Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (26 page)

             
"I wouldn't quite say that, blue eyes." Reece laughed.

             
"Oh really, Mister Gavin, what would you say, because my patient is limping and he has bruising and lacerations on his face." She stood angrily, inches from his face.

             
Reece subconsciously took a slight step back as he answered. "I just meant that he took his share, and we didn't need to protect him any more than each other." He could see that his comments were not easing Suzy's mood.

             
"I'd quit while I was behind if I were you," Jesse started to laugh, but stopped abruptly as Suzy turned her attention his way. “Relax, Suzy," He patted himself down for effect. "Two eyes, two ears, a nose, two arms, ten fingers and five toes; see, it's all still there.

             
"Oh great, the Colonel has his sense of humor back." She pretended to be upset at his flippancy but was actually quite grateful for it, it was a sign he was moving on. By that time, Lana and Kimi were there and Jesse was wrapped in the fierce embrace of a worried daughter. As soon as she let go, he moved to Kimi and kissed her gently as she touched his bruised cheek.

             
"I think it gives me character," He joked while smiling at Lana. She put her arm around him as they walked. He was acting unaffected, but he needed to sit; his leg felt like it was on fire. Lana noticed he was leaning on her and Kimi and looked up at him with a smile.

             
"Not that I'm complaining, Jess, but why are you in such a good mood?" Suzy asked.

             
"That was a brazen and clumsy attempt on me; it means little Lucien and his lapdog Bliney are getting desperate. They know they can't take us and still take the aliens. Now, let's get me sorted, I need to have a look under the hood of this leg. I can't have it seizing up on me during battle now, can I?"

______

              After the obligatory visits from Nina and Ariel to make sure he was alright, Jesse was enjoying some time with Kimi and Lana as he tried to work out the problem with his leg. He found it in the form of a cracked chip. He asked for a sturdier replacement and a half hour later, he had his leg back on and was up and about. He was still in a fair amount of pain, so Suzy asked him to stay for observation. Reece asked if he could talk to him alone, so he asked Lana and Kimi to go to Carmine's new restaurant and pick up some dinner. When he and Reece were alone, he looked at his friend and asked, "What's on your mind, buddy?"

             
"I don't know how to ask this, I don't want you to take this the wrong way..."

             
"Reece, I'm sorry I haven't been here for you and our other Kalephi guests that much, I've been a lousy host. I hope that changes, though."

             
"No, that's not it, Jess, no one is mad about that. Bessa has Collin and his family. Tanna has been spending a ton of time with Josiah and Xanu has been picking up some good hacking skills from Jason as well as learning the fine art of approaching women in the mess hall." He laughed and saw Jesse smile, so he continued. Admiral Sonnadall has been busy with his briefings and I've been hanging with Suzy and the guys. What I wanted to ask you was... I know Ariel is like your little sister..."

             
"And my favorite person in the galaxy," Jesse finished. "Just spit it out, Reece, what are you asking here?"

             
"Would you be mad if I asked Ariel out to dinner?"

             
Jesse smiled, he knew this had been coming and he was surprised to realize that he liked Reece enough that he was okay with it. "Not at all Reece, we've gotten to know each other pretty well over the last year and a half, and you are one of only a couple people I would be happy to see Ariel with. Thanks for showing me the respect of asking, but you didn't need to. I will say this," he paused for effect. "Don't hurt her." Reece smiled, so Jesse added, "No seriously, she's also Carmine's favorite person and if you hurt her, I'm fairly certain no one will ever see you again." They both began to laugh a little and Reece excused himself when Lana and Kimi came back, happy that Jesse would trust him with someone that meant so much to him.

             
"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner, Reece?" Lana asked as he was leaving. "We have plenty. Carmine always gives enough for like ten people when I order there."

             
"No thanks, Lana, I've already told Suzy I would meet her. Maybe next time." He disappeared out the door and Jesse looked at Lana and Kimi with a smile.

             
"What is it?" Kimi asked, wondering why Jesse was suddenly happy.

             
"I just realized how lucky I am."

             
"Well, it took you long enough, Dad," Lana laughed as she kissed his cheek and put his tray of food down in front of him.

______

              Carmine was irate that someone had taken another shot at Jesse. He called his cousin, "Hey, Paulie, we need to find out who's letting these assassins on Polisia and who's setting them up. I want to know where they are getting their information from and then I want to take out every link in that chain."

             
"I'm working on it, boss. Maria is also very interested in plugging that hole; I think we should work with her and her men on this."

             
"Do what you gotta do, but let's get my friend out of danger. We owe everything to him and his family, and we always pay our debts."

             
"I'll let you know as soon as I find out anything, boss." He immediately left with a few associates to meet up with Maria and her men. He noticed the location was just outside the camp that Tara Tamanorra was killed.

             
"Paulie, I didn't think you guys would come."

             
"What made you think that, Tejada?"

             
"The last time we met, I was chasing Carmine under a contract for Earth's peacekeepers. I thought there might be a bit of a grudge there."

             
"Maybe a little, but Carmine wants Jesse and his family kept safe, and you can help us do that. Besides, Jesse made sure Carmine didn't go to prison anyway, so let's just say it's all in the past and move on."

             
"Sounds good to me. I have a lead on our target. The newest member of the Polisian High Council, Councilor Jacobs, has an assistant that is a second cousin to Admiral Bliney's wife on her mother's side. His name is Terrance De Gardo; we should start with him."

             
"He would definitely be in a position to sneak people onto the planet, and he would be in a position to give them sensitive information as well. Let's go have a talk with Mister De Gardo."

             
"It's like you're reading my mind, Paulie." She smiled as they boarded the shuttle. An hour later, they had Terrance hanging upside down over the edge of a cliff. They were all wearing masks so he wouldn't be able to identify them. Paulie and Sal were dangling the terrified man while Maria slowly stalked from side to side, ready to pounce. "Terrance, we know it's been you that has been getting the assassins onto Polisia."

             
"No, no, I swear, you've got the wrong guy. This is all a misunderstanding, please." His frantic pleas fell on deaf ears as Maria continued.

             
"Now, now, Terrance, lying to people holding you over a cliff doesn't seem like such a good idea to me, does it, Mister Cousin of Admiral Bliney." Even upside down, she could see the blood drain from his face as he realized he wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of this. "Now, what we need from you is the names of the people helping you get the assassins on our planet. We need to know how you are getting them their information and who else is involved in this scheme."

             
"I can't, I can't. They'll kill me. You might as well just throw me off this cliff." The desperate man yelled in terrified defiance.

             
"We might, but we don't have to. Remember, Terrance, there are a lot of ways we can cause you pain before we throw you off that cliff, now give us some names."

             
"I can't, please; you're supposed to be the good guys."

             
Maria laughed, but there was no mirth in it as she held his face and asked, "What on Earth gave you the idea that we were the good guys? Put him in the chair, boys." Paulie and Sal strapped him into a chair and Paulie hit him hard across the face. Maria didn't even allow him to finish his whimper before she continued. "We, my friend, are a group of likeminded individuals that do not wish to see Polisia destroyed.  We see Colonel Marcos as our best bet to achieve our goals and would like to keep him from getting killed before the coming battle. Now, my associate can continue, or you can give us some useful information."

             
Terrance found his nerve as he looked up at Maria and sneered. "Colonel Marcos will be dead soon, and Polisia will be left to the aliens for all of the trouble they've been. Your only hope is to get out of here before the ax falls." His smug look was replaced by pain as another shot from Paulie rocked him. For the next twenty minutes, Sal and Paulie worked him over, but they didn't get anything useful from him. Finally, Maria pulled out a syringe she had procured from
Endeavor's
med-bay. Terrance' eyes grew big as she slowly sauntered towards him. Twenty minutes later, they were certain they had all of the information that Terrance knew. The Polisian Minister of Science was part of the chain because he felt like he had been replaced by Serge, and two soldiers were supplying the assassins their weapons and armor, while also reporting back to Admiral Bliney on an encrypted channel. There were still thirty-seven assassins in play waiting for new orders in two separate locations, which only the soldiers knew.

             
Maria put a bound and unconscious prisoner in the shuttle and began to devise a plan. She would get Jason to hack the encrypted messages the soldiers were sending and receiving and send the soldiers new orders to put all of the assassins in play. She would force the Minister of Science to pass on the information that Jesse and the entire military council would be meeting in what they believed was a secure, secret mountain location. The soldiers would then send the assassins where Maria would be waiting with her men while Paulie's men picked up the two soldiers and held them until after the assassins were taken care of. Once the trap had been sprung, Paulie would deliver the soldiers, Terrance and the Minister of Science to Jesse and Nina to let them continue to see what information they could glean from the prisoners.

             
Early the next morning, Maria's entire team was in place. They were armed with heavy weaponry and had plenty of explosives. The assassin's military grade armor would not be saving them. Seven of her men were in the cabin, while she and the rest of her forces were either up in trees or buried under the snow. Her cameras would tell her when to strike. The assassins moved stealthily in three groups to surround the cabin, what they didn't know was that an armored barrier surrounded her men in the cabin. One of the assassins peered in the only partially uncovered window and saw through the fogged glass, Jesse and his military council discussing ship movements. This was a decoy vid, but the soldier couldn't tell because of the condensation on the window. The assassin signaled his men that they were in the cabin and thirty-seven men opened fire on the cabin, tearing it to shreds in moments. They were a little surprised to see an armored outpost still standing in the middle of the room when suddenly, men began springing up out of the ground and dropping from the trees all around them. Maria's forces took advantage of the element of surprise and began to quickly cut the assassins down. Retreating enemies were blown to pieces as they stepped on mines and the ones that stayed were slaughtered.

             
When the blasterfire finally died down, they went through and collected thirty-five dead assassins. Apparently, two had escaped. Still, there were now only two left to deal with and she knew what they looked like. There would also no longer be an infrastructure in place to bring in more. An hour later, Paulie was delivering four bruised and battered conspirators with vid confessions to Captain Ariel Marcos. When they were brought before the ruling council, they were immediately sentenced to prison for war crimes. Nina and Ariel were able to breathe a sigh of relief while the military council was being apprised of what had happened. The entire military as well as Jesse's not quite legitimate contacts were on the lookout for the remaining two assassins. Jesse was confident they would no longer be an issue, but he was also prepared.

             
The ruling council came together with the military council and Nina to plan their next step. They officially made Serge the acting Minister of Science before moving on to more pressing matters.

             
"You would take half the fleet to another galaxy, Colonel?" Councilor Dana began.