Soldiers of Fortune (11 page)

              "Hold up," Jason said, making certain it didn't sound like a request. "Just so we're clear, we were hired by Crisstof," he said, pointing to the man in question, "I don't know any of you, nor do I feel the need to answer, or explain myself, to you. We're more than happy, and capable, of doing the job at the rate we’ve agreed upon. However, if that becomes an issue, we'll happily be on our way." The cold stare coming from Captain Colleren gave Jason the creeps, he'd seen a similar look from a rattlesnake in a zoo on Earth.

              "Let's step back from this for a moment," Crisstof interjected. "Kellea, the
Diligent
has been out here for almost six months with almost nothing to show for it save for a large fuel bill. Jason, I hired Omega Force to try and shake things up, not replace my own people. The two of you will need to work with each other instead of against." Captain Colleren nodded respectfully to Crisstof in feigned acquiescence, but Jason could see that her eyes told a completely different story. But, a job was a job.

              "I apologize, Captain," he said. "We'll do what we've been hired to do, and to the best of our ability, and then we'll be on our way."

              "Of course, Captain," she replied. "Getting back to the matter at hand... as Crisstof said, we've made very little progress in trying to sniff out any type of central leadership behind the attacks on Eshquarian shipping lanes. Normally I would say this is because there simply isn't any, but the attacks are far too well planned to be coincidental." Over the course of the next two hours Captain Colleren and her staff deluged Jason and his crew with a compressed version of all the intel they'd been gathering. As the briefing droned on he once again was thankful he had upgraded his neural implants; the information flowed over him and the bio-machinery in his head categorized and filed away everything in a way that he'd be able to recall later at will.

             
One of the more useful aspects of the briefing was the ship and crew profiles the
Diligent
crew had been able to compile, and he was beginning to see why they had been running into problems. "I may see an issue already," he said, trying to gently broach the subject.

              "Please," Captain Colleren said, indicating he should continue.

              "You've been using the
Diligent
to gather this intel and try to establish contacts?"

              "Of course," she answered. "Well, the
Diligent
and often the various shuttlecraft that you probably saw on the hanger deck when you arrived."

              "I suspected as much," Jason said slowly. "First off, I'd like to compliment you on running such an impeccable ship. I could see from a hundred kilometers away how clean and well maintained she was. In fact, if I didn’t know better I’d say the
Diligent
was a military vessel."

              "Thank you, I think," Colleren said confusedly. "I'm not sure I see where you're going with this, Captain."

              "Look again at the ships you've been tracking," Jason suggested. "Try and view them in comparison to the
Diligent
."

              "I'll be damned," she said after a brief moment. "That does make sense."

              "Am I missing something?" Twingo asked.

              "Probably," Jason smiled. "And you're not going to like what it means when you figure it out."

Chapter 6

              "No! I will not be a party to this!" Twingo was almost in hysterics in the hanger bay where they all stood on the deck, looking the
Phoenix
over.

              "Be reasonable, Twingo," Doc said soothingly. "It's all just going to be cosmetic anyway, you can change her back when we're done."

              "Captain! I can't believe you're asking me to do this... you want me to deliberately damage my ship?" Twingo asked in a wheedling voice, changing tactics.

              "I'm not asking, Twingo," Jason said forcefully. "She's too clean. You saw those other ships, we'll never fit in landing a mint condition DL7 in the middle of that. If we can't fit in, we can't execute our mission. By this time tomorrow I want the hull dinged and damaged, some blast marks added, and corrosion evident in all the right places. None of this has to be real, it just needs to look real."

              "How do I fake a hull dent?" Twingo asked indignantly.

              "I don't know. I'm not an engineer," Jason shot back. "Just get it done." He turned to walk away, wanting to end the conversation and get his crew to work. "Oh, one more thing... it would help if she didn't run all that well. Try to arrange it so she smokes a little bit and sputters for effect when we start landing on these backwater worlds." With that he hurried up the ramp, leaving an apoplectic Twingo spluttering on the deck.

              "You know," Kage said from behind him, making him jump. "This isn't a bad idea, but we shouldn't just stop at the ship."

              "I'm listening," Jason said as he crossed the
Phoenix's
cargo bay.

              "We're all a tad too clean to really fit in with a bunch of pirates and smugglers. We should dirty ourselves up a bit, maybe some fake tattoos... Oh! I'm going to get one of a Galvetic skull on my chest," Kage said as he warmed up to his idea.

              "Probably want to check with Crusher first," Jason replied. "I'm not sure if he would find that offensive or not. It's not something you want to find out the hard way."

              "Good idea," Kage agreed fervently. Jason had to concentrate on keeping a straight face; skull tattoo or no, the diminutive little Veran wasn't likely to intimidate anybody.

             
Twingo and a crew from the
Diligent
worked through the next twelve hours straight while Jason sat on the bridge and went over the data Crisstof's people had provided and tried to formulate some sort of plan that wouldn't leave them out there for months on end chasing ghosts. As he poured through the dossiers and after-action reports from previous attacks, a plan began to form in his mind. One of the main advantages Omega Force had was the fact it wasn't hampered by departmental or governmental regulations and rules. He felt the main approach taken so far was fundamentally flawed in that it would always be a group of outsiders looking in and the criminals they were after had made a career of sniffing out and dodging their kind. So acting as an "investigative unit" simply wouldn't work, they'd burn a ton of fuel and putter around out in the Concordian Cluster until Crisstof finally became bored and dismissed them.

              Or...

              "
Diligent
, this is Captain Burke on board the
Phoenix
," he said into his personal com unit.

              "
Go ahead, Captain
," a cheery female voice said back.

              "I'd like to set a meeting with Captain Colleren and her staff prior to our departure. I'm making some changes to our plans and she'll need to know about them," he said as he scrolled through the intel images on the terminal screen.    

              "
I'll inform the Captain of your request and let you know when, and if, she's available
," the disembodied voice said.     

              "Of course. Thank you,
Phoenix
out." Jason terminated the link and walked off the bridge, heading for the galley.

             
He was in the middle of eating when word came back that Captain Colleren would see him in an hour. He had time to go get cleaned up and grab Doc before heading out. He decided to let the others finish up their preparations; he'd brief his own crew once they were off the
Diligent
. Now that the mission was taking shape, the excitement began to settle into Jason's gut and, as he always was, he was anxious to get to it. 

              Fifty minutes after he had spoken with the
Diligent's
com officer Jason and Doc were seated in the same, nondescript conference room they had been in before. They only had to wait another four minutes before Captain Colleren, her first officer, and Crisstof walked in and also sat down. “Ok, Captain Burke,” Colleren began, “you mentioned something about wanting to change the plan?”

              “Yes,” Jason began. “Our original plan of poking around on some of the smuggler’s moons and remote spaceports simply won’t work.”

              “Oh?”

              “Think about it… these types of people already live in a society in which they don’t even trust each other. A group of outsiders showing up asking questions will only cause them to batten down the hatches, so to speak. We’re going to have to present ourselves as the real deal, and that means actually hiring ourselves out to these people,” Jason said. The idea of undercover work wasn’t exactly farfetched, but in this case it meant taking an active role in attacking commercial and private shipping vessels. This was where he was going to have to talk very fast to sell the idea.

              “You’re talking about taking an active part in these raids,” Crisstof said. “I’m not sure that’s something we can get behind. The risk of collateral damage is too great and I’m certain the Eshquarians would not approve.”

              “True, but you’ve already tried it your way. Sitting around in seedy taverns will not get you the information you want. I’m convinced we’re going to have to go all in to crack this nut, and that means we have to be available to make runs if we’re approached.”

              “So what’s your plan?” Captain Colleren asked.

              “We’re going to need seed money,” Jason said. When he saw the confused stares looking back at him he went on, “I’m going to need some ‘stolen’ cargo to try and sell when we find someplace promising in order to gain a level of credibility. Something from a verifiable theft would be preferable.”

              “So you want to commit a crime before you even start?” Crisstof asked incredulously.

              “No, I just want it to look like I did. There’s got to be something of value on this ship that you can report as stolen. By the time we get someplace to try and sell it, it should disseminate through most local law enforcement databases. It has to look real though, these guys are smart,” Jason finished.

              “If they’re so savvy what makes you think they won’t see through your deception?” Crisstof insisted.

              “They’re smart, but they’re also greedy. That’s why they’re in that line of work,” Doc spoke up for the first time.

              “The more I think about it, the more I like it,” Colleren admitted.
I bet that killed her to say that out loud…
"But I want to be clear that I won't be turning over anything that could be used to further these attacks on civilian vessels."

             
“So we’re all onboard with this?” Jason pressed, wanting to seal the deal. The lone holdout, Crisstof, looked around the table helplessly.

              “It would appear so,” he said. “Captain, do we have anything on board that would suit our purposes?”

              “I’m sure we can come up with something,” she said. “My First Officer, Commander Bostco, will assist you with that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have something else I must attend to.” Jason noticed an effort on Bostco’s part not to smile as she left the room. The Commander was a taller being than an average human and sported an impressive shock of distractingly bright orange hair, a wide, flat, almost simian face. He also had an easy smile, at least when his Captain wasn't around, and Jason had taken a liking to him immediately when they had met.