Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids (35 page)

“Kala, the androids saved our lives back on Goo’Waddle.  I have complete trust in them.”

“I hope you’re right,” she sighed.  “I have to admit, so far your hunches have paid out pretty well.  But still...,” she trailed off and left the statement hanging.

“So that was all you did today?” she asked.

“Pretty much!  Oh, Marranalis took me to a small place for an afex we went off duty – a place they call the
Locker
.  It’s kind of a quaint hole in the aft end of the ship that the crew made for themselves.  Not fancy.  Actually, kind of dumpy.  But it still has a great atmosphere.  No music or entertainment, just afex and conversation with friends.”

“Actually, I’ve heard of the
Locker
,” Kala said, “though I’ve never seen it.  It’s pretty much restricted to the lower-ranking crew members I believe.”

“Hmm, I don’t think so.  They have a wall in there where crew members sign their names.  Stonbersa’s name is there and so was Sokaia’s.  They asked me to sign the wall also.”

“Wow, I never imagined Stonbersa interacting with the crew on a personal level like that.  You say Sokaia’s name was there.  You think she and Marranalis used to go there together?”

“Yeah I think they did. I think after she was killed, Marranalis when there a lot and his friends there helped him through his rough time.”

“You’ll have to take me there sometime,” Kala said, “if for no other reason than I can write my name on the wall.”

As it had been the case the previous week, I was still feeling the arousal effects of my treatments when Kala and I went to bed that night.  I soon found myself nuzzling up to her and kissing her neck and shoulders.

“Tib,” Kala laughed, “what has gotten into you lately?  You seem to be insatiable.”

“It’s not what has gotten into me.  It's what wants to get into you,” I breathed into her ear.

Kala let out a laugh and quickly rolled over on top of me, pinning me to the mattress.

“So something wants to get into me, does it?”  She leaned down and kissed me passionately on the lips.  The rest of the night was an adventure all its own.  In the morning, I woke up feeling very refreshed and energetic, but I noticed that Kala was still sound asleep and breathing deeply.  I did note a slight smile on her lips and I couldn’t resist giving her a kiss.  When I did, she momentarily woke and mumbled, “Not again, Tib, I’m too tired.”

I showered and dressed and was on my way to the
MAXETTE
when Marranalis called me on my wrist com.

“Tibby here,” I responded.

“Sir, Admiral Wabussie requests that you to join him as soon as possible.  New events are taking place at Epsirt.”

“Call him back and tell him I’m on my way and will be there in less than ten minutes.”

I passed through the Cantolla gates with my bodyguards and eight minutes later arrived at Wabussie’s office.  When I entered, Admiral Wabussie, Admiral Regeny and a Chinese woman I had seen in my ship years earlier, were talking.

“Admiral, you’re just in time,” Wabussie said.  “I believe you know Báihuā.”

“Actually, I don’t think we’ve ever met and talked formally.  I do recall seeing her on the
NEW ORLEANS
after we rescued the lunar colony,” I said.

“Well,” Wabussie continued, “Báihuā is one of our best FSO undercover operatives and as you are aware, she is part of our operation on Epsirt.  I know you are aware that the Brotherhood has contacted her and yesterday they tested her for loyalty using the headbands like we anticipated.  That suppression device Cantolla came up with worked beautifully.  The Brotherhood now thinks Báihuā is working for them and they opened up and told her a lot.  I think it best I let her tell you what she has learned.”

“The first thing I want to tell you is that this ring Cantolla made worked beautifully.  I was terrified it wouldn’t and that I’d end up with my throat slit, but it worked.  I don’t think they had any suspicion at all that the readings they were getting were being tampered with.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that,” I responded.

“Yes, and after the test they were convinced I was loyal to their cause, they opened up and told me way more than I expected.  Normally, the Brotherhood is tightly compartmentalized and they only tell you what you need to know and nothing beyond that, so I was shocked at all that they revealed.

“The first thing you need to know and this is of an immediately concern, is that the Brotherhood wants to kidnap Norcar’s family and hold them hostage, so they can blackmail him into doing as they wish.  They aren’t totally in agreement with what all they want, certainly they want him to channel money to them for their operations, basically from accounts of others not being monitored for long periods of time, possibly unsettled estates in escrow, but that would amount to quadrillions.  They even discussed having him drain money off your accounts at the Weccies banks.

“Another thing they discussed was trying to see if there was some way he might be able to disable the Weccies defense system that they could invade and take over the entire planet.  However, they weren’t sure that would work.  Their intent is to capture Norcar’s family is a sure thing they want and intend to do.  That’s where they wish me to play a part.  I’m to let them know when Norcar is bringing his family here.  They don’t know anything about his family.  They didn’t know his wife was dead, or how many children he has.  I’m sorry I messed up telling them Norcar’s wife was dead before I realized what they were intending to do.  We could have used that to put an agent in her place, now I’m afraid that’s not an option.  Fortunately, they have no idea how old his children are, so we might still be able to use some young agents to take their place.”

“How soon do they want this to happen?” I asked.

“As soon as Norcar brings his family to Epsirt,” she said.  “They were very emphatic about that.  Norcar seems to be a focal point for their future operations.

“The next thing you need to know is that there is a large training center for Reduviids on Epsirt.  It's somewhere near the southern pole of the planet and it’s under the ice.  According to Sisopan, its deep enough under the ice so it is undetectable by sensors.”

“Wait – Sisopan?  Did you say Sisopan?”

“Yes, she’s the one who interviewed me and conducted the loyalty testing.  She heads up the Reduviid training operations here.  Merdak is the top Brotherhood agent and oversees all the Brotherhood operations on the planet, but Sisopan is responsible for the Reduviids and a lot of off-world operations from what I could tell.  I get the feeling that she and Merdak don’t particularly like each other and there is some power struggle between the two of them as to which is higher ranking in the Brotherhood.”

“We’re going to need you to find out as much about Sisopan’s operations as you possibly can, especially any time she is going off world and where she is going.  At the moment, next to Ming and Roritat, she is our number three target in the Brotherhood.”

“I didn’t know that.  I’ll certainly try to find out all I can.  Oh one more thing, Sisopan wants me to install hidden vid cameras with microphones about the estate, so they can spy on Norcar and others here.  That will make it difficult for anyone coming to the estate through Cantolla gates because if they get in range of any cameras, it's going to alert the Brotherhood.  It also means we will need to be very guarded with our conversations, more so than usual anyway.  Right now, we are guarded, to some extent, because most of Norcar’s staff are not FSO and don’t know we are there.  So we don’t need to worry too much about them.  However, the first time one of us slips up or someone comes through a gate that shouldn’t be on the estate our cover will be blown.”

“How soon will you be putting cameras out?” asked.

“Sisopan is supposed to contact me in a day or two, she had to order more surveillance equipment as she said they needed more.

“Oh, one more thing.  The third drone we shot down apparently belonged to a wealthy investor, who was hoping to use the drone to spy on Norcar in an attempt to get early leads on investments.  The Brotherhood was very unhappy about it because they believe it was the investors drone that alerted Norcar’s security team to the drones.”

“Well, at least that’s one mystery solved,” Regeny said.

“What more can you tell us about the Reduviid training facility?”  Wabussie asked.

“Not much I’m afraid.  Sisopan mentioned it was there and that was about it.  My impression is that it must be quite large, since Merdak was complaining about all the provisions they require and how hard it is to stay supplied without arousing suspicion.  Sisopan didn’t think that would be any problem, since most of their ships now have cloaking capability.  They can bring ships in from orbit to supply the base and pick up and transport Reduviids unseen.”

“So they must have some sort of landing area, even if it is hidden, that we might be able to spot from space,” I said.

“Possibly,” Báihuā responded.  “But you’ll need to be very careful.  According to Sisopan, the Brotherhood maintains cloaked ships in orbit around the planet that are equipped with their new detection equipment.  They will be able to locate any cloaked Federation ships that approach the planet.”

“Was there any mention of Fass Hakwin?” I asked.

“I don’t think so.  Who is he?” Báihuā asked.

“He is a university professor kidnapped by the Brotherhood.  We believe they are using him to advance their gravity wave drives.”

“Sisopan mentioned someone they called the Professor, but I never heard them say Fass Hakwin.”

“What did she say?  Do you remember?” I asked.

“Something about miniaturizing some explosive device and that he wasn’t doing very well and that maybe some additional incentive was needed to help him along.”

“Torture or drugs?” Regeny asked.

“I have no idea, that was all I heard her say.  She was talking to one of her assistants at the time.”

“It sounds like he’s there on the planet, like we thought.  Tell me, Báihuā, do you think he’s at their estate on Epsirt or at the Reduviid base?”

“I think perhaps the base.  The assistant Sisopan was talking with said he needed to get back to the base and he was one of the people in the argument with Sisopan and Merdak about supplies for the Reduviid base.”

“All right gentlemen, I think we have the information we needed.  The Reduviids are training on Epsirt.  Fass Hakwin is on the planet and Sisopan is there also.  Now, what are we going to do?  Do we send in an armada and flood the planets with troopers?” Regeny asked, rubbing his hands together as he looked back and forth between Wabussie and me.

“Admiral, I don’t think that would be wise at all,” Wabussie said, interpreting Regeny’s enthusiasm as support for an invasion. “Epsirt is an independent planet.  While there are Brotherhood operatives there, I seriously doubt most of the people there are Brotherhood members or know there is Brotherhood on the planet.  The very fact they are hiding their base from the locals should tell you that.  If we go in with guns blazing, we’ll do a lot of collateral damage to civilians and innocents, and the Federations image would be greatly tarnished.  We need to work covertly and do this with as little notice of the locals as possible.”

“I agree with Wabussie,” I said.  “If we attack on a large scale on this the planet, we’ll create one inferno of a mess and, in the confusion, Sisopan may get away again.  She’s very masterful at using chaos and confusion to facilitate her escapes.  I’m betting she doesn’t do anything without first figuring out several escape routes in advance, should the need arise.”

“So what is your plan?”  Regeny looked at us with anticipation.

“I guess we look for some young FSO agents who look like they could be Norcar’s sons and make arrangements for them to visit his estate.  Norcar has two boys.  If I recall right, they would be around 15 or 16 years old now, but it’s unlikely the Brotherhood would know that.  We’ll need to use two very young-looking FSO agents to take their places.  In the meantime, we can investigate potential locations where the under-ice Reduviid training base might be.  One thing I want done before Báihuā gets the spy cameras in place is to have a second Cantolla Gate set up at some other location on the planet, away from estate.  We need to be able to have our agents come and go as needed without being spotted.”

“I think I know the perfect place,” Báihuā said.  “We had to rent a small storage facility on the planet for some of Norcar’s gear.  It’s about five kilometers from the estate on the outskirts of the town.  The door locks and unlocks from both sides.  We can set up a gate inside the facility and pass through it without being seen.  A pinhole security camera will make it possible for anyone inside the storage facility to see if someone is outside before opening it to leave.  If you can have the gate nodes ready before I leave, I can take them back with me.”

“Good, I’ll call Marranalis and have him see to it that the items are here before you return.”

We spent the next few hours going over the details of Báihuā’s encounter with Sisopan and the Brotherhood and making plans for what she would do on her return.  Marranalis was able to get Cantolla Gate nodes from A’Lappe before Báihuā returned to Epsirt.

After Báihuā had gone, Regeny turned to Admiral Wabussie and me and said, “Well, that went well, I think.  I’d say we’re in a great position to hand the Brotherhood a real hurting.”  He glanced at Wabussie whose face reflected anything but victory.