the Bridge, and use the captain's conference room. That's probably the place they spend the most time," Brett said as he and Cody sat eating breakfast early one morning.

"That's the place where they’re together, only have two guards, and the area has the least traffic," Cody said.

"They’ll still have a guard outside the door and one inside. And sometimes Pannell stays with them in the conference room."

"Pannell would be a problem, but the outside guard isn't going to be suspicious if he’s approached by a marine ... with a message for someone. And if a marine opens the door, then the inside guard will hesitate long enough so we can kill him. I doubt the women carry their weapons into the conference room to work, but even if they do, the two of us should be faster than navy officers." Cody laughed. "They would need to stand, take a shooting position, and aim before firing. Anyway, we’ll be wearing vests in case they get lucky."

"All right, we just need to pick a time when Pannell is busy in the marine area."