Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2) (16 page)

Dropping her bag on the side table, she kicked off her shoes and walked through the opulent apartment to the dining room.  Her stomach was reminding her, it had been too many hours since lunch.  She was surprised there was no food ready for her on the table.

“That’s strange,” she said to herself.  “Martina!” she called sharply, to her house servant and cook.

“Martina!” there was no answer in the silent apartment.  “Where are you girl?”

“Asleep,” a cold voice said from behind her.

Siobhan spun to see a woman standing there, dark hair, long dark coat and pistols strapped to her thighs.  Her eyes drew Siobhan’s gaze.  She’d never seen eyes as lifeless as these.  No, that wasn’t right.  They weren’t lifeless, just removed of every strip of human emotion.  She felt frozen in their glare as the woman stalked towards her.

“Who?  Who are you?”

“Eleanor Doherty,” the woman said in that same cold voice, sending a spike of terror running up Siobhan’s spine.

“That’s not possible.  She died.”  Siobhan managed a step backwards.

“Oh, you remember?  Pomykala didn’t and made me angry.”

Siobhan did not want to see this woman angry.  She tried to activate her com but nothing happened.

“We shut it down the moment you finished your call.”  The woman claiming to be Eleanor Doherty said.

Terror was threatening to overtake Siobhan and the woman was almost in arms reach.

“It was business.  I.  I.  Didn’t know the children...”  She didn’t see the hand that struck her.  All she saw was a flash of light as it impacted on the side of her face.  Then she was looking up at the woman from the floor, disorientated.

“Whose business?” she asked in a voice cold enough to freeze stone.

“I can’t tell you.  Please.”  Siobhan tried to get to her knees to beg for her life.  A boot came back and slammed into her stomach.  It blasted all the breath out of her and she felt something snap inside.  Pain stabbed in her chest, piecing and all consuming.  Clawing at her clothes, she desperately tried to open them.  Suddenly the pressure eased and she felt blackness overcoming her.

The last thing she saw was the woman crouching down and grabbing her by the shoulders.  “No!  Don’t you die on me.”

***

Valerie watched the woman writhe on the floor, after her boot impacted on her stomach.  She placed the kick precisely to damage her internally.  It wouldn’t kill her, not yet.  Dietze struggled to breath and suddenly started clutching at her chest.  Valerie frowned.  The blow was lower down and Dietze was grabbing at her clothes, pulling at them.  That wasn’t right.

Crouching down, she grabbed Dietze by her shoulders and watched as the life seemed to leech out of her.  Valerie shook the woman in horror.

“No!  Don’t you die on me.”  It was too late, she was already gone.

“Whoa.  What just happened?”  Hanna asked over the com.  “A medical alarm just went out of Dietze’s apartment and I couldn’t stop it.”

Before answering Valerie tore Dietze’s clothes open.

“Shit!” she swore loudly.  “She has a heart monitor on.”

“Oh, no.  I didn’t know about that.  It hasn’t been jammed.  It’s where the medical alert’s coming from.  You have to get out of there, Valerie.  Building medics are on their way and Dietze’s police watchdogs have been copied in.”  There was a Zeus Police anti-terrorist squad on the floor below, to keep an eye on Dietze.  Fortunately, Dietze did not want them anywhere near her.

“OK,” Valerie answered.  “Extraction three.  I’ll see you back at base.”

***

“Lightning blast it!”  Valerie almost shouted, storming into the small kitchen/diner the three of them shared, two hours later.  “I had her and she was so terrified she would have told me everything!”

Hanna and Deni both practically jumped at her entrance.  They were sitting at the small table, with a coffee for Deni and hot chocolate for Hanna.

“I’m sorry, Valerie.”  Hanna said contritely.  “I should have spotted the medical feed.”

Stopping and taking a deep breath, Valerie made herself calm down.

“No, Hanna,” she sighed.  “There is no way you could have known.  They’re on a separate system entirely and it would only be transmitting if there was a problem.”  Valerie poured herself a cup of coffee and dropped into the third chair dejectedly.  “Back to square one.  We’ll have to find a way into Granath.

“It’s a trap and you know it,” Deni said pointedly.

“A trap is only a trap if you don’t know about it.”  Valerie told her confidently, but she didn’t really mean it.

“Bullshit!”  Hanna said.  “They know you’re coming.  More importantly they know exactly what you can do.  There won’t be any element of surprise.  Whoever they have there will be fully briefed.  They may not be able to spread the word about you far and wide, but they can tell the people they’re sending to catch you!”

“So what would you have me do?  Give up?”

“No.  We need to go to Ison,” Hanna snapped back.

“I’ve told you.  We’re not getting him involved.  It would just give them a chance to cover it up.  He’s as much a part of them as anyone else.  They’ll close ranks and protect whoever’s behind this.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Deni argued.  “While Hanna was working on Dietze, I’ve done some checking on Ison.  Of anyone to go to, he could be the best option.  He’s ruthless, uncompromising and remorseless.  He ruined the Tsuchiya family when one of them cost him a couple of million.”

“I’ve heard the story,” Valerie shook her head.  “A couple of the family actually went to prison and the person behind it was killed.  So what?  He may be happy to do it himself but that’s not what I want.  I want to look them in the eye before I crush their skull with my bare hands!”  The vehemence in her voice caused both of the girls to sit back and Deni paused before continuing.

“OK.  There’s something you may not have heard.  Arnold Ison never goes back on a deal.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not really common knowledge, as far as I can tell, but I came across a couple of examples when I was looking into him.  There’s a factory over in Tettenhall borough here in Zeus.  Ison bought it from a Family who were struggling, part of the deal was a one percent yearly wage increase for the workers.”

“That’s very generous.  I’ve never heard of it before,” Valerie said.

“Generous it maybe, but the factory is still there and the workers are still getting the increase, I checked.  It seemed a bit strange to me so I dug deeper.  Ison drives a hard bargain, he’s renowned for it and I haven’t come across a single instance where he changed an agreement.”

“So, if we name our terms and get him to agree to them, he’ll stick by them?”  Hanna asked.

“From everything I could find, yes.”

“Valerie, this must be why Tom told you to go to him,” Hanna told her.  “He knew Ison would stick with whatever deal you agreed with him.”

Sitting there, Valerie looked at the two girls and was reminded they really weren’t girls anymore.  It was still difficult to trust someone with her mission.

Hanna leaned forward.  “If you don’t trust Ison, trust your husband.  This is his idea.”

Valerie smiled slightly.  “That was below the belt.”

Shrugging back, Hanna smiled impishly.  “Whatever it takes.”

“Alright, alright.”  Valerie said, throwing her hands up in defeat.  “How do we get to him?”

Antonio Cestari pressed a button on his desk in answer to the discreet beep interrupting his work.  It was the middle of the week and he would be in his office for at least another couple of hours.

“Yes, Alastair?”  He told his assistant when an image of Captain Aguilar’s head appeared hovering over Antonio’s desk.

“I have Admiral Standring on the com for you.  Shall I put her through?”

“That will be fine, thank you.”  A moment later Captain Aguilar was replaced by Antonio’s Chief of Staff.  “Wioletta,” he greeted her.  “What can I do for you at this late hour?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but I knew you would want to be made aware of this.  Carter has been spotted here on Zeus”

“Really?  What are the details?” he said eagerly.

“Carter attacked Siobhan Dietze in her home earlier tonight.  Dietze is dead, though Carter was not responsible, not directly at least.  Dietze had a heart condition.  It only presented itself a few days ago.  She was wearing a heart regulator and monitor until she could be operated on.  The injuries she sustained from Carter were serious, but not sufficient to actually kill her.  Carter did not seem to be any more aware of this heart condition than we were.  She must have damaged the regulator and in the process triggered a heart attack.”

“What about the response team who were on station.  I presume they were not able to capture her?”

“I’m sorry to say, sir, they did not even see Carter.  She was gone before they could get to Dietze’s apartment.  That mysterious Hacker from Blaze was in the buildings system.  They removed Carter from all the security systems.  It was pure luck they missed the medical alert.”

“Damn Moore.”  Antonio said with feeling about the Secretary of Defence.  “If Dietze hadn’t complained to him and he hadn’t overridden me on this, the team would have been in her apartment.”  He shook his head.  “Have we heard anything from the Granath offices?”

“Nothing, sir.  I would guess Carter suspected we would have it covered and went for the softer target.”

“We have to presume she got what she needed from Dietze and is moving onto the next target.  Leave the team on Granath, just in case, and beef up what we have throughout the chain to September.  Remind me, whose next on the list?

“That’ll be the September family fixer, Nancy Mann.  Her security is already pretty good and we have a team watching her around the clock.  I’ll increase that to two teams and insert some of our people into her personal bodyguard.

“Good.”  Antonio nodded.  “Make sure you copy everything we have of the incident to Dorme.  I want him to be kept in the loop.”

“Yes, sir.”  The fact she still disagreed with him about Dorme was obvious in her face.  Antonio knew she would carry out his instructions regardless.  “Sir?  There is one thing I don’t understand.”

“What’s that, Wioletta?”

“Given transit times from Blaze, Carter could have been here for months.  What’s she been doing all this time?”

“It’s a very good question.  Other than the Hacker, do we have indications of anybody else working with her here?”

“No, sir, from what our team were able to determine, she was alone with Dietze in the apartment.  The only other DNA trace we were able to find was Dietze’s servant.  She was fast asleep in her room.  She was drugged, presumably by Carter before confronting Dietze.”

“We have one associate we can tie back to Blaze and no one else.”  Antonio mused.  “My first instinct said she’s building a team, like the one on Blaze.  Now I’m not too sure.  I don’t have an answer for you.  Rest assured though.  It will be one of the many questions I will ask her, should we capture her alive.”

“Your bet, Chao.”

“Hmm.”  Button looked up from where he had been staring at his cards.

“I said,” Private Olivia Wester, Alpha fire team, First Platoon, Shadow Company told him.  “It’s your bet.”

“Oh, right,” he threw some chips into the middle of the table.  “I’ll raise you ten.”

“I’ll see your ten and raise you twenty.”  Private Kozelek Guggenheim said with glee.  The four members of First Platoon’s, Alpha fire team, sat around the table playing poker.  Wester and Corporal Jessica Richings already folded, leaving only Button and Guggenheim in this round.

Button threw the required twenty sovereigns of chips into the pot.  “Call.”

“Three of a kind.  All tens.”  Guggenheim said laying down his cards.

“Ah.  You got me.”  Button said in disgust.  “Pair of Queens.”

“What?”  Richings frowned.  “Why would you raise on a pair?  That’s not like you, Chao.  You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he shrugged.

“Come on, Button.  You’ve been distracted ever since you got back from leave.  What’s going on?”  Richings asked.

“I bet it’s girl problems,” Wester joked.  “Did she not call you back after you showed her the way to Nirvana?”

“Maybe she didn’t get there,” shot Guggenheim.

“Trust me.  That’s the last thing I have trouble with.  Besides, even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you reprobates!” Button laughed.

“Girl trouble aside, Chao, you can talk to us.”  Richings said seriously. “What’s up?  Family troubles?  Did you have a run in with your mother again?”

“Huh,” he grunted.  “Something like that.  Look guys.  I need to call it a night.  Cash me out.”

With the sovereigns in his pocket, Button left the flat he shared with the team.  As elite troops, the Devils, were given better accommodations than the rest of the Legion rankers.  Most would have the entire Platoon in a single bunk room.  Not for the Devils, each of Shadow Company’s fire teams had a four bedroom flat, including a central kitchen and living area.  The whole Company were in a single building reserved for their exclusive use on Mountnessing Base.

After the destruction of Furioso, the Legion needed to put the surviving Devils somewhere.  Many died when the anti-matter reactor blew, but a lot were either on leave, away on training exercises or deployed on Missions.  The Legion converted an entire Divisional area on Mountnessing for their use, each Company assigned its own building.  The dispossessed Army Division set up camp outside the city until Mountnessing could be extended to include it again.  It meant bulldozing several districts of the Manual Ghettos surrounding the base, but no one cared.

Button stood in the corridor outside the flat for several minutes.  It had been a week since he saw Major Carter and Richings was right.  He had been distracted the whole time while he wrestled with what to do.

“Fuck it!” he said to himself and headed for the lifts.

Two floors up and he was in officer country.  There were four doors in the corridor, the same as his floor.  Each one belonged to a single occupant rather than four.  It didn’t bother him.  If he wanted the extra comfort that came with the responsibilities of an officer, he would have done something about it a long time ago.  The door he wanted was at the end on the left.

Bracing himself, Button pressed the attention button and waited.

It took about thirty seconds then a face appeared on the screen by the door.  “Yes?”

“Sorry to disturb you, Major.”

“Button?” Major Shannon Forlani said.  “What is it?  What’s happened?”

“Erm.  Nothing, Ma’am, but I need to speak to you.”  He saw the look of consternation on her face.  Privates, even ones who had been with the Company from day one, didn’t just turn up and knock on an officer’s door uninvited, if at all.  It was the middle of the night and gave it a level of urgency.

“Hang on.  I’ll be there in a minute,” she told him and the screen blanked.

Waiting anxiously in the corridor, Button tried to think through what he was going to say.  The door opened and the Major stood there in a robe.  It was slightly open in the front and Button couldn’t help catching a look of more than he should see of the busty blonde.

“Sorry I woke you, Ma’am.”

“I hope it’s urgent and couldn’t wait until morning.  What is it?”

“Erm.  Can I come in, Ma’am?”  The look she gave him spoke volumes.  Even if a Private soldier knocked on their CO’s door in the middle of the night, they certainly didn’t ask to enter when the CO was in her dressing gown.  Major Forlani had known Button for a very long time.  They bled together more than a few times on the battlefield.  Each owed the other their lives several times over.  After a very long pause, she nodded and stepped back.

After she shut the door behind him, Button looked around.

“Not bad, Major.  Maybe I should have taken that commission after all.”

Pulling the robe tighter over her chest, Major Forlani said.  “If you’ve come here looking for a recommendation for OTS you can forget it.”

“Erm, sorry.  No, Ma’am.  I. er.  I’m not sure how to say this?”

“Quickly, would be my suggestion.”

“Oh,” he sighed heavily and said rapidly.  “Major Carter is alive.”

She looked at him in disbelief.  “I’m sorry.  What?”

“I saw Major Carter last week.”

“You must have been mistaken,” she said shaking her head.  “That’s impossible.”

“No, Ma’am.  I glimpsed her in a bar and not believing my own eyes, followed her out.  She caught me, lifted me clear off the ground and slammed me against a wall.  With one arm.  It was her.”

“There is no way...” she started to say.  “They have proof she was on the station.  I saw the vid of her going into her quarters myself.  I thought it was for the best, I thought...”

He shook his head in confusion.  “Thought it was for the best?  What was for the best?”  Button knew Major Forlani was Major Carter’s best friend.  His old CO was a very private person and only Forlani met her family.  She wasn’t the type to push her CO out of the way to get a promotion.  Major Forlani could have commanded her own company decades ago if she wanted to. 

“Why did you say that?” he asked.  The lights were dim in the flat and it took him a moment to realise she was completely white in the face.  “What’s wrong?”

She covered her mouth with her hand.  “Oh shit, Valerie.  You didn’t.”

“What is it, Major?  What’s wrong?”

“I need a drink,” was all she said.  Major Forlani went over to a cabinet, pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured herself a large glass, draining it in one go.  Protocol was now completely out of the window.  Button stepped over to her and put a hand gently on her shoulder.

“Talk to me, Major.  You’re more sorry she’s alive than shocked.”

She looked at him for a long time and then got a second glass out.

“Here, you’ll need this.”  She filled both glasses, handed him one and pointed to a chair.  “Sit down.”

Button did as he was told.  Taking a sip, he appreciated the whisky.  It was a good one.  Major Forlani sat opposite him and looked to be struggling to find the right words.

“Do you remember that she had a family?” she asked him.

“Of course, we were all surprised they didn’t come to the funeral.  We accepted she liked to keep things separate, but it seemed wrong.”

“They didn’t come to the funeral because they died on the same day.”

“Her family were on Furioso?”

“No.  Her family died here in Zeus, during a police raid.”

He looked at her blankly for a few seconds, not sure what she was getting at.  Why would Major Carter’s family be...

“Doherty?” he said as the realisation dawned.  She nodded in acknowledgement.  “That was in the morning and...  Oh, fuck!”  His stomach felt like it dropped right out of him and he was glad she told him to sit.

“Oh, fuck is right.  I could be wrong, but...”

“You kill her family.  There are going to be consequences.  She blew up Furioso!  But how?”

“My guess would be the offensive programs.  They locked them off afterwards.  Those programs used to be accessible by any of the Company CO’s for ease of deployment.  Now they are handed out on a mission specific basis.  Valerie could have sent them into the reactors systems and countermanded the safety protocols.  Any of us could do it.  All of Rosso’s security was designed to keep people out.  Once you were in, you had a free run of the place.”

Rubbing his face with his hand, Button tried to get his head around it.  “Doherty had nothing to do with the rebellion or Furioso.  Why did they target him?  Why of all people, her family?”

“I don’t know.  When I saw his name on the news, I knew it was complete bullshit.  I guessed they must have run into Valerie.  That was why the house was completely destroyed.  Maybe she wasn’t there and only came back afterwards to find her family dead.  Who knows?  I just thought she went to Furioso for answers and was caught up in whatever happened, but if she survived and hasn’t come in?  It only means one thing.”

“She did it and they blamed the rebellion to cover it up.  They couldn’t admit the Legion’s most highly decorated soldier was responsible.”

“Shit.”  Major Forlani leaned back in her chair and rested the glass against her head.  “What do we do now?  What are you up to, Valerie?” she asked rhetorically and looked at Button.  “What did she say to you?”

He shook his head.  “Nothing really.  Tell no one and something about missions.  There was only one mission.  To be honest I was in complete shock and she had me bang to rights.”

Shannon leaned forward and Button was treated to another eyeful, which he tried not to notice.  “One mission?  If Doherty had nothing to do with the rebellion then it leaves whoever ordered his death.  What does your contact in the rebellion think, Chao?”

“My?” he jerked up in shock.  “I don’t know what you mean.  I haven’t.  I don’t.”

“Button.  Did you seriously think you could get away with recruiting without me noticing?”

He looked at her carefully.  He learned to spot someone who was undecided about the Privileged and now he looked at her properly, he could see Major Forlani had been showing some of those signs for the past year.

“If you think I’m involved with the rebels.  Why hasn’t L.I. arrested me?”

“Because I never believed it was the rebels who hit Furioso.  I thought it was one of those Family scions with the ego the size a planet, but the brain of an amoeba.  They screwed up the reactor so badly it went nova and it was covered up.  When they gave me Shadow Company I kept my eyes open.  You would not believe the amount of intel and personnel records I have access to.  I noticed you socialising outside the Company and realised it started a few years ago.  When I compared the records of who you were talking to, it became obvious.”

“It still doesn’t explain you not having me arrested.”

She looked at him seriously.  “I wouldn’t have you arrested.  I agree with you.  I’m tired of seeing people die because idiots can’t admit what they are, while everyone else treats them like they aren’t.  People like that, cause things like Furioso and kill good people like the Doherty’s.”

“But they didn’t,” he said testing her.  “You just said it was Carter.”

The look she gave him, told him she knew exactly what he was trying to do.  “Yes they did.  It was the police who killed Tom and the kids.  Who would have sent them?  That person is the one truly responsible for all those people who died.  They unleashed death itself when they murdered her children and husband.”

“And death doesn’t pick and choose, who lives and who dies.”  Button finished the saying as old as the Legion.  He sighed.  If he couldn’t trust this woman, then there weren’t many people he could.

“Alright.  You’re right.  I’m a recruiter for the rebellion, but that’s all.  I’ve never met Billy Bac and I only have one handler who I give my contacts to.  I have no idea how it works after that.  Anyone I recruit is told to stay away from me.  If L.I. was on my tail, it would be too easy for them to round everyone up through me.  That being said, I have heard the rebellion is pissed about Furioso.  It hurt them badly.  People in the Ghettos turned against them and a lot of rebels got handed over.”

“So we can’t tell them about Valerie.”

“Yes and no.  They already know she’s alive,” he held up a hand.  “Sorry, my handler was there when I saw Carter and I needed to explain.  I didn’t know she had anything to do with Furioso, so they don’t either, but even if they did, well they might just put it to one side.”

“Why?”

“She’s Battleborn.”

“Ah,” Major Forlani nodded.

“She’s the catalyst to get all the rankers in the Legion off their comfortable butts and into this fight.”  Button confirmed.

“Are they going to try and recruit her?”

“I asked them not to and my handler will listen to me, for a while at least.  You should have seen her, Major.  She was in pain, like I have never seen before.  It looked like she was holding on by the barest of threads.  I told them in her state she could very well snap them in half.”