Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (77 page)

‘Hey, enough,’ said Molinelli.  ‘Steven, my apologies.  This guy...  If you’d care to lead the way?’  He put a weighty hand on Steven’s shoulder and ushered him towards the lift, the others followed, casting furtive sidelong glances at one another.

They rode up in the dingy lift together, squashed in against the bulk of Molinelli and Victor.  It was a relief when the lift finally deposited them in the shabby corridor that led to Steven’s room.  He unlocked the door.

‘Wait,’ said Molinelli and signalled to Michael and Victor.  They advanced, pistols drawn and indicated to Steven to push the door open.  He did so, and then switched the light on and walked slowly inside, with the two men following him.  Once they had searched the room and the adjoining bathroom, they called Molinelli in after them.

‘Can’t be too careful,’ said Molinelli and Isaacs and Anna entered behind him and shut the door.  ‘Nothing personal about it, you get me?  Now.  You wanna show me what else you got for sale?’

Steven glanced over at Isaacs and Anna, meeting their gaze individually for a split second.  He saw them both tense.  Molinelli wasn’t stupid.  He sensed the change of atmosphere in the room in an instant.

‘Fuck, I knew it...’ he began.

‘Vittorio Molinelli, I’m...’

‘You’re a fucking cop, is that it?’ said Molinelli. ‘Fuck me, I must be going dumb in my old age.  Well you got shit on me, for a start.  So what do you want?’

‘I’m not a cop, I’m an agent with Special Operations Command.  Now sit the fuck down and listen to me,’ snapped Steven.

Molinelli was shaking his head.

‘Come on kid, out with it.  What do you want?’

‘You and I need to have a little chat, Molinelli.  I’m looking for information,’ said Steven.

‘Information, huh?’

‘Play this right, and you can go about your business, maybe even benefit a little,’ Steven replied.  ‘But I warn you, I’m not bluffing.’

‘You got any ID?’ sneered Molinelli.

‘No I don’t.  But I’m going to ask you some questions, and believe me, it’s in your interests to help me out,’ Steven replied.  ‘You do not want my people coming after you.’

Michael was already sliding his hand towards his waistband, hoping that everyone’s attention was on Molinelli.  Victor tensed, ready to hurl his weight forward and knock Steven off his feet.  Isaacs saw them both start to move and realised he wouldn’t be able to draw his weapon quickly enough.

‘Fuck you!’ said Molinelli.  ‘This is fucking bullshit.  I’m a legitimate businessman.  I been clean for years, ever since I got out.  This is a fucking set up.  You gonna make me disappear like all the others, huh?  Like Bennett?  Like those people who you pinch on the street?  Think again, asshole!  You and your little buddies ain’t walking away from here, you hear me?’

‘Shut the fuck up, and listen!’ said Steven.  ‘I’m not with Morgan.’

‘Fuck you!’ bellowed Molinelli, reaching for his gun.  Michael already had his weapon half drawn, and Victor had started to move forward.  Isaacs saw what happened next and couldn’t quite believe what his eyes told him.  Somehow the laser pistol was just
there
in Steven’s hand.  One moment, Michael was bringing his gun up and then there was a loud crack, like someone slamming a door. Then the next, Michael was falling backwards, a smoking, bloody hole of cauterised flesh, scorched bone and leaking brain matter in the centre of his forehead as the gun he had been trying to draw dropped from his lifeless fingers.

As Michael slumped to the floor, Steven switched his aim instantly, firing off another shot that burned a furrow into the right thigh of the charging Victor.  The big man stumbled and fell, howling in animal pain as Steven’s aim switched once more and he pointed the gun directly at Molinelli’s forehead as the portly gangster still fumbled for his own weapon.  Barely more than two seconds had elapsed.

No-one said anything for a second.  Victor sobbed in pain like a child.  Isaacs and Anna were still frozen in shock and then brought up their own guns, though it hardly seemed necessary.

‘What the fuck did you have to do that for?’ said Molinelli, plaintively.  ‘Victor’s just a big kid...’

‘A seven foot kid with a gun,’ said Isaacs.

‘He’s still eight years old up here,’ said Molinelli, tapping his head. ‘I raised him.  No one else would.’

‘He’ll live,’ said Steven, without taking his eye off Molinelli. ‘As long as he stays where he is.  The laser will have cauterised the wound.  Sorry about your other friend,’ he said tilting his head in the direction of Michael’s corpse.

‘Would have happened sooner or later, I guess. What with his temper,’ Molinelli replied, his voice quavering.  He had gone rather pale.  As he sat on one of the cheap chairs by the window and placed his gun on the table, Molinelli’s hands started to shake. Steven took the gun from him and ejected the power cell, pocketing it.

‘You are going to tell me what I want to know,’ said Steven, firmly.  ‘I’m not here to ‘disappear’ you, but I warn you not to fuck with me.  I don’t work for Morgan and his so called ‘Freedom Alliance’, I work for the Commonwealth.  I
am
from SOC and not from the cops and you
will
co-operate.’

‘You’re a long way from home then,’ said Molinelli.  ‘Commonwealth ain’t got no control around here no more.’

‘Yeah, but unfortunately I am in the same room as you now, and I’m holding the gun.  The CIB has extensive files on the Sirius Syndicate on this moon, you know?  Did you know that Bennett was working for Morgan, and that Morgan had him killed to prevent him from talking to us?’

‘Shit,’ said Molinelli and shook his head.

‘When all this is over, and it’s time to deal with collaborators and traitors, we’ll be coming for you, you know?’

‘Bullshit,’ Molinelli said, his voice hoarse.

‘No it ain’t.  So you’d better start talking.  The cops aren’t coming for you.  It’s just me.  Co-operate, and I’ll make sure I tell my superiors that you were ready to help us.’

‘And if I don’t?  What are you gonna do? Kill me?’

‘This isn’t about taking down organised hoods like yourselves.  Frankly, I couldn’t give a shit about what pimping, protection rackets and drug dealing operations you have going on here. This is about the future of the Commonwealth itself. No, I need you alive so you can talk.  Victor here, though...’  Steven brought his gun down to point at the whimpering form of the man mountain still crying and clutching his wounded leg.

‘Alright!’ cried Molinelli.  ‘Jesus...’

‘So: we’re looking for someone.  Word is: you might know where he is.’

‘Who?’ said Molinelli, looking bewildered.

‘After the battle for this system, a number of Commonwealth Navy personnel crash landed on this moon.  They were scattered far and wide but many of them were captured.  We’re looking for one in particular.  A high ranking individual.  I need to know where he’s being held.’

‘You think I have that kind of information?  Jesus, you’re fucking deluding yourself,’ said Molinelli, incredulously.

‘I don’t, but I hear that you’re into dealing with military supplies that you’ve somehow acquired: weapons, ammunition, explosives, that sort of thing.  Some of it goes missing from supply dumps and you sell it onto the black market, am I right?’ said Steven.

‘Yeah... alright, yeah.  Not for a while anyway, not since... well all of this happened.’

‘Why not?’

‘Too much security. Too many people sniffing around.  Hell, the stuff seemed to be actually getting used for a change.  My uh, supplier got spooked and told me he’d have to lay low for a while.’

‘Your supplier?’

‘Yeah.  He’s uh... whaddya call it, a quartermaster at the main Army supply depot just out of town here.  The place supplies most of the bases in this system.  Huge facility - all kinds of weapons, supplies and whatnot there.  Goes on for ever.  So much stuff that they never used to miss the odd crate here and there,’ Molinelli explained.

‘So this supplier of yours would be pretty well placed to know what’s going on around here, deployments and so on, troop movements, maybe where high profile prisoners might be held?’

‘Yeah, I guess so.’

‘When did you last see him?’

‘Uh, two nights ago, I think.  He often comes to another club I own, Dimension.  Likes the girls I guess.  The place is still pretty busy, considering.  Times like this, people just want to get out of their heads.  That fucking ship in orbit?  Have you seen it?’

‘Yes, I have.’

‘I dunno what the fuck is going on here.  Morgan said he was taking charge because of too many alien influences, and then this thing shows up?  And the disappearances?  I mean, what the fuck?’ Molinelli was babbling, Steven needed him to focus and give him the information he required.

‘Morgan is the one working with hostile alien powers.  Your supplier, how did he seem?  Did he seem himself?’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Molinelli.

‘Did he seem like was acting abnormally?  Did he talk about anything unusual?’

‘No, no...  He seemed fine.’

‘Name, I need a name,’ Steven pressed.

‘Staff Sergeant Martin Sigurdson.’

‘Set up a meeting.  Tonight.  No funny stuff, or I will come for you, I assure you of that.  You call the cops or you try to ambush us and I will take you down.  You got it?’

Molinelli nodded quickly.

‘Sure,’ he said nervously. ‘Tell my doormen that you’re on my guest list.  They’ll let you through with no questions and no searches.’

‘Good. We’re leaving,’ said Steven.  ‘Call your men.  Have them clear up this mess.  Make up a story about these two fighting, whatever, make them disappear.  If not: you’ll be joining them.  We’ll be at the club tonight.  Do
not
think about fucking with me.’

As Steven strode towards the waiting truck.  Anna caught up with him.

‘Was that really necessary?  Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with you?  Were you really going to execute the big guy just to make him talk?’

‘No, but he thought I was going to.  I had hoped to get through that without resorting to violence. Michael - that fucking psycho that Molinelli had with him – he put paid to that. I think the little shit had popped something to make him so wired like that.  Combat stims, judging by the size of his pupils.  Fucking idiot.’

‘Way to keep calm, by the way,’ said Isaacs, sarcastically.

‘I am calm,’ said Steven, and slung his bags in the back of the truck.

Chapter 44

              Singh visibly recoiled in shock as the tactical display showing the planet’s surface lit up in front of him with traces of the enemy.  They had appeared from nowhere, suddenly winking into existence in a growing galaxy of twinkling red points linked to one another by a rapidly meshing web of communication channels.  They were right in among the Commonwealth troops on the ground, within Shale’s column advancing on the outskirts of the city and washing like a malevolent red tide against the fortified Marine position at the array.

              Chen heard his cry of alarm and turned sharply towards him.

              ‘Lieutenant Commander Singh: report!’.

              ‘Better to show you, ma’am,’ Singh relayed the image to Chen’s HUD.

              She gasped.  How the hell had the enemy managed to pull off an ambush like this?  How had they evaded their sensors?  She fought the growing sense of dread inside her.

              ‘Signal all ships!  Raise shields and power weapons!  Vector our ground attack fighters and bombers into the battle zone and get me General Shale on the comm. immediately!’

              She swore that she could hear the sound of mocking laughter in the back of her mind.

              Shale fought to maintain control of the situation.  His carefully ordered assault was in chaos.  Bestial things that had once been the population of San Domingo were in amongst his men, tearing at them with teeth and nails, ripping them limb from limb.  His men had been caught off guard as the column of refugees had suddenly turned on them, leaping as one snarling mass from the convoy of trucks and cars and launching themselves at the soldiers who had until moments earlier been offering them sanctuary.  The worst of the fighting was towards the rear of the column where Shale’s artillery units had drawn themselves up ready to bombard the city.  Major Douglas’s heavy guns and their crews were now surrounded and though the men fought bravely, they were being overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers; Major Douglas herself was not answering and Shale’s other units were facing the wrong way.  As armoured vehicles struggled to re-orientate themselves and sight their guns on the horde, the snarling mass of enslaved people surged forward in a tide, rolling up the column in a tsunami of flailing limbs. 

              Shale, rifle in one hand as he stood at the door of his APC, could sense the fear in his men, feel the situation slipping out of control.

              ‘This is Shale to all units! Stand your ground!’ he barked into the comm.  ‘Stand your ground and fight!  If you run, you die!  Take down those things!  Do not hesitate, kill them all!’

              Requests for orders from his commanders began to flood the comm. channel.  They were paralysed by fear and indecision, taken completely by surprise.  He began issuing orders to his units, bringing his armoured vehicles around whilst ordering the infantry to fall back in an orderly fashion, whilst the tanks brought their heavy weapons to bear on the mob and airborne gunships began to sweep around towards new targets. The rattle of automatic weapons fire and crump of grenades began to be joined by the hammering of auto-cannons and heavy rail guns and the thunderclaps of armour piercing laser weapons being used at point blank against seething masses of enslaved.

              Shale ducked inside the vehicle and looked at his tactical map. He could see the rear of his column being swallowed, his seasoned men caught off balance and buckling under the sudden onslaught.  He could also see Gunderson’s small Marine position by the array being assaulted on three sides.