DJ's Mission (17 page)

The hooded figure that was Cheshire nodded. “For
the third time, yes. My source is unimpeachable.”

“Who’s your source?”

“Spartan.”

Absolem nearly dropped his pipe. “If he knows,
then perhaps the Godfather knows.”

Cheshire shook his head. “Spartan assured me that
no one in the Cartel, other than you and I, are aware of the deception. He only
alerted me since he considers the Red Falcon, which is on his way to meet you,
a friend. He was hoping that you’d be considerate in your dealings with him.
Call it a favor.”

Absolem perked up at that. “Spartan would owe me a
favor?”

“No, I would. Spartan called in my favor which
means I now owe you.”

Absolem grumbled for a moment. It would’ve been
extremely lucky to have Spartan owe him a favor but then, it wouldn’t be bad
having another member of the Cartel owing him one either; especially since it
wouldn’t really cost him anything. “Okay Cheshire, you have a deal.”

“Many thanks Absolem. Let me know if you come up
with a solution to our problem. I too will be looking for a remedy to the
imposter.”

Even as the monitor went dead, one of his slaves
ran up with more bad news. The skimmer of the upstart Barney was just outside
his compound. Absolem pondered the situation. If Barney was outside, maybe the
godfather had sent him to test his resolve or even to displace him. But that
didn’t make sense. He wasn’t behind on his payments to the Cartel nor was he
close to his moult which was still two cycles away. Unsure of the reasons, he
was sure of his response and ordered his slaves to prepare.

Absolem set down his empty pipe and moved his
considerable bulk into the adjacent room. As the black stretched skimmer pulled
inside and powered down, Absolem spoke a word and the barrels of fifty guns
pointed at the upstart’s vehicle.

After a moment or two, both back doors popped open…

*   *   *   *   *

DJ knew his earlier guess had been correct judging
from the fact that fifty guns were pointed at them. The two geometrids weren’t
friends but rivals.

Jax swallowed hard and studied the crime lord. He
had to be fifteen feet long and much, much wider than the one they’d fought.
This one’s carapace was a deep azure blue where the other one had been a light
purple.

“Falcon, are you sure about this?” Jax’s voice
carried a hint of fear, which under the current circumstances was completely
understandable.

“Yes. My guess is that the grape caterpillar was
trying to cut into the blue one’s turf. Follow the plan and everything will be
fine.”

“Are you sure.”

“Nope but I don’t have many choices.”

Jax forced a smile. “Aw hell, you can’t live
forever.” Climbing into the back seat, he picked up the large case of Moonbeam
spice. “Good to go.”

With a nod, they both opened the back doors of the
skimmer and DJ stepped out but kept one hand hidden inside. “Greetings Absolem,
I bring gifts to curb your displeasure at this interruption.”

About that time Jagger Jax stepped out and Absolem
roared with rage. “How dare you bring that pirate here!”

DJ looked over the roof of the skimmer and asked,
“Did you forget to mention something?”

Jax grimaced. “I guess he hasn’t forgotten about
the time my crew raided his storehouse.”

“Show him your gift.”

Jax nodded and pulled out the crate of Moonbeam.

Absolem roared. “You try to buy my favor with my
own goods?”

DJ shook his head. “No, we recovered your goods at
great personal risk from…” he paused long enough to pull the severed head of
the purple geometrid into view, “Barney.”

Absolem’s yells of rage turned into shouts of joy.
It was at this moment that DJ realized that Jax didn’t understand a word the
caterpillar-like creature was saying since he was only wearing traditional body
armor. Without the resident AI of the military-grade armor, such as his normal
HAVOC or current CSA armor, the normal speech of the geometrid would only be a
series of clicks and squeaks.

DJ turned to his friend. “It’s alright, Absolem is
cheering not raging.”

The ex-pirate nodded and seemed to relax a bit.

About that time, Absolem spoke again but this time
in English. “Come Red Falcon...come Jagger Jax, come enjoy the hospitality of
my house and bring my trophy. You have done me a great honor in bringing me the
head of the upstart.”

And just like that, the guns faded from view and
the thugs went back to their duties. The giant blue worm turned and scuttled
back to his throne room and the two hunters followed.

When the crimelord was finally back in its throne,
he turned back to them and asked. “Now name what can I, a humble businessman,
do for you.”

DJ began. “My current mark is protected by the
local LEOs and no amount of data slicing will allow me to legally pick her up.
But I don’t give up on my marks so easily; therefore I will snatch her without
their blessing or help which will make it a kidnapping and that just so happens
falls into your domain.”

Absolem waited as one of his slaves, a young girl
no older than twelve that was dressed in rags, loaded his qalyan with the rare
spice. After a few puffs, his mood seemed to improve and he asked, “Why would a
simple snatch and grab concern me?” He pointed at Jax. “His crew still does
that on a regular basis.”

“First off, Jagger Jax is no longer a pirate and
hasn’t been one for many years. You can’t blame him for what they are doing now
any more than I can blame you for…” DJ lifted the severed head of the
geometrid, “his actions.”

Absolem nodded. “That is a good point and one I
hadn’t considered before but again, why would this concern me or why would you
need my permission.”

“There will be fallout from this pickup…my mark is
Roger Thomas’ adopted daughter.”

Absolem nearly dropped his pipe. “Wait…so if I
give you permission you will hurt the Titan king?”

DJ had never heard Admiral Thomas referred to that
way but he could see how the title fit. When Absolem grinned, it was actually
kind of creepy. The curve of the geometrid’s mouth was unnaturally long and
several of his pointed teeth poked out.

“Even without these gifts, I would’ve given you
permission for that.” After a few more drags on the water pipe, Absolem
continued. “However, we do have a problem that only you can rectify.”

“And what is that?”

“A fellow Cartel underboss and I were contracted
to eliminate a certain Confederate General.”

“I’m not hearing how this concerns me.”

“The instrument of destruction we chose was you.”

“But we’ve never…”DJ paused when it hit him that
they had hired the imposter Falcon. “Now I understand. You hired my
doppelganger and now that you have discovered that there are two of us, you
want me to solve the problem for you.”

Absolem nodded. “My associate warned me about
hiring you, I mean him, but the price was right and his record of
assassinations was solid.”

Under his helmet DJ grimaced. Killing someone in
combat or as part of a sanctioned military mission was one thing, it came with
the job. But killing for credits was a horse of a different color.

DJ shook his head. “You realize that I will not
complete that contract. I’m a hunter not an assassin.”

Absolem waved his four arms in a very human-like
motion. “No, no, the contract is complete. However, it would be bad for
business if it became common knowledge that there are two Red Falcons. In that
case, the Godfather will order both of your deaths. I think it would be best
that one of you is no longer among the living by the day after tomorrow.”

“The day after tomorrow?”

“Yes, that is when the Falcon is due to stand
before me to claim his payment.”

DJ nodded. “I see.”

“I’m not sure you do. At noon on the day after
tomorrow, only one Falcon will be standing before me. That Falcon will receive
a large pile of credits. If there happens to be another Red Falcon walking
around at that time, he and all his companions will become open game for all
Cartel members.”

Both DJ and Jax nodded. They did understand. If
the other Red Falcon wasn’t eliminated, then an open bounty would be placed on
their heads and they wouldn’t be safe anywhere in the known universe. But DJ
added, “We understand and thank you both for your permission and your warning.”

Absolem waved one hand in what they took as a
dismissive gesture and the two bounty hunters backed out of the room. Climbing
back into their liberated skimmer, Jax fired it up and they exited the
crimelord’s compound. Glancing in the rearview mirror he asked, “Where to?”

DJ could barely suppress a yawn as he said, “We
need to find some place to sleep. It sounds like tomorrow will be a long and
busy day.”

“You got it boss,” replied Jax and he turned down
a different street. “I know just the place.”

DJ sat back, content to let Jagger Jax find them a
place to stay for the night.

Chapter 14

Commander Cline didn’t speak at all on the ride
back to their hotel room or the elevator ride up to their adjoining rooms, nor
did they speak once they entered the suites, instead they pulled out scanners.
Silently and efficiently they detected five different listening devices in each
room. The only good news was that they didn’t find any cameras.

Not wanting to alert whoever was listening, they
moved back to the main room and the Commander pulled out a mini sonic jammer
and turned it on. “Okay, we have about sixty seconds before the sound bubble is
detected.”

Lt.. Evans nodded. “All right, judging from what I
saw there is definitely something strange going on. First off, there are way
too many deputies for the number of civilians in the whole Saturn system and
the schedule they have them on is all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sir, I have seen full commands in Strike with
less personnel.”

“Anything solid? That’s not enough to alert
Command Staff or even the FSA about.”

Virginia shook her head. “Not really. I did see a
note calling for extra security for a transport which leaves at noon tomorrow.”

“And why is that important?”

“The destination listed was Haumea.”

Alex whistled. Technically Haumea was a plutoid,
the term given to dwarf planets that are beyond Neptune’s orbit. And if memory
served, it had more of an ellipsoidal shape instead of the more common
spherical shape of most planets. But more importantly, it was a location of a
secret confederate base during the war. It was supposedly abandoned. So, why
would a transport ship be going there?

“That’s interesting.” Cline checked the timer on
the sonic jammer, twelve seconds. “One more thing before time runs out…we need
to have an argument and remember, I’m Alex not Commander.”

Virginia cocked her head to the side. “Why are we
fighting?”

“They expect us to fool around but that would be
inappropriate. Therefore if we argue, it will give credence to why we are
sleeping in separate rooms.”

The jammer’s timer flashed red three times before
going dark. Without warning, Virginia slapped him. It wasn’t especially hard
but it was loud. The next few minutes were filled with senseless arguments and accusations,
anything from being unfaithful to her mother being a bad cook. It ended with
Virginia throwing a vase against the wall, storming out of the main room and
slamming the door. Of course, the whole time the two were smiling at each other
and fighting the urge to laugh.

Once the charade was over, Alex pulled out his
portable computer and turned on the military-grade scrambler. It took nearly a
minute for the scrambler to completely boot up but then, proper security was
worth the wait. He typed up his report for his superior concerning his
discoveries. Once complete, he hit the send button and began working on a
second directive but this time for the flight of Dragons that should be
floating in deep orbit nearby. There was a certain transport leaving Titan
tomorrow that he wanted followed and if possible, boarded.

Once more he checked his email to make sure he
hadn’t received a change in orders or a new directive. There were none.
Powering down the scrambler and his computer, Alex climbed into bed. He was
certain that he would need the rest. Tomorrow promised to be a busy day.

*   *   *   *   *

The four-armed black skinned being plucked the
encrypted messages from cyberspace and manually unscrambled the Coalition’s
latest and most secure encryption. The being didn’t alter the message at all.
It was for the sheer pleasure of the challenge and to help pad his already
immense knowledge. However there was one slight variation he made, he copied
the Commander’s messages and sent them, anonymously, to the High Councilwoman
Teana Carpenter. This new information could prove interesting to his game.

Then he turned his attention to the latest message
from his favorite asset. It read:
“Job for the Cartel is a go. Involves
assisting the bounty hunter - Red Falcon - in kidnapping Roger Thomas’
daughter. Op is scheduled for tomorrow at midnight, local time. Recommendation
on how to proceed required. Personal suggestion would be to see this OP thru
but I await further orders. – El Gato”

He read it once and then again, trying to ponder
every implication and nuance of every word. He’d discovered that when dealing
directly with the Terrans, he had to weigh every word. They don’t always say
what they mean or mean what they say. It was both frustrating and invigorating.
When he felt he truly understood all aspects of the expanding situation and how
her situation fit into it, he sent back his response.

*   *   *   *   *

Once Teana Carpenter reached her hotel room, she
quickly located the listening devices in her room and efficiently disabled
them. She relished the knowledge that she was ticking someone off every second
she was in the room and they would be unable to monitor them.