The Enclave (The Verge) (14 page)

“Several remember?”   The smile slipped from Coulthard’s face.  “I know this isn’t what you need right now after today’s events but I have to get this off my chest with someone.”

Katherine did not move.  Her exec had her full attention now.  He was not one to complain or worry.  He had always been
her
rock.

“What is it Richard?”

“I don’t like what is going on in this city.”

Katherine blinked in surprise.  This was not what she expected.

“What do you mean?”  Katherine straightened in her chair and placed her glass on the desk.  “Attacks like this are not a common occurrence here in New Holland Richard.”

“I wasn’t referring to that Katherine.  It’s just-” Richard paused as he finished off what was left in his glass.  “I’d had reports back from personnel taking shore leave yesterday that they thought they were being watched.  Since we on the
Adelaide
can be a bit of a paranoid bunch, I assumed at first that imagination was at play.  But when there were more reports of suspected surveillance on our people I began to think it could be Alliance spies or infiltrators keeping an eye on what we are doing here.”

“This is why you requested to have leave yesterday,” Katherine supplied for him.  Her exec nodded.

“If there was surveillance on the
Adelaide
, then the 2IC leaving the ship as well as its CO would have piqued their interest.”

“And you didn’t want to worry me about it.”

“Not until I was sure of what exactly was going on.  For all I knew it could have been nothing.”

Katherine poured more brandy into both of their glasses and closed the bottle. 

“But it wasn’t ‘nothing’ was it.”  Katherine studied her exec over the rim of her glass.  “That’s why you were back early.”

“As soon as I left the Port I saw them.  And they weren’t very good.  I let them tail me long enough to feel sure that
that
was what they were doing and then I made sure they ‘lost’ me.  I then doubled back and started tailing
them
.”

“Alliance tails are usually better than that,” Katherine spoke into her glass as she took a drink.

“They weren’t working for the Alliance.”  Katherine raised an eyebrow.  “Nor were they NHSIO, from what I’ve seen Prockter’s people are more professional than this group.”

“So Richard, who are they?  Did you find out?”

“I followed them back to the New Holland Parliament House, and it was an easy thing to do considering that my Nunga heritage makes me stick out like a sore thumb here,” Richard let out a snort of disgust. 

“I’ve noticed that racial diversity is a little bit lax here,” Katherine stated.

Richard grimaced.

“What did you see there to make you think this city is rotten?”

“What I saw was the incompetent bunglers using Gentec ID scans to access the restricted staff area of the New Holland Senate.  They made no attempt to hide once they lost me or even to try and hide their way back to base.”

“They could be Alliance plants,” Katherine murmured.

“The Alliance would never use agents as incompetent as these are.  Or as incompetent as those who attacked you last night.”

Katherine stiffened.  She felt a dull throb as the muscles tightened in her wounded forearm and twinged her burnt shoulder.  She did not like where this was leading.

“You think these incidents are both connected?”

Richard pursed his lips as if what he was about to say was distasteful but necessary.

“I have a gut feeling that they are.  And, like you, my gut feelings are rarely wrong.”

Katherine stared at her XO as she heard Tom’s words to her as they waited in the Admiral’s office repeated back to her.  This time Richard was referring to his gut feelings and so far they had always been reliable.

“What exactly is your gut feeling telling you?”

“That these men that followed me this morning are staffers who work for one of the Councillors on the Hew Holland Senate.  After all, they are the only
group who has security access to the Senate Restricted Area. Permanent Security acted like they knew them pretty well.”

“And you think this same group organized the attack on me last night?”

Richard nodded his head,

Katherine finished what was left of the brandy in her glass and pushed it across the table.  “You know that I think the Alliance was definitely involved in the Federation House incursion today.”  Katherine ran a hand through her hair and settled back in her chair.  “Which means we look to have two groups up against us.  We know what the Alliance wants but what is this new group after?”

“And does the NHSIO already know about them?”

“I think we may need to have a private meeting with Director Prockter.”

“I think we should keep this to ourselves for the time being Skipper.”

“You don’t trust the NHSIO?”

“Let’s just say that I would like some more concrete information before we run and report it to the NHSIO.”

“Very well.  Steve should brief the crew who are going on shore leave about the possibility of being tailed.  And on what to do if the situation occurs.”

“Yes Ma’am.”  Richard gave her a lop-sided grin.

“The Ambassador will
definitely
need to be informed of your suspicions Richard.”

“Does he? I thought his mission was a purely diplomatic one.  What we are discussing is military and should only be given to others on a ‘need to know’ basis.”

“Do you trust anyone Richard?”

Richards grin grew wider.  “I trust you and our crew.”

“And no one outside the Service.”

Richard placed his glass on the table beside Katherine’s.  “Have you spoken to Tom yet?”

Katherine shook her head.  “He is still on the bridge.  I’ll speak to him tomorrow morning.”

Richard gave her a look laced with meaning but Katherine shook her head.  “I can only take so much of Tom’s ‘big brother’ attitude in one day.”

The exec sat silent a moment before rising from his chair with a heavy sigh.  “The weight on my chest is lifted now, so I think I’ll leave you to your rest.”

“Thanks Richard.”

As he turned to leave he said, “Val Myra surprised me.  I would never have pegged him for a Combat Wombat.”

“No, neither did I.  But you can’t always judge a book by its cover can you?”

“No Kath, you can’t.”

“Goodnight Richard.”

“Goodnight Captain.”

The comm beeped again and the hammock swayed as Katherine slipped out from it to pad across to the terminal on her desk.

“Captain here.  What is it?”  She asked as she caught sight of the clock on her desk.  It was barely one in the morning.

“Sorry to wake you Kath,” John’s voice crackled over the comm link.  “But I’ve just had some news that you should hear in person.”

“Hyde?”  Katherine suddenly lost her crankiness at being woken.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there shortly.”

Katherine quickly threw on her uniform and made her way through the nighttime quiet of the ships corridors to the officers’ quarters.  She pressed the chime and was admitted immediately to the room by her brother who was still dressed in his pyjamas and dressing gown.

“Where is he?” Katherine asked as soon as the door was closed.

“Here on Junter Three.”

“What!”

John handed a datapad across to her.  “Read this.”

Katherine took it and quickly scanned through the information.  She raised an eyebrow when she saw the source.  “Internal Intelligence?  Isn’t that Tolbot’s department?”

“It is, but this did not come from Tolbot.  It came from Prockter.”

“They found his hiding place this quickly after the attack?  The bastards took it from us when they stopped us going into those tunnels!”

“No.  I had them looking for it before we arrived.  I told you that on the journey here.”

Katherine said nothing but continued reading through the report.

“It seems that Internal Intelligence has been sitting on this piece of information for a week.  Hyde’s name was buried in surveillance recordings on the JUF.”

“Prockter as good as told us before
that meeting that there were problems within his ranks.”  Katherine briefly considered telling John Richard’s concerns but decided against it.  After what happened with her brother last night, she had ‘trust issues’ as well.  “How do we know if this information is accurate?”

“Prockter thinks it is and I respect his assessment.”

There was a map at the end of the report and Katherine scrolled around it eagerly.  Hyde’s ‘supposed’ location was marked with a red dot on a position north of the City of Val Myra.  She remembered Joshua saying that he came from an enclave around there.

“And what of Daniel?”

Tom shrugged.  “I have not asked the local’s to look for Daniel.  That’s a little too sensitive for them to know about and we cannot be certain that the Alliance have not placed informants in their ranks.  But our own intelligence says that where you find Hyde is where you’ll find Daniel Val Myra.”

“And we have been given ‘authority’ to action this information?  After all, I will be taking armed personnel through New Holland Territory.”

“This is Federation business and Prockter has approved this operation.  Not even the New Holland Senate can interfere with that.  Not without attracting the ire of the Federation.  And bucking against their own security organization.”

“From the looks of this information the local pollies did us a good turn,” Katherine grudgingly admitted.  “It would have taken us endless hours to search those access tunnels and according to this,” Katherine held up the datapad, “It would have been for nothing.”

“That pompous bastard!” John yanked angrily at the tie of his dressing gown.  “I felt like punching that smug smirk of Chandler’s face when he commed me.  Fancy comming me at a time like that!  But Scott Applegarth told me that the First Councillor was correct – the Federation had no legal right to enter New Holland with an armed force.”  John grimaced.   “Apparently there have been ‘words’ passed to Prockter from Chandler about Steve Tran’s passage from the Port to Federation House.”

“What?”

“He bought an armed force through New Holland territory without authorization.”  John raised a hand to forestall her outburst, “Don’t worry about it Kath, Prockter knocked that on the head.”

Katherine soured at her brother’s use of her nickname.  “I’ll start arranging the extraction team now and we’ll go and get this bastard before he can disappear again.”

“And before Chandler gets it into his head that he can interfere with Federation business – This is an Australian colony for Gods sakes, they should be acting on our side, not playing into the hands of the enemy.”

“John, the Earth Federation is not at war with the Alliance – at least not yet.”

“No.  But we will be.”

Chapter

Fourteen

“Come on Mark, I thought you a better helmsman than this?”

Mark Hunter turned and grimaced at his Captain.  “I’m used to piloting a starship, not one of these weevilly planet huggers.”

Turbulence buffeted the cruiser again and Katherine silently gave thanks to the engineer who decided to install inertial stabilizers into planet bound aircraft.  Things could have been messy in here otherwise.  She watched Mark finesse the controls as he steered deeper into the storm.

"I will not have the
William Light
maligned as a 'weevilly planet hugger'!"

"I'm sorry skipper," Mark tweaked the controls to take advantage of an updraft, taking them up to ride above the storm.  "It’s been a while since I've flown this."

"As long as you lose those Hollander tails, I won't fault you."

Mark gave a firm nod as the
William Light
broke above the raging cloud cover into clear, blinding light.  "I'll tack along this course for thirty minutes and keep an eye on what pops out from the clouds."

"Mark, if it comes up all clear, turn back to our original heading."

"Aye aye Ma'am."

Katherine's lips twitched as she unbuckled herself from the co-pilots seat and moved back into the passenger cabin and flopped back into the first vacant seat.

"What's happening Katherine?"

She turned as she heard Joshua's voice beside her.  John is going to be p
issed when he finds the Val Myran missing.  That thought caused a grin to spread over her face.

"Mark thinks he's lost our shadow but we'll just move around the head of this storm front just to be sure."

"Just as long as he doesn't go back into that storm.  I don't think my stomach could take it!"

"Come on Steve, you wouldn't have felt a thing," Mark's voice came through from the cockpit.

"You wouldn't say that if you were sitting back here-"

A loud snore rumbled abruptly over the compartment.

"How can he sleep?" Steve said looking at the figure spread over three seats at the back of the cabin.

"Tom hasn't had much sleep in the last forty eight hours.  I pulled him straight from a watch on the bridge to come here."

"Poor dear."

"Let him sleep, though the only thing that would wake him at the moment is the red alert siren."

"Or a woman!" Mark's voice drifted in again from the cockpit.

"I just hope that those New Hollanders or the JUF don't try anything while we're away."  Steve turned that conversation back to a serious note.

"Richard's a big boy, he can handle it.  And he has Magyer if things really hit the fan."

"It’s not the XO I'm worried about," Steve replied.  "It’s your brother and that aide of his."

Katherine felt Joshua move beside her and she gave Steve a pointed look to keep silent.  Joshua maybe on her team at the moment but he is still a foreign national in negotiations with the Federation.  Steve took the hint and sank back into his chair.  Katherine looked down the rest of the cabin.  Sitting past Tom were three members of Steve's Alpha Squad, one of which was clearly asleep as well.  They were a silent sleeper unlike Tom whose internal chainsaw still echoed around the cabin.  Maybe sleep is a good idea.  Katherine made herself more comfortable in her chair and was soon fast asleep.

"Katherine."  She opened her eyes at the gentle shake on her shoulder. 

"Tom," she said pushing herself up from the seat of the chair and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"We are twenty minutes out from the enclave."

"You let me sleep all that time?"

"Hang on.  I only woke up myself not long ago.  Steve decided to let us both sleep."

"Steve should have woken his CO."

"Steve should have done a lot of things, but waking you up wasn't one of them."  Steve had just come up from the cargo hold and was already kitted out in full power armor though he had yet to clip in the power packs to run its kinetic shield and the inboard HUDs.

"Mark lost the tail then."

Steve nodded.  "We saw nothing of them once we popped out of the storm."

"I hope the poor bastards didn't follow us in there.  It would have been suicide," Tom said as he sat down beside Katherine.

"Those 'poor bastards' shouldn't have been following us in the first place."  Katherine glanced quickly around the cabin, noticing that the three of them were the only one's here.  "Where's Joshua?"

Steve jerked his head to the rear of the cruiser.  "Kitting up with the others."

"Good,” Katherine turned to look at her two officers.  "I hope Richard is coping well with handling both John and whatever the New Holland government is up to."

"What you mean is that you hope Richard is handling that horrid woman," Steve cut in.

"She's not
that
horrid."

"Come on Tom.  Look with your head for a moment."  Steve looked at the Second Officer in disbelief.  "You've seen the slights Hayes had given Richard.  She can't stand to look at him much less be in the same room as he is."

"That would make Richard's life easier then.  It would be good if she could spend the time in hiding in her room.  Except that I put her and the rest of John's staff in the crew quarters where she can't hide.  Ten percent of my crew can claim Koori or Nunga descent in some form or another."  Katherine gave a childlike snigger.

"You'll be glad to know that that ten percent are planning to make Hayes' life hell."

"Tom and I better go back and get suited up.  Steve, go and tell Mark to come in low and land about half a klick from the enclave."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Have our sensors detected any sign of the Alliance as yet?"

             
Steve shook his head.  "Not yet."

             
Katherine frowned.  Surely the Alliance was expecting someone to come and take a look at what was happening here.  But this way they can again claim a rogue agent if they do anything at all.  Val Myra is in Alliance Territory after all.  Maybe they thought that would keep them safe.  Katherine shook her head and stood.  "Go and tell Mark.  We'll suit up."

The
William Light
came in low and landed in a clearing just over half a kilometre from the enclave.  The place itself was nestled at the foot of a long mountain range that cut diagonally across the Northern continent of Junter Three.  This section of the ranges was not particularly tall when compared to the more famous peaks and ranges on other planets but it was wide and covered in greenery and rocky outcroppings.  Mark kept a wide berth from Val Myra and not just because they had Joshua with them.  It was too risky in case they were seen, but so far they had seen no sign of the Alliance anywhere, but what worried Katherine more was that there was no sign of any humans anywhere, not even a fire.  The people who had reached New Holland were only the ones who could reach transportation when the attack started, logically there should have been small groups of people either waiting until it was safe to return to their homes or trying to make their way as best they could to somewhere safer.  But there was nothing here to suggest any of these options and that worried Katherine more than anything else -
Where had all the people gone?

Even before the engines had whined down, the loading hatch was open and the
William Light
disgorged it occupants.

"All right people, you all know what to do," Katherine announced over her helmet's mike as the hatch closed behind them.

‘All locked up tight and ready to leave at a moment’s notice Skipper.’

"Keep the motor hot Mark.  This should be just an 'in and out' operation."

Aye aye Skipper

"Let’s be about it."

Chapter

Fifteen

Katherine crawled backwards from the edge of the stone outcropping to where Tom and Joshua waited for her out of sight from the enclave in the valley below them.  Steve and his Alpha Squad had just signaled that they were in position and were ready to go when she gave the order.

She crouched down in the easiest position her armor allowed and considered their available options.  Katherine had created a hurried 'snatch and grab' operation from the information that the New Holland SIO could provide her along with actual knowledge from Joshua.  The Braidon Hills Enclave was supposed to be a small community of nearly two hundred people that spread out along the valley floor.  And if Hyde was laired up here, then she expected to see lookouts, guards or at least some form of electronic surveillance.    But what Katherine saw from their vantage point on the outcrop showed none of this.  In fact the Enclave showed no sign of life what so ever; it was as if the town’s population had all decided to 'up sticks' and move elsewhere and neither Steve or herself had picked up signatures for any type of surveillance or detection measures.