Guerilla (26 page)

The powersuit muscled through the opening in the barrier and started down the gradual slope leading to the river. Three steps out, a munition exploded and unleashed a buckyball tangler that wrapped around the powersuit's legs and cut through them above the knees. Unable to stand, the powersuit went down.

The pilot of the second powersuit evidently thought the way would be clear and hurried past. A second tangler erupted from a tree and wrapped around the unit's chest. Man and machine were sliced in half.

That gave the rest of the sec team pause, but they fired their weapons from where they gathered. Craters erupted around Sage and his team as they hunkered down with Zhoh and his warriors.

The river was only 22.3 meters away, but fording the water would be impossible.

“Sergeant Sage, this is Blue Jay Twelve. Blue Jay Fourteen and myself are going to clear the way for you.”

Sage looked up into the sky amid the lightning and the thunder that suddenly cut loose again. He magnified his view and spotted the two jumpcopters streaking toward them from Makaum.

“Copy that, Blue Jay Twelve. Any time you're ready.” Sage relayed the information to Zhoh and his warriors.

Ten seconds later, air-­to-­ground missiles hammered the broken barrier.

“Go!” Sage urged.

The soldiers walked along the ground and the Phrenorians took to the water like they were born to it.

As Sage came back up on the other side, he spotted three sec crawlers on the retractable bridge. One of the jumpcopters swooped down and unleashed another flurry of missiles. The bridge blew into pieces and scattered across the river.

One of the aerial vehicles from the starport locked on to one of the jumpcopters and strafed cannon rounds interspersed with green tracers. The jumpcopter pilot tilted the nose down to avoid the barrage and to let the aircraft pass. Then the jumpcopter wheeled around and fired its cannons, catching the Green Dragon aircraft squarely.

Doomed, out of control, the sec aircraft crashed into open jungle. Flames jetted up from the trees, catching in some of the canopy and spreading briefly before settling into a steady burn.

On the riverbank, the Terran soldiers and the Phrenorian warriors unconsciously separated into groups, each to their own.

Sage studied his ­people and was glad they were all alive. Some of the Phrenorian warriors looked worse for the wear.

“Well,” Zhoh said as they headed back toward the Offworlders' Bazaar, “it appears our brief détente on this world has accomplished some good. The Green Dragon
slionunt
have been set back here, and the damage surely runs into millions of credits.”

Sage decided the Phrenorian captain sounded happy, and realized that he'd never heard that particular emotion from them before. “I'll settle for that, Captain.”

“We work well together, Sergeant. It is a shame that we find ourselves on different sides in this war.”

“You can always surrender, sir,” Sage suggested.

One of the Phrenorian warriors started toward Sage, but Zhoh held up a primary and waved the Sting-­Tail back into position.

“Perhaps there is a way we can continue our association for a bit longer.”

“I appreciate the help back there, sir, but I don't see that happening.” Sage watched the Phrenorian captain and remembered how Zhoh had been shamed on his own world and assigned to Makaum. They were both blooded fighters, both deserving of duty out on the front line where the war was hottest. Yet they were both stuck here.

“You were at Cheapdock for a reason, Sergeant. As was I. We ran afoul of the Green Dragons during our investigation of the same storage bay you were so interested in.” Zhoh shrugged a little. “Perhaps you would allow me to buy you and your soldiers a drink and we could talk about that.”

Sage flipped over to the comm channel he shared with Colonel Halladay. “What do you think, sir?”

“I think that you and I are buried so far in drek once General Whitford has us in his office regarding a ‘semi-­authorized' probe into Green Dragon business that went this badly we won't see sunlight for a month.”

“The information Vekaby's men gave us led to that storage bay, sir,” Sage reminded. “We were working on the ambush, shutting down illegal weapons, and I can guarantee from the way that storage bay exploded, weapons were kept there.”

“I agree, but the general isn't going to like the fact that we've rocked his boat, and I don't think the locals are going to be happy with us either.”

Sage studied the burning starport in the HUD. “That's probably true, sir.”

“Do you think you can trust Zhoh?”

“No. He's after something. I just don't know what it is.”

“I'm thinking we should try to find out.”

“Yes sir.”

“If you take him up on the offer of a drink, do you think you can keep yourself and your ­people alive?”

“That will definitely be on the agenda, sir.”

“Then get it done, Top. If we're invited to go down the rabbit hole, we've got to follow it out.”

“Yes sir.”

“Be careful, Top.”

“Copy that, sir.” Sage swiveled his helmet back to the Phrenorian captain who waited patiently.

“Well, Sergeant?” Zhoh asked.

“If we're still talking after the first round, Captain, the second round is on me.”

 

THIRTY-­TWO

Outside Cheapdock

North of Makaum Sprawl

0359 Hours Zulu Time

T
he bar was on the east side of New Makaum, distant from Zorg's Weeping Onion, but news of the Terran Army police action that had taken place in the bar and spilled over onto the street was on holo on the display at the back of the bar. The establishment was called Venom of the Ightskel and was operated by an independent company that was associated with Huang the noodle maker. Sage thought he remembered the men were cousins or something, but they didn't favor each other. Huang's family tended to be large and varied, and Sage suspected that kinship wasn't always by blood.

Only minutes before Sage and the others had reached the bar, the sky opened up and unleashed a monsoon. They'd ended up walking through mud the last kilometer and a half, and now part of that was tracked into the bar. Two of the servers worked to clean the floor with scoops and mops.

Sage had apologized for the mess, but Cai, the owner, shrugged and asked them what they wanted to drink. Judging from the prices he charged, he was making up for the janitorial inconvenience.

By the time Sage looked for a table amid what appeared to be a fusion of South Sea Isles décor and seventeenth-­century Terran pirate Jolly Rogers flags and antique compasses, cutlasses, and sailcloth, the scattered clientele had deserted the bar, braving the rain and the wind.

Sage pointed to a table in the back corner. “Does that table suit, Captain?”

“It does.”

Sage led the way, but even in his armor he felt vulnerable with his back exposed to the Phrenorian. The whole meeting felt wrong, but he wanted to know what was so important about the storage bay that Zhoh felt compelled to talk to him about it.

The soldiers and the warriors scattered around other tables, but they didn't fraternize. Sage thought that the mere fact they weren't shooting at each other was about the best they could expect even under the circumstances. A lot of blood had been spilled on both sides during the war. All of the individuals in the bar, except for Noojin and Jahup, were veterans and had lost fellow soldiers and warriors.

The chairs hadn't been made to a Phrenorian's scale, but Zhoh made do. The captain reached into a pouch on his thorax armor and took out a small flat black device in one of his lesser hands. The instrument was devoid of controls except for a small button.

“This is a white noise generator,” Zhoh said. “I thought it best that we speak in private. This place is known to associate with Huang the noodle maker, and he can be a
foseby
if left unfettered.” The Phrenorian term most closely translated into “busybody” in Terran.

“Yes sir.”

“At this range, once I activate it, your soldiers will not be able to hear us, and you won't have any access to your comm.”

“Copy that, Top. We're not going anywhere.” Kiwanuka sat closest to Sage, only two tables away. She drank with her left hand and her right was beneath the table. Sage had no doubt that she was holding a weapon. If he had been her, he would have been holding one.

“All right,” Sage agreed.

Zhoh pressed the button on the device and placed it on the table between them.

Sergeant, all comm access outside this unit has been severed,
the near-­AI said.
Suggest—­

“Cancel that,” Sage interrupted. “Suspend comm links until I tell you to reconnect.”

Affirmative.

Sage removed his helmet and set it on the floor beside him. Switching from the 360-­degree view to only what he could see in front of him and peripherally was disturbing. He felt limited in a dangerous situation. He ignored the feeling and picked up his glass. “What are we drinking to, Captain?”

“A successful joint venture.” Zhoh lifted his glass in one of his lesser hands.

“Past or present, sir?”

“This one to the past, and the next—­if you are willing to proceed with what I am about to suggest—­to the present.”

“All right.” Sage tossed back the sake, felt it burn his throat, then explode in his stomach, reminding him of how long it had been since he'd sat down to have a real meal. Drinking on an empty stomach wasn't a good idea.

Zhoh finished his drink and set his glass back down. “According to the holo in back of the bar, you had an encounter with the beings who attacked your fort yesterday morning.”

“It's not my fort,” Sage corrected.

“As you say.” Zhoh dismissed that with a wave. “Since you have arrived here, you have had a great impact on Terran Army operations, so I associate you with the new measures I have seen.”

“After the ambush that killed Sergeant Terracina the first day I got here, we had no choice but to go on the offensive. Things changed.”

“Of course. You did find the beings responsible for the attack on the fort?”

“We did.”

“And that led you to the storage bay in Cheapdock.”

Sage thought about the question for a moment, turning around all the possibilities.

“You are not giving away any true secrets, Sergeant. Simple logic dictates that the beings were responsible for your appearance at the storage bay.”

“Because there were weapons there?”

“Yes.”

Sage leaned forward a little. “I didn't see what was inside that storage bay, Captain Zhoh, so how did you know what was in there?”

6259 Akej (Phrenorian Prime)

Too late, Zhoh found that he'd been trapped by Sage. The sergeant was more quick-­witted than he had any right to be. Zhoh stared into the human's two eyes and had to tamp down his anger. For a moment he considered killing the sergeant. Sage was going to be dangerous in the future. He'd proven that time and time again.

In fact, Sage was dangerous now. Even if Zhoh succeeded in manipulating the sergeant, knowledge of his work with the human would reach the Empire. If they were successful in their coming endeavor, that would prove to be only an inconvenience.

“We watch what is going on,” Zhoh said. “We were tracking the weapons as well.”

“You weren't tracking them along the same lines I was, Captain.” Sage's voice remained flat.

“No, I wasn't.” Zhoh thought quickly and came up with what he believed was a simple enough lie with enough truth to hook the sergeant. “Yesterday, three of my warriors were killed out in the jungle. I began an investigation. From what was discovered, it appeared the murderers who killed my warriors were Makaum.”

“Not the same men I went after.”

“No. This was another group.” Zhoh knew the sergeant would believe that. The attack on the fort wasn't a singular event. Maybe others hadn't happened yet, but they would as long as those weapons remained unsecured.

“Did you find out who they were?”

“We tracked them from the scene.”

“Who were they?”

“Those beings no longer need names, Sergeant. Phrenorians are not known for their mercy.”

Sage paused for a moment, then nodded. “Fair enough. So these men told you about the storage bay?”

“No. They told me about a Voroughan black-­market dealer.”

“Erque Ettor?”

Zhoh considered the question. Ettor had no connection to General Rangha. Sazuma would not have given Ettor Rangha's name. She would have kept her business private. He could give the sergeant information about Ettor.

“Erque Ettor will no longer have need of his name either,” Zhoh said. “He gave me the location of the storage bay and the passcode to get in. We went to Cheapdock with falsified identification and opened the storage bay. It was filled with weapons.”

“I could tell that from the way it blew up, and that explains how you knew shooting that building would set off the munitions.”

“Yes.”

Sage's gaze consumed Zhoh again. “But it doesn't explain why the Green Dragons allow a group of Phrenorians onto their starport.”

Zhoh suddenly realized that lying to a Terran was much harder than he'd expected. “I went there under the guise of a customer.”

Lieutenant Fu and his men were dead, even if the Green Dragon Corp decided to share information with the Terran Army. The lie could not be unwoven.

Zhoh decided to plunge ahead and lay down the bait he was hoping to use before the sergeant could pick at his story any further. “I claimed I was meeting with the person who owned the storage bay. Her name is Ellen Hodgkins. I believe you are familiar with her from your involvement with Velesko Kos.”

Sage's expression remained unreadable to Zhoh, but there was a slight shift in his body language. He leaned back in his chair a little. “I'm familiar with Ellen Hodgkins. She was part of Velesko Kos's drug cartel.”

“I know where she is,” Zhoh stated.

A moment passed as Sage considered that. Zhoh let the sergeant think about the information as long as he wished.

“I'm surprised you haven't gone after her, sir.”

“I plan on going after her, but in order to do that, I need your help.”

“My help?”

“I can't go where she is.”

Sage was silent for a moment, thinking. Zhoh watched the sergeant and knew that when the day they were true adversaries came, Sage would make a dangerous opponent. Killing the sergeant here and now would be a wise move, but he couldn't do that. Not yet. He needed Sage for now, and there was a matter of honor between them. He might have saved Sage's life in the club against Velesko, but the probability was greater that Sage and his soldiers had saved not only Zhoh, but his warriors as well. The debt was not yet balanced.

“She's not on Makaum,” Sage said.

“She is not.”

“But she's within your reach, otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion. So that means she's on one of the space stations.”

“Yes.” Zhoh didn't feel threatened giving away so much information. Chances were good that Sage would be able to find the female on his own, but it would take time, and he would know that might not be time he had to give. News of the attack on Cheapdock would spread, and it wouldn't take long for ­people to figure out what had happened there.

“You'll tell me where she is,” Sage said, “but only if you get what you want.”

“Yes.”

“Then what do you want, Captain?”

0426 Hours Zulu Time

“Zhoh's not telling you everything,” Kiwanuka said over a private comm link as she walked beside Sage along the road leading from the Venom of the Ightskel.

“Of course he's not.” Sage's stomach growled but he knew it would be a while before he had a decent meal. He pulled a protein-­sub bar from his pack, opened it, and bit into it. “We're not telling him everything either.”

The road was mostly deserted at this time of the morning, but there were a few stragglers limping or lurching home. Insects and flying lizards continued pelting Sage's faceshield. His eyes burned from going so long without sleep.

“I'll bet he knows more about the black-­market weapons business than we do,” Kiwanuka said.

“That's a sucker bet. He knows why we're here, but we don't know why the Phrenorians are interested.”

“You're not buying his story about three Phrenorian warriors getting killed out in the jungle?”

“Not for a minute. If that had happened, they would have put the heads of
someone
out on poles in front of the Phrenorian embassy.”

“Exactly. So explain to me why you're letting him accompany us—­”

“
Us?
”

“Somebody's got to watch your back, Top. That's me. Noojin and Jahup haven't spent any time in space, even on a space station, so taking them out of their element wouldn't be smart. Pingasa is a tech jockey and he was out of his element tonight except when it came to breaking and entering. I'm better than anyone else you've got here.”

“There's Culpepper.”

“Culpepper alone with Phrenorians for backup? No. Not gonna happen. He'd drive himself insane trying to look in two directions at once, not knowing who to trust.”

“You don't trust the Phrenorians.”

“No, but I won't let it get in the way of taking care of business and you know that.”

“I do.”

“So I'm in?”

“Definitely.”

“Then why didn't you tell me?”

“Something this risky, Sergeant? I only want to take volunteers.” Sage shifted gears. “I want Ellen Hodgkins and whoever bankrolled the attack on the fort off the board. We're drawing a line tonight, and nobody's going to think twice about what we stand for.” He paused. “In the meantime, we hold Zhoh close to us, try to figure out what he's really doing here.”

Sage flagged down the two crawlers he'd sent for while an aircar floated down to settle in front of Zhoh and his warriors.

“Still following the rabbit hole, Top?” Halladay asked over the comm.

“Yes sir, and we're going offplanet to do it.” Sage quickly explained the situation as they boarded the crawler. Halladay wasn't happy, but he didn't call off the op.