Commandos (7 page)

* * * *

Levi’s pace quickened as he left his shuttle behind him. Now that Jo had so bluntly disobeyed his order he was no longer convinced she would go to pick up David rather than embark on some private quest to seek out Magdalena. She’d cut off all contact. Therefore, he summoned Leon and ordered him to hurry to the hangar and tell the technicians to prepare another space plane for take off. Moments later they met, out of sight of unneeded witnesses, Levi somewhat anxious.

“Have you prepared the plane?” Levi asked after making sure no one would hear them.
“There’s a problem, Commodore. The technicians say that it’s not yet gone through its final check up. They’ve all been working on the plane Jo’s flying.”
Levi was compelled by a sense of urgency. He’d made too many mistakes recently. He walked up to the chief constructor.
“Get it ready, right now.” He pointed to the plane. “We’re leaving.”
“Commodore.”
“Don’t argue with me. I gave you a direct order.”
The constructor motioned his technicians to move the plane to the taxi lane.
“I just want to remind you…” Sweat was beading on the terrified man’s forehead. He swept it with his hand. “The ship can only take three people.” He tried to be firm, but his voice gave away his nervousness. “Due to the maximum weight and oxygen supply…”
“Why did Jo go alone?” Leon asked Levi. For him, as for most other people in the base, most of the night’s events were a mystery.
“I believe the third person onboard, apart from David, is going to be Magdalena.”
“
That
Magdalena?” Leon exclaimed, disbelieving.
“Yes.”
They got inside the craft, strapped on their vests and fastened their seat belts. Then they put on their headsets and checked communications with each other and the base. After a short engine warm up, they began to taxi towards the runway.
“Why would she need a hacker?” The pilot did not try to hide his curiosity.
“Jo wants Magdalena to break into her memory and upload a disk.” He went silent for a moment, pondering. “Luckily she doesn’t know where to find her.”
Levi was breathing heavily, his heart pounding. He was uncomfortable. It was the first time in his career he would take off without authorisation.
From inside the craft the ascent seemed slow, but for everyone watching the spectacular take off of the newest space plane, the machine’s movement looked incredibly swift. The airfield was crowded with onlookers, technicians, constructors,
cyberneticists and automatics
assistants, engineers, specialists, as well as commandos and senators with their families.
They were following Jo, not knowing her exact speed or whether she’d even allow contact once they’d found her. Anxious but seemingly calm on the outside, they set off hoping that their stunt would somehow help David.

* * * *

Alec was drowning his worries in a glass of whiskey. He felt dejected and shattered by what had happened. Diana’s reaction had caught him completely off guard. He had no idea what to make of it, even though he’d given it a lot of thought, he would never have imagined having to struggle with his wife’s post-natal depression. He figured that was the cause all of this.

Regardless of all the technological advances, depression remained the greatest threat faced by mankind in the era when other diseases such as cancer or HIV had long been successfully defeated.

Alec heard someone knock insistently on the door. Discouraged and unhappy, he slowly walked to answer it. He did not feel like talking to anyone. Diana’s behaviour and Jo’s unbelievable action had taken a heavy toll on him. He still could not believe that after such an exhausting medical procedure, she would choose to fly alone. With his glass in his hand he angrily pried the door open.

“Can I come in?” asked Margaret, calmly assessing the situation from the doorway. She could see that he was already mildly intoxicated. She stepped in.

“I have to tell you something.” She met his eyes, not knowing where to begin.
She sat and after a moment Alec followed her. His fists were clenched which made his entire posture seem greatly distressed.
After a long pause, Margaret finally spoke. “Diana knows everything about you and Jo.”
Alec looked at her in amazement. How many more unpleasant surprises awaited him this evening?
“I uploaded Jo’s memory disc, to her,” she said without batting an eyelid. She’d been gathering courage to come clean for a while now.
“Oh fuck.” Alec covered his face with his hands.
“Diane insisted,” the woman went on. “She believes you’re still in love with Jo…”
Alec snapped. He jumped up and kicked the wall with the fury stirring up in him.
“Stop! How could you! Why did you do that?” He could no longer control his anger.
The woman was suddenly scared he might attack her.
“She’s been asking for this for a long time. She insisted!” she tried to explain.
“Ever since we’ve all ended up on the same ship.” The man’s voice was becoming increasingly desperate. “I’ve done what I could to protect this marriage, unhappy as it was. I was trying to stay away from Jo! I only heard about the memory wipe by accident…”
“Did she have a reason?”
“I cheated on her.” With tears in his eyes, Alec reached for the bottle and took a long swig.
“I think she wiped her memory because of you.”
“How could she do that to me, after all we’ve been through?” He collapsed into his seat. He seemed far more worried about the fact Jo didn’t remember him than Diana finding out about the whole thing.
She saw tears in the commando’s eyes. Margaret would not have expected a single mention of Jo to put this rugged man in a completely different light. Make him more human. She let him be, to struggle with his own past. His anger at Jo and Margaret drove him ever more to drink. He wanted to debase his life through alcohol, as he did with the lives of every person who’d ever loved him.

* * * *

Jo’s ship was finally nearing Earth. A computer scan did not indicate any threat and everything seemed in order. She put on her headset and switched to a pre-programmed frequency. She called David.

“This is David, over.” She heard an unfamiliar voice.

“Hello, David. I’ve just tracked your location. I’ll be there soon.”
“Please hurry, Jo. They’re on to me.”
Jo disconnected and raced through the atmosphere at top speed, heading in the direction of the United States. The course was set for the agreed spot. She had to make it on time and rescue the commando, whoever he was.
Without much hesitation, David ditched his luggage, first destroying all the electronics and personal things he had on him. Despite the overwhelming tiredness and his injuries, he was gradually making his way to the top of the hill. He heard howling dogs and gunfire closing in on him. He prayed Jo would make it in time to get him out of there before they caught up with him. As he raced to the pick up point, his mind continued to analyse the situation. So, they had figured out he was not one of them, but didn’t know he’d left them a souvenir. At least everyone hoped they didn’t and would remain oblivious for at least several more days. Every passing hour increased the probability of intercepting some vital information, possibly even the whereabouts of their leader – Kaminsky.
Soon, Jo begun to descend at the agreed location. In a few seconds the spacecraft lowered itself towards the hilltop, a ramp pulling out from the now open hatch for David to climb onboard. The terrorists were getting closer, but so was she. The commando gathered the remains of his strength and made it to the ramp. He managed to climb onto it and collapsed, completely exhausted. Jo slowly retracted the ramp with David still panting for breath and started to ascend leaving the screams and barking behind them.
David crawled inside the cockpit. His long hair was in his eyes, his beard nearly touched his neck and his face was barely visible. He was bleeding from many wounds. Tired as he was, he could not help smiling when he saw the captain.
“Hi, there. Nice haircut.” He collapsed into a seat and allowed himself a deep, relieved breath.
Jo smiled and helped him fasten the seat belts. They looked at each other. He, thankful for the rescue, she, seeing only a strange man whose eyes told her nothing. She turned on the autopilot and tried to tend to his wounds.

* * * * Levi and Leon knew nothing of the captain’s mission, whether she commodore permission and dragged Leon along with him. The screen blinked with an incoming transmission from the senators.

“Commodore Levi,” came a stern voice from the speakers.
Reluctantly, Levi threw the switch.
“This is Levi,” he answered after a moment.
“You are to return to base immediately,” the senator’s voice panted with exasperation. “I will not have my best men chasing each other while the terrorists are preparing to launch an attack on another free zone!”
“Yes, Sir.”
Levi cut the transmission and ordered Leon to turn back. His anger was growing, especially at Jo.
This was supposed to be a relatively uncomplicated mission – two commandos to fetch David, collect him and return him to base. That was it,
he thought.
But nothing is ever certain; nothing.
The commodore’s thoughts were momentarily distracted with images from his past. He recalled the voice of his little girl, Laura, asking him not to leave, to stay home. She was six at that time and Levi was divorcing her mother. He left, even though he was still in love with her. In a moment of bitter anger, the woman prohibited him from ever seeing his daughter again. His pride got in the way and he lost track of them, never really trying to seek them out after that. That day, when he broke up with his wife, something inside him gave up. He didn’t try to fight for his love, to regain his family. Instead, he allowed himself to be consumed by work. He was an ambitious man and enjoyed being the best. He’d assembled a special tracking unit and trained the best commandos and pilots had already reached David or not. The was still furious. He’d set out without there were. His life revolved around work, the war and training. In the evenings, he fought off every thought of the daughter he’d abandoned, although something inside him craved to let the memories in. Now, as he was about to turn fifty-four, he was beginning to appreciate the idea of a peaceful, normal home on earth and he missed Laura. After the divorce, he had never tried to find new relationships. There was neither time nor will for that.
The commodore was fully aware of his faults with women. He was the only one to blame for the failure of his marriage. He had chosen freedom over family as he was unable to reconcile the two.
“Commodore.” Leon’s voice brought him back to reality. “We have some sort of a problem with the right engine.”
Levi bit his lip. Suddenly, Jo appeared on the screen.
“The senator informed me you were following me. I don’t understand, why.” There was a hint of confusion in her voice. “David is here with me. He’s sleeping.”
Hearing his name, the man awoke and looked at her.
She hasn’t changed one bit
, he thought.
Still as warmhearted as ever.
“Thank you, Jo.” David touched her hand in a gesture of friendship. Yet, he was surprised to hear Levi was following them. That was distressing.
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ve been away for a long time.” He used a towel to wipe his face. Jo handed him a water bottle. “Is Robert all right?”
“He’s fine. Missing you, that’s all. You’re his hero.”
“I’m not so sure about that. You know my mother-inlaw does all she can to turn the boy against me… She still blames me for her daughter’s death… and that accident…”
Jo looked at him, surprised. How many more things was she not aware of? It was impossible to go on without knowing such things! The memory wipe was turning out to have been the greatest mistake she’d ever made. The greatest she could remember, anyway. She needed to fix it, whatever it would take.
“What accident?” she asked quietly.
David was visibly surprised. They’d talked about the regeneration so many times.
His son had lost both his legs in a terrorist attack. The United Nation’s efforts to develop a technology allowing rebuilding lost body parts proved futile. They used to think that by using stem cells they would soon be able to repair nearly every organ, even the brain, but the attempts to steer the cells’ development failed, leading only to the formation of neoplasms.
Other research lead to the discovery of a regeneration gene in the human system. Unfortunately, it was not active enough to reconstruct a specific organ.
“Robert has artificial legs,” he said, frustrated. This had been a really difficult year for him, with so many troubles. The pre-selection, the mission, and now he had to deal with military forgetfulness? Something wasn’t right. Only he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It vexed him.
Jo swallowed loudly. She felt she’d messed up again. She tried to focus on flying the ship and maintaining a com-link with the base. They were probably already celebrating David’s return.
“Why is Levi coming after you?” This was the commando’s greatest concern right now.
“No idea.” She tried to evade his question. “Maybe he’s worried I’m not up to the job.”
David found that hard to believe. Levi trusted her completely, especially where her knowledge and skills were concerned.
“I’m a little surprised.” He kept pressing, feeling a little stronger now. “You’ve come alone.”
“Alec was supposed to come with me, but his wife started having a child just as we were about to take-off,” she answered without looking in his direction.
“Alec?” Now he felt his blood boil. That man had insisted on assaulting him whenever he had a chance. He accused David of every failure suffered by the commandos and looked for any chance to cut him to the quick, and now he wanted to come rescue him? That was really hard to believe. Something was very wrong here.
“How long till we get to Atlantis? I want to see my son.”
Jo glanced at the clock and assured him it would only be a few more hours. While David was falling back into a sleep, she tried to figure out her next move. She needed to ask him about Magdalena, as if nothing was wrong, pretending she remembered her life so that David didn’t sense something was amiss. She did not want to blunder again.
“Listen…” She’d purposefully waited for him to fall into the first phase of sleep. “Any idea where I can find Magdalena?”
His eyes opened sleepily.
“My sister?” he answered, yawning.
Jo held her breath. Yet another thing she’d stumbled upon unawares.
“I need her to help me with something,” she encouraged him.
“I’m not sure, Jo. Last I heard she was in Freestation. You know, that military base north of Old Cairo.” He yawned again. “I’m going to have some sleep now, okay?” His eyes closed almost immediately, leaving Jo with a lot to think about.